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THE 


LIFE  AND  TIMES 


OF    THE 


Rev.  JOHN  WESLEY,  M.A., 

jTounber  of  tl)c  iHctljobists. 


BY  THE 

Rev.    L.   TYERMAN, 

AUTHOR  OF   "THE  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  REV.  S.  WESLEY,  M.A.," 
{FatJier  of  the  Revds.  J.  atid  C.  IVesley). 


With  an  Appendix  by  Abel  Stevens,  LL.D., 

AUTHOR   OF    "the    HISTORY    OF    METHODISM." 

IX   THREE   VOLUMES. 
VOL.  III. 


NEW    YORK: 
HARPER    &    BROTHERS,    PUBLISHERS, 

FRANKLIN    SQUARE. 
1872. 


BX 
V.3 


971732 


GENERAL    CONTENTS. 

VOL,  III. 


■1768. 

PAGE 

Whitefield — Berridge — Countess  of  Buchan — Conversation — Original 
Letter  by  Fletcher — Yearly  Collection — Wesley's  first  Visit  to 
Chatham — Methodist  Jottings — Methodism  in  Congleton,  etc. — 
Wesley's  Credulity-^Christian  Perfection—Skirmishes  before  the 
Battle — Wesley's  Will— Rev.  Thomas  Adam — Fletcher  of  Made- 
ley — Singing — Illness  of  Wesley's  Wife — Preaching  and  Tradings 
How  to  revive  Religion — Witness  of  the  Spirit — Spitalfields  Chapel 
— Laurence  Coughlan — Methodism  at  Taunton,  Frome,  and  Oxford 
— Chapel  Debts — Remarks  on  Books — Expulsion  of  Oxford  Students 
— College  at  Trevecca — W^esley's  Publications — John  Wilkes    .     i — 3S 

1769. 

Political  Excitement — Whitefield  —  Female  Preaching  —  Wesley  in 
Ireland — Hugh  Saunderson — Conference  of  1769 — Methodism  in 
America — Scheme  to  perpetuate  Methodism — Anniversary  of  Tre- 
vecca College — "Shepherd  of  Salisbury  Plain" — Calvinian  Con- 
troversy— Wesley's  Publications 39—57 

1770. 

—Remarks  on  Books — Christian  Perfection— Whitefield's  College  in 
Georgia — Riding  on  Horseback — Lady  Glenorchy — Methodism  in 
Sweden — Methodism  at  Yeadon  and  Loughborough — Conference 
of  1770 — Doctrinal  IVIinutes — Calvinian  Controversy — Death  of 
W^hitefield— Original  Letters — Wesley's  Publications — Toplady    58—83 

1771. 

Rev.  Richard  De  Courcy — Sounds  of  coming  Battle — Wesley  and  the 
Gospel  Magazine — Letter  to  Lady  Huntingdon — Shirley's  Circular 
— Original  Letter  by  Fletcher — Calvinian  Controversy — Methodist 
Discipline — Female  Preaching — Wesley's  Publications     .    .     84—113 

1772. 

Slavery — Methodism  at  Poplar — Correspondence  with  Mr.  Sparrow 
— Methodism  at  Leek  and  Nantwich — David  Hume — Ministerial 


iv  General  Contents. 


PAGE 

Responsibility — Medical  Examination— Revivals  in  Everton  and 
Weardale  —  Conference  of  1772  —  Cornelius  Winter  —  Ceaseless 
Labours— National  Distress  and  its  Remedies — The  Christian 
Community — Calvinian  Controversy — Wesley's  Publications    114 — 146 

1773- 
American  Rebellion — Wesley's  proposed  Successor— Methodism  in 
America  and  Antigua — Itinerancy— Chapel  Debts — Wesley  and  his 
Carriage — Wesley's  Book  Property — Conference  of  1773 — Feast 
and  East  Days — Communion  of  Saints — Calvinian  Controversy 
— Wesley's  Publications 147 — 162 

1774- 

Wesley's  Health — Rev.  David  Simpson — Methodism  at  Bury — Wesley 

in  Scotland — A  Marvellous  Escape — Ghosts  and  Witches — "  The 

Fool  of  Quality" — Wesley  and  an  Artist — Methodism  in  America 

and   Newfoundland — Conference   of    1774 — Norwich    Methodism 

— An  Adventure — Calvinian  Controversy — Wesley's  Publications — 

Slavery 163 — 184 

< 

1775- 
National  Excitement — American   War  of  Independence — Death   of 
Peter  Bohler — Wesley  dangerously  111  in  Ireland — Congratulations 
— Giving  Advice — Conference  of  1775 — ^  Calvinian   Controversy — 
William  Pine — Wesley's  Publications 185 — 211 

1776. 

Fletcher  travelling  with  Wesley—  Dr.  Coke — Enforcing  Discipline — 
Methodism  in  London — City  Road  Chapel — Plan  of  London 
Circuit  in  1792— London  Circuit  Book — Methodism  at  Chesterfield 
— Conference  of  1776 — Cantankerous  Methodists — Methodism  in 
-  the  Isle  of  Man  —  Quarrelling  Schoolboys — Wesley's  Wife — 
Wesley's  Publications — Wesley's  Loyalty 212 — 235 

American  Rebellion— Dr.  Dodd— City  Road  Chapel— Rev.  Edward 
Smyth— Catastrophe  at  Colne— "  A  Snug  Circuit  "—"Are  the 
Methodists  a  fallen  People.?"— John  Hilton— Fletcher  at  the 
Conference  of  1777 — Methodism  in  America — Francis  Asbury — 
Arminian  ilAzi.v?-/;/,!'- Bishop  Lowth— "  Strangers'  Friend  So- 
ciety "—Rowland  Hill  attacks  Wesley— G^^j/,?/  Magazine— Q?^' 
vinian  Controversy— Wesley's  Publications 236—260 

1778. 
Thomas    Maxficld— Infamous    Publications— Death    of    Toplady— 
National  Alarm— Separation   from    the    Church— Conference    of 


General  Co7itenis. 


1778 — Stationing  Preachers — Mission  to  Africa  proposed — Duncan 
McAllum — John  Baxter  embarks  for  Antigua — Opening  of  City- 
Road  Chapel — Rev.  James  Creighton  —  Disciphne — Dissenters — 
Silas  Told — Proposals  for  Arminian  Maoasiue—'Errata.       .     261 — 285 

1779. 

National  Alarm — Prayer  and  Fasting — Death  of  Voltaire — William 
Shent  in  trouble — Methodism  at  Oldham  and  Padiham — The 
Angel  at  Halifax— Methodism  at  Inverness — James  Boswell — 
Methodism  at  Hinckley  and  Coventry — Thomas  Maxfield — Jea- 
lousies— Charles  Wesley  and  the  London  Preachers — Conference 
of  1779 — Alexander  McNab  and  Rev.  Edward  Smyth  at  Bath — 
Wesley's  right  to  Rule— Charles  Wesley  and  McNab — Calvinian 
Controversy — "Naval  and  Military  Bible  Society" — Wesley's 
Pubhcations — Popery 286^317 

1780. 

The  Protestant  Association — Wesley's  Letters  on  Popery — Rev. 
Arthur  O'Leary — Wesley  visits  Lord  George  Gordon — Methodism 
at  Delph — Wesley  asks  a  Favour — Methodism  at  Pateley,  Ripon, 
Newark,  etc. — Conference  of  1780 — Separation  from  the  Church — 
Methodism  in  America — Letter  to  Bishop  Lovvth — Heresy  of  Dr. 
Watts — Rev.  Brian  Bury  Collins — Original  Letters — Oldham  Street 
Chapel,  Manchester — Sir  Harry  Trelawney — Jacob  Behmen — 
"  The  Fool  of  Quality  "—Wesley's  Publications 318 — 344 

1781. 

Wesley's  Nephews,  Charles  and  Samuel — Wesley  writing  Sermons — 
Samuel  Bardsley  and  Sheffield  Chapel — Methodism  at  Manchester 
and  Bolton — Molly  Charlton — Methodism  at  Preston — Fair 
weather  Preachers — Re\^  William  Dodwell — Sleep — Letters  to 
Wesley's  Niece — Wesley's  Nephews — Conference  of  1781 — William 
Hey — Death  of  Wesley's  Wife — Letter  to  a  Statesman — Wesley's 
Pubhcations 345 — 368 

1782. 

Methodist  Tract  Society — Lovefeast  at  Macclesfield — Sir  Walter 
Scott — Conference  of  1782 — Birstal  Chapel  Case — Rev.  Thomas 
Davenport — Rev.  Mr.  Thompson — ^John  Trembath — Adam  Clarke 
— "The  Dairyman's  Daughter" — Wesley's  Publications — Jacob 
Behmen 369—389 

1783. 
Preachers  forbidden  to  be  Classleaders — Wesley  ill — Trip    to  Hol- 
'    land — Kingswood  School — William   Black    and    Nova   Scotia — A 
Rejected    Candidate — Methodism  at   Stafford — Wesley   and    the 
Poor — Wesley's  Publications 390-407 


vi  General  Contents. 


1784. 

PAGE 

A  Seven  Months'  Journey— Morning  Preaching — Itinerancy— Child- 
-.  ren  at  Stockton — Methodism  at  Burnley — Sunday  Schools — Con- 
ference of  1784— Deed  of  Declaration — Ordination  of  Preachers 
for  America — Two  Clergymen  become  Dissenters — Ordination  of 
Preachers  for  Scotland,  etc. — Letters  on  Wesley's  Ordinations — 
Wesley  a  Dissenter — Methodism  at  Shrewsbury — Dancing — Letter 
to  Hon.  William  Pitt — Wesley's  Publications — First  Race  of 
Methodist  Preachers 408—457 

1785. 

William  Moore— Wesley  in  Ireland — Spread  of  Methodism — Death 
of  Pcrronet  and  Fletcher — Conference  of  1785 — The  oldest 
Methodist  now  living — Thomas  Wride  and  his  Colleagues  at 
Norwich — Separation  from  the  Church — Wesley's  Publications — 
Dress 458—470 

1786. 

Wesley  on  the  Wing — Scotch  Methodists  a  distinct  Church — 
Methodism  at  Parnsley — Wesley  at  Sheffield  and  Wentworth 
House — Methodism  at  Ilkestone — Conference  of  1786 — Separation 
from  the  Church — First  Methodist  Missionary  Report — Proposed 
Missions  to  India — Wesley's  "Studying  Hours" — Dr.  Leifchild — 
Wesley's  Publications 471 — 489 

1787. 

Separation  from  the  Church — Begging  for  the  Poor — Revival  at 
Burslcm — Wesley  in  Ireland — A  Methodist  Shoemaker — Howard, 
the  Philanthropist — Conference  of  1787 — Separation  from  the 
-  Church — Sir  Robert  Peel— Sunday  Schools — Singing — A  Coach- 
load of  Methodist  Preachers — Visit  to  the  Channel  Islands — • 
Jonathan  Crowther — Antislavery  Society — Joseph  Entwisle  and 
Richard  Reece — Simeon  catechizing  Wesley — Licensing  Chapels 
and  Preachers — Separation  from  the  Church — Wesley's  Popularity 
— Wesley's  Publications — Dress — Diversions — Riches     .     .     490 — 520 

1788. 

Wesley  on  his  Style — Sunday  Schools — Prayer  IMeetings— Death  of 
Charles  Wesley — Consecration  of  Burial  Grounds — Incidents  at 
Bristol — Chapel  at  Dumfries — Methodist  Membership — A  Northern 
Fanatic — An  Early  Breakfast — Demoniacs — A  Young  Poetess — 
Separation  from  the  Church— End  of  the  World— Conference  of  1788 
—  Methodist  Prayer  Book— Preachers  stripped  of  their  Gown  and 
Bands— Dewsbury  Chapel  Case— John  Atlay  and  William  Eels — 
Itinerancy— Wesley  without  a  Sermon — Wesley's  Publications  521 — 564 


General  Contents.  vii 


1789. 

PAGE 

Romney's  Portrait  of  Wesley — Anecdotes  of  Wesley — Commotion 
at  Dublin — Separation  from  the  Church — Rebellions — Thomas 
Hanby — An  Irish  Dinner  Party — Walter  Churchey — A  Session  of 
Methodist  "Elders" — Conference  of  1789 — A  Conference  Sermon 
— Gwennap  Pit — "  The  lovely  Family  at  Balham  " — Mount  Plea- 
sant Chapel,  Liverpool — Methodism  at  Bideford — Wesley's 
Publications— Wesley  warning  rich  Methodists 565 — 596 

1790. 

French  Revolution — A  Five  Months'  Journey — Rev.  Joseph  Easter- 
brook — A  Three  Months'  Preaching  Plan — Methodism  at  Stour- 

_  port — Sunday  Schools — Death  of  a  Mocker — A  Backslider  Healed 
— Adam  Clarke — A  Yorkshire  Cavalcade — Separation  from  the 
Church — Wesley's  Benefactions — Wesley's  Last  Will — Conference 
of  1790— Progress  of  Methodism— Ruffled  Shirts— A  Dublin 
Revival — Christian  Perfection — Wesley's  last  Out-door  Sermon — A 
Shoemaker  and  a  Sheep  Stealer— Henry  Crabb  Robinson — Crabbe, 
the  Poet — A  Large  Circuit — Wesley's  Publications — Separation 
from  the  Church— Rich  Methodists  Warned — Wesley's  last 
Words  to  the  Methodists 597 — 642 


1791. 

Letters — Female  Preaching — Wesley's  last  Letters— Wesley's  last 
Week  of  Public  Labour — Wesley's  last  Letter— Wesley's  last 
Song  on  Earth — Wesley's  Death— The  Funeral — Proposed  Monu- 
ment in  Westminster  Abbey — Wesley's  Personal  Appearance, 
Scholarship,  Knowledge,  Writings,  Preaching,  Companionship, 
Piety,  and  Industry      .    , 643 — 660 


THE    LIFE  AND  TIMES 


OF 


THE    REV.    JOHN    WESLEY,    M.A. 


J 


1768. 

DURING  the  year  1768,  Charles  Wesley,  with  his  1768 
brother's  full  concurrence,  removed  his  family  from  Age  65 
Bristol  to  London,  which  henceforth  was  his  place  of  resi- 
dence.^ Whitefield  spent  the  first  half  of  the  year  in  the 
metropolis.  In  July,  he  set  out  for  Scotland  ;  but,  about  a 
month  after,  returned  to  London  to  inter  his  wife,  who  died  on 
August  9.  His  health  was  somewhat  feeble  ;  but  he  con- 
tinued to  itinerate  and  preach  to  the  utmost  of  his  power. 
His  orphan  house  in  America,  and  Lady  Huntingdon's  college 
at  Trevecca,  demanded  his  attention,  and  had  it.  He  and 
Wesley  were  still  warm  hearted  friends  ;  and  yet  there  seems 
to  have  been  a  shade  of  coldness  come  over  them.  Hence 
the  following,  written  when  the  year  was  closing. 

"Taberuaci.e,  December  2S,  1768. 

"  Reverend  and  very  dear  Sir, — Pray  have  you  or  I  committed  the 
unpardonable  sin,  because  we  differ  in  particular  cases,  and  act  accord- 
ing to  our  consciences  ?  I  imagine  the  common  salvation  is  not  promoted 
by  keeping  at  such  a  distance.  Enemies  rejoice.  Halfway  friends  espe- 
cially are  pleased. 

"  You  will  be  glad  to  hear,  that  the  time  for  completing  the  orphan 
house  affair  seems  to  be  come.  Do  you  know  of  a  good,  judicious, 
spiritual  tutor?  Will  you,  without  delay,  make  the  first  present  of  your 
works  to  the  library  ?  I  hope  we  shall  have  a  nursery  for  true  Christian 
ministers.  I  know  you  will  say  Amen.  Yesterday  I  was  fifty-four  years 
old.  God  be  merciful  to  me  a  sinner  !  Though  you  are  older,  I  trust  you 
will  not  get  the  start  of  me,  by  going  to  heaven,  before,  reverend  and  very 
dear  sir,  less  than  the  least  of  all,  ,  ^^^^^^  Whitefield."  ^ 


'  C.  Wesley's  Life,  vol.  ii.,  p.  242. 
*  Metliodist  Magazine,  1 783,  p.  68/^ 

VOL.  in.  B 


Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 


J  768         Another  letter,  of  the  same  kind,  was  addressed  to  Wesley, 
AyiTcs    on  New  Year's  day,  by  his  old  friend  at  Everton. 

"EVERTON,  January  i,  1768. 

"  Dear  Sir, — I  sec  no  reason  why  we  should  keep  at  a  distance,  whilst 
wc  continue  servants  of  the  same  Master,  and  especially  when  Lot's  herds- 
men are  so  ready  to  lay  their  staves  on  our  shoulders.  Though  my  hand 
has  been  mute,  my  heart  is  kindly  affected  towards  you.  I  trust  we  agree 
in  essentials  ;  and,  therefore,  should  leave  each  other  at  rest  with  his 
circumstantials.  I  am  weary  of  all  disputes,  and  desire  to  know  nothing 
but  Jesus  ;  to  love  Him,  trust  Him,  and  serve  Him  ;  to  choose  and  find 
Him  my  only  portion.  I  would  have  Him  my  meat,  my  drink,  my  clothing, 
my  sun,  my  shield,  my  Lord,  my  God,  my  all.     Amen. 

"  When  I  saw  you  in  town,  I  gave  you  an  invitation  to  Everton  ;  and  I 
now  repeat  it,  offering  you  very  kindly  the  use  of  my  house  and  church. 
The  Lord  accompany  you  in  all  your  journeys  !  Kind  love  to  your 
brother.     Adieu ! 

"John  Berridge."' 

At  the  close  of  the  year  1767,  the  Earl  of  Buchan  died 
triumphing  in  the  faith  of  Christ.  He  had  been  in  the 
habit  of  hearing  Whitefield,  the  Wesleys,  and  others,  at  Bath, 
and  had  felt  their  ministry  a  blessing.  His  last  words  were, 
"  Happy,  happy,  happy  ! "  The  inscription  upon  his  coffin 
run  thus:  "His  life  was  honourable,  his  death  blessed;  he 
sought  earnestly  peace  with  God, — he  found  it  with  unspeak- 
able joy,  alone  in  the  merits  of  Christ  Jesus,  witnessed  by  the 
Holy  Spirit  to  his  soul."^  His  countess  dowager  was  a 
woman  of  deep  piety,  of  elegant  taste,  and  of  great  genius. 
She  was  the  mother  of  a  numerous  family,  and  appointed 
Venn,  Berridge,  and  Wesley  her  domestic  chaplains.  This  was 
done  through  the  intervention  of  Lady  Huntingdon,^  to  whom 
Wesley  addressed  the  following  letter. 

"  London,  January  4,  1 768. 

"My  de.\r  Lady,— I  am  obliged  to  your  ladyship,  and  to  Lady 
Buchan,  for  such  a  mark  of  your  regard  as  I  did  not  at  all  expect.  I 
purpose  to  return  her  ladyship  thanks  by  this  post. 

"That  remark  is  very  striking,  as  well  as  just; — If  it  is  the  Holy  Spirit 
that  bears  witness,  then  all  speaking  against  that  Witness  is  one  species 
of  blasphemy  against  the  Holy  Ghost.  And  when  this  is  done  by  those 
who  profess  to  honour  Him,  it  must  in  a  peculiar  manner  grieve  that 

'  Aft'fliodisf  lifas^a^inc,  1857,  p.  616. 

2  "  Life  and  Times  of  Countess  of  Huntingdon,"  vol.  i.,  p.  17. 

•  Ibid.  vol.  ii.,  p.  427. 


Wesley,  Chap  lain  to  Cotmtess  of  Biichan.  3 

blessed  Spirit.     Yet,  I  have  been  surprised  to  observe  how  many,  who      176b 
affirm   salvation   by   faith,  have  lately  run  into   this  ;   running  full  into        — - 
Mr.  Sandeman's  notion,  that  faith  is  merely  an  assent  to  the  Bible ;  and        ="     ^ 
not  only  undervaluing,  but  even  ridiculing,  the  whole  experience  of  the 
children  of  God.      I  rejoice,   that  your  ladyship  is  still  preserved  from 
that  spreading  contagion,  and  also  enabled  plainly  and  openly  to  avow  the 
plain,  old,  simple,  unfashionable  gospel. 

"  Wishing  your  ladyship  many  happy  years,  I  remain,  my  dear  lady, 
your  very  affectionate  servant, 

"John  Wesley." ^ 

A  few  months  after  this,  Wesley  went  to  Scotland,  where 
the  Countess  of  Buchan  resided,  and  there  wrote,  and 
probably  preached,  his  remarkable  sermon,  "  The  Good 
Steward,"  in  which,  with  great  emphasis,  he  lays  down  the 
doctrine,  that  we  hold  m  trust  our  souls,  our  bodies,  our  goods, 
and  all  our  other  talents  ;  and,  for  the  tise  of  them,  must 
render  an  account  at  the  judgment  seat  of  Christ.  This  was 
dealing  faithfully  with  his  noble  patroness,  as  well  as  with 
others;  for  the  sermon  was  immediately  published  in  i2mo, 
24  pages,  with  the  title,  "  The  Good  Steward.  A  Sermon,  by 
John  Wesley,  Chaplain  to  the  Right  Honourable  the  Countess 
Dowager  of  Buchan." 

Wesley  was  not  the  man  to  be  elated  by  being  noticed  by 
the  rich,  the  noble,  and  the  great.  He  was  thankful  for  their 
help  ;  but  far  from  being  proud  of  their  approbation.  Many 
of  his  most  trusted  friends  were  poor  and  mean  in  reference  to 
this  world's  goods  ;  but,  at  the  same  time,  were  possessed  of 
riches  incomparably  superior  to  all  the  gold  existing.  The 
following  letter,  addressed  to  Fletcher  of  Madeley,  though  a 
month  or  two  out  of  its  chronological  order,  refers  to  these 
and  to  other  matters. 

"  BiRMlNGHAiM,  March  20,  1768. 

"  Dear  Sir, — Mr.  Eastbrook  told  me  yesterday,  that  you  are  sick 
of  the  conversation  even  of  them  who  profess  religion, — that  you  find  it 
quite  unprofitable,  if  not  hurtful,  to  converse  with  them,  three  or  four  hours 
together,  and  are  sometimes  almost  determined  to  shut  yourself  up,  as  the 
less  evil  of  the  two. 

"  I  do  not  wonder  at  it  at  all,  especially  considering  with  whom  you 
have  chiefly  conversed  for  some  time  past,  namely,  the  hearers  of  Mr. 
Madan,  or  Mr.  Bourian,  perhaps  I  might  add,  of  Mr.  Whitefield.  The 
conversing  with  these  I  have  rarely  found  to  be  profitable  to  my  soul. 

'  Methodist  Magazine,  1857,  p.  693. 


Lije  and  Times  of  Wesley. 


1768  Rather  it  has  damped  my  desires;  it  has  cooled  my  resolutions,  and  I 
— ■  liavc  commonly  left  them  with  a  dry,  dissipated  spirit, 
^''■"  ^  "And  how  can  you  expect  it  to  be  otherwise  ?  For  do  we  not  naturally 
catch  their  spirit  with  whom  we  converse  ?  And  what  spirit  can  we  ex- 
pect them  to  be  of,  considering  the  preaching  they  sit  under?  Some 
happy  exceptions  I  allow  ;  but,  in  general,  do  men  gather  grapes  of 
tliorns  ?  Uo  they  gather  constant,  universal  self  denial,  the  patience  of 
liope,  the  labour  of  love,  inward  and  outward  self  devotion,  from  the 
doctrine  of  absolute  decrees,  of  irresistible  grace,  of  infallible  perseverance? 
Do  they  gather  these  fruits  from  antinomian  doctrine  ?  Or  from  any 
that  borders  upon  it  ?  Do  they  gather  them  from  that  amorous  way  of 
praying  to  Christ  ?  or  that  luscious  way  of  preaching  His  righteousness  ? 
I  never  found  it  so.  On  the  contrary,  I  have  found,  that  even  the 
precious  doctrine  of  salvation  by  fiiith  has  need  to  be  guarded  with  the 
utmost  care,  or  those  who  hear  it  will  slight  both  inward  and  outward 
holiness. 

"  I  will  go  a  step  farther  :  I  seldom  find  it  profitable  for  vie  to  converse 
with  any  who  are  not  athirst  for  perfection,  and  who  are  not  big  with 
earnest  expectation  of  receiving  it  every  moment.  Now  you  find  none 
of  these  among  those  we  are  speaking  of;  but  many,  on  the  contrary,  who 
are  in  various  ways,  directly  and  indirectly,  opposing  the  whole  work  of 
God, — that  work,  I  mean,  which  God  is  carrying  on,  throughout  this  king- 
dom, by  unlearned  and  plain  men;  in  consequence  of  which  His  influence 
must,  in  some  measure,  be  withdrawn  from  them.  Again  :  you  have,  for 
some  time,  conversed  a  good  deal  with  the  genteel  Methodists.  Now  it 
matters  not  a  straw  what  doctrine  they  hear, — whether  they  frequent  the 
Lock  or  West  Street.  They  are,  almost  all,  salt  which  has  lost  its 
savour,  if  ever  they  had  any.  They  are  thoroughly  conformed  to  the 
maxims,  the  spirit,  the  fashions,  and  customs  of  the  world.  Certainly 
tiien,  '  Nuuquain  ad  cos  Jiotnincs  ibis  qi/in  viiiior  lioino  7-cdibis.' 

"  But  were  these  or  those  of  ever  so  excellent  a  spirit,  you  conversed 
with  them  too  long.  One  had  need  to  be  an  angel,  not  a  man,  to  con- 
verse three  or  four  hours  at  once,  to  any  purpose.  In  the  latter  part  of 
such  conversation,  we  shall  doubtless  lose  all  the  profit  we  had  gained 
before. 

"  But  have  you  not  a  remedy  for  all  this  in  your  hands  ?  In  order  to 
truly  profitable  conversation,  may  you  not  select  persons  clear  both  of 
Calvinism  and  antinomianism?  not  fond  of  that  luscious  way  of  talking, 
but  standing  in  awe  of  Him  they  love  ;  who  are  vigorously  working  out 
their  salvation,  and  are  athirst  for  full  redemption,  and  every  moment 
expecting  it,  if  not  already  enjoying  it?  It  is  true,  these  will  generally  be 
j)oor  and  mean,  seldom  possessed  of  either  riches  or  learning,  unless  there 
be  now  and  then  a  rara  az'is  in  tcrris  :  a  Miss  IMarch,  or  Betty  Johnson. 
If  you  converse  with  these,  humbly  and  simply,  an  hour  at  a  time,  with 
prayer  before  and  prayer  after,  you  will  not  complain  of  the  unprofitable- 
ness of  conversation,  or  find  any  need  of  turning  hermit. 

"As  to  the  conference,  at  Worcester,  on  lay  preaching,  do  not  you 


Letters,  5 

observe    almost   all   the   lay    preachers — (i)   Are   connected  with    me?      1768 
and — (2)  Are  maintainers  of  universal  redemption  ?    Hinc  illce  lacrymce!       — 
These  gentlemen  do  not  love  me,  and   do  love  particular  redemption.     ^S.^  ^5 
If  these  laymen  were  connected  with  them,  or  if  they  were  Calvinists,  all 
would  be  well.     Therefore,  I  should  apprehend  you  will  have  two  things 
to  do  : — I.  Urge  the  argument,  the  strength  of  which  I  believe  is  in  the 
Second  Appeal,  and,  above  all,  in  the  Letter  to  a  Clergyman.     2,  Apply 
to  the  conscience,  'You  do  not  love  Mr.  Wesley  enough:  you  love  your 
opinions  too  much  ;  otherwise  this  debate  would  never  have  arisen:  for  it 
is    undeniable,   these   quacks  cure  whom  we  cannot    cure,    they    save 
sinners  all  over  the  nation.     God  is  with  them,  and  works  by  them,  and 
has  done  so  for  near  these  thirty  years.     Therefore,  the  opposing  them 
is  neither  better  nor  worse  than  fighting  against  God.' 
"  I  am  your  ever  affectionate  brother, 

"John  Wesley." ' 

One  more  letter  may  be  introduced;  before  we  turn  to 
Wesley's  journal.  At  the  beginning  of  1768,  a  third  son 
was  born  to  Charles  Wesley,  and  it  was  naturally  the  wish  of 
such  a  father,  that  one  of  his  three  sons  might  become  a 
minister  of  Christ, — a  wish,  however,  that  was  not  realised. 
Wesley  alludes  to  this,  and  to  the  yearly  collections  and 
other  things,  in  the  following  to  his  brother,  showing  that 
Charles  either  seldom  attended  conference,  or,  if  he  did 
attend,  took  little  interest  in  its  financial  matters. 

"London,  Jaimary  15,  1768. 

"Dear  Brother, —  Six  or  seven  hundred  pounds  is  brought  to  a 
conference  :  of  which  five  hundred  at  least  pays  the  debt.-  Then  extra- 
ordinary demands  are  answered.  How  much  remains  for  law  ?  I  am  now 
near  ^^300  out  of  pocket,  which  I  borrowed  to  pay  Mr.  Pardon.  When  I 
receive  some  more  from  Newcastle,  I  will  send  it  to  Bristol;  probably 
very  soon. 

"  It  is  highly  probable,  one  of  the  three  will  stand  before  the  Lord.  But, 
so  far  as  I  can  learn,  such  a  thing  has  scarce  been  for  these  thousand 

'  Manuscript  letter. 

-  The  meaning  of  this  is,  that,  at  least,  ^500  of  what  the  Methodists 
have  always  technically  designated  "  The  Yearly  Collection,"  was,  at  this 
period,  employed  in  paying  chapel  debts.  Except  that  for  Kingswood 
school,  this  was  the  only  connexional  collection  that  Wesley  had  ;  and 
he  strongly  insisted  that  every  Methodist  should  render  it  support.  In 
an  tinpiiblished  letter,  addressed  to  Matthew  Lowes,  and  dated  March  1 1, 
1762,  Wesley  writes  :  "  In  the  enclosed  papers,  (which  you  may  read  in 
every  society,  just  before  you  meet  the  classes,)  you  will  see  the  design  of 
the  general  yearly  collection,  to  which  every  Methodist  in  England  is  to 
contribute  something.  If  there  is  any  who  cannot  give  a  halfpenny  a 
year,  another  will  give  it  for  him." 


Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 


17CS      years,   as  a  son,   father,   grandfather,  atavus,   iriiavus,   preaching   the 
—        f,'ospcl,  nay,  and  the  genuine  gospel,  in  a  hne.     You  know,  Mr.  White, 
^K^  ^5     sometime  chairman  of  the  Assembly  of  Divines,  was  my  grandmother's 
father. 

"  Look  upon  our  little  ones  at  Kingswood  as  often  as  you  can.  A  word 
from  you  will  be  a  quickening  to  them.  Oh  how  many  talents  are  we  en- 
trusted with.  We  have  need  to  gird  up  the  loins  of  our  mind,  and  run 
faster  the  small  remainder  of  our  race.  '  One  thing  ! ' — let  us  mind  one 
thing  only  ;  and  nothing  great  or  small,  but  as  it  ministers  to  it  !  Peace 
be  with  you  and  yours  !    Adieu!  "John  Wesley."' 

Wesley's  first  journey  from  London,  in  1768,  was  on  the 
18th  of  February,  to  Chatham.  Methodism  of  some  sort  had 
existed  here  for  a  considerable  time.  As  early  as  175 1,  the 
Giiitlcmans  Magazine  relates,  that  a  man  and  his  wife  at 
Chatham,  both  of  them  being  Methodists,  had  hanged  them- 
selves ;  and  that,  in  order  to  prove  the  man  a  lunatic,  his 
friends  produced,  to  the  coroner's  jury,  the  New  Testament, 
on  a  roll  of  paper,  which  the  man  had  written  with  his 
blood.2 

Wesley  writes  :  "  Thursday,  February  1 8 — Having  been 
importunately  pressed  thereto,  I  rode  through  a  keen  east 
wind  to  Chatham.  About  six  in  the  evening,  I  preached  at 
the  barracks,  in  what  they  call  the  church.  It  is  a  large 
room,  in  which  the  chaplain  reads  prayers,  and  preaches  now 
and  then.  It  was  soon  as  hot  as  an  oven,  through  the 
multitude  of  people  ;  some  hundreds  of  whom  were  soldiers  ; 
and  they  were  '  all  ear,'  as  Mr.  Boston  says,  scarcely  allowing 
themselves  to  breathe.  Even  between  five  and  six  the  next 
morning,  the  room  was  warm  enough.  I  suppose  upwards  of 
two  hundred  soldiers  were  a  part  of  the  audience.  Many  of 
these  are  already  warring  a  good  warfare." 

This  was  Wesley's  first  visit  to  Chatham  ;  but  not  his  last. 
From  the  beginning,  he  had  loved  soldiers,  and,  to  the  end,  it 
was  always  a  pleasure  to  preach  to  them. 

On  March  6,  he  set  out  on  his  long  northern  journey, 
which  occupied  the  next  five  months.  A  few  jottings  respect- 
ing it  may  be  acceptable. 

At  Gloucester,  a  "noisy  and  mischievous  mob"  had  been 


'  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xii.,  p.  126. 
"^  Gentleman's  Magazine,  1751,  p.  179. 


Methodist  Jottings. 


"  taken  in  hand  and  tamed  by  an  honest  magistrate."  Chelten-  1768 
ham  was  "  a  quiet,  comfortable  place,"  despite  the  "  rector  and  a^5 
the  anabaptist  minister."  At  Worcester,  the  difficulty  was, 
where  to  preach,  no  room  being  large  enough  to  contain  the 
people,  and  it  being  too  cold  for  them  to  stand  in  the  open  air. 
At  length,  a  friend  offered  the  use  of  his  barn,  which  "was 
larger  than  many  churches."  "  Nothing,"  says  Wesley,  "  is 
wanting  here  but  a  commodious  house,"  Such  a  house  was 
built  four  years  afterwards,^  and  lasted  till  1812,  when  good 
old  James  M'Kee  Byron  and  the  Worcester  ]\Iethodists  w^ere 
mad  enough  to  build  another  costing  upwards  of  i^Sooo,  the 
great  bulk  of  which  was  left  to  be  paid  by  their  successors.^ 

At  Evesham,  Wesley  preached  in  the  parish  church  ;  and 
was  announced,  by  the  vicar,  to  do  the  same  at  Pebworth  ; 
but  "  the  squire  of  the  parish"  interposed  an  interdict,  and 
therefore  he  preached  in  the  open  air. 

At  Birmingham,  the  tumults,  of  so  many  years'  continuance, 
were  "  now  wholly  suppressed  by  a  resolute  magistrate."  Here 
W^esley  met  "  with  a  venerable  monument  of  antiquity, 
George  Bridgins,  in  the  one  hundred  and  seventh  year  of  his 
age,  still  able  to  walk  to  preaching,  and  retaining  his  senses 
and  understanding  tolerably  well." 

On  Sunday,  March  20,  Wesley  preached  at  West  Brom- 
wich,  where  a  small  society  of  about  twenty  persons  had 
been  kept  together  by  Francis  Asbury,  a  native  of  a  neigh- 
bouring parish,  but  afterwards  the  Methodist  bishop  of  the 
United  States. 

Five  years  before,  at  Wolverhampton,  the  mob  had  levelled 
the  Methodist  meeting-house  to  the  ground,  and  four  young 
fellows  concerned  in  the  outrage  had  been  sent  to  prison  f 
but  now,  says  Wesley  "  all  was  quiet  :  only  those  who  could 
not  get  into  the  house  made  a  little  noise  for  a  time  ;  and 
some  hundreds  attended  me  to  my  lodging  ;  but  it  was  with 
no  other  intent  than  to  stare." 

Wesley  pronounces  Newcastle  under  Lyne  "one  of  the 
prettiest  towns  in  England."  Though  it  was  extremely  cold, 
the  largeness  of  the  congregation  constrained  him  to  preach  in 

^  Myles's  History. 
^'  Methodist  Magazine,  1825,  p.  122;  and  1S29,  p.  585. 
^  Gentle/nan's  Magazi)ie,  1 763,  p.  463. 


8  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 


1768     the  open  air  ;  "  a  more  attentive  or  better  behaved  congrega- 

,\  ~65    tion  "  he  "  scarce  ever  saw."      Sixteen  years  later,  Newcastle 

had  a  society  of  one  hundred  and  nine  members,  the  leaders 

of  wlioni  were  John  Glynn,  William  Bayley,  Robert  Keeling, 

and  Thomas  Bamficld.^ 

At  Burslcm,  on  March  25,  he  opened  the  new  chapel ;  and, 
at  Congleton,  had  "  an  elegant,  yet  earnestly  attentive  con- 
gregation," the  behaviour  of  the  society  having  won  the  ap- 
probation of  all  the  people  in  the  town,  except  "  the  curate, 
who  still  refused  to  give  the  sacrament  to  any  who  would  not 
promise  to  hear  the  Methodist  preachers  no  more." 

For  nine  years  past,  the  Methodists  had  been  wont  to  meet 
in  a  room  provided  by  Dr.  Troutbeck,  behind  his  own  re- 
sidence ;  and  here  they  had  been  subjected  to  the  same  sort 
of  outrages  that  most  towns  in  the  kingdom  thought  it  their 
duty  to  commit  upon  the  Methodists.  Drums  were  beaten  to 
disturb  their  services  ;  dogs  were  let  loose  in  their  congrega- 
tions ;  and  rotten  eggs  and  filth  were  often  hurled  at  them  in 
plentiful  profusion  ;  but,  by  their  godly  behaviour,  they  had 
•  outlived    all  this,    and  now   had  a  galleried   chapel,  capable 

of  containing  about  four  hundred  persons. 

Wesley  spent  Sunday,  March  27,  at  Macclesfield,  where  he 
preached  to  "  thousands  upon  thousands."  A  few  years 
before,  George  Pearson  and  Elizabeth  Clulow  had  opened  a 
preaching  house,  which  would  hol(i  forty  people,  and  which,  to 
prevent  ejectment,  they  secured  to  themselves  for  forty  years. 
"Ah,  George!"  said  Mrs.  Clulow,  when  they  first  went  into 
it,  "  we  shall  never  be  able  to  fill  the  place  ;  why,  it  will  hold 
forty  folk  ;"  to  which  Mr.  Pearson  replied,  "  I'll  warrant  you  ; 
hold  up  your  heart."  The  result  was  as  George  predicted. 
In  a  month  the  room  was  crammed,  and  a  hole  was  cut 
through  the  chamber  floor,  so  that  the  preacher  might,  at  the 
same  time,  address  those  above  as  well  as  those  below.  Soon 
after  this,  Mr.  Ryles  gave  ground  and  materials  for  a  chapel, 
on  condition  that  Mrs.  Clulow  would  pay  the  workmen  their 
wages  for  building  it.  This  was  done  in  1764,  and  now,  in 
17CS,  Methodism  in  Macclesfield  was  fairly  started.^ 


'  Burslem  old  circuit  boolc 
."■'  Manuscript. 


Methodism  in  Liverpool  and  Glasgow.  9 

From  Macclesfield,  Wesley  proceeded  to  Stockport,  Man-  1768 
Chester,  and  New  Mills.  He  writes  :  "  Wednesday,  March  30  ^^5^ 
— I  rode  to  a  little  town  called  New  Mills,  and  preached  in 
their  large  new  chapel,  which  has  a  casement  in  every  window, 
three  inches  square!  That  is  the  custom  of  the  country!" 
This  well  ventilated  chapel  was  built  principally  by  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Beard,  the  parents  of  the  wife  of  the  late  T.  Holy,  Esq., 
of  Sheffield.  1 

Coming  to  Liverpool,  on  April  6,  Wesley  says  :  "  We  had  a 
huge  congregation  at  Liverpool ;  but  some  pretty,  gay, 
fluttering  things  did  not  behave  with  so  much  good  manners 
as  the  mob  at  Wigan.  The  congregations  in  general  were 
quite  well  behaved,  as  well  as  large,  both  morning  and  even- 
ing ;  and  I  found  the  society  both  more  numerous  and  more 
lively  than  ever  it  was  before." 

One  of  these  "  huge  congregations,"  after  a  sermon  by 
Wesley,  on  Sunday,  April  10,  were  munificent  enough  to 
make  a  collection  amounting  to  £\  ^s.  ()d. ;  and  the  society, 
which  was  more  numerous  and  lively  than  ever,  aided  by  the 
general  congregations,  managed  to  contribute,  in  their  classes 
and  at  public  collections,  from  September  i,  1768,  to  January 
16,  1769,  the  sum  of  i^io  lys.  ^d.  for  the  support  of  the  work 
of  God  among  them.^  Such  was  Liverpool  Methodism  a 
hundred  years  ago  ! 

On  April  19,  Wesley  arrived  in  Glasgow,  and  says  : 
"  We  have  few  societies  in  Scotland  like  this.  The  greater 
part  of  the  members  not  only  have  found  peace  with  God,  but 
continue  to  walk  in  the  light  of  His  countenance.  That  wise 
and  good  man,  Mr.  Gillies,  has  been  of  great  service  to  them, 
encouraging  them  to  abide  in  the  grace  of  God."  Three 
years  before  this,  Thomas  Taylor  had  been  sent  to  Glasgow, 
and,  after  travelling  several  hundreds  of  miles  to  his  appoint- 
ment, had,  as  his  first  congregation,  two  bakers'  boys  and  two 
old  women,  which  congregation,  however,  kept  increasing  till 
it  reached  about  two  hundred.  Taylor  tells  us,  that  for  want 
of  means  he  never  kept  so  many  fast  days  as  he  did  in 
Glasgow ;    and,  though  he    ultimately  obtained   a  preaching 


^  Methodist  Mas;azine,  1812,  p.  534;  and  1843,  P-  Sy. 
2  Liverpool  old  society  book. 


lo  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1768     room,  and  formed  a  society,  and  engaged  to  pay  a  precentor 

\;;i.~65    '^''iirp'-'"ce  for  cacli  service  at  which  he  led  ofif  the  psalms,  he 

found  it  so  difficult  to  raise  the  money  that  he  dismissed  the 

psalms   and   the  psalm  singer  all  together.     He  left  behind 

him,  however,  a  society  of  seventy  members. 

One  of  these  was  Robert  Mackie,  who,  for  thirty  years,  acted 
as  a  faithful  classleader  ;  and  another  was  a  poor  old  woma.n, 
concerning  whom  John  Pawson,  in  an  unpublished  letter,  tells 
the  following  story.  Meeting  in  the  street  the  minister  of 
the  kirk  she  had  been  accustomed  to  attend,  she  was  thus 
accosted  :  "  Oh,  Janet,  where  have  ye  been,  woman  }  I  have  no 
seen  ye  at  the  kirk  for  long."  "I  go,"  said  Janet,  "among  the 
Methodists."  "Among  the  Methodists  !  "  quoth  the  minister  ; 
"  why  what  gude  get  ye  there,  woman  .-' "  "  Glory  to  God  !  " 
replied  Janet,  "I  do  get  gude;  for  God,  for  Christ's  sake,  has 
forgiven  me  aw  my  sins  !  "  "  Ah,  Janet,"  said  the  minister, 
"  be  not  highminded,  but  fear ;  the  devil  is  a  cunning  adver- 
sary." "  I  dunna  care  a  button  for  the  deevil,"  answered 
Janet,  "  I  've  gotten  him  under  my  feet.  I  ken  the  deevil  can 
do  muckle  deal,  but  there  is  ane  thing  he  canna  do."  "  What 
is  that,  Janet .?  "  "  He  canna  shed  abroad  the  love  of  God 
in  my  heart ;  and  I  am  sure  I  've  got  it  there  ! "  "  Weel, 
wecl ! "  replied  the  good  tempered  man,  "  if  ye  have  got 
there,  Janet,  hold  it  fast,  and  never  let  it  go  !  " 

Wesley's  information  was  sometimes  incorrect.  From  what 
he  had  heard,  he  expected  to  find  a  numerous  and  lively 
society  at  Perth ;  but,  instead  of  that,  he  "  found  not  above 
two  believers,  and  scarce  five  awakened  persons  in  it." 

At  Aberdeen,  the  society  was  knit  together  in  peace  and 
love,  and  the  congregations  large  and  deeply  attentive  ;  but, 
among  them,  were  "  many  rude,  stupid  creatures,  who  knew 
as  little  of  reason  as  of  religion,"  and  one  of  w^hom  threw  a 
potato  at  Wesley. 

Having  spent  a  month  in  Scotland,  Wesley  reached  Berwick 
on  the  iSth  of  May,  and  proceeded  to  Newcastle,  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  which  he  employed  the  next  ten  days. 

At  Sunderland,  he  had  an  interview  with  Elizabeth  Hobson, 
a  young  woman  of  twenty-four  years  of  age;  and  took  down, 
from  her  own  lips,  what  he  properly  designates  "  one  of  the 
strangest  accounts  that  he  ever  read."     The  substance  of  it  is 


Wesley  s  Credulity.  1 1 


to  illustrate  her  assertion,  that,  from  her  childhood,  when  any  1768 
of  her  neighbours  died,  she  used  to  see  them,  either  just  at  Age^65 
the  time  of  their  decease,  or  a  little  previous.  He  says  : 
"  The  well  known  character  of  Elizabeth  Hobson  excludes  all 
suspicion  of  fraud,  and  the  nature  of  the  circumstances  them- 
selves excludes  the  possibility  of  delusion.  The  reader  may 
believe  the  narrative  if  he  pleases ;  or  may  disbelieve  it,  with- 
out any  offence  to  me.  Meantime,  let  him  not  be  offended  if 
I  believe  it,  till  I  see  better  reason  to  the  contrary."  After 
this  follow  Elizabeth  Hobson's  bewildering  statements, 

Wesley  has  been  censured  and  ridiculed  for  this  credulity. 
Southey  says,  "  he  invalidated  his  own  authority  by  listen- 
ing to  the  most  absurd  tales  and  recording  them  as  au- 
thenticated facts."  Did  Wesley  deserve  this  .-^  The  reader 
must  not  forget  the  undeniable,  though  mysterious,  super- 
natural noises  in  the  Epworth  rectory.  He  must  also  bear 
in  mind,  that  one  of  the  most  striking  features  in  Wesley's 
religious  character  was  his  deep  rooted,  intense,  powerful,  and 
impelling  conviction  of  the  dread  realities  of  an  unseen  world. 
This  gr^t  conviction  took  possession  of  the  man  ;  he  loved 
it,  cherished  it,  tried  to  instil  it  into  all  his  helpers  and  all  his 
people  ;  and,  without  it,  he  would  never  have  undertaken  the 
Herculean  labour,  and  endured  the  almost  unparalleled  op- 
probrium, that  he  did.  Besides,  his  own  justification  of  him- 
self is  more  easily  sneered  at  than  answered.     He  writes  : — 

"With  my  latest  breath,  will  I  bear  my  testimony  against  giving  up  to 
infidels  one  great  proof  of  the  invisible  world  ;  I  mean,  that  of  witchcraft 
and  apparitions,  confirmed  by  the  testimony  of  all  ages.  The  English,  in 
general,  and,  indeed,  most  of  the  men  of  learning  in  Europe,  have  given 
up  all  accounts  of  witches  and  apparitions,  as  mere  old  wives'  fables.  I 
am  sorry  for  it  ;  and  I  willingly  take  this  opportunity  of  entering  my 
solemn  protest  against  this  violent  compliment,  which  so  many  that  believe 
the  Bible  pay  to  those  who  do  not  beheve  it.     I  owe  them  no  such  service.  * 

I  take  knowledge,  these  are  at  the  bottom  of  the  outcry  which  has  been 
raised,  and  with  such  insolence  spread  throughout  the  nation,  in  direct 
opposition  not  only  to  the  Bible,  but  to  the  suffrage  of  the  wisest  and 
best  of  men  in  all  ages  and  nations.  They  well  know  (whether  Christians 
know  it,  or  not)  that  the  giving  up  witchcraft  is,  in  effect,  giving  up  the 
Bible  ;  and  they  know,  on  the  other  hand,  that  if  but  one  account  of  the 
intercourse  of  men  with  separate  spirits  be  admitted,  their  whole  castle  in 
the  air — deism,  atheism,  materialism — falls  to  the  ground.  I  know  no 
reason,  therefore,  why  we  should  suffer  even  this  weapon  to  be  wrested 


Life  and  Times  of  Wesley, 


1768  out  of  our  hands.  Indeed,  there  are  numerous  arguments  besides  this, 
—  wliich  aljundantly  confute  their  vain  imaginations.  But  we  need  not  be 
^^"^  ^5  liootcd  out  of  one  ;  neither  reason  nor  religion  requires  this.  One  of  the 
capital  objections  to  all  these  accounts  is,  '  Did  you  ever  see  an  appari- 
tion yourself?'  No,  nor  did  I  ever  see  a  murder  ;  yet  I  believe  there  is 
such  a  thing.  The  testimony  of  unexceptionable  witnesses  fully  convinces 
me  both  of  the  one  and  the  other." ' 

At  the  same  time,  it  is  only  fair  to  add  that,  though  Wesley 
was  a  firm  believer  in  witches  and  apparitions,  he  was  not  the 
fanatic  which  some  had  been  before  him  ;  hence,  in  1769,  he 
writes:  "I  read  Mr,  Glanvill's  'Sadducismus  Triqmphatus;' 
but  some  of  his  relations  I  cannot  receive,  and  much  less  his 
way  of  accounting  for  them.  All  his  talk  of  '  aerial  and 
astral  spirits,'  I  take  to  be  stark  nonsense.  Indeed,  supposing 
the  facts  true,  I  wonder  a  man  of  sense  should  attempt  to 
account  for  them  at  all.  For  who  can  explain  the  things 
of  the  invisible  world,  but  the  inhabitants  of  it .'' " 

Before  proceeding  further  in  Wesley's  history,  extracts 
from  two  or  three  of  his  letters,  belonging  to  this  period,  may 
be  inserted  here. 

Separation  from  the  Church,  and  the  doctrine  of  Christian 
perfection,  were  points  still  far  from  being  settled.  Hence 
the  following  to  his  brother. 

"Edinburgh,  May  14,  1768. 

"  Dear  Brother, — I  am  at  my  wits'  end  with  regard  to  two  things — 

the  Church,  and  Christian  perfection.     Unless  both  you  and  I  stand  in  the 

gap  in  good  earnest,  the  Methodists  will  drop  them  both.     Talking  will 

not  avail.     Wc  must  do,  or  be  borne  away.     Will  you  set  shoulder  to 

shoulder  ?     If  so,  think  deeply  upon  the  matter,  and  tell  me  what  can  be 

done.     ''Age,  vir  esto  J  nervos  intendas  iuos.'     Peace  be  with  you  and 

yours!     Adieu!  ,, ,  -nr  „■> 

^  "John  Wesley." 2 

A  month  later,  Wesley  recurs  to  the  same  subject,  and 
congratulates  his  brother  on  the  results  of  his  removing  to 
London. 

''Jinie  14,  1768. 

"  Dear  Brother,— I  rejoice  to  hear,  from  various  persons,  so  good  an 
account  of  the  work  of  God  in  London.  You  did  not  come  thither  with- 
out the  Lord,  and  you  find  your  labour  is  not  in  vain.  I  doubt  not  but 
you  will  sec  more  and  more  fruit,  while  you  converse  chiefly  with  them 


>  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xiv.,  p.  276.  2  ji^j^  ^.q]  ^jj^  p_  ,-,6. 


Wesley  and  Erskine.  1 3 


xD 


Age  65 


that  are  athirst  for  God.     I  find  a  wonderful  difference  in  myself  when  I       1768 
am  among  these,  and  when  I  am  among  fashionable  Methodists.     On 
this  account,  the  north  of  England  suits  me  best,  where  so  many  are 
■  groaning  after  full  redemption. 

"But  what  shall  we  do  ?  I  think  it  is  high  time,  that  you  and  I,  at 
least,  should  come  to  a  point.  Shall  we  go  on  in  asserting  perfection 
against  all  the  world  .'*  Or  shall  we  quietly  let  it  drop  ?  We  really  must 
do  one  or  the  other  ;  and,  I  apprehend,  the  sooner  the  better.  What 
shall  we  jointly  and  explicitly  maintain,  and  recommend  to  all  our  preach- 
ers, concerning  the  nature,  the  time  (now  or  by-and-by),  and  the  manner 
of  it  ?  instantaneous  or  not  ?  I  am  weary  of  intestine  war  ;  of  preachers 
quoting  one  of  us  against  the  other.  At  length,  let  us  fix  something  for 
good  and  all,  either  the  same  as  formerly,  or  different  from  it. — Eppan-o. 

"John  Wesley."' 

Dr.  Erskine's  attack  on  Wesley  has  been  already  mentioned 
(see  Vol.  II.,  p.  530).  During  Wesley's  visit  to  Scotland,  he 
sought  an  interview  with  his  opponent,  and  refers  to  their 
points  of  difference  in  the  following  interesting  letter  to  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Plendelieth,  of  Edinburgh. 

"May  23,  1768. 

"Reverend  and  dear  Sir, — Some  years  ago,  it  was  reported  that 
I  recommended  the  use  of  a  crucifix,  to  a  man  under  sentence  of  death. 
I  traced  this  up  to  its  author,  Dr.  Stennett,  an  anabaptist  teacher.  He 
was  charged  w-ith  it.  He  answered,  'Why  I  saw  a  crucifix  in  his  cell  (a 
picture  of  Christ  on  the  cross),  and  I  knew  Mr.  Wesley  used  to  visit  him, 
so  I  supposed  he  had  brought  it.'  This  is  the  whole  of  the  matter.  Dr. 
Stennett  himself  I  never  saw  ;  nor  did  I  ever  see  such  a  picture  in  the 
cell ;  and  I  believe  the  whole  tale  is  pure  invention. 

"  I  had,  for  some  time,  given  up  the  thought  of  an  interview  with  Mr. 
Erskine,  when  I  fell  into  the  company  of  Dr.  Oswald.  He  said,  '  Sir, 
you  do  not  know  Mr.  Erskine.  I  know  him  perfectly  well.  Send  and 
desire  an  hour's  conversation  with  him,  and  I  am  sure  he  will  understand 
you  better.'  I  am  glad  I  did  send.  I  have  done  my  part,  and  am  now 
entirely  satisfied.     I  am  likewise  glad,  that  Mr.  Erskine  has  spoken  his 

'  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xii.,  p.  126.  All  this  confusion  arose  chiefly  out  of 
the  half  insane  ravings  of  Bell  and  his  friends  in  1762.  In  a  long,  unpub- 
lished letter,  dated  September  29,  1 764,  Wesley  writes  :  "  I  never  stag- 
gered at  all  at  the  reveries  of  George  Bell.  I  saw  instantly,  at  the  begin- 
ning and  from  the  beginning,  what  was  right  and  what  was  wrong  ;  but  I 
saw  withal,  'I  have  many  things  to  speak,  but  you  cannot  bear  them  now.' 
Hence,  many  imagined  I  was  imposed  upon ;  and  applauded  themselves 
in  their  greater  perspicacity  ;  as  they  do  at  this  day.  '  But  if  you  knew 
it,'  says  his  friend  to  Gregory  Lopez,  '  why  did  you  not  tell  me  1''  I  answer 
with  him,  '  I  do  not  speak  all  I  know,  but  what  I  judge  needful.'  Still,  I 
am  persuaded,  there  is  no  state  under  heaven  from  which  it  is  not  possible 
to  fall." 


14  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1768      mind.     I  will  answer  uith  all  simplicity,  in  full  confidence  of  satisfying 
—       yon,  and  all  impartial  men. 
Age  65         ujj^  objects,    (i)  That  I  attack  predestination  as   subversive  of  all 
religion,   and   yet  suffer  my   followers,  in  Scotland,  to  remain  in   that 
opinion. 

"  Much  of  this  is  true.  I  did  attack  predestination  eight-and-twenty 
years  ago  ;  and  I  do  not  believe  now  any  predestination  which  implies 
irrespective  reprobation.  But  I  do  not  believe,  it  is  necessarily  stibver- 
j/wof  all  religion.  I  think  hot  disputes  are  much  more  so.  Therefore, 
I  never  willingly  dispute  with  any  one  about  it  ;  and  I  advise  all  my 
friends,  not  in  Scotland  only,  but  all  over  England  and  Ireland,  to  avoid 
all  contention  on  the  head,  and  let  every  man  remain  in  his  own  opinion. 
Can  any  man  of  candour  blame  me  for  this  1  Is  there  anything  unfair  or 
disingctiuojcs  about  it  ? 

"  He  objects,  (2)  That  I  'assert  the  attainment  of  sinless  perfection  by 
all  that  are  born  of  God.'  I  am  sorry,  that  Mr.  Erskine  should  affirm  this 
again.  I  need  give  no  other  answer  than  I  gave  before,  in  the  seventh 
page  of  the  little  tract  I  sent  him  two  years  ago.  I  do  not  maintain  this. 
I  do  not  believe  it.  I  believe  Christian  perfection  is  not  attained  by  any 
of  the  children  of  God,  till  they  are  what  the  apostle  John  terms  fathers  ; 
and  this  I  expressly  declare  in  that  sermon  which  Mr.  Erskine  so  largely 
quotes. 

"  He  objects,  (3)  That  I  '  deny  the  imputation  of  Christ's  active 
obedience.'  Since  I  believed  justification  by  faith,  which  I  have  done 
upwards  of  thirty  years,  I  have  constantly  maintained,  that  we  are  par- 
doned and  accepted  wholly  for  the  sake  of  what  Christ  hath  both  done  and 
suffered  for  us.  Two  or  three  years  ago,  Mr,  Madan's  sister  showed  him 
what  she  had  wrote  down  of  a  sermon  which  I  had  preached  on  this  sub- 
ject. He  entreated  me  to  write  down  the  whole  and  print  it,  saying,  it 
would  satisfy  all  my  opponents.  I  was  not  so  sanguine  as  to  expect  this  : 
I  understood  mankind  too  well.  However,  I  complied  with  his  request ;  a 
few  were  satisfied ;  the  rest  continued  just  as  they  were  before. 

"As  long  as  Mr.  Erskine  continues  in  the  mind  expressed  in  his 
Theological  Essays,  there  is  no  danger,  that  he  and  I  should  agree,  any 
'  more  than  light  and  darkness.  I  love  and  reverence  him ;  but  not  his 
doctrine.  I  dread  every  approach  to  antinomianism.  I  have  seen  the 
fruit  of  it,  over  the  three  kingdoms.  I  never  said,  that  Mr.  Erskine  and 
I  were  agreed.  1  will  make  our  disagreement  as  public  as  ever  he  pleases  : 
only  I  must  withal  specify  the  particulars.  If  he  ivill  fight  with  me,  it 
must  be  on  this  ground  ;  and  then  let  him  do  what  he  will,  and  what  he 
can. 

"  Retaining  a  due  sense  of  your  friendly  offices,  and  praying  for  a  bless- 
ing on  all  your  labours,  I  remam,  reverend  and  dear  sir,  your  affectionate 
brother  and  servant, 

"John  Wesley." ^ 

'  Methodist  Magazine,  1783,  p.  681. 


Wesk/s  Will.  15 


These  were  mutterings  before  the  storm, — skirmishes  before  1768 
the  battle, — a  prelude  to  the  great  Calvinian  controversy  of  Age  65 
1770  and  onwards. 

We  abruptly  turn  to  another  matter.  Wesley  was  a  man 
who  iDelieved  in  the  importance  of  making  preparations  for 
dying,  inmore  respects  than  one.  He  writes  on  the  last  day 
of  the  year  1786:  "From  these  words,  'Set  thy  house  in 
order,'  I  strongly  exhorted  all  who  had  not  done  it  already, 
to  settle  their  temporal  affairs  without  delay.  It  is  a  strange 
madness  which  still  possesses  many,  that  are  in  other  respects 
men  of  understanding,  who  put  this  off  from  day  to  day,  till 
death  comes  in  an  hour  when  they  looked  not  for  it." 

Wesley  acted  upon  his  own  advice.  He  was  without 
money  ;  but  he  had  books,  etc. :  and  to  prevent  quarrels  after 
he  was  dead,  he  made  more  wills  than  one  respecting  their 
disposal.  One  executed  in  1768  was,  of  course,  different  from 
his  last,  executed  in  1789  ;  and,  as  something  more  than  a 
curiosity,  we  subjoin  a  verbatim  copy,  made  from  the  original 
in  Wesley's  own  handwriting. 

"  In  the  name  of  God.  Amen  !  I,  John  Wesley,  Clerk,  revoking  all 
other,  appoint  this  to  be  my  last  Will  and  Testament. 

"  I  bequeath  to  my  brother  Charles  Wesley,  (but  in  case  of  his  demise 
to  the  School  in  Kingswood,)  my  Hebrew,  Greek,  Latin,  French,  and 
German  books  (except  those,  in  any  language,  in  the  study  at  Kings- 
wood  School,  which  I  bequeath  to  the  said  School  ;  and  those  in  my 
studies  at  Bristol,  Newcastle  upon  Tyne,  and  Dublin,  which  I  desire  may 
remain  there  for  the  use  of  the  Travelling  Preachers)  ;  and  all  my  gowns, 
cassocks,  and  bands.  To  James  Morgan,  I  bequeath  my  watch;  to  my 
faithful  Housekeeper,  Ann  Smith,  Mrs.  Lefevre's  ring;  to  Mr.  Peter  Jaco, 
my  bureau  at  London  ;  to  him,  to  the  Rev.  William  Ley,  and  to  each 
Travelling  Preacher,  who  has  them  not  already,  a  set  of  my  Sermons, 
Appeals,  Journals,  the  Notes  on  the  New  Testament,  and  the  book  on 
Original  Sin  ;  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  James  Roquet,  all  my  manuscripts  ;  to  my 
dear  friend,  Mary  Bosanquet,  the  set  of  my  Works ;  to  my  dear  daughter, 
Jane  Smith,  the  '  Christian  Library,'  now  in  my  study  at  London. 

"  I  bequeath  all  my  Books,  which  are  for  sale,  with  the  sole  right  of  re- 
printing them,  (after  paying  my  brother's  Rent  Charge  upon  them,)  to 
Mr.  Melchias  Teulon,  Hatter,  Mr.  John  Horton,  Silkdyer,  and  Mr.  John 
Collinson,  Hatter,  in  Trust,  the  one  moiety  for  the  keeping  the  Children 
of  Travelling  Preachers  at  the  School  (to  be  chosen  by  the  Assistants  at 
the  Yearly  Conference),  the  other  moiety  for  the  continual  relief  of  the 
Poor  of  the  United  Society  in  London.      Only  I  bequeath  to  Christiana 


1 6  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 


17O8      Simpson,  at  Aberdeen,  the  Books  which  shall  remain  with  her,  at  the 
~,       time  of  my  decease. 
■  ^'^    ^         "Lastly,  I  bequeath  the  residue  of  my  Books  and  Goods  to  my  wife, 
IMary  Wesley.     And  I  appoint  the  said  Melchias  Teulon,  John  Horton, 
and  John  Collinson,  Executors  of  this  my  last  Will  and  Testament. 
"  Witness  my  hand  and  seaV  this  27th  day  of  April,  1768, 

, "John  Wesley. 

"  Witnesses  : 

"William  Smith. 

"  THOiMAS  Simpson." 

A  man's  -will  is  a  document  in  which  he  generally  makes 
mention  of  his  best  beloved  friends.  On  this  ground,  a  few 
notes  appended  to  Wesley's  will  of  1768  may  be  useful. 

1.  Wesley's  principal  bequest,  in  1768,  was  to  Kingswood 
school,  and  to  the  poor  of  the  society  in  London.  In  1789, 
this  bequest  was  made  to  "  the  general  fund  of  the  Methodist 
conference,  in  carrying  on  the  work  of  God  by  itinerant 
preachers." 

2.  James  Roquet  was  made  the  trustee  of  Wesley's  manu- 
scripts in  1768;  but,  having  died  during  the  interim,  Dr.  Coke, 
Dr.  Whitehead,  and  Henry  Moore  were  appointed  in  1789  to 
take  his  place. 

3.  In  1768,  he  bequeathed  all  his  gowns,  cassocks,  and 
bands  to  his  brother;  in  1789,  to  the  clergymen  preaching  in 
City  Road  chapel,  London. 

4.  In  1768,  James  Morgan  was  to  have  his  watch  ;  but,  in 
1789,  James  Morgan  was  dead,  and  Joseph  Bradford  got  it. 

5.  In  176S,  Mrs.  Martha  Hall  had  no  bequest,  for  her  bad 
husband  was  then  living  ;  in  1789,  he  was  dead,  and  hence  her 
legacy  of  ;^40. 

6.  In  1768,  there  was  a  legacy  for  his  wife;  in  1789,  his 
wife  was  in  her  grave. 

7.  Wesley  makes  mention  of  his  "dear  daughter,  Jane 
Smith."  This  lady  was  really  his  wife's  daughter,  who  was 
now  married  to  Mr.  William  Smith,  of  Newcastle  upon  Tyne, 
one  of  the  witnesses. 

8.  James  Roquet,  to  whom  Wesley  bequeathed  his  manu- 
scripts, was  the  son  of  a    French   Protestant    refugee,    was 


•  Wesley's  seal  is  a  dove,  having  in  its  mouth  an  olive  branch,  and 
surrounded  with  the  words  "Nuncia  Pacis." 


Wesley's   Will.  1 7 


educated   in  the  Merchant  Taylors'  school  in  London,  was      1768 
converted  under  Whitefield's  ministry,  graduated  at  St.  John's    j^f^^ 
college,  Oxford,  became  master  in  Wesley's  school  at  Kings- 
wood,  obtained  episcopal  ordination,  and  was  now  curate  of 
St.  Werburgh,  Bristol. 

9.  The  Rev.  William  Ley,  to  whom  Wesley  bequeathed  a 
set  of  his  publications,  was,  from  the  year  1760  to  1763,  an 
itinerant  preacher.  He  was  then  episcopally  ordained,  and 
was  now  the  curate  of  Lakenheath,  but  likely  to  be  dismissed 
by  the  vicar,  to  whom  his  Methodistic  preaching  and  pro- 
cedure were  offensive.^ 

10.  Of  one  of  the  executors  of  Wesley's  will,  John  Collin- 
son,  we  can  give  no  particulars. 

11.  The  second,  Mr.  Teulon,  was  born  at  Bromley,  in  1734; 
and  was  sent  to  school  at  Nottingham.  At  fourteen,  he  was 
put  apprentice  to  his  uncle,  Mr.  Wagner,  of  Pall  Mall,  hatter 
to  King  George  IL  He  was  converted  under  the  ministry  of 
Romaine,  joined  the  Methodists,  and,  in  1761,  married  Miss 
Mecham,  the  daughter  of  one  of  the  earliest  Methodists  in 
London.  For  four  years,  he  was  Wesley's  London  steward, 
and  was  leader  of  a  class.  He  was  a  man  of  some  literary 
taste,  and  had  read  most  of  the  best  English  authors.  He 
died  in  1806,  respected  and  beloved  by  all  who  knew  him.^ 

12.  The  third  executor,  John  Horton,  was  a  member  of  the 
common  council  of  London,  sensible,  well  read,  serious  with- 
out gloom,  cheerful  without  levity,  and  polite  without  cere- 
mony. The  unhappy  differences  after  Wesley's  death  induced 
him  to  leave  the  Methodists,  and  he  went  to  reside  at  Bristol.^ 
He  retained  his  warm  attachment,  however,  to  "the  old  ship,'' 
as  he  was  accustomed  to  designate  Wesley's  system ;  again 
attended  the  Methodist  preaching,  and,  only  a  few  months 
before  his  death,  when  his  son  was  preparing  for  the  university, 
declared  to  Henry  Moore,  that  he  would  "  rather  see  his  son 
a  Methodist  preacher,  than  archbishop  of  Canterbury."  He 
died  in  peace  about  the  year  1802.* 

We  left  Wesley  at  Newcastle.     On  the  31st  of  May,  he  set 


^  Methodist  Magazine,  1805,  p.  277.  ^  Ibid.  1808,  p.  297. 

^  Theological  Magazine,  1802,  p.  39. 
*  Methodist  Magazine,  1803,  p.  215. 

VOL.  III.  C 


i8  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1768  out  for  Wcardale,  Tccsdale,  and  Swaledale,  where  he  spent 
^"Tg-  the  next  four  days.  At  Richmond,  he  preached  in  the 
market  place,  the  Yorkshire  mihtia  forming  a  considerable 
part  of  his  congregation, — "a  rude  rabble  rout,  without 
sense,  decency,  or  good  manners."  At  Barnardcastle,  the 
Durham  militia  was  a  perfect  contrast,  officers  and  soldiers 
all  behaving  well.  Wesley's  visit  to  the  "  dales "  .circuit 
was  a  pleasant  one.  He  writes  :  "  I  have  not  found  so  deep 
and  lively  a  work  in  any  other  part  of  the  kingdom  as  runs 
through  the  whole  circuit,  particularly  in  the  vales  that  wind 
between  these  horrid  mountains." 

Returning  to  Newcastle,  Wesley  visited  South  Shields,  and 
preached  to  more  than  could  hear  him.  Here  the  poor 
Methodists  were  often  beaten,  rolled  in  the  mud  and  in  the 
snow,  and  sometimes  narrowly  escaped  with  life  :  but,  con- 
tinuing faithful,  God  honoured  them  ;  a  cockpit  was  turned 
into  a  Methodist  chapel,^  and  Methodism  was  firmly  anchored. 

On  the  13th  of  June,  Wesley  left  Newcastle  for  the  south, 
and  spent  the  next  six  weeks  in  visiting  his  societies  in  York- 
shire and  Lincolnshire. 

The  Rev.  Thomas  Adam,  rector  of  Wintringham,  one  of 
the  evangelical  clergymen  of  the  period,  has  been  already 
mentioned.  Like  some  others,  this  unquestionably  pious  man 
had  become  a  determined  opponent  of  the  Methodists,  and 
hence  the  following  letter,  addressed  to  him  by  Wesley. 

"  SwiNFLEET,  July  19,  1768, 
"Reverend  and  dear  Sir, — One  of  Wintringham  informed  me 
yesterday,  that  you  said  no  sensible  and  well  meaning  man  could  hear, 
and  much  less  join,  the  Methodists;  because  they  all  acted  under  a  he, 
professing  themselves  members  of  the  Church  of  England,  while  they 
licensed  themselves  as  Dissenters.  You  are  a  little  misinformed.  The 
greater  part  of  the  Methodist  preachers  are  not  licensed  at  all ;  and 
several  of  them  that  are,  are  not  licensed  as  Dissenters. 

"  We  are,  in  truth,  so  far  from  being  enemies  to  the  Church,  rather 
bigots  to  it.  I  dare  not,  like  Mr.  Venn,  leave  the  parish  church  where  I 
am,  to  go  to  an  Independent  meeting.  I  dare  not  advise  others  to  go 
thither,  rather  than  to  church.  I  advise  all,  over  whom  I  have  any  in- 
fluence, steadily  to  keep  to  the  Church.  Meantime,  I  advise  them  to  see, 
that  the  kingdom  of  God  is  within  them ;  that  their  hearts  be  full  of  love 
to  God  and  man  ;   and  to  look  upon  all,  of  whatever  opinion,  who  are 

'  Methodist  Magazine,  18 13,  p.  441. 


Clergymen.  1 9 


like  minded,  as  their  'brother,  and  sister,  and  mother.'     O  sir  !  what  art      1768 

of  men  or  devils  is  this,  which  makes  you  so  studiously  stand  aloof  from        

those  who  are  thus  minded  ?  I  cannot  but  say  to  you,  as  I  did  to  Mr.  '''^  - 
Walker,  *  The  Methodists  do  not  want  you  ;  but  you  want  them.'  You 
want  the  life,  the  spirit,  the  power,  which  they  have  ;  not  of  themselves, 
but  by  the  free  grace  of  God  ;  else  how  could  it  be,  that  so  good  a  man, 
and  so  good  a  preacher,  should  have  so  little  fruit  of  his  labour,  his  un- 
wearied labour,  for  so  many  years  ?  Have  your  parishioners  the  life  of 
religion  in  their  souls  ?  Have  they  so  much  as  the  form  of  it  ?  Are  the 
people  of  Wintringham,  in  general,  any  better  than  those  of  Winterton, 
or  Horton  ?  Alas  !  sir,  what  is  it  that  hinders  your  reaping  the  fruit  of 
so  much  pains  and  so  many  prayers  ? 

"  Is  it  not  possible  this  may  be  the  very  thing,  your  setting  yourself 
against  those  whom  God  owns,  by  the  continual  conviction  and  conversion 
of  sinners?  I  fear,  as  long  as  you  in  anywise  oppose  these,  your  rod  will 
not  blossom,  neither  will  you  see  the  desire  of  your  soul,  in  the  prosperity 
of  the  souls  committed  to  your  charge. 

"  I  am,  dear  sir,  your  affectionate  brother, 

"John  Wesley."* 

In  his  journey  southwards,  Wesley  visited,  for  the  second 
time,  his  friend  Fletcher,  at  Madeley, — a  man,  in  many 
respects,  the  opposite  of  Mr.  Adam  of  Wintringham,  and 
especially  in  his  feelings  towards  the  Methodists.  So  far 
from  shunning  them,  or  being  ashamed  of  them,  he,  as  far  as 
possible,  identified  himself  with  them  ;  and,  at  the  very  last 
conference  before  he  died,  entreated  Wesley  to  make  Madeley 
a  circuit  town,  and  to  put  John  Fletcher  down  as  a  super- 
numerary preacher  there.  He  made  his  kitchen  a  Methodist 
chapel,  in  which  Wesley's  itinerants  and  his  own  curate  regu- 
larly preached  ;  while  his  study  was  the  place  in  which  were 
penned  the  ablest  defences  of  Wesley's  doctrines  that  were 
ever  committed  to  the  public  press. 

From  Madeley,  Wesley  went  to  Shrewsbury,  where,  as 
early  as  1744,  there  was  a  poor  woman,  who  had  been  con- 
verted in  London  under  the  preaching  of  the  Methodists,  and 
who  now  obtained  a  living,  by  mending  her  neighbours' 
stockings.  While  thus  employed,  at  their  respective  houses, 
she  would  relate  to  them  her  religious  experience,  read  to 
them  a  sermon,  and  then  engage  in  prayer.  By  this  means,  she 
had  already  formed  a  society  of  sixteen  or  eighteen  persons  ; 
and  the   Rev.  Job  Orton,  the   well  known   author,  a  native 

*  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  iii.,  p.  320. 


20  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 


1768     of  Shrewsbury,  and  at   this   time  its   presbyterian  minister, 

AtiTes    clcclarcd  that  this  poor  stocking-mending  Methodist  was  not 

only  of  "  an  excellent  and  serious  spirit,"  but  had  had  more 

success   in    converting    sinners  than   he  had  had  by  all  his 

preaching.^ 

Leaving  Shrewsbury,  Wesley  rode  right  through  Wales  to 
Pembroke,  where  he  "read  prayers,  preached,  and  administered 
the  sacrament  to  a  serious  congregation  at  St.  Daniels;"  and  so 
tried  to  remove  some  misunderstandings  among  the  Method- 
ists, that  he  "  left  the  people  full  of  good  desires,  and  in  toler- 
able good  humour  with  each  other."  Here  Methodism  had 
been  begun  seven  years  before,  when  Thomas  Taylor  tra- 
versed mountains,  forded  rivers,  and  plunged  through  bogs, 
with  an  empty  purse  and  an  empty  stomach,  seeking  to  save 
sinners  with  a  zeal  and  a  spirit  of  self  denial  worthy  of  the 
noblest  missionary  that  ever  lived.^ 

At  Neath,  where  the  minister  of  the  parish  was  just  dead, 
the  churchwardens  announced,  that  Wesley  would  preach  in 
the  parish  church.  He  did  so,  but  says :  "  I  was  greatly 
disgusted  at  the  manner  of  singing,  i.  Twelve  or  fourteen 
persons  kept  it  to  themselves,  and  quite  shut  out  the  congre- 
gation. 2.  These  repeated  the  same  words,  contrary  to  all 
sense  and  reason,  six,  or  eight,  or  ten  times  over.  3.  According 
to  the  shocking  custom  of  modern  music,  different  persons 
sung  different  words  at  one  and  the  same  moment ;  an  in- 
tolerable insult  on  common  sense,  and  utterly  incompatible 
with  any  devotion." 

After  more  than  five  months  of  laborious  travelling,  Wesley 
came  to  Bristol  on  Saturday  the  13th  of  August,  between  eleven 
and  twelve  o'clock  at  night.  His  conference  had  to  open  two 
days  afterwards ;  but  the  first  news  he  heard  was,  that  his 
wife  was  dangerously  ill  in  London.  He  had  about  forty- 
eight  hours  before  he  must  meet  his  preachers,  twenty-four  of 
which  were  sabbatical.  The  distance  to  London  and  back 
again  was  two  hundred  and  twenty-eight  miles  ;  the  roads 
not  the  best ;  and  the  mode  of  travelling  a  perfect  contrast 
to  what  exists  at  present.  Wesley  was  an  aged  man,  of  more 
than  sixty-five  ;  for  nearly  six  months  he  had  been  travelling 

'  Mctlwdht Magazine,  1 815,  p.  459.      -  Taylor's  "Redeeming  Grace." 


Preaching  and  T^^'ading.  21 


and  preaching  incessantly,  and  might  now  fairly  wish  for  a  1768 
few  hours'  rest.  But  no  sooner  did  he  hear  of  his  wife's  Age65 
affliction,  than,  notwithstanding  her  unloving  heart  and  life,  he 
started  off  to  London,  which,  by  travelling  most  of  the  sabbath 
day,  he  reached  at  one  o'clock  on  Monday  morning ;  when, 
finding  that  the  fever  was  abated  and  the  danger  gone,  he  set 
out  again  within  an  hour,  and,  by  hard  driving,  arrived  in 
Bristol  on  Monday  afternoon.  Next  morning  he  opened  his 
annual  conference,  and  closed  it  the  following  Friday,  ex- 
claiming, "  Oh  !  what  can  we  do  for  more  labourers  ?  We  can 
only  cry  to  the  Lord  of  the  harvest." 

One  of  the  chief  points  discussed  at  the  present  conference 
was,  whether  the  itinerant  preachers  should  be  allowed  to 
engage  in  trade.  This  was  a  question  at  once  delicate  and 
difficult.  In  the  first  place,  many  of  them  had  wives  and 
children,  the  provision  for  whose  maintenance  was  of  the  most 
slender  kind.  Secondly,  the  men  were  not  ordained,  and  had 
no  clerical  status  whatever.  So  far  there  seemed  to  be  no 
difficulty.  But,  in  the  third  place,  though  not  ordained,  the 
preachers  were  regarded  by  Wesley  as  occupying,  to  all 
practical  intents  and  purposes,  the  same  position  as  the 
regular  ministers  of  the  Church  of  England  ;  and,  hence, 
he  considered  it  as  unseemly  and  as  improper  for  his  itine- 
rants to  be  engaged  in  trade  as  it  would  be  for  the  clergy 
of  the  Established  Church.  "  God,"  says  he,  "  has  called  us  to 
supply  their  lack  of  service  to  the  sheep  that  are  without 
shepherds,  and  to  spend  and  be  spent  therein.  Every  travel- 
ling preacher  solemnly  professes  to  have  nothing  else  to  do ; 
and  receives  his  little  allowance  for  this  very  end,  that  he  may 
not  need  to  do  anything  else, — that  he  may  not  be  entangled 
in  the  things  of  this  life,  but  may  give  himself  wholly  to 
these  things." 

The  result  was,  the  few  preachers  who  had  resorted  to  some 
kind  of  trade,  for  the  purpose  of  eking  out  the  insufficient 
maintenance  for  their  families  were  advised  to  give  up  their 
business  as  soon  a-s  possible,  and  especially  hazvking  drops 
(which  their  wives  might  sell  at  home),  for  it  had  "  a  bad 
appearance,  and  did  not  suit  the  dignity  of  their  calling." 

The  increase  of  members  during  the  year  was  430.  Wesley 
was  not  satisfied  with  this.     Hence  the  question  : 


Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 


1768  "  In  many  places  the  work  of  God  seems  to  stand  still.     What  can  be 

done  to  revive  and  enlarge  it  ?" 

Age  65        ,4  Answer— I.  Much  good  has  been  done  by  the  books  which  have  been 
published  ;  and  more  would  be,  if  they  were  spread  more  effectually. 

"  2.  Let  tlicrc  be  more  field  preaching  ;  without  this,  the  work  of  God 
will  hardly  increase  in  any  place. 

"  3.  Let  the  preaching  at  five  in  the  morning  be  constantly  kept  up, 
wherever  you  can  have  twenty  hearers.  This  is  the  glory  of  the 
Methodists  !  Whenever  this  is  dropped,  they  will  dwindle  away  into 
nothing.  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  prevents  lowness  of  spirits,  more  than  can  be  well  imagined. 

"4.  As  soon  as  there  are  four  men  or  women  believers  in  any  place,  put 
them  into  a  band.  In  every  place  where  there  are  bands,  meet  them  con- 
stantly, and  encourage  them  to  speak  without  reserve. 

"  5.  Be  conscientiously  exact  in  the  whole  Methodist  discipline.  One 
part  of  our  discipline  has  been  generally  neglected,  namely,  the  changing 
of  the  stewards.  This  has  been  attended  with  many  ill  consequences  ; 
many  stewards  have  been  ready  to  ride  over  the  preacher's  head.  Let 
every  assistant,  at  the  next  quarterly  meeting,  change  one  steward  at 
least,  in  every  society,  if  there  be  therein  any  other  man  that  can  keep  an 
account. 

"  6.  Beware  oi formality  in  singing,  or  it  will  creep  in  upon  us  unawares. 
Is  it  not  creeping  in  already,  by  those  complex  tunes  which  it  is  scarce 
possible  to  sing  with  devotion  1  Such  is,  '  Praise  the  Lord,  ye  blessed 
ones  !'  Such  the  long  quavering  Hallelujah,  annexed  to  the  Morning 
Song  tune,  which  I  defy  any  man  living  to  sing  devoutly.  The  repeating 
.  the  same  word  so  often,  especially  while  another  repeats  different  words, 
shocks  all  common  sense,  brings  in  dead  formality,  and  has  no  more  of 
religion  in  it  than  a  Lancashire  hornpipe.  Do  not  suffer  the  people  to 
sing  too  slow.  This  naturally  tends  to  formality,  and  is  brought  in  by 
those  who  have  very  strong  or  very  weak  voices.  Why  should  not  the 
assistant  see,  that  they  be  taught  to  sing  in  every  large  society  ? 

"  7.  Let  a  quarterly  fast  be  observed  in  all  our  societies. 

"  8.  Which  of  us  '  fasts  every  Friday  in  the  year '  ?  Which  of  us  fasts 
at  all?  Does  not  this  show  the  present  temper  of  our  minds  soft  and  un- 
nerved? How  then  can  we  advance  the  work  of  God,  though  we  may  preach 
loud zx\(S.  lo)ig  enough?  Here  is  the  root  of  the  evil.  Hence,  the  \vork 
of  God  droops  ;  few  are  convinced,  few  justified,  few  of  our  brethren 
sanctified  !  Hence,  more  and  more  doubt  if  we  are  to  be  sanctified  at  all 
till  death.  That  we  may  all  speak  the  same  thing,  I  ask  once  for  all, 
'  Shall  we  defend  this  perfection  or  give  it  up '  ?  You  all  agree  to  defend 
it,  meanmg  thereby,  as  we  did  from  the  beginning,  salvation  from  all  sin, 
by  the  love  of  God  and  our  neighbour  filling  our  heart.  You  are  all 
agreed,  we  may  be  saved  from  all  sin  before  death.  The  substance  then  is 
settled.  But  as  to  the  circumstance,  is  the  change  instantaneous  or 
gradual?     It  is  both  one  and  the  other.     But  should  we  in  preaching 


How  to  Revive  Religion.  23 

insist  upon  both  one  and  the  other  ?  Certainly.  But  how  far  from  entire  1768 
sanctification  are  we  still !  The  religion  of  the  Methodists,  in  general,  . — 
is  not  internal :  at  least,  not  deep,  universal,  uniform  :  but  superficial, 
partial,  uneven.  And  what  pains  do  we  take  to  make  it  otherwise  1  Do 
we  visit  from  house  to  house,  according  to  the  plan  laid  down  in  the 
minutes  ?  Only  spend  half  the  time  in  this  visiting,  which  you  spend  in 
talking  uselessly,  and  you  will  have  time  enough.  Uo  this,  particularly  in 
confirming  and  building  up  believers.  Then,  and  not  till  then,  the  work 
of  the  Lord  will  prosper  in  your  hands.  Unless,  also,  we  can  take  care  of 
the  rising  generation,  the  present  revival  of  religion  will  be  res  unius 
CEtatis,  it  will  last  only  the  age  of  a  man.  Spend  an  hour  a  week  with 
the  children,  in  every  large  town,  whether  you  like  it  or  not.  Talk  with 
them  every  time  you  see  any  at  home.  Pray  in  earnest  for  them.  Dili- 
gently instruct  and  vehemently  exhort  all  parents  at  their  own  houses. 
Read  carefully  the  life  of  Mr,  Brainerd.  Let  us  be  followers  of  him,  as  he 
was  of  Christ  ;  in  absolute  self  devotion,  in  total  deadness  to  the  world, 
and  in  fervent  love  to  God  and  man.  We  want  nothing  but  this.  Then 
the  world  and  the  devil  must  fall  under  our  feet.  Lastly,  let  us  keep  to 
the  Church.  They  that  leave  the  Church  leave  the  Methodists.  The 
clergy  cannot  separate  us  from  our  brethren  ;  the  Dissenting  ministers 
can  and  do.  Therefore,  carefully  avoid  whatever  has  a  tendency  to 
separate  men  from  the  Church.  In  particular,  preaching  at  any  hour 
which  hinders  them  from  going  to  it.  Let  every  assistant  look  to  this. 
Let  all  the  servants  in  our  preaching  houses  go  to  church  on  Sunday 
morning  at  least.  Let  every  preacher  likewise  go  always  on  Sunday 
morning,  and,  when  he  can,  in  the  afternoon.  God  will  bless  those  who 
go  on  week  days  too,  as  often  as  they  have  opportunity." 

Wesley's  means,  then,  to  promote  a  revival  of  the  work  of 
God,  were  a  diffusion  of  Methodist  literature,  field  and  morn- 
ing preaching,  the  enforcement  of  Methodist  discipline,  good 
singing,  quarterly  fasts,  the  preachmg  of  the  doctrine  of 
Christian  perfection,  house  to  house  visitation,  attention  to 
the  young,  continued  union  with  the  Established  Church,  and, 
above  all  and  more  than  all,  more  inward  and  outward  religion 
among  the  preachers. 

Before  leaving  the  conference  of  1768,  we  insert  a  letter, 
which,  so  far  as  we  are  aware,  has  not  before  been  published, 
except  in  the  "  Methodist  Pocket  Book  "  for  1799.  It  was  ad- 
dressed to  James  Morgan,  one  of  Wesley's  itinerant  preachers, 
well  read,  and  popular,  but  who  had  sunk  into  a  state  of 
nervousness,  and  had  settled  down  in  the  city  of  Dublin. 

"St.  Just,  near  the  Land's  End,  September-},,  1768. 
"Dear  Jemmy, — I  have  been  thinking  much  of  j/^i/^y  and  why  should 
I  not  tell  you  all  I  think,  and  all  I  fear,  concerning  you  .'' 


24  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

176S  "  I  think  all  that  you  said  at  the  conference  upon  the  subject  of  the  late 

s~^(.f  debates  was  right.  And  it  amounted  to  no  more  than  this  :  '  the  general 
rule  is,  they  who  are  in  the  favour  of  God  know  they  are  so.  But  there 
may  be  some  exceptions.  Some  may  fear  and  love  God,  and  yet  not  be 
clearly  conscious  of  His  favour  ;  at  least,  they  may  not  dare  to  affirm  that 
their  sins  are  forgiven.'  If  you  put  the  case  thus,  I  think  no  man  in  his 
senses  will  be  tempted  to  contradict  you  ;  for  none  can  doubt,  but  who- 
ever loves  God  is  in  the  favour  of  God.  But  is  not  this  a  little  misstating 
the  case?  I  do  not  conceive  the  question  turned  here;  but  you  said,  or 
was  imagined  to  say,  'all  penitents  are  m  God's  favour';  or,  *  all  who 
mourn  after  God  are  in  the  favour  of  God.'  And  this  was  what  many  dis- 
liked ;  because  they  thought  it  was  unscriptural  and  unsafe,  as  well  as  con- 
trary to  what  we  had  always  taught.  That  this  is  contrary  to  what  we  had 
always  taught,  is  certain  ;  as  all  our  hymns,  as  well  as  other  writings,  testify : 
so  that  (whether  it  be  true  or  not),  it  is,  without  any  question,  a  new 
doctrine  among  the  Methodists.  We  have  always  taught,  that  a  penitent 
mourned,  or  was  pained,  on  this  very  account,  because  he  felt  he  was  'not 
in  the  favour  of  God,  but  had  the  wrath  of  God  abiding  on  him.  Hence 
we  supposed  the  language  of  his  heart  to  be,  '  Lost  and  undone  for  aid  I 
cry';  and  we  believed  he  was  really  'lost  and  undone,'  till  God  did 

*  Peace,  righteousness,  and  joy  imp'art, 
And  speak  Himself  into  his  heart.' 

"And  I  still  apprehend  this  to  be  the  scriptural  doctrine,  confirmed,  not 
by  a  few  detached  texts,  but  by  the  whole  tenor  of  Scripture,  and,  more 
particular! 3',  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans.  But  if  so,  the  contrary  to  it 
must  be  unsafe,  for  that  general  reason,  because  it  is  unscriptural ;  to 
which  one  may  add  the  particular  reason,  that  it  naturally  tends  to  lull 
mourners  to  sleep  ;  to  make  them  say,  '  Peace,  peace '  to  their  souls,  when 
there  is  no  peace. 

"  But  it  may  be  asked,  '  Will  not  this  discourage  mourners  V  Yes,  it 
will  discourage  them  from  stopping  where  they  are ;  it  will  discourage 
them  from  resting,  before  they  have  the  witness  in  themselves,  before 
Christ  is  revealed  in  them.  But  it  will  encourage  them  to  seek  in  the 
gospel  way  ;  to  ask  till  they  receive  pardon  and  peace.  And  we  are 
to  encourage  them,  not  by  telling  them  they  are  in  the  favour  of  God, 
though  they  do  not  know  it ;  (such  a  word  as  this  we  would  never  utter  in 
a  congregation,  at  the  peril  of  our  souls ;)  but  by  assuring  them,  '  Every 
one  that  sccketh  findeth,  every  one  that  asketh  receivcth.' 

"  I  am  afraid  you  have  not  been  sufficiently  wary  in  this ;  but  have 
given  occasion  to  them  that  sought  occasion.  But  this  is  not  all.  I  doubt 
you  did  not  '  see  God's  hand  in  Shimci's  tongue.'  '  Unto  you  it  was  given 
to  suffer'  a  little  of  what  you  extremely  wanted,— obloquy  and  evil  report. 
But  you  did  not  acknowledge  either  the  gift  or  the  Giver.  You  saw  only 
T.  Olivers,  not  God.  O  Jemmy,  you  do  not  know  yourself.  You  cannot 
bear  to  be  continually  steeped  in  the  esteem  and  praise  of  men.  There- 
fore, 1  tremble  at  your  stay  at  Dublin;  it  is  the  most  dangerous  place  for 


Spitaljields  Chapel.       '  25 

you  under  heaven!     All  I  can  say  is,  God  can  preserve  you  in  the  fiery  1768 

furnace,  and  I  hope  He  will.  — - 

"  I  am,  dear  Jemmy,  yours  affectionately,  ^     ^ 

"John  Wesley." 

A  letter  has  been  already  inserted  in  which  Wesley  con- 
gratulates his  brother  on  the  reports  he  had  received  respect- 
ing the  success  of  his  ministry  in  London.  This  was  some- 
what premature,  for,  in  reality,  instead  of  there  being  an 
increase  in  the  London  circuit,  there  was  a  decrease  of  seventy 
members  ;  and  there  was  a  serious  intention  to  abandon  the 
chapel  in  Spitalfields.  Hence  the  following  letter  "  to  the 
stewards  of  the  Foundery." 

"Pembroke,  Atigust 6, 176^. 
"  My  dear  Brethren, — The  thing  you  mention  is  of  no  small  con- 
cern, and  ought  not  to  be  determined  hastily.  Indeed,  it  would  be  easy  to 
answer,  if  we  considered  only  how  to  save  money ;  but  we  are  to  consider 
also  how  to  save  souls.  Now,  I  doubt  whether  we  should  act  wisely  in 
this  respect  were  we  to  give  up  the  chapel  in  Spitalfields.  We  have  no 
other  preaching  place  in  or  near  that  populous  quarter  of  the  town  ;  and  a 
quarter  which,  upon  one  account,  I  prefer  before  almost  any  other; 
namely,  that  the  people  in  general  are  more  simple,  and  less  confused  by 
any  other  preachers.  I  think,  therefore,  it  would  not  be  well  to  give  up 
this,  if  we  could  gain  a  thousand  pounds  thereby.  I  should  look  upon  it 
as  selling  the  souls  of  men  for  money;  which  God  will  give  us  in  due  time 
without  this.  That  many  who  live  near  the  Foundery  would  be  glad  of  it 
I  allow,  because  it  would  save  them  trouble.  But  neither  can  I  put  the 
saving  of  trouble  in  competition  with  the  saving  of  souls. 
"  I  am,  my  dear  brethren,  your  affectionate  brother, 

"John  Wesley." ^ 

Poor  Spitalfields  !  Noble  Wesley  !  Let  the  fashionable 
Methodists  of  the  present  generation  ponder  such  sentiments 
as  these,  and  hesitate  before  they  abandon  their  old  chapels, 
because  surrounded  by  none  but  the  abject  and  the  poor,  and 
because  keeping  them  open  involves  expense  and  trouble. 

It  is  a  remarkable  fact,  that  almost  in  the  very  year  in 
which  Methodism  was  founded  in  America,  it  was  instituted 
in  Newfoundland.  For  nine  years,  Laurence  Coughlan  was 
one  of  Wesley's  itinerants.  In  1764,  he  was  ordained  by 
Erasmus,  the  Greek  bishop,  and  was  put  away  from  the 
Methodist  connexion.     In   1766,^  he  was  reordained  by  the 

'  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xii.,  p.  359. 
2  MetJiodist  Magazine,  1785,  p.  491. 


26  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1768  Bishop  of  London,  and  was  sent  to  Newfoundland  by  the 
y^~65  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts.  It 
is  true,  he  went  as  a  clergyman  of  the  Church  of  England,  but 
he  took  his  Methodism  with  him,  and  established  classes,  in 
which  the  present  Methodism  of  Newfoundland  had  its  origin. 
In  a  letter  to  Wesley,  he  writes  : 

"  I  am,  and  do  confess  myself,  a  Methodist.  The  name  I  love,  and  hope 
I  ever  shall.  The  plan  which  you  first  taught  me,  as  to  doctrine  and  dis- 
cipline, I  have  followed.  We  have  the  sacrament  once  a  month,  and 
have  about  two  hundred  communicants.  This  is  more  than  all  the  other 
missionaries  in  the  land  have:  nor  do  I  know  of  any  who  attend  our 
sacrament,  who  have  not  the  fear  of  God ;  and  some  are  happy  in  His  love. 
There  are  some  also  whose  mouths  the  Lord  hath  opened  to  give  a  word 
of  exhortation;  and  I  hope  He  will  raise  up  many  more." 

It  would  be  a  pleasant  task  to  trace  the  steps  of  Mr. 
Coughlan  in  Newfoundland  ;  but  suffice  it  to  remark  that  he 
returned  to  England,  and  shortly  after,  while  conversing  with 
Wesley  in  his  study,  was  seized  with  paralysis,  and  suddenly 
removed  to  his  rest  in  heaven.^ 

Coughlan  was  one  of  those  in  London,  who  professed  to 
receive  the  blessing  of  Christian  perfection  ;  but,  like  many 
others,  imbibed  fantastic  notions  respecting  it.  Soon  after  the 
conference  of  1768,  Wesley  wrote  to  him  as  follows. 

"  Dear  Laurence, — By  a  various  train  of  providences  you  have  been 
led  to  the  very  place  where  God  intended  you  should  be  ;  and  you  have 
reason  to  praise  Him,  that  He  has  not  suffered  your  labour  there  to  be 
in  vain.  In  a  short  time,  how  little  will  it  signify,  whether  we  had  lived 
in  the  Summer  Islands,  or  beneath 

'  The  rage  of  Arctos  and  eternal  frost !' 

"  How  soon  will  this  dream  of  life  be  at  an  end  !  And  when  we  are 
once  landed  in  eternity,  it  will  be  all  one,  whether  we  spent  our  time  on 
earth  in  a  palace,  or  had  not  where  to  lay  our  head. 

"  You  never  learned,  either  from  my  conversation,  or  preaching,  or 
writings,  that '  holiness  consisted  in  a  glow  of  joy.'  I  constantly  told  you 
quite  the  contrary  :  I  told  you  it  was  the  love  of  God  and  our  neighbour  ; 
tlic  image  of  God  stamped  on  the  heart ;  the  life  of  God  in  the  soul  of 
man  ;  the  mind  that  was  in  Christ,  enabling  us  to  walk  as  Christ  also 
walked.  If  Mr.  Maxfield,  or  you,  took  it  to  be  anything  else,  it  was  your 
own  fault,  not  mine  ;  and,  whenever  you  waked  out  of  that  dream, 
you  ought  not  to  have  laid  the  blame  of  it  upon  me.    Perhaps  you  thought 

'  Atmore's  "  Memorial"  ;  and  Methodist  Magazine,  185 1,  p.  869. 


Methodis7n  at   Taunton.  27 

you  had  received  what  you  had  not.  But  pray  do  not  measure  all  men  1768 
by  yourself;  do  not  imagine  you  are  the  universal  standard.  If  you  — - 
deceived  yourself,  you  should  not  mfer  that  all  others  do.  Many  think  ^  ^ 
they  are  justified,  and  are  not ;  but  we  cannot  infer,  that  none  are  justified. 
So  neither,  if  many  think  they  are  *  perfected  in  love,'*  and  are  not,  will 
it  follow  that  none  are  so.  Blessed  be  God,  though  we  set  a  hundred 
enthusiasts  aside,  we  are  still  '  encompassed  with  a  cloud  of  witnesses,' 
who  have  testified,  and  do  testify,  in  life  and  in  death,  that  perfection 
which  I  have  taught  these  forty  years  !  This  perfection  cannot  be  a 
delusion,  unless  the  Bible  be  a  delusion  too;  I  mean,  loving  God  with  all 
our  hearts,  and  our  neighbour  as  ourselves.  I  pin  down  all  its  opposers 
to  this  definition  of  it.  No  evasion  !  No  shifting  the  question  !  Where  is 
the  delusion  of  this  ?  Either  you  received  this  love,  or  you  did  not.  If 
you  did,  dare  you  call  it  a  delusion?  If  you  received  anything  else,  it 
does  not  at  all  affect  the  question.  O  Laurence,  if  sister  Coughlan  and 
you  ever  did  enjoy  this,  humble  yourselves  before  God  for  casting  it 
away  ;  if  you  did  not,  God  grant  you  may  ! 

*  "Yours,  etc., 

"John  Wesley." * 

Wesley  had  been  incessantly  travelling  for  nearly  the  last 
six  months  ;  but  no  sooner  were  the  sessions  of  the  Bristol 
conference  ended,  than  he  started  off  to  Cornwall,  where  he 
spent  the  interval  between  August  26  and  September  18. 
On  his  way,  he  preached  to  a  serious  congregation  at  Taunton, 
and  asks,  "  Shall  we  have  fruit  here  also } "  Wesley  might 
well  ask  this.  For  many  a  long  year,  he  had  been  accus- 
tomed to  preach  at  Taunton,  and  had  been  received  either 
with  stupid  indifference  or  active  contempt.  As  early  as 
1744,  he  attempted  to  preach  in  the  yard  of  the  Three  Cups 
inn  ;  but  had  no  sooner  named  his  text,  than  the  mayor  came, 
in  all  his  full  blown  dignity,  and  ordered  the  proclamation  to 
be  read,  and  silenced  the  preacher.^  Almost  a  quarter  of  a 
century  had  elapsed  since  then ;  and  now  there  was  a  small 
society,  of  which  one  of  the  members  was  Thomas  Dingle,  who 
for  sixty-three  years  was  a  chief  supporter  of  the  Taunton 
society,  and  one  of  its  brightest  ornaments. 

Wesley's  labours  in  Cornwall  were  Herculean.  Though 
now  in  the  sixty-sixth  year  of  his  age,  for  eight  days  together 
he  preached,  "  mostly  in  the  open  air,  three  or  four  times  a 
day,"   and  says,  "  I   hardly  felt  any  weariness,  first  or  last." 

'  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  iii.,  p.  324.       *  Gentleman' s  Magazine,  1744,  p.  51. 


28  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 


1768  He  was  also  not  without  adventures.  At  Polperro,  his  bed- 
A~65  rooin  ^^'as  filled  with  pilchards  and  conger  eels,  which  made 
him  glad  to  accept  the  offer  of  another.  At  Plymouth,  on 
his  return,  a  "silly  man  talked  without  ceasing"  during  the 
sermon,  till  Wesley  desired  the  people  "  to  open  to  the  right 
and  left,  and  let  him  look  his  garrulous  disturber  fairly  in  the 
face,"  upon  which  the  noisy  prater  "  pulled  off  his  hat,  and 
quietly  went  away."  Between  Charlton  and  Lympsham,  the 
rivers  were  so  swollen,  that  Wesley's  horse  had  to  swim,  and 
Wesley  himself  had  to  be  taken  to  his  lodgings  on  an  "honest 
man's  shoulders." 

Reaching  Bristol  on  September  24,  Wesley  spent  the  next 
few  days  in  visiting  the  neighbouring  towns  and  villages.  At 
Frome,  he  found  the  liveliest  society  that  there  was  in  the 
Wiltshire  circuit :  a  fact  which  greatly  surprised  him,  because 
the  town  was  made  up  of  a  strange  medley  "  of  men  of  all 
opinions,— anabaptists,  quakers,  presbyterians,  Arians,  anti- 
nomians,  Moravians,  and  what  not."  He  adds  :  "  if  any  hold 
to  the  truth,  in  the  midst  of  all  these,  surely  the  power  must 
be  of  God." 

The  Frome  Methodists,  however,  were  not  untrained  re- 
cruits, but  veteran  soldiers,  who  had  stood  the  brunt  of  many 
a  furious  and  fiery  fight.  Twenty-two  years  before  this, 
Methodism  had  been  started  in  their  town,  by  a  poor  Bristol 
pedlar,  who  dealt  in  rags  and  small  ware,  singing  to  the  people 
Wesley's  hymns.  Since  then,  a  vagabond  barber — a  tool  in 
the  hands  of  the  parish  priest — had  dragged  two  ]\Iethodist 
women  to  prison.  Mrs.  Seagram  had  been  fined  ;^20  for 
permitting  her  house  to  be  used  as  a  preaching  place  ;  and, 
not  being  able  to  pay  the  fine,  had  had  all  her  stock  in  trade 
and  her  household  goods  sold  by  public  auction,  while  she 
and  her  two  fatherless  children  were  turned  penniless  out  of 
doors.  In  one  instance,  the  mob  rushed  into  the  preaching 
room,  seized  the  benches,  and  made  a  bonfire  of  them.  Method- 
ism in  Frome  had  outlived  all  this ;  and,  despite  the  sectarian- 
ism of  the  town,  it  was  destined  still  to  live  and  prosper. 

On  October  24,  Wesley  set  out  for  London,  and  employed 
the  first  week  in  November  in  a  preaching  tour  through  the 
three  counties  of  Hertford,  Bedford,  and  Northampton.  At 
Hertford,  a  chapel  had  been  built  by  Mr.  Andrews,  who  after- 


MetJiodisin  at  Oxford.  29 

wards,  in   1777,  gave  to  Wesley's   new  chapel  in  City  Road      ^7°^ 
the  pulpit  which  has  been   used    in  Methodism's    cathedral    Age  65 
from  that  time  to  this.^ 

The  second  week  inr  November  was  spent  in  a  similar 
visitation  of  the  societies  in  Oxfordshire.  He  writes  :  "  I  was 
desired  to  preach  at  Oxford.  The  room  was  throughly 
filled,  and  not  with  curious,  but  deeply  serious  hearers.  Many 
of  these  desired,  that  our  travelling  preachers  would  take  them 
in  their  turn  ;  with  which  I  willingly  complied."  Oxford  had 
been  Methodism's  cradle,  but  the  infant  had  long  been  absent. 
Henceforth,  Methodism  was  one  of  Oxford's  institutions ; 
though,  for  long,  long  years,  it  was  a  thing  of  feebleness  anti 
of  small  dimensions.  The  "  Oxfordshire  "  circuit  extended 
over  the  greater  part  of  Berkshire,  Wiltshire,  and  Bucking- 
hamshire ;  and,  even  as  late  as  1787,  there  were  throughout 
the  circuit  only  four  Methodist  chapels,  namely,  at  Oxford, 
Wycombe,  Wallingford,  and  Witney.  At  Aylesbury,  the 
Methodists  preached  in  the  baptists'  chapel ;  at  Newbury,  in 
an  ironfounder's  shop  ;  and  at  all  the  other  places,  in  private 
houses.  The  small  chapel  in  Oxford  was  in  New-Inn-Hall 
Lane  ;  ^  and  the  Oxford  home  of  the  two  unmarried  preachers, 
Joseph  Entwisle  and  Richard  Reece,  was  a  garret  in  the  house 
of  a  journeyman  shoemaker,  for  which  the  society  paid  six- 
pence a  week  as  rent  ;  and  which  had  to  serve  them  as  dining 
room,  sitting  room,  bedroom,  and  study,^  all  in  one. 

The  third  week  in  November  was  occupied  in  meeting  the 
London  classes  ;  and  the  fourth  in  a  tour  in  Kent.  The  rest 
of  the  year  was  chiefly  spent  in  town. 

Wesley  was  fervent,  but  not  fanatical ;  he  loved  earnestness 
in  religious  worship,  but  not  disorder.  Hence  the  following 
letter  to  Mr,  Merry  weather,  of  Yarm. 

"  Lewisham,  December  10,  1768. 
"  My  dear  Brother, — The  matter  is  short  :  all  things  in  Divine  wor- 
ship must  '  be  done  decently  and  in  order.'  Two  must  never  pray  at  the 
same  time,  nor  one  interrupt  another.  Either  Alice  Brammah  must  take 
advice,  or  the  society  must  be  warned  to  keep  away  from  her.  These 
are  the  very  things  which  were  the  beginning  of  poor  George  Bell's  fall. 
"  I  am,  your  affectionate  brother,  John  Wesley."  ^ 

'  Methodist  Magazine,  1825,  p.  454. 

2  Wesleyan  Times,  June  19,  1849.  ^  Entwisle's  Memoir,  p.  31. 

*  Methodist  Magazine,  1826,  p.  464. 


30  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 


•768  Wc  have  already  seen  that,  by  an  enormous  effort,  in  the 

r-r.    month  of  August,  Wesley  hurried  from  Bristol  to  London  to 
visit  his  afflicted  wife.    On  his  return  he  wrote  her  as  follows. 

"My  Love— I  can  make  allowance  for  faintness,  and  weakness,  and 
pain.  I  remember  when  it  was  my  own  case,  at  this  very  place,  and  when 
you  spared  no  pains  in  nursing  and  waiting  upon  me,  till  it  pleased  God 
to  make  you  the  chief  instrument  in  restoring  my  strength.  I  am  glad  you 
have  the  advice  of  a  skilful  physician;  but  you  must  not  be  surprised  or 
discouracred  if  you  do  not  recover  your  strength  so  soon  as  one  might 
wish  especially  at  this  time  of  the  year.  What  is  chiefly  to  be  desired  is, 
that  God  may  sanctify  all  His  dispensations  to  you,  and  that  all  may  be 
the  means  of  your  being  more  entirely  devoted  to  Him,  whose  favour  is 
better  than  strength,  or  health,  or  life  itself 

"  I  am  dear  Molly,  your  ever  affectionate  husband, 

'  .  "John  Wesley." 

No  sooner  was  Wesley's  wife  convalescent,  than,  instead  of 
waiting  to  welcome  him  to  his  home  in  London,  she,  in  one  of 
her  in'^ane  piques,  took  her  departure  to  Newcastle.  The 
following  letter  to  his  brother  refers  to  this,  and  also  to  his 
preparing  an  edition  of  Young's  "Night  Thoughts,"   and  to 

other  matters. 

"  London,  December  1 7,  1 768. 

"  Dear  Brother,— I  thank  you  for  your  reproof.  There  is  reason  in 
what  you  say.     If  there  was  not  evil,  there  was  the  appearance  of  evil. 

"  Matters  have  not  been  well  carried  on  at  Liverpool ;  but  '  what  can- 
not be  cured  must  be  endured.' 

"  Why,  you  simpleton,  you  are  cutting  me  out  a  month's  work.  Nay, 
but  I  have  no  leisure  nor  inclination  to  write  a  book.  I  intend  only  :  (i) 
to  leave  out  what  I  most  dislike  ;  (2)  to  mark  what  I  most  approve  of ; 
(3)  to  prefix  a  short  preface.  And  I  shall  run  the  hazard  of  printing  it  at 
Bristol.     There  you  yourself  can  read  the  proof  sheets. 

"  You  do  well  with  regard  to  my  sister  Emily.  What  farther  is  wanting 
I  will  supply.  I  hear  nothing  from  our  friend  at  Newcastle.  I  am  now 
a  mere  fellow  of  a  college  again.     Adieu  !  ^^  ^^^^  Wesley."  ^ 

Wesley  was  still  troubled  on  account  of  the  chapel  debts. 
Nearly  ^6000  had  been  contributed  ;  but  there  was  still  a 
debt  of  ;^7728  upon  the  chapels  in  the  United  Kingdom 
undcfraycd.2     -^X\\%  gave  rise  to  the  following  letter. 


»  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xii.,  p.  127. 
a  Minutes  of  Conference. 


Chapel  Debts.  31 


"London,  December,  1768.  1768 

"My  dear  Brother,— Last  year,  Mr.  H  was  much  persuaded     a~6- 

that,  by  means  of  the  yearly  subscription,  our  whole  debt  of  above  ^i  i,ooo  '^ 
would  be  paid  within  two  years.  Many  of  our  brethren  were  more  san- 
guine still.  They  were  persuaded  that,  by  generously  exerting  themselves^ 
and  giving  a  large  sum  at  once,  it  would  be  paid  in  one  year.  I  did  not 
expect  this  ;  but  I  would  not  contradict,  because  I  would  not  discourage 
them.  The  event  was  as  I  foresaw.  By  the  noble  effort  which  many  of 
our  brethren  made,  most  of  the  pressing  debts  are  already  discharged, 
amounting  in  the  whole  to  near  ^7000.  But  a  debt  of  about  £7000  remains 
upon  us  still.  What  can  be  done  with  regard  to  this  ?  I  will  tell  you 
what  occurs  to  my  mind.  Many  of  our  brethren  chose  to  subscribe 
yearly  ten,  five,  three,  two  guineas,  or  less.  I  doubt  not  but  these  will 
cheerfully  pay  the  residue  of  their  subscription,  and  perhaps  some  of  them 
will  add  a  little  thereto,  as  they  see  the  great  occasion  there  is  for  it.  A  few 
delayed  subscribing,  because  they  wanted  to  see  the  event;  supposing  the 
design  to  be  impracticable,  and  that  'nothing  good  would  come  out  of  it.' 
As  it  now  appears  that  great  good  has  come  out  of  it,  that  many  burdens 
are  already  removed,  I  cannot  but  earnestly  exhort  all  these  now  to  set 
their  shoulders  to  the  work.  Now,  at  least,  let  them  exert  themselves,  for 
my  sake,  for  the  gospel's  sake,  and  for  the  sake  of  their  still  afflicted  breth- 
ren, who  groan  under  a  load  which  they  cannot  well  bear,  and  yet  cannot 
remove  without  our  assistance.  Several  generously  contributed  at  once, 
in  hope  of  paying  the  whole  debt.  Of  them  nothing  more  can  be 
required,  but  their  prayers  that  others  may  be  as  openhearted  as  them- 
selves. Nevertheless,  if  of  their  own  free  goodwill  they  see  good  to  add 
a  little  to  their  former  benefactions — this,  as  well  as  the  former,  is  lent 
unto  the  Lord,  and  what  they  lay  out  shall  be  paid  them  again.  Ought  I  not 
to  add,  that  there  were  some  of  our  brethren  who  did  not  answer  my  ex- 
pectation }  I  knew  they  were  able  to  assist  largely ;  and  I  flattered  myself 
they  were  not  less  willing  than  able,  as  they  owed  me  their  own  souls  also, 
and  this  was  the  first  favour  of  the  kind  which  I  had  requested  of  them. 
Let  me  be  excused  from  saying  any  more  of  what  is  past.  Let  them  now 
drop  all  excuses  and  objections,  and  show  they  love  me  and  their  brethren, 
and  the  work  of  God,  not  in  word  only,  but  in  deed  and  in  truth.  Let  me 
have  joy  over  you,  my  brethren,  in  particular.  You  have  a  measure  of 
this  world's  goods,  and  you  see  your  brother  hath  need.  I  have  need  of 
your  help,  inasmuch  as  the  burdens  of  my  brethren  are  my  own.  Do  not 
pass  by  on  the  other  side;  but  come  and  help  as  God  has  enabled  you. 
Do  all  you  can  to  lighten  the  labour,  and  strengthen  the  hands,  of  your 

affectionate  brother, 

"  John  Wesley."  ^ 

Wesley  was  a  great  reader,  as  well  as  a  great  writer;  and, 
during  the  year  1768,  his  journal  is  enriched  with  an  unusual 

'  A  manuscript  circular,  signed  by  Wesley  himself. 


32  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1768     number   of    his    critical  remarks.     A  few  may  be  given   as 
A^e~65    specimens  of  others. 

"January  11.— This  week  I  spent  my  scraps  of  time  in  reading  Mr. 
Wodrow's  '  History  of  the  Sufferings  of  the  Church  of  Scotland.'  It  would 
transcend  belief,  but  that  the  vouchers  are  too  authentic  to  admit  of  any 
exception.  O  what  a  blessed  governor  was  that  goodnatured  man,  so 
called.  King  Charles  the  Second !  Bloody  Queen  Mary  was  a  lamb,  a 
mere  dove,  in  comparison  of  him!" 

"April  29. —  I  read  over  an  extremely  sensible  book,  but  one  that  sur- 
prised me  much  :  '  An  Inquiry  into  the  Proofs  of  the  Charges  commonly 
advanced  against  Mary  Queen  of  Scotland.'  By  means  of  original  papers, 
the  author  has  made  it  clear  :  (i)  That  she  was  altogether  innocent  of  the 
murder  of  Lord  Darnley,  and  no  way  privy  to  it.  (2)  That  she  married 
Lord  Bolhwell  (then  near  seventy  years  old,  herself  but  four-and-twenty), 
from  the  pressing  instance  of  the  nobility  in  a  body,  who,  at  the  same 
time,  assured  her  he  was  innocent  of  the  king's  murder.  (3)  That  Murray, 
Morton,  and  Lethington,  themselves  contrived  that  murder,  in  order  to 
charge  it  upon  her;  as  well  as  forged  those  vile  letters  and  sonnets  which 
they  palmed  upon  the  world  for  hers.  '  But  how  then  can  we  account  for 
the  quite  contrary  story,  which  has  been  almost  universally  received  V 
Most  easily.  It  was  penned  and  published  in  French,  English,  and  Latin, 
(by  Queen  Elizabeth's  order,)  by  George  Buchanan,  who  was  secretary  to 
Lord  Murray  and  in  Queen  Elizabeth's  pay;  so  he  was  sure  to  throw 
dirt  enough.  Nor  was  she  at  liberty  to  answer  for  herself.  '  But  what 
then  was  Queen  Elizabeth  ?'  As  just  and  merciful  as  Nero,  and  as  good 
a  Christian  as  Mahomet." 

"  May  20.— I  went  on  reading  that  fine  book,  Bishop  Butler's 
'Analogy.'  But  I  doubt  it  is  too  hard  for  most  of  those  for  whom  it  is 
chietly  intended.  Freethinkers,  so  called,  are  seldom  close  thinkers. 
They  will  not  be  at  the  pains  of  reading  such  a  book  as  this.  One  that 
would  profit  them  must  dilute  his  sense,  or  they  will  neither  swallow 
nor  digest  it." 

"November  19. — I  read  Dr.  Nowell's  answer  to  Mr.  Hill,  concerning 
the  expulsion  of  the  students  at  Oxford.  He  has  said  all  that  could  be 
said  for  that  stretch  of  power;  and  he  says  quite  enough,  to  clear  the 
Church  of  England  from  the  charge  of  predestination:  a  doctrine  which 
he  proves  to  be  utterly  inconsistent  with  the  Common  Prayer,  the 
Communion  Service,  the  Office  of  Baptism,  the  articles,  the  homilies, 
and  the  other  writings  of  those  that  compiled  them." 

The  last  extract  refers  to  a  matter  too  nearly  allied  to 
Methodism  to  be  passed  without  further  notice. 

"  On  the  1 2th  of  March,  1768,  six  students  belonging  to  Edmund  hall, 
Oxford,  were  expelled  the  university,  for  holding  Methodistical  tenets,  and 
taking  upon  them  to  pray,  read  or  expound  the  Scriptures,  and  sing 
hymns  in  private  houses.     The  principal  of  the  hall,  Dr.  Dixon,  defended 


Expulsion  of  Oxfoj'd  Students. 


their  doctrines  from  the  thirty-nine  articles  of  the  Established  Church,      1768 
and  spoke  in  the  highest  terms  of  their  piety  and  the  exemplariness  of       — - 
their  lives  ;  but  sentence  was  pronounced  against  them.      Dr.  Nowell,        '^     ■' 
one  of  the  heads  of  houses  present,  observed,  that  as  these  six  gentlemen 
were  expelled  for  having  too  much  religion,  it  would  be  very  proper  to 
inquire  into  the  conduct  of  some  who  had  too  little."  ^ 

The  expelled  students  were  Benjamin  Kay,  Thomas  Jones, 
Thomas  Grove,  Erasmus  Middleton,  Joseph  Shipman,  and 
James  Mathews.  The  junta  of  expellers  were  Drs.  Durell, 
Randolph,  Fothergill,  Nowell,  and  Atterbury.^  The  charges 
brought  against  the  young  culprits  were :  i.  That  they  had 
held  or  frequented  illicit  conventicles,  where  some  of  them, 
though  not  in  orders,  had  preached  and  prayed  extempore, 
particularly  in  the  house  of  a  staymaker,  a  woman  who  herself 
officiated  and  taught.  2.  That  some  of  them  had  been  bred 
up  to  the  lowest  trades  and  occupations,  for  one  had  been  a 
weaver  and  kept  a  taphouse,  a  second  had  been  a  barber,  a 
third  a  draper  ;  and  further  all  were  wholly  illiterate,  and  in- 
capable of  performing  the  statutable  exercises  of  the  univer- 
sity ;  and  were  maintained  at  the  charge  of  persons  suspected 
of  enthusiasm.  3.  That  they  were  attached  to  the  sect  called 
Methodists,  and  held  .their  doctrines,  namely,  "that  faith 
without  works  is  sufficient  for  salvation  ;  that  there  is  no 
necessity  for  good  works  ;  that  the  immediate  impulse  of  the 
Spirit  is  to  be  waited  for  ;  that  once  a  child  of  God  always  a 
child  of  God  ;  and  the  like."  4.  That  one  of  them,  before  his 
entrance  into  the  university,  had  preached,  and,  in  defiance  of 
his  father's  authority,  had  connected  himself  with  the  Method- 
ists. 5.  That  some  of  them  had  behaved  very  irreverently 
and  disrespectfully  to  their  tutor,  and  had  industriously  sought 
to  cavil  with  and  to  vex  him.^ 

It  is  right  to  add,  that  none  of  these  young  men  had  been 
connected  with  Wesley.  Mr.  Jones,  the  barber,  had,  for  some 
time  resided,  with  the  Rev.  John  Newton,  and,  under  his  in- 
struction, had  made  considerable  progress  in  the  Greek  and 
Hebrew  languages.  Mr.  Kay  was  of  a  respectable  family,  and 
an  excellent  scholar,  and  had  an  exhibition  paid  by  the  Iron- 

'  Londojt  Magazine.  1 768,  p.  1 25. 
2  Philip's  Life  of  Whitefield,  p.  492. 
^  Londo7i  Magazine,  1768,  p.  214. 

VOL.  in.  D 


34  Life  and  Times    of  Wesley. 

1768  mongers'  Company.  Mr.  Mathews  had  been  instructed  by 
A^6s  l''l«-"tchcr  of  Madclcy.  Mr.  Middlcton  had  been  under  the 
tutelaj'-c  of  the  Rev.  Thomas  Hawcis.  Of  Mr.  Grove  and  Mr. 
Shipman  we  know  nothing,  except  that  the  latter,  after  his 
expulsion,  was  admitted  to  the  college  of  the  Countess  of 
Huntingdon,  at  Trevecca. 

This  act  of  Oxford  tyranny,  as  might  be  expected,  created 
great  commotion  ;  and  numbers  of  tracts  and  pamphlets,  pro 
and  con,  were  published.  Among  others,  Whitefield  rushed 
into  the  battle,  in  a  "  Letter  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Durell,"  8vo,  50 
pages,  and  defended  the  expelled  with  great  vigour  and  effect ; 
as  also  did  Dr.  Home,  afterwards  bishop  of  Norwich.  Mac- 
gowan  published  his  "  Shaver,"  in  which  he  shaved  the  collegi- 
ate rulers  with  no  gentle  hand,  and,  in  the  process,  must  have 
made  them  smart.  Sir  Richard  Hill,  a  young  man  of  thirty-six, 
who  for  some  time  past  had  been  using  his  utmost  endeavours 
to  improve  Oxford  morality,  issued  his  "Pietas  Oxoniensis," 
8vo,  85  pages,  in  which  he  belaboured  the  junta  with  unsparing 
severity.  Several  replies  were  written  in  justification  of  the 
Oxford  bull  ;  and,  after  an  immense  expenditure  of  time,  and 
not  a  little  display  of  angry  temper,  this  execrable  act  of  the 
Oxford  authorities  was  allowed  to  repose  in  silence.  It  is 
a  fact,  however,  far  too  serious  to  be  forgotten,  that  while 
Oxford  university,  in  past  days,  has  tolerated  in  its  students 
the  most  notorious  wickedness,  and  while,  at  the  present  day, 
it  tolerates  German  scepticism  and  Romish  heresy,  it  once,  in 
one  of  its  paroxysms  of  pious  zeal,  ignominiously  expelled  six 
young  men,  whose  only  crimes  were,  that  some  of  them  had 
been  ignobly  bred,  and  all  had  sung,  and  prayed,  and  read  the 
Scriptures  in  private  houses. 

The  Countess  of  Huntingdon  was  accused  of  maintaining 
some  or  all  of  these  young  students  at  the  Oxford  university  ; 
and  perhaps  there  was  a  modicum  of  truth  in  this.  Be  that 
as  it  may,  she  soon  made  her  young  preachers  independent  of 
Oxford  help.  Trevecca  House,  in  the  parish  of  Talgarth,  in 
Wales,  was  an  ancient  structure,  supposed  to  have  been 
erected  about  the  year  1176.  This  building  the  countess 
opened  as  a  college,  five  months  after  the  expulsions  just 
mentioned, — on  the  24th  of  August,  1768,  the  anniversary  of 
her  ladyship's  birthday.     Whitefield  preached  at  the  opening  ; 


College  at   Trevecca.  35 

Fletcher  was  made  the  president;  and,  for  a  few  months,  1768 
Mr.  Easterbrook  the  head  master;  when  Joseph  Benson  was  Age~65 
appointed  his  successor.  Of  course,  Fletcher  was  not  expected 
to  relinquish  his  charge  at  Madeley ;  but  he  was  to  attend 
the  college  at  Trevecca  as  often  as  he  conveniently  could  ;  to 
give  advice,  with  regard  to  the  appointment  of  masters,  and 
the  adm^ission  or  exclusion  of  students  ;  to  oversee  their  studies 
and  conduct ;  to  assist  their  piety ;  and  to  judge  of  their 
qualifications  for  the  ministry.^  As  is  well  known,  both 
Fletcher  and  Benson  soon  retired,  because  of  the  doctrinal 
differences  that  sprang  up ;  but  Trevecca  was  still  used  as  a 
seminary  for  the  training  of  Calvinistic  ministers,  till  1792, 
when  the  institution  was  removed  to  Cheshunt,  in  Hertford- 
shire. Wesley  from  the  beginning  was  in  doubt  of  it,  though, 
perhaps,  without  reason.  In  a  letter  to  his  brother,  dated 
"May  19,  1768,"  he  writes:  "I  am  glad  Mr.  Fletcher  has 
been  with  you.  But  if  the  tutor  fails,  what  will  become  of 
our  college  at  Trevecca .''  Did  you  ever  see  anything  more 
queer  than  their  plan  of  institution  }  Pray  who  penned  it, 
man  or  woman  .''  I  am  afraid  the  visitor  too  will  fail."  ^  Was 
there  a  tinge  of  jealousy  in  this  .'*  We  know  not.  Troubles, 
it  is  true,  soon  sprung  up ;  but  the  countess  made  Trevecca 
her  principal  place  of  residence ;  and  within  its  walls  were 
trained  a  noble  band  of  earnest,  laborious,  and  useful  minis- 
ters. The  old  building  is  now  the  residence  of  a  Celtic  farmer.^ 
O  temporal   O  mores! 

Excepting  the  hubbub  arising  out  of  the  Oxford  expul- 
sions, there  was  not  much,  in  1768,  that  was  antagonistic 
to  the  Methodist  movement.  A  small,  paltry  pamphlet 
was  published,  with  the  title,  "  Enthusiasm  Reprehended. 
Three  Letters  to  Mr.  John  Wesley.  With  Strictures  on 
his  Character,  the  Reception  he  met  with  at  Perth,  and  his 
Conduct  on  that  occasion."  A  i2mo  volume,  of  212 
pages,  was  also  issued,  entitled  "  Sermons  to  Asses "  ;  and 
was  dedicated  to  Whitefield,  Wesley,  Romaine,  and  Madan. 
Besides  these,  an  eighteenpenny  poem  was  published, 
entitled  "The  Hypocrite:   a  comedy;"  in  which  the  writer 


*  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xii.,  p.  281.  *  Ibid.  vol.  xii.,  p.  126. 

^  "  Life  and  Times  of  Hovvel  Harris,"  p.  246. 


o 


6  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 


T7^>8     tries  to  turn  Gibber's  satire  on  disloyalty  into  a  castigation 
A<;c6';     of  enthusiasm. 

Wesley's    publications    also    were    fewer    than    usual,    and 

hardly  any  of  them  original.     The  following  belong  to  this 

period. 

1.  "  A  Letter  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Rutherforth."  This  has  been 
already  noticed  in  a  previous  chapter. 

2.  "  A  Caution  to  False  Prophets  :  a  Sermon  on  Matthew 
vii.  15-20.  Particularly  recommended  to  the  people  called 
Methodists."  i2mo,  12  pages.  In  this  sermon,  Wesley  discusses 
a  point  which  he  confesses  had  puzzled  him  for  many  years, 
namely,  whether  it  is  right  to  hear  a  minister  who  is  either 
immoral,  or  who  preaches  false  doctrine.  He  still  hesitates 
to  pronounce  an  opinion,  and  recommends  those  who  were  in 
doubt  to  "wait  upon  God  in  prayer,  and  then  act  according 
to  the  best  light  they  had." 

3.  "Instructions  for  Members  of  Religious  Societies.  Trans- 
lated from  the  French."  Under  the  date  of  February  26, 
1768,  Wesley  writes  :  "  I  translated  from  the  French  one  of 
the  most  useful  tracts  I  ever  saw,  for  those  who  desire  to  be 
'  fervent  in  spirit'  How  little  does  God  regard  men's  opinions! 
What  a  multitude  of  wrong  opinions  are  embraced  by  all  the 
members  of  the  Church  of  Rome  !  Yet  how  highly  favoured 
have  many  of  them  been  !  " 

4.  "An  Extract  from  the  Rev.  Mr.  Law's  Later  Works." 
Two  vols.,  i2mo,  251  and  204  pages.  About  a  quarter  of  a 
century  before  this,  Wesley  had  published  an  extract  from 
Law's  "  Christian  Perfection  "  ;  an  extract  from  his  "  Serious 
Call " ;  and  an  extract  from  his  "  Serious  Answer  to  Dr. 
Trapp."  He  now  published  similar  extracts  from  Law's 
answer  to  "  Christianity  as  old  as  Creation,"  his  "  Spirit  of 
Prayer,"  his  "  Spirit  of  Love,"  his  "  Letters,"  and  his  "  Ad- 
dress to  the  Clergy." 

5.  "An  Extract  of  the  Life  of  the  late  Rev.  David  Brainerd." 
l2mo,  274  pages.  Just  at  the  time  when  Methodism  was  ex- 
tending its  mission  to  America  and  Newfoundland,  Wesley 
issued  his  life  of  one  of  the  most  devoted  missionaries  that 
ever  lived  :  a  young  man  who  died  before  he  arrived  at  the 
age  of  thirty ;  but  whose  piety,  for  depth  and  fervour,  has 
seldom  been  excelled  ;  and  whose  four  years'  mission  among 


John   Wilkes. 


the  Delaware  and  other  Indians,  from  1743  to   1747,  would      1768 
warm  the  heart  and  improve  the  character  of  all  candidates    ^^(^r 
for  missionary  work. 

Besides  the  above,  another  publication  belongs  to  the  year 
1768, — "Free  Thoughts  on  the  Present  State  of  Public  Affairs," 
i2mo,  47  pages.  This,  strictly  speaking,  was  Wesley's  first 
political  pamphlet.  At  the  general  election  of  1768,  John 
Wilkes,  at  the  time  an  outlaw,  was  returned  to  parliament  by 
the  county  of  Middlesex ;  and,  shortly  after,  was  arrested 
and  committed  to  the  King's  Bench  prison.  For  nearly  a 
fortnight,  crowds  collected  outside  the  prison  walls,  and  sol- 
diers were  sent  to  protect  the  place.  A  riot  followed  ;  the 
soldiers  fired  ;  six  of  the  rioters  were  killed,  and  fourteen 
badly  wounded  ;  and  the  exploit  got  the  name  of  the  "  Mas- 
sacre of  St.  George's  Fields."  For  months,  Wilkes's  business 
occupied  the  attention  of  court  and  cabinet;  when  the  wretched 
demagogue  was  sentenced  to  pay  a  fine  of  ;{J"iooo,  to  be 
imprisoned  for  two-and-twenty  months,  and  afterwards  to 
find  security  for  good  behaviour  for  seven  years.  While  in 
prison,  he  was  at  the  zenith  of  his  fame ;  subscriptions  were 
opened  for  the  payment  of  his  debts  ;  and  his  likenesses  were 
so  multiplied,  that  portraits  of  him  squinted  from  the  sign- 
boards of  half  the  public  houses  in  the  kingdom. 

It  was  in  the  midst  of  such  a  state  of  things,  that  Wesley 
wrote  the  pamphlet  already  mentioned.  He  admits  that,  though 
"cobblers,  tinkers,  porters,  and  hackney  coachmen"  think  them- 
selves wise  enough  "to  instruct  both  the  king  and  his  council," 
he  himself  is  "  not  so  deeply  learned.  Politics  were  beyond 
his  province;  but  he  would  use  the  privilege  of  an  Englishman 
to  speak  his  naked  thoughts."  "  I  have,"  he  writes,  "  no  bias, 
one  way  or  the  other.  I  have  no  interest  depending.  I  want 
no  man's  favour,  having  no  hopes,  no  fears,  from  any  man." 
He  then  proceeds  to  defend  the  character  of  the  king  ;  and 
maintains  that,  as  an  outlaw,  Wilkes  was  incapacitated  to 
take  a  seat  in  the  House  of  Commons.  "  Encumbered  with 
no  religion,  and  disappointed  in  his  application  for  place  and 
power,  Wilkes  had  set  up  for  patriot,  vehemently  inveighed 
against  evil  counsellors  and  grievances,  and  was  paid  in 
French  louis  d'or  for  his  agitative  services."  Wesley  then 
expresses  the  opinion  that,  "supposing  things  to  take  their 


38  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1768  natural  course,  they  must  go  from  bad  to  worse;  the  land 
jX^C^  will  become  a  field  of  blood  ;  and  many  thousands  of  poor 
Englishmen  will  sheathe  their  swords  in  each  other's  bowels, 
for  the  diversion  of  their  good  neighbours.  Then,  either  a 
commonwealth  will  ensue,  or  else  a  second  Cromwell.  One 
must  be;  but  it  cannot  be  determined  which, — King  Wilkes, 
or  King  Mob." 


1769. 

TERRIBLE  was  the  political  excitement  at  the  commence-  1769 
ment  of  1769.  It  was  now,  that  the  first  of  the  cele-  a^66 
brated  letters  of  "Junius"  appeared  in  the  columns  of  the 
Public  Advertiser,  These  withering  invectives  became,  to  a  great 
extent,  the  political  textbook  of  the  nation.  For  years  past, 
Ireland  also  had  been  turbulent,  split  into  factions,  and  overrun 
by  hordes  of  Levellers  and  Whiteboys,  Oakboys  and  Hearts 
of  Steel,  all  bound  together  by  secret  oaths,  and  a  detestation 
of  paying  tithes.  The  kingdom  was  full  of  wicked  wits  and 
scoffers  ;  and  jokes,  repartees,  bomnots,  and  sarcasms,  none  of 
them  distinguished  for  their  loyalty,  began  to  spice  a  large 
number  of  the  newspapers,  periodicals,  and  pamphlets  of  the 
period.  Never  was  Methodism  more  greatly  needed  than 
now. 

Whitefield's  work  in  England  was  nearly  ended.  He  and 
Wesley  were  still  united  in  bonds  of  ardent  friendship.  The 
latter  writes  :  "January  9,  1769 — I  spent  a  comfortable  and 
profitable  hour  with  Mr.  Whitefield,  in  calling  to  mind  the 
former  times,  and  the  manner  wherein  God  prepared  us  for  a 
work  which  it  had  not  then  entered  into  our  hearts  to  conceive." 
On  the  day  following,  Wesley  preached  in  the  house  of  the 
Countess  of  Huntingdon,  in  Portland  Row,  and  Whitefield 
administered  the  sacrament.^  And  seven  weeks  later,  Wesley 
wrote  again  :  "  February  27 — I  had  one  more  agreeable  con- 
versation with  my  old  friend  and  fellow  labourer,  George 
Whitefield.  His  soul  appeared  to  be  vigorous  still,  but 
his  body  was  sinking  apace  ;  and,  unless  God  interposes 
with  His  mighty  hand,  he  must  soon  finish  his  labours." 
For  six  months  more,  Whitefield  rambled  over  England, 
preaching  three  or  four  times  every  week,  and  exclaiming,  as 
though  his  youthful  zest  was  unabated,  "  Field  preaching, 
field  preaching  for  ever."^     At  the  beginning  of  September, 

*  "Life  and  Times  of  Countess  of  Huntingdon,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  126. 
-  Whitefield's  Works,  vol.  lii.,  p.  387. 


40  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1769     he    embarked    for    Georgia,    and    addressed    to    Wesley   the 
Ai;e  66   following  farewell  letter. 

"  The  Downs,  on  board  the  Friendship,  Captain  Ball, 

Sepionbcr  12,  1769. 
"  Reverend  and  very  dear  Sir, — What  hath  God  wrought /<priis,  in 
us,  by  us\  I  sailed  out  of  these  Downs  almost  thirty-three  years  ago  !  Oh 
the  height,  the  depth,  the  length,  the  breadth  of  Thy  love,  O  God  !  Surely 
it  passeth  knowledge.  Help,  help,  O  heavenly  Father,  to  adore  what  we 
cannot  fully  comprehend  !  I  am  glad  to  hear,  that  you  had  such  a 
pentecost  season  at  the  college ;  one  would  hope,  that  these  are  earnests 
of  good  things  to  come,  and  that  our  Lord  will  not  yet  remove  His  candle- 
stick from  among  us.  Duty  is  ours.  Future  things  belong  to  Him,  who 
always  did,  and  always  will  order  all  things  well, 

*  Leave  to  His  sovereign  swaj'. 
To  choose  and  to  command  ; 
So  shall  we  wondering  own  His  way, 
How  wise,  how  strong  His  hand.' 
"Mutual  Christian  love  will  not  permit  you,  and  those  in  connection 
with  you,  to  forget  a  willing  pilgrim,  going  now  across  the  Atlantic   for 
the  thirteenth  time.     At  present,  I  am  kept  from  staggering;  being  fully 
persuaded,  that  the  voyage  will  be  for  the  Redeemer's  glory,  and  the  wel- 
fare of  precious  and  immortal  souls.     Oh  to  be  kept  from  flagging  in  the 
latter  stages  of  our  road  !      Ipse,  Deo  volente,  seqicar,  etsi  non  passibiis 
crqiiis.      Cordial  love  and  respect  await  your  brother,  and  all  that  are  so 
kind  as  to  inquire  after,  and  be  concerned  for, 

"  Reverend  and  very  dear  sir, 

"  Less  than  the  least  of  all, 

''  George  Whitefield."  > 

Thus  the  old  friends  parted,  not  to  meet  again,  till  they  met 
in  heaven.  Twelve  months  afterwards,  the  great  orator  was 
dead. 

Wesley  spent  the  month  of  January  in  meeting  the  London 
classes,  and  in  a  visit  to  Sheerness  and  Chatham.  In 
February,  he  made  a  tour  to  Norfolk  ;  and,  on  the  6th  of 
March,  set  out  for  Ireland,  and  arrived  in  Dublin  on  the  22nd. 
Here  we  pause,  to  insert  two  of  his  letters  to  two  of  his 
female  correspondents.  The  first  was  addressed  to  Lady 
Maxwell,  and  refers  to  a  subject  of  some  interest,  though  one 
on  which  opinions  will  differ. 

"London,  March  3,  1769. 
"  My  dear  Ladv, — I  have  heard  my  mother  say,  '  I  have  frequently 

^  Methodist  Magazine,  1783,  p.  2  73r 


Letter  to  a  Female  Preacher.  41 

been  as  fully  assured,  that  my  father's  spirit  was  with  me,  as  if  I  had  seen  1768 
him  with  my  eyes.'  But  she  did  not  explain  herself  any  further.  I  have  a~66 
myself  many  times  found,  on  a  sudden,  so  lively  an  apprehension  of  a 
deceased  friend,  that  I  have  sometimes  turned  about  to  look  ;  at  the 
same  time,  I  have  felt  an  uncommon  affection  for  them.  But  I  never  had 
anything  of  this  kind  with  regard  to  any  but  those  that  died  in  faith.  In 
dreams,  I  have  had  exceeding  lively  conversations  with  them;  and  I 
doubt  not  but  they  were  then  very  near. 

"  I  am,  my  dear  lady,  your  ever  affectionate  servant, 

"John  Wesley."^ 

The  next  was  addressed  to  Sarah  Crosby,  the  female 
preacher, 

"Chester,  March  18,  1769. 

"  My  dear  Sister,— The  westerly  winds  detain  me  here.  When  I  am 
in  Ireland,  you  have  only  to  direct  to  Dublin,  and  the  letter  will  find 
me. 

"  I  advise  you,  as  I  did  Grace  Walton  formerly — i.  Pray  in  private  or 
pubhc  as  much  as  you  can.  2.  Even  in  public,  you  may  properly 
enough  intermix  short  exhortations  with  prayer;  but  keep  as  far  from 
what  is  called  preaching  as  you  can;  therefore,  never  take  a  text;  never 
speak  in  a  continued  discourse,  without  some  break,  above  four  or  five 
minutes.  Tell  the  people,  '  We  shall  have  another  prayermeeting  at 
such  a  time  and  place.'  If  Hannah  Harrison  had  followed  these  few 
directions,  she  might  have  been  as  useful  now  as  ever. 

"  As  soon  as  you  have  time,  write  more  particularly  and  circum- 
stantially; and  let  sister  Bosanquet  do  the  same.  There  is  now  no 
hindrance  in  the  way ;  nothing  to  hinder  you  speaking  as  freely  as  you 

please  to,  dear  Sally,  your  affectionate  brother, 

"John  Wesley." 2 

Trouble  awaited  Wesley  in  Dublin.  James  Morgan  and 
Thomas  Olivers  had  quarrelled,^  and  the  society  had  suffered 
loss.  Besides  this,  says  Wesley,  "  I  was  summoned,  by  a  poor 
creature  who  fed  my  horse  three  or  four  times  while  I  was  on 
board.  For  this  service  he  demanded  ten  shillings.  I  gave 
him  half-a-crown.  When  I  informed  the  court  of  this,  he  was 
sharply  reproved.  Let  all  beware  of  these  land  sharks  on  o}xx 
sea  coasts !" 

On  the  3rd  of  April,  Wesley  left  Dublin  for  the  provinces. 
At  Armagh,  for  the  first  time  in  his  life,  he  preached  in  a 
stable.    At  Kinnard,  he  met  an  old  acquaintance,  Archdeacon 

^  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xii.,  p.  321.  ^  ibid  a'oI.  xii.,  p.  33 1. 

^Taylor's  "Redeeming  Grace,"  p.  49;  and  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  iii., 
P-  35°-' 


42  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

^7^9     C c,  and,  at  his  request,  opened  a  new  church,  which  had 

Aye  66  just  been  built.  At  Londonderry,  he  had,  what  he  calls,  "a 
brilliant  congregation,"  but  says:  "Such  a  sight  gives  me  no 
great  pleasure  ;  as  I  have  very  little  hope  of  doing  them  good : 
only  'with  God  all  things  are  possible.'  In  no  other  place  in 
Ireland  has  more  pains  been  taken  by  the  most  able  of  our 
preachers.  And  to  how  little  purpose !  Bands  they  have 
none  :  four-and-forty  persons  in  society  !  The  greater  part  of 
these  heartless  and  cold.  The  audience  in  general  dead  as 
stones."  At  Manorhamilton,  "all  behaved  well,"  says  he, 
"  but  one  young  gentlewoman,  who  laughed  almost  incessantly. 
She  knew  there  was  nothing  to  laugh  at ;  but  she  thought  she 
laughed  prettily."  At  Cork,  the  society  had  been  gradually 
decreasing  for  seven  years,  until  now  the  number  of  mem- 
bers was  reduced  from  400  to  190.  At  Portarlington,  the 
society  once  had  a  hundred  and  thirty  members ;  now  it  had 
only  twenty-four. 

Fourteen  weeks  were  spent  in  traversing  all  parts  of  Ireland. 
In  some  places,  there  was  declension  and  great  discourage- 
ment ;  in  many,  Wesley's  ministry  was  accompanied  with 
amazing  power  ;  in  none,  did  he  meet  with  brutal  persecution. 
Occasionally  a  giddy  girl  would  laugh,  or  an  empty  headed  man 
Avould  sneer ;  but  the  days  of  sticks  and  stones  were  over. 
Wesley  returned  to  Dublin  on  the  15th  of  July ;  met  his  Irish 
preachers  in  conference ;  and  then,  on  July  24,  embarked 
for  England  ;  having  to  open  his  English  conference  at  Leeds 
on  August  I.  Before  reviewing  its  proceedings,  some  further 
extracts  must  be  given  from  his  correspondence. 

The  first  letter  is  remarkable.  We  have  scarcely  met  with 
another  like  it.  The  fastidious  may  object  to  some  of  its 
expressions;  but  it  must  be  remembered  that,  though  Wesley 
always  employed  plainness  of  speech,  he  rarely  employed 
coarseness.  Besides,  desperate  cases  require  desperate  reme- 
dies. In  this  instance,  ordinary  language,  in  all  likelihood, 
would  have  been  useless.  The  Irish  Methodists  were  far  from 
faultless;  and  Hugh  Saunderson,  to  whom  the  letter  was 
addressed,  and  who  had  just  commenced  his  itinerancy  in  the 
Armagh  circuit,  was  far  from  being  a  model  of  perfection. 
More  than  once  had  Wesley  to  remonstrate  witlji  him  for  his 
irregularities  ;  and,  in  1777,  had  to  expel  him.     On  one  occa- 


Hugh  Saunderson.  43 

sion,  in  1774,  Wesley  himself  was  actually  arrested  on  account  1769 
of  Saunderson's  peccant  conduct.  The  charge  was,  that  the  _^oe  66 
man  had  robbed  his  wife  "  of  ;^ioo  in  money,  and  upwards  of 
iJ"30  in  goods ;  and  had,  beside  that,  terrified  her  into  mad- 
ness ;  so  that,  through  want  of  her  help,  and  the  loss  of 
business,"  the  prosecutor,  George  Sutherland,  "  was  damaged 
i^500."  It  was  farther  alleged,  that  Saunderson  was  one  of 
Wesley's  preachers,  and  that  the  two,  to  evade  Mrs.  Saunder- 
son's pursuit,  were  preparing  to  fly  the  country.  On  such  a 
pretext  Wesley  was  actually  arrested,  and  taken  to  the  Edin- 
burgh Tolbooth,  where  he  had  to  wait  till  his  friends  gave  bail 
for  his  appearance.  This  was  done  ;  the  case  was  tried  ;  and 
Mr.  Sutherland,  the  prosecutor,  was  fined  ;^iooo.  Of  Saun- 
derson's guilt  we  know  nothing  ;  but,  three  years  afterwards, 
Wesley  expelled  him  from  his  connexion  ;  and  the  man  first 
set  up  at  Edinburgh,  and  then  divided  the  society  at 
Exeter,  where  he  "  pitched  his  standard  and  declared  open 
war."  ^  Such  was  the  culprit  to  whom  Wesley  sent  the 
letter  following. 

"  April  24,  1 769. 

"  Dear  Brother,— I  shall  now  tell  you  the  things  which  have  been 
more  or  less  upon  my  mind,  ever  since  I  have  been  in  the  north  of  Ireland. 
If  you  forget  them,  you  will  be  a  sufferer,  and  so  will  the  people;  if  you 
observe  them,  it  will  be  for  the  good  of  both. 

"  I.  To  begin  with  little  things.  If  you  regard  your  health,  touch  no 
supper,  but  a  little  milk  or  water  gruel.  This  will  entirely,  by  the  blessing 
of  God,  secure  you  from  nervous  disorders ;  especially,  if  you  rise  early 
every  morning,  whether  you  preach  or  no. 

"  2.  Be  steadily  serious.  There  is  no  country  upon  earth  where  this  is 
more  necessary  than  Ireland  ;  as  you  generally  are  encompassed  with 
those  who,  with  a  little  encouragement,  would  laugh  or  trifle  from  morning 
to  night. 

"3.  In  every  town,  visit  all  you  can  from  house  to  house.  I  say  all  you 
can  ;  for  there  will  be  some  whom  you  cannot  visit  ;  and  if  you  examine, 
instruct,  reprove,  exhort,  as  need  requires,  you  will  have  no  time  hanging 
on  your  hands.  It  is  by  this  means,  that  the  societies  are  increased  wher- 
ever T.  R.  goes  ;  he  is  preaching  from  morning  to  night,  warning  every 
one,  that  he  may  present  every  one  perfect  in  Christ  Jesus. 

"  4.  But  on  this,  and  every  other  occasion,  avoid  all  familiarity  with 
women.  This  is  a  deadly  poison,  both  to  tliein  and  you.  You  cannot  be 
too  wary  in  this  respect.     Therefore  begin  from  this  hour. 

"  5.  The  chief  matter  of  your  conversation,  as  well  as  your  preaching, 

^  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  iv.,  pp.  16,  173,  222. 


44  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1769      should   doubtless  be  tlic  weightier  matters   of  the  law.     Yet,  there  are 
.  ~~  -      several  comparatively  little  things,  which  you  should  earnestly  inculcate 
from  time  to  time  ;  for  '  he  that  despiseth  small  things  shall  fall  by  little 
and  little.'     Such  are — 

"(i)  Be  active,  be  diligent;  avoid  all  laziness,  sloth,  indolence.  Fly 
from  every  degree,  every  appearance  of  it ;  else  you  will  never  be  more 
than  half  a  Christian. 

"  (2)  Be  cleanly.  In  this  let  the  Methodists  take  pattern  by  the 
Quakers.  Avoid  all  nastiness,  dirt,  slovenliness,  both  in  your  person, 
clothes,  house,  all  about  you.  Do  not  stink  above  ground.  This  is  a  bad 
fruit  of  laziness.     Use  all  diligence  to  be  clean. 

"  (3)  Whatever  clothes  you  wear  let  them  be  whole  :  no  rents,  no 
tatters,  no  rags.  These  are  a  scandal  to  either  man  or  woman ;  being 
another  fruit  of  vile  laziness.  Mend  your  clothes,  or  I  shall  never  expect 
you  to  mend  your  lives.     Let  none  ever  see  a  ragged  Methodist. 

"  (4)  Clean  yourselves  of  lice.  These  are  a  proof  both  of  uncleanness 
and  laziness.  Take  pains  in  this.  Do  not  cut  off  your  hair,  but  clean  it, 
and  keep  it  clean. 

"  (5)  Cure  yourselves  and  your  family  of  the  itch,  A  spoonful  of  brim- 
stone will  cure  you.  To  let  this  run  from  year  to  year,  proves  both  sloth 
and  uncleanness.  Away  with  it  at  once.  Let  not  the  north  be  any  longer 
a  proverb  of  reproach  to  all  the  nation. 

"  (6)  Use  no  tobacco  unless  prescribed  by  a  physician.  It  is  an 
uncleanly  and  unwholesome  self  indulgence  ;  and  the  more  customary  it 
is,  the  more  resolutely  should  you  break  off  from  every  degree  of  that  vile 
custom. 

"  (7)  Use  no  snuff  unless  prescribed  by  a  physician,  I  suppose  no  other 
nation  in  Europe  is  in  such  vile  bondage  to  this  silly,  nasty,  dirty  custom, 
as  the  Irish  are;  but  let  the  Christians  be  in  this  bondage  no  longer. 
Assert  your  liberty,  and  that  all  at  once ;  nothing  will  be  done  by  degrees. 
But  just  now  you  may  break  loose,  through  Christ  strengthening  you. 

"  (8)  Touch  no  dram.  It  is  liquid  fire.  It  is  a  sure,  though  slow  poison. 
It  saps  the  very  springs  of  life.  In  Ireland,  above  all  countries  in  the 
world,  I  would  sacredly  abstain  from  this,  because  the  evil  is  so  general. 
To  this,  and  snuff,  and  smoky  cabins,  I  impute  the  blindness  which  is  so 
exceeding  common  throughout  the  nation, 

"  I  might  have  inserted  under  the  second  article,  what  I  particularly 
desire,  wherever  you  have  preaching,  namely,  that  there  may  be  a  little 
house.  Let  this  be  got  without  delay.  Wherever  it  is  not,  let  none  expect 
to  see  me. 

"  I  am,  your  affectionate  brother, 

"  John  Wesley."  ^ 

No  apology  is  needed  for  the  publication  of  this  letter ;  for 
Wesley  himself  published  it  in  his  Armima7i  Mamzine.     Its 


^  Methodist  Magazine,  1784,  p.  165. 


Conference  of  i']6().  45 

picture  of  the  Irish  and  of  the  Irish  Methodists  is  far  from  1769 
being  fragrant  and  pleasant  ;  but  it  was  doubtless  true,  and  Age  66 
shows  that  Wesley  was  a  great  reformer  in  more  respects 
than  one.  All  the  Irish  Methodists,  however,  must  not  be 
included  in  the  company  above  alluded  to.  The  excep- 
tions were  not  few,  but  many,  and  some  of  them  distinguished. 
One  of  these  was  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Bennis,  the  first  Methodist 
in  Limerick,  in  1749,  a  lady  of  respectability  and  intelli- 
gence, long  the  correspondent  of  Wesley,  and  who  continued 
one  of  his  devoted  followers  till  her  death  in  1802.^  The  fol- 
lowing letter  was  addressed  to  her  during  Wesley's  present 
visit  to  the  sister  island,  and  refers  to  an  unfounded  opinion 
which  Wesley  had  now  renounced. 

"  Cork,  May  30,  1769. 

"  Dear  Sister, — Some  years  since,  I  was  inclined  to  think  that  none, 
who  had  once  enjoyed  and  then  lost  the  pure  love  of  God,  must  ever  look 
to  enjoy  it  again  till  they  were  just  stepping  into  eternity.  But  experience 
has  taught  us  better  things.  We  have,  at  present,  numerous  instances  of 
those  who  have  cast  away  that  unspeakable  blessing,  and  now  enjoy  it  in 
a  larger  measure  than  ever.  And  should  not  this  be  your  case  ?  Because 
you  are  unworthy  ?  So  were  they.  Because  you  have  been  an  unfaithful 
steward  "i  So  had  they  been  also  ;  yet,  God  healed  them  freely  ;  and  so 
He  will  you,  only  do  not  reason  against  Him.  Forget  yourself.  Worthy  is 
the  Lamb :  you  shall  not  die,  but  live,  live  all  the  life  of  heaven  on  earth. 
You  need  nothing,  in  order  to  this,  but  faith  ;  and  who  gives  this?  He 
that  standeth  at  the  door. 

"  Let  there  nevermore  be  any  reserve  between  you  and  your  truly  affec- 
tionate  brother,  ,,  ^^^^  Wesley."  2 

Wesley  arrived  in  Leeds  on  Saturday,  July  29,  and  on 
Sunday,  the  30th,  preached,  for  the  Rev.  Henry  Crook,  in 
Hunslet  church,  morning  and  afternoon.  Mr.  Crook  was  an 
old  friend  of  the  two  Wesleys.  As  early  as  1756,  Charles 
Wesley  preached  in  his  church  at  Hunslet,  and  speaks  of 
hundreds  of  communicants,  most  of  whom  had  been  awakened 
under  Mr.  Crook's  faithful  ministry."' 

The  conference,  at  Leeds,  opened  on  the  ist  of  August, 
and  "  a  more  loving  one,"  says  Wesley,  "  we  never  had." 
The  Intelligencer  newspaper,    of   August  8,  tells  the  public, 

^  Irish  Evangelist,  May,  1862. 
^  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xii.,  p.  362. 
^  C.  Wesley's  Journal,  vol.  ii.,  p.  117. 


46  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1769  that,  "for  a  week  past,  Wesley  had  held  a  kind  of  visitation, 
Agc66  but  what  they  call  a  conference,  with  several  hundreds  of  his 
preachers,  from  most  parts  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  where 
he  settled  their  several  routes  for  the  succeeding  year."  It 
further  states,  that  "  a  large  sum  of  money"  was  collected  for 
the  purpose  of  "sending  missionaries  to  America."  ^ 

This  was  the  "  tall  talk"  of  a  newspaper.  "  Wesley's  itine- 
rant preachers"  throughout  the  entire  kingdom  were  only  one 
hundred  and  eleven  in  number;  and  the  "large  sum"  collected 
for  sending  missionaries  to  America  was  ;^70,  of  which  ;^50 
was  to  be  appropriated  to  the  payment  of  the  debt  on  the 
chapel  in  New  York, 

Above  two  days  of  the  time  of  the  conference  were  spent  in 
the  arrangement  of  temporal  matters, — a  thing  which  annoyed 
Wesley,  who  therefore  directed  that,  in  future,  as  much  of 
such  business  as  possible  should  be  done  by  the  secretaries 
before  the  conference  met. 

The  two  topics  of  most  interest  were  Methodist  missions, 
and  the  perpetuation  of  the  Methodist  system  after  Wesley's 
death. 

It  is  a  fact  worth  remembering,  that  already,  for  years  past, 
Methodism  had  been  planted  in  the  West  Indian  islands,  by 
means  of  Nathaniel  Gilbert  and  his  co-workers.  Laurence 
Coughlan  had  recently  taken  it  to  Newfoundland  ;  and  a  few 
soldiers  had  established  it  at  Gibraltar,  where  there  were  thirty- 
two  members,  fifteen  of  whom  were  rejoicing  in  the  conscious- 
ness of  personal  pardon.^  They  had  preaching  every  night 
and  every  morning,  their  preachers  being  "  Brother  Morton," 
Henry  Ince,  of  the  2nd  Regiment,  and  Henry  Hall,  of  the 
Royal  Scots  ;  six  classmeetings  were  held  every  week,  and 
the  work  was  prospering.^  Lord  Cornwallis,  the  command- 
ing officer,  issued  a  garrison  order  on  June  9,  1769,  as 
follows  : — "  Whereas  divers  soldiers  and  inhabitants  assemble 
themselves  every  evening  to  prayer,  it  is  the  governor's  posi- 
tive order,  that  no  person  whatever  presume  to  molest  them. 


nor    go    into   their   meeting   to    behave   indecently   there 


"  4 


^  Smith's  History  of  Methodism,  vol.  i.,  p.  380, 
'  Methodist  Mas^azine,  1784,  p.  112. 
•''  Smith's  History  of  Methodism,  vol.  i.,  p.  387. 
*  Rule's  "Memoir  of  a  Mission  to  Gibraltar,"  p. 


MetJiodisin  in  America.  47 

Wesley  was  acquainted  with  this  ;  but  not  a  word  is  found      ^7^9 
in  the  conference  minutes  concerning  it.     The  truth  is,  while    Age  66 
Methodism  was  now  really  planted  in  the  West  Indies,  New- 
foundland, Gibraltar,  and  America,  none  needed  help  except 
America,  and,  hence,  none  else  are  mentioned. 

Wesley,  his  brother,  Ingham,  and  Whitefield  had  all  been 
in  America  ;  and  Whitefield  was  about  to  go  again.  The 
work  was  begun  in  Georgia  by  the  Wesleys.  At  the  same 
time,  occurred  the  revival  in  New  England,  under  Mr.  Edwards 
and  others.  Whitefield  came,  and  not  only  preached  in 
both,  but  likewise  all  the  way  between,  a  distance  of  many 
hundred  miles.  Hundreds,  perhaps  thousands,  were  converted 
by  his  ministry  ;  but,  for  want  of  organisation  and  discipline, 
the  greater  part  of  them  had  backslidden.^  Such  was  the 
state  of  things  in  1769. 

Four  years  before  this,  a  small  number  of  Methodist  emi- 
grants from  Ireland  had  landed  in  New  York,  one  of  them 
being  Philip  Embury.  In  1766,  another  Methodist  family 
followed,  of  the  name  of  Heck.  Mrs.  Barbara  Heck  was  dis- 
tressed to  find  that  her  predecessors  had  greatly  declined  in 
godliness.  At  her  request,  Philip  Embury  began  to  preach  ; 
just  at  that  juncture.  Captain  Webb,  the  barrackmaster  at 
Albany,  joined  him  ;  a  chapel  was  built  ;  a  society  formed ; 
and  help  was  asked  from  England.^  Hence  the  thirteenth 
question  at  the  conference  of  1769  :  "We  have  a  pressing  call 
from  our  brethren  at  New  York,  who  have  built  a  preaching 
house,  to  come  over  and  help  them.  Who  is  willing  to 
go  1 "  Answer  :  "  Richard  Boardman  and  Joseph  Pilmoor." 
Q.  "  What  can  we  do  further  in  token  of  our  brotherly  love  } 
A.  "  Let  us  now  make  a  collection  among  ourselves.     This 


^  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  vii.,  p.  392. 

2  About  the  same  time,  Thomas  Bell,  at  Charlestown,  wrote  as  follows  : 
"  Mr.  Wesley  says,  the  first  message  of  the  preachers  is  to  the  lost  sheep 
of  England.  And  are  there  none  in  America  ?  They  have  strayed  from 
England  into  the  wqld  woods  here,  and  they  are  running  wild  after  this 
world.  They  are  drinking  their  wine  in  bowls,  and  are  jumping  and 
dancing,  and  serving  the  devil,  in  the  groves  and  under  the  green  trees. 
And  are  not  these  lost  sheep  ?  And  will  none  of  the  preachers  come 
here  ?  Where  is  Mr.  Brownfield  ?  Where  is  John  Pavvson  ?  Where  is 
Nicholas  Manners  ?  Are  they  living,  and  will  they  not  come  ?"—  ("  The 
Centenary  of  Methodism,"  published  by  the  Primitive  Methodists  in 
Ireland,  in  1839,  p.  189.) 


48  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1769  was  immediately  done  ;  and,  out  of  it,  £^0  were  allotted  to- 
A^66  wards  the  payment  of  their  debt,  and  about  ;!^20  given  to  our 
brethren  for  their  passage." 

It  is  doubtful,  however,  whether  this  was,  as  is  generally 
supposed,  the  first  collection  which  the  Methodists  made  on 
behalf  of  their  American  mission.  Six  months  before  this, 
Wesley  had  permitted  Robert  Costerdine,  who  was  then  the 
assistant  in  the  Sheffield  circuit,  to  "  read  ptiblidy,  on  any 
Sunday  he  liked,  the  letter  which  had  been  received  from 
New  York,  and  to  "  receive  what  the  hearers  were  willing  to 
give."  ^  It  is  more  than  possible,  that  this  was  done  ;  but,  be 
that  as  it  may,  Boardman  and  Pilmoor  set  sail,  and,  after  a 
nine  weeks'  passage,  entered  upon  their  work  :  Pilmoor  at 
Philadelphia,  and  Boardman  at  New  York.  At  Philadelphia, 
they  found  Captain  Webb  and  a  society  of  about  a  hundred 
members,  to  whom,  and  to  thousands  more,  Pilmoor  com- 
menced preaching  from  the  grand  stand  erected  on  the  race- 
course. At  New  York,  Boardman  says,  the  chapel  would 
contain  about  1700  hearers  ;  and  that  about  a  third  part  of 
the  congregations  got  in,  and  the  other  two  thirds  were  glad 
to  hear  without.^ 

Space  forbids  further  details,  except  to  add  that,  two  years 
afterwards,  the  number  of  Methodists  in  America  w^as 
reported  in  the  minutes  of  conference  as  316  ;  and  that  even 
a  thing  so  innocent  as  sending  preachers  to  America  was  too 
important  for  the  wicked  to  pass  without  a  sneer.  Hence,  in 
a  squib,  the  public  were  informed,  that  the  following  promo- 
tions in  the  Church  were  about  to  be  declared  :  "  Rev.  G. 
Whitefield,  Archbishop  of  Boston  ;  Rev.  W.  Romaine,  Bishop 
of  New  York  ;  Rev.  J,  Wesley,  Bishop  of  Pennsylvania  ;  Rev. 
M.  Madan,  Bishop  of  the  Carolinas;  Rev.  W.  Shirley,  Bishop 
of  Virginia;  and  Rev.  C.  Wesley,  Bishop  of  Nova  Scotia."  It 
was  added,  that  as  his  majesty  would  soon  have  the  livings  of 
these  gentlemen  at  his  disposal,  he  intended  to  provide  for 
Dr.  Dodd,  and  other  court  celebrities,''^  anxious  to  fill  im- 
portant places. 


*  Methodist  Magazine,  1845,  P-  578- 

*  Ibid.  1783,  p.  276;  and  1784,  p.  163. 
^  Lloyd's  Evening  Post,  May  26,  1769. 


Scheme  to  perpetuate  MetJiodism.  49 

The  other  important  matter  brought  before  the  conference     1769 
of  1769  was   the  perpetuation  of  Methodism  after  Wesley's    Age~66 
death  ;  and,  on  Friday,  August  4,  Wesley  read  the  following 
paper. 

"  My  dear  Brethren, — i.  It  has  long  been  my  desire,  that  all  those 
ministers  of  our  Church,  who  believe  and  preach  salvation  by  faith,  might 
cordially  agree  between  themselves,  and  not  hinder  but  help  one  another. 
After  occasionally  pressing  this,  in  private  conversation,  wherever  I  had 
opportunity,  I  wrote  down  my  thoughts  upon  the  head,  and  sent  them  to 
each  in  a  letter.  Out  of  fifty  or  sixty,  to  whom  I  wrote,  only  three  vouch- 
safed me  an  answer.  So  I  give  this  up.  I  can  do  no  more.  They  are  a 
rope  of  sand,  and  such  they  will  continue, 

"  2.  But  it  is  otherwise  with  the  travelling  preachers  in  our  con- 
nexion. You  are  at  present  one  body.  You  act  in  concert  with  each  other, 
and  by  united  counsels.  And  now  is  the  time  to  consider  what  can  be 
done,  in  order  to  continue  this  union.  Indeed,  as  long  as  I  live,  there 
will  be  no  great  difficulty.  I  am,  under  God,  a  centre  of  union  to  all  our 
travelling,  as  well  as  local  preachers.  They  all  know  me  and  my  com- 
munication. They  all  love  me  for  my  works'  sake  ,  and,  therefore, 
were  it  only  out  of  regard  to  me,  they  will  continue  connected  with  each 
other.  But  by  what  means  may  this  connection  be  preserved,  when  God 
removes  me  from  you  ? 

"3.  I  take  it  for  granted,  it  cannot  be  preserved,  by  any  means,  between 
those  who  have  not  a  single  eye.  Those  who  aim  at  anything  but  the 
glory  of  God,  and  the  salvation  of  men  ;  who  desire  or  seek  any  earthly 
thing,  whether  honour,  profit,  or  ease,  will  not,  cannot  continue  in  the 
connexion  ;  it  will  not  answer  their  design.  Some  of  them,  perhaps  a 
fourth  of  the  whole  number,  will  procure  preferment  m  the  Church. 
Others  will  turn  Independents,  and  get  separate  congregations,  like  John 
Edwards  and  Charles  Skelton.  Lay  your  accounts  with  this,  and  be  not 
surprised  if  some,  you  do  not  suspect,  be  of  this  number. 

"  4.  But  what  method  can  be  taken,  to  preserve  a  firm  union  between 
those  who  choose  to  remain  together  ?  Perhaps  you  might  take  some 
such  steps  as  these.  On  notice  of  my  death,  let  all  the  preachers,  in 
England  and  Ireland,  repair  to  London  within  six  weeks.  Let  them  seek 
God  by  solemn  fasting  and  prayer.  Let  them  draw  up  articles  of  agree- 
ment, to  be  signed  by  those  who  choose  to  act  in  concert.  Let  those  be 
dismissed,  who  do  not  choose  it,  in  the  most  friendly  manner  possible. 
Let  them  choose  by  votes  a  committee  of  three,  five,  or  seven,  each  of 
whom  is  to  be  moderator  in  his  turn.  Let  the  committee  do  what  I  do 
now  ;  propose  preachers  to  be  tried,  admitted,  or  excluded  ;  fix  the  place 
of  each  preacher  for  the  ensuing  year,  and  the  time  of  next  conference. 

"  5.  Can  anything  be  done  now,  in  order  to  lay  a  foundation  for  this 
future  union  ?  Would  it  not  be  well,  for  any  that  are  wilhng,  to  sign  some 
articles  of  agreement  before  God  calls  me  hence  ?  Suppose  something 
like  these : — 

VOL.  in.  E 


Ai;e  66 


50  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1769  "' Wc,  whose  names  are  underwritten,  being  thoroughly  convinced  of 

the  necessity  of  a  close  union  between  those  whom  God  is  pleased  to  use 
as  instruments  in  this  glorious  work,  in  order  to  preserve  this  union  be- 
tween ourselves,  are  resolved,  God  being  our  helper:  (i)  To  devote  our- 
selves entirely  to  God;  denying  ourselves,  taking  up  our  cross  daily, 
steadily  aiming  at  one  thing,  to  save  our  own  souls,  and  them  that  hear 
us.  (2)  To  preach  the  old  Methodist  doctrines,  and  no  other,  contained 
in  the  minutes  of  the  conferences.  (3)  To  observe  and  enforce  the  whole 
Methodist  discipline,  laid  down  in  the  said  minutes.' " 

Such  was  Wesley's  propounded  scheme.  The  preachers 
wisely  requested  Wesley  to  extract  the*  most  material  part  of 
the  minutes,  and  to  send  a  copy  to  each  itinerant,  to  be 
seriously  considered, — a  request  with  which  Wesley  complied 
during  the  following  year,  by  the  publication  of  a  pamphlet  of 
sixty  pages,  entitled,  "  Minutes  of  several  Conversations  be- 
tween the  Rev.  Messrs.  John  and  Charles  Wesley  and  others." 

This  concluded  the  business  of  the  conference  ;  and  "  at  the 
conclusion,"  says  Wesley,  "  all  the  preachers  were  melted 
down,  while  they  were  singing  those  lines  for  me, — 

'  Thou,  who  so  long  hast  saved  me  here, 

A  little  longer  save  ; 
Till  freed  from  sin,  and  freed  from  fear, 

I  sink  into  a  grave  : 
Till  glad  I  lay  my  body  down, 

Thy  servant's  steps  attend  ; 
And  O  !  my  life  of  mercies  crown 

With  a  triumphant  end.' "  ^ 

This  was  a  beautiful  finish  to  one  of  the  most  important 
conferences  Wesley  ever  held.  The  next  day,  he  again  started 
on  his  itinerancy  of  mercy,  and  hastened  to  join  in  the  anni- 
versary services  of  the  Countess  of  Huntingdon's  college  at 
Trevecca.  These  services  really  extended  from  August  18  to 
August  24,  though  Wesley  himself  was  there  only  on  the  two 
concluding  days.  The  gathering  was  a  glorious  one.  Fletcher, 
the  president,  was  there,  with  his  seraphic  soul  lighting  up  an 
almost  unearthly  face  ;  Daniel  Rowlands  also,  the  rector  of 
Llangeitto  and  chaplain  to  the  Duke  of  Leinster ;  Howel  Harris, 
one  of  the  bravest  veterans  in  the  group  ;  the  Rev.  Walter 
Shirley,  from  Ireland,  and  others  ;  making  eight  clergymen 
altogether ;  to  whom  must  be  added   the  Countess   of  Hunt- 

'  Methodist  Magazine,  1799,  p.  253. 


Anniversary  of  Ti'evecca  College.  5 1 

ingdon,  the  Countess  of  Buchan,  Lady  Anne  Erskine,  and  1769 
several  of  their  relatives  and  friends.  There  were  a  number  Age66 
of  Welsh  exhorters ;  and,  of  course,  the  students  ;  and  like- 
wise an  immense  concourse  of  communicants  and  spectators. 
For  seven  days,  there  was  preaching  twice  a  day ;  the  sacra- 
ment Was  repeatedly  administered  ;  a  lovefeast  was  held  ; 
baskets  of  bread  and  meat  were  distributed  in  the  courtyard 
among  the  country  people ;  and  the  whole  season  was  what 
Whitefield  called  a  pentecost.^  Wesley  preached  twice,  gave 
an  exhortation,  and  administered  the  Lord's  supper  to  the 
countess's  family,  and  so  ended  his  service  in  connection  with 
what  he  designates  "  the  anniversary  of  her  ladyship's  school." 
This  was  his  first  and  last  visit. 

At  this  time,  Joseph  Benson,  now  in  the  twenty-first 
year  of  his  age,  was  classical  master  of  Wesley's  school  at 
Kingswood,  and  had,  with  Wesley's  sanction,  entered  himself 
at  St.  Edmund's  hall,  Oxford,  where  he  regularly  kept  his 
terms.  But  now  an  effort  was  made  to  obtain  his  services  as 
head  master  at  Trevecca.  Wesley,  for  more  reasons  than  one, 
was  loth  to  lose  him.     Hence  the  letters  following. 

"Cork,  May  27, 1769. 

"  Dear  Joseph, — You  have  now — what  you  never  had  before — a  clear 
providential  call  to  Oxford.  If  you  keep  a  single  eye,  and  have  courage 
and  steadiness,  you  may  be  an  instrument  of  much  good.  But  you  will 
tread  on  slippery  ground ;  and  the  serious  persons  you  mention  may  do 
you  more  hurt  than  many  others.  When  I  was  at  Oxford,  I  never  was 
afraid  of  any  but  the  almost  Christians.  If  you  give  way  to  them  and 
their  prudence  a  hair's  breadth,  you  will  be  removed  from  the  hope  of  the 
gospel.  If  you  are  not  moved,  if  you  tread  in  the  same  steps  which  my 
brother  and  I  did,  you  may  be  the  means,  under  God,  of  raising  another 
set  of  real  Bible  Christians.  How  long  the  world  will  suffer  them  is  in 
God's  hand. 

"  With  regard  to  Kingswood  school,  I  have  one  string  more  ;  if  that 
breaks,  I  shall  let  it  drop.     I   have  borne  the   burden   one-and-twenty 
years ;  I  have  done  what  I  could  ;  now,  let  some  one  else  do  more. 
"  I  am,  dear  Joseph,  your  affectionate  brother, 

"John  Wesley."2 

Again. 

"  London,  December  26,  1769, 
"  Dear  Joseph, — Every  man   of  sense,  who  reads  the  rules  of  the 

*  "  Life  and  Times  of  Countess  of  Huntingdon,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  99. 
2  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xii.,  p.  383. 


52  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

school,  may  easily  conclude  that  a  school  so  conducted  by  men  of  piety 
and  understanding  will  exceed  any  other  school  or  academy  in  Great 
Britain  or  Ireland.  In  this  sentiment,  you  can  never  be  altered.  And  if 
it  was  not  so  conducted  since  you  were  there,  why  was  it  not  ?  You  had 
power  enough.  You  have  all  the  power  which  I  have.  You  may  do  what 
you  please. 

" '  Dime  et  cBciiJica;  muta  quadrata  rotiaidis; '  and  I  will  second  you  to 
the  uttermost. 

"  Trevecca  is  much  more  to than  Kingswood  is  to  me.     /  mixes 

with  everything.  It  is  7ny  college,  my  masters,  my  students.  I  do  not 
speak  so  of  this  school.  It  is  not  mine,  but  the  Lord's.  I  look  for  no 
more  honour  than  money  from  it. 

"I  am  glad  you  defer  your  journey;  and  am,  dear  Joseph,  your  affec- 
tionate brother, 

"John  Wesley."' 

Wesley  was  evidently  sore  about  Benson  leaving  him  ;  but, 
a  few  weeks  afterwards,  the  exchange  was  made  ;  and  then, 
after  nine  months  of  faithful  service  at  Trevecca,  the  young 
head  master  was  unceremoniously  dismissed,  because  of  his 
defending  the  doctrines  of  his  friend  Wesley. 

From  Trevecca,  Wesley  made  his  way  to  Bristol,  which  he 
reached  on  August  26;  and,  from  there,  set  off  to  Cornwall, 
where  he  employed  a  week  in  visiting  as  many  of  his  societies 
as  he  could  in  so  short  a  period.  On  getting  back  to  Bristol, 
he  inquired  into  the  state  of  Kingswood  school,  and  writes  • 
"  The  grievance  now  is  the  number  of  children.  Instead  of 
thirty,  as  I  desired,  we  have  near  fifty ;  whereby  our  masters 
are  burdened.  And  it  is  scarce  possible  to  keep  them  in 
so  exact  order  as  we  might  do  a  smaller  number.  However, 
>  this  still  comes  nearer  a  Christian  school  than  any  I  know  in 
the  kingdom." 

The  next  month  was  spent  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Bristol, 
and  was  not  without  adventures.  At  Bradford,  he  was  sur- 
rounded by  a  noisy  rabble ;  "  and  one,"  says  he,  "  called  a 
gentleman,  had  filled  his  pocket  with  rotten  eggs  ;  but  a 
young  man  smashed  them  all  at  once ;  and,  in  an  instant,  he 
was  perfume  all  over,  though  it  was  not  so  sweet  as  balsam." 

At  Salisbury,  the  scene  of  so  many  of  his  sister  Patty's 
sorrows,  Wesley  writes  :  "  I  was  as  in  a  new  world.  The 
congregation  was  alive,  and  much   more  the  society.     How 

'  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xii.,  p.  384. 


"  Shepherd  of  Salisbicjy  Piain^  53 

pleasing  would  it  be,  to  be  always  with  such  !  But  this  is  not  17^9 
our  calling."  Wesley  had  seen  dark  days  here  ;  but  now  the  Age  66 
sun  was  shining.  After  the  desolation  caused  by  Westley 
Hall's  disgraceful  conduct,  the  few  remaining  Methodists  took 
possession  of  a  shop  in  Greencroft  Street,  and  then,  in  1759, 
built  themselves  a  chapel.'  Barbara  Hunt  was  one  of  their 
chief  members, — a  brave  young  woman,  now  thirty-three  years 
old,  but  who  lived  long  enough  to  be  a  Methodist  threescore 
years  and  three,  and  died  exclaiming,  "  O  how  glad  should  I 
be  to  clap  my  glad  wings  and  tower  away  !  "  ^  Another  was 
David  Saunders,  the  hero  of  Mrs.  Hannah  More's  "  Shepherd 
of  Salisbury  Plain."  "  His  coat,"  says  the  fair  authoress, 
perhaps  mixing  a  little  fiction  with  fact, — "  his  coat  had 
been,  in  a  long  course  of  years,  so  often  patched  with  different 
sorts  of  cloth,  that  it  was  now  become  hard  to  say  which  had 
been  the  original  colour  ;  his  stockings  were  covered  with 
darns  of  different  coloured  worsted,  but  had  not  a  hole  in 
them  ;  his  shirt,  though  nearly  as  coarse  as  the  sails  of  a  ship, 
was  as  white  as  the  drifted  snow;  his  open  honest  countenance 
bore  strong  marks  of  health  and  cheerfulness."  His  'good 
wife  was  cleanly,  thrifty,  and  a  hard  worker  ;  and  a  happier 
man  than  the  "  shepherd  of  Salisbury  plain  "  did  not  exist. 
David  Saunders  was  a  shepherd  in  more  respects  than  one. 
While  he  tended  his  sheep,  he  also,  as  a  faithful  classleader, 
watched  over  the  souls  committed  to  his  care.  He  died  in 
peace,  in  1796,  at  the  age  of  eighty.^ 

Wesley  got  back  to  London  on  October  14,  but  two  days 
afterwards  set  out  for  Oxfordshire,  and  spent  the  week  in 
preaching  at  Henley,  Wallingford,  Oxford,  Witney,  Broad- 
marston,  and  Wycombe.  The  last  week  in  October  he  em- 
ployed at  Towcester,  Northampton,  Weedon,  Bedford,  and 
other  intervening  towns,  preaching,  during  his  five  days'  tour, 
not  fewer  than  seventeen  times  in  widely  distant  places. 

At  the  beginning  of  November  he  went  to  Norfolk  ;  at 
the  end,  he  visited  his  old  friend  Perronet,  at  Shoreham,  and 
preached  twice  in  his  parish  church.  Even  here,  in  the  vicar's 
kitchen,  there  was  Methodist  preaching  every  Friday  night, 
and  also  a  Methodist  society,  embracing  Mr.  Kingswood,  Mr. 

'  Methodist  Magazine,  1836,  p.  52.  -  Ibid.  1815,  p.  46. 

3  "  Methodism  in  Frome,"  h^'  Tuck,  p.  42. 


54  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley.    ' 

Sharp,  old  Mrs.  Lightfoot  and  her  servant  maid,  poor  dame 
Cacket,  and  bold,  masculine  minded  Miss  D.  Perronet  at  the 
head  of  them.i 

Except  short  tours  to  Kent  and  Sussex,  the  remainder  of 
the  year  was  employed  in  London,  where  he  received  letters 
from  Boardman  and  Pilmoor  in  America,  and  which  he  read 
to  the  London  society.  He  was  importuned  to  visit  America 
himself ;  and,  though  such  a  visit  was  utterly  impracticable, 
yet  he  was  far  from  hasty  in  declining  it.  Hence  the  follow- 
ing, addressed  to  his  friend,  the  Rev.  Walter  Sellon. 

"  London,  December  30,  1 769. 
"My  dear  Brother,— It  is  not  yet  determined  whether  I  should  go 
to  America  or  not.     I  have  been  importuned  some  time ;  but  nil  satfirtni 
video.     I  must  have  a  clear  call  before  I  am  at  liberty  to  leave  Europe. 

"  You  should  heat  your  milk,  but  never  let  it  boil  ;  boiling  robs  it  of 
the  most  nutritious  particles.  Do  not  make  too  much  haste  in  dealing 
with  Elisha  Coles  ;  I  am  afraid  the  treatise  will  be  too  short.  And  pray 
add  a  word  to  that  liv'ely  coxcomb,  Mr.  Toplady,  not  only  with  regard  to 
Zanchius,  but  his  slander  on  the  Church  of  England.  You  would  do 
well  to  give  a  reading  to  both  his  tracts.  He  does  certainly  believe 
himself  to  be  the  greatest  genius  in  England.  Pray  take  care,  or  natis  sit 
pro  siiis  virtiitibiis. 

"  I  am,  your  affectionate  brother, 

"  John  Wesley."  ^ 

Mr.  Toplady's  two  tracts,  referred  to  in  this  epistle,  were 
his  (i)  "  Church  of  England  Vindicated  from  the  Charge  of 
Arminianism,  in  a  Letter  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Nowell;  occasioned 
by  some  passages  in  that  gentleman's  answer  to  the  Author 
of  '  Pietas  Oxoniensis,'"  8vo,  136  pages:  and  (2)  "The 
Doctrine  of  Absolute  Predestination  Stated  and  Asserted. 
Translated,  in  great  measure,  from  the  Latin  of  Jerom 
Zanchius,  with  some  Account  of  his  Life  prefixed,"  8vo, 
134  pages.     Both  these  pamphlets  were  published  in  1769. 

All  this,  and  a  great  deal  more,  really  arose  out  of  the 
expulsion  of  the  Oxford  students  in  1768.  Sir  Richard  Hill, 
in  defending  them,  had  warmly  defended  the  Calvinistic 
doctrine  of  predestination.  Dr.  Nowell,  in  his  Answer,  had 
clearly  shown,  that  this  was  not  the  doctrine  of  the  Church  of 

^  Miss  Perronet's  manuscript  letters  ;  and  Methodist  Magazine,  1811, 
p.  234. 

"  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xiii.,  p.  42  ;  and  manuscript  letter. 


Calvinism.  55 


England;  and  now  impetuous  Augustus  Toplady  hastened  1769 
to  the  rescue,  and  administered  two  allopathic  doses  of  Age66 
Calvinism's  most  drastic  tincture,  to  cure  the  Church  of 
Arminian  disease  and  fever.  Toplady's  style  is  trenchant ; 
his  doctrines  are  as  near  an  approach  to  the  doctrine  of  fate, 
as  held  by  Plato,  Seneca,  and  other  heathen  writers,  as  it  is 
possible  to  conceive.  A  more  impious  piece,  in  the  garb  of 
piety,  was  never  published  than  his  Zanchius  ;  while  his 
"  Church  of  England  Vindicated "  is  rank  with  the  most 
docfmatic  and  violent  abuse  of  Dr.  Nowell  and  the  Arminian 
clergy.  It  would  be  easy,  but  not  pleasant,  to  give  extracts  ; 
and  we  can  hardly  recommend  the  reader  to  peruse  the  pam- 
phlets for  himself.  Augustus  Toplady,  a  stripling  twenty-nine 
years  of  age,  is  a  pope  infallible  ;  and  all  who  hold  opinions 
different  to  his  are  reprobate  knaves,  or  fools. 

Wesley  was  sick  of  controversial  writing  ;  and,  besides,  he 
had  no  time  for  it.  Walter  Sellon  had  leisure  at  his  com- 
mand, and  had  already  this  year  published  his  able  treatise, 
entitled,  "  The  Doctrine  of  General  Redemption  considered," 
i2mo,  178  pages.  He  was  also  now  engaged  in  refuting  a 
book  hardly  less  horrible  than  the  Zanchius  of  Augustus 
Toplady,  namely,  "  A  Practical  Discourse  of  God's  Sove- 
reignty," i2mo,  347  pages,  by  Elisha  Coles,  a  clerk  to  the 
East  India  Company,  who  died  in  1688.  Sellon's  book  was 
soon  issued,  with  the  title,  "  A  Defence  of  God's  Sovereignty, 
against  the  impious  and  horrible  Aspersions  cast  upon  it  by 
Elisha  Coles,  in  his  practical  treatise  on  that  subject."  In 
his  preface,  he  tells  his  readers,  he  "  did  intend  to  have  ex- 
posed the  errors  and  blasphemy  "  of  Toplady's  Zanchius,  but  . 
when  he  "found  it  would  enlarge  his  work  too  much,  and 
especially  when  he  understood  that  Toplady  had  vilely 
slandered  the  Church  of  England,"  he  chose  "  to  make  it  the 
subject  of  another  book,  which  the  reader  might  expect 
unless  it  should  be  done  by  some  abler  hand."^ 


^  Sellon's  book  was  not  published  till  1770,  and  seems  to  have  been 
revised  by  Wesley,  who  also  approved  of  his  dealing  with  Toplady  in  a 
separate  pamphlet.     Hence  the  following,  addressed  to  Sellon. 

"  Lewisham,  February  21,  1770. 
"My  dear  Brother, — Do  not  make  too  much  haste.     Give  every- 
hing  the  last  touch.     It  will  be  enough,  if  the  papers  meet  me  at  Man- 


56  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1769  Controversial  war  was  now  begun  in  earnest,  and  a  severer 

Age  66  battle  was  never  fought.  Sir  Richard  Hill,  Augustus  Top- 
lady,  and  Walter  Sellon  were  fairly  in  the  lists,  and  others 
soon  after  followed. 

In  the  midst  of  all  this,  Wesley  was  savagely  attacked  in 
two  letters,  published  in  the  Gospel  Magazine  for  1769, 
entitled,  "  Observations  on  Mr.  J.  Wesley's  view  of  '  The 
Scripture  Doctrines  of  Predestination,  Election,  and  Repro- 
bation."* He  is  accused  of  "inexcusable  vanity";  of "  im- 
pertinent quibbling";  of  "Jesuitical  sophistry";  of  holding 
"a  scheme  unscriptural  and  dangerous,  absurd  and  impious"; 
and  of  "  finespun  reasoning  worse  than  nothing."  The 
author  complacently  tells  his  readers,  in  conclusion,  that, 
though  he  had  felt  himself  "very  resentful,"  yet  being 
"called  to  imitate  the  lovely  pattern  of  the  lowly  Jesus,  he 
had  answered  Wesley  not  with  asperity,  but  with  the  meek- 
ness of  wisdom." 

Attgicks  upon  Wesley  were  made  from  other  quarters.  It 
was  a  busy  year  with  young  Toplady  ;  for,  besides  the  books 
already  noticed,  he  published  a  sixpenny  pamphlet,  with  the 
title,  "  Many  made  Righteous  by  the  Obedience  of  One.  Two 
Sermons  on  Romans  v.  19,  preached  at  Bideford,  in  1743,  by 
the  late  Rev.  James  Hervey,  with  a  Preface  by  Augustus 
Toplady."  Some  one  else  issued  another,  entitled,  "  The 
Jesuit  Detected,"  in  which  the  zealous  advocate  of  Mr. 
Hervey  arrays  Wesley  in  the  garb  of  the  Babylonian  woman, 
and  then  abuses  him  for  looking  so  like  her.  Booth  Brath- 
waite,  unknown  to  fame,  published  another  sixpennyworth, 
.  called  "  Methodism  a  Popish  Idol ;  or,  the  Danger  and 
Harmony  of  Enthusiasm  and  Separation."  Poor  Booth,  a 
bigot  to  church  establishments,  raves  against  sectaries  with 
abundant  zeal,  little  knowledge,  and  less  charity.  And  to 
all  these  must  be  added,  "  The  Pretences  of  Enthusiasts, 
considered  and  confuted  :  A  Sermon  preached  before  the 
university    of  Oxford,  at    St.   Mary's,   on    Sunday,  June   26, 


Chester,  before  the  end  of  March.  I  believe  it  will  be  the  best  way  to 
bestow  a  distinct  pamphlet  on  that  exquisite  coxcomb.  Surely  wisdom 
will  die  with  him  !  I  believe  we  can  easily  get  his  other  tract,  which  it 
would  be  well  to  sift  to  the  very  foundation,  in  order  to  stop  the  mouth  of 
that  vain  boaster.     1  am,  etc.,  John  Wesley."— (Manuscript  letter.) 


Publications  in   1769.  57 

1768.     By    William    Hawkins,    M.A.,    Prebendary  of  Wells,      1769 
late    Poetry    Professor,    and    Fellow    of    Pembroke    College,    Acre  66 
in  Oxford.     Published  by  desire."     8vo,  27  pages. 
Wesley's  own  publications  in  1769  were  not  many. 

1.  "An  Extract  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  John  Wesley's  Journal, 
from  October  20,  1762,  to  May  25,  1765."      i2mo,  124  pages. 

2.  "  An  Extract  from  the  Journal  of  Elizabeth  Harper." 
i2mo,  47  pages. 

3.  "An  Extract  of  Letters  on  Religious  Subjects,  "by  Mrs. 
Lefevre."     i2mo,  106  pages. 

4.  "  The  Witness  of  the  Spirit.  A  Sermon  on  Romans 
viii.  16."  Dublin:  i2mo,  16  pages.  This  important  sermon 
was  written  at  Newry,  in  1767.  Wesley  declares  that  his 
sentiments  on  the  witness  of  the  Spirit  were  the  same  as 
they  had  been  from  the  beginning.  "  The  testimony  of  the 
Spirit,"  says  he,  "  is  an  inward  impression  on  the  soul  of 
believers,  whereby  the  Spirit  of  God  directly  testifies  to  their 
spirit,  that  they  are  the  children  of  God."  Having  established 
his  doctrine,  and  answered  the  objections  to  it,  he  concludes 
with  two  pungent  inferences  :  "  i.  Let  none  ever  presume  to 
rest  in  any  supposed  testimony  of  the  Spirit,  which  is  separate 
from  the  fruit  of  it.  2.  Let  none  rest  in  any  supposed  fruit 
of  the  Spirit  without  the  witness." 

5.  "  Advices  with  respect  to  Health.  Extracted  from  a 
late  Author."  i2mo,  218  pages.  The  late  author  was  Dr. 
Tissot  ;  the  book  itself  shows  Wesley's  intense  anxiety  to  be 
of  use  to  the  bodies  as  well  as  souls  of  his  fellow  creatures. 
He  strongly  commends  Tissot's  descriptions  of  diseases,  the 
fewness  and  cheapness  of  his  medicines,  and  his  regimen  ;  but 
protests  against  his  fondness  for  bleeding,  and  for  glysters  ; 
against  his  ointment  for  the  itch,  and  his  vehement  recom- 
mendation of  Peruvian  bark. 


1^70 

Age  67 


1770. 

WESLEY  began  the  year  1770  with  a  covenant  service 
in   London,  at  which   eighteen    hundred    Methodists 
were  present, — a  sight  worth  seeing. 

In  his  leisure  moments,  he  employed  himself  in  reading ; 
and,  as  usual,  makes  racy  remarks  on  men  and  books. 
Having  finished  Dr.  Burnet's  "Theory  of  the  Earth,"  he 
writes  :  "  He  is  doubtless  one  of  the  firstrate  writers,  both  as 
to  sense  and  style  ;  his  language  is  remarkably  clear,  un- 
affected, nervous,  and  elegant ;  and  none  can  deny,  that  his 
theory  is  ingenious,  and  consistent  with  itself."  He  read 
Rousseau  upon  education,  and  says  :  "  But  how  was  I  dis- 
appointed !  Sure  a  more  consummate  coxcomb  never  saw 
the  sun!  How  amazingly  full  of  himself!  Whatever  he 
speaks,  he  pronounces  as  an  oracle.  But  many  of  his  oracles 
are  as  palpably  false  as  that  '  young  children  never  love  old 
people.'  But  I  object  to  his  temper  more  than  to  his  judg- 
ment :  he  is  a  mere  misanthrope,  a  cynic  all  over.  So  in- 
deed is  his  brother  infidel,  Voltaire ;  and  well-nigh  as  great  a 
coxcomb.  But  he  hides  both  his  doggedness  and  vanity  a 
little  better  ;  whereas,  here  it  stares  us  in  the  face  continually. 
As  to  his  book,  it  is  whimsical  to  the  last  degree ;  grounded 
neither  upon  reason  nor  experience.  The  advices,  which  are 
good,  are  trite  and  common,  only  disguised  under  new  ex- 
pressions ;  and  those  which  are  new,  which  are  really  his  own, 
are  lighter  than  vanity  itself  Such  discoveries  I  always  ex- 
pect from  those  who  are  too  wise  to  believe  their  Bibles." 

Baron  Emanuel  Swedenborg,  after  rendering  great  service  to 
science,  and  thereby  winning  the  esteem  of  Charles  XH.,  and 
receiving  the  honour  of  being  enrolled  among  the  members 
of  the  academies  of  Upsal,  Stockholm,  and  Petersburgh, 
came  to  London  in  1743,  attended  the  Moravian  chapel 
in  Fetter  Lane,  went  mad,^  and  began  to  write  and  publish 
the  visionary  books,    containing   the  creed  of  the   Sweden- 


^  Methodist  Magazine,  1781,  p.  46. 


Christian  Perfection.  59 

borgians.  Wesley  writes  :  "  I  sat  down  to  read  and  seriously  1770 
consider  some  of  the  writings  of  Baron  Swedenborg.  I  began  a^67 
with  huge  prejudice  in  his  favour,  knowing  him  to  be  a  pious 
man,  one  of  a  strong  understanding,  of  much  learning,  and 
one  who  thoroughly  believed  himself.  But  I  could  not  hold 
out  long.  Any  one  of  his  visions  puts  his  real  character  out 
of  doubt.  He  is  one  of  the  most  ingenious,  lively,  entertain- 
ing madmen,  that  ever  set  pen  to  paper.  But  his  waking 
dreams  are  so  wild,  so  far  remote  both  from  Scripture  and 
common  sense,  that  one  might  as  easily  swallow  the  stories  of 
*  Tom  Thumb,'  or  '  Jack  the  Giant  Killer.'  "  The  baron  died 
two  years  after  this,  and  was  buried  in  the  Swedish  church  in 
Wellclose  Square,  London. 

In  the  month  of  February,  Wesley,  for  the  last  time,  took 
part  in  a  religious  service,  and  administered  the  sacrament,  in 
the  mansion  of  the  Countess  of  Huntingdon^  in  Portland  Row. 
Thomas  Maxfield  was  present,  and  though  a  few  years  before 
he  had  been  one  of  the  strongest  sticklers  in  favour  of  the 
wild  doctrines  propounded  by  George  Bell  and  other  sancti- 
fied ones  in  London,  he  now,  in  Wesley's  own  presence,  spoke 
strongly  against  his  doctrine  of  Christian  perfection.'  This 
might  be  gratifying  to  her  ladyship  and  her  Calvinistic 
friends  ;  but  it  would  have  been  in  better  taste  for  Maxfield, 
at  least,  to  have  maintained,  on  such  a  subject,  a  respectful 
silence.  No  doubt,  foolish  ideas  had  been  circulated  ;  but 
Wesley  can  hardly  be  held  accountable  for  these.  His  own 
doctrines  on  the  subject  were  based  upon  Scripture,  and  these 
he  was  ready  to  defend,  and  resolved  to  propagate.  It  is 
true,  that  his  anticipations  respecting  the  great  work,  which 
was  professedly  wrought  in  London  and  elsewhere,  had  not 
been  realised.  Even  Miss  Bosanquet  had  lost  the  blessing  of 
Christian  perfection  ;  ^  and  Wesley,  in  a  letter  dated  March 
15,  1770,  confesses  that,  of  those  who  professed  to  obtain  it, 
hardly  one  in  thirty  retained  it.  "  Many  hundreds  in  Lon- 
don," says  he,  "  were  made  partakers  of  it,  within  sixteen  or 
eighteen  months  ;  but  I  doubt  whether  twenty  of  them  are 
now  as  holy  and  as  happy  as  they  were."^    This  was  a  humili- 


^  "Life  and  Times  of  Countess  of  Huntingdon,"  vol.  i.,  p.  387. 
^  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xii.,p.  375.  ^  Ibid.  p.  330. 


6o  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1770     ating  fact,  and  gave  to  Wesley's  opponents  a  great  advan- 

A.^7     tage  ;  but,  in  itself,  it  was  no  disproof  of  Wesley's  doctrine  ; 

and    can  scarcely  be  considered    a    satisfactory    excuse    for 

Thomas  Maxfield,  of  all   men  living,  attacking  his   friend   in 

the  house  of  his  Calvinistic  foes. 

'  Wesley's  friend  Whitefield  was  in  America,  preaching  with 
as  much  zest  as  ever  ;  and,  just  at  this  juncture,  Wesley  ad- 
dressed what  proved  to  be  his  last  letter  to  his  old  and  always 
faithful  coadjutor ;  but  the  letter  contains  not  a  single 
syllable  respecting  the  slight  which  had  been  cast  upon  him 
by  a  man  whom  gratitude  ought  to  have  taught  better 
manners. 

"  Lewisham,  Febriiary  21,  1770. 

"My  dear  Brother,— Mr.  Keen  informed  me  some  time  since  of 
your  safe  arrival  in  Carolina  ;  of  which,  indeed,  I  could  not  doubt  for  a 
moment,  notwithstanding  the  idle  report  of  your  being  cast  away,  which 
was  so  current  in  London.  I  trust  our  Lord  has  more  work  for  you  to  do 
in  Europe,  as  well  as  in  America.  And  who  knows  but  before  your  return, 
to  England,  I  may  pay  another  visit  to  the  new  world  ?  I  have  been 
strongly  solicited  by  several  of  our  friends  in  New  York  and  Philadelphia. 
They  urge  many  reasons,  some  of  which  appear  to  be  of  considerable 
weight  ;  and  my  age  is  no  objection  at  all  ;  for  I  bless  God  my  health  is 
not  barely  as  good,  but  abundantly  better  in  several  respects,  than  when 
I  was  five-and-twenty.  But  there  are  so  many  reasons  on  the  other  side, 
that,  as  yet,  I  can  determine  nothing  ;  so  I  must  wait  for  further  light. 
Here  I  am:  let  the  Lord  do  with  me  as  seemeth  Him  good.  For  the 
present,  I  must  beg  of  you  to  supply  my  lack  of  service,  by  encouraging  our 
preachers,  as  you  judge  best  (who  are  as  yet  comparatively  young  and  inex- 
perienced); by  giving  them  such  advices  as  you  think  proper  ;  and,  above 
all,  by  exhorting  them,  not  only  to  love  one  another,  but,  if  it  be  possible, 
as  much  as  lies  in  them,  to  live  peaceably  with  all  men. 

"  Some  time  ago,  since  you  went  hence,  I  heard  a  circumstance,  which 
gave  me  a  good  deal  of  concern ;  namely,  that  the  college  or  academy  in 
Georgia  had  swallowed  up  the  orphan  house.  Shall  I  give  my  judgment 
without  being  asked  ?  Methinks,  friendship  requires  I  should.  Are  there 
not  then  two  points  which  come  in  view  ?  a  point  of  mercy,  and  a  point 
of  justice  ?  With  respect  to  the  former,  may  it  not  be  inquired.  Can  any- 
thing on  earth  be  a  greater  charity  than  to  bring  up  orphans  ?  What  is 
a  college  or  an  academy  compared  to  this .''  unless  you  could  have  such 
a  college  as  perhaps  is  not  upon  earth.  I  know  the  value  of  learning, 
and  am  more  in  danger  of  prizing  it  too  much  than  too  little ;  but,  still,  I 
cannot  place  the  giving  it  to  five  hundred  students  on  a  level  with  saving 
the  bodies,  if  not  the  souls  too,  of  five  hundred  orphans.  But  let  us  pass 
from  the  point  of  mercy  to  that  of  justice.  You  had  land  given,  and  col- 
lected money,  for  an  orphan  house.     Are  you  at  liberty  to  apply  this  to 


Age  67 


Whitejield's  College  in   Georgia.  6i 

any  other  purpose?  at  least,  while  there  are  any  orphans  in  Georgia  left  ?  1770 
I  just  touch  upon  this,  though  it  is  an  important  point,  and  leave  it  to  your 
own  consideration,  whether  part  of  it,  at  least,  might  not  properly  be 
applied  to  carry  on  the  original  design?  In  speaking  thus  freely,  on  so 
tender  a  subject,  I  have  given  you  a  fresh  proof  of  the  sincerity  with 
which  I  am  your  ever  affectionate  friend  and  brother, 

"John  Wesley."' 

The  college  business  above  mentioned  was  simply  this. 
Six  years  before,  Whitefield  had  informed  the  council  of 
Georgia,  that  he  had  already  expended  i^  12,000  upon  his 
Orphan  House  ;  that  he  was  now  anxious  to  attach  to  it  a 
college,  to  which  the  respectable  inhabitants  of  Georgia,  Vir- 
ginia, and  the  West  Indies  might  send  their  sons  to  be 
educated  ;  that,  in  order  to  accomplish  his  purpose,  he  was 
prepared  to  lay  out  a  considerable  sum  of  money  "  in  pur- 
cJiasing  a  large  mimbcr  of  negroes  "  for  the  cultivation  of  the 
lands,  and  for  the  "  future  support  of  a  president,  professors, 
and  tutors  ;"  and  that  he  now  asked  the  council  to  grant  him, 
in  trust,  for  the  purposes  aforesaid,  two  thousand  acres  of 
land,  on  the  north  fork  of  Turtle  River.  The  council  yielded 
his  request  at  once,  and  with  the  greatest  pleasure.  White- 
field  then  memorialised  the  king  to  grant  a  charter  for  the 
founding  of  the  college,  stating  that,  if  this  were  done,  he  was 
"ready  to  give  up  his  present  trust,  and  make  a  free  gift  of  all 
lands,  negroes,  goods,  and  chattels,  which  he  now  possessed 
in  Georgia,  for  the  support  of  the  proposed  institution,  to  be 
called  by  the  name  of  Bethesda  college,  in  Georgia."  A  long 
official  correspondence  followed.  The  government  were  not 
unwilling  to  grant  a  charter,  but  they  insisted  that  the  presi- 
dent of  the  college  should  be  a  minister  of  the  Church  of 
England,  and  that  there  should  be  a  daily  use  of  the  Church 
liturgy.  These  were  conditions  which  Whitefield  respectfully 
declined  ;  and  hence  the  charter  asked  for  was  refused.  The 
result  was,  Whitefield  added  to  his  Georgian  orphan  house 
a  public  academy,  by  the  erection  of  two  additional  wings, 
one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  each  in  length  ;  and,  a  month 
before  Wesley  wrote  his  letter,  opened  the  new  building,  by 
preaching  before  his  excellency  the   governor,  and  before  the 

*  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xii.,  p.  148. 


62  Life  and  Tiines  of  Wesley. 

1770  Georgian  council  and  assembly,  from,  "The  hands  of  Zerub- 
Age  67  babel  have  laid  the  foundations  of  this  house.  His  hands  shall 
also  finish  it ;  and  thou  shalt  know  that  the  Lord  of  hosts 
hath  sent  me  unto  you  ;  for  who  hath  despised  the  day  of 
small  things?"  Thus  Whitefield  left  behind  him,  in  America, 
a  complex  orphanage  and  college,  for  the  support  of  which 
he  had  obtained  grants  of  land  to  the  extent  of  3800  acres, 
and  had  bought  seventy-five  male  and  female  negroes  for  the 
purpose  of  cultivating  his  extensive  farm,  and  making  it 
productive.^ 

We  have  already  seen  that  Wesley  was  not  only  urged,  but 
was  more  than  willing,  to  visit  his  newly  instituted  societies 
in  America.  Pilmoor  was  working  hard  at  New  York,  and 
Boardman  at  Philadelphia  ;  a  number  of  negroes  had  been 
converted;  the  work  was  growing;  and  the  young  evangelists 
— Boardman  of  seven,  and  Pilmoor  of  five  years'  standing 
— wished  for  advice  and  help.^  Wesley  had  nearly  arrived  at 
the  age  of  threescore  years  and  ten  ;  but,  if  his  way  had 
opened,  he  would  have  bounded  off  across  the  Atlantic  with 
as  little  anxiety  as  he  was  accustomed  to  trot  to  the  hospi- 
table Perronet  home  at  Shoreham.  The  obstacles  however 
were  insurmountable.  There  was  no  one,  during  his  absence, 
to  take  his  place  as  superintendent  general  of  the  societies 
in  England,  Scotland,  Wales,  and  Ireland  ;  and  to  this  must 
be  added  the  strong  objections  of  the  people  to  let  him  go. 
"  If  I  go  to  America,"  said  he,  "  I  must  do  a  thing  which  I 
hate  as  bad  as  I  hate  the  devil."  "  What  is  that  .'* "  asked  his 
friend.  "  I  must  keep  a  secret"  he  answered  ;  meaning,  that 
he  must  conceal  his  purpose,  otherwise  his  societies  would  in- 
terfere, and  effectually  prevent  his  going.^ 

On  the  5th  of  March,  Wesley  set  out  on  his  journey  to  the 
north,  which  occupied  the  next  five  months.  Coming  to 
Newbury,  he  writes  :  "  I  had  been  much  importuned  to 
preach  here.  But  where  .'*  The  Dissenters  would  not  permit 
me  to  preach  in  •  their  meetinghouse.  Some  were  then 
desirous  to  hire  the  old  playhouse  ;  but  the  good  mayor 
would  not  suffer  it  to  be  so  profaned  !     So  I  made  use  of  a 

*  Whitefield's  Works,  vol.  iii.  ^  Methodist  Magazine,  1784,  p.  224. 

2  Whitehead's  Life  of  Wesley,  vol.  ii.,  p.  345. 


Riding  on  Horsebaclk.  63 

workshop, — a  large,  commodious  place.  But  it  would,  by  no  1770 
means,  contain  the  congregation.  All  that  could  hear  behaved  a~67 
well" 

From  Newbury,  Wesley  proceeded  to  Bristol,  Gloucester, 
Birmingham,  and  Wednesbury.  He  then  made  his  way, 
through  Stafifordshire  and  Cheshire,  to  Manchester,  where  he 
arrived  at  the  end  of  March,  and  made  the  following  charac- 
teristic entry  in  his  journal  :  "  In  this  journey,  as  well  as  in 
many  others,  I  observed  a  mistake  that  almost  universally 
prevails.  Near  thirty  years  ago,  I  was  thinking,  '  How  is  it 
that  no  horse  ever  stumbles  while  I  am  reading  V  (History, 
poetry,  and  philosophy,  I  commonly  read  on  horseback, 
having  other  employment  at  other  times.)  No  account  can 
possibly  be  given  but  this  :  because,  then  I  throw  the  reins  on 
his  neck.  I  then  set  myself  to  observe  ;  and  I  aver,  that,  in 
riding  above  a  hundred  thousand  miles,  I  scarce  ever  remem- 
ber any  horse  (except  two  that  would  fall  head  over  heels  any 
way),  to  fall,  or  make  a  considerable  stumble,  while  I  rode 
with  a  slack  rein.  To  fancy,  therefore,  that  a  tight  rein 
prevents  stumbling  is  a  capital  blunder.^  I  have  repeated  the 
trial  more  frequently  than  most  men  in  the  kingdom  can  do. 
A  slack  rein  will  prevent  stumbling  if  anything  will.  But  in 
some  horses  nothing  can." 

From  Manchester,  Wesley  proceeded  to  Liverpool,  White- 
haven, and  Carlisle,  preaching  there,  and  at  intermediate 
places.  He  writes  :  "  At  Carlisle,  it  w^as  the  day  of  small 
things ;  the  society  consisting  but  of  fifteen  members." 
Methodism  had  been  founded  in  this  border  city  by  Robert 
Bell,  an  exciseman  ;  and  its  place  of  worship  was  a  shed  for 
sheltering  carts.  At  almost  every  meeting  the  mob  attended ; 
stones  and  brickbats  were  often  thrown,  and  the  Methodists 
hissed  at  and  otherwise  abused.^ 

Leaving  Carlisle,  Wesley  made  his  way  to  Edinburgh, 
which  he  reached  on  April  20,  and  says  :  "  I  endeavoured  to 
confirm  those  whom  many  had  strove  to  turn  out  of  the  way. 
What  pity  is  it,  that  the  children  of  God  should  so  zealously 
do  the  devil's  work  !  How  is  it,  that  they  are  still  ignorant 
of  Satan's  devices.-'     Lord,  what  is  man  V     "The  congrega- 

*  Thomas  Dixon's  manuscript  journal. 


64  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

T-11'^     tions  were  nearly  as  usual;  but  the  society  which,   when  I 

Age  67    was  here  before,  consisted  of  above  one  hundred  and  sixty 

members,  was  now  shrunk  to  about  fifty.     Such  is  the  fruit 

of  a  single    preacher's  staying  a  whole  year  in   one  place, 

together  with  the  labours  of  good  Mr.  Townshend  !" 

It  was  at  this  time  that  Wesley  had  his  first  interview  with 
Lady  Glenorchy.^  She  writes  :  "The  Rev.  Dr.  Webster^  and 
Mr.  Wesley  met  at  my  house,  and  agreed  on  all  doctrines  on 
which  they  spoke,  except  those  of  God's  decrees,  predestina- 
tion, and  the  saints'  perseverance.  I  must,  according  to  the 
light  I  now  have,  agree  with  Dr.  Webster.  Nevertheless,  I 
hope  Mr.  Wesley  is  a  child  of  God.  He  has  been  an  instru- 
ment of  saving  souls  ;  as  such,  I  honour  him,  and  will 
countenance  his  preachers.  I  have  heard  him  preach  thrice  ; 
and  should  have  been  better  pleased  had  he  preached  more 
of  Christ,  and  less  of  himself."  ^ 

Lady  Glenorchy  had  recently  opened  St.  Mary's  chapel,  in 
which  service  was  performed  by  presbyterians,  episcopalians, 
and  Methodists  ;  but  her  ladyship  now  wished  to  have  a 
schoolmaster  and  a  minister  of  her  own  ;  and,  notwithstanding 
her  disparaging  remarks  on  Wesley,  she  employed  him  to 
obtain  them  for  her.  A  few  weeks  later  she  wrote  to  him  as 
follows. 

"  Edinburgh,  May  29,  1770. 
"  Reverend  Sir, — When  I  consider  how  much  you  have  to  do,  and 
how  very  precious  your  time  is,  I  feel  unwilhng  to  give  you  the  trouble  of 
reading  a  letter  from  me  ;  yet  I  know  not  how  to  delay  returning  you  my 
best  thanks  for  the  pains  you  have  taken  to  procure  me  a  Christian 
innkeeper  and  schoolmaster.  And,  though  you  have  not  as  yet  been 
successful,  I  hope  you  may  find  some  before  you  reach  London,  who  are 
wiUing  to  leave  their  native  country  and  friends  for  the  sake  of  promoting 
the  interest  of  Christ's  kingdom.  If  Mr.  Eggleston's  objections  relate 
only  to  temporal  things,  perhaps  it  may  be  in  my  power  to  remove  them. 
I  am  exceedingly  obliged  to  you,  dear  and  honoured  sir,  for  your  good 
advice  ;  it  is  agreeable  to  that  small  glimmering  of  light  the  Lord  has 
been  pleased  to  give  me  for  five  years  past.     Let  me  entreat  you  to 


^  "  Life  of  Lady  Glenorchy,"  p.  155. 

2  One  of  the  ministers  of  the  Tolbooth  church, — a  man  of  great 
abilities  and  of  polished  manners,  but  an  avowed  Calvinist  of  the  highest 
order. — (Lady  Glenorchy's  Life,  p.  132.) 

^  '•  Life  of  Lady  Glenorchy,"  p.  156. 


Wesley  and  Lady  GlcnorcJiy.  65 

remember  me  at  the  throne  of  grace.     I  am,  reverend  sir,  with  esteem      1770 
and  respect,  your  obhged  servant,  — ' 

"WILLIELMA   GLENORCHY."!  Age  67 

Within  a  week  after  this,  Wesley  obtained  her  ladyship  a 
schoolmaster ;  and,  at  the  beginning  of  the  year  following, 
sent  her  a  minister,  the  Rev.  Richard  De  Courcy,  who  had 
been  a  Methodist  in  Ireland,^  had  been  educated  at  Trinity 
college,  Dublin,  had  obtained  deacon's  orders,  and  had 
officiated  as  curate  to  Walter  Shirley.^  Lady  Glenorcliy 
writes :  "  Mr.  De  Courcy  is  quite  the  person  Mr.  Wesley 
represented  him, — of  a  sweet  disposition,  and  wishes  only  to 
preach  Christ  to  poor  sinners  wherever  he  finds  an  open 
door."*  This  was  in  February,  1771,  and  yet,  within  six 
months  afterwards,  on  June  28,  her  ladyship  writes  again  : 
"  Before  I  left  Edinburgh,  I  dismissed  Mr.  Wesley's  preachers 
from  my  chapel ;  first,  because  they  deny  the  doctrines  of 
imputed  righteousness,  election,  and  the  saints'  perseverance ; 
secondly,  because  I  found  none  of  our  gospel  ministers  would 
preach  in  the  chapel,  if  they  continued  to  have  the  use  of  the 
pulpit ;  thirdly,  because  I  found  my  own  soul  had  been  hurt 
by  hearing  them,  and  I  judged  that  others  might  be  hurt  by 
them  also."  ^ 

Thus,  after  Wesley  had  served  her  ladyship  to  the  utmost 
of  his  power,  he  and  his  preachers  were  ignominiously  ex- 
pelled from  the  sacred  precincts  of  St.  Mary's,  and  her  chapel 
was  left  in  the  sole  possession  of  Mr.  De  Courcy  and  his  Cal- 
vinistic  friends.  It  is  right  to  add  that,  notwithstanding  her 
Calvinism,  Lady  Glenorchy  maintained,  to  the  end  of  life,  a 
warm  friendship  with  her  Methodist  friend.  Lady  Maxwell, 
whom,  at  her  death,  she  appointed  her  sole  executrix,  and 
the  principal  manager  of  her  chapels,  both  in  England  and 
across  the  border.^ 

To  return  to  Wesley.  From  Edinburgh,  he  went  to  Perth, 
Dunkeld,  and  Inverness,  at  which  last  mentioned  place 
Benjamin   and   William    Chappel   had   been    three    months 


^  Methodist  Magazine,  1784,  p.  279. 

2  "  Life  of  Lady  Glenorchy,"  pp.  163,  226. 

s  "  Life  and  Times  of  Lady  Huntingdon,"  vol.  i.,  p.  157. 

^  Lady  Glenorchy's  Life,  p.  223.  *  Ibid.  p.  239. 

«  Methodist  Magazine,  18 16,  p.  730. 

VOL.  III.  F 


66  Life  and  Times  of  JVesky. 

1770  waiting  for  a  vessel  to  return  to  London,  and  had  employed 
AgTe;  the  time  in  meeting  the  people  every  night  to  sing  and  pray 
together."  Benjamin  Chappel,  who  thus  begun  Methodism 
in  Inverness,  was  a  wheelwright,  and,  in  after  years,  had  the 
honour  of  being  the  first  Methodist  in  Prince  Edward's 
Island.^ 

At  Aberdeen,  as  at  Inverness  and  Nairn,  Wesley  preached 
in  the  kirk.  At  Arbroath,  the  society,  though  of  but  nine 
months'  standing,  was  the  largest  in  Scotland,  with  the 
exception  of  that  at  Aberdeen.  At  Dunbar  he  preached  in 
the  new  chapel,  "the  cheerfulest  in  the  kingdom";  and,  on 
May  21,  reached  Newcastle  on  Tyne;  but  here  we  pause  to 
insert  a  letter  of  considerable  interest. 

Within  the  last  two  years,  Wesley  had  met  at  Bristol  with 
a  clergyman,  who  was  one  of  the  king  of  Sweden's  chaplains, 
but  who  had  recently  spent  several  years  in  Pennsylvania. 
This  gentleman,  Dr.  Wrangel,  had  strongly  requested  that 
Wesley  would  send  preachers  to  America,  nearly  twelve 
months  before  Boardman  and  Pilmoor  were  appointed;  and, 
further,  to  show  his  friendly  feeling  towards  Methodism  he 
had  preached  in  the  Bristol  chapel  to  a  crowd  of  Methodists, 
and  "gave,"  says  Wesley,  "general  satisfaction  by  the  sim- 
plicity and  life  which  accompanied  his  sound  doctrine."  Dr. 
Wrangel  had  now  returned  to  Sweden,  and  wrote  the  following 
to  Wesley. 

"  Stockholm,  May  5,  1770. 

"  Dear  and  much  beloved  Brother  in  Christ  Jesus,— I  hope  my 
heart  will  ever  be  impressed  with  the  warmest  gratitude  for  the  comfort  I 
enjoyed  in  your  society.  Though  absent  in  body,  I  have  often  been  amongst 
you.  When  I  left  England,  I  arrived  first  at  Gothenburg,  and  lodged 
at  the  right  reverend  bishop,  Dr,  Lamberg's,  who  was  fellow  chaplain 
with  me  at  court,  I  found  him  to  be  a  great  friend  of  yours.  He  had 
heard  you  preach  while  on  his  travels  in  England.  I  sent  him  your  books, 
and  he  was  well  pleased  with  what  he  read,  and  desired  me  to  remember 
him  to  you. 

"  I  have  now  been  upwards  of  a  year  in  Stockholm,  and  have  officiated 
as  chaplain  to  the  king,  and  at  the  same  time  preached  in  most  of  the 
churches  here,  and  I  must  say,  with  uncommon  success.  Whenever  I 
have  preached  the  churches  have  been  crowded.  The  king,  on  his  death- 
bed, made  me  a  privy  councillor.     When  I  spoke  to  him  of  the  way  of 

*  Methodist  Magazine,  185 1,  p.  837. 


Methodism  in  S^ueden.  6j 

salvation,  he  received  the  word  with  gladness,  and  departed  in  the  Lord,       i77fJ 
to  the  great  edification  and  comfort  of  the  whole  family.     His  queen  also,     Arr~67 
who  is  of  English  descent,  is  eminent  in  piety.     This,  I  hope,  will  be  at-       ** 
tended 'with  good  consequences  in  favour  of  religion. 

"  Last  parliament  session  several  clergymen,  and  amongst  them  four 
bishops,  agreed  to  my  proposals  concerning  a  society  for  propagating 
practical  religion.  We  intend,  as  soon  as  the  plan  is  rightly  fixed,  to 
enter  into  correspondence  with  several  parts  of  the  world  ;  and  we  expect 
the  honour  of  your  correspondence  also. 

"  Providence  is  about  to  settle  me  in  a  station  of  great  importance.  I 
am  about  to  be  named  the  almoner  of  his  majesty.  This  office  is  of  im- 
portance to  religion  in  general.  Finally,  my  dear  brother,  let  me  be  in- 
cluded in  all  your  prayers,  and  let  me  hear  from  you.  I  am,  with  the 
greatest  sincerity  of  affection,  dear  and  reverend  brother,  your  most 
humble  and  affectionate  brother  and  servant, 

"  C.  M.  Wrangel."  1 

Further  correspondence  followed,  from  which  we  learn  that 
Dr.  Wrangel  himself,  like  Wesley,  had  been  an  open  air 
preacher ;  but  was  now,  not  only  the  king  of  Sweden's 
almoner,  but  "president  of  the  consistory  at  court,  and 
chaplain  to  all  the  royal  orders."  He  writes  to  Wesley  in 
177 1  :  "  Pray,  dear  sir,  desire  your  society  to  intercede  for  me. 
I  send  you  enclosed  the  letter  of  admission  to  our  society.  The 
rules,  not  yet  being  printed  in  English,  we  send  in  German. 
I  sincerely  thank  you  for  the  kind  present  of  your  sermons 
and  books.  I  presented  a  copy  of  your  sermon  to 
the  society,  which  was  very  acceptable.  The  society  will 
have  the  life  of  Mr.  Whitefield  inserted  in  their  Pastoral 
Collections,  or  account  of  the  work  of  God  abroad.  1  beg  of 
you,  sir,  to  remember  me  kindly  to  all  your  friends,  not  for- 
getting dear  Kingswood.  I  have  been  greatly  blessed  in  my 
labour  amongst  the  great,  and  shall  soon  give  a  particular 
account  of  it."  ^ 

Thus,  as  England  had  its  Wesleys,  America  its  Whitefield, 
and  Wales  its  Howel  Harris,  Sweden  also  had  its  great  re- 
former,— Dr.  Wrangel,  once  a  field  preacher,  but  now  a 
founder  of  a  quasi  missionary  society,  and,  as  a  faithful 
minister  of  Christ,  bearing  his  testimony  before  kings  and 
princes.  Through  Dr.  Wrangel's  friendship  with  Wesley, 
Methodism  had  already,  fifty-six  years  before  its  appointment 

'  Methodist  Magazine,  1784,  p.  330.  -  Ibid.  1784,  p.  614- 


68  Life  mid  Times  of  Wesley. 

^77°     of  the  Rev.  Joseph  Rayner  Stephens  to  Stockholm,  indirectly 

Age  67    extended  its  influences  to  the  Swedish  capital,  and  had  begun 

that  wondrous  work,  which,  fostered  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Scott, 

has  issued  in  some  of  the  most  remarkable  results  recorded  in 

mission  history. 

Wesley  left  Newcastle  for  London  on  the  nth  of  June, 
and,  on  his  journey,  preached  for  the  most  part  thrice  a  day. 
At  Whitby,  one  of  his  itinerants,  of  six  years'  standing, 
"  had  set  up  for  himself;  his  reasons  for  leaving  the  Method- 
ists being — (i)  that  they  went  to  church;  (2)  that  they 
held  perfection."  It  is  a  remarkable  fact,  that  sixty-five  of 
the  Whitby  Methodists  professed  to  be  entirely  sanctified. 
From  Whitby,  Wesley  proceeded  along  the  east  coast  to 
Robinhood's  Bay,  Scarborough,  Bridlington,  and  Hull. 

From  Hull,  he  made  his  way  to  Beverley,  York,  Tadcaster, 
Pateley,  Otley,  Yeadon,  Heptonstall,  Colne,  Haworth,  and 
Keighley.  The  Keighley,  or  Haworth,  circuit,  at  this  period, 
extended  from  Otley  to  Whitehaven,  a  distance  of  one  hundred 
and  twenty  miles.^  Yeadon  has  just  been  mentioned.  Here 
James  Rhodes  began  to  hold  Methodist  prayer-meetings  as 
early  as  1747;  and  here  his  brother  Joseph  preached  the  first 
Methodist  sermon  in  Yeadon,  in  the  house  of  Judith  Jackson. 
Here  Thomas  Mitchell,  one  of  Wesley's  bravest  itinerants,  was 
trained ;  and  here  William  Darney,  while  preaching,  was 
attacked  by  a  mob,  led  on  by  Reynolds,  curate  of  Guiseley, 
had  eggs  thrown  at  his  face,  was  dragged  out  of  doors,  and 
then  stamped  upon.  Here  Jonathan  Maskew,  by  the  same 
godless  gang,  had  his  clothes  torn  off  his  back,  and,  in  a  state 
of  nakedness,  was  trailed  over  the  rough  stone  pavement,  till 
he  was  a  mass  of  bruises.  The  bush  burned,  but  it  was  not 
consumed.  In  1766,  the  first  chapel  was  erected  ;  and  now, 
in  1770,  it  had  to  be  enlarged. 

At  the  beginning  of  July,  Wesley  spent  about  a  week  at 
Leeds,  and  in  the  surrounding  towns  and  villages.  He  visited 
the  orphanage  of  Miss  Bosanquet,  who  had  removed  to  Cross 
Hall,  Morley.  Her  friend  Sarah  Crosby,  in  a  letter  dated 
July  13,  1770,  remarks  :  "Mr.  Wesley  left  Leeds  yesterday. 
1  never  heard  him  preach  better,  if  so  well.     In  every  sermon 

'  Methodist  Magazi7ie,  18 14,  p.  166. 


Thomas  Cook,  of  LoiighborotLgh.  69 

he  set  forth  *  Christian  perfection'  in  the  most  beautiful  light.      ^77° 
Mr.  Rankin,   who  travels  with  him,   is  a  blessed  man,   and     Age  67 
seems  to  fear  no  one's   face.     I  believe  there  has  not  been 
such  a  time  at  Leeds  for  many  years."  ^ 

From  Leeds,  Wesley  proceeded  to  Doncaster,  Epworth, 
Horncastle,  Louth,  and  other  places ;  and  then,  turning  round, 
came  back  to  Doncaster,  and,  from  there,  went  to  Rotherham, 
Sheffield,  Derby,  and  Nottingham,  preaching,  not  only  there, 
but  in  many  of  the  intervening  villages  and  towns.  He 
writes  :  "  I  preached  at  Bingham,  and  really  admired  the 
exquisite  stupidity  of  the  people.  They  gaped  and  stared, 
while  I  was  speaking  of  death  and  judgment,  as  if  they  had 
never  heard  of  such  things  before.  And  they  were  not  helped 
by  two  surly,  ill  mannered  clergymen,  who  seemed  to  be  just 
as  wise  as  themselves." 

In  Loughborough  market  place,  he  preached  to  a  congre- 
gation of  some  thousands,  all  of  them  still  as  night.  This 
was  his  first  sermon  here ;  but,  four  years  previous  to  this, 
some  of  his  preachers  had  visited  the  town,  and,  among  others, 
converted  by  their  ministry,  was  Thomas  Cook,  who  in  hu- 
mility, penitence,  and  self  denial,  was,  even  among  the  first 
Methodists,  almost  without  an  equal.  For  three  months  to- 
gether, he  would  live  on  barley  bread  and  water,  often  fasting, 
from  even  nourishment  like  that,  for  whole  days  together,  and 
praying  the  whole  night  through.  He  invariably  wore  clothing 
of  the  coarsest  material,  and  when  urged  to  use  an  overcoat 
answered  :  "  When  you  can  assure  me,  that  there  is  not  a  poor 
man  destitute  of  one  coat,  I  may  then  perhaps  wear  tivo!' 
For  ten  years,  he  prayed  for  all  with  whom  he  happened  to 
converse  ;  and  as  he  lived,  so  he  died, — humble,  holy,  loving, 
and  devout, — saying  in  answer  to  a  question,  and  with  his 
characteristic  self  abasement,  ''  Oh  no  !  no  funeral  sermon  for 
ine!"^ 

On  Thursday,  August  2,  after  a  five  months'  absence, 
Wesley  got  back  to  London  ;  and,  on  August  7,  met  his  con- 
ference ;  in  reference  to  which,  the  following  unpublished 
letter,  addressed  to  Mr.  IMerry weather,  at  Yarm,  is  not 
without  interest. 

^  Manuscript.  ^  Methodist  Magazine,  1807,  p.  242. 


70  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1770  "My  dear  Brother, — I  have  the  credit  of  stationing  the  preachers  ; 

-~~  but  many  of  them  go  where  they  will  go,  for  all  me.  For  instance,  I  have 
^'^  marked  down  James  Oddie  and  John  Nelson  for  Yarm  circuit  the  ensuing 
year  ;  yet,  I  am  not  certain  that  either  of  them  will  come.  They  can 
give  twenty  reasons  for  going  elsewhere.  Mr.  Murlin  says,  he  must  be  in 
London.  'Tis  certain  he  has  a  mind  to  be  there  ;  therefore,  so  it  must 
be  ;  for  you  know  a  man  of  fortune  is  master  of  his  own  motions. 

"  I  am  your  affectionate  brother, 

"John  Wesley." 

The  difficulties  of  conference,  in  stationing  preachers,  are 
not  novel. 

There  were  now  fifty  Methodist  circuits,  one  of  which  was 
America !  There  were  a  hundred  and  twenty  itinerant 
preachers,  and  29,406  members  of  society.  Nearly  ;^2,ooo 
had  been  subscribed,  during  the  year,  towards  defraying  the 
chapel  debts  ;  and  yet,  in  consequence  of  new  erections,  the 
aggregate  debt  was  about  the  same.  His  chapels  were  be- 
coming Wesley's  greatest  burdens.^  It  was  resolved,  that, 
during  the  coming  year,  no  new  chapel  should  be  built,  nor 
any  old  one  altered,  unless  the  entire  expenditure  were  raised  ; 
and  a  proposal  was  made  to  vest  all  the  chapels  in  a  general 
trust,  consisting  of  persons  chosen  from  among  the  Method- 
ists throughout  the  kingdom.  This  would  have  been  a  dis- 
astrous mistake.     Fortunately  it  was  not  adopted, 

Kingswood  school,  as  usual,  was  a  trouble.  It  had  been 
opened  two-and-twenty  years,  and  had  had,  during  that  period, 
eight  classical  masters,  five  of  whom  had  obtained  episcopal 
ordination,  and  now  a  sixth,  Joseph  Benson,  had  not  only 
entered  himself  a  graduate  at  Oxford,  but  had  exchanged 
Kingswood  for  Trevecca.  No  wonder  that  Wesley,  at  the 
conference  of  1 770,  asked,  "  How  can  we  secure  our 
masters.''"  The  answer  was,  "Ask  each,  before  he  is. re- 
ceived, Do  you  design  to  stay  here  t    have  you  any  thoughts 

^  The  following  hitherto  unpublished  letter  was  addressed  to  Matthew 
Lowes,  and  refers  both  to  circuit,  and  connexional  chapel,  debts. 

"London,  March  2,  1770. 

"Dear  Matthew, — The  way  you  propose  for  clearing  the  circuit  is,  I 
think,  the  very  best  which  can  be  devised.  Only  let  your  fellow  labourers 
second  _y(?z^  heartily,  and  the  thing  will  be  done. 

"  Four  or  five  circuits  exerted  themselves  nobly.  Had  all  the  rest  done 
the  same  our  burden  would  have  been  quite  removed.  Well,  we  will 
fight  till  we  die,  "  I  am,  etc.,  J.  Wesley." 


Doctrinal  JMinicies.  71 


of  being  ordained  ?  have  you  any  design  to  preach  ? "     It  is      1770 
a  fact  worth  noting,  that,  during  the  remainder  of  Wesley's     a^67 
hfetime,    there    was    only   one    more    classical    master    who 
became  an  ordained  clergyman,  and  that  was   Mr.  Benson's 
immediate  successor,  Isaac  Twicross.  ^ 

Wesley  found,  that  some  of  his  preachers  were  still  en- 
gaged in  trade ;  and,  hence,  it  was  now  agreed,  that  those 
who  would  not  relinquish  trading  in  cloth,  hardware,  pills, 
drops,  and  balsams,  should  be  excluded  from  the  brother- 
hood ;  but  that,  if  any  of  them,  like  Thomas  Hanby,  John 
Oliver,  and  James  Oddie,  had  a  share  in  ships,  there  would 
be  no  objection  to  that.^ 

The  conference  of  1770,  however,  will  always  be  memor- 
able chiefly,  if  not  entirely,  for  its  doctrinal  minutes. 
From  the  first,  Whitefield,  Howel  Harris,  and  their  friends, 
had  been  Calvinists  ;  and  so  were  many  of  the  evangelical 
clergy,  patronised  by  the  Countess  of  Huntingdon,  as 
Romaine,  Newton,  Venn,  Berridge,  Shirley,  and  others.  At 
an  early  period  of  their  history,  the  two  Wesleys  agreed, 
with  the  Methodist  Calvinistic  leaders,  to  avoid  preaching 
on  Calvinistic  topics  to  the  utmost  extent  possible.  Charles 
Wesley  afterwards  endorsed  the  document  with  the  words 
"  Vain  Agreement."  So  indeed  it  was  :  in  fact  it  could  hardly 
be  otherwise.  Wesley,  more  than  once,  tried  to  meet  his 
friends  at  a  sort  of  halfway  house  ;  but  the  attempt  was 
dangerous,  it  exposed  Wesley  to  suspicion,  and  it  issued  in 
a  failure.  We  have  already  seen  that,  in  1743,  Wesley,  for 
the  purpose  of  terminating  their  disputes,  made  concessions 
to  Whitefield,  respecting  unconditional  election,  irresistible 
grace,  and  final  perseverance,  which  it  was  impossible  to 
defend.  Accordingly,  at  the  conference  held  a  few  months 
afterwards,  he   honestly  confessed,    that   he  had    "  unawares 

^  Myles's  History. 

2  This  had  become  a  matter  of  grave  importance.  IMatthew  Lowes, 
one  of  Wesley's  most  useful  itinerants,  states,  in  his  unpublished  Auto- 
biography, that  though  the  trading  cf  the  preachers,  in  cloth,  groceries, 
hardware,  etc.,  was  of  considerable  benefit  to  themselves  and  their 
families,  it  was  strongly  objected  to  by  the  people:  (i)  because  it  inter- 
fered with  the  businesses  of  Methodists  in  the  places  which  the  preachers 
visited  ;  and  (2)  because  it  was  deemed  inconsistent  for  a  minister  of  the 
word  of  God  to  be  engaged  in  any  kind  of  trade  whatever.  Lowes'  trad- 
ing was  chiefly  confined  to  the  sale  of  a  valuable  balsam,  of  which  he 


72  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

leaned  too  much  towards  Calvinism  ;"^  and  proceeded  to  pro- 
pound doctrines,  which,  in  substance,  were  the  same  as  those 
he  now  embodied  in  the  theses  of  1770.  Twenty-six  years 
had  elapsed  since  then  ;  but  there  was  a  striking  resemblance 
between  the  two  periods  ;  and,  substantially,  the  same  cause 
for  outspokenness.  To  say  nothing  more  concerning  White- 
field's  doctrines,  it  is  important  to  bear  in  mind,  that,  in  1744, 
Moravianism,  or  rather  Zinzendorfism,  had  turned  the  doctrine 
of  justification  by  faith  only  into  an  antinomian  channel ;  and 
now,  in  1770,  the  same  thing  was  practically  being  done  by 
not  a  few  who,  at  all  events,  were  called  Methodists.  Mr. 
Fletcher's  description  of  the  antinomianism  of  the  period  is 
a  frightful  picture;  and  though  not  so  applicable  to  the  fol- 
lowers of  Wesley  as  to  those  of  the  Countess  of  Huntingdon's 
connexion,  yet  the  former  were  not  so  free  from  the  anti- 
nomian poison  as  they  should  have  been.  Hence  the  publica- 
tion of  Wesley's  theological  theses  ;  substantially  the  same 
as  he  had  enunciated  in  1744;  but  not  so  guardedly  expressed. 
As  they  led  to  the  longest  and  bitterest  controversy  in 
Wesley's  history,  we  subjoin  them  in  their  entirety. 

"We  said,  in  1744,  'We  have  leaned  too  much  toward  Calvinism.' 
Wherein  ? 

"  I.  With  regard  to  man^s  faithfulness.  Our  Lord  himself  taught  us  to 
use  the  expression  ;  and  we  ought  never  to  be  ashamed  of  it.  We  ought 
steadily  to  assert,  on  His  authority,  that,  if  a  man  is  not  'faithful  in  the 
unrighteous  mammon,'  God  will  not  give  him  the  tt'iie  riches. 

himself  was  the  sole  maker  and  vendor;  and  which,  while  of  great  use  to 
the  afflicted,  and  a  source  of  income  to  the  poor  itinerant,  did  not  in  the 
least  interfere  with  the  business  of  others ;  but  even  Lowes  was  obliged  to 
give  up  the  itinerancy,  when,  for  the  sake  of  the  suffering,  and,  for  the 
benefit  of  his  numerous  family,  he  refused  to  give  up  his  balsam.  In 
1 771,  he  was  compelled  to  retire  from  the  itinerant  work,  partly  for  the 
reason  just  mentioned,  and  partly  on  the  ground  of  health,  and,  for  about 
a  quarter  of  a  century  afterwards,  acted  as  a  local  preacher  at  Newcastle 
on  Tyne,  and  supported  himself,  his  wife,  and  his  children,  chiefly  by  the 
sale  of  his  useful  medicine.  Three  months  after  his  retirement,  Wesley 
wrote  to  him  the  following,  now  for  the  first  time  published. 

"  Norwich,  November  10,  1771. 

"  Dear  Matthew, — You  should  do  all  you  can ;  otherwise  want  of 
exercise  will  not  lessen,  but  increase  your  disorder.  Certainly  there  is  no 
objection  to  your  making  balsam,  while  you  are  not  considered  as  a 
travelling  preacher.  I  am,  with  love  to  sister  Lowes,  your  affectionate 
brother,  "  J.  WESLEY." 

1  Minutes,  1744. 


Doctrinal  Mmtites. 


/o 


"2.  With  regard  to  'ix.wrking for  life.     This  also  our  Lord  has  expressly       1770 
commanded  us:  'Labour/  fpya^eo-^e,  literally  'Work'  'for  the  meat  that      .       , 
endureth  to  everlasting  life.'     And,  in  fact,  every  believer,  till  he  comes  to 
glory,  works  for  as  well  asfrotii  life. 

"3.  We  have  received  it  as  a  maxim,  that  'a  man  is  to  do  nothing  in 
order  to  justification.'  Nothing  can  be  more  false.  Whoever  desires  to 
find  favour  with  God  should  '  cease  from  evil,  and  learn  to  do  well.' 
Whoever  repents  should  do  '  works  meet  for  repentance.'  And  if  this  is 
not  in  order  to  find  favour,  what  does  he  do  them  for? 

"  Review  the  whole  affair :  i.  Who  of  us  is  now  accepted  of  God  ? 
He  that  now  believes  in  Christ  with  a  loving  and  obedient  heart. 

"  2.  But  who  among  those  that  never  heard  of  Christ  ?  He  that  feareth 
God  and  worketh  righteousness,  according  to  the  light  he  has. 

"3.  Is  this  the  same  with  'he  that  is  sincere'  ?     Nearly,  if  not  quite. 

"4.  Is  not  this  '  salvation  by  works'?  Not  by  the  Jiierit  of  works,  but 
by  works  as  a  condition. 

"5.  What  have  we  been  disputing  about  for  these  thirty  years?  I  am 
afraid,  about  -words. 

"  6.  As  to  merit  itself,  of  which  we  have  been  so  dreadfully  afraid  ;  we 
are  rewarded  'according  to  our  works,'  yea,  'because  of  our  works.'  How 
does  this  differ  from,  for  the  sake  of  our  works?  And  how  differs  this 
from  secundum  merita  operum  ?  as  our  works  deserve  f  Can  you  split 
this  hair?     I  doubt  I  cannot. 

"  7.  The  grand  objection  to  one  of  the  preceding  propositions  is  drawn 
from  matter  of  fact.  God  does  in  fact  justify  those,  who,  by  their  own 
confession,  neither  feared  God  nor  wrought  righteousness.  Is  this  an 
exception  to  the  general  rule?  It  is  a  doubt,  God  makes  any  exception  at 
alL  But  how  are  we  sure,  that  the  person  in  question  never  did  fear  God 
and  work  righteousness  ?  His  own  saying  so  is  not  proof ;  for  we 
know,  how  all  that  are  convinced  of  sin  undervalue  themselves  in  every 
respect. 

"  8.  Does  not  talking  of  a  justified  or  a  sanctified  state  tend  to  mislead 
men  ?  almost  naturally  leading  them  to  trust  in  what  was  done  in  one 
moment  ?  Whereas  we  are  every  hour  and  every  moment  pleasing  or 
displeasing  to  God,  'according  to  our  works'  ; — according  to  the  whole  of 
our  inward  tempers,  and  our  outward  behaviour." 

What  was  the  result  of  these  loosely  worded  propositions } 
The  answer  to  this  will  extend  over  several  years  ;  but  suffice 
it  to  say  at  present  that  the  publication  gave  huge  offence  to 
the  whole  host  of  Calvinistic  Methodists;  and  Lady  Hunting- 
don declared,  that  whoever  did  not  wholly  disavow  the  theses 
should  quit  her  college.  Mr.  Benson,  her  classical  master,  so 
far  from  disavowing,  defended  them,  and  hence  sprung  up  a 
correspondence  between  Wesley  and  himself,  from  which  the 
following  are  extracts. 


74  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1770  "Bristol,  October  5,  1770. 

~    ^  "  Dear  Joseph, — I  am  glad  you  had  the  courage  to  speak  your  mind 

"^  on  so   critical  an  occasion.     At  all  hazards,  do   so   still;  only  with  all 

possible  tenderness  and  respect.  She  is  much  devoted  to  God,  and  has  a 
thousand  valuable  and  amiable  qualities.  There  is  no  great  fear  that  I 
should  be  prejudiced  against  one  whom  I  have  intimately  known  for  these 
thirty  years.  And  I  know  what  is  in  man  ;  therefore,  I  make  large 
allowance  for  human  weaknesses.  But  what  you  say  is  exactly  the  state 
of  the  case.  They  are  'jealous  of  their  authority.'  Truly,  there  is  no 
cause  :  Longe  mea  discrepat  illi  et  vox  et  7'afio.  I  fear  and  shun,  not 
desire,  authority  of  any  kind.  Only  when  God  lays  that  burden  upon  me, 
I  bear  it,  for  His  and  the  people's  sake.  *  Child,'  said  my  father  to  me 
when  I  was  young,  'you  think  to  carry  everything  by  dint  of  argument  ; 
but  you  will  find,  by-and-by,  how  very  little  is  ever  done  in  the  world  by 
clear  reason.'  Very  little  indeed  !  Passion  and  prejudice  govern  the 
world  ;  only  under  the  name  of  reason.  It  is  our  part,  by  religion  and 
reason,  to  counteract  them  all  we  can.  It  is  yours,  in  particular,  to  do  all 
that  in  you  lies  to  soften  the  prejudices  of  those  that  are  round  about  you, 
and  to  calm  the  passions  from  which  they  spring.  Blessed  are  the  peace- 
makers !  Whatever  I  say,  it  will  be  all  one.  They  will  find  fault,  because 
I  say  it.  There  is  implicit  envy  at  my  power  (so  called),  and  a  jealousy 
rising  therefrom.  Hence  prejudice  in  a  thousand  forms  ;  hence  objections 
springing  up  like  mushrooms.  And  while  these  causes  remain,  they  will 
spring  up,  whatever  I  can  do  or  say.  However,  keep  thyself  pure  ;  and 
then  there  need  be  no  strangeness  between  you  and,  dear  Joseph,  your 
affectionate  brother, 

"John  Wesley."  ^ 

"  London,  November  30,  1 770. 
"  Dear  Joseph, — For  several  years,  I  have  been  convinced  that  I  had 
not  done  my  duty  with  regard  to  that  valuable  woman;  that  I  had  not 
told  her  what,  I  was  thoroughly  assured,  no  one  else  would  dare  to  do,  and 
what  I  knew  she  would  bear  from  no  other  person,  but  possibly  might  bear 
from  me.  But,  being  unwilling  to  give  her  pain,  I  put  it  off  from  time  to 
time.  At  length,  I  did  not  dare  to  delay  any  longer,  lest  death  should 
call  one  of  us  hence.  So  I,  at  once,  delivered  my  own  soul,  by  telling  her 
all  that  was  in  my  heart.  It  was  my  business,  my  proper  business,  so  to 
do  ;  as  none  else  either  could  or  would  do  it.  Neither  did  I  at  all  take  too 
much  upon  me  :  I  know  the  office  of  a  Christian  minister.  If  she  is  not 
profited,  it  is  her  own  fault,  not  mine  :  I  have  done  my  duty,  and  I  do  not 
know  there  is  one  charge  in  that  letter  which  was  either  unjust,  unim- 
portant, or  aggravated ;  any  more  than  that  against  the  doggerel  hymns, 
which  are  equally  an  insult  upon  poetry  and  common  sense. 

"  I  am,  dear  Joseph,  your  affectionate  brother, 

John  Wesley." ^ 


1  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xii.,  p.  385.  ^  n^jj,  p_  387. 


A fiti-  Calvinian  Publications. 


/D 


The  above  refers  to  a  letter  which  Wesley  had  addressed  1770 
to  Lady  Huntingdon  ;  but  which  has  never  yet  been  pub-  AgTe? 
lished.  Evidently  it  was  faithful,  and  also  unpalatable.  It 
seems  to  have  strengthened  prejudices  against  him,  instead  of 
removing  them.  His  position  also  was  not  improved  by 
anti-Calvinian  publications  over  which  he  had  no  control, 
Mr.  William  Mason,  who  had  been  one  of  Wesley's  class- 
leaders,  but  had  left  him,  and  was  now  a  magistrate  of  the 
county  of  Surrey,  and  resided  at  Rotherhithe  Wall,^  issued  his 
"  Axe  laid  to  the  Root  of  Antinomian  Licentiousness  ;  ex- 
tracted from  the  works  of  Mr.  Flavel,"  1770:  8vo,  36  pages. 
Another  writer,  signing  himself  "  Academicus,"  gave  to  the 
public  a  small  octavo  volume  of  124  pages,  entitled  "The 
Church  of  England  Vindicated  from  the  Rigid  Notions  of 
Calvinism  "  ;  in  which  Sir  Richard  Hill  is  severely,  perhaps 
abusively,  flagellated  for  his  virulent  attack  on  Dr.  Adams 
of  Shrewsbury,  and  the  Rev.  William  Romaine  is  charged 
with  preaching  a  sermon  which  "  shocked  every  serious  and 
rational  Christian  that  heard  it."  All  these  incidents  had  to 
do  with  the  lamentable  anger  and  bitterness  of  the  memorable 
Calvinian  controversy  which  will  soon  demand  attention. 

The  sessions  of  the  conference  of  1770  being  ended, 
Wesley  set  out  for  Cornwall,  where  he  spent  the  next  three 
weeks.  Returning  to  Bristol,  he  and  his  brother,  at  the 
beginning  of  October,  agreed,  at  the  request  of  the  society, 
to  administer  to  them  the  Lord's  supper  every  other  Sunday  ; 
which  arrangement,  of  course,  rendered  it  necessary,  that 
an  ordained  clergyman  should  reside  at  Bristol,  or  in  its 
neighbourhood. 

The  rest  of  the  year  was  occupied  with  his  usual  journeys  to 
Oxfordshire,  Bedfordshire,  Northamptonshire,  Hertfordshire, 
Norfolk,  and  Kent.  Poor  Whitefield  was  dead  ;  and  Wesley, 
if  the  way  was  opened,  was  quite  ready  to  take  his  place,  by 
including  America  within  the  bounds  of  his  vast  IMethodist 
circuit.     Hence  the  following  to  Mrs.  Marston,  of  Worcester. 


^^  December  14,  1770. 
"My  dear   Sister, — If  I  live  till  spring,  and   should  have  a  clear, 
pressing  call,  I  am  as  ready  to  embark  for  America,  as  for  Ireland.     All 

^  "  Life  and  Times  of  Countess  of  Huntingdon,"  vol.  i.,  p.  364, 


76  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1770  places  are  alike  to  me:  I  am  attached  to  none  in  particular.  Wherever 
~  ,  the  work  of  our  Lord  is  to  be  carried  on,  that  is  my  place  for  to-day. 
'^  And  we  live  only  for  to-day  :    it   is  not  our   part  to  take   thought  for 

to-morrow. 

"  I  am,  dear  Molly,  your  affectionate  brother, 

"John  Wesley."^ 

On  Saturday,  September  29,  while  on  his  way  to  Boston, 
in  New  England,  Whitefield,  at  the  importunity  of  the  people, 
preached  at  Exeter,  in  the  open  air,  a  sermon  nearly  two 
hours  long.  At  six  o'clock  next  morning  he  was  dead.  A 
friend,  addressing  him  just  before  he  commenced  his  last 
sermon,  said,  "  Sir,  you  are  more  fit  to  go  to  bed  than  to 
preach."  "True,"  replied  the  dying  evangelist;  and  then  turning 
aside,  he  clasped  his  hands,  and,  looking  up,  said:  "Lord  Jesus, 
I  am  weary  in  Thy  work,  but  not  of  Thy  work."  Whitefield 
was  buried,  where  he  died,  at  Newburyport,  Every  mark  of 
respect  was  shown  to  his  remains.  All  the  bells  in  the  town 
tolled,  and  the  ships  in  the  harbour  fired  mourning  guns,  and 
hung  their  flags  half-mast  high.  In  Georgia,  all  the  black 
cloth  in  the  stores  was  bought  up,  and  the  church  was  hung 
with  mourning  ;  the  governor  and  council  met  at  the  state- 
house  in  habiliments  of  sorrow,  and  went  in  procession  to 
hear  a  funeral  sermon. 

Whitefield  intended  to  be  interred  in  Tottenham  Court 
chapel,  and  had  told  the  congregation,  that  he  should  like 
the  Wesley  brothers  to  be  interred  beside  him.  "  We  will," 
said  he,  "  all  lie  together.  You  refuse  them  entrance  here 
while  living  :  they  can  do  you  no  harm  when  they  are  dead."^ 
Whitefield's  wish  was  not  realised  ;  but,  at  length,  W^esley 
was  admitted  to  Whitefield's  pulpit. 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Joss  announced  in  Tottenham  Court  chapel 
on  November  ii,  that,  on  the  sabbath  following,  Wesley 
would  preach  a  sermon  there  on  Whitefield's  death,  as  it  had 
long  ago  been  agreed  between  the  two,  that  whichever  sur- 
vived the  other  should  preach  the  deceased's  funeral  discourse.^ 
An  immense  multitude  assembled.  "  It  was,"  says  Wesley, 
"  an  awful  season  ;  all  were  as  still  as   night."     On  the  same 

^  Methodist  Magazine,  1826,  p.  752. 

^  J.  Pawson's  manuscripts. 

^  Lloyd'' s  Evening  Post,  Nov.  16,  1770. 


Death  of  Whitcjicld.  77 

day,  he  preached  again  in  Whitefield's  tabernacle  in  Moor-  17  7° 
fields.  The  hour  appointed  was  half-past  five  ;  but  the  place  Age  67 
was  filled  at  three,  and  Wesley  began  at  four.  His  text  was 
the  same  at  both  places :  "  Let  me  die  the  death  of  the 
righteous,  and  let  my  last  end  be  like  his  !  "  Whitefield's 
characteristics  were  described  as  consisting  of  "  unparalclled 
zeal,  indefatigable  activity,  tender  heartedness  to  the  afflicted, 
and  charitableness  toward  the  poor,  the  most  generous  friend- 
ship, nice  and  unblemished  modesty,  frankness  and  openness 
of  conversation,  unflinching  courage,  and  steadiness  in  what- 
ever he  undertook  for  his  Master's  sake."  Wesley  then 
sketched  the  doctrines  Whitefield  preached,  and  concluded 
thus. 

"These  are  the  fundainental  doctrines  which  he  everywhere  insisted 
on  ;  and  may  they  not  be  summed  up  in  two  words,— the  new  birth,  and 
justification  by  faith  1  These  let  us  insist  upon  with  all  boldness,  at  all 
times,  and  in  all  places.  Keep  close  to  these  good,  old,  unfashionable 
doctrines,  how  many  soever  contradict  and  blaspheme.  Go  on,  my  bre- 
thren, in  the  name  of  the  Lord,  and  in  the  power  of  His  might.  Let  brother 
no  more  lift  up  sword  against  brother  ;  rather  put  ye  on,  as  the  elect  of 
God,  bowels  of  mercies,  humbleness  of  mind,  brotherly  kindness,  gentle- 
ness, longsuffering,  forbearing  one  another  in  love.  Let  the  time  past 
suffice  for  strife,  envy,  contention  ;  for  biting  and  devouring  one  another. 
O  God,  with  Thee  no  word  is  impossible !  O  that  Thou  wouldest 
cause  the  mantle  of  Thy  prophet,  whom  Thou  hast  taken  up,  now  to  fall 
on  us  that  remain  !  Take  away  from  us  all  anger  and  wrath,  and 
bitterness  ;  all  clamour  and  evil  speaking !  Let  Thy  Spirit  so  rest 
upon  us,  that  from  this  hour  we  may  be  kind  to  each  other,  tender 
hearted,  forgiving  one  another,  even  as  God  for  Christ's  sake  hath  for- 
given us  ! " 

Well  did  such  sentiments  harmonise  with  the  spirit  and  the 
life  of  Wesley's  old  and  faithful  friend  ;  and  mournful  is  the 
fact,  that  they  were  so  soon  utterly  ignored  by  the  party  of  , 
which  Whitefield  had  been  the  chief.  No  sooner  was  Wesley's 
sermon  preached  and  published,  than  it  was  attacked,  because 
he  had  omitted  to  mention  the  election  and  final  perseveiance 
of  the  saints.  His  doctrines  of"  the  new  birth  and  justification 
by  faith  were  a  defective,  precarious  scheme,  and  abortive  as 
to  saving  purposes  ;  because,  according  to  his  tenets,  a  man 
may  be  justified  by  faith,  and  be  born  again,  and  yet  never 
enjoy  eternal  life,  unless  he  does  more  for  himself,  to  make 


yS  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

his   salvation   effectual,  than  has  been   done  for  him  by  the 
blood  and  righteousness  of  Christ."  ^ 

Whitefield  bequeathed  his  orphan  house  estate  in  Georgia, 
with  all  its  "  buildings,  lands,  and  negroes,"  "  to  that  elect  lady, 
that  mother  in  Israel,  that  mirror  of  true  and  undefiled  religion, 
the  Right  Honourable  Selina,  Countess  Dowager  of  Hunting- 
don." His  two  chapels  in  London,  with  his  books  and  furni- 
ture in  the  Tabernacle  house,  were  left  to  his  "worthy,  trusty, 
tried  friends,  Messrs.  Daniel  West  and  Robert  Keen."  Within 
the  last  three  years,  he  had  become  possessed,  by  legacies,  of 
about  ^^"1700,  including  ;^700  accruing  to  him  at  his  wife's 
decease  ;  and  this  amount  he  bequeathed  to  a  whole  host  of 
friends,  the  largest  share  falling  to  the  Countess  of  Hunting- 
don ;  while,  in  an  addendum  to  his  will,  he  says :  "  I  also  leave 
a  mourning  ring  to  my  honoured  and  dear  friends  and  disin- 
terested fellow  labourers,  the  Rev.  Messrs.  John  and  Charles 
Wesley,  in  token  of  my  indissoluble  union  with  them,  in 
heart  and  Christian  affection,  notwithstanding  our  differences 
in  judgment  about  some  particular  points  of  doctrine.  Grace 
be  with  all  them,  of  whatever  denomination,  that  love  our 
Lord  Jesus,  our  common  Lord,  in  sincerity."^ 

Thus  died  one  of  the  greatest  Christian  orators  that  ever 
lived, — a  man  who,  though  often  heavily  afflicted,  preached,  in 
four-and-thirty  years,  upwards  of  eighteen  thousand  sermons,^ 
many  of  them  in  the  open  air,  and  often  to  enormous  crowds, 
and  in  the  teeth  of  brutal  persecution.* 

Space  forbids  enlargement;  but,  perhaps,  two  unpublished 
letters,  belonging  to  this  period,  may  be  welcome.  The  first 
was  addressed  to  Matthew  Lowes,  and  the  second  to  Miss 
Foard,  who  afterwards  became  IMrs.  Thornton,  of  ^6,  Black- 
man  Street,  Southwark. 

"London,  October  13.  1770. 
"My  dear  Brother, — Health  you  shall  have,  if  health  be  best;  if 
not,  sickness  will  be  a  greater  blessing.     I  am  glad  you  have  Dr.  Wilson 

'  Gospel  Magazine,  \T]'i,  p.  39. 

2  Lloyd's  Evening  Post,  1771,  pp.   127,  139. 

8  Gospel  Magazine,  1776,  p.  443. 

*  Poor  Whitefield  was  pelted  even  after  he  was  dead.  In  the  Annual 
Register,  for  1770,  it  is  wickedly  stated,  that  his  last  visit  to  America  was 
owing  "to  an  attachment  to  a  woman,  by  whom  he  had  a  child  while  his 
wife  was  living  ;"  and  it  is  added,  that  "  this  child  was  the  first  infant 
ever  entered  into  his  orphan  house  in  Georgia"! 


Original  Letters. 


Age  67 


near.     A  more  skilful  man,  I  suppose,  is  not  in  England.     If  you  should       1770 
continue  weak,  (as  I  did  from  November  to  March,)  good  is  the  will  of 
the  Lord.     You  are  not  a  superannuated  preacher :  but  you  are  a  super- 
numerary,    I  believe  one  of  your  boys  is  rejoicing  in  the  love  of  God. 
"  I   am,  with  love  to  sister  Lowes,  dear  Matthew,  your  affectionate 

^''°^h^'"'  "J-  WESLEY." 

"  December  29,  1770. 
"  My  dear  Sister, — When  wc  had  an  opportunity  of  spending  a  day 
or  two  together,  you  convinced  me  that  you  fear  and  love  God,  and  desire 
to  enjoy  all  His  promises.  And  I  found  you  less  prejudiced,  than  I  expected, 
against  the  doctrine  of  Christian  perfection.  I  only  want  you  to  ex- 
perience this :  to  be  '  all  faith,  all  gentleness,  all  love.'  Labour  to  be  wise, 
and  yet  simple  !  To  steer  between  the  extremes  of  neglecting  to  culti- 
vate your  understanding,  which  is  right ;  and  leaning  to  it,  which  is 
fatally  wrong.  And  be  free  and  open  with,  my  dear  Nancy,  your  affec- 
tionate brother,  «T  "Wesley" 

Little  more,  in  reference  to  1770,  remains  to  be  related. 
To  a  great  extent,  mob  violence  was  ended  ;  but  Wesley  was 
still  the  target  at  which  literary  malice  shot  its  shafts.  The  aid 
of  the  Muses  was  again  invoked,  and  some  unknown  poetaster 
issued  an  octavo  pamphlet  of  39  pages,  entitled,  "  The 
Perfections  of  God, — a  standing  Rule  to  try  all  Doctrines  and 
Experience.  A  Poem  humbly  offered  to  the  consideration  of 
Mr.  John  Wesley  and  his  followers."  This  was  evidently  the 
production  of  one  of  his  Calvinistic  friends.  Hence  the  fol- 
lowing— 

"  Shall  Wesley  sow  his  hurtful  tares, 
And  scatter  round  a  thousand  snares, 
Telling  how  God  from  wrath  may  turn, 
And  love  the  soul  He  thought  to  burn. 
And  how  again  His  mind  may  move. 
To  hate,  where  He  has  vowed  to  love. 
How  all  mankind  He  fain  would  save. 
Yet  longs  for  what  He  cannot  have. 
Industrious  thus  to  sound  abroad 
A  disappointed,  changing  God.''" 

Again,  in  reference  to  the  "  Hymn  on  God's  Everlasting 
Love,"  we  have  the  following  choice  vwrceau. 

"  Blush  Wesley,  blush,  be  filled  with  shame, 
Doom  thy  vile  poem  to  the  flame  ; 
What  tongue  thy  horrid  crime  can  tell  ? 
Put  saints  to  sing  the  song  of  hell ! 


8o  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1770  Haste  hence  to  Rome,  thy  proper  place  ; 

Ao~~67  Why  should  we  share  in  thy  disgrace  ? 

We  need  no  greater  proof  to  see, 

Thy  blasphemies  with  hers  agree." 

In  addition  to  the  above,  there  was  pubHshed  a  sermon 
of  32  pages,  8vo,  entitled  "  Methodistical  Deceit:  a  Sermon 
preached  in  the  parish  church  of  St.  Matthew,  Bethnal  Green, 
by  Haddon  Smith,  curate  of  the  said  church." 
-  It  is  right  to  say  that  Mr.  Smith's  discourse  is  levelled 
against  the  Calvinistic  Methodists,  of  whom,  however,  he 
unfortunately  speaks  as  though  they  were  all  the  Methodists 
that  existed.  Remembering  the  recent  origin  of  the  Method- 
ist movement,  and  the  unparalelled  opposition  it  had  been 
its  lot  to  encounter,  it  is  somewhat  amusing  to  find  the 
Bethnal  Green  curate  describing  the  Methodists  as  "  the 
overbearing  sect  "  ;  perhaps  it  was  a  lapsus  lingucB ;  or  perhaps 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Smith  began  to  see,  that  crushing  the  system 
with  the  iron  heel  of  persecution  only  diffused  its  fragrance 
wider ;  and  that,  after  all,  Methodism,  instead  of  dying,  was 
every  year  more  vigorous  than  ever.  Mr.  Smith  was  severely 
handled  in  a  pamphlet  of  40  pages,  with  the  title,  "  Letters  to 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Haddon  Smith,'  occasioned  by  his  Curious 
Sermon  entitled  Methodistical  Deceit ;  by  Philalethes." 

Wesley's  own  publications,  in  1770,  were  as  follows. 

1.  "An  Extract  from  Dr.  Young's  Night  Thoughts,  on 
Life,  Death,  and  Immortality."  i2mo,  241  pages.  Wesley 
professed  to  have  left  out  all  the  lines  in  Young,  which  he 
"apprehended  to  be  either  childish,  or  fiat,  or  turgid,  or 
obscure  "  ;  and  appended  brief  explanations  of  the  words  and 
phrases,  which  he  thought  would  be  scarcely  understood  by 
unlearned  readers. 

2.  "Minutes  of  several  Conversations  between  the  Rev. 
Messrs.  John  and  Charles  Wesley  and  others."  8vo,  60 
pages.  This  was  a  new  and  enlarged  edition  of  the  minutes 
published  in  1763,  embracing  minutes  of  all  the  conferences 
held  from  that  period  to  the  year  1 770. 

3.  "A  Sermon  on  the  Death  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  George 
Whitefield."     8vo,  32  pages. 

4.  "  Free  Thoughts  on  the  Present  State  of  Public  Affairs." 
8vo,  47  pages.     This  was  published  in  the  midst  of  the  terrible 


Rev.  Atigiishts   Toplady.  8i 

national  confusion,  produced  by  the  dissolute  and  unprincipled      ^77° 
anarchist, — the  infamous  John  Wilkes.     The  pamphlet  has    Age  67 
been  already  noticed  in  a  previous  chapter.^ 

5.  It  was  Wesley's  purpose  to  leave  Augustus  Toplady  in 
the  hands  of  Walter  Sellon.  He  did  this,  in  one  respect,  but 
not  in  another.  For  instance,  he  published  a  small  i2mo 
tract  of  eight  pages,  with  the  title,  "What  is  an  Arminian  .''" 
He  writes:  "To  say,  '  this  man  is  an  Arminian,'  has  the  same 
effect  on  many  hearers  as  to  say,  '  this  is  a  mad  dog.'  It 
puts  them  into  a  fright  at  once;  they  run  away  from  him  with 
all  speed  and  diligence  ;  and  will  hardly  stop,  unless  it  be  to 
throw  a  stone  at  the  dreadful  and  mischievous  animal."  He 
then  proceeds  to  show,  that  the  differences  between  an  Armi- 
nian and  a  Calvinist  may  all  be  reduced  to  a  single  sentence, 
— the  Calvinist  believes  that  God  has  eternally  and  absolutely 
decreed  to  save  such  and  such  persons,  and  no  others ;  that 
these  cannot  resist  the  saving  grace  that  He  imparts ;  and 
that  they  cannot  finally  fall  from  that  grace,  which  they  are 
not  able  to  resist.  An  Arminian  holds  doctrines  just  the 
opposite  of  these.  Wesley  concludes  his  tract  by  advising 
both  Arminian  and 'Calvinist  preachers  never  to  use,  either  in 
public  or  private,  the  word  "  Calvinist,"  or  "  Arminian,"  as  a 
term  of  reproach,  seeing  this  was  neither  better  nor  worse  than 
calling  names, — a  practice  as  inconsistent  with  good  sense  and 
good  manners  as  it  is  with  Christianity  itself. 

6.  Besides  this,  Wesley  issued  another  tract,  entitled,  "  The 
Doctrine  of  Absolute  Predestination  Stated  and  Asserted.     By 

the  Rev.  Mr.  A, ^T ."     i2mo,  12  pages.     This  was  a 

faithful  abridgment  of  Toplady's  translation  of  Zanchius,  with- 
out note  or  comment,  except  a  short  advertisement  at  the 
beginning,  and  a  paragraph  at  the  end,  both  of  which  we 
give  verbatim. 

"Advertisement. — It  is  granted,  that  the  ensuing  tract  is,  in  good  mea- 
sure, a  translation.  Nevertheless,  considering  the  unparalleled  modesty 
and  self  diffidence  of  the  young  translator,  and  the  tenderness  wherewith  he 
treats  his  opponents,  it  may  well  pass  for  an  original." 

'Wesley's  "Free  Thoughts"  were  sharply  criticised  by  an  able  writer, 
in  1771,  in  an  octavo  pamphlet  of  58  pages,  with  the  title  of  "A  Letter  to 
the  Rev.  Mr.  John  Wesley  ;  in  answer  to  his  late  pamphlet,  entitled 
*  Free  Thoughts  on  the  Present  State  of  Public  Affairs.' " 

VOL.  IIL  G 


82  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1770         This  was  stinging  ;  especially  when  compared  with  the  con- 

A^67    eluding  paragraph— 

"The  sum  of  all  is  this:  One  in  twenty  (suppose)  of  mankind  are 
elected ;  nineteen  in  twenty  are  reprobated.  The  elect  shall  be  saved, 
do  what  they  will ;  the  reprobate  shall  be  damned,  do  what  they  can. 
Reader,  believe  this,  or  be  damned.     Witness  my  hand. 

"A T ." 

This  was  the  whole  of  Wesley's  offending.  His  tract,  we 
again  affirm,  was  an  honest,  faithful  abridgment  of  Toplady's 
pretended  translation  ;  but  the  truth  is,  by  divesting  the  work 
of  Toplady  of  its  cloudy  verbiage,  the  Calvinistic  theory  was 
presented  in  a  form  enough  to  horrify  every  man  of  reason  and 
religion.  What  was  the  result .''  Wesley's  Abridgment  was 
issued  in  the  month  of  March,  1770.  Poor  Toplady  seems  to 
have  become  insane  with  anger;  and,  before  the  same  month 
expired,  had  completed  his  answer,  which  was  published 
forthwith,  under  the  title  of  "  A  Letter  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  John 
Wesley:  relative  to  his  pretended  Abridgment  of  Zanchius  on 
Predestination."  8v^o,  30  pages.  The  most  charitable  excuse 
for  this  angry  writer  is,  that  he  had,  in  a  paroxysm  of  morti- 
fied vanity,  lost  his  balance,  and  was  now  non  compos  mentis. 
Wesley  had  honestly  abridged  his  work  ;  and  had  written  the 
two  brief  paragraphs  already  quoted.  That  was  all :  and,  for 
this,  the  irate  young  man  of  thirty,  who  in  former  years  had 
written  to  Wesley  in  terms  of  the  most  filial  respect,  now  tells 
him  that,  "  for  more  than  thirty  years  past  he  has  been  endea- 
vouring to  palm  on  his  credulous  followers  his  pernicious 
doctrines,  with  all  the  sophistry  of  a  Jesuit,  and  the  dictatorial 
authority  of  a  pope."  Wesley  is  charged  with  acting  "  the 
ignoble  part  of  a  lurking,  sly  assassin."  He  is  exhorted  to 
"  renounce  the  low,  serpentine  cunning,  which  puts  him  on 
falsifying  Avhat  he  finds  himself  unable  to  refute  ;  to  dismiss 
those  dirty  subterfuges  (the  last  resources  of  mean,  malicious 
impotence),  which  degrade  the  man  of  parts  into  a  lying 
sophister,  and  sink  a  divine  into  the  level  of  an  oyster  woman." 
Wesley  is  told,  "that  it  once  depended  on  the  toss  of  a 
shilling  whether  he  should  be  a  Calvinist  or  an  Arminian. 
Tails  fell  uppermost,  and  he  resolved  to  be  an  universalist." 
The  elect  Toplady  continues  :  "  possessed  of  more  than  ser- 
pentine elability,  you  cast  your  slough,  not  once  a  year,  but, 


Rev.  Atigiistus   Top  lady.  %'^ 

almost,  once  an  hour.  Hence,  your  innumerable  ijiconsistencies,  177° 
and  '^di^xd.xit  self  contradictions  ;  they<^m';/^  of  your  principles,  Age  67 
and  the  incoherence  of  your  religious  system.  Somewhat  like 
the  necromantic  soup  in  the  tragedy  of  '  Macbeth,'  your  doc- 
trines may  be  stirred  into  a  chaotic  jumble,  but  witchcraft 
itself  would  strive  in  vain  to  bring  them  into  coalition."  The 
gentlemanly  polemic  then  informs  Wesley,  that  he  shall  not 
hold  himself  obliged  to  again  enter  the  lists  with  him,  if  he 
"  descends  to  his  customary  recourse  of  false  quotations, 
despicable  invective,  and  unsupported  dogmatisms.  An  oppo- 
nent," continues  this  model  of  polite  behaviour,  "  an  opponent, 
who  thinks  to  add  weight  to  his  arguments  by  scurrility  and 
abuse,  resembles  the  insane  person  who  rolled  him^self  in  the 
mud,  in  order  to  make  himself  fine.  I  would  no  more  enter 
into  a  formal  controversy  with  such  a  scribbler,  than  I  would 
contend,  for  the  wall,  with  a  chimney  sweeper." 

Is  it  surprising  that,  after  this,  Calvinism  was  discussed  at 
the  conference  of  1770 ;  and  that,  just  before  it  commenced 
its  sittings,  Wesley  wrote  the  following  unpublished  letter  to 
his  friend,  Mr.  Merryweather,  at  Yarm .'' 

"York,  June  24,  1770. 
"  My  dear  Brother, — Mr,  Augustus  Toplady  I  know  well ;  but  I 
do  not  fight  with  chimney  sweepers.  He  is  too  dirty  a  writer  for  me  to 
meddle  with  ;  I  should  only  foul  my  fingers.  I  read  his  title  page,  and 
troubled  myself  no  farther.  I  leave  him  to  Mr,  Sellon.  He  cannot  be  in 
better  hands. 

"  As  long  as  you  are  seeking  and  expecting  to  love  God  with  all  your 
heart,  so  long  your  soul  will  live. 

"  1  am  your  affectionate  brother, 

"John  Wesley." 


I77I. 

1 77 1  '"T^HE  year  1771  was  one  of  unceasing  conflict.  The  first 
Age^S  -'-  t^^'o  months,  as  usual,  were  spent  in  London,  during 
which  Wesley's  wife,  in  one  of  her  insane  piques,  and  without 
assigning  the  slightest  reason,  unceremoniously  left  his  house 
in  London,  and  started  for  her  own  in  Pilgrim  Street,  New- 
castle. It  was  on  this  occasion  that  Wesley  wrote  the  words 
so  often  quoted  :  "  Noii  cam  rcliqui ;  iioii  dimisi;  non  rcvo- 
cabo." 

On  the  3rd  of  March,  Wesley  set  out  for  Ireland,  where  he 
laboured  for  the  next  few  months. 

Affairs  in  Scotland  were  a  source  of  increasing  anxiety. 
Hence  the  following  letter  to  Lady  Maxwell,  in  reference  to 
Alexander  McNab,  one  of  his  itinerants,  and  the  Rev.  Richard 
De  Courcy,  who  was  about  to  become  minister  in  Lady 
Glenorchy's  chapel,  Edinburgh. 

"London,  Ja7tiiary  2\,  1771. 

"  My  dear  Lady, — Although  Mr.  McNab  is  quite  clear  as  to  justifica- 
tion by  faith,  and  is,  in  general,  a  sound  and  good  preacher,  yet,  I  fear, 
he  is  not  clear  of  blame  in  this.  He  is  too  warm  and  impatient  of  contra- 
diction, otherwise  he  must  be  lost  to  all  common  sense,  to  preach  against 
final  perseverance  in  Scotland.  From  the  first  hour  that  I  entered  the 
kingdom,  it  was  a  sacred  rule  with  me  never  to  preach  on  any  controverted 
point, — at  least,  7iot  in  a  controversial  way.  Any  one  may  see  that  this 
is  only  to  put  a  sword  into  our  enemies'  hands.  It  is  the  direct  way  to 
increase  all  their  prejudices,  and  to  make  all  our  labours  fruitless. 

"  You  will  shortly  have  a  trial  of  another  kind.  ]\Ir.  De  Courcy  purposes 
to  set  out  for  Edinburgh  in  a  few  days.  He  was  from  a  child  a  member 
of  our  societies  in  the  south  of  Ireland.  There  he  received  remission  of 
sins,  and  was,  for  some  time,  groaning  for  full  redemption.  But  when  he 
came  to  Dublin  the  Phihstines  were  upon  him,  and  soon  prevailed  over 
him.  Quickly,  he  was  conv  inced  that  *  there  is  no  perfection,'  and  that 
'  all  things  depend  on  absobite  and  iinchatigeable  decrees.^  At  first,  he  was 
exceedingly  warm  upon  these  heads;  now,  he  is  far  more  calm.  His 
natural  temper,  I  think,  is  good  ;  he  is  open,  friendly,  and  generous.  He 
has  also  a  good  understanding,  and  is  not  unacquainted  with  learning, 
though  not  deeply  versed  therein.  He  has  no  disagreeable  person,  a 
pleasing  address,  and  is  a  lively  as  well  as  sensible  preacher.     Now,  when 


Rev.  Richard  De  Co2i7'cy.  85 

you  add  to  this  that  he  is  quite  new,  and  x&xy  young,  you  may  judge  how      1771 
he  will  be  admired  and  caressed.     How  will  a  raw,  inexperienced  youth      .       '  „ 
be  able  to  encounter  this  ?     If  there  be  not  the  greatest  of  miracles  to 
preserve  him,  will  it  not  turn  his  brain?    And  may  he  not  then  do  far 

more  hurt  than  either  Mr.  W or  Mr.  T did?     Will  he  not  prevent 

your  friend  from  going  on  to  perfection  ?  Nay,  may  he  not  shake  you 
also  ?  At  present,  indeed,  he  is  in  an  exceedingly  loving  spirit.  But  will 
that  continue  long?  There  will  be  danger  on  the  one  hand  if  it  does  \ 
there  will  be  danger  on  the  other  if  it  does  not. 

"  It  does  not  appear,  that  any  great  change  has  been  wrought  in  our 
neighbours  by  Mr.  Whitefield's  death.  He  had  fixed  the  prejudice  so 
deep,  that  even  he  himself  was  not  able  to  remove  it ;  yet,  our  congrega- 
tions have  increased  exceedingly,  and  the  work  of  God  increases  on  every 
side.  I  am  glad  you  use  more  exercise.  It  is  good  for  both  body  and 
soul.  As  soon  as  Mr.  De  Courcy  is  come,  I  shall  be  glad  to  hear  how  the 
prospect  opens.  You  will  then  need  a  larger  share  of  the  wisdom  from 
above  ;  and  I  trust  you  will  write  with  all  openness  to,  my  dear  lady,  your 
ever  affectionate  servant, 

"John  Wesley."  1 

It  was  Wesley  who  obtained  Mr.  De  Courcy's  services  for 
Lady  Glenorchy.  He  knew  the  man,  and  thought  highly  of 
him,  but  also  saw  his  danger;  and  hence  the  warning  to  Lady 
Maxwell.  It  would  be  a  pleasant  task  to  sketch  the  subse- 
quent career  of  this  devoted  Irishman  ;  but,  at  present,  we 
must  confine  ourselves  to  Edinburgh,  De  Courcy  set  out  for 
the  northern  metropolis,  as  Wesley  had  said  he  would  ;  and, 
immediately  on  his  arrival  at  Newcastle,  addressed  to  Wesley 
the  following. 

"February  (),  177 \. 

"  Reverend  and  dear  Sir, — Yesterday  evening,  after  a  very  tedious 
journey,  the  Lord  brought  me  safe  to  Newcastle.  When  I  reflect  on  the 
fatigue  and  dangers  which  attend  travelling,  I  should  be  astonished  above 
measure  that  )'ou  have  so  indefatigably  persevered  in  all  the  labours  of  an 
itinerant  life  for  so  many  years,  were  I  not  well  assured  that  you  have  been 
supernaturally  assisted  in  body  and  mind  for  that  extensive  work  to  which 
God  has  eminently  chosen  you. 

"  I  write  this  in  Mr.  McNab's  chamber,  with  whom,  and  Mr.  Hanby,  I 
find  great  fellowship  of  spirit.  I  have  accepted  your  kind  invitation,  and 
purpose  taking  up  my  abode  with  them  till  Monday,  when  I  set  out  for 
Edinburgh.  I  would  stay  longer  with  your  dear  people  here,  but  that  1 
find  Lady   Glenorchy   is  particularly  anxious  for  my  speedy  arrival  in 


*  Lady  Maxwell's  Life,  p.  72. 


Age  68 


86  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1771      Edinburgh.     As  my  situation  there  will  expose  me  to  diversified  trials,  do 
dear  sir,  pray  that  I  may  be  kept 

'  Humble,  teachable,  and  mild. 
Patient  as  a  little  child,' 

"  I  remain,  reverend  and  dear  sir,  your  most  affectionate,  but  unworthy 
brother, 

"Richard  De  Courcy."  • 

A  few  days  after  De  Courcy's  arrival,  Wesley  wrote  a  second 
time  to  Lady  Maxwell,  as  follows. 

"February  26,  1771. 

"My  dear  Lady, — I  cannot  but  think  the  chief  reason  of  the  little 
good  done  by  our  preachers  in  Edinburgh  is  the  opposition  which  has 
been  made  by  the  ministers  of  Edinburgh,  as  well  as  by  the  false  brethren 
from  England.  These  steeled  the  hearts  of  the  people  against  all  the  good 
impressions  which  might  otherwise  have  been  made  ;  so  that  the  same 
preachers,  by  whom  God  has  constantly  wrought,  not  only  in  various 
parts  of  England,  but  likewise  in  the  northern  parts  of  Scotland,  were  in 
Edinburgh  only  not  useless.  They  felt  a  damp  upon  their  spirits  ;  they 
had  not  their  usual  liberty  of  speech ;  and  the  word  they  spoke  seemed  to 
rebound  upon  them,  and  not  to  sink  into  the  hearts  of  the  hearers.  At  my 
first  coming,  I  usually  find  something  of  this  myself ;  but  the  second  or 
third  time  of  preaching,  it  is  gone. 

"  I  think  it  will  not  be  easy  for  any  one  to  show  us,  either,  that  Christ 
did  not  die  for  all,  or,  that  He  is  not  willing  as  well  as  able  to  cleanse 
from  all  sin,  even  in  the  present  world.  If  your  steady  adherence  to  these 
great  truths  be  termed  bigotry,  yet  you  have  no  need  to  be  ashamed. 
You  are  reproached  for  Christ's  sake,  and  the  spirit  of  glory  and  of  Christ 
shall  rest  upon  you.  Perhaps  our  Lord  may  use  you  to  soften  some 
of  the  harsh  spirits,  and  to  preserve  Lady  Glenorchy,  or  Mr.  De  Courcy, 
from  being  hurt  by  them. 

"  I  am,  my  dear  lady,  your  very  affectionate  servant, 

"John  Wesley." ^ 

From  these  letters,  it  is  painfully  apparent  that  the  Calvin- 
istic  controversy  was  not  confined  to  England.  Edinburgh 
rang  with  discordant  notes  ;  and,  in  five  months  after  Mr. 
De  Courcy's  coming,  Lady  Glenorchy  dismissed  Wesley's 
preachers  from  her  chapel,  assigning,  as  her  reason,  that  they 
were  not  Calvinists.^ 

South  of  the  Tweed  there  were  sounds  of  the  coming 
battle ;  hence  the  following  extract  from  a  letter  to  Miss 
Bishop. 

'  MetJiodist  Magazine,  1784,  p.  388. 
2  Lady  Maxwell's  Life,  p.  22.  ^  Ibid. 


Ajre 


Sounds  of  coming  Battle.  87 

" February  i6,   1771.  1771 

"  My  dear  Sister, —  ....  Legality,  with  most  that  use  that  term, 
really  means  tenderness  of  conscience.  There  is  no  propriety  in  the  word,  if 
one  would  take  it  for  seeking  justification  by  works.  Considering,  there- 
fore, how  hard  it  is  to  fix  the  meaning  of  that  odd  term,  and  how  dread- 
fully it  has  been  abused,  I  think  it  highly  advisable  for  all  the  Methodists 
to  lay  it  quite  aside. 

"If  Mr.  Shirley  could  find  any  other  doctrine,  which  he  thought  was 
peculiarly  mine,  he  would  be  as  angry  at  it  as  he  is  at  Christian  perfection. 
But  it  is  all  well :  we  are  to  go  forward,  whoever  goes  back  or  turns  aside. 
Perhaps  we  may  see  a  new  accomplishment  of  Solomon's  words,  *  He 
that  reproveth  a  man  shall  afterward  find  more  favour  than  he  who 
flattereth  with  his  tongue.'  But,  be  that  as  it  may,  I  have  done  my  duty  : 
I  could  no  otherwise  have  delivered  my  own  soul  ;  and  no  offence  at  all 
would  have  been  given  thereby,  had  not  pride  stifled  both  religion  and 
generosity.  But  my  letter'  is  now  out  of  date  :  it  is  mentioned  no  more  ; 
there  is  a  more  plausible  occasion  found,  namely,  those  eight  terrible  pro- 
positions which  conclude  the  minutes  of  our  conference.  At  the  instance 
of  some  who  were  sadly  frightened  thereby,  I  have  revised  them  over  and 
over  ;  I  have  considered  them  in  every  point  of  view  ;  and  truly  the  more 
I  consider  them,  the  more  I  like  them.  The  more  fully  I  am  convinced, 
not  only  that  they  are  true, — agreeable  both  to  Scripture  and  sound 
experience, — but,  that  they  contain  truths  of  the  deepest  importance,  and 
such  as  ought  to  be  continually  inculcated  by  those  who  would  be  pure 
from  the  blood  of  all  men. 

"  Your  affectionate  brother, 

"John  Wesley."  2 

Benson  had  been  dismissed  from  Trevecca,  in  the  month  of 
January,  for  defending  Wesley's  minutes ;  and  now  Fletcher, 
the  president  of  the  college,  informed  the  Countess  of  Hunt- 
ingdon, that,  if  all  Arminians  were  to  be  expelled,  he  must  be 
expelled.  This  was  a  serious  matter.  Fletcher,  at  Trevecca,  had 
been,  according  to  Benson,  "  almost  an  angel  in  human  flesh." 
"  Prayer,  praise,  love,  and  zeal  were  the  element  in  which  he 
lived.  His  one  employment  was  to  call^  entreat,  and  urge 
others  to  ascend  with  him  to  the  glorious  Source  of  being  and 
blessedness.  He  had  leisure  comparatively  for  nothing  else. 
Languages,  arts,  sciences,  grammar,  rhetoric,  logic,  even 
divinity  itself,  were  all  laid  aside,  when  he  appeared  in  the 
schoolroom  among  the  students.  His  full  heart  would  not 
suffer  him  to  be    silent ;  and   the   students  were  readier  to 

^  Doubtless  his  letter  to  Lady  Huntingdon. 
"^  Methodist  Magazine,  1805,  p.  279. 


88  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1 7  71     hearken  to  him  than  to  attend  to  Sallust,  Virgil,  or  Cicero. 

A^68  Soon,  they  were  all  in  tears;  and  then  he  would  say,  *As 
many  of  you  as  are  athirst  for  the  fulness  of  the  Spirit,  follow 
me  into  my  room.'  "  Away  they  trooped  after  him,  and 
would  continue  praying,  one  after  another,  for  hours  together, 
till  they  could  bear  to  kneel  no  longer;  Fletcher,  in  the  midst, 
so  filled  with  the  love  of  God,  that,  more  than  once,  he  cried, 
"  O  my  God,  withhold  Thy  hand,  or  the  vessel  will  burst !  "^ 
Such  a  man  in  such  a  place  was  invaluable  ;  but  he  was  not 
the  man  to  truckle  in  the  presence  of  arbitrary  power.  Hence 
the  following  to  Wesley. 

"  Madeley,  February  20,  1771. 

"Reverend  and  dear  Sir, — I  fear  we  are  going,  or  are  already  gone, 
from  our  plan  of  Catholicism  at  the  college.  Mr.  Benson's  affair  has  made 
me  tell  my  mind  to  our  Deborah,  about  bigotry,  partiality,  prejudice,  and 
everything  that  seemed  to  me  contrary  to  the  Christian  spirit  in  some  late 
transactions.  The  answer  was,  that  if  one  half  of  the  things  objected  to 
by  me  was  true,  there  would  be  room  for  the  cruelty  of  my  charges  ;  but 
facts  and  words  have  been  grossly  misrepresented.  Therefore,  my  mouth 
is  shut  so  far. 

"  This,  however,  I  have  insisted,  and  do  insist,  upon,  if  every  Arminian 
must  quit  the  college,  I  am  discharged  for  one  ;  for  I  cannot  give  up  the 
possibility  of  the  salvation  of  all  any  more  than  I  can  give  up  the  truth 
and  love  of  God. 

"Secondly,  I  will  be  no  party  man,  nor  give  up  my  connections  with  any 
that  fear  God,  much  less  with  Mr.  Wesley,  who  shall  be  always  welcome 
to  my  pulpit,  and  I  make  no  doubt  will  welcome  me  to  his. 

"  Thirdly,  nobody  shall  prevent  my  following  after  an  entire  devoted- 
ness  of  heart  to  God,  by  baiting  my  Christian  hopes  and  privileges  under 
the  name  of  perfection. 

"  To  this,  I  have  received  no  particular  answer  ;  but,  as  I  set  out  for  the 
college  to-day,  I  may  get  one  viva  voce. 

"  Though  no  letter  writer,  I  am  and  shall  always  remain,  reverend 
and  dear  sir,  your  ready  though  unprofitable  servant, 

"John  Fletcher." ^ 

The  result  of  Fletcher's  visit  to  the  college  is  given  in  the 
subjoined  extracts  from  letters  sent  to  Benson. 

"  March  22,  1771. 
"  On  my  arrival  at  the  college,  I   found  all  very  quiet,  I  fear,  through 
the  enemy's  keeping  his  goods   in   peace.     While  I  preached,  I  found 
myself  as  much  shackled  as  ever  I  was  in  my  life  ;  and,  after  private 

'  Wesley's  Life  of  Fletcher.  2  Manuscript  letter. 


Wesley  and  the  "  Gospel  Magazifie."  89 

prayer,  I  concluded  I  was  not  in  my  place.     The  same  day  I  resigned  my       1 77 1 
office  to  my  lady,  and  on  Wednesday  to  the  students  and  the  Lord.     Last      ^"53 
Friday  I  left  them  all  in  peace,  the  servant,  but  no  more  the  president,  of 
the  college."^ 

"  Mr.  Shirley  has  sent  my  lady  a  copy  of  part  of  the  minutes  of  the 
last  conference,  namely,  of  the  year  1770.  They  were  called  horrible  and 
abominable.  My  lady  told  me,  she  must  turn  against  them;  attd  that 
nvhoever  did  ttot  fully  disavozu  them  must  quit  the  college.  She  accord- 
ingly ordered  the  master  and  all  the  students  to  write  their  sentiments 
upon  them  without  reserve.  I  did  so  ;  explained  them  according  to  Mr. 
Wesley's  sentiments  ;  and  approved  the  doctrine,  though  not  cautiously 
worded.  I  concluded  by  observing,  that,  as  after  such  a  step  on  my  part, 
and  such  a  declaration  on  my  lady's,  I  could  no  longer,  as  an  honest  man, 
stay  in  the  college,  I  took  my  leave  of  it ;  wishing  my  lady  might  find  a 
minister  to  preside  over  it  less  insufficient  than 

"  John  Fletcher."  ^ 

So  much  respecting  Trevecca.  Returning  to  Wesley,  we 
find  him  defending  himself  in  the  following  long  letter,  pub- 
lished in  Lloyd's  Evening  Post  for  March  i,  1771. 

"  Feb)iiaiy  26,  1 771. 

"  Sir, — The  editor  of  a  monthly  publication,  pompously  called  The 
Gospel  Magazine,  has  violently  fallen  upon  one  and  another,  who  did 
not  knowingly  give  him  any  provocation.  And  whereas,  in  other  maga- 
zines, the  accused  has  liberty  to  answer  for  himself,  it  is  not  so  here. 
This  gentleman  will  publish  only  the  charge  ;  but  not  the  defence.  What 
can  a  person,  thus  injuriously  treated,  do  ?  To  publish  pamphlets,  on 
every  head,  would  not  answer  the  end,  for  the  answer  would  not  come  into 
near  so  many  hands  as  the  objection.  Is  there  then  abetter  way  than  to 
appeal  to  candid  men,  in  one  of  the  public  papers,  by  which  means  the 
antidote  will  operate  both  as  widely  and  as  speedily  as  the  poison  ?  This 
method,  therefore,  I  take  at  last,  after  delaying  as  long  as  I  could  with 
innocence. 

"  In  that  magazine  for  last  month,  there  is  a  waiTn  attack  upon  my  ser- 
mon on  the  death  of  Mr.  Whitefield.  The  first  charge  is  against  the 
text,  '  Let  me  die  the  death  of  the  righteous.'  '  How  improper,'  says 
Mr.  R.,^  'to  apply  the  words  of  a  mad  prophet  to  so  holy  a  man  as 
Mr.  Whitefield.' 

"  Improper  !  See  how  doctors  differ  !  I  conceive  nothing  can  possibly 
be  more  proper.  If  Mr.  R.  did  indeed  tell  his  congregation,  some  of 
whom  disliked  his  attacking  my  poor  text  before,  '  Let  who  will  be  vexed, 
I  do  not  care;  I  will  not  justify  Balaam  while  I  live';  yet,  others 
imagine  nothing  would  be  more  suitable  than  for  Balaam  junior  to  use 

^  Benson's  Life,  by  Treffry. 

^  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xi.,  p.  285. 

^  Probably  Mr.  Romaine. 


90  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

iTJi      the  words  of  his  forefather;  especially,  as  he  did  not  apply  them  to  Mr. 

A  o~68     Whitefield,  but  to  himself.     Surely  a  poor  reprobate  may,  without  offence, 

"  laz's/i  to  die  like  one  of  the  elect !     And  I   dare  say,  every  one  understood 

me  to  mean  this,  the  moment  he  heard  the  text.     If  not,  the  very  hymn 

I  sung  showed  to  whom  I  applied  the  words — 

*  Oh  that,  without  a  lingering  groan, 
I  might  the  welcome  word  receive ! 
My  body  with  my  charge  lay  down, 
And  cease  at  once  to  work  and  live  ! ' 

"  But  the  main  attack  is  on  the  sermon  itself ;  in  which  I  am  charged 
with  asserting  a  gross  falsehood,  in  the  face  of  God  and  the  congregation, 
and  that  knowing  it  to  be  such,  namely,  that  '  the  grand  fundamental  doc- 
trines which  Mr.  Whitefield  everywhere  preached,  were  those  of  the  new 
birth  and  justification  by  faith.'  No,  says  Mr.  R.,  not  at  all :  the  grand 
fundamental  doctrines,  which  he  everywhere  preached,  were  the  everlast- 
ing covenant  between  the  Father  and  the  Son,  and  absolute  predestina- 
tion flowing  therefrom. 

"  I  join  issue  on  this  head.  Whether  the  doctrines  of  the  eternal 
covenant,  and  of  absolute  predestination,  are  the  grand  fundamental 
doctrines  of  Christianity,  or  not,  I  affirm  again — (i)  that  Mr.  Whitefield 
did  not  everywhere  preach  these  ;  (2)  that  he  did  everywhere  preach  the 
new  birth,  and  justification  by  faith. 

"  I.  He  did  not  everywhere  preach  the  eternal  covenant,  and  ab- 
solute predestination.  In  all  the  times  I  myself  heard  him  preach,  I 
never  heard  him  utter  a  sentence  either  on  one  or  the  other.  Yea,  all  the 
times  he  preached  in  West  Street  chapel,  and  in  our  other  chapels 
throughout  England,  he  did  not  preach  these  doctrines  at  all,  no,  not  in  a 
single  paragraph  ;  which,  by  the  bye,  is  a  demonstration  that  he  did  not 
think  them' the  fundamental  doctrines  of  Christianity. 

"  2.  Both  in  West  Street  chapel,  and  all  our  other  chapels  throughout 
England,  he  did  preach  the  necessity  of  the  new  birth,  and  justification 
by  faith,  as  clearly  as  he  has  done  in  his  two  volumes  of  printed  sermons. 
Therefore,  all  that  I  have  asserted  is  true,  and  provable  by  ten  thousand 
witnesses. 

"  Nay,  says  Mr.  R.,  '  Mr.  Whitefield  everywhere  insisted  on  other  fun- 
damental doctrines,  from  the  foundation  of  which  the  new  birth  and 
justification  by  faith  take  their  rise,  and  with  which  they  are  inseparably 
connected.  These  are  the  everlasting  covenant,  which  was  entered  into 
by  the  Holy  Trinity,  and  God  the  Father's  everlasting,  unchangeable 
election  of  sinners'  (in  virtue  of  which  a  fiftieth  part  of  mankind  shall 
be  saved,  do  what  they  will ;  and  the  other  forty-nine  parts  shall  be 
damned,  do  what  they  can).  '  These  doctrines  are  not  of  a  less  essential 
nature  than  either  regeneration  or  justification.  No,  by  no  means  ;  they 
are  to  the  full  equally  essential  to  the  glory  of  God.  Yea,  there  is  an 
inseparable  connection  between  them.  This  is  a  tnost  essential,  a  most 
/undamental  point.'     {Magazine,  p.  4r.) 

"  If  so,  then  every  one  who  does  not  hold  it  must  perish  everlastingly. 


Wesley  and  the  ''Gospel  Magazine^  91 

If,  as  you  here  assert,  he  cannot  be  justified,  then  he  cannot  be  saved.      177^ 
If,  as  you  say,  he  cannot  be  born  again,  he  cannot  see  the  kingdom  of  Cod.     ^^^g 

"After  asserting  this,  can  Mr.  R.  ever  take  the  name  of  catholic  love 
into  his  mouth.?  Is  not  this  the  very  opposite  to  it?  the  height  and 
depth  of  bigotry?  Does  this  spirit  do  honour  to  his  opinion?  Can  we 
conceive  anything  more  horrid?  Is  it  not  enough  to  make  a  person  of 
humanity  shudder  ?     Yea,  to  make  his  blood  run  cold  ? 

"  I  do  not  here  enter  into  the  merits  of  the  cause.  I  need  not.  It  is 
done  to  my  hands.  The  whole  doctrine  of  predestination  is  thoroughly 
discussed  in  those  three  tracts  lately  printed:  'An  Answer  to  the  Eleven 
Letters  commonly  ascribed  to  Mr.  Hervey';  'Arguments  against  General 
Redemption  Considered' ;  and  'Ah  Answer  to  Elisha  Coles.'  Till  these 
are  seriously  and  solidly  refuted,  I  have  no  more  to  say  on  that  head. 
But  I  must  aver,  that  the  excluding  all  from  salvation  who  do  not  believe 
the  horrible  decree  is  a  most  shocking  insult  on  all  mankind,  on  common 
sense,  and  common  humanity. 

"I  am,  etc., 

"John  Wesley," 

Of  course,  this  was  too  pungent  to  pass  without  notice. 
Accordingly,  in  the  Gospel  Alagazine  for  the  month  following, 
there  appeared  an  incisive  review  of  Sellon's  Answer  to  Elisha 
Coles,  which  is  described  as  "  a  mite  of  reprobate  silver,  cast 
into  the  Foimdery,  and  coming  out  thence,  with  the  impress  of 
that  pride,  self  righteousness,  and  self  sufificiency,  natural  to 
men  in  their  fallen,  unrenewed  state."  Sellon  is  accused  of 
"  trifling  effrontery,"  and  is  said  "  to  have  sunk  far  below  the 
gentleman,  and  to  have  lost  all  appearance  of  the  Christian  "  ; 
and  is  further  designated  "  the  Cardinal  Bellarmine  of  the 
day ;  the  obsequious  servant  and  faithful  labourer  to  his 
holiness."  n     .- 

In  a  subsequent  number  of  the  same  periodical,  published 
in  the  month  of  May,  Wesley's  minutes  are  attacked;  the 
writer,  "A  Real  Protestant,"  indignantly  asking,  "Are  not 
these  the  very  doctrines  of  popery,  yea,  of  popery  unmasked.-' 
Is  it  not  awful  that  29,406  souls,  who  are  in  Mr.  Wesley's 
societies,  should  be  so  dreadfully  seduced  from  the  protestant 
doctrines,  and  deluded  into  a  belief  of  the  doctrines  of  the 
mother  of  harlots,  the  whore  of  Babylon,  the  Church  of 
Rome  } " 

Thus  the  bitter  controversy  proceeded.  Comment  would 
be  easy  ;  but  we  prefer  to  let  the  chief  actors  speak;  and,  not 
to  interrupt  this  painful  scene,  proceed  to  give  other  letters 


92  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

bearing  upon  the  subject,  so  that  the  reader  may  have  before 
him  as  full  a  view  of  the  spirit  and  behaviour  of  both  parties 
as  it  is  possible  to  furnish. 

While  on  his  way  to  Ireland,  Wesley  wrote  the  following  to 
Fletcher. 

"  I  always  did,  for  between  these  thirty  and  forty  years,  clearly  assert 
the  total  fall  of  man,  and  his  utter  inability  to  do  any  good  of  himself ; 
the  absolute  necessity  of  the  grace  and  Spirit  of  God  to  raise  even  a  good 
thought  or  desire  in  our  hearts  ;  the  Lord's  rewarding  no  work,  and 
accepting  of  none,  but  so  far  as  they  proceed  from  His  preventing,  con- 
vincing, and  converting  grace  through  the  Beloved ;  the  blood  and 
righteousness  of  Christ  being  the  sole  meritorious  cause  of  our  salvation. 
Who  is  there  in  England,  that  has  asserted  these  things  more  strongly  and 
steadily  than  I  have  done .''"  * 

The  next  letter,  addressed  to  Lady  Huntingdon,  was  occa- 
sioned by  one  which  her  ladyship  had  sent  to  Wesley's  brother 
on  the  subject  of  his  minutes,^  and  was  dated  "  Bath,  June  8, 
1771."  The  countess  brands  the  minutes  as  "popery  un- 
masked "  ;  and  declares  that  "  all  ought  to  be  deemed  papists 
who  do  not  disown  them."  She  thus  concludes :  "  as  you 
have  no  part  in  this  matter,  I  find  it  difficult  to  blame  your 
brother  to  you  ;  while  as  an  honest  man  I  must  pity  you,  as 
you  must  suffer  equal  disgrace,  and  universal  distrust,  from  the 
supposed  union  with  him."  Charles  Wesley  endorsed  this 
unworthy  letter  with  the  words  :  "  Lady  Huntingdon's  last ; 
unanswered  by  John  Wesley's  brother."  * 

Charles  Wesley  doubtless  communicated  the  contents  to 
his  brother,  who  was  now  in  Ireland  ;  in  fact,  her  ladyship 
requested  him  to  do  this  :  and  hence  the  following. 

''June  19,  1 771. 
"  My  dear  Lady, — Many  years  since,  I  saw  that  '  without  holiness 
no  man  shall  see  the  Lord.'  I  began  following  after  it,  and  inciting  all 
with  whom  I  had  any  intercourse  to  do  the  same.  Ten  years  after,  God 
gave  me  a  clearer  view  than  I  had  before  of  the  way  how  to  attain  this, 
namely,  by  faith  in  the  Son  of  God  ;  and,  immediately,  I  declared  to  all, 
*  We  are  saved  from  sin,  we  are  made  holy,  by  faith.'  This  I  testified  in 
private,  in  public,  in  print  ;  and  God  confirmed  it  by  a  thousand  witnesses. 
I  have  continued  to  declare  this,  for  above  thirty  years ;  and  God  has  con- 

*  Fletcher's  Vindication,  ist  Edit.,  p.  21. 

"^  "  Life  and  Times  of  Countess  of  Huntingdon,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  240. 

3  Jackson's  Life  of  C.  Wesley,  vol.  ii.,  p.  256. 


Letter  to  Lady  Htuitingdon. 


tinued  to  confirm  the  word  of  His  grace.     But,  during  this  time,  well-nigh       1771 
all  the  religious  world  have  set  themselves  in  array  against  me,  and,     p^eo, 
among  the  rest,  many  of  my  own  children,  following  the  example  of  one        '^ 
of  my  eldest  sons,  Mr.  Whitefield.     Their  general  cry  has  been,  '  He  is 
unsound  in  the  faith  ;  he  preaches  another  gospel  ! '     I  answer,  Whether 
it  be  the  same  which  they  preach  or  not,  it  is  the  same  which   I  have 
preached  for  above  thirty  years.     This  may  easily  appear  from  what  I 
have  published  during  that  whole  term.     I  instance  only  in  three  sermons  ; 
that  on  '  Salvation  by  Faith,'  printed  in  the  year  1738  ;  that  on  '  The  Lord 
our  Righteousness,'  printed  a  few  years  since ;  and  that  on  Mr.  White- 
field's  funeral,  printed  only  some  months  ago. 

"But  it  is  said,  'Oh  but  you  printed  ten  lines  in  August  last,  which  con- 
tradict all  your  other  writings.'  Be  not  so  sure  of  this.  It  is  probable,  at 
least,  that  I  understand  my  own  meaning  as  well  as  you  do;  and  that  mean- 
ing I  have  yet  again  declared  in  the  sermon  last  referred  to.  By  that,  inter- 
pret those  ten  lines,  and  you  will  understand  them  better;  although  I  should 
think  that  any  one  might  see,  even  without  this  help,  that  the  lines  in 
question  do  not  refer  to  the  condition  of  obtaining,  but  of  continuing  in 
the  favour  of  God.  But  whether  the  sentiment  contained  in  these  lines 
be  right  or  wrong,  and  whether  it  be  well  or  ill  expressed,  the  gospel  which 
I  now  preach  God  does  still  confirm  by  new  witnesses  in  every  place  ; 
perhaps  never  so  much  in  this  kingdom  as  within  these  last  three  months. 
Now,  I  argue  from  glaring,  undeniable  fact :  God  cannot  bear  witness  to  a 
lie  ;  the  gospel,  therefore,  which  He  confirms  must  be  true  in  substance. 
There  may  be  opinions  maintained  at  the  same  time  which  -are  not  exactly 
true  ;  and  who  can  be  secure  from  these  ?  Perhaps,  I  thought  myself  so 
once.  When  I  was  much  younger  than  I  am  now,  I  thought  myself  almost 
infallible ;  but,  I  bless  God,  I  know  myself  better  now. 

"  To  be  short.  Such  as  I  am,  I  love  you  well.  You  have  one  of  the 
first  places  in  my  esteem  and  affection;  and  you  once  had  some  regard  for 
me.  But  it  cannot  continue  if  it  depends  upon  my  seeing  with  your  eyes, 
or  on  my  being  in  no  mistake.  What  if  I  was  in  as  many  as  Mr.  Law 
himself?  If  you  were,  I  should  love  you  still,  provided  your  heart  was  still 
right  with  God.  My  dear  friend,  you  seem  not  to  have  well  learned  yet 
the  meaning  of  those  words,  which  I  desire  to  have  continually  written 
upon  my  heart,  '  Whosoever  doth  the  will  of  My  Father  which  is  in 
heaven,  the  same  is  My  brother,  and  sister,  and  mother.' 

"  I  am,  my  dear  lady,  your  affectionate 

"John  Wesley."  ' 

Contemporaneously  with  the  above  letter,  the  Rev.  Walter 
Shirley  and  Lady  Huntingdon  sent  the  following  circular  to 
Wesley,  as  well  as  to  a  large  number  of  their  Calvinian  friends. 

"  Sir, — Whereas  Mr.  Wesley's  conference  is  to  be  held  at  Bristol,  on 
Tuesday,  the  6th  of  August  next,  it  is  proposed,  by  Lady  Huntingdon,  and 


'  Methodist  Magazine,  1797,  p.  563. 


94  ^if^  ^^^^  Times  of  Wesley. 

many  other  Christian  friends,  (real  protestants,)  to  have  a  meeting  at 
Bristol  at  the  same  time,  of  such  principal  persons,  both  clergy  and  laity, 
who  disapprove  of  the  underwritten  minutes '  ;  and  as  the  same  are 
thought  injurious  to  the  very  f!/nda7nental^  principles  of  Christianity,  it  is 
further  proposed,  that  they  go  in  a  body  to  the  said  conference,  and  insist 
upon  a  formal  recantation  of  the  said  minutes  ;  and,  in  case  of  a  refusal, 
that  they  sign  and  publish  their  protest  against  them.  Your  presence, 
sir,  on  this  occasion  is  particularly  requested  ;  but,  if  it  should  not  suit 
your  convenience  to  be  there,  it  is  desired  that  you  will  transmit  your 
sentiments  on  the  subject  to  such  person  as  you  think  proper  to  produce 
them.  It  is  submitted  to  you,  whether  it  would  not  be  right,  in  the  oppo- 
sition to  be  made  to  such  a  dreadful  heresy,"  to  recommend  it  to  as  many 
of  your  Christian  friends,  as  well  of  the  Dissenters  as  of  the  Established 
Church,  as  you  can  prevail  on  to  be  there,  the  cause  being  of  so  public 

a  nature. 

"  I  am,  sir,  your  obedient  serv'ant, 

"  Walter  Shirley. 

*'  P.S. — Your  answer  is  desired,  directed  to  the  Countess  of  Huntingdon ; 

or  the  Rev.  Mr.  Shirley  ;  or  John  Lloyd,  Esq.,  in   Bath  ;  or  Mr.  James 

Ireland,  merchant,  Bristol ;  or  to  Thomas  Povvis,  Esq.,  at  Berwick,  near 

Shrewsbury ;  or  to  Richard  Hill,  Esq.,  at  Hawkstone,  near  Whitchurch, 

Shropshire.        Lodgings   will  be   provided.      Inquire  at   Mr.    Ireland's, 

Bristol." 

A  fine  confederacy  of  elected  saints,  armed  with  self  invested 
papal  power  to  i7isist  upon  the  recantation  of  poor  Wesley  and 
his  heretical  preachers ! 

The  modest  and  self  diffident  countess  and  her  executive 
chaplain  apologise  for  this  high  handed  interference  on  the 
ground  that  they  "  were  warmly  interested  in  the  revival  of 
spiritual  reWgxon  and  the  doctrines  of  the  Reforjuation;"  that 
they  "  apprehended  that  the  doctrines  contained  in  the  minutes 
had  the  most  fatal  tendency  ;  and,  in  the  strongest  and  most 
explicit  terms,  maintained  salvation  by  ivorks "  ;  and  that 
Wesley  was  not  an  ordmary  personage,  but  stood  "at  the  head 
of  near  thirty  thousand  people, — a  veteran  in  the  cause  of 
the  gospel, — one  of  the  chiefs  in  the  late  reformation."^ 

One  would  have  thought  that,  at  least,  the  last  mentioned 
reason  would  have  led  them  to  adopt  a  less  offensive  and  more 
respectful  method  of  correcting  his  "  dreadful  heresy,"  than 
that  of  marching  upon  him  and  his  conference  eu  masse;  and 

^  The  minutes  of  the  conference  of  1770. 

2  The  itatic  words  are  emphasized  in  the  original. 

3  Shirley's  "  Narrative,"  p.  5. 


Shi)' ley  s  Circidar.  95 

imperiously  insisting  upon  his  recantation.  Surely,  it  would  177' 
not  have  been  too  great  a  condescension  for  them  and  their  Age68 
friends,  first  of  all,  to  have  respectfully  solicited  of  such  "  a 
veteran  and  chief"  an  explanation  of  what  he  meant ;  and,  if 
they  still  found  him  to  be  in  error,  to  ask  for  an  opportunity 
to  reason  the  matter  with  him  and  to  set  him  right.  But,  no  ; 
this  was  far  too  troublesome  for  the  elect  of  God,  who,  of 
course,  were  right,  and  all  others  wrong;  and,  hence,  the  only 
action,  which  would  not  impinge  upon  their  sacred  dignity,  was 
to  march,  in  solemn  phalanx,  to  the  assembly  of  Wesley  and 
his  poor  itinerants,  and  there  "  insist  upon  a  formal  recanta- 
tion'" \  and  then,  in  case  the  heretics  should  refuse  to  yield, 
and  because  the  valiant  defenders  of  the  truth  were  without 
power  to  imprison,  to  banish,  or  to  burn,  it  was  piously  pro- 
posed that,  for  want  of  something  more  effectual,  they  should 
content  themselves  with  2,  public  protest  against  the  pestilential 
minutes. 

One  of  Shirley's  circulars  was  handed  to  Fletcher,  the  ex- 
president  of  Trevecca,  who  wrote  to  Wesley  the  following 
letter,  hitherto  unpublished. 

"Madeley,  June  24,  1771. 

"  Dear  Sir, — Vv^hen  I  left  Wales,  where  I  had  stood  in  the  gap  for 
peace,  I  thought  my  poor  endeavours  were  not  altogether  vain.  Lady 
Huntingdon  said  she  would  write  civilly  to  you,  and  desire  you  to  explain 
yourself  about  your  minutes.  I  suppose  you  have  not  heard  from  her,  for 
she  wrote  me  word  since  that  she  believed  she  must  not  meddle  in  the 
affair.  At  least,  that  is  what  I  made  of  her  letter.  Upon  receiving  yours 
from  Chester,  I  cut  off  that  part  of  it  where  you  expressed  your  belief  of 
what  is  eminently  called  by  us  the  doctrine  of  free  grace;  and  sent  it  to 
the  college,  with  a  desire  it  might  be  sent  to  Lady  Huntingdon.  She  has 
returned  it  to  me,  with  a  letter,  in  which  she  expresses  the  greatest  disap- 
probation of  it.  The  purport  of  her  letter  is,  to  charge  you  with  tergiver- 
sation, and  me  with  being  the  dupe  of  your  impositions.  She  has  also 
wrote  in  stronger  terms  to  her  college. 

"Things,  I  hoped,  would  have  remained  there;  but  how  am  I  surprised 
and  grieved  to  see  zeal  borrowing  the  horn  of  discord,  and  sounding  an 
alarm  throughout  the  religious  world  against  you.  Mr.  Hutton  called 
upon  me  last  night,  and  showed  me  a  printed  circular,  which  I  suppose  is, 
or  will  be,  sent  to  the  serious  clergy  and  laity  throughout  the  land.  I 
have  received  none,  as  I  have  lost,  I  suppose,  my  reputation  of  being 
a  '  real  profestant,'  by  what  I  wrote  upon  your  minutes  in  Wales. 

"  This  is  an  exact  copy  of  the  printed  letter. 

[Here  follows  Shirley's  circular  as  above.] 


9 6  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1 771  "I  think  it  my  duty,  dear  sir,  to  give  you  the  earliest  inteUigence  of  this 


Age  68 


bold  onset,  and  to  assure  you  that  upon  the  evangelical  principles,  men- 
tioned in  your  last  letter  to  me,  I,  for  one,  shall  be  glad  to  stand  by  you 
and  your  doctrine  to  the  last,  hoping  that  you  will  gladly  remove  stumbling 
blocks  out  of  the  way  of  the  weak,  and  alter  such  expressions  as  may 
create  prejudice  in  the  hearts  of  those  who  are  inclined  to  admit  it. 

"  I  write  to  Mr.  Shirley  to  expostulate  with  him,  and  to  request  him  to 
call  in  his  circular  letter.  He  is  the  last  man  that  should  attack  you. 
His  sermons  contain  propositions  much  more  heretical  and  anti-Calvin- 
istical  than  your  minutes.  If  my  letters  have  not  the  desired  effect,  I 
shall  probably,  if  you  approve  of  them  and  correct  them,  make  them 
public  for  your  justification. 

"  I  find  Mr.  Ireland  is  to  write  to  make  you  tamely  recant  without 
measuring  swords,  or  breaking  a  pike  with  our  real  protestants.  I  wrote 
to  him  also. 

"  I  am,  dear  sir,  your  unworthy  servant  in  the  gospel, 

"John  Fletcher. 

"To  the  Rev.  Mr.  John  Wesley,  at  his  Preaching 
House  in  Dublin,  Ireland." 

There  was  chivalry  in  this, — the  real,  genuine  chivalry,  of 
a  noble  mind  and  generous  heart.  The  Swiss  mountaineer 
was  not  the  man  to  see  a  friend  bullied  without  rushing  to  his 
rescue. 

Wesley  was  not  without  sympathy.  A  few  days  later,  his 
faithful  friend,  Vincent  Perronet,  the  vicar  of  Shoreham,  who 
was  also  of  Swiss  extraction,  wTote  to  him  as  follows. 

"  Shoreham,  July  9,  1771. 

"My  very  dear  Brother, — I  am  truly  concerned,  that  so  laborious 
a  servant  of  Christ  should  be  attacked  in  so  violent  a  manner.  Insulted 
by  some,  without  the  least  decency,  or  regard  to  common  decorum  ;  and 
threatened  by  others  with  a  synodical  sentence. 

"  Had  I  been  honoured  with  an  invitation  from  a  great  personage,  for 
whom  I  have  a  very  high  esteem,  I  should  have  told  her  ladyship,  that  I 
have  no  greater  veneration  for  synods  than  the  most  excellent  Bishop 
Nazianzen  had  formerly,  whose  great  learning  and  Christian  virtues  could 
not  screen  him  from  the  usual  violence  of  those  assemblies,  and  who 
therefore  desired  to  see  no  more  of  them. 

"  However,  with  regard  to  the  merit  of  good  works,  I  should  frankly 
have  declared  my  abhorrence  of  the  very  sound  of  the  word ;  since  I  could 
not  conceive  how  an  unprofitable  servant  could  merit  anything  from  a 
holy  God.  But  then,  on  the  other  hand,  I  should  have  added,  that  who- 
ever should  speak  contemptuously  of  the  diligent  exercise  of  good  works, 
as  if  they  derogated  from  the  honour  of  Christ,  I  should  tell  such  a 
divine,  that,  whether  he  found  his  divinity  either  in  Luther,  or  Calvin,  or 
the  Synod  of  Dort,   it   was  no   divinity  of  the  gospel  of  Christ ;  since 


Age  68 


Calviniaii  Controversy,  97 

Christ  came  to  purify  unto  Himself  a  peculiar  people,  zealous  of  good  1771 
works.  And  as  the  Holy  Spirit  has  assured  us,  over  and  over,  that  '  we 
shall  be  judged  according  to  our  works,'  it  is,  therefore,  no  wonder  that 
St.  Paul  should  pray  that  his  converts  might  be  'established  in  every  good 
word  and  work.'  Besides,  I  might  have  observed  that  the  zealot  who 
decries  good  works  was  acting  a  most  ridiculous  part  with  regard  to  faith ; 
for  if  his  faith  did  not  bring  forth  good  works,  his  faith  was  good  for 
nothing. 

"  However,  though  such  good  works  were  the  fruits  of  faith,  and  conse- 
quently the  fruit  of  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  and,  for  that  reason,  must  be 
acceptable  to  God,  yet,  I  must  have  added,  so  far  as  they  were  our  works, 
so  far  they  wanted  the  blood  of  Christ  to  wash  away  their  defilements,  and 
to  atone  for  their  deficiencies ;  and,  therefore,  even  our  best  works  can 
have  no  merit  in  them. 

"  I  should,  then,  have  remonstrated  to  that  worthy  lady  to  the  following 
purpose, — that  if  one,  who  had  laboured  in  the  vineyard,  I  believed,  full 
as  much  as  any  person  since  the  days  of  the  apostles,  was  not  thought 
worthy  of  the  mantle  of  love,  for  any  mistake  he  might  have  made,  yet 
surely  he  had  a  right  to  expect,  that  notice  would  have  been  given  him  to 
explain  his  meaning,  before  his  judge  pronounced  sentence.  This  is  a 
privilege  granted  to  every  supposed'  criminal  in  our  courts  of  law,  and 
where  this  is  denied  that  court  is  no  better  than  a  court  of  inquisition. 

"  But  now,  my  dear  brother,  what  effect  such  a  letter  might  have  had, 
I  pretend  not  to  say.  It  would,  at  the  least,  have  testified  to  that  friend- 
ship, which  I  have  constantly  had  for  you  these  twenty-five  years.  May 
God  direct  us  both,  and  may  our  worst  enemies  be  all  brought  to  Him ! 
You  have  my  leave  to  make  what  use  you  please  of  this  long  letter. 
"  I  am,  my  very  dear  brother,  yours  most  affectionately, 

"  Vincent  Perronet."  ^ 

Just  at  this  juncture,  Wesley  drew  up  and  printed,  at 
Dublin,  under  date  "July  10,  1771,"  a  clear  and  logical  ex- 
position of  the  doctrines  set  forth  in  the  minutes,  which 
he  doubtless  circulated  among  his  preachers  and  friends. 
At  the  top  of  the  first  page  of  one  of  the  copies,  he 
requested  Miss  Bishop,  of  Bath,  not  to  "  show  it  before 
conference,"  adding,  "  if  the  Calvinists  do  not,  or  will  not 
understand  me,  I  understand  myself ;  and  I  do  not  contradict 
anything  I  have  written  these  thirty  years.  Poor  Mr,  Shirley's 
triumph  will  be  short."  ^ 

Wesley's  views  were  the  same  as  Perronet's.  What  were 
Charles  Wesley's,  and  what  part  was  taken  by  him  in  this 


'  Methodist  Magazine,  1797,  p.  253. 
2  Smith's  History  of  Methodism,  vol.  i.,  p.  394. 

VOL.  III.  n 


qS  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1 77 1  momentous  controversy  ?  The  biographer  of  the  Countess  of 
Age  68  Huntingdon  would  have  his  readers  to  beHeve,  that  Charles 
disapproved  of  his  brother's  letter  to  her  ladyship  ;  that  he 
would  reprove  him  for  it ;  and,  that  he  preferred  peace  above 
all  things.^  It  might  be  so  ;  we  have  no  means  of  gainsaying 
it.  It  is  doubtful  whether  he  attended  the  conference  in 
Bristol  ;  in  fact,  almost  certain  that  he  did  not.  Hence  the 
following,  addressed  to  him  only  three  days  before  the  com- 
mencement of  its  sittings. 

"KiNGSWooD,  August  1,  1 771. 

"  Dear  Brother, — I  will  not  throw  away  Thomas  Rankin  on  the 
people  of  London.     He  shall  go  where  they  know  the  value  of  him. 

"  We  cannot  put  out  what  we  never  put  in.  I  do  not  use  the  word 
'merit.'  I  never  did,  neither  do  I  now,  contend  for  the  use  of  it.  But  I 
ask  you,  or  any  other,  a  plain  question:  and  do  not  cry,  Murder;  but 
give  me  an  answer.  What  is  the  difference  between  '  mereri^  and  '  to 
deserve  ' .''  or  between  'deserving,'  and  '  luerituni ' .-'  I  say  still,  I  cannot 
tell.  Can  you  ?  Can  Mr.  Shirley,  or  any  man  living.^  In  asking  this 
question,  I  neither  plead  for  merit,  nor  against  it.  I  have  nothing  to  do 
with  it.  I  have  declared  a  thousand  times,  there  is  no  goodness  in  man 
till  he  is  justified ;  no  merit,  either  before  or  after ;  that  is,  taking  the 
word  in  its  proper  sense:  for  in  a  loose  sense  'meritorious '  means  no 
more  than  ' rewaidable.' 

"As  to  reprobation,  seeing  they  have  drawn  the  sword,  I  throw  away 
the  scabbard.  I  send  you  a  specimen.  Let  fifteen  hundred  of  them  be 
printed  as  soon  as  you  please.^ 

''  Nothing  was  ever  yet  expended  out  of  the  yearly  collection,  without 
being  immediately  set  down  by  the  secretary.  I  never  took  a  shilling  froin 
that  fund  yet. 

"  What  you  advise  with  regard  to  our  behaviour  toward  our  opposers 

exactly  agrees  with  my  sentiments.     I  am  full  of  business,  as  you  may 

suppose.     So  adieu  ! 

"John  Wesley." ^ 

On  the  evening  before  Wesley's  conference  assembled,  two 
letters  were  put  into  his  hand,  one  written  by  Lady  Hunting- 
don, the  other  by  the  Rev.  Walter  Shirley.  The  purport  of 
her  ladyship's  letter  was,  that,  having  learned  that  the  pro- 
posed method  of  visiting  his  conference  appeared  to  him  and 
to  his  friends  "  as  an  arbitrary  way  of  proceeding,  she  and 
her  allies  wished  to  inform  him,  that  they  intended  no  per- 

'  "  Life  and  Times  of  Countess  of  Huntingdon,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  237. 
2  This  was  probably  "  The  Consequence  Proved,"  to  be  noticed  shortly. 
^  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xii.,  p.  127. 


Calvinian  Controversy.  99 

sonal  disrespect,  but  a  degree  of  zeal  against  the  principles      1771 
established    in   the    minutes,  Avhich    were    repugnant   to    the     Age  68 
whole  plan   of  man's   salvation  under  the   new  covenant    of 
grace,    and   also    to    the    clear  meaning    of   the    Established 
Church,  as  well  as  to  all  other  protestant  churches,  to  whose 
foundations  the  highest  honour  and  respect  are  due."  ' 

Shirley's  letter  apologises  for  that  part  of  his  circular  which 
seemed  to  assume,  that  he  and  his  friends  had  a  "  civil  right 
to  go  in  a  body  to  Wesley's  conference,  and  insist  on  a 
formal  recantation  of  the  minutes."  All  he  meant  was,  to 
send  Wesley  a  "  respectful  mxcssage  importing  their  design,  and 
requesting  him  to  appoint  a  day  and  hour  for  the  conference 
to  receive  them."  The  reason  why  he  had  inserted  "  the 
offensive  expression,  '  insist  upon  a  formal  recantation,' " 
(for  which  he  now  apologised,)  was,  because  "  it  was  supposed 
by  some,  that,  instead  of  giving  satisfaction  on  the  points  in 
question,  such  a  forced  construction  would  be  put  on  the 
meaning  of  the  minutes,  as  might  elude  the  intended  opposi- 
tion, and  yet  leave  the  doctrines  therein  contained  entire  and 
unrepealed."  Shirley  concludes  by  stating,  that  the  doctrines 
of  the  minutes  appear  to  him  "evidently  subversive  of  the 
fundamentals  of  Christianity."  ^ 

Remembering  that  Wesley  was  not  under  the  slightest  obli- 
gation to  either  the  Countess  of  Huntingdon,  Mr.  Shirley,  or 
any  of  their  Calvinistic  friends,  he  might,  without  any  want 
of  courtesy,  have  treated  with  contempt  a  letter  casting  upon 
him  the  slur  of  trickishness,  and  have  declined  to  see  its 
author  ;  but,  instead  of  that,  he  appointed  Thursday,  August 
8,  for  the  momentous  interview.  Accordingly,  on  that  day, 
Shirley,  and  two  other  ministers  of  the  Countess  of  Hunting- 
don's chapels,  together  with  Messrs.  Lloyd,  Ireland,  and 
Winter,  and  two  students  (!)  from  Trevecca  college,  went  to 
Wesley's  conference.  Shirley's  circular,  summoning  a  synod, 
had  been  sent  to  all  his  sympathisers,  clerical  and  laical, 
throughout  the  three  kingdoms  ;  and  the  result  was  a  grand 
convocation  of  less  than  half  a  score,  and  even  these  included 
two  laics  belonging  to  Bath  and  Bristol,  and  at  least  two 
young   men,   still  merely   preparing  for   the   ministry.      The 

'  Shirley's  "  Narrative,"  p.  8.  2  ibj^   p_  iq^ 


loo  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1 77 1  thing  was  a  ridiculous  failure  ;  but  not  even  on  that  account 
A^TeS  '^'^  Wesley  refuse  to  see  the  self  elected  deputies.  First  of  all, 
Wesley  engaged  in  prayer.  Then  Shirley  desired  to  know  if 
the  letters  of  himself  and  Lady  Huntingdon  had  been  read  to 
the  conference.  Being  answered  in  the  negative,  he  asked 
leave  to  read  them,  which  was  granted.  A  lengthened  con- 
versation followed  ;  and  then  Shirley  produced  a  written  de- 
claration which  he  wished  the  conference  to  sign.  Wesley 
read  it,  and  made  some  alterations,  which  Shirley  says  were 
"not  very  material,"  and  then  he  and  fifty-three  of  his 
preachers  appended  to  it  their  signatures.^  The  declaration 
thus  signed  was  as  follows  : — 

"  Whereas  the  doctrinal  points  in  the  Minutes  of  a  Conference,  held  in 
London,  August  7,  1770,  have  been  understood  to  favour  Justification  by 
Works  :  now  the  Rev.  John  Wesley,  and  others  assembled  in  Conference, 
do  declare,  that  we  had  no  such  meaning  ;  and  that  we  abhor  the  doc- 
trine of  Justification  by  Works  as  a  most  perilous  and  abominable 
doctrine  ;  and  as  the  said  Minutes  are  not  sufficiently  guarded  in  the 
way  they  are  expressed,  we  hereby  solemnly  declare,  in  the  sight  of  God, 
that  we  have  no  trust  or  confidence  but  in  the  alone  merits  of  our 
Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  for  Justification  or  Salvation  either  in  life, 
death  or  the  day  of  judgment  ;  and  though  no  one  is  a  real  Christian 
believer,  (and  consequently  cannot  be  saved)  who  doth  not  good  works, 
where  there  is  time  and  opportunity,  yet  our  works  have  no  part  in 
meriting  or  purchasing  our  salvation^  from  first  to  last,  either  in  whole 
or  in  part." 

After  the  declaration  had  been  agreed  to,  Shirley  was  re- 
quested "  to  make  some  public  acknowledgment,  that  he  had 
mistaken  the  meaning  of  the  minutes."  Shirley  hesitated, 
but  at  last  consented,  and  wrote  a  certificate  to  that  effect. 

In  the  meantime,  Wesley  had  received  from  Fletcher  the 
manuscript  copy  of  his  "  Vindication  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Wesley's 
Last  Minutes  :  occasioned  by  a  circular,  printed  letter,  invit- 
ing principal  persons,  both  clergy  and  laity,  as  well  of  the 
Dissenters  as  of  the  Established  Church,  who  disapprove  of 

^Charles  Wesley's  name  is  not  in  the  list:  a  further  proof  that, 
strangely  enough,  he  was  not  at  this  most  important  conference. 

2  jhis  ig  ji-,e  woxdi  in  Shirley's  "Narrative"  ;  but  in  the  Gospel Macrazine 
for  August,  1771,  the  word  "justification"  is  used  instead;  and  there 
can  be  little  doubt,  that  this  was  the  reading  of  the  original  declara- 
tion. The  difference  at  first  seems  slight,  but,  in  reality,  it  is  of  great 
importance,  as  tlie  readers  of  Fletcher's  "  Checks"  will  easily  perceive. 


Calviiiian  Controversy.  loi 

those  Minutes,    to    oppose   them  in  a  body,    as    a  dreadful      1771 
heresy  :  in  Five  Letters  to  the  Hon.  and  Rev.  Author  of  the    a^^GS 
circular  letter." 

Wesley  at  once  gave  the  manuscript  to  William  Pine  to 
print  and  publish.  Shirley,  hearing  of  this,  waited  upon 
Wesley  the  day  after  he  and  his  friends  had  been  to  con- 
ference, and  requested  that  the  manuscript  should  not  be 
printed,  urging  as  their  reason,  that  Fletcher  himself  wished 
for  this,  "  if  matters  should  end  peaceably."  Wesley,  however, 
persisted,  and  the  work  was  published  without  delay,  in  a  i2mo 
pamphlet  of  98  pages.  Whilst  the  manuscript  was  being  print- 
ed, Wesley  took  the  opportunity  to  reply  to  the  letter  of  Lady 
Huntingdon,  which  had  been  put  into  his  hands  the  night  before 
his  conference  commenced.  Nine  days  had  elapsed  since  then, 
and  now  Wesley,  on  August  14,  addresses  her  ladyship  in  the 
following  unflinching  terms,  his  letter  also  showing  that  the 
publication  of  Fleitcher's  "  Vindication  "  was  no  after  thought, 
but  was  proceeding  even  while  the  conference  was  sitting. 

''AlY  DEAR  Lady,— The  principles  established  in  the  minutes  I  ap- 
prehend to  be  no  way  contrary  to  that  great  truth,  justification  by  faith,  or 
that  consistent  plan  of  doctrine,  which  was  once  delivered  to  the  saints. 
I  believe  whoever  calmly  considers  Mr.  Fletcher's  Letters  will  be  convinced 
of  this.  I  fear,  therefore,  that  '  zeal  against  those  principles  '  is  no  less 
than  zeal  against  the  truth,  and  against  the  honour  of  our  Lord.  The 
preservation  of  His  honour  appears  so  sacred  to  me,  and  has  done  for 
above  these  forty  years,  that  I  have  counted,  and  do  count,  all  things  loss 
in  comparison  of  it.  But  till  Mr.  Fletcher's  Letters  are  answered,  I  must 
think  everything  spoken  against  these  minutes  is  totally  destructive  of 
His  honour,  and  a  palpable  affront  to  Him  ;  both  as  our  Prophet  and 
Priest,  but  more  especially  as  the  King  of  His  people.  Those  Letters, 
therefore,  which  could  not  be  suppressed  without  betraying  the  honour  of 
our  Lord,  largely  prove  that  the  minutes  lay  no  other  foundation  than 
that  which  is  laid  in  Scripture,  and  which  I  have  been  laying,  and  teaching 
others  to  lay,  for  between  thirty  and  forty  years.  Indeed,  it  would  be 
amazing  that  God  should  at  this  day  prosper  my  labours  as  much  if  not 
more  than  ever,  by  convincing  as  well  as  converting  sinners,  if  I  was 
establishing  another  foundation,  repugnant  to  the  whole  plan  of  man's 
'  salvation  under  the  covenant  of  grace,  as  well  as  the  clear  meaning  of  our 
Established  Church,  and  all  other  />roti'sta/it  churches.'  This  is  a  charge 
indeed  !  But  I  plead  not  guilty  :  and  till  it  is  proved  upon  me,  I  must 
subscribe  myself,  my  dear  lady,  your  ladyship's  affectionate  but  much 
injured  servant,  "JOHN  Wesley."' 

^  Whitehead's  Life  of  Wesley,  \ol.  ii.,  p.  349. 


I02  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1 77 1  Wesley  had  told   his  brother,  that  as  "  they  had  drawn  the 

Age  68  sword,"  he  himself  should  "  throw  away  the  scabbard,"  and 
now  this  was  done.  Shirley  found  the  tables  turned,  and, 
instead  of  attacking  others,  had  to  defend  himself;  and 
hence,  in  September,  he  issued  his  "  Narrative  of  the  Principal 
Circumstances  'relative  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Wesley's  late  Con- 
ference, held  in  Bristol,  August  6,  1771."     8vo,  24  pages. 

Space  prohibits  any  lengthened  outline  of  Fletcher's  "Vin- 
dication."    He  gives  (i)  a  general  view  of  Wesley's  doctrine  ; 

(2)  an  account  of  the  commendable  design  of  his  minutes  ; 

(3)  a  vindication  of  their  propositions.  It  is  in  this  production, 
that  he  furnishes  his  fearful  description  of  the  antinomianism 
which  was  then  so  prevalent,  and  which  really  rendered  some 
utterance  on  the  subject  of  good  works  a  solemn  necessity. 
He  also  makes  extracts  from  Shirley's  published  sermons, 
teaching  the  very  doctrines  which  Wesley's  minutes  teach  ;  to 
which  quotations  Shirley's  reply  was,  that  "  they  were  wrote 
many  years  ago  when  he  had  more  zeal  than  light,"  and 
that  he  had  "  frequently  wished  that  they  were  burnt."  ^ 

Fletcher  concludes  thus  : — 

"  O  sir,  have  we  not  fightings  enough  without,  to  employ  all  our  time 
and  strength  ?  Must  we  also  declare  war  and  promote  fightings  within  ? 
Must  we  catch  at  every  opportunity  to  stab  one  another  1  What  can  be 
more  cutting  to  an  old  minister  of  Christ  than  to  be  traduced  as  a  dreadful 
heretic,  in  printed  letters  sent  to  the  best  men  of  the  land,  through  all 
England  and  Scotland,  and  signed  by  a  person  of  your  rank  and  piety  ? 
While  he  is  gone  to  a  neighbouring  kingdom,  to  preach  Jesus  Christ, 
to  have  his  friends  prejudiced,  his  foes  elevated,  and  the  fruit  of  his 
extensive  ministry  at  the  point  of  being  blasted  ?  Of  the  two  greatest 
and  most  useful  ministers  I  ever  knew,  one  is  no  more.  The  other, 
after  amazing  labours,  flies  still,  with  unwearied  diligence,  through  the 
three  kingdoms,  calling  sinners  to  repentance.  Though  oppressed  with 
the  weight  of  near  seventy  years,  and  the  cares  of  near  thirty  thousand 
souls,  he  shames  still,  by  his  unabated  zeal  and  immense  labours,  all  the 
young  ministers  in  England,  perhaps  in  Christendom.  He  has  generally 
blown  the  gospel  trumpet,  and  rode  twenty  miles,  before  most  of  the 
professors,  who  despise  his  labours,  have  left  their  downy  pillows.  As 
he  begins  the  day,  the  week,  the  year,  so  he  concludes  them,  still  intent 
upon  extensive  services  for  the  glory  of  the  Redeemer,  and  the  good  of 
souls.  And  shall  we  lightly  lift  up  our  pens,  our  tongues,  our  hands 
against   him  ?     No  ;  let  them  rather  forget  their  cunning.      If   we  will 

'  Shirley's  "  Narrative." 


Calviniaii  Controversy.  lo 


o 


quarrel,  can  we  find  nobody  to  fall  out  with,  but  the  minister  upon  whom      1 77  i 
God  puts  the  greatest  honour  ?  " 


Shirley's  "Narrative"  was  published  in  September,  in  which 
he  gives  great  prominence  to  one  of  Fletcher's  letters  requesting 
his  "Vindication"  to  be  suppressed.  He  furnishes  an  extract 
from  one  addressed  to  Mr.  Ireland,  dated  August  15,  to  the 
following  effect  :  "  I  feel  for  poor  dear  Mr.  Shirley,  whom  I 
have,  (considering  the  present  circumstances,)  treated  too 
severely  in  my  vindication  of  the  minutes.  My  dear  sir, 
what  must  be  done .''  I  am  ready  to  defray,  by  selling  to  my 
last  shirt,  the  expense  of  the  printing  of  my  Vindication,  and 
suppress  it." 

This  was  characteristic  of  Fletcher's  large  heartedness  ;  but 
the  extract  from  his  letter  was  a  garbled  one,  and  rendered 
it  necessary  that  he  should  again  enter  the  field  of  battle, 
and  defend  himself  as  well  as  others.  This  was  done  at 
once,  and,  before  the  year  was  ended,  another  production 
of  his  facile  pen  was  published,  namely,  "  A  Second  Check 
to  Antinomianism:  occasioned  by  a  late  narrative,  in  three 
letters,  to  the  Hon.  and  Rev.  Author.  By  the  Vindicator 
of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Wesley's  Minutes."     i2mo,  109  pages. 

He  tells  Shirley,  that,  though  it  was  perfectly  true  that  he 
had  written  to  Mr.  Ireland,  requesting  his  letters  to  be  sup- 
pressed, he  had  also  stated  to  the  same  gentleman,  that  "  the 
minutes  w//j-/ be  vindicated, — that  Mr.  Wesley  owed  this  to  the 
Church,  to  the '  real  protestants,'  to  all  his  societies,  and  to  his 
own  aspersed  character."  He  states  :  "  I  was  going  to  preach 
when  I  had  the  news  of  your  happy  accommodation,  and  was 
no  sooner  out  of  church,  than  I  wrote  to  beg  my  Vindication 
might  not  appear  in  the  dress  in  which  I  had  put  it.  I  did 
not  then,  nor  do  I  yet,  repent  having  written  upon  the  min- 
utes ;  but,  as  matters  are  now,  I  am  very  sorry  I  did  not  write 
in  a  general  manner,  without  taking  notice  of  the  circular 
letter,  and  mentioning  your  dear  name."  ^  He  adds,  that  when 
he  gave  the  manuscript  to  Wesley,  he  begged  him  to  correct 
it,  and  to  expunge  whatever  might  be  "unkind  or  too  sharp." 
Wesley  had  assured  him,  that  "  he  had  expunged  every  tart 
expression  " ;  and,  if  so,  (for  Fletcher  had  not  yet  seen  it  in  a 


Age  68 


1  " 


Second  Check,"  ist  Edit.,  p.  40. 


I04  Life  and   Times  of  Wesley. 

^ITi-  printed  form,)  he  was  '' reconciled  to  its  publication."  Fletcher 
Age~68  further  adds,  that  he  had  just  received  a  letter  (September  1 1, 
i77i)from  Bristol,  stating  that  when  Thomas  Olivers,  who  was 
now  acting  as  Wesley's  editor,  heard  of  Fletcher's  wish  to  sup- 
press his  "Vindication," he  had  already  announced  to  the  Bristol 
congregation,  that  the  work  was  in  the  press,  and  would  soon  be 
ready.  "  Besides,"  continues  Fletcher,  in  reference  to  Thomas 
Olivers  being  the  only  preacher  who  refused  to  sign  the  decla- 
ration at  the  conference, — "  Besides,  Mr.  Olivers  would  have 
pleaded,  with  smartness,  that  he  never  approved  of  a  patched 
up  peace, — that  he  bore  his  testimony  against  it  at  the  time 
it  was  made, — had  a  personal  right  to  produce  my  arguments, 
since  both  parties  refused  to  hear  his  at  the  conference." 

These  facts  are  of  great  consequence,  inasmuch  as  Shirley 
magnifies  Wesley's  publication  of  Fletcher's  Vindication  into  a 
heinous  fault ;  and  others  after  him  have  endeavoured  to  brand 
Wesley's  character,  not  only  for  perpetuating  the  war,  but 
for  publishing  Fletcher's  manuscript  contrary  to  Fletcher's 
wish.  This  is  utterly  unjust.  The  war  was  begun,  not  by 
Wesley,  but  by  the  Calvinists ;  and  surely  the  attacked  was 
not  presumptuous,  or  wanton,  in  endeavouring  to  defend  him- 
self. It  is  true,  that,  in  doing  that,  he  uses  the  sword  of  his 
friend  Fletcher  ;  but  what  of  that .''  The  sword  was  given 
him  to  use,  on  July  27,  when  on  his  return  from  Ireland  ; 
and,  though  Fletcher  subsequently  hesitated  as  to  the  pro- 
priety of  the  step  he  had  taken,  it  was  not  until  the  sword 
was  brandished,  by  Fletcher's  manuscript  being  committed  to 
the  press  and  actually  announced  for  sale.  Besides,  Fletcher's 
hesitancy  had  reference,  not  to  the  thing  done,  but  to  the 
manner  of  its  being  done.  A  vindication  he  considered  to  be 
imperatively  required  :  but  he  was  afraid  that  his  own  was  too 
personal.  Shirley  was  aggrieved,  because  he  pretends  to  have 
thought  that  the  signing  of  the  declaration  would  have  ended 
the  matter  ;  but  Shirley  conveniently  forgets  :  (i)  that  he  him- 
self had  blackened  Wesley's  character  throughout  the  three 
kingdoms  ;  (2)  that  Wesley  and  his  preachers  had  conceded 
nothing  to  their  adversaries,  except  that  the  minutes  of  1770 
were  "  not  sufficiently  guarded  in  the  way  in  which  they  are 
expressed  "  ;  (3)  that,  as  Fletcher  abundantly  demonstrates, 
there  was  a  terrible  necessity  for  an  enforcement  of  the  doc- 


Calviniaii  Controversy.  105 

trine  of  the  minutes  at  this  momentous  period,  both  the  ^77^ 
pulpits  and  pews  of  churches  being  infected  with  the  deadly  Age  6S 
antinomianism  of  the  late  Dr.  Crisp  ;  and  (4)  that,  after  all, 
the  doctrine  of  the  minutes  was  only  one  part  of  the  contro- 
versy which  the  Calvinists  had  raised,  and  that  there  were 
other  attacks  on  Wesley,  made  by  men  like  Augustus  Top- 
lady,  and  the  editor  of  the  Gospel  Magazine,  which  it  was 
impossible,  and,  in  fact,  would  have  been  criminally  disastrous, 
to  have  passed  without  rebuke. 

That  Fletcher  did  not  regret  the  publishing  of  his  Vindi- 
cation is  evident  from  the  alacrity  he  showed  in  the  prepara- 
tion and  publishing  of  his  "  Second  Check  ; "  the  chief  object 
of  which  was  to  establish  "  the  doctrine  of  justification  by 
works  in  the  day  of  judgment";  and  to  reprove  Walter 
Shirley  for  insinuating,  in  his  "  Narrative,"  that  this  was  a 
doctrine  which  Wesley  and  his  fifty-three  itinerant  preachers 
had  given  up. 

Shirley  retired  from  the  field  of  battle  ;  but  others  took  up 
the  gauntlet.  The  Gospel  Magazine,  faithful  to  its  character, 
was  as  furious  as  ever.  In  its  August  number,  it  published  a 
review  of  the  "  Church  of  England  vindicated  from  the  Charge 
of  Absolute  Predestination,"  declaring  that  Wesley  was  its 
author's  "dictator  and  employer."  The  work  is  pronounced 
"a  composition  of  low  scurrility  and  illiberal  abuse."  The 
writer  is  charged  with  having  "  horribly  blasphemed,  and 
daringly  given  the  lie  to  the  God  of  truth,  by  asserting  that 
any  justified  soul  may  at  last  perish  in  hell."  "  Arminianism 
is  a  hodgepodge  of  human  systems,  made  up  of  grace  and 
works,  so  blended  together  as  to  destroy  the  true  meaning  of 
both." 

In    the    same   number   was    published   Cleon's    poem    on 

"  Wesley's  apostasy  from  the  genuine  faith  of  the  gospel,  an 

awful  proof  that  evil  men  and  seducers  wax  worse  and  worse." 

One  verse  must  serve  as  a  specimen.     After  describing  the 

doctrine  of  Wesley's  minutes,  Cleon  writes  : 

"In  vain  for  worse  may  Wesley  search  the  globe, 
A  viper  hatched  beneath  the  harlot's  robe ; 
Rome,  in  her  glory,  has  no  greater  boast, 
Than  Wesley  aims — to  all  conviction  lost." 

In  the  September  number,  "  Simplex,  from  the  neighbour- 


io6  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

^771  hood  of  the  Foundery,"  expresses  his  astonishment,  that 
Age  68  Shirley  and  his  friends  should  have  been  satisfied  with  the 
declaration,  signed  at  conference,  inasmuch  as  "  it  denies  not 
one  tittle  clearly  asserted  in  the  minutes."  Wesley  is  credited 
with  possessing  "  the  unfathomable  policy  of  a  dubious  divine." 
He  is  a  "  fox,"  who  "  has  had  sagacity  enough  to  elude  his 
hunters  ; "  and  "  evidently  shows  that  he  never  meant  to 
recant  what  he  had  declared  in  the  minutes,  when  he  signed 
the  declaration." 

In  a  subsequent  number,  "  Simplex  "  reappears,  and  tells 
his  readers  that  he  is  "  sorry  to  see  the  name  of  a  Christian 
minister  prefixed  to  such  foul  and  futile  productions  as  those 
of  Mr.  Sellon.  Mr.  Fletcher's  pen  is  more  cleanly,  but  every 
whit  as  unfair.  He  is  like  a  madman  flinging  abroad  fire- 
brands, arrows,  and  death,  amongst  those  who  differ  from  him. 
Master  Thomas  Olivers  has  shocked  common  decency  in  his 
letter  to  Mr.  Toplady.  And  Mr.  Wesley  must  be  more  ex- 
plicit than  he  has  been  accustomed  to  be,  before  he  can  give  a 
satisfactory  answer  to  Simplex's  querulous  epistle."  These 
are  moderate  specimens  of  the  tone  and  language  of  the 
Gospel  Magardne. 

Another  brace  of  antagonists  must  be  mentioned,  Richard 
and  Rowland  Hill,  the  sons  of  Sir  Rowland  Hill,  the  former 
born  in  1732,  and  the  latter  in  1745.  Richard  had  been 
educated  at  Westminster,  and  had  spent  four  or  five  years  at 
Magdalen  college,  Oxford.  Rowland  had  been  sent  to  Eton, 
and  then  to  Cambridge  university.  Both  the  brothers  had 
turned  preachers,  though,  as  yet,  neither  of  them  had  been 
ordained.  They  were  young,  proud,  and  irascible  ;  and,  with 
greater  zeal  than  prudence,  entered  into  the  Calvinian  conflict. 

Richard  Hill  published^  a  sixpenny  pamphlet,  8vo,  of  31 
pages,  entitled  "A  Conversation  between  Richard  Hill,  Esq., 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Madan,  and  Father  Walsh,  superior  of  a  convent 
of  English  Benedictine  monks  at  Paris,  held  at  the  said 
convent,  July  13,  177 1,  relative  to  some  doctrinal  Minutes, 
advanced  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  John  Wesley  and  others,  at  a  con- 
ference in  London,  August  7,  1770.  To  which  are  added  some 
Remarks  by  the  Editor  ;  as  also  Mr.  Wesley's   own  Declara- 

'  See  Sir  Richard  Hill's  Life,  p.  191. 


Calviniaii  Controversy.  107 

tion  concerning  his  Minutes,  versified  by  another  Hand."     A      1771 
prodigiously  long  title  of  a  supremely  silly  tract,  ^vhose  object    A{;e  6S 
is  to  show  that  Wesley's  doctrine  was  a  great  deal  worse  than 
popery  ;  in   fact,  that  "  popery  is  about  midway  between  pro- 
testantism and   Mr.  J.  Wesley."     We  content  ourselves  with 
Sir  Richard's  poetical  version  of  Wesley's  declaration  : 

"  Whereas,  the  religion  and  fate  of  three  nations 
Depend  on  the'  importance  of  our  conversations  ; 
And  as  some  objections  are  thrown  in  our  way. 
Our  words  have  been  construed  to  mean  what  they  say  ; 
Be 't  known  from  henceforth,  to  each  friend  and  each  brother, 
Whene'er  we  say  one  thing,  we  mean  quite  afiother." 

Sir  Richard  was  not  content  with  this.  He  issued  a  penny 
i2mo  tract  of  12  pages,  with  the  title,  "An  Answer  to  some 
capital  Errors  contained  in  the  Minutes,"  etc.,  which  finishes 
by  reproducing  the  doggerel  calumny  just  given,  as  though 
it  were  far  too  precious  to  be  entombed  in  the  more  costly 
pamphlet  with  which  he  had  enriched  the  Christian  church. 

His  third  publication, — by  far  the  best, — was  an  octavo 
pamphlet  of  40  pages,  entitled,  "  Five  Letters  to  the  Reverend 
Mr.  Fletcher,  relative  to  his  Vindication  of  the  Minutes  of  the 
Reverend  Mr.  John  Wesley."  Apart  from  its  theology,  of 
which  we  say  nothing,  this  was  worthy  of  a  scholar,  a  Christian, 
and  a  gentleman.  The  spirit  of  the  piece  is  most  loving,  and 
the  style  unexceptionable. 

The  publications,  on  the  other  side,  in  addition  to  those  of 
Fletcher,  were  three  in  number.  • 

First,  Wesley's  tract  of  12  pages,  entitled,  "The  Conse- 
quence Proved"  ;  without  either  the  author's  or  the  printer's 
name.  Its  object  is  to  substantiate  his  former  assertion,  that 
the  gist  of  Toplady's  Zanchius  is  to  teach  that  "  one  in  twenty 
(suppose)  of  mankind  are  elected,  and  nineteen  in  twenty  are 
reprobate  :  that  the  elect  shall  be  saved,  do  what  they  will ; 
and  the  reprobate  shall  be  damned,  do  what  they  can." 
Wesley  says  :  "  I  have  not  leisure  to  consider  the  matter  at 
large.  I  can  only  make  a  few  strictures,  and  leave  the  young 
man  (Toplady)  to  be  farther  corrected  by  one  that  is  full  his 
match,  Mr.  Thomas  Olivers."^ 

^  There  was  also  pubhshed,  at  this  period,  a  smartly  written  rebuke  of 


io8  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 


1 7  71  To  be  handed  over  to  Thomas  Ohvers  was  one  of  the 
Age~68  bitterest  pills  that  Toplady  had  to  swallow.  Olivers  was  a  man 
of  great  intellectual  power  ;  but  he  had  the  misfortune  to  com- 
mence life  as  a  Welsh  mechanic  of  not  the  highest  order.  He 
was  left  an  orphan  when  only  four  years  old,  and  had  now 
attained  the  age  of  forty-six.  His  publication,  i2mo,  60  pages, 
was  entitled,  "  A  Letter  to  the  Reverend  Mr.  Toplady,  occa- 
sioned by  his  late  Letter  to  the  Reverend  Mr.  Wesley."  In 
invective  and  tart  rebuke,  Toplady  met  a  match  in  the  intrepid 
and  fiery  Welshman  who,  on  behalf  of  Wesley,  undertook  to 
fight  the  furious  predestinarian  with  the  not  too  respectable 
weapons  of  his  own  choosing.  It  certainly  is  difficult  to  decide 
which  is  the  more  proficient  in  the  use  of  strong  language. 
It  was  a  fisticuff  encounter  between  a  pugilistic  pair,  whose 
thumping  blows  may  be  considered  of  equal  force. 

The  third  publication,  alluded  to  above^  was  "  The  Church 
of  England  Vindicated  from  the  Charge  of  Predestination,  as 
it  is  stated  and  asserted  by  the  Translator  of  Jerome  Zanchius, 
in  his  Letter  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Nowell ;  together  with  some 
Animadversions  on  his  Translation  of  Zanchius,  his  Letter  to 
the  Rev.  Mr.  John  Wesley,  and  his  Sermon  on  i  Timothy  i.io." 
i2mo,  129  pages.  The  author  was  the  redoubtable  Walter 
Sellon,  who,  for  outspokenness,  was  only  second  to  Toplady 
and  Olivers  themselves.  At  the  same  time,  however,  Sellon's 
book  evinces  great  ability  and  research,  and  thoroughly  demo- 
lishes the  unfounded  theories  of  an  opponent,  whose  pen  was 
guided  by  bigatry  rather  than  by  Christian  discretion.  The 
castigation  was  severe,  but  it  was  merited.  The  lash  of  a 
scorpion  whip  is  far  from  pleasant  ;  but  the  man  who  uses  it 
has  no  reason  to  complain  of  another  using  it  in  self  defence. 
Toplady  had  a  right  to  wince  and  writhe  ;  but,  under  the  cir- 
cumstances, he  had  no  right  to  foam,  as,  in  succeeding 
chapters,  we  shall  find  he  did. 

Here,  for  the  present,  we  shall  leave  this  embittered  con- 
flict, and  trace  the  steps  of  the  illustrious  man  whose  high 
position  seemed  to  engender  the  envy  which  led  to  the  attack 


Toplady,  and  a  defence  of  Wesley,  entitled,  "A  Letter  to  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Augustus  Toplady,  written  in  great  part  by  himself,  relative  to  part  of 
his  printed  Letter  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  John  Wesley."     8vo,  21  pages. 


MetJiodist  Discipline  in    I'j'ji.  109 

upon  him  ;  but  who,  excepting  a  short  skirmish  now  and  then,      1771 
pursued  his  high  and  holy  mission  with  as  much  serenity  as  if    Age68 
the  conflict  had  not  existed. 

He  landed  in  Ireland  on  March  24,  and  re-embarked  for 
England  on  July  22nd  following. 

At  Dublin,  the  society  had  been  jangling  for  years,  and,  as  a 
consequence,  had  suffered  loss.  Though  not  expressly  stated, 
it  is  clear  that  the  cause  of  their  quarreling  was  a  dispute 
respecting  the  authority  of  the  preachers  and  of  the  leaders 
respectively.  Wesley,  as  the  fountain  of  Methodistic  law, 
now  laid  it  down  that  classleaders  had  no  authority  to  re- 
strain the  assistant,  if  they  thought  he  acted  improperly ;  but 
might  mfldly  speak  to  him,  and  then  refer  the  matter  to  Wesley 
to  be  decided.  They  had  no  "  authority  to  hinder  a  person 
from  preaching,  or  to  displace  a  particular  leader,  or  to  expel 
a  particular  member,  or  to  regulate  the  temporal  and  spiritual 
affairs  of  the  society,  or  to  make  any  public  collection,  or  to 
receive  the  yearly  subscription."  All  this  was  the  work  of  the 
assistant,  with  one  exception,  namely,  that  the  temporal 
affairs  of  the  society  were  regulated  by  the  society  steward. 
The  power  of  a  classleader  simply  consisted  in  authority  to 
meet  his  class,  to  receive  their  contributions,  and  to  visit  his 
sick  members  ;  and  the  power  of  all  classleaders  united  was 
"  authority  to  show  their  classpapers  to  the  assistant,  and  to 
deliver  the  money  they  had  received  to  the  stewards,  and  to 
bring  in  the  names  of  the  sick." 

Rightly  or  wrongly,  such  was  Methodist  discipline  in  1771. 
"  In  the  Methodist  discipline,"  writes  Wesley,  "  the  wheels 
regularly  stand  thus  :  the  assistant,  the  preachers,  the  stewards, 
the  leaders,  the  people.  But  here  the  leaders,  who  are  the 
lowest  wheel  but  one,  were  quite  got  out  of  their  place.  They 
were  got  at  the  top  of  all,  above  the  stewards,  the  preachers, 
yea,  and  above  the  assistant  himself.  To  this  chiefly,  I  impute 
the  gradual  decay  of  the  work  of  God  in  Dublin."  "  Nothing," 
says  he,  at  Londonderry,  where  two  years  before  he  had 
organised  a  band  of  singers,  which  through  the  preacher's 
neglect  was  now  dispersed,  "Nothing  will  stand  in  the  Method- 
ist plan  unless  the  preacher  has  his  heart  and  his  hand  in  it. 
Every  preacher,  therefore,  should  consider  it  is  not  his  busi- 
ness to  mind  this  or  that  thing  only,  but  ever3'thing." 


no  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

More  than  three  months  of  Wesley's  time  were  spent,  not 
in  Dubhn,  but  in  itinerating  the  Irish  provinces.  In  many  in- 
stances, he  was  gladdened  with  the  prosperity  of  the  work  of 
God  ;  in  others,  as  Dubhn,  Athlone,  Tullamore,  Waterford, 
Cork,  and  Augher,  the  aspect  of  things  was  far  from  pro- 
mising. 

While  on  this  lengthened  journey,  Wesley  made  the  follow- 
ing entry  in  his  journal:'  "  1771.  June  28 — This  day  I 
entered  the  sixty-ninth  year  of  my  age.  I  am  still  a  wonder 
to  myself.  My  voice  and  strength  are  the  same  as  at  nine- 
and-twenty.     This  also  hath  God  Avrought." 

Wesley  remained  in  Ireland  until  he  was  obliged  to  leave  in 
order  to  meet  his  conference  at  Bristol.  Much  space  has 
been  already  occupied  with  an  account  of  its  important  pro- 
ceedings;  but  it  may  be  added  that,  notwithstanding  the 
Calvinian  disturbances,  there  was  reported  an  increase  of 
1934  members.  Among  others,  Joseph  Benson  was  received 
on  trial  as  an  itinerant  preacher  ;  and  Francis  Asbury  and 
Richard  Wright  were  sent  as  a  reinforcement  to  America. 
Nearly  ;;^I700  were  contributed  to  extinguish  the  chapel 
debts  ;  and,  to  accomplish  the  thing  at  once,  it  was  recom- 
mended that,  upon  an  average,  every  Methodist,  in  the  three 
kingdoms,  should  give,  for  one  year,  a  penny  a  week.  "  If 
this  is  done,"  says  Wesley,  "  it  will  both  pay  our  whole  debt, 
and  supply  all  contingencies." 

No  sooner  was  the  conference  over  than  Wesley  set  out  for 
Wales,  where  he  laboured  nearly  the  next  three  weeks.  One 
of  the  Sundays  was  spent  in  Pembroke,  where  he  preached  in 
two  of  the  churches.  He  writes  :  "Many  of  the  congregation 
were  gay,  genteel  people  ;  so  I  spake  on  the  first  elements  of 
the  gospel.  But  I  was  still  out  of  their  depth.  Oh  how 
hard  it  is  to  be  shallow  enough  for  a  polite  audience  !  " 

Returning  to  Bristol  on  August  31,  he  employed  the  next 
month  in  visiting  the  societies  surrounding  that  city.  Twelve 
months  before,  he  had  rejoiced  over  an  apparently  great 
religious  revival  in  Kingswood  school  ;  but  now,  says  he,  "  it 
is  gone  !  It  is  lost !  It  is  vanished  away  !  There  is  scarce 
any  trace  of  it  remaining  !  Then  we  must  begin  again  ;  and, 
in  due  time,  we  shall  reap  if  we  faint  not." 

Just  at  this  period,  Dr.  William    Cadogan's  book  on  the 


Female  PrcacJiinc^.  1 1 1 

gout  and  all  chronic  diseases  was  attracting  great  atten-  177 1 
tion.  Dr.  Johnson  called  it  "  a  good  book  in  general,  but  a  A'^8 
foolish  one  in  particulars."  Wesley  read  the  book,  and  agrees 
with  Cadogan,  that  "  very  few  of  the  chronic  distempers  are 
properly  hereditary  ;  and  that  most  of  them  spring  either 
from  indolence,  or  intemperance,  or  irregular  passions.  But," 
he  adds,  and  here  he  comes  in  conflict  with  modern  teetotallers, 
"but  why  should  Dr.  Cadogan  condemn  wine  toto  gencre, 
which  is  one  of  the  noblest  cordials  in  nature  .-'  Yet  stranger, 
why  should  he  condemn  bread.''  Great  whims  belong  to 
great  men  !  " 

After  an  absence  of  seven  months,  Wesley  got  back  to 
London  on  Saturday,  October  5  ;  and,  on  the  Monday  follow- 
ing, set  out  on  his  usual  tour  through  the  counties  of  Bedford 
and  Northampton.  This  occupied  a  week,  as  did  a  similar 
visit  to  the  societies  in  Oxfordshire.  For  many  years,  Wesley 
was  accustomed  to  spend  the  last  two  or  three  months  in  each 
year  in  weekly  journeys  from  London  as  a  pastoral  centre. 
The  Bedfordshire  and  Northamptonshire  journey  was  one  ; 
the  Oxfordshire  another  ;  Chatham  and  Sheerness  a  third  ; 
Staplehurst,  Rye,  Winchelsea,  and  other  places  a  fourth  ;  and 
Norfolk  a  fifth,  which  generally  occupied  a  longer  time. 

Wesley  concludes  the  year  with  this  entry  :  "  December  30 
— At  my  brother's  request,  I  sat  again  for  my  picture.  This 
melancholy  employment  always  reminds  me  of  that  natural 
reflection, — • 

'  Behold,  what  frailty  we  in  man  may  see  ! 
His  shadow  is  less  given  to  change  than  he.'" 

Little  more  remains  to  be  related  respecting  the  year  1771, 
except  the  points  following. 

It  is  a  curious  fact,  that,  in  the  year  when  Fletcher  began 
to  render  Wesley  important  service  by  the  publication  of  his 
"  Checks,"  Fletcher's  future  wife,  Miss  Bosanquet,  applied  to 
Wesley  for  advice  on  the  subject  of  female  preaching.  Our 
space  prevents  the  possibility  of  discussing  such  a  topic  at 
the  length  which  it  deserves  ;  but  Wesley's  letter,  hitherto 
unpublished,  will  be  acceptable,  as  showing  that,  however 
much  importance  he  was  disposed  to  attach  to  church  order, 
he  was  not  the  man  to  make  all  things  bend  to  it. 


112  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1771  "Londonderry,  June  13,  1771. 

A"^68  "  ^^  DEAR  Sister, — I  think  the  strength  of  the  cause  rests  there, — on 
your  having  an  extraordinajy  call.  So,  I  am  persuaded,  has  every  one  of 
our  lay  preachers  ;  otherwise,  I  could  not  countenance  his  preaching  at 
all.  It  is  plain  to  me,  that  the  Avhole  work  of  God  termed  Methodism  is 
an  extraordinary  dispensation  of  His  providence.  Therefore,  I  do  not 
wonder  if  several  things  occur  therein,  which  do  not  fall  under  the 
ordinary  rules  of  discipline.  St.  Paul's  ordinary  rule  was,  '  I  permit  not 
a  woman  to  speak  in  the  congregation.'  Yet,  in  extraordinary  cases, 
he  made  a  few  exceptions;  at  Corinth  in  particular. 

"  I  am,  my  dear  sister,  your  affectionate  brother, 

"John  Wesley,"^ 

In  1 77 1,  Wesley  began  a  revision  and  republication  of  all 
the  works  which  he  had  published  during  the  last  five-and- 
thirty  years,  with  the  exception  of  his  Notes  on  the  Old  and 
New  Testament,  his  "Christian  Library,"  his  "Natural  Philo- 
sophy," and  his  books  for  Kingswood  school.  It  was  during 
this  year  that  he  issued  a  careful  reprint  of  the  four  volumes 
of  sermons  published  in  1746,  48,  50,  and  60,  with  the  addition 
of  ten  sermons,  most  of  which  had  been  published  separately. 

Besides  these,  he  published  five  i2mo  volumes  of  his 
collected  works,  embracing  the  sermons  just  mentioned  ;  and 
making  together  about  1800  printed  pages,  in  which  he  not 
only  corrected  the  errors  of  the  press,  but  his  own  mistakes, 
and  did,  what  has  not  been  done  in  any  subsequent  edition  of 
his  works, — placed  an  asterisk  before  the  passages  and  para- 
graphs which  he  judged  were  most  worthy  of  the  reader's 
notice. 

He  likewise  published  the  fourteenth  "  Extract  "  from  his 
journal,  extending  from  May  27,  1765,  to  May  5,  1768. 
i2mo,  128  pages.^ 

1  Manuscript  letter. 

^  As  a  curiosity,  and  as  tending  to  show  that,  in  this  season  of  excitement, 
all  men  were  not  Wesley's  enemies,  we  give  an  extract  from  a  review  of  this 
section  of  Wesley's  Journal,  published  in  Lloyds  Evening  Post,  for  January 
20,  1772  : — "  In  this  interval,  between  May  27,  1765,  and  May  5, 1768,  this 
zealous  and  truly  laborious  missionary  of  the  Methodists,  who  seems  to  co'n- 
sider  the  three  kingdoms  as  his  parochial  cure,  twice  traverses  the  greater 
part  of  Ireland  and  Scotland,  from  Londonderry  to  Cork,  from  Aberdeen  to 
Dumfries,  visiting  and  confirming  the  churches,  besides  making  a  progress, 
chiefly  on  horseback  (in  many  places  more  than  once),  through  great 
part  of  Wales,  and  almost  all  the  counties  in  England,  from  Newcastle  to 
Southampton,  from  Dover  to  Penzance.  Those  who  expect  to  find  in 
this  Journal  only  the  peculiar  tenets  of  Methodism  will  be  agreeably  dis- 


JVcslcys  Piiblicaiions,  in   lyji.  1 1 


J 


His  only  other  publications  were  his  "  Consequence  Proved,"  1771 
and  his  "  Defence  "  of  his  minutes,  already  mentioned  ;  and  a~6S 
finally,  "  A  Letter  to  the  Reverend  Mr.  F"leury,"  of  Water- 
ford,  in  Ireland.  Mr.  Fleury  was  a  young  parson,  who,  both 
in  1769,  and  now  again  in  177 1,  had  taken  the  opportunity  of 
Wesley's  visits  to  Waterford  to  preach  against  him.  Wesley 
writes:  "1771,  May  28 — At  eleven,  and  again  in  the  after- 
noon, I  went  to  the  cathedral,  where  a  young  gentleman  most 
valiantly  encountered  the  '  grievous  wolves,'  as  he  termed 
the  Methodists.  I  never  heard  a  man  strike  more  wide  of 
the  mark.  However,  the  shallow  discourse  did  good  ;  for  it 
sent  abundance  of  people,  rich  and  poor,  to  hear  and  judge 
for  themselves."  The  "  young  gentleman's "  two  sermons, 
which  were  published,  were  made  up  of  the  stale  objections 
and  invectives  that  had  been  used,  by  his  superiors  and 
seniors,  times  without  number.  Wesley's  letter  is  a  charac- 
teristic reply  to  them. 


appointed,  as  they  are  intermixed  with  such  occasional  reflections  on  men 
and  manners,  on  polite  literature,  and  even  on  polite  places,  as  prove 
that  the  writer  is  endued  with  a  taste  well  cultivated  laoth  by  reading 
and  observation  ;  and  above  all  with  such  a  benevolence  and  sweetness 
of  temper,  such  an  enlarged,  liberal,  and  truly  protestant  way  of 
thinking  towards  those  who  differ  from  him,  as  clearly  show  that  Ins  heart, 
at  least,  is  right,  and  justly  entitle  him  to  that  candour  and  forbearance, 
which,  for  the  honour  of  our  common  religion,  we  are  glad  to  find  he  now 
generally  receives." 


VOL.   II r. 


1772. 

^772  TT  LESLEY'S  first  journey  from  London,  in  1772,  was  on 
Age  69  VV  the  16th  of  January,  when  he  came  to  Luton,  and 
preached  in  the  parish  church.  The  friendly  clergyman,  who 
gave  him  this  permission,  was  the  Rev.  Mr.  Copleston,  whose 
son  afterwards  became  a  Methodist  local  preacher,  and  Avas 
driven  from  Luton  by  the  iron  hand  of  persecution,  and  then, 
after  preaching  for  a  while  at  St.  Albans,  introduced  Method- 
ism into  Leighton  Buzzard,  where  he  died,  in  1835,  at  the  age 
of  seventy,  having  been  an  earnest  Methodist  more  than  fifty 
years.^ 

In  a  visit  to  Dorking,  Wesley  read  Sterne's  "  Sentimental 
Journey,"  and  writes,  "  ScntiDicntal !  What  is  that.**  It  is  not 
English  ;  he  might  as  well  say  continental.  It  is  not  sense. 
It  conveys  no  determinate  idea  ;  yet  one  fool  makes  many, 
and  this  nonsensical  word  (who  would  believe  it  ?)  is  become 
a  fashionable  one !  However,  the  book  agrees  full  well  with 
the  title ;  for  one  is  as  queer  as  the  other.  For  oddity, 
uncouthness,  and  unlikeness  to  all  the  world  beside,  I  suppose 
the  writer  is  without  a  rival."  This  was  a  bold  criticism  on 
Laurence  Sterne,  and  his  recently  published  book,  which  was 
now  immensely  popular.  On  his  return  from  Dorking,  on 
February  12,  Wesley  writes:  "I  read  a  very  different  book, 
published  by  an  honest  quaker,  on  that  execrable  sum  of  all 
villanies,  commonly  called  the  slave  trade.  I  read  of  nothing 
like  it  in  the  heathen  world,  whether  ancient  or  modern; 
and  it  infinitely  exceeds,  in  every  instance  of  barbarity,  what- 
ever Christian  slaves  suffer  in  Mahommedan  countries." 

This  is  a  remarkable  utterance.  It  was  in  this  very  year 
that  Granville  Sharpe,  the  first  of  the  English  antislavery 
advocates,  began  to  take  up  the  subject ;  and  it  was  not  until 
fifteen  years  after  this,  that  the  "  Society  for  the  Suppression 
of  the  Slave  Trade  "  was  founded,  of  which,  besides  Sharpe, 

"^  Methodist  Magazine,  \Z'},^,'^.%o\. 


IVeslcy,  oil  Slavery.    ■  115 


two  of  the  chief  members  were  Thomas  Clarkson,  a  young  1772 
graduate  of  Cambridge,  and  WilHam  Wilberforce,  who  was  Age  69 
then  ]\I.P.  for  the  county  of  York.  The  book  which  Wesley 
read  was  probably  written  by  Anthony  Benezet,  a  French 
protestant,  who,  after  being  educated  in  England,  became  a 
quaker  in  Philadelphia;  and,  in  1762,  joublished  the  work 
which  first  attracted  the  attention  of  this  country  '  to  the  in- 
human traffic,  which  Wesley  so  justly  designates  "  that  exe- 
crable sum  of  all  villanies."  Let  it  be  noted  that,  besides  all 
his  other  honours,  John  Wesley,  the  poor,  persecuted  Method- 
ist, was  one  of  the  first  advocates  on  behalf  of  the  enthralled 
African  that  England  had,  and  that,  sixty  years  before  slavery 
was  abolished  in  the  dominions  of  Great  Britain,  he  denounced 
the  thing  in  the  strongest  terms  it  was  possible  to  employ. 

Before  we  accompany  Wesley  on  his  long  northern  tour, 
three  other  facts,  belonging  to  this  period,^  may  be  briefly 
mentioned. 

Ten  years  ago,  Thomas  Maxfield  had  dishonourably  for- 
saken his  old  friend,  and  had  set  up  a  rival  church  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  ]\Ioorfields.  For  some  reason,  he  now  seemed 
to  desire  a  reunion.  Wesley  was  not  the  man  to  repel  an 
overture  even  from  one  whose  behaviour  had  been  ungrateful 
and  treacherous.  He  met  Maxfield;  but  writes:  "He  only 
seemed  to  desire  a  reunion  ;  for  when  we  explained  upon  the 
head,  I  found  he  meant  just  nothing." 

Wesley  was  now  close  upon  the  age  of  threescore  years  and 
ten.  His  life  had  been  a  scene  of  unparalleled  activity  ;  and, 
though  still  possessed  of  amazing  vigour,  he  had  not  the  energy 
he  had  been  wont  to  hav^e.  His  friends  in  London  saw  this  ; 
and  hence  the  following  entry  in  his  journal.  "1772.  Feb. 
21. — I  met  several  of  my  friends,  who  had  begun  a  subscription 
to  prevent  my  riding  on  horseback,  which  I  cannot  do  quite 
so  well,  since  a  hurt  which  I  got  some  months  ago.  If  they 
continue  it,  well;  if  not,  I  shall  have  strength  according  to  my 
need." 

Wesley's  last  act  before  leaving  London  was  to  open  a  new 
chapel  at  Poplar.  He  writes  :  "  1772.  Feb.  28 — I  opened 
the  new  preaching  house  in  Poplar  :  one  might  say,  conse- 


*  "Encyclopcedia  Britannica,"  article  "Slavery." 


ii6  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

crated  it  ;  for  the  English  law  (notwithstanding  the  vulgar 
error)  does  not  require,  nay,  does  not  allow,  any  other  conse- 
cration of  churches  than  by  performing  public  service  therein." 
Up  to  this  period,  the  preaching  at  Poplar  had  been  in 
private  dwellings,  and  in  the  workhouse,  the  mistress  of  which 
was  a  Methodist.  Now  a  wooden  building  was  erected  in 
High  Street,  which  was  long  called,  out  of  derision,  "the  pantile 
shop."  One  of  the  first  members  was  Benjamin  King,  who 
previous  to  this  attended  Gravel  Lane  chapel,  Wapping,  one  of 
the  oldest  Methodist  meeting-houses  in  London,  but  which  was 
long  since  demolished  for  the  making  of  the  London  Docks. 
For  many  a  year,  Methodism  at  Poplar  had  a  struggle  for 
existence,  and  often  was  Wesley  importuned  to  give  up  the 
preaching  there  ;  but  his  constant  answer  was,  "  Does  the  old 
woman"  (Mrs.  Clippendale)  "who  sits  in  the  corner  of  the  long 
pew,  still  attend.'"  "O  yes,"  was  the  reply;  "she  never 
misses."  "  Then  for  her  sake  keep  going,"  was  Wesley's 
rejoinder.  The  venerable  woman,  who  was  thus  the  means  of 
perpetuating  Methodist  preaching  at  Poplar,  was  a  native  of 
Swalwell,  near  Newcastle,  and,  at  twelve  years  of  age,  re- 
ceived her  first  society  ticket,  in  1745,  from  the  hands  of 
Wesley,  Four  years  later,  she  came  to  London,  and  con- 
tinued a  faithful  Methodist  for  above  seventy  years.^ 

Strangely  enough,  it  was  now  currently  reported  that 
Wesley  was  about  to  leave  England  for  America.  The  fol- 
lowing refers  to  this. 

"New  York,  April  i,  1772. 
"Reverend  Sir, — By  a  letter  from  Mr.  Lloyd,  of  London,  we  are 
informed  that  you  incline  to  visit  America.  Mr.  Whiteficld's  preaching 
was  of  unspeakable  use  to  many ;  but  he  preached  mostly  in  the  seaport 
towns,  and  the  most  populous  parts  of  the  provinces,  where  the  gospel 
was  known,  though  not  preached  in  power.  In  the  back  parts,  which  are 
now  grown  populous,  the  inhabitants  are  still  in  a  state  of  deplorable 
ignorance.  If  some  zealous  and  able  teachers  would  engage  heartily  in 
the  work  of  their  conversion,  how  soon  might  rivers  spring  forth  in  the 
desert,  and  these  owls  and  dragons  of  the  wilderness  give  honour  to  God. 
No  doubt,  many  in  England  and  elsewhere,  who  abound  in  wealth,  would 
contribute  towards  erecting  schools  to  teach  the  children,  and  also  towards 
the  support  of  preachers,  if  such  an  undertaking  was  properly  set  on  foot. 
But  who  is  quahfied  for  this  work  ?  I  know  none  except  yourself. 

*  Manuscript  ;  and  Mcihodist  Magazine,  1835,  P-  494- 


Age  6g 


Correspondence  with  Mr.   Sparrow.  117 

"  But,  dear  sir,  what  concerns  mc  more  than  all  is  the  unhappy  condition  1772 
of  our  negroes,  who  are  kept  in  worse  than  Egyptian  bondage.  The  food 
we  eat,  the  clothes  we  wear,  and  all  the  superfluities  we  possess,  are  the 
produce  of  their  labours  ;  and  what  do  they  receive  in  return?  Nothing 
equivalent  ;  on  the  contrary,  we  keep  from  them  the  key  of  knowledge  ; 
so  that  their  bodies  and  souls  perish  together  in  our  service  !  If,  there- 
fore, you  are  not  too  advanced  in  years,  1  say  to  you,  in  the  name  of  God, 
come  over  and  help  us  ;  in  doing  which  you  will  greatly  oblige  many 
thousands,  and,  among  the  rest,  your  friend  and  brother, 

"Jonathan  Bryan."' 

Did  Wesley  seriously  think  of  this  .-*  We  arc  not  sure  ;  but 
the  following  characteristic  letter  to  Walter  Sellon  will  be 
read  with  interest. 

"February  i,  1772. 
"  Dear  \Valter,^You  do  not  understand  your  information  right. 
Observe,  '  I  am  going  to  America  to  turn  bishop.'  You  are  to  understand 
it  in  sciisu  composito.  I  am  not  to  be  a  bishop  till  I  am  in  America. 
While  I  am  in  Europe,  therefore,  you  have  nothing  to  fear.  But  as  soon 
as  ever  you  hear  of  my  being  landed  in  Philadelphia,  it  will  be  time  for 
your  apprehensions  to  revive.  It  is  true,  some  of  our  preachers  would 
not  have  me  stay  so  long  ;  but  I  keep  my  old  rule,  Festina  lente. 
"  I  am,  dear  Walter,  your  affectionate  brother, 

"John  Wesley."^ 

Previous  to  his  leaving  London,  Wesley  commenced  a  long 
correspondence,  which  extended  over  the  next  two  years,  with 
Samuel  Sparrow,  Esq.,  a  gentleman  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
Sheffield,  who  had  published  a  volume,  entitled  "Family 
Prayers  and  Moral  Essays,"  a  copy  of  which  was  presented 
to  Wesley  by  the  author.  The  writer  has  before  him  the 
correspondence  that  ensued  ;  and  perhaps  the  following  ex- 
tracts, from  some  of  Wesley's  letters,  will  be  acceptable. 

"To  the  questions  which  you  propose  I  answer:  (i)  I  think  that  if  a 
hundred,  or  a  hundred  thousand,  sincere,  honest,  humble,  modest,  self 
diffident  men  were,  with  attention  and  care,  to  read  the  New  Testa- 
ment, uninfluenced  by  any  but  the  Holy  Spirit,  nine  in  ten  of  them,  at 
least,  if  not  every  one,  would  discover  that  the  Son  of  God  was  '  ador- 
able,' and  one  God  with  the  Father ;  and  would  be  immediately  led  to 
'  honour  Him  even  as  they  honoured  the  Father.' 

"  (2)  Give  a  fair,  impartial  reading  to  that  account  of  mankind  in  their 
present  state,  which  is  contained  in  the  book  on  original  sin.  It  is  no 
play   of    imagination,    but  plain,  clear   fact.        We  see  it  with  our  eyes, 

^  Methodist  Alagasine,  1785,  p.  167, 
2  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xiii.,  p.  43. 


ii8  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

and  hear  it  with  our  ears  daily.  Heathens,  Turks,  Jews,  Christians  of 
every  nation,  are  such  men  as  are  there  described.  Such  are  the  tempers, 
such  the  manners,  of  lords,  gentlemen,  clergymen  in  England,  as  well  as 
of  tradesmen  and  the  low  vulgar.  No  man  in  his  senses  can  deny  it : 
and  none  can  account  for  it,  but  upon  the  supposition  of  original  sin. 

"On  Scripture  and  common  sense  I  build  all  my  principles;  and  just 
so  far  as  it  agrees  with  these,  I  regard  human  authority. 

"There  is  too  'just ground  for  charging  the  preachers  both  at  Black- 
friars  church,  the  chapel  at  the  Lock,'  and  the  Tabernacle,  with  grievous 
want  of  charity  ;  for  most  of  them  flatly  maintain,  '  all  who  do  not  believe 
as  they  believe,  are  in  a  state  of  damnation  ;'  all  who  do  not  believe  the 
absolute  decree  of  election,  which  necessarily  infers  absolute  reprobation. 
My  brother  and  I  set  out  on  two  principles  :  (i)  None  go  to  heaven  without 
holiness  of  heart  and  life  ;  (2)  Whoever  follows  after  this,  whatever  his 
opinions  be,  is  my  brother;  and  we  have  not  swerved  a  hair's  breadth 
from  either  the  one  or  the  other  to  this  day." 

On  the  1st  of  March  Wesley  set  out  on  his  northern  visita- 
tion, and  did  not  return  to  London  until  seven  months  after- 
wards. It  was  now  that  he  preached  his  first  sermon  in  the 
town  of  Leek,  where  Thomas  Hanby,  eighteen  years  before, 
had  formed  a  society  at  the  peril  of  his  life.  "  Kill  him,  kill 
him,"  bawled  the  mob,  as  they  pelted  him  with  showers  of 
stones  ;  but  the  young  evangelist,  then  only  in  the  twenty- 
first  year  of  his  age,  mercifully  escaped  ;  and  the  rabble, 
headed  by  a  lawyer,  had  to  content  themselves  with  merely 
burning  him  in  effigy.^ 

Wesley  writes  :  "March  27,  1772. — While  I  was  dining  at 
Leek,  some  gentlemen  of  the  town  sent  to  desire  I  would  give 
them  a  sermon.  As  it  seemed  to  be  a  providential  call,  I  did 
not  think  it  right  to  refuse.  A  large  congregation  quickly 
ran  together,  and  were  deeply  attentive." 

A  society  had  recently  been  gathered  at  Nantwich,  of  which 
Mr.  Salmon,  an  eccentric  Christian  gentleman,  and  some  of 
his  sisters,  were  members ;  and  hence  Nantwich  was  now 
added  to  the  places  which  Wesley  had  to  visit.  This  was. 
probably  the  Mr.  Salmon  who  was  to  have  gone  with  the 
Wesleys  to  Georgia,  but  who  was  forcibly  detained  in  his 
Cheshire  home  by  his  father  and  mother,  who  were  distracted 
at  the  thought  of  their  son  leaving  them.  Joseph  Whittingham 


'  Messrs.  Romaine  and  Madan. 
*  Methodist  Magazine,  \  780,  p.  546. 


Methodis7n  at  Nantwich.  1 1 9 

Salmon  had  a  good  heart,  but  muddy  head.  Soon  after  this,  i77- 
he  began  to  preach,^  and,  at  the  death  of  his  wife,  in  1785,  Age  69 
pubHshed  a  long  rigmarole  funeral  sermon,  8vo,  39  pages, 
which  he  preached  in  Barker  Street  chapel,  Nantwich,  and 
which  is  strongly  spiced  with  the  mystical  delusion  into 
which  he  had  fallen.  It  is  scarcely  too  much  to  say,  that  the 
weak  mind  of  this  well  meaning  man  henceforth  lost  its 
balance,  and  that  mystic  pride  ^nd  cacoetJies  scribendi  were 
the  chief  features  that  distinguished  the  close  of  a  lengthened 
but  lustreless  life.  His  wife,  however,  and  several  of  the 
Misses  Salmon  were  intelligent  and  earnest  Methodists,  and 
were  among  the  earliest  friends  of  Hester  Ann  Roe,  after- 
wards Mrs.  Rogers.^ 

There  was  another  gentleman  of  note,  near  Nantwich,  Sir 
Thomas  Broughton,  of  Doddington  Hall,  who  had  a  chapel  in 
his  park,  and  who,  though  not  a  Methodist,  himself  read  or 
preached  to  the  congregation  the  whole  of  Wesley's  sermons 
from  first  to  last.^  Salmon  tells  us,  that  this  "  reverend 
baronet,"  as  he  calls  him,  at  the  death  of  his  lady,  called 
together  his  eleven  children  and  his  thirty  servants,  at  eleven 
o'clock  at  night,  and  then,  as  they  stood  round  the  corpse, 
amid  midnight  silence  and  the  dim  radiance  of  lighted  tapers, 
engaged  in  prayer,  previous  to  the  interment,  the  whole  form- 
ing a  scene  not  easily  forgotten. 

These  were  Methodism's  auxiliaries  in  the  town  of  Nant- 
wich ;  but,  for  long  years,  it  had  to  struggle  with  adversity,  its 
members  worshipping  in  an  old  hired  baptist  chapel  until 
the  year  1808,  when,  chiefly  through  the  help  of  Mr.  Within- 
shaw,  a  new  chapel  was  erected,  and  Nantwich  was  made  a 
circuit  town.* 

On  the  5th  of  April,  Wesley  reached  Bolton  and  Manchester. 
In  reference  to  the  former  town  he  writes  :  "  How  wonderfully 
has  God  wrought  in  this  place  !  John  Bennet,  some  years 
ago,  reduced  this  society  from  sevenscore  to  twelve ;  and 
they  are  now  risen  to  a  hundred  and  seventy."  At  Man- 
chester, Wesley  "drank  tea  at  Am.   O.  ;"    probably    Adam 


'^Methodist  Magazine,  1788,  p.  217. 

2  Mrs.  Rogers'  manuscript  journal.  ^  Manuscript. 

*  Methodist  Magazin:,  1842,  p.  -28. 


I20  i-^f^  cind  Times  of  Wesley. 

^772  Oldham's,  and  remarks  :  "  But  how  was  I  shocked  !  The 
Age  69  children  that  used  to  cling  about  me,  and  drink  in  every  word, 
had  been  at  a  boarding  school.  There  they  had  unlearned 
all  religion,  and  even  seriousness  ;  and  had  learned  pride, 
vanity,  affectation,  and  whatever  could  guard  them  against  the 
knowledge  and  love  of  God.  Methodist  parents,  who  would 
send  your  girls  headlong  to  hell,  send  them  to  a  fashionable 
boarding  school !" 

Proceeding  by  way  of  Whitehaven  and  Carlisle,  Wesley 
came  to  Glasgow  on  April  18,  and,  a  week  later,  arrived  at 
Perth,  where  he  was  the  provost's  guest,  and  received  an 
honour  which  fell  to  him  only  once  again  in  his  long  lifetime. 
He  shall  tell  his  own  story. 

"1772.  April  28,  Tuesday.  We  walked  through  the  Duke  of  Athol's 
gardens,  in  which  was  one  thing  I  never  saw  before, — a  summerhouse  in 
the  middle  of  a  greenhouse,  by  means  of  which  one  might,  in  the  depth 
of  winter,  enjoy  the  warmth  of  May,  and  sit  surrounded  with  greens  and 
flowers  on  every  side. 

"  In  the  evening  I  preached  once  more  at  Perth,  to  a  large  and  serious 
congregation.  Afterwards  they  did  me  an  honour  I  never  thought  of, — 
presented  me  with  the  freedom  of  the  city.     The  diploma  ran  thus  : — 

"  '  Magistratmun  illttstris  ordo  et  honorandus  senatorum  ccetits  inclytcE 
civitatis  Pci'thensis,  in  dcbiti  amoris  et  affectuiiin  tesseram  erga  Johatinem 
Wesley^  iinimiiiitatihts  prcpfatce  civitatis,  socictatis  etiani  et  fratcrtiitatis 
(cdiliticE privilcgiis  donaruiit.     Aprilis  die  28,  anno  Sal.  1772.' 

"  I  question  whether  any  diploma  from  the  city  of  London  be  more 
pompous,  or  expressed  in  better  Latin." 

Eight  days  afterwards,  the  magistrates  of  Arbroath  con- 
ferred on  Wesley  a  similar  mark  of  their' respect. 

While  in  this  part  of  Scotland,  Wesley  read  two  Scotch 
authors,  upon  whom  his  criticisms  are  too  racy  to  be  omitted. 
He  writes : 

"  In  my  way  to  Perth,  I  read  over  the  first  volume  of  Dr.  Robertson's 
*  History  of  Charles  the  Fifth.'  I  know  not  when  I  have  been  so  dis- 
appointed. It  might  as  well  be  called  the  History  of  Alexander  the  Great. 
Here  is  a  quarto  volume  of  eight  or  ten  shillings'  price,  containing  dry 
verbose  dissertations  on  feudal  government,  the  substance  of  all  which 
might  be  comprised  in  half  a  sheet  of  paper  !  But  '  Charles  the  Fifth  ! ' 
Where  is  Charles  the  Fifth  ? 

'  Leave  off  thy  reflections,  and  give  us  thy  tale  ! ' " 

"  May  5.     I  read   over,  in   my  journey  to  Arbroath,  Dr.   Beattie's  in- 


Wesley,  oil  David  Hiliiic.  i  2 1 

genious  '  Inquiry  after  Truth.'     He  is  a  writer  quite  equal  to  his  subject,      1772 
and  far  above  the  match  of  all  the  minute  philosophers,  David  Hume  in       — ■ 
particular, the  most  insolent  despiser  of  truth  and  virtue  that  ever  appeared       ^     " 
in  the  world.     And,  yet,  it  seems  some  complain  of  this  doctor's  using 
him  with   too  great  severity  !      I   cannot   understand  how   that   can  be, 
unless  he  treated  him  with  rudeness  (which  he  does  not),  since  he  is  an 
avowed  enemy  to  God  and  man,  and  to  all  that  is  sacred  and  valuable  on 
earth." 

On  the  9th  of  I\Iay,  Wesley  reached  Edinburgh,  where  his 
state  of  health  was  made  the  subject  of  an  important  medical 
examination.  It  has  been  already  stated  that,  before  he  left 
London,  his  friends  there,  perceivmg  signs  of  age  and  debility, 
had  contributed  to  provide  him  a  carriage  in  which  to  pursue 
his  extensive  and  laborious  journeys.  Since  then,  in  less  than 
ten  weeks,  he  had  travelled,  in  his  chaise  and  on  horseback, 
from  London  to  Bristol,  and  thence  to  Birmingham,  Notting- 
ham, Macclesfield,  Chester,  Liverpool,  Manchester,  White- 
haven, Carlisle,  Glasgow,  Aberdeen,  and  Edinburgh,  preaching 
there,  and  at  a  great  number  of  intervening  towns  and 
villages,  sometimes  as  many  as  four  sermons  in  a  day.  He 
had  had  to  encounter  winter  storms,  to  wade  mid-leg  deep  in 
snow,  and  to  travel  roads  so  execrably  bad,  that  sometimes  he 
was  literally  bogged.  Not  unfrequently  he  preached  in  the 
midst  of  piercing  winds  in  the  open  air  ;  and  yet,  there  is  not 
a  single,  entry  in  his  journal  indicative  of  failing  health. 
Never,  in  his  life,  was  he  more  intent  upon  the  prosecution 
of  his  great  work  than  now.  Writing  to  his  brother  from 
Congleton,  and  again  from  Perth,  he  says  : 

"I  find  almost  all  our  preachers,  in  every  circuit,  have  done  with 
Christian  perfection.  They  say,  they  believe  it ;  but  they  never  preach 
it,  or  not  once  in  a  quarter.  What  is  to  be  done  ?  Shall  we  let  it  drop, 
or  make  a  point  of  it?  Oh  what  a  thing  it  is  to  have  ciiram  aniniarum  ! 
You  and  I  are  called  to  this  ;  to  save  souls  from  death  ;  to  watch  over 
them  as  those  that  must  give  account !  If  our  office  implied  no  more  than 
preaching  a  few  times  in  a  week,  I  could  play  with  it ;  so  might  you.  But 
how  small  a  part  of  our  duty  (yours  as  well  as  mine)  is  this  !  God  says  to 
you,  as  well  as  me,  'Do  all  thou  canst,  be  it  more  or  less,  to  save  the 
souls  for  whom  My  Son  has  died.'  Let  this  voice  be  ever  sounding  in  our 
ears  ;  then  shall  we  give  up  our  account  with  joy.  Eia  age,  rinnpc  moras! 
I  am  ashamed  of  my  indolence  and  inactivity.  Your  business,  as  well  as 
mine,  is  to  save  souls.  When  we  took  priests'  orders  we  undertook  to 
make  it  our  one  business.  I  think  every  day  lost,  which  is  not  (mainly  at 
least)  employed  in  this  thing.     Sinn  iotas  in  illo. 


122  Life  and  Tiines  of  Wesley. 

^Il'i-  "I  am  glad  you  are  to  be  at  Bristol  soon.     To  whom  shall  I  leave  my 

A^i~6Q     ^^'^'^^''^  ^"<^  papers  ?     I  am  quite  at  a  loss.     I  think  Mr.  Fletcher  is  the 
"  best  that  occurs  now.     Adieu  !"^ 

Wesley  was  too  busy  to  think  of  being  ill  He  was  not 
alarmed  ;  but  his  friends  were.  HencQ,  the  following  ad- 
dressed to  Charles  Wesley. 

"Shoreham,  April  i8, 1772. 
"  My  very  dear  Brother, — I  doubt  not,  but  we  both  join  in  con- 
stant petitions,  at  the  throne  of  grace,  for  the  life  and  health  of  our  dear 
absent  friend,  thy  brother.  By  all  accounts,  his  valuable  health  is  in  a 
precarious  state;  and  unless  God  provides  (as  I  doubt  not  but  He  will),  for 
His  people,  they  will  have  abundant  reason  to  mourn.  May  God  give 
thee  a  double  portion  of  His  Spirit,  that  thou  mayest  stand  in  the  gap, 
and  prevent  the  flock  being  led  by  any  who  have  not  true  gospel  light 
in  the  head,  and  great  integrity  in  the  heart  !  My  love  to  thy  dear 
brother  ;the  same  attends  thee  and  my  dear  sister,  and  all  thy  family. 
The  Divine  blessing  be  with  all  of  us  ! 

"  Thine,  most  affectionately, 

"  Vincent  Perronet."  ^ 

Probably  it  was  the  request  of  his  friends,  rather  than  his 
own  anxiety,  which  induced  Wesley,  at  Edinburgh,  to  submit 
to  a  medical  examination. 

At  this  period.  Dr.  James  Hamilton  was  a  young  man  of 
about  two-and-thirty,  and  was  practising  medicine  in  his 
native  town  of  Dunbar,  where  he  also  had  joined  the 
Methodists.  Afterwards  he  removed  to  Leeds,  and  then  to 
London,  where  he  was  elected  physician  to  the  London 
Dispensary,  and  rose  to  eminence  in  the  medical  profession. 
He  died  in  Finsbury  Square,  April  21,  1827,  at  the  age  of 
eighty-seven,  having  been  a  Methodist  upwards  of  sixty 
years,  and  nearly  as  long  a  highly  acceptable  and  useful  local 
preacher. 

Dr.  Alexander  Monro  was  a  few  years  older.  Such  was 
his  ability,  that,  at  the  age  of  twenty-two,  he  was  appointed 
professor  of  anatomy  and  surgery  to  the  University  of  Edin- 
burgh ;  and  is  said,  by  the  excellence  of  his  lectures,  to  have 
materially  assisted  in  raising  it  to  the  highest  celebrity  as  a 
school  of  medicine. 

Dr.  James  Gregory  was  now  a  young  man  in  his  twentieth 

^  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xii.,  p.  129. 
"^  Methodist  Magazine,  1785,  p.  169. 


Medical  Examination.  123 

year;  but,  two  years  later,    was  appointed    professor  of  the      i77- 
theory  of  physic,  and  rose  to  such  eminence  in  his  profession     Age  69 
as  to  draw  pupils  from  all  parts  of  the  world. 

These  were  the  three  physicians  who  attended  Wesley.  He 
writes  :  "May  18 — Dr.  Hamilton  brought  with  him  Dr.  Monro 
and  Dr.  Gregory.  They  satisfied  me  what  my  disorder  was  ; 
and  told  me  there  was  but  one  method  of  cure.  Perhaps  but 
one  natural  one  ;  but  I  think  God  has  more  than  one  method 
of  healing  either  the  soul  or  the  body." 

Wesley's  disease  was  hydrocele.'  A  few  months  later,  he 
writes  :  "  I  am  almost  a  disabled  soldier.  I  am  forbid  to  ride, 
and  am  obliged  to  travel  mostly  in  a  carriage."  ^ 

That  Wesley's  health  was  seriously  affected  there  cannot  be 
doubt.  Lloyd's  Evening  Post,  for  June  15,  remarks:  "By 
accounts  from  Scotland,  we  learn  that  the  Rev.  Mr.  Wesley 
has  had  a  dangerous  fit  of  illness,  in  which  he  was  attended 
by  three  of  the  most  eminent  of  the  faculty  there,  who  gave 
him  over;  but  some  younger  gentlemen  in  practice  have  been 
luckily  assistant  to  him,  and  they  have  now  hopes  that  he 
may  continue  his  ministry  many  years  longer." 

Wesley  doubtless  was  amused  with  this.  During  his  ten 
days'  stay  in  Edinburgh,  he  preached  at  least  about  half-a- 
dozen  times  ;  and,  on  the  very  day  when  the  medical  men 
met,  he  opened  a  new  chapel  at  Leith,  and  two  days  later 
started  for  Newcastle,  preaching  on  his  way  at  Dunbar, 
Alnwick,  and  Morpeth. 

Reaching  Newcastle  on  May  25,  he  spent  the  remainder  of 
the  week  in  the  town  and  neighbourhood,  preaching,  on  the 
Sunday,  three  times  out  of  doors,  to  immense  and  attentive 
congregations. 

The  first  four  days  in  the  month  of  June  were  occupied  with 
what  he  calls  "a  little  tour  through  the  dales"  ;  and,  in  this 
brief  period,  besides  travelling  scores  of  miles  over  "  the 
horrid  mountains,"  and  examining  societies,  he  preached  at 
least  eight  sermons.  He  writes:  "from  the  top  of  an  enor- 
mous mountain  we  had  a  view  of  Weardale.  It  is  a  lovely 
prospect.  The  green,  gently  rising  meadows  and  fields,  on 
both  sides  of  the  little  river,  clear  as   crystal,  were  sprinkled 

*  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  iii.,  p.  449.  ^  Ibid.  vol.  xii.,  p.  369. 


1 24  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1772      over  with  innumerable  little  houses  ;  three  in  four  of  which,  if 
A?e  69    not  nine  in  ten,   are   sprung  up  since  the  Methodists  came 
hither.     Since  that  time,  the  beasts  are  turned  into  men,  and 
the  wilderness  into  a  fruitful  field." 

Six  months  before  this,  Weardale  had  been  blessed  with  a 
remarkable  religious  revival,  the  penitent  prayer-meetings 
often  continuing  till  ten  or  eleven  o'clock  at  night,  and  some- 
times till  four  in  the  morning.  On  one  occasion,  four  young 
men,  seeking  pardon,  remained  on  their  knees  for  five  hours 
together.  Among  others  who  found  mercy  was  an  old  woman, 
.  who,  twenty-three  years  before,  was  the  first  in  Weardale  to 
receive  the  Methodists  into  her  house.  Sometimes  as  many 
as  half-a-dozen  "lay  on  the  ground  together,  roaring  for  the 
disquietude  of  their  hearts."  Chiefly  through  the  instru- 
mentality of  Jane  Salkeld,  a  schoolmistress,  thirty  children 
were  converted,  including  Phoebe  Featherstone,  Hannah  Wat- 
son, and  others  whom  Wesley  mentions. 

Not  only  does  Wesley  give,  at  great  length,  the  details  of 
this  revival ;  but  he  compares  it  with  that  at  Everton  thirteen 
years  before.     His  remarks  are  worth  quoting. 

"  It  resembled  the  work  at  Everton  in  many  respects,  but  not  in  all. 

"It  resembled  tliat  work — (i)  In  its  unexpected  beginning;  no  such 
work  had  ever  been  seen  before  either  at  Everton  or  in  Weardale.  (2)  In  the 
swiftness  of  its  progress,  I  mean  in  tlie  persons  affected  ;  many  of  whom 
were  in  one  day,  or  even  two  or  tliree  hours,  both  convinced  of  sin  (with- 
out any  previous  awakening),  and  converted  to  God.  (3)  In  the  number 
of  persons  both  convinced  and  converted,  which  was  greater  in  a  few 
months  than  it  had  been  in  Weardale  from  the  first  preaching  there,  or  in 
Everton  for  a  century.  (4)  In  the  outward  symptoms  which  have  attended 
it :  in  both,  the  sudden  and  violent  emotions  of  mind  affected  the  whole 
bodily  frame  ;  insomuch  that  many  trembled  exceedingly,  many  fell  to 
the  ground,  many  were  violently  convulsed,  and  many  seemed  to  be  in  the 
agonies  of  death.  (5)  In  most  of  the  instruments  whom  God  employed: 
these  were  plain,  artless  men,  simple  of  heart,  but  without  any  remarkable 
gifts  ;  men  who,  almost  literally,  knew  '  nothing  save  Jesus  Christ  and 
Him  crucified.' 

"  In  these  respects,  the  work  of  God  in  Weardale  nearly  resembled  that 
at  Everton;  but,  in  other  respects,  they  were  widely  different.  For — (i)  That 
was  the  first  work  of  God,  of  the  kind,  which  had  ever  been  in  those  parts 
in  the  memory  of  man  ;  this  was  only  a  revival  of  a  work,  which  had  con- 
tinued for  many  years.  Now  these  circumstances  are  common  at  the 
dawn  of  a  work,  but  afterwards  very  uncommon.  I  do  not  remember  to 
have  seen  the  like  anywhere  in  the  three  kingdoms,  unless  at  the  beginning 


Revival  in   IVeardale.  1 2  5 

of  a  work.  (2)  Although  the  former  work  was  swift,  the  latter  was  far  1772 
swiften  In  general,  persons  were  both  awakened  and  justified  in  a  far  — - 
shorter  time.  (3)  A  far  greater  number  were  converted  to  God  in  Wear-  '^^  ' 
dale  than  about  Ev'erton,  although  the  number  of  hearers  about  Everton 
was  abundantly  greater  than  in  Weardale.  (4)  Although  the  outward 
symptoms  were  the  same,  yet  in-  Weardale  there  were  none  of  the  dreams, 
visions,  and  revelations  which  abounded  at  Everton  ;  and  which,  though 
at  first  they  undoubtedly  were  from  God,  yet  were  afterwards  fatally 
counterfeited  by  the  devil.  (5)  There  was  a  great  difference  in  the  instru- 
ments whom  God  employed.  Not  one  of  those  in  or  near  Everton  had  any 
experience  in  the  guiding  of  souls.  None  of  them  were  more  than  '  babes 
in  Christ,'  if  any  of  them  so  much.  Whereas,  in  Weardale,  not  only  the 
three  preachers  were,  I  believe,  renewed  in  love,  but  most  of  the  leaders 
were  deeply  experienced  in  the  work  of  God.  Hence,  (6)  we  may  easily 
account  for  the  grand  difference,  namely,  that  the  one  work  was  so 
shallow,  and  the  other  so  deep.  Many  children  here  have  had  far  deeper 
experience,  and  more  constant  fellowship  with  God,  than  the  oldest  man 
or  woman  at  Everton  which  I  have  seen  or  heard  of." 

Such  were  Wesley's  moralisini^s  on  the  Weardale  revival,  in 
1772,  in  which  less  than  a  hundred  people  were  converted,  and 
concerning  which  he  says  :  "  upon  the  whole,  we  may  affirm, 
such  a  work  of  God  as  this  has  not  been  seen  before  in  the 
three  kingdoms."  If  this  was  so,  who  will  say  that  the  former 
times  were  better  than  these  .-•  How  many  thousands  of  aged 
Methodists  can  easily  call  to  mind  far  more  remarkable  revivals 
of  the  work  of  God  than  even  that  in  Weardale !  And, 
further,  how  was  it  that,  at  Wesley's  visit  two  years  after,  the 
results  of  this  revival  were  almost  reduced  to  nothing,  except 
that,  in  consequence  of  the  backslidings,  "the  preachers  were 
discouraged  ;  and  jealousies,  heart  burnings,  and  evil  surmis- 
ings,  were  multiplied  more  and  more  "  ? 

Wesley  returned  from  Weardale  to  Newcastle  on  the  5th 
of  June,  and  here,  and  in  the  immediate  neighbourhood,  he 
spent  the  next  ten  days.  In  the  Newcastle  society,  there  were 
fewer  members  than  he  had  found  two  years  before.  "  This," 
says  he,  "  I  can  impute  to  nothing  but  the  want  of  visiting 
from  house  to  house  ;  without  which  the  people  will  hardly 
increase,  either  in  number  or  grace."  This  was  a  sharp  thrust 
at  some  of  the  most  distinguished  preachers  of  the  day, 
namely,  Peter  Jaco,  Joseph  Cownley,  Thomas  Hanby,  Matthew 
Lowes,  Thomas  Tennant,  William  Thompson,  and  Thomas 
Simpson,  all  of  them  appointed  to  Newcastle  at  this  period. 


126  Life  ct-iid  Times  of  Wesley. 

1772  On  June   15,  Wesley  left  Newcastle,   and  spent  the  next 

Age  69    week    in    preaching    at    Durham,    Stockton,    Yarm,    Thirsk, 

Osmotherley,  Hutton  Rudby,  Stokesley,  Castleton,  Whitby, 

Robinhood's  Bay,  and  Scarborough.      This  was  pretty  well, 

for  a  man  afflicted  as  Wesley  was,  and  at  the  age  of  seventy. 

Eighteen  months  before  this,  his  termagant  wife  had  abruptly 
left  him,  and  gone  to  her  house  at  Newcastle.  Now  that  his 
health  was  so  endangered,  she  was  returning  with  him, 
whether  to  his  comfort  or  otherwise  we  are  not  informed  ; 
but,  at  all  events,  she  had  in  Wesley's  chaise  the  undeserved 
luxury  of  a  summer's  ride  through  the  most  beautiful  scenes 
of  Yorkshire.i 

From  Scarborough  he  proceeded  to  Bridlington,  Driffield, 
Beverley,  Hull,  York,  Tadcaster,  Pateley  Bridge,  Otley,  Hep- 
tonstall,  Kelghley,  Haworth,  Bingley,  Bradford,  Halifax, 
Huddersfield,  IMorley,  Birstal,  Doncaster,  Sheffield,  Epworth, 
Brigg,  Horncastle,  Louth,  Grimsby,  Pontefract,  Horbury, 
Wakefield,  and  other  places,  preaching  at  all  of  them,  until, 
on  August  2,  he  got  to  Leeds,  for  the  purpose  of  holding 
his  annual  conference.  This  was  enormous  labour  for  any 
man,  and  especially  for  an  old  man,  suffering  from  a  severe  and 
painful  malady.  To  all  this  must  be  added,  cottage  accom- 
modation, hard  beds,  and  often  hard  living ;  and,  though 
brutal  persecution  had  considerably  abated,  Wesley  was  not 
entirely  exempt  from  this ;  for,  at  Halifax,  on  July  8,  a  ruffian 
struck  him  most  violently  on  the  face,  when,  with  tears  starting 
from  his  eyes,  the  venerable  saint  acted  upon  the  precept  of 
his  Master :  "  Whosoever  shall  smite  thee  on  the  right  cheek, 
turn  to  him  the  other  also";  a  display  of  heroic  meekness 
which  cowed  the  brutal  coward,  and  made  him  slink  away  into 
the  ignoble  crowd. ^  Yet,  in  the  midst  of  all  this,  there  is  not 
a  single  syllable,  in  his  journal,  concerning  either  persecution, 
hardship,  debility,  or  disease. 

He  writes  :  "  On  Tuesday,  August  4,  our  conference  began. 
Generally,  during  the  time  of  conference,  as  I  was  talking  from 
morning  to  night,  I  had  used  to  desire  one  of  our  brethren  to 
preach  in  the   morning  ;  but,  having   many  things  to  say,  I 

^"  Memoir  of  Mrs.  Mortimer,"  p.  37;  and  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  iii.,  p.  449. 
-"  Methodism  in  Halifax,"  p.   121. 


Cotifei'ence  of  i'j'j2.  127 

resolved,   with    God's    help,    to    preach    mornings    as    well      1772 
as  evenings.     And   I   found  no  difference  at  all  ;    I  was  no   A"e~69 
more   tired  than   with    my   usual  labour  ;    that   is,  no  more 
than  if  I  had  been  sitting  still  in  my  study  from  morning  to 
night." 

One  of  Wesley's  sermons,  preached  to  an  immense  congre- 
gation, in  a  field  behind  the  chapel,  was  from  Isaiah  Ixvi.  8,  9 : 
"  Who  hath  heard  such  a  thing  'i  "  etc.  ;  in  which  he  dwelt 
upon  the  great  work  which  God  had  wrought  among  the 
Methodists,  discoursing  on  its  rapidity,  depth,  extensiveness, 
and  its  growing  character.  "  It  was,"  says  good  old  Thomas 
Rutherford,  "  marrow  and  fatness  to  my  soul."  * 

Wesley,  in  needful  cases,  was  a  brave  defender  of  his 
preachers.  The  following,  addressed  to  Mr.  Alexander  Clark, 
of  Dublin,  and  written  at  this  period,  will  be  read  with 
interest. 

"Sheffield,  August  10,  1772. 

"  My  DEAR  Brother, — Now  the  hurry  of  conference  is  over,  I  get  a 
little  time  to  write.  When  I  chose  you  to  be  steward  in  Dublin,  you  both 
loved  and  esteemed  your  preachers  ;  but  I  find  you  have  now  drunk  in  the 
whole  spirit  of  Pat.  Geoghegaru  O  beware !  You  are  exceedingly 
deceived.  By  this  time,  I  should  be  some  judge  of  man;  and  if  I  am,  all 
England  and  Ireland  cannot  afford  such  a  body  of  men,  number  for 
number,  for  sense  and  true  experience,  both  of  men  and  things,  as  the  body 
of  Methodist  preachers.  Our  leaders  in  London,  Bristol,  and  Dublin  are 
by  no  means  weak  men.  I  would  not  be  ashamed  to  compare  them  with 
a  like  number  of  tradesmen  in  every  part  of  the  three  kingdoms.  But  I 
assure  you,  they  are  no  more  than  children  compared  to  the  preachers 
in  conference,  as  you  would  be  thoroughly  convinced,  could  you  but  have 
the  opportunity  of  spending  one  day  among  them.  Mr.  Jaco  will  make  a 
fair  trial  whether  he  can  supply  Dublin  alone  ;  if  he  cannot,  he  shall  have 
another  to  help,  for  he  must  not  kill  himself  to  save  charges.  But  I  dare 
not  stint  him  to  £p.o  a  year.  He  will  waste  nothing  ;  but  he  must  want 
nothing.  You  will  make  his  stay  among  you,  in  every  respect,  as  com- 
fortable as  you  can, 

"  1  am  your  aflectionatc  brother, 

"John  Wesley."^ 

No  sooner  was  the  conference  ended,  than  Wesley  again 
started  on  his  itinerancy  of  mercy.  On  his  way  to  Burslem, 
his    chaise    broke    down  ;    but,    notwithstanding   his   disease, 

^  Methodist  Magazine,  1808,  p.  482. 
♦  Irish  Evangelist,  April,  1 S64. 


128  Lifo  cind  Times    of  Wesley. 

1772  rather  than  disappoint  the  people,  he  mounted  a  horse  and 
A<^9  rode  two-and-twenty  miles,  arriving  just  in  time  for  preach- 
ing. 

On  reaching  Trevecca,  on  August  14,  he  met  his  old  friend, 
Howel  Harris,  who,  while  almost  all  others  of  his  class  had 
imbibed  the  most  bitter  feelings,  still  remained  faithful.  "  I 
have  borne,"  said  the  honest  Welshman,  "  with  these  pert, 
ignorant  young  men,  vulgarly  called  students,  till  I  cannot,  in 
conscience,  bear  any  longer.  They  preach  barefaced  repro- 
bation, and  so  broad  antinomianism,  that  I  have  been  con- 
strained to  oppose  them  to  the  face,  even  in  the  public 
congregation."  This  was  no  great  compliment  to  the  students 
of  the  Countess  of  Huntingdon,  especially  as  coming  from  a 
Calvinist.  Wesley,  almost  as  an  apology,  adds  to  this :  "  It  is 
no  wonder  that  they  should  preach  thus.  Wliat  better  can  be 
expected  from  raw  lads,  of  little  understanding,  little  learning, 
and  no  experience  .''" 

It  is  pleasing  to  add,  that  Howel  Harris  was  not  the  only 
one  of  Whitefield's  friends  who  still  stood  true  to  Wesley, 
though  differing  from  his  views.  Hence  the  following,  addressed 
to  him  by  Cornelius  Winter, 

"  Brecon,  August  10, 1772. 

"  Reverend  and  dear  Sir,— Do  you  ask  what  I  have  been  about  'i  I 
answer,  preaching  Christ  wherever  a  door  has  been  opened  to  me.  Some- 
times I  have  cast  a  handful  of  seed  on  your  ground  ;  and  should  it  ever 
come  to  a  harvest  you  are  welcome  to  it :  it  will  become  Jesus's  property 
at  last.  What  melancholy  consequences  from  late  productions  !  They 
forbid  me  to  be  any  longer  an  idle  hearer  or  a  careless  reader.  I  have 
been  obliged,  from  conscience,  to  make  a  stand  agamst  dear  Mr.  Fletchers 
groundless  arguments  and  most  bitter  invectives.'  Many  things,  he  has 
said,  are  a  proper  antidote  applied  wrong,  and  to  improper  objects,  and 
thereby  become  poison,  whereas  they  might  have  been  a  healing  medicine. 
But  I  must  say  no  more  on  this  subject ;  I  am  writing  to  one  who  will 
give  it  little  attention. 

"Dr.  Owen's  'Death  of  Death'  has  been  my  favourite  study  of  late  ; 

and,  in  consequence  of  embracing  the  doctrine  therein  contained,  I  must 

agree  to   disagree  with  Mr.  Fletcher's  thoughts,  and  dear  Mr.  Wesley's 

fj'iendly  pen.     Excuse  my  frank  acknowledgments,  and  give  me  leave  to 

differ  and  love.     God  bless  you  to  your  latest  period,  and  make  your  last 

1  Wesley  justly  appends  a  note  to  this  :  "  Let  the  unbiased  reader  judge, 
whether  Mr.  Fletcher  has  made  use  of  groundless  arguments  or  bitter 
invectives." 


Ceaseless  Labours.  129 


days  your  best  !    So  prays,  reverend  and  dear  sir,  yours  most  respectfully       1772 
and  affcctionatclv,  in  our  dear  Lord  Jesus,  .      ' 

"  Cornelius  Winter."  >        ^^^  "9 

From  Trevecca,  Wesley  proceeded  to  Bristol,  and  here, 
and  in  the  neighbourhood,  he  employed  the  next  seven  weeks. 
In  Bristol  itself,  he  "visited  the  whole  society  from  house  to 
house,  taking  them  from  west  to  east."  He  not  unfrequently 
preached  in  the  open  air,  and  strikingly  remarks  :  "  to  this 
day  field  preaching  is  a  cross  to  me  ;  but  I  know  my  com- 
mission, and  see  no  other  way  of  preaching  the  gospel  to 
every  creature."  The  children  at  Kingswood,  and  at  IMiss 
Owen's  school  at  Publow,  were  almost  all  converted.  He 
writes :  "  I  suppose  such  a  visitation  of  children  has  not  been 
known  in  England  these  hundred  years  !"^  "Publow  is  now 
what  Leytonstone  was  once.  Here  is  a  family  indeed.  Such 
mistresses,  and  such  a  company  of  children,  as  I  believe  all 
England  cannot  parallel !" 

Leaving  Bristol  on  October  5,  and  preaching  on  his  way 
at  Shaftesbury,  Salisbury,  Winchester,  and  Portsmouth,  he 
came  to  London  on  October  10.  He  had  been  seven  months 
from  home,  if  indeed  he  had  a  home !  and  yet,  after  spending 
only  one  day. in  London,  he  again  set  out  on  his  usual 
preaching  tour  in  the  counties  of  Bedford  and  Northampton. 
Returning  to  London,  where  he  spent  another  day,  he  started 
on  his  visitation  in  Oxfordshire.  Returning  again  to  London, 
and  again  spending  a  single  day,  he  went  off,  on  October  26, 
to  Norfolk,  where  he  employed  a  fortnight.  Except  making 
a  journey  into  Kent,  and  another  to  Hertfordshire,  the  re- 
mainder of  the  year  was  passed  in  the  metropolis. 

Here  he  again  began  expounding,  chiefly  in  the  mornings, 
"  that  compendium  of  all  the  Holy  Scriptures,  the  first  epistle 
of  St,  John."  Now,  for  the  first  time  in  his  life,  he  saw  the 
chapel  at  Snowsfields  full.  Pie  opened  a  new  chapel  at 
Dorking,  and  another  in  the  parish  of  Bromley,  He  visited 
the  sick  ]\Iethodists  in  London,  and  "  was  surprised  that  they 
were  so  few."  And  on  December  3 1  he  wrote :  "  Being 
greatly  embarrassed  by  the  necessities  of  the  poor,  we  spread 

*  Methodist  Magazine,  1785,  p.  336. 
-  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xiii.,  p.  357. 

VOL.  in.  K 


130  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1772     all  our  wants  before  God  in  solemn  prayer  ;  believing  that  He 
AgTeg    would    sooner    '  make  windows  in  heaven '  than   suffer   His 
truth  to  fail." 

This  reference  to  the  poor  requires  further  notice.  The  long 
continued  war,  a  succession  of  inferior  harvests,  and  other 
unfavourable  events,  had  raised  the  price  of  provisions  to  such 
an  extent,  that  the  distress  of  the  nation  had  become  alarming. 
In  the  month  of  November,  the  court  of  common  council  of 
London  agreed  to  petition  parliament  to  open  the  ports  of  the 
kingdom  for  the  free  importation  of  all  kinds  of  grain  ;  and 
one  of  the  members  proposed  that,  in  order  to  prevent  the 
unnecessary  consumption  of  flour,  the  making  of  starch  should 
be  prohibited.  Long  letters  on  the  starved  condition  of  the 
country  were  published  in  the  newspapers  and  magazines. 
Some  of  them  entered  into  elaborate  calculations,  showing 
that,  in  London  only,  during  the  six  winter  months,  twenty 
thousand  sheep  and  two  thousand  oxen  were  used  in  making 
soup  for  taverns,  and  the  tables  of  the  great.  When  the 
king  opened  parliament,  on  November  26,  he  referred  in  his 
speech  to  the  dearness  of  corn,  and  recommended  "my  lords 
and  gentlemen "  to  consider  a  scheme  "  for  alleviating  the 
distresses  of  the  poor."  This  was  done,  and  bills  were  passed, 
•which  substantially  permitted  the  importation  of  foreign 
grown  grain  duty  free. 

In  the  midst  of  all  this,  Wesley  was  far  from  being  an  in- 
different spectator ;  and,  among  the  many  letters  which 
appeared  in  the  periodicals  of  the  day,  one  written  by  him- 
self was  not  the  least  important.  This  letter,  published,  either 
by  himself  or  others,  in  Lloyd's  Evening  Post,  for  December 
21,  and  in  the  Leeds  Mercury  for  December  29,  and  in  other 
newspapers  and  magazines,  is  altogether  too  curious  and  cha- 
racteristic to  be  omitted  or  abridged.     It  is  as  follows. 

"  To  the  Editor  of  'Lloyd's  Evening  Post.' 
"Sir, — Many  excellent  things  have  been  lately  published  concerning 
i\\e  present  scajxity  of  provisions.  And  many  causes  have  been  assigned 
for  it  ;  but  is  not  something  wanting  in  most  of  those  publications  1 
One  writer  assigns  one  cause,  another  one  or  two  more,  and  strongly 
insists  upon  them.  But  who  has  assigned  all  the  causes  that  manifestly 
concur  to  produce  this  melancholy  effect  1  at  the  same  time  pointing 
out,  how  each  particular  cause  affects  the  price  of  each  particular  sort 
of  provision  ? 


National  Distress,  a?id  its  Remedies.  1 3 1 

"I  would  willingly  offer  to  candid  and  benevolent  men  a  few  hints  on  1772 
this  important  subject,  proposing  a  few  questions,  and  adding  to  each  ~  ^ 
what  seems  to  be  the  plain  and  direct  answer. 


a 


I.  I.  I  ask  first,  Why  are  thousands  of  people  starving,  perishing  for 
want,  in  every  part  of  England  ?  The  fact  I  know  :  I  have  seen  it  with 
my  eyes,  in  every  corner  of  the  land.  I  have  known  those  who  could  only 
afford  to  eat  a  little  coarse  food  every  other  day.  I  have  known  one 
picking  up  stinking  sprats  from  a  dunghill,  and  carrying  them  home  for 
herself  and  her  children.  I  have  knov/n  another  gathering  the  bones 
which  the  dogs  had  left  in  the  streets,  and  making  broth  of  them,  to  pro- 
long a  wretched  life.  Such  is  the  case,  at  this  day,  of  multitudes  of 
people,  in  a  land  flowing,  as  it  were,  with  milk  and  honey  ;  abounding 
with  all  the  necessaries,  the  conveniences,  the  superfluities  of  life  ! 

"  Now  why  is  this  ?  Why  have  all  these  nothing  to  eat  ?  Because  they 
have  nothing  to  do.     They  have  no  meat,  because  they  have  no  work. 

'•'  2.  But  why  have  they  no  work?  Why  are  so  many  thousand  people  in 
London,  in  Bristol,  in  Norwich,  in  every  county  from  one  end  of  England 
to  the  other,  utterly  destitute  of  employment  1 

"  Because  the  persons  who  used  to  employ  them  cannot  afford  to  do  it 
any  longer.  Many,  who  employed  fifty  men,  now  scarce  employ  ten. 
Those,  who  employed  twenty,  now  employ  one,  or  none  at  all.  They 
cannot,  as  they  have  no  vent  for  their  goods  ;  food  now  bearing  so  high 
a  price,  that  the  generality  of  people  are  hardly  able  to  buy  anything 
else. 

"  3.  But  to  descend  from  generals  to  particulars.  Why  is  breadcorn  so 
dear  ?  Because  such  immense  quantities  of  it  are  continually  consumed 
by  distilling.  Indeed,  an  eminent  distiller,  near  London,  hearing  this, 
warmly  replied :  *  Nay,  my  partner  and  I  generally  distil  btit  a  thousa?id 
quarters  of  corn  a  week.'  Perhaps  so.  Suppose  five-and-twenty  distillers, 
in  and  near  the  town,  consume  each  only  the  same  quantity.  Here  are 
five-and-twenty  thousand  quarters  a  week,  that  is,  above  twelve  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  quarters  a  year,  consumed  in  and  about  London  !  Add 
the  distillers  throughout  England,  and  have  we  not  reason  to  believe  that 
half  of  the  wheat  produced  in  the  kingdom  is  every  year  consumed,  not 
by  so  harmless  a  way  as  throwing  it  into  the  sea  ;  but  by  converting  it 
into  deadly  poison — poison  that  naturally  destroys,  not  only  the  strength 
and  life,  but  also  the  morals  of  our  countrymen  ! 

"  '  Well,  but  this  brings  in  a  large  revenue  to  the  king.'  Is  this  an 
equivalent  for  the  lives  of  his  subjects  ?  Would  his  majesty  sell  a 
hundred  thousand  of  his  subjects  yearly  to  Algiers  for  four  hundred 
thousand  pounds  ?  Surely  no.  Will  he  then  sell  them  for  that  sum,  to  be 
butchered  by  their  own  countrymen  ? — '  But  otherwise  the  swine  for  the 
navy  cannot  be  fed.'  Not  unless  they  are  fed  with  human  flesh  .?  not 
unless  they  are  fatted  with  human  blood  .''  O  tell  it  not  in  Constanti- 
nople, that  the  English  raise  the  royal  revenue  by  selling  the  blood 
and  flesh  of  their  countrymen  ! 

"4.  But  why  are  oats  so  dear.-'    Because  there  are  four  times  the  horses 


Age  69 


132  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1772  kept  (to  speak  within  compass),  for  coaches  and  chaises  in  particular, 
than  were  some  years  ago.  Unless,  therefore,  four  times  the  oats  grew 
now  as  grew  then,  they  cannot  be  at  the  same  price.  If  only  twice  as 
much  is  produced,  (which  perhaps  is  near  the  truth,)  the  price  will  natu- 
rally be  double  to  what  it  was. 

"  As  the  dearness  of  grain  of  one  kind  will  always  raise  the  price  of 
another,  so  whatever  causes  the  dearness  of  wheat  and  oats  must  raise 
the  price  of  barley  too.  To  account  therefore  for  the  dearness  of  this,  we 
need  only  remember  what  has  been  observed  above,  although  some  par- 
ticular causes  may  concur  in  producing  the  same  effect. 

"  5.  Why  are  beef  and  mutton  so  dear  ?  Because  most  of  the  con- 
siderable farmers,  particularly  in  the  northern  counties,  who  used  to 
breed  large  numbers  of  sheep  or  horned  cattle,  and  frequently  both,  no 
longer  trouble  themselves  with  either  sheep,  or  cows,  or  oxen  ;  as  they 
can  turn  their  land  to  far  better  account,  by  breeding  horses  alone.  Such 
is  the  demand,  not  only  for  coach  and  chaise  horses,  which  are  bought 
and  destroyed  in  incredible  numbers  ;  but  much  more  for  bred  horses, 
which  are  yearly  exported  by  hundreds,  yea  thousands,  to  France. 

"  6.  But  why  are  pork,  poultry,  and  eggs  so  dear  }  Because  of  the  mono- 
polising of  farms,  as  mischievous  a  monopoly  as  was  ever  yet  introduced 
into  these  kingdoms.  The  land  which  was  formerly  divided  among  ten 
or  twenty  little  farmers,  and  enabled  them  comfortably  to  provide  for 
their  families,  is  now  generally  engrossed  by  one  great  farmer.  One  man 
farms  an  estate  of  a  thousand  a  year,  which  formerly  maintained  ten  or 
twenty.  Every  one  of  these  little  farmers  kept  a  {q.\v  swine,  with  some 
quantity  of  poultry ;  and,  having  little  money,  was  glad  to  send  his  bacon, 
or  pork,  or  fowls  and  eggs,  to  market  continually.  Hence,  the  markets 
were  plentifully  served,  and  plenty  created  cheapness ;  but,  at  present,  the 
great,  the  gentlemen  farmers,  are  above  attending  to  these  httle  things. 
They  breed  no  poultry  or  swine,  unless  for  their  own  use  ;  consequently 
they  send  none  to  market.  Hence,  it  is  not  strange,  if  two  or  three  of 
these  living  near  a.  market  town  occasion  such  a  scarcity  of  these  things, 
by  preventing  the  former  supply,  that  the  price  of  them  will  be  double  or 
treble  to  what  it  was  before.  Hence,  (to  instance  in  a  small  article,)  in  the 
same  town  where,  within  my  memory,  eggs  were  sold  eight  or  ten  a 
penny,  they  are  now  sold  six  or  eight  a  groat. 

Another  cause  why  beef,  mutton,  pork,  and  all  kind  of  victuals  are  so 
dear,  is /«A7/ry.  What  can  stand  against  this?  Will  it  not  waste  and 
destroy  all  that  nature  and  art  can  produce?  If  a  person  of  quality  will 
boil  down  three  dozen  of  neat's  tongues,  to  make  two  or  three  quarts  of 
soup  (and  so  proportionably  in  other  things),  what  wonder  if  provisions 
fail?  Only  look  into  the  kitchens  of  the  great,  the  nobility,  and  gentry, 
almost  without  exception  (considering  withal  that  the  toe  of  the  peasant 
treads  upon  the  heel  of  the  courtier),  and  when  you  have  observed  the 
amazing  waste  which  is  made  there,  you  will  no  longer  wonder  at  the 
scarcity,  and  consequently  dearness,  of  the  things  which  they  use  so  much 
art  to  destroy. 


Age  69 


National  Distress,  and  its  Remedies.  133 

"7.  But  why  is  land  so  dear?  Because,  on  all  these  accounts,  gentlemen  1772 
cannot  live  as  they  have  been  accustomed  to  do,  without  increasing  their 
income,  which  most  of  them  cannot  do  but  by  raising  their  rents.  The 
farmer,  paying  a  higher  rent  for  his  land,  must  have  a  higher  price  for 
the  produce  of  it.  This  again  tends  to  raise  the  price  of  land.  And  so 
the  wheel  runs  round. 

"8.  But  why  is  it,  that  not  only  provisions  and  land,  but  well-nigh 
everything  else  is  so  dear.''  Because  of  the  enormous  taxes  which  are  laid 
on  almost  everything  that  can  be  named.  Not  only  abundant  taxes  arc 
raised  from  earth,  and  fire,  and  water  ;  but,  in  England,  the  ingenious 
statesmen  have  found  a  way.  to  tax  the  very  light  !  Only  one  element 
remains,  and  surely  some  man  of  honour  will,  ere  long,  contrive  to  tax 
this  also.  For  how  long  shall  the  saucy  air  blow  in  the  face  of  a  gentle- 
man, nay,  a  lord,  without  paying  for  it  ? 

"9.  But  why  are  the  taxes  so  high?  Because  of  the  national  debt. 
They  must  be,  while  this  continues.  I  have  heard  that  the  national 
expense,  in  the  time  of  peace,  was,  sixty  years  ago,  three  millions  a  year. 
Now  the  bare  interest  of  the  public  debt  amounts  to  above  four  millions. 
To  raise  which,  with  the  other  expenses  of  government,  those  taxes  are 
absolutely  necessary. 

"II.  Here  is  the  evil.  But  where  is  the  remedy?  Perhaps  it  exceeds 
all  the  wisdom  of  man  to  tell.  But  it  may  not  be  amiss  to  offer  a  few 
hints,  even  on  this  delicate  subject. 

"  I.  What  remedy  is  there  for  this  sore  evil  ?  Many  thousand  poor 
people  are  starving.  Find  them  work,  and  you  will  iind  them  meat.  They 
will  then  earn  and  eat  their  own  bread. 

"  2.  But  how  shall  their  masters  give  them  work,  without  ruining  them- 
selves ?  Procure  vent  for  it,  and  it  will  not  hurt  their  masters  to  give 
them  as  much  work  as  they  can  do  ;  and  this  will  be  done  by  sinking  the 
price  of  provisions  ;  for  then  people  will  have  money  to  buy  other  things 
too. 

"  3.  But  how  can  the  price  of  wheat  be  reduced  ?  By  prohibiting  for 
ever  that  bane  of  health,  that  destroyer  of  strength,  of  life,  and  of  virtue, 
distilling.  Perhaps  this  alone  will  answer  the  whole  design.  If  any- 
thing more  be  needful,  may  not  all  starch  be  made  of  rice,  and  the  im- 
portation of  this,  as  well  as  of  wheat,  be  encouraged  ? 

"  4.  How  can  the  price  of  oats  be  reduced  ?  By  reducing  the  number 
of  horses.  And  may  not  this  be  effectually  done — (i)  by  laying  a  tax  of 
ten  pounds  on  every  horse  exported  to  France;  (2)  by  laying  an  ad- 
ditional tax  on  gentlemen's  carriages.  Not  so  much  for  every  wheel,  (bare- 
faced, shameless  partiality  !)  but  ten  pounds  yearly  for  every  horse.  And 
these  two  taxes  alone  would  nearly  supply  as  much  as  is  now  given  for 
leave  to  poison  his  majesty's  liege  subjects. 

"  5.  How  can  the  price  of  beef  and  mutton  be  reduced  ?  By  increasing 
the  breed  of  sheep  and  horned  cattle.  And  this  would  be  increased  seven- 
fold, if  the  price  of  horses  was  reduced  ;  which  it  surely  would  be  half  in 
half,  by  the  method  above  mentioned. 

"  6.  How  can  the  price  of  pork  and  poultry  be  reduced  ?     First,  by 


134  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

iJJ^      letting  no  farms   of  above  a  hundred  pounds  a  year.     Secondly,  by  re- 
AtJe^Q     PJ'sssing  luxury,  either  by  example,  by  laws,  or  both. 

"7.  How  may  the  price  of  /and  be  reduced?  By  all  the  methods 
above  named,  all  which  tend  to  lessen  the  expense  of  housekeeping  ;  but 
especially  the  last,  restraining  luxury,  which  is  the  grand  source  of 
poverty. 

"  8.  How  may  the  ^axes  be  reduced  ?  By  discharging  half  the  national 
debt,  and  so  saving  at  least  two  millions  a  year. 

"How this  can  be  done  the  wisdom  of  the  great  council  of  the  land 
can  best  determine. 

"  I  am,  sir,  your  humble  servant, 

"John  Wesley. 
"  Dover.  December  9,  1772." 

This  was  not  the  only  thing  that  Wesley  and  the  Methodists 
did,  to  contribute  to  the  happiness  of  the  starving  poor.  It 
was  now  that  there  was  organised  a  band  of  pious  Methodists, 
who  made  it  their  duty  and  their  pleasure  to  visit  the  inmates 
of  London  workhouses,  and,  by  prayer,  and  reading,  and  ex- 
hortation, to  lead  them  to  Him  who  is  alone  the  great  Com- 
forter. That  organisation  has  uninterruptedly  existed  down 
to  the  present  time  ;  and  though,  for  the  last  twenty  years,  it 
has  ceased  to  be  a  purely  Methodist  society,  its  chief  workers 
bear  the  Methodistic  name.  ^  From  the  ninety-fifth  annual 
report  of  what  is  now  called  "  The  Christian  Community," 
we  learn  that  this  society  was  "  established  under  the  patron- 
age of  the  Rev.  John  Wesley,  in  1772 ;"  and  that  its 
agents,  all  labouring  gratuitously,  are  regularly  visiting  the 
workhouses  of  Shoreditch,  St.  Luke's,  Clerkenwell,  St. 
George's  in  the  East,  and  Bethnal  Green,  in  eighty-eight 
halls  and  wards  of  which  they  hold  religious  services  every 
week;  and  that,  besides  this,  they  have  three  services  weekly 
in  Cambridge  Heath  female  refuge  ;  visit  between  twenty 
and  thirty  low  lodging  houses,  in  Spitalfields,  every  Sunday 
night;  and,  during  the  year,  hold- about  463  services  in   the 


^  Mr.  George  Mackie  has  the  credit  of  founding  this  society.  He  died 
in  1821,  after  being  a  member  of  the  Methodist  society  more  than  fifty 
years,  and  a  zealous  and  respected  local  preacher  for  forty.—  {Methodist 
Alagazine,  1821,  p.  939.)  The  rules  of  the  Christian  Community,  pub- 
lished in  181 1,  required,  that,  "in  order  to  admission,  every  candidate 
must  have  been  a  member  of  the  late  Rev.  John  Wesley's  society  twelve 
months  ;  a  man  of  strict  piety  and  irreproachable  character  ;  and  having 
a  gift  for  prayer  and  exhortation." 


"  The  Christian  Comimuiifyr  135 

open  air,  deliver  nearly  1400  addresses/  and  distribute  almost      1772 
a  quarter  of  a  million  of  religious  tracts.     Not  fewer  than     a~69 
124  visitors  and  exhorters  are  employed,  nearly  the  whole  of 
whom  have  appointments  every  week. 

Into  such  a  society  has  been  developed  the  small  band  of 
godly  Methodists,  sent  forth  by  Wesley,  in  1772,  to  visit 
London  paupers  and  London  vagabonds.  Its  work  is  little 
known,  and  its  agents  scarcely  recognised  ;  but  here,  in  the 
very  heart  of  London,  are  124  home  missionaries,  toiling  to 
convert  the  lowest  of  the  low  to  the  faith  of  Christ,  receiving 
not  a  farthing  for  their  services,  and  carrying  on  their  exten- 
sive machinery  of  tract  distribution,  tent  preaching,  and  a 
circulating  library,  at  the  small  expense  of  about  ^200  a 
year.  Success  to  this  unpretending  and  almost  unknown 
society.  May  the  God  of  heaven  prosper  it,  in  its  great 
work,  more  and  more !  "  It  is  a  shame,"  wrote  Wesley  to 
Joseph  Benson,  on  December  11,  1772,  "It  is  a  shame  for 
any  Methodist  preacher  to  confine  himself  to  one  place.  We 
are  debtors  to  all  the  world.  We  are  called  to  warn  every 
one,  to  exhort  every  one,  if  by  any  means  we  may  save 
some,  I  love  prayer-meetings,  and  wish  they  were  set  up  in 
every  corner  of  the  town."  ^ 

Such  is  a  bird's  eye  view  of  the  work  done,  in  1772,  by  an 
old  man,  acutely  suffering  from  the  disease  already  men- 
tioned. Writing  to  his  brother  in  November,  and  again  in 
December,  Wesley  says : 

"  I  have  just  made  my  tour  through  Oxfordshire,  Bedfordshire,  North- 
amptonshire, Norfolk,  Suffolk,  and  Essex  ;  but  Kent,  Sussex,  and  Hert- 
fordshire still  remain  to  be  visited ;  only  the  visitation  of  the  London 
classes,  a  fortnight's  work,  must  come  between. 

"  If  we  only  join  faith  and  works  in  all  our  preaching,  we  shall  not  fail 
of  a  blessing.  But  of  all  preaching,  what  is  usually  called  gospel  preaching 
is  the  most  useless,  if  not  the  most  mischievous  :  a  dull,  yea,  or  lively 
harangue  on  the  sufferings  of  Christ,  or  salvation  by  faith,  without  strongly 
inculcating  holiness.  I  see,  more  and  more,  that  this  naturally  tends  to 
drive  holiness  out  of  the  world." 

"  I  have  scarce  had  a  day  yet"  (December  15)  "in  London,  except  Sun- 
days, and  the  time  of  visiting  the  classes.     Dr.  Ford  has  never  come  near 

^  The  number  of  services  held,  indoors  and  out,  during  the  year  1867. 
was  6558,  and  the  number  of  addresses  given  7524. 
2  Wesley's  Works,  vol,  vii,,  p,  390. 


136  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

17  72      me.    I  am  afraid,  evasit,  enipit.  I  have  wrote  to  Mr.  Fletcher  to-day.    As 
\~6q     ^'^^'  ■^'^^  '^  ^°  ^"^  upon  me  next,  Mr.  Fletcher  will  have  a  little  time  to 
'^  breathe  ;  and  probably  a  little  more  while  Mr.  Hill  is  digesting  my  reply  ; 

for  whom  I  think  we  shall,  between  us,  find  work  for  some  time. 

"  You  will  not  set  shoulder  to  shoulder,  or  you  could  say  something 
about  the  Church.  Tv^o  are  better  than  one.  If  we  live  till  August,  stand 
by  me,  and  we  will  put  the  matter  home. 

"  I  often  cry  out,  VitcB  me  redde  priori  !  Let  me  be  again  an  Oxford 
Methodist.  I  am  often  in  doubt  whether  it  would  not  be  best  for  me  to 
resume  all  my  Oxford  rules,  great  and  small.  I  did  then  walk  closely 
with  God,  and  redeem  the  time.  But  what  have  I  been  doing  these  thirty 
years?    My  love  to  all.    Adieu  ! — John  Wesley."  ^ 

The  concluding  sentences  of  these  extracts  sound  strangely. 
Did  afflicted  Wesley,  amid  the  London  fog  of  a  dark  Decem- 
ber day,  really  think,  that  the  last  thirty  years  had  been  com- 
paratively wasted,  and  that  he  was  more  pious  when  almost  a 
cloistered  monk  within  the  walls  of  Oxford,  than  he  was  now, 
a  veteran  evangelist,  flying  through  the  three  kingdoms,  and 
preaching  the  gospel  of  God  his  Saviour.^  His  medical 
adviser  came  not  near  him  ;  Sir  Richard  Hill  was  wantonly 
assailing  him  ;  his  brother,  except  as  a  localised  pastor  in 
London  and  in  Bristol,  was  of  no  use  to  him  ;  his  wife, — bah  ! 
Is  it  surprising,  that  even  Wesley  had  seasons  of  depression  ; 
and  that,  like  others,  he  was  sometimes  "in  heaviness  through 
manifold  temptations".'' 

But  it  is  time  to  turn  to  the  Calvinian  controversy,  which 
we  left  raging  in  177 1.  Wesley  rarely  mentions  it,  either  in 
his  journal  or  in  his  letters,  and  yet  it  continued  with  un- 
diminished fury. 

Fletcher,  of  Madeley,  again  entered  the  field  of  battle,  by 
publishing  "A  Third  Check  to  Antinomianism,"  in  a  letter 
to  Sir  Richard  Hill,  i2mo,  114  pages.  This  was  not  only  a 
defence  of  Wesley,  but  a  triumphant  answer  to  the  "  Five 
Letters"  of  the  baronet,  and  is  written  in  a  style  exceedingly 
beautiful  and  Christian.  Before  the  year  was  out,  it  reached  a 
second  edition. 

Fletcher's  other  publication,  in  1772,  was  "  Logica  Gene- 
vensis  ;  or,  a  Fourth  Check  to  Antinomianism  :  in  which  St. 
James's  pure  religion   is  defended  against  the  charges,   and 

'  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xii.,  pp.  130,  131. 


Calvinian  Controversy.  137 

established  upon  the  concessions,   of    Mr.   Richard  and  Mr.      1772 
Rowland  Hill.     In  a  Series  of  Letters  to  those  Gentlemen."    a^69 
i2mo,  237  pagcs.i 

It  is  no  part  of  our  present  plan  to  give  even  the  briefest 
analysis  of  these  masterly  productions.  Suffice  it  to  say,  that, 
for  sound  scriptural  argument,  able  exposition,  lively  ima- 
gination, elegance  of  style,  polished  irony,  and  Christian 
temper,  they  have  no  superiors.  The  two  brothers,  notwith- 
standing their  goodness,  their  learning,  their  genius,  and  their 
pluck,  were  but  pigmies  in  the  grasp  of  a  Goliath. 

Rowland  Hill,  a  young  man  of  twenty-seven,  had  expe- 
rienced the  mortification  of  being  refused  ordination  by  not 
fewer  than  six  bishops,  and  was  a  roving  evangelist,  preaching 
Avith  great  success  in  Whitefield's  London  Tabernacle,  in 
Bristol,  Bath,  and  all  over  the  west  of  England,  At  the  com- 
mencement of  the  controversy,  Berridge  wrote  to  him  thus  : 
"  The  late  contest  at  Bristol  seems  to  turn  upon  this  hinge, 
whether  it  shall  be  Pope  JoJin  or  Pope  Joan.  My  dear  friend, 
keep  out  of  all  controversy,  and  wage  no  war  but  W'ith  the 
devil."  ^  Unfortunately  for  himself,  the  young  preacher  did 
not  follow  the  counsel  of  the  vicar  of  Everton,  but,  in  1772, 
issued  an  octavo  pamphlet  of  71  pages,  entitled  "Friendly 
Remarks  occasioned  by  the  Spirit  and  Doctrines  contained  in 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Fletcher's  Vindication,  and  more  particularly  in 
his  Second  Check  to  Antinomianism,  to  which  is  added  a 
Postscript,  occasioned  by  his  Third  Check."  The  production  is 
what  might  be  expected  from  YOUNG  Rowland  Hill.  Fletcher 
is  accused  of  using  "  tartness  of  style,"  "  banter,"  "  contempt," 
"  numberless  sneers,  taunts,  and  sarcasms;"  "infernal  terms  of 
darkness,"  "bravado,"  "slander,"  "high  flown  metaphors," 
"  frothy  declamation,"  "  odious  appellations,"  "  glaring  incon- 
sistencies," "  palpable  mistakes."  He  says,  "  Wesley  has 
been  a  proverb  for  his  contradictions  for  above  thirty  years." 

^  Toplady  writes,  November  27,  1773  :  "  I  am  informed,  that  inveterate 
troubler  in  Israel,  Mr.  John  Wesley,  has  lately  published  a  fourth  squib 
against  Mr.  Hill.  What  a  mercy  it  is,  that  the  enemies  of  the  gospel, 
amidst  all  their  plenitude  of  malice,  have  little  skill  and  less  power  !  Mr. 
Wesley,  considered  as  a  reasoner,  is  one  of  the  most  contemptible  writers 
that  ever  set  pen  to  paper  !"     (Toplady's  Posthumous  Works,  8vo,  17S0, 

P-  330.) 
2  Rowland  Hill's  Life,  p.  428. 


138  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1772  The  "Hymns  on  God's  Everlasting  Love,"  "formerly  sent 
A~69  forth  from  the  Foundery,"  are  stigmatised  as  "  certain  godly 
lampoons  of  famous  memory."  This  was  pretty  strong  to 
come  from  a  stripling  not  yet  ordained. 

His  brother  also  was  not  a  laggard.  Without  loss  of  time,  he 
published  an  octavo  volume  of  1 5 1  pages,  with  the  following 
gigantic  title  :  "  A  Review  of  all  the  Doctrines  taught  by  the 
Rev.  Mr.  John  Wesley  ;  containing  a  full  and  particular 
Answer  to  a  Book  entitled  '  A  Second  Check  to  Antinomi- 
anism.'  In  six  Letters  to  the  Author  of  that  Book  ;  wherein 
the  Doctrines  of  a  twofold  Justification,  Free  Will,  Man's 
Merit,  Sinless  Perfection,  Finished  Salvation,  and  Real  Anti- 
nomianism  are  particularly  discussed,  and  the  Puritan  Divines 
vindicated  from  the  Charges  brought  against  them  of  holding 
Mr.  Wesley's  Doctrines.  To  which  is  added,  a  Farrago  of  Hot 
and  Cold  Medicines.  By  the  Rev.  Mr.  John  Wesley,  Author 
of  the  *  Preservative  against  Unsettled  Notions  in  Religion,' 
Extracted  from  his  own  Publications." 

Richard  Hill's  scurrility  is  quite  equal  to  his  brother's.  He 
writes  :  "  O  my  dear  sir,  I  never  could  have  supposed  that 
sneer,  banter,  and  sarcasm,  yea,  notorious  falsehoods,  ca- 
lumny, and  gross  perversions,  would  have  appeared  under  the 
sanction  of  your  venerable  name."  He  tells  Fletcher  that  he 
"  dips  his  pen  in  gall,"  and  "  maintains  his  cause  by  artful 
insinuations."  "  In  your  first  letter,"  says  he,  "  I  really  can- 
not find  many  lines  together  free  from  gross  misrepresenta- 
tions and  perversions,  and  hardly  one  single  paragraph  ex- 
empt from  cutting  sneers  and  low  sarcasms."  "  Your  pages," 
he  adds,  "  are  as  totally  void  of  solid  Scripture  argument  as 
they  are  replete  with  calumny,  gross  perversions  and  equivo- 
cations." Wesley  is  treated  with  the  same  bitterness  as 
Fletcher,  "  His  opinions"  are  said  to  be  "  a  mixture  of  Pela- 
gianism,  semi-Pelagianism,  Arminianism,  popery,  mysticism, 
and  quakerism."  Such  quotations  might  be  multiplied  ad 
nauseam  ;  but  the  reader  has  had  enough.  Suffice  it  to  add, 
that,  before  the  year  1772  was  ended,  the  public  was  blessed 
with  "  a  second,  corrected  and  enlarged  edition  "  of  this  loving 
effusion  of  the  Salopian  baronet. 

Besides  all  this,  Sir  Richard  published,  in  1772,  another 
octavo  pamphlet  of  16  pages,  with  the  title,  "  Some  Remarks 


Calvinian  Controversy.  139 

on  a  Pamphlet  entitled  A  Third  Check  to  Antinomianism,"      1772 
a    production    brief,    but,   like   the    rest,    far   too    rancorous.     ^"5^ 
Scurrility  is  almost  a  sure  sign  of  feeble  arguments  and  a 
defenceless  cause. 

The  two  Hills  were  not  Wesley's  only  antagonists.  Toplady 
issued  his  "  More  Work  for  ]\Ir.  John  Wesley  ;  or,  a  Vindication 
of  the  Decrees  and  Providence  of  God  from  the  Defamations 
of  a  late  printed  paper,  entitled  *  The  Consequence  Proved.' " 
8vo,  104  pages  :  1772.^ 

In  his  advertisement,  Toplady  tells  his  readers,  that  he  bears 
not  the  least  ill  will  to  Wesley ;  and  that  his  manuscript  had 
lain  by  him  for  several  weeks,  "  merely  with  a  view  of  striking 
out,  from  time  to  time,  whatever  might  savour  of  undue 
asperity  and  intemperate  warmth."  The  following  extracts 
will  show  how  far  Toplady  succeeded  in  his  pious  and  loving 
wish. 

"  Mr.  Wesley  has  as  much  of  the  insidious  in  his  composi- 
tion, as  he  has  of  the  acid ;  and  it  w^ould  be  difficult  to  say 
which  predominates."  "  He  is  for  adding  the  lion  to  the  fox. 
He  wishes  not  only  to  wheedle,  but  to  thunder  the  Church  out 
of  her  Calvinism.  He  is,  like  Mahommed,  for  propagating  his 
religion  by  the  sword.  Peals  of  anathemas  are  issued,  and 
torrents  of  the  lowest  calumny  are  thrown  out,  against  all  who 
abide  by  the  thirty-nine  articles.  Pope  John's  authority  may 
have  some  weight  with  such  men  as  Messrs.  Walter  Sellon, 
Haddon  Smith,  and  Thomas  Olivers  ;  but  not  an  inch  beyond 
the  purlieus  of  ignorance,  prejudice,  and  superstition  will  his 
dictatorship  extend."  "  His  mode  of  phraseology  is  as  preg- 
nant with  craft  as  his  conduct  is  destitute  of  honour.  He  first 
hatches  blasphemy,  and  Xh^n  fathers  it  on  others."  "  His  fore- 
head must  hQ  petrified,  and  quite  impervious  to  a  blush."  "  He 
sits  down,  and  deliberately  writes  a  known,  wilful,  palpable  lie 

^  Besides  the  aloove,  there  were  also  pubhshed,  at  this  period,  the  two 
following  pamphlets,  by  Jonathan  Warne,  of  Southwark:  "  Arminianism, 
the  Back  Door  to  Popery;"  price  one  shilling.  And  "The  Downfall  of 
Arminianism;  or  Arminians  tried  and  cast,  before  the  Right  Honourable 
the  Lord  "Chief  Justice  Truth,  for  holding  and  propagating  false  opinions 
concerning  the  five  following  points,  viz. ;  (i)  Absolute  election  ;  (2)  Parti- 
cular redemption;  (3)  The  efficacy  of  God's  grace  in  conversion  ;  (4)  The 
impotency  of  man's  will  in  conversion  ;  (5)  The  final  perseverance  of  the 
regenerate."    8vo,  145  pages. 


140  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

772  to  the  public."  "  He  is  a  pitiful  nibbler  at  the  file  he  cannot 
^„  bite."  "  Thomas  Olivers,  a  journeyman  shoemaker,  retained 
by  Mr.  Wesley  as  a  lay  preacher  at  the  rate  of  ;:^io  per 
annum,  is  his  bully  in  chief  In  chief,  did  I  say .''  I  had  forgot 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Walter  Sellon  ;  prunella  claims  precedency  of 
leather ;  Thomas  is  only  second  in  commission.  Mr.  Wesley 
skulks  for  shelter  under  a  cobbler's  apron."  "  Has  Tom,  the 
shoemaker,  more  learning,  or  more  integrity,  than  John  the 
priest .''"  "Without  the  least  heat  or  emotion,  I  plainly  say, 
Mr.  Wesley  licsl'  ^ 

The  following  is  part  of  Mr.  Toplady's  concluding  paragraph. 

"  One  -word  to  Mr.  Wesley  himself,  and  I  have  done.  Time,  sir,  has 
already  whitened  your  locks  ;  and  the  hour  must  shortly  come,  which 
M'ill  transmit  you  to  the  tribunal  of  that  God,  on  whose  sovereignty  a 
great  part  of  your  hfe  has  been  one  continued  assault.  At  that  bar  / 
too  must  hold  up  my  hand.  Omniscience  only  can  tell,  winch  of  us  shall 
first  appear  before  the  Judge  of  all.  I  shortly  may,  you  shortly  must. 
The  part  you  have  been  permitted  to  act  in  the  religious  world  will,  sooner 
or  later,  sit  heavy  on  your  mind.  Depend  upon  it,  a  period  will  arrive 
when  the  Father's  electing  mercy  and  the  Messiah's  adorable  7'ighteous- 
ness,  will  appear  xviyoiir  eyes,  even  in  yours,  to  be  the  only  safe  anchorage 
for  a  dying  sinner.  I  mean,  unless  you  are  actually  given  over  to  final 
obduration  ;  which,  I  trust,  you  are  not ;  and  to  which,  1  most  ardently 
beseech  God,  you  never  may." 

Poor  young  Augustus  Toplady,  now  thirty-one  years  of 
age,  after  doing  his  utmost  to  purge  his  pamphlet  from 
offensive  expressions,  thus,  by  the  electing  grace  of  God, 
speaks  of  a  man  approaching  seventy.  Little  did  he 
think,  that  within  seven  years  he  himself  would  stand 
before  that  bar  with  which  he  threatened  Wesley ;  and 
that  the  hoary  headed  man,  who  he  thought  might  be  "  given 
over  to  final  obduration/'  would  be  his  survivor  nearly 
thirteen  years. 

Besides  all  this  public  annoyance,  Wesley  and  Fletcher  had 
sent  to  them  anonymous  letters  of  the  vilest  description.  Two 
may  suffice  as  specimens.  Both  have  Birmingham  post 
mark,  and  both  were  addressed  to  Fletcher.  Both  are  in 
the  same  handwriting  ;  the  orthography  of  one  is  correct,  but 
of  the  o\\\Q.x purposely  otherwise.  In  the  first  are  ink  sketches 
of  Wesley  and   Fletcher  in     two  pulpits,  and    pelting  each 

*  The  italic  words  are  emphasized  in  the  original. 


Calvinian  Controversy.  141 

other  with    Bibles.     In  the  other,  Wesley  is  represented  as      1772 
being  hanged,  and  Fletcher  is  shooting  him  after  he  is  dead.    Age  69 
Take  an  extract  from  the  first,  which,  though   bad  enough, 
is  not  the  worst  that  it  contains. 

"  I  HAVE  sent  you  a  short  poem  upon  parson  Wesley. 
'There  wos  a  man,  Hold  Wesley  by  name, 
I  rother  think  yo  '11  bee  thee  same, 
From  every  porsun  he  gets  tuppence  a  week — 
I  wish  hee  was  hear,  and  I'd  give  him  a  kick. 
He  open'd  a  meeting  Inn  this  town. 
And  all  the  benchees  dyd  fall  doun, 
I  was  in  the  meeting  at  the  same  tyme, 
But  O  I  cannot  find  a  rheime. 
You  preach'd  a  Charrity  scrmun  wonce. 
And  sat  in  the  pulpit  hke  old  Punch. '  " 

What  had  Wesley  done  to  deserve  all  this }  Literally 
nothing,  except  publishing  the  brief  and  imperfect  minutes 
of  a  conversation  he  had  with  his  itinerant  preachers  in  1770, 
on  the  subject  of  Calvinism;  and,  further,  three  small  tracts, 
one  an  abridgment  of  Toplady's  Zanchius;  another  an  answer 
to  the  question,  "What  is  an  Arminian.?"  and  the  third,  "The 
Consequence  Proved."  This  was  absolutely  the  sum  total  of 
his  offence  so  far  as  the  public  was  concerned.  The  minutes  fill 
little  more  than  an  octavo  page,  and  contain  not  the  slightest 
reflection  upon  any  one  under  heaven.  The  description  of 
an  Arminian  occupies  only  eight  pages  i2mo,  and  merely 
states,  in  the  most  temperate  terms,  the  difference  between 
the  Arminian  and  Calvinistic  creeds.  From  first  to  last,  the 
name  of  no  living  man  is  mentioned,  except  the  name  of 
Wesley  himself.  The  abridgment  of  Toplady's  Zanchius 
fills  only  twelve  pages  i2mo,  and  is  honestly  and  fairly  made. 
The  only  thing  in  it,  that  can,  with  any  degree  of  fairness,  be 
considered  personal,  is  the  summing  up  of  the  principles  of 
Zanchius,  which  occupy  half-a-dozen  lines,  and  to  which  Wesley 
appended  the  words,  characteristic  enough  of  the  young 
predestinarian  whose  translation  he  was  abridging,  "  Reader, 
believe  this,  or  be  damned.  Witness  my  hand,  A —  T — ." 
Then,  in  reference  to  the  third  tract,  "  The  Consequence 
Proved,"  the  printed  matter  fills  just  eight  pages  i2mo,  and 
there  is  absolutely  nothing  in  it  but  what  is  fair  argument, 
except  that  Wesley  calls  Toplady  "a  young,  bold  man,"  and 


142  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

says  he  will  leave  him  "  to  be  farther  corrected  by  one  that  is 
full  his  match,  Mr.  Thomas  Olivers."  This  is  all,  literally  all ; 
the  first  and  last ;  the  substance  and  the  details  of  Wesley's 
offending.  The  two  Hills,  one  of  them  not  yet  forty,  and  the 
other  not  yet  thirty  years  of  age,  are  never  mentioned,  or  in 
the  least  alluded  to,  in  any  of  Wesley's  publications  just 
named.  And  yet,  because  an  old  man,  who,  for  more  than 
thirty  years,  had  been  incessantly  traversing  the  three  king- 
doms to  preach  the  gospel  of  God  his  Saviour,  happens  to 
express,  in  the  most  temperate  language,  an  opinion  contrary 
to  the  Calvinian  creed,  he  becomes  the  butt  of  the  disgraceful 
abuse,  specimens  of  which  have  been  given  in  the  previous 
pages.  For  many  a  long  year,  Wesley  was  lampooned  in  news- 
papers and  magazines,  and  in  tracts  and  pamphlets  written 
by  two  different  classes  of  literary  men — Samuel  Foote,  the 
comedian,  the  representative  of  one,  and  George  Lavington,  the 
merryandrew  bishop,  the  representative  of  the  other:  but  now 
these  were  silent;  and,  in  their  stead,  we  have  another  set  of 
opponents,  far  more  angry  than  the  former  ones,  animated  by 
a  spirit  quite  as  bitter,  and  using  opprobrious  epithets  almost 
more  offensive;  men  believing  themselves  to  be  among  God's 
elect,  called,  and  converted;  loud  religious  professors,  and 
adepts  in  the  art  of  railing;  profound  admirers  of  the  dead 
Whitefield,  but  perfect  haters  of  Whitefield's  surviving  friend, 
Wesley.  In  turn,  Wesley  had  encountered  mobs  and  men 
of  letters,  drunken  parsons,  furious  papists,  honest  infidels, 
and  others  ;  but,  of  all  his  enemies,  his  last  were  his  bitterest 
and  worst,  Calvinistic  Christians  !  ! 

Some  will  blame  the  writer  for  furnishing  modern  readers 
with  specimens  of  the  foul  mouthed  language  used,  respecting 
Wesley,  by  some  of  the  most  flaming  professors  of  Christ's  re- 
ligion a  hundred  years  ago.  His  answer  is,  the  task  is  far  from 
pleasant ;  but  without  a  knowledge  of  Wesley's  unmerited 
and  unparalleled  persecutions,  who  can  have  a  just  con- 
ception of  Wesley's  character }  The  result  of  such  ex- 
posures, it  is  true,  is  not  only  to  enhance  the  fame  of 
Wesley,  but  to  blot  the  history  of  his  opponents.  This  no 
one  regrets  more  deeply  than  the  present  writer ;  but  he 
cannot  help  it.  Besides,  it  is  a  fact,  which  cannot  be  denied, 
that  there  are  some  sins  which,  even  though  repented  of,  and 


Calviniaii  Controversy.  14 


pardoned,   are,   in   the  present   world,   always    punished.     A      ^77^ 
man  rails,  and  God  forgives  him  ;  but  even  forgiveness  cannot    Age  69 
prevent  his  railing  injuring  his  character.     Injured  fame,  in 
such  a  case,  is  a  penalty  unavoidable,  reasonable,  and  right. 

We  have  furnished  specimens  of  the  foolish  and  disgraceful 
ravings  of  Richard  and  Rowland  Hill.  What  was  Wesley's 
reply  }  There  is  a  quiet  irony  in  one  of  the  entries  in  his 
journal,  which  is  worth  quoting:  "1772.  July  11— I  was 
presented  with  Mr.  Hill's  Review,  a  curiosity  in  its  kind. 
But  it  has  nothing  to  do  either  with  good  nature  or  good 
manners;  for  he  is  writing  to  an  Arminian.  I  almost  wonder 
at  his  passionate  desire  to  measure  swords  with  me.  This  is 
the  third  time  he  has  fallen  upon  me  without  fear  or  wit. 
Tandem  extorqucbis  ut  vapules." 

Accordingly,  Wesley  prepared  and  published  "  Some  Re- 
marks on  Mr,  Hill's  '  Review  of  all  the  Doctrines  taught  by 
Mr.  John  Wesley.' "  This  is  the  tartest  of  Wesley's  publica- 
tions, and  not  without  reason.     He  writes  : 

"  Mr.  Fletcher  imagined  that  his  opponents  would  have  received  his 
words  in  the  same  spirit  wherein  they  were  spoken  ;  but  they  turn  them 
all  into  poison.  He  not  only  loses  his  sweet  words,  but  they  are  turned 
into  bitterness,  are  interpreted  as  mere  sneer  and  sarcasm  !  A  good 
lesson  for  me  !  I  had  designed  to  have  transcribed  Mr.  Fletcher's 
character  of  Mr.  Hill,'  and  to  have  added  a  little  thereto,  in  hope  of 
softening  his  spirit;  but  I  see  it  is  in  vain;  as  well  might  one  hope 
to  soften 

'Inexorable  Pluto,  king  of  shades  !' 

"Since  he  is  capable  of  putting  such  a  construction,  even  upon  Mr. 
Fletcher's  gentleness  and  mildness,  what  will  he  not  ascribe  to  me .''  I 
have  done,  therefore,  with  humbling  myself  to  these  men, — to  Mr.  Hill 
and  his  associates ;  I  have  humbled  myself  to  them  for  these  thirty  years, 
but  will  do  it  no  more.  I  have  done  with  attempting  to  soften  their 
spirits ;  it  is  all  lost  labour.  Upon  men  of  an  ingenuous  temper  I  have 
been  able  to  fix  an  obligation.  Bishop  Gibson,  Dr.  Church,  and  even  Dr. 
Taylor,  were  obliged  to  me  for  not  pushing  my  advantage.  But  it  is  not 
so  with  these ;  whatever  mercy  you  show,  you  are  to  expect  no  mercy 
from  them.  'Mercy,'  did  I  say?  Alas!  I  expect  no  justice;  no  more 
than  I  have  found  already.  As  they  have  wrested  and  distorted  my 
words  from  the  beginning,  so  I  expect  they  will  do  to  the  end.  Mr.  Hill's 
performance  is  a  specimen.     Such  mercy,  such  justice,  I  am  to  expect ! 

'  Sir  Pvichard  Hill  did  not  obtain  his  title  till  the  death  of  his  father, 
in  1783. 


144  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

^772      For  forty  or  fifty  years,  I  have  been  a  little  acquainted  with  controversial 

Aee  6q     '^^'nters;  some  of  the  Romish  persuasion,  some  of  our  own  Church,  some 

Dissenters  of  various  denominations  ;  and  I  have  found  many  among  them 

as  angry  as  he ;  but  one  so  bitter  I  have  not  found.   A3  a  writer,  his  name 

is  Wormwood." 

This  was  unsheathing  the  sword,  and  casting  away  the 
scabbard. 

Wesley  proceeds,  in  most  trenchant  style,  to  defend  himself 
against  Hill's  grand  objection,  self  inconsistency.  Our  space 
renders  it  impossible  to  give  an  outline  of  Wesley's  answers  to 
the  charges,  so  recklessly  brought  against  him.  The  following 
is  a  part  of  his  conclusion  : 

"  I  now  look  back  on  a  train  of  incidents  that  have  occurred  for  many 
months  last  past,  and  adore  a  wise  and  gracious  Providence,  ordering  all 
things  well !  When  the  circular  letter  was  first  dispersed  throughout 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  I  did  not  conceive  the  immense  good  which 
God  was  about  to  bring  out  of  that  evil.  But  no  sooner  did  Mr.  Fletcher's 
first  Letters  appear  than  the  scene  began  to  open;  and  the  design  of 
Providence  opened  more  and  more,  when  Mr.  Shirley's  Narrative,  and 
Mr.  Hill's  Letters,  constrained  him  to  write  his  Second  and  Third  Checks 
to  Antinomianism.  It  was  then  indisputably  clear,  that  neither  my 
brother  nor  I  had  borne  a  sufficient  testimony  to  the  truth.  For  many 
years,  from  a  well  meant,  but  ill  judged,  tenderness,  we  had  suffered  the 
reprobation  preachers  (vulgarly  called  'gospel  preachers')  to  spread 
their  poison,  almost  without  opposition.  But,  at  length,  they  have 
awakened  us  out  of  sleep  :  ]\Ir.  Hill  has  answered  for  all  his  brethren, 
roundly  declaring,  that  '  any  agreement  with  election  doubters  is  a  cove- 
nant with  death.'  It  is  well :  we  are  now  forewarned  and  forearmed.  We 
look  for  neither  peace  nor  truce  with  any  who  do  not  openly  and  expressly 
renounce  this  diabolical  sentiment.  But  since  God  is  on  our  side,  we 
will  not  fear  what  man  can  do  unto  us.  We  never  before  saw  our  way 
clear,  to  do  any  more  than  act  on  the  defensive.  But  since  the  circular 
letter  has  sounded  the  alarm,  has  called  forth  all  their  hosts  to  war  ;  and 
since  Mr.  Hill  has  answered  the  call,  drawing  the  sword,  and  throwing 
away  the  scabbard  ;  what  remains,  but  to  own  the  hand  of  God,  and  make 
a  virtue  of  necessity  ?  I  will  no  more  desire  any  Arminian,  so  called,  to 
remain  only  on  the  defensive.  Rather  chase  the  fiend,  reprobation,  to  his 
own  hell,  and  every  doctrine  connected  with  it.  Let  none  pity  or  spare 
one  limb  of  either  speculative  or  practical  antinomianism,  or  of  any 
doctrine  that  naturally  tends  thereto  ;  only  remembering  that,  however 
we  are  treated  by  men,  who  have  a  dispensation  from  the  vulgar  rules  of 
justice  and  mercy,  we  ai-e  not  to  fight  them  at  their  own  weapons,  to  re- 
turn railing  for  railing.  Those  who  plead  the  cause  of  the  God  of  love  are 
to  imitate  Him  they  serve  ;  and,  however  provoked,  to  use  no  other 
weapons  than  those  of  truth  and  love,  of  Scripture  and  reason." 


Wesley s  Publications,  /;/   1772.  145 

Thus  did  Wesley  accept  the  challenge  ;  and  it  is  not  hazard-  1772 
ing  too  much  to  make  the  assertion,  that  Fletcher's  almost  Age69 
inimitable  polemical  productions,  and  Wesley's  own  sermons, 
together  with  his  Arviinian  Magazine,  started  six  years  after- 
wards, did  what  Wesley  wished,  namely  drove  the  fiendish 
doctrine  of  reprobation  to  its  "  own  hell,"  and  gave  a  blow  to 
the  Calvinian  theory,  which  has  been  felt  from  that  time  to 
this. 

Wesley's  other  publications,  in  1772,  were  the  following. 

1.  A  revised  and  enlarged  edition  of  the  minutes  of  his 
conferences. 

2.  The  issue  of  eleven  volumes  of  his  revised  and  collected 
works,  making  a  little  more  than  3900  printed  i2mo  pages. 

3.  Two  political  tracts:  one  entitled,  "Thoughts  upon 
Liberty "  ;  the  other,  "  Thoughts  concerning  the  Origin  of 
Power."  The  disturbed  state  of  the  nation,  at  this  period,  has 
been  already  sketched.  Junius  and  John  Wilkes  were  the 
arch  agitators  of  the  day,  and  well-nigh  drove  the  nation  into 
rebellion.  Hampson  states  that,  when  the  Letters  of  Junius 
appeared,  Wesley  offered  his  services  to  the  government,  and 
proposed  to  answer  them,  saying,  "  I  will  show  the  difference 
between  rhetoric  and  logic." ^  We  have  no  means  of  either 
substantiating  or  contradicting  this  ;  but  Wesley's  "  Thoughts 
upon  Liberty "  fully  show  that  Wilkes,  the  demagogue,  was 
no  favourite  of  his,  and  that  King  George  had  no  truer  or 
more  loyal  subject  than  the  leader  of  the  Methodists. 

In  his  second  tract,  Wesley  combats  the  theory,  that  the 
people  of  a  nation  are  the  "  origin  of  power."  He  shows  that,  if 
this  were  true,  every  man,  woman,  and  child  ought  to  possess 
the  electoral  franchise,  and  to  be  allowed  to  take  a  part  in 
constituting  parliaments  and  governmental  cabinets.  He 
taunts,  with  withering  sarcasm,  the  advocates  of  such  a  theory, 
on  the  ground,  that  they  themselves  resist  the  facts  their 
theory  implies,  because  they  allowed  none  to  vote  except  free- 
holders of  forty  shillings  yearly  value,  and  not  even  them  un- 
less they  had  arrived  at  the  age  of  twenty  one,  "  Worse  and 
worse,"  he  writes  :  "  after  depriving  half  the  human  species 
of  their  natural  rights  for  want  of  a  beard ;  after  depriving 

*  Life  of  Wesley,  vol.  iii.,  p.  160. 
VOL.  IIL  L 


146  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1 772  myriads  more  for  want  of  a  stiff  beard,  for  not  having  lived  one- 
Age  69  and-twcnty  years  ;  you  rob  others  of  their  birthright  for  want 
of  money  !  Yet  not  altogether  on  this  account  either ;  for 
here  is  an  Englishman  who  has  money  enough  to  buy  the 
estates  of  fifty  freeholders,  and  yet  he  must  not  be  numbered 
among  the  people  because  he  has  not  two  or  three  acres  of 
land." 

Having  shown  the  absurdities  which,  as  he  thinks,  the 
theory  involves,  he  then  concludes  :  "  Common  sense  brings  us 
back  to  the  grand  truth,  '  There  is  no  power  but  of  God.'  " 

Wesley's  tract  is  little  known  ;  but  the  radical  politicians  of 
the  present  age  would  be  none  the  worse  for  studying  the 
principles  to  which  it  summarily  adverts.^ 

^  To  understand  some  of  the  allusions,  in  these  two  political  tracts,  it  is 
necessary  to  remember  that,  in  1772,  a  petition  was  presented  to  parha- 
ment,  signed  by  about  250  of  the  clergy,  and  a  considerable  number  of 
the  members  of  the  professions  of  civil  law  and  physic,  praying  to  be 
reheved  from  the  necessity  of  subscribing  to  the  thirty-nine  articles  of 
the  Established  Church  ;  and  that  a  bill  was  passed,  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, annulling  that  part  of  the  Act  of  Toleration  which  authorised  the 
infliction  of  heavy  penalties  upon  the  ministers,  schoolmasters,  and 
private  tutors  of  Dissenters,  unless  they  subscribed  to  all  the  doctrinal 
parts  of  the  thirty-nine  articles.  The  bill  passed  the  Commons  trium- 
^      phantly  ;  the  Lords,  by  a  large  majority,  rejected  it  ! 


THE  year  1773  will  always  be  memorable  in  English  1773 
annals.  It  was  now  that  the  embryo  rebellion  in  the  A"e~*-o 
American  colonies  broke  out  into  overt  acts.  Insults  were 
offered  to  the  British  flag  ;  a  British  ship  of  war  was  boarded 
and  burnt ;  and  the  cargoes  of  tea,  which  Lord  North  had 
allowed  to  be  exported  from  England,  duty  free,  were  seized 
by  rioters  and  sham  Indians,  and  were  discharged  into  the 
ocean  with  the  utmost  jubilation.  Endless  debates  took  place 
in  the  English  parliament ;  and  fearful  fights  were  fought  on 
the  coasts,  and  in  the  wilds  and  prairies  of  America.  George 
Washington  was  made  commander  in  chief ;  and  "  The  Con- 
gress of  the  Thirteen  United  Colonies  "  was  organised.  For 
long  years,  the  one  great  absorbing  care  of  the  British  parlia- 
ment was  the  war  in  the  western  world. 

Wesley's  health  was  still  seriously  affected  ;  and,  hence,  he 
spent  his  leisure  hours,  in  the  beginning  of  1773,  in  examining 
his  letters  and  other  manuscripts,  so  as  to  determine  what  he 
should  leave  behind  him.  He  writes :  "  I  made  an  end  of 
revising  my  letters ;  and  could  not  but  make  one  remark, — 
that,  for  above  these  forty  years,  of  all  the  friends  who  were 
once  the  most  closely  united,  and  afterwards  separated  from 
me,  every  one  had  separated  himself!  He  left  me,  not  I 
him.  And  from  both  mine  and  their  own  letters,  the  steps 
whereby  they  did  this  are  clear  and  undeniable." 

We  have  already  seen,  that  Wesley  thought  of  making 
Fletcher  of  Madeley  his  literary  executor  ;  but  he  now  did  more 
than  this.  Hence  the  following  letter,  sent  to  Fletcher  in  Janu- 
ary 1773,  and  written  at  Shoreham,  doubtless  at  the  v^enerable 
Perronet's,  with  whom  Wesley  had  gone  to  take  counsel. 

"  Dear  Sir, — What  an  amazing  work  has  God  wrought  in  these  king- 
doms, in  less  than  forty  years  !  And  it  not  only  continues,  but  increases, 
throughout  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland  ;  nay,  it  has  lately  spread  into 
New  York,  Pennsylvania,  Virginia,  Maryland,  and  Carolina.  But  the  wise 
men  of  the  world  say,  'When  Mr.  Wesley  drops,  then  all  this  is  at  an  end  I' 
And  so  surely  it  will,  unless,  before  God  calls  him  hence,  one  is  found  to 


148  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

stand  in  his  place.  For  Ovk  ayadov  noAvKoipavia.  Ei?  Koipavos  eorrw.  I  see, 
more  and  more,  unless  there  be  one  Trpoeorcoir,  the  work  can  never  be  carried 
on.  The  body  of  the  preachers  are  not  united  ;  nor  will  any  part  of  them 
submit  to  the  rest ;  so  that,  either  there  must  be  one  to  preside  over  all,  or 
the  work  will  indeed  come  to  an  end. 

"  But  who  is  sufficient  for  these  things  ?  qualified  to  preside  both  over 
the  preachers  and  people  ?  He  must  be  a  man  of  faith  and  love,  and  one 
that  has  a  single  eye  to  the  advancement  of  the  kingdom  of  God.  He 
must  have  a  clear  understanding  ;  a  knowledge  of  men  and  things,  parti- 
cularly of  the  Methodist  doctrine  and  discipline ;  a  ready  utterance  ; 
diligence  and  activity,  with  a  tolerable  share  of  health.  There  must  be 
added  to  these,  favour  with  the  people,  with  the  Methodists  in  general. 
For  unless  God  turn  their  eyes  and  their  hearts  toward  him,  he  will  be 
quite  incapable  of  the  work.  He  must,  likewise,  have  some  degree  of 
learning ;  because  there  are  many  adversaries,  learned  as  well  as  unlearned, 
whose  mouths  must  be  stopped.  But  this  cannot  be  done,  unless  he  be 
able  to  meet  them  on  their  own  ground. 

"  But  has  God  provided  one  so  qualified  ?  Who  is  he  .''  T/iou  art  tJie 
mail  /  God  has  given  you  a  measure  of  loving  faith ;  and  a  single  eye  to 
His  glory.  He  has  given  you  some  knowledge  of  men  and  things  ;  parti- 
cularly of  the  whole  plan  of  IMethodism.  You  are  blessed  with  some 
health,  activity,  and  diligence  ;  together  with  a  degree  of  learning.  And 
to  all  these  He  has  lately  added,  by  a  way  none  could  have  foreseen, 
favour  both  with  the  preachers  and  the  whole  people.  Come  out,  then, 
in  the  name  of  God  !  Come  to  the  help  of  the  Lord  against  the  mighty ! 
Come  while  I  am  alive  and  capable  of  labour  !  Come,  while  I  am  able,  God 
assisting,  to  build  you  up  in  faith,  to  ripen  your  gifts,  and  to  introduce  you 
to  the  people  !  Nil  tanti.  What  possible  employment  can  you  have, 
which  is  of  so  great  importance  ? 

"  But  you  will  naturally  say,  *  I  am  not  equal  to  the  task ;  I  have  neither 
grace  nor  gifts  for  such  an  employment.'  You  say  true  ;  it  is  certain  you 
have  not.  And  who  has  ?  But  do  you  not  know  Hivi  who  is  able  to  give 
them  ?  Perhaps  not  at  once,  but  rather  day  by  day  ;  as  each  is,  so  shall 
your  strength  be. 

"'But  this  implies,'  you  may  say,  'a  thousand  crosses,  such  as  I  feel  I 
am  not  able  to  bear.'  You  are  not  able  to  bear  them  itow  ;  and  they  are 
not  now  come.  Whenever  they  do  come,  will  He  not  send  them  in  due 
number,  weight  and  measure  ?  And  will  they  not  all  be  for  your  profit, 
that  you  may  be  a  partaker  of  His  holiness .'' 

"Without  conferring, therefore,  with  flesh  and  blood,  come  and  strengthen 
the  hands,  comfort  the  heart,  and  share  the  labour  of  your  affectionate 
friend  and  brother,  "JOHN  Wesley." ^ 

This  was  a  momentous  proposal.  Why  was  it  not  made  to 
Wesley's  brother }  We  cannot  tell ;  but  the  following  is 
Fletcher's  answer. 

^  Whitehead's  Life  of  Wesley,  vol.  ii.,  p.  355. 


Wesley  s  proposed  Successor.  149 

"  Madeley,  February  6,  1773.  1773 

"Reverend  and  dear  Sir, —  I  hope  the  Lord,  who  has  so  wonder- 

A*T6*  TO 

fully  stood  by  you  hitherto,  will  preserve  you  to  see  many  of  your  sheep,  "  ' 
and  7iie  among  the  rest,  enter  into  rest.  Should  Providence  call  yon  Jtrst, 
I  shall  do  my  best,  by  the  Lord's  assistance,  to  he\Y>}'oiir  brother  to  gather 
the  wreck,  and  keep  together  those  who  are  not  absolutely  bent  upon 
throwing  away  the  Methodist  doctrine  or  discipline.  Every  little  help 
will  then  be  necessary  ;  and,  I  hope,  I  shall  not  be  backward  to  throw  in 
my  mite. 

"  In  the  meantime,  you  stand  sometimes  in  need  of  an  assistant  to  serve 
tables,  and  occasionally  to  fill  up  a  gap.  Providence  visibly  appointed 
me  to  that  office  many  years  ago  ;  and,  though  it  no  less  evidently  called 
me  here,  yet  I  have  not  been  without  doubt,  especially  for  some  years 
past,  whether  it  would  not  be  expedient  that  I  should  resume  my  place  as 
your  deacon  ;  not  with  any  view  of  presiding  over  the  Methodists  after 
you,  (God  knows !)  but  to  save  you  a  little  in  your  old  age,  and  be  in  the 
way  of  receiving,  and  perhaps  of  doing,  more  good.  I  have  sometimes 
considered  how  shameful  it  was  that  no  clergyman  should  join  you,  to  keep 
in  the  Church  the  work  which  the  Lord  had  enabled  you  to  carry  on  therein ; 
and,  as  the  little  estate  I  have  in  my  nativ^e  country  is  sufficient  for  my 
maintenance,  I  have  thought  I  would,  one  day  or  other,  offer  you  and  the 
Methodists  my  free  services. 

"  While  my  love  of  retirement,  and  my  dread  of  appearing  upon  a  higher 
stage  than  that  I  stand  upon  here,  made  me  linger,  I  was  providentially 
called  to  do  something  in  Lady  Huntingdon's  plan  ;  but,  being  shut  out 
there,  it  appears  to  me,  I  am  again  called  to  my  first  work. 

"  Nevertheless,  I  would  not  leave  this  place,  without  a /////^r  persuasion 
that  the  time  is  quite  come.  Not  that  God  uses  me  much  now  among 
my  parishioners,  but  because  I  have  not  sufficiently  cleared  my  conscience 
from  the  blood  of  all  men,  especially  with  regard  to  ferreting  out  the  poor, 
and  expostulating  with  the  rich,  who  make  it  their  business  to  fly  from  me. 
In  the  meantime,  it  shall  be  my  employment  to  beg  the  Lord  to  give  me 
light,  and  make  me  willing  to  go  anywhere  or  nowhere,  to  be  anything  or 
nothing. 

"I  have  laid  my  pen  aside  for  some  time;  nevertheless,  I  resumed  it 
last  week,  at  your  brother's  request,  to  go  on  with  my  treatise  on . 
Christian  perfection.  I  have  made  some  alterations  in  the  sheets  you 
have  seen,  and  hope  to  have  a  few  more  ready  for  your  correction,  against 
the  time  you  come  this  way.  How  deep  is  the  subject !  What  need  have 
I  of  the  Spirit,  to  search  the  deep  things  of  God  !  Help  me  by  your 
prayers,  till  you  can  help  me  by  word  of  mouth. 

"  I  am,  reverend  and  dear  sir,  your  willing,  though  unprofitable,  servant 
in  the  gospel,  '"John  Fletcher." ^ 

At  the  beginning  of  July,  Wesley  had   an   interview  with 
'  Moore's  Life  of  Wesley,  vol.  ii.,  p.  259. 


150  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 


1773      Fletcher  at  Madeley,  and,  on  reaching  London,  sent  him  the 
Age  70    following  hitherto  unpublished  letter. 

"  Lewisham,  July  11,  1773. 
"  Dear  Sir, — It  was  a  great  satisfaction  to  me,  that  I  had  the  oppor 
tunity,  which  I  so  long  desired,  of  spending  a  httle  time  with  you.  And  1 
really  think  it  would  answer  many  gracious  designs  of  Providence  were 
we  to  spend  a  little  more  time  together.  It  might  be  of  great  advantage 
both  to  ourselves  and  the  people,  who  may  otherwise  soon  be  as  sheep 
without  a  shepherd.  You  say  indeed,  'whenever  it  pleases  God  to  call 
me  away,  you  will  do  all  you  can  to  help  them.'  But  will  it  not  then  be 
too  late .''  You  may  then  expect  grievous  wolves  to  break  in  on  every 
side;  and  many  to  arise  from  among  themselves,  speaking  perverse  things. 
Both  the  one  and  the  other  stand  in  awe  of  me,  and  do  not  care  to  en- 
counter me;  so  that  I  am  able,  whether  they  will  or  no,  to  deliver  the  flock 
into  your  hands.  But  no  one  else  is.  And  it  seems,  this  is  the  very  time 
when  it  may  be  done  with  the  least  difficulty.  Just  now  the  minds  of  the 
people  in  general  are,  on  account  of  the  Checks,  greatly  prejudiced  in  your 
favour.  Should  we  not  discern  the  providential  time.?  Should  we  stay 
till  the  impression  is  worn  away?  Just  now,  we  have  an  opportunity  of 
breaking  the  ice,  of  making  a  little  trial.  Mr.  Richardson  is  desirous  of 
making  an  exchange  with  you,  and  spending  two  or  three  weeks  at 
Madeley.  This  might  be  done  either  now,  or  in  October,  when  I  hope  to 
return  from  Bristol.  And  till  somicthing  of  this  kind  is  done,  you  will  not 
have  that  o-rop-yi;  for  the  people  which  alone  can  make  your  labour  light  in 
spending  and  being  spent  for  them.  Methinks  'tis  pity  we  should  lose 
any  time  ;  for  what  a  vapour  is  life  ! 

"  I  am,  dear  sir,  your  affectionate  friend  and  brother, 

John  Wesley." 

So  the  matter  ended,  though  Wesley  was  far  from  satisfied. 
He  writes  :  "  I  can  never  believe  it  was  the  will  of  God,  that 
such  a  burning  and  shining  light  should  be  hid  under  a  bushel. 
No ;  instead  of  being  confined  to  a  country  village,  it  ought  to 
have  shone  in  every  corner  of  our  land.  He  was  full  as  much 
called  to  sound  an  alarm  through  all  the  nation  as  Mr.  White- 
field  himself;  nay,  abundantly  more  so;  seeing  he  was  far 
better  qualified  for  that  important  work.  He  had  a  far  more 
striking  person  ;  equal  good  breeding ;  an  equally  winning 
address  ;  together  with  a  richer  flow  of  fancy ;  a  stronger 
understanding  ;  a  far  greater  treasure  of  learning,  both  in 
languages,  philosophy,  philology,  and  divinity ;  and,  above  all, 
a  more  deep  and  constant  communion  with  the  Father,  and 
with  the  Son  Jesus  Christ."  ^ 

'  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xi.,  p.  288. 


Methodism  in  America  and  Aiitigua.         151 

No  wonder  that  Wesley  was  anxious  for  a  suitable  successor  1773 
to  take  his  place.  The  work  of  which,  in  the  hand  of  God,  A"e~7o 
he  was  the' principal  supporter,  had  not  only  spread  throughout 
the  three  kingdoms,  but  was  rapidly  extending  beyond  the 
Atlantic.  Already  he  had  four  of  his  itinerants  in  America; 
and,  aged  and  feeble  in  health  though  he  was,  he  still  enter- 
tained the  thought  of  visiting  that  distant  continent.^  Among 
others,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Jarratt  wrote  him,  from  Virginia,  telling 
him  that  they  had  ninety-five  parishes  in  the  colony,  all,  ex- 
cepting one,  supplied  with  clergymen,  but  that  ninety-three  out 
of  the  ninety-four  ministers  appeared  to  be  without  "  the  power 
and  spirit  of  vital  religion."  He  thanks  him  for  sending  his 
preachers  to  America,  two  of  whom,  Messrs.  Pilmoor  and 
Williams,  were  now  labouring  in  Virginia ;  but  asks,  "  What 
can  two  or  three  preachers  do  in  such  an  extended  country  as 
this  .''  Cannot  you  do  something  more  for  us  t  Cannot  you 
send  us  a  minister  of  the  Church  of  England,  to  be  stationed 
in  the  vacant  parish  ?  I  wish  you  could  see  how  matters  are 
among  us.  This  would  serve  instead  of  a  thousand  argu- 
ments, to  induce  you  to  exert  yourself  in  this  affair."  ^ 

Even  this  was  not  all.  During  the  year,  Francis  Gilbert 
wrote  to  him  from  Antigua,  telling  him  that  "almost  the 
whole  island  seemed  to  be  stirred  up  to  seek  the  Lord." 
There  were  large  congregations  and  constant  preaching  in  his 
brother's  house;  and  they  had,  at  St.  John's,  a  society  of  twenty 
whites  and  forty  blacks.  "  Here,"  says  Mr.  Gilbert,  "is  work 
enough  for  three  preachers ;  as  almost  the  entire  island  seems 
ripe  for  the  gospel ;  yet,  I  cannot  desire  you  to  send  them  yet, 
seeing  the  people  are  not  at  present  able  to  bear  the  expenses  ; 
for  the  fire,  the  hurricane,  and  the  severe  droughts  hav^e,  I 
suppose,  ruined  two  thirds  of  the  inhabitants."  ^ 

Affairs  in  Scotland  were  scarcely  to  Wesley's  mind.  Writ- 
ing to  John  Bredin,  at  Aberdeen,  he  says : 

"My  dear  Brother, —  Observe  and  enforce  all  our  rules  exactly  as  if 
you  were  in  England,  or  Ireland.  By  foolish  complaisance  our  preachers, 
in  Scotland,  have  often  done  harm.  Be  all  a  Methodist;  and  strongly 
insist  QVi  full  salvation  to  be  received  now  by  simple /(?///;. 

"  I  am  yours  aftectionatcly,  JOHN  WESLEY."^ 

^  Asbury's  Journal,  vol.  i.,  p.  72.        ^  Methodist  Magazine,  1786,  p.  397. 
^  Metlwdist  Maj^asine,  1786,  p.  567.     *  IVesleyati  Times,  May  13,  1861. 


152  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

Joseph  Benson  had  been  urged  to  go  to  America ;  but 
Wesley  deemed  it  desirable  to  send  him  across  the  Tweed  to 
put  things  right  in  the  northern  part  of  the  kingdom.  "  God/' 
says  he,  "  has  made  practical  divinity  necessary,  and  the  devil 
controversial.  Sometimes  we  must  write  and  preach  contro- 
versially ;  but  the  less  the  better.  I  think  we  have  few,  if  any, 
of  our  travelling  preachers,  that  love  controversy ;  but  there 
will  always  be  men  whose  mouth  it  is  necessary  to  stop ;  anti- 
nomians  and  Calvinists  in  particular.  By  our  long  silence,  we 
have  done  much  hurt,  both  to  them  and  the  cause  of  God. 
The  more  you  preach  abroad,  the  better ;  keep  to  the  plain, 
old  Methodist  doctrine,  laid  down  in  the  minutes  of  the  con- 
ference. At  Trevecca,  you  were  a  little  warped  from  this  ; 
but  it  was  a  right  hand  error.  You  will  be  buried  in  Scotland, 
if  you  sell  your  mare  and  sit  still.  Keep  her,  and  ride  con- 
tinually. Sit  not  still,  at  the  peril  of  your  soul  and  body  ! 
Billy  Thompson  never  satisfied  me  on  this  head,  not  in  the 
least  degree.  I  say  still,  we  will  have  travelling  preachers  in 
Scotland,  or  none.  Our  preachers  shall  either  travel  there,  as 
in  England,  or  else  stay  in  England."^ 

Such  were  some  of  the  difficulties  which  this  veteran  evan- 
gelist had  to  meet.     No  wonder  that  he  wished  for  help. 

Chapel  debts,  also,  still  pressed  heavily  upon  him.  Hence 
the  following  to  Mr.  Hopper, 

^^  February  6,  1773. 

"My  dear  Brother, — I  agreed  last  year,  though  contrary  to  my  judg- 
ment, that  we  would  have  no  more  weekly  subscriptions.  I  purposed,  like- 
wise, in  my  own  mind,  to  concern  myself  with  the  debt  no  more.  But, 
upon  reflection,  it  seemed  to  me,  there  was  one  way  still,  namely,  not  to 
apply  to  the  poor  at  all,  (though  I  would  not  reject  any  that  offered,)  but 
to  take  the  burden  on  myself,  and  try  my  personal  interest  with  the  rich. 
I  began  at  London,  where  about  ^500  are  subscribed.  Afterwards,  I 
wrote  to  many  in  the  country.  Liverpool  circuit  has  subscribed  about 
;^ioo  ;  Bradford  circuit  ^130.  It  must  be  now  or  never.  I  do  not  know 
that  I  shall  concern  myself  with  this  matter  any  more.  Till  now  we  never 
had  a  rational  prospect  of  clearing  the  whole  debt  in  one  year.  Now  it 
may  be  done.  It  certainly  will,  if  our  brethren,  in  other  circuits,  do  as 
these  above  mentioned  have  done.  What  I  desire  of  you  is  to  second  the 
letters  I  have  wrote,  encouraging  each  man  of  property  in  your  circuit  to 
exert  himself ;  at  least,  to  send  me  an  answer :  this,  you  know,  is  but 
common  civility.     Now  do  what  you  can  ;  and   show  that  you,  my  old 

^  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xii.,  pp.  391,  392. 


Wesley  mid  his  Carriage.  153 

friend,  are  not  the  last  and  least  in  love  towards  your  affectionate  friend      1773 

and  brother,  .       _ 

"John  Wesley."  '        ^^e  70 

It  is  now  time  to  trace  Wesley's  wanderings  in  1773. 

On  Sunday  evening,  March  7,  he  set  out  from  London 
to  Ireland,  taking,  for  the  first  time,  his  carriage  with 
him,  which,  however,  he  was  deprived  of  the  opportunity  of 
using.  He  writes  :  "  March  30 — I  was  a  little  surprised  to 
find  the  commissioners  of  the  customs  would  not  permit 
my  chaise  to  be  landed,  because,  they  said,  the  captain 
of  a  packet  boat  had  no  right  to  bring  over  goods.  Poor 
pretence !  However,  I  was  more  obliged  to  them  than  I  then 
knew ;  for  had  it  come  on  shore,  it  would  have  been  utterly 
spoiled." 

The  result  was,  that  Wesley  had  to  hire  a  chaise  instead 
of  riding  in  his  own ;  a  vehicle  which  at  Ballibac  ferry 
went  overboard,  and,  with  difficulty,  was  recovered ;  and 
which,  on  another  occasion,  it  took  five  hours  to  drag 
less  than  a  dozen  miles ;  which,  in  a  third  instance,  was  dis- 
abled by  the  breaking  of  the  hinder  axletree  ;  and  which, 
more  than  once,  was  in  danger  of  being  dashed  to  pieces  by 
furious  mobs. 

Everywhere  his  congregations  were  large.  In  many  in- 
stances, he  had  whole  troops  of  soldiers  to  hear  him  ;  and 
nowhere  did  he  meet  with  any  serious  disturbance,  except  at 
Waterford,  where  the  papists  created  a  riot,  in  which  heavy 
blows  were  given;  and  at  Enniskillen,  where  a  mob  again  and 
again  fell  upon  the  unfortunate  carriage,  cut  it  with  stones  in 
several  places,  smashed  its  windows,  and  well-nigh  covered  it 
with  sludge. 

Three  months  were  spent  in  itinerating  the  sister 
kingdom.  Scores  of  towns  and  villages,  between  Dublin 
and  Galway,  Belfast  and  Cork,  were  favoured  with  his 
ministry  ;  and  diversified  were  the  incidents  with  which  he 
met.  At  Eyrecourt,  the  crowd  gave  him  a  loud  huzza  as 
he  passed  into  the  market  place  to  preach.  At  Clare,  for 
want  of  other  accommodation,  he  was  glad  to  accept  a  bed 
in   the   soldiers'    barracks.      At    Castlebar,    on    finding    the 

■ '  ■  .     ■       I  ^  ■  ■■■  I  .   1 1,  ■  ..  1.^ 

*  Wesley's  Worlds,  vol.  xii.,  p.  291. 


154  Life  a 7 id  Times  of  Wesley. 

1773  "Charter  school  a  picture  of  slothfulness,  nastiness,  and 
Age"7o  desolation  ;  and  all  the  children,  not  only  dirty,  but  with 
their  stockings  hanging  about  their  heels,  and  in  a  most 
disreputable  plight,  he  reported  the  facts  to  the  trustees  at 
Dublin,  with  the  hope  of  effecting  a  reformation."  At 
Limerick,  William  Myles,  a  youth  in  the  seventeenth  year 
of  his  age,  was  one  of  Wesley's  hearers,  began  to  meet  in 
class,  and,  five  years  afterwards,  became  an  itinerant 
preacher.^  At  Armagh,  he  wrote  his  invaluable  sermon  "  On 
Predestination,"  preached  it  at  Londonderry,  andj  at  the 
request  of  several  of  the  clergy,  published  it.^  At  Armagh, 
also,  he  heard  what  he  had  not  heard  for  fifty  years, — an 
anthem  in  a  church.  At  Lisburn,  all  his  spare  time  was 
taken  up  by  poor  patients,  Avho  came  to  him  for  physic.  He 
writes  :  "  What  has  fashion  to  do  with  physic  }  WHiy,  in 
Ireland  almost  as  much  as  with  headdress.  Blisters,  for  any- 
thing or  nothing,  were  all  the  fashion  when  I  was  in  Ireland 
last.  Now  the  grand  fashionable  medicine,  for  twenty 
diseases,  is  mercury  sublimate  !  Why  is  it  not  a  halter,  or  a 
pistol }     They  would  cure  a  little  more  speedily." 

On  the  5th  of  July,  Wesley  started  for  England,  having  to 
hold  his  annual  conference  in  London.  He  says:  "About 
eleven  we  crossed  Dublin  bar,  and  were  at  Hoylake  the  next 
afternoon.  This  was  the  first  night  I  ever  lay  awake  in  my 
life,  though  I  was  at  ease  in  body  and  mind.  I  believe  few 
can  say  this  :  in  seventy  years  I  never  lost  one  night's 
sleep." 

Wesley  reached  the  metropolis  on  the  17th  of  July;  and, 
on  the  2ist,  made  the  following  entry  in  his  journal:  "We 
had  our  quarterly  meeting  at  London  ;  at  which  I  was  sur- 
prised to  find,  that  our  income  does  not  yet  meet  our  expense. 
We  were  again  near  :^200  bad.  My  private  account  I  find 
still  worse.  I  have  laboured  as  much  as  many  writers  ;  and 
all  my  labour  has  gained  me,  in  seventy  years,  a  debt  of  five 
or  six  hundred  pounds." 

There  is  some  obscurity  in  this,  as  will  appear  from  the 
following  correspondence. 


"^'Methodist  Magazine,  1831,  p.  290. 
2  njid.  1782,  pp.  505,  565. 


Wesley  s  Book  Property. 


DO 


*'  To  Messrs.  Thomas  Ball  and  Alexander  Mather. 

"  Lewisham,  February  27,  1772.' 
"The  thing  which  I  desire  you  to  do  is  this,  to  see  that  an  exact  ac- 
count be  kept  of  all  the  books  in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  printed  and 
sold  on  my  account.  You  comprehend  how  many  particulars  are  con- 
tained under  this  general.  To  do  this  accurately  will  require  much 
thoughts  But  you  will  bear  that  burden  for  God's  sake,  and  for  the  sake 
of  your  affectionate  brother,  <<  ^^^^^  Wesley." 

(Reply.) 
"Reverend  and  dear  Sir, — I  beg  to  lay  before  you  Mr.  ]\Iather's  ac- 
count, sent  me  by  letter  of  the  i8th  past,  of  the  gross  value  of  your  books, 
taken  in  February  and  March,  1773  ;  viz. :— 

£ 

"  In  London,  etc 375-1- 


Bristol 
Country 
Cash 
Debts 


4253 
2716 

183 


d. 
o 
8 
8 
1 1 
I 


Stock  in  February,  1772 


10929  15     4 
.     8833     o     7 

/2096  14    9 

"  Supposed  to  be  owing  in  March  last  to  printers,  binders,  etc.,  ^500. 
"  I  am,  reverend  sir,  your  most  obedient  and  dutiful  servant, 

"Thomas  Ball. 
"Examined  21st  September,   1773:— Thomas   Marriott, 

Richard  Kemp."^ 

According  to  the  above  statement,  Wesley  was  in  debt  to 
printers  and  binders  to  the  amount  of  ^500  ;  but,  at  the  same 
time,  he  was  possessed  of  books  whose  gross  value  was  nearly 
;^ii,000.  How  to  reconcile  the  discrepancy  we  hardly  know. 
The  facts  are  furnished  as  we  find  them.  One  thing  is  certain, 
there  was  something  wrong.  Some  have  supposed  that 
Wesley's  wife  had,  by  means  of  false  keys,  obtained  access  to 
the  book  steward's  cash,  and  helped  herself ;  ^  but  of  that  there 
is  no  conclusive  proof ;  and  it  is  certainly  neither  generous  nor 
just  to  assert  the  thing  without  proving  it.  All  that  we  know 
further  is,  that  poor  Samuel  Franks,  the  book  steward,  a  man 
of  great  uprightness  and   earnest  piety,^  but   naturally  of  a 

'  Query  :  ought  not  this  to  be  1773  ? 

2  Methodist  Magazine,  1842,  p.  1013.  •*  Manuscript. 

*  Methodist  Magazine,  1842,  p.  1012. 


Age  70 


156  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 


1773  sensitive  disposition,  within  a  fortnight,  fell  into  a  fit  of  in- 
Age  70  sanity,  and  hanged  himself^  Without  mentioning  this, 
Wesley  writes  :  "  October  6 — The  rest  of  the  week  I  made 
what  inquiry  I  could  into  the  state  of  my  accounts.  Some 
confusion  had  arisen  from  the  sudden  death  of  my  book- 
keeper ;  but  it  was  less  than  might  have  been  expected." 

Here  we  must  leave  the  matter.  On  the  supposition  that 
Wesley  considered  his  stock  of  books  not  his  own,  but  merely 
held  in  trust  for  the  general  good,  it  was  quite  correct,  that, 
as  the  result  of  his  literary  labours,  he  was  in  debt  to  the 
amount,  as  he  himself  says,  "  of  five  or  six  hundred  pounds." 
In  one  respect,  he  was  the  possessor  of  a  large  amount  of 
property  ;    in  another,  he  was  actually  in  debt. 

Wesley's  conference  began  in  London  on  August  3.  He 
writes :  "  August  3 — Our  conference  began.  I  preached 
mornings  as  well  as  evenings  ;  and  it  was  all  one.  I  found 
myself  just  as  strong  as  if  I  had  preached  but  once  a  day." 
Good  old  simple  hearted  Samuel  Bardsley,  then  an  itinerant 
of  five  years'  standing,  writes,  in  a  manuscript  letter  now 
before  us :  "I  never  was  at  a  more  comfortable  conference.^ 
We  had  a  deal  of  love  among  us.  Dear  Mr.  Wesley  laboured 
hard.  I  had  the  pleasure  of  hearing  him  preach  twelve  times. 
He  said,  he  had  not  preached  so  much  at  a  conference  these 
twenty  years,  and  never  was  more  assisted." 

It  was  now  that  Joseph  Bradford  was  received  on  trial  ; 
and  that  Thomas  Olivers  was  appointed  to  be  Wesley's 
travelling  companion  ;  honest  Bradford  taking  the  place  of 
Olivers  a  year  afterwards,  and  retaining  it  for  the  next  eight 
years.  Wesley's  effort  to  extinguish  the  chapel  debts  had 
resulted  in  a  subscription  amounting  to  £22T)'j.  Forty-seven 
preachers  were  present,  and,  "  in  order  to  lay  a  foundation  for 
future  union,"  signed  the  following  agreement. 

"We  whose  names  are  underwritten,  being  thoroughly  convinced  of  the 
necessity  of  a  close  union  between  those  whom  God  is  pleased  to  use  as 
instruments  in  this  glorious  work,  in  order  to  preserve  this  union  between 
ourselves,  are  resolved,  God  being  our  helper, — 

"  I.  To  devote  ourselves  entirely  to  God  :  denying  ourselves,  taking  up 
our  cross  daily,  steadily  aiming  at  one  thing,  to  save  our  own  souls,  and 
them  that  hear  us. 


^  Manuscript. 


Age 


Feast  and  Fast  Days.  157 

"  II.  To  preach  the  old  Methodist  doctrines,  and  no  other,  contained  in      I773 
the  minutes  of  the  conferences. 

"III.  To  observe  and  enforce  the  whole  Methodist  disciphne,  laid  down 
in  the  said  minutes." 

Wesley  had  failed  in  obtaining  the  consent  of  Fletcher,  to 
be  his  successor  ;  and,  hence,  the  drawing  up  and  signing  of 
this  conferential  compact. 

On  the  first  Sunday  night,  after  the  conference  concluded, 
Wesley  set  out,  by  coach,  on  his  accustomed  tour  to  Cornwall, 
which  occupied  the  next  three  weeks. 

In  returning,  he  spent  a  month  at  Bristol^  and  among  the 
societies  round  about.  On  October  6,  he  started  in  his  chaise, 
at  two  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and,  in  the  evening,  arrived  in 
London  ;  thus,  in  one  winter's  day,  driving  in  his  own  con- 
veyance a  distance  of  one  hundred  and  fourteen  miles.  The 
rest  of  October,  except  the  Sundays,  was  spent  in  what  he 
calls  his  "  little  tours,"  through  the  five  counties  of  Bedford, 
Northampton,  Oxford,  Buckingham^  and  Kent. 

Ten  days,  in  November,  were  spent  in  Norfolk  ;  then  he 
met  the  London  classes  ;  and  afterwards  went  off  to  Sussex, 
and  then  to  Kent.  The  last  entry  in  his  year's  itinerary  is  : 
"  London  :  December  25,  and  on  the  following  days,  we  had 
many  happy  opportunities  of  celebrating  the  solemn  feast 
days,  according  to  the  design  of  their  institution.  W^e  con- 
cluded the  year  with  a  fast  day,  closed  with  a  solemn  watch- 
night."  Thus,  in  observing  feast  and  fast  days,  ended  the 
year  1773.  One  of  these,  of  course,  was  Christmas  day, 
another  St.  Stephen's,  a  third  St.  John's,  and  a  fourth  the 
Innocents'  day.  To  some  it  may  seem  strange,  that  Wesley, 
the  Methodist,  should  observe  such  festivals  as  these  ;  but,  in 
such  matters,  Wesley  was  still  the  Churchman.  Besides, 
throughout  life,  it  was  one  of  his  most  sacred  delights  to  think, 
not  only  of  the  living,  but  likewise  of  the  dead.  On  the  12th 
of  June,  in  this  very  year  of  1773,  he  wrote  a  letter,  an  extract 
from  which  is  worth  preserving. 

"  It  has,  in  all  ages,  been  allowed,  that  the  communion  of  saints  extends 
to  those  in  paradise,  as  well  as  those  on  earth,  as  they  are  all  one  body, 
united  under  one  Head  ;  and 

'  Can  death's  interposing  tide 
Spirits  one  in  Christ  divide  ? ' 


158  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1773  "  -^"^  ^'^  ^^  difficult  to  say,  either  what  kind,  or  what  degree  of  union,  may 

—       be  between  them.     It  is  not  improbable,  their  fellowship  with  us  is  far 
^  more  sensible  than  ours  with  them.     Suppose  any  of  them  are  present, 

they  are  hid  from  our  eyes,  but  we  are  not  hid  from  their  sight.  They,  no 
doubt,  clearly  discern  all  our  words  and  actions,  if  not  all  our  thoughts  too. 
For  it  is  hard  to  think  these  walls  of  flesh  and  blood  can  intercept  the 
view  of  an  angelic  being.  But  we  have,  in  general,  only  a  faint  and  indis- 
tinct perception  of  their  presence,  unless  in  some  peculiar  instances,  where 
it  may  answer  some  gracious  ends  of  Divine  Providence.  Then  it  may 
please  God  to  permit,  that  they  should  be  perceptible,  either  by  some  of 
our  outward  senses,  or  by  an  internal  sense,  for  which  human  language 
has  not  a  name.  But  I  suppose  this  is  not  a  common  blessing.  I  have 
known  but  few  instances  of  it.  To  keep  up  constant  and  close  communion 
with  God  is  the  most  likely  mean  to  obtain  this  also." ' 

Up  to  the  present,  nothing  has  been  said  concerning  the 
progress,  in  1773,  of  the  Calvinian  controversy.  Fletcher's  pen 
was  not  idle,  but  the  only  works  he  published  were:  first,  "An 
Appeal  to  Matter  of  Fact  and  Common  Sense;  or,  a  Rational 
Demonstration  of  Man's  Corrupt  and  Lost  Estate,"  i2mo,  296 
pages  ;  and,  secondly,  "  A  Dreadful  Phenomenon  Described 
and  Improved,  being  a  Particular  Account  of  the  Earthquake 
at  Madelcy,  on  May  27,  1773:"  l2mo,  104  pages.  Neither 
of  these,  however,  had  any  immediate  bearing  on  the  matters 
in  dispute. 

On  the  other  side,  good  old  Berridge,  of  Everton,  brought 
out  his  "Christian  World  Unmasked";  which,  if  full  of  faults, 
is,  at  all  events,  free  from  dulness  ;  a  book,  like  its  author, 
often  odd,  sometimes  coarse,  but  always  pious;  full  of  genius, 
and  full  of  goodness ;  seasoned  with  Calvinism's  highest 
flavour,  but  entirely  free  from  the  personal  scurrility  so  cha- 
racteristic of  others. 

Toplady  sent  nothing  to  the  press  ;  but  his  private  letters 
were  as  full  of  bitterness  as  ever.  "  I  am  told,"  he  writes, 
"  that  Mr.  Fletcher  has  it  in  contemplation  to  make  an  attack 
on  me.  He  is  welcome.  I  am  ready  for  him.  Tenderness 
has  no  effect  on  Mr.  Wesley  and  his  pretended /«;;«'//  of  love. 
For  my  own  part,  I  shall  never  attempt  to  hew  such  millstones 
with  a  feather.  They  must  be  served  as  nettles  ;  press  them 
close,  and  they  cannot  sting.  Cobbler  Tom  laments  publicly, 
from    his  preaching  tub  (misnamed    a  pulpit),   that  such  an 

'  Methodist  Magazitic,  1S05,  p.  520. 


Calviniaii  Controversy.  159 

antinomian  as  myself  should  have  such  crowded  auditories,  17  73 
while  the  preachers  of  the  pure  gospel  (by  which  he  means  Age  70 
free  zuill,  merit,  and  perfection)  are  so  thinly  attended.  The 
envy,  malice,  and  fury  of  Wesley's  party  are  inconceivable. 
But,  as  violently  as  they  hate  me,  I  dare  not,  I  cannot  hate 
t/tein  in  return.  I  have  not  so  learned  Christ.  Your  idea  of 
Mr.  John  Wesley  and  his  associates  exactly  tallies  with  mine. 
Abstracted  from  all  warmth,  and  from  all  prejudice,  I  believe 
him  to  be  the  most  rancorous  hater  of  the  gospel  system  that 
ever  appeared  in  England.  I  except  not  Pelagius  himself. 
The  latter  had  some  remains  of  modesty,  and  preserved  some 
appearances  of  decency ;  but  the  former  has  outlived  all 
pretentions  to  both."  ^ 

Could  this  impulsiv^e  reviler  be  actually  sincere,  when  he 
said  he  durst  not,  and  could  not,  hate  Wesley  and  his  party  .-* 

Toplady,  so  far  as  printing  was  concerned,  was  silent ;  but 
Richard  Hill  begun  the  year  as  vigorously  as  ever,  by  publish- 
ing his  "  Finishing  Stroke  ;  containing  some  Strictures  on  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Fletcher's  pamphlet,  entitled,  '  Logica  Genevensis, 
or  a  Fourth  Check  to  Antinomianism  :'  "  Svo,  57  pages.  This 
characteristic  piece  is  dated  January  2,  1773.  The  author 
confesses,  that  he  had  formed  a  resolution  to  be  silent  ;  but 
"  Logica  Genevensis "  was  too  provoking  to  be  passed  in 
silence.  This,  however,  was  to  be  the  real  "  finishing  stroke." 
Sir  Richard  Avrites :  "  the  unfair  quotations  you  have  made, 
and  the  shocking  misrepresentations  and  calumnies  you  have 
been  guilty  of,  will,  for  the  future,  prevent  me  from  looking 
into  any  of  your  books,  if  you  should  write  a  thousand 
volumes.  So  here  the  controversy  must  end  ;  at  least,  it  shall 
end  for  me." 

Poor  Sir  Richard  !  Such  was  his  resolve  ;  and  yet,  almost 
before  the  printer's  ink  was  dry,  his  godly  impetuosity  sent 
forth  another  octavo  pamphlet,  of  the  same  size  as  the  former 
one,  entitled  "Logica  Wesleicnsis;  or  the  Farrago  Double  Dis- 
tilled. With  an  heroic  Poem  in  Praise  of  Mr.  John  Wesley:" 
63  pages.  Hill,  as  usual,  is  angry  and  vindictive.  He  tells 
his  readers,  that  he  had  never  seen  Wesley  "  above  four  or  five 
times  in  his  life  ;  once  in  the   pulpit  at   West  Street  chapel ; 

^  Toplady's  Posthumous  Works,  1780,  pp.  343-346. 


i6o  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1773  once  at  a  friend's  house;  and  once  or  twice  at  his  own 
Age~7o  lodgings  in  Vine  Street."  He  writes:  "  I  find  it  just  as  easy  to 
catch  an  eel  by  the  tail,  as  to  lay  hold  of  Mr.  Wesley  for  one 
single  moment.  Oh,  what  quirks,  quibbles,  and  evasions  does 
this  gentleman  descend  to,  in  order  to  shift  off  his  own  incon- 
sistencies ! "  As  a  specimen  of  the  writer's  "  heroic  poem," 
we  give  the  following. 

"A  choice  Preservath'e  I  have, 
The  like  was  never  known ; 
With  potions,  juleps,  drops,  and  pukes, 
Peculiarly  my  own. 

Help  Cobbler  Tom,  and  thou  Swiss  friend, 

To  lay  John  Calvin's  ghost ; 
For  what  with  cynics,  bigots,  bears, 

I  fear  the  day  is  lost. 

We  three  shall  incantations  raise. 
With  tliuitderings,  lightnings,  hail; 

And  if  the  hobgoblin  won't  avaunt, 
I'll  bring  my  comet's  tail." 

Sir  Richard  was  not  content  with  this.  During  the  year, 
he  published  another  octavo  pamphlet,  of  30  pages,  with 
the  wordy  title,  "  Three  Letters  written  by  Richard  Hill, 
Esq.,  to  the  Rev.  J.  Fletcher,  vicar  of  Madeley,  setting  forth 
Mr.  Hill's  Reasons  for  declining  any  further  Controversy 
relative  to  Mr.  Wesley's  Principles." 

He  states,  that  he  has  heard  that  Fletcher  "  wishes  to  have 
done  with  controversy  ; "  and  upon  the  strength  of  this,  he 
has  written  to  his  London  bookseller  to  stop  the  sale  of  his 
own  publications.  He  begs  pardon  for  "  whatever  may  have 
savoured  too  much  of  his  own  spirit"  ;  and  says,  restraint 
should  be  put  upon  several  of  Wesley's  preachers,  "  particu- 
larly upon  one  Perronet,  of  whose  superlatively  abusive  and 
insolent  little  piece  Charles  Wesley  had  testified  his  abhor- 
rence from  the  pulpit."  He  wishes  Wesley  to  be  made 
acquainted  with  the  action  he  has  taken,  and  says  :  "  If  I  stop 
the  sale  of  my  books,  I  hope  that  of  the  Four  Checks  will  be 
stopped  also."  He  adds,  that  his  mother's  death  had  recently 
taken  place  ;  and  then,  at  the  end  of  his  pamphlet,  gives 
"  a  proposed  title  "  to  Fletcher's  works,  and  also  "  A  Creed 
for  Arminians  and  Perfectionists"  ;  the  latter  signed  by 
"J.  F.,  J.  W.,  and  W.  S."  ^ 


Calviniaii  Controversy.  i6i 


Such  is  the  substance  of  the  three  letters,  which,  in  the  1773 
first  instance,  were  sent  to  Fletcher  privately,  and  were  not  ^i^o 
intended  for  publication.  By  some  means,  however,  the  fact 
of  the  letters  having  been  written  became  bruited  abroad, 
and  certain  hasty  logicians  deduced  the  unauthorised  in- 
ference, that  Sir  Richard  had  recanted  his  Calvinian  doc- 
trines. This  was  too  bitter  a  pill  to  be  swallowed  ;  and, 
hence,  the  writer,  who  was  weary  of  the  war,  gave  his  private 
letters  to  the  public,  and  attached  to  them  a  preface  which 
had  better  not  been  penned. 

For  instance,  he  speaks  of  Thomas  Olivers  as  "a  journey- 
man cordwainer,  who  had  written  a  pamphlet  against  him, 
which,  though  in  itself  black  of  the  grain,  was  afterwards 
lacquered  2ip,  new  soled,  and  Jieel  tapped  by  his  master,  before 
it  was  exposed  to  sale."  He  adds:  "I  shall  not  take  the 
least  notice  of  him,  or  read  a  line  of  his  composition,  any 
more  than,  if  I  was  travelling,  I  would  stop  to  lash,  or  even 
order  my  footman  to  lash,  every  impertinent  little  quadruped 
in  a  village,  that  should  come  out  and  bark  at  me  ;  but  would 
willingly  let  the  contemptible  animal  have  the  satisfaction  of 
thinking  he  had  driven  me  out  of  sight." 

He  then  proceeds  to  accuse  Fletcher  of  "misrepresenting 
facts,"  and  of  using  "  artifices,  false  glosses,  pious  frauds, 
declamation,  chicanery,  and  evasion,  to  throw  dust  into  the 
eyes  of  his  readers ; "  and  concludes,  by  saying,  that  though 
he  cannot  read  any  more  of  the  productions  of  Fletcher's  pen, 
and,  therefore,  cannot  write  replies  to  them,  yet,  notwith- 
standing all  in  his  letters  to  the  contrary,  he  shall  still  keep 
on  sale  his  "Paris  Conversation";  his  "Five  Letters";  his 
"  Review  of  Wesley's  Doctrines"  ;  his  "  Logica  Weslciensis"  ; 
and  his  "  Finishing  Stroke." 

Such  was  the  position  of  Sir  Richard  Hill  in  1773.  He 
wished  for  peace.     Why  .-•     Because  he  was  vanquished. 

What  action  did  Wesley  take  }  On  the  ist  of  April  was 
published,  "  Some  Remarks  on  Mr.  Hill's  Farrago  Double 
Distilled.     By  John  Wesley."  ^     i2mo,  44  pages. 

Wesley's  "  Remarks  "  are  characterised  by  his  wonted  keen- 
ness, courtesy,  wit,  and  brevity.     In  conclusion,  he  writes  : 

"^  Lloyd's  Evening  Post,  April  2,  1773. 
VOL.  III.  M 


1 62  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1773  "I  beg  leave,  in  my  turn,  to  give  you  a  few  advices,     i.    Becalm.     Do 

Af^7o  "°^  venture  into  the  field  again  till  you  are  master  of  your  temper.  2.  Be 
good  natured.  Passion  is  not  commendable  ;  but  ill  nature  still  less. 
3.  Be  courteous.  Show  good  manners,  as  well  as  good  nature,  to  your 
opponent,  of  whatever  kind.  4.  Be  merciful.  When  you  have  gained 
an  advantage  over  your  opponent,  do  not  press  it  to  the  uttermost. 
Remember  the  honest  quaker's  advice  to  his  friend  a  few  years  ago  : 
'Art  thou  not  content  to  lay  John  Wesley  upon  his  back,  but  thou  wilt 
tread  Tiis  guts  out  ?'  5.  In  writing,  do  not  consider  yourself  as  a  man  of 
fortune,  or  take  any  liberty  with  others  on  that  account.  Men  of  sense 
simply  consider  what  is  written ;  not  whether  the  writer  be  a  lord  or  a 
cobbler.  6.  Lastly,  Remember,  'for  every  idle  word  men  shall  speak, 
they  shall  give  an  account  in  the  day  of  judgment.'  Remember,  'by  thy 
words  shalt  thou  be  justified;  or  by  thy  words  shalt  thou  be  condemned.'" 

Wesley's  other  publications,  in  1773,  were  nine  i2mo 
volumes  of  his  collected  works,  making  together  3439  pages. 
In  these  were  included  five  small  works,  now  first  published  : 
namely, — r.  "An  Extract  of  Two  Discourses  on  the  Confla- 
gration and  Renovation  of  the  World  :  written  by  James 
Knight,  D.D.,  late  Vicar  of  St.  Sepulchre,  London;"  in 
which,  by  the  way,  a  theory  is  propounded  antagonistic  to 
the  millenarian  theory,  which  Wesley  countenanced  some 
years  before.  2.  "  An  Extract  from  a  Treatise  concerning 
Religious  Affections:  by  the  late  Rev.  Jonathan  Edwards." 
3.  "A  Short  Account  of  John  Dillon."  4.  "Instructions 
for  Members  of  Religious  Societies."  5.  "  Christian  Reflec- 
tions. Translated  from  the  French."  These  "Reflections" 
are  three  hundred  and  thirty-six  in  number.  We  give  one 
as  a  specimen  of  the  rest.  "  The  three  greatest  punishments 
which  God  can  inflict  on  sinners,  in  this  world,  are:  i.  To 
let  loose  their  own  desires  upon  them.  2.  To  let  them 
succeed  in  all  they  wish  for.  And,  3.  To  suffer  them  to 
continue  many  years  in  the  quiet  enjoyment  thereof" 

Besides  the  above,  Wesley  also  published  "  A  Short 
Roman  History."     i2mo,  155  pages. 


1774- 

REFERENCES  have  been  made  to  the  state  of  Wesley's      '^21^ 
health.     His  labours  had  been  undiminished,  and  yet    A-e  71 
many  of  his  friends  had  been  anxious  and  alarmed.     John      . 
Pawson,  in  an  unpublished  letter,  dated  Bristol,   October  14, 
1773,    remarks:   "Mr.  Wesley  has   been  with   us   for   some 
time.'     He    seems    to    be    declining   very  fast;    and   I   think 
there   is   great  reason  to   fear  that  he  will   not  be  with  us 
long."     There  was   sufficient  cause  for  solicitude.     Wesley's 
pain,    during   the   last  three  years,    must   have  been  acute; 
and 'it  is  perfectly  marvellous  how  he   managed,  without  a 
murmur,    and   without   abatement,  to   do   the  whole  of  his 
accustomed  work.     At  the  beginning   of   1774,   the    matter 
reached  its  crisis.     He  writes  : 

« January  4— Three  or  four  years  ago,  a  stumbling  horse  threw  me 
forward  on  the  pommel  of  the  saddle.     I  felt  a  good  deal  of  pain ;  but  it 
soon  went  off,   and  I  thought  of  it  no  more.     Some  months  after    I 
observed  testiculum  allcrum  altera  duplo  viajorem  esse.     I  consulted  a 
physician ;  he  told  me  it  was  a  common  case,  and  did  not  imply  any 
disease  at  all.     In  ^lay  twelvemonth,  it  was  grown  near  as  large  as  a 
hen's  e^^.      Being   then  at  Edinburgh,    Dr.   Hamilton   insisted  on  my 
having  "the  advice  of  Drs.  Gregory  and  Munro.     They  immediately  saw 
it  was  a  hydrocele,  and  advised  me,  as  soon  as  I  came  to  London,  to  aim 
at  a  radical  cure,  which  they  judged  might  be  effected  in  about  sixteen 
days.     When  I  came  to  London,  I  consulted  Mr.  Wathen.     He  advised 
me— (i)  Not  to  think  of  a  radical  cure,  which  could  not  be  hoped  for, 
without  my  lying  in  one  posture  fifteen  or  sixteen  days;  and  he  did  not 
know  whether  this  might  not  give  a  wound  to  my  constitution,  which  I 
should  never  recover.     (2)  To  do  nothing  while  I  continued  easy.     And 
this  advice  I  was  determined  to  take.    Last  month,  the  swelling  was  often 
painful      So  on  this  day  Mr.  Wathen  performed  the  operation,  and  drew 
off  something  more  than  half  a  pint  of  a  thin,  yellow,  transparent  water 
With  this  came  out,  to  his  no  small  surprise,  a  pearl  of  the  size  of  a  small 
shot;  which  he  supposed  might  be  one  cause  of  the  disorder,  by  occasion- 
ing a  conflux  of  humours  to  the  part." 

Such  is  Wesley's  own  simple  statement.  The  disease  was 
unquestionably  a  serious  one;  and,  yet,  it  is  a  surprising  fact, 
that,  only  a  week  after  the  surgical  operation,  he  was  again 


164  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 


1774  in  harness,  and  as  actively  employed  as  ever.  Hence  the 
A^7i  following:  "Tuesday,  January  11 — I  began,  at  the  east  end 
of  the  town,  to  visit  the  society  from  house  to  house.  I 
know  no  branch  of  the  pastoral  office  which  is  of  greater 
importance  than  this.  But  it  is  so  grievous  to  flesh  and 
blood,  that  I  can  prevail  on  few,  even  of  our  preachers,  to 
undertake  it." 

Wesley's  zeal  for  the  extension  of  his  Saviour's  kingdom 
would  hardly  let  him  rest  when  rest  was  requisite.  His  long 
life  was  an  unbroken  scene  of  gigantic  action.  He  worked 
as  though  nothing  could  be  done  without  his  working  ;  and 
yet  no  man  more  practically  acknowledged,  that  all  his 
work,  without  God's  blessing,  would  amount  to  nothing. 
Hence,  not  only  his  own  ceaseless  prayers  for  the  help  and 
co-operation  of  his  great  Master,  but  also  his  appointment 
of  fast  days  to  be  observed  by  the  thousands  of  his  followers. 
Many  of  these  are  mentioned  in  his  journals,  but  many  were 
observed  without  being  mentioned.  One  of  these  occurred 
at  the  time  of  which  we  are  now  writing.  "  Yesterday," 
says  Samuel  Bardsley,  on  January  25,  1774,  "  yesterday  I 
got  a  letter  from  Mr.  Wesley,  informing  me  that  the  28th 
instant  is  to  be  observed  as  a  day  of  fasting  and  prayer  for 
the  prosperity  of  the  gospel."  ^  Numbers  of  such  days  were 
appointed.     No  wonder  Wesley  prospered. 

The  first  two  months  of  1774  were  chiefly  spent  in 
London ;  and,  on  March  6,  Wesley  set  out  on  his  northern 
visitation,  which,  as  usual,  occupied  his  time  till  the  con- 
ference was  held  in  August.  This  journey  has  been  so  often 
traversed,  that  we  shall  no  longer  follow  Wesley  step  by  step ; 
but  merely  advert  to  its  chief  incidents. 

At  Wolverhampton  he  was  met  by  his  friend  Fletcher,  of 
Madeley,  and  says :  "  March  22 — At  five  in  the  morning  I 
explained  that  important  truth,  that  God  trieth  us  every 
moment,  weighs  all  our  thoughts,  words,  and  actions,  and  is 
pleased  or  displeased  with  us,  according  to  our  works.  I  see 
more  and  more  clearly,  that  there  is  a  great  gulf  fixed 
between  us  and  all  those,  who,  by  denying  this,  sap  the 
very  foundation  both  of  inward  and  outward  holiness." 

^  Manuscript  letter. 


Rev.  David  Simpson.  165 

When  he  had  travelled  as  far  as  Congleton,  he  received  1774 
intelligence  which  compelled  him  to  retrace  his  steps,  and  go  A'^71 
back  to  Bristol.  The  entry  in  the  journal  of  this  old  man  of 
more  than  seventy  is  a  curiosity.  "Wednesday,  March  30 — 
I  went  on  to  Congleton,  where  I  received  letters,  informing  me 
that  my  presence  was  necessary  at  Bristol.  So,  about  one,  I 
took  chaise,  and  reached  Bristol  about  half  an  hour  after  one 
the  next  day.  Having  done  my  business  in  about  two  hours, 
on  Friday  in  the  afternoon  I  reached  Congleton  again,  about 
a  hundred  and  forty' miles  from  Bristol,  no  more  tired  (blessed 
be  God  !)  than  when  I  left  it."  This  is  marvellous.  Here  we 
have  a  septuagenarian,  in  feeble  health,  travelling,  not  by 
railway,  nor  yet  by  coach,  but  in  his  own  private  chaise,  in  a 
wintry  month,  and  on  roads  not  macadamised,  a  distance  of 
two  hundred  and  eighty  miles  in  about  eight-and-forty  hours, 
and  then  quietly  sitting  down  and,  without  bombast,  but  with 
profound  gratitude,  recording  the  fact  in  the  language  above 
given.    Can  biography  furnish  a  parallel  to,  this  .''    We  doubt  it. 

On  Easter  day,  April  3,  Wesley  writes  :  "  I  went  on  to 
Macclesfield,  and  came  just  in  time  (so  is  the  scene  changed 
here)  to  walk  to  the  old  church,  with  the  mayor  and  the  two 
ministers." 

Here  w^e  pause,  to  notice  a  man,  who  aftervvards,  not  only 
distinguished  himself  by  his  pen  and  ministerial  labours,  but 
became  one  of  Wesley's  sincerest  and  warmest  friends. 

One  of  the  "  two  ministers,"  referred  to  in  this  extract,  was 
David  Simpson,  now  a  young  man  of  twenty-eight.  Born  at 
Ingleby  Arnclifife,  in  Yorkshire,  and  educated  at  Northallerton, 
and  at  Scorton,  he,  in  1766,  entered  St.  John's  college,  Cam- 
bridge, where  he  became  acquainted  with  Rowland  Hill,  and 
a  select  society  of  devout  collegians,  and  was  converted.  On 
leaving  college,  he  was  ordained,  and  accepted  the  curacy  of 
Ramsden  in  Essex.  He  then  removed  to  Buckingham,  where, 
by  his  extempore  preaching  of  justification  by  faith,  and  the 
nature  and  necessity  of  the  new  birth,  he  provoked  alike  the 
hostility  of  the  surrounding  clergy  and  the  sneers  of  uncon- 
verted laics.  About  the  year  1772,  he  accepted  the  invitation 
of  Charles  Roe,  Esq.,  to  his  residence  at  Macclesfield,  and 
soon  became  curate  of  what  Wesley  calls  "  the  old  church," 
but  which,  at  that  period,  was  the  only  church  that  Maccles- 


1 66  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1774  field  possessed.  Here  he  married  Miss  Waldy,  of  Yarm,  a 
Age~7i  young  lady  of  distinguished  excellence  and  piety,  who  died 
within  six  months  after  Wesley's  visit,  leaving  to  her  young 
husband  the  care  of  an  infant  daughter.  Mr.  Simpson's 
faithful  ministry  was  as  much  disliked  at  Macclesfield  as  it 
had  been  at  Buckingham.  Complaints  of  his  Methodism 
were  made  to  his  diocesan,  and  twice  he  was  suspended  for 
preaching  doctrines,  to  which,  as  a  clergyman  of  the  Church 
of  England,  he  had  solemnly  subscribed.  Expelled  from  the 
pulpit  of  the  church,  he  began  to  preach  in  the  adjacent  towns 
and  villages.  Just  at  this  juncture,  the  prime  curacy  of  the 
church  became  vacant,  and,  the  nomination  being  an  appendage 
to  the  office  of  the  mayor  for  the  time  being,  Mr.  Gould  made 
him  the  offer,  and  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing  it  accepted.  To 
prevent  Simpson's  induction,  a  petition,  with  seventeen  articles 
of^ccusation,  was  transmitted  to  the  bishop  of  Chester,  all  of 
which  might  be  reduced  to  one,  namely,  that  he  was  a  Method- 
ist. In  reply,  he  says,  in  a  letter  to  his  lordship  :  "  This  is 
true.  ]\Iy  method  is  to  preach  the  great  truths  of  the  gospel, 
in  as  plain,  and  earnest,  and  affectionate  a  manner  as  I  am 
able.  Some,  hereby,  have  become  seriously  concerned  about 
their  salvation.  The  change  is  soon  discovered ;  they  meet 
with  one  or  another,  who  invite  them  to  attend  the  meetings  of 
the  Methodists,  by  which  their  number"  (the  Methodists)  "is 
increased  to  a  considerable  degree.  This  is  the  truth.  I  own 
the  fact.  I  confess  myself  unequal  to  the  difficulty.  What 
would  your  lordship  advise  .''  "  Such  was  the  conflict.  Before 
it  came  to  an  issue,  Mr.  Roe,  at  his  own  expense,  erected  a 
church,  of  which  Mr.  Simpson  became  incumbent  in  I775» 
relinquishing,  at  the  same  time,  the  curacy  which  had  been  a 
bone  of  contention.  Here  he  continued  to  exercise  his  suc- 
cessful ministry  until  1799,  when  he  peacefully  expired. 

Among  many  others,  who  were  benefited  by  Simpson's 
preaching,  was  a  young  female,  eighteen  years  of  age,  who, 
on  the  very  day  of  Wesley's  visit,  above  recorded,  found  peace 
with  God,  at  Simpson's  sacramental  service,  and  afterwards 
became  the  Hester  Ann  Rogers,  whose  journals  and  letters 
have  been  read  by  myriads. 

On  leaving  Macclesfield,  Wesley  proceeded  to  Manchester 
and  other  places.     At  Bury,  Methodism  had  been  cradled  in 


Wesley  in  Scotland.  167 

a  storm.  On  some  occasions,  the  people  were  besmeared  with  ^774 
the  most  offensive  filth  ;  and  on  others  were  disturbed  in  their  Age  71 
devotions  by  a  huntsman  blowing  the  hunter's  horn.  Again  and 
again  the  vicar  frustrated  their  attempts  to  erect  a  chapel  ; 
but,  at  length,  land  at  Pitts  o'  th'  Moor  was  bought ;  the  poor 
Methodists  dug  the  clay  and  burnt  the  bricks  ;  some  worked 
by  day,  and  others  watched  by  night;  and  now,  in  1774,  the 
building  was  completed,  and,  on  the  15  th  of  April,  Wesley 
preached  in  it. 

Leaving  Lancashire  for  Yorkshire,  Wesley  had,  for  him, 
the  unusual  honour  of  preaching  on  April  17  and  18,  in  three 
different  churches,  at  Halifax,  Huddersfield,  and  Heptonstall ; 
and,  on  the  Sunday  following,  he  occupied  the  same  position 
in  the  church  at  Haworth.  A  few  days  later,  we  find  him  in 
Scotland,  preaching  "  to  a  people,  the  greatest  part  of  whom," 
says  he,  "  hear  much,  know  everything,  and  feel  nothing." 
Here,  he  tells  us,  he  heard  sermons,  which  unfortunately  are 
too  common  at  the  present  day, — sermons  full  of  truth,  "but  no 
more  likely  to  awaken  souls  than  an  Italian  opera;"  and,  hence, 
he  himself  began  to  thunder  about  death,  and  judgment,  and 
eternity.  At  Glasgow,  Methodist  matters  were  not  at  all  to 
his  satisfaction.  "  How  is  it,"  he  asks,  "that  there  is  no  in- 
crease in  the  society  here  .-*  It  is  exceeding  easy  to  answer. 
One  preacher  stays  here  two  or  three  months  at  a  time, 
preaching  on  Sunday  mornings,  and  three  or  four  evenings  in 
a  week.  Can  a  Methodist  preacher  preserve  either  bodily 
health,  or  spiritual  life,  with  this  exercise  .'*  And  if  he  is  but 
half  alive,  what  will  the  people  be  .''  " 

At  Greenock,  he  found  the  same  fault ;  and,  at  Edinburgh, 
wTites:  "Here,  likewise,  the  morning  preaching  had  been 
given  up  ;  consequently  the  people  were  few,  dead,  and  cold. 
Things  must  be  remedied,  or  we  must  quit  the  ground." 

Wesley  attended  a  Scotch  funeral,  with  which  he  was  dis- 
gusted. "  O  what  a  difference,"  says  he,  "  is  there  between 
the  English  and  Scotch  method  of  burial !  The  English  does 
honour  to  human  nature  ;  and  even  to  the  poor  remains,  that 
were  once  the  temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost !  But  when  I  see  in 
Scotland  a  coffin  put  into  the  earth,  and  covered  up  without 
a  word,  it  reminds  me  of  what  was  spoken  of  Jchoiakimj  '  He 
shall  be  buried  with  the  burial  of  an  ass  ! '  " 


i68  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1774         At  Perth,  he  says,  the  generahty  of  the  people  were  so  wise, 

Age  71    that  they  needed  no  more  knowledge,  and  so  good,  that  they 

needed  no  more  religion  ;    and,   hence,  he  gave  them  three 

thundering  sermons,    two  of  them   on  hell  and  the    day   of 

judgment. 

Wesley's  great  difficulty  in  Scotland  was  the  objection  to 
itinerancy.  "  I  have  written,"  says  he,  in  a  letter  dated  Octo- 
ber 16,  1774,  "to  Dr.  Hamilton,  that  Edinburgh  and  Dunbar 
must  be  supplied  by  one  preacher.  While  I  live,  itinerant 
preachers  shall  be  itinerants  :  I  mean,  if  they  choose  to  remain 
in  connection  with  me.  The  society  at  Greenock  are  entirely 
at  their  own  disposal :  they  may  either  have  a  preacher  be- 
tween them  and  Glasgow,  or  none  at  all.  But  more  than  one 
between  them  they  cannot  have.  I  have  too  much  regard 
both  for  the  bodies  and  souls  of  our  preachers,  to  let  them 
be  confined  to  one  place  any  more.  I  have  weighed  the 
matter,  and  will  serve  the  Scots  as  we  do  the  English,  or  leave 
them."  ^ 

The  above  was  addressed  to  Joseph  Benson,  at  this  time 
stationed  in  Scotland,  and  who  has  left  a  memento  of  Wesley's 
visit  which  is  worth  quoting.  "  I  was,"  says  he,  "  constantly 
with  him  for  a  week.  I  had  an  opportunity  of  examining  nar- 
rowly his  spirit  and  conduct ;  and,  I  assure  you,  I  am  more 
than  ever  persuaded,  he  is  a  none  sucli.  I  know  not  his  fellow, 
first,  for  abilities,  natural  and  acquired  ;  and,  secondly,  for 
his  incomparable  diligence  in  the  application  of  those  abilities 
to  the  best  of  employments.  His  lively  fancy,  tenacious 
memory,  clear  understanding,  ready  elocution,  manly  courage, 
indefatigable  industry,  really  amaze  me.  I  admire,  but  wish 
in  vain  to  imitate,  his  diligent  improvement  of  every  moment 
of  time ;  his  wonderful  exactness  even  in  little  things ;  the 
order  and  regularity  wherewith  he  does  and  treats  everything 
he  takes  in  hand  ;  together  with  his  quick  dispatch  of  busi- 
ness, and  calm,  cheerful  serenity  of  soul.  I  ought  not  to  omit 
to  mention,  what  is  very  manifest  to  all  who  know  him,  his 
resolution,  which  no  shocks  of  opposition  can  shake ;  his 
patience,  which  no  length  of  trials  can  weary ;  his  zeal  for  the 
glory  of  God  and  the  good  of  man,  which  no  waters  of  per- 

^  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xii.,  p.  395. 


A  Marvel  ions  Escape.  169 

sedition  or  tribulation  have  yet  been  able  to  quench.     Happy      1774 
man!     Long  hast  thou  borne  the  burden  and  heat  of  the  day,     Age~7i 
amidst  the  insults  of  foes,  and  the  base  treachery  of  seeming 
friends  ;  but  thou  shalt  rest  from  thy  labours,  and  thy  works 
shall  follow  thee  !  "  1 

On  the  loth  of  June,  Wesley  reached  Newcastle,  and,  on 
the  day  after,  set  out  for  Wolsingham  and  the  dales.  Return- 
ing to  Newcastle,  he  and  his  wife's  daughter,  and  two  grand- 
children, had  a  marvellous  escape  from  danger  and  death,  in 
which  Wesley  believed  that  angels,  both  good  and  bad,  took 
part.  The  narrative  cannot  be  given  in  fewer  or  better  words 
than  in  his  own.  We  merely  premise,  that  Horsley  is  a 
village  a  few  miles  west  of  Newcastle ;  and  that  Mr,  Smith 
had  married  Mrs.  Wesley's  daughter.     Wesley  writes : 

"  Monday,  June  20 — About  nine,  I  set  out  for  Horsley,  with  Mr. 
Hopper  and  Mr.  Smith.  I  took  Mrs.  Smith,  and  her  two  httle  girls,  in 
the  chaise  with  me.  About  two  miles  from  the  town,  just  on  the  brow  of 
the  hill,  on  a  sudden  both  the  horses  set  out,  without  any  visible  cause, 
and  flew  down  the  hill,  like  an  arrow.  In  a  minute,  John  fell  off  the 
coach  box.  The  horses  then  went  on  full  speed,  sometimes  to  the  edge 
of  the  ditch  on  the  right,  sometimes  on  the  left.  A  cart  came  up  against 
them ;  they  avoided  it  as  exactly  as  if  the  man  had  been  on  the  box.  A 
narrow  bridge  was  at  the  foot  of  the  hill.  They  went  directly  over  the 
middle  of  it.  They  ran  up  the  next  hill  with  the  same  speed ;  many 
persons  meeting  us,  but  getting  out  of  the  way.  Near  the  top  of  the  hill 
was  a  gate,  which  led  into  a  farmer's  yard.  It  stood  open.  They  turned 
short,  and  run  through  it,  without  touching  the  gate  on  one  side,  or  the 
post  on  the  other.  I  thought,  '  The  gate  which  is  on  the  other  side  of  the 
yard,  and  is  shut,  will  stop  them';  but  they  rushed  through  it,  as  if  it  had 
been  a  cobweb,  and  galloped  on  through  the  cornfield.  The  little  girls 
cried  out,  '  Grandpapa,  save  us  !'  I  told  them,  '  Nothing  will  hurt  you : 
do  not  be  afraid';  feeling  no  more  fear  or  care  than  if  I  had  been  sitting 
in  my  study.  The  horses  ran  on,  till  they  came  to  the  edge  of  a  steep 
precipice.  Just  then  Mr.  Smith,  who  could  not  overtake  us  before, 
galloped  in  between.  They  stopped  in  a  moment.  Had  they  gone  on 
ever  so  little,  he  and  we  must  have  gone  down  together!" 

This  was  one  of  the  narrowest  escapes  from  death  that 
Wesley  ever  had ;  and  his  remarks  upon  it  are  worth  adding. 

"  I  am  persuaded,  that  both  evil  and  good  angels  had  a  large  share  in 
this  transaction:  how  large  we  do  not  know  now;  but  we  shall  know 

^  Methodist  Magazine,  1825,  p.  386. 


Age  71 


I  70  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1774  hereafter.  I  think  some  of  the  most  remarkable  circLimstances  were: 
(i)  Both  the  horses,  which  were  tame  and  quiet  as  could  be,  starting  out 
in  a  moment,  just  at  the  top  of  the  hill,  and  running  down  full  speed. 
(2)  The  coachman's  being  thrown  on  his  head  with  such  violence, 
and  yet  not  hurt  at  all.  (3)  The  chaise  running  again  and  again  to  the 
edge  of  each  ditch,  and  yet  not  into  it.  (4)  The  avoiding  the  cart.  (5)  The 
keeping  just  the  middle  of  the  bridge.  (6)  The  turning  short  through  the 
first  gate,  in  a  manner  that  no  coachman  in  England  could  have  turned 
them,  when  in  full  gallop.  (7)  The  going  through  the  second  gate  as  if  it 
had  been  but  smoke,  without  slackening  their  pace  at  all.  This  would 
have  been  impossible,  had  not  the  end  of  the  chariot  pole  struck  exactly 
on  the  centre  of  the  gate ;  whence  the  whole,  by  the  sudden  impetuous 
shock,  was  broke  into  small  pieces.  Lastly,  that  Mr.  Smith  struck  in 
just  then :  in  a  minute  more  we  had  been  down  the  precipice.  '  Let  those 
give  thanks  whom  the  Lord  hath  redeemed,  and  delivered  from  the  hand 
of  the  enemy  !'" 

Newcastle  was  one  of  Wesley's  favourite  haunts.  However 
cruelly  his  wife  treated  him,  her  daughter  and  her  son  in  law, 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Smith,  always  seem  to  have  shown  him  kind- 
ness ;  and,  hence,  he  always  appeared  to  quit  Newcastle  with 
reluctance.  He  writes:  "June  27 — I  took  my  leave  of  this 
lovely  place  and  people."  The  next  day  was  his  birthday, 
which  he  celebrated  as  follows :  "  This  being  the  first  day 
of  my  seventy-second  year,  I  was  considering,  How  is  this, 
that  I  find  just  the  same  strength  as  I  did  thirty  years  ago  .-* 
that  my  sight  is  considerably  better  now,  and  my  nerves 
firmer,  than  they  were  then  .''  that  I  have  none  of  the  in- 
firmities of  old  age,  and  have  lost  several  I  had  in  my 
youth }  The  grand  cause  is,  the  good  pleasure  of  God, 
who  doeth  whatsoever  pleaseth  Him.  The  chief  means  are  : 
(i)  My  constantly  rising  at  four,  for  about  fifty  years.  (2)  My 
generally  preaching  at  five  in  the  morning;  one  of  the  most 
healthy  exercises  in  the  world.  (3)  My  never  travelling 
less,  by  sea  or  land,  than  four  thousand  five  hundred  miles 
a  year." 

Some  will  smile  at  this ;  but  those  who  think,  will  hardly 
doubt,  that  the  three  things  mentioned,  so  far  from  injuring 
health  and  shortening  life,  were  among  the  likeliest  of  all 
likely  things  to  be  the  means  of  preserving  the  one,  and  ex- 
tending the  other. 

It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  follow  Wesley,  in  his  wanderings 
through   Durham,   through   the  three   ridings  of  the  county 


Ghosts  and  Witches.  171 

of  York,   and  through  Lincolnshire;    and   then   right   away     1774 
^  through  Madeley,  Worcester,    and    Cheltenham,    to    Bristol,    Age  7: 
where  he  arrived   on  August    6.       The    reader    can    easily 
find  all  this  in  his  journal ;  we  here  prefer  to  give  a  few 
extracts  from  his  letters. 

Reference  has  just  been  itiade  to  Wesley's  vigour.  We 
incline  to  think  that,  on  his  birthday,  in  the  bright  month 
of  June,  he  was  sometimes  more  jubilant  than  facts  war- 
ranted. At  all  events,  the  following  extract  from  a  letter  to 
his  brother,  written  within  two  months  before  his  birthday 
came,  is  scarcely  in  harmony  with  what  was  written  then. 

"Whitehaven,  May  6,  1774. 

"  Dear  Brother, — Duty  is  all  I  consider.  Trouble  and  reproach 
I  value  not.  And  I  am  by  no  means  clear,  that  I  can,  with  a  good 
conscience,  throw  away  what  I  think  the  providence  of  God  has  put  into 
my  hands.  Were  it  not  for  the  chancery  suit,  I  should  not  hesitate  a 
moment. 

"My  complaint  increases  by  slow  degrees,  much  the  same  as  before. 
It  seems,  I  am  likely  to  need  a  surgeon  every  nine  or  ten  weeks.  Mr. 
Hey,  of  Leeds,  vehemently  advises  me,  never  to  attempt  what  they  call  a 
radical  cure. 

"  I  never  said  a  word  of  '  publishing  it  after  my  death.'  *  I  judged  it 
my  duty  to  pubhsh  it  now;  and  I  have  as  good  a  right  to  believe  one 
way  as  any  man  has  to  believe  another.  I  was  glad  of  an  opportunity 
of  declaring  m)'self  on  the  head.  I  beg  Hugh  Bold  to  let  me  think  as 
well  as  himself;  and  to  believe  my  judgment  will  go  as  far  as  his.  I 
have  no  doubt  of  the  substance,  both  of  Glanvil's  and  Cotton  Mather's 
narratives.^  Therefore,  in  this  point,  you  that  are  otherwise  minded, 
bear  with  me.  Veniam  petiimisque  daimisqiie  vicissim.  Remember,  I 
am,  upon  full  consideration,  and  seventy  years'  experience,  just  as 
obstinate  in  my  opinion  as  you  in  yours.  Do  not  you  think,  the  dis- 
turbances in  my  father's  house  were  a  Cock  Lane  story  ?  Peace  be  with 
you  and  yours!  "John  Wesley." ^ 

Such  was  Wesley's  reply  to  his  brother's  remonstrance 
against  the  publication  of  his  opinions  on  witchcraft  and 
apparitions.     The  next  letter,  addressed  to  a  lady  in  Ireland, 

*  The  following  probably  refers  to  the  ghost  stories,  in  Wesley's 
Journal,  under  date  May  25,  1768.  The  fifteenth  number  of  his  journal, 
containing  these  accounts,  was  published  in  this  same  year,  1774. 

2  Glanvil,  the  author  of  "  Some  Considerations  touching  the  being 
of  Witches  and  Witchcraft";  and  Mather,  the  author  of  "The  Wonders 
of  the  Invisible  World,  or  the  Trials  of  Witches." 

^  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xii.,  p.  131. 


172  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1774     refers   to   two    important    matters, —  the    Calvinian    contro- 
Ai;e  71    versy,   and  Wesley's   method  of  dealing  with   contumacious 
Methodists. 

"  Leeds,  May  2,  1774. 

"  My  dear  Sister, — Until  Mr.  Hill  and  his  associates  puzzled  the 
cause,  it  was  as  plain  as  plain  could  be.  The  Methodists  always  held,  and 
have  declared  a  thousand  times,  the  death  of  Christ  is  the  meritorious 
cause  of  our  salvation ;  that  is,  of  pardon,  holiness,  and  glory :  loving, 
obedient  faith  is  the  condition  of  glory.  This  Mr.  Fletcher  has  so 
illustrated  and  confirmed,  as,  I  think,  scarcely  any  one  has  done  before 
since  the  apostles. 

"When  Mr.  W.  wrote  me  a  vehement  letter  concerning  the  abuse 
he  had  received  from  the  young  men  in  Limerick,  and  his  determination 
to  put  them  all  out  of  society,  if  they  did  not  acknowledge  their  fault, 
I  much  wondered  what  could  be  the  matter,  and  only  wrote  him  word, 
'  I  never  put  any  out  of  our  society  for  anything  they  say  of  me.' 

"  Your  ever  affectionate 

"John  Wesley."' 

The  ensuhig  letters  have  relation  to  a  book,  an  abridg- 
ment of  which  Wesley  afterwards  published,  and  concerning 
which  some  of  his  admirers  have  felt  puzzled,  and  others 
pained.  This  is  not  the  place  for  a  disquisition  on  novels  and 
novel  reading;  but  it  is  a  curious  fact,  that  W^esley,  the 
earnest  and  untiring  evangelist,  found  time,  not  only  to  read 
a  novel,  but  to  print  it, 

Henry  Brooke,  Esq.,  an  Irish  barrister,  was  the  son  of 
an  Irish  rector;  and,  besides  a  number  of  plays  and  poems, 
in  four  volumes,  8vo,  was  the  author  of  two  novels,  "The 
Fool  of  Quality,"  and  "Juliet  Grenville."^  His  nephew, 
Henry,  was  a  devoted  Methodist,  a  friend  of  Fletcher,  and 
one  of  Wesley's  correspondents.  "  The  Fool  of  Quality"  was 
first  published,  in  five  vols.,  in  1766,  and  was  thus  criticised 
in  the  AlontJily  Review  of  that  period.     "  A  performance  en- 


^  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xii.,  p.  373. 

^  Mr.  Brooke  was  three  years  the  junior  of  Wesley,  and,  about  the  time 
when  Methodism  had  its  birth,  was  the  honoured  friend  of  many  of  the 
most  distinguished  personages  in  London  society.  Swift  prophesied  won- 
ders of  him ;  Pope  received  him  with  open  arms ;  Pitt  paid  him  marked 
attention ;  and  the  Prince  of  Wales  presented  him  with  valuable  tokens 
of  his  friendship.  The  publication  however  of  his  tragedy,  "  Gustavus 
Vasa,"  offended  the  government,  and  he  retired  to  Ireland,  and  devoted 
his  fine  genius  wholly  to  the  muses.  He  was  a  man  of  rare  ability,  and 
an  earnest  Christian. 


"  The  Fool  of  Quality:'  i  n 

riched  by  t^enius,  enlivened  by  fancy,  bewildered  with  enthu-  i774 
siasm,  and  overrun  with  the  visionary  jargon  of  fanaticism.  Age  71 
We  wish  the  author  would  give  us  an  abridgment,  cleared 
from  the  sanctimonious  rubbish  by  which  its  beauties  are  so 
much  obscured.  In  its  present  state,  it  will  be  a  favourite  only 
with  Behmenites,  Herrnhutters,  Methodists,  Hutchinsonians, 
and  some  of  the  Roman  Catholics." 

This  was   the   book   which    Wesley  read,  and  concerning 
which  he  wrote  to  Plenry  Brooke,  the  author's  nephew. 

"Hull,  July  8,  1774. 
"Dear  Harry, — When  I  read  over,  in  Ireland,  'The  Fool  of  Quality,' 
I  could  not  but  observe  the  design  of  it,  to  promote  the  religion  of  the 
heart,  and  that  it  was  well  calculated  to  answer  that  design ;  the  same 
thing  I  observed,  a  week  or  two  ago,  concerning  'Juliet  Grenville.'  Yet, 
there  seemed  to  me  to  be  a  few  passages,  both  in  the  one  and  the  other, 
which  might  be  altered  for  the  better;  I  do  not  mean,  so  much  with 
regard  to  the  sentiments,  which  are  generally  very  just,  as  with  regard  to 
the  structure  of  the  story,  which  seemed  here  and  there  to  be  not  quite 
clear.  I  had,  at  first,  a  thought  of  writing  to  Mr.  Brooke  himself,  but  I 
did  not  know  whether  I  might  take  the  liberty.  Few  authors  will  thank 
you,  for  imagining  you  are  able  to  correct  their  works.  But,  if  he  could 
bear  it,  and  thinks  it  would  be  of  any  use,  I  would  give  another  reading 
to  both  these  works,  and  send  him  my  thoughts  without  reserve,  just  as 
they  occur.     I  am,  etc., 

"John  Wesley." » 

The  answer  to  this  was  as  follows. 

"  Dublin,  August  6,  1774. 

"Reverend  Sir,— My  uncle's  health  is  greatly  impaired.-  A  kind  of 
vertigo  continues  not  only  to  enfeeble  his  limbs',  but  to  interrupt  his  study 
and  writing.  However,  I  trust,  as  his  outward  man  decays,  his  inward 
man  is  renewed  daily. 

"  He  is  deeply  sensible  of  your  very  kind  offer,  and  most  cordially  em- 
braces it.  He  has  desired  me  to  express  the  warmth  of  his  gratitude  in 
the  strongest  terms,  and  says  he  most  cheerfully  yields  the  volumes  you 
mention,  to  your  superior  judgment,  to  prune,  erase,  and  alter  as  you 
please.  He  only  wishes,  they  could  have  had  your  eye  before  they 
appeared  in  public.  But  it  is  not  yet  too  late.  A  second  edition  will 
appear  with  great  advantage,  when  they  have  undergone  so  kind  a  revisal. 
But  he  is  apprehensive,  your  time  is  so  precious,  that  it  may  be  too  great 
an  intrusion  upon  it,  unless  made  a  work  of  leisure  and  opportunity. 


^  Life  of  Mr.  Henry  Brooke,  p.  90. 

2  He  died  in  1783,  three  years  after  Wesley  published  his  revised  and 
abridged  edition  in  two  vols.,  i2mo. 


I  74  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1774      Yet,  as  you  have  proffered  it,  he  will  not  give  up  the  privilege;  but  hopes 
A<Te^r      leisure  may  be  found  for  so  friendly  and  generous  a  work. 

"I  am,  reverend  sir,  your  most  affectionate  friend  and  brother, 

"H.  Brooke."' 

Perhaps  there  have  been  published  as  many  portraits  of 
Wesley  as  of  any  man  that  ever  lived.  The  year  1774  was, 
in  this  respect,  remarkable.  At  its  commencement,  Wesley 
writes  :  "  I  was  desired  by  Mrs.  Wright,  of  New  York,  to  let 
her  take  my  t.^%y  in  waxwork.  She  has  that  of  Mr.  White- 
field  and  many  others  ;  but  none  of  them,  I  think,  comes  up 
to  a  well  drawn  picture."  Query,  what  has  become  of  this 
waxwork  efhgy  t  Besides  the  waxwork  figure,  there  were 
others.  From  the  manuscript  letters  of  Samuel  Bardsley,  we 
learn  that,  already,  the  potters  of  Staffordshire  had  printed 
his  likeness  on  their  crockery ;  and  Mr.  Voyes  of  Corbridge 
had  had  it  engraved  on  the  seals  he  sold. 

These  are  little  facts;  but  they  indicate  Wesley's  growing 
popularity.  The  people  ask  for  the  portraits  of  public  men 
only.  A  man  must  be  notorious  before  the  masses  wish  to 
see  him.  Thus  it  was  in  the  case  of  Wesley.  For  five-and- 
thirty  years,  he  had  been  before  the  public.  No  man  had 
been  more  bitterly  persecuted  by  his  enemies;  and  no  man 
was  more  ardently  beloved  by  his  friends.  His  fame  had 
spread  throughout  the  three  kingdoms;  and  all  sorts  of 
artists  began  to  use  him  for  their  own  advantage. 

Wesley  was  not  fond  of  sitting  for  his  portrait,  though  this 
was  often  done.  On  one  occasion,  while  dining  with  a  friend, 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  Blackfriars,  an  eminent  artist  offered 
him  ten  guineas  as  a  bribe,  to  induce  him  to  allow  a  cast  of 
his  face  to  be  taken.  "  No,"  said  Wesley,  "  keep  your  money, 
and  urge  me  no  further."  "Sir,"  said  the  artist,  "  I  will  not 
detain  you  more  than  three  minutes."  Wesley  consented ;  the 
cast  was  taken;  and  so  also  was  the  money:  but  no  sooner 
was  Wesley  out  of  doors,  than  he  saw  an  agitated  crowd,  sur- 
rounding an  auctioneer,  who  was  about  to  sell,  not  only  the 
furniture  of  a  poor  debtor,  but  the  bed  upon  which  he  was 
actually  dying.  In  an  instant,  Wesley  rushed  into  the  throng, 
seized  the  arm  of    the  auctioneer,  and  cried,  "  What  's  the 

^  Methodist  Magazine,  1787,  p.  160. 


AletJwdisni  in  America.  175 

debt?"     "Ten  guineas,"  was  the  answer.       "Take  it,"  said      i774 
Wesley,   "and  let  the  poor  man    have  his  furniture  again;"     Age  71 
and,  then  turning  to  John  Broadbent,  who  was  with  him,  he 
quietly  observed,   "Brother  Broadbent,  I  see  why   God  sent 
me  these  ten  guineas."  ^ 

Methodism  in  America  has  been  mentioned.  The  work 
there  was  now  greatly  growing.  Twelve  months  before, 
Wesley  had  sent  out  one  of  his  favourite  preachers,  Thomas 
Rankin,  to  act  as  a  sort  of  generalissimo.  Perhaps  a  wiser 
selection  might  have  been  made.  At  all  events,  Rankin's 
honest  hearted  brusqueness  sometimes  gave  offence.  Board- 
man  and  Pilmoor,  and  Asbury,  were  all  predecessors  in  point 
of  time;  but  they  and  four  other  itinerants  had  now  to  recog- 
nise Rankin  as  their  chief  In  age  and  ministerial  standing, 
they  were  nearly  equal ;  but  Rankin,  by  Wesley's  favour,  had 
the  preeminence.  Asbury  winced,  but  was  too  good  a  man 
to  raise  rebellion.  He  Avrites:  "1774,  May  25 — Our  conference 
began  at  Philadelphia.  The  overbearing  spirit  of  a  certain 
person  had  excited  my  fears.  My  judgment  was  stubbornly 
opposed  for  a  while,  and,  at  last,  submitted  to.  But  it  is  my 
duty  to  bear  all  things  with  a  meek  and  patient  spirit.  Our 
conference  was  attended  with  great  power,  and  all  acquiesced 
in  the  future  stations  of  the  preachers.  If  I  were  not  deeply 
conscious  of  the  truth  and  goodness  of  the  cause  in  which  I 
am  engaged,  I  should,  by  no  means,  stay  here.  Lord,  what  a 
world  is  this  !  yea,  what  a  religious  world  !"  ^ 

Within  two  years,  the  entire  band  were  scattered  by  the 
colonial  rebellion,  and  apostolic  Asbury  was  the  only  one 
remaining.  Meanwhile,  Rankin  sent  to  Wesley  an  account  of 
the  first  Methodist  conference  in  America,  and  Wesley  replied 
to  him  as  follows. 

"Epworth,  July  11,  1774. 
"  Dear  Tommy, — In  yours  of  May  the  30th,  you  give  me  an  agreeable 
account  of  your  little  conference  in  Philadelphia.  I  think  G.  Shadford 
and  you  desire  no  novelties,  but  love  good  old  Methodist  discipline  and 
doctrine.  I  have  been  lately  thinking  a  good  deal  on  one  point,  wherein, 
perhaps,  we  have  all  been  wanting.  We  have  not  made  it  a  rule,  as  soon 
as  ever  persons  were  .justified,  to  remind  them  of  going  on  to  perfection. 

^  Christian  Miscellany,  1846,  p.  93. 
2  Asbury's  Journal,  vol.  i.,  p.  112. 


ij6  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1774      Whereas,  this  is  the  very  time  preferable  to  all  others.     They  have  then 

P~    _       the  simplicity  of  little  children  ;  and  they  are  fervent  in  spirit,  ready  to 

cut  off  the  right  hand,  or  to  pluck  out  the  right  eye.    But,  if  we  once  suffer 

this  fervour  to  subside,  we  shall  find  it  hard  enough  to  bring  them  again 

t'^  ^^^^  P°^"^-  «Iam,etc., 

"John  Wesley."  1 

Before  passing  from  America,  it  is  worth  recording,  that  it 
was  in  the  year  1774  that  Methodism  was  introduced  into 
another  part  of  Newfoundland.  In  the  month  of  March  in 
that  year,  John  Hoskins,  a  London  Methodist,  and  his  son,  a 
lad  of  about  sixteen  years  of  age,  embarked  at  Poole  in  Dorset- 
shire, and  landed  in  Newfoundland  five  weeks  afterwards. 
The  intention  of  Hoskins  was  to  work  there  till  he  had 
obtained  money  enough  to  take  him  to  New  England,  where 
he  wished  to  begin  a  school,  He  landed  at  Trinity  penniless, 
and  utterly  unknown,  and  found  himself  in  a  "rocky,  deso- 
late country,"  and  surrounded  by  a  "  few,  low,  mean  huts, 
built  of  wood."  He  entered  one  to  make  inquiries  as  to  how 
he  might  obtain  subsistence  ;  the  good  woman  of  the  hut 
gave  him  some  seal  and  bread  to  eat ;  and  the  minister  of  the 
place  advised  him  to  open  a  school  at  Old  Perlican,  where 
about  fifty  families  resided.  Away  he  went,  a  distance  of 
one-and-twenty  miles ;  the  people  received  him  gladly  ;  and 
his  school  was  opened.  Here  there  was  literally  no  religious 
worship  whatever ;  but  the  schoolmaster  began  to  read  the 
Church  prayers,  and  Wesley's  sermons  ;  the  people  standing  at 
a  distance  and  looking  at  him  as  if  he  had  been  a  monster. 
He  then  proceeded  to  give  extempore  exhortations ;  a 
few  began  to  be  serious  ;  some  helped  him  to  sing ;  sixteen 
became  penitent,  and  were  formed  into  a  class ;  and  two  or 
three  soon  found  peace  with  God.  Just  at  this  juncture,  Mr. 
Arthur  Thomy,  an  Irish  merchant,  visited  the  place  on  busi- 
ness, and  preached  twice  or  thrice,  confirming  what  Hoskins 
had  said,  and  the  society  increased  to  forty  members,  and  the 
believers  to  eight. 

Thus   was   Methodism    begun    at    Old    Perlican.     It   soon 
spread.     Island  Cove  had   a  society  of  thirty,  and  was  the  ^ 
first  to    build   a  chapel.     At   Harbourgrace  and   Carbonear, 

*  Palmer's  "  Four  Years  in  the  Old  World,"  p.  260. 


Conference  of  ij'j^.  177 

where  Mr.  Coughlan  had  laboured,  Calvinism  and  anti-  1774 
nomianism  were  rampant,  and  Methodism  had  dwindled  to  a*^;! 
almost  nothing.  The  movement  at  Old  Perlican  was  a  new 
beginning ;  and  Hoskins,  the  schoolmaster,  and  Thorny,  the 
Irish  merchant,  were  the  chief  actors.  Thorny  often  travelled 
as  far  as  fifty  miles  to  preach  ;  and  sometimes  met  with  brutal 
treatment.  The  Irish  were  his  bitterest  enemies,  and,  on  one 
occasion,  came  with  their  shillalahs  to  kill  him.  Hoskins, 
also,  had  his  share  of  persecution.  Once  he  was  daubed  all 
over  with  tar,  and  was  further  threatened  to  be  stuck  with 
feathers.  The  work,  however,  prospered  ;  and,  in  1785,  New- 
foiindland  became  one  of  the  circuits  in  Wesley's  minutes. 

The  conference,  at  Bristol,  was  opened  on  August  9.  Wesley 
writes :  "  The  conference,  which  begun  and  ended  in  love, 
fully  employed  me  on  Tuesday,  Wednesday,  and  Thursday ; 
and  we  observed  Friday,  1 2th,  as  a  day  of  fasting  and  prayer 
for  the  success  of  the  gospel." 

Thomas  Taylor,  who  was  present,  says:  "August  9 — Most  of 
the  day  was  taken  up  in  temporal  matters,  which  is  dry  busi- 
ness. August  10 — This  morning  our  characters  were  ex- 
amined, and  that  closely.  The  afternoon  was  chiefly  spent  in 
taking  in  new  preachers.  In  the  evening,  Mr.  Wesley  gave  us 
but  an  indifferent  sermon.  August  ii — We  spent  this  day 
pretty  profitably  in  considering  some  things  of  importance  ; 
especially  how  to  prevent  levity,  idleness,  and  evil  speaking. 
At  night,  Mr.  Wesley  gave  us  a  profitable  discourse  on  bro- 
therly love."  1 

Miss  March,  in  an  unpublished  letter,  dated  August  2^, 
1774,  observes  : 

"  Our  conference  is  now  ended.  I  promised  myself  a  jubilee,  a  time  of 
holy  rejoicing,  but  found  it  rather  a  season  of  hurry  and  dissipation.  Mr. 
Wesley  opened  the  conference  with  a  plan  of  great  and  necessary  business. 
His  preaching  was  chiefly  to  the  preachers, — of  the  searching,  reproving 
kind.  The  preachers  said  there  was  much  concord  amongst  them,  and 
one  observed,  Mr.  Wesley  seemed  to  do  all  the  business  himself.  Friday 
was  the  best  time,  and  the  evening  sermon,  from  Matthew  vii.  24,  was  the 
prettiest  and  most  simple  discourse  I  ever  heard  on  that  text.  Mr.  Wesley 
left  us  on  Monday  for  Wales.  When  he  first  came  he  looked  worn  down 
with  care  and  sorrow ;  but  he  left  us  well  and  lively." 

It  was  at  this  conference  that  Samuel  Bradburn  and  James 

*  Taylor's  manuscript  journal 
VOL.  III.  N 


lyS  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1774  Rogers  were  admitted  on  trial;  and  that  Joseph  Pilmoor,  for 
Age  71  some  reason,  deserted  Thomas  Rankin  in  America,  and 
desisted  from  travelling. 

No  sooner  was  the  conference  over,  than  Wesley  again  set 
out  on  his  evangelistic  travels.  The  next  twelve  days  were 
spent  in  Wales.  He  returned  to  Bristol  for  the  Sunday  ser- 
vices on  August  28  ;  and,  on  the  day  following,  started  off  to 
Cornwall.  He  came  back  to  Bristol  on  September  9,  and 
employed  the  next  month  in  the  city  and  its  neighbourhood. 
Being  the  time  of  a  parliamentary  election,  he  met  the  Bristol 
society,  and  advised  those  of  them  who  had  votes  : — "  i.  To 
vote,  without  fee  or  reward,  for  the  person  they  judged  most 
worthy.  2.  To  speak  no  evil  of  the  person  they  voted  against. 
3.  To  take  care  their  spirits  were  not  sharpened  against  those 
that  voted  on  the  other  side." 

Wesley  came  to  London  on  October  15,  and  spent  the 
remainder  of  the  year  in  his  usual  winter  journeys. 

Norwich  was  again  a  trouble.  He  writes :  "  Never  was  a 
poor  society  so  neglected  as  this  has  been  for  the  year  past. 
The  morning  preaching  was  at  an  end  ;  the  bands  suffered  all 
to  fall  in  pieces ;  and  no  care  at  all  taken  of  the  classes,  so 
that,  whether  they  met  or  not,  it  was  all  one ;  going  to  church 
and  sacrament  were  forgotten  ;  and  the  people  rambled  hither 
and  thither  as  they  listed.  I  met  the  society,  and  told  them 
plain,  I  was  resolved  to  have  a  regular  society  or  none.  I 
then  read  the  rules,  and  desired  every  one  to  consider  whether 
he  was  willing  to  walk  by  these  rules  or  no.  Those,  in  parti- 
cular, of  meeting  their  class  every  week,  unless  hindered  by 
distance  or  sickness ;  and  being  constant  at  church  and  sacra- 
nnent.  I  desired  those  who  were  so  minded  to  meet  me  the 
next  night,  and  the  rest  to  stay  away.  The  next  night  we 
had  far  the  greater  part.  I  spoke  to  every  leader,  concerning 
every  one  under  his  care,  and  put  out  every  person  whom  they 
^  could  not  recommend  to  me.     After  this  was  done,  out  of  204 

members,  174  remained.  And  these  points  shall  be  carried, 
if  only  fifty  remain  in  society." 

On  his  return  to  London,  he  visited  Ely  and  St.  Ives, 
and  met  with  an'  adventure  which  was  strange,  even  in 
his  experience.  Approaching  Ely,  Mr.  Dancer  met  him  with 
a  chaise.     For  a   mile  and  a  half,  the   road  was  inundated. 


An  Adventure.  179 


"  How  must  foot  people  come  to  Ely  ? "  he  asked.  "  Why,"  ^774 
replied  simple  Mr.  Dancer,  "they  must  wade."  The  Age  71 
farther  he  went,  the  more  difficult  and  dangerous  was  the 
way.  Between  Ely  and  St.  Ives,  snow  fell  in  great  abundance, 
and,  at  considerable  peril,  Wesley's  borrowed  chaise  was 
piloted  by  Mr.  Tubbs,  who  trudged  along,  at  the  horse's  head, 
and,  up  to  his  knees  in  mud  and  water,  naively  said,  "  We  fen 
men  don't  mind  a  little  dirt."  For  four  miles,  W^esley  Avas 
dragged  through  this  "  slough  of  despond,"  when  further  pro- 
gress, for  the  vehicle,  became  impossible.  He  tried  to  proceed 
on  horseback  ;  but  this  also  was  soon  impracticable,  the  whole 
district  being  one  wide  waste  of  water.  "  Here,  therefore, 
says  he,  "  I  procured  a  boat,  full  twice  as  large  as  a  kneading 
trough.      I    was  at  one  end,  and  a  boy  at  the  other,  who 

paddled  me  safe  to  Erith ;  where  Miss  L waited  for  me 

with  another  chaise,  which  brought  me  safe  to  St.  Ives." 

Wesley  concluded  the  year's  itinerary  thus  :  "  December 
25 — During  the  twelve  festival  days,  we  had  the  Lord's  supper 
daily;  a  little  emblem  of  the  primitive  church." 

Was  this  a  lingering  remnant  of  Wesley's  high  churchism.^ 
What  would  be  said  of  the  Methodists  of  the  present  day, 
were  they  to  imitate  th-e  example  of  their  founder  t 

The  Calvinian  controversy  still  proceeded.  The  Gospel 
Magazine  told  its  readers,  that  Arminianism  "is  a  system 
founded  in  ignorance,  supported  by  pride,  and  will  end  in 
delusion."  The  Hon.  and  Rev.  W.  B.  Cadogan,  a  young  man 
of  twenty-three,  and,  though  not  yet  ordained,  already  pre- 
sented to  the  living  of  St.  Giles,  Reading,  burned  Wesley's 
works  in  his  kitchen,  saying  "  he  was  determined  to  form  his 
opinions  from  the  Bible  alone." ^  The  two  Hills  were  silent, 
with  the  exception  of  Mr.  Richard's  "Lash  at  Enthusiasm,  in  a 
Dialogue  founded  upon  real  Facts."  The  principal  Calvinistic 
work,  published  at  this  period,  was  Toplady's  "Historic  Proof 
of  the  Doctrinal  Calvinism  of  the  Church  of  England,"  in  two 
volumes,  8vo,  with  an  Introduction,  most  lamentably  virulent. 
The  subject  is  repulsive  ;  but,  rightly  to  understand  Wesley's 
provocations  and  patience,  it  is  necessary  to  give  extracts  from 
this  scandalous  production  of  a  conceited  but  clever  man,  who 


'  Memoirs  of  Cadogan,  p.  37. 


1 86  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1774     acted  as  though  the  Almighty  had  elected  him  to  revile  his 

Age  71     neighbours,  without  either  sense  or  reason. 

"  Mr.  John  Wesley  and  Mr.  Walter  Sellon  are  a  pair  of 
insignificant  adversaries,  who  have  arraigned,  tried,  and  con- 
demned the  Church  of  England.  In  general,  they  are  so 
excessively  scurrilous  and  abusive,  that  contending  with  them 
resembles  fighting  with  chimney  sweepers,  or  bathing  in  a 
mud  pool"  "  Mr.  Walter  Sellon  is  Mr.  John  Wesley's 
retainer  general  and  whitewasher  in  ordinary.  Arminianism  is 
their  mutual  Dulcinea  del  Toboso.  High  mounted  on  Pine's 
Rosinante,  forth  sallies  Mr.  John  from  Wine  Street,  Bristol, 
brandishing  his  reed,  and  vowing  vengeance  against  all,  who 
will  not  fall  down  and  worship  the  Dutch  image  which  he  has 
set  up.  With  an  almost  equal  plenitude  of  zeal  and  prowess, 
forth  trots  Mr.  Walter  from  Ave  Maria  Lane,  low  mounted  on 
Cabe's  halting  dapple.  The  knight  and  the  squire  having 
met  at  the  rendezvous  appointed,  the  former  prances  fore- 
most, and,  with  as  much  haste  as  his  limping  steed  will 
permit,  doth  trusty  Walter  amble  after  his  master."  Sellon 
is  Wesley's  "understrapper";  the  "junto  are  Parthians  aiming 
their  arrows  at  the  sun  ;  and  wolves  exhausting  their  strength 
by  howling  at  the  moon."  Sellon  "  dips  his  pen  in  the 
common  sewer";  and  Wesley  "scatters  firebrands."  "The 
world  has  long  seen,  that  unmixed  politeness  can  no  more 
soften  Mr.  Wesley's  rugged  rudeness,  than  the  melody  of 
David's  harp  could  lay  the  north  wind."  Sellon  was  "  a 
small  body  of  Pelagian  divinity,  bound  in  calf,  neither  gilt 
nor  lettered  " ;  "  the  meanest,  and  most  rancorous  Arminian 
priest  that  ever  disgraced  a  surplice."  "  We  would  advise  his 
Arminian  holiness  of  Rome  to  cashier  the  image  of  St.  Austin 
from  serving  any  longer  as  a  support  to  his  easy  chair  ;  and 
to  procure  an  Q^gy  of  Mr.  Walter  Sellon,  to  serve — not, 
indeed,  upon  due  recollection,  as  a  stay  to  his  holiness's 
throne — nor  even  as  a  prop  to  his  footstool ;  but  as  a  leg  to  a 
certain  convenience  (a  sella  perforata,  though  not  the  sella 
porphyretica),  whereon,  I  presume,  his  holiness  deigns, 
occasionally,  to  sit."  Wesley's  Notes  on  the  New  Testament 
are  "a  wretched  bundle  of  plagiarisms";  and  he  himself 
"drives  a  larger  traffic  in  blunders  and  blasphemies  than  any 
other  blunder  merchant  this  island  has  produced." 


Calvinian  Controversy.  i8i 

Such  are  a  few  of  the  mild  and  merciful  oracular  utterances      i774 
of  the  elect  Augustus  Toplady  ;  who  says  he  blamed  himself    Age  71 
"  for  handling  Wesley  too  gently,  and  for  only  giving  him  the 
whip  when  he  deserved  a  scorpion." 

Fletcher,  during  1774,  published  : — (i)  "The  Fictitious  and 
the  Genuine  Creed ;  being  '  A  Creed  for  Arminians,'  composed 
by  Richard  Hill,  Esq. ;  to  which  is  opposed  a  Creed  for  those 
who  believe  that  Christ  tasted  death  for  every  man."  l2mo, 
52  pages.  (2)  "  Logica  Genevensis  continued;  or,  the  first 
part  of  the  Fifth  Check  to  Antinomianism,  containing  an 
Answer  to  *  The  Finishing  Stroke '  of  Richard  Hill,  Esq.  ;  in 
which  some  remarks  upon  Mr.  Fulsome's  Antinomian  Creed, 
published  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Berridge,  are  occasionally  intro- 
duced." i2mo,  48  pages.  (3)  "Logica  Genevensis  continued; 
or,  the  second  part  of  the  Fifth  Check  to  Antinomianism, 
containing  a  Defence  of  '  Jack  o'  Lanthorn,'  and  '  The  Paper 
Kite,'  i.  e.  sincere  obedience  ;  and  of  the  'Cobweb,'  i.e.  the 
evangelical  law  of  liberty;  and  of  the  'Valiant  Sergeant,  J.  F.,' 
i.  e.  the  conditionality  of  perseverance,  attacked  by  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Berridge,  in  his  book  called  '  The  Christian  World  Un- 
masked.'" i2mo,  44  pages.  (4)  "The  First  Part  of  an  Equal 
Check  to  Pharisaism  and  Antinomianism."  l2mo,  264  pages. 
(5)  "  Zelotes  and  Honestus  reconciled ;  or,  an  Equal  Check  to 
Pharisaism  and  Antinomianism  continued :  being  the  first 
part  of  the  Scripture  Scales  to  weigh  the  Gold  of  Gospel 
Truth.  With  a  Preface  containing  some  Strictures  upon  the 
Three  Letters  of  Richard  Hill,  Esq.,  which  have  been  lately 
published."     i2mo,  175  pages. 

The  whole  of  these  publications,  extending  to  nearly  600 
pages,  are  full  of  the  greatest  truths,  and,  like  all  Fletcher's 
writings,  are  entirely  free  from  personal  abuse,  and  are  worthy 
of  a"  gentleman,  a  scholar,  and  a  Christian. 

W^e  can  hardly  say  as  much  of  another  work,  published  in 
1774:  "A  Scourge  to  Calumny,  in  two  parts,  inscribed  to 
Richard  Hill,  Esq.  Part  the  First,  demonstrating  the 
Absurdity  of  that  Gentleman's  Farrago.  Part  the  Second, 
containing  a  full  Answer  to  all  that  is  material  in  his  Farrago 
Double  Distilled.  By  Thomas  Olivers."  i2mo,  168  pages. 
Richard  Hill  deserved  all  he  got ;  but  Fletcher  would  have 
hesitated  before  charging  him,  as  is  done   by  Olivers,  "  with 


1 82  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

^774  tvilful  itntr2Lth"  At  the  same  time,  it  is  impossible  not  to 
Age  71  have  a  feeling  of  admiration  for  the  sturdy  Welshman,  when 
he  says  to  the  wealthy  squire,  who  had  rudely  called  him  Tom 
the  cobbler:  "Permit  me  to  tell  you,  sir,  that  my  name  is  as 
sacred  to  me,  as  yours  is  to  you.  \{ you  were  the  greatest  peer 
of  the  realm,  and  /  the  poorest  peasant,  the  laws  of  God  and 
of  my  country  would  authorise  me  to  call  you  to  an  account, 
for  every  insult  offered  to  my  character,  either  as  a  fellow 
creature,  or  as  an  Englishman.  You  have  no  more  authority, 
either  from  reason  or  religion,  to  call  me  Tom,  than  I  have 
to  call  you  Dick." 

Having  hurled  a  lance  in  his  own  defence,  he  then  proceeds 
to  defend  Wesley,  telling  Mr.  Hill,  that  the  man  he  had 
maligned  was  one  who  had  published  a  hundred  volumes, 
who  travelled  yearly  about  five  thousand  miles,  preached 
yearly  about  a  thousand  sermons,  visited  as  many  sick  beds 
as  he  preached  sermons,  and  wrote  twice  as  many  letters ;  and 
who,  though  now  between  seventy  and  eighty  years  of  age, 
"  absolutely  refused  to  abate,  in  the  smallest  degree,  these 
mighty  labours  ;  but  might  be  seen,  at  this  very  time,  with  his 
silver  locks  about  his  ears,  and  with  a  meagre,  worn  out, 
skeleton  body,  smiling  at  storms  and  tempests,  at  such  labours 
and  fatigues,  at  such  difficulties  and  dangers,  as,  I  believe," 
says  Olivers,  "  would  be  absolutely  intolerable  to  you,  sir,  in 
conjunction  with  any  four  oi  your  most  faming  ministers." 

Wesley's  own  publications,  in  1774,  were  not  many. 

First  of  all,  there  was  the  fifteenth  number  of  his  Journal, 
already  mentioned  :  i2mo,  112  pages.  Then  there  was  "An 
Extract  from  Dr.  Cadogan's  Dissertations  on  the  Gout,  and  all 
Chronic  Diseases,"  already  referred  to  on  page  in.  i2mo,  49 
pages.  This  was  a  bold  stroke.  Dr.  Cadogan's  work  had  not 
been  more  than  ten  years  published  ;  it  had  been  extremely 
popular,  and  had  run  through  several  editions  ;  the  doctor 
himself  was  now  at  the  zenith  of  his  fame,  and  did  not  die  for 
three-and-twenty  years  afterwards  ;  and,  yet,  Wesley  takes 
upon  himself,  not  to  publish  the  work  itself,  but  an  extract  from 
it,  and  to  write  a  preface  to  it,  in  which  he  objects  to  the 
doctor's  wholesale  condemnation  of  "smoked  and  salted  meats, 
of  pickles,  of  wine,  and  of  flesh,  thoroughly  roasted  or  boiled." 
Wesley  says  :   "  I  recommend  the  book  as  the  most  masterly 


Wesley  s  Ptiblications,  in  lyy^.  183 

piece  upon  the  subject,  which  has  yet  appeared  in  the  English     17 74 
language."  A^Tyi 

Another  of  Wesley's  publications  was  "  Thoughts  upon 
Necessity,"  i2mo,  33  pages.  This  was  one  of  his  most 
thoughtful  and  able  tracts.  Its  purport  may  be  gathered 
from  a  sentence  in  his  preface,-^"  I  cannot  believe  the  noblest 
creature  in  the  visible  world  to  be  only  a  fine  piece  of  clock- 
work." 

To  the  above  must  be  added  his  "  Thoughts  on   Slavery," 
Svo,  53  pages.     It    ought  never  to  be  forgotten,  that    John 
Wesley  was   one  of  the  very  first  of  England's   philanthro- 
pists   to    denounce  the   infamous    evil    of  slavery.      Statues, 
and  other  honours,   declarative  of  a  nation's  homage,   have 
•  been  justly  awarded  to  Wilberforce  ;  but  Wesley's   record  is 
on  high  ;  and  the  day  has  yet  to  come  when  the  influence  of 
his  advanced  views  will  be   duly  and    gratefully  recognised. 
Even  some  of  Wesley's  friends  were  strangely  blinded  to  a 
system  that  he  boldly  denounced  as  the  "  execrable  sum  of  all 
villanies"  ;  and  Whitefield  himself,  only  four  years  before,  had 
died    the   possessor   of  a   large    number    of  human    beings, 
who,  in  his  will,  were  classed  among  his  goods  and  chattels, 
and  whom  he    unceremoniously   bequeathed   to    "  that  elect 
lady,   the  Right  Honourable  Selina,    Countess  Dowager   of 
Huntingdon."      Wesley's    pamphlet    was    no    sooner    issued 
than    it  brought   upon    him   vindictive    opposition,  in  a  two 
shilling  book,    entitled    "A    Supplement    to    Mr.    Wesley's 
'Thoughts  upon  Slavery'";    in    which   the  writer   does  his 
utmost   to    make    the   leader   of  the    Methodists   ridiculous. 
Wesley  had  counted  the  cost,  and  expected  this.     In  America 
it   was   otherwise.      There,    at    Philadelphia,    Mr.   Anthony 
Benezet  republished   Wesley's  tract  at  his  own  expense,  and 
sent  to  him  a  friendly  salutation,  by  William  Dillwyn,  "  my 
old  pupil,"  says    Benezet,    "a   valuable,    religiously    minded 
person,  who  is  going  a  voyage  to  your  country"  •}  and  who, 
thirteen  years  afterwards,  in  1787,  became  one  of  the  founders 
of  the  Society  for  the  Suppression  of  Slavery. 

Wesley   still   continued    the    publication    of    his    collected 
works  ;  and,  in    1774,  seven  additional  volumes  were  issued, 

'  Methodist  Magazine,  1787,  \>.  44. 


184  Life  and  Tifues  of  Wesley. 

1774     making  the  entire   number  thirty-two.     The  last  seven,  with 
Age  71    the  exception  of  three  small  tracts,  consisted  exclusively  of 
his  journals,  coming  down  to  September  i,  1770. 

Perhaps  there  ought  to  be  added  another  publication,  which, 
though  not  printed  by  Wesley,  was  his  production  :  "  A  Ser- 
mon preached  at  the  opening  of  the  new  Meeting-house  at 
Wakefield,  on  the  28th  of  April,  1774,  by  the  Rev,  John 
Wesley  :  taken  down  in  shorthand,  at  the  time  of  delivery,  by 
Mr.  Williamson,  a  teacher  of  that  art,  and  published  at  the 
request  of  many  of  the  hearers.  Leeds  :  1774.  Sold  by  all 
Booksellers,  price  threepence."  8vo,  12  pages.  The  text  is 
I  Corinthians  i.  23,  24.  The  sermon,  perhaps  properly,  has 
never  been  published  in  any  edition  of  Wesley's  works. 
Though  it  contains  nothing  remarkable,  it  would  enrich  the 
Methodist  Jllagazine,  and  would  be  gratefully  welcomed  by 
thousands  of  readers,  who,  without  a  reissue,  will  never  see  it. 


1775- 

ACCORDING  to  his  custom,  Wesley  spent  the  first  two     i775 
months  of  1775  in  London,  and  in  short  preaching  ex-    Age~72 
cursions  to  Northamptonshire  and  other  places. 

The  nation,  at  this  period,  was  in  a  state  of  the  highest 
excitement.  On  February  9,  the  two  houses  of  parliament 
presented  an  address  to  King  George  III.,  stating  that  the 
British  colonists  in  America  had  risen  in  rebellion,  and 
begging  his  majesty  to  "  take  the  most  effectual  measures  to 
enforce  obedience  to  the  laws  and  authority  of  the  supreme 
legislature."  His  majesty's  reply  was  affirmative ;  and  par- 
liament was  requested  to  increase  both  the  naval  and  military 
forces. 

Wesley  was  not  the  man  to  be  silent  in  great  emergencies. 
He  writes:  "Sunday,  January  29  —  Finding  many  were 
dejected  by  the  threatening  posture  of  public  affairs,  I  strongly 
enforced  our  Lord's  words,  'Why  are  ye  fearful,  O  ye  of 
little  faith  .'''  "  Three  weeks  later,  he  preached  at  the  Foundery, 
what  the  Westuiinster  Journal  described  as,  "  an  awful  sermon, 
on  the  horrid  effects  of  a  civil  war " ;  observing  "  that,  of  all 
scourges  from  God,  war  was  the  most  to  be  deprecated,  be- 
cause it  often  swept  away  all  traces  of  religion,  and  even  of 
humanity."  The  text  was  Daniel  iv.  27  :  "  Let  my  counsel  be 
acceptable  to  thee,  and  break  off  thy  sins  by  righteousness, 
and  thine  iniquities  by  shewing  mercy  to  the  poor ;  if  it  may 
be  a  lengthening  of  thy  tranquillity." 

Both  England  and  America  were  terribly  excited;  but  space 
prevents  our  entering  into  details.  Suffice  it  to  say,  that  the 
alleged  grievance  of  the  American  colonists  was  their  being 
taxed,  without  their  consent,  by  the  English  parliament.  Dr. 
Johnson  was  known  to  be  a  great  hater  as  well  as  a  great  genius. 
"  Sir,"  said  he,  concerning  the  miscellaneous  and  mongrel 
colonists  across  the  Atlantic,  "  Sir,  they  are  a  race  of  convicts, 
and  ought  to  be  thankful  for  anything  we  allow  them  short  of 
hanging."  No  wonder  that  the  English  government,  already  at 


1 86  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1775  their  wits'  end,  applied  to  Johnson  to  assist  them  with  his 
Age  72  powerful  pen.  He  did  so,  by  the  publication,  in  1775,  of  his 
famous  pamphlet,  entitled,  "  Taxation  no  Tyranny;  an  Answer 
to  the  Resolutions  and  Address  of  the  American  Congress."' 
No  sooner  was  it  issued,  than,  with  or  without  leave,  Wesley 
abridged  it,  and,  without  the  least  reference  to  its  origin, 
published  it  as  his  own,  in  a  quarto  sheet  of  four  pages,  with 
the  title,  "  A  Calm  Address  to  our  American  Colonies.  By 
the  Rev.  Mr.  John  Wesley,  M.A.    Price  one  penny." 

This  was  an  injudicious  and  unwarrantable  act,  except  on 
the  supposition  that  there  was  some  secret  understanding 
between  him  and  Johnson  ;  and  even  then  the  thing  had  too 
much  the  aspect  of  plagiarism  to  be  wise,  Johnson  greatly 
reverenced  Patty  Hall,  Wesley's  unfortunate  sister,  and  always 
treated  her  as  one  of  his  confidential  friends.  For  Wesley 
himself  he  also  entertained  great  respect,  and  was  only  vexed 
that  he  was  not  able  to  secure  more  of  his  company.  "  John 
Wesley's  conversation,"  said  he,  "  is  good,  but  he  is  never 
at  leisure.  He  is  always  obliged  to  go  at  a  certain  hour. 
This  is  very  disagreeable  to  a  man  who  loves  to  fold  his 
legs  and  have  out  his  talk,  as  I  do."^  There  was  unques- 
tionably a  friendship  between  the  two  ;  and  it  is  possible 
that  Wesley  had  Johnson's  consent  to  his  publication  of  the 
abridgment  of  Johnson's  pamphlet.  In  a  letter  to  Wesley, 
dated  February  6,  1776,  Johnson  wrote  :  "I  have  thanks  to 
return  for  the  addition  of  your  important  suffrage  to  my 
argument  on  the  American  question.  To  have  gained  such 
a  mind  as  yours  may  justly  confirm  me  in  my  own  opinion. 
What  effect  my  paper  has  had  upon  the  public  I  know  not  ; 
but  I  have  no  reason  to  be  discouraged.  The  lecturer  was 
surely  in  the  right  who,  though  he  saw  his  audience  slinking 
away,  refused  to  quit  the  chair  while  Plato  stayed."^  This 
certainly  gives  some  countenance  to  the  supposition  we  have 
ventured  to  suggest.  Still,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  Wesley 
fairly  exposed  himself  to  acrimonious  attack  by  publishing 
the  broc/mre  as  his  own. 

Wesley   was    now  one  of   the  most    conspicuous    men   in 


^  Boswell's  Life  of  Johnson.  ^  Ibid. 

^  Gentleman's  Magazine,  1797,  P-  455- 


AmericaJi   War  of  Independence.  187 

England  ;  and,  perhaps,  no  ecclesiastical  personage  of  the  17 75 
realm  swayed  a  wider  influence  over  the  masses,  on  qucs-  Agey^ 
tions  involving  religious  interests.  Hence,  the  publication  of 
his  "Calm  Address"  produced  an  unparalleled  sensation; 
and  this  was  the  greater,  because  it  was  known  that,  up  to 
this  period,  Wesley  had  sympathised  with  the  colonists  rather 
than  otherwise.  Indeed,  he  had  declared  five  years  before,  in. 
his  "Free  Thoughts  on  Public  Affairs":  "I  do  not  defend 
the  measures  which  have  been  taken  with  regard  to  America  ; 
I  doubt  whether  any  man  can  defend  them,  either  on  the 
foot  of  law,  equity,  or  prudence."  Of  course,  Wesley  had  a 
perfect  right  to  change  his  opinions,  which  he  says  he  did  on 
reading  Johnson's  "Taxation  no  Tyranny";  but  when  a 
public  man  like  Wesley  does  that,  he  can  hardly  escape 
criticism  of  an  unfriendly  nature.  The  world  dislikes  change- 
lings, and  hesitates  to  trust  them.  Wesley,  in  the  teeth  of 
former  sentiments,  now  made  Johnson's  sentiments  his 
own,  contending  not  only  that  the  English  parliament  had 
power  to  tax  the  American  colonies,  but  also  that  it  was 
a  reasonable  thing  for  the  colonists  to  reimburse  the  mother 
country  for  some  part  of  the  large  expense  that  had  been 
incurred  in  defending  the  colonial  rights,  and  that  the  whole  of 
the  present  agitation  was  promoted  by  a  few  men  in  England, 
who  were  determined  enemies  to  monarchy,  and  who  wished 
to  establish  a  republican  form  of  government,  which,  of  all 
others,  was  the  most  despotic.  The  result  was,  Wesley 
was  at  once  pounced  upon  as  a  plagiarist  and  a  renegade  of 
the  worst  description.  Countless  pamphlets  were  published, 
only  a  few  of  which  can  be  noticed  here. 

One  of  his  principal  antagonists  was  the  Rev\  Caleb 
Evans,  then  a  baptist  minister  at  Broadmead,  Bristol,  and  in 
the  thirty-seventh  year  of  his  age, — a  man  of  good  sense, 
a  diligent  student,  a  faithful  pastor,  and  extensively  useful ; 
but  a  rampant  advocate  of  what  was  called  liberty,  and, 
therefore,  a  well  wisher  to  the  republican  rebellion  across  the 
Atlantic. 

Evans's  first  publication  was  "  A  Letter  to  the  Rev.  Mr. 
John  Wesley,  occasioned  by  his  'Calm  Address'"  :  i2mo,  24 
pages.  He  taunts  Wesley  with  having  so  suddenly  changed 
his  opinions  ;    with  having,  at  the   late  election,  advised  the 


1 88  Life  and   Times  of  Wesley. 

1775      Bristol  Methodists  to  vote  for  the  ^^ American  candidate" ;  and 
Age~72    ■^vith  having,  at  no  remote   period,  recommended  a  book  en- 
titled,   "An  Argument    in    Defence   of    the  exclusive  right 
claimed  by  the  Colonies  to  tax  themselves." 

Wesley's  reply  to  this  was  the  republication  of  his  "  Calm 
Address,"  with  a  preface  prefixed,  in  which  he  acknowledges 
that  the  "Address"  was  an  extract  "of  the  chief  arguments 
from  'Taxation  no  Tyranny,'"  with  "an  application"  of  his 
own  "to  those  whom  it  most  concerned."  In  a  page  and  a 
half  he  answers  Evans's  objections,  and  says  that  all  "the 
arguments  in  his  tract  may  be  contained  in  a  nutshell." 

Another  attack  on  Wesley,  which,  before  the  year  was  out, 
reached  a  second  edition,  was  "  A  Cool  Reply  to  a  Calm 
Address,  lately  published  by  Mr.  John  Wesley.  By  T.  S." 
l2mo,  33  pages.  What  this  production  lacked  in  argument 
it  made  up  in  scurrilous  inuendo.  Wesley  is  told  that  his 
"  religious  principles  are  a  species  of  popery,"  and  that  he  is 
in  quest  of  "a  mitre"  ;  though  he  "ought  to  sit  in  sackcloth 
and  pour  dust  upon  his  head." 

Evans  also,  before  the  expiration  of  1775,  issued  a  new 
edition  of  his  letter,  l2mo,  32  pages,  in  the  preface  to  which 
he  waxes  angry,  in  exposing  what  he  calls  "  the  shameful 
versatility  and  disingenuity  of  this  artful  man  ;"  and  does 
his  utmost  to  fasten  upon  Wesley  a  deliberate  falsehood,  be- 
cause Wesley  had  denied  that  he  had  ever  seen  the  book 
which  Evans  had  accused  him  of  recommending,  though  both 
William  Pine,  his  own  printer,  and  the  Rev.  James  Roquet, 
his  friend,  were  both  prepared  to  attest  on  oath  that  he  had 
recommended  the  book  to  them. 

Here  then  was  a  direct  personal  issue  between  them. 
Thomas  Olivers,  in  his  "  Full  Defence  of  the  Rev,  John 
Wesley,"  i2mo,  24  pages,  published  in  1776,  gives  the  expla- 
nation. Wesley's  denial  was  not  owing  to  untruthfulness,  but 
forgetfulness,  "  Mr.  Wesley,"  says  Olivers,  "  is  now  an  old 
man,  and  yet  has  such  a  variety  and  multiplicity  of  business 
as  few  men  could  manage,  even  in  the  prime  of  life.  There 
are  few  weeks  in  which  he  does  not  travel  two  or  three  hun- 
dred miles ;  preach  and  exhort  in  public  between  twenty  and 
thirty  times,  and  often  more  ;  answer  thirty  or  forty  letters  ; 
speak  with  as   many  persons  in  private,  concerning  things  of 


American    War  of  Indepoidence.  189 

deep  importance;  and  prepare,  either  in  Avhole  or  in  part,  1775 
something  for  the  press.  Add  to  all  this,  that  often,  in  that  AtjTya 
short  space  of  time,  a  variety  of  tracts  on  different  subjects 
pass  through  his  hands,  particularly  as  he  travels,  and  that  if 
any  tract  does  not  immediately  relate  to  his  office  as  a  divine, 
though  he  may  give  it  a  cursory  reading,  yet  he  does  not 
think  it  necessary  to  charge  his  memory  with  its  contents  :  I 
say,  when  all  these  things  are  considered,  no  one  will  think  it 
strange  that  his  memory  should  often  fail." 

This  was  a  reasonable  explanation  of  an  awkward  discre- 
pancy ;  but  Wesley,  who  was  incapable  of  falsehood,  hardly 
needed  the  defence  of  his  ingenious  friend  Olivers.  He  had 
already  written  the  following  to  Mr.  Roquet  himself 

"November  12,  1775. 
"  Dear  James, — I  will  now  simply  tell  you  the  thing  as  it  is.  As  I  was 
returning  from  the  Leeds  conference,  one  gave  me  the  tract  which  you 
refer  to,  part  of  which  I  read  on  my  journey.  The  spirit  of  it  I  observed 
to  be  admirably  good;  and  I  then  thought  the  arguments  conclusive.  In 
consequence  of  which,  I  suppose,  (though  I  do  not  remember  it,)  I  re- 
commended it  both  to  you  and  others  ;  but  I  had  so  entirely  forgotten  it, 
that  even  when  it  was  brought  to  me  the  other  day,  I  could  not  recollect 
that  I  had  seen  it. 

"  I  am,  etc., 

"John  Wesley."' 

Besides  the  pamphlets  already  mentioned,  there  were  pub- 
lished, in  1775  :  "  A  Second  Answer  to  Mr.  John  Wesley.  By 
W.  D."  i2mo,  22  pages.  Also,  "A  Wolf  in  Sheep's  Cloath- 
ing  ;  or  an  Old  Jesuit  Unmasked.  Containing  an  account  of 
the  wonderful  apparition  of  Father  Petre's  Ghost,  in  the  form 
of  the  Rev.  John  Wesley.  By  Patrick  Bull,  Esq."  i2mo,  24 
pages  :  a  vile  production  in  which  Wesley  is  branded  as  "  a 
chaplain  in  ordinary  to  the  Furies,  or  minister  extraordinary 
to  Bellona,  goddess  of  war  ;"  and  is  said  to  have  "solicited  to 
be  made  bishop  of  Quebec;"  but  who,  for  "the  jacobitical 
doctrines  contained  in  his  '  Calm  Address,'  deserves  to  be 
presented,  not  w^ith  laiuii  sleeves,  but  with  a  Jiempen  neckcloth; 
and,  instead  of  a  mitre,  ought  to  have  his  head  adorned  with 
a  white  nightcap  drawn  over  his  eyes." 


*  Ohvers'  "Defence,"  p.  19. 


I  go  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1775  Toplady  was  not  likely  to  allow  such  an  opportunity  to  pass 

Age~72  without  embracing  it  to  vent  his  venom.  Hence  the  publica- 
tion of  his  i2mo  tract  of  24  pages,  entitled,  "  An  Old  Fox 
Tarr'd  and  Feather'd";  with  a  fox's  head,  in  canonicals,  for  a 
frontispiece.  The  opening  sentence  is  characteristic  of  the 
whole  effusion.  "  Whereunto  shall  I  liken  Mr.  John  Wesley  .' 
and  with  what  shall  I  compare  him  .-*  I  will  liken  him  unto  a 
low  and  puny  tadpole  in  divinity,  which  proudly  seeks  to  dis- 
embowel a  high  and  mighty  zvhale  in  politics!'  He  then 
proceeds  to  say,  that,  "  both  as  to  matter  and  expression 
Wesley's  *  Calm  Address '  is  a  bundle  of  Lilliputian  shafts, 
picked  and  stolen  out  of  Dr.  Johnson's  pincushion.  If  Mr. 
Wesley  had  the  least  spark  of  shame  remaining,  the  simple 
detection  of  such  enormous  literary  theft  would  be  more 
terrible  to  his  feelings  than  an  English  pumping  or  an 
American  tarring  and  feathering^ 

Another  pamphlet,  issued  -in  the  same  year,  was  "  A  Con- 
stitutional Answer  to  the  Rev.  Mr,  John  Wesley's  '  Calm  Ad- 
dress to  the  American  Colonies'":  i2mo,  23  pages.  The  last 
sentence  is  as  follows :  "  As  I  have  formerly  seen  you,  with 
pleasure,  in  the  character  of  a  Christian  minister,  doing  some 
good  in  the  moral  world  ;  so  it  is  with  regret  I  now  see  you  in 
the  character  of  a  eonrt  syeophant,  doing  much  more  mischief 
in  the  political  world  ;  injuring,  perhaps  irreparably  injuring, 
your  conntry.'^ 

"Americus,"  also,  in  the  Gentleman's  Magazine}  had  his 
fling  against  the  poor  Methodist.  One  sentence  from  his 
polished  quiver  must  suffice,  as  a  specimen  of  others  :  "  And 
now,  Mr.  Wesley,  I  take  my  leave  of  you.  You  have  forgot 
the  precept  of  your  Master,  that  God  and  mammon  cannot 
be  served  together.  You  have  one  eye  upon  a  pension,  and 
the  other  upon  heaven, — one  hand  stretched  out  to  the  king, 
and  the  other  raised  up  to  God.  I  pray  that  the  first  may 
reward  you,  and  the  last  forgive  you  !" 

These  extracts  might  be  multiplied  almost  ad  infinitum. 
We  only  add,  that  Fletcher,  as  well  as  Olivers,  came  to  the 
defence  of  Wesley.  The  former  published  his  "  Vindication 
of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Wesley's  '  Calm  Address '  :  in  some  Letters  to 

^  Vol.  for  1775,  p.  561. 


American    War  of  Independence.  191 

Mr.  Caleb  Evans."  i2mo,  70  pages.  This  evoked  from  Evans  1775 
an  unworthy  acrimonious  "  Reply,"  i2mo,  103  pages,  in  which  Age'72 
the  angry  baptist  not  only  rakes  up  the  whole  story  respect- 
ing Wesley,  Roquet,  and  Pine,  but  finishes  by  telling  the 
loving  and  accomplished  Fletcher,  that  he  is  "  the  most  ver- 
bose, and  most  unmeaning  and  unfair  disputant,  that  ever 
took  up  the  polemical  gauntlet," 

Hampson  and  Whitehead  censure  Wesley  for  turning  a 
politician.  This  is  a  point  upon  which  opinions  will  differ. 
Certain  it  is,  however,  that  the  political  part  which  Wesley 
took  made  him  as  many  enemies  as  his  caveat  against  Calvin- 
ism had  done.  Within  three  weeks,  forty  thousand  copies  of 
his  "  Calm  Address  "  were  printed  and  put  into  circulation  ; 
and  excited  so  much  anger  among  the  English  friends  of  the 
revolted  colonists,  that  they  would  willingly  have  burnt  both 
him  and  his  Address  together.  To  accuse  him  of  mercenary 
motives  was  an  unfounded,  base,  malignant  fabrication.  It  is 
true,  that  the  government  were  so  pleased  with  his  little  tract 
that  copies  were  ordered  to  be  distributed  at  the  doors  of 
all  the  metropolitan  churches  ;  and  it  is  said  that  one  of  the 
highest  officers  of  state  waited  upon  him,  asking  whether 
government  could  in  any  way  be  of  service  to  either  himself  or 
his  people.  Wesley  replied  that  he  "  looked  for  no  favours,  and 
only  desired  the  continuance  of  civil  and  religious  privileges." 
The  nobleman  pressed  the  question,  but  again  received  the 
same  answer.  In  retiring,  he  observed  :  "  In  all  probability, 
sir,  you  have  some  charities  which  are  dear  to  you ;  by  ac- 
cepting ;^50  from  the  privy  purse,  to  appropriate  as  you  may 
deem  proper,  you  will  give  great  pleasure  to  those  for  whom  I 
act."  This  was  accepted  ;  but  "  Mr.  Wesley,"  says  Dr.  Clarke, 
who  related  the  story,  "  expressed  himself  to  me  as  sorry  that 
he  had  not  requested  to  be  made  a  royal  missionary,  and  to 
have  the  privilege  of  preaching  in  every  church.  1 " 

This  might  be  true  ;  but,  in  conclusion,  we  must  add  to  it 
Wesley's  own  account,  as  published  at  the  time,  in  Lloyd's 
Evening  Post. 

"  Sir, — I  have  been  seriously  asked, — From  what  motive  did  you 
piibhsh  your  '  Calm  Address  to  the  American  Colonics' .'' 

'  Everett's  Life  of  Dr.  A.  Clarke. 


192  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1775  '*  ^  seriously  answer,  Not  to  get  money.     Had  that  been  my  motive,  I 

—       should  have  swelled  it  into  a  shilling  pamphlet,  and  have  entered  it  at 
^^^  ^^     Stationers'  Hall. 

"  Not  to  get  preferment  for  myself,  or  my  brother's  children.  I  am  a 
little  too  old  to  gape  after  it  myself ;  and  if  my  brother  or  I  sought  it 
for  them,  we  have  only  to  show  them  to  the  world. 

"  Not  to  please  any  man  living,  high  or  low.  I  know  mankind  too 
well.  I  know  they  that  love  you  for  political  service,  love  you  less  than 
their  dinner  ;  and  they  that  hate  you,  hate  you  worse  than  the  devil. 

"  Least  of  all,  did  I  write  with  a  view  to  inflame  any  ;  just  the  contrary. 
I  contributed  my  mite  toward  putting  out  the  flame  which  rages  all  over 
the  land.  This  I  have  more  opportunity  of  observing  than  any  other  man 
in  England.  I  see  with  pain  to  what  a  height  this  already  rises,  in  every 
part  of  the  nation.  And  I  see  many  pouring  oil  into  the  flame,  by 
crj'ing  out,  'How  unjustly,  how  cruelly,  the  king  is  using  the  poor  Ameri- 
cans ;  who  are  only  contending  for  their  liberty,  and  for  their  legal 
privileges  ! ' 

"  Now  there  is  no  possible  way  to  put  out  this  flame,  or  hinder  its 
rising  higher  and  higher,  but  to  show  that  the  Americans  are  not 
used  either  cruelly  or  unjustly  ;  that  they  are  not  injured  at  all,  seeing 
they  are  not  contending  for  liberty, — this  they  had  even  in  its  full  extent, 
both  civil  and  religious  ;  neither  for  any  legal  privileges,  for  they  enjoy  all 
that  their  charters  grant.  But  what  they  contend  for  is  the  illegal  privi- 
lege of  being  exempt  from  parliamentary  taxation, — a  privilege  this  which 
no  charter  ever  gave  to  any  American  colony  yet ;  which  no  charter  can 
give,  unless  it  be  confirmed  both  by  king,  lords,  and  commons  ;  which, 
in  fact,  our  colonies  never  had  ;  which  they  never  claimed  till  the  present 
reign  ;  and  probably  they  would  not  have  claimed  it  now,  had  they  not 
been  incited  thereto  by  letters  from  England. 

"  This  being  the  real  state  of  the  question,  without  any  colouring  or 
aggravation,  what  impartial  man  can  either  blame  the  king,  or  commend 
the  Americans  ? 

"  With  this  view,  to  quench  the  fire,  by  laying  the  blame  where  it  was 
due,  the  '  Calm  Address '  was  written. 

"  As  to  reviewers,  newswriters,  London  Magazines,  and  all  that  kind 
of  gentlemen,  they  behave  just  as  I  expected  they  would.  And  let  them 
lick  up  Mr.  Toplady's  spittle  still  ;  a  champion  worthy  of  their  cause. 

"  Sir,  I  am  your  humble  servant, 

"John  Wesley." 

Thus  things  proceeded.  England  was  flooded  with  political 
pamphlets;  the  houses  of  parliament  echoed  with  the  sonor- 
ous periods  of  senatorial  oratory;  and  the  hill  sides  and  river 
banks  of  America  rang  with  sharp  and  dissonant  peals  of 
musketry.  Blood  had  been  shed  at  Lexington  ;  and,  at  the 
bungling  battle  at  Bunker  Hill,  the  English  had  lost  1050 
men,  in  killed  and  wounded.     In  the  month  of  November, 


American   War  of  Independence.  19'' 


J 


Wesley  says:  "I  was  desired  to  preach,  in  Bethnal  Green  1775 
church,  a  charity  sermon  for  the  widows  and  orphans  of  the  Age72 
soldiers  that  were  killed  in  America.  Knowing  how  many 
would  seek  occasion  of  offence,  I  wrote  down  my  sermon." 
The  discourse  was  immediately  published,  with  the  title,  "  A 
Sermon  preached  at  St.  Matthew's,  Bethnal  Green,  on  Sunday, 
November  12,  1775.  By  John  Wesley,  M.A.  For  the  benefit 
of  the  widows  and  orphans  of  the  soldiers  who  lately  fell  near 
Boston,  in  New  England."  8vo,  33  pages.  Wesley  speaks 
of  the  terrible  distress  from  which  the  nation  was  suffering. 
Thousands  were  totally  unemployed.  He  had  seen  not  a  few 
(^  them  "  standing  in  the  streets,  with  pale  looks,  hollow  eyes, 
and  meagre  limbs."  He  says,  he  had  "  known  families,  who, 
a  few  years  ago,  lived  in  an  easy,  genteel  manner,"  driven  to 
the  necessity  of  repairing  to  the  fields  "  to  pick  up  the  turnips 
which  the  cattle  had  left:  and  which  they  boiled,  if  they  could 
get  a  few  sticks  for  that  purpose,  or  otherwise  ate  them  raw." 
Thousands  had  "screamed  for  liberty  till  they  were  utterly 
distracted,  and  their  intellects  quite  confounded."  "  In  every 
town,  men,  who  were  once  of  a  calm,  mild,  friendly  temper, 
were  now  mad  with  party  zeal,  foaming  with  rage  against 
their  quiet  neighbours,  ready  to  tear  out  one  another's  throats, 
and  to  plunge  their  swords  into  each  other's  bowels."  He 
then  proceeds  to  descant,  in  withering  terms,  on  the  sins  of 
the  nation, — money  getting,  lying,  gluttony,  idleness,  and 
profanity.  The  sermon  altogether,  considering  the  time  and 
circumstances  of  its  delivery,  was  one  of  the  boldest  he  ever 
preached;  and,  of  course,  added  to  the  rage  that  his  "Calm 
Address  "  had  kindled.  The  Gospel  Magazine,  in  reviewing  it, 
remarks:  "  So  many  barrels  of  tar  have  of  late  been  lavished 
on  Mr.  Wesley,  and  so  many  bags  of  featJiers  have  been 
shaken  over  him,  on  account  of  his  new  political  apostasy, 
that  it  might  seem  unmerciful  in  us,  should  we  add  to  the 
anointings  and  to  the  poivderings,  which  he  has  already  so 
plentifully,  though  not  undeservedly,  received.  We  shall 
therefore,  from  a  principle  of  compassion,  touch  his  sermon 
with  the  tenderer  hand,  and  let  the  sermoniscr  himself  very 
lightly  off,  the  enormity  of  his  demerits  considered."  And 
then  the  tender  reviewer,  in  his  unmerited  compassion,  pro- 
ceeds to  describe  "  the  sermon  as  being  as  dry  as  an  old  piece 
VOL.  III.  O 


194  -^{/^  (^^id  Times  of  Wesley. 

1775     of  leather  that  has  been  tanned  five   thousand  times  over"  ; 

Age  72  and  the  preacher  as  "  a  tip-top  perfectionist  in  the  art  of 
lying.".  All  this  revives  a  recollection  of  "  The  Old  Fox  tarred 
and  feathered," — and  of  its  polite  author,  the  Rev.  Augustus 
Toplady,  who  had  just  now  become  the  courteous  editor  of 
the  misnamed  Gospel  Magazine. 

At  the  conference  of  1774,  Wesley  had  2204  members  of 
society  in  America,  and  seven  itinerant  preachers,  Messrs. 
Rankin,  Asbury,  Shadford,  Williams,  King,  Dempster,  and 
Rodda ;  and  to  direct  these,  in  the  midst  of  a  great  rebellion, 
required  more  than  ordinary  wisdom.  A  few  extracts  from 
his  letters  to  Thomas  Rankin  will  not  be  without  interest.     » 

"London,  March  i,  1775. 

"  Dear  Tommy, — As  soon  as  possible,  you  must  come  to  a  full  and 
clear  explanation,  both  with  brother  Asbury,  and  with  Jemmy  Dempster. 
But  I  advise  brother  Asbury  to  return  to  England  the  first  opportunity. 

"  There  is  now  a  probability  that  God  will  hear  prayer,  and  turn  the 
counsels  of  Ahithophel  into  foolishness.  It  is  not  unlikely  that  peace  will 
be  reestablished  between  England  and  the  colonies.  But,  certainly,  the 
present  doubtful  situation  of  affairs  may  be  improved  to  the  benefit  of 
many.  They  may  be  strongly  incited  now  '  to  break  off  their  sins  by 
repentance,  if  it  may  be  a  lengthening  of  their  tranquillity.' 

"  I  add  a  line  to  all  the  preachers ; — 

"  Afy  Dear  Brethren, — You  were  never  in  your  lives  in  so  critical  a 
situation  as  you  are  at  this  time.  It  is  your  part  to  be  peacemakers  ;  to 
be  loving  and  tender  to  all;  but  to  addict  yourselves  to  no  party.  In 
spite  of  all  solicitations,  of  rough  or  smooth  words,  say  not  one  word 
against  one  or  the  other  side.  Keep  yourselves  pure :  do  all  you  can  to 
help  and  soften  all ;  but  beware  how  you  adopt  another's  jar.  See  that 
you  act  in  full  union  with  each  other;  this  is  of  the  utmost  consequence. 
Not  only  let  there  be  no  bitterness  or  anger,  but  no  shyness  or  coldness, 
between  you.  Mark  all  those  who  would  set  one  of  you  against  the  other. 
Some  such  will  never  be  wanting.  But  give  them  no  countenance ;  rather 
ferret  them  out,  and  drag  them  into  open  day.  The  conduct  of  T. 
Rankin  has  been  suitable  to  the  Methodist  plan.  I  hope  all  of  you  tread 
in  his  steps.  Let  your  eye  be  single.  Be  in  peace  with  each  other,  and 
the  God  of  peace  will  be  with  you." 

Under  the  same  date,  Charles  Wesley  wrote  to  Rankin  as 
follows. 

"My  dear  Brother, — As  to  public  affairs,  I  wish  you  to  be  like- 
minded  with  me.  I  am  of  neither  side,  and  yet  of  both;  on  the  side  of 
New  England,  and  of  Old.  Private  Christians  are  excused,  exempted, 
privileged,  to  take  no  part  in  civil  troubles.     We  love  all,  and  pray  for  all, 


American   War  of  Independence.  195 

with  a  sincere  and  impartial  love.     Faults  there  may  be  on  both  sides;  1775 

but  such  as  neither  you  nor  I  can  remedy :  therefore,  let  us,  and  all  our  — 

children,  give  ourselves  unto  prayer,  and  so  stand  still  and  see  the  salva-  " 
tion  of  God." 

The  war  was  not  the  only  thing  that  gave  Wesley- 
trouble.  Thomas  Rankin  and  Francis  Asbury  were  not 
able  to  agree;  and  Miss  Gilbert  had  actually  written  to 
Asbury,  stating  that  Mr,  Gilbert  was  about  to  leave  An- 
tigua; and  wishing  him  to  come,  and  to  take  charge  of 
the  three  hundred  Methodists  in  that  island.  Asbury  was 
inclined  to  accept  of  this  invitation;  but  was  deterred  by 
his  want  of  ordination,  and  therefore,  as  he  thought,  want 
of  authority  to  administer  the  sacraments  of  the  Christian 
church.  Wesley  wished  him  to  return  to  England.  What 
a  disaster,  if  he  had!^  These  facts  will  cast  light  on  the 
following  letters. 

"  PORTARLINGTON,   April  2\,    I  775. 

"  Dear  Tommy, — Brother  Asbury  has  sent  me  a  few  lines,  and  I  thank 
him  for  them.  But  I  do  not  advise  him  to  go  to  Antigua.  Let  him  come 
home  without  delay.  If  one  or  two  stout,  healthy  young  men  would 
willingly  offer  themselves  to  that  service,  I  should  have  no  objection ;  but 
none  should  go,  unless  he  was  fully  persuaded  in  his  own  mind.  I  am 
afraid,  you  will  soon  find  a  day  of  trial :  the  clouds  are  black  both  over 
England  and  America.  It  is  well  if  this  summer  passes  over  without 
some  showers  of  blood.  And  if  the  storm  once  begins  in  America,  it  vvill 
soon  spread  to  Great  Britain. 

"  I  am,  dear  Tommy,  etc., 

"John  Wesley." 

"Ballinrobe,  May  19,  1775. 

"Dear  Tommy, — I  doubt  not  but  brother  Asbury  and  you  will  part 
friends  ;  I  hope  I  shall  see  him  at  the  conference.  He  is  quite  an  upright 
man.  I  apprehend  he  will  go  through  his  work  more  cheerfully  when  he 
is  a  little  distance  from  me. 

"  We  must  speak  the  plain  truth,  wherever  we  are,  whether  men  will 
hear,  or  whether  they  will  forbear.  And  among  our  societies  we  m.ust 
enforce  our  rules,  with  all  mildness  and  steadiness. 

"  Never  was  there  a  time,  when  it  was  more  necessary  for  all  that  fiear 
God,  both  in  England  and  in  America,  to  wrestle  with  God  in  mighty 
prayer.  In  all  the  other  judgments  of  God,  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth 
learn  righteousness  ;  but  wherever  war  breaks  out,  God  is  forgotten,  if 
He  be  not  set  at  open  defiance.  What  a  glorious  work  of  God  was  at 
Cambuslang  and  Kilsyth,  from  1740  to  1744  !     But  the  war  that  followed 

'  Asbury"s  Journal. 


jgS  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

177s      tore  it  all  up  by  the  roots,  and  left  scarce  any  trace  of  it  behind  ;  inso- 
.       '       much  that,  when  I  diligently  inquired  a  few  years  after,  I  could  not  find 
one  that  retained  the  life  of  God  ! " 

"ClarmaitnT,  yufie  13,  1775. 
"  Dear  Tommy, — I  am  afraid  our  correspondence,  for  the  time  to  come, 
will  be  more  uncertain  than  ever,  since  the  sword  is  drawn  ;  and  it  is 
well  if  they  have  not,  on  both  sides,  thrown  away  the  scabbard.  What  will 
the  end  of  these  things  be,  either  in  Europe  or  America?  It  seems,  huge 
confusion  and  distress,  such  as  neither  we  nor  our  fathers  had  known  ! ' 
But  it  is  enough,  if  all  issues  in  glory  to  God,  and  peace  and  goodwill 
among  men.  Never  had  America  such  a  call  to  repentance  ;  for,  un- 
less general  reformation  prevent  general  destruction,  what  a  scene  will 
soon  be  opened!  Ruin  and  desolation  must  soon  overspread  the  land; 
and  fair  houses  be  turned  into  ruinous  heaps.  But  what  are  those 
strange  phenomena  which  you  speak  of .?  Send  me  an  account  of  just 
so  much  as  you  can  depend  on.  Should  you  not  appoint  in  America, 
as  we  do  in  England  and  Ireland,  one  or  more  general  days  of  fasting 
and  prayer?" 

"Near  Leeds,  yu/y  28,  1775. 

"Dear  Tommy, — I  rejoice  to  hear  that  the  work  of  our  Lord  still 
prospers  in  your  hands.  If  the  temple  is  built  even  in  troublous  times,  it 
is  not  by  the  power  of  man.  I  rejoice  too  over  honest  Francis  Asbury, 
and  hope  he  will  no  more  enter  into  temptation.  I  know  no  reason  why 
you  should  not  print  the  names  of  the  American  preachers.  You  may 
print  an  edition  of  the  *  Christian  Pattern,'  and  apply  the  profits  of  it  to 
the  payment  of  the  debt.  The  societies  should  pay  the  passage  of  the 
preachers.  But  you  must  not  imagine,  that  any  more  of  them  will  come 
to  America  till  these  troubles  are  at  an  end. 

"  Certainly,  this  is  the  point  which  we  should  insist  upon,  in  season 
and  out  of  season.  The  universal  corruption  of  all  orders  and  degrees 
of  men  loudly  calls  for  the  vengeance  of  God  ;  and,  inasmuch  as  all 
other  nations  are  equally  corrupt,  it  seems  God  will  punish  us  by  one 
another.  What  can  prevent  this,  but  a  universal,  or,  at  least,  a  general 
repentance  ? " 

"  London,  August  13,  1775. 
"  Dear  Tommy, —  I  am  not  sorry  that  brother  Asbury  stays  with  you 
another  year.  In  that  time,  it  will  be  seen  what  God  will  do  with  North 
America  ;  and  you  will  easily  judge  whether  our  preachers  are  called  to 
remain  any  longer  therein.  If  they  are,  God  will  make  their  way  plain, 
and  give  them  favour  even  with  the  men  that  dehght  in  war.  The  clouds 
do  indeed  gather  more  and  more;  and  it  seems  a  heavy  storm  will 
follow ;  certainly  it  will,  unless  the  prayers  of  the  faithful  obtain  a 
longer  reprieve." 

^  Words  fearfully  realised,  first  in  America,  next  in  France,  and  then 
throughout  all  Europe. 


America7i   War  of  Independence.  19/ 

"London,  Ot76'i^6'r  20,  1775.         1775 

"  Dear  Tommy, — I  am  glad  you  are  going  into  North  Carolina  ;  and      a^7~. 
why  not  into  South  Carolina  too  ?     I   apprehend,  those  provinces  would        '^ 
bear  much  fruit,  as  most  parts  of  them  are  fresh,  unbroken  ground.     And 
as  the  people  are  further  removed  from  the  din  of  war,  they  may  be  more 
susceptible  of  the  gospel  of  peace. 

"A  paper  was  sent  to  me  lately,  occasioned  by  the  troubles  in  America ; 
but  it  would  not  do  good.  It  is  abundantly  too  tart;  and  nothing  of  that 
kind  will  be  of  service  now.  All  parties  are  already  too  much  sharpened 
against  each  other  ;  we  must  pour  water,  not  oil,  into  the  flame.  I  had 
written  a  little  tract '  upon  the  subject  before  I  knew  the  American  ports 
were  shut  up.  I  think  there  is  not  one  sharp  word  therein  ;  I  did  not 
design  there  should.  However,  many  are  excessively  angry  ;  and  would 
willingly  burn  me  and  it  together.  Indeed  it  is  provoking  ;  I  suppose 
above  forty  thousand  of  them  have  been  printed  in  three  weeks,  and  still 
the  demand  for  them  is  as  great  as  ever. 

"  I  am  entirely  of  your  mind.  I  am  persuaded,  love  and  tender 
measures  will  do  far  more  than  violence.  And  if  I  should  have  an 
interview  with  a  great  man,  which  seems  to  be  not  unlikely,  I  will  tell 
him  so,  without  any  circumlocution. 

"  I  am,  dear  Tommy,  your  affectionate  friend  and  brother, 

"John  Wesley." 2 

The  "  great  man  "  referred  to  was  probably  Lord  North, 
the  prime  minister  of  the  English  cabinet,  to  whom,  and  to  the 
Earl  of  Dartmouth,  Wesley  had,  four  months  before,  addressed 
most  important  letters,  in  which  he  strongly  endeavoured  to 
convince  the  government  of  the  exceedingly  critical  condition 
of  public  matters.  No  man  in  the  kingdom  had  suffered 
more  from  the  violation  of  English  law  than  Wesley  had  ; 
and  yet  now,  in  England's  extremity,  no  man  evinced  a  more 
loyal  spirit  than  was  evinced  by  him.  Indeed,  his  loyalty 
became,  in  the  eyes  of  his  enemies,  a  crime,  and  brought  him, 
not  reward,  but  ruffianly  reproach.  An  extract  from  the 
letters  to  the  two  ministers  of  state  may  fitly,  for  the  present, 
close  these  American  reminiscences. 

"Armagh,  June  15,  1775. 

"  My  Lord, — Whether  my  writing  do  any  good  or  no,  it  need  do  no 
harm  ;  for  it  rests  with  your  lordship  whether  any  eye  but  your  own  shall 
see  it. 

"  1  do  not  enter  upon  the  question,  whether  the  Americans  are  in  the 


>  His  "  Calm  Address." 
*  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xii.,  pp.  302-308. 


19S  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1775  right  or  in  the  wrong.  Here  all  my  prejudices  are  against  the  Americans  ; 
Age^a  ^°'^'  ^  ^™  ^  ^^'S^  churchman,'  the  son  of  a  high  churchman,  bred  up, 
from  my  childhood,  in  the  highest  notions  of  passive  obedience  and  non- 
resistance  ;  and  yet,  in  spite  of  all  my  long  rooted  prejudices,  I  cannot 
avoid  thinking,  if  I  think  at  all,  that  an  oppressed  people  asked  for  no- 
thing more  than  their  legal  rights,  and  that  in  the  most  modest  and 
inoffensive  manner  that  the  nature  of  the  thing  would  allow.^  But  waiving 
all  considerations  of  right  and  wrong,  I  ask,  is  it  common  sense  to  use 
force  towards  the  Americans  ?  These  men  will  not  be  frightened  ;  and  it 
seems,  they  will  not  be  conquered  so  easily  as  was  at  first  imagined.  They 
will  probably  dispute  every  inch  of  ground  ;  and,  if  they  die,  die  sword  in 
hand.  Indeed,  some  of  our  valiant  officers  say,  '  Two  thousand  men 
will  clear  America  of  these  rebels.'  No,  nor  twenty  thousand,  be  they 
rebels  or  not,  nor  perhaps  treble  that  number.  They  are  as  strong  men 
as  you  ;  they  are  as  valiant  as  you,  if  not  abundantly  more  valiant,  for 
they  are  one  and  all  enthusiasts, — enthusiasts  for  liberty.  They  are  calm, 
deliberate  enthusiasts;  and  we  know  how  this  principle  'breathes  into 
softer  souls  stern  love  of  war,  and  thirst  of  vengeance,  and  contempt  of 
death.'  We  know  men,  animated  with  this  spirit,  will  leap  into  a  fire,  or 
rush  into  a  cannon's  mouth. 

" '  But  they  have  no  experience  in  war.'  And  how  much  more  have  our 
troops  ?  Very  few  of  them  ever  saw  a  battle.  '  But  they  have  no  disci- 
pline.' That  is  an  entire  mistake.  Already  they  have  near  as  much  as 
our  army,  and  they  will  learn  more  of  it  every  day  ;  so  that,  in  a 
short  time,  if  the  fatal  occasion  continue,  they  will  understand  it  as  well 
as  their  assailants.^  '  But  they  are  divided  amongst  themselves.'  No,  my 
lord,  they  are  terribly  united  ;  not  in  the  province  of  New  England  only, 
but  down  as  low  as  the  Jerseys  and  Pennsylvania.  The  bulk  of  the  people 
are  so  united,  that  to  speak  a  word  in  favour  of  the  present  English 
measures  would  almost  endanger  a  man's  life.  Those  who  informed  me 
of  this  are  no  sycophants;  they  say  nothing  to  curry  favour  ;  they  have 
nothing  to  gain  or  lose  by  me.  But  they  speak  with  sorrow  of  heart  what 
they  have  seen  with  their  own  eyes,  and  heard  with  their  own  ears. 

"  These  men  think,  one  and  all,  be  it  right  or  wrong,  that  they  are  con- 
tending p7-o  aris  et focisj  for  their  wi\es,  children,  and  liberty.     What  an 


^  Did  Wesley  mean  this  ?  That  is,  did  he  use  it  in  any  sense  except 
that  which  immediately  follows  .'' 

^  This  may  seem  to  clash  with  the  tenor  of  Wesley's  "Calm  Address"  ; 
but  the  reader  must  recollect,  that  it  was  not  until  after  the  date  of  this 
letter  that  the  "  Calm  Address  "  was  written  ;  and  that  Wesley's  change 
of  opinions  did  not  occur  until  after  the  Leeds  conference  of  1775. 
Wesley's  foresight,  throughout  the  whole  of  this  fearful  war,  was  most 
remarkable. 

^  It  is  a  remarkable  fact,  that  this  letter  was  written  within  forty-eight 
hours  before  the  disgraceful  and  disastrous  battle  at  Bunker  Hill,  where 
Wesley's  warnings  to  the  premier  and  colonial  secretary  of  England  were 
too  amply  verified.  With  his  itinerants  in  America,  Wesley  knew  quite 
as  much  of  American  affairs  as  Lord  North,  and  perhaps  a  little  more. 


Age  72 


Amcricaji    War  of  Independence.  199 

advantage  have  they  herein  over  many  that  fight  only  for  pay!  none  of  1775 
whom  care  a  straw  for  the  cause  wherein  they  are  engaged  ;  most  of 
whom  strongly  disapprove  of  it.  Have  they  not  another  considerable 
advantage  ?  Is  there  occasion  to  recruit  troops  ?  Their  supplies  are  at 
hand,  and  all  round  about  them.  Ours  are  three  thousand  miles  off. 
Are  we  then  able  to  conquer  the  Americans,  suppose  they  are  left 
to  themselves,  suppose  all  our  neighbours  should  stand  stock  still,  and 
leave  us  and  them  to  fight  it  out  ?  But  we  are  not  sure  of  this.  Nor 
are  we  sure  that  all  our  neighbours  will  stand  stock  still.  I  doubt  they 
have  not  promised  it ;  and,  if  they  had,  could  we  rely  upon  those  pro- 
mises ?  '  Yet,  it  is  not  probable  they  will  send  ships  or  men  to 
America.'  Is  there  not  a  shorter  way  1  Do  they  not  know  where 
England  and  Ireland  lie.''  And  have  they  not  troops,  as  well  as 
ships,  in  readiness  ?  All  Europe  is  well  apprised  of  this  ;  only  the 
English  know  nothing  of  the  matter  !  What  if  they  find  means  to  land 
but  two  thousand  men  ?  Where  are  the  troops  in  England  or  Ireland 
to  oppose  them  ?  Why,  cutting  the  throats  of  their  brethren  in  America  ! 
Poor  England,  in  the  meantime  ! 

"  '  But  we  have  our  militia — our  valiant,  disciplined  militia.  These  will 
effectually  oppose  them.'  Give  me  leave,  my  lord,  to  relate  a  little  circum- 
stance, of  which  I  was  informed  by  a  clergyman  who  knew  the  fact.  In 
1716,  alarge  body  of  militia  were  marching  towards  Preston  against  the 
rebels.  In  a  wood,  which  they  were  passing  by,  a  boy  happened  to 
discharge  his  fowling  piece.  The  soldiers  gave  up  all  for  lost,  and,  by 
common  consent,  threw  down  their  arms,  and  ran  for  life.  So  much 
dependence  is  to  be  placed  on  our  valorous  militia. 

"  But,  my  lord,  this  is  not  all.  We  have  thousands  of  enemies,  perhaps 
more  dangerous  than  French  or  Spaniards.  As  I  travel  four  or  five  thousand 
miles  every  year,  I  have  an  opportunity  of  conversing  freely  with  more 
persons  of  every  denomination  than  any  one  else  in  the  three  kingdoms. 
I  cannot  but  know  the  general  disposition  of  the  people, — English,  Scots, 
and  Irish  ;  and  I  know  a  large  majority  of  them  are  exasperated  almost 
to  madness.  Exactly  so  they  were  throughout  England  and  Scotland 
about  the  year  1640,  and,  in  a  great  measure,  by  the  same  means  ;  by 
inflammatory  papers,  which  were  spread,  as  they  are  now,  with  the  utmost 
diligence,  in  every  corner  of  the  land.  Hereby  the  bulk  of  the  population 
were  effectually  cured  of  all  love  and  reverence  for  the  king.  So  that, 
first  despising,  then  hating  him,  they  were  just  ripe  for  open  rebellion. 
And,  I  assure  your  lordship,  so  they  are  now.  They  want  nothing  but  a 
leader. 

"Two  circumstances  more  are  deserving  to  be  considered:  the  one, 
that  there  was,  at  that  time,  a  decay  of  general  trade  almost  throughout 
the  kingdom  ;  the  other,  there  was  a  common  dearness  of  provisions. 
The  case  is  the  same,  in  both  respects,  at  this  day.  So  that,  even  now, 
there  are  multitudes  of  people  that,  having  nothing  to  do,  and  nothing  to 
eat,  are  ready  for  the  first  bidder  ;  and  that,  without  inquiring  into  the 
merits  of  the  case,  would  flock  to  any' that  would  give  them  bread. 


200  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1775  "  Upon  the  whole,  I  am  really  sometimes  afraid  that  this  evil  is  from 

\ee~72  ^^  Lord.  When  I  consider  the  astonishing  luxury  of  the  rich,  and  the 
shocking  impiety  of  rich  and  poor,  I  doubt  whether  general  dissoluteness 
of  manners  does  not  demand  a  general  visitation.  Perhaps  the  decree 
is  already  gone  forth  from  the  Governor  of  the  world.  Perhaps  even 
now : 

*As  he  that  buys,  surveys  a  ground. 

So  the  destroying  angel  measures  it  around. 

Calm  he  surveys  the  perishing  nation  ; 

Ruin  behind  him  stalks,  and  empty  desolation.' 

"But  we  Englishmen  are  too  wise  to  acknowledge  that  God  has  any- 
thing to  do  in  the  world  !  Otherwise  should  we  not  seek  Him  by  fasting 
and  prayer,  before  He  lets  the  lifted  thunder  drop  ?  O  my  lord,  if  your 
lordship  can  do  anything,  let  it  not  be  wanting  !  For  God's  sake,  for  the 
sake  of  the  king,  of  the  nation,  of  your  lovely  family,  remember  Reho- 
boam  !  Remember  Philip  the  Second  !  Remember  King  Charles  the 
First  ! 

"  I  am,  with  true  regard,  my  lord,  your  lordship's  obedient  servant, 

"John  Wesley."^ 

Whatever  may  be  thought  of  the  principle  advocated  in 
Wesley's  "  Calm  Address  to  the  American  Colonies,"  namely, 
that  taxation  without  representation  is  no  tyranny,  there  can 
be  no  doubt  that  his  letters  to  the  premier  and  to  the  colonial 
secretary  are  full  of  warnings  and  foresight  which  were  terribly 
fulfilled  ;  and,  for  fidelity,  fulness,  terseness,  in  short,  for 
mnltum  in  parvo,  were  perhaps  without  a  parallel  in  the  corre- 
spondence of  these  ministers  of  state. 

Much  space  has  been  occupied  with  these  American  affairs, 
,  If  an  apology  were  needed,  the  reader  might  be  courteously 
reminded  (i)  that  John  Wesley's  "Calm  Address  "  threw,  not 
Methodism  only,  but  the  nation,  into  a  fever  of  excitement, 
and,  directly  and  indirectly,  gave  birth  to  scores  of  pamphlets 
on  the  sam^e  subject ;  (2)  that  the  American  rebellion  is  one  of 
the  greatest  events  in  English  history  ;  and  (3)  that,  in  con- 
sequence of  the  great  majority  of  the  clergy  of  the  English 
Church  fleeing  from  the  colonies,  when  the  colonies  most 
needed  them,  Methodism,  under  the  sagacious  management  of 
the  apostolic  Asbury,  took  the  place  which  had  hitherto  been 
occupied  by  Anglican  episcopacy  ;  and,  henceforth,  literally 


^Smith's   History  of   Methodism,  vol.    i.,   p.    726;    and    Maanillati's 
Magazine  for  December,  1870. 


Death  of  Peter  Bohler.  201 

became  the   predominant  religion  of  what  is  hkely  to  be  the      i775 
greatest  and  most  prosperous  country  in  the  world.  Age  72 

We  must  now  return  to  Wesley  in  a  more  private  capacity. 

The  reader  has  long  lost  sight  of  Peter  Bohler.  In  1739, 
after  the  conversion  of  the  two  Wesleys,  Bohler  went  to 
Georgia,  and  his  life,  since  then,  had  been  spent  in  unwearied 
Christian  work,  partly  in  America  and  partly  in  Europe.  His 
labours  now  were  nearly  ended;  and,  on  April  27,  1775,  he 
peacefully  expired,  in  London,  at  the  age  of  sixty-three.  For 
years  past,  correspondence  seems  to  have  ceased  between 
Wesley  and  his  early  Moravian  friend.  Within  three  months 
of  Bohler's  death,  it  was  renewed.  Wesley  wrote  to  him  on  the 
5  th  of  February,  and  Bohler,  in  a  beautifully  Christian  letter, 
responded.    A  few  days  later,  Wesley  wrote  again,  as  follows. 

"  Feb}-uary  i8,  1775. 

"  My  dear  Brother, — When  I  say,  '  I  hope  I  shall  never  be  con- 
strained to  speak  otherwise  of  them'  (the  Moravians),  I  do  not  mean,  that 
I  have  any  expectation  this  will  ever  happen.  Probably  it  never  will.  I 
never  did  speak  but  when  I  believed  it  was  my  duty  so  to  do.  And,  if  they 
would  calmly  consider  what  I  have  spoken  from  March  10,  1736,  and 
were  open  to  conviction,  they  might  be  such  Christians  as  are  hardly  in 
the  world  besides.  I  have  not  lost  sight  of  you  yet.  Indeed,  I  cannot,  if 
you  are  '  a  city  set  upon  a  hill.' 

"  Perhaps  no  one  living  is  a  greater  lover  of  peace,  or  has  laboured  more 
for  it,  than  I  ;  particularly,  among  the  children  of  God.^  I  set  out,  near 
fifty  years  ago,  with  this  principle,  'Whosoever  doeth  the  will  of  my  Father 
who  is  in  heaven,  the  same  is  my  brother,  and  sister,  and  mother.'  But 
there  is  no  one  living  that  has  been  more  abused  for  his  pains,  even  to  this 
day.  But  it  is  all  well.  By  the  grace  of  God,  I  shall  go  on,  following 
peace  with  all  men,  and  loving  your  Brethren  beyond  any  body  of  men 
upon  earth,  except  the  Methodists. 

"  Wishing  you  every  gospel  blessing,  I  remain  your  verj''  affectionate 
brother, 

"  John  Wesley."^ 

Thus  ended  Wesley's  intercourse  with  Bohler,  till  it  was 
renewed  in  heaven. 

Eleven    days   after   the    above    was    written,    Wesley    left 


^  These  were  not  empty  words,  though  Wesley  was  almost  perpetually 
in  war.  In  an  unpublished  letter,  to  Matthew  Lowes,  dated  March  6, 
1759,  he  writes  :  "What  would  one  not  do,  except  sin,  that  brotherly 
love  may  continue  !  " 

"^Methodist  Magazine,  1854,  p.  691. 


202  Life  and  Times  of  IVesley. 

1775  London  for  Ireland,  proceeding,  as  usual,  by  way  of  Bristol 
h^nz  and  the  midland  counties.  Nothing  remarkable  occurred 
in  his  journey  to  Liverpool.  Of  course,  he  was  preaching 
continually,  and,  winter  though  it  was,  sometimes  out  of 
doors.  While  doing  so,  at  Newcastle  under  Lyne,  "  a  buf- 
foon," he  says,  "  laboured  to  interrupt  him  ;  but,  as  he  was 
bawling,  with  his  mouth  wide  open,  some  arch  boys  gave 
him  such  a  mouthful  of  dirt  as  quite  satisfied  him." 

At  Dublin,  at  the  request  of  "  the  good  old  dean,"  he 
assisted  in  administering  the  Lord's  supper  in  St.  Patrick's. 
At  Maryborough,  he  complied  with  the  wish  of  the  clergy- 
man, and  preached  in  the  parish  church.  The  Methodist 
chapel  at  Waterford  he  describes  as  "  a  foul,  horrid,  miser- 
able hole."  For  the  first  time,  he  preached  at  Clones,  using, 
as  his  church,  an  old  Danish  fort.  Here  Methodism  had  been 
introduced  about  the  year  1768.  The  papists  were  furious, 
and  magistrates  refused  to  interfere ;  but,  just  when  the 
place  was  about  to  be  given  up,  a  military  pensioner,  an 
old  presbyterian,  took  his  stand  in  the  centre  of  the  market, 
and,  shouldering  his  musket,  declared  that  he  would  shoot 
the  first  man  that  attempted  to  disturb  the  preacher.  The 
rioters  were  frightened  ;  and  the  rough  old  soldier  mounted 
guard  every  sabbath  afternoon,  until  opposition  ceased.^ 

At  Londonderry,  Wesley  accepted  the  bishop's  invitation 
to  dinner ;  the  prelate  remarking,  "  I  know  you  do  not  love 
our  hours,  and  will  therefore  order  dinner  to  be  on  the  table 
between  two  and  three  o'clock."  "  We  had,"  says  Wesley, 
"  a  piece  of  boiled  beef,  and  an  English  pudding.  This  is 
true  good  breeding." 

At  Castle  Caulfield,  writes  Wesley,  with  the  utmost  sang 
froid,  "  the  rain  came  plentifully,  through  the  thatch,  into 
my  lodging  room ;  but  I  found  no  present  inconvenience, 
and  was  not  careful  for  the  morrow." 

Six  days  afterwards,  Wesley  was  seized  with  illness,  which 
nearly  proved  fatal ;  but  for  three  days  more,  though  in  a 
burning  fever,  he  continued  travelling  and  preaching  almost 
as  usual.  He  had  now  reached  the  town  of  Lurgan,  where, 
four  years  previously,  a  society  had  been  formed,  one  of  the 

'  Life  of  Henry  Moore. 


Wesley  Dangerously  III.  203 

first  members  being  Isaac  Bullock,  an  old  soldier,  \vho  had  1775 
been  at  the  capture  of  several  islands  in  the  West  Indies,  Age~72 
and  was  one  of  sixty,  called  "  the  forlorn  hope,"  who,  in 
1762,  first  entered  the  breach  at  the  storming  of  Havan- 
nah,  only  six  of  the  sixty  escaping  with  their  lives. 
The  house  of  this  sturdy  veteran  was  the  preaching  place 
of  the  Lurgan  Methodists.*  Here  Wesley  was  obliged  to 
succumb  to  fever.  He  sent  for  a  physician,  who  told  him 
he  must  rest.  Wesley  replied,  he  could  not,  as  he  "  had 
appointed  to  preach  at  several  places,  and  must  preach  as 
long  as  he  could  speak."  The  doctor  gave  him  medicine, 
and  off  he  went  to  Tanderagee,  and  then  to  a  gentleman's 
seat,  three  miles  beyond  Lisburn,  where  nature  sank,  and 
the  conquered  evangelist  was  compelled  to  take  his  bed. 
Strength,  memory,  and  mind  entirely  failed.  For  three 
days,  he  lay  more  dead  than  alive.  His  tongue  was  black 
and  swollen.  He  was  violently  convulsed.  For  some  time 
his  pulse  was  not  discernible.  Hope  was  almost  gone  ;  when 
Joseph  Bradford,  his  travelling  companion,  came  with  a  cup, 
and  said,  "  Sir,  you  must  take  this."  Wesley  writes  :  "  I 
thought,  '  I  will,  if  I  can  swallow,  to  please  him ;  for  it 
will  do  me  neither  harm  nor  good.'  Immediately  it  set 
me  a  vomiting ;  my  heart  began  to  beat,  and  my  pulse 
to  play  again ;  and,  from  that  hour,  the  extremity  of  the 
symptoms  abated."  Six  days  afterwards,  to  the  astonish- 
ment of  his  friends,  and,  as  he  says,  "trusting  in  God,"  he 
set  out  for  Dublin,  where,  within  a  week,  he  was  preaching 
as  usual. 

This  was  a  memorable  epoch,  even  in  Wesley's  eventful 
life.  The  house  in  which  he  lay  so  dangerously  ill  was  the 
hospitable  dwelling  of  Mr.  Gayer,  of  Derryaghey,^  a  devoted 
Methodist  of  great  respectability,  who  had  built  a  chapel  in 
the  village,  and,  for  the  accommodation  of  the  preachers, 
a  room,  which  went  by  the  name  of  "  the  prophet's  chamber." 
His  daughter,  afterwards  Mrs.  W^olfenden,  was  now  a  con- 
verted girl,  sixteen  years  of  age,  and,  with  her  mother,  was 
Wesley's  nurse.  Great  anxiety  was  felt  for  Wesley's  life, 
and,  while  a  few  select  friends  were  praying  that,  as  in  the 

^  Methodist  Magazine,  1827,  p.  800,  ^  Ibid.  1834,  p.  413. 


204  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1775  case  of  Hezekiah,  God  would  add  to  his  days  fifteen  years, 
Age~72  Mj's.  Gayer  suddenly  rose  from  her  knees,  and  cried,  "  The 
prayer  is  granted  !  "  Marvellously  enough,  Wesley's  recovery 
immediately  commenced,  and  he  survived,  from  June  1775 
to  March  1791,  a  period  of  just  fifteen  years,  and  a  few 
months  over. 

But  even  this  was  not  all  the  wonder.  Alexander  Mather, 
at  the  time,  was  at  Sheerness,  in  Kent,  where  he  read,  in 
the  newspapers,  that  Wesley  was  actually  dead,  Mather 
says,  he  was  not  able  to  give  credence  to  this ;  and,  before 
he  went  to  preach,  he  opened  his  Bible  on  the  words, 
"  Behold,  I  will  add  unto  thy  days  fifteen  years "  (Isa. 
xxxviii.  5) ;  and  away  he  went  to  the  chapel,  and  began 
to  pray  that  the  promise,  made  to  Hezekiah,  might  be 
fulfilled  in  the  case  of  Wesley.^  These  are  striking  facts. 
We  give  them  as  we  find  them.  The  sceptic  will  sneer; 
but  the  Christian  will  exercise  an  unfaltering  faith  in  the 
glorious  text,  which,  in  the  history  of  the  church,  has  been 
confirmed  in  instances  without  number :  "  The  effectual 
fervent  prayer  of  a  righteous  man  availeth  much." 

The  news  of  Wesley's  dangerous  illness  created  the 
utmost  consternation  among  his  friends.  The  following  is 
a  letter,  hitherto  unpublished,  addressed  by  Charles  Wesley 
to  Joseph  Bradford,  Wesley's  faithful  companion. 

"Bristol,  June  29,  1775. 

"  Dear  Joseph, — Be  of  good  cheer.  The  Lord  liveth,  and  all  live 
to  Him.  Your  last  is  just  arrived,  and  has  cut  off  all  hope  of  my 
brother's  recovery.  If  he  could  hold  out  till  now,  that  is,  ten  days 
longer,  he  might  recover;  but  I  dare  not  allow  myself  to  hope  it,  till  I 
hear  from  you  again.  The  people  here,  and  in  London,  and  every  place, 
are  swallowed  up  in  sorrow.  But  sorrow  and  death  will  soon  be 
swallowed  up  in  life  everlasting.  You  will  be  careful  of  my  brother's 
papers,  etc.,  till  you  see  his  executors.  God  shall  reward  your  fidelity 
and  love.  I  seem  scarce  separated  from  him  whom  I  shall  so  very  soon 
overtake.  We  were  united  in  our  lives,  and  in  our  death  not  divided. 
Brethren,  pray  a  very  little  longer  for  your  loving  servant — CHARLES 
Wesley. 

"  Thursday  Evenhig. 

"Yours  of  the  20th,  I  have  this  moment  received.  It  only  confirms 
my  fears.     My  brother,  soon  after  you  wrote,  in  all  probability,  entered 

^  York  society  book. 


Congratulations.  20; 


Age  72 


into  the  joy  of  his  Lord.      Yet  write  again,  and   send   me   the    parti-      ^775 
culars.     I    have   not,  and  never  more  shall  have,   strength  for  such  a 
journey.      The  Lord  prepare  us  for  a  speedy  removal  to  our  heavenly 
country  ! 

"  Charles  Wesley." 

The  tidings  of  Wesley's  recovery  produced  corresponding 
joy.  His  old  friend  and  former  itinerant,  now  the  Rev.  Dr. 
John  Jones,  of  Harwich,  wrote  to  him  as  follows. 

"  Harwich,  July  29,  1775. 
"Reverend  and  dear  Sir, — I  cannot  express  what  I  felt  when  I  was 
informed  that  you  were  both  senseless  and  speechless.  It  was  hke  life 
from  the  dead  when  I  heard  you  were  out  of  danger  and  able  to  sit  up. 
It  gave  me  some  hope,  that  God  has  not  yet  given  up  these  sinful  nations, 
and  that  He  will  strive  with  us  a  little  longer.  Time  was  when  you  would 
have  taken  my  advice,  at  least,  in  some  things.  Let  me  entreat,  let  me 
beseech  you,  to  preach  less  frequently,  and  that  only  at  the  principal 
places.  You  must  be  satisfied  with  directing  others,  and  doing  less  your- 
self. You  yourself  do  not  know  of  how  great  importance  your  life  is. 
Far  be  it  from  me  to  desire  you  not  to  travel;  I  only  beg  you  not  to  go 
beyond  your  strength. 

"John  Jones."  ^ 

Another  friend,  in  London,  wrote  the  following. 

"  London,  July  8, 1775. 
"  Reverend  Sir, — God,  who  comforteth  those  vv'ho  are  cast  down, 
hath  comforted  us  by  graciously  restoring  you  to  us  again.  The  prayer 
of  faith  has  saved  the  sick.  The  voice  of  joy  and  gladness  is  now  found 
in  the  dwellings  of  the  righteous ;  where  eight  days  past  there  were  mourn- 
ing, lamentation,  and  woe.  Every  social  repast  was  embittered,  and  we 
literally  mingled  our  drink  with  our  tears.  Could  you,  from  the  bed  of 
sickness,  have  cast  your  eyes  on  the  congregation,  the  first  sabbath  in  the 
month,  and  beheld  distress  in  every  face,  keen  anguish  in  every  heart, 
your  generous  soul  would  have  been  willing  to  have  tarried  awhile,  absent 
from  your  Lord,  to  return  to  comfort  those  mourners  in  Sion.  The  tidings 
of  your  recovery  was  received  with  melting  gratitude  and  joyous  tears. 
O  sir,  what  a  week  of  suspense  and  anguish  !  You  will  not  surely  blame 
us,  that  our  prayers  helped  to  detain  you  in  the  vale  below.  Forgive 
your  weeping  friends  if  they  have  brought  you  back  from  the  skies; 
surely,  in  the  end,  you  will  be  amply  recompensed  !  O  yes !  being  longer 
employed  in  the  work  of  faith,  and  labour  of  love,  your  crown  will  be 
the  brighter."  ^ 

These    are    specimens    of    the    loving    congratulations   of 
^  Methodist  Magazine^  ^7^7)  P-  444-  *  Ibid.  1787,  p.  552. 


2o6  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

^775  Wesley's  friends.^  His  illness  was  sharp,  though  short.  The 
Age  72  only  lasting  effect  was,  it  stripped  him,  at  all  events  for 
months  afterwards,  of  his  beautiful  head  of  hair.^ 

Having  spent  three  weeks  in  Dublin,  and  regained  his 
strength,  he,  on  July  23,  embarked  for  England,  having  in  the 
morning  of  that  day  again  assisted  in  administering  the  Lord's 
supper  in  St.  Patrick's  cathedral.  Landing  at  Parkgate,  he 
proceeded  to  Leeds  to  meet  his  conference,  preaching,  as  he 
travelled,  Avith  as  much  zest  as  ever ;  except  that  he  spent  a 
day  or  two  at  Miss  Bosanquet's,  making  conference  prepara- 
tions. Notwithstanding  the  warnings  and  entreaties  of  his 
friends,  his  labours  were  unabated.  Referring  to  his  illness 
and  recovery,  he  wrote,  in  178 1 :  "  From  this  time"  (1775)  "I 
have,  by  the  grace  of  God,  gone  on  in  the  same  track,  tra- 
velling between  four  and  five  thousand  miles  a  year,  and, 
once  in  two  years,  going  through  Great  Britain  and  Ireland; 
which,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  I  am  as  well  able  to  do  now 
as  I  was  twenty  or  thirty  years  ago.  About  a  hundred  and 
thirty  of  my  fellow  labourers  are  continually  employed  in  the 
same  thing.  We  all  aim  at  one  point,  not  at  profit,  any  more 
than  at  ease,  or  pleasure,  or  the  praise  of  men  ;  but  to  spread 
true  religion  through  London,  Dublin,  Edinburgh,  and,  as  we 
are  able,  through  the  three  kingdoms.  This  is  our  point. 
We  leave  every  man  to  enjoy  his  own  opinion,  and  to  use  his 
own  mode  of  worship,  desiring  only,  that  the  love  of  God  and 
his  neighbour  be  the  ruling  principle  in  his  heart,  and  show 
itself  in  his  life  by  a  uniform  practice  of  justice,  mercy,  and 
truth.  And,  accordingly,  we  give  the  right  hand  of  fellowship 
to  every  lover  of  God  and  man,  whatever  his  opinion  or 
mode  of  worship  be,  of  which  he  is  to  give  an  account  to  God 
only."  3 

Dr.  Jones's  advice  to  Wesley  was  lost  labour.  Wesley's  life 
was  a  perpetual  motion.     Work  seemed  to  be  essential  to  its 

'  A  curious  i2mo  tract,  of  four  pages,  was  published,  with  the  following 
title:  "  Some  Verses,  occasioned  by  the  severe  Illness,  much  feared  Disso- 
lution, and  almost  miraculous  Restoration,  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  John  Wesley,  at 
Lisburne,  in  Ireland,  July  2,  1775.  London:  printed  for  W.  Kent,  No. 
116,  High  Holborn  :  1775."  These  verses  were  directed  to  be  sung  "to 
the  tune  of  '  Oliver's.'" 

'^Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xii.,  p.  469. 

®  Ibid.  vol.  xiii.,  p.  359. 


Giving  Advice.  207 


continuance.     There  are  but  few  who  can  sincerely  sing  the     i775 
hnes,  which  he,  from  his  inmost  heart,  sang  so  often :  Age  72 

"  Oh  that,  without  a  lingering  groan, 
I  may  the  welcome  word  receive, 
My  body  with  my  charge  lay  down, 
And  cease  at  once  to  work  and  live  /" 

Wesley,  however,  could  give  advice,  though  it  was  not 
always  that  he  took  it.  The  following  extract  from  a  letter 
to  his  brother,  written  at  this  period,  contains  an  example  of 
this,  besides  referring  to  his  publishing  affairs  and  the  move- 
ments of  his  miserable  wife. 

"Londonderry,  yune  2,  1775. 

"  Dear  Brother, — I  thought  it  strange,  that  poor  Samuel  Franks 
should  leave  me  ^900  in  debt.  But  it  is  stranger  still,  that  John  Atlay 
should  have  paid  ;{^i6oo  out  of  nine;  and  that  I  am  £160  in  debt 
notwithstanding  ! 

"Mr.  Walthen's  method  of  radical  cure  I  shall  hardly  try.^  I  am  very 
easy,  and  that  is  enough. 

"  Has  my  friend  taken  a  house  at  Bristol  ?  Is  Noah  with  her  ?  What 
are  they  doing  ? 

"  Preach  as  much  as  you  can,  and  no  more  than  you  can.  You  never 
will  be  much  stronger  till  you  add  change  of  air  to  exercise ;  riding  two 
or  three  hundred  miles  point  blank  forward.  Now  you  have  an  oppor- 
tunity. Meet  me  at  Leeds  with  honest  John  Murhn.  When  you  are 
tired  you  may  change  places  with  him.  You  would  return  a  stout,  healthy 
man. 

''  Peace  be  with  you  and  yours  !    Adieu  ! 

"John  Wesley."  2 

Another  instance  of  advice  giving  is  too  racy  to  be  omitted. 
The  letter  was  addressed  to  John  King,  one  of  his  preachers 
in  America. 

"Near  Leeds,  July  28,  1775. 

"My  dear  Brother, — Always  take  advice  or  reproof  as  a  favour: 
it  is  the  surest  mark  of  love. 

"  I  advised  you  once,  and  you  took  it  as  an  affront ;  nevertheless  I  will 
do  it  once  more. 

"  Scream  no  more,  at  the  peril  of  your  soul.  God  now  warns  you  by 
me,  whom  He  has  set  over  you.  Speak  as  earnestly  as  you  can  ;  but  do 
not  scream.  Speak  with  all  your  heart ;  but  with  a  moderate  voice.  It 
was  said  of  our  Lord,  'He  shall  not  cry' :  the  word  properly  means,  He 
shall  not  scream.     Herein,  be  a  follower  of  mc,  as  I   am  of  Christ.     I 

'  The  cure  of  his  hydrocele.  *  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xii.,  p.  132. 


2o8  Life  a7td  Times  of  Wesley. 

1775  often  speak  loud,  often  vehemently;  but  I  never  scream;  I  never  strain 
myself,  I  dare  not :  I  know  it  would  be  a  sin  against  God  and  my  own 
soul.  Perhaps  one  reason  why  that  good  man,  Thomas  Walsh,  yea,  and 
John  Manners  too,  were  in  such  grievous  darkness  before  they  died,  was, 
because  they  shortened  their  own  lives. 

"  O  John,  pray  for  an  advisable  and!  teachable  temper !  By  nature  you 
are  very  far  from  it :  you  are  stubborn  and  headstrong.  Your  last  letter 
was  written  in  a  very  wrong  spirit.  If  you  cannot  take  advice  from 
others,  surely  you  might  take  it  from  your  affectionate  brother, 

"John  Wesley." ^ 

The  above  characteristic  letter  was  written  at  Miss  Bosan- 
quet's,  Cross  Hall,  Morley,  where  Wesley  had  arranged  to  have 
if  possible,  a  few  days'  retirement,  before  he  met  his  confer- 
ence, at  Leeds.  In  a  letter  to  that  lady,  dated  May  29,  1775, 
and  therefore  previous  to  his  illness,  he  writes  :  "  The  last 
day  of  June,  I  hope  to  be  in  Dublin,  and  the  end  of  July  in 
England.  If  I  have  a  ready  passage,  probably  I  may  have 
an  opportunity  of  hiding  myself  a  day  or  two  with  you  ;  but 
I  do  not  desire  any  of  the  preachers  to  come  to  me  till  I  send 
for  them.  If  they  do,  I  shall  run  away ;  I  will  not  be  in  a 
crowd."  2 

One  or  two  days'  retirement  was  not  much  for  an  old  man 
to  wish  ;  but  it  was  more  than  he  could  get.  The  preachers 
would  not  be  prevented  seeing  him;  and  who  can  blame 
them  .-•  If  the  magnet  attracts  the  needle,  the  magnet  has  no 
right  to  censure  the  needle  for  yielding  to  its  own  attractive 
influence.  An  extract  from  an  unpublished  letter,  written,  at 
this  period,  by  simple  hearted,  loving  Samuel  Bardsley,  will 
illustrate  what  we  mean.  "  I  never  was  at  a  better  con- 
ference. The  Lord  was  with  us  of  a  truth.  Had  you  seen  us, 
and  our  dear,  aged  father  and  friend  in  the  midst  of  us, 
and  beheld  the  freedom  and  harmony  there  were  among  us, 
you  would  have  blessed  God  on  our  behalf.  We  seemed  to 
be  determined  to  live  and  preach  the  gospel  more  than  ever. 
On  the  Thursday  before  the  conference  began,  Mr.  Oliver  and 
I  had  the  pleasure  of  drinking  tea  and  supping  with  dear  Mr. 
Wesley,  at  Miss  Bosanquet's,  where  we  stopped  all  night.  We 
were  there  when  he  arrived  from  Ireland,  and  I  need  not  tell 
you  with  what  joy  and  thankfulness  we  received  the  man 

*  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xii.,  p.  309.  2  Yq\^,  p.  378. 


Calvinian  Controversy.  209 

of  God,  and  especially  as  he  appeared  with  his  usual  cheerful-  1775 
ness,  and  as  well  as  we  had  seen  him  for  some  years.  I  had  a~72 
the  pleasure  of  being  w^ith  him  alone,  and  desired  him  not  to 
send  me  far  from  home.  If  he  had  proposed  Worcester  to 
me,  I  would  have  gone  ;  but,  as  he  did  not,  I  thought  it  best 
to  leave  it  to  him  w'here  to  send  me  ;  so  he  fixed  me  in  this 
circuit  (Haworth),  which  I  shall  love,  if  I  have  health,  and 
live  near  to  God." 

The  conference  at  Leeds  opened  on  August  i,  and  con- 
cluded its  sittings  two  days  afterwards.  It  was  the  largest 
that  had  assembled  for  many  years,  and  was  unexampled  for 
its  free  discussion.^  Wesley  writes:  "  Having  received  several 
letters,  intimating  that  many  of  the  preachers  were  utterly 
unqualified  for  the  w^ork,  having  neither  grace  nor  gifts 
sufficient  for  it,  I  determined  to  examine  the  weighty  charge 
with  all  possible  exactness.  In  order  to  this,  I  read  those 
letters  to  all  the  conference ;  and  begged,  that  every  one 
would  freely  propose  and  enforce  whatever  objection  he  had 
to  any  one.  The  objections  proposed  w^ere  considered  at 
large ;  in  two  or  three  difficult  cases,  committees  were  ap- 
pointed for  that  purpose.  In  consequence  of  this,  we  were  all 
fully  convinced,  that  the  charge  advanced  was  without  found- 
ation ;  that  God  has  really  sent  those  labourers  into  His 
vineyard,  and  has  qualified  them  for  the  work ;  and  we  were 
all  more  closely  united  together  than  we  had  been  for  many 
years." 

The  very  day  after  the  conference  concluded,  Wesley  again 
set  out  on  his  blessed  wanderings,  and  preached  at  Bradford 
and  Great  Horton.  He  then  took  coach  to  London  ;  spent 
five  days  there  ;  and  then  w^ent  off  to  Wales,  Bristol,  and 
Cornwall  ;  and  got  back  to  London  on  October  6.  The 
remainder  of  the  year  was  spent,  partly  in  the  metropolis, 
and  partly  in  his  usual  tours  through  Bedfordshire,  North- 
amptonshire, Oxfordshire,  Buckinghamshire,  Norfolk,  Kent, 
and  Surrey. 

The  nation  was  too  much  excited,  in  1775,  to  take  much 
interest  in  the  Calvinian  controversy  ;  which,  however,  still 
proceeded.  Fletcher  published  "  The  Second  Part  of  the 
Scripture  Scales"  :   i2mo,  237  pages.  Also,  "The  Last  Check 

1  Manuscript  letter  by  Thomas  Hanby. 
VOL.  III.  P 


2  lo  Life  and  Tunes  of  Wesley. 

1775     to  Antinomianism.     A   Polemical  Essay  on  the  Twin   Doc- 
Age~72    trines   of  Christian    Imperfection    and    a   Death    Purgatory." 
i2mo,  327  pages.     Toplady,  likewise,  issued  "  The  Scheme  of 
Christian   and  Philosophical  Necessity  Asserted  ;  in  opposi- 
tion to  ]\Ir.  John  Wesley's  Tract  on  that  Subject." 

As  usual,  Toplady  excelled  in  abusiveness.  He  tells  his 
readers,  that  the  chief  ingredients  in  Wesley's  tract  are  "  an 
equal  portion. of  gross  heathenism,  Pelagianism,  Mahometism, 
popery,  Manicheanism,  ranterism,  and  antinomianism,  culled, 
dried,  and  pulverized,  scaindiini  artem;  and,  above  all,  mingled 
with  as  much  palpable  atheism  as  could  be  possibly  scraped 
together."  Wesley  is  taunted  as  a  "  poor  gentleman,  who  is 
necessarily  an  universal  meddler ;  and,  as  necessarily,  an 
universal  miscarrier."  "  He  paddles  in  metaphysics,  knows  a 
little,  presumes  a  great  deal,  and  so  jumps  to  conclusions." 
His  "  Thoughts  on  Necessity  "  are  "  as  crude  and  dark  as 
chaos." 

This  scurrility  was  a  thing  to  which  Wesley  had  been  long 
accustomed.  It  was  cast  upon  him  by  writers  of  all  descrip- 
tions. In  this  same  year,  1775,  an  octavo  pamphlet  of  35 
pages  was  published,  with  the  title,  "  A  Letter  to  a  Friend 
on  the  Subject  of  Methodism  ;  "  in  which  the  anonymous 
writer,  among  a  multitude  of  other  calumnies,  declares  that  the 
tendency  of  Wesley's  system  is  "  to  fill  parishes  with  whores, 
rogues,  and  bastards";  and  defines  Methodist  preaching  as 
"  a  ridiculous  effusion,  delivered  with  an  enthusiastic  air,  a 
distorted  countenance,  a  whining,  snivelling  accent,  and  a 
soporific,  nasal  twang."  Wesley  had  too  much  of  a  gentle- 
man's self  respect  to  even  notice  vulgarities  like  these  ;  and 
yet  they  were  far  from  being  pleasant,  and  tend  to  show  that 
Methodism  struggled  into  its  mighty  manhood  amid  the 
incessant  peltings  of  every  kind  of  pitiless  persecution.  The 
storm,  during  Wesley's  lifetime,  from  one  quarter  or  another, 
was  perpetual ;  but,  powerless  to  destroy,  it  simply  made  the 
roots  of  the  tree  strike  deeper. 

Two  of  Wesley's  publications,  in  1775,  have  been  already 
noticed.     The  others  were  : 

1.  "A  Sermon  on  i  John  v.  7."     Dublin:   i2mo,  31  pages. 

2.  "The  Important  Question.  A  Sermon,  preached  in 
Taunton,  on  September  12,  1775.     Published  at  the  Request 


William  Pine.  2  1 1 


of  many  of  the  Hearers,  for  the  Benefit  of  a  Public  Charity."  i775 
i2mo,  33  pages.  This  sermon  was  delivered  in  the  presby-  Age  72 
terian  chapel,  and  was  made  the  means  of  converting  Mrs. 
Stone,  in  whose  house  Dr.  Coke,  shortly  after,  met  Wesley's 
preachers,  to  confer  with  them  about  his  religious  scruples ; 
and  where  he  preached  his  first  sermon  outside  the  precincts 
of  a  parish  church.^ 

3.  "A  Concise  History  of  England,  from  the  earliest  times 
to  the  death  of  George  H."  i2mo,  4  vols.  Price,  to  sub- 
scribers, half  a  guinea.  Wesley  says,  his  "  volumes  contain 
the  substance  of  the  English  history,  extracted  chiefly  from 
Dr.  Goldsmith,  Rapin,  and  Smollett ;  only  with  various 
corrections  and  additions."  Wesley  made  a  profit  of  ^200  by 
this  publication  ;   but  gave  it  all  away  the  week  he  got  it.^ 

For  many  years,  William  Pine  of  Bristol  had  been  Wesley's 
chief  printer  and  publisher,  and  had  recently  brought  out  a 
revised  edition  of  Wesley's  collected  works,  in  thirty-two 
i2mo  volumes.  Henceforth,  the  connection  ceased.  Pine 
became  a  red  hot  partisan  of  the  rebellious  colonists.  Wesley 
disliked  this,  and  wrote  as  follows  to  his  brother  Charles. 

"  Leeds,  July  -^i,  1775. 
"  Dear  Brother, — I  must  not  delay  answering  your  important 
question,  'What  can  be  done  with  Wilham  Pine?'  If  he  still,  after  my 
earnest  warning,  '  every  week  publishes  barefaced  treason,'  I  beg  you 
would  once  more  warn  him,  in  my  name  and  in  your  own ;  and  if  he 
slights  or  forgets  this  warning,  then  give  him  his  choice,  either  to  leave  us 
quietly,  or  to  be  publicly  disowned.  At  such  a  time  as  this,  when  our 
foreign  enemies  are  hovering  over  us,  and  our  own  nation  is  all  in  a 
ferment,  it  is  particularly  improper  to  say  one  word  which  tends  to  inflame 
the  minds  of  the  people."  ^ 

Thus  Wesley's  loyalty  to  King  George  severed  his  connec- 
tion with  William  Pine,  the  weekly  publisher  of  the  once 
popular  Felix  Farley  s  Journal.     ]\Ir.  Pine  died  in  1803.'* 


^  Methodist  Magazine,  1824,  p.  568.  2  n^j^^^  jg^-^  p_  jj^s. 

^  Wesley's  W^orks,  vol.  xii.,  p.  133. 
*  J.  Pawson's  manuscript  letter. 


1776. 

^77^  ^T  TESLEY'S  first  act,  in  1776,  was  to  join  with ' eighteen 
Age  73  V  V  hundred  London  Methodists  in  renewing  his  covenant 
with  God.  His  next  was  to  go  to  Bristol,  partly  to  bury  his 
brother-in-law,  poor  Westley  Hall ;  and  partly  to  restrain  some 
of  the  Bristol  Methodists,  who  were  in  danger  of  turning 
republicans. 

The  health  of  Fletcher  of  Madeley  being  seriously  affected 
by  a  violent  cough,  accompanied  by  spitting  of  blood,  Wesley 
believed  nothing  was  so  likely  to  restore  his  health  as  a 
long  journey.  "  I  therefore,"  says  he,  "  proposed  his  taking 
a  journey  of  some  months  with  me,  through  various  parts  of 
England  and  Scotland  ;  telling  him,  *  when  you  are  tired,  or 
like  it  best,  you  may  come  into  my  carriage ;  but  remember 
that  riding  on  horseback  is  the  best  of  all  exercises  for  you, 
so  far  as  your  strength  will  permit.'  "^ 

Wesley  proposed  not  only  this,  but  more  than  this,  as  is 
evident  from  Fletcher's  answer,  hitherto  unpublished. 

"  Madeley,  January  9,  1 776. 
"Reverend  and  dear  Sir, —  I  received  last  night  the  favour  of  yours 
from  Bristol  My  grand  desire  is  to  be  just  what  the  Lord  would  have  me 
be.  I  could,  if  you  wanted  a  travelling  assistant,  accompany  you,  as  my 
little  strength  would  admit,  in  some  of  your  excursions  ;  but  your  recom- 
mending me  to  the  societies,  as  one  who  might  succeed  you,  (should  the 
Lord  call  you  hence  before  me,)  is  a  step  to  which  I  could  by  no  means 
consent.  It  would  make  me  take  my  horse  and  gallop  away.  Besides, 
such  a  step  would,  at  this  juncture,  be,  I  think,  peculiarly  improper,  and 
would  cast  upon  my  vindication  of  your  minutes  such  an  odium  as  the 
Calvinists  have  endeavoured  to  cast  upon  your  '  Address.'  It  would  make 
people  suspect,  that  what  I  have  done  for  truth  and  conscience  sake,  I  have 
done  with  a  view  of  being,  what  Mr.  Toplady  calls,  '  the  bishop  of  Moor- 
fields.'  We  ought  to  give  as  little  hold  to  the  evil  surmising  and  rash 
judgments  of  our  opponents  as  may  be.  If,  nevertheless.  Providence 
throws  in  your  way  a  clergyman  willing  to  assist  us,  it  would  be  well  to  fall 
in  with  that  circumstance. 

^  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xi,,  p.  290. 


Age  73 


Fletcher  travelling  with    Wesley.  213 

"I  sent  to  you  in  London,  by  the  last   post,   a  manuscript   entitled,      1776 
'  A  Second  Check  to  Civil  Antinomianism,'  being  an  extract  from  the 
'  Homily  against  Rebellion,'  which  I  think  might  be  spread  at  this  time 
to  shame  Mr.  Roquet,  and  to  calm  the  people's  mind.     Whether  it  is 
worth  publishing  you  will  see.     I  suppose  it  will  make  a  threepenny  tract. 

"  What  has  made  me  glut  our  friends  with  my  books  is  not  my  love  to 
such  publications  ;  but  a  desire  to  make  an  end  of  the  controversy.  It  is 
possible,  however,  that  my  design  has  miscarried,  and  that  I  have  disgusted, 
rather  than  convinced,  the  people.  I  agree  with  you,  sir,  that  now  is  the 
time  to  pray, — both  for  ourselves  and  our  king, — for  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land and  that  part  of  it  which  is  called  the  Methodists.  I  cast  my  mite 
of  supplication  into  the  general  treasure.  The  Lord  guide,  support,  and 
strengthen  you  more  and  more  unto  the  end  ! 

"  I  am,  reverend  and  dear  sir,  your  affectionate  son  and  servant  in  the 

gospel, 

"John  Fletcher."' 

Fletcher  had  overtaxed  nature.  His  day  of  activity  was 
comparatively  over.  True,  he  lived  nine  years  longer  ;  but,  for 
two  years,  he  lived  in  retirement  with  his  friends,  Mr.  Green- 
wood at  Newington,  and  Mr.  Ireland  of  Bristol,  with  the 
exception  of  the  time  he  spent  in  travelling  with  Wesley  in 
quest  of  health  ;  and  upwards  of  three  years  more  were  spent 
in  Switzerland  ;  when,  returning  to  England,  he  was  married, 
on  November  12,  1781,  to  Miss  Bosanquet,  and  died  on  August 
14,  1785. 

Wesley  writes  :  "  He  looked  upon  my  proposal  as  a  call 
from  Providence,  and  willingly  accepted  it.  He  set  out,  (as  I 
am  accustomed  to  do,)  early  in  the  spring  of  1776,  and  tra- 
velled, by  moderate  journeys,  suited  to  his  strength,  which 
gradually  increased,  eleven  or  twelve  hundred  miles.  When 
we  returned  to  London,  in  the  latter  end  of  the  year,  he  was 
considerably  better.  And,  I  verily  believe,  if  he  had  travelled 
with  me,  partly  in  the  chaise  and  partly  on  horseback,  only  a 
few  months  longer,  he  would  quite  have  recovered  his  health. 
But  this  those  about  him  would  not  permit ;  so,  being  detained 
in  London  by  his  kind,  but  injudicious,  friends,  while  I  pursued 
my  journeys,  his  spitting  of  blood,  with  all  the  other  symptoms, 
returned,  and  rapidly  increased,  till  the  physician  pronounced 
l-.im  to  be  far  advanced  in  pulmonary  consumption."  ^ 

'  Manuscript  letter. 
2  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xi.,  p.  290. 


214  L^f^  (If id  Times  of  Wesley. 


1^6  No  doubt,  Wesley  wished  to  have  Fletcher  as  his  coadjutor 

Age  12)  'i"d  successor  ;  but  Providence  determined  otherwise.  Fletcher 
had  a  great  work  to  do,  and  did  it ;  but  it  was  not  ordained 
that  Fletcher  should  take  Wesley's  place. 

It  is  a  remarkable  coincidence,  that,  in  the  very  year  when 
the  health  of  Fletcher  failed,  Wesley  formed  an  acquaintance 
with  Thomas  Coke.  Born  and  educated  at  Brecon,  Coke  was 
now  twenty-nine  years  of  age.  He  had  taken  his  degrees 
at  Oxford,  had  received  episcopal  ordination,  and,  at  present, 
was  curate  at  South  Petherton.  Mr.  Brown,  a  clergyman  near 
Taunton,  lent  him  the  sermons  and  journals  of  Wesley,  and 
the  "Checks"  of  Fletcher.  In  the  month  of  August,  1776, 
Wesley  was  Mr.  Brown's  guest  at  Kingston,  and  Coke  went 
to  see  him.  Wesley  writes  :  "  1776,  August  13 — I  preached 
at  Taunton,  and  afterwards  went  with  Mr,  Brown  to  Kingston. 
Here  I  found  a  clergyman.  Dr.  Coke,  late  a  gentleman  com- 
moner of  Jesus  college,  Oxford,  who  came  twenty  miles  on 
purpose  to  meet  me.  I  had  much  conversation  with  him  ;  and 
a  union  then  began,  which,  I  trust,  shall  never  end."  The 
doctor  expressed  his  doubts  respecting  the  propriety  of  con- 
fining himself  to  one  congregation.  Wesley  clasped  his  hands, 
and,  in  a  manner  peculiarly  his  own,  said  :  "  Brother,  go  out, 
go  out,  and  preach  the  gospel  to  all  the  world  !  "^  Coke  rode 
back  to  Petherton  pensive,  and  yet  consoled.  The  tone  of  his 
ministry  was  now  more  decided  than  ever.  The  parish  was 
remodelled,  so  to  speak,  into  a  circuit.  On  Sundays,  after  the 
second  lesson,  he  would  read  a  paper  of  his  appointments  for 
the  ensuing  week,  with  the  place  and  time  of  service.  His 
innovations,  in  preaching  in  cottages  and  barns,  took  a  sort  of 
Methodistic  form,  by  being  systematically  arranged.  The 
disgust  of  his  opponents  in  the  parish  became  intense  ;  and, 
toprevent  his  having  the  opportunity  of  preaching  a  farewell 
sermon,  his  rector,  without  any  previous  notice,  at  the  close 
of  a  public  service,  and  in  the  presence  of  a  listening  con- 
gregation, abruptly  announced  that  Coke  was  now  dis- 
missed. The  die  was  cast.  Coke  attended  Wesley's  conference 
in  Bristol,  and,  on  August  19,  1777,  Wesley  writes:  "I 
went  to  Taunton  with  Dr.  Coke,  who,  being  dismissed  from 

"^  Methodist  Magazine,  1824,  p.  568. 


Enforcing  Disciplme.  215 

his  curacy,  has  bid  adieu  to  his  honourable  name,  and 
determined  to  cast  in  his  lot  with  us,"  Henceforth,  Thomas 
Coke  was  a  Methodist  itinerant  preacher,  and  became  the 
great  organiser  of  Methodist  missions  in  other  lands. 

When  Wesley  enacted  rules,  he  meant  them  to  be 
observed.  Laxity  in  the  enforcement  of  discipline  was  to 
him  a  thing  intolerable.  He  was  a  thorough  disciplinarian 
himself,  and  insisted  that  his  preachers  should  copy  his 
example.  Good  as  were  the  first  Methodists,  they  were 
not  perfect.  Then,  as  now,  some  were  defective  in  their 
attendance  at  the  weekly  class.  In  certain  instances,  as  we 
have  already  seen,  some  were  guilty  of  the  crime  of  smug- 
gling. Others,  in  moderation,  were  addicted  to  taking  drams, 
and  others  opium  ;  and  it  often  happened  that  the  oldest 
societies  were  the  worst  offenders.  In  1776,  both  London 
and  Newcastle  were  thus  tainted  ;  and  Wesley  was  deter- 
mined, with  a  strong  hand,  to  purge  them.  Hence  the 
following  extracts  from  letters,  addressed,  at  this  period,  to 
Joseph  Benson,  stationed  at  Newcastle. 

"We  must  threaten  no  longer,  but  perform.  In  November  last,  I 
told  the  London  society,  '  Our  rule  is,  to  meet  a  class  once  a  week  ;  not 
once  in  two  or  three.  I  now  give  you  warning:  I  will  give  tickets  to 
none  in  February,  but  those  that  have  done  this.'  I  have  stood  to  my 
word.  Go  you  and  do  likewise,  wherever  you  visit  the  classes.  Begin, 
if  need  be,  at  Newcastle,  and  go  on  at  Sunderland.  Promises  to  meet 
are  now  out  of  date.  Those,  that  have  not  met  seven  times  in  the 
quarter,  exclude.  Read  their  names  in  the  society ;  and  inform  them 
all,  you  will  the  next  quarter  exclude  all  that  have  not  met  twelve  times ; 
that  is,  unless  they  were  hindered  by  distance,  sickness,  or  by  some 
unavoidable  business.  And  I  pray,  without  fear  or  favour,  remove 
the  leaders,  whether  of  classes  or  bands,  who  do  not  watch  over  the  souls 
committed  to  their  care  '  as  those  that  must  give  account.' " 

What  would  become  of  Methodist  societies  if  these 
imperative  directions  of  Methodism's  founder  were  enforced 
now  .'' 

Benson  had  expelled  a  smuggler,  and  Wesley  wrote : 

"  You  did  right  in  excluding  from  our  society  so  notorious  an  offender. 
You  have  now  a  providential  call  to  stand  in  the  gap  between  the  living 
and  the  dead.  Fear  nothing.  Begin  in  the  name  of  God,  and  go  through 
with  it.  If  only  six  will  promise  you  to  sin  no  more,  leave  only  six  in 
society.  But  my  belief  is,  a  hundred  and  fifty  are  now  clear  of  blame ; 
and,  if  you  are  steady,  a  hundred  more  will  amend.     You  must,  at  all 


Age  73 


2i6  Lif^  ci^id  Times  of  Wesley. 

1776  events,  tear  up  this  evil  by  the  roots.  The  '  Word  to  a  Smuggler'  should 
be  read  and  dispersed.  And  secure  your  fellow  labourers,  that  you  may 
all  speak  one  thing.  Go  on,  for  God  is  v.ith  you  !  Not  only  the  as- 
sistant, but  every  preacher,  is  concerned  to  see  all  our  rules  observed. 
I  desire  brother  Rhodes  will  give  no  tickets,  either  to  those  who  have 
not  constantly  met  their  classes,  or  to  any  that  do  not  solemnly  promise 
to  deal  in  stolen  goods  no  more.  He  and  you  together  may  put  a  stop 
to  this  ciying  sin.  If  any  leader  oppose,  you  see  your  remedy;  put 
another  in  his  place.  Nay,  if  he  does  not  join  heart  and  hand ;  for  '  he 
that  gathereth  not  with  you  scattereth.'  The  'Word  to  a  Smuggler'  is 
plain  and  home,  and  has  done  much  good  in  Kent.  Taking  opium  is 
full  as  bad  as  taking  drams.  It  equally  hurts  the  understanding,  and  is, 
,if  possible,  more  pernicious  to  the  health,  than  even  rum  or  brandy. 
None  should  touch  it,  if  they  have  the  least  regard  either  for  their  souls 
or  bodies."  ^ 

The  year  1776  was  a  period  of  great  national  distress  ; 
and,  yet,  it  was  now  that  Wesley  started  his  scheme  for 
the  erection  of  Methodism's  cathedral,  the  chapel  in  City 
Road.  Who  will  write  a  history  of  London  Methodism  .-' 
or,  which  would  be  more  popular,  who  will  give  the 
Methodists  a  monograph  of  the  memories  of  Wesley's  "new 
chapel "  in  City  Road  .''  Much  might  be  said  of  the  epi- 
scopal chapel  in  West  Street,  Seven  Dials,  of  which  Wesley 
obtained  a  lease,  and  which  he  opened  on  the  29th  of 
May,  1743,  as  a  Methodist  meeting-house,  and  which  was  so 
occupied  until  1 798,  when  it  was  superseded  by  the  purchase 
of  another  episcopal  chapel,  which  then  stood  on  part  of  the 
site  of  the  present  Methodist  chapel  in  Great  Queen  Street.^ 
Then  there  was  the  venerable  chapel  in  Spitalfields,  erected 
by  the  French  protestants,  and  used  by  Wesley  long  before 
that  in  City  Road  was  built,  but  which,  horresco  refcrcns  !  has 
given  place  to  the  brewery  of  Truman,  Hanbury  &  Co.  ;  and 
there  is  likewise  its  successor,  also  originally  a  French  protest- 
ant  church,  and  still  used  for  Methodist  services,  a  chapel 
which  has  recently  had  dark  days  of  adversity,  but  which  is 
rich  in  religious  memories,  and  has  witnessed  many  a  marvel- 
lous revival  of  the  work  of  God.  There  is  Chelsea,  whose 
first  Methodist  meeting  place  was  an  upper  room  in  the  house 
of  an  elderly  woman,  Mrs.  Day,  who  resided  in  Royal  Hospital 

'  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xii.,  pp.  395-397. 
-  Methodist  Magazine,  1845,  p.  522. 


MetJiodlsm  in  London.  '  217 

Row;  and  its  next,  one  of  the  dancing  rooms  in  the  celebrated  i??*^ 
Ranelagh  Gardens,  for  which  a  rent  was  paid  of  ten  guineas  per  j^^^  -3 
annum;  and  in  Avhich  Wesley  preached  only  about  two  months 
previous  to  his  death,  taking  as  his  text  words  which  his  long 
life  had  illustrated:  "The  king's  business  requires  haste." ^ 
There  is  Lambeth,  where,  in  1772,  good  old  John  Edwards 
opened  his  house  for  preaching  ;  and  then  converted  an  adjoin- 
ing building  into  a  decent  chapel ;  a  man  of  vigorous  mind, 
retentive  memory,  and  fluent  speech ;  for  almost  forty 
years  an  effective  local  preacher,  and  who,  while  on  a 
preaching  expedition,  died  at  Irchester,  in  the  county  of 
Northampton,  in  1803.^  In  London  East,  there  was  the 
old  chapel  in  Gravel  Lane,  which,  in  181 1,  was  required 
for  the  London  Docks ;  and  its  successor  in  Back  Road, 
required  by  the  Black  wall  railway  company.^  There  was 
the  schoolroom  near  Mill  Pond  Bridge,  Rotherhithe,  suc- 
ceeded by  the  purchased  chapel  in  Albion  Street.*  There 
was  Hoxton  chapel,  which  originally  belonged  to  the  Dis- 
senters ;  and  there  were  the  venerable  meeting-houses  at 
Wapping,  Snowsfields,  Peckham,  and  other  places.  All 
these  have  a  history  well  worth  writing,  to  say  nothing  of 
the  parent  of  them  all,  the  old  pantile  Foundery,  Method- 
ism's honoured  cradle  ;  and  of  which  the  Methodists  retained 
possession,  at  least  as  late  as  the  year  1785,  when  they  re- 
ceived for  it,  in  the  shape  of  rent,  £14.  per  year/ 

Then  how  rich  the  mine  of  London  Methodist  biogra- 
phy !  Confining  ourselves  to  Wesley's  days,  there  is — Mary 
Cheesebrook,  originally  a  kept  mistress,  converted  in  West 
Street  chapel,  never  absent  from  the  Foundery  preaching, 
though,  to  be  in  time,  she  often  had  to  run  the  distance,  and 
who,  every  Saturday,  after  paying  her  little  debts,  gave  away 
all  the  money  she  had  left,  leaving  the  morrow  to  take  thought 
for  the  things  of  itself: — ]\Irs.  Witham,  a  mother  in  Israel, 
an  eminent  pattern  of  calm  boldness  for  the  truth,  of  sim- 
plicity and  godly  sincerity,  of  unwearied  constancy  in 
attending  all    the  ordinances  of  God,   of   zeal   for  God   and 


^  Methodist  Maf^azine,  1830,  p.  310.  -  Ibid.  1803,  p,  289. 

2  Ibid.  1847,  p.  102.  ■*  Ibid.  i8i6,  p.  446. 

*  City  Road  society  book. 


2i8  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

^770  for  all  good  works,  and  of  self  denial  in  every  kind: — 
Age  73  Elizabeth  Langdon,  whose  trials  were  severe,  and  her  death 
tranquil : — Hannah  Lee,  a  model  of  industry,  meekness,  and 
patience : — Mary  Naylor,  distinguished  for  her  Christian 
courage,  and  plainness  of  speech  and  of  apparel : — Thomas 
Salmon,  a  good  and  useful  man  : — Joseph  Norbury,  a  faithful 
witness  of  Jesus  Christ : — William  Hurd,  a  son  of  affliction, 
whose  end  was  peace : — John  Matthews,  who,  for  some 
months  before  his  death,  was  wont  to  say,  "  I  have  no  more 
doubt  of  being  in  heaven,  than  if  I  was  there  already  "  ;  and 
of  whom  Wesley  writes  :  "A  man  of  so  faultless  a  behaviour  I 
have  hardly  ever  been  acquainted  with.  During  twenty  years, 
I  do  not  remember  his  doing  or  saying  anything  which  I 
would  wish  to  have  been  unsaid  or  undone": — Ann  Wheeler, 
who,  twenty-five  years  before  her  death,  while  attending 
preaching  in  Moorfields,  was  struck  in  the  forehead  with  a 
stone,  the  mark  of  which  her  unborn  daughter  bore  to  her 
dying  day  : — Rebecca  Mills,  always  firm  and  unmoved,  rest- 
ing on  the  Rock  of  ages,  and  in  life  and  death  uniformly 
praising  the  God  of  her  salvation  : — Elizabeth  Duchesne,  for 
near  forty  years  zealous  of  good  works,  and  who  shortened 
her  days  by  labouring  for  the  poor  beyond  her  strength  : — 
William  Osgood,  a  good  man,  who  began  life  in  poverty, 
but  increased  more  and  more  till  he  was  worth  several 
thousand  pounds : — Michael  Hayes,  who  lived  above  a 
hundred  and  four  years,  mostly  in  vigorous  health,  and 
as  he  lived,  so  died,  praising  God  : — Mrs.  Kiteley,  a  perfect 
pattern  of  true  womanhood,  a  good  wife,  a  good  parent,  a 
good  mistress,  who,  after  many  years  of  active  benevolence, 
redeemed  a  poor  friendless  youth  from  prison,  took  the 
jail  distemper,  and  died  : — Heller  Tanner,  diligent,  patient, 
loving  to  every  man,  and  zealous  of  good  works  : — Bilhah 
Aspernell,  who,  for  six-and-thirty  years,  without  intermission, 
walked  in  the  light  of  God's  countenance,  was  always  in  pain, 
yet  always  rejoicing,  and  going  about  doing  good ;  who 
on  Sunday  evening  met  her  class  as  usual,  and  the  next  day 
sent  for  her  old  fellow  traveller,  Sarah  Clay,  and  said  to  her, 
*  Sally,  I  am  going."  "  Where  are  you  going  .'*"  She  cheer- 
fully answered,  "To  my  Jesus,  to  be  sure!"  and  spoke  no 
more  : — Thomas  Vokins,   a   man    of  a  sorrowful   spirit,   who 


MetJiodism  in  London.  219 

always  hung  down   his   head   hke  a  bulrush,   but  who   died      1776 
triumphing  over  pain  and  death,  and  rejoicing  with  joy  full     a^73 
of  glory  : — Mr.  Bespham.  many  years  master  of  a  man  of  war,  ^ 

whose  faith  was  full  of  mercy  and  good  fruits: — George 
Parsons,  a  flame  of  fire  wherever  he  went,  losing  no  occasion 
of  speaking  or  working  for  God  ;  so  zealously,  so  humbly, 
so  unreservedly  devoted  to  God,  that  few  like  him  were  left 
behind  him  : — Eleanor  Lee,  who  lived  in  the  enjoyment  of 
perfect  love  for  sixteen  years,  and  of  whom  Wesley  testified, 
"  I  never  saw  her  do  any  action,  little  or  great,  nor  heard 
her  speak  any  word,  which  I  could  reprove": — Ann  Thwayte, 
a  woman  of  faith  and  prayer,  for  whom  Wesley  preached 
a  funeral  sermon  : — Merchant  West,  a  pattern  of  diligence 
in  all  things,  spiritual  and  temporal : — Charles  Greenwood, 
a  melancholy  man,  full  of  doubts  and  fears,  but  who,  two 
days  before  he  died,  was  made  so  unspeakably  happy 
that  he  exclaimed,  "  God  has  revealed  to  me  things  which 
it  is  impossible  for  man  to  utter": — George  Hufflct,  for 
many  years  a  burning  and  shining  light : — Ann  Sharland, 
whose  cancer  in  her  breast  caused  her  continual  pain,  but 
who  triumphed  gloriously  through  Christ ; — and  Robert 
Windsor,  prudent,  serious,  diligent,  full  of  mercy  and  good 
fruits. 

All  these  died  during  Wesley's  lifetime.  The  temptation 
to  add  to  them  is  great.  We  should  like  to  tell  of  William 
Palmer,  Wesley's  first  classleader  in  London;  and  of  his  son, 
who  was  blind  from  infancy,  was  one  of  the  first  to  form  the 
Community,  or  body  of  workhouse  visitors,  often  made 
preaching  excursions  into  different  parts  of  the  country,  with 
Wesley's  sanction,  and  died  in  1822,  after  being  sixty-two 
years  a  Methodist.^  Old  Thomas  Gibbs  of  Lambeth,  also, 
deserves  a  place  in  Methodism's  gallery, — a  patriarch,  who 
lived  to  the  age  of  one  hundred  and  four  years,  eighty-three 
of  which  he  had  been  a  member  of  Wesley's  society;  and 
who,  at  his  death,  in  1827,  was  probably  the  oldest  Methodist 
in  the  world.^  There  is  Isaac  Andrews,  one  of  the  original 
subscribers  to  City  Road  chapel,  a  man  of  unimpeachable 
Christian  character,  a  Methodist  of  sixty  years'  standing,  who 

1  Methodist  Magazine,  1823,  p.  202.  ^  \\;^^^^  1827,  p.  430. 


2  20  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1776     died    at   the    age    of   eighty-two,   in    1832.^      There  is    Mrs. 

^Vrre  73  Maddan,  whose  mother,  Mrs.  Varin,  was  the  eighth  person 
whom  Wesley  received  into  church  fellowship,  when  forming 
his  infant  society  in  Fetter  Lane.  There  are  Mrs.  Mortimer 
and  Mrs.  Bruce,  of  whom  the  Rev.  Richard  Watson  used  to 
say,  "they  were  the  t\vo  finest  specimens  of  primitive  Method- 
ism that  he  knew;"  the  latter  being  the  daughter  of  parents 
who  were  among  the  eighteen  persons  who  first  joined 
Wesley  in  Christian  fellowship,  in  1739.^  We  cannot  find 
room  for  more. 

For  five-and-thirty  years,  Wesley  and  his  friends  had  wor- 
shipped in  "the  old  Foundery."  Here  hundreds,  perhaps 
thousands,  had  been  converted;  but,  as  the  building  was  only 
held  on  lease,  they  were  now  in  danger  of  losing  it.  On 
October  19,  1775,  Wesley,  writing  to  his  brother,  says:  "on 
Friday  I  hope  to  be  in  London,  and  to  talk  with  the  com- 
mittee about  building  a  new  Foundery."  ^  A  few  months  later, 
he  wrote  again:  "  1776,  March  i — As  we  cannot  depend  on 
having  the  Foundery  long,  we  met  to  consult  about  building 
a  new  chapel.  Our  petition  to  the  city  for  a  piece  of  ground 
lies  before  their  committee;  but  when  we  shall  get  any  fur- 
ther, I  know  not:  so  I  determined  to  begin  my  circuit  as 
usual;  but  promised  to  return  whenever  I  should  receive 
notice  that  our  petition  was  granted."  Exactly  five  months 
after  this,  Wesley  started  the  first  subscription,  and,  at  three 
meetings,  raised  upwards  of  ^^lOOO.  In  November  following, 
building  plans  were  agreed  upon;  in  April  1777,  Wesley  laid 
the  foundation  stone;  and  on  Sunday,  November  i,  1778,  he 
opened  his  new  sanctuary,  by  preaching,  in  the  morning,  on 
part  of  Solomon's  prayer  at  the  dedication  of  the  temple ; 
and  in  the  afternoon,  on  the  hundred,  forty  and  four  thousand 
standing  with  the  Lamb  on  mount  Zion.  He  writes:  "It  is 
perfectly  neat,  but  not  fine;  and  contains  far  more  people 
than  the  Foundery :  I  believe,  together  with  the  morning 
chapel,  as  many  as  the  Tabernacle." 

The  chapel  in  City  Road  will   always  stand  as  a  thanks- 
giving monument,  raised,    not    by  the    London    Methodists 

*  Methodist  Magazine,  1832,  p.  466.  ^  Ibid.  1837,  p.  399. 

^  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xii.,  p.  134. 


MctJwdism  in  London.  221 

merely,  but  by  Methodists  throughout  the  three  kingdoms.      1776 
No  sooner  was  it  resolved  to  build,  than  Wesley  issued  the  fol-    ^"7, 
lowing  circular,  an  original  copy  of  which  now  lies  before  us. 

"  Octoberi%,  iTj6. 

"  My  dear  Brother, — The  society  at  London  have  given  assistance 
to  their  brethren  in  various  parts  of  England.  They  have  done  this  for 
upwards  of  thirty  years:  they  have  done  it  cheerfully  and  liberally. 
The  first  year  of  the  subscription  for  the  general  debt,  they  subscribed 
above  nine  hundred  pounds;  the  next,  above  three  hundred;  and  not 
much  less  every  one  of  the  ensuing  years. 

"  They  now  stand  in  need  of  assistance  themselves.  They  are  under  a 
necessity  of  building;  as  the  Foitndery,  with  all  the  adjoining  houses,  is 
shortly  to  be  pulled  down.  And  the  city  of  London  has  granted  ground 
to  build  on;  but  on  condition  of  covering  it,  and  with  large  houses  in 
front,  which,  together  with  the  new  chapel,  will,  at  a  very  moderate  com- 
putation, cost  upwards  of  six  thousand  pounds.  I  must,  therefore,  beg 
the  assistance  of  all  our  brethren.  A^otu  help  the  parent  society,  which 
has  helped  others,  for  so  many  years,  so  willingly  and  so  largely.  Now 
help  me,  who  account  this  as  a  kindness  done  to  myself;  perhaps,  the 
last  of  this  sort  which  I  shall  ask  of  you.  Subscribe  what  you  conveni- 
ently can,  to  be  paid  either  now,  or  at  Christmas,  or  at  Ladyday  next. 

"  I  am,  your  affectionate  brother, 

"John  Wesley. 

John  Duplex, 
Charles  Greenwood, 
Richard  Kemp, 
"  The  Trustees  are        ■{  Samuel  Chancellor, 

Charles  Wheeler, 
WILLLA.M  Cowland, 
^  John  Folgham." 

We  are  afraid  to  enter  into  details,  respecting  the  New 
Chapel,  in  City  Road.  John  Pawson,  who  was  appointed  to  the 
office  of  assistant  in  the  London  circuit,  within  two  years  after 
the  chapel  was  opened,  tells  us,  in  an  unpublished  manuscript, 
that  the  plan  proposed  was  to  build  an  elegant  chapel,  such 
as  even  the  lord  mayor  might  attend,  without  any  diminishing 
of  his  official  dignity;  and  that  it  should  be  7t'//^//y  supplied  by 
ordained  clergymen  of  the  Established  Church  on  Sundays, 
when  the  liturgy  should  be  constantly  read  at  both  morning 
and  evening  service;  and  this,  for  a  considerable  time  after  the 
chapel  was  opened,  was  regularly  done.  No  layman,  so 
called, — that  is,  no  itinerant  preacher  not  episcopally  or- 
dained, was  allowed  to  officiate  within  its  walls,  except  on 


222  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1776  week  days.  Charles  Wesley,  Thomas  Coke,  and  John 
Age  73  Richardson  were  City  Road's  only  sabbatic  priests:  Pawson, 
Jaco,  Rankin,  Tennent,  Olivers,  and  others,  though  better 
preachers  than  any  of  the  trio,  were  not  admitted;  because 
their  heads  had  not  been  touched  by  a  bishop's  fingers. 
Pawson  says,  that  Richardson  and  Coke  disapproved  of  this 
arrangement;  but  Charles  Wesley  persisted,  until  the  congre- 
gations so  fell  off,  and  the  society  was  thrown  into  such  con- 
fusion, that  the  trustees  of  the  chapel  met,  and  waited  on 
Charles  Wesley  with  a  request,  that  he  would  not  preach  so 
often  at  City  Road,  but  would  go  sometimes  to  West  Street 
on  Sundays,  and  allow  the  itinerants  to  take  his  place  on  the 
hitherto  forbidden  ground.  Cliarles  reluctantly  submitted; 
but  wrote  to  his  brother,  casting  all  the  blame  upon  the  poor, 
tabooed  itinerants,  and  stating  that  it  was  wholly  owing  to 
their  deep  rooted  prejudices  against  the  clergy  of  the  Estab- 
lished Church,  that  these  events  had  happened. 

For  many  years,  the  men  sat  on  one  side  the  chapel,  and 
the  women  on  the  other ;  and,  besides  this,  there  was  another 
usage,  which  would  not  be  popular  at  the  present  day :  all  the 
pews  and  seats  were  open.  Large  numbers  paid  for  seats; 
but  no  on-e  was  allowed  to  call  a  seat,  or  a  pew,  his  own.  In 
1788,  the  trustees  endeavoured  to,  make  an  alteration  in  both 
the  respects  just  mentioned;  "thus  overthrowing,"  says 
Wesley,  "  at  one  blow,  the  discipline  which  I  have  been 
establishing  for  fifty  years!"  He  continues,  however:  "we 
had  another  meeting  of  the  committee;  who,  after  a  calm  and 
loving  consultation,  judged  it  best — (i)  that  the  men  and 
women  should  sit  separate  still;  and  (2)  that  none  should 
claim  any  pew  as  his  own,  either  in  the  new  chapel,  or  in 
West  Street." 

The  days  of  the  old  Foundery  have  long  been  ended  ;  the 
"New  Chapel"  in  City  Road  still  stands,  and  we  trust  will 
ever  stand,  by  far  the  most  sacred  and  attractive  edifice  in 
the  Methodistic  world.  Not  for  a  hundred  pretentious  gothic 
structures  would  Methodists  of  the  olden  type  give  up  this. 
Though  its  ceiling  may  be  somewhat  low,  yet,  taken  as  a 
whole,  its  architecture,  for  neatness,  and  commodiousness, 
and  solidity,  has  been  but  rarely  equalled,  by  the  more 
pretentious    Methodist   buildings   of  the    present  day.      We 


Meihodisfji  in  London.  22 


J 


are  weary  of  gothic  gaudiness,  sacrificing  the  interests  of  the  1776 
church  of  God  to  the  pride  of  showy  architects,  and  the  Age  73 
mediaeval  whims  of  Methodists  in  danger  of  relapsing  into 
mediaeval  darkness.  Let  the  present  race  of  Methodists  have 
wisdom  and  modesty  enough  to  build  their  chapels  accord- 
ing to  the  plan  adopted  by  a  man,  in  all  respects,  their 
superior — Methodism's  founder.  Hail  to  old  City  Road  ! 
When  we  think  of  the  ministers  who  have  occupied  its 
pulpit,  of  the  families  who  have  filled  its  pews,  of  the 
dead  resting  in  graves  round  about  rfts  walls,  and  of  the 
interesting  events  which  make  up  its  story, — we  feel  that 
of  all  the  Methodist  meeting-houses  in  existence,  gothic 
or  otherwise,  marble  or  mudden,  there  is  not  one  to  equal 
this. 

For  many  a  long  year,  the  chapel  in  City  Road  was  the 
head  of  London  Methodism;  and,  though  there  are  now  more 
than  twenty  heads,  all  owe  a  respectful  obeisance  to  this.  Its 
circuit  plan,  from  June  17  to  September  23,  1792,  eighteen 
inches  broad  and  fifteen  deep,  is  simply  headed,  "  A  Plan  for 
the  Preachers  in  London  ; "  the  word  Methodist,  or  Method- 
ism, not  being  printed  in  any  part  of  it.  The  preaching 
places,  and  hours  of  preaching,  are  as  follows: — New  Chapel, 

9  a.m.  and   5   p.m.  ;  West  Street,  9,  3  and   7  ;    Spitalfields, 

10  and  3  ;  Wapping,  10  and  5  ;  Snowsfields,  10  and  5  ; 
Lambeth,    6 ;    Westminster,    5  ;    Peckham,   3  ;    Rotherhithe, 

10  and  5 ;  Deptford,  7,  10,  and  5 ;  Chelsea,  6;  Brentford,  10,  2, 
and  6  ;  Dorking,  ii,  2,  and  5  ;  Raynham,  10  and  5  ;  Purfleet,  9 
and  5  ;  Woolwich,  2  and  6  ;  Wandsworth,  6;  Mitcham,  2  and 
6  ;  Croydon,  2  and  6  ;  Bromley,  3  ;  Barnet,  2  and  5  ;  Poplar, 

1 1  and  5  ;  Bow,  5  ;  Stratford,  1 1  and  5  ;  Barking,  5  ;  Leyton, 
5  ;  Grosvenor  Market,  6  ;  Ratclifif  Cross,  2  ;  Christ  Church,  5  ; 
Clerkenwell,  6  ;  Kentish  Town,  6  ;  and  Seven  Dials  without 
an  hour.  Such  was  London  circuit  at  the  time  when  Wesley 
died. 

Interesting  citations  might  be  made  from  the  old  City  Road 
society  book,  extending  from  August  23,  1784,  to  July  9,  iSoo. 
We  learn,  that  sacramental  collections  were,  upon  an  average,  a 
little  more  than  £t^  each  ;  and  monthly  collections,  for  "  the 
furtherance  of  the  gospel,"  about  £,6  los.  The  sacrament  was 
administered   once  a  week  ;    and  what  is  now  known  among 


2  24  L'^f^  (^^^d  Times  of  Wesley. 

177^  the  Methodists  as  a  quarterly  collection  was  then  made  once  a 
Age  73  nionth  as  just  referred  to.  The  entire  circuit  income,  for  1786, 
was  £^62  \6s.  ^d.,  which  included  sacramental  collections  and 
payments  for  graves,  all  of  which  were  then  appropriated  to 
circuit  purposes.  Strangely  enough,  there  is  no  entry  of  class 
moneys  till  1788,  from  which  time  such  entries  were  regularly 
made.  Had  the  practice  of  collecting  pence  weekly  in  the 
classes  been  superseded  by  collections  made  at  the  weekly 
sacraments.''  This  is  not  improbable;  for,  from  the  time  when 
class  moneys  are  ente}:ed  as  a  part  of  the  circuit  income,  the 
entries  of  sacramental  collections,  and  collections  for  the 
furtherance  of  the  gospel,  cease.  For  the  year  1787,  including 
all  sources  of  income,  the  average  contribution  per  member  per 
year  was  in  this  great  London  circuit  3^".  \0\d.,  or  less  than 
a  shilling  per  member  per  quarter.  How  far  was  this  from  the 
requirement  of  Wesley's  rules  ?  Who  will  say  that  the  former 
days  were  better  than  these  .''  Besides,  all  that  was  con- 
tributed was  not  current  coin  ;  for  in  the  same  year  there  is  a 
charge  deducted  of  not  less  than  £,\o  14$".  9i^.  for  bad  money 
given  at  collections. 

Many  are  the  curious  items  in  the  list  of  circuit  payments 
and  allowances.  The  yearly  salary  paid  to  Wesley  was  ^^30 ; 
to  his  brother  £60;  to  Creighton,  £6^  ;  to  Dickenson,  ^50; 
to  Coke,  £z^\  while  the  quarterage  to  the  itinerants,  and  to 
their  wives  respectively,  was  ;^3  each.  With  a  few  more 
extracts  we  conclude  this  lengthened  notice  of  London 
Methodism,  during  the  last  seven  years  of  Wesley's  life. 
"  1784:  November  7,  a  new  pail,  half  a  crown  ;  December  6, 
chain  for  dog,  two  shillings.  1785  :  January  4,  shaving  the 
preachers,  £2  \os.  6d.  ;  February  18,  "news  pappers,"  13^.  ; 
May  18,  lamplighter,  four  weeks,  6s.  ;  August  8,  Mr.  Tennant, 
to  pay  his  debts,  and  to  send  him  to  Leeds,  £()  C)S.  ;  August  13, 
letters,  four  weeks,  £2  I'^s.  8k/.  August  19,  for  shaving  the 
preachers  at  conference,  £7  ^s.  2)d.  1787 :  February  2,  two  trees 
for  front  of  dwelling  house,  3^.  6d.  ;  December  17,  for  curtain 
over  the  altar,  £$  is.  gd.  1789  :  March  28,  paid  expenses  of 
a  hogshead  of  cider,  from  Guernsey,  a  present  to  Mr.  Wesley, 
£1  gs.  ;  July  7,  paid  the  man  servant  a  quarter's  wages, 
£1  is.  ;  December  29,  paid  Mr.  Moore  for  cold  bath, 
£1  IS.     1790:  July    I,   the  hairdresser's  bill,  £1  is.,  for  one 


MetJiodism  in  London.  225 

quarter.      1791  :    February  22,   paid  the   Rev.    Mr.    Wesley's      1776 
salary    (the    last    he    received)    ^15  ;    April    20,    paid     for    Age"73 
Rev.     Mr.    Wesley's    horses    standing    at    livery    after    his 
decease,    £1    \\s.    <^d.  ;    December    3,    paid    Mr.    Judd's    bill 
for   hanging    the    New    Chapel    with   black    superfine    cloth, 

These  may  seem  little  things  to  introduce  into  a  work  like 
this  ;  but  little  things  often  indicate  greater,  and,  sometimes, 
it  is  only  by  knowing  minute  matters  that  men  can  form  a 
correct  opinion  of  a  great  general  system. 

After  this  long,  but  we  hope  not  uninteresting  digression, 
we  must  return  to  Wesley  in  1776. 

On  Sunday  evening,  March  3,  he  set  out  from  London 
to  Bristol,  and  thence  to  his  societies  in  the  north.  The 
tour  was  not  completed  until  the  19th  of  July  following,  when 
he  got  back  to  London.  Its  incidents  were  much  the  same 
as  previous  ones,  except  that  he  was  permitted  to  preach 
in  a  larger  number  of  churches  than  usual, — namely,  at 
Pebworth,  Chowbent,  Heptonstall,  Bingley,  Haworth,  Colne, 
and  at  Banff  in  Scotland,^  a  proof  that  clerical  prejudice  was 
subsiding,  and  that  the  poor  branded  outcast  was  beginning  to 
be  regarded  with  a  more  favourable  eye.  The  churches  that 
he  occupied  in  Yorkshire  were  crowded.  Thomas  Taylor,  at 
that  time  in  the  Haworth  circuit,  writes,  in  his  unpublished 
diary :  "  Saturday,  April  27 — Mr.  Wesley  preached  at 
Bradford,  at  5  a.m.  At  10^,  to  the  surprise  of  many,  he 
preached  in  Bingley  church,  from  Acts  xxiv.  25.     I  never  saw 


Mt  is  a  disgraceful  fact  that  Charles  Wesley  was  buried,  not  at  the 
expense  of  the  London  circuit,  but  by  private  subscription.  Nineteen 
London  Methodists  subscribed  ^lo  I3j-.  6d.,  and  William  Marriott  made 
up  the  deficiency  of  ^3  3^.  The  pages  in  the  old  society  book,  on  which 
this  account  is  written,  were  wafered  together  by  four  large  wafers,  doubt- 
less for  the  purpose  of  hiding  the  shame  of  the  old  Methodists  of  1788. 

^  The  following  was  written  to  Robert  Dall,  one  of  Wesley's  itinerants. 

"  Banff,  Jaiiuary  i,  1777. 

"Dear  Father  in  the  Lord, — The  society  has  been  stationary  ever 
since  you  left  us.  We  are  often  neglected.  Lately  we  had  only  one  visit 
in  eight  weeks.  Mr.  Wesley  was  here  on  the  20th  of  May  last,  and 
preached  on  the  Parade  from  2  Corinthians  viii.  9.  He  supped  at  Lord 
Banff's,  and  next  night  at  Admiral  Gordon's  lady's  house,  with  a  great 
number  of  great  ones  ;  and,  at  their  request,  he  preached  in  the  English 
chapel  to  an  elegant  and  crowded  congregation.  We  are,  etc.,  William 
and  Isabel  McPherson."    (Manuscript  letter.) 

VOL.  IIL  Q 


2  26  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

^77"  him  weep  while  preaching  before  now.  He  spoke  awfully, 
Age  73  and  the  congregation  heard  attentively.  The  next  day 
(Sunday)  I  heard  him  at  Keighley  in  the  morning,  and  then 
at  Haworth  church.  Afterwards,  the  sacrament  was  ad- 
ministered, but  in  too  great  a  hurry.  Several  hundreds  com- 
municated in  less  than  an  hour.  We  then  dined,  in  haste 
and  confusion,  and  drove  off  to  Colne.  I  rode  fast,  and  got 
thither  before  Mr.  Wesley.  The  street  was  filled  with  people 
waiting  to  welcome  him  ;  but,  when  about  two  miles  from 
Colne,  his  chaise  broke  down,  which  somewhat  delayed  his 
coming.  He  mounted  a  horse,  however,  and  so  arrived  in 
safety.  The  crowd  was  so  great  that  it  was  with  difficulty  we 
got  into  the  church.  The  sexton  led  us  to  the  reading  desk, 
and  thereby  I  got  a  seat.  IMr.  Wesley's  text  was  Revelation 
XX.  12.  At  the  beginning  he  was  rather  flat;  but,  at  the 
end,  he  spake  many  awful  things." 

Wesley's  journey  to  the  north  was  always  one  continued 
panorama  of  toil  and  travel,  preaching  and  praying,  conferring 
with  his  preachers  and  visiting  the  sick.  Hardly  one  in  a 
thousand  could  have  borne  the  burden  of  its  labours  without 
bending ;  and  yet  Wesley,  an  old  man,  was  always,  in  the 
midst  of  gigantic  toils,  blithe  and  happy  ;  and  never  went 
northwards  without  making  his  large  circuit  larger.  Besides 
other  places,  he  now,  for  the  first  time,  preached  at  Chester- 
field. Three  years  before,  Jeremiah  Cocker  had  gone  from 
Sheffield,  and  stood  on  a  table,  in  the  midst  of  the  market 
place,  and  begun  to  preach.  A  man,  hired  for  the  purpose, 
pulled  him  down.  Jerry  again  mounted  his  rostrum,  and  was 
again  pulled  down.  A  third  time  he  ascended,  and  a  third 
time  his  assailant  brought  him  to  the  ground.  The  old 
Adam  now  began  to  stir  in  the  athletic  preacher,  and, 
seizing  the  man,  he  gave  him  a  shake  hardly  gentle.  "  That 
is  not  the  spirit  of  Christ,"  shouted  the  mob,  which,  all  at 
once,  had  become  pious.  "  I  acknowledge  it,"  said  Jerry  ; 
and  again  he  jumped  upon  his  table,  and  finished  his  discourse.^ 
Wesley  opened  the  conference  of  1776,  in  London,  on 
August  6,  and  concluded  it  three  days  afterwards.  He 
writes :  "  In  several  conferences  we  have  had  great  love  and 

'  Manuscript. 


Confer e7ice  of  i'j'j6.  227 

unity;  but  in  this  there  was,  over  and  above,  such  a   general      ^776 
seriousness  and  solemnity  of  spirit  as  we  scarcely  ever  had    Age  73 
before."     "  Everything,"  says  Thomas  Taylor,  "  was  conducted 
in  great  order.     A  very  strict  scrutiny  was  made  into  every 
one's  character;  and  I  am  glad  so  few  were  found  culpable." ^ 

The  truth  is,  objections  to  the  preachers  had  become  so 
rife,  that  Wesley  felt  it  to  be  his  duty  to  interfere.  He 
writes:  "  It  is  objected,  that  some  of  our  preachers  are  utterly 
unqualified  for  the  work,  and  that  others  do  it  negligently,  as 
if  they  imagined  they  had  nothing  to  do  but  to  preach  once 
or  twice  a  day.  In  order  to  silence  this  objection  for  ever, 
which  has  been  repeated  ten  times  over,  the  preachers  were 
examined  at  large,  especially  those  concerning  whom  there 
was  the  least  doubt.  The  result  was,  that  one  was  excluded 
for  inefficiency,  and  two  for  misbehaviour.  And  we  were 
thoroughly  satisfied,  that  all  the  rest  had  both  grace  and  gifts 
for  the  work  wherein  they  are  engaged.  I  hope,  therefore,  we 
shall  hear  of  this  objection  no  more." 

Even  in  1776,  as  now,  there  were  crabbed,  cantankerous 
Methodists,  to  whom  discipline  was  a  blessing.  Those  in 
Ireland  refused  to  contribute  to  the  yearly  collection,  saying, 
it  "was  nothing  to  them ;  they  would  only  bear  their  own 
expenses."  This  was  worse  than  foolish  ;  it  was  disloyal  and 
unjust.  In  their  own  fashion,  they  were  willing  to  feed  and 
clothe  the  preachers  sent  to  them  ;  but  they  expected  some 
one  else  to  pay  their  expenses  for  travelling,  and  for  the 
sickness  of  themselves  and  their  families  ;  or,  perhaps,  these 
Irish  Methodists  had  dreamt  that  itinerants  travelled  with- 
out expense,  and,  so  far  as  sickness  was  concerned  and 
the  need  of  medicine,  were  entirely  exempted  from  the 
dire  effects  of  Adam's  curse.  Wesley  says,  with  honest  in- 
dignation ;  "  These  are  properly  tJicir  expenses  ;  nor  will 
we  pay  any  part  of  them  for  the  time  to  come,  unless  their 
yearly  contribution  enable  us  so  to  do."  If  the  Irish  stopped 
supplies  on  one  side  of  the  channel,  Wesley  could  stop 
supplies  on  the  other  side  as  Avell.  This  probably  was  a 
dilemma  which  the  simple  Hibernians  had  not  studied. 

There  was  another  unpleasantness  at  the  conference  of  1776. 

^  Taylor's  manuscript  journals. 


2  28  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

iT]^  Circuit  stewards  complained,  that  some  of  the  preachers 
Age73  ■\vives  were  sluts,  and  spoiled  their  houses  ;  and  the  preachers, 
on  the  other  hand,  complained  that  their  houses  were  hardly 
homes,  for  the  people,  without  ceremony,  crowded  into  them 
as  into  coffee  houses.  Wesley  dealt  with  both  complaints  in 
his  own  laconic  way  ;  directing  that  no  "known  slut"  should 
have  a  house  to  spoil ;  and  that  no  person,  either  on  Sundays 
or  week  days,  should  go  into  the  preacher's  house  except  to 
ask  a  question. 

The  conference  pronounced  the  opinion,  that  Calvinism  had 
been  the  grand  hindrance  of  the  work  of  God  ;  and,  hence,  to 
stop  its  progress,  all  the  preachers  were  requested — (i)  To  read, 
with  carefulness,  the  tracts  published  by  Wesley,  Fletcher, 
and  Sellon.  (2)  To  preach  universal  redemption  frequently, 
explicitly,  and  lovingly.  (3)  Not  to  imitate  the  Calvinist 
preachers  in  screaming,  allegorising,  and  boasting;  but  to 
visit  as  diligently  as  they  did,  to  answer  all  their  objections, 
to  advise  the  Methodists  not  to  hear  them,  to  pray  constantly 
and  earnestly  that  God  would  stop  the  plague. 

Was  it  wise  to  publish  this.''  We  doubt  it;  and  so  did 
Toplady,  for  he  immediately,  without  note  or  comment,  repub- 
lished it  in  his  Gospel  Magazine,  with  the  heading  "  Authentic 
Extract  of  what  passed  at  a  certain  Confabulation,  held  at 
London,  August  6,  1776." 

The  Isle  of  Man  now  began'  to  attract  attention.  John 
Crook  was  the  son  of  a  Lancashire  physician,  who  squandered 
his  own  and  his  wife's  fortunes,  and  then  died  a  miserable  and 
untimely  death  at  sea,  John  was  put  apprentice  to  learn  a 
laborious  trade,  and  then  enlisted  to  be  a  soldier ;  when  he 
was  sent  to  Limerick,  where,  at  the  age  of  twenty-eight,  he 
was  converted,  in  the  Methodist  chapel,  in  the  year  1770. 
Having  purchased  his  discharge  from  the  army,  he  returned 
to  Liverpool,  where  he  became  a  classleader,  and  a  local 
preacher.  At  the  beginning  of  1775,  he  went,  uncommissioned 
except  by  God  Himself,  to  the  Isle  of  Man,  and  began  to 
preach,  and  had  the  lieutenant  governor,  and  his  lady,  and  all 
the  family,  and  the  chief  people  in  Castletown,  to  hear  him. 
Numbers  had  been  converted  ;  and  persecution  had  begun  to 
rage.  On  July  16,  1776,  the  following  episcopal  bull  was 
issued. 


Age  73 


AletJiodism  in  the  Isle  of  Man.  229 

"  To  the  several  Rectors,  Vicars,  Chaplains,  and  Curates,  within  the  Isle      TjjO 
and  Diocese  of  Man. 

"Reverend  Brethren, — Whereas,  we  have  been  informed,  that 
several  unordained,  unauthorised,  and  unqualified  persons  from  other 
countries  have  presumed,  for  some  time  past,  to  preach  and  teach  pubhcly, 
and  hold  and  maintain  conventicles,  and  have  caused  several  weak  per- 
sons to  combine  themselves  together  in  a  new  society,  and  have  private 
meetings,  assemblies,  and  congregations,  contrary  to  the  doctrine,  govern- 
ment, rites  and  ceremonies  of  the  Established  Church,  and  the  civil  and 
ecclesiastical  laws  of  this  island — - 

"  We  do,  therefore,  for  the  prevention  of  schism,  and  the  establishment 
of  uniformity  of  religious  worship,  which  so  long  hitherto  has  subsisted 
among  us,  hereby  desire  and  require  each  and  every  one  of  you,  to  be 
vigilant  and  use  your  utmost  endeavours  to  dissuade  your  respectiv-e 
flocks  from  following,  or  being  led  and  misguided  by,  such  incompetent 
teachers,  and  to  exhort,  incite,  and  invite  them  devoutly  to  read  the  holy 
Scripture,  to  attend  reverently  the  blessed  sacraments  of  their  parish 
church,  and  the  ghostly  advice  of  their  own  ministers,  by  which  they  will 
be  better  and  more  comfortably  instructed  in  the  meaning  of  grace  and 
salvation,  than  by  the  crude  and  pragmatical  and  inconsistent,  if  not 
profane  and  blasphemous,  extempore  effusions  of  these  pretenders  to  the 
true  religion ;  and,  if  afterwards  they  regard  not  the  truth,  but  obstinately 
persist  in  error,  then  to  know  and  find  out  the  names  of  such  persons, 
within  your  respective  parishes  and  chapelries,  as  attend  the  public 
instructions  of  the  said  disorderly  and  unqualified  teachers,  or  frequent 
the  said  conventicles,  meetings,  assemblies,  and  congregations  ;  and  if, 
upon  due  inquiry  and  certain  information,  you  discover,  or,  consistently 
with  your  own  knowledge,  know  any  licensed  schoolmaster,  mistress, 
parish  clerk,  or  any  other  person,  who  holds  any  office  or  employment  by 
licence  from  us  or  our  predecessors,  that  you  signify  and  make  known  to 
us  in  writing  the  names,  within  one  month  after  the  receipt  hereof,  as  also 
unto  our  reverend  vicars  general  or  any  one  of  them,  of  the  persons 
who  attend  the  instructions  of  the  said  teachers,  or  frequent  the  said 
conventicles. 

"And  we,  likewise,  further  desire  and  require  each  and  every  one  of 
you,  in  case  any  of  the  above  mentioned  unordained,  unauthorised,  and 
unqualified  teachers  shall,  at  any  time  hereafter,  offer  to  partake  of  the 
holy  communion  in  any  of  your  respective  churches  or  chapels,  that  you 
repel  him  or  them  so  offering,  and  the  minister  so  repelling  them  or  any 
of  them  to  give  an  account  of  the  same  unto  us  within  fourteen  days,  at 
the  farthest,  as  is  directed  in  the  rubric  in  that  behalf. 

"  Given  at  Peeltown,  July  16,  1776. 

"R.  SoDOR  A^^D  Man. 

"P.S. —  Let  these  be  forwarded,  in  the  usual  manner,  and  the  time  of 
receiving  and  forwarding  be  noted  by  each  of  you.  You  will  also  take  a 
copy  thereof,  and  publish  it,  in  English  and  Manx,  at  the  usual  time,  in 


230  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1776    your  respective  churches  and  chapels  the  Sunday  next  after  the  receipt 
thereof."  ' 


Age  73 


Such  was  the  fuhnen  bnituvi  discharged  at  the  poor 
Methodists  from  the  episcopal  battery  of  the  Isle  of  Man. 
Twelve  days  later,  John  Crook  wrote  as  follows  to  a  friend 
at  Liverpool. 

"Castletown,  Isle  of  Man,  Ji/ly  28,  1776. 
"  My  dear  Brother, — 1  am  now  in  hot  war.  The  devil  has  stirred 
up  the  Rev.  Mr.  Moor,  of  Douglas,  and  made  a  firebrand  of  him,  to  set 
all  the  island  on  fire.  This  gentleman  has  set  his  schoolboys  to  work,  to 
write  chosen  texts  of  Scripture  a.g2.\n'5t  false pfophets,  dreamers  of  dreams, 
running  and  not  being  sent,  etc.  He  has  also  picked  up  a  ballad, 
written,  I  fancy,  by  the  late  Dr.  Bowden,  and  has  dispersed  manuscript 
copies  of  it,  and  of  the  texts,  among  the  populace,  and  put  them  into  a 
most  violent  flame.  The  effect  on  us,  as  a  society,  is,  we  are  hooted  at, 
slutched,  and  stoned,  whenever  we  go  to  worship  God.  Mr.  Moor's 
scholars,  in  particular,  and  the  rabble  of  the  town  in  general,  gather  round 
our  place  of  meeting,  and  first  sing  the  blasphemous  ballad,  and  then 
proceed  to  throw  dirt  and  stones  at  the  windows  and  door.  As  for 
myself,  when  I  come  out  they  plentifully  salute  me  with  channel  dirt,  with 
which  they  have  often  plastered  me  pretty  well.  When  the  scholars  meet 
me  at  mid  day,  they  curse  me  most  horribly,  and  throw  at  me  chips,  hard 
pieces  of  mortar,  potatoes,  stones,  or  whatever  comes  to  hand.  But  if 
this  were  all,  we  might  do  well  enough';  but  this  brand  has  communicated 
the  infectious  blaze  to  the  bishop,  who  has  issued  a  bull,  dated,  not  Rome, 
but  Peeltown,  which  was  published  in  the  churches  last  sabbath.  I  have 
petitioned  the  governor  for  liberty  of  conscience,  but  he  and  the  bishop 
are  so  unanimous,  that,  he  says,  he  will  not  interfere  in  the  case,  but 
wishes  me  to  write  a  memorial  setting  forth  my  suit.  I  am  not  willing  to 
do  this,  but  have  given  Mr.  Wesley  an  account  of  the  matter,  and  hope 
he  will  direct  me  how  to  act. 

"  I  am,  your  willing  servant  in  the  gospel, 

"John  Crook."  2 

Wesley  replied  to  Mr.  Crook  as  follows. 

"  London,  Augtist  10, 1776. 
"  My  dear  Brother, — By  all  means,  stay  in  the  island  till  the  storm 
be  ended  :  in  your  patience  possess  your  soul.  Beware  of  despising  your 
opponents  !  Beware  of  anger  and  resentment !  Return  not  evil  for  evil, 
or  Vaihng  for  railing.  I  advise  you  to  keep,  with  a  few  serious  people, 
a  day  of  fasting  and  prayer.  God  has  the  hearts  of  all  men  in  His 
hands.  Neither  Dr.  Moor,  nor  the  bishop  himself,  is  out  of  His  reach.  Be 
fervent  in  prayer,  that  God  would  arise  and  maintain  His  own  cause. 
Assuredly,  He  will  not  suffer  you  to  be  tempted  above  what  you  are  able  to 

^  John  Crook's  original  copy.  -  Manuscript  letter. 


Age  73 


Quarrelling  Schoolboys  reconciled.  231 

bear.  Violent  methods  of  redress  arc  not  to  be  used,  till  all  other  1776 
methods  fail.  I  know  pretty  well  the  mind  of  Lord  Mansfield,  and  of  one 
that  is  greater  than  he  ;  but,  if  I  appealed  to  them,  it  would  bring  much 
expense  and  inconvenience  on  Dr.  Moor  and  others.  I  would  not  will- 
ingly do  this  ;  I  love  my  neighbour  as  myself.  Possibly,  they  may  think 
better,  and  allow  that  liberty  of  conscience  which  belongs  to  every  par- 
taker of  human  nature,  and  more  especially  to  every  one  of  his  majesty's 
subjects  in  his  British  dominions.  To  live  peaceably  with  all  men  is  the 
earnest  desire  of  your  affectionate  brother, 

"John  Wesley."  1 

Three  years  after  this,  the  Isle  of  IMan  was  a  flourislihig 
Methodist  circuit,  with  105 1  members  of  society. 

No  sooner  was  the  conference  in  London  ended,  than 
Wesley  set  out,  on  Sunday  afternoon,  August  1 1,  for  Corn- 
wall. On  his  return,  he-  spent,  as  usual,  about  a  month  at 
Bristol  and  in  its  vicinity.  He  began  what,  he  says,  he  had 
long  intended,  visiting  the  Bristol  society  from  house  to  house, 
setting  apart  at  least  two  hours  a  day  for  that  purpose.  He 
preached  in  the  church  at  Midsomer  Norton,  the  rector  making 
one  of  his  congregation.  Here  an  incident  occurred  which  was 
characteristic  of  the  man,  and  is  worth  relating.  Wesley  was 
entertained  at  the  house  of  Mr.  Bush,  a  local  preacher,  who 
kept  a  boarding  school.  While  there,  two  of  the  boys 
quarrelled,  and  cuffed  and  kicked  each  other  most  vigorously, 
Mrs.  Bush  brought  the  pugilists  to  Wesley.  He  talked  to  them, 
and  repeated  the  lines  : 

"  Birds  in  their  little  nests  agree, 
And  'tis  a  shameful  sight, 
When  children  of  one  family 
Fall  out,  and  chide,  and  fight." 

"  You  must  be  reconciled,"  said  he  ;  "  go  and  shake  hands 
with  each  other."  They  did  so.  "  Now,"  he  continued,  "  put 
your  arms  round  each  other's  neck,  and  kiss  each  other."  This 
w^as  also  done.  "  Now,"  said  he,  "  come  to  me  "  ;  and,  taking 
two  pieces  of  bread  and  butter,  he  folded  them  together,  and 
desired  each  to  take  a  part.  "Now,"  he  added,  "you  have 
broken  bread  together."  He  then  put  his  hands  upon  their 
heads,  and  blessed  them.  The  two  tigers  were  turned  into 
loving  lambs;  they  never  forgot  the  old  man's  blessing;  and 

'  Methodist  Magazine,  1 808,  p.  1 03 . 


232  Life  (tnd  Times  of  Wesley. 

1776  one  of  them  became  a  magistrate  in  Berks,  and  related  the 
Age  73    occurrence  with  intense  interest  in  after  days.^ 

Having  returned  to  London,  Wesley  set  out,  on  November 
13,  accompanied  by  his  invalid  friend,  Fletcher,  to  Norwich. 
He  says  :  "  I  took  coach  at  twelve,  slept  till  six,  and  then 
spent  the  time  very  agreeably  in  conversation,  singing,  and 
reading.  I  read  Mr.  Bolt's  account  of  the  affairs  in  the  East 
Indies.  What  a  scene  is  here  opened  !  What  consummate 
villains,  what  devils  incarnate,  were  the  managers  there! 
What  utter  strangers  to  justice,  mercy,  and  truth  ;  to  every 
sentiment  of  humanity !  I  believe  no  heathen  history  con- 
tains a  parallel.  I  remember  none  in  all  the  annals  of 
antiquity  ;  not  even  the  divine  Cato,  or  the  virtuous  Brutus, 
plundered  the  provinces  committed  to  their  charge  with  such 
merciless  cruelty  as  the  English  have  plundered  the  desolated 
provinces  of  Hindostan." 

The  two  friends  returned  to  London  on  November  21  ;  and, 
a  few  days  later,  Wesley  started  on  his  accustomed  visitation 
to  Bedfordshire,  etc.  ;  and,  on  the  way,  read  the  poetical  works 
of  Gray,  whom  he  pencils  as  "  sharp,  sensible,  and  ingenious  ; 
but  proud,  morose,  envious,  passionate,  and  resentful." 

After  this,  he  made  a  tour  through  Kent  ;  and  then  writes  : 
"December  31 — We  concluded  the  year  with  solemn  praise 
to  God,  for  continuing  His  great  work  in  our  land.  It  has 
never  been  intermitted  one  year,  or  one  month,  since  the  year 
1738  ;  in  which  my  brother  and  I  began  to  preach  that  strange 
doctrine  of  salvation  by  faith." 

The  Calvinistic  controversy  was  now  in  its  last  agonies  ; 
but,  on  the  part  of  the  elect,  was  as  acrimonious  as  ever. 
Some  one  published  a  twopenny  pamphlet,  entitled,  ^*  A 
necessary  Alarm  and  most  earnest  Caveto  against  Tabernacle 
Principles  and  Tabernacle  Connections ;  containing  the  sub- 
stance of  an  extraordinary  Harangue  and  Exhortation,  deli- 
vered at  Penzance,  in  August,  1774  ;  on  an  extraordinary  occa- 
sion. By  J.  W.,  Master  of  very  extraordinary  Arts."  In  this 
infamous  burlesque,  Wesley  is  treated  with  as  much  ridicule  as 
the  anonymous  author  could  command  ;  and  Toplady,  in 
reviewing  it,  in  his  Gospel  Magazine,  of  course  commends  it, 

^  Methodist  Magazine,  1842,  p.  136. 


Wesley s   Wife.  233 


as  "a delicate  satire  on  Wesley,"  and  hopes  that  "the  cream  1776 
of  tartar,  so  ably  administered  by  the  anonymous  physician,  Aee~73 
will  prove  a  sweetener  of  the  patient's  crudities,  and  conduce 
to  carry  off  some  portion  of  his  self  sufficiency."  Wesley, 
however,  had  been  so  "  severely  peppered  and  salted  of  late 
years,"  that  the  considerate  editor  of  the  Gospel  Magazine 
benevolently  intimates  that  he  shall,  on  that  account,  refrain 
from  adding  to  the  pepper  and  salt  seasonings,  which  "  must 
often  have  made  Wesley  smart  and  wince  like  an  eel  dis- 
possessed of  its  skin."^ 

This  was  bad  enough  ;  but  there  were  other  things  even 
worse.  Wesley's  wife,  (originally  a  not  too  respectable  serv^ant 
girl,)  stole  a  number  of  Wesley's  letters,  and  interpolated  words, 
and  misinterpreted  spiritual  expressions,  so  as  to  make  the 
letters  bear  a  bad  construction.  She  read  them  to  an  elect 
party  of  Calvinists,  and  agreed  to  send  them  to  the  Moriwig 
Post  for  publication.  Two  masked  assassins,  who  assumed 
the  not  inappropriate  names  of  Scorpion  and  Snapdragon, 
furiously  assailed  him,  in  the  London  newspaper,  professing 
to  ground  their  charges  against  him  upon  his  own  private 
papers,  which  the  woman,  who  was  legally  his  wife,  had  put 
into  their  hands.  A  more  infamous  episode  does  not  occur  in 
Wesley's  history.  The  charges  were  cruel  insinuations, 
founded  upon  interpolated  letters,  stolen  by  a  faithless  woman, 
who,  in  order  to  defame  a  husband  of  whom  she  was  utterly 
unworthy,  not  only  committed  theft  but  forgery,  and  then  put 
herself  into  the  hands  pf  a  set  of  holy  Calvinists,  who  em- 
ployed her  perfidy  and  meanness  in  injuring  the  man  whom, 
at  the  altar  of  the  Most  High  God,  she  had  sworn  to  love, 
honour,  and  obey.  This  is  strong  language  ;  but  the  writer, 
knowing  more  than  he  chooses  to  make  public,  uses  it 
with  deliberate  design.  Charles  Wesley,  finding  the  use  that 
was  being  made  of  his  brother's  papers,  was  in  the  utmost 
consternation,  and  went  off  in  haste,  wishing  him  to  postpone 
a  journey,  and  to  stay  in  town  to  defend  himself  against  his 
enemies.  Wesley  w^as  as  calm  as  his  loving  and  faithful 
brother  was  excited.  "  I  shall  never  forget,"  said  Miss 
Wesley,    "  the    manner    in    which    my    father    accosted    my 


Gospel  Magazine,  1776,  p.  475. 


2  34  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1776  mother  on  his  return  home.  'My  brother,'  said  he,  'is  indeed 
Age  73  an  extraordinary  man.  I  placed  before  him  the  importance 
of  the  character  of  a  minister  ;  and  the  evil  consequences 
which  might  result  from  his  indifference  to  it;  and  urged  him, 
by  every  relative  and  public  motive,  to  answer  for  himself, 
and  stop  the  publication.  His  reply  was,  '  Brother,  zvJien  I 
devoted  to  God  my  ease,  my  time,  my  life,  did  I  except  my 
reputation  f  No.  Tell  Sally  I  will  take  her  to  Canterbury 
to-inorroiv.'"'^ 

On  the  Arminian  side  of  the  controversy,  the  chief,  if  not 
the  only,  publication  issued  in  1776,  was  Fletcher's  masterly 
"  Answer  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Toplady's  '  Vindication  of  the 
Decrees,'  etc."  i2mo,  128  pages.  Never  was  a  bravo  shaved 
with  so  sharp  a  razor,  and  by  so  adept  a  hand. 

Except  "An  Extract  of  the  Life  of  Madame  Guion,"  i2mo, 
230  pages,  Wesley's  only  publications,  in  1776,  were  the  two 
political  tracts  following,  i.  "Some  Observations  on  Liberty, 
occasioned  by  a  late  Tract":  i2mo,  36  pages.  And,  2.  "A 
Seasonable  Address  to  the  more  Serious  Part  of  the  Lihabit- 
ants  of  Great  Britain,  respecting  the  Unhappy  Contest 
between  us  and  our  American  Brethren  ;  with  an  occasional 
Word  interspersed  to  those  of  a  different  complexion":  i2mo, 
18  pages. 

The  former  was  an  answer  to  Dr.  Price,  a  unitarian 
minister  far  more  famed  for  politics  than  for  preaching,  who 
had  recently  published  his  "  Observations  on  the  Nature  of 
Civil  Liberty,  the  Principles  of  Government,  and  the  Justice 
and  Policy  of  the  War  with  America."  This  was  considered 
the  ablest  work,  in  exposition  of  the  injurious  policy  pursued 
by  England  toward  America,  that  had  yet  been  issued. 
Within  less  than  two  years,  eight  editions  were  printed  ;  and, 
in  testimony  of  their  approbation  of  it,  the  common  council 
of  London  presented  to  the  author  the  freedom  of  the  city  in 
a  golden  box.  Thus,  in  fighting  with  Dr.  Price,  Wesley 
was  far  from  fighting  with  a  shadow. 

Both  of  Wesley's  tracts  display,  not  only  his  wonted  ability, 
but  his  profound  loyalty  to  the  government  of  King  George, 
his    benevolence    of  heart,    and    his    intense    interest   in   the 

^  Jackson's  Life  of  C.  Wesley,  vol.  ii.,  p.  283, 


Wesley s  Loyalty.  235 


Age  73 


fratricidal  war  which  was  then  raging.  A  more  loyal  subject  iyy(3 
than  Wesley,  England  never  had  ;  perhaps,  indeed,  his  loving 
loyalty  sometimes  made  him  somewhat  blind  to  the  faultiness 
of  ruling  powers.  No  man  was  more  obedient  to  law;  and  no 
man  more  cheerfully  paid  his  taxes.  The  last  mentioned 
might  not  amount  to  much  ;  but  they  were  never  tendered 
with  a  niggard's  hand.  Some  imagined  that  he,  the  bishop 
of  40,000  Methodists,  was  sure  to  have  an  enormous  income, 
and  a  silver  chest  well  stocked  with  plate ;  and  that,  therefore, 
his  assessments  ought  to  be  higher  than  they  were.  So,  for 
instance,  thought  the  commissioners  of  his  majesty's  excise, 
in  1776.     Hence  the  following  circular  : 

"  Reverend  Sir, — As  the  commissioners  cannot  doubt  but  you  have 
plate  for  which  you  have  hitherto  neglected  to  make  entry,  they  have 
directed  me  to  inform  you,  that  they  expect  you  forthwith  to  make  due 
entry  of  all  your  plate,  such  entry  to  bear  date  from  the  commencement 
of  the  plate,  duty,  or  from  such  time  as  you  have  owned,  used,  had,  or 
kept  any  quantity  of  silver  plate,  chargeable  by  the  act  of  parliament ;  as, 
in  default  hereof,  the  board  will  be  obliged  to  signify  your  refusal  to  their 
lordships.     An  immediate  answer  is  desired." 

Think  of  John  Wesley,  always  on  the  wing,  having  a  hoard 
of  silver  plate  to  adorn  his  sumptuous  table  when  feasting  his 
Epicurean  coadjutors  and  his  dinner  loving  friends.  The  idea 
was- almost  too  silly  to  be  ridiculous.  Wesley  seems  to  have 
thought  it  so ;  and  his  answer  (with  which  we  close  the 
present  year)  was  as  follows. 

"  Sir, — I  have  two  silver  teaspoons  at  London,  and  tico  at  Bristol. 
This  is  all  the  plate  which  I  have  at  present  ;  and  I  shall  not  buy  any 
more,  while  so  many  round  me  want  bread. 

"  I  am,  sir,  your  most  humble  servant, 

"John  Wesley." 


1777- 

^777  XT  LESLEY  was  always  full  of  work.  He  began  the  year 
Age  74  V  V  1777  with  a  course  of  lectures  on  the  book  of  Ecclesi- 
astes,  and  says  :  "  I  never  before  had  so  clear  a  sight  either 
of  the  meaning  or  the  beauties  of  it ;  neither  did  I  imagine, 
that  the  several  parts  of  it  were,  in  so  exquisite  a  manner, 
connected  together ;  all  tending  to  prove  that  grand  truth, 
that  there  is  no  happiness  out  of  God." 

He  also  spent  an  hour  every  morning  with  his  London 
preachers,  Messrs.  Jaco,  Hindmarsh,  Murlin,  Pilmoor,  Atlay, 
Bradford,  and  Olivers,  in  instructing  them  as  he  used  to 
instruct  his  Oxford  pupils,  and  in  promoting  their  piety. 

He  likewise  begun  visiting  the  society,  many  of  whom  he 
found  in  the  deepest  poverty,  and  writes  :  "  O  why  do  not  all 
the  rich  that  fear  God  constantly  visit  the  poor  ?  Can  they 
spend  part  of  their  spare  time  better }  Certainly  not :  so 
they  will  find  in  that  day,  when  '  every  man  shall  receive  his 
own  reward  according  to  his  own  labour.'  " 

To  his  surprise,  he  once  more  preached  in  a  London 
church — Allhallows  ;  and  says  :  "  I  found  great  liberty  of 
spirit  ;  and  the  congregation  seemed  to  be  much  affected. 
How  is  this  ?  Do  I  yet  please  men  .-*  Is  the  offence  of 
the  cross  ceased  .''  It  seems,  after  being  scandalous  near 
fifty  years,  I  am  at  length  growing  into  an  honourable 
man." 

At  the  beginning  of  the  month  of  February,  he  hurried  off 
to  Bristol,  to  quiet  some  of  the  society,  who  were  in  danger 
of  becoming  disaffected  towards  government  ;  and  preached 
from,  "  Put  them  in  mind  to  be  subject  to  principalities  and 
powers."  Finding  that  there  had  been  repeated  attempts  to 
fire  the  city,  he  preached  again,  taking  as  his  text,  "  Is  there 
any  evil  in  the  city,  and  the  Lord  hath  not  done  it.'*"  He 
also  wrote  and- published,  "A  Calm  Address  to  the  Inhabit- 
ants of  England":  i2mo,  23  pages.  He  states,  that  a  year 
and  a  half  ago,  from  fifty  to  a  hundred  thousand  copies  of 


Dr.  Dodd.  237 


his  "  Calm  Address  to  the  American  Colonies"  had  been  dis-  1777 
persed,  and  the  effect  had  exceeded  his  most  sanguine  hopes.  a~74 
This  encouraged  him  now  to  address  "  the  inhabitants  of  Old 
England^  He  then  gives  an  account  of  the  rise  and  progress 
of  the  American  rebellion,  tracing  it  back  as  far  as  the  year 
1737.  He  proceeds  to  state  that,  after  bawling  for  liberty, 
no  liberty  was  left  in  the  confederate  provinces  of  America ; 
the  liberty  of  the  press,  religious  liberty,  and  civil  liberty 
were  nonentities.  The  lords  of  the  congress  w^ere  as 
absolute  as  the  emperor  of  Morocco  ;  whereas,  in  England, 
the  fullest  liberty  was  enjoyed,  "  both  as  to  religion,  life,  body, 
and  goods."  He  tells  the  Methodists  that,  though  many, 
Avho  go  under  that  name,  hate  the  king  and  all  his  ministers, 
only  less  than  they  hate  an  Arminian,  he  would  no  more 
continue  in  fellowship  with  -those  that  were  connected  with 
him,  if  they  did  this,  than  he  would  continue  in  fellowship 
"  with  whoremongers,  or  sabbath  breakers,  or  thieves,  or 
drunkards,  or  common  swearers." 

The  whole  tract  is  written  in  his  most  pungent  style  ;  and, 
whatever  may  be  thought  of  the  wisdom  of  Wesley's  politics, 
all  must  admire  his  devoted  loyalty.  Of  course,  like  his 
"  Calm  Address  to  the  American  Colonies,"  it  stirred  a  nest 
of  hornets.  Almost  immediately,  there  was  published,  in  the 
Gospel  Magazine,  a  poem  reviling  him  in  unmeasured  terms. 
He  is  represented  as  "spitting  venom,  spite,  and  rage"; 
"  Father  Johnny"  is  accused  of  telling  "barefaced  lies,"  and 
is  thus  admonished  in  the  last  two  lines : 


"  O  think  of  this,  thou  grey  haired  sinner, 
Ere  Satan  pick  thy  bones  for  dinner." 

Wesley  returned  to  London  on  February  8,  and,  a  week 
later,  fulfilled  a  painful  duty.  For  more  than  twenty  years, 
Dr.  Dodd  had  been  one  of  the  most  popular  preachers  in  the 
metropolis.  When  at  the  zenith  of  his  fame,  he,  in  1774,  sent 
an  anonymous  letter  to  Lady  Apsley,  offering  her  ^^3000  if 
she  would  prevail  with  her  husband,  the  lord  chancellor,  to 
appoint  him  to  the  valuable  rectory  of  St.  George's,  Hanover 
Square,  which  was  then  vacant.  The  writer  was  detected,  and, 
as  a  consequence,  was  struck  out  of  the  list  of  royal  chaplains, 
was   assailed   with    bitter    invectives    by  the    press,  and  was 


22,S  Life  and  Times  of  JVeslcy. 

1777  severely  ridiculed  by  Foote,  in  a  farce,  entitled  "The  Cozeners." 
An^74  Withdrawing  from  England,  where  he  had  now  become  an 
object  of  contempt,  he,  for  a  time,  found  an  asylum  at 
Geneva,  with  his  former  pupil.  Lord  Chesterfield.  On  his 
return  to  this  country,  he  became  editor  of  a  newspaper,  and 
then  a  bankrupt.  In  1776,  he  visited  France,  and,  with  little 
regard  to  decency,  appeared  in  a  phaeton  at  the  races  on  the 
plains  of  Sablons,  dressed  in  all  the  foppery  of  the  country  in 
which  he  then  resided.  Strange  to  say,  he  was  still  popular,  as 
a  preacher,  at  the  Magdalen,  in  London,  where  he  delivered 
his  last  discourse  on  February  2,  1777,  from  the  ominous  text: 
"  And  among  these  nations  shalt  thou  find  no  ease,  neither 
shall  the  sole  of  thy  foot  have  rest ;  but  the  Lord  shall  give 
thee  there  a  trembling  heart,  and  failing  of  eyes,  and  sorrow  of 
mind  ;  and  thy  life  shall  hang  in  doubt  before  thee  ;  and  thou 
shalt  fear  day  and  night,  and  shalt  have  none  assurance  of 
thy  life." 

Only  two  days  afterwards,  he  forged  the  name  of  Lord 
Chesterfield  to  a  bond  for  ^^"4200,  on  the  security  of  which 
he  obtained  a  considerable  loan.  Detection  speedily  ensued  ; 
and,  before  the  month  was  ended,  he  was  arrested,  tried  at 
the  Old  Bailey,  and  was  convicted.  The  crime  was  forgery ; 
the  penalty  was  death.  For  four  months,  the  unhappy  culprit 
was  kept  in  prison.  His  friends  were  indefatigable,  in  their 
endeavours,  to  obtain  a  commutation  of  his  punishment. 
Even  the  city  of  London,  in  its  corporate  capacity,  earnestly 
solicited  that  his  sentence  might  not  be  carried  into  effect. 
Dr.  Johnson,  with  his  weighty  pen,  tried  to  arouse  popular 
feeling  in  his  favour,  alleging  that  petitions  for  clemency  had 
been  signed  by  above  thirty  thousand  people,  and  that  justice 
might  reasonably  be  satisfied  with  his  imprisonment,  infamy, 
exile,  penury,  and  ruin.  All  was  of  no  avail ;  and  on  June 
26  the  great  preacher  died  a  felon's  death  by  the  hands  of 
the  common  hangman. 

In  the  days  of  his  prosperity,  Dodd  had  been  in  the  ranks 
of  Wesley's  enemies  ;  and,  more  than  once,  had  reviled  him, 
his  people,  and  his  creed  ;  and,  yet,  strange  to  tell,  no  sooner 
was  he  incarcerated  for  his  crime,  than  he  sent  for  Wesley  to 
visit  him.  The  latter  writes:  "1777,  February  15 — At  the 
third  message,  I  took  up  my  cross,  and  went  to  see  Dr.  Dodd, 


Dr.  Dodd.  239 


in  the  Compter.  I  was  greatly  surprised.  He  seemed,  though  1777 
deeply  affected,  yet  thoroughly  resigned  to  the  will  of  God.  a~74 
Mrs.  Dodd,  likewise,  behaved  with  the  utmost  propriety.  I 
doubt  not,  God  will  bring  good  out  of  this  evil."  "  February 
18 — I  visited  him  again,  and  found  him  still  in  a  desirable 
state  of  mind  ;  calmly  giving  himself  up  to  whatsoever  God 
should  determine  concerning  him." 

Both  Wesley  and  his  brother  had  always  evinced  an  almost 
unequalled  interest  in  the  welfare  of  imprisoned  convicts  ; 
but,  remembering  past  treatment  from  this  popular,  but  now 
incarcerated,  preacher,  and  also  remembering  the  terrible 
scandal  which  he  had  brought  upon  Christ's  religion,  no 
wonder  that  Wesley  felt  it  a  cross  to  visit  him.  Wesley, 
however,  was  not  the  man  to  shun  a  duty  because  it 
happened  to  be  painful ;  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that, 
if  his  itinerant  engagements  had  not  taken  him  away  from 
London,  the  gloom  of  the  convict's  cell  would  often  have 
been  relieved,  during  the  next  four  months,  by  Wesley's 
presence. 

■  Wesley  had  never  even  seen  Dr.  Dodd,  either  in 
public  or  in  private,  until  he  saw  him  in  Wood  Street 
compter,  a  few  days  before  his  removal  to  Newgate  to 
take  his  trial.  "  Sir,"  said  the  prisoner,  "  I  have  long 
desired  to  see  you  ;  but  I  little  thought,  that  our  first  inter- 
view \vould  be  in  such  a  place  as  this."  "  We  conversed," 
says  Wesley,  "  about  an  hour ;  he  spoke  of  nothing  but 
his  soul,  and  appeared  to  regard  nothing  in  comparison  of 
it."  At  the  second  interview,  Wesley  spent  half  an  hour 
with  the  poor  wretched  man.  "  Sir,"  said  he,  "  do  not  you 
find  it  difficult  to  preserve  your  recollection,  amidst  all 
these  lawyers  and  witnesses  t "  Dodd  answered  :  "  It  is 
difficult ;  but  I  have  one  sure  hold  :  '  Lord,  not  as  I  will, 
but  as  Thou  wilt.' "  The  third  visit  was  after  his  sentence 
had  been  passed.  Wesley  writes :  "He  conversed  about 
an  hour ;  but  had  not  one  word  about  any  but  spiritual 
things.  I  found  his  mind  still  quiet  and  composed  ;  sorrow- 
ing, but  not  without  hope."  Two  days  before  the  execution, 
Wesley  went  again.  "  Sir,"  said  he,  "  I  think  you  do  not 
ask  enough,  or  expect  enough,  from  God  your  Saviour. 
The  present  blessing,  you  may  expect   from   Him,  is  to  be 


240  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1777  filled  with  all  joy,  as  well  as  peace  in  believing."  "O  sir," 
•'^ge~74  replied  the  doctor,  "  it  is  not  for  such  a  sinner  as  I  am  to 
expect  any  joy  in  this  world.  The  utmost  I  can  desire  is 
peace ;  and,  through  the  mercy  of  God,  that  I  have." 
Wesley  adds  :  "  We  then  spent  a  little  time  in  prayer,  and 
I  solemnly  commended  him  to  God.  He  was  exactly  in 
such  a  temper  as  I  wished.  He  never,  at  any  time,  ex- 
pressed the  least  murmuring  or  resentment  at  any  one ;  but 
entirely  and  calmly  gave  himself  up  to  the  will  of  God. 
Such  a  prisoner  I  scarce  ever  saw  before  ;  much  less,  such 
a  condemned  malefactor." 

This  was  Wesley's  last  interview.  Two  days  later,  the 
once  famous  Dr.  Dodd  was  hanged,  Wesley  expressing  the 
firm  belief,  that  angels  took  him  from  the  gallows  to  the 
paradise  of  God.' 

Perhaps  more  space  has  been  devoted  to  Dr.  Dodd  than 
some  may  thhik  fitting;  but,  remembering  the  positions 
occupied  respectively  by  Dodd  and  Wesley, — the  one  the 
most  popular  and  fashionable  preacher  that  London  had, 
and  the  other  an  outcast  clergyman,  who,  for  eight-and- 
thirty  years,  had  been  reviled  in  every  form  that  malice 
and  ingenuity  could  devise, — it  was  no  slight  fact,  that,  as 
soon  as  Dodd  was  face  to  face  with  death,  the  man  he  sent 
for  was,  not  one  of  his  old  associates,  lay  or  clerical,  but 
the  man  who  had  been,  and  still  was,  the  butt  of  national 
persecution,  and  whom  he  himself  in  the  days  of  his 
prosperity  had  treated  disrespectfully.  Dr.  Dodd,  when  he 
most  needed  them,  had  more  faith  in  Wesley's  counsels  and 
Wesley's  prayers  than  he  had  in  the  counsels  and  prayers  of 
those  whom  he  had  been  accustomed  to  call  his  friends.  His 
confidence  was  not  misplaced.  Wesley  did  his  best ;  Wesley's 
brother  poured  forth  the  feelings  of  his  heart  in  "  A  Prayer 
for  Dr.  Dodd  under  Condemnation";  and  Miss  Bosanquet 
wrote  to  the  poor  prisoner  not  a  few  of  her  Christian  letters. 
The  result  was,  Dodd,  on  the  very  day  of  Wesley's  final  visit, 
thus  addressed  his  lady  correspondent :  "  My  dear  Friend, — 
On  Friday  morning  I  am  to  be  made  immortal !  I  die  with 
a*  heart  truly  contrite,  and  broken  under  a  sense  of  its  great 

*  Methodist  ATaj^aztfie,  17S3,  p.  358. 


City  Road  Chapel.  241 

and  manifold  offences,  but  comforted  and  sustained  by  a  firm      1777 
faith  in  the  pardoning  love  of  Jesus  Christ."  ^  Agr74 

On  the  loth  of  March,  Wesley  left  London  on  a  seventeen 
days'  preaching  tour  to  Bristol  and  back  again.  This  was 
the  year  for  his  pastoral  visitation  in  the  north ;  but,  he 
writes,  "  I  cannot  be  long  absent  "  from  London,  "  while 
the  new  chapel  is  building,"  In  fact,  Wesley  became  so 
interested  in  his  great  building  scheme,  that  he  was  tempted 
to  turn  architect  himself.  "  It  seems,"  says  he  in  a  letter 
to  Miss  Ball,  of  Wycombe,  dated  March  13,  1777,  "it  seems, 
the  time  is  come,  that  you  are  to  have  a  more  commodious 
preaching  house  at  High  Wycombe.  I  will  give  you  a  plan 
of  the  building  myself ;  and  employ  whom  you  please  to 
build."  ^  After  all,  the  Methodists  at  Wycombe  might  have 
had  a  worse  architect  than  Wesley. 

Ten  days  were  spent  in  Lo.ndon,  and,  it  being  Easter  time, 
Wesley  writes  :  "  During  the  octave,  I  administered  the 
Lord's  supper  every  morning,  after  the  example  of  the 
primitive  church."  On  Sunday,  April  6,  he  set  out  on  his 
northern  journey,  making  collections,  as  he  went,  for  his 
London  chapel.  When  he  had  got  only  as  far  as  Lancashire, 
he  was  obliged  to  return  to  London  to  lay  the  foundation 
stone  on  April  21.  A  week  later,  he  took  coach  for  Newcastle 
upon  Tyne.  Here  he  spent  four  days,  and  then  again  turned 
his  face  southward ;  and,  preaching  all  the  way,  reached 
the  metropolis  on  the  17th  of  May. 

Having  met  the  building  committee,  which  was  his  chief 
business  in  London,  and  having,  with  his  brother,  visited 
Dr.  Dodd,  he,  a  third  time,  started  north  on  Sunday, 
May  25.  He  now  hurried  on  to  Whitehaven,  and  paid  his 
first  visit  to  the  Isle  of  Man,  where  he  spent  the  first  three 
days  in  the  month  of  June,  and  says:  "A  more  loving, 
simple  hearted  people  than  this  I  nev^er  saw ;  and  no 
wonder ;  for  they  have  but  six  papists,  and  no  Dissenters, 
in  the  island." 

Here  he  met  witli  the  Rev.  E.  and  Mrs.  Smyth,  the 
former  a  clergyman  from   Ireland,  and  the    latter  a  young 

'  Life  of  C.  Wesley,  vol.  ii.,  p.  311. 
^  Memoir  of  Ball,  p.  137. 

VOL.  III.  R 


242  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

^777  wife  of  twenty-two.  Mr.  Smyth  had  been  ejected  from  his 
Age  74  curacy  for  preaching  the  doctrines  of  the  Metliodists,  and 
especially  for  daring  to  reprove  "  the  great  man  of  the 
parish  "  for  living  the  life  of  an  adulterer.  Expelled  from 
the  Established  Church,  he  began  to  preach  wherever  he  had 
a  chance,  and  became  more  extensively  useful  than  ever. 
Though  the  nephew  of  an  archbishop,  his  home  was  a 
thatched  cabin,  and  his  trials  not  a  few.  Hearing  that 
Wesley  was  about  to  visit  the  Isle  of  Man,  Mr.  Smyth  and 
his  wife  came  to  meet  him.  Wesley  received  them  with  his 
customary  kindness,  and,  during  their  stay,  met  with  a  mis- 
adventure, which  is  worth  relating.  He  writes  :  "  I  set  out  for 
Douglas  in  the  one-horse  chaise,  Mrs.  Smyth  riding  with  me. 
In  about  an  hour,  in  spite  of  all  I  could  do,  the  headstrong 
horse  ran  the  wheel  against  a  large  stone  :  the  chaise  overset 
in  a  moment  ;  but  we  fell  so  gently  on  the  smooth  grass,  that 
neither  of  us  was  hurt  at  all." 

Such  is  Wesley's  account ;  Mrs.  Smyth's  reflects  on  Wesley's 
charioteering  capabilities.  "  He  told  me,"  she  writes,  "when 
we  got  into  the  carriage,  that  he  could  drive  a  chaise  forty 
years  ago ;  but,  poor  dear  man !  his  hand  seemed  out  of 
practice,  as  I  thought  we  should  be  overturned  several  times. 
At  last,  one  of  the  wheels  being  mounted  on  one  side  of  a 
ditch,  we  were  both  pitched  out  on  a  green  plain,  as  the  Lord 
in  mercy  ordered  it ;  for  had  we  been  overset  in  some  parts 
of  the  road,  it  is  more  than  probable  we  should  have  been 
killed  on  the  spot.  I  found  no  bad  effects  from  the  fall  at 
the  time  ;  but  the  next  morning  I  was  scarce  able  to  stir,  and 
felt  so  sore  and  bruised  that  I  thought  it  likely  I  should  lay 
my  bones  in  the  churchyard  at  Douglas."  ^ 

We  shall  meet  with  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Smyth  again  ;  suffice  it 
to  add,  that,  immediately  after  preaching  at  Douglas,  Wesley 
set  sail  for  England;  and,  a  few  days  after,  his  newly  acquired 
friends  went  back  to  Ireland,  while  he  himself  went  on  his 
way  to  London.  In  his  progress,  he,  for  the  first  time, 
preached  at  Settle,  where  Methodism  had  recently  been 
introduced    by   John   Read,   a  poor  dogger,  and  where  one 


^  Life  of  Mrs.  Smyth,  p.  33. 


Catastrophe  at  Colne.  243 

of    the    first    members   was    Edward    Slater,    who    became      1777 
Wesley's  coachman.'  Age~74 

Wesley  proceeded  to  Otley,  where  Miss  Ritchie,  apparently, 
was  dying  ;  to  Bradford,  where  William  Brammah,  one  of 
Wesley's  weakest  preachers,  had  been  amazingly  useful ;  to 
Birstal  and  Huddersfield,  where  thousands  upon  thousands 
assembled  to  hear  him ;  and  to  Colne,  where,  as  soon  as  he 
entered  the  pulpit,  the  left  hand  gallery  of  the  chapel  fell,  with 
nearly  two  hundred  persons  in  it. 

William  Sagar,  a  young  man  not  then  in  business  for 
"himself,  had  been  the  principal  promoter  of  this  erection,  and 
had  made  himself  responsible  for  the  payment  of  the  cost. 
When  the  walls  were  half  way  up,  the  workmen  became 
clamorous  for  their  wages  ;  and  Mr.  Sagar  unfortunately  was 
without  funds  ;  but,  two  or  three  days  afterwards,  a  gentleman, 
unsolicited,  offered  to  lend  him  the  money  needed.  One 
trouble  was  got  over,  but  another  was  yet  to  come.  When 
the  ill  fated  chapel  was  ready  for  the  roof,  a  gale  of  wind 
blew  down  the  western  gable,  and  shook  the  entire  edifice  to 
its  foundations.  And  now,  to  crown  the  whole,  through  the 
malevolence  of  a  carpenter  who  had  purposely  cut  the  timbers 
too  short,  down  fell  the  left  hand  gallery  ;  and,  though  no 
lives  were  lost,  yet  not  a  few  of  the  people  had  their  limbs 
broken,  and  were  otherwise  severely  injured.^ 

It  was  at  this  period  that  Colne  was  made  the  head  of  what 
Thomas  Taylor  called  "  a  snug  circuit "  ;  though  the  circuit 
embraced  the  entire  region  constituting  the  Todmorden, 
Bacup,  Haslingden,  Blackburn,  Burnley,  Preston,  Garstang, 
Lancaster,  Clitheroe,  and  Padiham  circuits  of  the  present 
day.  Taylor  was  the  assistant  of  the  circuit  before  it  was 
made  so  sntig,  and  was  Wesley's  companion  at  the  time  of  the 
Colne  catastrophe.  In  his  voluminous  unpublished  diary,  he 
tells  us,  that  at  Otley  Wesley  not  only  preached,  but  made  a 
collection  for  his  London  chapel ;  at  Bingley,  he  preached  in 
the  parish  church  ;  at  Keighley,  after  preaching,  Wesley  stood 
on  one  side  of  the  path  and  Taylor  on  the  other,  and,  with 
their  hats  in  their  hands,  collected  upwards  of  £"]  for  the  new 


^  Bardsley's  manuscript  letters. 
^Manuscript  memoir  of  Mr.  Sagar. 


244  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1777  chapel  in  City  Road;  at  Colne,  Taylor  was  with  Wesley  in 
Age~74  ^^^^  pulpit  when  the  gallery  fell.  He  writes :  "  Oh,  what  a 
scene  ensued.  The  dismal  shrieks  of  those  whose  limbs  were 
broken,  or  who  were  otherwise  injured,  and  the  cries  of  the 
women  for  their  children,  were  terrible.  Happily  no  lives 
were  lost,  and  much  less  damage  done  than  might  have  been 
expected.  As  soon  as  the  confusion  was  abated,  Mr.  Wesley 
preached  out  of  doors ;  but  the  catastrophe  prevented  many 
from  hearing."  ^ 

Wesley  proceeded  to  Derby,  where,  strangely  enough, 
another  accident  occurred,  which  might  have  been  as  serious 
as  that  at  Colne.  An  hour  before  the  congregation  assembled 
in  the  chapel,  part  of  the  roof  fell  in  ;  the  people,  however, 
rushed  to  hear,  despite  the  doubtful  state  of  the  flimsy 
edifice;  and,  among  others  permanently  benefited  by  Wesley's 
ministry,  was  Catherine  Spencer,  who,  for  sixty-four  years, 
adorned  her  religious  profession  by  "a  meek  and  quiet  spirit," 
and  who  died  at  the  age  of  eighty-six,  in  1843.^ 

Wesley  got  back  to  London  on  June  21,  and,  a  week  later, 
wrote:  "June  28 — I  have  now  completed  my  seventy-fourth 
year,  and,  by  the  peculiar  favour  of  God,  I  find  my  health  and 
strength,  and  all  my  faculties  of  body  and  mind,  just  the  same 
as  they  were  at  four-and-twenty." 

A  man,  on  his  birthday,  frequently  reviews  the  past,  sifts 
the  present,  and  reflects  upon  the  future.  At  this  period 
Wesley  wrote  as  follows  to  his  legal  friend,  Walter  Churchey, 
of  Brecon,  the  birthplace  of  Thomas  Coke. 

"  My  dear  Brother, — At  present,  I  am  very  safe  ;  for  I  am  a  good 
many  pounds,  if  not  scores  of  pounds,  worse  than  nothing.  In  my  will,  I 
bequeath  no  money  but  what  may  happen  to  be  in  my  pocket  when  I  die. 

"  Dr.  Coke  promises  fair,  and  gives  us  reason  to  hope,  that  he  will,  bring 
forth,  not  only  blossoms,  but  fruit.  He  has  hitherto  behaved  exceeding 
well,  and  seems  to  be  aware  of  his  grand  enemy — applause.  He  will 
likewise  be  in  danger  from  offence.  If  you  are  acquainted  with  him,  a 
friendly  letter  might  be  of  use,  and  would  be  taken  kindly.  He  now 
stands  on  slippery  ground,  and  is  in  need  of  every  help. 

"  I  am  your  affectionate  brother, 

"John  Weslev."^ 

^  Taylor's  manuscript  diary. 

2  Methodist  Magazine,  1 844,  p.  70. 

3  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xii.,  p.  406. 


John  I  niton.  245 


Having  spent  nine  days  in   London,  Wesley  set  out,   on      i777 
June  30,  on  a  preaching  tour  which  occupied  the  whole  of  the    Age  74 
ensuing    month.       Proceeding   by   way   of    Buckingham,    he 
visited    Oxford,    Witney,    Stroud,     Gloucester,   Tewkesbury, 
Worcester,    Malvern ;    and   then   passed   through   Wales   to 
Bristol,  which  he  reached  on  July  28. 

■Here,  on  August  5,  he  opened  his  annual  conference,  and 
writes : 

"As  the  report  had  been  spread  far  and  wide,  I  now  particularly 
inquired  of  every  assistant,  'Have  you  reason  to  beheve,  from  your  own 
observation,  that  the  Methodists  are  a  fallen  people  ?  Is  there  a  decay  or 
an  increase  in  the  work  of  God  where  you  have  been  ?  Are  the  societies 
in  general  more  dead,  or  more  alive  to  God,  than  they  were  some  years 
ago?'  The  almost  universal  answer  was:  '  If  we  must  know  them  by 
their  fruits,  there  is  no  decay  in  the  work  of  God  among  the  people  in 
general.  The  societies  are  not  dead  to  God  :  they  are  as  much  alive  as 
they  have  been  for  many  years.  And  we  look  on  this  report  as  a  mere 
device  of  Satan,  to  make  our  hands  hang  down.' 

"'But  how  can  this  question  be  decided?'  You  can  judge  no  further 
than  you  see.  You  cannot  judge  of  one  part  by  another;  and  none  but 
myself  has  an  opportunity  of  seeing  the  Methodists  throughout  the  three 
kingdoms. 

"  But  to  come  to  a  short  issue.  In  most  places,  the  Methodists  are  still 
a  poor,  despised  people,  labouring  under  reproach,  and  many  inconveni- 
ences ;  therefore,  wherever  the  power  of  God  is  not,  they  decrease.  By 
this  then,  you  may  form  a  sure  judgment  Do  the  Methodists  in  general 
decrease  in  number  ?  Then  they  decrease  in  grace ;  they  are  a  fallen,  or, 
at  least,  a  falling  people.  But  they  do  not  decrease  in  number;  they  con- 
tinually increase ;  therefore,  they  are  not  a  fallen  people." 

These  are  weighty  words.  They  show  Wesley's  deep 
anxiety  to  maintain  the  genuine  character  of  the  work  in 
which  he  was  engaged ;  and  the  test  which  he  instituted  was, 
unquestionably,  under  existing  circumstances,  logical  and 
conclusive. 

The  principal  propagator  of  the  report,  that  the  Methodists 
were  a  fallen  people,  was  John  Hilton,  who,  for  thirteen 
years,  had  been  an  itinerant  preacher.  Dr.  Stevens  calls  him 
"  an  honest  but  weak  headed  man."  This  is  scarcely  correct. 
Leaving  his  honesty  an  open  question,  John  Hilton,  judged 
by  his  publications,  was  far  from  being  "  weak  headed." 
Wesley  says  :  "  He  told  us  he  must  withdraw  from  our  con- 
nexion.    Some  would  have  reasoned  with  him,  but  it  was  lost 


246  Life  and  Times    of  Wesley. 

^777  labour;  so  we  let  him  go  in  peace."  Hilton  was  no  sooner 
■^ge74  gone,  than  he  turned  author,  and,  in  1778,  besides  an  octavo 
pamphlet  of  32  pages,  entitled,  "The  Deplorable  State  of 
Man,"  he  issued  "  Reasons  for  Quitting  the  Methodist 
Society;  being  a  Defence  of  Barclay's  Apology;"  8vo,  66 
pages.  Dated,  "  Melksham,  3rd  month,  28th  day,  1778."  He 
tells  his  readers,  that,  "a  year  ago,  Barclay's  Apology  converted 
him  to  the  principles  of  the  quakers;"  and  a  broadbrimmed 
quaker  John  Hilton  lienceforwards  was.  Both  his  pamphlets 
are  written  in  a  plain,  good,  nervous  style,  and  show,  that,  in 
point  of  education  and  mental  power,  he  was  much  superior 
to  the  mass  of  Wesley's  itinerants.^  Hilton  was  not  without 
talent;  but  like  most  who  think  themselves  more  religious 
than  their  neighbours,  he  was  sour  and  censorious.  "  What  I 
have  lamented  in  him,  for  some  years,"  wrote  Wesley,  in  a 
letter, dated  October  22,  1777,  "is  an  aptness  to  condemn  and 
despise  his  brethren.  There  is  no  failing  more  infectious  than 
this;  and  it  is  much  if  you  did  not  catch  a  little  of  it  from 
him;  otherwise  you  would  hardly  say,  'the  body  of  Method- 
ists are  degenerated.'  You  cannot  possibly  judge  whether 
they  are  or  not.  Perhaps  you  converse  with  one  or  two  hun- 
dred of  them.  Now  allowing  two  thirds  of  these  to  be 
degenerated,  can  you  infer  the  same  concerning  thirty  or 
forty  thousand  .''  Yet  this  I  will  allow,  two  thirds  of  those 
who  are  grown  rich  are  greatly  degenerated.  They  do  not, 
will  not,  save  all  they  can,  in  order  to  give  all  they  can  ;  and, 
without  doing  this,  they  cannot  groiv  in  grace,  nay,  they  con- 
stantly grieve  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God."  ^ 

Thomas  Taylor  was  at  the  conference  of  1777,  and  tells  us 
that,  on  the  conference  Sunday,  the  morning  service,  in  the 
Broadmead  chapel,  lasted  from  half-past  nine  till  nearly  one 

*  Mr.  Moore  says  :  "  this  good  man  was  possessed  of  eminent  minis- 
terial gifts,  but  he  fell  into  the  mystic  delusion.  He  then  became  high 
minded  and  censorious;  and  Mr.  Charles  Wesley,  in  his  hours  of  depres- 
sion, used  too  much  to  listen  to  him.  The  quakers  were  jealous  of  him-, 
and  kept  him  silent  a  long  time,  to  his  great  mortification.  But  it  was  the 
.  very  thing  he  needed,  it  was  good  medicine  to  heal  his  sickness.  In 
one  of  his  last  conversations  with  me,  he  said:  '  I  would  not  have  thy 
people  to  think  of  changing ;  they  may  be  disappointed.'  He  was  then 
in  a  sweet  and  humble  spirit,  very  different  from  that  in  which  he  left  us.' 
(Moore's  Life  of  Wesley,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  273,  274.) 
2  Methodist  Magazine,  '807,  p.  328. 


Memorable  Scene  at  Conference.  247 

o'clock;  that,  at  five  in  the  afternoon,  Wesley  preached  to  a  1777 
large  and  serious  crowd  out  of  doors,  and  afterwards,  in  a  full  a^74 
society  meeting,  "  expatiated  upon  the  rules,  and  said  many 
useful  things."  He  preached  again  in  the  evening  of  the  first 
day  of  conference,  but  not  longer  than  twenty  minutes.  On 
August  7,  Taylor  writes  :  "  that  great  and  good  man  Mr. 
Fletcher  came  into  conference.  My  eyes  flowed  with  tears 
at  the  sight  of  him.  He  spoke  to  us  in  a  very  respectful 
manner,  and  took  a  solemn  farewell.  Dear,  good  man  !  I 
never  saw  so  many  tears  shed  in  all  my  life."  ^ 

Fletcher  had  sought  health  at  Stoke  Newington;  but 
was  now  the  guest  of  Mr.  Ireland,  of  Bristol.  Benson,  his 
fellow  sufferer  in  the  Trevecca  troubles,  writes:  "We  have 
had  an  edifying  conference.  Mr.  Fletcher's  visits  have  been 
attended  with  a  blessing.  His  appearance,  his  exhortations, 
and  his  prayers,  broke  most  of  our  hearts,  and  filled  us  with 
shame  and  self  abasement  for  our  little  improvement."^ 

This  was  a  memorable  scene.  Fletcher,  emaciated,  feeble, 
and  ghostlike,  entered  the  conference  leaning  on  the  arm  of 
his  host,  Mr.  Ireland.  In  an  instant,  the  whole  assembly 
stood  up,  and  Wesley  advanced  to  meet  his  almost  seraphic 
friend.  The  apparently  dying  man  began  to  address  the 
brave  itinerants,  and,  before  he  had  uttered  a  dozen  sentences, 
one  and  all  were  bathed  in  tears.  Wesley,  fearing  that 
Fletcher  was  speaking  too  much,  abruptly  knelt  at  his  side 
and  began  to  pray.  Down  fell  the  whole  of  Wesley's 
preachers,  and  joined  in  the  devotion  of  their  great  leader. 
The  burden  of  Wesley's  supplication  was,  that  his  friend 
might  be  spared  to  labour  a  little  longer ;  and  this  petition 
was  urged  with  such  fervency  and  faith,  that,  at  last,  Wesley 
closed  by  exclaiming  with  a  confidence  and  an  emphasis 
which  seemed  to  thrill  every  heart:  "He  shall  not  die,  but 
live,  and  declare  the  works  of  the  Lord."  ^ 

The  event  verified  Wesley's  words ;  for  though  the  pilgrim 
was  already  walking  on  the  margin  of  the  river  of  death,  and 
had  heaven's  own  sunshine  shining  on  him,  it  was  not  until 
eight  years  after  that  he  passed  the  gates  of  the  celestial  city. 

'  Taylor's  manuscript  diary.  2  Treffry's  Life  of  Uenson. 

^  "Anecdotes  of  the  Wesleys,"  p.  272. 


248  Lif^  <^iid  Times  of  Wesley. 

^111  At  the  conference  of  1776,  it  was  reported,  that  there  were 
Age  74  3148  Methodists  in  America;  in  the  minutes  of  1777,  America 
is  not  mentioned.  Still,  American  Methodism  was  not  dead. 
"  I  have  just  received  two  letters  from  New  York,"  writes 
Wesley  on  January  ii,  1777.  "  They  inform  me,  that  all  the 
Methodists  there  are  firm  for  the  government,  and,  on  that 
account,  persecuted  by  the  rebels,  only  not  to  the  death ;  that 
the  preachers  are  still  threatened,  but  not  stopped  ;  and,  that 
the  work  of  God  increases  much  in  Maryland  and  Virginia."  ^ 
The  war  was  raging  with  terrific  violence ;  and  some  of  the 
preachers,  as  Mr.  Rodda,  were  not  so  wise,  politically  speaking, 
as  seemed  desirable :  but,  despite  all  this,  Methodism  actually 
spread  and  prospered.  Thomas  Rankin,  George  Shadford,  and 
others  thought  of  fleeing  from  the  field  of  conflict ;  and  it  was 
only  by  Asbury's  solicitation,  that  they  were  induced  to  stay 
awhile  longer.  The  baptists  too  became  a  hindrance.  "  Like 
ghosts,"  says  Asbury,  "  they  haunt  us  from  place  to  place." 
Wesley's  political  tracts  also  were  a  serious  stumbling  block.^ 
A  Methodist  backslider  enlisted  three  hundred  men  for  the 
British  army,  was  arrested,  and  hanged  as  a  rebel  against  the 
government  of  his  country.^  Even  peaceful,  prudent,  and 
loyal  Francis  Asbury  was  fined  £'^  for  preaching  at  Nathan 
Perrig's  ;  and,  in  October  1777,  Rankin  and  Rodda  returned 
to  England,  and  Shadford  soon  after,  leaving  poor,  persecuted, 
but  faithful  Asbury  the  only  one  of  Wesley's  itinerants  that 
now  remained  at  the  post  of  duty,  and  preaching  peace  to  the 
people  by  Jesus  Christ. 

And  here  let  us  pause  to  say,  that  a  grander  specimen  of 
a  Christian  apostle  than  Francis  Asbury  the  world  has  never 
had.  Much  as  we  revere  the  memory  of  Wesley,  we  regard 
Asbury  with  an  almost  equal  veneration.  Among  the  self 
denying,  laborious,  Christian  ministers  of  the  past  eighteen 
hundred  years,  we  believe,  that  Francis  Asbury  has  no 
superiors,  and  but  few  that  can  be  considered  equals.  And 
yet,  how  little  does  the  church  catholic,  indeed,  how  little  does 
the  Methodist  section  of  it,  know  concerning  this  great  and 
grand,  because  good,  old  man ! 

^  Wesley's  "Works,  vol.  xii.,  p.  398. 

^  Asbury's  Journal,  vol.  i.,  p.  177. 

2  Smith's  History  of  Methodism,  vol.  i.,  p.  440. 


Francis  Asdziry.  249 


The  son  of  peasant  parents,  Asbury  began  to  preach  in      ^777 
Staffordshire,  while  yet  a  boy  seventeen  years  of  age  ;  and,  in    Age  74 
177 1,  came  to  Bristol  to  embark  for  America,  without  a  single 
penny  in  his  pocket.     His  first  text  in  America  was  in  perfect 
harmony  with  the    forty-five   years   he   spent  in   wandering 
through  its  woods  and  prairies :   "  I   determined  not  to  know 
anything  among  you,  save  Jesus  Christ,  and  Him  crucified." 
As  early  as  1776,  he  made  it  a  rule,  besides  travelling  and 
preaching,  to  read  a  hundred  pages  daily,  and  to  spend  three 
hours  out  of  every  twenty-four  in  private  prayer.     Cabins  of 
the  most  miserable  description  were,  in  thousands  of  instances, 
his  happy  homes ;  and  often,  when  his  horse  cast  a  shoe  in  the 
wide  wilderness,  in  the  absence  of  a  blacksmith's  shop,  this  grand 
old  bishop  of  the  American  Methodists  would  make  a  piece 
of  a  bull's  hide,  bound  about  his  horse's  foot,  serve  in  the  place 
of  iron.     His  daily  rides  were  often  from  thirty  to  fifty  miles, 
over  mountains  and  swamps,  through  bridgeless  rivers ,  and 
pathless  woods,  his  horse  frequently  weary  and  lame,  and  he 
himself  wet,  cold,  and  hungry.     For   forty-five  years,  when 
steamboats,  stage  coaches,  railways,  and  almost  roads,  were 
utterly  unknown,  Asbury  made  a  tour  of  the  American  states, 
travelling  never  less  than  five  thousand,  and  often  more  than 
six  thousand,  miles  a  year,  and  this  generally  on  horseback ; 
climbing  mountains;  creeping  down  declivities;  winding  along 
valleys,   whose  only  inhabitants  were  birds,  wild  beasts,  and 
Indians;  crossing  extended  prairies  without  a  companion  and 
without  a  guide  ;  fording  foaming  rivers  ;  and  wading  through 
the   most   dangerous   swamps,   where  one   false   step    might 
have  engulfed  him  in  a  boggy  grave.     Usually,  he  preached 
at   least   once   every   week   day,  and  thrice  every  Sunday ; 
delivering,  during  his  ministry  in  America,  more  than  twenty 
thousand  sermons.      His   custom   was   to    pray  with   every 
family  on  whom  he  called  in  his  wide  journeyings  ;  and  if,  as 
sometimes  happened,  he  spent  more  days  than  one  in  some 
hospitable  dwelling,  he  was  wont  to  have  household  prayer  as 
often  as  there  were  household  meals,  and  to  allow  no  visitor 
to  come  or  go,  without  asking,  on  his  knees,  that  God  would 
bless  him.     Besides  an  unknown  number  of  camp  meetings 
and    quarterly   meetings,  this   venerable   man  attended  and 
presided  over  seven  conferences,  widely  separate,  every  year ; 


250  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

^m      and,  during  the  same  space  of  time,  wrote  to  his  preachers  and 
Age  74     his  friends,  upon  an  average,  about  a  thousand  letters.    For  this 
enormous  service,  his  episcopal  salary  was  sixty-four  dollars 
yearly  and  his  travelling  expenses.    Early  educational  advan- 
tages he  had  none.    Most  of  his  life  was  spent  on  horseback, 
in  extemporised  pulpits,  or  in  log  cabins  crowded  with  talking 
men  and  noisy  women,  bawling  children,  and  barking  dogs, — 
cabins  which  he  was  obliged  to  make  his  offices  and  studies,  and 
where,  with  benumbed  fingers,  frozen  ink,  impracticable  pens, 
and  rumpled  paper,  he  had  to  write  his  sermons,  his  journals, 
and  his  letters.     Not  unfrequently  did  he,  like  others,  suffer 
from  the   malaria  of  a  new,   uncultivated  country;  and  had 
headaches,  toothaches,  chills,  fevers,  and  sore  throats,  for  his 
travelling  companions.      And  yet,   despite   all    this,   Francis 
Asbury  was  by  no  means  an   unlettered   man.     He  became 
proficient  in  Latin,  Greek,  and  Hebrew ;  read  the  Scriptures 
in  the  tongues  in  which  they  were  originally  written ;  was 
acquainted  with  several    branches  of  polite  literature  ;  kept 
abreast  with  the  history  of  his  times  ;  and,  although  not  an 
orator,  was  a  dignified,   eloquent,   and    impressive  preacher. 
Thin,  tall,  and  remarkably  clean  and   neat, — in  a  plain  drab 
frock  coat,  waistcoat,  and   breeches,  a  neat  stock,  and  a  broad 
brimmed,  low  crowned  hat, — this  first  and  greatest  Methodist 
American  bishop  rode  on  horseback   till  he  could   ride  no 
longer ;  and  then  might  be  seen  often  hopping  on  crutches, 
and  helped  in  and  out  of  his  light  spring  wagon  as  he  still 
pursued  his  wide  episcopal  wanderings.     Thus  lived  Francis 
Asbury,  until,   in   1 8 16,    at  the  age  of  threescore  years  and 
ten,  he  died,  and  was  followed  to  his  grave  in   Baltimore  by 
about  twenty-five  thousand  of  his  friends.     Before  his  death, 
he  solemnly  enjoined  that  no  life  of  him  should  be  published  ; 
and  that  injunction,  to  the  present,  has  been  substantially 
observed ;  but,  if  the  reader  wishes  to  see  his  monument,  we 
invite   him   to   step   within   the  living   walls    of  the  present 
Methodist  Episcopal   Church  of  America,  and   there,    while 
surveying  the  grand  edifice  of  spiritual  order  and  beauty,  we 
ask  him,  as  the  inquirer  in  St.  Paul's  cathedral  is  asked,  to 
"  Look  around  !  " 

This  was  the  only  one  of  Wesley's  English  itinerants  left 
in  America  in    1777;  but,  though  forsaken   by  his    English 


Bishop  Lowt/i.  251 


colleagues,  he  was  not  alone.  At  this  very  time,  there  were  i777 
fifteen  widely  spread  circuits  ;  thirty-four  itinerant  preachers,  Age  74 
who  had  been  raised  up  by  Providence  on  the  spot ;  and  not 
fewer  than  6968  full  and  accredited  members  of  society.  In 
other  words,  though  it  was  only  eight  years  since  Wesley's 
conference  had  sent  out  Boardman  and  Pilmoor,  there  were 
already  more  than  one  sixth  as  many  Methodists  in  America 
as  there  were,  at  the  end  of  thirty-eight  years,  throughout  the 
whole  of  England,  Ireland,  Scotland,  and  Wales.^ 

To  return  to  Wesley,  After  the  Bristol  conference,  he 
spent  a  week  In  London,  during  which  he  drew  up  proposals 
for  the  Arminian  Magazine,  and  met  the  committee  appointed 
to  superintend  the  building  of  the  new  chapel,  which  was  now 
ready  for  the  roof. 

He  then,  on  August  18,  hurried  off  to  Cornwall;  and  then 
to  Ireland,  where,  at  Dublin,  John  Hampson  and  Samuel 
Bradburn  had  expelled  thirty-four  members  of  society,  who 
were  so  dissatisfied  with  this  act  of  imprudent  zeal,  that 
Wesley  was  obliged  to  go  and  give  the  contending  parties  a 
two  days'  hearing.  On  Saturday,  October  18,  he  got  back  to 
London. 

The  week  after,  he  spent  in  Oxfordshire.  At  High 
Wycombe  he  meant  to  preach,  "but  good  Mr.  James  had 
procured  a  drummer  to  beat  his  drum  at  the  window  of  the 
chapel,"  and  thus,  instead  of  preaching,  Wesley  could  only 
pray  and  sing  by  turns,  during  the  time  allotted  for  the  service. 

The  next  week  was  occupied  in  a  preaching  tour  in  North- 
amptonshire ;  and  the  fortnight  afterwards  in  meeting  the 
classes  in  and  around  London. 

On  November  17,  he  went  on  a  flying  visit  to  Norfolk  ;  and, 
on  the  23rd,  preached  in  Lewisham  church  for  the  benefit  of 
the  Humane  Society,  which  had  been  established  only  three 
years  before,  by  Dr.  Cogan  and  Dr.  Ilawes.  Here,  of  course, 
he  was  the  welcome  guest  of  his  old  friend,  Mr.  Blackwell ; 
and,  during  his  visit,  he  dined  with  the  celebrated  Dr.  Lowth, 
bishop  of  London,  whose  brother  had  married  into  Mr.  Black- 
well's  family.  "  His  whole  behaviour,"  writes  Wesley,  "was 
worthy  of  a  Christian  bishop ;   easy,  affable,  and  courteous ; 

*  Minutes  of  Methodist  Conferences  in  America,  1795. 


252  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

iTll  and,  yet,  all  his  conversation  spoke  the  dignity  which  was 
Age  74  suitable  to  his  character."  There  is  one  incident,  however, 
which  Wesley,  in  his  modesty,  has  not  related.  On  proceeding 
to  dinner,  the  bishop  refused  to  sit  above  Wesley'  at  the  table, 
saying  with  considerable  emotion,  "  Mr.  Wesley,  may  I  be 
found  at  your  feet  in  another  world!"  Wesley  objected  to 
take  the  seat  of  precedence,  when  the  learned  prelate  obviated 
the  difficulty,  by  requesting,  as  a  favour,  that  Wesley  would 
sit  above  him,  because  his  hearing  was  defective,  and  he 
desired  not  to  lose  a  sentence  of  Wesley's  conversation.' 

The  remaining  fiv'e  weeks  of  the  year  1777  were  spent, 
partly  in  the  three  counties  of  Bedford,  Huntingdon,  and 
Hertford ;  partly  at  Bath,  where  he  laid  the  foundation 
stone  of  a  new  chapel  ;  and  partly  in  London,  where  he  parted 
with  Fletcher  on  his  way  to  Switzerland.  He  says  :  "  We 
concluded  the  old  year,  and  began  the  new,  with  prayer  and 
thanksgiving.  Four  or  five  of  the  local  preachers  assisted  me. 
I  was  agreeably  surprised  ;  their  manner  of  praying  being 
so  artless  and  unlaboured,  and  yet  rational  and  scriptural, 
both  as  to  sense  and  expression." 

Such  was  Wesley's  watchnight  service  at  the  expiration 
of  1777  ;  no  preaching,  no  exhortatory  platitudes,  but  simply 
prayer  and  thanksgiving,  offered  by  himself  and  a  selection 
of  his  London  local  preachers.  Wesley's  successors  have  not 
improved  on  this. 

It  was  during  this  memorable  year,  that  a  society  was 
instituted,  which  was  ultimately  superseded  by  benevolent 
societies  that  yet  exist.  Six  friends  in  London  met,  at  each 
other's  house  in  rotation,  every  Sunday  afternoon,  for  the 
purpose  of  singing  and  prayer  only.  They  were  soon  en- 
treated to  visit  the  surrounding  sick,  and,  finding  many  of 
them  in  deep  poverty,  began  to  relieve  their  wants.  To  do 
this,  they  found  it  desirable  to  provide  a  fund,  by  contri- 
buting themselves,  and  asking  contributions  of  their  friends  ; 
and  shortly  a  society  was  formed,  sometimes  called  "  The 
Willow  Walk  Society,  near  Moorfields";  but  more  generally 
and  properly,  "The  united  Society  for  Visiting  and  Relieving 
the  Sick."    A  few  years  later,  the  "  Strangers'  Friend  Society  " 

^  Jackson's  "  Centenary  of  Methodism,"  p.  201. 


"  Sti'angers   Friend  Society T  253 

was  started.  John  Gardner,  a  retired  soldier,  in  his  London  i777 
visits,  met  a  man  in  a  miserable  garret,  dying  of  fistula.  He  Age  74 
lay  on  the  floor,  covered  only  with  a  sack,  without  shirt,  cap, 
or  sheet.  The  old  soldier  felt,  as  every  one  must  feel,  that  to 
visit  such  cases,  without  relieving  them,  was  not  worthy  of  a 
Christian  ;  and,  returning  home,  he  got  fifteen  of  his  Method- 
ist friends  to  join  in  a  penny  a  week  subscription  for  such  a 
purpose.  His  classleader,  jealous  of  his  class-pence  moneys, 
instead  of  helping,  opposed  the  scheme.  Gardner,  with  a 
soldier's  pluck,  was  not  to  be  silenced  b}'  a  subordinate,  but 
wrote  at  once  to  Wesley. 

"  Re\"EREND  and  dear  Sir, — A  few  of  us  are  subscribing  a  penny 
a  week  each,  which  is  to  be  carried  on  the  sabbath  by  one  of  ourselves, 
who  read  and  pray  with  the  afflicted,  who,  according  to  the  rules  enclosed, 
must  be  poor  strangers,  having  no  parish,  or  friend  at  hand  to  help 
them.  Our  benevolent  plan  is  opposed  by  my  classleader ;  therefore, 
we  are  constrained  to  seek  your  approbation  before  we  proceed.  We 
are  very  poor,  and  our  whole  stock  is  not  yet  twenty  shillings  :  will  thank 
you,  therefore,  for  any  assistance  you  may  please  to  afford  your  very 
humble  servant,  ,,^^^^  Gardner." 

Wesley  was  the  last  man  to  stifle  a  project  like  this  ; 
and, hence,  his  answer  "to  Mr.  John  Gardner,  No.  14,  in  Long 
Lane,  Smithfield,"  was  as  follows. 

"  Highbury  Place,  December  21,  1785. 
"  My  dear  Brother, — I  like  the   design   and  rules  of  your  society, 
and  hope  you  will  do  good  to  many.       I  will  subscribe   threepence  a 
week,  and  will  give  a  guinea  in  advance,  if  any  one  will   call  on   me  on 
Saturday  morning. 

"  I  am  your  affectionate  brother, 

"John  Wesley." 

The  scheme  was  now  fairly  launched  ;  "  Strangers'  Friend 
societies "  sprung  up  in  Bristol  and  other  places  ;  Wesley 
drew  up  their  rules  in  1790  ;  and  wrote  thus  in  his  journal  : 
"  Sunday,  March  14 — In  the  morning,  I  met  the  strangers' 
society,  instituted  wholly  for  the  relief,  not  of  our  society, 
but  for  poor,  sick,  friendless  strangers.  I  do  not  know,  that 
I  ever  heard  or  read  of  such  an  institution  till  within  a  few 
years  ago.     So  this  also  is  one  of  the  fruits  of  JMethodism."^ 

^  Set  Methodist  Magazine,   1845,  p- 661. 


2  54  Life  aiid  Tiincs  of  Wesley. 

^777  Such  then  was  the  origin  of  the  present  "  Strangers'  Friend 

Age  74  Society,"  which,  until  lately,  was  patronised  by  royalty, 
and  which  employed,  in  i868,  three  hundred  and  fifty-two 
voluntary,  unpaid  agents  in  its  work  of  Christian  benevo- 
lence ;  these  good  Samaritans,  during  the  same  year,  paying 
32,460  visits,  relieving  6577  cases  of  distress,  and,  besides 
blankets,  flannels,  and  cast  off  garments,  distributing  £\(^26 
14X.  in  ameliorating  the  miseries  of  "the  destitute  sick 
poor,  without  distinction  of  sect  or  country,  at  their  own 
habitations." 

Considering  Wesley's  wide  wanderings,  his  daily  preaching, 
his  supervision  of  societies,  and  his  multifarious  correspond- 
ence, to  say  nothing  of  his  publication  of  tracts  and  books, 
the  reader  wonders  how  an  old  man  managed  to  keep  the 
thousand  wheels  of  his  vast  machinery  in  motion  ;  and,  yet, 
in  the  midst  of  what  to  others  would  have  been  an  unceasing 
and  worrying  bustle,  he  was  almost  as  tranquil  as  a  hermit. 
The  following  extract  from  a  letter,  dated  December  10,  1777, 
is  racy  and  unique. 

"  You  do  not  understand  my  manner  of  life.  Though  I  am  always  in 
haste,  I  am  never  in  a  hurry  ;  because  I  never  undertake  any  more 
work  than  I  can  go  through  with  perfect  calmness  of  spirit.  It  is  true, 
I  travel  four  or  five  thousand  miles  in  a  year  ;  but  I  generally  travel  alone 
in  my  carriage,  and,  consequently,  am  as  retired  ten  hours  in  a  day  as  if 
I  was  in  a  wilderness.  On  other  days,  I  never  spend  less  than  three  hours, 
frequently  ten  or  twelve  in  the  day,  alone.  So  there  are  few  persons  in 
the  kingdom  who  spend  so  many  hours  secluded  from  all  company. 
Yet  I  find  time  to  visit  the  sick  and  the  poor ;  and  I  must  do  it,  if  I  . 
believe  the  Bible,  if  I  believe  these  are  the  marks  whereby  the  Shepherd 
of  Israel  will  know  and  judge  His  sheep  at  the  great  day.  Therefore, 
when  there  are  time  and  opportunity  for  it,  who  can  doubt,  but  this  is  a 
matter  of  absolute  duty .''  When  I  was  at  Oxford,  and  lived  almost  like  a 
hermit,  I  saw  not  how  any  busy  man  could  be  saved.  I  scarce  thought  it 
possible  for  a  man  to  retain  the  Christian  spirit,  amidst  the  noise  and 
bustle  of  the  world.  God  taught  me  better  by  my  own  experience.  I  had 
ten  times  more  business  in  America  (that  is,  at  intervals)  than  ever  I  had 
in  my  life  ;  but  it  was  no  hindrance  to  silence  of  spirit."* 

Wesley's  incessant  labours  were  not  the  only  thing  likely 
to  perturb  a  human  spirit.  As  usual,  he  was  still  the  subject 
of  acrimonious  persecution.     In  his  sermon  at  the  laying  of 

*  Methodist  Magazine,  1799,  p.  564- 


Wesley  and  Rowland  Hill.  255 

the  foundation  stone  of  the  chapel  in  City  Road,  he  gave  a  1777 
history  of  the  rise  and  progress  of  Methodism,  in  which  he  Age"74 
stated,  that  Whitefield,  by  conversing  with  Dissenters,  con- 
tracted strong  prejudices  against  the  Church,  and  that  this 
led  him  to  separate  himself  from  Wesley  and  his  brother. 
He  also  noticed  the  secession  of  Ingham  from  the  Church ; 
and  the  setting  up  of  the  college  at  Trevecca,  which  was 
really  a  school  for  training  Dissenting  ministers.  His  object, 
in  all  this,  w^as  to  show  that,  though  large  numbers  of  reputed 
Methodists  had  left  the  Church,  he  and  his  societies  still 
remained  faithful,  and  were  not  deserving  of  the  taunt  of 
having  formed  a  distinct  party.  "  We  do  not,"  says  he,  "  we 
will  net,  form  any  separate  sect,  but,  from  principle,  remain, 
what  we  always  have  been,  true  members  of  the  Church  of 
England." 

Whether  Wesley  was  strictly  correct  in  this  will  admit  of 
doubt ;  but,  unquestionably,  he  believed  it  to  be  the  truth  ;  and, 
as  might  be  expected,  it  aroused  the  anger  of  his  quondam 
friends.  Rowland  Hill  worked  himself  into  a  rage,  and  pub- 
lished, in  1777,  an  octavo  pamphlet  of  40  pages,  with  the 
title,  "  Imposture  Detected,  and  the  Dead  Vindicated  ;  in  a 
Letter  to  a  Friend  :  containing  some  gentle  Strictures  on  the 
false  and  libellous  Harangue,  lately  delivered  by  Mr.  John 
Wesley,  upon  his  laying  the  first  stone  of  his  new  Dissenting 
meeting-house,  near  the  City  Road."  Wesley's  sermon  is 
designated  "a  wretched  harangue,  from  which  the  blessed  name 
of  Jesus  is  almost  totally  excluded."  Mr.  Hill  remarks  :  "by 
only  erasing  about  half-a-dozen  lines  from  the  whole,  I  might 
defy  the  shrewdest  of  his  readers  to  discover  whether  the 
lying  apostle  of  the  Foundery  be  a  Jew,  a  papist,  a  pagan,  or 
a  Turk."  He  speaks  of  "the  late  ever  memorable  Mr.  White- 
field  being  scratched  out  of  his  grave,  by  the  claws  of  a 
designing  wolf,"  meaning,  of  course,  Wesley.  He  brands 
Wesley  as  "  a  libeller,"  "  a  dealer  in  stolen  wares,"  and  "  as 
being  as  unprincipled  as  a  rook,  and  as  silly  as  a  jackdaw, 
first  pilfering  his  neighbour's  plumage,  and  then  going  proudly 
forth,  displaying  his  borrowed  tail  to  the  eyes  of  a  laughing 
world."  Hill  continues:  "persons  that  are  toad  eaters  to 
Mr.  John  Wesley  stand  in  need  of  very  wide  throats,  and  that 
which   he  wishes  them  to  swallow   is   enough  to  choke  an 


256  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

iTjS  elephant."  "  He  is  for  ever  going  about,  raising  Dissenting 
Age~74  congregations,  and  building  Dissenting  meeting-houses  the 
kingdom  over."  "Venom  distils  from  his  graceless  pen." 
"  Mr.  Whitefield  is  blackened  by  the  venomous  quill  of  this 
grey  headed  enemy  to  all  righteousness."  "  Wesley  is  a 
crafty  slanderer,  an  unfeeling  reviler,  a  liar  of  the  most 
gigantic  magnitude,  a  Solomon  in  a  cassock,  a  wretch,  a 
disappointed  Orlando  Furioso,  a  miscreant  apostate,  whose 
perfection  consists  in  his  perfect  hatred  of  all  goodness  and 
good  men."  "  You  cannot  love  the  Church,"  continues  this 
meek  and  elegant  evangelist,  "  unless  you  go  to  Wesley's 
meeting-house ;  nor  be  a  friend  to  the  established  bishops, 
priests,  and  deacons,  unless  you  admire  Wesley's  ragged 
legion  of  preaching  barbers,  cobblers,  tinkers,  scavengers, 
draymen,  and  chimney  sweepers." 

Has  the  reader  had  enough  from  the  "  gentle  strictures  "  of 
this  young  divine,  not  yet  thirty-two  years  of  age  ?  Let  him 
turn  to  the  Gospel  Magazine.  In  reviewing  Wesley's  sermon 
at  City  Road,  the  Gospel  editor  describes  Wesley's  Methodism 
as  a  "jumble  of  heresies,  truly  and  properly  called  Wesley- 
ism";  and  nothing  "uttered  by  Satan  himself  can  be  more 
impudent  and  more  glaringly  untrue  "  than  when  Wesley  calls 
it  "  the  old  religion  of  the  Bible,  of  the  primitive  church,  and 
of  the  Church  of  England."  For  him  to  say,  that  Lady 
Huntingdon  "  labours  to  form  independent  congregations,  is 
as  gross  a  falsehood  as  was  ever  coined  at  the  Foundery 
itself  Mr.  Wesley's  apostasy  from  the  Church  is  a  chief 
reason  why  her  ladyship  has  justly  discarded  him ;  and  her 
disavowal  of  him,  of  his  Dissenting  principles,  and  of  his 
sectarian  conduct,  is  the  true  reason,  why  he  has  the  insolence 
to  spit  his  venom  against  one  of  the  most  respectable  charac- 
ters that  ever  existed."  "  With  a  baseness  hardly  to  be 
paralleled,  Mr.  Wesley  rakes  into  the  ashes  of  a  man,  whose 
name  will  descend  with  lustre  to  the  latest  posterity  ;  while 
that  of  the  Foundery  wolf  will  moulder  with  his  pilfered 
writings,  or  only  be  remembered  with  contempt  and  execra- 
tion. O  Wesley,  Wesley,  hide  thy  diminutive  head  !  nor  let 
the  most  pestilent  Dissenter  in  the  kingdom  arraign  the 
spotless  memory  of  a  Churehman,  whose  fervour  and  steadi- 
ness of  attachment  to  his  ecclesiastical  mother  have  scarcely 


Calvinian  Controversy.  257 

been  equalled  in  the  present  age,  and  never  exceeded  in  any.  i777 
The  truth  is,  Mr.  Whitefield  was  too  much  a  Churchman  for  Age~74 
Mr.  Wesley's  fanaticism  to  digest.  O  ye  deluded  followers  of 
this  horrid  man,  God  open  your  eyes,  and  pluck  your  feet  out 
of  the  net!  lest  ye  sink  into  the  threefold  ditch  of  anti- 
christian  error,  of  foul  antinomianism,  and  of  eternal  misery 
at  last."  1 

This  was  tolerably  strong ;  but  it  was  not  enough.  The 
same  periodical,  in  its  review  of  Rowland  Hill's  polite 
pamphlet,  begins  thus  :  "  Hob  in  the  well  again ;  or  pope 
John  once  more  in  the  suds  !  Seldom  has  literary  punish- 
ment been  administered  with  greater  keenness  and  spirit, 
than  in  this  pamphlet  ;  and,  surely,  never  was  a  punishment 
administered  on  a  juster  occasion,  nor  to  a  more  deserving 
delinquent.  When  you  take  Old  Nick  by  the  nose,  it  must 
be  with  a  pair  of  red  hot  tongs."  The  red  hot  reviewer 
reiterates  the  slander,  that  Charles  Wesley  offered  the  Greek 
bishop,  Erasmus,  forty  guineas,  upon  condition  that  he  would 
give  his  brother  episcopal  ordination;  and  continues:  "Mr. 
Wesley's  vile  ingratitude  to  the  name  and  memory  of  Mr. 
Whitefield  deserves  the  abhorrence  and  execration  of  all 
good  men."  Wesley  is  "an  unfeeling  and  unprincipled 
slanderer,  a  vile  traducer,"  and,  in  fact,  guilty  of  "  an  extreme 
of  malignity  and  baseness,  for  which  language  has  no 
name.   ^ 

Such  scurrility  as  this,  heaped  upon  an  old  man,  seventy- 
four  years  of  age,  who  had  spent  his  long  life  in  unparalleled 
labours  to  honour  God,  and  to  benefit  his  fellow  men,  is 
almost  incredible.  But  even  this  was  not  the  worst  that  the 
immaculate  Gospel  Magazine  provided  for  its  readers.  In 
the  same  number,  from  which  the  above  abuse  is  extracted, 
there  is  a  long  poem,  entitled,  "  The  Serpent  and  the  Fox  ;  * 
or,  an  interview  between  old  Nick  and  old  John";  which 
strongly  reminds  us  of  a  scries  of  most  infamous  rhymed 
effusions  which  will  have  to  be  noticed  in  the  ensuing  year, 
and  in  which  Wesley  is  always  represented  as  a  fox.  The 
poem  now  published  was  not  only  foul,  but,  in  the  highest 
degree,  profane.     It  would  be  a  crime  to  reproduce  it.    Suffice 

^  Gospel  Magazine,  1777,  p.  182.  2  j^jfj  p_  ^37. 

VOL,  III.  S 


258  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

^777  it  to  say,  that,  as  if  to  aggravate  its  infernal  features,  it 
Age  74  immediately  follows  a  really  beautiful  hymn  of  six  stanzas 
"  To  God  the  Holy  Ghost."  As  a  contrast,  and  to  furnish  a 
specimen  of  the  medley  often  found  in  this  Calvinistic 
periodical,  we  furnish  the  reader  with  the  last  verse  of  the 
thoroughly  good  hymn,  and  the  first  verse  of  the  thoroughly 
bad  poem.  Addressing  the  Divine  Spirit,  John  Stocker 
writes  : 

"  Thou  my  dross  and  sin  consume ; 
Let  Thy  inward  kingdom  come  ; 
All  my  prayer  and  praise  suggest  j 
Dwell  and  reign  within  my  breast." 

We  shrink  from  the  task  of  so  closely  annexing  to  such  a 
stanza,  the  first,  and  by  far  the  least  objectionable,  lines  of  the 
ribald  poem  of  "The  Serpent  and  the  Fox";  but  historical 
fidelity  compels  us. 

"  There  's  a  Fox  who  resideth  hard  by, 
The  most  perfect,  and  holy,  and  sly, 
That  e'er  turned  a  coat,  or  could  pilfer  and  lie  ; 
As  this  reverend  Reynard,  one  day, 
Sat  thinking  what  game  next  to  play, 
Old  Nick  came  a  seasonable  visit  to  pay." 

Then  follows  a  conversation,  in  which  Wesley  proposes  to 
burn  the  Calvinists  in  Smithfield,  as  Bonner  once  burnt  the 
protestants,  and  the  devil  promises,  that,  while  Wesley  shall 
be  exalted  "  with  state "  to  heaven's  "  third  storey,"  all  the 
Whitefields  and  Hills  shall  be  "  turned  back  from  the  gate." 

Quantiun  snfficit !  of  Rowland  Hill,  both  in  prose  and 
verse.  What  had  Wesley  to  say  to  all  this  t  In  his  journal 
he  writes  :  "  1777,  June  26 — I  read  the  truly  wonderful 
performance  of  Mr.  Rowland  Hill.  I  stood  amazed !  Com- 
*  pared  to  him,  Mr.  Toplady  himself  is  a  very  civil,  fair  spoken 
gentleman!  June  27 — I  wrote  an  answer  to  it;  'not 
rendering  railing  for  railing'  (I  have  not  so  learned  Christ)  ; 
but 'speaking  the  truth  in  love.' " 

Wesley's  reply  was  a  penny  tract  of  12  pages,  i2mo,  with 
the  title,  "An  Answer  to  Mr.  Rowland  Hill's  Tract,  entitled, 
'  Imposture  Detected.'  "  He  begins  as  follows  :  "  In  the  tract 
just  published  by  Mr,  Rowland  Hill,  there  are  several  asser- 
tions which  are  not  true.     And  the  whole  pamphlet  is  wrote 


Calvinian  Controve^'sy .  259 

in  an  wichristiaji  and  iingeiitlemanly  manner.  I  shall  first  1777 
set  down  the  assertions  in  order,  and  then  proceed  to  the  Aee~74 
manner^  This  is  the  strongest  language  Wesley  uses. 
Indeed,  he  writes  as  though  Hill's  pamphlet  amused  him 
rather  than  otherwise.  Some  of  his  friends,  however,  were 
not  so  lenient.  Thomas  Olivers  rushed  to  the  rescue,  with 
his  characteristic  fire,  and  unmercifully  put  into  the  hands 
of  the  public  a  sixpenny  "Rod  for  the  Reviler";  and 
Matthew  Goodenough,  a  mechanic,  of  Bishopsgate  Street, 
published  "A  Letter  to  Mr.  Rowland  Hill,"  i2mo,  21  pages, 
in  which  he  tells  "the  reviler"  that  he  had  used  a  vindictive 
style  of  which  a  chimney  sweep  might  properly  be  ashamed ; 
and,  from  his  malign  spirit  and  rude  manner  of  attacking 
Mr.  Wesley,  he  might  be  mistaken  for  the  chief  of  Billingsgate. 
Hill,  as  a  preacher,  is  taunted  with  ranting,  and  roaring, 
and  squealing,  and  bawling,  and  twisting,  and  twirling  him- 
self about  like  a  merryandrew ;  and  is  told  that,  though 
"a  Pelagian  Methodist  stinks,"  it  was  a  comfort  that  the 
name  of  Rowland  Hill  was  "an  odoriferous  perfume,  a  charm- 
ing nosegay,  diffusing  its  fragrance  wherever  it  appears,  and 
sweetly  and  effectually  extinguishing  the  foetid  exhalations 
of  Pelagian  ordure  !" 

Not  only  in  the  Welsh  cobbler,  but  in  the  Bishopsgate 
mechanic,  Rowland  met  with  an  Oliver ;  but,  like  a  beaten 
bull  dog,  was  not  satisfied.  He  at  once  issued  another  octavo 
pamphlet  of  45  pages,  entitled,  "A  Full  Answer  to  the  Rev. 
J.  Wesley's  Remarks,"  etc.,  in  Avhich  he  humbly  apologises 
for  using  too  strong  language  in  his  former  pamphlet;  and 
yet,  with  a  strange  inconsistency,  commits  the  same  fault 
in  this.  Wesley  is  again  accused  of  "  pompous  falsehood," 
"  barefaced  untruth,"  "  ungodly  craft,"  "  of  calumniating  the 
living,  and  traducing  the  dead."  "  For  full  thirty  years, 
Wesley  had  been  travelling  towards  Irent,  and  was  now 
got  to  his  journey's  end";  w^hile  Fletcher — poor  Fletcher, 
apparently  dying  of  consumption — had  "published,  at  the 
end  of  his  third  volume,  a  most  horrible  manifesto,  in 
language  almost  blasphemous,  and  had  forged  my  brother's 
name"  (Sir  Richard  Hill),  "and  mine,  at  the  conclusion 
of  it." 

But  here  we   must   leave  this   doughty  warrior,  to  whom 


2  6o  Life  a7td  Thnes  of  Wesley. 

1777  the  very  name  of  Wesley  was  what  a  scarlet  cloak  is  to 
Ace~74  ^^  infuriated  bull.  Some  will  object  to  the  reviving  of 
these  disgraceful  reminiscences.  Our  reiterated  answer  is, 
that,  without  them,  it  is  impossible  for  the  reader  rightly 
to  estimate  the  character  of  Wesley.  If  they  reflect  dis- 
honour on  Rowland  Hill,  we  cannot  help  it.  Rowland  Hill 
was  a  public  man,  and,  like  all  other  public  men,  he  must 
be  content  to  pay  a  public  penalty  for  his  public  crimes. 
Unfortunately,  this  is  not  the  last  we  shall  hear  of  him. 

Besides  those  already  mentioned,  Wesley  published,  in 
1777— 

1.  The  sermon  he  preached,  on  April  21,  at  the  laying 
of  the  foundation  stone  of  City  Road  chapel.  i2mo,  47 
pages. 

2.  An  Extract  from  his  Journal,  from  September  2,  1770, 
to  September  12,  1773.      i2mo,  1 19  pages. 

3.  "A  Short  Account  of  the  Death  of  Elizabeth  Hind- 
marsh,"  a  native  of  Alnwick,  "who  died  September  6, 
1777,  in  the  twenty-first  year  of  her  age."      i2mo,  12  pages. 

4.  "Thoughts  upon  God's  Sovereignty."     i2mo,  ii  pages. 

5.  "A  Sermon,  preached  November  23,  1777,  in  Lewisham 
Church,  before  the  Humane  Society."     i2mo,  24  pages. 


1778. 

NEVER  in  his  life  was  Wesley  the  subject  of  a   more      ^77^ 
infamous  press  persecution  than  in  1778.  Age  75 

First  of  all,  there  was  a  pamphlet  published,  in  which 
Thomas  Maxfield  was  pitiably  preeminent.  This  men- 
dacious publication  asserted  that,  when  Whitefield  went 
to  America,  in  174I,  he  handed  over  to  the  two  Wesleys 
thirty  thousand  people,  whose  hearts  the  Wesleys  so  turned 
against  him,  that,  when  he  returned  to  England,  not  three  • 
hundred  would  come  to  hear  him.  It  further  alleged,  that 
"  vile  contentions  "  followed,  in  which  the  Wesleys  "  raked 
the  filthiest  ashes,  to  find  some  black  story  against  their 
fellow  preachers  ; "  and  that  what  had  been  published,  on 
both  sides,  by  the  friends  of  Whitefield  and  Wesley,  within 
the  last  six  years,  was  a  disgrace  to  all  concerned. 

Wesley  replied  to  this,  in  "A  Letter  to  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Thomas  Maxfield,  occasioned  by  a  late  Publication " :  8vo, 
1 1  pages.  He  states,  with  perfect  truth,  that,  at  the  time 
referred  to,  there  were  not  five  thousand  Methodists  in  the 
world  ;  that  his  own  societies  contained  not  more  than 
fourteen  or  fifteen  hundred  members,  and  Whitefield's  not 
so  many.  He  declares  that,  so  far  from  receiving  thirty 
thousand  people  from  Whitefield  in  solemn  trust,  the  latter 
never  delivered  up  to  him  one  thousand,  nor  one  hundred. 
He  admits,  that  division  followed;  but  affirms  that  White- 
field  himself  occasioned  it.  Whitefield  first  published  a  treatise 
against  him  by  name;  but  he  made  no  reply  to  it.  Wesley 
asserts  that  Whitefield  constantly  preached  against  him  and  his 
brother,  both  in  Moorfields,  and  in  other  public  places.  Even 
in  the  very  Foundery,  while  Charles  Wesley  sat  beside  him, 
he  preached  the  absolute  decrees,  in  the  most  peremptory  and 
offensive  manner  ;  but,  instead  of  returning  railing  for  railing, 
they  always  and  everywhere  spoke  of  him  in  respectful  terms. 
And  then,  with  respect  to  the  publications  of  the  last  six. 
years,  Wesley  states  that,  though  the  two  Hills,  and  Toplady,, 


262  Life  and  Tiincs  of  Wesley. 

^778  had  poured  upon  him,  in  great  abundance,  bitterness  and 
Age  75  wrath,  yea,  low,  base,  and  virulent  invective,  he  himself  had 
published  only  three  tracts  during  the  entire  controversy, 
and  in  none  of  them  had  he  spoken  one  bitter,  passionate, 
or  disrespectful  word.  "  Where,"  he  asks,  "  have  I,  in  one 
single  sentence,  returned  them  railing  for  railing  ?  I  have 
not  so  learned  Christ.  I  dare  not  rail,  either  at  them  or 
you.  I  return  not  cursing  but  blessing.  That  the  God 
of  love  may  bless  them  and  you,  is  the  prayer  of  your  in- 
jured, yet  still  affectionate  brother,  JOHN  Wesi.EY." 

Wesley's  letter  was  worthy  of«  himself.  True,  his  state- 
ments, respecting  his  old  friend  Whitefield,  are  scarcely  to 
Whitefield's  honour;  but  it  must  be  borne  in  mind,  that  they 
are  not  opinions,  but  facts;  and  facts  not  volunteered,  but 
extorted  by  the  falsehoods  of  Maxfield  and  those  with  whom 
Maxfield  now  associated. 

Wesley  replied  to  Maxfield;  but  the  publications  which 
must  be  next  noticed  were  properly  treated  with  the  silent 
contempt  they  merited.  We  reluctantly  advert  to  these  vile 
productions;  and  yet,  for  the  reason  already  repeatedly 
assigned,  we  must.  Our  notices  shall  be  brief:  first,  for  want 
of  space;  and  secondly,  because  we  can  hardly  make  quota- 
tions without  fouling  our  pages.  The  publications  were 
seven  in  number,  all,  except  one,  printed  by  a  man  of  the 
name  of  Bew,  in  Paternoster  Row,  on  the  best  of  paper,  and 
in  the  best  of  type. 

1.  "The  Gospel  Shop.  A  comedy  in  five  acts:  with  a  new 
prologue  and  epilogue,  intended  for  public  representation,  but 
suppressed  at  the  particular  desire  of  some  eminent  divines. 
By  R.  Hill,  Esq.,  of  Cambridge."  8vo,  88  pages.  The  chief 
dramatis  persona;  are  Dr.  Scapegoat,  Parson  Prolix,  Mr. 
Rackett,  and  Simon  Sycophant;  and  an  idea  of  the  whole  of 
this  infamous  production  may  be  obtained  from  two  lines 
taken  from  the  motto  on  the  title  page. 

"  Beware!  these  dire  illusions  !  strange  to  tell, 
A  gospel  shop  's  the  very  spawn  of  hell!" 

2.  "The  Saints:  a  satire."  4to,  30  pages;  with  a  frontispiece 
made  up  of  two  scrolls,  labelled  respectively,  "  Inspiration," 
and  "Election,"  a  bottle  inscribed  with  the  word  "  Gin,"  and  a 


Infamotis  Publications.  263 

satyr's  head  inscribed  "Perfection."  A  Methodist  is  described  1778 
as  a  mixture  of  ignorance  and  folly,  piety  and  hypocrisy.  Age  75 
The  whole  tribe  are  "  downright  scoundrels,"  "  religious 
mountebanks,"  "  wretches  who  make  a  trade  of  religion,"  and 
"show  an  uncommon  concern  for  the  next  world,  only  to 
raise  their  fortunes  with  greater  security  in  this."  Two  lines 
must  suffice  as  a  specimen,  and,  for  the  sake  of  decency,  two 
of  the  words  must  be  given  in  a  skeletonised  form.  Of 
Wesley  it  is  said,  he 

"  Makes  piety  a  b d  to  aid  his  work, 

Outlies  Sam  Johnson,  and  o — twh s  a  Turk."' 

3.  "  Perfection ;  a  poetical  epistle,  calmly  addressed  to  the 
greatest  hypocrite  in  England."  4to,  price  two  shillings.  Of 
course,  Wesley  was  the  hypocrite;  and  the  work  is  orna- 
mented with  an  emblematical  frontispiece  in  accordance  with 
its  foul  and  calumnious  falsehoods. 

4.  "  The  Temple  of  Imposture.  A  poem  by  the  author  of 
'The  Saints,'  'Perfection,'  etc."  4to,  35  pages.  This,  like  all 
the  others,  has  a  characteristic  frontispiece,  in  which  Wesley 
is  represented  as  a  huge  serpent,  labelled  "The  subtlest  beast 
of  the  field."  The  serpent  forms  a  circle,  inside  of  which, 
among  other  things,  there  are  four  books  respectively  in- 
scribed, "  Koran/'  "  Bedlam's  Hymns,"  "  Druid  Hymns,"  and 
"  Ignat.  Loyola  Monita  Secreta  ^' ;  also  a  gridiron,  called 
"  Mahommed's  Gridiron"  ;  a  sword,  inscribed  "A  Calm  Ad- 
dress"; a  bottle,  with  a  burning  candle  in  its  neck,  and  labelled 
"Gin";  and  two  scrolls,  one  with  the  words  "Old  Light 
at  Mecca,^'  and  the  other,  "  New  Light  in  Moorfields."  The 
professed  object  of  the  work  is  to  show,  that,  in  tyranny,  lust, 
avarice,  persecution,  and  imposture,  Wesley  is  a  successor  of 
Mahommed;  and,  in  a  bad  sense,  an  improved  edition  of  Igna- 
tius Loyola.  Wesley  is  accused  of  long  seeking  to  be  made  a 
bishop.  "  Of  all  impostors  since  the  flood,"  he  is  denounced 
as  the  very  worst;  while  his  preachers  are  "mechanic 
missionaries, — bawling,  crafty,  illiterate  wretches,  sent  out  by 
their  priestly  masters,  to  sow  seeds  of  false  doctrine  and  fana- 
ticism, which  spring  up,  throughout  the  country,  in  plentiful 
crops  of  idleness,  beggary,  madness,  and  sometimes  suicide." 

'  The  words  in  the  original  are  given  in  full. 


264  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1778  5.  "The    Lovefeast.      A    poem     by    the    author   of    the 

A~75  '  Saints :  a  satire,'  etc."  4to,  47  pages.  Here  the  frontis- 
piece is  a  sort  of  chapel  scene,  in  which  Wesley,  as  a  fox, 
dressed  in  canonicals,  is  having  a  mitre  placed  upon  his  head 
by  the  goddess  Murcia,  while  a  parson  behind  waves  his  WMg 
and  shouts  "  Hurrah,"  and  another  hurries  away  with  an  air 
of  disappointment  and  disgust.  Wesley's  Foundery  is  de- 
scribed as  "a  spiritual  slop  shop,"  where  he  equips  his  "preach- 
ing lubbers  "  with  all  the  necessary  paraphernalia  for  playing 
their  several  parts ;  while  the  preachers  themselves  are  desig- 
nated "  the  worst  of  scum,"  "  smugglers  of  Scripture  phrases," 
"  learning's  sworn  foes,"  "  Jack  Cade's  apostles,"  and  "  mere 
conduit  pipes  of  rhapsody  and  cant,"  The  following  are  the 
last  lines  of  the  piece,  and  are  used  concerning  Wesley 
himself, 

"Feasts  he  may  institute,  raise  lioly  piles, 
Degrade  his  God  to  win  a  7nonarcKs  smiles; 
Permit  corruption  his  false  heart  to  taint, 
Live  by  imposture,  and  yet  die  a  saint j 
But  never  while  this  hand  can  hold  a  pen, 
Shall  he  escape  the  scorn  of  honest  men. 
Nor  North,  nor  Mansfield  shall  the  wizard  S2Lwe, 
But  ridicule  shall  scourge  him  to  the  grave — ■ 
There  let  him  rot,  (so  Becket  did  before,) 
Proud  as  2.  pope,  and  faithless  as  a  wh — re." 

6.  "  Sketches  for  Tabernacle  Frames."  4to,  36  pages.  In 
this,  the  frontispiece  consists  of  Wesley,  again  represented  as 
a  fox  in  canonicals,  with  the  crosier  of  a  mock  bishop  behind 
him,  and  round  about  a  library  of  books,  which  he  is  supposed 
to  sell,  the  shelves  being  labelled  "Primitive  Physic,"  "Poli- 
tical Pamphlets,"  and  "  Prayers,  Sermons,  and  Hymns." 
Before  him  kneels  a  mechanic,  with  an  ass's  head,  holding,  in 
one  hand,  a  bottle  inscribed  with  the  words  "  Primitive 
Physic,"  and,  in  the  other,  a  pamphlet  called  "  A  Calm  Ad- 
dress," while  the  poor  asinine  wretch  himself  is  having  his 
mouth  opened  by  Wesley,  who  is  about  to  indulge  in  the 
agreeable  recreation  of  extracting  his  teeth.  At  the  top  of 
the  picture  are  two  portraits,  one  of  James  H.,  indica- 
tive of  Wesley  being  a  Jacobite;  and  the  other  of  Lucy 
Cooper,  indicating  him  to  be  something  worse.  The  poem  is 
dedicated  to  the  "Rev,  Mr.  Evans,  Mr.  Hill,  and  Mr.  Hawes, 


Infamous  Picblications.  265 

in  acknowledgment  of  their  services  to  the  pubHc."     After     177^ 
describing  Wesley  by  such  epithets  as  "  a  nostrum  monger,"     Age  75 
"  a  preacher,  pamphleteer,  and  quack,"  than  whom  "  few  can 
whistle  off  rank  nonsense  better,"  the  work   concludes  with 
the  two  lines  following  : 

"  His  odious  name  should  stink  beyond  the  grav'C, 
And  truth  proclaim  him  a  recorded  knave." 

The  reader  has  had  more  than  enough  of  these  dunghill 
rakings ;  but,  in  order  to  be  saved  from  the  hateful  task  of 
returning  to  this  series  of  abominable  poems,  we  add  another 
published  in  the  year  following. 

7,  "  Fanatical  Conversion,  or  Methodism  Displayed.  Illus- 
trated and  verified  from  J.  Wesley's  fanatical  journals."  1779  : 
4to,  55  pages.  In  two  different  copies  we  find  two  different 
frontispieces.  One  is  an  ass,  on  its  hind  legs,  preaching. 
The  other  is  much  more  elaborate,  and  is  too  obscene  to 
be  fully  described.  Leaving  out  the  parts  referred  to, 
Wesley,  as  a  clerical  fox,  is  represented  as  preaching  in  a 
barn,  his  right  hand  in  the  coat  pocket  of  a  man  called  "  Old 
Cloaths,"  and  his  left  taking  a  penny  from  a  boy,  a  tapster, 
who  has  just  been  broaching  a  hogshead  of  "  Culvert's  Gin." 
One  man  approaches  the  preacher,  with  a  cudgel,  crying, 
"  Give  me  my  money  !  "  Another,  in  the  form  of  a  donkey, 
is  making  a  most  hideous  noise,  and  is  called  "Brother  Bray." 
A  third  is  vomiting  a  black  monster,  and  represented  as  say- 
ing, "He's  gone,  he's  gone!"  A  fourth  is  standing  on  his 
head,  and  shouting,  "  Sure  I  am  in  heaven."  Two  others 
are  hurling  a  squib  at  Wesley's  head,  and  flourishing  a  scroll, 
"For  the  benefit  of  Trick  upon  Trick,  or  Methodism  Dis- 
played." At  Wesley's  feet  is  the  favourite  bottle,  labelled 
"  Primitive  Physic"  ;  and  in  the  centre  is,  what  may  be  taken 
as  the  artist's  name,  "  Rowland  Hill,  1778."  The  following 
four  lines,  selected  almost  hap-hazard,  are  a  very  moderate 
specimen  of  all  the  rest.  Of  course,  they  are  spoken  con- 
cerning W^esley. 

"  Reynard,  you're  right !     Heaven  loves  such  pious  frauds  ; 
Hence,  half  your  saints  unmasked  are  who — s  and  b — ds  : 

Nay,  mock  apostles  are  but  little  less 
Than  devils  lurking  m  fanatic  dress." 


266  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1778  We  gladly  leave  these  disgusting  publications.  Like  dis- 
A^-j^  honoured  children,  they  are  without  an  acknowledged  father. 
Who  was  their  infamous  author  ?  We  neither  know,  nor  care 
to  know ;  but  there  are  three  facts  concerning  them  which 
must  be  noticed.  First,  in  almost  the  whole  of  them  there 
is  a  most  virulent  attack  on  Wesley's  "  Calm  Address  to  the 
American  Colonies."  Secondly,  though  irreligious  to  a 
supreme  degree,  they  are  levelled,  not  against  religion  in 
general,  but  against  that  particular  form  of  it  espoused  by 
Wesley.  Thirdly,  throughout,  the  Calvinists  are  either  passed 
Si^lf  silentio,  or  with  words  of  commendation  ;  and,  in  foot- 
notes and  other  places,  Rowland  Hill  is  evidently  in  the 
writer's  good  graces.  We  have  read  hundreds  of  tracts  and 
pamphlets  published  against  Wesley ;  but  nothing  which,  for 
profanity,  pollution,  and  violent  abuse,  equals  these.  They 
display  talent ;  but  talent  prostituted  to  the  most  infernal  pur- 
poses. In  style,  they  resemble, — shall  we  say  it  .-*  the  style 
of  one  of  Wesley's  most  calumnious  Calvinian  opposers ;  but 
we  charitably,  though  feebly,  hope,  that  no  man  professing, 
much  less  teaching,  the  Christian  religion,  had  to  do  with 
their  production. 

What  had  Wesley  done  to  merit  all  this  }  Nothing,  abso- 
lutely nothing.  He  was  an  old  man  whose  life  had  been  spent 
in  one  great  act  of  Christian  beneficence.  These  wretched 
poems,  issued  in  the  best  style  of  the  art  of  printing,  by  J.  Bew, 
of  Paternoster  Row,  were  the  foul  sputterings  of  a  muse,  not 
naturally  ignoble,  but  envious  of  Wesley's  majestic  goodness, 
and  animated  with  a  feeling  almost  as  malignant  as  the  heart 
of  Apollyon.  So  far  from  answering  them,  Wesley  never 
even  condescended  to  mention  them,  in  any  journal  or  letter 
yet  made  public. 

Before  we  trace  Wesley's  wanderings  in  1778,  there  are  two 
or  three  other  facts  which  must  be  noticed.  On  Tuesday, 
August  II,  1778,  in  the  thirty-eighth  year  of  his  age,  occurred 
the  death  of  the  Rev.  Augustus  Toplady.  In  more  respects 
than  one,  this  was  a  memorable  event  to  Wesley  and  his 
friends.  In  the  death  of  Toplady,  Wesley  lost  one  of  his 
bitterest  opponents  ;  and  Calvinism  lost  its  ablest  champion. 

Soon  after,  the  report  was  circulated,  that  Wesley  had 
stated,  to  some  of  his  friends,  that  Toplady  died  in  despair 


Death  of  Top  lady.  26  j 

and  uttering  blasphemy.  Sir  Richard  Hill  rushed  into  print,  1778 
by  sending  an  anonymous  letter  to  the  General  Advertiser,  A^e"-- 
requesting  Wesley  either  to  deny  the  accusation,  or  to  produce 
his  authority,  otherwise  his  character  would  suffer,  "  for  having 
vented  a  most  gross,  malicious  falsehood."  Not  content  with 
this,  he  published  a  pamphlet,  in  the  form  of  a  "  Letter  to  the 
Rev.  Mr.  John  Wesley,"  in  which,  as  usual,  he  made  use  of 
the  most  intemperate  language,  telling  Wesley  that,  unless  he 
cleared  himself  from  the  charge  alleged  against  him,  he  would 
be  branded  "  as  the  raiser  and  fabricator  of  a  most  nefarious 
report,"  and  would  be  guilty  of  a  sin  little  less  "  than  the  un- 
pardonable sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost."  The  whole  of  this 
mare's  nest  was  simply  this:  Mr.  Gawkrodger,  of  Bridlington, 
told  Sir  Richard  Hill,  that  Mr.  Thomas  Robinson  told  him, 
that  Wesley  told  him,  that  Toplady  "  died  in  black  despair 
and  blasphemy."  If  Sir  Richard  Hill  had  courteously  asked 
for  an  explanation,  Wesley,  like  a  gentleman  and  a  Christian, 
would  have  given  one;  but,  having  demanded  it  in  the  most 
offensive  terms,  telling  him  that  he  had  been  "  vilifying  the 
ashes  and  traducing  the  memory "  of  Toplady ;  and  that 
"his  grand  design  in  all  his  publications,  whether  sermons, 
journals,  appeals,  preservatives,  or  Arminian  magazines, 
was  that  of  trumpeting  forth  his  own  praises"  ;  and  that  he 
was  "  a  man  of  cunning  and  subtlety,  and  artifices,  and  foul 
aspersions,  and  quibbles,  and  evasions,^'  ^ — we  say,  that 
Sir  Richard  Hill  having  used  such  terms  as  these,  in  the 
very  letters  in  which  he  requested  the  explanation,  deserved, 
not  an  answer,  but,  the  silent  contempt  with  which  Wesley 
wisely  treated  him. 

In  1778,  England  was  in  great  excitement.  Panic  was 
general ;  and  the  country  was  thought  to  be  on  the  brink  of 
ruin.  It  was  this  state  of  things  which  led  Wesley  to  publish 
the  two  political  pamphlets  following  : 

First,  "A  Serious  Address  to  the  People  of  England,  with 
regard  to  the  state  of  the  nation:"  i2mo,  28  pages;  the 
object  of  which  was  to  show,  that  England,  notwithstanding 
the  war,  was  in  prosperity.  Its  cattle  and  vegetable  produc- 
tions   were    undiminished.      Its  inhabitants  had  increased   a 

'  See  memoirs  of  Toplady,  prefixed  to  his  works,  1857  edit. 


268  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1778  million  within  the  last  twenty  years;  and,  during  the  same 
Age  75  period,  hundreds  of  thousands  of  acres  of  unprofitable  land 
had  been  put  under  tillage.  England  might  have  lost  eight 
hundred  of  its  ships  since  the  beginning  of  the  war ;  but  it 
had  also  taken  more  than  it  had  lost.  The  trade  with  Ireland 
had  prodigiously  increased  ;  and,  comparatively  speakings  the 
national  debt  was  not  so  great  as  in  1759.  "Friends  and 
countrymen  ! "  writes  Wesley,  "let  none  deceive  you  with  vain 
words !  Let  none,  by  subtle  reasonings,  or  by  artful,  elabor- 
ate harangues,  persuade  you  out  of  your  senses.  Let  no 
sweet  tongued  orator,  by  his  smooth  periods,  steal  away  your 
understanding ;  no  thundering  talker  fill  you  with  vain  fears, 
of  evils  that  have  no  being.  You  are  encompassed  with 
liberty,  peace,  and  plenty.  Know  the  public,  as  well  as 
private,  blessings  which  you  enjoy;  and  be  thankful  to  God 
and  man." 

The  second,  and  shorter  tract,  was  published,  with  the  title, 
"A  Compassionate  Address  to  the  Inhabitants  of  Ireland"  : 
i2mo,  12  pages.  Wesley  laughs  to  scorn  the  report,  that 
General  Washington  had  an  army  of  65,000  men ;  and 
says,  that  "  the  French  will  as  soon  swallow  up  the  sea,"  as 
swallow  up  old  England ;  that  the  Spanish  have  not  yet 
forgotten  Havannah ;  and  that  the  Portuguese  were  "  not 
such  arrant  fools  "  as  to  join  in  a  confederacy  with  England's 
enemies. 

These  were  odd  topics  for  Wesley  to  take  up ;  but  the  war 
excitement  was  now  at  its  highest  point.  Liverpool,  Man- 
chester, Glasgow,  and  Edinburgh  raised  regiments  at  their 
own  expense.  The  Whig  opposition  considered  this  to  be 
highly  reprehensible,  and  accused -Lord  North  and  the  other 
members  of  the  government  with  employing  soldiers  with- 
out consent  of  parliament,  and  of  entertaining  designs 
dangerous  to  the  liberties  of  the  country.  Fox  moved,  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  that  no  more  troops  should  be  sent 
out  of  the  kingdom ;  alleging  that  a  war  with  France  and 
Spain  was  imminent ;  and  that  the  navy  was  inefficient,  and 
the  militia  contemptible.  Burke,  in  a  speech  of  three  hours 
and  a  half  duration, — said  to  be  the  greatest  triumph  of 
eloquence  within  the  memory  of  man, — endeavoured  to 
weaken   the    hands    of    government,    by    dwelling    on   the 


National  Alarm.  269 


ferocities  and  horrors  committed  by  their  savage  auxiliaries      1778 
in  America,   the   red  Indians.      Lord  George  Gordon,  who    Age~7S 
was  not  yet  quite  so  mad  as  he  became  a  year  or  two  later, 
expressed  his  earnest  wish,  that  Lord  North  "  would  call  off  his 
butchers  from  America,  retire  with  all  the  rest  of  his  majesty's 
evil  advisers,  and  turn  from  his  wickedness  and  live."     John 
Wilkes,    the  ex-lord    mayor   of  London,    who    had    not  yet 
attained    to    the    post    of    city   chamberlain,    but   who   was 
engaged  in  constant  manoeuvres  to  escape  out  of  the  purgatory 
of  duns,  or  to  draw  more  money  from  the  purses  of  private 
friends,  was  as  lavish  with  his  sarcasms,  ribaldry,  and  drollery 
as  ever,  and  told  the  minister,  that  nothing  but  a  cessation  of 
hostilities    would    save    General    Howe    from    the    fate    of 
Burgoyne.     France   was    exerting    itself    to    the  utmost,   to 
induce,  not    only   Spain,  but  also  Austria,    Prussia,    Russia, 
and  the   other   despotisms,   to    become   the    allies   and    pro- 
tectors of  the  young  and  free   republic.     The  king  and  his 
ministers   were   involved   in    the     greatest    difficulties ;    and 
John    Wesley,    like    a    loyal    man,    at    the    head  of-  forty 
thousand  Methodists,  felt  it  to  be  a  duty  to  assist  them  as 
he  best  could,  not  only  in  private  and  in  the  pulpit,  but  also 
with  his  pen. 

Having  spent  the  first  two  months  of  1778  in  London  and 
its  vicinity,  Wesley  started,  at  the  commencement  of  March, 
for  Ireland,  where  he  employed  his  time  and  energies  till 
towards  the  end  of  July  following ;  but  there  was  nothing  in 
the  tour  so  tnmsiially  remarkable  as  to  demand  attention. 
The  days  of  mob  persecution  were  over ;  and  everywhere 
Wesley  was  received  with  respect,  and,  in  many  places,  with 
affection.  At  Tullamore,  where  he  preached  in  the  riding- 
house,  the  commanding  officer  ordered  all  the  soldiers  to  be 
present,  and  attended  himself,  with  the  rest  of  the  officers. 
At  Cork,  two  companies  of  volunteers  were  present  in  the 
chapel,  while  Wesley  preached  ;  the  side  gallery  being  filled 
with  the  men  in  scarlet,  and  the  front  with  the  men  in  blue. 
In  one  instance,  this  old  evangelist  actually,  we  had  almost 
said  cruelly,  drove  a  pair  of  horses  sixty-eight  miles  in  a 
single  day.  In  another  instance,  coming  to  a  slough  near 
Sligo,  a  sturdy  Irishman  took  Wesley  over  on  his  shoulders  ; 
and  others  took  his  chaise.     At  Dublin,  liis  little  conference 


270  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1778     of  twenty  preachers  debated  the  duty  of  leaving  the  Estab- 

Age  75    lished  Church  ;  "  but,  after  a  full  discussion  of  the  point,"  says 

Wesley,  "we  all  remained  firm  in  our  judgment, — that  it  is 

not  our  duty  to  leave  the  Church,  wherein  God  has  blessed  us, 

and  does  bless  us  still." 

This  discussion  was  brought  about  principally  by  the  Rev. 
Edward  Smyth,  already  mentioned  as  a  clergyman  who  had 
been  expelled  from  his  curacy  for  his  fidelity  to  the  truth. 
At  present,  he  was  in  connection  with  the  Methodists  ;  and 
was  now  eager  to  persuade  Wesley  and  his  preachers  to 
separate  from  the  Church  ;  but  without  effect.  Myles,  in  his 
Chronological  History,  says,  that  the  minute  adopted  was  the 
following  : 

"Is  it  not  our  duty  to  separate  from  the  Church,  considering  the  wicked- 
ness both  of  the  clergy  and  the  people?  Answer.  We  conceive  not. 
I.  Because  both  the  priests  and  the  people  were  full  as  wicked  in  the  Jewish 
church,  and  yet  God  never  commanded  the  holy  Israelites  to  separate  from 
them.  2.  Neither  did  our  Lord  command  His  disciples  to  separate  from 
them ;  He  rather  commanded  the  contrary.  3.  Hence,  it  is  clear,  that 
could  not  be  the  meaning  of  St.  Paul's  words,  'Come  out  from  among 
them,  and  be  ye  separate.' " 

This  was  an  important  action.  Twenty  years  before, 
Wesley  had  wavered  in  his  attachment  to  the  Church  ;  now 
and  henceforth,  in  language  at  least,  he  was  more  decided. 
This  is  a  question  which  will  repeatedly  present  itself  in 
succeeding  years. 

On  July  19,  Wesley  left  Dublin  to  attend  his  English 
conference  in  Leeds,  preaching  on  his  way  at  Liverpool, 
Bolton,  Bury,  Rochdale,  Halifax,  Bradford,  and  Birstal,  at 
which  last  mentioned  place  his  congregation  was  supposed 
to  number  twelve  or  fourteen  thousand  persons. 

Wesley's    notice    of    the    Leeds    conference    is   brief.      He 

writes  : 

"1778.  Tuesday,  August  4. — Our  conference  began;  so  large  a 
number  of  preachers  never  met  at  a  conference  before.  I  preached 
morning  and  evening,  till  Thursday  night ;  then  my  voice  began  to  fail ; 
so  I  desired  two  of  our  preachers  to  supply  my  place  the  next  day.  On 
Saturday  the  conference  ended." 

Mr.  Benson  writes : 

"  Our  conference  is  just  ended,  the  best  I  was  ever  at.  Mr.  Wesley  has 
been  in  a  sweet  spirit,  has  preached  some  excellent  sermons,  has  had 


Conference  ^1778.  271 

extraordinary  congregations,  and  has  dealt  closely  and  plainly  with  the      17  7^ 
preachers,  setting  two  aside  for  misdemeanours."*  Aee~7i; 

Thomas  Taylor,  in  his  manuscript  diary,  remarks : 

"  August  5. — To-day,  we  permitted  all  sorts  to  come  into  the  conference, 
so  that  we  had  a  large  company.  The  forenoon  was  occupied  in  speaking 
upon  preaching  houses.  In  the  afternoon,  the  sending  of  missionaries  to 
Africa  was  considered.  The  call  seems  doubtful.  Afterwards,  the  com- 
mittee met,  and  we  were  an  hour  and  a  half  in  speaking  what  might  have 
been  done  in  five  minutes.  We  are  vastly  tedious,  and  have  many  long 
speeches  to  little  purpose." 

"  August  6. — This  day  has  been  employed  chiefly  in  stationing  the 
preachers. 

"  August  7. — We  were  engaged  in  conference  till  after  one  o'clock ;  and 
then  the  sacrament  began,  at  which,  I  think,  two  thousand  were  present." 

Three  things  are  noticeable  here.  I.  Others,  beside  itiner- 
ant preachers,  were  admitted  to  Wesley's  conference  in 
1778.  2.  Long  and  tedious  conferential  speeches  are  not  a 
novelty ;  but  were  inflicted  upon  impatient  and  unwilling 
listeners  in  former  days  as  they  are  sometimes  inflicted  now. 
3.  The  conference  had  an  immense  sacrament  such  as 
Methodist  conferences  and  Methodist  congregations  now  never 
witness. 

Stationing  preachers  was  then  a  difficulty  as  it  is  at  present, 
one  of  the  four  days  being  chiefly  occupied  with  this.  Some 
modern  Methodists  seem  to  think,  that  Wesley,  in  this,  acted 
as  he  pleased  ;  but  that  is  hardly  true.  The  people  then,  to 
say  nothing  about  the  preachers,  liked  to  have  a  voice  in  their 
appointments;  and  then,  as  now,  not  unfrequently  made 
worse  selections  than  others  would  have  made  for  them.  In 
the  spring  of  the  present  year,  Wesley  significantly  wrote, 
while  at  Bristol :  "  March  9 — Oh  this  and  the  following  days 
I  visited  the  society,  and  found  a  good  increase.  This  year, 
I  myself  [ivhich  I  have  seldom  done)  chose  the  preachers  for 
Bristol ;  and  these  were  plain  men,  and  likely  to  do  more 
good  than  had  been  done  in  one  year,  for  these  twenty 
years." 

It  is  a  curious  fact,  that,  as  this  was  the  first  conference  in 
whose  minutes  the  name  of  Thomas   Coke  appeared,  so  also 

*  Christian  Miscellany,   1 849,  p.  84. 


272  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

iJjB     it  was  a  conference  remarkable  for  its  discussion  of  the  great 
^~y-    question  of  Cliristian    missions,  to    whicli   Coke,  soon    after, 
devoted  his  unwearied  Hfe.     The  mission  to  Africa  has  been 
mentioned.     Mr.  Benson  writes  : 

"  The  proposal  was  made  in  consequence  of  two  young  princes  from 
Calabar,  in  Guinea,  who  desired  that  missionaries  might  be  sent  to 
instruct  them  in  the  English  language,  and  the  great  principles  of 
Christianity.  These  young  princes  had  been  cruelly  torn  away  from 
their  own  country,  and  sold  as  slaves  in  America,  where  they  remained 
upwards  of  seven  years.  An  English  master  of  a  ship,  to  whom  they  told 
their  story,  pitied  them,  and  advised  them  to  run  away  from  their  master, 
which  they  did,  and  were  brought  by  him  to  England.  Their  case  was 
examined,  and  brought  before  Lord  Mansfield  ;  and  they  were  set  at 
liberty.  They  made  some  stay  at  Bristol,  and  were  instructed  by  some 
of  our  people,  but  especially  by  JMiss  Johnson.  After  they  had  returned 
to  their  own  country,  at  their  request,  two  persons,  who  were  Germans, 
but  members  of  our  society  at  Bristol,  were  sent  out  to  Guinea;  but  they 
both  died  either  before,  or  soon  after,  they  landed  on  that  coast.  The 
young  princes  sent  over  petitions  for  others  to  go.  Two  good  young 
men  offered  themselves  for  the  difficult  and  dangerous  service.  But, 
after  the  matter  was  seriously  considered,  it  was  concluded  that  the 
time  had  not  arrived  for  sending  missionaries  to  Africa."^ 

One  of  the  strangers,  who  were  present  at  the  conference 
of  1778,  was  Thomas  Thompson,  Esq.,  afterwards  member 
of  parhament  for  the  town  of  Hull,  and  who,  at  the  first 
missionary  meeting,  held  at  Leeds,  stated  that  the  dis- 
cussion respecting  this  African  mission  lasted  several  hours, 
and  was  marked  by  deep  piety,  sound  sense,  and  powerful 
eloquence.  Mr.  Thompson  continued  :  "  The  deepest  impres- 
sion, however,  seemed  to  be  made,  on  the  minds  of  all  persons  ■ 
present,  by  the  short  speech  of  a  young  man,  who  appeared 
to  be  far  gone  in  a  consumption,  but  who  promptly  offered 
himself  as  a  missionary,  and,  in  unaffected  language,  declared 
his  readiness  to  go  to  Africa,  or  to  any  other  part  of  the 
world,  to  which  it  might  please  God  and  his  brethren  to  send 
him."2 

Who  was  this  young  man  ?  Though  not  absolutely  cer- 
tain, we  believe  it  was  Duncan  McAllum.  At  all  events,  the 
following  information,  hitherto  unpublished,  will  be  acceptable. 


'Memoirs  of  Benson,  by  Macdonald,  p.  75. 
-  Methodist  Magazine,  18 14,  p.  508. 


Help  for  Africa.  27^ 


The  two  African  princes  escaped  from  slavery,  about  the  1778 
year  1775,  after  the  breaking  out  of  the  American  rebelhon.  a^75 
One  of  them  was  baptized  at  Bristol  ;  and  the  other  was 
seriously  disposed.  The  two  Germans,  who  went  out,  were 
brothers  of  the  name  of  Syndrum,  and  were  treated  by  the  uncle 
of  the  princes  with  all  possible  attention.  When  the  intel- 
ligence of  their  death  arrived  in  England,  Dr.  Coke  addressed 
a  circular  to  all  the  young  itinerant  preachers  in  the  con- 
nexion, asking  for  volunteers  for  this  African  mission,  and 
stating  that  they  would  be  supported  by  a  legacy  of  ;^50o, 
left,  for  that  purpose,  by  Miss  Johnson,  of  Bristol.^  Duncan 
McAllum  was  now  in  the  third  year  of  his  itinerancy,  and 
was  stationed  at  Dundee.  With  a  brave  heart,  he  offered  his 
services,  even  before  the  conference ;  but,  without  assigning 
reasons,  Wesley  declined  accepting  them.  Hence  the  follow- 
ing hitherto  unpublished  letter. 

"  Dublin,  y^/)/  14,  1778. 
"  Dear  Duncan, —  I  would  have  you  change  once  in  two  months,  and 
will  help  you  as  to  the  expenses.     Dwell  in  the  land,  and  be  doing  good, 
and  surely  thou  shalt  be  fed.  You  have  nothing  to  do  at  present  in  Africa. 
Convert  the  heathen  in  Scotland. 

"  I  am,  dear  Duncan,  yours  affectionately, 

"John  Wesley." 

So  the  matter  ended.  Help  for  Africa  was  deferred  ;  but  it 
is  a  blessed  fact  that  Africans  were  being  saved.  The  successful 
efforts  of  Mr.  Gilbert  in  Antigua  have  been  already  noticed  ; 
and  it  is  a  remarkable  coincidence,  that,  in  this  very  year, 
when  Coke  first  found  a  place  in  the  conference  minutes,  and 
when,  for  the  first  time,  missions  to  the  heathen  were  discussed 
at  the  conference  sittings,  John  Baxter,  a  Methodist  ship- 
wright at  Chatham,  felt  himself  constrained  to  leave  his 
friends,  and  to  embark  for  Antigua,  principally,  as  he  himself 
expresses  it,  that  he  "  might  have  an  opportunity  of  speaking 
for  God."  He  landed  on  April  2,  and,  a  fortnight  after,  wrote 
to  Wesley,  telling  him  that  the  work,  begun  by  the  late 
Mr.  Gilbert,  still  remained.  He  says  :  "  The  black  people  have 
been  kept  together  by  two  black  women,  who  have  continued 
praying  and  meeting  with  those  who  attended  every  night,     I 

*  Manuscript. 
VOL.  III.  T 


2  74  Life  and   Times  of  Wesley. 

1778  preached  to  about  thirty  on  Saturday  night.  On  Sunday 
A~7S  niorning,  to  the  same  number ;  and,  in  the  afternoon,  to 
about  four  or  five  hundred.  The  old  standers  desire  I  would 
let  you  know  that  you  have  had  many  children  in  Antigua 
whom  you  never  saw.  I  hope,  sir,  we  shall  have  an  interest 
in  your  prayers.  Dear  sir,  give  me  your  advice.  Provisions 
are  very  scarce ;  but  I  have  all  things  richly  to  enjoy;  as  I 
have  four  shillings  a  day,  besides  the  king's  provisions.  I  am 
going  to  have  a  house  built  for  me,  with  as  much  ground  as  is 
needful.  I  think  God  has  sent  me  here  for  good  to  the  poor 
souls,  who  are  glad  to  hear,  but  unable  to  maintain,  a 
preacher."  ^ 

Little  more  remains  to  be  said  respecting  the  conference  of 
1778,  except  that  it  was  resolved  "  to  receive  no  more  married 
preachers,  because,"  says  .Wesley,  "  we  cannot  keep  them";^ 
and,  further,  that  two  most  characteristic  minutes  were 
adopted  in  reference  to  preachers  who  were  nervous.  It  was 
asked  : 

"Why  do  so  many  of  our  preachers  fall  into  nervous  disorders? 

"Answer.  Because  they  do  not  sufficiently  observe  Dr.  Cadogan's  rules 
— to  avoid  indolence  and  intemperance. 

"They  do  indeed  use  exercise  ;  but  many  of  them  do  not  use  enough, — 
not  near  so  much  as  they  did  before  they  were  preachers.  And  some- 
times they  sit  still  a  whole  day.     This  can  never  consist  with  health. 

"  They  are  not  intemperate  in  the  vulgar  sense  ;  they  are  neither 
drunkards  nor  gluttons ;  but  they  take  more  food  than  nature  requires, 
particularly  in  the  evening. 

"  What  advice  would  you  give  to  those  that  are  nervous  ? 

"Answer.  Advice  is  made  for  them  that  will  take  it ;  but  who  are  they  ? 
one  in  ten,  or  twenty  ? 

"  Then  I  advise  :  (i)  Touch  no  dram,  tea,  tobacco,  or  snuff ;  (2)  eat  very 
light,  if  any,  supper ;  (3)  breakfast  on  nettle  or  orange  peel  tea ;  (4)  lie 
down  before  ten,  rise  before  six;  (5)  every  day  use  as  much  exercise  as 
you  can  bear  ;  or  (6)  murder  yourself  by  inches." 

Wesley  acted  upon  his  own  advice.  Whatever  might  be 
said  of  others,  he  was  not  the  man  to  be  made  nervous  for 
want  of  exercise.  Many  Methodist  preachers  claim  and 
enjoy  a  holiday  after  conference.  With  Wesley  it  was  other- 
wise.    The  conference  of  1778  closed  on  Saturday,  August  8  ; 

*  Methodist  Magazine,  1788,  p.  383. 

*  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xii.,  p.  296. 


opening  of  the  City  Road  Chapel.  275 

the  next  day,  Wesley  preached  to  a  congregation  of  some      ^77^ 
thousands  in  the  market  place  at  Dewsbury.     He  then  hurried     Age  75 
ofif  to  London  ;  and  thence  to  Cornwall,  where  he  preached, 
in  Gwennap  amphitheatre,  it  was  believed,  to  four-and-twenty 
thousand  people.     During  this  lengthened  journey,  he  made 
the  following  curious  entry  in  his  journal. 

"  September  l — I  went  to  Tiverton.  I  was  musing  here  on  what  I 
heard  a  good  man  say  long  since  :  '  Once  in  seven  years  I  burn  all  my 
sermons  ;  for  it  is  a  shame  if  I  cannot  write  better  sermons  now  than  I 
could  seven  years  ago.'  Whatever  others  can  do,  I  really  cannot.  I 
cannot  write  a  better  sermon  on  the  Good  Steward,  than  I  did  seven 
years  ago ;  I  cannot  write  a  better  on  the  Great  Assize,  than  I  did  twenty 
years  ago  ;  I  cannot  write  a  better  on  the  Use  of  Money,  than  I  did  near 
thirty  years  ago  ;  nay,  I  know  not  that  I  can  write  a  better  on  the 
Circumcision  of  the  Heart,  than  I  did  five-and-forty  years  ago.  Perhaps, 
indeed,  I  may  have  read  five  or  six  hundred  books  more  than  I  had  then, 
and  may  know  a  little  more  history,  or  natural  philosophy,  than  I  did ; 
but  I  am  not  sensible  that  this  has  made  any  essential  addition  to  my 
knowledge  in  divinity.  Forty  years  ago,  I  knew  and  preached  every 
Christian  doctrine  which  I  preach  now." 

Let  the  reader  ponder  this  entry  for  a  threefold  purpose, 
(i)  To  form  an  estimate  of  the  extent  of  Wesley's  reading. 

(2)  To  ascertain   which   sermons  Wesley  thought   his  best. 

(3)  To  find  an  answer  to  the  charge  that  Wesley  changed  his 
doctrines. 

Wesley,  on  his  return  from  Cornwall,  arrived  on  September 
4  in  Bristol,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  which  he  spent  the 
ensuing  month. 

The  remainder  of  the  year  was  occupied  in  London,  and 
in  his  usual  tours  through  the  counties  of  Buckingham, 
Oxford,  Bedford,  Northampton,  Hertford,  and  Kent  ;  and  it 
maybe  mentioned,  as  an  evidence  that  the  Church  of  England 
began  at  last  to  appreciate  its  ejected  minister,  that,  during 
this  interval,  he  preached,  by  request,  to  crowded  congrega- 
tions, in  not  fewer  than  four  of  the  London  churches. 

It  was  at  this  time,  also,  that  he  opened,  as  already  noticed, 
the  new  chapel  in  City  Road.  On  the  day  of  opening,  he 
wrote  as  follows  to  Mrs.  Penelope  Cousins. 

"London,  November  i,  1778. 
"  My  DEAR  Sister, — It  is  just  as  it  should  be.     I  have  foniierly  said 
*  I  wonder  how  Mr.  Whitefield  can  go  on  !     For  he  has  honour,  and 
comparatively,  no   dishonour.      And  this  is  test  for   human  frailty   too 


276  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

j««8      severe.'     Now  I  have  not  that   insupportable  burden.     I  have  honour 

enough  in  all  reason ;  but  it  is  properly  balanced  with  dishonour.     I  have 

Age  75  good  report,  and  (what  is  absolutely  necessary)  evil  report  too.  To-day 
I  am  to  open  our  new  chapel.  Hence  also  will  arise  both  honour  and 
dishonour.  Yet  a  little  while,  and  all  these  things,  that  seem  considerable 
now,  will  pass  away  like  a  dream. 

"  I  am,  my  dear  Penny,  yours  affectionately, 

"John  Wesley." ^ 

The  opening  of  City  Road  chapel  rendered  it  necessary, 
that  Wesley  should  have  clerical  coadjutors  ;  and  he  now 
received  a  letter  from  one  who,  in  after  years,  rendered 
faithful  and  valuable  service.  The  Rev.  James  Creighton 
was  born  in  Ireland,  in  1739;  and,  for  fourteen  years,  had 
been  an  ordained  clergyman  ;  but  it  was  only  within  the  last 
two  years  that  he  had  found  peace  with  God,  through  faith  in 
Jesus  Christ,  and  that  principally  by  reading  the  works  of 
Wesley.  He  now  began  to  preach  in  a  barn,  about  four 
miles  from  his  parish  church  ;  and,  then,  when  the  barn  was 
no  longer  available,  in  a  chapel  which  was  erected  for  him, 
and  in  which  he  officiated  for  some  time,  though  the  windows 
were  unglazed,  and  the  mudden  floor  was  such  that  his  feet 
often  sunk  two  inches  deep  during  the  performance  of  service. 
His  parish  was  sixteen  miles  in  length,  and  most  of  it  mount- 
ainous and  boggy  ;  but  he  frequently  walked,  as  well  as  rode, 
through  all  parts  of  it,  in  all  kinds  of  weather.^  While  here, 
he  wrote  the  following  to  Wesley. 

"Belterbelt,  October  2(i,  1778. 
"My  dear  Sir, — I  stand  much  in  need  of  a  judicious  friend.  I  am 
quite  alone  ;  there  are  none  of  the  Methodists  near  me  ;  nor  are  there 
any  yet  thoroughly  awakened  within  my  cure.  The  fault,  I  must  own,  is 
mine.  I  have  not  been  zealous  enough  ;  yet,  this  has  not  proceeded  from 
the  fear  of  man  ;  but  I  wished  not  to  act  precipitately,  and  to  raise  the 
prejudices  of  the  clergy  as  little  as  possible.  I  meant  well ;  but  I  see  I 
have  acted  wrong.  Had  I  been  persecuted,  I  should  have  been  much 
bolder  ;  but  the  people  are  so  civil  to  me,  that  it  has,  in  a  great  measure, 
proved  my  ruin.  I  have  had  such  a  sense  of  my  ignorance  and  inability, 
that  I  have  been  frequently  tempted  to  think,  I  ought  to  refrain  entirely 
from  preaching.  But,  again,  I  thought  I  might,  perhaps,  be  of  some  use 
here,  where  the  people  are  ready  to  listen  to  me,  yet  are  not  willing  to 
hear  a  Methodist.     Could  I  once  open  a  door  here  for  the  Methodist 

^  Christian  Miscellany,  1850,  p.  54. 
2  Methodist  Magazine,  1 785. 


Discipline.  277 


preachers,  I  should  willingly  go  to  any  part  of  the  globe  that  God  should 
call  me  to.  Were  I  near  you,  I  should  be  too  happy  to  fill  the  place  of 
your  assistant.  Though  we  must  lament  the  want  of  discipline  in  our 
Church,  and  though  I  admire  the  economy  of  the  Methodists,  yet  I 
entirely  agree  with  you,  that  they  ought  not  to  leave  the  Church.  So  long 
as  they  mingle  with  the  members  of  it,  they  may  be  the  means  of  con- 
verting them  ;  but,  if  they  separate,  they  will  thereby  stop  the  ears  and 
eyes  of  thousands.  These  were  my  sentiments  long  before  I  heard  that 
they  were  yours.  I  never  was  bigoted  to  opinions,  and  hope  I  never 
shall. 
"  I    remain,    dear    sir,   your  very   humble  servant,   and    affectionate 

^''°^'^^^''  "James  Creighton."» 

The  discipline  of  the  Church  of  England  was  a  thing  (5ver 
which  Wesley  and  his  friends  had  no  control.  With  the 
discipline  of  the  Methodists  it  was  otherwise.  Hence,  the 
following  characteristic  letter,  hitherto  unpublished,  addressed 
to  one  of  his  itinerants,  at  Brecon,  Mr.  William  Church,  an 
ancestor  of  the  Eev.  Henry  L.   Church,  who  possesses  the 

original. 

" Wallingford,  Ociober\%  1778. 
"Dear  Billv, — The  soul  and  the  body  make  a  man  ;  the  Spirit  and 
discipline  make  a  Christian.  Let  John  Watson  and  you  agree  together, 
and  be  exact  in  this  wherever  you  go.  Insist  upon  the  observance  of  all 
the  society  rules,  by  all  the  members  of  society ;  and  on  the  observ- 
ance of  all  (even  the  least)  of  the  band  rules,  by  all  that  meet  in  band.  I 
give,  for  instance,  no  band  tickets  to  any  woman,  who  wears  either  ruffles 
or  a  high  crowned  cap.  If  any  will  not  lay  aside  these,  rather  than  lose 
that  blessed  means  of  improvement,  she  is  not  worthy  of  it. 

"  I  am,  your  affectionate  brother, 

"John  Wesley." 

Another  unpublished  letter,  of  the  same  kind,  addressed  to 
Samuel  Bradburn,  will  be  welcome. 

"  London,  October  17,  1778. 
"Dear  Sammy,— I  think  you  judge  exactly  right.  You  are  called  to 
obey  me,  as  a  son  in  the  gospel.  But  who  can  prove,  that  you  are  so 
called  to  obey  any  other  person  ?  What  I  require  (according  to  the 
twelfth  rule  of  a  helper)  of  John  Hampson  and  you,  is,  that  each  of  you, 
in  his  turn,  spend  four  weeks,  and  no  more,  first  at  Cork,  and  then  at 
Bandon.  When,  therefore,  you  have  been  at  Bandon,  I  desire  you  to 
return  straight  to  Cork.  And,  if  John  Hampson  will  not  then  go  to 
Bandon,  I  will  order  one  that  will.  Pray  show  this  letter  to  Mr.  !Mack- 
rie,  whom  I  beg  to  assist  you  in  this  matter.     Pass  smoothly  over  the 

^  Methodist  Magazine,  1 7S8,  p.  60S. 


278  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

^11^      perverseness  of  those  you  have  to  do  with,  and  go  straight  forward.    It  is 
A      _-     abundantly  sufficient,  that  you  have  the  testimony  of  a  good  conscience 
towards  God. 

"  I  am,  dear  Sammy,  yours  affectionately, 

"  John  Wesley." 

Reference  is  made,  in  Mr.  Creighton's  letter,  to  the  subject 
of  the  Methodists  leaving  the  Established  Church ;  and  it  has 
been  already  seen,  that  this  was  a  matter  earnestly  debated, 
at  the  Dublin  conference,  during  the  present  year.  The  fol- 
lowing letter,  sent  to  Miss  Bishop,  is  of  great  importance, 
and,  though  long,  must  have  insertion. 

"London,  October  18,  177S, 
"  I\lY  DEAR  Sister,— The  original  Methodists  were  all  of  the  Church 
of  England;  and  the  more  awakened  they  were,  the  more  zealously  they 
adhered  to  it,  in  every  point,  both  of  doctrine  and  discipline.  Hence,  we 
inserted  in  the  very  first  rules  of  our  society,  '  they  that  leave  the  Ghurch 
leave  us.'  And  this  we  did,  not  as  a  point  of  prudence,  but  a  point  of 
conscience.  We  believed  it  unlawful  to  separate  from  the  Church,  unless 
sinful  terms  of  communion  were  imposed.  Just  as  did  Mr.  Philip  Henry, 
and  most  of  those  holy  men  that  were  contemporary  with  him. 

'"But  the  ministers  of  it  do  not  preach  the  gospel.'  Neither  do  some 
of  the  independent  or  anabaptist  ministers.  Calvinism  is  not  the  gospel: 
nay,  it  is  further  from  it,  than  most  of  the  sermons  I  hear  at  the  church. 
These  are  very  frequently  unevangelical,  but  they  are  not  anti-evangelical. 
Ytw  of  the  Methodists  are  now  in  danger  of  imbibing  error  from  the 
Church  ministers;  but  they  are  in  great  danger  of  imbibing  the  grand 
error,  Calvinism,  from  some  of  the  Dissenting  ministers.  Perhaps  thou- 
sands have  done  it  already;  most  of  whom  have  drawn  back  to  perdition. 
I  see  more  instances  of  this  than  any  one  else  can  do ;  and,  on  this 
ground  also,  exhort  all  who  would  keep  to  the  Methodists,  and  from  Cal- 
vinism, to  go  to  the  church,  and  not  to  the  meeting. 

"But  to  speak  freely:  I  myself  find  more  life  in  the  Church  prayers, 
than  in  any  formal  extemporary  prayers  of  Dissenters.  Nay,  I  find  more 
profit  in  sermons  on  either  good  tempers,  or  good  works,  than  in  what 
are  vulgarly  called  gospel  sermons.  The  term  has  now  become  a  mere 
cant  word:  I  wish  none  of  our  society  would  use  it.  It  has  no  determi- 
nate meaning.  Let  but  a  pert,  self  sufficient  animal,  that  has  neither 
sense  nor  grace,  bawl  out  something  about  Christ,  or  His  blood,  or  justifi- 
cation by  faith,  and  his  hearers  cry  out,  'What  a  fine  gospel  sermon!' 
Surely  the  Methodists  have  not  so  learned  Christ !  We  know  no  gospel 
without  salvation  from  sin.  There  is  a  Romish  error  which  many  protest- 
ants  swallow  unawares.  It  is  an  avowed  doctrine  of  the  Romish  church, 
that  the  '  pure  intention  of  the  minister  is  essential  to  the  validity  of  the 
sacraments.'  If  so,  we  ought  not  to  attend  the  ministrations  of  an  unholy 
man.  But  in  flat  opposition  to  this,  our  Church  teaches,  in  the  twenty- 
eighth  article,  that  '  the  unworthiness  of  the  minister  does  not  hinder  the 


Silas   Told.  279 


validity  of  the  sacraments.'   Although,  therefore,  there  are  many  disagree-       1778 

able  circumstances,  yet,  I  advise  all  our  friends  to  keep  to  the  Church.        

God  has  surely  raised  us  up  for  the  Church  chiefly,  that  a  little  leaven        "    '•' 
may  leaven  the  whole  lump.     I  wish  you  would  seriously  consider  that 
little  tract,  '  Reasons  against  a  Separation  from  the  Church  of  England.' 
These  reasons  were  never  yet  answered  ;  I  believe,  they  never  will. 
"  I  am,  my  dear  sister,  yours  very  affectionately, 

"John  Wesley."^ 

Whatever  may  be  thought  of  the  vaHdity  of  Wesley's 
reasons,  there  can  be  no  question,  that,  in  theory  at  least,  he 
was  still  firmly  attached  to  the  Established  Church.  His 
enemies,  not  without  reason,  stigmatised  him  as  a  Dissenter; 
he  persisted,  that  he  himself  and  the  Methodists  were  not 
Dissenters.  Who  is  possessed  of  competent  authority  to 
decide  the  doubt .''  • 

Before  passing  to  Wesley's  publications,  there  is  another 
matter  which  deserves  attention.  One  of  the  questions  pro- 
posed at  the  conference  of  1778  was, — "  Is  it  not  advisable 
for  us  to  visit  all  the  jails  we  can  .-'  "  The  answer  was, — "  By 
all  means.  There  cannot  be  a  greater  charity."  From  the 
first,  this  was  a  duty  to  which  Wesley  and  his  brother  had 
devoted  themselves  to  the  utmost  of  their  power;  and  so  also 
had  many  of  their  preachers  and  followers,  especially  Silas 
Told,  a  man  who  richly  deserves  a  passing  notice. 

Mr.  Told  was  the  son  of  a  physician  at  Bristol,  where  he 
was  born  in  171 1.  At  the  age  of  fourteen,  he  was  bound 
apprentice  as  a  sailor;  and,  for  eleven  years,  lived  a  life  of 
adventurous  romance.  In  1740,  Charles  Casper  Greaves, 
a  young  bricklayer,  introduced  him  to  the  Methodists.  In 
1744,  Silas,  at  Wesley's  request,  became  the  master  of  the 
Foundery  school,  and  received  a  salary  of  £26  a  year.  At 
the  same  time,  he  began  to  visit  the  London  prisons,  and 
to  preach  to  debtors  and  malefactors.  There  was  not  a 
prison  in  the  metropolis,  nor  scarcely  a  workhouse  within 
twelve  miles  round  it,  where  Silas  Told  was  not  a  fre- 
quent and  welcome  visitor.  The  scenes  he  witnessed  were 
horrible;  but  for  these  the  reader  must  turn  to  Told's  auto- 
biography. Suffice  it  to  add,  that  Silas  Told  was  pre- 
eminently, in    London,  the    prison    philanthropist,  the    real, 

^  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xiii.,  p.  33. 


28o  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

177S  though  unrecognised  chaplain  of  all  its  wretched  prisoners. 
•^ge~7S  '^'^^  more  than  thirty  years,  no  man  was  better  known,  or 
more  welcome  in  the  jails  of  the  metropolis,  than  he.  All 
sorts  of  criminals,  papists  and  protestants,  clung  to  him  in 
their  anguish,  for  counsel  and  consolation.  Notwithstanding 
opposition  at  the  first,  he  persisted  in  his  enterprise,  till  even 
turnkeys,  sheriffs,  and  hangmen,  as  well  as  prisoners,  were 
wont  to  weep  while  listening  to  his  exhortations  and  his 
prayers.  Silas  Told  continued  his  great  good  work,  till  he 
tottered  under  the  weight  of  nearly  threescore  years  and  ten, 
when  he  peacefully  expired  in  December  1778.  It  was  be- 
fitting that  Wesley  himself  should  inter  such  a  Methodist.    He 

'  writes:  "1778,  Sunday,    December  30 — I  buried  what  was 

mortal  of  honest  Silas  Told.  For  many  years,  he  attended 
the  malefactors  in  Newgate,  without  fee  or  reward;  and  I 
suppose  no  man  for  this  hundred  years  has  been  so  successful 
in  that  melancholy  office.  God  had  given  him  peculiar  talents 
for  it ;  and  he  had  amazing  success  therein.  The  greatest  part 
of  those  whom  he  attended  died  in  peace,  and  many  of  them 
in  the  triumph  of  faith." 

Several  of  Wesley's  publications  in  1778  have  been  already 
mentioned  ;  only  two  still  require  notice. 

The  first  was  "  Some  Account  of  the  late  Work  of  God  in 
North  America,  in  a  Sermon  on  Ezekicl  i.  16."  i2mo,  23 
pages.  It  was  almost  a  misnomer  to  designate  this  a  sermon; 
but  it  was  vastly  popular,  and,  before  the  year  was  out, 
reached  a  second  edition.  It  is  really  a  brief  historical  state- 
ment of  American  affairs  from  1736  to  1778.  Wesley  begins 
with  the  colonisation  of  Georgia,  passes  on  to  the  wonderful 
revival  of  religion  in  New  England,  and  speaks  of  the  amaz- 
ingly successful  labours  of  Whitefield,  but  affirms  that,  for 
want  of  forming  his  converts  into  societies,  the  far  greater 
part  of  them  became  backsliders.  He  then  traces  the  war  to 
its  origin,  and  concludes  by  foretelling,  not  the  independency 
of  the  rebellious  colonists,  which  he  says  would  be  "  a  heavy 
curse,"  but  a  restoration  of  civil  and  Christian  liberty.  It  is 
dangerous  to  turn  prophet :  in  one  respect,  Wesley's  vaticina- 
tion was  soon  falsified. 

On  August  14,  1777,  Wesley  wrote:  "I  drew  up  proposals 
for  the  Arminian  Magazine!'     We  are  not  aware  that  these 


Proposals  for  the  ''  Arminicin  Magazine!'     28 1 

"Proposals"  have  ever  been  reissued,  just  as  Wesley  published     1778 
them ;  and,  as  an  original  copy  now  lies  before  us,  we  insert    a~7S 
the  document  verbatim. 

^^  Proposals  for  printing,  by  Subscription,  the  Arminian  Magazine; 

consisting    of   Extracts,     and    Original     Treatises    on     Universal 

Redemption, 

"  Conditions. 

"  I.  J^  number,  containing  80  pages,  in  octavo,  printed  on  fine  paper, 
and  with  a  new  type,  will  be  delivered  monthly  to  each  subscriber,  at  the 
price  of  one  shilling. 

"  2.  It  will  be  so  printed,  as  to  bind  up  in  volumes,  twelve  numbers 
in  a  volume. 

"3.  This  work  will  contain  no  news,  no  politics,  no  personal  invect- 
ives, nothing  offensive  either  to  rehgion,  decency,  good  nature,  or  good 
manners, 

"4.  The  first  number  will  be  delivered  on  January  i,  1778,  and  con- 
tinued the  first  day  of  every  month. 

"5.  Subscriptions  are  taken  in  at  the  Foundery,  London  ;  the  New 
Room,  Bristol ;  and  by  the  booksellers  in  town  and  country. 

"  To  the  Reader. 

"  I.  Amidst  the  multitude  of  magazines  which  now  swarm  in  the  world, 
there  was  one,  a  few  years  ago,  termed  The  Christian  Maga^ine^  which 
was  of  great  use  to  mankind,  and  did  honour  to  the  publishers.  But  it 
was  soon  discontinued,  to  the  regret  of  many  serious  and  sensible  per- 
sons. In  the  room  of  it,  started  up  a  miscreated  phantom,  called  The 
Spiritual  Magazine;  and,  not  long  after,  its  twin  sister,  oddly  called  The 
Gospel  Magazine.  Both  of  these  are  intended  to  show,  that  God  is 
not  loving  to  every  man,  that  His  mercy  is  not  over  all  His  ivorks ;  and, 
consequently,  that  Christ  did  not  die  for  all,  biit  for  one  in  ten,  for  the 
elect  only. 

"  2.  This  comfortable  doctrine,  the  sum  of  which,  proposed  in  plain 
English,  is,  God  before  the  foundation  of  the  world  absolutely  and  irre- 
vocably decreed,  that '  some  men  shall  be  saved,  do  what  they  will,  and 
the  rest  be  damned,  do  what  they  can,'  has,  by  these  tracts,  been  spread 
throughout  the  land,  with  the  utmost  diligence.  And  these  champions  of 
it  have,  from  the  beginning,  proceeded  in  a  manner  worthy  of  their  cause. 
They  have  paid  no  more  regard  to  good  nature,  decency,  or  good  manners, 
than  to  reason  or  truth.  All  these  they  set  utterly  at  defiance.  Without 
any  deviation  from  their  plan,  they  have  defended  their  dear  decrees,  with 
arguments  worthy  of  Bedlam,  and  with  language  worthy  of  Billingsgate. 

"3.  In  the  Armitiian  Magazine  a  very  different  opinion  will  be 
defended,  in  a  very  different  manner.  We  maintain,  that  God  willeth  all 
men  to  be  saved,  by  speaking  the  truth  in  love;  by  arguments  and  illustra- 
tions drawn,  partly  from  Scripture,  partly  from  reason  ;  proposed  in  as 
inoffensive  a  manner  as  the  nature  of  the  thing  will  permit.  Not  that  we 
expect  those  on  the  other  side  of  the  question  will  use  us  as  we  use  them. 


Age  75 


282  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

TJ'jS  Yet,  we  hope,  nothing  will  move  us  to  return  evil  for  evil;  or,  however 
provoked,  to  render  railing  for  railing. 

"4.  Our  design  is,  to  publish  some  of  the  most  remarkable  tracts  on  the 
universal  love  of  God,  and  His  willingness  to  save  a//  men  from  all  sin, 
which  have  been  wrote  in  this  and  the  last  century.  Some  of  these  are 
now  grown  very  scarce;  some  have  not  appeared  in  English  before.  To 
these  will  be  added  original  pieces,  wrote  either  directly  upon  this  subject, 
or  on  those  which  are  equally  opposed  by  the  patrons  of  particular 
redemption.  We  are  not  yet  determined,  whether  to  insert  any  poetry  or 
not ;  but  we  faithfully  promise  not  to  insert  zsvy .doggrel.  If  any  verses 
are  inserted,  they  shall  be  such  as  will  not  shock  either  the  understanding 
or  the  taste  of  the  serious  reader. 

"5.  We  know  nothing  more  proper  to  introduce  a  work  of  this  kind 
than  a  sketch  of  the  life  and  death  of  Arminiusj  a  person,  with  whom 
those,  who  mention  his  name  with  the  utmost  indignity,  are  commonly 
quite  unacquainted,  of  whom  they  know  no  more  than  of  Ilermcs 
Trismegistus." 

This,  though  lengthy,  is  too  scarce  and  too  curious  a  docu- 
ment to  withhold  from  the  Methodist  community  ;  moreover, 
it  was  the  commencement  of  a  magazine,  now,  we  believe, 
the  oldest  religious  periodical  in  the  world;  a  magazine  which 
has  flourished,  without  interruption,  for  ninety  successive 
years;  and  has  been  read  by  myriads  in  all  quarters  of  the 
globe. 

It  has  been  said,  that  Mr.  Walter  Churchey,  of  Brecon, 
was  the  first  to  suggest  to  Wesley  the  publication  of  this 
periodical;^  Wesley  himself  says,  that  he  had  been  desired 
to  publish  a  magazine  for  near  forty  years  before  he  complied 
with  the  request.^  Of  course,  Wesley  is  the  best  authority  ; 
still  there  can  be  no  doubt,  that  Mr.  Churchey  was  one  of  his 
advisers.     The  following  letter  furnishes  evidence  of  this. 

"London,  October  18,  1777. 
"My  dear  Brother, — We  agree,  that  no  politics  shall  have  a  place 
in  the  Arminian  Magazine.  But  poetry  will;  only  my  brother  and  I 
are  the  judges  what  pieces  shall  be  admitted.  It  may  be,  some  will 
think  us  too  nice  in  our  choice;  but  that  we  cannot  help.  As  to  a 
review  of  religious  books,  it  might  be  well ;  but  I  have  two  objections, 
(i)  I  scruple  my  own  sufficiency  for  the  work.  (2)  I  would  not,  at  any 
price,  be  bound  to  read  over  all  the  present  religious  productions  of 
the  press.  "  I  am  your  affectionate  brother, 

"JOHX  Wesley."  3 

'  Methodist  Magazine,  1823,  p.  134. 
'  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  iv.,  p.  107.  ^  Ibid.  vol.  xii.,  p.  407. 


'■' Arminian  Magazine'"  published.  283 

The  first  number  of  the  magazine  appeared  on  the  ist  of     ^778 
January,  1778  ;  on  the  cover  of  which  Wesley  said  :  Age  75 

"  I  am  content  this  magazine  should  stand  or  fall  by  its  own  intrinsic 
value.  If  it  is  a  compound  of  falsehood,  ribaldry,  and  nonsense,  let 
it  sink  into  oblivion.  If  it  contains  only  the  words  of  truth  and  sober- 
ness, then  let  it  meet  with  a  favourable  reception.  It  will  easily  be 
observed,  that  it  contains  fewer  articles  than  any  other  magazine.  This 
is  not  by  accident,  but  design.  I  have  frequently  been  disgusted  by  the 
many  bits  and  scraps  of  various  kinds,  which  make  up  a  great  part  of 
most  publications  of  this  nature.  Before  one  has  well  entered  upon  any 
subject,  it  is  at  an  end,  and  referred  to  the  next  number;  a  mere  trick 
to  decoy  the  reader  to  buy  another  and  another  number.  On  the  con- 
trary, I  shall  endeavour  to  begin  and  conclude  as  many  things  as 
possible  in  each  number  :  and,  with  regard  to  taking  the  numbers  that 
follow,  let  every  reader  use  his  own  discretion." 

Space  forbids  any  lengthened  outhne  of  the  contents  of 
the  first  volume.  There  are  lives  of  Arminius,  Luther, 
Bernard  Gilpin,  Bishop  Bedell,  Peter  Jaco,  and  John  Atlay. 
There  are  half-a-dozen  articles  on  the  Calvinian  contro- 
versy, some  of  them,  (rather  in  contradiction  of  Wesley's 
announcement,)  running  through  several  numbers.  There 
are  fifty-nine  letters ;  and  nearly  the  same  number  of  poetic 
pieces.  There  are  three  portraits,  one  of  Wesley  himself, 
one  of  Peter  Jaco,  and  the  third  of  John  Atlay.  At  the 
end  of  the  copy  now  before  us,  is  a  four  paged  letter, 
dated  Londonderry,  June  5,  1778,  answering  objections 
against  the  five  numbers  already  issued.  One  objection 
was,  there  w^as  not  enough  for  money.  The  reply  w'as :  "  I 
write  for  those  who  judge  of  books,  not  by  the  quantity, 
but  by  the  quality  of  them.  I  spare  both  my  reader's 
time  and  my  own,  by  couching  my  sense  in  as  icw  words 
as  I  can.  Those  who  prefer  the  dealers  in  many  words 
may  find  them  on  every  side."  A  second  objection  was, 
that  there  was  not  variety  enough.  Wesley  answered  : 
"  Here  is  all  the  variety  I  promised.  I  promised  the  bulk 
of  the  magazine  should  treat  of  universal  redemption.  Do 
you  blame  me  for  not  rambling  from  my  subject.''  It  is 
not  my  manner,  I  do  not  aim  at  it."  A  third  objection  was, 
"there  is  not  variety  in  the  historical  part."  "What  do  you 
mean  ? "  says  Wesley.  "  Would  you  have  me  insert  bits  and 
scraps  of  history ;  or  give,  in  each  number,  part  of  the  life 


284  Life  ajid  Times  of  Wesley. 

1778  of  one  man,  and  part  of  that  of  another?  I  never  pro- 
Age  75  posed  this :  I  think  it  far  better  to  select  a  iQ.\N  of  the  best 
lives  I  know,  and  to  go  entirely  through  one  before  I  enter 
upon  another."  Another  objection  was :  "  you  have  no 
pictures  or  other  decorations  or  embellishments  which  other 
magazines  have."  Wesley  answers  :  "  It  is  true.  But  I  will 
tell  you  what  I  have  :  such  paper  as  no  magazine  in  England 
was  ever  printed  upon  before.  Consider!  this  one  single 
article  costs  more  than  all  their  fine  embellishments  put 
together." 

In  concluding  this  notice  of  the  first  volume  of  the 
Arminian  Magazine,  the  following  letter  will  be  welcome.  It 
was  addressed  to  Thomas  Taylor,  and  is  here  copied  from 
the  original. 

"London,  January  15,  1778. 

"  Dear  Tommy, — As  to  preaching,  you  ought  not  to  preach  against 
that  unscriptural,  blasphemous,  mischievous  doctrine  constantly;  no,  nor 
very  frequently.  But  you  ought,  now  and  then,  to  bear  a  full,  strong, 
express  testimony  against  it ;  otherwise  you  are  a  sinner  against  God, 
and  the  people,  and  your  own  soul.  I  have  done  this  too  seldom  :  scarce 
once  in  fifty  sermons.     I  ought  to  do  it  once  in  fifteen  or  so. 

"As  to  writing  or  publishing,  the  deadly  poison  has,  for  many  years, 
been  spread  through  England,  chiefly  by  means  of  those  pestilent 
declamations,  The  Gospel,  and  The  Spiritual  Magazine.  Whatever  is 
designed  for  an  antidote  to  this  poison  must  be  spread  in  the  same 
manner.  Thousands  have  been  thereby  poisoned  already,  and  are  now 
twice  dead.  To  guard  those  who  are  not  poisoned  yet,  (not  to  get 
money,)  I  fight  them  at  their  own  weapons.  I  oppose  magazine  to 
magazine,  though  of  a  totally  different  kind.  But,  it  seems,  you  know 
nothing  at  all  of  the  matter.  You  do  not  appear  to  have  read  the 
Proposals.^  This  magazine  not  only  contains  no  raihng,  but  (properly 
speaking)  no  controversy.  It  proves  one  point :  *  God  willeth  all  men 
to  be  saved,  and  to  come  to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth.'  It  goes 
straight  forward,  taking  notice  of  no  opponents,  but  invariably  pursuing 
the  one  point.  And  this  is  the  only  way  to  preserve  the  Methodists, 
and  to  make  the  Calvinists  quiet.  Meantime,  both  the  letters  and  the 
lives,  which  will  make  a  considerable  part  of  every  number,  contain 
the  marrow  of  experimental  and  practical  religion;  so  that  nothing  of 
the  kind  has  appeared  before.     Therefore,  a  magazine  of  this  kind  is  a 

^  Taylor  was  opposed  to  the  magazine.  In  his  unpublished  diary, 
he  writes:  "  1777.  December  14 — I  wrote  a  long  letter  to  Mr.  Wesley 
concerning  the  Arminian  Magazine,  which  I  am  persuaded  will  do 
hurt,  and  no  good." 


Errata.  285 

new  thing   in  the  land;   and  those,   who   formerly   spoke  against  the      1778 
magazine,   may,   with   a  good  grace,   recommend  this    as   being  quite        — 
another  thing,  and  published  on  other  motives.      I  do  not  desire  any        ^ 
Calvinist  to  read  it.     I  pubHsh  it  not  to  convince,  but  to  preserve.     I 
know,  by  long  experience,  they  will  never  bend,  but  when  the  war  is 
carried  into  their  own  quarters.     This  I  will  do,  as  long  as  God  spares 
my  life ;  and,  in  love,  and  in  meekness  of  wisdom.     This  is  the  way,  and 
the  only  way,  to  establish  lasting  peace. 

"  But  is  it  not  odd  that  a  Methodist,  a  preacher,  an  assistant,  should 
be  the  only  one  who  sees  my  brother,  and  me,  and  the  bulk  of  the 
preachers,  and  the  body  of  the  people,  to  be  wrong  ?  Tommy,  distrust 
yourself.  Do  not  lean  too  much  to  your  own  understanding.  It  is 
possible  they  may  be  right,  and  you  wrong.  You  do  not  at  all  under- 
stand this  affair.  We  are  well  rid  of  those  turbulent  men.  With  love 
to  Nancy, 

"  Your  affectionate  friend  and  brother, 

"John  Wesley." 

We  only  add,  that,  nearly  to  the  end  of  Wesley's  life, 
Thomas  Olivers  was  a  sort  of  sub-editor,  and  corrector  of  the 
press;  but  corrected  so  incorrectly,  that,  in  August,  1789, 
Wesley  writes  :  "  I  chose  a  new  person  to  prepare  the  Arnii- 
nian  Magazine ;  being  obliged,  however  unwillingly,  to  drop 
Mr.  Olivers,  for  only  these  two  reasons :  i.  The  errata  are 
unsufferable  ;  I  have  borne  them  for  these  twelve  years,  but 
can  bear  them  no  longer.  2.  Several  pieces  are  inserted 
without  my  knowledge,  both  in  prose  and  verse.  I  must 
try  whether  these  things  cannot  be  amended  for  the  short 
residue  of  my  life." 


1779. 

1^79  ''  I  ^HE  year  1779  was  one  of  national  alarm.  The  re- 
Age  76  JL  markable  trials  of  Admiral  Keppel  and  Sir  Hugh 
Palliser  occasioned  fierce  debates  in  parliament.  Lord 
North  and  his  colleagues  were  accused  of  being  intermed- 
dling, shortsighted,  and  incapable.  American  agents  were 
busy  with  Irish  malcontents ;  and  armed  associations,  not 
the  most  loyal,  were  formed  in  Dublin  and  throughout  the 
country.  The  Spanish  ambassador  quitted  London,  after 
delivering  to  the  secretary  of  state  a  hostile  manifesto. 
The  ministry  proposed,  that  the  militia  should  be  doubled. 
Press  warrants  were  issued  in  all  directions,  and  press  gangs 
actively  employed  in  increasing  the  navy.  France  was  jubi- 
lant. England  rang  with  reports  of  invasion,  and  of  new 
Spanish  armadas,  more  terrible  than  that  sent  against  Queen 
Elizabeth.  Gibraltar  was  threatened  ;  and  so  was  Jersey. 
Paul  Jones,  at  the  head  of  a  squadron  manned  by  French  and 
Americans,  and  desperadoes  from  various  other  countries, 
menaced  the  whole  of  the  eastern  coast  of  England,  from 
Flamborough  Head  to  the  Frith  of  the  Tay.  Lord  North's 
parliamentary  majorities  were  dwmdling.  George  HI.  had 
no  decisive  victories  to  report.  It  was  asserted  that  the 
American  war  had  already  added  sixty-three  millions  to  the 
national  debt ;  and  Charles  Fox  declared  that  treachery,  and 
not  ignorance,  must  have  prevailed  in  the  national  councils  to 
reduce  the  country  to  its  present  miserable  condition.  England 
throughout  Avas  in  a  panic. 

In  this  emergency,  as  in  all  others,  Wesley  was  among 
the  foremost  to  evince  his  loyalty.  On  February  8,  he  wrote: 
"  Finding  many  serious  persons  were  much  discouraged  by 
prophets  of  evil,  confidently  foretelling  very  heavy  calamities 
which  were  coming  upon  our  nation,  I  endeavoured  to  lift  up 
their  hands,  by  opening  and  applying  Psalm  xliii.  5,  6."  Two 
days  later  was  the  national  fast,  when  he  preached  on 
Abraham  interceding  for  the  city  of  Sodom.     To  quiet  the 


Prayer  and  Fasting.  287 

panic  at  Newcastle,  he  took  for  his  text,  "The  Lord  sitteth  1779 
above  the  waterfloods  ;  the  Lord  reigncth  a  king  for  ever."  A^eje 
In  a  letter  to  Bradburn,  he  says  : 

"  It  is  the  judgment  of  many,  that,  since  the  time  of  the  Invincible 
Armada,  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  were  never  in  such  danger  from  foreign 
enemies  as  they  are  at  this  day.  Humanly  speaking,  we  are  not  able  to 
contend  with  them,  either  by  sea  or  land.  They  are  watching  over  us  as 
a  leopard  over  his  prey,  just  ready  to  spring  upon  us.  They  are  mighty 
and  rage  horribly  ;  but  the  Lord  that  dwelleth  on  high  is  mightier ;  and 
now  is  the  time,  at  this  awful  crisis,  for  the  inhabitants  of  the  land  to  learn 
righteousness.  I  make  no  doubt,  but  you  improve  the  important  oppor- 
tunity, and  lift  up  your  voice  like  a  trumpet.  Who  knoweth  but  God  may 
be  entreated  of  tis,  as  He  was  for  Nineveh.-*  Our  brethren,  in  various  parts 
of  England,  have  set  apart  an  hour  in  a  week  for  prayer  (namely,  from 
eight  till  nine  on  Sunday  evening),  in  behalf  of  our  king  and  country. 
Should  not  the  same  be  done  in  Ireland  too?  particularly  at  Cork  and 
Bandon.?  Those  who  have  not  opportunity  of  meeting,  at  the  time,  may 
pray  part  of  the  hour  in  private.  Meantime,  there  is  a  text  for  you  :  '  I 
will  not  destroy  it  for  ien^s  sake.'  "  * 

Besides  this  weekly  prayer-meeting  by  the  English  Me- 
thodists, a  Methodist  fast  was  observed  in  connection  with  the 
annual  conference.  Thomas  Taylor  writes  :  "July  30 — This 
day  was  observed  as  a  fast  on  account  of  public  affairs.  We 
met  in  the  morning  at  five  ;  and,  after  the  sermon,  we 
continued  in  prayer  till  nine  o'clock.  At  one,  we  met  again, 
and  received  the  sacrament.  In  the  evening,  we  kept  a 
watchnight,  and  I  gave  an  exhortation.  But  the  people  do 
not  stay  at  watchnights  in  London,  as  they  do  in  the 
country."  ^ 

A  few  days  later,  we  find  Wesley  holding  a  noonday  prayer- 
meeting,  at  Haverfordwest,  to  intercede  for  the  king  and 
country.  At  Bristol,  he  preached  on  David's  prayer,  "  Lord, 
turn  the  counsel  of  Ahithophel  into  foolishness "  ;  and,  in 
October,  wrote  again  to  Samuel  Bradburn  as  follows. 

"London,  October  10,  1779. 
"  Dear  Sammy, — The  alarm  has  been  general  in  England  as  well  as 
Ireland  ;  particularly  in  the  maritime  parts.  But  it  has  done  abundantly 
more  good  than  harm  to  the  work  of  God.  The  children  of  God  have 
been  greatly  stirred  up,  and  have  been  more  instant  in  prayer.  And 
many  men  of  the  world  have  been  greatly  awakened,  and  continue  so  to 

'  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xiii.,  p.  117.  2  ]\i^nyscript  diary. 


Age  76 


288  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1779  this  day.  Most  of  those  who  have  the  fullest  intercourse  with  God  believe 
our  enemies  will  never  be  permitted  to  land  in  England.  And,  indeed,  God 
has  already  given  abundant  proof  of  His  hearing  prayer:  first,  in  their  not 
landing  at  Plymouth,  where  they  stayed  gaping  and  staring  for  eight-and- 
forty  hours,  while  they  might  with  all  ease  have  destroyed  both  the  dock 
and  the  town  ;  secondly,  in  the  malignant  fever  which  has  broken  out  in 
their  fleet,  and  already  destroyed  several  thousands  of  men." ' 

Infidelity  will  sneer  at  this ;  but  religion,  recognising  a 
ruling  Providence,  will  reverentially  bow  its  head.  The  crisis 
was  terrible.  Sixty-eight  French  and  Spanish  ships  of  the 
line,  and  many  frigates  and  smaller  vessels,  all  commanded  by 
D'Orvilliers,  appeared  off  Plymouth.  The  British  fleet  did 
not  exceed  thirty-eight  sail  of  the  line,  and  was  absent  at  sea, 
under  the  command  of  Admiral  Hardy.  Where  was  the  diffi- 
culty of  seizing  Plymouth.'  Wesley  writes:  "They  might 
have  entered  it  with  perfect  ease.  The  wind  was  fair ;  there 
was  no  fleet  to  oppose  them ;  there  was  scarce  any  garrison, 
and  the  few  men  that  were  there  had  no  wadding  at  all,  and 
but  two  rounds  of  powder ;  and  only  two  of  the  cannon  were 
mounted."  And  yet  the  combined  fleet,  nearly  twice  the  size 
of  Hardy's,  contented  itself  with  a  pompous  parade  in  front  of 
the  unprotected  town.  No  wonder  that  Wesley,  with  grateful 
exultation,  preached  from  texts  like  the  one  he  took  at  New- 
castle :  "  The  Lord  sitteth  above  the  waterfloods ;  the  Lord 
reigneth  a  king  for  ever." 

Before  we  track  Wesley's  wanderings  in  1779,  there  is 
another  matter  which  deserves  mention.  On  the  30th  of 
May,  1778,  Voltaire  died  in  Paris,  in  the  eighty-fifth  year  of 
his  age.  His  death  was  what  the  death  of  an  arch  infidel 
might  be  expected  to  be.  The  subjoined  anecdote  respect- 
ing it  has  long  been  widely  published,  but,  perhaps,  never 
so  nearly  traced  to  its  source  as  now.  Wesley  had  been 
informed  that  one  of  the  chaplains  of  George  HL  was  about 
to  publish  Voltaire's  pernicious  works  in  a  collected  form; 
and,  in  a  fit  of  godly  indignation,  he  wrote  the  following 
unpublished  letter. 

"  yanuary  4,  1779. 
"  Sir, — In  September  last,  a  gentleman,  near  Bristol,  showed  me  a 
letter,  which  he  had  received  from  the  Rev.  Mr.  Fletcher,  at  Paris.     I 

1  Manuscript  letter. 


William  Shent.  289 


Age  76 


desired  him  to  give  a  transcript  of  one  part  of  it,  which  he  immediately       1  779 
did.     It  was  as  follows: 

"  'Mr.  Voltaire  sent  for  Monsieur  Tronclils,  first  physician  to  the  Duke 
of  Orleans,  (one  of  his  converts  to  infidelity,)  and  said  to  him,  "  Sir,  1 
desire  you  will  save  my  life.  I  will  give  you  half  my  fortune,  if  you  wxW. 
lengthen  out  my  days  only  six  months.  If  not,  I  shall  go  to  the  devil, 
and  carry  you  with  me." ' 

"This  is  the  man  to  whom  a  crowned  head  pays  such  a  violent  com- 
pliment !  Nay,  this  is  the  man  whose  works  are  now  publishing  by  a 
divine  of  our  own  Church ;  yea,  a  chaplain  to  his  majesty.  Pity  but 
the  king  should  know  it.  If  the  publisher  of  that  poor  wretch's  works 
writes  a  panegyric  upon  him  or  them,  I  shall  think  it  my  duty  to  show 
the  real  value  of  those  writings. 

"  I  am,  sir,  your  humble  servant, 

J.  Wesley." 

No  man  was  a  more  determined  opponent  of  evil  than 
Wesley  was;  and,  at  the  same  time,  no  man  was  a  more 
faithful  friend.  The  following  is  illustrative  of  this.  The 
Methodists  know  something,  and  might  be  told  a  great  deal 
more,  respecting  William  Shent,  the  Methodist  barber  of  the 
town  of  Leeds.  Poor  William  w'as  now  in  not  undeserved 
embarrassment ;  his  friends  forsook  him  ;  but  not  so  Wesley. 
Hence  the  following,  hitherto  unpublished,  letter  to  the 
Methodist  society  in  Keighley. 

"London,  January  ii,  1779. 

"  I  HAVE  a  few  questions,  which  I  desire  may  be  proposed  to  the  society 
at  Keighley. 

"  Who  was  the  occasion  of  the  Methodist  preachers  first  setting  foot  in 
Leeds  ?    William  Shent. 

"  Who  received  John  Nelson  into  his  house  at  his  first  coming  thither? 
William  Shent. 

"Who  was  it  that  invited  me,  and  received  me  when  I  came?  William 
Shent. 

"  Who  was  it  that  stood  by  me  while  I  preached  in  the  street  with 
stones  flying  on  every  side  ?    William  Shent. 

"  Who  w^as  it  that  bore  the  storm  of  persecution  for  the  whole  town,  and 
stemmed  it  at  the  peril  of  his  life  ?    William  Shent. 

"  Whose  word  did  God  bless  for  many  years  in  an  eminent  manner  ? 
William  Shent's. 

"  By  whom  were  many  children  now  in  paradise  begotten  in  the  Lord, 
and  many  now  alive  ?     William  Shent. 

"Who  is  he  that  is  ready  now  to  be  broken  up,  and  turned  into  the 
street?    William  Shent. 

"And  does  nobody  care  for  this?  William  Shent  fell  into  sin,  and 
was  publicly  expelled  the  society  ;  but  must  he  be  also  starved  ?  Must  he 
VOL.  III.  U 


290  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1779      with  his  grey   hairs   and   all  his  children  be  without  a  place  to  lay  his 

-    head  ?     Can  you  suffer  this  ?     Oh,  tell  it  not  in   Gath  !     Where  is  grati- 

tude?  Where  is  compassion?  Where  is  Christianity?  Where  is 
humanity  ?  Where  is  concern  for  the  cause  of  God  ?  Who  is  a  wise 
man  among  you  ?  Who  is  concerned  for  the  gospel  ?  Who  has  put  on 
bowels  of  mercy  ?  Let  him  arise  and  exert  himself  in  this  matter.  You 
here  all  arise  as  one  man,  and  roll  away  the  reproach.  Let  us  set  him  on 
his  feet  once  more.  It  may  save  both  him  and  his  family.  But  what  we 
do,  let  it  be  done  quickly. 

"  I  am,  dear  brethren,  your  affectionate  brother, 

"John  Wesley." 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  track  the  steps  of  Wesley  through- 
out the  Avhole  of  a  journey  which  occupied  the  next  five 
months.  He  opened  the  new  chapel  at  Bath,  of  which  more 
must  be  said  shortly.  On  Friday,  March  19,  he  preached  in 
Bengcworth  church  at  noon  ;  and,  at  six,  in  the  church  at 
Pebworth.  At  West  Bromwich,  during  a  terrific  storm  of 
wind  and  hail;,  he  addressed  a  congregation  in  the  open  air. 
At  Madeley,  he  preached  in  the  new  chapel,  built  by  his 
friend  Fletcher,  in  Madeley  Wood.  He  opened  a  new  chapel 
at  Davyhulme,  Manchester.  He  also  paid  his  first  visit  to 
Oldham,  where  he  says:  "  I  had  such  a  congregation  as  I  have 
not  seen  since  I  was  in  the  Cornish  amphitheatre.  And  all, 
beside  a  few  giddy  children,  were  seriously  attentive." 

This  was  a  great  improvement  in  the  manners  of  the  Old- 
ham people.  When  Matthew  Mayer  commenced  preaching 
here  in  1763,  he  asked  a  man  to  allow  him  to  stand  before 
his  door.  "  No,"  replied  the  Lancashire  savage  ;  and  then  he 
swore  that,  if  Mayer  attempted  to  gather  a  congregation  there, 
he  would  cleave  his  skull.  Having  removed  to  the  door  of 
Jonathan  Mabbot's,  in  George  Street,  Mayer  mounted  a  stool ; 
but  he  had  no  sooner  sung  and  prayed,  than  the  mob,  led  on 
by  churchwardens  and  constables,  surrounded  him.  "  By  what 
authority  do  you  come  hither .'' "  asked  the  Oldham  function- 
aries. "  By  what  authority  do  you  ask  me }  "  replied  Mr. 
Mayer.  "Pull  him  down,  pull  him  down!"  cried  the  mob  ; 
and  then  one  of  the  constables  upset  the  preacher's  stool;  and 
the  zealous  guardians  of  the  Church  shouted,  "  We  want  none 
of  your  preaching  here."  On  the  Sunday  following,  while 
Mayer  was  preaching,  the  mob  amused  themselves  by  thrust- 
ing pins  into  the  legs  and  arms  of  serious  hearers;  and,  on  the 


Methodism  at  Oldham,  etc.  291 


Sunday  after  that,  a  brute  was  hired  for  threepence  halfpenny  1779 
to  strip  himself  stark  naked,  and  rush  into  the  midst  of  Age~76 
Mayer's  congregation.  On  another  occasion,  John  Murhn  was 
dragged  from  his  horseblock  pulpit,  and  was  thrown  into  a 
dungeon  ;  and,  on  another,  James  Hall  was  honoured  with 
the  presence  not  only  of  the  constables,  churchwardens,  and 
Oldham  mob,  but  also  of  a  huntsman  and  his  hounds.  The 
churchwardens  raved;  the  constables  brandished  their  official 
staves  ;  the  mob  bawled ;  the  dogs  barked ;  and  the  huntsman 
blew  his  horn  with  such  vehemence  that  Mr.  Hall  found  it 
impossible  to  preach,  but,  for  an  hour  and  a  half,  continued 
to  sing  and  pray.^ 

Leaving  Oldham,  Wesley  proceeded  to  Northwich  and 
other  places  in  Cheshire;  then  to  Warrington,  Liverpool, 
Bolton,  Rochdale,  Bacup,  and  Padiham.  He  writes:  "April 
13 — At  one  o'clock,  I  preached  in  the  shell  of  the  house  at 
Padiham,  where  there  is  at  length  a  prospect  of  peace,  after 
abundance  of  disturbance,  caused  by  one  who  neither  fears 
God  nor  reverences  man." 

The  chapel  referred  to,  in  this  extract,  was  erected  in  the 
midst  of  the  most  determined  opposition.  What  was  built 
during  the  day  was  frequently  demolished  during  the  night; 
and  it  became  necessary  to  appoint  nocturnal  watchers  to 
guard  the  premises.  At  length,  the  building  was  completed, 
and  had,  in  the  front  wall,  a  stone  with  a  sun  dial,  serving  for 
a  clock,  and  round  about  it  an  inscription,  which,  to  future 
generations,  was  a  memento  of  bygone  troubles  :  "  They 
thrust  sore  at  me  that  I  might  fall;  but  the  Lord  hath  helped 
me,  and  taken  part  against  them  that  hated  me." 

From  Padiham,  Wesley  went  to  Todmorden,  Heptonstall, 
Ewood,  and  Halifax.  He  writes:  "April  15 — I  went  to 
Halifax,  where  a  little  thing  had  lately  occasioned  great  dis- 
turbance. An  angel  blowing  a  trumpet  was  placed  on  the 
sounding  board  over  the  pulpit.  Many  were  vehemently 
against  this  ;  others  as  vehemently  for  it :  but  a  total  end  was 
soon  put  to  the  contest,  for  the  angel  vanished  away." 

"Behold  how  great  a  matter  a  little  fire  kindleth !" 
Several  of  the  Halifax  Methodists,  thinking  that  the  sounding 

1  Manuscripts. 


292  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1779  board  would  be  improved  by  some  sort  of  ornament,  opened  a 
A£e76  subscription  for  that  purpose,  and,  a  fortnight  before  Wesley's 
visit,  procured  the  celestial  trumpeter  which  Wesley  mentions. 
John  Murlin,  one  of  the  preachers,  determined  not  to  preach 
under  the  angel's  expanded  wings.  Discussion  sprung  up,  in 
the  midst  of  which  Wesley  came.  The  leaders  were  sum- 
moned ;  a  hot  discussion  followed  ;  and  the  votes,  for  and 
against  the  angel,  were  equal.  Just  at  this  juncture,  John 
Hatton,  of  Lightclifife,  entered,  and  gave  a  vote  for  the  angel's 
removal.  Immediately,  the  carved  image  was  taken  down  ; 
John  jNIurlin  hewed  it  in  pieces  ;  and,  before  midnight,  it  was 
burnt  in  the  chapel  yard.  Great  was  the  consternation  of 
these  simple  Methodists,  when,  at  the  five  o'clock  preaching, 
next  morning,  they  found  their  pet  angel  had  vanished. 
Quarrelling  ensued  ;  and  several  influential  members,  in 
angelic  indignation,  left  the  society  which  had  destroyed  the 
angelic  ornament,  and,  in  some  instances,  remained  to  the  end 
of  life  unconnected  with  any  church  whatever.^ 

Proceeding  to  Haworth,  Wesley  preached,  in  the  morning, 
in  the  church  ;  but,  in  the  afternoon,  "  thousands  upon  thou- 
sands being  gathered  together,"  he  was  obliged  to  take  his 
stand  in  the  churchyard.  The  next  day, — Monday,  April  19, 
— he  preached  in  the  church  at  Bingley  ;  and  then  went  to 
Otley.  "  On  April  24,"  Thomas  Taylor  writes,  "  I  met  Mr. 
Wesley  at  Cross  Hall,  and  found  the  old  apostle  as  hearty  and 
lively  as  ever.  The  conversation  at  table  was  such  as  became 
our  religious  profession.  There  were  present  two  pious  clergy- 
men, two  of  my  brethren,  and  several  serious  women.  On 
Sunday,  April  25,  I  went  with  Mr.  Wesley  to  Birstal  church, 
after  which  he  preached  to,  I  think,  the  largest  congregation  I 
have  ever  seen  in  any  place."^ 

At  Huddersfield,  Wesley  found  a  great  revival  of  the  work 
of  God,  sometimes  "  sixteen,  eighteen,  yea,  twenty,"  being 
converted  in  a  day.  At  Leeds,  Dr.  Kershaw,  the  vicar, 
desired  him  to  assist  at  the  sacrament.  Ten  clergymen 
were  present,  and  seven  or  eight  hundred  communicants. 
At  Darlington,  he  found  some  of  the  liveliest   Methodists  in 


'  "  History  of  Methodism  in  Halifax." 
^  Manuscript  diary. 


Mei/iodisiJi  at  Inverness.  293 

the  north  of  England.     He  preached  in  the  market  place,  and      ^779 
all  behaved  well,  except  a  party  of  the  Queen's  Dragoons.     Age  76 
At  Barnard  Castle,  the  Durham  militia  were  assembled, — the 
handsomest  body    of   soldiers  he  had  ever    seen,  except  in 
Ireland  ;  and  all,  officers  and  soldiers,  came  to  hear  him,  and 
were  a  pattern  to  the  whole  congregation. 

He  now  made  his  way  to  Newcastle,  and  thence  to  Scot- 
land, where  he  travelled  as  far  north  as  Inverness.  He  writes  : 
"  June  8 — I  reached  Inverness,  but  found  a  new  face  of  things 
there.  Good  Mr.  Mackenzie  had  been,  for  some  years, 
removed  to  Abraham's  bosom.  Mr.  Fraser,  his  colleague,  a 
pious  man,  of  the  old  stamp,  was  likewise  gone  to  rest.  The 
three  present  ministers  are  of  another  kind  ;  so  that  I  have 
no  more  place  in  the  kirk  ;  and  the  wind  and  rain  would  not 
permit  me  to  preach  on  the  green.  However,  our  house  was 
large,  though  gloomy  enough.  Being  now  informed,  (which 
I  did  not  suspect  before,)  that  the  town  was  uncommonly 
given  to  drunkenness,  I  used  the  utmost  plainness  of  speech  ; 
and  I  believe  not  without  effect.  I  then  spent  some  time 
with  the  society,  increased  from  twelve  to  between  fifty  and 
sixty  ■}  many  of  these  knew  in  whom  they  had  believed  ;  so 
that  all  the  pains  which  have  been  taken  to  stop  the  work  of 
God  here  have  hitherto  been  in  vain." 

A  month  later,  Wesley  wrote  the  following  hitherto  un- 
published letter  to  Mr.  McAUum. 

"Epworth,  Julyio,  1779. 
"Dear  Duncax, — This  is  the  circumstance  which  puzzles  the  case  : 
who  can  preach  in  Erse  but  you  1  Cannot  you  then  think  of  any 
preacher,  whom  you  love,  and  who  is  a  zealous,  active  man  ?  Inverness 
should  by  all  means  be  a  circuit  by  itself,  including  as  many  towns  as 
you  please,  north  and  south.  I  wish  you  would  think  of  it,  and  send  me 
the  plan  to  London. 

"  Did  not  sister  Anderson  receive  my  letter  ?     I  wonder  she  did  not 
answer,     Joseph  Moore  utterly  denies  he  ever  offered  her  marriage.     I 
desired  her  to  tell  me  the  very  words  he  spoke  or  wrote. 
"  I  am,  dear  Duncan,  yours  aftectionately, 

"John  Wesley. 
"  To  Mr.  Duncan  McAllum, 

at  Mr.  John  Watson's,  slater,  Inverness." 

'  How  is  it  that  there  are  not  more  Methodists  in  Inverness  now  than 
there  were  ninety  years  ago,  in  the  days  of  good  old  Duncan  McAUum.? 


294  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 


1779  Wesley    spent    nearly  a  month    in  his    evangelistic    tour 

Age  76  through  Scotland.  Everywhere  he  was  received  with  great 
respect  and  affection  ;  and  he  speaks  of  many  "  times  of 
refreshing  from  the  presence  of  the  Lord."  He  was  intro- 
duced to  several  persons  of  distinction,  and,  among  others,  to 
gossiping  James  Boswell,  who  writes  :  "  Though  I  differed 
from  Mr.  John  Wesley  in  some  points,  I  admired  his  various 
talents,  and  loved  his  pious  zeal.  At  my  request,  therefore, 
Dr.  Johnson  gave  me  a  letter  of  introduction  to  him. 

"  To  the  Rev.  Mr.  John  Wesley. 

"J/.ry.-^,  I779._ 
"Sir, — Mr.  Boswell,  a  gentleman,  who  has  been  long  known  to  me,  is 
desirous  of  being  known  to  you,  and  has  asked  this  recommendation, 
which  I  give  him  with  great  willingness,  because  I  think  it  very  much  to 
be  wished  that  worthy  and  religious  men  should  be  acquainted  with  each 
other. 

'"  I  am,  sir,  your  most  humble  servant, 

"  Sam.  Johnson." 

Boswell  adds,  that  he  presented  the  letter  to  Wesley  at 
Edinburgh,  "  and  was  very  politely  received."^ 

Wesley,  in  returning,  reached  Newcastle  on  June  22,  and 
would  fain  have  rested  in  a  place  to  which  he  was  tenderly 
attached.  He  writes:  "Wednesday,  June  23 — I  rested  here. 
Lovely  place,  and  lovely  company!  But  I  believe  there  is  an- 
other world;  therefore  I  must  'arise  and  go  hence.'"  Accord- 
ingly, next  morning,  he  set  out  for  Stockton  upon  Tees,  and 
preached  all  the  way  along  the  east  coast  of  England  till  he 
came  to  Great  Grimsby.  "Here,"  he  says,  "I  found  a  little 
trial.  \\\  this,  and  many  other  parts  of  the  kingdom,  those  strip- 
lings, who  call  themselves  Lady  Huntingdon's  preachers,  have 
greatly  hindered  the  work  of  God.  They  have  neither  sense, 
courage,  nor  grace,  to  go  and  beat  up  the  devil's  quarters,  in 
any  place  where  Christ  has  not  been  named  ;  but,  wherever 
we  have  entered  as  by  storm,  and  gathered  a  few  souls,  often 
at  the  peril  of  our  lives,  they  creep  in,  and,  by  doubtful  dispu- 
tations, set  every  one's  sword  aginst  his  brother.  One  of  these 
has  just  crept  into  Grimsby,  and  is  striving  to  divide  the  poor 
little  flock  ;  but  I  hope  his  labour  will  be  in  vain,  and  they 
will  still  hold  the  unity  of  the  Spirit  in  the  bond  of  peace." 

^  Boswell's  Life  of  Johnson. 


JMctJiodism  at  Hinckley  and  Coventry.         295 


Having  visited   the  societies   in  Lincolnshire,  Wesley  pro-      1779 
ceeded  to   Doncastcr  and   Sheffield,  and   thence,  by  way  of    a^76 
Derby,    Nottingham,   Leicester,    Hinckley,    and   Coventry,  to 
London,  which  he  reached  on  July  23. 

Wesley  had  not  preached  at  Hinckley  since  the  year  1744. 
What  led  him  to  visit  the  town  now  ?  We  learn,  from  the 
unpublished  autobiography  of  Thomas  Dixon,  who,  at  this 
time,  was  stationed  in  the  Leicestershire  circuit,  that,  just 
before  the  conference  of  1779,  he  attempted  to  introduce 
Methodism  into  Hinckley,  and  not  without  success.  Accord- 
ing to  custom,  he  took  his  stand  in  the  street,  and  began  to 
sing.  The  night  was  wet,  and  his  congregation  was  not  only 
small,  but  seemed  so  apprehensive  of  the  Methodist  appari- 
tion, that,  while  they  listened  to  him,  they  also  kept  at  a  safe 
distance  from  him.  He  preached  again  next  morning  to  a 
congregation  somewhat  larger,  and  then  set  out  for  Tam- 
worth.  This  was  his  first  and  his  last  visit ;  but  a  class  was 
formed  just  after, ^  which,  in  1780,  contributed  nearly  a  pound 
per  quarter  for  the  support  of  the  work  of  God;^  and,  from 
that  time  to  this,  Methodism  has  had  a  place  in  Hinckley, 

Then  as  it  respects  Coventry,  this  was  the  first  sermon 
Wesley  delivered  here.  He  says:  "July  21 — When  I  came 
to  Coventry,  I  found  notice  had  been  given  for  my  preaching 
in  the  park;  but  the  heavy  rain  prevented.  I  sent  to  the 
mayor,  desiring  the  use  of  the  town  hall.  He  refused;  but, 
the  same  day,  gave  the  use  of  it  to  a  dancing  master.  I  then 
went  to  the  women's  market.  Many  soon  gathered  together, 
and  listened  with  all  seriousness.  I  preached  there  again  the 
next  morning,  and  again  in  the  evening." 

As  already  stated,  from  Coventry  Wesley  went  to  London. 
The  entry  in  his  journal  recording  the  journey  is  worthy  of 
quotation.  "I  took  coach  for  London.  I  was  nobly  attended: 
behind  the  coach  were  ten  convicted  felons,  loudly  blasphem- 
ing, and  rattling  their  chains;  by  my  side  sat  a  man  with  a 
loaded  blunderbuss,  and  another  upon  the  coach." 

Before  proceeding  to  notice  the   conference  of  1779,  two 
other  matters  demand  attention. 


^  Methodist  Magazine,  1823,  p.  ']-j-j, 
»  Ibid.  1S56,  p.  234. 


296  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1779  Thomas  Maxfield  seceded  from  Wesley  in  1763;  took  away 
Age~76  with  him  about  two  hundred  members  of  Wesley's  society; 
and  became  the  minister  of  a  separate  and  independent  con- 
gregation.i  Yqx  some  reason,  he  now  wished  to  return  to 
Wesley's  connexion;  but  to  this  Wesley  and  his  brother 
objected.  Hence  the  following  letters,  by  Charles  Wesley, 
the  first  addressed  to  Vincent  Perronet,  the  second  to  Wesley 

himself. 

"  London,  April  20,  1 779. 
"  Reverend  and  dear  Sir, — My  brother  and  I  agreed  not  to  receive 
Mr.  Maxfield  again,  as  a  fellow  labourer,  till  he  acknowledged  his  fault. 
Ought  we  not  to  wait  for  some  word,  of  his  being  sensible  of  his  ingrati- 
tude? Ought  we  to  trust  him,  and  the  people  to  his  care,  without  it  ?  I 
have  not  the  least  spark  of  resentment  towards  Mr.  Maxfield ;  but  to 
dehverup  our  charge  to  him,  unconvinced,  is  to  betray  them. 

"  My  brother's  interest  with  the  bishop  is  great,  (I  believe,)  but  my  son 
Samuel's  is  greater.     Sam  and  the  bishop  are,  Ego  et  rex  mens. 
"  Your  very  affectionate  and  ever  obliged  servant, 

"Charles  Wesley."^ 

"  London,  April  23,  1779. 

"Dear  Brother, — I  still  love  Thomas  Maxfield.  I  see  some  advan- 
tages to  us,  as  well  as  to  him,  from  his  return  to  us,  provided  he  is  first 
convinced.  Receive  him  unconvinced,  and  you  will  have  to  put  him  away 
again,  when  perhaps  it  will  scarce  be  in  your  power.  One  more  trial,  if 
you  please,  we  will  make  upon  him,  in  a  conference  between  us  three. 
Possibly  we  may  gain  our  brother. 

"  I  shall  be  happy  to  hear  you  have  saved  poor  William  Shent.  Hopper 
and  others  will,  I  know,  draw  in  their  horns  while  you  are  talking  with 
them,  and  be  perhaps  convinced  for  a  short  time.  Give  them  back  their 
first  love,  and  their  first  poverty,  and  they  will  not  even  wish  to  reign  with- 
out us.  Peter  Jaco,  John  Atlay,  and  John  Pawson,  might,  I  hope,  be  set 
right  by  a  friendly  conference  with  us.  They  then  would  strengthen  their 
brethren,  or  recover  them. 

"Your  defect  of  mistrust  needs  my  excess  to  guard  it.     You  cannot  be 

taken  by  storm,  but  may  by  surprise.     We  seem  designed  for  each  other. 

If  we  could  and  would  be  more  together,  it  might  be  better  for  both.  That 

I  shall  go  first,  I  cannot  doubt.    The  extraordinary  strength,  continued  to 

you,  is  a  promise  of  your  longer  continuance.     My  strength  and  my  work 

are  very  near  their  end. 

"Charles  Wesley." ^ 

The  above  letter  refers  to  another  matter  besides  that  of 
the  return   of  Thomas   Maxfield.     Charles  Wesley  was  still 

^  Atmore's  "  Methodist  Memorial." 
2  Methodist  Magazine,  1826,  p.  244.  ^  Ibid.  1789,  p.  388. 


Lo7idon  Difficidties.  297 

jealous  of  the  preachers  aspiring  after  power,  and  especially  ^779 
of  Christopher  Hopper  and  his  friends.  He  seems  to  have  Age  76 
thought,  that  John  Atla}^  who  was  now  the  book  steward  in 
London,  and  John  Pawson,  who  was  the  London  assistant, 
and  Peter  Jaco,  who  was  a  London  supernumerary,  "might  be 
set  right  by  a  friendly  conference";  but  of  the  other  London 
preachers,  including  Thomas  Rankin  and  Thomas  Coke,  he 
was  in  doubt.  He  properly  enough  gives  himself  credit  for 
an  excess  of  caution ;  but,  perhaps  wrongly,  thinks  his  brother 
had  not  enough  of  it. 

This  was  another  important  crisis  in  the  history  of  the  two 
Wesleys.  It  was  only  a  few  months  before,  that  City  Road 
chapel  had  been  opened.  Charles  Wesley,  Thomas  Coke, 
John  Richardson,  and  John  Abraham,  were  its  officiating 
clergymen;  but  John  Pawson,  Thomas  Rankin,  Thomas 
Tennant,  and  Peter  Jaco,  were  itinerant  preachers,  appointed 
by  the  conference  of  1778,  to  the  London  circuit,  of  which 
the  chapel  in  City  Road  was  now  a  part.  What  was  the 
result .''  Jealousies  sprung  up,  indirectly  referred  to  in  the 
above  letter,  but  mentioned  in  greater  detail  in  another  letter 
to  be  presently  inserted.  Before,  however,  that  letter  is  in- 
troduced, perhaps  the  following  extracts  from  John  Pawson's 
unpublished  manuscript  memoir  of  Dr,  Whitehead  will  be 
acceptable,  and  will  cast  light  on  Wesley's  difficulties.  Mr. 
Pawson  writes: 

"  I  was  perhaps  as  well  acquainted  with  the  two  brothers  as  any  man 
now  living.  That  Mr.  Charles  Wesley  was  of  a  very  suspicious  temper  is 
certainly  true ;  and  that  Mr.  John  Wesley  had  far  more  charity,  in  judging 
of  persons  in  general,  (except  the  rich  and  great,)  than  his  brother  had,  is 
equally  true.  But  that  he  was  so  apt  to  be  taken  in  with  appearances  is 
not  true.  He  was  v.ell  able  to  form  a  judgment  of  particular  persons, 
and  was  as  seldom  mistaken  as  his  brother.  I  once  heard  him  pleasantly 
say: 'My  brother  suspects  everybody,  and  he  is  continually  imposed 
upon;  but  I  suspect  nobody,  and  I  am  never  imposed  upon.'  It  is  well 
known  that  Mr.  Charles  Wesley  was  much  prejudiced  in  favour  of  the 
clergy,  through  the  whole  course  of  his  life,  and  that  it  was  nothing  but 
hard  necessity  that  obliged  him,  in  any  degree,  to  continue  the  lay 
preachers.  He  must  have  been  blind  indeed  not  to  have  seen,  that  God 
had  given  to  many  of  them,  at  least,  very  considerable  ministerial  gifts, 
and  that  He  attended  their  labours  with  great  success  ;  but  I  am  well 
persuaded,  that,  could  he  have  found  a  sufficient  number  of  clergymen  to 
have  carried  on  the  work  of  God,  he  would  soon  have  disowned  all  the 


298  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

lyyo      lay  preachers.     He  was  glad  of  their  assistance  when  he  did  not  choose 

to  preach  himself;  and,  accordingly,   on  a  Sunday  evening,  he  would 

S^  '  always  have  a  lay  preacher  appointed  as  well  as  himself,  lest  a  shower  of 
rain,  or  an  agreeable  visit,  should  prevent  his  attendiiig.  At  a  conference 
held  in  Bristol  many  years  ago,  about  a  dozen  clergymen  attended  for  the 
purpose  of  convincing  us,  that  we  ought  not  to  preach  in  any  parish  that 
was  favoured  with  a  gospel  minister.  Mr.  Charles  Wesley  took  part  with 
them,  and  said, 'If  I  was  stationed  in  any  particular  parish,  you  should 
not  preach  there.'  INIr.  John  Hampson  replied,  '  I  would  preach  there, 
and  never  ask  your  leave  ;  and  I  should  think  I  had  as  good  a  right  for 
doing  so,  as  you  had.'  Mr.  Charles  answered  in  great  anger,  'You  are  a 
grievous  wolf:  you  will  tear  the  flock  when  my  brother  and  myself  are 
dead,  unless  God  give  you  repentance.'  Mr.  Charles  was  inclined  to  find 
out  and  magnify  any  supposed  fault  in  the  lay  preachers  ;  but  his  brother 
treated  them  with  respect,  and  exercised  a  fatherly  care  over  them.  I  am 
persuaded  that,  from  the  creation  of  the  world,  there  never  existed  a  body 
of  men  who  looked  up  to  any  single  person  with  a  more  profound  degree 
ofreverer.ee  than  the  preachers  did  to  Mr.  Wesley;  and  I  am  bold  to  say, 
that  never  did  any  man,  no,  not  St.  Paul  himself,  possess  so  high  a  degree 
of  power  over  so  large  a  body  of  men  as  was  possessed  by  him.  He  used 
his  power,  however,  for  the  edification  of  the  people,  and  abused  it  as 
little  perhaps  as  any  one  man  ever  did.  When  any  difficulty  occurred  in 
governing  the  preachers,  it  soon  vanished.  The  oldest,  the  very  best, 
and  those  of  them  that  had  the  greatest  influence,  were  ever  ready  to 
unite  with  him,  and  to  assist  him  to  the  utmost  of  their  power.  The 
truth  is,  if  the  preachers  were  in  any  danger  at  all,  it  was  of  calling  Mr. 
Wesley  '  Rabbi/  and  implicitly  obeying  him  in  whatsoever  he  thought 
proper  to  command. 

"Dr.  Whitehead  informs  his  readers,  that  a  party  existed  among  the 
preachers,  who  wished  for  a  total  separation  from  the  Established  Church, 
and  for  the  Methodists  to  be  formed  into  an  independent  body  ;  and 
represents  Dr.  Coke  as  being  at  the  head  of  that  party.  I  am  well  assured, 
that  this  is  incorrect.  The  preachers  only  wished,  that  the  people,  who 
had  grown  weary  of  seeking  the  living  among  the  dead,  and  of  asking 
bread  of  those  who  they  well  knew  had  only  a  stone  to  give  them,  might 
be  indulged  with  the  lively  ordinances  of  God  ;  and  some  of  the  people 
thought  it  very  unjust,  not  to  say  cruel,  that  their  ministers  did  not  grant 
them  the  privilege  of  worshipping  God  at  those  particular  times  of  the 
Lord's  day,  when  both  body  and  mind  were  best  prepared  for  so  doing. 
It  is  true,  that  a  party  existed,  both  among  the  preachers  and  people,  who 
were  inclined  to  believe,  that  those  whom  God  had  called  to  preach  might 
lawfully  administer  the  sacraments  ;  as  they  were  not  able  to  perceive 
that  it  required  a  greater  degree  of  wisdom  and  piety  to  qualify  a  person 
to  baptize  a  child  than  to  preach  the  word  of  God.  They  likewise  had 
scruples  whether  it  was  right  to  wish  those  ministers  God  speed,  by 
attending  their  ministry,  whom,  they  felt  convinced,  God  had  never  sent. 
But,  at  the  same  time,  the  preachers  knew,  that  there  never  was  among 
themselves   a   sufficient  number   of  acceptable   men   to  supply   all   the 


Age  76 


London  Difficulties.  299 

Methodist  congregations  ;  and  that,  if  there  had  been,  and  if  an  entire      1779 
separation  from  the  Church  had  taken  place,  the  Methodists  were  too 
poor  to  support  such  a  multitude  of  ministers.     Common  prudence,  there- 
fore, prevented  them  from  wishing  for  that  which  they  knew  could  not  be 
accomplished." 

These  are  important  statements,  coming  from  a  man  of 
Mr.  Pawson's  ministerial  standing,  and  who  was  one  of 
Wesley's  itinerant  preachers  during  the  last  twenty-nine 
years  of  Wesley's  life.  They  could  be  easily  extended  ;  but, 
perhaps,  enough  has  been  said,  to  show  that  the  feeling, 
between  Charles  Wesley  and  the  preachers,  was  not  of  the 
most  friendly  kind  ;  and  this  will  prepare  the  reader  for  the 
following  letter,  which  Charles,  at  this  period,  addressed  to 
his  brother. 

"  London,  June  16,  1779. 

"Dear  Brother, — Mr.  B.  has  been  lately  with  the  committee,  and 
was  there  informed,  that  our  preachers  (the  three  principal ')  have  written 
to  the  country  preachers  heavy  complaints  of  their  ill  usage  by  the  clergy 
here  ;  not,  I  should  suppose,  by  quiet  John  Richardson, — not  by  passive 
Dr.  Coke,  for  he,  they  say,  is  gone  to  Bristol,  that  he  may  not  be  a  witness 
of  their  cruel  persecutioji.  The  persecuting  clergy,  therefore,  are  neither 
more  nor  less  than  your  own  brother  Charles,  and  the  whole  ground  of 
their  complaint  against  me  is,  'my  serving  the  chapel  on  Sunday  after- 
noon, as  well  as  in  the  morning.' 

"  But  this  is  no  new  grievance  ;  for  I  constantly  preached  Sunday 
morning  and  afternoon  at  Bristol.  If  they  could  exclude  me  here,  they 
would  not  long  permit  me  there. 

'•  My  reasons  for  preaching  at  the  new  chapel  twice  every  Sunday  are  : 
I.  Because,  after  you,  I  have  the  best  right.  2.  Because  I  have  so  short 
a  time  to  preach  anywhere.  3.  Because  I  am  fully  persuaded  I  can  do 
more  good  there  than  in  any  other  place.  They,  I  know,  are  of  a  different 
judgment,  and  make  no  secret  of  it,  declaring  everywhere,  *  that  the  work 
is  stopping  ;  the  society  scattering  ;  and  the  congregation  at  the  new 
chapel  dwindled  away  and  quite  dead.' 

"  I  thank  God,  the  chapel  is  well  filled.  Last  Sunday  I  preached  twice, 
never  with  greater,  and  seldom  with  equal,  effect.  After  sermon,  Mr. 
Rankin  followed  me  to  the  vestry  to  assure  me,  '  he  had  never  spoken 
disrespectfully  of  us,  and  that  he  was  a  great  friend  to  the  Church.'  At 
the  same  time,  a  gentlewoman  came,  filled  with  faith  and  love  by  the  word 
just  spoken.  I  turned  aside  to  let  Mr.  Rankin  examine  her.  She  said 
that,  a  month  ago,  she  w^as  brought  up  out  of  the  pit  of  despair,  under  my 


^  These  were  Pawson,  Rankin,  and  Jaco.  The  committee  consisted  of 
gentlemen  appointed  to  manage  the  business  of  City  Road  chapel. — • 
(Pawson's  manuscript.) 


300  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

"i^ll^      word.     He  repeated  his  inquiries,  and  she  her  answers,  to  his  satisfaction 
.  "T^nfi     shall  I  say,  or  dissatisfaction  ?     I  would  hope  the  former.     You  will  inquire 
when  here  (only  not  of  the  preachers),  and  judge  for  yourself  whether  my 
persevering  ministry  at  the  chapel  has  done  good  or  hurt. 

"  I  think  the  preachers  wrong,  and  in  the  greatest  danger  through  pride ; 
but  I  have,  and  will  have,  no  quarrel  with  them.  Mr.  Kemp  proposed  to 
carry  me  to  meet  you  on  the  last  day's  journey,  or  I  should  not  have 
thought  of  it.  I  do  not  want  to  have  the  first  word.  Let  them  have  the 
first  and  last.  I  do  not  want  to  interfere  in  that  government  of  yours,  or 
to  appear  at  all  at  the  congress.  A  word  of  yours  might  turn  the  scale, 
and  send  me  directly  to  Bristol. 

"  It  is  just  come  into  my  mind,  *  The  lay  preachers  affect  to  beUeve  I 
act  as  a  clergyman  in  opposition  to  them.'  To  me,  it  seems  that  I  act  as 
I  do,  in  goodwill  to  them,  as  well  as  to  the  people.  If  there  was  no  man 
above  them,  what  would  become  of  them  ?  How  would  they  tear  one 
another  in  pieces  !  Convince  them,  if  you  can,  that  they  want  a  clergyman 
over  them,  to  keep  them  and  the  flock  together.  Convince  them,  that  it  is 
impossible  I  should  stand  in  their  way  long,  for  I  cannot  (should  I  live  to 
the  winter)  serve  the  new  chapel  Sundays  and  holydays  in  all  weathers. 
Persuade  each  of  them  to  be  the  least,  not  the  greatest ;  and  then  all  will 
be  right  again.  You  have  no  alternative  but  to  conquer  that  spirit,  or  to 
be  conquered  by  it.  Can  you  think,  I  envy  you  your  pre-eminence  ?  If 
God  continues  my  strength,  I  shall  take  the  best  care  of  the  chapel  till  you 
return.     Then  I  shall  deliver  up  my  charge  to  you,  and  you  alone. 

"  Charles  Wesley."  ^ 

This  peevish  epistle,  published  in  Wesley's  own  Anninian 
Magazine,  will  not  add  to  the  fair  fame  of  Methodism's  great 
hymnist.  It  was  an  unworthy  production  of  a  pen  which 
wrote  hundreds,  in  fact,  thousands,  of  sweet  songs  of  praise. 
John  Pawson — good,  but  gossiping, — and  Thomas  Rankin — 
honest  to  the  heart's  inmost  core,  but  somewhat  obstinate  and 
overbearing, — were  far  from  perfect ;  but  was  it  just  in 
Charles  Wesley  to  write  to  his  brother  respecting  them  in  the 
querulous  tone  in  which  he  did }  Charles  Wesley  says,  the 
City  Road  chapel  was  well  filled ;  Pawson  says,  in  the 
manuscript  memoir  of  Dr.  Whitehead,  that  "  the  congregation 
fell  off  exceedingly  ;  and  that  the  society  was  brought  into 
great  disorder."  Charles  Wesley  was  a  scholar,  and,  as  a 
sacred  poet,  was  without  a  peer  ;  but  we  incline  to  think,  that 
John  Pawson  and  Thomas  Rankin  were  more  popular  and 
powerful  preachers  than  either  he  or  any  other  of  his  City 
Road   clerical  colleagues  ;    and  it  is  not  surprising,  that  the 

'^  Methodist  Magazine,  1789,  p.  441. 


Charles   Wesley. 


people  wished  to  hear  them  on  Sundays  as  well  as  week  days;  i779 
and  that  the  itinerants  themselves, — one  of  whom  was  the  Age  76 
appointed  superintendent  of  the  London  circuit,  and  the  other 
of  whom  had  been  Wesley's  chosen  superintendent  of  the 
whole  of  the  Methodist  societies  in  America, — should  think 
they  had  quite  as  much  right  as  Charles  Wesley,  Thomas 
Coke,  John  Richardson,  or  John  Abraham,  to  preach  to 
Sunday  congregations  in  City  Road.  The  truth  is,  though, 
in  years  past,  Charles  Wesley's  ministry  had  been  exceedingly 
attractive  and  powerful,  it  was  now,  what  shall  we  say  ?  John 
Pawson  writes:  "When  he  was  favoured  with  freedom  of 
mind,  which  was  but  seldom,  then  his  preaching  w^as  truly 
profitable ;  but,  in  general,  it  was  exceedingly  dry  and 
lifeless."  His  sons  Charles  and  Samuel, — the  former  twenty- 
one  years  of  age,  and  the  latter  thirteen, — were,  by  their 
musical  genius,  creating  a  sensation  in  the  highest  circles  of 
London  society  ;  and,  for  several  years,  conducted  in  their 
father's  house  a  series  of  domestic  subscription  concerts, 
of  twelve  nights'  continuance,  in  each  season.  Their  father 
thoroughly  approved  of  this.  "  I  am  clear,"  says  he, 
"  without  a  doubt,  that  my  sons'  concert  is  after  the  will 
and  order  of  Providence."  W^esley  appends  to  this  a  note : 
"  I  am  clear  of  another  mind."  1  Without  staying  to  settle 
the  dispute,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that,  by  these  concerts, 
Charles  Wesley  was  brought  into  the  society  of  a  large  number 
of  the  rich  and  great.  The  simple  minded  London  Methodists 
were  staggered  at  one  of  their  great  leaders  having  such  musical 
performances  in  his  house,  and  at  his  mingling  with  persons, 
who,  though  highly  genteel,  w^ere  not  religious.  Many  began 
to  regard  him  with  suspicion ;  his  preaching  popularity 
was  waning ;  Pawson  says,  "  he  was  like  Samson  shorn 
of  his  strength " ;  his  health  also  w^as  failing ;  like  most 
men  of  high  poetic  genius,  he  was  subject  to  melancholy 
moods  :  put  all  these  things  together,  and  the  petulancy  and 
suspicion  of  Charles  Wesley's  letter  to  his  brother  will  net 
excite  surprise. 

This  then  was  the  state  of  things  awaiting  the  venerable 
Wesley,  on  his  return  to  London,  after  a  laborious  preaching 


^  Methodist  Magazine,  1789,  p.  387. 


302  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1779  tour  of  five  months'  duration.  By  an  almost  superhuman 
Age76  effort,  he  had  built  and  opened  his  new  chapel  in  City 
Road  ;  but  things,  instead  of  being  more  prosperous  than 
ever,  were  in  a  state  of  disastrous  commotion.  In  this,  the 
first  year  after  the  chapel  was  opened,  there  was  a  decrease  of 
one  hundred  and  twenty-three  members  in  the  London  circuit, 
though  that  circuit  had  now  an  unprecedented  staff  of  ordained 
clergymen,  and  four  of  the  best  itinerants  in  Wesley's  con- 
nexion. Ordinary  men  would  have  been  discouraged  and  at 
their  wits'  end  ;  but  not  so  the  man  who  was  born,  not  to  be 
conquered  by  difficulties,  but  to  conquer  them. 

Wesley's  conference  of  1779  was  commenced  on  August  3  ; 
and  it  was  now  ascertained,  that  nineteen  other  circuits  besides 
London  had  a  decrease  of  members.  Wesley  asked,  How 
can  we  account  for  this  "i  The  reasons  assigned  were : — • 
I.  Partly  the  neglect  of  outdoor  preaching,  and  of  trying  new 
places.  2,  Partly  prejudice  against  the  king,  and  speaking 
evil  of  dignities.  3.  But  chiefly  the  increase  of  worldly 
mindedness,  and  conformity  to  the  world.  It  was  also 
resolved,  that  no  one  speaking  evil  of  those  in  authority,  or 
prophesying  evil  to  the  nation,  should  be  a  Methodist  preacher. 
Itinerants  were  reproved  for  hastening  home  to  their  wives 
after  preaching  ;  and  were  told,  they  ought  never  to  do  this 
till  they  had  met  the  society.  To  revive  the  work  in  Scot- 
land, the  preachers  were  directed  to  preach  in  the  open  air  as 
much  as  possible  ;  to  try  every  town  and  village  ;  and  to  visit 
every  member  of  society  at  home. 

As  soon  as  the  conference  was  ended,  Wesley  set  out,  with 
his  brother  and  his  family,  for  Wales,  where  he  spent  a  fort- 
night in  preaching  to  large  and  deeply  affected  congregations. 

He  then  proceeded  to  the  west  of  England.  At  Exeter, 
he  writes  :  "  I  preached  in  a  convenient  room,  lately  a  school ; 
I  suppose  formerly  a  chapel.  It  is  both  neat  and  solemn,  and 
is  believed  to  contain  four  or  five  hundred  people." 

This  was  the  meeting-house  concerning  which  Wesley 
wrote  to  Samuel  Wells,  the  assistant  of  the  Tiverton  circuit, 
as  follows. 

"  London,  January  28,  1 779. 
"Dear    Sammy, — According  to   the   act   of    toleration — i.    You   are 
required  to  certify  to  the  registrar  of  the  bishop's  court,  or  the  justices, 


Alcxande;^  M'Nad.  303 

the  place  of  your  meeting  for  Divine  worship.    This  is  all  you  have  to  do.       ^779 
You  ask  nothing  at  all  of  the  bishop  or  justices.  A'^76 

"  2.  The  registrar,  or  clerk  of  the  court,  is  required  to  register  the 
same,  and  to  give  a  certificate  thereof  to  such  persons  as  shall  demand 
the  same ;  for  which  there  shall  be  no  greater  fee  or  reward  taken  than 
sixpence. 

"  I  advise  you  to  go  once  more  to  the  sessions,  and  say,  '  Gentlemen, 
•u'e  have  had  advice  from  London  ;  we  desire  nothing  at  all  oi  yoic ;  but 
we  demand  of  your  clerk  to  register  this  place,  and  to  give  us  a  certificate 
thereof ;  or  to  answer  the  refusal  at  his  peril.' 

"Answer  no  questions  to  the  justices,  or  lawyers,  but  with  a  bow,  and 
with  repeating  the  words,  '  Our  business  is  only  with  your  clerk  ;  we 
demand  of  him  what  the  act  requires  him  to  do.' 

"  If  you  judge  proper,  you  may  show  this  to  any  of  the  justices.  What 
I  have  written,  I  am  ready  to  defend. 

"  You  have  led  the  justices  into  the  mistake,  by  your  manner  of  address- 
ing them.  Beware  of  this  for  the  time  to  come.  You  have  nothing  to 
ask  of  tJiem. 

"John  Wesley."^ 

On  September  4,  Wesley  returned  to  Bristol,  where  he 
spent  a  month  in  visiting  the  surrounding  societies.  He 
then  made  his  way  to  London,  preaching  at  Devizes,  Win- 
chester, and  Portsmouth.  On  leaving  London,  he  slept,  for 
the  last  time,  in  the  old  Foundery.  He  now,  for  the  first 
time  slept  in  the  house,  in  which  he  afterwards  died,  in  City 
Road. 

On  October  11,  he  began  his  preaching  tour  to  Northamp- 
tonshire; a  week  later  to  Sussex;  and  a  week  later  still  to 
Norfolk.  He  then  commenced  his  annual  examination  of  the 
London  society,  and  writes:  "I  did  not  find  such  an  increase 
as  I  expected.  Nay,  there  was  a  considerable  decrease, 
plainly  owing  to  a  senseless  jealousy  that  had  crept  in 
between  our  preachers." 

This  doubtless  refers  to  the  quarrel  already  mentioned. 
Unfortunately,  the  strife  was  now  extended  to  Bath.  The 
assistant  appointed  at  the  late  conference  to  the  Bristol 
circuit  (of  which  Bath  was  part),  was  Alexander  M'Nab,  a 
native  of  Perthshire,  in  North  Britain,  and  now  in  the  thirty- 
fourth  year  of  his  age.  For  thirteen  years,  he  had  been 
an  itinerant  preacher,   and  had   laboured^  with    considerable 

"^ Melhodist  Magazine,  1825,  p.  456. 


)04  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 


1779  success,  in  the  three  kingdoms.'  Wesley,  writing  to  Lady 
^~g  Maxwell  in  1771,  said:  "Mr.  M'Nab  is  a  sound  and  good 
preacher ;  but  too  warm,  and  impatient  of  contradiction."  ^ 
Thomas  Rutherford,  one  of  his  colleagues,  writes :  "  I  was 
particularly  attached  to  him.  He  was  a  most  amiable, 
sensible  man,  and  an  excellent  preacher.  He  had  the  most 
copious  flow  of  natural,  simple  oratory,  of  any  man  I  ever 
heard.  There  was  an  ease,  beauty,  sweetness,  and  harmony 
in  his  style  and  language,  that  was  at  once  both  striking  and 
pleasing.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Webster  once  said,  '  I  have  heard 
Mr.  Walker,  Mr.  Fordyce,  Dr.  Blair,  etc. ;  but  Mr.  M'Nab  is 
a  greater  orator  than  any  of  them.'  "  ^  At  the  conference  of 
1777,  M'Nab  was  appointed  to  Edinburgh  ;  but  found  the 
chapel  in  such  a  ruinous  condition,  that  he  spent  ^500  in  re- 
pairing it.  For  this  amount  he  was  personally  responsible ; 
and,  in  order  to  extricate  himself,  was  requested,  by  the  follow- 
ing conference,  to  visit  the  English  societies  for  the  purpose 
of  asking  assistance.'*  While  on  this  begging  excursion,  he 
wrote  a  letter  to  Robert  Dall,  which  is  inserted  here  to  show 
the  spirit  of  the  man,  and  that  he  wished  for  peace,  notwith- 
standing that  he  was  soon  involved  in  war. 

"Bradford,  April  24,  1779. 
"My  very  dear  Brother, — I  hope  persons  and  things  are  better  at 
Glasgow  then  when  you  went  there.  I  was  grieved  to  hear  of  the  dis- 
union of  the  preachers,  and  that  it  had  hurt  the  people  ;  but  trust  God 
sent  you  to  Glasgow  as  a  cure  for  their  wounds.  In  every  place,  I  find 
the  prosperity  of  the  work,  under  God,  depends,  in  a  great  measure,  upon 
the  piety,  zeal,  and  prudence  of  the  preachers.  Persons  of  that  character 
God  will  honour,  to  build  up  His  church  ;  and  I  need  not  tell  you,  we 
have  need  of  faith  in  doing  and  sufifering  the  Divine  will ;  for,  without  that, 
we  have  not  the  necessary  qualification  to  render  us  either  holy,  happy, 
or  useful  In  my  present  employ,  I  find  both  pleasure  and  pain  ;  but, 
hitherto,  God  has  been  with  me,  and  I  believe  will  never  leave  me. 
Wishing  you  every  blessing,  I  am  your  truly  affectionate  brother, 

"Alex.  M'Nab." s 

Such  was  one  of  the  chief  actors  in  the  scene  at  Bath. 
Another  was  the  Rev.  Edward  Smyth,  who  has  been  already 
mentioned,  and  who  had  brought  his  wife  to  Bath   for  the 

*  Methodist  Magazine,  1 779,  p.  240. 
2  Lady  Maxwell's  Life,  p.  70.  ^  Rutherford's  Life,  p.  94. 

^  Atmore's  "  Methodist  Memorial."  *  Manuscript  letter. 


Disturbance  at   Bath.  305 

benefit  of  her  health.  Wesley  writes:  "God  having  greatly  1779 
blessed  the  labours  of  Mr,  Smyth  in  the  north  of  Ireland,  I  AgejG 
desired  him  to  preach  every  Sunday  evening  in  our  chapel, 
while  he  remained  in  Bath,  But,  as  soon  as  I  was  gone,  Mr, 
M'Nab  vehemently  opposed  this  ;  affirming  it  was  the  com- 
mon cause  of  all  the  lay  preachers  ;  that  they  were  appointed 
by  the  conference,  not  by  me  ;  and  would  not  suffer  the  clergy 
to  ride  over  their  heads,  Mr.  Smyth  in  particular,  of  whom 
he  said  all  manner  of  evil.  Others  warmly  defended  him. 
Hence  the  society  was  torn  in  pieces,  and  thrown  into  the 
utmost  confusion." 

Such  was  the  dispute.  What  was  the  result  .-•  On  No- 
vember 22,  Wesley  and  his  brother  set  out  from  London  to 
settle  the  disturbance.  The  Bath  society  was  assembled, 
Wesley  says  :  "  I  read  to  them  a  paper,  which  I  wrote,  near 
twenty  years  ago,  on  a  like  occasion.  Herein  I  observed, 
that  *  the  rules  of  our  preachers  were  fixed  by  me,  before  any 
conference  existed,'  particularly  the  twelfth  :  '  Above  all,  you 
are  to  preach  when  and  where  I  appoint,'  By  obstinately 
opposing  which  rule,  Mr,  M'Nab  has  made  all  this  uproar. 
In  the  morning,  at  a  meeting  of  the  preachers,  I  informed 
Mr.  M'Nab,  that,  as  he  did  not  agree  to  our  fundamental 
rule,  I  could  not  receive  him  as  one  of  our  preachers,  till  he 
was  of  another  mind,  Wednesday,  November  24,  I  read  the 
same  paper  to  the  society  at  Bristol,  as  I  found  the  flame  had 
spread  thither  also.  A  few  at  Bath  separated  from  us  on  this 
account ;  but  the  rest  were  thoroughly  satisfied," 

Such  is  the  entry  in  Wesley's  journal ;  but  eight  months 
after  this,  he  writes:  "Mr,  M'Nab  quarrelling  with  Mr.  Smyth 
threw  wildfire  among  the  people  at  Bath,  and  occasioned 
anger,  jealousies,  judging  each  other,  backbiting,  and  tale 
bearing  without  end  ;  and,  in  spite  of  all  the  pains  which  have 
been  taken,  the  wound  is  not  healed  to  this  day." 

Wesley  throws  all  the  blame  upon  M'Nab  ;  but  it  may 
fairly  be  doubted  whether  this  was  just.  There  can  be  no 
question  concerning  Wesley's  abstract  right  to  appoint  to  his 
chapels  whom  he  pleased;  but  the  manner  in  which  the  right 
was  exercised  is  not  an  improper  subject  for  doubt  and  discus- 
sion. Wesley  pleads  what  he  did  twenty  years  before;  but, 
even  allowing  that  his  action  then  was  right,  it  remains  to  be 

VOL.  III.  X 


3o6  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

^779  proved,  that  the  same  action,  under  altered  circumstances,  was 
Age  76  prudent  now.  During  that  interval,  the  number  of  Methodists 
and  Methodist  preachers  had  more  than  doubled.  Besides, 
now  that  the  number  of  itinerant  preachers  was  more  than  a 
hundred  and  sixty ;  and  that  many  of  them  were  men  of 
great  genius  and  talent,  as  well  as  piety;  and  that  all  had  a 
right  to  take  part  in  the  deliberations  of  the  annual  confer- 
ence, which  really  made  the  appointments  for  the  ensuing 
year,  Wesley's  claim  to  have  the  sole  and  exclusive  power, 
asserted  in  the  document  read  to  the  Bath  society,  is  a  claim 
which  can  hardly  be  admitted.^  There  is  a  forgetfulness  of 
existing  facts,  and  therefore  a  fallaciousness,  in  the  following 
letter,  written  on  this  subject  a  few  weeks  after  the  Bath  dis- 
turbances occurred. 

"  January,  1 780. 
"  My  dear  Brother, — You  seem  not  to  have  well  considered  the 
Rules  of  a  Helper,  or  the  rise  of  Methodism.  It  pleased  God,  by  me,  to 
awaken,  first  my  brother,  and  then  a  few  others  ;  who  severally  desired 
of  me,  as  a  favour,  that  I  would  direct  them  in  all  things.  After  my  return 
from  Georgia,  many  were  both  awakened  and  converted  to  God.  One, 
and  another,  and  another  of  these  desired  to  join  with  me  as  sons  in  the 
gospel,  to  be  directed  by  me.  I  drew  up  a  few  plain  rules  (observe  there 
was  no  conference  in  being  !),  and  permitted  them  to  join  me  on  these 
conditions.  Whoever,  therefore,  violates  these  conditions,  particularly 
that  of  being  directed  by  me  in  the  work,  docs,  ipso  facto,  disjoin  himself 
from  me.  This  brother  M'Nab  has  done  (but  he  cannot  see  that  he  has 
done  amiss):  and  he  would  have  it  a  common  cause  ;  that  is,  he  would 
have  all  the  preachers  do  the  same.  He  thinks  '  they  have  a  right  so  to 
do.'  So  they  have.  They  have  a  right  to  disjoin  themselves  from 
me  whenever  they  please.  But  they  cannot,  in  the  nature  of  the  thing, 
join  with  me  any  longer  than  they  are  directed  by  me.  And  what,  if 
fifty  of  the  preachers  disjoined  themselves  !  What  should  I  lose  thereby? 
Only  a  great  deal  of  labour  and  care,  which  I  do  not  seek  ;  but  endure, 
because  no  one  else  either  can  or  will. 

"  You  seem  likewise  to  have  quite  a  wrong  idea  of  a  conference.  For 
above  six  years  after  my  return  to  England,  there  was  no  such  thing.  I 
then  desired  some  of  my  preachers  to  meet  me,  in  order  to  advise,  not 
control,  me.     And  you  may  observe,  they  had  no  power  at  all,  but  what 

^Thomas  Taylor,  in  his  manuscript  diary,  remarks:  "  1780,  January 
14 — I  learned,  that  Mr.  M'Nab  is  excluded  the  connexion  ;  but  I  cannot 
learn,  that  he  has  merited  such  treatment.  A  man  who  has  been  a  credit 
to  our  cause,  whose  moral  character  is  unblamable,  and  whose  abilities 
are  considerable,  is  expelled  for  his  integrity  and  uprightness.  Being 
very  uneasy  on  account  of  the  expulsion,  I  wrote  Mr.  Wesley  respect- 
ing it." 


Wesley  s  Right  to  Rule.  307 

I  exercised  through  them.  I  chose  to  exercise  the  power  which  God  had  ^779 
given  me  in  this  manner,  both  to  avoid  ostentation,  and  gently  to  A"e~76 
habituate  the  people  to  obey  them  when  I  should  be  taken  from  their 
head.  But  as  long  as  I  remain  with  them,  the  fundamental  rule  of 
Methodism  remains  inviolate.  As  long  as  any  preacher  joins  with  me, 
he  is  to  be  directed  by  me  in  his  work.  Do  not  you  see  then,  that  brother 
M'Nab,  whatever  his  intentions  might  be,  acted  as  wrong  as  wrong  could 
be  ?  and  that  the  representing  of  this  as  the  common  cause  of  the 
preachers  was  the  way  to  common  destruction,  the  way  to  turn  their 
heads,  and  to  set  them  in  arms  ?  It  was  a  blow  at  the  very  root  of 
Methodism.  I  could  not,  therefore,  do  less  than  I  did  ;  it  was  the  very 
least  that  could  be  done,  for  fear  that  evil  should  spread. 

"  I  do  not  willingly  speak  of  these  things  at  all  ;  but  I  do  it  now  out  of 
necessity;  because  I  perceive  the  mind  of  you,  and  some  others,  is  a  little 
hurt  by  not  seeing  them  in  a  true  light. 

"  I  am,  your  affectionate  brother, 

"John  Wesley." ^ 

This  was  Wesley's  defence  of  the  boldest  act  of  discipline 
he  had  ever  exercised  ;  but  we  still  doubt  its  wisdom  and 
sufficiency.  All  he  says  about  the  preachers  placing"  them- 
selves under  his  direction,  and  about  the  first  conferences,  is 
strictly  true  ;  but  Methodist  matters  now  were  widely  difier- 
ent  from  what  they  were  when  Methodist  conferences  were 
first  begun.  With  all  due  deference  to  Wesley,  Methodism 
now  was  not  wholly  the  work  of  Wesley,  nor  was  it  entirely 
dependent  on  him.  At  this  very  time,  there  was,  among  the 
preachers,  a  ministerial  phalanx,  who  had  a  right  to  be 
something  more  than  mere  advisers, — servants  in  the  gospel, 
sometimes  taken  into  the  counsels  of  their  chief,  but  wholly 
at  his  disposal.  There  were  Olivers,  Pawson,  Rankin,  Murlin, 
Story,  Whatcoat,  Valton,  Benson,  Hanby,  Manners,  Taylor, 
Mather,  Hopper,  Vasey,  Thompson,  Pilmoor,  Rhodes,  Brad- 
burn,  Boardman,  the  two  Hampsons,  Barber,  Rutherford, 
Moore,  Myles,  and  others,  whose  names  will  always  be 
memorable  in  Methodistic  history.  Considering  the  talents, 
the  preaching  power,  the  untiring  labours,  and  the  marvellous 
success  of  these  distinguished  men,  was  it  wise,  and  was  it 
fair,  for  Wesley  to  insist  upon  his  retention  of  the  absolute 
authority  that  he  justly  exercised  when  Methodism  was  first 
commenced  }   Remembering  the  paltry  pittance  they  received 

*  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xiii.,  p.  132. 


3o8  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1779  for  their  important  and  unceasing  toil,  was  it  just,  that,  in  a 
A^76  great  religious  movement,  now  spread  throughout  the  three 
kingdoms,  and  to  which  they  themselves  had  greatly  con- 
tributed, they  should  be  employed  as  mere  ivorkvicn,  without 
the  least  right  to  take  a  part  in  the  arrangement  of  their 
respective  spheres  of  labour,  and  without  a  particle  of 
authority,  except  what  was  implied  in  their  advices,  in  the 
general  legislation  of  a  body  now  numbering  more  than  forty 
thousand  people  ?  Was  it  surprising,  that  Wesley's  expulsion 
of  M'Nab,  for  claiming  a  pulpit  to  which  he  had  been  ap- 
pointed at  the  conference,  but  into  which  Wesley  desired 
to  introduce  an  expelled  Irish  clergyman,  should  create  dis- 
satisfaction and  incipient  rebellion  ? 

There  can  be  no  doubt,  that  this  was  one  of  the  most 
dangerous  ordeals  through  which  Methodism  passed  in  the 
lifetime  of  its  founder.  It  was  hardly  a  fair  statement  of  the 
case,  when  Wesley  said,  that  all  that  he  would  lose,  by  fifty 
of  his  preachers  leaving  him,  would  be  "  a  great  deal  of  labour 
and  care."  If  such  an  event  had  happened,  Methodism  would 
have  been  split  into  fragments,  and,  as  a  system,  would  have 
ceased  to  exist ;  and  Wesley,  seeing  the  demolition  of  such  a 
work,  would  have  been  a  sorrowful  man  for  the  remainder  of 
his  life.  The  crisis,  in  1779,  was  most  momentous.  It  was 
really  the  first  time  that  Wesley's  supreme  and  absolute  power 
.was  professedly  and  openly  resisted.  The  whole  question 
hinges  on  the  point,  were  the  appointments  to  chapels  and 
to  circuits  made  by  Wesley  and  his  conference  of  preachers 
conjointly  ?  or  were  they  made  by  Wesley  himself  alone } 
Wesley  argues,  that  the  power  of  appointment  rested  solely 
with  himself.  We  can  only  answer,  that  this  was  an  unreason- 
able and  dangerous  power  to  wield.  Under  the  circumstances, 
Wesley  could  not  claim  it,  without  ignoring  the  reasonable 
claims  of  a  large  body  of  the  most  remarkable  men  that 
England  has  ever  had  ;  and  he  could  not  exercise  it  with- 
out serious  danger  to  himself  and  to  his  system. 

Alexander  M'Nab,  though  comparatively  young,  was  not 
an  ordinary  man.  Testimonies  concerning  his  character, 
eloquence,  and  preaching  power,  have  been  already  given. 
Mr.  Smyth  was  doubtless  both  sensible  and  pious ;  but  we 
greatly  question  whether  he  was  as  popular  and  powerful  a 


Wesley  s  Right  to  Rule.  309 

preacher  as  the  North  Briton.  No  charge  of  unsound  doc-  17 79 
trine,  or  of  immorahty,  or  of  incompetency,  or  of  inattention  a^^-  76 
to  discipline,  was  made  against  M'Nab.  He  was  faith- 
fully and  successfully  doing  the  work  to  which  he  had 
been  appointed.  He  was  popular  with  the  people.  But 
because  he  refused,  at  Wesley's  bidding,  to  allow  an  Irish 
stranger,  not  at  all  his  superior,  but,  probably,  his  inferior  in 
pulpit  ability,  to  take  his  place,  Wesley,  at  once,  by  his  own 
ipse  dixit,  expelled  him  from  his  connexion  of  preachers. 
However  painful  to  do  it,  we  are  bound  to  maintain  that  this 
was  an  injustice.  The  act  might  be  technically  right ;  but  it 
was  an  almost  popish  assumption  of  autocratic  authority,  and 
a  most  perilous — it  might  have  been  disastrous — exercise  of 
disciplinary  power.  It  is  true  that  no  absolute  rebellion 
followed, — a  fact  showing  the  simple  minded  piety  of  the 
Methodist  preachers  and  people,  and  the  marvellous  influence 
of  Wesley  over  them,  and  their  almost  unparalleled  respect 
for  his  character  and  labours  ;  but  there  were  great  com- 
motions and  serious  misgivings ;  and,  if  concessions  had  not 
been  made,  there  might  have  been  open  resistance,  and  a 
consequent  wreck  of  Methodist  success  and  hope. 

Here,  however,  another  question  occurs.  Was  Wesley 
to  be  solely  or  principally  blamed  for  this  imprudent  exercise 
of  power  .-*  We  have  no  wish  to  shield  him  from  censure, 
when  censure  is  merited  ;  but  if  others  were  to  blame  as  well 
as  he,  or  if  others  were  even  more  blamable  than  he,  it  is 
only  fair  to  his  memory  and  name,  that  the  facts  should  be 
published. 

Charles  Wesley's  quarrel  with  the  London  preachers  has 
been  already  mentioned.  It  occurred  a  few  months  only 
previous  to  the  affair  at  Bath.  There  is  no  denying  it,  that 
Charles  was  violently  opposed  to  lay  preachers,  and  was 
unreasonably  jealous  of  their  intriguing  to  obtain  co-ordinate 
power  with  his  brother,  and  of  their  intention  to  use  such 
power  in  effecting  a  separation  of  Methodism  from  the 
Established  Church.  On  Good  Friday,  1779,  he  wrote  to  his 
brother  :  "The  preachers  do  not  love  the  Church  of  England. 
When  we  are  gone,  a  separation  is  inevitable.  Do  you  not 
wish  to  keep  as  many  good  people  in  the  Church  as  you  can? 
Something  might  be  done  now  to  save  the  remainder,  if  you 


o 


lo  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 


1779     had  resolution,  and  would  stand  by  me  as  firmly  as  I  will  by 
Age  76    you.     Consider  what  you  are  bound  to  do  as  a  clergyman  ; 
and  what  you  do,  do  quickly."  ^ 

It  was  in  such  a  frame  of  mind,  that  Charles  Wesley  heard 
of  M'Nab's  resisting  the  authority  of  his  brother  at  Bath. 
Mr.  Pawson,  who  says  he  was  perfectly  acquainted  with  the 
affair,  tells  us,  in  his  manuscript  memoir  of  Dr.  Whitehead, 
that  Charles  Wesley  "took  fire  at  once,  and  highly  resented 
Mr.  M'Nab's  behaviour.  He  prevailed  upon  his  brother,  after 
much  strife  and  contention,  to  exclude  Mr.  M'Nab  from  the 
connexion  ;  and,  upon  this  condition,  he  promised  to  attend 
him  to  Bath.  Accordingly  the  two  brothers,  accompanied  by 
Dr.  Coke  and  the  Rev.  Mr.  Collins,  went  to  Bath  with  all 
possible  secrecy,  and  the  sentence  was  pronounced  upon  poor 
Mr.  M'Nab  agreeably  to  Mr.  Charles  Wesley's  wish.  By  this 
means,  the  Bath  society  was  divided.  Many  of  the  people 
loved  Mr.  M'Nab,  and  thought  it  wrong  that  he  should  be 
condemned  unheard.  The  society  at  Bristol  also  was  thrown 
into  great  confusion  ;  and,  had  it  not  been  for  the  exertions 
of  Dr.  Coke,  would  have  been  divided  like  that  at  Bath.  On 
the  Sunday  evening  after  Mr.  Wesley's  return  to  London,  he 
brought  the  matter  before  the  London  society,  and  certainly 
degraded  the  preachers,  and  laid  them  low  even  in  the  dust  at 
his  feet.  When  he  was  gone  from  London,  Mr.  Charles,  after 
the  sacrament  at  the  new  chapel,  prayed  for  his  brother  in  the 
following  words  :  *  Lord,  preserve  him  from  his  rebellious  sons. 
Though  they  curse  him,  do  Thou  bless  him.  Though  they 
wish  his  death,  do  Thou  prolong  his  life.  Lord,  stand  between 
the  living  and  the  dead,  and  let  not  the  curse  of  pride  destroy 
them.' " 

This  was  strange  language  to  use,  in  prayer,  and  after  a 
solemn  sacrament ;  but  it  was  not  dissimilar  to  the  language  of 
a  "  Hymn  for  the  Rev.  John  Wesley,"  which  Charles  composed, 
and  which  was  "sung  by  the  society  in  Bristol,  on  Sunday, 
December  5,  1779,"  only  a  fortnight  after  M'Nab's  expulsion. 

"Jesus,  Thy  hated  servant  own, 
And  send  the  glorious  Spirit  down. 
In  answer  to  our  prayers  ; 

'Whitehead's  Life  of  Wesley,  vol.  ii.,  p.  372. 


Charles   Wesley  and  31' Nad.  3 1 1 

While  others  curse,  and  wish  him  dead,  1779 

Do  Thou  Thy  choicest  blessings  shed,  

And  crown  his  hoary  hairs." — etc.,  etc'  ''    ' 

Pawson  was  the  superintendent  of  the  London  circuit,  and 
felt  it  his  duty  to  write  to  Charles  Wesley,  and  remonstrate 
with  him  for  using  such  language,  at  such  a  time,  and  in  such 
a  place.  An  interview  followed  ;  and  Pawson  adds  :  "  We 
came  to  an  explanation,  and  he  was  in  high  good  humour; 
but  I  have  reason  to  believe,  he  never  forgave  me.  He  made 
his  brother  believe,  that  ]\Ir.  M'Nab  was  only  the  tool  of 
a  violent  party  among  the  preachers,  among  whom  there  was 
a  very  powerful  combination  against  his  authority;  and  that,  at 
the  next  conference,  they  would  show  themselves."  Pawson 
adds :  "  There  was  not  a  single  grain  of  truth  in  this.  Not 
one  preacher  in  the  Avhole  connexion  was  concerned  in  the 
business,  save  those  who  were  stationed  in  the  Bristol  circuit. 
It  is  true,  that  the  preachers  in  general  thought  that  ]\Ir. 
M'Nab  was  cruelly  used  ;  and  so  they  do  to  this  day." 

Not  to  return  to  the  subject,  it  may  be  added,  that  Dr. 
Whitehead  states  that,  as  the  conference  of  1780  drew  near, 
Wesley  "  was  evidently  intimidated,"  and  wrote  to  his  brother 
requesting  him  to  attend  the  conference.  Charles  answered 
as  follows : 

"  My  reasons  against  accepting  your  invitation  to  the  conference  are  : 
(i)  I  can  do  no  good  ;  (2)  I  can  prevent  no  evil  ;  (3)  I  am  afraid  of  being 
a  partaker  of  other  men's  sins,  or  of  countenancing  them  by  my  presence  ; 
(4)  I  am  afraid  of  myself;  you  know  I  cannot  command  my  temper,  and 
you  have  not  courage  to  stand  by  me.  I  cannot  imst  your  resolution; 
unless  you  act  with  a  vigour  that  is  not  in  you,  coticlamatuvi  est,  our  affairs 
are  past  hope. 

"  I  am  not  sure,  they  will  not  prevail  upon  you  to  ordain  them.  You 
claim  the/^K/tv,  and  only  say,  '  It  is  not  probable  you  shall  ever  exercise 
it.'  Probability  on  one  side  implies  probability  on  the  other;  and  I  want 
better  security.  So  I  am  to  stand  by,  and  see  the  ruin  of  our  cause  !  You 
know  how  far  you  may  depend  on  me  ;  let  me  know  how  far  I  may 
depend  on  you,  and  on  our  preachers.  In  the  Bath  affair,  you  acted  with 
vigour  for  the  first  time  ;  but  you  could  not  hold  out.  Unmindful  of  your 
power  and  your  infirmity,  you  yielded  to  the  rebel,  instead  of  his  yielding 
to  you.  You  should  not  have  employed  him  again  till  he  had  owned  his 
fault.     This  quite  overturned  my  confidence  in  you,  which  I  should  never 

'  Christian  Miscellany,  1849,  p.  57  ;  and  "  Wesley  Poetry,"  vol.  viii.,  p.  415. 


o 


12  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley, 


Age  76 


■J  779  have  told  you,  had  I  not  been  compelled.  If  you  think  my  advice  can 
be  of  any  use  to  you,  I  will  attend  you  to  Bristol,  and  be  always  within 
call."  1 

Poor  Wesley !  Wishful  to  repair  a  wrong,  he  had  become 
reconciled  to  Mr.  M'Nab,  principally  by  the  mediation  of  Mr. 
Pavvson  and  the  preachers  in  London  ;^  but,  by  this,  he  had 
offended  his  brother,  by  whom  he  had  been  goaded  to  the 
rash  act  at  Bath. 

At  the  conference  of  1780,  M'Nab  was  restored  to  his 
place  among  his  brethren,  and  was  appointed  to  Sheffield. 
Charles  Wesley  was  present,  and,  of  course,  was  exceedingly 
dissatisfied.  About  a  fortnight  after,  he  wrote  the  following 
letter  to  his  brother. 

"  I  did  not  hope,  by  my  presence  at  the  conference,  to  do  any  good,  or 
prevent  any  evil.  So  I  told  you  in  London.  Yet  I  accepted  your  invita- 
tion, only  because  you  desired  it.  And  as  I  came  merely  to  please  you,  I 
resolved  not  to  contradict  your  will  in  anything.  Your  will,  I  perceived, 
was  to  receive  Mr.  M'Nab,  unhumbled,  unconvinced,  into  your  confi- 
dence, and  into  your  bosom.  He  came  uninvited,  and  openly'  accused 
your  curate  for  obeying  your  orders  :  you  suffered  it ;  and  did  not  give 
Mr.  M'Nab  the  gentlest  reproof  for  disobeying  them,  and  drawing  others 
into  his  rebellion  ;  ^nd  endeavouring  to  engage  all  the  preachers  in  it  ; 
making  an  actual  separation  at  Bath,  and  still  keeping  up  his  separate 
society.  My  judgment  was,  never  to  receive  Mr.  M'Nab  as  a  preacher 
////  he  acknowledged  his  fault.  But  I  submitted  and  attended  in 
silence.  It  was  much  easier  for  me  to  say  nothing,  than  to  speak  neither 
more  nor  less  than  you  would  approve.  I  was  sometimes  strongly  tempted 
to  speak ;  but,  if  I  had  opened  my  mouth,  I  should  have  spoiled  all.  Your 
design,  I  believed,  was  to  keep  all  quiet.  I  allow  you  your  merit.  *  Tu 
maximus  ille,  es  units  qui  nobis  CEDENDO  restituis  rem.^  By  a  very  few 
words,  I  could  have  provoked  your  preachers  to  lay  aside  the  mask  ;  but 
that  was  the  very  thing  you  guarded  against;  and,  I  suppose,  the  reason 
for  which  you  desired  my  presence  was  that  I  might  be  some  sort  of  check 
to  the  independents.  Still,  I  think  it  better  for  the  people,  that  they  (the 
preachers)  should  show  themselves  before  your  death  than  after  it.  You 
think  otherwise  ;  and  I  submit.  '  Satis,  jam  satis  spedata  in  te  amicitia 
estmeaj'  and  I  am  perfectly  satisfied  with  my  own  insignificancy.  I  have 
but  one  thing  to  do.     The  Lord  make  me  ready  for  it !"  ^ 

This  was  an  angry  letter  of  a  baffled  man.  It  was  grumbling 
in  private  what  ought  to  have  been  said  in  public,  or  not  to  have 

*  Whitehead's  Life  of  Wesley,  vol.  ii.,  p.  379. 
2  Pawson's  manuscript. 

*  Whitehead's  Life  of  Wesley,  vol.  ii.,  p.  380. 


Charles   Wesley  and  M'Nab.  313 

been  said  at  all.  The  insinuation  respecting  the  preachers  1779 
was  unfounded  and  unworthy.  The  desire  that  M' Nab  should  Age  76 
acknowledge  his  fault  was  unjust,  for  M'Nab  was  really  the 
aggrieved  party.  Charles  Wesley  would  have  driven  the 
preachers  into  rebellion  ;  his  brother,  as  ready  to  repair  an 
injury  as  he  was  anxious  to  avoid  committing  one,  restored 
unanimity  and  confidence.  "  There  was  nothing  at  the  con- 
ference," writes  John  Pawson,  "  but  peace,  harmony,  and  love." 

We  only  add,  that  Mr.  M'Nab's  subsequent  appointments 
were  honourable  both  to  Wesley  and  himself  In  1780,  he 
was  sent  to  Sheffield ;  in  1781  to  Manchester ;  and  in  1782  to 
Newcastle.  He  then  retired,  "  and  resided  for  several  years 
at  Sheffield,  where  he  was  the  pastor  of  a  small  congregation, 
who  highly  esteemed  him  ;  and  there  he  finished  his  course 
about  the  year  1797."  ^ 

]\Ir.  Smyth  went  back  to  Ireland;  but,  in  1782,  became  one 
of  Wesley's  London  curates,  with  a  salary  of  sixty  guineas 
yearly.^  In  1786,  he  was  appointed  minister  of  Bethesda 
chapel,  Dublin ;  ^  where  he  rent  the  Methodist  society,  and 
took  with  him  above  a  hundred  persons,  amongst  whom  were 
the  richer  members  of  the  Dublin  Methodists.*  He  then 
removed  to  Manchester,  where  he  officiated  as  curate  of  St. 
Clement's  and  St.  Luke's  churches.  He  was  the  author  of 
several  publications,  the  chief  of  which  were  : — "  The  Fall 
and  Recovery  of  Man.  A  Poem."  1777:  i2mo,  71  pages. 
"James  Poulson  further  Detected."  1778:  i2mo,  58  pages. 
"Twelve  Sermons  on  the  most  important  Subjects."  '^'j']'^'- 
1 2mo,  254  pages.  "  St.  Paul  against  Calvin."  1809:  i2mo, 
115  pages.  And  "  A  Confutation  of  Calvinism."  1810:  i2mo, 
391  pages. 

Much  space  has  been  occupied  with  the  disturbances  at  Bath ; 
but,  considering  the  importance  of  the  point  at  issue,  the  facts 
connected  with  it  were  too  important  to  be  omitted. 

The  year  1779,  like  most  previous  ones,  was  a  year  of 
trouble.  Besides  the  anxiety  and  vexation  arising  out  of  Mr. 
M'Nab's     affair,    Wesley   was    still    annoyed    with    virulent 


^  Atmore's  "  Methodist  Memorial."  ^  Manuscript 

*•  "  Life  and  Times  of  Lady  Huntingdon,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  202. 

■•  Life  of  John  \'alton,  p.  100. 


3T4  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1779      attacks  from  his  Calvinist  opponents.     His  old  friend,  John 

Age  76     Macgowan,  pubHshed  "  The  Foundry  Budget  Opened;  or,  the 

Arcanum    of    Wesleyanism    Disclosed."       The    animus    of 

Macgowan's   pamphlet    may  be  inferred  from  his  motto  on 

the  title  page : 

"  A  man  so  various,  that  lie  seemed  to  ba 
Not  one,  but  all  mankind's  epitome ; 
Stiff  in  opinions,  always  in  the  wrong  ; 
Was  everything  by  starts,  but  nothing  long." 

He  tells  his  readers,  that  "  for  craft  and  cunning  sophistry, 
he  will  match  the  Rev.  Mr.  John  Wesley  against  any  man 
that  ever  stained  paper  with  pollution "  ;  and  throughout 
speaks  of  him  in  the  most  contemptuous  terms. 

Of  course,  this  was  too  savoury  a  production  to  pass  un- 
noticed by  the  Gospel  Magazine.  Wesley  is  accused,  in  the 
review  of  it,  with  using  "  absurd,  unscriptural  jargon  and 
contradictions  "  ;  and  with  "  robbing  Father,  Son,  and  Spirit, 
of  their  glory  as  a  covenant  God  ;  and  exalting  the  sinful, 
proud  nature  of  fallen  man  ;  and  militating  against  the  whole 
tenor  of  Scripture,  and  of  reformed  Christianity,  as  professed 
by  all  protestant  churches." 

Another  hostile  publication  Avas  "  Methodism  and  Popery 
dissected  and  compared  ;  and  the  Doctrines  of  both  proved 
to  be  derived  from  a  Papal  Origin."  Besides  attacking  White- 
field,  Rowland  Hill,  and  others,  the  anonymous  author  of  this 
scurrilous  pamphlet  learnedly  remarks,  that  "  it  would  be 
less  difficult  to  paint  Proteus,  in  all  his  fabled  shapes,  under 
one  distinct  figure,  than  to  describe  Wesley "  ;  whom  he  is 
pleased  to  honour  with  epithets  like  the  following :  "  a 
living  monument  of  apostolic  frenzy";  "Jesuit";  "rank 
Catholic;"  "actor";  and  "anabaptist." 

This  was  far  from  being  pleasant ;  but  Wesley  was  used  to 
it ;  and  his  character  was  too  well  establfshed  to  need  defence 
from  such  slanderous  attacks.  It  may  be  doubted  whether  he 
took  the  trouble  to  read  a  tithe  of  the  malignant  diatribes 
launched  against  him. 

While  on  the  subject  of  books,  it  is  due  to  Methodism  to 
notice  an  interesting  fact  not  generally  known.  The  first 
Bible  society,  founded  in  Great  Britain,  and  perhaps  in  the 


"  Naval  and  Military  Bible  Society. "         315 

world,  was  established  in  1779,  "^^^  '^^'^s  the  work  of  Method-  17 79 
ists.  George  Cussons  and  John  Davies,  after  leaving  the  Age  76 
leaders'  meeting  in  West  Street  chapel,  entered  into  con- 
versation, and,  when  near  Soho  Square,  formed  a  resolution 
to  endeavour  to  raise  a  fund  for  supplying  soldiers  with  pocket 
Bibles.  They  and  a  dozen  of  their  friends  united  themselves 
into  a  society  for  promoting  this  object.  Their  meetings  were 
held  once  a  month  in  the  house  of  Mr.  Dobson,  of  Oxford 
Street.  John  Thornton,  Esq.,  of  Clapham,  became  a  generous 
subscriber.  The  first  parcel  of  Bibles  was  sent  from  the 
vestry  of  Wesley's  West  Street  chapel ;  and  the  first  sermon 
on  behalf  of  the  society  was  preached  in  the  same  chapel,  by 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Collins,  from  the  appropriate  words,  "  And  the 
Philistines  were  afraid,  for  they  said,  God  is  come  into  the 
camp.  And  they  said.  Woe  unto  us  !  for  there  hath  not  been 
such  a  thing  heretofore."^  Thus  arose  "The  Naval  and 
Military  Bible  Society," — twenty-five  years  before  the  forma- 
tion of  "The  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society"  in  1804, — 
a  society  still  in  active  operation,  and  we  believe  the  oldest 
association  for  the  circulation  of  the  word  of  God,  that  now 
exists. 

Wesley  still  employed  the  press,  as  well  as  pulpit,  in  de- 
fending and  spreading  truth.  John  Atlay  was  his  book 
steward,  of  whose  conscientiousness  he  had  a  high  opinion. 
Hence  the  following  unpublished  letter,  sent  to  Bradburn. 

"Edinburgh,  June  19,  1779. 
"  Dear  Sammy, — I  suppose  John  Atlay  has  paid  the  money.  He  is 
cautious  to  an  extreme.  I  hear  what  angry  men  say  or  write ;  but  I  do 
not  often  regard  it.  Lemonade  will  cure  any  disorder  of  the  bowels, 
(whether  it  be  with  or  without  purging,)  in  a  day  or  two.  You  do  well  to 
spread  the  prayer-meetings  up  and  down.  They  seldom  are  in  vain. 
Honest  Andrew  Dunlop^  writes  me  word  that  the  book  money  is  stolen. 
Pray  desire  him  to  take  care  that  the  knave  does  not  steal  his  teeth. 
"I  am,  dear  Sammy,  your  affectionate  friend  and  brother, 

"John  Wesley." 

Wesley  published,  in  1779,  the  seventeenth  extract  from 
his  journal,  extending  from  September  13,  1773,  to  January  2, 
1776;   i2mo,  82  pages. 

'^  Methodist  Magazine,  1823,  p.  737. 
*  The  assistant  of  the  Limerick  circuit. 


3i6  Life  and  Thnes  of  Wesley. 

^119  Popery  was  beginning  to  be  troublesome;  for  parliament, 

Age  76  in  the  previous  year,  had  passed  a  bill  removing  from  the 
English  and  Irish  papists  the  penalties  and  disabilities 
imposed  upon  them  by  the  famous  act,  "  for  the  further  pre- 
venting the  growth  of  popery,"  enacted  in  1699.  Wesley  had 
been  called  a  papist  times  without  number ;  but  now,  in  a 
time  of  danger,  he  proved  himself  one  of  popery's  most 
trenchant  opponents.  His  pamphlet,  now  issued,  with  the  title, 
"  Popery  Calmly  Considered,"  i2mo,  25  pages,  was  one  of  the 
most  timely  and  valuable  productions  of  his  pen.  Scores  of 
such  pamphlets  have  been  given  to  the  public  ;  but  not  one 
superior  to  Wesley's.  He  writes:  "In  the  following  tract,  I 
propose,  first,  to  lay  down  and  examine  the  chief  doctrines  of 
the  Church  of  Rome:  secondly,  to  show  the  natural  tendency  of 
a  few  of  those  doctrines  ;  and  that  with  all  the  plainness  and 
all  the  calmness  I  can."  "  Mr.  J.  Russell,"  observes  Charles 
Wesley,  in  a  letter  dated  April  23,  1779,  "tells  me,  some  of 
the  bitterest  Calvinists  are  reconciled  to  you  for  the  tract  on 
popery.  It  should  be  spread  immediately  through  the  three 
kingdoms."  ^  We  shall  meet  with  popery  again  ;  but,  mean- 
time, we  wish  the  Methodist  book  committee  and  conference 
would  do,  at  present,  what  Charles  Wesley  wished  to  be  done 
ninety  years  ago.  However  urgent  the  case  was  in  1779,  the 
necessity  now  is  ninety  times  greater  than  it  was  then ;  and 
John  Wesley's  successors  will  be  recreant  to  his  protestant 
principles  unless  they  do  their  duty  as  he  did  his. 

It  only  remains,  before  concluding  the  present  chapter,  to 
notice  Wesley's  Armiiiian  JSlagazine.  This,  like  the  volume 
for  1778,  was,  to  a  large  extent,  controversial,  Wesley  believing 
that  "  there  never  was  more  need,  in  the  memory  of  man,  of 
opposing  the  Horrible  Decree,  than  at  this  day;  for  thousands, 
in  every  part  of  England,  were  still  halting  between  two 
opinions,  and  were  exceedingly  perplexed  on  this  account." 
Among  other  pieces,  intended  to  refute  the  Calvinian  theory, 
he  republished  his  own  "  Predestination  Calmly  Considered," 
which  he  first  printed  in  1752.  There  are  interesting  lives  of 
Bishop  Bedell,  Archbishop  Usher,  and  Dr.  Donne,  the  last 
mentioned  by  Wesley's  own  pen,  though  never  included  in  his 

^  Methodist  Magazine,  1789,  p.  387. 


Wesley  s  Piiblications  hi   1779.  317 

collected  works.  There  are  short  accounts  of  ten  of  his  17 79 
itinerant  preachers,  accompanied  by  their  respective  por-  Age  76 
traits,  many  of  which  he  pronounces  "really  striking." 
There  are  ninety-three  letters,  most  of  which,  says  he, 
"are  closely  practical  and  experimental."  There  are  about 
seventy  poetical  pieces,  one  of  which,  "  Henry  and  Emma, 
a  Dialogue,^'  fills  more  than  fourteen  pages ;  a  sort  of 
love  story,  to  which  objections  were  not  unreasonably  raised. 
Wesley  acknowledged  that  it  was  "not  strictly  religious"; 
but  maintains  that  there  was  "nothing  in  it  contrary  to 
religion,  nothing  that  can  offend  the  chastest  ears "  ;  that  it 
was  "  one  of  the  finest  poems  in  the  English  tongue,  both  for 
sentiment  and  language  "  ;  and  that  those  who  could  "  read  it 
without  tears  must  have  a  stupid  and  unfeeling  heart."  All 
this  might  be  true ;  but,  with  all  due  deference  to  Wesley, 
there  can  hardly  be  two  opinions,  that  it  was  out  of  its  proper 
place  when  inserted  in  the  Arjniuian  ]\Tagazine. 


1 780. 

1780  'npHE  year  1780  will  always  be  marked  in  English 
A^77  X  history.  The  nation  was  steeped  in  guilt  and  misery. 
War  was  raging  on  almost  every  side.  Trade  was  paralysed  ; 
and  taxes  intolerable.  Popery  had  been  established  in 
Canada;  and,  by  the  repealing  of  the  statutes  of  the  nth 
and  1 2th  of  King  William  III.,  had  received  great  encourage- 
ment in  England.  The  Protestant  Association  sprung  into 
existence  ;  and  the  Gordon  riots  followed.  The  details  of  these 
events  are  full  of  profound  interest  and  instruction  ;  but  our 
limited  space  prevents  'enlargement.  Suffice  it  to  say,  that, 
in  this  serious  crisis,  Wesley  took  an  active  interest.  He 
writes:  "1780.  January  18 — Receiving  more  and  more 
accounts  of  the  increase  of  popery,  I  believed  it  my  duty  to 
write  a  letter  concerning  it,  which  was  afterwards  inserted  in 
the  public  papers.  Many  were  grievously  offended;  but  I 
cannot  help  it ;  I  must  follow  my  own  conscience." 

The  following  was  Wesley's  unanswerable,  though  ob- 
noxious letter, 

"  A  Letter  to  the  Printer  of  the  Public  Advertiser,  occasioned  by  the 
late  Act,  passed  in  favour  of  Popery. 

"City  Road,  January  21,  1780. 

"Sir, — Some  time  ago,  a  pamphlet  was  sent  me,  entitled  'An  Appeal 
from  the  Protestant  Association  to  the  People  of  Great  Britain.'  A  day 
or  two  since,  a  kind  of  answer  to  this  was  put  into  my  hands,  which 
pronounces  '  its  style  contemptible,  its  reasoning  futile,  and  its  object 
malicious.'  On  the  contrary,  I  think  the  style  of  it  is  clear,  easy,  and 
natural ;  the  reasoning,  in  general,  strong  and  conclusive  ;  the  object, 
or  design,  kind  and  benevolent.  And  in  pursuance  of  the  same  kind 
and  benevolent  design,  namely,  to  preserve  our  happy  constitution,  1 
shall  endeavour  to  confirm  the  substance  of  that  tract  by  a  few  plain 
arguments. 

"  With  persecution  I  have  nothing  to  do.  I  persecute  no  man  for  his 
religious  principles.  Let  there  be  as  '  boundless  a  freedom  in  reli- 
gion,' as  any  man  can  conceive.  But  this  does  not  touch  the  point ;  I 
will  set  religion,  true  or  false,  utterly  out  of  the  question.  Suppose  the 
Bible,  if  you  please,  to  be  a  fable,  and  the  Koran  to  be  the  word  of 
God.     I  consider  not,  whether  the  Romish  religion  be  true  or  false  ;  I 


Wesley's  Letters  on  Popery.  319 

build  nothing  on  one  or  the  other  supposition.      Therefore,  away  with  all      1780 
your  commonplace   declamation   about   intolerance   and  persecution  in     pj^-j-j 
religion !      Suppose  every  word  of  Pope  Pius's  creed  to  be  true  ;  suppose 
the  council  of  Trent  to  have  been  infallible  :  yet,  I  insist  upon  it,  that  no 
government,  not  Roman  Catholic,  ought  to  tolerate  men  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  persuasion, 

"  I  prove  this  by  a  plain  argument ;  let  him  answer  it  that  can.  That 
no  Roman  CathoHc  does  or  can  give  security  for  his  allegiance  or  peace- 
able behaviour,  I  prove  thus.  It  is  a  Roman  Catholic  maxim,  estabhshed, 
not  by  private  men,  but  by  a  public  council,  that  'no  faith  is  to  be  kept 
■with  heretics.'  This  has  been  openly  avowed  by  the  council  of  Constance ; 
but  it  never  was  openly  disclaimed.  Whether  private  persons  avow  or 
disavow  it,  it  is  a  fixed  maxim  of  the  Church  of  Rome.  But  as  lon<j  as  it 
is  so,  it  is  plain  that  the  members  of  that  church  can  give  no  reasonable 
security,  to  any  government,  of  their  allegiance  or  peaceable  behaviour. 
Therefore,  they  ought  not  to  be  tolerated  by  any  government,  protestant, 
Mahommedan,  or  pagan. 

"  You  may  say,  '  Nay,  but  they  will  take  an  oath  of  allegiance.'  True, 
five  hundred  oaths  ;  but  the  maxim,  '  no  faith  is  to  be  kept  with  heretics,' 
sweeps  them  all  away  as  a  spider's  web.  So  that  still,  no  governors  that 
are  not  Roman  Catholics  can  have  any  security  of  their  allegiance. 

"  Again,  those  who  acknowledge  the  spiritual  power  of  the  pope  can 
give  no  security  of  their  allegiance  to  any  government ;  but  all  Roman 
Catholics  acknowledge  this  ;  therefore,  they  can  give  no  security  for  their 
allegiance. 

"  The  power  of  granting  pardons  for  all  sins,  past,  present,  and  to 
come,  is,  and  has  been,  for  many  centuries,  one  branch  of  his  spiritual 
power. 

"But  those  who  acknowledge  him  to  have  this  spiritual  power  can  give 
no  security  for  their  allegiance  ;  since  they  believe  the  pope  can  pardon 
rebellions,  high  treasons,  and  all  other  sins  whatsoever. 

"  The  power  of  dispensing  with  any  promise,  oath,  or  vow,  is  another 
branch  of  the  spiritual  power  of  the  pope.  And  all  who  acknowledge 
his  spiritual  power  must  acknowledge  this.  But  whoever  acknowledges 
the  dispensing  power  of  the  pope  can  give  no  security  for  his  allegiance  to 
any  government  Oaths  and  promises  are  none  ;  they  are  light  as  air  j 
a  dispensation  makes  them  all  null  and  void. 

"  Nay,  not  only  the  pope,  but  even  2i  priest  has  power  to  pardon  sins  ! 
This  is  an  essential  doctrine  of  the  Church  of  Rome.  But  they  that 
acknowledge  this  cannot  possibly  give  any  security  for  their  allegiance  to 
any  government.  Oaths  are  no  security  at  all ;  for  the  priest  can  pardon 
both  perjury  and  high  treason. 

"  Setting  then  religion  aside,  it  is  plain  that,  upon  principles  of  reason, 
no  government  ought  to  tolerate  men,  who  cannot  give  any  security  to 
that  government  for  their  allegiance  and  peaceable  behaviour.  But  this 
no  Romanist  can  do,  not  only  while  he  holds  that  'no  faith  is  to  be  kept 
with  heretics,'  but  so  long  as  he  acknowledges  either  priestly  absolution 
or  the  spiritual  power  of  the  pope. 


Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 


1780  '"But  the  late  act,' you   say,   'does  not  either  tolerate  or  encourage 

Roman  Catholics.'     I  appeal  to  matter  of  fact.     Do  not  the  Romanists 

S^  77  themselves  understand  it  as  a  toleration  ?  You  know  they  do.  And  does 
it  not  already  (let  alone  what  it  may  do  by-and-by)  encourage  them  to 
preach  openly,  to  build  chapels  (at  Bath  and  elsewhere),  to  raise  semi- 
naries, and  to  make  numerous  converts  day  by  day,  to  their  intolerant, 
persecuting  principles .''  I  can  point  out,  if  need  be,  several  of  the  persons. 
And  they  are  increasing  daily. 

"  But  '  nothing  dangerous  to  English  liberty  is  to  be  apprehended  from 
them.'  I  am  not  certain  of  that.  Some  time  since,  a  Romish  priest 
came  to  one  I  knew  ;  and,  after  talking  with  her  largely,  broke  out, 
'You  are  no  heretic  !  You  have  the  experience  of  a  real  Christian  !' 
'And  would  you,'  she  asked,  'burn  me  alive?'  He  said,  'God  forbid  ! 
unless  it  were  for  the  good  of  the  church  !' 

"  Now  what  securit)^  could  she  have  had  for  her  life,  if  it  had  depended 
on  that  man?  The  good  of  the  church  would  have  burst  all  the  ties  of 
truth,  justice,  and  mercy.  Especially  when  seconded  by  the  absolution  of 
a  priest,  or^  if  need  were,  a  papal  pardon. 

"  If  any  please  to  answer  this,  and  to  set  his  name,  I  shall  probably 
reply  ;  but  the  productions  of  anonymous  writers  I  do  not  promise  to 
take  any  notice  of. 

"  I  am,  sir,  your  humble  servant, 

"John  Wesley." 

Wesley's  arguments  are  irrefutable  ;  and  terrible  is  Eng- 
land's danger,  at  the  present  day,  because  such  arguments, 
instead  of  being  answered,  have  been  dexterously,  but  disas- 
trously, ignored  by  England's  statesmen.  Wesley's  letter 
will  probably  be  treated,  by  many,  as  they  would  treat  an 
old  almanack,  out  of  date;  but,  on  February  17,  1780,  it 
evoked  the  unanimous  thanks  of  the  Protestant  Association  ; 
and,  in  the  same  month,  was  published  in  the  pages  of 
Wesley's  bitterest  antagonist, — the  Gospel  Magazine, — with 
an  editorial  note,  that  it  had  "  been  almost  universally 
approved  of,"  and  that  it  was  a  "  production  of  real 
merit." 

Wesley's  letter  was  too  damaging  to  the  disloyalty  and 
preposterous  assumptions  of  popery,  to  pass  unnoticed.  His 
chief  antagonist  was  the  Rev.  Arthur  O'Leary,  the  son  of 
peasant  parents,  and  now  a  popish  priest,  in  the  fiftieth  year 
of  his  age. 

O'Leary's  remarks  on  Wesley's  letter  made  an  octavo 
pamphlet  of  loi  pages.  The  friar  tells  the  Methodist,  that 
the  temperature  of  Ireland's  climate  and  the  quality  of  its 


Father  O'Leary.  321 


soil    had   cleansed  the  veins  of   its    papists    "from  the  sour     1780 
and  acid  blood  of  the  Scythians  and  Saxons."     He  writes  :         Age~77 

"  We  are  tender  hearted,  we  are  good  natured,  we  have  feeUngs.  We 
shed  tears  on  the  urns  of  the  dead;  deplore  the  loss  of  hecatombs  of 
victims  slaughtered  on  the  gloomy  altars  of  religious  bigotry  ;  cry  in 
seeing  the  ruins  of  cities  over  which  fanaticism  has  displayed  the  funeral 
torch  ;  and  sincerely  pity  the  blind  zeal  of  our  Scotch  and  English  neigh- 
bours, whose  constant  character  is  to  pity  none,  for  erecting  the  banners 
of  persecution,  at  a  time  when  the  inquisition  is  abolished  in  Spain  and 
Milan,  and  the  protestant  gentry  are  caressed  at  Rome,  and  live  unmo- 
lested in  the  luxuriant  plains  of  France  and  Italy,  We  are  too  wise  to 
quarrel  about  religion.  The  Roman  Catholics  sing  their  psalms  in 
Latin,  with  a  few  inflections  of  the  voice.  Our  protestant  neighbours 
sing  the  same  psalms  in  English,  on  a  larger  scale  of  musical  notes.  We 
never  quarrel  with  our  honest  and  worthy  neighbours,  the  quakers,  for  not 
singing  at  all  ;  nor  shall  we  ever  quarrel  with  Mr.  Wesley  for  raising  his 
voice  to  heaven,  and  warbling  forth  his  canticles  on  whatever  tune  he 
pleases.  We  like  social  harinony;  and,  in  civil  music,  hate  discordance. 
Thus,  when  we  go  to  the  shambles,  we  never  inquire  into  the  butcher's 
religion,  but  into  the  quality  of  his  meat.  We  care  not  whether  the  ox 
was  fed  in  the  pope's  territories,  or  on  the  mountains  of  Scotland ;  pro- 
vided the  joint  be  good  ;  for,  though  there  be  many  heresies  in  old  books, 
we  discover  neither  heresy  rvQx  superstition  in  beef  and  claret.  We  divide 
them  cheerfully  with  one  another  ;  and,  though  of  different  religions,  we 
sit  over  the  bowl  with  as  much  cordiality  as  if  we  were  at  a  lovcfeast." 

O'Leary's  quaint  jocularity  and  rounded  periods  are 
amusing ;  but  they  furnish  not  the  slightest  answer  to 
Wesley's  allegations.  On  March  23,  Wesley  replied  to 
O'Leary,  in  a  letter  addressed  to  the  editors  of  the  Freeman  s 
Journal,  and  from  which  the  following  is  extracted. 

"Mr.  O'Leary's  remarks  are  no  more  an  answer  to  my  letter,  than  to 
the  Bull  Unigenitns.  His  manner  of  writing  is  easy  and  pleasant ;  but 
might  it  not  as  well  be  more  serious  ?  The  subject  we  are  treating  of  is 
not  a  light  one  ;  it  moves  me  to  tears,  rather  than  to  laughter.  I  plead 
for  the  safety  of  my  country  ;  yea,  for  the  children  that  are  yet  unborn. 
I  would  not  have  the  Roman  Catholics  persecuted  at  all.  I  would  only 
have  them  hindered  from  doing  hurt :  I  would  not  put  it  in  their  power  to 
cut  the  throats  of  their  quiet  neighbours."  ^ 

O'Leary  published  a  "  Rejoinder  to  Mr.  Wesley's  Reply,"  in 
which  he  was  less  jocular,  but  not  more  logical.  Of  Wesley's 
three  reasons  why  it  is  not  safe  to  tolerate  papists,  two  were 

^  Methodist  Magazine,  1781,  p.  295. 
VOL.    III.  Y 


32  2  J^if^  (ind  Tmics  of  Wesley. 

1780     left  untouched,  and  one  was  played  with  and  evaded.     Such 

K^-j-j    3.    controversialist    scarcely    deserved    an    answer ;    and,    yet, 

Wesley   supplemented  his    second  letter    by    a   third,  dated 

Chester,    March    31,    1780.       After   recapitulating  his   three 

reasons,  Wesley  writes : 

"Nine  parts  in  ten  of  Mr.  O'Leary's  remarks  are  quite  wide  of  the 
mark.  Not  that  they  are  wide  of  his  mark,  which  is  to  introduce  a 
plausible  panegyric  upon  the  Roman  Catholics,  mixed  with  keen  invec- 
tives against  the  protestants,  whether  true  or  false  it  matters  not.  All 
this  is  admirably  well  calculated  to  inspire  the  reader  with  aversion  to 
these  heretics,  and  to  bring  them  back  to  the  holy,  harmless,  much 
injured  Church  of  Rome  !  Close  arguing  he  does  not  attempt ;  but  he 
vapours,  and  skips  to  and  fro,  and  rambles  to  all  points  of  the  compass,  in 
a  very  lively  and  entertaining  manner." 

Wesley  thus  concludes  his  long  letter : 

"  What  security  for  my  life  can  any  man  give  me,  till  he  utterly 
renounces  the  council  of  Constance  ?  What  security  can  any  Romanist 
give  a  protestant,  till  this  doctrine  is  publicly  abjured?  If  Mr.  O'Leary 
has  anything  more  to  plead  for  this  council,  I  shall  follow  him  step  by 
step.  But  let  him  keep  his  word,  and  'give  a  serious  answer  to  a  serious 
charge.'  'Drollery  may  come  in  when  we  are  talking  of  roasting  fowls'; 
but  not  when  we  talk  of  '  roasting  men.' 

"  Would  I  then  wish  the  Roman  Catholics  to  be  persecuted  ?  I  never 
said  or  hinted  any  such  thing.  I  abhor  the  thought :  it  is  foreign  to  all 
I  have  preached  and  wrote  for  these  fifty  years.  But  I  would  wish  the 
Romanists  in  England  (I  had  no  others  in  view)  to  be  treated  still  with 
the  same  lenity  that  they  have  been  these  sixty  years  ;  to  be  allowed 
both  civil  and  religious  liberty,  but  not  permitted  to  undermine  ours.  I 
wish  them  to  stand  just  as  they  did  before  the  late  act  was  passed :  not 
to  be  persecuted  or  hurt  themselves  ;  but  gently  restrained  from  hurting 
their  neighbours. 

"  I  am,  gentlemen,  your  obedient  servant, 

"John  Wesley."^ 

Here  the  controversy  ended.^     O'Leary  was  baffled ;  and, 

1  Methodist  Magazine,  1 781,  p.  352. 

2  As  a  specimen  of  popish  Jesuitry,  it  may  be  added,  that  O'Leary's 
Remarks  upon  Wesley's  Letter  were  first  printed  in  six  successive  numbers 
of  the  F?-eenian^s  yonrnal;  but  were  afterwards  reprinted  in  London  with 
the  following  title,  "  Mr.  O'Leary's  Remarks  on  the  Rev.  Mr.  Wesley's 
Letter  in  Defence  of  the  Protestant  Associations  in  England,  to  which 
are  prefixed  Mr.  Wesley's  Letters."  This  was  a  popish  deception, 
intended,  no  doubt,  to  cast  upon  Wesley  the  odium  incurred  by  the  Pro- 
testant Association  during  the  Gordon  riots.  The  truth  is:  (i)  Wesley 
had  not  written  more  than  a  few  lines  in  defence  of  the  appeal  of  that 


Wesley  visits  Loj^d  George  Gordon.  323 

to  this  day,  the  arguments  in  Wesley's  letter  of  January  21,  1780 
1780,  remain  unanswered.  Seven  years  afterwards,  when  at  Age  77 
Cork,  Wesley  wrote  :  "  A  gentleman  invited  me  to  breakfast, 
with  my  old  antagonist.  Father  O'Leary.  I  was  not  at  all 
displeased  at  being  disappointed.  He  is  not  the  stiff,  queer 
man  that  I  expected  ;  but  of  an  easy,  genteel  carriage,  and 
seems  not  to  be  wanting  either  in  sense  or  learning." 

It  was  during  this  controversy,  and  while  Wesley  was  in  the 
north  of  Ireland,  that  the  fearful  riots  occurred,  which  are  so  un- 
fortunately associated  with  the  name  of  Lord  George  Gordon, 
and  which  were  the  cause  of  that  nobleman's  incarceration 
(rightly  or  wrongly)  in  the  Tower  of  London.  Here  Wesley, 
after  repeated  invitations,  visited  him,  and  writes:  "1780, 
December  19 — I  spent  an  hour  with  Lord  George  Gordon,  at 
his  apartment  in  the  Tower.  Our  conversation  turned  upon 
popery  and  religion.  He  seemed  to  be  well  acquainted  with 
the  Bible;  and  had  abundance  of  other  books,  enough  to 
furnish  a  study.  I  was  agreeably  surprised  to  find  he  did  not 
complain  of  any  person  or  thing ;  and  cannot  but  hope  his 
confinement  will  take  a  right  turn,  and  prove  a  lasting  blessing 
to  him." 

We  return  to  more  congenial  matters.  Wesley  spent  the 
first  two  months  of  1780  in  London  and  its  vicinity.  On 
February  28,  he  started  on  his  journey  to  the  north.  Among 
other  places,  he  now,  for  the  first  time,  preached  at  Delph.  He 
writes:  "April  7 — I  went  to  Delph,  a  little  village  upon  the 
mountains,  where  a  remarkable  work  of  God  is  just  broke  out. 
I  was  just  set  down,  when  the  minister  sent  me  word,  I  was 
"welcome  to  preach  in  his  church.  On  hearing  this,  many 
people  walked  thither  immediately,  near  a  mile  from  the 
town  ;  but,  in  ten  minutes,  he  sent  me  word  his  mind  was 
changed.  We  knew  not  then  what  to  do,  till  the  trustees  of 
the  independent  meeting  offered  us  the  use  of  their  house. 
It  was  quickly  filled,  and  truly  God  bore  witness  to  His 
word." 

Association.  (2)  His  two  replies  to  O'Leary,  published  in  the  Freeman's 
yournal,  were  suppressed  in  O'Leary's  pamphlet.  (3)  A  spurious  letter 
was  inserted,  and  palmed  on  the  public  as  genuine,  which  Wesley 
declared  was  not  his,  and  one  which  he  had  never  seen  before  O'Leary 
printed  it. — {Methodist  Magazine,  1781,  p.  295.) 


324  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

The  minister  of  the  parish  church  was  the  Rev.  Mr.  Hegin- 
botham,  who  had  engaged  Mr.  Stones  as  his  curate.  Mr. 
Stones  was  a  sportsman,  fond  of  his  dog  and  gun.  On  one 
occasion,  a  rough  Yorkshireman  told  him,  it  would  be  better  if 
he  minded  his  study  more  and  his  gun  less.  The  curate  took 
the  hint ;  his  dogs  and  his  guns  were  given  up  ;  he  became  a 
thorough  Christian ;  his  ministry  was  greatly  blessed ;  an 
extensive  religious  awakening  followed  ;  meetings  for  prayer 
were  convened  in  private  houses ;  and  not  a  few  were 
scripturally  converted.  Opposition  soon  ensued,  on  the  ground 
that  the  poor,  by  spending  so  much  time  in  prayer,  would 
neglect  their  Avork,  and  become  chargeable  to  the  parish. 
The  curate  was  dismissed  ;  the  young  converts  applied  to 
Joseph  Benson,  then  at  Manchester,  for  help ;  Methodist 
preaching  was  commenced  ;  a  room  in  Millgate  hired ;  and 
a  flourishing  society  was  formed.^  The  case  was  named  to 
Wesley;  and,  a  fortnight  before  his  visit,  he  signed  the  follow- 
ing legal  looking  document,  which  to  a  Methodist  antiquarian 
will  be  welcome. 

"  Whereas  for  about  twelve  months  last  past,  the  people  called 
Methodists  have  preached  in  a  room  at  Delph,  in  Saddleworth,  in  the 
county  of  York, — the  travelling  preachers  coming  there  regularly  every 
fortnight  from  Manchester,  besides  local  preachers  occasionally  on 
Sundays.  And  Whereas  the  last  summer  such  crowds  attended,  that  the 
room  could  not  contain  them,  the  society  also  increasing  very  fast,  and  a 
great  likelihood  of  much  good  being  done  in  the  place, — It  is,  therefore, 
thought  necessary  that  a  preaching  house  be  erected  at  Delph  aforesaid, 
twelve  yards  long  and  eight  wide.  The  expense  of  such  a  building, 
according  to  the  plan  laid  down,  will  be  vastly  more  than  the  society  will  be 
able  to  raise  amongst  themselves.  They  have,  therefore,  requested  our 
consent  to  go  amongst  our  societies,  to  ask  the  charitable  contributions  of 
such  of  our  friends  as  would  willingly  encourage  such  an  undertaking. 
This  is,  therefore,  to  certify  that  we  approve  of  the  measure,  and  recom- 
mend the  same  to  our  Christian  friends  everywhere,  hoping  they  will 
readily  and  cheerfully  contribute  to  the  same. 

"  Manchester,  March  25,  1780.  "  John  Wesley."  2 

This  formalised  certificate  smacks  of  the  office  of  Joseph 
Mellor,  the  Methodist  attorney  of  the  town  of  Delph  ;  and 
Wesley  must  have  been  hard  pressed  for  time  when,  instead 
of  writing  a  statement  of  the  case  himself,  he  put  his  hand  to 

^  Methodist  Magazine,  1853,  p.  785.  ^  Manuscript. 


Wesley  asks  a  Favour.  325 

such  legal  magniloquence.  Sufifice  it  to  add,  the  chapel  was  ^7^0 
built,  with  not  more  than  ;^ioo  of  debt  resting  upon  the  Age  77 
premises.^ 

It  was  during  this  northern  tour,  that  Wesley,  for  the  first 
time,  was  denied  the  use  of  the  church  at  Haworth.  He 
writes  :  "  Sunday,  April  23 — Mr.  Richardson  being  unwilling 
that  I  should  preach  any  more  in  Haworth  church,  Providence 
opened  another  ;  I  preached  in  Bingley  church,  both  morning 
and  afternoon.     This  is  considerably  larger  than  the  other." 

It  was  either  on  this,  or  some  future  occasion,  when 
Wesley  was  preaching  in  Bingley  church,  that  a  rich  man  in 
the  congregation,  who  seemed  to  think  that  his  wealth  was  a 
licence  to  practise  bad  manners,  sneered  at  the  preacher  and 
at  his  sentiments.  Wesley  paused,  and  fixing  his  keen  eye 
on  the  Dives  sitting  in  the  seat  of  the  scornful,  said  :  "  I  heed 
your  sneers  no  more  than  I  heed  the  fluttering  of  a  butterfly ; 
but  I  know  what  good  breeding  is  as  well  as  any  gentleman 
in  the  land." 

It  was  now  that  Wesley  preached  his  first  sermon  in  Black- 
burn. He  writes :  "  April  27 — I  preached  in  Todmorden 
church  with  great  enlargement  of  heart.  In  the  afternoon  we 
went  on  to  Blackburn.  It  seemed  the  whole  town  was 
moved  ;  and  the  question  was  where  to  put  the  congregation. 
We  could  not  stand  abroad  because  of  the  sun  ;  so  as  many 
as  could  squeezed  into  the  preaching  house.  All  the  chief 
men  of  the  town  were  there."  Mr.  Banning  was  W^esley's 
host  at  Blackburn  ;  and,  on  one  occasion,  took  his  venerable 
guest  to  see  a  neighbouring  chapel  which  was  in  the  course  of 
being  built.  "  Mr.  Banning,"  said  Wesley,  "  I  have  a  favour 
to  ask.  Let  there  be  no  pews  in  the  body  of  this  chapel, 
except  one  for  the  leading  singers.  Be  sure  to  make  accom- 
modation for  the  poor.  TJicy  are  God's  building  materials  in 
the  erecting  of  His  church.  The  rich  make  good  scaffolding, 
but  bad  materials^  ^  Weighty  words !  One  of  Methodism's 
evil  omens,  at  the  present  day,  is  a  disregard  of  the  advice 
which  Wesley  gave,  namely,  that,  in  building  chapels,  the 
Methodists  should  never  fail  to  provide  ample  accommodation 
for  the  poor. 

'  Methodist  Magazine,  1853,  p.  786. 
^  Eanning's  Memoirs  (private  circulation). 


326  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 


1780  It  was  a  sign  of  Wesley's  growing  popularity,  that,  though, 

^~^»  forty  years  before,  he  had  been  indignantly  expelled  from  the 
pulpits  of  the  Established  Church,  he  was  now  invited,  in  all 
parts  of  the  country,  by  rectors,  vicars,  curates,  and  others,  to 
favour  them  with  his  services.  At  Pateley  Bridge,  in  1752, 
Thomas  Lee,  the  old  itinerant,  and  his  Methodist  companions, 
were  subjected  to  treatment  the  most  barbarous  ;  and,  on 
applying  to  the  Dean  of  Ripon  for  protection,  were  met  with 
a  churchman's  scorn  rather  than  a  magistrate's  just  dealing. 
Now  it  was  otherwise.  Wesley  writes  :  "  1780,  May  I — At 
Pateley  Bridge,  the  vicar  offered  me  the  use  of  his  church. 
Though  it  was  more  than  twice  as  large  as  our  preaching 
house,  it  was  not  near  large  enough  to  contain  the  congrega- 
tion. How  vast  is  the  increase  of  the  work  of  God  !  particu- 
larly in  the  most  rugged  and  uncultivated  places.  How  does 
He  '  send  the  springs  '  of  grace  also  '  into  the  valleys,  that 
run  among  the  hills!'" 

Leaving  Pateley,  Wesley,  for  the  first  time,  visited  Ripon. 
He  writes  :  "  May  2 — We  came  to  Ripon,  and  observed  a 
remarkable  turn  of  providence  :  the  great  hindrance  of  the 
work  of  God  in  this  place  has  suddenly  disappeared  ;  and  the 
poor  people,  being  delivered  from  their  fear,  gladly  flock 
together,  and  hear  His  word.  The  new  preaching  house  was 
quickly  more  than  filled." 

Four  years  previous  to  this,  Thomas  Dixon  was  one 
of  the  Ripon  jDreachers,  and,  in  his  unpublished  auto- 
biography, wrote :  "  Upon  our  going  to  Ripon,  we  preached 
in  a  small  room  up  a  flight  of  stairs,  and  even  this  we 
were  to  leave  at  Martinmas.  But,  just  at  this  time,  Mr.  T. 
Dowson,  who  had  suffered  much  for  the  gospel's  sake,  bought 
the  premises  where  an  old  barn  and  stable  stood.  He 
immediately  pulled  down  the  barn,  and  built  a  decent 
chapel  and  a  dwelling  house  upon  the  site,  and,  with  such 
expedition,  that  we  were  able  to  get  into  the  shell  of  the  new 
chapel  by  the  time  we  had  to  leave  the  upstairs  room.  By 
this  means,  God  gave  the  poor  persecuted  Methodists,  in 
Ripon,  a  degree  of  rest  they  had  never  known  before,  and  the 
work,  from  that  time,  gradually  grew." 

On  leaving  Ripon,  Wesley  proceeded  "  through  a  delightful 
country  to  the  immense  ruins  of  Garvaix  Abbey,"  and  thence 


Methodism  at  Newark,  etc.  327 

across  the  "  horrid,  dreary,  enormous  mountains  "  to  Penrith,  1780 
another  place  where  he  now,  for  the  first  time,  preached.  He  Age"?/ 
writes  :  "INIay  5 — In  the  evening,  a  large  room,  designed  for  an 
assembly,  was  procured  for  me  at  Penrith  ;  but  several  of  the 
poor  people  were  struck  with  panic,  for  fear  the  room  should 
fall.  Finding  there  was  no  remedy,  I  went  down  into  the 
court  below,  and  preached  in  great  peace  to  a  multitude  of 
well  behaved  people." 

On  May  ii,  Wesley  reached  Newcastle,  and  thence  pro- 
ceeded to  Scotland.  On  his  return  southwards,  we  find  him 
preaching  at  Durham,  Darlington,  Northallerton,  Borough- 
bridge,  and  York.  Making  his  way  through  Lincolnshire,  he 
came  to  Newark,  where,  twenty  years  before,  the  mob  had 
burnt  the  Methodist  pulpit  in  the  market  place  ;  and  had  not 
only  pelted  the  preacher,  Thomas  Lee,  with  all  sorts  of  mis- 
siles, and  dragged  him  to  the  river  Trent,  where  they  ducked 
and  dabbled  him  without  mercy,  but,  to  complete  the  whole,  a 
painter  came  with  his  pot  and  brush,  and  bedaubed  him  most 
ludicrously.  Wesley  writes  :  "  1780,  June  12 — Our  friends  at 
Newark  were  divided  as  to  the  place  where  I  should  preach. 
At  length,  they  found  a  convenient  place,  covered  on  three 
sides,  and  on  the  fourth  open  to  the  street.  It  contained  two 
or  three  thousand  people  well,  who  appeared  to  hear  as  for 
life.  Only  one  big  man,  exceeding  drunk,  was  very  noisy 
and  turbulent,  till  his  wife  {fortissinia  Tyndaridarinn  !)  seized 
him  by  the  collar,  gave  hhn  two  or  three  hearty  boxes  on  the 
ear,  and  dragged  him  away  like  a  calf  But,  at  length,  he  got 
out  of  her  hands,  crept  in  among  the  people,  and  stood  as 
quiet  as  a  lamb." 

On  June  13,  Wesley  wrote:  "I  accepted  of  an  invitation 
from  a  gentleman  at  Lincoln,  in  which  I  had  not  set  my  foot 
for  upwards  of  fifty  years.  At  six  in  the  evening,  I  preached 
in  the  castle  yard  to  a  large  and  attentive  congregation. 
They  were  all  as  quiet  as  if  I  had  been  at  Bristol.  Will  God 
have  a  people  here  also  1 "  For  seven  years  after  this,  there 
was  not  a  Methodist  in  Lincoln. 

After  an  interval  of  many  years,  Wesley  preached  again  at 
Boston,  where,  in  1757,  Alexander  Mather,  the  first  Methodist 
preacher  there,  had  his  face  plastered  with  mire  taken  from 
the  kennels  of  the  streets,  and  his  head  laid  open  with  a  stone. 


-'28  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 


o 


1780  Wesley  spent  his  birthday  in  Sheffield,  and  wrote : 
£^,jj  "June  28 — I  can  hardly  think  I  am  entered  this  day  into  the 
seventy-eighth  year  of  my  age.  By  the  blessing  of  God,  I 
am  just  the  same  as  when  I  entered  the  twenty-eighth.  This 
hath  God  wrought,  chiefly  by  my  constant  exercise,  my  rising 
early,  and  preaching  morning  and  evening." 

The  next  day,  he  preached  his  first  and  last  sermon  at 
Worksop.  He  says  :  "I  was  desired  to  preach  at  Worksop; 
but  when  I  came,  they  had  not  fixed  on  any  place.  At  length, 
they  chose  a  lamentable  one,  full  of  dirt  and  dust,  but  without 
the  least  shelter  from  the  scorching  sun.  This  few  could  bear; 
so  we  had  only  a  small  company  of  as  stupid  people  as  I 
ever  saw." 

After  this,  Wesley  made  his  way  to  London,  where  he  spent 
a  week ;  and,  then,  he  and  his  brother  set  out  for  Bristol,  for 
the  purpose  of  holding  his  annual  conference.  He  writes  : 
"  August  I — Our  conference  began.  We  have  been  always, 
hitherto,  straitened  for  time.  It  was  now  resolved,  '  For  the 
future,  we  will  allow  nine  or  ten  days  for  each  conference  ; 
that  everything,  relative  to  the  carrying  on  of  the  work  of 
God,  may  be  maturely  considered.'  " 

The  conference,  in  this  instance,  lasted  from  August  i  to 
August  9,  inclusive.  Its  main  business  was  a  revision  of  the 
minutes  of  conferences  already  held.  Several  alterations 
were  made,  some  of  the  chief  being  the  following.  It  was  no 
longer  to  be  a  rule,  that  Methodists  were  to  endeavour  to 
preach  most  where  Wesley  and  his  brother  clergymen  were 
allowed  to  preach  in  parish  churches.  Classmeetings  were 
to  be  made  more  lively  and  profitable,  by  removing  improper 
leaders  ;  and  care  was  to  be  taken,  that  those  appointed  were 
not  only  men  of  sound  judgment,  but  truly  pious.  If  a 
preacher  could  secure  twenty  hearers  at  five  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  he  was  to  preach  ;  if  not  so  many,  he  was  to  sing 
and  pray.  "  Observe,"  says  Wesley  to  his  preachers,  "  it  is 
not  your  business  to  preach  so  many  times,  and  to  take  care  of 
this  or  that  society ;  but  to  save  as  many  souls  as  you  can,  to 
bring  as  many  sinners  as  you  possibly  can  to  repentance,  and, 
with  all  your  power,  to  build  them  up  in  that  holiness  without 
which  they  cannot  see  the  Lord.  And  remember !  a  Method- 
ist preacher  is  to  mind  every  point,  great  and  small,  in  the 


Conference  of  i^Zo.  329 

Methodist  discipline!  Therefore,  you  will  need  all  the  sense  1780 
you  have,  and  to  have  all  your  wits  about  you."  It  was  pj^nn 
agreed,  that  the  neglect  of  fasting  was  sufficient  to  account 
for  their  feebleness  and  faintness  of  spirit.  They  were  con- 
tinually grieving  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God,  by  the  habitual 
neglect  of  a  plain  duty.  "  Let  j^ou  and  I,"  says  Wesley, 
"  every  Friday  (beginning  on  the  next),  avow  this  duty 
throughout  the  nation,  by  touching  no  tea,  coffee,  or  chocolate, 
in  the  morning,  but,  (if  we  want  it,)  half-a-pint  of  milk  or 
water  gruel.  Let  us  dine  on  potatoes,  and,  (if  we  need  it,) 
eat  three  or  four  ounces  of  flesh  in  the  evening.  At  other 
times,  let  us  eat  no  flesh  suppers.  These  exceedingly  tend  to 
breed  nervous  disorders."  The  rule  was  rescinded,  that  no 
preacher  ought  to  print  anything  Avithout  Wesley's  approba- 
tion. The  preachers  were  to  join  as  one  man  in  putting  an 
end  to  the  indecency  of  the  people  talking  in  the  preaching 
houses,  before  and  after  service.  Complaints  having  been 
made,  that  sluts  had  spoiled  preachers'  houses,  W^esley  writes: 
"  Let  none,  that  has  spoiled  one,  ever  live  in  another.  But 
what  a  shame  is  this !  A  preacher's  wife  should  be  a  pattern 
of  cleanliness,  in  her  person,  clothes,  and  habitation.  Let 
nothing  slatternly  be  seen  about  her  ;  no  rags,  no  dirt,  no 
litter.  And  she  should  be  a  pattern  of  industry  ;  always  at 
work,  either  for  herself,  her  husband,  or  the  poor.  I  am  not 
willing  that  any  should  live  in  the  Orphan  House  at  Newcastle, 
or  any  preaching  house,  who  does  not  conform  to  this  rule." 
Complaints  were  also  made,  that  people  crowded  into  the 
preachers'  houses  as  into  coffee  shops,  without  invitation  ; 
and  it  was  ruled,  that  no  person  should,  in  future,  come  into  a 
preacher's  house,  unless  he  wanted  to  ask  a  question. 

Some  of  these  may  appear  to  be  minute  matters  ;  but  they 
are  not  without  interest  as  indicative  of  the  defects  of  Method- 
ists in  the  days  of  Wesley. 

There  is  reason  to  believe,  though  the  fact  is  not 
recorded  in  the  minutes,  that  the  Church  question  was  again 
discussed  at  the  conference  of  1780.  Hence  the  following 
letter,  written  to  Miss  Bosanquet. 

"Bristol,  August  5,  1780. 
"My  dear  Sister, — I  snatch  time  from  the  conference  to  write  two 
or  three  lines.     I  am  glad  you  have  begun  a  prayer-meeting  at  Hunslet, 


330 


Life  and  Twies  of  Wesley. 


1780 

Age  77 


and  doubt  not  it  will  be  productive  of  much  good.  Hitherto,  we  have  had 
a  blessed  conference.  The  case  of  the  Church  we  shall  fully  consider 
by-and-by ;  and,  I  believe,  we  shall  agree  that  none  who  leave  the  Church 
shall  remain  with  us. 

"  I  am,  my  dear  sister,  yours  most  affectionately, 

"John  Wesley." ^ 

Charles  Wesley  was  present,  and  was  far  from  satisfied. 
He  purposed  to  attend  no  more  of  these  annual  synods,  and 
wrote  as  follows  : 

*'  Why  should  I  longer.  Lord,  contend, 
My  last  important  moments  spend 

In  buffeting  the  air  ? 
In  warning  those  who  will  not  see, 
But  rest  in  blind  security, 

And  rush  into  the  snare .'' 

Prophet  of  ills,  why  should  I  live, 
Or,  by  my  sad  forebodings,  grieve 

Whom  I  can  serve  no  more  ? 
I  only  can  their  loss  bewail. 
Till  life's  exhausted  sorrows  fail, 

And  the  last  pang  is  o'er."  ^ 

Poor  Charles,  alarmed  lest  the  Methodists  should  leave  the 
Church,  retired  from  the  conference  to  weep  and  die  ;  John  to 
rejoice  and  work. 

Conference  statistics  have  not  been  given  annually ;  but  the 
following  figures  will  show  the  progress  made  during  the 
decade  of  years  ending  at  the  conference  of  1780, 


Circuits. 

Itinerant 
Preachers. 

Members. 

Kingswood 
Collection. 

1770 
1780 

50 
64 

123 
171 

29,406 
43,830 

/218    4    5 
^^402     I     9 

Increase  .    . 

14 

48 

14,424 

^183   17     4 

To  these  numbers,  however,  must  be  added  the  Methodists 
in  the  West  Indies,  and  also  20  circuity,  42  itinerant  preachers, 
and  8504  members  of  society  in  America.^ 


^  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xii.,p.  379. 

2  Jackson's  Life  of  C.  Wesley,  vol.  ii.,  p.  327. 

s  Minutes  of  Methodist  Conferences  in  America. 


Mcf/iodisvt  in  America.  331 

The  American  conference  met  at  Baltimore  on  April  24,  1780 
and  agreed  to  continue  in  close  communion  with  the  Church,  Age~77 
and  to  permit  "the  friendly  clergy"  to  preach  and  administer 
the  sacraments  in  Methodist  chapels.  Hitherto,  neither 
Asbury,  nor  any  other  of  the  preachers  in  America,  had  ad- 
ministered these  Christian  ordinances  to  the  Methodist  people; 
and,  as  the  number  of  members  was  now  rapidly  increasing, 
this  was  becoming  a  momentous  question.  The  want  in 
England  had  been  met,  to  some  extent,  by  Wesley  and  his 
brother  and  their  clerical  assistants  ;  but,  in  America,  the 
Methodists  had  no  ordained  clergyman  to  render  service  like 
this.  Besides,  there  the  Methodists  were  very  differently  situated 
from  what  Methodists  were  in  England.  In  this  country,  wher- 
ever there  was  a  Methodist  society  there  was  a  parish  church, 
at  which,  if  they  chose,  Methodists  might  attend  on  sacra- 
mental occasions.  In  America  it  was  otherwise.  Clergymen 
were  few ;  and  parish  churches  far  distant  from  each  other ; 
and,  in  many  instances,  where  Methodist  societies  had  been 
formed,  no  church  existed.  The  case  Avas  becoming  serious. 
Were  these  thousands  of  American  Methodists  to  be  left  with- 
out sacraments  }  Or  were  unordained  Methodist  preachers 
to  administer  sacraments .''  Or  was  an  effort  to  be  made, 
to  send  a  clergyman  of  the  Church  of  England  to  supply 
this  lack  of  sacred  service .-'  Or  was  Wesley  himself  to 
assume  episcopal  functions,  and,  by  ordination,  turn  his 
preachers  into  priests  .''  These  were  serious  difficulties  to  be 
surmounted.  To  deprive  eight  thousand  converted  people  of 
the  most  sacred  ordinances  of  the  church,  would  have  been  a 
sin  against  the  church's  Head.  To  allow  unordained  preachers 
to  administer  baptism  and  the  Lord's  supper  was  a  thing  for 
which  Wesley  himself  was  not  prepared  ;  though  who  can 
question,  that  a  man  like  Francis  Asbury,  whom  God  had  so 
signally  honoured,  had  as  much  right  to  do  this  as  the  most 
renowned  priest  or  prelate  in  existence  .''  An  alternative  re- 
mained, namely,  either  to  send  the  American  Methodists  an 
ordained  clergyman  of  the  Church  of  England ;  or  that 
Wesley  should  take  upon  himself  the  office  of  ordainer,  and 
thus  qualify  his  own  itinerants  for  what  was  conceived  to  be  a 
higher  function  than  that  of  preaching  the  infinitely  great  and 
everlasting  truths  of  Christ's  glorious  gospel. 


332  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1780  Was  Wesley  prepared  for  such  a  step  as  this  ?  Fortunately, 
^~y-  this  is  a  point  on  which  we  are  not  left  to  speculate.  In  a 
letter  to  his  brother,  dated  June  8,  1780,  he  writes  :  "Read 
Bishop  Stillingfleet's  '  Irenicon,'  or  any  impartial  history  of 
the  ancient  church,  and  I  believe  you  will  think  as  I  do.  I 
verily  believe,  I  have  as  good  a  right  to  ordain,  as  to  admi- 
nister the  Lord's  supper.  But  I  see  abundance  of  reasons  why 
I  should  not  use  that  right,  unless  I  was  turned  out  of  the 
Church.     At  present,  we  are  just  in  our  place."  ^ 

As  yet,  Wesley,  for  "abundance  of  reasons,"  hesitated  to 
ordain  his  preachers;  and,  hence,  the  only  remaining  expe- 
dient was  to  endeavour  to  secure  an  ordained  clergyman  of 
the  Church  of  England  ;  and  this  he  attempted.  The  fol- 
lowing letter  was  addressed  to  Dr.  Lowth,  bishop  of  London, 
two  months  after  the  date  of  his  letter  to  his  brother  Charles. 
The  reader  will  perceive,  that  it  was  written  the  day  after  the 
close  of  the  Bristol  conference.  It  ought  to  be  premised 
that,  previous  to  this,  Wesley  had  applied  to  the  bishop  for  a 
clerical  helper,  and  had  met  with  a  refusal. 

"  Aits^itst  10,  1780. 

**  My  Lord, — Some  time  since,  I  received  your  lordship's  favour,  for 
which  I  return  your  lordship  my  sincere  thanks.  These  persons  did  not 
apply  to  the  Society,"  [for  Propagating  Christian  Knowledge  in  Foreign 
Parts,]  "  because  they  had  nothing  to  ask  of  them.  They  wanted  no  salary 
for  their  minister:  they  were  themselves  able  and  willing  to  maintain  him. 
They,  therefore,  applied,  by  me,  to  your  lordship,  as  members  of  the 
Church  of  England,  and  desirous  so  to  continue,  begging  the  favour  of 
your  lordship,  after  your  lordship  had  examined  him,  to  ordain  a  pious 
man  who  might  officiate  as  their  minister. 

"  But  your  lordship  observes,  'There  are  three  ministers  in  that  country 
already.'  True,  my  lord :  but  what  are  three,  to  watch  over  all  the  souls 
in  that  extensive  country  ?  Will  your  lordship  permit  me  to  speak  freely  ? 
I  dare  not  do  otherwise.  I  am  on  the  verge  of  the  grave,  and  know  not 
the  hour  when  I  shall  drop  into  it.  Suppose  there  were  threescore  of 
those  missionaries  in  the  country,  could  I  in  conscience  recommend  these 
souls  to  their  care  ?  Do  they  take  any  care  of  their  own  souls  }  If  they 
do,  (I  speak  it  with  concern,)  I  fear  they  are  almost  the  only  missionaries 
in  America  that  do.  My  lord,  I  do  not  speak  rashly :  I  have  been  in 
America;  and  so  have  several  with  whom  I  have  lately  conversed.  And 
both  I  and  they  know,  what  manner  of  men  the  greater  part  of  these  are. 


^  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xii.,  p.  137. 


Letter  to  Bishop   Lowth.  333 

They  are  men  who  have  neither  the  power  of  rehgion,  nor  the  form;  men      1780 
that  lay  no  claim  to  piety,  nor  even  decency.  

"  Give  me  leave,  my  lord,  to  speak  more  freely  still :  perhaps  it  is  the  ^^  ' ' 
last  time  I  shall  trouble  your  lordship.  I  know  your  lordship's  abilities 
and  extensive  learning  :  I  believe,  what  is  far  more,  that  your  lordship 
fears  God.  I  have  heard,  that  your  lordship  is  unfashionably  diligent 
in  examining  the  candidates  for  holy  orders ;  yea,  that  your  lordship  is 
generally  at  the  pains  of  examining  them  yourse/f.  Examining  them  !  in 
what  respects  ?  Why  whether  they  understand  a  little  Latin  and  Greek; 
and  can  answer  a  few  trite  questions  in  the  science  of  divinity !  Alas, 
how  little  does  this  avail!  Does  your  lordship  examine,  whether  they 
serve  Christ  or  Belial  ?  Whether  they  love  God  or  the  world  ?  Whether 
they  ever  had  any  serious  thoughts  about  heaven  or  hell  ?  Whether  they 
have  any  real  desire  to  save  their  own  souls,  or  the  souls  of  others  ?  If 
not,  what  have  they  to  do  with  holy  orders  ?  and  what  will  become  of  the 
souls  committed  to  their  care  ? 

"  My  lord,  I  do  by  no  means  despise  learning;  I  know  the  value  of  it 
too  well.  But  what  is  this,  particularly  in  a  Christian  minister,  compared 
to  piety  ?  What  is  it  in  a  man  that  has  no  religion  }  '  As  a  jewel  in  a 
swine's  snout.' 

"  Some  time  since,  I  recommended  to  your  lordship  a  plain  man,  whom 
I  had  known  above  twenty  years,  as  a  person  of  deep,  genuine  piety, 
and  of  unblamable  conversation.  But  he  neither  understood  Greek  nor 
Latin  ;  and  he  aflirmed,  in  so  many  words,  that  '  he  believed  it  was  his 
duty  to  preach,  whether  he  was  ordained  or  no.'  1  believe  so  too.  What 
became  of  him  since,  I  know  not.  But  I  suppose  he  received  preshyteriaii 
ordination;  and  I  cannot  blame  him  if  he  did.  He  might  think  any 
ordination  better  than  none. 

"  I  do  not  know,  that  Mr.  Hoskins  had  any  favour  to  ask  of  the 
Society.  He  asked  the  favour  of  your  lordship  to  ordain  him,  that  he 
might  minister  to  a  little  flock  in  America.  But  your  lordship  did  not 
see  good  to  ordain  ///;;/.•  but  your  lordship  did  see  good  to  ordain,  and 
send  to  America,  other  persons,  who  knew  something  of  Greek  and  Latin; 
but  knew  no  more  of  saving  souls,  than  of  catching  whales. 

"  In  this  respect,  also,  I  mourn   for  poor  America;  for  the  sheep  scat- 
tered up  and  down  therein.     Part  of  them  have  no  shepherds  at  all,  par- 
ticularly in  the  northern  colonies ;  and  the  case  of  the  rest  is  little  better, 
for  their  own  shepherds  pity  them  not.     They  cannot,  for  they  have  no 
pity  on  themselves,  they  take  no  thought  or  care  about  their  own  souls. 

"  Wishing  your  lordship  every  blessing  from  the  great  Shepherd  and 
Bishop  of  our  souls,  I  remain,  my  lord,  your  lordship's  dutiful  son  and 
servant, 

"  John  Wesley."  ^ 

Did  his  lordship  ever  receive,  from  any  other  "  dutiful  son 
'  Whitehead's  Life  of  Wesley,  vol.  ii.,  p.  392. 


334  Life  aiid  Times  of  Wesley, 


^780     and  servant,"  a  letter  like  this  ?     We  doubt  it.     Wesley  was 
Age  77    foiled  in  his  attempt    to  obtain  episcopal    ordination  for   an 
American  Methodist  preacher:  no  wonder,  that,  soon  after,  he 
administered  ordination  himself 

Before  proceeding  with  Wesley's  history,  the  insertion  of  a 
selection  of  his  letters,  belonging  to  this  period,  may  be 
acceptable. 

It  is  a  terrible  thing  to  write  a  dangerous  book.  When 
Joseph  Benson  was  a  young  man,  he  read  Dr.  Watts's  "  Glory 
of  Christ  as  God-man,"  and  became  a  convert  to  his  doctrine 
of  the  pre-existence  of  our  Lord's  htiman  soul.  Speaking  his 
mind  too  freely  upon  this  unscriptural  dogma,  Benson  was 
suspected  to  be  an  Arian,  and  was  represented  as  such,  by 
Dr.  Coke,  all  over  the  kingdom.^  At  the  conference  of  1780, 
Coke  accused  him  of  holding  the  Arian  heresy;  the  matter  was 
sifted;  Benson  was  acquitted;  and  Coke  offered  to  ask  his 
pardon.  Still,  Benson,  for  years  afterwards,  held  Dr.  Watts's 
dangerous  speculation  ;  and  it  was  not  until  he  undertook  the 
revision  of  Fletcher's  manuscripts,  that  he  laid  aside  the 
expression,  " pre-existent  soul  of  Christ;'''  "an  expression," 
says  he,  "which  neither  reason,  nor  Scripture,  nor  antiquity, 
will  warrant  our  using."  ^ 

Dr.  Watts's  pernicious  book,  and  also  the  Gordon  riots,  (at 
this  time  raging,)  are  referred  to  in  the  following  extract  from 
a  letter  to  Charles  Wesley. 

"  Jicne  8,  1 780. 
"Dear  Brother, — I  would  not  read  over  Dr. Watts's  tract  for  a  hundred 
pounds.  You  may  read  it,  and  welcome.  I  will  not,  dare  not,  move  those 
subtle,  metaphysical  controversies.  Arianism  is  not  in  question  ;  it  is 
Eutychianism  or  Nestorianism.  But  what  are  they  .''  What  neither  I  nor 
any  one  else  understands.  But  they  are  what  tore  the  eastern  and 
western  churches  asunder. 


^  Dr.  Coke,  a  young  man  of  thirty-three,  displayed,  at  this  period,  a  fussy 
officiousness,  which  scarcely  redounded  to  his  honour.  He  wrote  to 
Bradburn,  to  the  effect,  that  he  suspected  that  he  also  was  an  Arian  ; 
though  it  was  only  four  years  before,  that  Thomas  Taylor,  at  the  London 
conference,  had  blamed  Bradburn  for  "preaching  too  much  on  the  Divinity 
of  Christ,  and  for  being  too  warm  against  the  ylrians."  ("  Memoirs  of 
Bradburn,"  p.  225.)  In  an  unpublished  letter,  addressed  to  Bradburn,  and 
dated  October,  1779,  Wesley  asks:  "  Is  there  any  truth  in  the  report  that 
John  Hampson  has  converted  you  to  Arianism  ?" 

2  Benson's  Life,  by  Macdonald,  p.  108. 


Rev.  Bidan    Bury  Collins.  335 

"  It  is  well  I  accepted  none  of  Lord  George's  invitations.    If  the  govern-      1780 
ment  suffers  this  tamely,  I  know  not  what  they  will  not  suffer.  .       '_ 

"  Mr.  Collins  is  not  under  my  direction  ;  nor  am  I  at  all  accountable 
for  any  steps  he  takes.  He  is  not  in  connection  with  the  Methodists. 
He  only  helps  us  now  and  then.  I  will  suffer  no  disputing  at  the  con- 
ference. 

"  Undoubtedly  many  of  the  patriots  seriously  intend  to  overturn  the 
government;  but  the  hook  is  in  their  nose. 

"  P^^^^  ^^  ^^'^^  y°^  ^"  '  "JOHN   WESLEY."  1 

The  Mr.  Collins,  mentioned  in  the  above  extract,  was  Brian 
Bury  Collins,  of  the  university  of  Cambridge,  who,  without 
ever  receiving  a  regular  appointment,  continued  to  assist 
Wesley,  in  various  parts  of  the  kingdom,  until  Wesley's  death 
in  1791.  A  number  of  his  manuscript  letters,  all  written  in 
1779  and  1780,  now  lie  before  us,  from  which  we  learn,  that 
he  regarded  himself  as  having  "  an  unlimited  preaching  com- 
mission"; and  that  one  of  his  great  objects  was  to  unite 
Wesley's  and  Whitefield's  followers.  "  I  could  freely  die," 
says  he,  *'  to  see  the  Tabernacles  and  Foundery  recon- 
ciled." He  began  the  year  1779  in  the  north  of  England, 
where  he  sometimes  preached  five  or  six  times  a  day.  He 
then  removed  to  London,  Bristol,  and  the  west,  where  his 
health  failed.  In  May,  1780,  he  was  among  his  relatives  at  . 
Linwood,  and  wrote  :  **  I  am  not  yet  recovered  from  my  late 
illness,  though  I  am  much  better  than  I  have  been.  My 
relations  here  receive  me  with  more  cordiality  than  I  expected. 
I  find  the  Divine  presence  in  the  churches  where  I  preach  ; 
but  what  the  Lord  designs  to  do  with  me  I  cannot  tell. 
Lately,  I  have  thought  of  spending  a  few  weeks  at  Cambridge. 
I  have  also  had  fresh  desires  of  being  in  full  orders."  In  pur- 
suance of  this,  Mr.  Collins  went  to  St.  John's  college,  Cam- 
bridge, where,  in  July  1780,  he  took  his  master  of  arts  degree. 
By  advice  of  the  two  Wesleys,  he  sought  ordination ;  and  the 
dowager  Lady  Townsend  gave  him  a  recommendatory  letter 
to  the  Bishop  of  Chester,  requesting  that  the  rite  might  be 
administered  in  private  ;  but  the  bishop,  having  heard  of  his 
irregular  preaching,  hesitated  until  he  had  time  to  confer  with 
his  brother   bishops.      Ordination  was    ultimately  obtained  ; 


^  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xii.,  p.  137. 


33^  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1 7 So  Collins  married,  and,  for  a  time,  was  assistant  to  David 
Age  77  Simpson,  at  Macclesfield  ;  after  this,  he  again  became  a 
rover,  and  preached  in  Wesley's  and  Lady  Huntingdon's 
chapels,  and  wherever  else  he  had  a  chance.  He  writes : 
"  I  wish  to  do  good  unto  all.  I  do  not  love  one  and  dislike 
another.  I  can  unite  with  all  who  are  united  to  Jesus.  I 
care  not  for  names  in  the  least." ^ 

These  glimpses  of  a  man  whom  Wesley,  to  the  end  of  life, 
repeatedly  mentions  in  his  journals,  will  not  be  unwelcome. 
Of  his  subsequent  career  we  know  nothing  ;  except  that  its 
close  was  not  as  bright  as  its  beginning.  A  son  of  his  lies 
interred  in  the  burial  ground  of  the  new  chapel  in  City 
Road.2 

One  of  the  legislative  acts  of  the  conference  of  1780  was 
to  enforce  the  old  rule,  that,  in  Methodist  meeting-houses, 
the  men  and  women  should  sit  apart.  In  galleries,  where 
they  had  always  sat  together,  they  might  do  so  still ;  but 
in  all  new  erected  galleries,  and  in  the  seats  below,  the  old 
rule  was  to  be  rigidly  observed.  "  If,"  said  Wesley,  "  I  come 
into  any  new  house,  and  see  the  men  and  women  together,  I 
will  immediately  go  out.  I  hereby  give  public  notice  of  this. 
Pray  let  it  be  observed."^ 

This  sounds  strangely  at  the  present  day ;  but,  for  some 
reason,  it  was  with  Wesley  a  matter  of  importance.  Hence 
also    the    following    unpublished    letter    to    the   leaders   at 

Sheffield. 

"  Bristol,  September  4,  1780. 
"  My  dear  Brethren, — Let  the  persons,  who  purpose  to  subvert  the 
Methodist  plan,  by  mixing  men  and  women  together  in  your  chapel,  con- 
sider the  consequence  of  so  doing.  First,  I  will  never  set  foot  in  it  more. 
Secondly,  I  will  forbid  any  collection  to  be  made  for  it  in  any  of  our 
societies. 

"  I  am,  my  dear  brethren,  your  affectionate  brother, 

"John  Wesley." 

Two  m.ore  letters,  now  for  the  first  time  given  to  the 
public,  will  be  welcome.  They  were  addressed  to  Samuel 
Bradburn,  who  had  been  three  years  in  Ireland,  and  was  now 
to  remove  to  Keighley. 

^  Manuscript  letters.  2  Methodist  Magazine,  1845,  P-  1 17- 

*  Minutes,  1780. 


Original  Letters.  337 


"  Near  Bristol,  September  16, 1780.  1780 

"Dear  Sammy,— I  wanted  to  have  Betsy  "[Mrs.  Bradburn]"a  little  . — _ 
nearer  me.  And  I  wanted  her  to  be  acquainted  with  her  twin  soul,  Miss 
Ritchie,  the  fellow  to  whom  I  scarce  know  in  England.  But  I  do  not  like 
your  crossing  the  sea  till  your  children  are  a  little  stronger.  If  there  was 
stormy  weather,  it  might  endanger  their  lives.  Therefore,  it  is  better 
you  should  stay  in  Ireland  a  little  longer.  Athlone  circuit  will  suit  you 
well  ;  and  John  Brcdin  may  be  at  Keighley  \n  your  place. 

"  Now  read  over  the  minutes  concerning  the  office  of  an  assistant,  and 
exert  yourself  as  to  every  branch  of  it.  I  fear  the  late  assistant  neglected 
many  articles  ;  dispersing  the  books  in  particular. 

"  My  lov^e  to  Betsy.     Let  her  love  Molly  Pennington  for  my  sake. 

"  I  am,  etc.,  J.  Wesley." 

"  London,  October  28,  1780. 
"  Dear  Sammy, — I  am  glad  you  are  safe  landed  at  Keighley.     You 
will  find  there 

* ...  a  port  of  ease 
From  the  rough  rage  of  stormy  seas.' 
"  There  are  many  amiable  and  gracious  souls  in  Cork  ;  but  there  are 
few  in  the  whole  kingdom  of  Ireland  to  be  named,  (either  for  depth  of 
sense  or  grace,)  with  many,  very  many  persons  in  Yorkshire,  particularly 
the  west  riding.  Go  to  Betsy  Ritchie,  at  Otley,  and  then  point  me  out 
such  a  young  woman  as  she  in  Ireland. 

"  I  think  lemonade  would  cure  any  child  of  the  flux. 
"  Now  be  exact  in  every  branch  of  discipline  ;  and  you  will  soon  find 
what  a  people  you  are  among. 

"  I  am,  with  tender  love  to  Betsy,  dear  Sammy,  your  affectionate  friend 
and  brother, 

"John  Wesley." 

The  following  letter,  kindly  supplied  by  the  Rev.  Thomas 
W.  Smith,  and  now  for  the  first  time  published,  was 
addressed  "  To  Mr.  Valton,  at  the  preaching  house,  in  Man- 
chester." Oldham  Street  chapel  was  now  in  course  of  erection, 
and  was  opened  by  Wesley  seven  months  afterwards. 

"Bristol,  October  i,  1780. 
"  My  dear  Brother, — I  expected  the  state  of  Manchester  circuit  to 
be  just  such  as  you  have  found  it.     But  the  power  of  the  Lord  is  able  to 
heal  them.     I  fear  S.  Mayers  was  left  unemployed,  because  she  loved 
perfection.     If  you  find  a  few  more  of  the  same  spirit,  I  believe  you  will 
find  them  employment.     The  accommodations  everywhere  will  mend,  if 
the  preachers  lovingly  exert  themselves.     I  am  glad  you  take  some  pains 
for  the  new  chapel.     Our  brother  Brocklehurst  will  do  anything  that  is 
reasonable. 
"  In  one  thing  only,  you  and  I  do  not  agree  ;  but,  perhaps,  we  shall 
VOL.  in.  Z 


Age  77 


338  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1780  when  we  have  prayed  over  it :  I  mean,  the  giving  me  an  extract  of  your 
life.  I  cannot  see  the  weight  of  your  reasons  against  it.  *  Some  are 
superficial.'  What  then  ?  All  are  not  ;  brother  Mather's  and  Haime's 
in  particular.  Add  one  to  these  ;  a  more  weighty  one,  if  you  can.  You 
know  what  to  omit,  and  what  to  insert.  I  really  think  you  owe  it  (in 
spite  of  shame  and  natural  timidity)  to  God  and  me  and  your  brethren. 
Pray  for  light  in  this  matter. 

"  I  am,  your  affectionate  friend  and  brother, 

"  J.  Wesley." 

The  next,  though  short,  is  not  devoid  of  interest.     For  the 

first  time,  it  was  published  in  the    Watchman  newspaper,  as 

recently  as  October  12,  1870;  and  was  written  on  tlie  same 

day  as  the  foregoing  one. 

"  Bristol,  October  i,  1780. 
"  My  dear   Brother,— Joseph   Bradford   has  been  at   the  gate  of 
death ;  but  is  now  so  far  recovered,  that  he  thinks  to  set  out  to-morrow 
morning,  with  me  and  his  wife,  for  London. 

"  Mr.  Brackenbury  likewise  seems  to  be  better,  with  regard  to  his 
bodily  health  ;  but  he  is  married  !  And  I  shall  not  be  much  disappointed 
if  he  soon  takes  leave  of  the  Methodists. 

"  I  am,  your  affectionate  brother, 

"  J.  Wesley." 

The  following,  which  has  not  before  been  published,  is 
kindly  furnished  by  Charles  Reed,  Esq.,  M.P. 

"  London,  November  3,  1780. 
"  My  dear  Brother, — Disorderly  walkers  are  better  excluded  than 
retained  ;  and  I  am  well  satisfied  you  will  exclude  no  others.  I  am  glad 
you  have  made  a  beginning  at  Trowbridge.  If  it  be  possible,  say  not  one 
offensive  word.  But  you  must  declare  the  plain,  genuine  gospel;  and, 
sooner  or  later,  God  will  give  you  His  blessing. 

"  I  am,  your  affectionate  friend  and  brother, 

"J.  Wesley." 

Another,  equally  characteristic,  was  sent  to  Zechariah. 
Yewdall,  stationed  in  "  Glamorganshire "  circuit,  which  ex- 
tended (from  Llanelly  in  Wales  to  Calvert  in  Gloucester- 
shire) above  a  hundred  miles,  and  was  traversed  regularly 
every  month.  Mr.  Yewdall  was  now  in  the  second  year  of 
his  itinerancy,  and,  at  Monmouth,  had  met  with  brutal 
treatment.^  The  letter  also  refers  to  the  principle  involved 
in  Mr.  M'Nab's  affair. 

^  Methodist  Magazine,  1 795,  p.  268. 


Sir  Harry   Trelawney.  339 

"  London,  December  3,  1780.  1 780 

"  My  dear  Brother, — You  mistake  one  thing.  It  is  I,  not  the  con-  ^J^-,-, 
ference,  (according  to  the  twelfth  rule,)  that  station  the  preachers  ;  but  I 
do  it  at  the  time  of  the  conference,  that  I  may  have  the  advice  of  my 
brethren.  But  I  have  no  thought  of  removing  you  from  the  Glamorgan- 
shire circuit ;  you  are  just  in  your  right  place.  But  you  say,  *  Many  of 
the  people  are  asleep.'  They  are ;  and  you  are  sent  to  awaken  them  out 
of  sleep.  *  But  they  are  dead.'  True  ;  and  you  are  sent  to  raise  the  dead. 
Good  will  be  done  at  Monmouth  *  and  Neath  in  particular.  Where  no 
good  can  be  done,  I  would  leave  the  old,  and  try  new  places.  But  you 
have  need  to  be  all  alive  yourselves,  if  you  would  impart  life  to  others. 
And  this  cannot  be  without  much  self  denial. 

"  I  am,  dear  Zachary,  your  affectionate  brother, 

"John  Wesley." 2 

After  the  conference  at  Bristol  was  concluded,  Wesley 
set  out  for  Cornwall.  Some  time  before  this,  Sir  Harry 
Trelawney,  a  student  of  Christ  Church,  Oxford,  had  become 
a  zealous  revivalist,  and  had  begun  to  preach  at  West  Looe, 
where.  In  1777,  he  became  the  pastor  of  a  congregation 
of  his  own  raising,  and  which  worshipped  in  a  meeting- 
house fitted  up  at  his  own  expense.  The  novelty  of  the 
proceeding,  and  the  rank  of  the  preacher,  created  great 
excitement.  Sir  Harry,  the  descendant  of  one  of  the  seven 
bishops  who  were  committed  to  the  Tower  in  the  reign  of 
James  H.,  was  made  the  hero  of  a  witty  book,  written  by 
a  clergyman  of  the  Church  of  England,  and  entitled,  "  The 
Spiritual  Quixote ;  or  the  History  of  Geofifry  Wildgoose, 
Esq."  3  vols.,  i2mo  :  1773.  The  preaching  baronet  vin- 
dicated his  nonconformity  in  "  A  Letter  addressed  to  the 
Rev.  Thomas  Alcock,  Vicar  of  Runcorn."  For  a  time, 
the  Rev.  John  Clayton  was  his  assistant,  but,  in  1778, 
removed  to  the  Weigh  House  congregation,  in  London. 
Soon  after.  Sir  Harry  returned  to  Oxford ;  procured  ordina- 
tion in  the  national  establishment ;  was  made  a  country 
rector  in  the  west  of  England;  whilst  his  chapel  at  West 
Looe  was  ignominiously  changed  into  a  house  for  converting 
barley  into  malt.     He  died  in  1834. 

It  was  about  the  time  of  Wesley's  visit  to  Cornwall,  that 


^  Wesley's  words   were   verified.      At   Monmouth    Mr.   Yewdall   was 
mobbed  by  a  bellowing  rabble  ;  but  the  society  increased  one  third. 
2  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xiii.,  p.  lo. 


340  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

^780  he  wrote  the  subjoined  letter.  Sir  Harry  had  been  a 
Age  77  Calvinist,  and  had  been  patronised  by  the  Countess' of 
Huntingdon's  connexion ;  but,  having  renounced  his  Cal- 
vinian  tenets,  he  was  now  regarded  Avith  disfavour.  Some 
communication  had  passed  between  him  and  Wesley  on 
the  subject ;  Wesley  knew  his  danger ;  and  wrote  to  him  as 
follows.  , 

"  For  a  long  time,  I  have  had  a  desire  to  see  you,  but  could  not  find 
an  opportunity.  Indeed,  I  had  reason  to  beheve  my  company  would 
not  be  agreeable  ;  as  you  were  intimate  with  those  who  think  they  do 
God  service  by  painting  me  in  the  most  frightful  colours.  It  gives  me 
much  satisfaction  to  find,  that  you  have  escaped  out  of  the  hands  of  those 
warm  men.  It  is  not  at  all  surprising,  that  they  should  speak  a  little 
unkindly  of  you  too  in  their  turn.  It  gave  me  no  small  satisfaction 
to  learn  from  your  own  lips  the  falsehood  of  their  allegation.  I  believed 
it  false  before,  but  could  not  affirm  it  so  positively  as  I  can  do  now. 

"  Indeed,  it  would  not  have  been  without  precedent,  if  from  one 
extreme  you  had  run  into  another.  This  was  the  case  with  that  great 
man,  Dr.  Taylor.  For  some  years,  he  was  an  earnest  Calvinist ;  but, 
afterwards,  judging  he  could  not  go  far  enough  from  that  melancholy 
system,  he  ran,  not  only  into  Arianism,  but  into  the  very  dregs  of 
Socinianism. 

"  You  have  need  to  be  thankful  on  another  account  likewise  ;  that  is, 
that  your  prejudices  against  the  Church  of  England  are  removing. 
Having  had  an  opportunity  of  seeing  several  of  the  churches  abroad, 
and  having  deeply  considered  the  several  sorts  of  Dissenters  at  home,  I 
am  fully  convinced,  that  our  own  Church,  with  all  her  blemishes,  is 
nearer  the  scriptural  plan  than  any  other  in  Europe. 

"  I  sincerely  wish  you  may  retain  your  former  zeal  for  God ;  only,  that 
it  may  be  a  zeal  according  to  knowledge.  But  there  certainly  will  be  a 
danger  of  your  sinking  into  a  careless,  lukewarm  state,  without  any 
zeal  or  spirit  at  all.  As  you  were  surfeited  with  an  irrational,  un- 
scriptural  religion,  you  may  easily  slide  into  no  religion  at  all ;  or  into 
a  dead  form,  that  will  never  make  you  happy  either  in  this  world,  or  in 
that  which  is  to  come. 

"  Wishing  every  spiritual  blessing,  both  to  Lady  Trelawney  and  you, 
"  I  am,  dear  sir,  your  affectionate  servant, 

"John  Wesley."  * 

Wesley,  at  the  end  of  August,  returned  to  Bristol,  and 
here  he  spent  the  month  of  September.  He  then  set  out 
for  London,  which  he  reached  on  October  7.     A  week  later 


^  Whitehead's  Life  of  Wesley,  vol.  ii.,  p.  395. 


Wesley,  oji  yacob  Behmen.  341 

he  made  a  tour  to  Tunbridge  Wells,  and  other  towns  in  1780 
Kent.  After  this,  we  find  him,  as  usual,  visiting  the  Age~77 
societies  in  Northamptonshire,  Oxfordshire,  and  Bedford- 
shire. The  last  month  of  the  year  was  chiefly  employed  in 
London.  He  read  to  the  society,  and  explained,  the  Large 
Minutes  of  conference,  recently  published ;  and  wrote  :  "  I 
desire  to  do  all  things  openly  and  above  board.  I  would 
have  all  the  world,  and  especially  all  of  our  society,  see  not 
only  the  steps  we  take,  but  the  reasons  why  we  take  them." 
He  visited  Lord  George  Gordon  in  the  Tower.  He  went 
with  some  of  his  friends  to  the  British  Museum.  He  WTote 
his  well  known  sermon  on  "  This  is  the  true  God  and  eternal 
life,"  fully  establishing  the  doctrine  which  Joseph  Benson, 
at  the  conference,  had  been  accused  of  denying — the  Divinity 
of  Christ.^  He  likewise  wrote  his  "  Thoughts  upon  Jacob 
Behmen,"  allowing  the  Teuton  to  be  a  good  man,  but 
charging  him  with  propounding  "  a  crude,  indigested  philo- 
sophy, supported  neither  by  Scripture,  nor  reason,  nor  any- 
thing but  his  own  ipse  dixit ;"  and  with  using  "language  that 
was  never  used  since  the  world  began,  queerness  itself, 
mere  dog  Latin."  "  None,"  says  Wesley,  "  can  understand 
it  without  much  pains,  perhaps  not  without  reading  him 
thrice  over.  I  would  not  read  him  thrice  over  on  any 
consideration.  (i)  Because  it  would  be  enough  to  crack 
any  man's  brain  to  brood  so  long  over  such  unintelligible 
nonsense ;  and  (2)  because  such  a  w^aste  of  time  might 
provoke  God  to  give  me  up  to  a  strong  delusion  to  believe 
a  lie."  2 

Wesley  concludes  the  year  with  the  following  entiy  in 
his  journal.  "  Sunday, '  December  31 — We  renewed  our 
covenant  with  God.  We  had  the  largest  company  that  I 
ever  remember  ;  perhaps  two  hundred  more  than  we  had 
last  year.  And  we  had  the  greatest  blessing.  Several 
received  either  a  sense  of  the  pardoning  love  of  God,  or 
power  to  love  Him  with  all  their  heart." 

Happy,  happy  old  man !  "  I  do  not  remember,"  said 
he,   only  nine   days  before  the  year   1780  was  ended,  "  I  do 

*  Methodist  Magazine,  1781,  p.  189. 
2  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  ix.,  p.  491. 


342  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

rySo     not  remember  to  have  felt  lowness  of  spirits  for  one  quarter 

Age  77     of  an  hour  since  I  was  born."  ^ 

It  only  remains  to  notice  Wesley's  publications  in  1780  ; 
and  this  shall  be  done  as  briefly  as  possible.  His  letters  on 
popery,  his  revised  minutes  of  the  conferences,  and  his 
Thoughts  upon  Behmen,  have  been  already  mentioned. 
Besides  these,  there  were — • 

1.  "Directions  for  Renewing  our  Covenant  with  God." 
i2mo,  23  pages. 

2.  "  Reflections  on  the  Rise  and  Progress  of  the  American 
Rebellion."     i2mo,  96  pages. 

3.  "  The  History  of  Henry,  Earl  Moreland."  Abridged. 
2  vols.,  i2mo. 

It  has  been  already  stated,  that  this  was  a  novel,  written 
by  Mr.  Brooke,  and  originally  published,  in  five  vols.,  in  1766, 
with  the  title,  "  The  Fool  of  Quality."  Dr.  Adam  Clarke 
once  stated,  that  Mr.  Brooke's  nephew  declared  to  him,  that, 
"  with  the  exception  of  a  few  touches  of  colouring,  everything 
in  the  book  was  founded  in  fact — even  the  very  incidents 
were  facts."  ^  This  might  be  so  ;  but  still  the  colouring  made 
the  work  a  fiction ;  and  that  an  old  evangelist,  like  Wesley, 
bordering  on  fourscore  years  of  age,  should  revise,  abridge, 
publish,  and  circulate  a  novel,  has  always  been  a  perplexity  to 
a  certain  section  of  Wesley's  admirers.  John  Easton,  one  of 
his  itinerants,  belonged  to  these.  After  John  had  very  freely 
condemned  the  conduct  of  his  great  leader,  Wesley  proposed 
to  him  the  following  interrogations  in  reference  to  three  of 
the  personages  in  this  remarkable  book. 

Wesley. — "  Did  you  read  Vindex,  John  V 
Easton.—^''  Yes,  sir." 
W.—"-  Did  you  laugh,  John  ?" 
ii.— "  No,  sir." 

W. — "  Did  you  read  Damon  and  Pythias,  John  ?" 
£■.— "  Yes,  sir." 
W.—''  Did  you  cry,  John  ?" 
£".— "  No,  sir." 

W.,  hfting  up  his  eyes,  and  clasping  his  hands,  exclaimed :  "  O  earth 
—  earth — earth  !"^ 


^  Methodist  Magazme,  1781,  p.  185. 
2  Everett's  Life  of  Clarke.  ^  Ibid. 


*'  The  Fool  of  Quality.'"  343 

Whatever  may  be  thought  and  said  on  the  general  subject     1780 
of  novels  and  novel  reading,  all  must  admit,  that  "Henry,  Earl    k^i^ 
Moreland,"   is  one  of  the  most   unexceptionable   ever   pub- 
lished.    Wesley  writes : 

"  I  recommend  it  as  the  most  excellent  in  its  kind,  that  I  have  seen, 
either  in  the  English  or  any  other  language.  The  lowest  excellence 
therein  is  the  style,  which  is  not  only  pure  in  the  highest  degree,  not 
only  clear  and  proper,  every  word  being  used  in  its  true  genuine  meaning, 
but  frequently  beautiful  and  elegant,  and,  where  there  is  room  for  it,  truly 
sublime.  But  what  is  of  far  greater  value  is  the  admirable  sense,  which 
is  conveyed  herein :  as  it  sets  forth  in  full  view  most  of  the  important 
truths,  which  are  revealed  in  the  oracles  of  God.  And  these  are  not  only 
well  illustrated,  but  also  proved  in  an  easy,  natural  manner:  so  that  the 
thinking  reader  is  taught,  without  any  trouble,  the  most  essential  doctrines 
of  religion. 

"  But  the  greatest  excellence  of  all  in  this  treatise  is,  that  it  continually 
strikes  at  the  heart.  It  perpetually  aims  at  inspiring  and  increasing 
every  right  affection.  And  it  does  this,  not  by  dry,  dull,  tedious  precepts, 
but  by  the  liveliest  examples  that  can  be  conceived :  by  setting  before 
your  eyes  one  of  the  most  beautiful  pictures,  that  was  ever  drawn  in  the 
world.  The  strokes  of  this  are  so  delicately  fine,  the  touches  so  easy, 
natural,  and  affecting,  that  I  know  not  who  can  survey  it  with  tearless 
eyes,  unless  he  has  a  heart  of  stone.  I  recommend  it,  therefore,  to  all 
those  who  are  already,  or  desire  to  be,  lovers  of  God  and  man." 

The  whole  of  this  is  strictly  accurate;  and  if  this  is  not 
enough  to  justify  Wesley  in  the  eyes  of  faultfinders,  like 
earthy  John  Easton,  the  task  of  doing  so  must  be  abandoned 
as  a  hopeless  one.  Besides,  it  may  be  added,  that,  if  Wesley 
sinned,  his  successors  copied  his  example ;  for,  twenty-two 
years  after  Wesley's  death,  the  conference  book-room  pub- 
lished a  fourth  edition  of  the  novel  which  Wesley  first  pub- 
lished in  1780. 

4.  "A  Collection  of  Hymns  for  the  use  of  the  People  called 
Methodists."   i2mo,  520  pages. 

Up  to  this  period,  the  hymns  and  the  books  used  in  Method- 
ist congregations  had  been  endlessly  varying;  now  Wesley 
issued  a  book  which,  with  slight  alterations,  has  been  used 
from  that  time  to  this  ;  and  prefixed  the  preface  which  has 
been  read  by  millions ;  and  from  which,  therefore,  we  must 
content  ourselves  with  quoting  only  the  concluding  hint, 
which  is  far  more  needed  now  than  even  when  first  published. 

"Many  gentlemen  have  done   my    brother  and    me  (though  without 


344  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

naming  us)  the  honour  to  reprint  many  of  our  hymns.  Now  they  are 
perfectly  welcome  so  to  do,  provided  they  print  them  just  as  they  are. 
But  I  desire  they  would  not  attempt  to  mend  them ;  for  they  really  are 
not  able.  None  of  them  is  able  to  mend  either  the  sense  or  the  verse. 
Therefore,  I  must  beg  of  them  one  of  these  two  favours :  either  to  let 
them  stand  just  as  they  are,  to  take  them  for  better  for  worse ;  or  to  add 
the  true  reading  in  the  margin,  or  at  the  bottom  of  the  page ;  that  we  may 
no  longer  be  accountable  either  for  the  nonsense  or  for  the  doggerel  of 
other  men." 

5.  Wesley's  only  other  publication,  in  1780,  was  his  Ar- 
minian  Magazine,  8vo,  6Z^  pages,*  The  work  contains  Good- 
win's Paraphrase  on  Romans  ix. ;  an  extract  from  Bird's 
"  Fate  and  Destiny,  inconsistent  with  Christianity  ; "  lives  of 
Armelle  Nicolas  and  Gregory  Lopes ;  short  accounts  of 
Thomas  Lee,  Alexander  Mather,  John  Haime,  Thomas 
Mitchell,  Thomas  Taylor,  Thomas  Hanson,  Thomas  Hanby, 
and  John  IMason.  There  are  about  fifty  valuable  letters  ;  and 
about  seventy  poetic  pieces.  Also  Wesley's  "  Thought  on 
Necessity,"  and  "  Thoughts  upon  Taste." 

To  enlarge  concerning  these  is  superfluous.  The  volume 
was  quite  equal  to  the  former  ones;  though  Wesley  confesses, 
that  the  portraits  were  not  yet  such  as  he  desired;  and  de- 
clares, that  he  will  have  better,  or  none  at  all. 

*  I  am  not  quite  sure  of  this.  In  1780,  a  i2mo  tract  of  12  pages  was 
published  with  the  following  title: — "Jesus,  altogether  Lovely :  or, a  Letter 
to  some  of  the  Single  Women  of  the  Methodist  Society.  London:  Printed 
by  R.  Hawes ;  and  sold  at  the  New  Chapel,  in  the  City  Road ;  and  at  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Wesley's  Preaching  Houses,  in  town  and  country.  1780."  The 
letter  is  dated,  "  Hoxton,  March  10,  1763."  It  enforces  chastity,  poverty, 
and  obedience;  and  is  written  in  a  style  strongly  resembling  Wesley's. 


I78I. 

WESLEY  purposed  to  visit  Ireland  in  178 1,  but  was  1781 
prevented  doing  so ;  and,  hence,  the  months  he  Age"-8 
was  accustomed  to  spend  in  that  island  were  spent  in  an 
irregular  itinerancy  through  England  and  Wales.  He  now 
entered  on  the  seventy-ninth  year  of  his  age ;  and,  to  obtain 
something  like  a  correct  idea  of  his  amazing  energy  and  toil, 
it  may  be  useful  to  trace  his  footsteps  more  minutely  than  we 
have  been  wont  to  do  during  the  last  few  years. 

He  writes:  "January  i,  1781 — We  began,  as  usual,  the 
service  at  four"  (in  the  morning)  "praising  Him  who,  maugre  all 
our  enemies,  had  brought  us  safe  to  the  beginning  of  another 
year." 

At  this  period,  his  nephews,  Charles  and  Samuel  Wesley, 
were  attracting  great  attention  by  their  musical  performances. 
They  had  won  the  friendship  of  the  great  musical  composers. 
Dr.  Boyce,  Dr.  Nares,  and  Dr.  Burney.  Lords  Le  Despencer, 
Barrington,  Aylesford,  Dudley,  and  others,  were  enraptured 
with  them.  The  Earl  of  Mornington,  for  some  years,  break- 
fasted weekly  with  them.  Dr.  Howard,  the  distinguished 
organist,  declared  concerning  Samuel,  that  he  seemed  to  have 
"dropped  down  from  heaven."  Charles  was  introduced  to 
George  HI.,  with  whom  he  became  a  great  favourite.  The 
result  of  this  unparalleled  popularity  was  the  institution,  in 
Wesley's  brother's  house,  of  the  series  of  select  concerts, 
already  referred  to,  which  were  continued  for  several  years, 
the  regular  subscribers  varying  in  number  from  thirty  to  fifty, 
though  eighty  persons  were  often  present  ;  including  not  a 
few  of  the  English  nobility,  besides  the  Bishop  of  London, 
and  the  Danish  and  Saxon  ambassadors.  On  January  25, 
Wesley  was  there,  and  wrote :  "  I  spent  an  agreeable  hour 
at  a  concert  of  my  nephews.  But  I  was  a  little  out  of  my 
element  among  lords  and  ladies.  I  love  plain  music  and 
plain  company  best." 

It  was  during  this  brief  sojourn  in  London,  in  the  beginning 


n 


46  JLt/e  and  Times  of  Wesley. 


1781  of  1 78 1,  that  Wesley  wrote  his  stinging  sermon  on  "Little 
Age  78  children,  keep  yourselves  from  idols'';^  and  his  able  discourse 
on,  "For  this  purpose  was  the  Son  of  God  manifested,  that 
He  might  destroy  the  works  of  the  devil."  In  the  former 
he  terribly  belabours  the  man  of  business,  who  retires  from  the 
activities  of  town  to  the  laziness  of  country  life,  where  his 
only  employment  is  altering,  enlarging,  rebuilding,  or  decorat- 
ing the  old  mansion  house  he  has  purchased,  and  improving 
the  stables,  outhouses,  and  grounds,  without  ever  thinking  of 
the  God  of  heaven  any  more  than  he  thinks  of  the  king  of 
France.  In  the  latter  sermon,  he  strikes  a  heavy  blow  at  the 
heresy  of    Dr.  Watts,  which  Benson,   at   the   conference  of 

1780,  had  been  accused  of  embracing.     He  writes: 

"  I  cannot  at  all  believe  the  ingenious  dream  of  Dr.  Watts,  concerning 
the  glorious  humanity  of  Christ,  which  he  supposes  to  have  existed  before 
the  Avorld  began,  and  to  have  been  endued  with,  I  know  not  what, 
astonishing  powers.  Nay,  I  look  upon  this  to  be  an  exceeding  dangerous, 
yea,  mischievous  hypothesis  ;  as  it  quite  excludes  the  force  of  very  many 
Scriptures,  which  have  been  hitherto  thought  to  prove  the  Godhead  of  the 
Son.  And,  I  am  afraid,  it  was  the  grand  means  of  turning  that  great  man 
aside  from  the  faith  once  delivered  to  the  saints ;  that  is,  if  he  was  turned 
aside,  if  that  beautiful  soliloquy  be  genuine,  which  is  printed  among  his 
posthumous  works,  wherein  he  so  earnestly  beseeches  the  Son  of  God  not 
to  be  displeased,  because  he  cannot  believe  Him  to  be  coequal  and  co- 
eternal  with  the  Father." 

Both  these  sermons  enriched  the  Arniinian  Magazine  for 

178 1.  In  fact,  it  is  to  the  establishment  of  that  periodical, 
that  we  are  indebted  for  many  of  the  most  elaborated  sermons 
that  Wesley  ever  published.  Besides  the  two  above  mentioned, 
Wesley,  during  the  year  1781,  wrote  at  least  three  others. 
His  sermon  on  "  Zeal "  is  a  remarkable  production,  and  was 
not  inappropriate  to  the  circumstances  of  a  period  when  so 
much  excitement  existed  concerning  popery.     He  says  : 

"  Fervour  for  opinion  is  not  Christian  zeaL  How  innumerable  are  the 
mischiefs  which  this  species  of  false  zeal  has  occasioned  in  the  Christian 
world  !  How  many  of  the  excellent  of  the  earth  have  been  cut  off,  by 
zealots,  for  the  senseless  opinion  of  tran substantiation  !  Fervour  for 
indiffei-ent  tilings  is  not  Christian  zeal.  How  warmly  did  Bishop  Ridley, 
and  Bishop  Hooper,  and  other  great  men  of  that  age,  dispute  about 
the  sacerdotal  vestments  !     How  eager  was  the  contention,  for  almost  a 

*  Methodist  Magazine^  1781,  p.  303. 


JVeslcy  writing  Sermons.  347 

hundred  years,  for  and  against  wearing  a  surplice!    Oh,  shame  to  man  !       1 781 
I  would  as  soon  have  disputed  about  a  straw,  or  a  barleycorn !  "  ^  A~78 

Another  of  his  homilies,  written  in  1781/  was  his  able 
discourse  on  the  province  of  reason  in  matters  of  religion ; 
and  another  was  his  unique  sermon  on  "  The  Brute  Creation," 
in  which  he  unhesitatingly  propounds  the  doctrine,  not  only 
that  the  brute  creation  will  live  again,  but  likewise,  that, 
when  restored,  they  will  possess  a  far  higher  state  of  being 
than  they  possess  at  present ;  in  fact,  that  they  will  then  be 
made  what  beasts,  birds,  insects,  and  fishes  were  when  first 
created,^  This  may  seem  a  wild  theory  for  an  octogenarian 
to  advance  ;  but  it  deserves  more  attention,  on  that  account, 
than  if  it  had  been  an  imaginative  rocket  let  off  by  a  stripling 
in  his  teens. 

While  on  the  subject  of  sermons,  it  may  be  added,  that  it 
was  now  Wesley  published,  in  his  Arminian  Magazine, 
his  remarkable  discourse  on  the  "  Danger  of  Riches," — the 
first  of  a  series  on  that  subject,  which  he  continued  to  issue 
to  the  end  of  life,  and  in  which  wealthy  Methodists  and  others 
are  lashed  with  terrific  power.  "  I  do  not  remember,"  says  he, 
"  that  in  threescore  years  I  have  heard  one  sermon  preached 
on  this  subject.  And  what  author,  within  the  same  term,  has 
declared  it  from  the  press  ?  I  do  not  know  one.  I  have  seen 
two  or  three  who  just  touch  upon  it ;  but  none  that  treat 
of  it  professedly.  I  have  myself  frequently  touched  upon  it 
in  preaching,  and  twice  in  what  I  have  published  to  the 
world :  once  in  explaining  our  Lord's  sermon  on  the  mount, 
and  once  in  the  discourse  on  the  mammon  of  unrighteous- 
ness. But  I  have  never  yet  either  published  or  preached 
any  sermon  expressly  upon  the  subject.  It  is  high  time 
I  should  ;  that  I  should  at  length  speak  as  strongly  and 
explicitly  as  I  can,  in  order  to  leave  a  full  and  clear  testimony 
behind  me,  whenever  it  pleases  God  to  call  me  hence." 

One  extract  from  this  striking  sermon  must  suffice. 

"  O  ye  Methodists,  hear  the  word  of  the  Lord  !  I  have  a  message 
from  God  to  all  men  ;  but  to  yoii  above  all.  Yox  above  forty  years,  I 
have  been  a  servant  to  you  and  to  your  fathers.     And  I  have  not  been 


^  Methodist  Magazine,  1781,  p.  522.  ^Vdxdi.  p.  636. 

3  Ibid.  1782,  p.  69. 


o 


48  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 


1 781  as  a  reed  shaken  by  the  wind;  I  have  not  varied  in  my  testimony.  I 
—  have  testified  to  you  the  very  same  thing,  from  the  first  day  even  until 
^^  ^  now.  But  who  hath  believed  our  report?  I  fear  not  many  rich.  I  fear 
there  is  need  to  apply  to  some  of  yoti  those  terrible  words  of  the  apostle : 
*  Go  to  now,  ye  rich  men  !  Weep  and  howl  for  the  miseries  which  shall 
come  upon  you.  Your  gold  and  silver  is  cankered,  and  the  rust  of 
them  shall  witness  against  you,  and  shall  eat  your  flesh  as  it  were  fire.' 
Certainly  it  will,  unless  you  both  save  all  you  can,  and  give  all  you  can. 
But  who  of  you  hath  considered  this,  since  you  first  heard  the  will  of  the 
Lord  concerning  it  ?  Who  is  now  determined  to  consider  and  practise 
it  ?    By  the  grace  of  God,  begin  to  day  ! 

"  O  ye  lovers  of  money,  hear  the  word  of  the  Lord  !  Suppose  ye,  that 
money,  though  multiplied  as  the  sand  of  the  sea,  can  give  you  happi- 
ness ?  Then  you  are  given  up  to  a  strong  delusion,  to  believe  a  lie — a 
palpable  lie,  confuted  daily  by  a  thousand  experiments.  Open  your  eyes. 
Look  all  around  you  !  Are  the  richest  men  the  happiest  ?  Have  those 
the  largest  share  of  content, who  have  the  largest  possessions?  Is  not 
the  very  reverse  true?  Is  it  not  a  common  observation,  that  the  richest 
of  men  are,  in  general,  the  most  discontented,  the  most  miserable?  Had 
not  the  far  greater  part  of  them  more  content,  when  they  had  less  money  ? 
Look  into  your  own  breasts.  If  you  are  increased  in  goods,  are  you  pro- 
portionably  increased  in  happiness  ?  You  have  more  substance ;  but  have 
you  more  content  ?  You  know  the  contrary.  You  know  that,  in  seeking 
happiness  from  riches,  you  are  only  striving  to  drink  out  of  empty  cups. 
And  let  them  be  painted  and  gilded  ever  so  finely,  they  are  empty  still." 

Before  we  recur  to  Wesley's  journal,  an  unpublished  letter 
may  be  acceptable. 

The  preachers  "now  labouring  in  the  Sheffield  circuit  were 
James  Rogers,  Alexander  M'Nab,  and  Samuel  Bardsley.  Mr. 
Rogers  writes  :  "  One  of  my  fellow  labourers  did  not  lovingly 
draw  in  the  same  yoke,  and  soon  after  left  the  connexion. 
The  uneasiness  occasioned  in  the  society  by  his  disaffection, 
for  some  months,  threatened  us  with  disagreeable  conse- 
quences ;  and  our  enemies  expected  a  considerable  division 
amone  us;  but  'He  that  sitteth  above  the  waterfloods ' 
found  means  to  prevent  it.  So  that  instead  of  losing  in 
our  number,  we  found,  at  the  end  of  the  year,  an  increase 
of  ninety-seven  members." 

Of  course,  this  refers  to  Alexander  M'Nab,  who  had 
rebelled  against  Wesley's  authority  in  1779.  Samuel 
Bardsley  was  a  man  of  peace,  and,  moreover,  one  of  the 
most  laborious  preachers  Wesley  had.  Besides  his  pulpit 
labours,  he  had  rendered  great  service  to  the  Sheffield  society. 


Samuel  Bardsleys  begging  Tour.  349 

by  a  preaching  excursion,  undertaken  for  the  purpose  of  1781 
obtaining  subscriptions  for  their  chapel.  His  collecting  book  Age~78 
is  before  us,  with  a  list  of  the  collections  he  made,  and  the 
donations  he  obtained,  in  a  tour  extending  from  Sheffield  to 
York,  thence  to  Hull,  and  thence,  along  the  east  coast,  to 
Newcastle  on  Tyne.  Altogether,  he  gathered  the  sum  of 
iJ"89  I5J-.  11^/.;  and,  in  doing  this,  made  thirty-one  public 
collections,  amounting,  in  the  aggregate,  to  ;^30  1 5 J.  6f<^., 
and  begged  the  balance  of  ^^59  os.  Af\d.,  of  considerably  more 
than  three  hundred  different  subscribers,  including  in  this 
number  the  inhabitants  of  not  fewer  than  forty-four  towns 
and  villages,  whose  munificent  donations  are  lumped  together. 
When  Bardsley  had  completed  his  tour,  Wesley  wrote  him  as 

follows. 

"Near  London,  February  10,  1781. 
"Dear   Sammy, — I   did    not   doubt  but  you   would    agree  with  the 
people  of  Sheffield.     They  are  a  loving  and  affectionate  people.     I  am 
glad   you  were   so    successful  in  your  labour  of  love  for  them.      That 
assistance  was  very  seasonable. 

"  That  misunderstanding,  which  was  troublesome  for  a  season,  may 
now  be  buried  for  ever,  I  am  perfectly  well  satisfied,  both  of  the  honesty 
and  affection,  both  of  brother  Woodcroft  and  brother  Birks.  So  Satan's 
devices  are  brought  to  nought. 

"  I  doubt  not  but  James  Rogers  and  you  recommend  our  books  in  every 
place,  and  the  magazines  in  particular,  which  will  be  a  testimony  for  me, 
when  I  am  no  more  seen. 

"  I  am,  dear  Sammy,  your  affectionate  brother, 

"John  Wesley."' 

On  the  1 2th  of  February,  Wesley  set  out  on  a  week's 
excursion  to  Norfolk  and  back  again  to  London,  preaching 
at  least  ten  sermons  on  the  way ;  ^  and,  in  wintry  weather, 
travelling  more  than  two  hundred  miles. 

Having  spent  a  few  more  days  in  London,  he  then  started, 
on  Sunday,  INIarch  4,  (as  he  thought,)  for  Ireland,  but  spent  a 
fortnight  in  the  vicinity  of  Bath  and  Bristol.  Leaving 
Bristol  on  March  19,  eleven  days  were  occupied  in  reaching 
Manchester,  during  which  he  preached  more  than  twenty 
sermons,  some  of  them  in  the  open  air. 

On   ]\Iarch  30,  he   opened  the  chapel  in  Oldham  Street, 

'  Original  manuscript  letter. 

2  Methodist  Magazine,  1845,  p.  8. 


350  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1 781  Manchester.  He  writes  :  "Friday,  March  30 — I  opened  the 
A"e~78  risw  chapel  at  Manchester,  about  the  size  of  that  in  London. 
The  whole  congregation  behaved  with  the  utmost  seriousness. 
I  trust  much  good  will  be  done  in  this  place.  Sunday,  April  I 
— I  began  reading  prayers  at  ten  o'clock.  Our  country  friends 
flocked  in  from  all  sides.  At  the  communion  was  such  a  sight 
as  I  am  persuaded  was  never  seen  in  Manchester  before : 
eleven  or  twelve  hundred  communicants  at  once  ;  and  all  of 
them  fearing  God." 

Thus  began  the  history  of  a  building,  which,  next  to  the 
chapel  in  City  Road,  is  the  most  interesting  Methodist 
edifice  in  existence.  First  of  all,  the  Manchester  Methodists 
had  been  located  in  a  miserable  room  on  or  near  the  present 
site  of  Bateman's  Buildings.  Removing  thence,  in  1750,  they 
worshipped  for  thirty  years  in  their  first  chapel,  which,  up  to 
a  recent  period,  was  a  warehouse  in  Birchin  Lane.^  Among 
the  first  members,  in  that  old  chapel,  were  :  Mary  Bromley, 
for  seventy  years  a  Methodist,  who  died  happy  in  God,  at  the 
age  of  eighty-nine,  in  1826  : — Mrs.  Leech,  an  upright  follower 
of  Christ,  who  expired  in  the  full  assurance  of  a  blessed 
immortality  in  1770: — John  Morris,  whose  autobiography,  in 
the  Arminian  Magazine  for  1795,  will  be  found  to  be  full  of 
more  than  romantic  interest : — Mr.  Fildes,  who,  in  the  same 
year  in  which  Raikes  began  his  work  at  Gloucester,  opened  a 
Sunday-school  in  a  Manchester  cellar,  a  second  in  a  garret, 
and  a  third  in  the  first  room  in  Manchester  built  expressly 
for  Sunday-school  purposes,  a  room  erected  at  Mr,  Fildes' 
own  expense,  behind  his  own  dwelling  house,  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  London  Road  '} — Adam  Oldham,  a  feltmaker, 
one  of  the  first  trustees  of  Birchin  Lane  chapel,^  who  lived  in  a 
house  on  the  site  which  theAlbion  Hotel  now  occupies,  for  many 
years  a  useful  Methodist,*  but  afterwards  a  rich  backslider,  to 
whom  Oldham  Street  owes  its  name  : — Richard  Barlow,  who, 
for  sixty-five  years,  rose  at  half-past  four  in  summer,  and  at 
five  in  winter : — Mr.  Brierley,  a  member  of  Peter  Kenworthy's 
class,  the  leading  singer  in  Oldham  Street  chapel,  and  after- 
wards a  magistrate  : — John  Moseley,  a  poor  hatter  in  Mill- 

^  Methodist  Magazine,  1851,  p.  556.  ^  Ibid,  i860,  p.  379. 

'  Manuscript.  ■*  Methodist  Magazine,  1782,  p.  331. 


MetJiodism  in  Manchester,  and  Bolton.         351 


gate,   the   grandfather  of  Sir  Oswald  Moseley,  from  whom      1781 
Moseley    Street    derived   its   name : — and   Mrs.    Bennett,   a    Age^S 
relative  of  John  Moseley 's,  and  the  first  female  classleader  in 
Manchester.!     We  wish  we  had  space  for  details  respecting 
these  old  Manchester   Methodist  worthies,  who   deserve  far 
more  honourable  record  than  they  have  yet  received. 

From  Manchester,  Wesley  went  to  Bolton,  where  he  writes: 
"The  society  here  are  true,  original  Methodists.  They  are 
not  conformed  to  the  world,  either  in  its  maxims,  its  spirit,  or 
its  fashions  ;  but  are  simple  followers  of  the  Lamb ;  conse- 
quently they  increase  both  in  grace  and  number." 

This  was  a  high  compliment  to  pay  to  George  Escrick  and 
his  friends.  Their  old  chapel  in  New  Acres  had  been  con- 
verted into  cottages  ;  and,  in  1776,  they  had  built  another  in 
Ridgway  Gates,  though  not  without  a  united  and  great  effort. 
The  Rev.  Mr.  Fowles,  a  clergyman,  had  the  management  of 
a  sandbed  from  which  they  had  to  obtain  their  sand  ;  and 
hearing  of  their  intentions,  he  announced,  that,  after  the 
expiration  of  five  days,  the  sand  would  be  charged  half-a- 
crown  a  load.  This,  to  the  poor  Methodists,  was  a  serious 
matter ;  but  George  Escrick  was  a  man  of  too  much 
energy  to  be  easily  defeated.  Accordingly,  he,  at  once, 
requested  all  the  Methodists,  young  and  old,  strong  and 
feeble,  active  and  otherwise,  to  repair  with  him  to  the 
sandpit,  and  to  dig  and  convey  away  all  the  sand  they 
needed.  To  a  man,  they  obeyed  George's  injunction,  and,  in 
a  single  day,  got  as  much  as  their  intended  chapel  was 
likely  to  require.  Michael  Fenwick  was  then  their  preacher, 
and  kept  running  over  the  half-a-mile  distance,  between  the 
site  of  the  new  chapel  and  the  clerical  sandbed,  encouraging 
the  people  in  their  task,  and,  at  one  time,  wanting  to  sing  the 
hymn  beginning  with  "Before  Jehovah's  awful  throne";  but 
blunt  George  Escrick,  the  weaver,  imperatively  stopped  his 
spiritual  superior,  telling  him  to  take  a  spade  in  his  hand,  for 
there  was  a  time  for  all  things,  and  this  was  a  time  to  dig. 

In  this  old  Ridgway  Gates  cliapel,  William  Grime  used  to 
conduct  a  band  meeting  every  Sunday  morning  at  four 
o'clock ;    and,    beneath    it,     Parson    Greenwood,  one  of  the 

*  Manuscript. 


352  Life  and  Times  of  IVesley. 

^7^1  circuit  preachers,  whose  only  home  was  two  neighbouring 
Age  78  attics,  used  to  keep  his  victuals.^  The  head  of  the  circuit 
was  Liverpool,  and  the  following  were  the  munificent  sums 
contributed  quarterly,  by  the  several  societies,  in  1776,  when 
the  chapel  was  completed.  Liverpool,  ^^5  8j-.  ()d.  ;  Bolton, 
£"]  \\s.  yd.;  Preston,  lis.;  Wigan,  £1  los.;  Meols,  lis.  ;  Top 
of  Coal  Pits,  lys.  ;  Edgeworth,  lOi".  6d.  ;  Moulden  Water, 
ys.)  Shackerley,  ioj-.  ;  Aspul  Moor,  ys.)  Chowbent,  los.  6d.; 
Warrington,  £1  is.)  Northwich,  £1  is.;  Budworth,  12s.  ^d.  ; 
Little  Leigh,  £1  gs.  6d.  ;  and  Lamberhead  Green,  ys.  6d. 
.  Such  was  Liverpool  circuit  in  1776 ;  and,  out  of  these 
Methodist  contributions,  three  Methodist  preachers  and  their 
families  had  to  be  supported.  No  wonder  that  the  cupboard, 
beneath  the  pulpit  of  the  old  chapel,  was  big  enough  to  serve 
Parson  Greenwood  for  a  pantry. 

From  Bolton,  Wesley  went  to  Wigan,  and  preached  a 
funeral  sermon  for  Betty  Brown,  one  of  the  first  members  of 
Wigan  society,  "  beloved  of  God,  the  delight  of  His  children, 
a  dread  to  wicked  men,  and  a  torment  to  devils." 

Leaving  Wigan,  Wesley  proceeded  to  Chester,  and  thence 
to  Alpraham,  where  he  did  for  "  good  old  sister  Cawley,  a 
mother  in  Israel,  and  a  pattern  of  all  good  works,"  what  he 
had  done  for  Betty  Brown.  Arriving  at  Warrington,  he  says  : 
"  I  put  a  stop  to  a  bad  custom,  which  was  creeping  in  here  : 
a  few  men,  who  had  fine  voices,  sang  a  psalm  which  no 
one  knew,  in  a  tune  fit  for  an  opera,  wherein  three,  four,  or 
five  persons  sung  different  words  at  the  same  time  !  What 
an  insult  upon  common  sense  !  What  a  burlesque  upon  public 
worship  !  No  custom  can  excuse  such  a  mixture  of  profane- 
ness  and  absurdity." 

Desiring  to  reach  Ireland  as  soon  as  possible,  Wesley  em- 
barked at  Liverpool,  on  the  12th  of  April;  but,  on  getting 
out  to  sea,  was  overtaken  with  a  storm  ;  and,  in  an  hour,  was 
so  affected  as  he  had  not  been  for  forty  years  before.  For 
two  days,  he  was  unable  to  swallow  anything  solid  larger  than 
a  pea,  and  was  bruised  and-  sore  from  head  to  foot,  and  ill 
able  to  turn  himself  in  bed.  The  sea  grew  rougher ;  the 
horses  of  Wesley  and  his  companions  became  turbulent ;  and 

'  Manuscript. 


Mary  Charlton. 


JO  J 


the  hatches  were  closed.  Water,  three  feet  in  depth,  was  in  17S1 
the  hold  ;  the  ship  refused  to  obey  the  helm,  and  was  Age  7S 
furiously  driving  on  lee  shore.  Wesley  says  :  "  I  called  our 
brethren,  Floyd,  Snowden,  and  Bradford,  to  prayers ;  and  we 
found  free  access  to  the  throne  of  grace.  Soon  after,  we  got, 
I  know  not  how,  into  Holyhead  harbour,  after  being  suffi- 
ciently buffeted  by  the  winds  and  waves  for  two  days  and 
two  nights.  The  niDre  I  considered,  the  more  I  was  con- 
vinced, it  was  not  the  will  of  God  I  should  go  to  Ireland  at 
this  time.  So  we  went  into  the  stage  coach  without  delay, 
and  the  next  evening  came  to  Chester." 

Baffled  in  his  purpose  to  visit  Ireland,  Wesley  set  out  on  a 
preaching  tour  to  Whitchurch,  Shrewsbury,  Brecon,  Broseley, 
Worcester,  Brecknock,  Carmarthen,  Pembroke,  Haverford- 
west, Tracoon,  Newport,  Narberth,  Llanelly,  Swansea,  Neath, 
Bridgend,  Cowbridge,  Cardiff,  and  Monmouth.  On  the  i6th 
of  May,  he  got  back  to  W^orcester,  having  completed  the 
circuit  in  a  month,  and  preached  about  thirty  times. 

He  now  proceeded  to  Kidderminster,  Salop,  Whitchurch, 
Nantwich,  Northwich,  and,  on  May  18,  arrived  in  Manchester, 
having  preached  each  night  and  morning. 

At  Manchester,  he  writes  :  "  I  preached  a  funeral  sermon 
for  Mary  Charlton,  an  Israelite  indeed.  From  the  hour  that 
she  first  knew  the  pardoning  love  of  God,  she  never  lost 
sight  of  it  for  a  moment.  Eleven  years  ago,  she  believed  that 
God  had  cleansed  her  from  all  sin  ;  and  she  showed,  that 
she  had  not  believed  in  vain,  by  her  holy  and  unblamable 
conversation." 

Molly  Charlton  was  the  sweetheart  of  good  old  Samuel 
Bardsley,  the  only  one  he  ever  had.  They  wished  to  marry ; 
but  the  difficulty  of  providing  for  married  preachers  was  so 
great,  that  Wesley  and  Pawson  interfered,  and  the  nuptial 
engagement  was  broken  off.  In  four  quarto  manuscript 
volumes,  containing  Bardsley's  diary,  and  in  Pawson's  letter 
concerning  this  business,  and  likewise  the  letter  of  poor 
disappointed  Molly  (all  in  the  writer's  possession),  there  are 
some  racy  facts,  and  traits  of  personal  character,  which  may 
be  given  to  the  public  at  some  future  time. 

Leaving  Manchester  on  May  21,  Wesley  made  his  way  to 
Warrington,  Chowbent,  Bolton,  Kabb,  Blackburn,  and  Preston. 

VOL.   III.  A  A 


354  Z?/^  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1781  In  reference  to  the  last  mentioned  place,  he  writes  :  "May 

Age~7S    -4 — I   went  on  to  Preston,  where  the  old  prejudice  seems  to 

be  quite  forgotten.     The  little  society  has  fitted  up  a  large 

and  convenient  room,  where  I  preached  to  a  candid  audience: 

Every  one  seemed  to  be  considerably  affected." 

Who  was  the  founder  of  this  little  society  ?  Twelve  years 
previous  to  Wesley's  visit,  John  Wood,  one  of  the  first 
Methodists  at  Padiham,  attended  Preston  sessions,  to  obtain 
a  licence  to  preach.  Having  granted  it,  one  of  the  magis- 
trates, a  clergyman,  seeing  a  number  of  rude  and  noisy 
people  outside  the  sessions  house,  said  to  John,  perhaps  with 
more  sarcasm  than  sincerity:  "There,  go  and  reform  that 
crowd  !"  John  bowed,  thanked  his  worship  for  his  licence, 
left  the  court,  entered  the  crowd  in  full  authority,  and 
preached  in  peace.^  Six  years  after  this,  in  177S,  Samuel 
Bradburn  formed  the  first  Methodist  class  in  Preston;^  and 
now,  in  178 1,  Martha  Thompson,  Roger  Crane,  William 
Bramwell,  of  immortal  memory,  and  a  few  others,  had  hired 
an  old  calendering  house,  in  Lord  Street,  for  a  place  of 
meeting,  and  had  fairly  begun  a  work  in  proud  Preston, 
which,  despite  the  popery  of  the  place,  has  grown  into 
one  of  the  most  prosperous  societies  in  the  kingdom. 

Wesley  next  proceeded  to  the  Isle  of  Man,  where  he  spent 
eight  days,  "  visited  the  island  round,  east,  south,  north,  and 
west " ;  preached,  at  least,  a  dozen  times ;  and,  in  a  popula- 
tion of  thirty  thousand,  found  above  two  thousand  Methodists, 
with  a  score  of  "stout,  well  looking"  local  preachers,  not 
surpassed  in  England.  "  I  was  thoroughly  convinced,"  says 
he,  "that  we  have  no  such  circuit  as  this,  cither  in 
England,  Scotland,  or  Ireland.  It  is  shut  up  from  the 
world ;  and,  having  little  •  trade,  is  visited  by  scarce  any 
strangers.  Here  are  no  papists,  no  Dissenters  of  any  kind, 
no  Calvinists,  no  disputers.  Here  is  no  opposition,  either 
from  the  governor,  from  the  bishop,  or  from  the  bulk  of  the 
clergy.  One  or  two  of  them  did  oppose  for  a  time ;  but 
they  seem  now  to  understand  better.  So  that  we  have  now 
rather  too  little  than  too  much  reproach.  The  natives  are  a 
plain,  artless,  simple  people;  unpolished,  that  is,  unpolluted; 


'  Manuscript.  *  Bradburn's  Memoirs,  p.  47. 


Fair  weather  Preachers.  355 


few  of  them  are  rich  or  genteel ;  the  far  greater  part,  mode-     1781 
rately  poor.     The  local  preachers  are  men  of  faith  and  love,     A^yS 
knit  together  in  one  mind  and  one  judgment     They  speak 
either  Manx  or  English,  and  follow  a  regular  plan,  which  the 
assistant  gives  them  monthly." 

On  leaving  the  Isle  of  Man,  Wesley  proceeded  to  New- 
castle, preaching,  on  the  way,  at  Cockermouth,  Ballantyne, 
and  Carlisle. 

Can  it  be  that  this  flying  evangelist  was  an  old  man  of 
nearly  eighty  }     No  wonder  that  he  sometimes  sang — 

"  Oh  that  without  one  lingering  groan 
I  may  the  welcome  word  receive, 
My  body  with  my  charge  lay  down, 
And  cease  at  once  to  work  and  live  !" 

Without  work,  Wesley  could  not  live.  The  following  un- 
published letter,  written  at  this  period,  is  strongly  character- 
istic of  the  man.     It  was  addressed  to  Samuel  Bradburn,  at 

Keighley. 

''June  16,  1781. 
"  Dear  Sammy, — We  have  no  supernumerary  preachers,  except 
John  Furz,  who  is  so  from  old  age.  If  John  Oliver  lives  till  the  con- 
ference, and  desires  it,  I  suppose  he  may  be  upon  the  same  footing. 
The  more  exercise  he  uses,  winter  or  summer,  the  more  health  he  will 
have,  I  can  face  the  north  wind  at  seventy-seven  better  than  I  could  at 
seven-and-twenty.  But  if  you  nioait  over  him,  you  will  kill  him  outright. 
A  word  in  your  ear.  I  am  but  half  pleased  with  Christopher  Hopper's 
proceedings.^  I  do  not  3.dm\xe  fair  weather  preachers.  You  must  stop 
local  preachers  who  are  loaded  with  debt.  There  are  few  healthier 
places  in  England  than  Keighley.  Neither  Dublin  nor  Cork  is  to  com- 
pare with  it.  But  have  a  care !  or  you  will  kill  Betsy !  Do  not  constrain 
God  to  take  her  away  ! 

"  I  am,  dear  Sammy,  your  affectionate  friend  and  brother, 

"John  Wesley." 

Wesley  spent  eight  days  at  Newcastle,  and  in  its  vicinity, 
and  preached,  at  least,  ten  or  a  dozen  times.  He  then  visited 
his  societies  between  there  and  York.  At  Thirsk,  in  a 
letter  to  his  brother,  Wesley  wTOte  : 

"Thirsk,  Juue  27,  1781. 
"Dear  Brother, — This  is  the  last  day  of  my  seventy-eighth  year; 
and  (such  is  the  power  of  God)   I  feel  as  if  it  were  my  twenty-eighth. 
Next  Saturday,  I  expect  to  be  at  Epworth  ;  the  second,  at  Boston  ;  the 

^Then  at  Colne,  in  the  thirty-fourth  year  of  his  itinerancy. 


2)^6  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

17S1      third,    at    Sheffield.      I  take  the  opportunity  of  a  broken  year,  to   visit 
.■~^g    those  parts  of  Lincolnshire,  which  I  have  not  seen  before,  but  once,  these 
twenty  years. 

"From  several,  I  have  lately  heard,  that  God  has  blessed  your  preach- 
ing. See  your  calling!  'Cease  at  once  to  work  and  live!'  Peace  be 
with  all  your  spirits ! 

"John  Wesley."^ 

Two  days  after  this,  Wesley  arrived  at  Epworth,  and 
wrote  :  "  I  have  now  preached  thrice  a  day  for  seven  days 
following ;  but  it  is  just  the  same  as  if  it  had  been  but  one." 
Twelve  days  were  spent  in  Lincolnshire,  during  which  he 
preached  more  than  a  score  of  sermons.  Among  other  places, 
Grantham  was  favoured  with  his  ministry.  He  writes : 
"July  9 — I  preached  at  Grantham,  in  the  open  air,  for  no 
house  would  contain  the  congregation;  and  none  made  the 
least  disturbance." 

At  the  village  of  Welby,  the  Rev.  W.  Dodwell  was 
minister ;  and,  in  his  church,  Wesley  preached  twice  on  the 
day  before  he  preached  at  Grantham,  Mr.  Dodwell  was 
the  pastor  of  Welby  parish  for  nearly  half  a  century,  and 
died  in  1824,  when  he  presented,  by  deed  of  gift,  i^  10,000 
to  the  Wesleyan  Missionary  Society,  and  an  equal  sum  to 
the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society.^  He  was  present  at 
Wesley's  conference  of  preachers  in  1782.' 

After  visiting  many  other  societies  in  Lincolnshire  during 
the  next  ten  days,  Wesley,  on  July  23,  '•  passed  into  York- 
shire," and  preached  at  Yeadon,  Bradford,  Halifax,  Greetland, 
Hudderstield,  Longwood  House,  Mirficld,  Daw  Green,  Birstal, 
Tadcaster,  York,  Malton,  Scarborough,  Beverley,  Hull,  and 
Pocklington ;  and,  at  the  beginning  of  August,  arrived  in 
Leeds,  for  the  purpose  of  holding  his  annual  conference  ;  but, 
before  giving  an  account  of  its  proceedings,  two  letters  to 
two  ladies,  both  written  on  the  same  day,  will  be  acceptable. 
The  first  was  to  his  niece.  Miss  Sarah  Wesley,  then  a  young 
lady  about  twenty — afterwards  a  personal  friend  of  a  large 
and  distinguished  literary  circle,  including  Mrs.  Hannah 
More,    Miss  Porter,  Miss  Aikin,  Miss  Edgeworth,  Mrs.   Bar- 


^  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xii.,  p.   138. 

^  "  History  of  Methodism  in  Grantham." 

3  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xii.,  p.  475. 


Wesley  s  Letter  to  his  Niece,  357 

bauld,  and    others, — and  who  died  in   1828,  at   the    age    of     1781 
sixty-eight,  some  of  her  last  words  being,  "  I  have  peace,  but     a^^s 
not  joy."  ^ 

"Near  Leeds,  July  17,  1781. 

"  My  dear  Sally, — Without  an  endeavour  to  please  God,  and  to  give 
up  our  own  will,  we  never  shall  attain  His  favour.  But  till  we  have  at- 
tained it,  till  we  have  the  Spirit  of  adoption,  we  cannot  actually  give  up 
our  own  wills  to  Him.  Shall  I  tell  you  freely  what  I  judge  to  be  the  grand 
hindrance  to  your  attaining  it  ?  Yea,  to  your  attaining  more  health  both 
of  body  and  mind  than  you  have  ever  had,  or,  at  least,  for  a  long  season  ? 
I  believe  it  is,  what  very  few  people  are  aware  of,  intemperance  in  sleep. 
All  are  intemperate  in  sleep,  who  sleep  more  than  nature  requires ;  and  how 
much  it  does  require  is  easily  known.  There  is,  indeed,  no  universal  rule, 
— none  that  will  suit  all  constitutions.  But,  after  all  the  observations  and 
experience  I  have  been  able  to  make  for  upwards  of  fifty  years,  I  am 
fully  persuaded  that  men,  in  general,  need  between  six  and  seven  hours- 
sleep  in  twenty-four;  and  women,  in  general,  a  little  more, — namely  be- 
tween seven  and  eight. 

"  But  what  ill  consequences  are  there  in  lying  longer  in  bed, — suppose 
nine  hours  in  four-and-twenty  ? 

"  I.  It  hurts  the  body.  Whether  you  sleep  or  no,  (and,  indeed,  it  com- 
monly prevents  sound  sleep,)  it,  as  it  were,  soddens  and  parboils  the  flesh, 
and  sows  the  seeds  of  numerous  disorders ;  of  all  nervous  diseases  in 
particular,  as  weakness,  faintness,  lowness  of  spirits,  nervous  headaches, 
and  consequent  weakness  of  sight. 

"  2.  It  hurts  the  mind ;  it  weakens  the  understanding ;  it  blunts  the 
imagination  ;  it  weakens  the  memory  ;  it  dulls  all  the  nobler  affections. 
It  takes  off  the  edge  of  the  soul,  impairs  its  vigour  and  firmness,  and 
infuses  a  wrong  softness,  quite  inconsistent  with  the  character  of  a  good 
soldier  of  Jesus  Christ.  It  grieves  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God,  and  prevents, 
or,  at  least,  lessens,  those  blessed  influences  which  tend  to  make  you,  not 
almost,  but  altogether,  a  Christian. 

"  I  advise  you,  therefore,  from  this  day  forward,  not  trusting  in  yourself, 
but  in  Him  that  raiseth  the  dead,  to  take  exactly  so  much  sleep  as  nature 
requires.  If  you  need  between  seven  and  eight  hours,  then,  in  the  name 
of  God,  begin  this  very  night,  in  spite  of  all  temptation  to  the  contrarj'. 
Lie  down  at  ten  o'clock,  and  rise  between  five  and  six,  whether  you  sleep 
or  no.  If  your  head  aches  in  the  day,  bear  it.  In  a  week  you  will  sleep 
sound.  If  you  can  take  this  advice,  you  may  receive  more  from, 
"  My  dear  Sally,  yours  most  affectionately, 

"John  Wesley." 2 

The  other  letter  was  addressed  to  Miss  Bishop,  who  became 
a  Methodist  about  the  year  1767,  and  who,  from  that  time, 

'  Jackson's  Life  of  C.  Wesley ;  and  Methodist  Magazine,  182S,  p.  719. 
2  Methodist  Magazine,  1844,  p.  288. 


358  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1 781  had  been  one  of  Wesley's  correspondents.  Many  of  his  most 
AgTjS  spiritual  letters  were  written  to  this  Christian  lady,  who, 
though  poor,  was  a  gentlewoman.  For  some  years,  she  had 
kept  a  school  in  Bath  or  its  neighbourhood;  but,  in  1777,  had 
been  seized  with  spitting  of  blood,  and  had  been  thrown  upon 
the  kindness  of  her  friends  in  Bristol.^  Recently,  however, 
she  had  comxmenced  another  school  at  Keynsham,  which,  said 
Wesley,  "is  worthy  to  be  called  a  Christian  school;"^  though, 
it  would  seem,  some  of  the  Bristol  people  wished  to  make  it 
more  fashionable  than  Wesley  liked. 

"Near  Leeds,  July  17,  1781. 
"My  dear  Sister, — If  I  live  to  meet  the  society  in  Bristol  again,  I 
shall  kill  or  cure  the  fault  of  those  unwise  and  unkind  parents,  who  make 
their  children  finer  than  themselves.  I  shall  make  their  ears  tingle.  As 
to  you,  I  advise  you,  first,  to  be  a  Bible  Christian  yourself,  inwardly  and 
outwardly.  Be  not  a  hair's  breadth  more  conformable  to  the  fashions  of 
the  world  than  you  were  when  I  saw  you  last.  Then,  train  up  your 
children  in  the  selfsame  way.  Say  to  them,  with  all  rruldness  and  firmness, 
*  Be  ye  followers  of  me,  even  as  I  am  of  Christ.'  Whoever  is  pleased  or 
displeased,  keep  to  this;  to  Christian, primitive  simplicity.  Perhaps  you 
will  at  first  lose  some  scholars  thereby ;  but  regard  it  not :  God  will  pro- 
vide you  more.  And  be  assured,  nothing  shall  be  wanting  that  is  in  the 
power  of, 

"  My  dear  sister,  your  affectionate  friend  and  brother, 

"John  Wesley." ^ 

Two  or  three  other  letters  may  be  given  here.     The  first  is 
copied  from  the  original  now  before  us,  and,  we  believe,  has 

not  before  been  published. 

"Near  Leeds,  7///r  25,  1781. 
"  My  dear  Brother,—  As  long  as  you  give  yourself  up  to  God  with- 
out reserve,  you  may  be  assured  He  will  give  you  His  blessingi  Indeed, 
you  have  already  received  a  thousand  blessings  ;  but  the  greatest  of  all  is 
yet  behind; — Christ  in  a  sinless  heart,  reigning  the  Lord  of  every  motion 
there.  It  is  good  for  you  to  hold  fast  what  you  have  attained,  and  to  be 
continually  aspiring  after  this.  And  you  will  never  find  more  life  in  your 
own  soul  than  while  you  are  earnestly  exhorting  others  to  go  on  to  per- 
fection. Many  will  blame  you  for  doing  it  ;  but  regard  not  that.  Go  on, 
through  honour  and  dishonour.  This  one  thing  I  do,  is  your  motto;  I 
will  save  my  own  soiil  and  them  that  hear  me. 

"  I  am,  your  affectionate  brother, 

"J,  Wesley." 

*  Manuscript  letter  by  Miss  March. 

^  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  iv.,  p.  207. 

3  Methodist  Magazitie,  1807,  p.  471  ;  and  .Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xiii.,  p.  36. 


Wesley's  Letter  to  Jiis  Niece.  359 

Wesley  had  told  his  niece,  that,  if  she  took  his  advice  with      1781 
respect  to  sleep,  she  might  hear  from  him  again.     It  seems,    AeTyS 
the  advice  was  adopted;   hence  the  following  letter,  written 
seven  weeks  after  the  former  one. 

"  Bristol,  September  4,  17S1. 

"My  dear  Sally, — It  is  certain  the  Author  of  our  nature  designed 
that  we  should  not  destroy,  but  regulate,  our  desire  for  knowledge.  What 
course  you  may  take  in  order  to  this,  I  will  now  briefly  point  out. 

"  I.  You  want  to  know  God,  in  order  to  enjoy  Him  in  time  and  eternity. 

"  2.  All  you  want  to  know  of  Him  is  contained  in  one  book,  the 
Bible.  And  all  that  you  learn  is  to  be  referred  to  this,  either  directly 
or  remotely. 

"3.  Would  it  not  be  well,  then,  to  spend,  at  least,  an  hour  a  day  in 
reading  and  meditating  on  the  Bible  ?  reading,  every  morning  and  even- 
ing, a  portion  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament,  with  the  Explanatory 
Notes  ? 

"  4.  Might  you  not  read  two  or  three  hours  in  the  morning,  and  one  or 
two  in  the  afternoon  ?  When  you  are  tired  of  severer  studies,  you  may 
relax  your  mind  by  history  or  poetry. 

"  5.  The  first  thing  you  should  understand  a  little  of  is  grammar.  You 
may  read  first  Kingswood  English  Grammar,  and  then  Bishop  Lovvth's 
Introduction. 

"  6.  You  should  acquire,  if  you  have  not  already,  some  knowledge  of 
arithmetic.     Dilworth's  Arithmetic  would  suffice. 

"  7.  For  geography,  I  think  you  need  only  read  over  Randal's  or 
Guthrie's  Geographical  Grammar. 

"  8.  Watts'  Logic  is  not  a  very  good  one  ;  but  I  believe  you  cannot  find 
a  better. 

"9.  In  natural  philosophy,  you  have  all  that  you  need  to  know  in  the 
'  Survey  of  the  Wisdom  of  God  in  Creation.'  But  you  may  add  the 
Glasgow  abridgment  of  Mr.  Hutchinson's  works. 

"  10,  With  any,  or  all,  of  the  foregoing  studies,  you  may  intermix  that 
of  history.  You  may  begin  with  Rollin's  Ancient  History;  and  after- 
wards read,  in  order,  the  Concise  History  of  the  Church,  Burnet's  History 
of  the  Reformation,  the  Concise  History  of  England,  Clarendon's  History 
of  the  Rebellion,  Neal's  History  of  the  Puritans,  his  History  of  New 
England,  and  Robertson's  History  of  America. 

"11.  In  metaphysics,  you  may  read  Locke's  Essay  on  the  Human 
Understanding,  and  ]\Ialebranche's  Search  after  Truth. 

"  12.  For  poetry,  you  may  read  Spenser's  Fairy  Queen,  and  select  parts 
of  Shakspeare,  Fairfax,  or  Hoole  ;  Godfrey  of  Bouillon,  Paradise  Lost,  the 
Night  Thoughts,  and  Young's  Moral  and  Sacred  Poems. 

"  13.  You  may  begin  and  end  with  divinity  ;  in  which  I  will  only  add,  to 
the  books  mentioned  before,  Bishop  Pearson  on  the  Creed,  and  the 
Christian  Library.  By  this  course  of  study,  you  may  gain  all  the  know- 
ledge which  any  reasonable  Christian  needs.     But  remember,  before  all, 


360  J^ifi.  ci^d  Times  of  Wesley. 

I  781       in  all,  and  above  all,  your  great  point  is,  to  know  the  only  true  God,  and 

,        o     Jesus  Christ  whom  He  hath  sent. 
Age  70 

"  I  am,  my  dear  Sally,  your  affectionate  uncle, 

"John  Wesley." ^ 

Though  ]\Iiss  Wesley  was  now  hi  her  twenty-first  year,  and 
had  yet  to  begin  Ivingswood  EngHsh  Grammar,  still,  assum- 
ing that  henceforward  she  acted  upon  the  advice  of  her 
venerable  uncle,  it  is  not  surprising,  that  she  ultimately 
became  the  well  informed  woman  which  her  father's  biogra- 
pher says  she  was.  Her  brother  Charles  was  three  years 
older  than  herself;  her  brother  Samuel  six  years  younger. 
The  brothers  were  musical  prodigies  ;  their  uncle  took  a 
deep  interest  in  their  welfare ;  and  wrote  to  Charles,  on 
August  4,  and  September  8,  178 1,  as  follows. 

"  My  dear  Charles,— There  is  a  debt  of  love,  which  I  should  have 
paid  before  now  ;  but  I  must  not  delay  it  any  longer.  I  have  long  ob- 
served you  with  a  curious  eye  ;  not  as  a  musician,  but  as  an  immortal 
spirit,  that  is  come  forth  frorri  God  the  Father  of  spirits,  and  is  returning 
to  Him  in  a  few  moments.  But  have  you  well  considered  this?  Me- 
thinks,  if  you  had,  it  would  be  ever  uppermost  in  your  thoughts.  For 
what  trifles,  in  comparison  of  this,  are  all  the  shining  baubles  in  the  world  ! 
God  has  favoured  you  with  many  advantages.  You  have  health,  strength, 
and  a  thousand  outward  blessings.  And  why  should  you  not  have  all 
inward  blessings,  which  God  hath  purchased  for  those  that  love  Him  ? 
You  are  good  humoured,  mild,  and  harmless  ;  but,  unless  you  are  born 
again,  you  cannot  see  the  kingdom  of  God  !  You  are  now,  as  it  were,  on 
the  crisis  of  your  fate  ;  just  launching  into  life,  and  ready  to  fix  your 
choice,  whether  you  will  have  God.or.the  world  for  your  happiness.  You 
cannot  avoid  being  very  frequently  among  elegant  men  and  women,  that 
are  without  God  in  the  world ;  but,  as  your  business,  rather  than  your 
choice,  czA'i  you  into  the  fire,  I  trust  that  you  will  not  be  burnt  ;  seeing 
He,  whom  you  desire  to  serve,  is  able  to  deliver  you,  even  out  of  the 
burning  fiery  furnace. 

"  I  am,  dear  Charles,  your  very  affectionate  uncle, 

"John  Wesley." 2 

Charles  Wesley,  junior,  Avho  had  been  already  introduced  to 
the  court  of  George  III.,  lived  to  become  the  organist  of  George 
IV.,  and  the  musical  preceptor  of  the  long  lamented  Princess 
Charlotte.  He  never  married  ;  but  resided,  first  with  his 
widowed  mother,  and  then  with  his  sister  Sarah, — was  a  man 

'  Methodist  Magazine,  1846,  p.  452.  2  i^icj^  1844,  p.  562. 


Wesley  s  NepJiews,   Charles  and  Samuel.       361 

of  deep  devotional  feeling,  an  attendant  at  Methodist  chapels,  1781 
a  lover  of  Methodist  preachers,  and  died,  in  1834,  humming  A"e~78 
Handel's  music,  and  was  buried  in  the  same  grave  as  his 
father  and  mother  in  Marylebone  churchyard.  Poor  Samuel 
was  seduced  into  the  popish  church  before  he  arrived  at  the 
age  of  twenty  ;  and,  thereby,  brought  the  grey  hairs  of  his 
father  with  sorrow  to  the  grave.  He  composed  a  high  mass 
for  the  use  of  the  chapel  of  Pope  Pius  VI.,  and  received  that 
pontiff's  thanks.^  Like  many  others,  he  found  it  an  easy 
step  from  popery  to  infidelity,  and  wrote  :  "  In  this  life,  my 
only  consolation  is  in  the  belief  of  fatalism,  which,  although 
a  gloomy  asylum,  is  as  bright  as  I  can  bear,  till  convinced  of 
that  truth  which  a  launch  into  the  great  gulf  only  can  de- 
monstrate." He  survived  his  brother  Charles  and  his  sister 
Sarah  ;  in  his  last  days  became  a  penitent ;  died  in  1837  ;  and 
was  buried  in  the  sepulchre  of  his  parents.^ 

The  conference  of  1781  was  a  memorable  gathering.  It 
was  preceded,  on  Sunday,  August  5,  by  a  service  in  the 
parish  church,  at  Leeds,  such  as  was  probably  never  witnessed 
within  its  walls,  either  before  or  since.  Wesley  preached  ; 
eighteen  clergymen,  inclusive  of  himself.  Coke,  and  Fletcher, 
w^ere  present ;  and,  at  the  Lord's  supper,  there  were  about 
eleven  hundred  communicants,  the  ordinance  being  admi- 
nistered by  Wesley  and  ten  other  ministers.^ 

Connexional  affairs  created  anxiety.  Thomas  Taylor,  in  his 
manuscript  diary,  remarks  :  "  I  feel  much  concern  respecting 
several  things  ;  but  how  to  have  them  remedied  I  cannot  tell. 
Many  things  are  exceedingly  wrong  ;  but  whom  to  trust  to 
attempt  amendment  I  know  not.  I  sometimes  think,  the 
whole  head  is  sick,  and  the  whole  heart  faint." 

Wesley  writes  :  "  August  6 — I  desired  Mr.  Fletcher,  Dr. 
Coke,  and  four  more  of  our  brethren,  to  meet  every  evening, 
that  we  might  consult  together  on  any  difficulty  that  occurred. 
On  August  7,  our  conference  began,  at  which  were  present 
about  seventy  preachers,  whom  I  had  severally  invited  to 
come  and  assist  me  with  their  advice,  in  carrying  on  the  great 
work  of  God." 


^  Life  of  C.  Wesley,  vol.  ii.,  p.  316.  '   Wesley  Banner,  185 1. 

3  Methodist  Magazine,  1829,  p.  528. 


362  Lif^  ci'iid  Times  of  Wesley, 

1 78 1  The  burden  of  so  many  preachers  behig  present  was  found 

K^i%  to  be  greater  than  the  Leeds  society  could  conveniently  bear  ; 
and  it  was  agreed  that  every  preacher  should  pay  the  expenses 
of  his  horse  keep  during  the  conference  sittings.  There  were 
more  preachers'  wives  in  the  connexion  than  there  were  houses 
to  lodge  them,  or  money  to  find  them  maintenance;  and  it  was 
resolved,  that  no  more  married  preachers  should  be  admitted, 
except  in  cases  of  necessity.'  Some  of  the  preachers  had 
printed,  both  in  verse  and  prose,  without  Wesley's  consent  or 
correction.  Among  others,  James  Kershaw  had  recently 
issued  a  quarto  sized  book,  of  134  pages,  entitled,  "The 
Methodist ;  attempted  in  Plain  Metre."  It  was  thought, 
that  these  productions  had  brought  a  reproach  upon  the 
Methodists,  and  had  hindered  the  spreading  of  more  profitable 
books  ;  and  it  was  determined  that,  in  future,  no  preacher 
should  print  anything  till  it  had  been  corrected  by  Wesley, 
and  that  the  profits  thereof  should  go  into  the  common  stock. 
Wesley's  Notes  on  the  Old  Testament  had  now  been  pub- 
lished sixteen  years,  and  yet  the  edition  had  not  been  sold. 
To  get  rid  of  the  remaining  copies,  it  was  directed  that  they 
should  be  sold  at  half  price. 

A  number  of  Methodists  at  Baildon,  in  Yorkshire,  had 
written  to  Wesley,  stating  that,  in  accordance  with  his  instruc- 
tions, they  attended  the  services  of  their  parish  church ; 
but  their  minister  preached  what  they  considered  to  be  "  dan- 
gerously false  doctrine,"  inasnmch  as  he  publicly  declared, 
that  men  "  must  not  hope  to  be  perfected  in  love,  on  this  side 
eternity " ;    and    this    had   made  them  doubt   whether   they 


'  The  following  letter  Avas  written  to  Duncan  Wright,  assistant  in 
Yarm  circuit,  a  few  months  later. 

"  London,  November  24,  1781. 

"Dear  Duncan, — Surely  you  and  I  may  speak  freely  to  each  other  ; 
for  we  love  one  another.  If  George  Holder  goes  out,  either  you  must 
keep  his  mother,  or  she  must  go  to  the  workhouse.  You  must  not  give  an 
exhortation  to  the  bands,  but  encourage  them  to  speak.  I  would  be  much 
obliged  to  you  if  you  would  (i)  accept  the  key  of  the  book  room,  and 
immediately  take  the  books  into  your  own  care  ;  (2)  clip  the  wings  of  the 
local  preachers,  stewards,  and  leaders,  changing  them  as  need  requires  ; 
(3)  fix  bands  where  they  are  wanting;  (4)  if  James  Bogie  is  willing  to 
remain  single,  let  him  travel  ;  (5)  do  not  receive  the  blind  mah  hastily, 
let  him  be  thoroughly  tried  first ;  (6)  be  of  good  courage,  and  conquer 
everything.  I  am,  dear  Duncan,  etc.,  John  Wesley." —( JFrt/r/zz/mw, 
Jan.  8,  1868.) 


Conference  0/  lySi.  36 


o 


ought  to  hear  him.  Wesley  laid  their  letter  before  the  con-  ^"^ 
ference,  and,  as  the  difficulty  applied  to  many  others  besides  Age  78 
the  Methodists  at  Baildon,  he  invited  a  friendly  and  free 
discussion.  It  was  unanimously  agreed:  (i)  That  it  was 
highly  expedient,  that  all  the  Methodists,  who  had  been  bred 
therein,  should  attend  the  service  of  the  church  as  often  as 
possible.  But  that,  (2)  If  the  minister  began  either  to  preach 
the  absolute  decrees,  or  to  rail  at,  and  ridicule  Christian 
perfection,  they  should  quietly  go  out  of  the  church  ;  yet 
attend  it  again  the  next  opportunity."  Wesley  adds :  "  I 
have,  since  that  time,  revolved  this  matter  over  and  over  in 
my  mind  ;  and  the  more  I  consider  it,  the  more  I  am  con- 
vinced, this  was  the  best  answer  that  could  be  given.  Only,  I 
must  earnestly  caution  our  friends  not  to  be  critical ;  not  to 
make  a  man  an  offender  for  a  word ;  no,  nor  for  a  few  sen- 
tences, which  any  who  believe  the  decrees  may  drop  without 
design."  ^  "  It  is  a  delicate  and  important  point,  on  which  I 
cannot  lay  down  any  general  rule.  All  I  can  say,  at  present, 
is,  if  it  does  not  hurt  you,  hear  them  ;  if  it  does,  refrain.  Be 
determined  by  your  own  conscience."  ^ 

But  this  was  not  all  that  occurred,  on  the  Church  question, 
at  the  conference  of  1781.  One  of  the  principal  Methodists, 
in  Leeds,  was  William  Hey,  now  in  the  forty-fifth  year  of  his 
age,  a  medical  man  of  great  repute,  an  intimate  friend  and 
correspondent  of  Dr.  Priestley,  and  who  had  been  a  Methodist 
for  seven-and-tvventy  years.  Mr.  Hey  intimated  to  Wesley 
his  desire  to  address  the  conference,  and  to  offer  some  sugges- 
tions and  advice ;  declaring,  at  the  same  time,  that,  if  his  pro- 
posals were  rejected,  he  could  no  longer  remain  a  member  of 
the  Methodist  society.  By  Wesley's  permission  he  began  to 
read  a  paper,  to  the  effect,  that  Dissenting  ideas  had  been,  for 
many  years,  gradually  growing  among  the  Methodists.  In 
proof  of  this,  he  held  that  the  Methodists  preached  in  places 
already  supplied  with  pious  ministers ;  that  meetings  in  some 
instances  were  held  in  church  hours  ;  that  the  intervals  of 
church  service  were  so  filled  up  with  public  and  private  as- 
semblies, that  there  was  no  time  for  suitable  refreshment,  nor 


1  Methodist  Magazine,  1782,  p.  153. . 
^Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xiii.,  p.  232. 


o 


64  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 


'781  opportunity  for  instructing  families  ;  that  many  of  the  largest 
Age"78  societies  rarely  went  to  church,  and  some  never  carried  their 
children  there;  and  that  church  ministers,  who  formed  societies 
for  private  instruction,  were  looked  upon  with  an  envious  eye. 
Such  were  the  complaints  which  Mr.  Hey  intended  to  lay 
before  the  conference ;  but,  as  he  proceeded,  the  marks  of  dis- 
approbation were  such  that  Wesley  interposed,  and  said  :  "As 
there  is  much  other  business  before  us,  brother  Hey  must 
defer  reading  the  remainder  of  his  paper  to  another  time," 

Brother  Hey  forthwith  left  the  society  ;  a  few  months  later 
he  was  elected  alderman  ;  and,  more  than  once,  filled  the 
oftice  of  chief  magistrate  in  the  town  of  Leeds.  Of  his  ability 
and  piety  there  can  be  no  question  ;  but  Wesley  was  not  pre- 
pared to  allow  him  to  be  the  dictator  of  the  Methodists.^ 

No  sooner  Avas  the  conference  over  than  the  venerable 
Wesley  again  set  out  on  his  gospel  wanderings.  He  preached 
at  Sheffield,  and  then,  taking  coach  with  Dr.  Coke,  travelled 
day  and  night  till  he  arrived  in  London.  Two  days  were 
spent  in  the  metropolis,  and  then  off  he  set,  on  Sunday  night, 
August  19,  by  coach  to  Cornwall.  We  need  not  follow  him. 
Suffice  it  to  say,  that,  in  eight  days,  he  preached  in  Cornwall, 
at  least,  thirteen  sermons,  five  of  them  in  the  open  air,  and 
one  in  Gwcnnap  Pit,  to  a  congregation  computed  at  more 
than  twenty  thousand  people. 

On  September  6,  he  got  back  to  Bristol,  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  which,  according  to  his  custom,  he  spent  a  month. 
While  here,  he  wrote  the  following  characteristic  letter  to 
Mr.  Elijah  Bush,  a  young  schoolmaster  at  Midsomer  Norton, 
who  wished  to  marry  a  lady  to  whom  his  father  and  mother 

objected. 

"COLEFORD,  September  11,  1781. 
"My  dear  Brother, — I  was  much  concerned  yesterday,  when  I 
heard  you  were  hkely  to  marry  a  woman  against  the  consent  of  your 
parents.  I  have  never,  in  an  observation  of  fifty  years,  known  such  a 
marriage  attended  with  a  blessing.  I  know  not  how  it  should  be,  since  it 
is  flatly  contrary  to  the  fifth  commandment.  I  told  my  own  mother, 
pressing  me  to  marry,  'I  dare  not  allow  you  a  positive  voice  herein  ;  I  dare 
not  marry  a  person  because  you  bid  me.  But  I  must  allow  you  a  negative 
voice  :  I  will  marry  no  person  if  you  forbid.     I  know  it  would  be  a  sin 


*  Life  of  Hey. 


Age  7S 


Death  of  Wesley's   Wife.  365 

against  God.'     Take  care  what  you  do.     Mr.  S.  is  not  a  proper  judge  :  he       17S1 
hopes  to  separate  you  from  the  Methodists  ;  and  I  expect,  if  you  take 
this  step,  that  will  be  the  end. 

"  I  am,  your  affectionate  brother, 

"John  Wesley." > 

Mr.  Bush  acted  upon  Wesley's  advice ;  became  the  leader 
of  the  Midsomer  Norton  society,  and  a  local  preacher;  and 
died  a  faithful  Methodist  in  1845.^ 

There  are  other  unhappy  marriages  besides  those  contrary 
to  the  fifth  commandment.  Wesley's  was  one.  For  thirty 
years,  he  paid  a  fearful  penalty  for  his  rash  act  in  175  i  ;  but 
now  his  matrimonial  misery  ended.  Leaving  Bristol  on 
October  7,  and  preaching  on  his  way  at  Devizes,  Sarum, 
Winchester,  and  in  the  Isle  of  Wight,  he  arrived  in  London 
on  October  12,  and,  under  the  same  date,  wrote  in  his  journal: 
"  I  was  informed  my  wife  died  on  Monday."  (October  8.) 
"  This  evening  she  was  buried,  though  I  was  not  informed  of 
it  till  a  day  or  two  after." 

Mourning  for  such  a  wife  would  have  been  hypocrisy. 
Three  days  after,  on  October  15,  the  widower  set  out  to  visit 
his  societies  in  Oxfordshire.  On  a  similar  errand,  he  went  off 
to  Norfolk.  On  November  5,  he  began  meeting  the  London 
classes,  and  says  :  "  I  found  a  considerable  increase  in  the 
society.  This  I  impute  chiefly  to  a  small  company  of  young 
persons,  who  have  kept  a  prayer-meeting  at  five  every 
morning."  He  then  set  out  on  his  tours  through  North- 
amptonshire, Huntingdonshire,  Bedfordshire,  Sussex,  and 
Kent,  and  concluded  the  year  in  London. 

The  war  still  raged  ;  English  disasters  were  multiplied  ;  the 
ministry  was  tottering,  and  soon  after  fell ;  with  which  fall  the 
conflict  in  America  concluded.  It  was  at  this  period,  that  a 
rumour  gained  credence,  that  the  administration  intended  to 
propose  the  embodying  of  the  militia,  and  their  being  exer- 
cised on  Sundays.  Wesley  was  an  ardent  friend  of  the  minis- 
try of  Lord  North  ;  and,  of  course,  a  staunch  defender  of  the 
sanctity  of  the  sabbath.  Accordingly,  towards  the  close  of 
178 1,  he  addressed  the  following  letter  to  a  nobleman,  then 
high  in  office. 

'  Methodist  Magazine,  1848,  p.  1055.  "  Iljid. 


366  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

I  781  "AIy  Lord, — If  I  wrong  your  lordship,  I  am  sorry  for  it;  but  I  really 

~  believe  your  lordship  fears  God:  and  I  hope  your  lordship  has  no  un- 

"  favourable  opinion  of  the  Christian  revelation.     This  encourages  me  to 

trouble  your  lordship  with  a  few  lines,  which  otherwise  I  should  not  take 

upon  me  to  do. 

"Above  thirty  years  ago,  a  motion  was  made  in  parliament  for  raising 
and  embodying  the  mihtia,  and  for  exercising  them,  to  save  time,  on 
Sunday.  When  the  motion  was  like  to  pass,  an  old  gentleman  stood  up 
and  said:  'Mr.  Speaker,  I  have  one  objection  to  this:  I  believe  an  old 
book,  called  the  Bible.'  The  members  looked  at  one  another,  and  the 
motion  was  dropped. 

"Must  not  all  others,  who  believe  the  Bible,  have  the  very  same  ob- 
jection ?  And  from  what  I  have  seen,  I  cannot  but  think,  these  are  still 
three  fourths  of  the  nation.  Now,  setting  religion  out  of  the  question,  is 
it  expedient  to  give  such  a  shock  to  so  many  millions  of  people  at  once  ? 
And  certainly  it  would  shock  them  extremely ;  it  would  wound  them  in  a 
very  tender  part.  For  would  not  they,  would  not  all  England,  would  not 
all  Europe,  consider  this  as  a  virtual  repeal  of  the  Bible  ?  And  would 
not  all  serious  persons  say,  '  We  have  little  religion  in  the  land  now ;  but, 
by  this  step,  we  shall  have  less  still.  For  wherever  this  pretty  show  is 
to  be  seen,  the  people  will  flock  together;  and  will  lounge  away  so  much 
time  before  and  after  it,  that  the  churches  will  be  emptier  than  they  are 
at  present!' 

"  My  lord,  I  am  concerned  for  this  on  a  double  account.  First, 
because  I  have  personal  obligations  to  your  lordship,  and  would  fain, 
even  for  this  reason,  recommend  your  lordship  to  the  love  and  esteem  of 
all  over  whom  I  have  any  influence.  Secondly,  because  I  now  reverence 
your  lordship  for  your  office  sake,  and  believe  it  to  be  my  bounden  duty 
to  do  all,  that  is  in  my  little  power,  to  advance  your  lordship's  influence 
and  reputation. 

"  Will  your  lordship  permit  me  to  add  a  word  in  my  old  fashioned  way .? 

I  pray  Him,  that  has  all  power  in  heaven  and  earth,  to  prosper  all  your 

endeavours  for  the  public  good ;  and  am,  my  lord,  your  lordship's  willing 

servant, 

"John  Wesley."  ' 

For  some  reason,  no  such  bill  was  introduced  into 
parliament.  A  few  months  later,  Lord  North  and  his 
colleagues  tendered  to  the  king  their  resignation,  and  peace 
negotiations  were  commenced. 

Before  concluding  the  present  year,  it  only  remains  to 
notice  Wesley's  publications  in  1781. 

I.  "  An  Extract  of  a  Letter  to  the  Right  Honourable  Lord 


*  Whitehead's  Life  of  Wesley,  vol.  ii.,  p.  400. 


Wesley s  Ptiblications,  in  I'jZi.  367 

Viscount    H c,  on  his   Naval   Conduct  in   the   American      1781 

War."     i2mo,  27  pages.  A^yS 

2.  "A  Concise  Ecclesiastical  History,  from  the  Birth  of 
Christ  to  the  Beginning  of  the  present  Century.  In  four 
volumes."  i2mo.  The  proposals  for  printing  this  work  by 
subscription  are  now  before  us  ;  from  which  it  appears,  that 
the  price  of  the  four  volumes,  to  subscribers,  was  ten  shillings, 
and  that  booksellers,  subscribing  for  six  copies,  should  have 
a  seventh  gratis.  The  book,  in  fact,  is  Wesley's  abridgment 
of  Mosheim,  to  which  is  added,  "  A  Short  History  of  the 
People  called  Methodists,"  filling  ii2  printed  pages,  and 
dated  "London,  November  16,  1781." 

3.  The  Arminian  Magazine.  8vo,  6%"^  pages.  In  his 
preface,  Wesley  says :  "  I  dare  not  fill  up  any  publication  of 
mine  with  bits  and  scraps,  to  humour  any  one  living.  It  is 
true,  I  am  not  fond  of  verbose  writers,  neither  of  very  long 
treatises.  I  conceive,  the  size  of  a  book  is  not  always  the 
measure  of  the  WTiter's  understanding.  Nay,  I  believe,  if 
angels  were  to  write  books,  we  should  have  very  few  folios. 
But,  neither  am  I  fond  of  tracts,  that  begin  and  end  before 
they  have  cleared  up  anything." 

Besides  six  original  sermons,  the  principal  article  in  the 
magazine  of  1781  is  Wesley's  own  translation  of  Castellio's 
Dialogues  on  Predestination.  There  is  a  long  and  inter- 
esting account  of  Kingswood  school.  Wesley  writes  : — "  I 
love  the  very  sight  of  Oxford ;  but  my  prejudice  in  its 
favour  is  considerably  abated  :  I  do  not  admire  it  as  I  once 
did;  and,  whether  I  did  or  not,  I  am  now  constrained  to  make 
a  virtue  of  necessity."  He  then  refers  to  the  expulsion,  and 
exclusion  of  students,  because  of  their  being  Methodists;  and 
continues  :  "  I  am  much  obliged  to  Dr.  Nowell  and  others, 
for  not  holding  me  longer  in  suspense,  but  dealing  so  frankly 
and  openly.  And,  blessed  be  God!  I  can  do  all  the  business, 
which  I  have  in  hand,  without  them.  Honour  or  preferment 
I  do  not  want,  any  more  than  a  feather  in  my  cap ;  and  I 
trustj  most  of  those  who  are  educated  at  our  school  are,  and 
will  be,  of  the  same  mind.  As  to  the  knowledge  of  the 
tongues,  and  of  arts  and  sciences,  with  whatever  is  termed 
academical  learning,  if  those  who  have  a  tolerable  capacity  for 
them  do  not  advance  more  at    Kingswood   in  three  years, 


368  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

i^i  than  the  generality  of  students  at  Oxford  and  Cambridge  do 
Age  78  in  seven,  I  will  bear  the  blame  for  ever."  He  then  meets 
the  objection,  that  young  men  could  not  have  at  Kingswood 
the  advantages  they  would  have  at  the  university,  from 
professors,  tutors,  public  exercises,  and  company.  He  main- 
tains, that  it  would  be  no  loss  to  the  universities  if  all  their 
professorships  were  abolished.  Some  of  the  tutors,  he 
admits,  were  worthy  of  all  honour,  but  many  were  utterly 
unqualified  for  the  work  they  had  undertaken.  As  to  the 
public  exercises,  he  himself  had  never  "  found  them  any 
other  than  useless  interruptions  of  useful  studies."  As  to 
company,  he  writes  :  *'  It  is  most  true,  that  the  moment  a 
young  man  sets  his  foot  either  in  Oxford  or  Cambridge, 
he  is  surrounded  with  company  of  all  kinds,  except  that 
which  will  do  him  good  ;  with  loungers  and  triflers  of  every 
sort ;  with  men  who  no  more  concern  themselves  with  learning 
than  with  religion.  Company,  therefore,  is  usually  so  far  from 
being  an  advantage  to  those  who  enter  at  either  university, 
that  it  is  the  grand  nuisance,  as  well  as  disgrace,  of  both  ; 
the  pit  that  swallows  unwary  youths  by  thousands.  I  bless 
God!  we  have  no  such  choice  of  company  at  Kingsivood ;  nor 
ever  will,  till  my  head  is  laid.  There  is  no  trifler,  no  lounger, 
no  drone  there  ;  much  less  any  drunkard,  sabbath  breaker, 
or  common  swearer.  Whoever  accounts  this  a  disadvantage 
may  find  a  remedy  at  any  college  in  Oxford  or  Cambridge." 


1782. 

As  usual,  Wesley  spent  the  first  two  months  of  the  new  1782 
year  in  London.  The  most  notable  occurrence,  during  Age  79 
this  period,  was  the  institution  of  a  tract  society, — the  first 
that  was  ever  formed.  The  Religious  Tract  Society  was 
originated  in  1799;  Wesley's,  seventeen  years  previous  to  this. 
We  have  before  us  an  original  document  printed  in  1783, 
entitled,  "A  Plan  of  the  Society,  instituted  in  January,  1782, 
to  distribute  Religious  Tracts  among  the  Poor."  The  rules 
are  three.  "  i.  Every  member  must  subscribe  half-a-guinea, 
a  guinea,  or  more,  annually.  2.  A  proportionable  quota  of 
tracts  shall  be  delivered  yearly  to  each  subscriber,  according 
to  his  subscription,  and,  as  nearly  as  possible,  at  prime  cost, 
and  carriage  paid.  3.  Every  subscriber  shall  have  a  right  to 
choose  his  own  tracts,  if  he  please  ;  otherwise,  he  will  receive 
a  proportionable  variety  of  the  whole."  After  this  follows  a 
list  of  thirty  tracts  already  printed,  all  of  them  either  written 
or  published  by  Wesley.  Then  there  is  subjoined  the  follow- 
ing :  "  An  Extract  of  the  Original  Proposals." 

"  I  cannot  but  earnestly  recommend  this  to  all  those  who  desire  to  see 
true  scriptural  Christianity  spread  throughout  these  nations.  Men  wholly 
unawakened  will  not  take  pains  to  read  the  Bible.  They  have  no  relish 
for  it.  But  a  small  tract  may  engage  their  attention  for  half-an-hour  ; 
and  may,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  prepare  them  for  going  forwai'd. 

"John  Weslev. 

"London,  yanuaiy  25,  1782." 

Though  Wesley's  tract  society  does  not  now  exist,  in  tlie 
form  in  which  it  was  instituted  in  1782,  it  is  a  fact  worth 
noting,  that,  in  1867,  Wesley's  book  room,  in  City  Road,  sold 
not  fewer  than  one  million  five  hundred  and  seventy  thousand 
tracts,  all  printed  and  published  by  itself;'  and  that  the 
number  of  its  distinct  and  separate  tract  publications,  in  1871, 
is  not  less  than  1250. 

^  Methodist  Recorder,  Aug.  16,  1867. 
VOL.  in.  B  B 


370  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1782  We  have  said,  the  Methodist  Tract  Society  was  the  first 
Age  79  that  was  ever  formed.  It  is  true  that,  in  1699,  "  The  Society 
for  Promoting  Christian  Knowledge  "  was  founded  ;  and,  in 
1750,  "  The  Society  for  Promoting  Rehgious  Knowledge 
among  the  Poor  "  ;  but,  strictly  speaking,  neither  of  these  was 
a  tract  society.  In  this  respect,  as  in  others,  Wesley  was  a 
pioneer.  As  early  as  1745,  he  speaks  of  "  giving  away  some 
thousands  of  little  tracts  among  the  common  people";  and 
long  before  1782,  had  written,  and  published,  besides  a  large 
number  of  separate  and  short  sermons,  at  least  scores  of 
penny  publications.  And  ytt  Mr.  Jones,  the  correspond- 
ing secretary  of  the  Religious  Tract  Society,  in  his  jubilee 
volume  of  700  pages,  while  professing  to  trace  the  origin  of 
tract  distribution,  entirely  omits  the  name  of  Wesley,  who 
saw  the  value  and  the  power  of  a  tract  more  than  fifty  years 
before  the  Religious  Tract  Society  had  a  name.  Was  this 
intentional .''     We  trust  not. 

On  Sunday,  the  3rd  of  March,  Wesley  took  coach  for 
Bristol,  where  he  spent  the  next  fortnight.  He  then  started 
off  on  his  long  northern  journey.  On  his  way,  he  called  at 
Madeley,  where  "  both  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Fletcher  complained, 
that,  after  all  the  pains  they  had  taken,  they  could  not  prevail 
on  the  people  to  join  in  society,  no,  nor  even  to  meet  in  class." 
What  the  vicar  and  his  new  wife  (Miss  Bosanquet)  failed  to 
do,  Wesley  accomplished.  He  preached  two  rousing  sermons; 
and  "  then  desired  those,  who  were  willing  to  join  together  for 
Christian  fellowship,  to  call  upon  him  and  Mr.  Fletcher  after 
service.  Ninety-four  persons  did  so  :  about  as  many  men  as 
women."  Wesley  adds  :  "  We  explained  to  them  the  nature 
of  a  Christian  society,  and  they  willingly  joined  therein." 

Wesley  then  proceeded  to  Congleton,  where  "the  Calvinists 
were  striving  to  make  havoc  of  the  flock  "  ;  and  to  Maccles- 
field, where  he  spent  Good  Friday  and  Easter  Sunday.  On 
the  former  day,  he  preached  twice,  in  the  Rev.  David  Simp- 
son's church  ;  and,  with  his  assistance,  administered  the 
sacrament  to  about  thirteen  himdred  persons  ;  on  the  latter 
day,  he  also  preached  twice  in  the  same  edifice ;  again 
administered  to  eight  hundred  communicants  ;  and,  in  the 
evening,  preached  in  the  Methodist  chapel,  and  held  a  love- 
feast  at  which  sixteen  or  eighteen  persons  professed  to  live  in 


Love/east,  at  Alacclesfidd.  371 

the  enjoyment  of  the  blessing  of  perfect  love.  "About  forty,"  1782 
says  Hester  Ann  Rogers,  in  the  unpublished  portion  of  her  AgTyo 
diary,  "  made  a  noble  confession."  Among  these  were  herself, 
George  Bradock,  Joseph  Roe,  John  Booby,  T.  Ridgway, 
Joseph  Norberry,  Billy  Sharpley,  S.  Bradshaw,  and  John 
Goostry  ;  the  last  of  whom  Wesley  ordered  to  stand  on  the 
form,  that  the  people  might  hear  him.  "  Mr.  Wesley,"  con- 
tinues Mrs.  Rogers,  "kept  the  lovefeast  two  hours,  a  thing 
which  I  nev^er  knew  him  do  before  ;  but  his  soul  was  filled 
with  tiiankfulness,  for  so  many  witnesses  of  redeeming  love 
and  full  salvation." 

It  would  be  tedious  to  mention  all  the  places  Wesley 
visited.  Suffice  it  to  say,  that,  at  Ashton  under  Lyne,  he 
preached  in  the  new  chapel,  which  had  the  following  inscrip- 
tion over  the  door  :  "  Can  any  good  come  out  of  Nazareth  .'' 
Come  and  see !  "  At  Oldham,  "  a  whole  troop  of  boys  and 
girls  w^ould  not  be  contented  till  he  shook  each  by  the  hand." 
At  St.  Helen's,  he  preached  in  the  house  of  Joseph  Harris, 
who  had  removed  from  Kingswood,  "to  take  care  of  the 
copper  works."  At  Wigan,  he  "  saw  an  uncommon  sight, — 
the  preaching  house  filled,  yea,  crowded."  At  Epworth, 
there  had  been  a  marvellous  revival.  At  Thorne,  fifty  had 
found  peace  with  God  within  two  months.  At  Edinburgh,  he 
was  the  guest  of  Lady  Maxwell,  and  visited  her  school  of 
forty  poor  children,  many  of  w'hom  were  without  shoes  ;  but 
not  a  girl,  in  rags,  was  without  her  ruffles.  At  Kelso,  he  fell, 
head  foremost,  down  the  stairs  of  Dr.  Douglas's  house,  but 
mercifully  escaped  without  serious  injury.^  At  York,  he 
entered  into  his  eightieth  year,  and  wrote  :  "  Blessed  be  God  1 
my  time  is  not  labour  and  sorrow.  I  find  no  more  pain  or 
bodily  infirmities  than  at  five-and-twenty.  This  I  still  im- 
pute— (1)  To  the  power  of  God,  fitting  me  for  what  He  calls 
me  to.  (2)  To  my  still  travelling  four  or  five  thousand  miles 
a  year.     (3)  To  my  sleeping,  night  or  day,  whenever  I  want 


'  It  was  doubtless  at  this  time  that  he  had  a  youthful  hearer,  who  after- 
wards became  the  renowned  Sir  Walter  Scott.  In  a  letter  to  Southey, 
dated  Abbotsford,  April  4,  1819,  Scott  writes:  "When  I  was  about 
twelve  years  old,  I  heard  Wesley  preach  more  than  once,  standing  on  a 
chair,  in  Kelso  churchyard.  He  was  a  most  venerable  figure,  but  his 
sermons  were  vastly  too  colloquial  for  the  taste  of  Saunders.     He  told 


2,^2        .  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1782  it.  (4)  To  my  rising  at  a  set  hour.  (5)  To  my  constant 
Age^9    preaching,  particularly  in  the  morning." 

Wesley  reached  London,  after  an  absence  of  more  than 
four  months,  on  July  20.  Here  he  held  his  conference. 
He  writes  :  "  Friday,  August  2,  we  observed  as  a  day  of 
fasting  and  prayer  for  a  blessing  on  the  ensuing  con- 
ference ;  and  I  believe  God  clothed  His  word  with  power 
in  an  uncommon  manner  throughout  the  week ;  so  that, 
were  it  only  on  this  account,  the  preachers  who  came  from 
all  parts  found  their  labour  was  not  in  vain." 

Among  other  questions  debated  at  this  conference,  was  the 
sabbath.  Methodists,  in  some  instances,  visited  barbers' 
shops  on  Sundays  ;  and,  in  others,  practised  military  exer- 
cises, as  volunteers,  or  were  spectators  of  such  exercises.  This 
led  the  conference  to  enact,  that  no  members  of  society  should 
have  their  hair  dressed  on  Sundays  ;  and  that,  as  far  as 
possible,  those  barbers  should  be  patronised  who  observed  the 
sabbath's  sanctity.  It  was  further  determined,  that  any 
Methodist,  who  practised  military  exercises  on  the  sabbath, 
as  a  volunteer,  should  be  expelled  ;  and  that  any  one  who, 
after  proper  admonition,  continued  a  spectator  of  such 
sabbath  drills  should  undergo  the  same  penalty.  Though 
not  absolutely  forbidden,  preachers  were  recommended  not  to 
powder  their  hair,  nor  to  wear  artificial  curls.  The  weekly 
and  quarterly  contributions  having  been  shamefully  neglected 
in  many  of  the  societies,  the  assistants  and  leaders  were  to 
remind  the  people  of  the  original  rule,  that  "  every  member 
contributes  one  penny  weekly,  (unless  he  is  in  extreme 
poverty,)  and  one  shilling  quarterly."  Wesley  adds:  ^'  Money 
lovers  are  the  pest  of  every  Christian  society.  They  have 
been  the  main  cause  of  destroying  every  revival  of  religion. 
They  will  destroy  us,  if  we  do  not  put  them  away.     A  man 


many  excellent  stories.  One  I  remember,  which  he  said  had  happened 
to  him  at  Edinburgh.  'A  drunken  dragoon,'  said  Wesley,  '  was  com- 
mencing an  assertion  in   military  fashion,  G— d  eternally  d n  me, 

just  as  I  was  passing.  I  touched  the  poor  man  on  the  shoulder,  and 
when  he  turned  round  fiercely,  said  calmly,  You  mean,  Cod  bless  you.'  In 
the  mode  of  telling  the  story,  he  failed  not  to  make  us  sensible  how  much 
this  patriarchal  appearance,  and  mild  yet  bold  rebuke,  overawed  the 
soldier,  who  touched  his  hat,  thanked  him,  and,  I  think,  came  to  chapel 
that  evening." — ("Memoirs  of  Sir  Walter  Scott,"  by  J.  G.  Lockhart,  Esq.) 


Birstal  Chapd  Case.  373 


not  worth  a  shilling  enters  our  society.     Yet  he  freely  gives  a      1782 
penny  a  week.    Five  years  after,  he  is  worth  scores  of  pounds;     t^na 
he  gives  a  penny  a  week  still.     I  must  think  this  man  covet- 
ous, unless  he  assures  me  he  bestows  his  charity  some  other 
way.     For  every  one  is  covetous,  whose  beneficence  does  not 
increase  in  the  same  proportion  as  his  substance." 

The  most  troublesome  subject  of  discussion  was  the  case 
of  the  Birstal  chapel.  It  was  asked,  "What  can  be  done  with 
regard  to  the  preaching  house  at  Birstal.'"  Answer.  "If 
the  trustees  still  refuse  to  settle  it  on  the  Methodist  plan :  I. 
Let  a  plain  statement  of  the  case  be  drawn  up.  2.  Let  a 
collection  be  made  throughout  all  England,  in  order  to 
purchase  ground,  and  to  build  another  preaching  house  as  near 
the  present  as  may  be." 

This  was  an  important  matter,  on  account  of  its  involving 
one  of  Methodism's  fundamental  principles,  namely,  that  the 
conference  alone  shall  have  the  power  of  appointing  preachers 
to  preach  in  Methodist  chapels.  This  was  the  first  time  that 
the  question  was  fairly  raised.  It  was  seen,  that  the  issue, 
either  way,  would  be  most  momentous.  It  affected  not 
Birstal  merely,  but  the  whole  Methodist  connexion  ;  and  not 
the  present  only,  but  the  future.  Great  excitement  was 
created.  The  controversy,  among  other  great  results,  led  to 
the  drawing  up  and  enrolment  of  Methodism's  Magna  Charta, 
Wesley's  deed  of  declaration,  in  1784.  Altogether,  this  was 
one  of  the  most  important  events  in  Wesley's  history ;  and, 
hence,  a  detailed  account  of  it  will  not  be  inappropriate. 

The  original  chapel  at  Birstal  was  erected,  under  the  aus- 
pices of  John  Nelson,  about  the  year  175  i.  By  the  deed  of 
settlement,  the  right  of  occupying  the  pulpit  was  given,  first, 
to  the  two  Wesleys  in  succession,  and  then  to  Grimshaw 
of  Haworth;  but,  after  the  decease  of  these  three  ministers, 
the  trustees  were  to  elect  their  own  preachers  monthly ; 
and  all  such  preachers,  so  long  as  they  continued  in  this 
office,  were  to  preach  in  the  chapel  twice  every  Sunday,  every 
Christmas  day,  New  Year's  day,  and  Good  Friday,  and 
also  every  Thursday  night,  as  had  been,  up  to  175  i,  "usual 
and  customary  to  be  done." 

Such  was   the  substance  of  the   obnoxious  clause;  which 
hitherto,  however,  had  created  no  difficulty. 


374  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 


o 


1782  In  1782,  it  was  found  necessary,  either  to  enlarge  the  old 

Age  79  chapel,  or  to  build  a  new  one  in  its  place.  Contributions  were 
given  for  this  purpose  ;  but  were  not  sufficient.  It  was  ascer- 
•  tained,  that  the  sum  of  ;£^350  additional  would  be  required, 
and  that  eight  of  the  intended  trustees  would  have  to  advance 
the  money.  To  give  them  security,  a  deed  of  transfer  was 
prepared,  in  which  John  and  Charles  Wesley,  for  the  con- 
siderations therein  mentioned,  sold  to  certain  specified 
trustees  the  old  premises,  with  the  following  agreements  in 
reference  to  the  enlarged,  or  the  new  chapel,  which  was  to  be 
provided  to  meet  the  growing  necessities  of  the  Birstal 
Methodists,  i.  The  trustees  advancing  the  £z^0  were  to 
have,  as  their  security,  "  the  rents  and  profits  to  arise  from 
the  hearers'  pews  and  seats."  2.  The  new  or  enlarged  chapel 
was  to  be  occupied,  during  their  lifetime,  by  John  and  Charles 
Wesley,  or  by  those  whom  they  might  from  time  to  time 
appoint.  3.  After  their  death,  the  appointment  of  preachers, 
to  preach  in  the  said  chapel,  Avas  to  be  made  by  the  trustees, 
and  by  "  such  members  of  the  Methodist  society  as  had 
been  classleaders  for  three  years,  within  the  circumjacent 
villages  of  Birstal,  Great  Gomersal,  Little  Gomersal,  Birken- 
shaw,  Adwalton,  Drighlington,  Batley,  Carlinghow,  and 
Heckmondwike  ;  or  by  the  major  part  of  such  trustees  and 
classleaders."  Provided  always,  that  the  said  preachers  preach 
no  other  doctrine  than  is  contained  in  Mr.  Wesley's  Notes 
upon  the  Old  and  New  Testament ;  that  they  preach  in  the 
said  chapel  twice  every  Sunday,  and  at  least  one  evening 
every  week  ;  and  that  they  hold  the  said  premises  and  exer- 
cise the  function  of  a  preacher  only  during  the  goodwill  and 
pleasure  of  the  major  part  of  the  aforesaid  trustees  and  class- 
leaders.  After  this,  followed  a  number  of  provisoes  in  refer- 
ence to  pew  rents,  etc,  (i)  The  rents  were  to  be  applied  in 
keeping  the  premises  in  repair.  (2)  In  paying  interest  upon 
the  debt  of  ;^350,  at  5  per  cent,  per  annum.  (3)  In  maintain- 
ing the  preacher  for  the  time  being,  for  which  purpose,  how- 
ever, not  more  than  ;^I0  a  year  should  be  appropriated,  until 
after  the  whole  of  the  ;^350  had  been  repaid;  when,  after 
deducting  for  repairs  and  lasting  improvements,  the  whole  of 
the  clear  rents  and  profits  arising  from  the  pews  and  seats 
should  be  given  "for  and  towards  the  maintenance  and  sup- 


Birstal  Chapel  Case.  375 

port  of  the  preachers  or  pastors  for  the  time  being  of  the  said  1782 
society  at  Birstal."  It  was  further  provided,  that  the  appoint-  Age~79 
ment  and  removal  of  chapel  stewards  should  be  vested  in  the 
preachers,  trustees,  and  classleaders  aforesaid,  or  the  major 
part  of  them,  notice  of  their  meetings  for  such  purpose,  how- 
ev^er,  having  to  be  publicly  read  to  the  congregation  on  three 
successive  Sunday  evenings  immediately  preceding.  Certain 
rooms  also  in  a  dwelling  house,  on  the  premises,  were  to  be  at 
the  use  of  the  stewards  and  leaders,  for  the  purpose  of  trans- 
acting business  and  meeting  classes. 

The  above  is  an  abstract  of  all  the  important  points  in  the 
new  trust  deed  of  1782.  That  deed  had  attached  to  it  the 
following  signatures. 

John  Aspinall,  William  Booth, 

Joseph  Bennett,  John  Wesley, 

James  Blackburn,  Joseph  Charlesworth, 

John  Tempest,  Charles  Gunson, 

Jonathan  Brearley,  John  Armitage, 

Benjamin  Mallinson,  Joseph  Lee, 

Anthony  Williamson,  Thomas  Crowther, 

Nathaniel  Harrison,  WiUiam  Tempest, 

John  White,  Isaac  Smith, 

Joseph  Nelson,  William  Chadvvick. 

Wesley's  signature  was  witnessed  by  Thomas  Briscoe  and 
Alexander  Mather.  The  deed  was  dated  May  14,  1782,  and 
was  enrolled  on  the  nth  of  October  following.  It  may  be 
added,  that,  of  the  above  signers,  Aspinall,  Bennett,  Black- 
burn, Tempest,  Brierley,  Williamson,  Harrison,  White,  Nelson, 
and  Booth  were  old  trustees  ;  Mallinson,  Charlesworth,  Gun- 
son,  Armitage,  Lee,  Crowther,  W.  Tempest,  Smith,  and 
Chadwick  were  the  new  trustees. 

The  deed  of  1782  was  widely  different  from  that  of  175 1, 
and,  as  the  vice  chancellor  ruled  in  1854,  so  far  as  it  pur- 
ported to  vary  the  trusts  of  the  latter  deed,  it  was  void  and 
of  no  effect;'  but  it  still  contained  the  obnoxious  clause, 
giving  power  to  other  parties  than  Wesley's  conference,  to 
appoint  the  preachers.  Wesley  says,  in  a  letter  to  his  brother, 
dated  May  28,  1782: 


Methodist  Magazine^  1854,  p.  184. 


^']6  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1782  "  The  trustees  brought  to  me  the  deed,  at  Daw  Green,  Avhich  they  read 

over,  and  desired  me  to  sign.     We  disputed  upon  it  about  an  hour.     I 

^^  7^  then  gave  them  a  positive  answer,  that  I  would  not  sign  it ;  and,  leaving 
them  abruptly,  went  up  into  my  room.  At  night,  a  little  before  I  went  to 
bed,  they  came  again,  got  round  and  worried  me  down.  But,  I  think,  they 
cannot  worry  you.  May  you  not  very  properly  write  to  Mr.  Valton  ?  '  If 
the  trustees  will  settle  the  Birstal  house  on  the  Methodist  plan,  I  will  sign 
their  deed  with  all  my  heart ;  but,  if  they  build  a  house  for  a  presbyterian 
meeting-house,  I  will  not,  dare  not,  have  anything  to  do  with  it.'"^ 

Wesley  committed  a  mistake  ;  but,  be  it  borne  in  mind, 
that  he  was  now  an  old  man  of  nearly  eighty,  and  that 
Alexander  Mather,  and  Thomas  Briscoe,  the  superintendents 
of  the  Leeds  and  Birstal  circuits,  were  participators  in  his 
folly. 

In  an  unpublished  letter  to  Samuel  Bradburn,  then  sta- 
tioned at  Bradford,  Wesley  wrote  : 

"  London,  November  9,  1 782. 

"Dear  Sammy, —  T  abhor  the  thought  of  giving  to  twenty  men   the 

power  to  place  or  displace  the  preacher  in  their  congregations.      How 

would  he  then  dare  to  speak  an  unpleasing  truth  ?     And,  if  he  did,  what 

would  become  of  him  ?     This  must  never   be  the    case,  while    I    live, 

among  the  Methodists.     And  Birstal  is  a  leading  case,  the  first  of  an 

avowed  violation  of  our  plan.     Therefore,  the  point  must  be  carried  for 

the  Methodist  preachers  now  or  never  ;  and  I  alone  can  carry  it,  which 

I  will,  God  being  my  helper.     You  are  not  a  match  for  the  silver  tongue, 

nor  brother  Hopper.     But  do  not,  to  please  any  of  your  new  friends 

forsake 

"Your  true  old  friend, 

"John  Wesley." 

Charles  Wesley  acted  upon  his  brother's  advice.  He 
entered  into  correspondence  with  the  Birstal  reformers.  In 
answer  to  their  objection,  that  "the  present  trustees  coiild  not 
legally  transfer  any  of  their  power  to  the  conference,"  he  asks  : 
"Then  how  can  they  transfer  any  of  their  power  to  the 
leaders }"     He  continues  : 

"You  add, — 'As  long  as  the  conference  appoints  preachers  with  candid 
impartiality,  we  doubt  not  their  appointments  will  be  acquiesced  in  by  the 
trustees  and  classleaders.'  But,  according  to  this  deed,  the  conference 
has  no  more  business  than  the  parliament  to  appoint  preachers  at  all.  To 
touch  on  one  more  point.  From  the  beginning  of  Methodism  till  now,  the 
assistants  appointed  the  stewards  in  all  societies ;  but  this  deed  gives  the 

^Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xii.,  p.  13S. 


Dii^stal  Chapel  Case.  2)17 

trustees  and  leaders  this  power;  which  they  think  is  '■necessary  to  ensure      1782 

the  repayment  of  the  ^{^350  to  be  advanced  for  the  building.'    Necessary  !      . 

Not  at  all.  How  many  thousand  pounds,  advanced  for  buildings,  have 
been  paid  within  these  forty  years,  though  all  the  stewards  in  England, 
Scotland,  and  Ireland,  have  been  hitherto  appointed  by  my  brother  or  the 
assistants!  You  conclude  your  letter  with  a  very  just  observation:  'the 
civil  and  religious  rights  of  mankind  have  seldom  been  promoted  by  the 
assemblies  of  ecclesiastics  of  any  denomination ;  and  they  never  will  be, 
unless  they  are  composed  of  men  devoted  to  God,  and  dead  to  all  the 
allurements  of  ease,  and  avarice,  and  ambition.'  This  is  undoubtedly 
true ;  and  this,  we  humbly  hope,  is  the  real  character  of  most  (at  least)  of 
those  persons  that  meet  in  our  assemblies.  We  hope,  likewise,  that  '  their 
consultations  will  always  be  moderated  by  some  wise  and  truly  religious 
man';  otherwise,  that  God  will  sweep  away  the  very  name  of  Methodist 
.from  the  earth.  Upon  the  whole,  I  cannot,  I  dare  not  sign  that  deed.  I 
can  have  nothing  to  do  with  it.  If  the  house  should,  nevertheless,  he 
built,  and  settled  upon  that  plan,  I  apprehend  the  consequence  would  be 
this:  I.  No  Methodist  preacher  would  ever  preach  in  it.  Ifanydid, the 
whole  body  would  disclaim  him.  2.  My  brother  would  immediately  set  a 
subscription  on  foot  for  buying  ground  and  building  another  house.  The 
trustees  then  might  do  what  they  pleased  with  theirs."' 

This  letter  was  written  a  week  before  the  conference  of 
1782  was  opened;  and  was  a  reply  to  one  written  by  James 
Carr,  the  trustees'  attorney,  who,  soon  afterwards,  addressed 
the  following  unpublished  letter  to  Mr.  Charlesworth. 

"  My  good  Friend, — Having  an  insuperable  aversion  to  recite  my  own 
simple  performances,  I  here  enclose  a  correct  copy  of  my  letter  to  Mr. 
Charles  Wesley. 

"  I  know,  that  you  and  the  other  framers  of  the  present  trust  deed, 
were  actuated  by  the  purest,  most  equitable,  and  disinterested  motives ; 
and,  therefore,  in  my  address  to  Mr.  Wesley,  I  held  myself  bound,  by 
every  tie  of  justice,  to  explain  and  enforce  \}[\t  grounds  diXxdi  reasons  of  your 
conduct,  with  all  the  energy  in  my  power.  I  hope,  I  have  no  immodest 
opinion  of  my  poor  abilities,  when  I  assert,  that  the  reasons,  by  me 
alleged,  for  modifying  the  deed,  in  the  manner  described,  cannot  be 
fairly  answered  or  refuted,  by  Mr.  Mather,  or  Mr.  C.  Wesley.  Ingenuity 
may  perplex,  wit  may  ridicule,  sophistry  may  misinterpret,  or  prejudice 
may  dislike  a  deed  framed  contrary  to  received  systems  or  opinions.  But 
when  it  is  calmly  considered,  that  the  poor,  beneficent  founders  of  the 
preaching  house  had  an  undoubted  right  to  settle  it  in  what  manner  they 
thought  meet ;  that  it  Avould  be  impious,  as  well  as  illegal,  to  abrogate 
their  constitution;  that  you  could  only  modify  and  improve  it  in  a  way 
consistent  with  their  manifest  intention ;  that  the  honour  of  religion  re- 

'  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xii.,  p.  140. 


2)7^  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1782      quired  you  to  make  a  legal  and  effectual  provision  for  payment  of  a  just 
debt ; — when  these  things,   I   say,  are  calmly  considered,  candour  must 
'■^   '       admit,  every  preacher  of  righteousness  must  acknowledge,  that  the  pre- 
sent trust  deed  is  modelled   with   that   rectitude  and  propriety,  which 
become  Christian  men. 

"As  nothing  can  discourage  me  when  I  am  engaged  in  a  righteo  s 
cause,  I  mean  to  write  again  to  Mr.  Charles  Wesley;  and,  therefore,  if  I 
have  omitted,  in  my  former  address,  any  topics  or  arguments  which  occur 
to  you  or  friends,  I  wish  you  would  specify  them  in  ivi'iting;  though  I 
shall  certainly  now  speak  to  him  more  in  a  professional  style  than  in  a 
religious  one. 

"Yours  most  sincerely, 

"James  Carr." 

In  the  mean  time,  the  new  chapel  was  built,  and  Dr.  Coke 
took  up  the  matter.  The  following  also  is  a  letter  now  for 
the  first  time  published.  It  was  addressed  to  Mr.  Charles- 
worth. 

"Bristol,  October  18, 1782. 

"Sir, — There  is  but  one  argument,  which  you  have  used,  which  ap- 
pears to  me  to  have  any  force  in  it  against  the  many  uncontrovertible 
arguments,  which  I  have  urged  on  the  other  side.  It  is  this  ;  is  it  not 
unjust,  that  the  persons  who  have  advanced  money  on  the  building,  which 
has  been  lately  erected,  should  lose  that  money,  when  they  advanced  it 
upon  the  word  of  Mr.  Wesley,  and  would  not  have  advanced  it  on  any 
other  ground .''  In  answer  to  this,  I  observe,  that,  as  I  am  in  this  busi- 
ness the  servant  of  the  conference,  and  have  invested  in  me  a  discretionary 
power  to  act  as  I  see  occasion,  I  will,  therefore,  remove  this  objection  as 
far  as  justice,  equity,  and  my  trust,  will  admit  me  to  go.  For  this  pur- 
pose, I  promise  and  engage,  that  the  interest  of  the  money,  which  has  been 
lent  on  the  lately  erected  building,  shall  be  regularly  paid,  either  out  of 
the  profits  of  that  building,  or  out  of  the  profits  of  the  building  which  is  to 
be  erected,  or  out  of  the  profits  of  both  of  them  together,  so  long  as  the 
two  Messrs.  Wesley  live  ;  and,  after  their  decease,  as  long  as  the  lately 
erected  building  is  at  the  disposal  of  the  Methodist  conference,  and  no 
longer.  Provided,  that  either  of  the  chapels,  or  both  of  them  together, 
produce  an  income  sufficient  to  pay  the  aforesaid  interest,  after  paying 
for  the  necessary  repairs,  and  the  ;^io  paid  to  the  support  of  the  preachers, 
be  deducted.  Provided,  also,  that  the  debt  itself,  which  has  been  already 
incurred,  remain  upon  the  lately  erected  edifice,  and  upon  that  alone,— 
J  promise  and  engage,  that  the  aforesaid  interest  shall  be  paid  to  the 
creditors  annually  in  preference  to  every  other  payment,  except  the  said 
necessary  repairs,  and  ^10  towards  the  support  of  the  preachers. 
"  I  am,  sir,  your  humble  servant  in  the  gospel, 

"  Thomas  Coke." 

Shortly  after,  Dr.  Coke  publi-shed  a  i2mo  tract  of  12  pages, 


Birstal  CJiapeL  Case.  379 

entitled,  "An  Address  to  the  inhabitants  of  Birstal,  and  the  iT^z 
adjacent  villages."  He  relates  how  the  attorney  of  the  trust-  Age  79 
ees  obtained  Wesley's  signature  to  the  deed.  He  states,  that 
Charles  Wesley  had  not  signed,  and,  he  believed,  never  would. 
The  *^ amazing  deed"  had  been  discussed  at  the  late  con- 
ference, and  had  created  just  alarm  ;  and  he  (Dr.  Coke)  had 
been  delegated  to  carry  into  execution  the  minute  that 
was  passed  ;  but,  upon  application  to  the  trustees,  he  had 
"  found  the  greatest  part  of  them  determined  to  hold  fast 
their  unlimited  and  most  dangerous  power."  He  answers  the 
objection,  "Would  it  not  be  equally  dangerous  to  invest  this 
power  in  the  conference  ^  "  by  saying,  "  No  :  for  the  plan  of 
settlement,  adopted  by  the  conference,  ties  them  down  to  the 
principles  of  religion  at  present  held  by  the  Methodists."  He 
relates,  that  he  had  proposed  to  the  trustees  to  submit  the 
matter  to  the  arbitration  of  the  attorney  general,  or  some 
other  eminent  counsellor ;  and  had  engaged  that,  if  the 
opinion  thus  obtained  was  the  same  as  that  of  the  trustees 
and  Mr.  Carr,  "  Birstal  preaching  house  should  be  considered 
an  exempt  case,  and  the  trustees  should  be  suffered  quietly  to 
retain  all  the  power  which  they  had  at  present";  with  the 
understanding,  on  the  other  hand,  that,  if  the  legal  opinion 
of  the  arbitrator  was,  "  that  the  surviving  trustees,  with  the 
consent  of  the  original  proprietor,  and  all  the  parties  con- 
cerned, could  resettle  the  house  on  the  Methodist  plan, 
they  would  resettle  it  accordingly."  He  had  also  added,  at 
another  meeting,  that,  in  such  a  case,  he  would  give  a  bond 
of  five  or  six  hundred  pounds,  that  the  trustees,  who  had 
advanced  the  ;^350,  should  not  only  have  their  interest,  but 
'&i€\x principal,  paid  them,  in  instalments  of;;^50  per  annum  ; 
and,  further,  that  he  would  engage,  that  all  subscribers  to  the 
recently  erected  building,  "  who  signified  their  desire  of 
having  their  money  returned,  should  have  it  returned  to  them 
Avithin  two  years."  The  trustees^  however,  "  obstinately 
refused  to  comply  with  this." 
Coke  continues  : 

"  Afterwards,  another  plan  of  reconciliation  was  proposed,  by  one  of 
themselves,  to  which  we  all  consented,  namely,  that  all  the  trustees  should 
bind  themselves  by  a  deed,  that  if  they,  or  the  major  part  of  them,  should 
agree,  after  the  demise  of  the  Messrs.  Wesley,  to  choose  an  independent 


Age  79 


380  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1782  teacher,  they  should  be  obliged  to  signify  this  their  intention,  by  three 
years'  notice  to  the  conference,  or  to  the  moderator  of  the  conference  for 
the  time  being ;  with  a  provision,  that,  if  the  preachers  were  ever  to 
desist  from  meeting  in  regular  conference,  as  they  did  at  present,  or  to 
deviate  from  the  grand  Methodist  plan  on  which  they  at  present  act,  then 
the  full  power  should  immediately  devolve  upon  the  trustees,  and  they 
might,  without  any  previous  notice  whatever,  choose  an  independent 
teacher." 

Such  was  the  unanimous  agreement.  A  rough  draft  of  the 
intended  deed  was  made,  and  (Jwrresco  j-cf evens !)  was  brought, 
by  the  attorney  of  the  trustees,  to  Dr.  Coke  on  the  Sunday 
following.  On  reading  it,  Coke  found  a  (qw  words  inserted, 
which  upset  the  whole.  It  read  :  "  If  the  said  trustees  and 
leaders,  or  the  major  part  of  them,  shall  at  any  time,  in  their 
judgment,  think  that  the  said  conference  deviates  from  the 
grand  Methodist  plan,  then,"  etc.,  "  thus  constituting  them- 
selves judges  in  their  own  cause."  Dr.  Coke  objected  to 
this  ;  and  they  seemed  willing  to  give  it  up  ;  but  "  desired 
that  another  meeting  might  be  held  on  the  following  Sunday! 
at  which  all  the  leaders  might  be  present,  that  their  consent 
might  also  be  procured."  The  conference  representative 
agreed  to  this  ;  Sunday  came  ;  and  the  trustees  and  leaders 
"  would  not  move  a  single  step." 

Such  had  been  the  negotiations,  and  such  was  the  state  of 
affairs,  when  Dr.  Coke  published  his  pamphlet  in  November, 
1782.  He  makes  an  appeal  "to  the  congregation,  and  to  the 
society,"  and  concludes  with  the  following  prayer  :  "  O  Thou 
Lover  of  concord  and  Prince  of  peace,  keep  these  little  ones 
under  Thy  fostering  wing.  Preserve  them  from  the  silken 
tongued  sycophant,  the  sly  deceiver,  who  seeks  his  own,  and 
not  the  things  of  Jesus  Christ.  Hide  them  for  a  little  moment 
in  the  chambers  of  Thy  love,  till  this  and  every  indignation  be 
overpast.  Keep  them  close  to  the  bleeding  side  of  Jesus,  and 
close  to  the  affectionate  hearts  of  their  faithful  pastors  for 
ever." 

What  more  was  done .''  Two  months  after  this,  on  January 
3,  1783,  Wesley  issued  a  folio  circular,  entitled,  "The  Case  of 
the    Birstal   House."  *    This   all  can    read    for  themselves  in 

^  The  copy  before  us  is  addressed  "  To  Mr.  Thompson,  at  the  Method- 
ist chapel,  Hull,"  and  is  signed  by  Wesley  in  his  own  handwriting. 


Birstal  Chapel  Case.  381 

Wesley's  collected  works  (vol.  xiii.,  p.  260).  Suffice  it  to  say,  1782 
that  the  reasons  assigned  by  Wesley,  why  neither  the  Birstal,  Age~79 
nor  any  other  Methodist  chapel,  should  be  settled  according 
to  the  Birstal  deed,  were:  (i)  It  would  put  an  end  to  itinerant 
preaching,  for  when  the  trustees  got  a  preacher  whom  they 
liked,  they  would  keep  him.  (2)  It  would  put  a  bridle  in  the 
preacher's  mouth  ;  for  how  would  he  dare  to  speak  the  full 
and  the  whole  truth,  when  he  was  liable  to  lose  his  bread  ? 
(3)  "  The  power  of  the  trustees  w^as  greater  than  that  of  any 
nobleman  ;  yea,  or  of  the  king  himself.  Where  he  is  patron, 
he  can  pitt  in  a  preacher,  but  he  cannot  put  him  out."  He 
concludes:  "No  Methodist  trustees,  if  I  can  help  it,  shall, 
after  my  death,  any  more  than  while  I  live,  have  the  power  of 
placing  and  displacing  the  preachers." 

So  the  thing  went  on.  A  case  was  submitted  to  Mr.  John 
Maddocks,  barrister,  for  his  opinion,  as  to  the  possibility  of 
legally  making  such  an  alteration  in  trust  deeds,  as  was 
desired  in  the  Birstal  case.  His  opinion,  dated  "  Lincoln's 
Inn,  July  24,  1783,"  is  before  us,  and  is  to  the  effect,  that 
such  an  alteration  might  be  made.  On  the  5th  of  September 
following,  Wesley  met  the  nineteen  trustees,  and  offered  to 
allow  the  same  clause  to  be  inserted  in  a  new  deed  as  was 
inserted  in  the  deed  of  the  chapel  in  City  Road,  namely,  "  In 
case  the  doctrine  or  practice  of  any  preacher  should,  in  the 
opinion  of  the  major  part  of  the  trustees,  be  not  conformable 
to  Mr.  Wesley's  Sermons  and  Notes  on  the  New  Testament, 
on  representing  this,  another  preacher  shall  be  sent  within 
three  months."  Five  of  the  trustees  were  willing  to  accept  of 
this  ;  the  rest  refused. 

In  an  unpublished  letter,  written  by  Dr.  Coke,  and  addressed 
to  Mr.  Benson,  only  ten  days  after  this  interview,  there  are 
some  other  particulars  given.  Wesley  first  told  the  trustees, 
he  wished  their  chapel  to  be  settled  according  to  the  Method- 
ist plan  contained  in  the  minutes  of  conference.  He  then 
offered  to  allow  the  clause  to  be  inserted  which  has  just  been 
mentioned  ;  adding,  "  this  was  never  allowed  to  any  trustees 
before,  and  never  shall  again  while  I  live."  He  further  offered 
to  relieve  the  trustees  of  their  ^^350  debt,  promising  to  give 
£\Q)0  himself,  and  saying,  "This  I  do,  because  I  love  you,  and 
for  old   acquaintance   sake."      And   he   further  promised    to 


S2  Life  and  Tmies  of  Wesley. 


1782      make  them  a  present  of  the  piece  of  ground  which  Dr.  Coke 
A"e~79   li^d  purchased  for  the  site  of  another  chapel.     The  names  of 
the  five  consenting  trustees  were,  Nathaniel   Harrison,   An- 
thony   Williamson,    John    Aspinall,    Joseph    Bennett,    and 
James  Blackburn.^ 

The  dissentient  trustees  took  time  to  think.  On  September 
25,  1783,  Christopher  Hopper  WTOte  to  one  of  them,  Mr. 
Charlesworth,  in  a  somewhat  ambiguous  style,  as  follows. 

"  My  very  dear  Joseph, — It  gives  me  pleasure  to  hear  that  you  were 
so  well  satisfied  with  Mr,  Wesley's  temper  and  conduct  ;  and  I  am  glad 
to  hear  you  behaved  so  well.  Solemn  conference  !  Great  expectations  ! 
Grand  overture  !  But  alas  !  no  decision  !  Mortifying  indeed  !  I  still 
wish  we  never  had  given  you  any  trouble,  but  patiently  waited  the  event. 
But,  if  you  are  determined  to  stand  your  ground  after  this  meeting,  I 
cannot  tell  what  the  consequence  will  be.     Great  grace  be  on  you  all  ! 

"C.  Hopper."  2 

Reflection  often  brings  wisdom.  On  the  13th  of  January, 
1784,  Mr.  Charlesworth  wrote  to  Wesley,  saying,  that  his  offer 
would  now  be  accepted.  He  says,  with  a  Yorkshire  keenness, 
which  smacks  of  avarice — 

"  We  cannot  but  acknowledge  your  goodness  in  promising  the  land,  and 
the  money  towards  paying  our  debt,  which  will  be  two  very  convenient 
articles  at  this  place,  as  we  are  in  great  want  of  both. 

"  I  am,  reverend  and  dear  sir,  for  and  on  behalf  of  the  trustees, 

"  Yours  very  affectionately, 

"  Joseph  Charlesworth."  ' 

The  result  was,  a  new  deed  was  made,  giving  the  conference 
power  to  appoint  preachers;  and  this  serious  hubbub,/;'^  tcin., 
subsided.  We  shall  soon  have  to  recur  to  the  same  subject ; 
and  this  apparently  long  and  tedious  digression  may  serve 
as  an  introduction  to  what  will  have  to  be  said  hereafter.  The 
controversy  was  the  first  battle  fought  for  restricting,  or  rather 
for  setting  aside,  an  ecclesiastical  power,  which  has  grown  to 
be  the  greatest  exercised  by  any  church  throughout  the 
whole  of  the  Christian  world  ;  and  perhaps,  on  this  ground, 
the  writer  will  be  pardoned  for  trespassing  on  the  reader's 


^  Coke's  manuscript  letter. 
2  Manuscript  letter.  ^  Ibid. 


Rev.   Thomas  Davenport.  383 

patience  ;  and  especially  as  many  of  the  incidents  are  now  for      1782 
the  first  time  published.^  Age~79 

We  return  to  Wesley,  Of  course,  the  dispute  at  Birstal  led 
to  much  unpleasantness  ;  but  Wesley  was  firm  in  maintaining 
discipline.     Hence  the   following,   addressed   to  Mr,   Valton, 

then  one  of  the  Birstal  preachers. 

''June  18,  1782. 

"AlY  DEAR  Brother, — I  cannot  allow  J S to  be  any  longer  a 

leader  ;  and,  if  he  will  lead  the  class,  whether  I  will  or  no,  I  require  you  to 
put  him  out  of  our  society.  If  twenty  of  his  class  will  leave  the  society 
too,  they  must.  The  first  loss  is  the  best.  Better  forty  members  should 
be  lost,  than  our  discipline  be  lost.  They  are  no  Methodists,  tJuit  ivill  bear 
no  restraints.     Explain  this  at  large  to  the  society. 

"  I  am,  your  affectionate  friend  and  brother, 

"John  Wesley." 2 

Wesley's  clerical  friends  were  now  regularly  and  constantly 
increasing.  He  had,  to  some  extent,  outlived  their  brotherly 
persecution.  They  began  to  appreciate  his  motives  and  his 
services  ;  and,  so  far  from  hooting  and  hissing  him,  began  to 
greet  him,  to  court  his  company,  and  to  ask  his  counsel. 
Among  others  of  this  description  may  be  mentioned  the  Rev. 
Thomas  Davenport,  who  was  now  in  his  sixtieth  year,  but 
had  only  recently  found  peace  with  God,  and  that  principally 
through  Wesley's  help.'     Wesley  wrote  to  him  as  follows. 

"Bristol,  August  14,  17S2. 
"Dear  Sir, — It  would  have  given  me  a  good  deal  of  satisfaction  to 
have  had  a  little  conversation  with  you.     But  I  do  not  stay  long  in  one 
place.     I  have  no  resting  place  on  earth  : 

*  A  poor  wayfaring  man, 
I  dwell  in  tents  below, 
Or  gladly  wander  to  and  fro, 
Till  I  my  Canaan  gain.' 

"  You  would  have  been  very  welcome  at  our  conference.  Mr.  Pugh 
and  Mr.  Dodwell*  were  present  at  it ;  and,  I  believe,  are  more  determined 
than  ever  to  spend  their  whole  strength  in  saving  their  own  souls,  and 
them  that  hear  them. 

"  I  believe,  that  one  of  our  preachers,  who  are  stationed  in  the  Leicester 
circuit,  will  call  upon  you  at  Alexton ;  and  I  make  no  doubt  but  some  of 

'  For  the  manuscripts  that  have  been  used,  I  am  indebted  to  the  kindness 
of  Mr.  Clapham,  of  Birstal. 

2  Methodist  Mao;azine,  1824,  p.  307.  3  ji^j^j^  j^^q^  pp    j^g^  j^^_ 

■*  Both  clergymen. 


Age  79 


384  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1782  the  seed  which  you  have  been  long  sowing  will  then  grow  up.  No  one 
should  wish  or  pray  for  persecution.  On  the  contrary,  we  are  to  avoid  it, 
to  the  uttermost  of  our  power.  '  When  they  persecute  you  in  one  city,  flee 
unto  another.'  Yet,  when  it  does  come,  notwithstanding  all  our  care  to 
avoid  it,  God  will  extract  good  out  of  evil. 

"To-morrow  I  am  to  set  out  for  Cornwall.  In  about  three  weeks,  I  ex- 
pect to  be  here  again.  In  the  beginning  of  October,  I  generally  move 
towards  London  ;  in  the  neighbourhood  of  which  I  usually  spend  the 
winter. 

"  I  am,  dear  sir,  your  affectionate  friend  and  brother, 

"John  Wesley."* 

The  day  after  this  letter  was  written,  Wesley  set  out 
westwards.  On  reaching  Exeter,  where  his  old  antagonist. 
Bishop  Lavington,  once  resided,  he  met  with  a  most 
friendly  welcome;  and,  by  invitation,  dined  on  the  Sunday, 
with  the  bishop,  in  his  palace,  five  other  clergymen  and 
four  of  the  aldermen  of  Exeter  being  present  besides  him- 
self Arriving  at  Plymouth,  Wesley  preached  in  the  Square, 
and,  while  doing  so,  a  regiment  of  soldiers,  with  military 
music,  marched  into  it.  No  sooner,  however,  did  the  com- 
manding officer  perceive  the  preacher,  than  he  stopped  the 
music,  and  drew  up  his  men  to  listen.  "  They  were  all  still 
as  night;"  says  Wesley,  "nor  did  any  of  them  stir,  till  I  had 
pronounced  the  blessing." 

In  Cornwall,  he  found  an  old  clerical  friend  at  the  point  of 
death,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Thompson,  rector  of  St.  Gennis.  It  was 
now  thirty-seven  years  since  Wesley  first  preached  in  Mr. 
Thompson's  church,  and,  throughout  the  whole  of  that  period, 
they  had  been  faithful  friends.  The  dying  rector  wished  once 
more  to  see  his  old  acquaintance.  Wesley,  borrowing  the 
best  horse  he  could  find,  and  riding  as  fast  as  he  was  able, 
says:  "I  found  Mr.  Thompson  just  alive,  but  quite  sensible. 
He  had  many  doubts  concerning  his  final  state,  and  rather 
feared,  than  desired,  to  die;  so  that  my  whole  business  was 
to  comfort  him,  and  to  increase  and  confirm  his  confidence  in 
God.  He  desired  me  to  administer  the  Lord's  supper,  which 
I  willingly  did  ;  and  I  left  him  much  happier  than  I  found  him, 
calmly  waiting  till  his  change  should  come." 

While   riding   to    see   his    friend,    Mr.  Thompson,  Wesley 


^  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xii.,  p.  475. 


Jo  Jin   Trcmbath.  3S5 


was  accosted  by  an  old  acquaintance  of  another  sort.  He  1782 
writes  :  "  On  the  way,  I  met  with  a  white  headed  old  man,  A^Trg 
who  caught  me  by  the  hand,  and  said,  '  Sir,  do  you  not 
know  me?'  I  answered,  'No.'  He  said,  'My  father,  my 
father !  I  am  poor  John  Trembath.'  I  desired  him  to  speak 
to  me  in  the  evening  at  Launceston  ;  which  he  did.  He  was, 
for  some  time,  reduced  to  extreme  poverty,  so  as  to  hedge 
and  ditch  for  bread;  but,  in  his  distress,  he  cried  unto  God, 
who  sent  him  an  answer  of  peace.  He,  likewise,  enabled  him 
to  cure  a  gentleman  that  was  desperately  ill,  and  afterwards 
several  others  ;  so  that  he  grew  into  reputation,  and  gained  a 
competent  livelihood.  'And  now/  said  he,  '  I  want  for 
nothing  :  I  am  happier  than  ever  I  was  in  my  life.'  " 

Who  was  John  Trembath  .''  One  of  Wesley's  first  itiner- 
ants, who  commenced  his  ministry  in  1743,  and,  for  several 
years,  laboured  with  diligence  under  Wesley's  direction,^ — a 
man  of  great  eloquence  and  zeal,^ — a  burning  and  shining  light, 
and  a  workman  who,  at  one  time,  according  to  Wesley,  had  no 
need  to  be  ashamed,' — a  preacher  not  deep,  and  yet  so  popu- 
lar as  to  be  almost  idolised  by  the  people  ;*  but  who,  alas  ! 
for  the  last  twenty  years,  had  sunk  into  an  extreme  of  sin,  and 
shame,  and  misery.  Naturally  vain,  the  applauses  of  the 
people  spoiled  him.  He  became  bouncing,  and  boastful,  and 
not  always  truthful.  He  married,  gave  up  reading,  turned  to 
farming,  and  kept  company  with  men  who  had  just  wit 
enough  to  "  talk  of  bullocks,"  and  to  "  smoke,  drink,  and 
flatter  him."  He  became  a  sportsman,  and  was  suspected  of 
smuggling.^  His  career  was  almost  a  romance.  But  now,  to 
use  Wesley's  language,  "  John  Trembath  was  alive  again."  ^ 
A  month  after  the  strange  interview  above  related,  Trembath 
wrote  to  Wesley  :  "Though  God  has  forgiven  me,  yet  I  cannot 
forgive  myself  for  the  precious  time  I  have  wasted,  the  years 
I  have  lost,  and  the  glorious  harvest  I  have  neglected."  '  Poor 
Trembath  died  of  paralysis,  at  Cork,  about  the  year  1793.^ 

'  Myles's  History.  -  Methodist  Magazine,  1826,  p.  794. 

^Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xiii.,  p.  309. 
<  Methodist  Magazine,  1782,  p.  468. 

*  Ibid.  1798,  p.  492  ;  and  1780,  p.  448. 

*  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xiii.,  p.  13. 

'  Methodist  Magazine,  1790,  p.  557. 
Everett's  "  Methodism  in  Sheffield." 

VOL.  III.  C  C 


386  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 


1782  Such  were  the  old  friends  whom  Wesley  met  in  Cornwall. 

A^79  Getting  back  to  Bristol,  on  September  6,  he  found  a  new 
one,  young,  but  warm  hearted,  honest,  and  faithful.  Adam 
Clarke,  just  emerging  out  of  his  teens,  had  arrived  from 
Ireland.  He  had  travelled  from  Birmingham  to  Bristol  upon 
a  penny  loaf  and  a  halfpennyworth  of  apples ;  and  had  just 
three  halfpence  left  when  he  got  to  Kingswood  school.  He 
met  with  a  reception  from  Simpson,  the  head  master,  as  frigid 
as  cold  heartedness  could  make  it.  Simpson's  stupid,  imperious 
wife  made  bad  things  worse,  by  suspecting  that  the  young  Irish- 
man might  be  afflicted  with  the  itch,  and  by  making  him  rub 
himself  from  head  to  foot  with  Jackson's  ointment.  This  "  in- 
fernal unguent,"  as  Adam  calls  it,  made  him  smell  worse  than 
a  polecat.  His  only  sustenance  was  bread  and  milk  ;  and  not 
enough  of  that.  For  more  than  three  weeks,  no  one  per- 
formed any  kind  act  for  him.  As  for  Mrs.  Simpson,  he  feared 
her  as  he  feared  the  devil.  At  length,  Wesley  arrived  from 
Cornwall ;  Clarke  was  introduced  ;  Wesley  laid  his  hands 
upon  his  head,  and  spent  a  it\v  minutes  in  beseeching  God  to 
bless  him  ;  and  then  gave  him  his  commission  to  proceed  to 
Wiltshire  as  a  Methodist  preacher.  Fifty  years  after  this, 
Adam  Clarke  died  in  London, — an  old  itinerant  preacher, 
without  a  spot  on  the  fair  escutcheon  of  his  character, — one 
of  the  most  extensively  learned  scholars  of  the  age, — a 
voluminous  author, — the  friend  of  philosophers  and  princes, — 
and  a  man  intensely  beloved  by  nearly  all  who  knew  him. 

Wesley  left  Bristol  for  London  on  October  7,  and,  on  his 
way,  preached  at  Newport  in  the  Isle  of  Wight.  He  writes  : 
"  This  place  seems  now  ripe  for  the  gospel,  opposition  is  at 
an  end." 

At,  Newport  the  first  Methodist  preaching  place  was  a  room 
in  Node  Hill  ;  and  the  opposition,  referred  to  by  Wesley, 
consisted  of  the  beating  of  drums,  tin  kettles,  and  bells  ;  the 
throwing  of  rotten  eggs,  sticks,  and  stones  ;  sparrows  let  loose 
in  the  room  for  the  purpose  of  putting  out  the  lights  ;  and 
covering  the  chimney  top  and  fastening  the  door,  in  order  to 
stifle  the  imprisoned  worshippers.  It  was  at  Newport,  that 
Robert  Wallbridge  heard  Wesley  preach  ;  was  converted ; 
became  a  Methodist;  and  a  Methodist  local  preacher.  Eliza- 
beth Wallbridge,  his  sister,  was  now  a    light  haired,  ruddy 


"  The  Dairyman s  Daughter.''  387 

faced,  and  merry  hearted  girl,  of  twelve  years  old.  Of  scho-  ^^7^ 
lastic  learning  she  had  but  a  slender  share  ;  and  had  to  earn  Age  79 
her  bread  as  a  household  servant.  She  had  a  high  flow  of 
spirits,  vanity,  and  ready  wit,  and  was  inordinately  fond  of 
dress.  Elizabeth  was  converted  under  the  ministry  of  James 
Crabb,  a  Methodist  preacher,  became  a  Methodist  herself, 
and  continued  such  to  the  end  of  life.  Her  father  joined  the 
church  presided  over  by  the  Rev.  Daniel  Tyerman,  who 
published  an  account  of  him,  in  a  well  written  tract,  a  short 
time  before  he  set  sail  on  his  mission  to  the  South  Sea  islands. 
Elizabeth's  brother  Robert,  for  more  than  forty  years,  was  a 
Methodist  local  preacher,  and  died  at  Newport  in  1837.  Eliza- 
beth herself  died,  at  the  age  of  thirty-one,  in  the  year  1801 ; 
the  Rev.  Legh  Richmond  visited  her  in  her  last  moments;  and 
afterwards  wrote  her  life,  with  ,the  title  of  "  The  Dairyman's 
Daughter,"  omitting  to  state,  however,  that  his  heroine  was  a 
Methodist.  Millions  of  copies  of  that  publication  have  been 
circulated ;  it  has  been  translated  into,  at  least,  thirty 
languages  ;  and,  thirty  years  ago,  it  had  been  the  means  of 
the  conversion  of  three  hundred  and  fifty  persons. ' 

Wesley  reached  London  on  October  1 1.  Here,  and  in 
eight  or  nine  of  the  southern  counties  of  England,  he  spent, 
according  to  his  custom,  the  remainder  of  the  year. 

His  publications,  in  1782,  were  few  in  number. 

1.  An  Extract  from  his  Journal,  from  January  i,  1776,  to 
August  5,  1779.     i2mo,  112  pages. 

2.  "  Alleine's  Alarm  to  the  Unconverted."  i2mo,  107 
pages. 

3.  "An  Estimate  of  the  Manners  of  the  present  Times." 
l2mo,  23  pages. 

This  was  an  exceedingly  characteristic  piece.  With 
terrible  severity,  he  lashes  the  vices  of  the  age  ;  the  sloth- 
fulness  of  people  of  fashion ;  the  increase  of  luxury,  both  in 
meat,  drink,  dress,  and  furniture;  and  lewdness  of  every 
kind.  He  writes  :  "  A  total  ignorance  of  God  is  almost  uni- 
versal among  us.  The  exceptions  are  exceeding  few,  whether 
among  the  learned  or  unlearned.  High  and  low,  cobblers, 
tinkers,  hackney  coachmen,  men  and  maid  servants,  soldiers, 

'  Dyson's  "  History  of  Methodism  in  the  Isle  of  Wight." 


388  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley, 

1782      sailors,  tradesmen  of  all  ranks,   lawyers,  physicians,  gentle- 
Age  79     men,  lords,  are   as  ignorant  of  the   Creator  of  the  world  as 
Mahommedans  or  pagans." 

4.  The  Arminian  Magazine.  8vo,  680  pages.  Here  we 
have  an  engraving  of  the  new  chapel  in  City  Road,  with 
portraits  of  George  Story,  etc.  About  forty  pages  are  filled 
with  a  continuation  of  Wesley's  translation  of  the  Dialogues 
of  Castellio  on  Election  and  Free  Will.  There  are  long 
extracts  from  Wesley's  "  Survey  of  the  Wisdom  of  God  in 
Creation";  and  from  Dr.  Watts's  Treatise  on  the  Passions. 
Remarks  upon  Locke's  Essay  on  the  Human  Understanding 
make  a  part  of  every  number.  Memoirs  and  happy  deaths 
are  more  numerous  than  ever.  There  are  sixty  letters,  and 
as  many  poems.  There  are  six  original  sermons  by  Wesley 
himself.  One,  on  "  Redeeming  the  Time,"  is  a  vigorous 
enforcement  of  the  principles  propounded  in  his  letter  to  his 
niece  in  1781.^  Another  is  a  remarkable  homily  on  "Dust 
thou  art,  and  unto  dust  shalt  thou  return  " ;  and  another, 
equally  striking,  is  on  God's  six  days'  work.  Then  there  is 
his  magnificent  sermon  on,  "Not  as  the  transgression,  so  is 
the  free  gift."  And,  lastly,  there  is  his  terrific  discourse  on 
the  Punishments  of  Hell.  If  the  Armitiian  Magazine  had 
done  nothing  more  than  give  birth  to  sermons  like  these, 
it  would  have  rendered  incalculable  service  to  the  cause  of 
Christ. 

In  addition  to  the  above,  the  magazine  contains  several 
original  articles,  by  Wesley's  pen,  of  great  interest  and  im- 
portance. In  one,  on  Persecuting  Papists,  he  says  :  "  I  set  out 
in  early  life  with  an  utter  abhorrence  of  persecution  in  every 
form,  and  a  full  conviction,  that  every  man  has  a  right  to 
worship  God,  according  to  his  own  conscience.  I  would  not 
hurt  a  hair  of  the  head  of  Romanists.  Meantime,  I  would  not 
put  it  into  their  power  to  hurt  me,  or  any  other  persons 
whom  they  believe  to  be  heretics.  I  would  neither  kill,  nor 
be  killed.  I  wish  them  well;  but  I  dare  not  trust  them."  In 
another  article  there  is  an  onslaught  on  the  "  Divinity  and 
Philosophy  of  the  highly  illuminated  Jacob  Behmen";  con- 


*  In    1783,  this   sermon  was   reprinted,   in  a  separate   form,   without 
Wesley's  knowledge,  by  a  gentleman  of  Cambridge,  in  i2mo. 


Jacob  Bchmen.  389 


eluding  thus  :  "  May  we  not  pronounce,  with  the  utmost  cer-      1782 
tainty,  of  one  who  thus  distorts,  mangles,  and  murders  the    Age  79 
word  of  God,  That  the  light  which  is  in  him  is  darkness;  that 
he    is    illuminated  from  beneath,    rather   than    from    above ; 
and    that  he  ought  to  be  styled  DeinoncsopJier,  rather  than 
Thcosophcr  ?  " 

This  was  savage ;  and  Wesley's  old  friend,  Mr.  Harry 
Brooke,  of  Dublin,  wrote  him  a  letter  of  earnest  remon- 
strance ;  to  which  Wesley  replied  as  follows. 

"April  21,  1783. 
"  Dear  Harry, — Your  letter  gave  me  pleasure  and  pain.  It  gave 
me  pleasure,  because  it  was  written  in  a  mild  and  loving  spirit;  but  it 
gave  me  pain,  because  I  found  I  had  pained  you,  whom  I  so  tenderly  love 
and  esteem.  But  I  shall  do  it  no  more.  I  sincerely  thank  you  for  your 
kind  reproof.  It  is  a  precious  balm,  and  will,  I  trust,  in  the  hands  of 
the  Great  Physician,  be  the  means  of  healing  my  sickness.  I  am  so 
sensible  of  your  real  friendship  herein,  that  I  cannot  write  without 
tears.  The  words  you  mention  were  too  strong.  They  will  no  more  fall 
from  my  mouth. 

"  I  am,  dear  Harry,  affectionately  yours, 

"John  Wesley."^ 

This  may  serve  as  an  erratum,  belonging  to  the  Arminian 
Magazine  of  1782, 


»  Walton's   "  Memorial    of   W.    Law,"  p.    91 ;   and    Brooke's    Life, 
194. 


1783. 

17^3  /~\NE  of  the  first  entries  in  Wesley's  journal,  in  1783,  is 
Age  80  ^<-^  the  following.  "Friday,  January  10 — I  paid  one 
more  visit  to  Mr.  Perronet,  now  in  his  ninetieth  year.  I  do 
not  know  so  venerable  a  man.  His  understanding  is  little, 
if  at  all,  impaired  ;  and  his  heart  seems  to  be  all  love.  A 
little  longer,  I  hope,  he  will  remain  here,  to  be  a  blessing 
to  all  that  see  and  hear  him."  This  is  beautiful,  after  an  un- 
broken friendship  of  about  forty  years. 

Another  entry,  equally  deserving  of  being  noted,  was  as 
follows:  "Sunday,  January  19 — I  preached  in  St.  Thomas's 
church  in  the  afternoon,  and  at  St.  Swithin's  in  the  evening. 
The  tide  is  now  turned ;  so  that  I  have  more  invitations  to 
preach  in  churches  than  I  can  accept  of."  What  a  contrast 
between  1783  and  1739! 

Wesley  was  an  unendowed  clergyman  ;  but  was  not  un- 
supported. The  funds,  raised  for  his  purposes,  were  large  ; 
but  his  own  appropriation  from  them,  not  equal  to  the  poor 
parson's,  who  was  "  passing  rich  on  ;^40  a  year."  In  re- 
ference to  the  London  annual  audit,  he  writes :  "  Friday, 
February  21 — At  our  yearly  meeting  for  that  purpose,  we 
examined  our  yearly  accounts,  and  found  the  money  received, 
(just  answering  the  expense,)  was  upwards  of  ;^3000  a  year. 
But  that  is  nothing  to  me :  what  I  receive  of  it,  yearly,  is 
neither  more  nor  less  than  £^0." 

Wesley  w^as  an  old  manj  but  he  was  still  an  outdoor 
preacher :  for  five-and-forty  years  he  had  been  branded  as 
a  schismatic  and  a  Dissenter ;  but  he  was  still  an  ardent 
Churchman.  Hence  the  following,  addressed  to  Joseph 
Taylor,  one  of  his  itinerant  preachers. 

"  London,  January  16,  1783. 

"  Dear  Joseph, — I  am  glad  to  hear  so  good  an  account  of  Marazion. 
You  must  endeavour  to  hire  a  larger  room  at  Truro.  We  shall  not 
build  any  more  in  haste.  I  often  preach  abroad,  in  winter  as  well  as 
summer. 

"In  my  journals,  in  the  magazine,  in  every  possible  way,  I  have  advised 


Age  80 


Preachers  Forbidden  to  meet  Classes.  391 

the  Methodists  to  keep  to  the  Church.     They  that  do  this  most  prosper      1783 
best  in  their  souls  ;    I  have  observed  it  long.      If   ever  the  Methodists 
in  general  were  to  leave  the  Church,  I  must  leave  them. 

"  I  am,  dear  Joseph,  your  affectionate  friend  and  brother, 

"John  Wesley."* 

An  extract  from  another  letter  may  be  inserted  here, 
showing  that,  rightly  or  wrongly,  the  Methodist  preachers 
of  the  present  day  have  departed  from  one  of  the  principles 
of  their  founder.  Ministerial  classes  are  now  almost  general. 
Hear  what  Wesley  had  to  say,  on  this  subject,  to  John  Cricket, 
then  stationed,  with  Henry  Moore,  at  Londonderry. 

"  London,  February  10,  1783. 
"My  dear  Brother, — You  must  immediately  resume  the  form  at 
least  of  a  Methodist  society.  I  positively  forbid  you,  or  any  preacher,  to 
be  a  leader  ;  rather  put  the  most  insignificant  person  in  each  class  to 
be  the  leader  of  it.  And  try  if  you  cannot  persuade  three  men,  if  no 
more,  and  three  women,  to  meet  in  band. 

"  Hope  to  the  end  !  You  shall  see  better  days  !  The  plainer  you 
speak,  the  more  good  you  will  do.  Derry  will  bear  plain  dealing,  I  am 
just  as  well  as  I  was  forty  years  ago. 

"  I  am,  yours  affectionately, 

"John  Wesley." ^ 

The  hale  old  man  soon  found  himself  in  a  different  plight. 
On  March  2,  he  set  off  for  Bristol,  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
which  he  spent  the  next  twelve  days,  preaching  and  meeting 
classes.  He  then  became  seriously  unwell ;  but,  for  two  days 
longer,  continued  preaching,  when  he  was  obliged  to  take  his 
bed.  He  had  a  deep  tearing  cough  ;  was  weak  and  heavy, 
and  in  a  fever.  He  had  fixed  the  next  morning  for  commenc- 
ing his  journey  to  Ireland,  and  had  sent  notice  to  Stroud,  and 
various  other  places,  of  the  days  wherein  he  purposed  to  visit 
them.  Fortunately,  the  Rev.  Brian  Collins  was  at  hand,  and 
undertook  to  supply  his  appointments  as  far  as  Worcester. 
Accordingly,  Mr.  Collins,  in  the  morning  of  March  17,  set  out 
to  preach  at  Stroud;  but  Wesley,  finding  himself  better,  in  the 
afternoon,  imprudently  set  out  after  him,  and  actually  gave 
a  short  exhortation  to  the  Stroud  society.  For  the  next 
three  days,  he  was  dangerously  ill.  The  whole  nervous  system 
was  violently  agitated.     His  cough  was  most  distressing.     He 

^  The  JFc's/iyan,  Sept.  g,  1846. 

2  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xiv.,  p.  343. 


392  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1783     was  seized  with  cramp.     He  was  bereft  of  strength,  "scarce 
AgeSo    'ible  to  move,  and  much  less  to  think."    Before  leaving  Bristol, 

he    wrote  the  following    unpublished  letter  to    Miss   Hester 

Ann  Roe,  afterwards  Mrs.  Rogers. 

"Bristol,  March  16,  1783. 

"My  dear  Hetty, — It  has  frequently  been  on  my  mind  of  late, 
that  my  pilgrimage  is  nearly  at  an  end  ;  and  one  of  our  sisters  here  told 
us  this  morning  a  particular  dream  which  she  had  two  months  ago.  She 
dreamt,  that  the  time  of  conference  was  come,  and  that  she  was  in  a 
church  expecting  me  to  enter  ;  when  she  saw  a  coffin  brought  in,  followed 
by  Dr.  Coke  and  Mr.  Fletcher,  and  then  by  all  our  preachers  walking  two 
and  two.  A  fortnight  ago,  she  dreamt  the  same  dream  again.  Such 
a  burying  I  have  ordered  in  my  will,  absolutely  forbidding  either  hearse 
or  coach. 

"  I  intended  to  have  written  a  good  deal  more.  For  a  i&yn  days,  I  have 
had  just  such  a  fever  as  I  had  in  Ireland  a  few  years  ago.  But  all  is  well. 
I  am  in  no  pain  ;  but  the  wheel  of  life  seems  scarcely  able  to  move.  Yet, 
I  made  a  shift  to  preach  this  morning  to  a  crowded  audience,  and  hope 
to  say  something  to  them  this  afternoon.  I  love  that  word,  'And  Ishmael 
died  in  the  presence  of  all  his  brethren.' 

"I  am,  in  hfe  or  death,  my  dear  sister,  yours  affectionately, 

"John  Wesley."' 

What  was  the  result  .'*  The  news  of  Wesley's  being  dan- 
gerously ill  flew  far  and  wide.  A  number  of  the  preachers 
met  together  to  pray  for  a  further  prolongation  of  his  life  ; 
and,  from  that  time,  he  rapidly  recovered.^  For  three  days 
he  lay  at  Stroud,  in  great  danger.  On  the  morning  of  the 
fourth  day,  he  wrote  :  "A  violent  fit  of  the  cramp  carried  the 
fever  quite  away ;  and,  perceiving  this,  I  took  chaise  without 
delay,  and  reached  Worcester  in  the  afternoon.  Here  I  over- 
took Mr.  Collins,  \\\\o  had  supplied  all  my  appointments,  with 
a  remarkable  blessing  to  the  people  ;  and,  the  next  morning,  I 
gave  a  short  exhortation,  and  then  went  on  to  Birmingham." 
At  Birmingham,  he  was  electrified,  and  "ventured  to  preach 
three  quarters  of  an  hour."  He  then  made  his  way  to 
Hinckley,  where,  for  three  days,  he  preached  morning  and 
evening,  "  to  a  serious  and  well  behaved  people."  He  then 
visited  other  societies  on  his  way  to  Holyhead,  and  reached 
Dublin  on  April  13. 

For  three  weeks,  he  was  the  guest  of  Mr.  Henry  Brooke, 

*  Manuscript  letter.  ^  Mrs.  Rogers'  Life,  p.  473. 


Wesley  s   Trip  to  Holland.  39-? 


J 


and  was  employed  in  healing  serious  divisions  in  the  Dublin  1783 
society.^  Four  days  were  spent  in  holding  a  conference  with  a^Tso 
his  Irish  preachers,  at  which,  he  says,  "  all  was  peace  and 
love,"  "  I  wish,"  he  writes,  "  all  our  English  preachers  were  of 
the  same  spirit  with  the  Irish,  among  whom  is  no  jarring 
string.  I  never  saw  such  simplicity  and  teachableness  run 
through  a  body  of  preachers  before."^  This  was  a  high  com- 
pliment paid  to  Thomas  Rutherford,  Andrew  Blair,  Zechariah 
Yewdall,  Richard  Boardman,  Thomas  Barber,  Henry  Moore, 
John  Cricket,  John  Crook,  and  their  twenty-six  colleagues  in 
Christian  enterprise  and  labour. 

Wesley  embarked  for  England  on  the  8tli  of  May,  and, 
after  preaching  at  Warrington,  Liverpool,  Wigan,  Bolton,  and 
other  places,  reached  Manchester  nine  days  afterwards.  Here 
he  had  an  enormous  sacramental  service,  at  which  thirteen 
or  fourteen  hundred  communicants  were  present:  "such  a 
sight,"  says  he,  "as,  I  believe,  was  never  seen  in  Manchester 
before."  "  I  believe,"  he  adds,  "  there  is  no  place  but  London 
where  we  have  so  many  souls  so  deeply  devoted  to  God." 

Leaving  Manchester,  he  proceeded  to  Macclesfield,  where  a 
week  never  passed  "  in  which  some  were  not  justified,  and 
some  renewed  in  love."  He  preached,  for  the  first  time,  at 
Buxton,  where  John  Knowles  and  his  wife  were  almost  the 
only  Methodists,  and  frequently  rode  on  horseback  to 
Stockport,  a  distance  of  sixteen  miles,  to  hear  the  Methodist 
preachers.^  Here  he  married  a  couple  of  his  friends,  and 
preached  in  the  parish  church.  He  arrived  in  London  on 
May  31. 

On  June  11,  accompanied  by  Messrs.  Brackenbury,  Broad- 
bent,  and  Whitfield,  he  set  out  for  Holland.  For  more 
than  forty  years,  Wesley  had  been  incessantly  at  work 
forming  Methodist  societies.  Up  to  the  present,  he  had 
never  indulged  in  the  luxury  of  a  ministerial  holiday  ;  and 
we  are  not  sure,  that  his  trip  to  Holland  should  be  regarded 
in  such  a  light  as  that.  Still,  there  was  a  difference 
between  this  journey  and  others.  In  other  instances,  his 
object  was  to  institute  Methodist  societies,  or  to  strengthen 


'  Life  of  Brooke,  p.  ico.  ^  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xii.,  p.  141. 

^  Methodist  Magazine,  185 1,  p.  313. 


394  Zz)^  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

^783  those  already  formed  ;  in  this  instance,  that  was  no  part 
Age  80  of  the  object  at  which  he  aimed.  He  went,  says  Mr. 
Moore,  "partly  for  relaxation,  and  partly  to  indulge  and 
enlarge  his  catholic  spirit,  by  forming  an  acquaintance  with 
the  truly  pious  in  foreign  nations."  The  fact  is,  one  of 
his  own  local  preachers,  whom  he  highly  esteemed,  Mr. 
William  Ferguson,  had  removed  to  Holland,  and,  by 
his  earnest  piety,  had  attracted  the  attention  of  the  public 
generally,  including  many  of  the  principal  inhabitants 
and  persons  in  authority.  He  spoke  much  of  Wesley 
and  of  the  Methodists,  and  distributed  Wesley's  sermons 
among  his  friends.  The  result  was  a  general  wish  to  see 
the  veteran  evangelist,  and  to  hear  him  for  themselves.  One 
difficulty,  however,  was  in  the  way.  Wesley  was  acquainted,  to 
a  greater  or  less  extent,  with  the  Hebrew,  Greek,  and  Latin, 
the  English,  French,  German,  and  Spanish  languages;  but  he 
knew  nought  of  Dutch.  This  objection  was  surmounted  by 
Mr.  Ferguson's  son,  Jonathan,  offering  to  act  as  his  interpreter.^ 
Accordingly,  off  Wesley  went,  accompanied  by  the  three 
preachers  above  mentioned. 

His  visit  was  eminently  pleasant.  Ministers  of  religion 
welcomed  him;  and  persons  of  high  rank  showed  him  honour. 
At  Rotterdam,  he  preached  twice,  in  the  episcopal  church,  to 
large  congregations,  and  says  :  "  Were  it  only  for  this,  I  am 
glad  I  came  to  Holland."  At  the  Hague,  in  the  house  of  a 
lady  of  the  first  quality,  he  met  a  dozen  ladies  and  two 
military  gentlemen,  expounded  the  first  three  verses  of  the 
thirteenth  of  the  first  epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  and  prayed, 

Captain  M interpreting  sentence  by  sentence.     Wesley 

writes  :  "I  believe,  this  hour  was  well  employed."  He  held  a 
sort  of  service  in  the  passenger  boat  between  Haarlem  and 
Amsterdam.  That  is,  he  and  his  friends  began  to  sing  a 
hymn  ;  the  people  listened ;  Wesley  talked ;  Ferguson  inter- 
preted; "and  all  our  hearts,"  says  Wesley,  "  were  strangely 


^  The  Fergusons,  father  and  son,  were  notable  persons.  Mr.  Ferguson, 
sen.,  was  a  well  known  local  preacher  for  upwards  of  sixty  yea,rs  ; 
Jonathan,  his  son,  was  a  friend,  and  sometimes  the  travelling  companion, 
of  John  Howard  the  philanthropist.  He  was  a  hearty  Methodist,  a  happy 
Christian,  and,  at  the  age  of  eighty,  died  a  triumphant  death,  at  Islington, 
in  1844. — (^Methodist  Magazine,  1845,  p.  292.) 


Wesley  s  Trip  to  Holland.  395 

knit  together,  so  that,  when  we  came    to  Amsterdam,  they     1783 
dismissed  us  with  abundance  of  blessings."  A^Tso 

At  Utrecht,  Wesley  wrote:  "June  28 — I  have  this  day  lived 
fourscore  years  ;  and,  by  the  mercy  of  God,  my  eyes  are  not 
waxed  dim,  and  what  little  strength  of  body  or  mind  I  had 
thirty  years  since,  just  the  same  I  have  now.  God  grant  I 
may  never  live  to  be  useless !  rather  may  I 

*  My  body  with  my  charge  lay  down, 
And  cease  at  once  to  work  andhve  !'" 

On  the  same  day,  he  made  a  short  excursion.  Hence,  the 
following  extract  from  the  diary  of  the  Moravian  congregation 
at  Zeyst : 

"  1783,  June  28. — We  kept  the  children's  prayer  day.  The  Rev.  John 
Wesley,  the  well  known  Methodist  minister,  arrived  here  in  the  afternoon, 
with  several  other  ministers.  After  visiting  his  old  friend,  Brother  Anton, 
he  paid  a  hurried  visit  to  the  brethren's  house,  and  sisters'  house;  and 
then  attended  a  children's  lovefeast,  at  three  o'clock  ;  on  which  occasion, 
as  it  happened  to  be  his  eightieth  birthday,  the  children  sang  a  few  bene- 
dictory verses  for  him  ;  the  congregation  closing  the  service  by  singing 
'  The  grace  of  our  Lord  be  with  us  all ! '  At  4.30  p.m.  he  and  his  com- 
panions returned  to  Utrecht,  where  he  had  preached  the  day  before." 

Wesley  spent  altogether  seventeen  days  in  Holland,  and 
was  delighted  with  his  visit.  He  writes  :  "  I  can  by  no 
means  regret  either  the  trouble  or  expense,  W'hich  attended 
this  little  journey.  It  opened  me  a  way  into,  as  it  were,  a 
new  world  ;  where  the  land,  the  buildings,  the  people,  the 
customs,  were  all  such  as  I  had  never  seen  before.  But  as 
those  with  whom  I  conversed  were  of  the  same  spirit  with  my 
friends  in  England,  I  was  as  much  at  home  in  Utrecht  and 
Amsterdam,  as  in  Bristol  and  London."  "  There  is  a  blessed 
work  at  the  Hague,  and  many  other  of  the  principal  cities ; 
and,  in  their  simplicity  of  spirit,  and  plainness  of  dress,  the 
believers  vde  with  the  old  English  Methodists.  In  afifection, 
they  are  not  inferior  to  any.  It  was  with  the  utmost  difficulty 
we  could  break  from  them."  ^  "  Two  of  our  sisters,  when  we 
left  the  Hague,  came  twelve  miles  with  us  on  the  way;  and  one 
of  our  brethren,  of  Amsterdam,  came  to  take  leave  of  us  to 


^  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xii.,  p.  358. 


39^  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1783      Utrecht,  above  thirty  miles.     I  beheve,  if  my  life  be  prolonged, 

AoTso    ^  shall  pay  them  a  visit  at  least  every  other  year.     Had  I  had 

a  little  more   time,    I    would    have   visited    our   brethren    in 

Friesland,    and    Westphalia    likewise ;     for   a   glorious   work 

of  God  is  lately  broken  out  in  both  these  provinces."  ^ 

Wesley  got  back  to  London  on  July  4.  Ten  days  later,  he 
set  off  to  his  conference  at  Bristol.  "I  expect,"  says  he, 
"a  good  deal  of  difficulty  at  this  conference,  and  shall  stand 
in  need  of  the  prayers  of  you  and  your  friends."  ^  His 
apprehension  was  realised  ;  hence  the  following  entry  in  his 
journal:  "July  29 — Our  conference  began,  at  which  we 
considered  two  important  points :  first,  the  case  of  Birstal 
house  ;  and,  secondly,  the  state  of  Kingswood  school.  With 
regard  to  the  former,  our  brethren  earnestly  desired,  that  I 
would  go  to  Birstal  myself,  believing  this  would  be  the  most 
effectual  way  of  bringing  the  trustees  to  reason.  With  regard 
to  the  latter,  we  all  agreed,  that  either  the  school  should  cease, 
or  the  rules  of  it  be  particularly  observed  :  particularly,  that 
the  children  should  never  play,  and  that  a  master  should  be 
always  present  with  them." 

We  need  not  recur  to  the  first  of  these  points,  except  to 
add,  that  the  Birstal  chapel  case,  no  doubt,  led  to  the  adoption 
of  the  following  resolutions  : 

"  Question  21.  What  houses  are  to  be  built  this  year? 

'■''Answer.  None  that  are  not  already  begun. 

"  Q.  22.  Has  not  the  needless  multiplying  of  preaching  houses  been  a 
great  evil  ? 

"  A.  So  it  appears. 

"  Q.  23.  How  may  this  be  prevented  ? 

"yi.  By  permitting  none  for  the  future  to  beg  for  any  house,  except  in 
the  circuit  where  it  stands. 

"■  Q.  24.  What  can  be  done  to  get  all  our  preaching  houses  settled  on 
the  conference  plan  ? 

"A.  Let  Dr.  Coke  visit  the  societies  throughout  England,  as  far  as  is 
necessary  for  the  accomplishment  of  this  end  ;  and  let  the  respective 
assistants  give  him  all  the  support  in  their  power." 

Such  was  the  commission  given  to  Dr.  Coke,  a  weary  and 
worrying  one. 

Kingswood  school,  however,  was  as  great  a  bore  as  Birstal 

^  Wesley's  Works,  voL  xiii.,  p.  60.  *Ibid.  p.  60. 


Kingswood  School.  397 


chapel.  It  had  now  existed  for  five-and-thirty  years  ;  it  had  1783 
been  to  Wesley  a  source  of  almost  ceaseless  trouble,  and  was  Age  80 
now  in  a  worse  state  than  ever.  Nevertheless,  it  was  a  far 
famed  institution;  and,  besides  the  sons  of  itinerant  preachers, 
it  had,  at  this  very  time,  parlour  boarders  from  Denmark, 
Norway,  Sweden,  and  the  West  Indies.  None  of  the  scholars 
however,  were  remarkable  for  piety  or  learning ;  and  the 
young  gentlemen,  just  mentioned,  had  spoiled  the  discipline 
of  the  school,  Thomas  Simpson,  M.A.,  was  head  master; 
Mrs.  Simpson  housekeeper  ;  Cornelius  Bayley  was  English 
teacher,  with  a  salary  of  ^12  per  annum  and  his  board; 
Vincent  de  Boudry  was  occasional  French  teacher;  and 
C.  R.  Bond  a  sort  of  half  boarder,  and  assistant  to  Bayley.^ 

"My  design  in  building  the  house  at  Kingswood,''  says  Wesley,  "was 
to  have  therein  a  Christian  family ;  every  member  whereof,  (children  ex- 
cepted,) should  be  alive  to  God,  and  a  pattern  of  all  holiness.  Here  it 
was  that  I  proposed  to  educate  a  few  children,  according  to  the  accuracy 
of  the  Christian  model.  And  almost  as  soon  as  we  began,  God  gave  us 
a  token  for  good,  four  of  the  children  receiving  a  clear  sense  of  pardon. 
But,  at  present,  the  school  does  not,  in  any  wise,  answer  the  design  of  its 
institution,  either  with  regard  to  religion  or  learning.  The  children  are 
not  religious:  they  have  not  the  power,  and  hardly  the  form  of  religion. 
Neither  do  they  improve  in  learning  better  than  at  other  schools  ;  no,  nor 
yet  so  well.  Insomuch,  that  some  of  our  friends  have  been  obliged  to 
remove  their  children  to  other  schools.  And  no  wonder  that  they  improve 
so  little  either  in  religion  or  learning ;  for  the  rules  of  the  school  are  not 
observed  at  all.  All  in  the  house  ought  to  rise,  take  their  three  meals,  and 
go  to  bed  at  a  fixed  hour.  But  they  do  not.  The  children  ought  never  to 
be  alone,  but  always  in  the  presence  of  a  master.  This  is  totally  neglected; 
in  consequence  of  which,  they  run  up  and  down  the  wood,  and  mix,  yea, 
fight  with  the  colliers'  children.  They  ought  never  to  play:  but  they  do, 
every  day ;  yea,  in  the  school.  Three  maids  are  sufficient ;  now  there  are 
four;  and  but  one,  at  most,  truly  pious. 

"How  may  these  evils  be  remedied,  and  the  school  reduced  to  its 

^  Simpson  was  a  man  of  learning  and  piety,  but  too  easy  for  his  situa- 
tion. On  leaving  Kingswood,  he  wished  to  become  an  itinerant  preacher, 
but  set  up  a  school  at  Kevnsham,  where  his  son  ultimately  was  made 
vicar.  Bayley  was  a  good  Hebrew  scholar,  became  a  doctor  of  divinity, 
had  a  church,  St.  James's,  built  for  him  in  Manchester,  and  was  highly 
respected  for  his  piety,  usefulness,  and  high  church  principles.  De  Boudry 
began  a  school  on  Kingsdown,  Bristol,  and  long  bore  the  character  of  a 
pious,  steady,  honest  man.  Bond  was  affectionate,  but  not  talented,  and 
aspired  to  become  a  clergyman.  Such  is  the  testimony  of  Adam  Clarke  ; 
and  it  is  only  fair  to  give  it  as  a  counterpoise  to  the  discreditable  state  of 
the  Kingswood  school  committed  to  their  care. 


39 8  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

"^l^Z      original  plan  ?     It  must  be  mended  or  ended :  for  no  school  is  better  than 
Afc  8o    the  present  school.     Can  any  be  a  master,  that  does  not  rise  at  five,  ob- 
serve all  the  rules,  and  see  that  others  observe  them  ?    There  should  be 
three  masters,  and  an  usher,  chiefly  to  be  with  the  children  out  of  school. 
The  head  master  should  have  nothing  to  do  with  temporal  things."  ^ 

This  was  a  dark  picture ;  doubtless  the  result  of  bad  man- 
agement. Easy,  good  tempered  Mr.  Simpson  was  a  scholar  ; 
his  wife,  the  real  governor,  was  an  ogress.  A  woman  that 
rubbed  Adam  Clarke  with  the  "  infernal  unguent "  to  cure 
him  of  an  imaginary  itch ;  thrust  him  into  a  solitary  room,  with 
a  wretched  old  bedstead,  and  left  him  there  without  book  or 
fire  ;  and  from  whom  Adam,  when  he  heard  her  voice,  was  dis- 
posed to  run  in  the  utmost  fright,  was  not  the  woman  to  manage 
Kingswood  school.  "  She  was  probably  very  clever,"  says 
Clarke ;  "  all  stood  in  awe  of  her  ;  for  my  own  part,  I  feared 
her  more  than  I  feared  Satan  himself.  The  school  was  the 
worst  I  had  ever  seen,  though  the  teachers  were  men  of  ade- 
quate learning.  It  was  perfectly  disorganised;  and,  in  several 
respects,  each  did  what  was  right  in  his  own  eyes.  There  was 
no  efficient  plan  pursued ;  they  mocked  at  religion ;  and 
trampled  under  foot  all  the  laws.  The  little  children  of  the 
preachers  suffered  great  indignities ;  and,  it  is  to  be  feared, 
their  treatment  there  gave  many  of  them  a  rooted  enmity 
against  religion  for  life.  The  parlour  boarders  had  every  kind 
of  respect  paid  to  them,  and  the  others  were  shamefully 
neglected.  Scarcely  any  care  was  taken  either  of  their  bodies 
or  souls." 

Poor  Kingswood !  Could  all  this  be  strictly  accurate  .-* 
Probably  it  was  ;  for  the  following,  given  as  a  fact,  prepares 
the  mind  for  almost  anything  in  the  form  of  stupidity,  and 
ignorant  confusion.  "At  the  table,"  writes  Adam  Clarke, 
"  every  person  when  he  drank  was  obliged  to  run  the  follow- 
ing gauntlet.  He  must  drink  the  health  of  Mr.  Simpson, 
Mrs.  Simpson,  Miss  Simpson,  Mr.  Bayley,  Mr.  De  Boudry,  all 
the  foreign  gentlemen,  then  all  the  parlour  boarders,  down 
one  side  of  the  long  table,  and  up  the  other,  one  by  one,  and 
all  the  visitors  who  might  happen  to  be  there :  after  which  it 
was  lawful  for  him  to  drink  his  glass  of  beer."  ^ 

^  Minutes  of  Conference,  1783. 
2  "  Life  of  Adam  Clarke,"  in  three  vols.,  1833,  vol.  i.,  pp.  153-168. 


Kingsivood  ScJiool.  399 


Wesley  was  quite  right.  No  school  at  all  was  better  than  i7^3 
such  a  school  as  this.  It  was  hig'h  time  to  mend  it  or  end  it.  A^e  80 
In  his  magazine,  for  the  very  month  in  which  the  conference 
of  1783  was  held,  Wesley  published  an  article,  by  his  own 
pen,  entitled,  "  A  Thought  on  the  Manner  of  Educating 
Children,"  in  which  he  strongly  maintains,  that  all  education 
ought  to  be  religious  ;  but  adds,  probably  with  the  state  of 
Kingswood  in  his  eye, — "  Even  religious  masters  may  still  be 
mistaken  with  regard  to  the  manner  of  instilling  religion  into 
children.  They  may  not  have  the  spirit  of  government,  to 
which  some  even  good  men  are  utter  strangers.  They  may 
habitually  lean  to  this  or  that  extreme,  of  remissness  or  of 
severity.  And  if  they  either  give  children  too  much  of  their 
own  will,  or  needlessly  and  churlishly  restrain  them  ;  if  they 
either  use  no  punishment  at  all,  or  more  than  is  necessary, 
the  leaning  either  to  one  extreme  or  the  other  may  frustrate 
all  their  endeavours.  In  the  latter  case,  it  will  not  be  strange, 
if  religion  stink  in  the  nostrils  of  those  that  were  so  educated. 
They  will  naturally  look  on  it  as  an  austere,  melancholy  thing ; 
and,  if  they  think  it  necessary  to  salvation,  they  will  esteem  it 
a  necessary  evil,  and  so  put  it  off  as  long  as  possible." 

Wesley  was  not  the  man  to  hesitate  in  changing  his  officials 
when  change  was  necessary.  Mr.  Simpson  was  dismissed  ; 
Thomas  McGeary,  A.M.,  a  young  man  of  twenty-two,  took 
his  place.i  Cornelius  Bayley  had  previously  made  up  his 
mind  to  leave,  in  order  to  enter  the  ministry  of  the  Estab- 
lished Church  j'^  and  Thomas  Welch,  an  assistant  in  a  school 
at  Coventry,  applied  to  be  appointed  his  successor,  Wesley 
wrote  to  him  as  follows, 

"Bristol,  August  15,  1783. 
"  Dear  Thomas, — You  seem  to  be  the  man  I  want.  As  to  salary,  you 
will  have  /30  a  year;  board,  etc.,  will  be  thirty  more.  But  do  not  come 
for  money,  (i)  Do  not  come  at  all,  unless  purely  to  raise  a  Christian 
school.  (2)  Anybody  behaving  ill,  I  will  turn  away  immediately.  (3)  I 
expect  you  to  be  in  the  school  eight  hours  a  day.  (4)  In  all  things,  I 
expect  you  should  be  circumspect.  But  you  will  judge  better  by  consi- 
dering the  printed  rules.     The  sooner  you  come  the  better. 

"I  am,  your  affectionate  brother, 

"John  Wesley."' 


1  Methodist  Mao^azine,  1788,  p.  i.  ^  Manuscript  letter, 

'  Methodist  Magazine,  1S17,  p.  324. 


400  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1783  Mr.  Welch  was  a  young  man  of  twenty-three.  Two  years 
AgeSo  before,  he  had  become  a  Methodist.  The  Coventry  society, 
then  extremely  feeble,  was  loath  to  lose  him  ;  and  some  of 
its  members  succeeded  in  persuading  him  to  remain  where 
he  was.  He  wrote  to  Wesley  to  this  effect ;  and  Wesley 
answered  :  "  You  use  me  very  ill.  I  have  turned  away  three 
masters  on  your  account.  The  person,  who  gives  you  this 
advice,  is  wanting  either  in  common  sense  or  common 
honesty."^  Mr.  Welch  became  a  valuable  local  preacher,  and 
lived  and  died  a  Methodist.  Thomas  Jones  took  the  place 
that  he  declined,  and,  for  three  years,  retained  it,  when  he 
was  ordained  a  clergyman  of  the  Church  of  England. 

This  was  Wesley's  last  complaint  of  Kingswood.  Twelve 
months  afterwards,  the  school  and  family  were  visited  with  a 
gracious  outpouring  of  God's  good  Spirit.  In  1786,  he  says: 
"  I  found  the  school  in  excellent  order."  "  It  is  now  one  of 
the  pleasantest  spots  in  England.  I  found  all  things  just 
according  to  my  desire  ;  the  rules  being  well  observed,  and 
the  whole  behaviour  of  the  children  showing,  that  they  were 
now  managed  with  the  wisdom  that  cometh  from  above."  In 
1787,  he  expressed  himself  to  the  same  effect,  as,  in  fact,  he 
did  to  the  end  of  life.  The  last  entry  in  his  journal,  in  refer- 
ence to  this  memorable  place, — a  child,  always  with  him  a 
pet,  though  often  troublesome, — was  this  :  "  1789,  September 
II — I  went  over  to  Kingswood:  sweet  recess!  where  every- 
thing is  now  just  as  I  wish.     But 

'  Man  was  not  born  in  shades  to  lie ! ' 

Let  us  work  now ;  we  shall  rest  by-and-by.  I  spent  some 
time  with  the  children  ;  all  of  whom  behaved  well :  several 
are  much  awakened,  and  a  few  rejoicing  in  the  favour  of 
God." 

We  must  now  bid  a  final  adieu  to  dear  old  Kingswood 
school,  the  sacred  scene  of  so  many  Methodistic  memories, 
and  turn  to  other  matters  connected  with  the  conference  of 

1783. 

The  number  of  members  was  reported  to  be  45,955  ;  but 
all  these  were    Methodists  within  the    limits    of  the  United 


^  Methodist  Magazine,  181 7,  p.  324, 


Letters  to   William  Black.  401 

Kingdom.    No  account  was  taken  of  the  13,740  Methodists  in      1783 
America.     No  mention  was  made  of  Antigua,  where  nearly    AgTso 
2000  persons  had  joined  John  Baxter's  society  ;  and  where,  in 
this  very  year,  the  first  Methodist  chapel  in  the  torrid  zone 
was  completed.'^ 

Nova  Scotia  also  is  not  noticed ;  though  it  had  been  the 
scene  of  a  most  blessed  work,  and  William  Black  had 
written  to  Wesley,  urgently  asking  him  to  send  them 
preachers.     The   following  were  Wesley's  answers. 

"  LONDOX,  February  26,  1 783. 

"  My  dear  Brother, — I  did  indeed  very  strongly  expostulate  with 
the  Bishop  of  London,  concerning  his  refusing  to  ordain  a  pious  man, 
without  learning,  while  he  ordained  others  that,  to  my  knowledge,  had  no 
piety,  and  but  a  moderate  share  of  learning. 

"  Our  next  conference  will  begin  in  July  ;  and  I  have  great  hopes,  we 
shall  then  be  able  to  send  you  assistance.  One  of  our  preachers  informs 
me,  he  is  willing  to  go  to  any  part  of  Africa  or  America.  He  does  not 
regard  danger  or  toil ;  nor,  indeed,  does  he  count  his  life  dear  unto  him- 
self, so  that  he  may  testify  the  gospel  of  the  grace  of  God,  and  win  sinners 
to  Christ.  But  I  cannot  advise  any  person  to  go  alone.  Our  Lord  sent 
His  disciples  two  and  two.  And  I  do  not  despair  of  finding  another 
young  man,  as  much  devoted  to  God  as  he. 

"  Of  Calvinism,  mysticism,  and  antinomianism,  have  a  care  ;  for  they 
are  the  bane  of  true  religion  ;  and  one  or  other  of  them  has  been  the 
grand  hindrance  of  the  work  of  God,  wherever  it  has  broke  out. 
"  I  am,  my  dear  brother,  yours  affectionately, 

"  John  Wesley."  2 

The  second  letter  to  William  Black  was  as  follows. 

"  London,  July  13,  1783. 

"  My  dear  Brother, — It  is  a  rule  with  me,  to  answer  all  the  letters 
which  I  receive.  If,  therefore,  you  have  not  received  an  answer  to  every 
letter  which  you  have  written,  it  must  be,  either  that  your  letter  or  my 
answer  has  been  intercepted. 

"  I  do  not  wonder  at  all,  that,  after  that  great  and  extraordinary  work 
of  God,  there  should  be  a  remarkable  decay.  So  we  have  found  it  in 
almost  all  places.  A  swift  increase  is  generally  followed  by  a  decrease 
equally  swift.  All  we  can  do  to  prevent  it,  is  continually  to  exhort  all 
who  have  tasted  that  the  Lord  is  gracious,  to  remember  our  Lord's  words, 
'Watch  and  pray  that  ye  enter  not  into  temptation.' 

"  The  school  at  Kingswood  is  exceeding  full  ;  nevertheless  there  shall 
be  room  for  you.     And  it  is  very  probable,  if  you  should  live  to  return  to 

*  Coke's  Life,  by  Drew,  p.  167. 
2  Black's  Memoirs,  p.  99. 

VOL.  in.  D  D 


Ace  80 


402  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1 7  S3      Halifax,  you  may  carry  one  or  more  preachers  with  you.     I  hope  you  will 
live  as  brethren,  and  have  a  free  and  open  intercourse  with  each  other. 
"  I  am,  my  dear  brother,  affectionately  yours, 

"  John  Wesley."  ^ 

Such  was  the  wish  of  WilHam  Black ;  and  such  was 
Wesley's  intention  ;  but  it  was  not  until  1785,  that  Nova 
Scotia  appeared  in  the  minutes  of  conference  as  a  Methodist 
circuit.  "  The  harvest  truly  was  great ;  but  the  labourers 
were  few."     And  yet  all  that  offered  were  not  accepted. 

At  the  conference  of  1783,  there  was  present  a  young  Welsh- 
man, of  middle  stature,  thin  and  delicate,  with  a  somewhat 
elongated  face,  an  eye  of  genius,  and  a  capacious  forehead, 
who  offered  himself  as  an  itinerant  preacher,  but  whom 
Wesley  and  his  brethren,  from  the  delicacy  of  his  health  and 
the  feebleness  of  his  voice,  thought  not  equal  to  the  arduous 
labours  of  the  itinerant  office.  He  had  been  converted  under 
the  preaching  of  Samuel  Bardsley,  and,  soon  after  his  offer 
was  declined  by  Wesley,  was  ordained  by  Bishop  Horsley, 
and  became  vicar  of  Llanbister.  The  vicarage  had  a  parlour, 
with  a  slab  stone  floor,  an  open  chimney,  and  a  hearth  on 
which  burnt  a  fire  of  wood  and  turf  It  had  a  kitchen,  and  two 
upper  rooms  of  the  same  humble  character.  For  many  a 
long  year  this  was  the  home  of  the  Rev.  David  -Lloyd,  "  a 
philosopher,  a  poet,  and  a  divine,"  says  Dr.  Dixon,  "  who 
seemed  to  enjoy,  with  unmixed  contentment,  the  inheritance 
given  him  by  Providence."  P'or  fifty  years,  his  wife  was  a 
Methodist,  and  his  parsonage  a  Methodist  preachers'  home. 
Besides  poetical  works  of  considerable  merit,  the  good  vicar 
became  the  author  of  a  large  octavo  volume  of  very  valuable 
essays,  entitled  "  Horae  Theologicse."^  Mr.  Lloyd  was  a  per- 
fect enthusiast  on  the  missionary  question,  and  gave  a  sub- 
scription of  £\0  a  year  to  the  Methodist  and  Church 
missionary  societies  respectively  ;  presented  each  with  a 
donation  of  ;i^50o;  and  left  the  residue  of  his  property,  after 
other  demands  had  been  satisfied,  to  be  equally  divided 
between  these  two  institutions.  He  also  built  a  Methodist 
chapel  on  his  estate,  and  secured  it  to  the  connexion  by 
deed.      Thus,    as    a    diligent    clergyman    of  the  Church    of 

^  Black's  Memoirs,  p.  109. 
'  Methodist  Magazine,  18 16,  p.  832. 


Wesley  seriously  III.  403 

England,  and  the   friend  and  host  of  Methodist  preachers,      1783 
Hved  and    died   the   good    vicar  of  Llanbistcr, — a  candidate    Age  80 
rejected  by  the  conference  of  1783.^ 

In  the  midst  of  this  conference,  Wesley  was  again  seized 
with  an  alarming  illness.  Dr.  Drummond  attended  him 
twice  a  day.  I  lis  friends  thought,  that  his  end  was  come  ; 
and  he  himself  apprehended  that  the  cramp  would  probably 
reach  his  stomach,  and  occasion  sudden  death.  "  I  have  been 
reflecting  on  my  past  life,"  said  he  to  his  faithful  nurse, 
Joseph  Bradford;  "I  have  been  wandering  up  and  down 
between  fifty  and  sixty  years,  endeavouring,  in  my  poor  way, 
to  do  a  little  good  to  my  fellow  creatures  ;  and,  now,  it  is 
probable  that  there  are  but  a  few  steps  between  me  and 
death  ;  and  what  have  I  to  trust  to  for  salvation  ?  I  can  see 
nothing  which  I  have  done  or  suffered,  that  will  bear  looking 
at.     I  have  no  other  plea  than  this  : 

*  I  the  chief  of  sinners  am, 
But  Jesus  died  for  me.'"  ^ 

For  eighteen  days,  Wesley  hung  between  life  and  death, 
when,  finding  himself  somewhat  better,  and  "being,"  as  he 
says,  "  unwilling  to  be  idle,"  he  spent  an  hour  with  the  Bristol 
penitents.  The  day  following,  he  preached  twice,  and,  the 
day  after  that,  on  Monday,  August  25,  set  out  again  on  his 
much  loved  gospel  ramblings.  Death  itself,  to  Wesley,  was 
more  desirable  than  life  without  work. 

Preaching  on  his  way  at  Gloucester,  Worcester,  and 
Birmingham,  he  came,  on  August  29,  to  Stafford,  where  he 
writes  ;  "  I  preached,  for  the  first  time,  to  a  large  and  deeply 
attentive  congregation.  It  is  now  the  day  of  small  things 
here  ;  but  the  grain  of  mustard  seed  may  grow  up  into  a 
great  tree." 

Four  years  before  this.  Dr.  Coke  was  passing  through 
Stafford,  and,  while  dining  at  the  inn,  sent  the  bellman  round 
to  announce  to  the  inhabitants  that  he  would  preach  in  the 
market  place.  Jeremiah  Brcttell,  his  companion,  took  a  table 
from  the  hostelry ;  the  doctor  mounted  ;  the  people  came  ; 
all  listened  with  deep  attention  ;  and  some  expressed  a  wish 

*  Methodist  Magazine,  1863,  sixpenny  edition,  p.  i. 
2  Moore's  Life  of  Wesley,  vol.  ii.,  p.  389. 


404  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

17S3  for  the  visit  to  be  repeated.  Soon  after,  a  little  society  was 
Age  80  formed/  which,  in  1784,  consisted  of  sixteen  members,  Henry- 
Robinson  being  leader.^ 

From  Stafford,  Wesley  made  his  Avay  to  Macclesfield, 
where  he  preached  twice  in  the  Rev.  David  Simpson's  church, 
and  had  a  sacramental  service,  at  which  seven  hundred  com- 
municants were  present. 

He  was  now  proceeding  to  Birstal,  to  effect  the  settle- 
ment with  the  Birstal  chapel  trustees,  as  already  related. 
The  journey  occupied  sixteen  days  ;  the  distance  was  five  or 
six  hundred  miles  ;  according  to  his  wont,  he  preached  all  the 
way  there  and  back  ;  and  yet,  the  old  man,  who  a  month 
before  had  been  on  the  very  verge  of  death,  returned  to  Bristol 
on  the  13th  of  September,  almost  as  vigorous  as  ever. 

An  unpublished  letter,  belonging  to  this  period,  may  be 
welcome  here.     It  was    addressed   to  John  Atlay,  his  book 

steward. 

"  Leeds,  September  3,  1783. 
"My  dear  Brother, — The  schoolmasters  for  Kingswood  are  fixed, 
and  expected  there  every  day.  Mr.  Simpson's  sister  is  the  housekeeper, 
who  is  come  hither  in  her  way  to  Bristol.  Let  no  man  or  woman  go 
to  West  Street  chapel  without  my  appointment.  It  is  a  matter  of  deep 
concern.  The  building  or  not  building,  at  Birstal,  does  not  depend  upon 
me,  but  the'  trustees.  J.  Fenwick  is  to  correct  the  press  chiefly,  in  the 
absence  of  Dr.  Coke,  and  to  transcribe  tracts  for  me.  And  he  may  receive 
his  httie  salary^,  at  least,  till  I  return  to  London. 

"  I  am,  with  love  to  sister  Atlay,  your  affectionate  brother, 

"John  Wesley." 

Wesley  remained  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Bristol  till 
October  6,  and  employed  the  interval,  not  only  in  preaching, 
but  in  begging  money  to  relieve  the  distresses  of  the  desti- 
tute, and  in  visiting  the  poor  recipients  at  their  own  houses. 
"  I  was  surprised,"  says  he,  "  to  find  no  murmuring  spirits 
among  them,  but  many  that  were  truly  happy  in  God  ;  and 
all  of  them  appeared  to  be  exceeding  thankful  for  the 
scanty  relief  which  they  received." 

'  Methodist  Magazine,  1830,  p.  657. 

2  The  names  were:  Henry  Robinson,  Mary  Robinson,  Charles  Machin, 
John  Smith,  Ann  Stockdale,  William  Holding,  Sarah  Holding,  John 
Rowland,  Sarah  Jervis,  Thomas  Smith,  Elizabeth  Smith,  John  Ward,  Ann 
Ward,  John  Kelsall,  Thomas  EUey,  and  William  Freepound.— (Burslem 
old  circuit  book.) 


Wesley  and  the  Poor.  405 

No  wonder,  that  such  a  man  was  popular  ;  and  no  wonder,  1783 
that  his  presence  was  a  loadstone  drawing  the  poor  around  Age  80 
him.  Sometimes,  however,  their  absence  would  have  been 
more  welcome  than  their  company.  A  month  after  this, 
Wesley  was  at  Norwich,  and,  when  leaving,  had  a  whole  host 
of  poverty  stricken  people  about  his  carriage.  His  purse  was 
low,  containing  only  what  was  necessary  to  take  him  back  to 
London  ;  and  the  clamour  of  the  mendicant  crowd,  for  once, 
disturbed  his  temper.  Somewhat  sharply  he  said ;  "  I  have 
nothing  for  you.  Do  you  suppose  I  can  support  the  poor 
in  every  place.''"  At  the  moment,  he  was  entering  his 
carriage;  his  foot  slipped;  and  he  fell  upon  the  ground.  Feel- 
ing as  though  God  Himself  had  rebuked  him  for  his  hasty 
words,  he  turned  to  Joseph  Bradford,  and,  with  subdued 
emphasis,  remarked  :  "It  is  all  right,  Joseph;  it  is  all  right; 
it  is  only  what  I  deserved ;  for  if  I  had  no  otJtcr  good  to  give, 
I  ought,  at  least,  to  have  given  them  good  words."  ^ 

The  concluding  months  of  the  year  were  employed,  as 
usual,  partly  in  London,  and  partly  in  the  surrounding 
counties. 

Considering  Wesley's  advanced  age,  his  labours  are  without 
parallel.  Here  we  have, — not  a  man  of  Herculean  frame,  big, 
brawny,  and  heavy,  fed  on  the  daintiest  diet,  and  stimulated 
with  the  costliest  wines, — but  a  man  small  in  stature,  his 
weight  eight  stones  and  ten  pounds  (exactly  the  same  as  it 
was  fourteen  years  before),  his  age  eighty,  without  indulgences, 
feeding,  for  eight  months  in  every  year,  chiefly  at  the  tables 
of  the  poor,  sleeping  on  all  sorts  of  beds  and  in  all  sorts  of 
rooms,  without  a  wife,  without  a  child,  really  without  a  home  ; 
and  yet  a  man  always  cheerful,  always  happy,  always  hard  at 
work,  flying  with  all  the  sprightliness  of  youth  throughout  the 
three  kingdoms,  preaching  twice  every  day,  indoors  and  out 
of  doors,  in  churches,  chapels,  cottages,  and  sheds,  and  every- 
where superintending  the  complex  and  growing  interests 
of  the  numerous  societies  which  had  sprung  into  buoyant 
being  through  the  labours  of  himself  and  his  godly  helpers. 
The  man  was  a  marvel,  such  as  the  world  sees  only  now  and 
then.     Once  show  him  the  path  of  duty,  and  with  a  dauntless 


'  Everett's  Life  of  Clarke. 


4^6  Life  and'  Times  of  Wesley, 


1783  step  he  trod  it.  Nothing  frightened  him  ;  nothing  could  allure 
Age  80  fi'om  the  post  assigned  to  him  by  Providence,  However 
arduous  the  work,  and  however  great  the  privations  and  the 
dangers,  if  his  Master  bid  him  go,  he  went,  trusting  in  his 
Master's  power  for  defence  and  help.  "  My  brother  Charles," 
he  once  remarked,  "  amid  the  difficulties  of  our  early  ministry, 
used  to  say  :  '  If  the  Lord  would  give  me  wings,  I  would  fly.' 
I  used  to  answer,  '  If  the  Lord  bid  me  fly,  I  would  trust  Hirh 
for  the  wings.'"  ^ 

One  of  the  last  acts  of  this  youthful  octogenarian,  in  1783, 
was  to  pay  a  pastoral  visit  to  another  of  the  most  remark- 
able men  of  that  period, — Dr.  Samuel  Johnson,  who  was 
now  suffering  his  last  illness,  and  died  twelve  months  after- 
wards. 

Wesley's  publications,  in  1783,  were  the  following. 

1.  "The  Spirit  of  Prayer."     24  pages,  i2mo. 

2.  "Baxter's  Call  to  the  Unconverted."     ']6  pages,  i2mo. 

3.  "The  Important  Question.  A  Sermon.  By  John  Wesley." 
23  pages,  i2mo. 

Besides  these,  Wesley  also  published  many  new  editions 
of  former  tracts,  for  the  use  of  his  recently  instituted  tract 
society,  most  of  these  reissues  having  upon  the  title  page, 
"This  tract  is  not  to  be  sold,  but  given  away." 

His  principal  publication,  however,  was  his  Arminian 
Magazine,  and  this  was  as  vigorously  conducted  as  before. 
Again,  we  have  half-a-dozen  original  sermons,  by  Wesley 
himself,  all  of  them  remarkable,  and  among  the  most  able 
that  he  ever  published.  These  include  his  two  discourses 
on  good  and  fallen  angels ;  in  which  he  propounds  the 
doctrine,  that  good  angels  minister  to  our  happiness,  by 
assisting  us  in  our  searches  after  truth,  by  preserving  us  in 
danger,  by  dreams,  etc. :  and  that  all  evil  angels  are  united 
under  one  common  head ;  and  are  often  the  authors  of 
accidents,  diseases,  fires,  storms,  and  earthquakes.  Then 
there  is  his  elaborate  sermon  on  "  The  Mystery  of  Iniquity," 
in  which  he  expresses  the  opinion,  that  the  "  greatest  blow 
that  genuine  Christianity  ever  received  was  when  Constantine 
the  Great  called  himself  a  Christian,  and  poured  in  a  flood  of 

^  Methodist  Magazine,  1825,  p.  390. 


Wesley's  Publications,  in    i  "i^'i)-  4^7 

riches,  honours,  and  power  upon  the  Christians,  more  ^7^3 
especially  upon  the  clergy."  Next  we  have  his  curious  Age  So 
homily  on  the  Spread  of  Christianity,  where  he  hazards 
the  conjecture  that  truth  will  be  transmitted  from  this  nation 
to  that,  until  at  last  it  reaches  the  South  Sea  islands.  And, 
finally,  there  are  his  characteristic  sermons  on  Family 
Religion,  and  on  Training  Children.  As  usual,  every  number 
of  the  magazine  has  an  article  on  the  Calvinian  controversy. 
Biographical  accounts  are  still  numerous.  Extracts  from 
his  own  Natural  Philosophy,  and  from  Locke's  Essay  on 
the  Human  Understanding,  form  a  part  of  each  of  the 
twelve  numbers  ;  as  do  also  Benson's  letters  in  reply  to 
Madan's  treatise  on  polygamy  ;  likewise  extracts  from  Dr. 
Hilldrop's  able  "  Thoughts  on  the  Brute  Creation,"  professedly 
to  prove  a  theory  which  Wesley  liked,  the  ultimate  restoration 
of  the  brute  creation  ;  and  a  series  of  profoundly  thoughtful 
articles  on  "  The  True  Original  of  the  Soul."  Nine  numbers 
have  extracts  from  Baxter's  "  Certainty  of  the  World  of 
Spirits,  fully  evinced  by  unquestionable  Histories  of  Appari- 
tions and  Witchcrafts."  There  are  forty-five  letters  ;  forty-one 
poems  ;  and  a  number  of  portraits,  including  those  of  John 
Hampson  and  William  Thorn,  both  of  whom  left  the 
IMethodist  connexion.  There  are  also  long  continued  extracts 
from  Bryant's  Analysis  of  Ancient  Mythology,  w^hich 
Wesley  pronounces  to  be  "  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
books,  in  its  kind,  which  has  been  published  for  cen- 
turies." And,  finally,  there  are  Wesley's  "  Thoughts  on  the 
Writings  of  Baron  Swedenborg."  The  baron,  a  little  before 
he  died,  presented  Wesley  with  his  last  and  largest  theological 
work,  the  "True  Christian  Religion";  but  he  failed  to  make  a 
convert  of  him.  Wesley  believed  him  to  be  insane,  and 
traced  his  insanity  to  a  fever,  which  he  had  in  London,  when 
"  he  ran  into  the  street  stark  naked,  proclaimed  himself  the 
Messiah,  and  rolled  himself  in  the  mire."  He  w^as  a  "  fine 
genius, — majestic  though  in  ruins." 


1784 

DR.  WHITEHEAD  calls  the  year  1784  "the  grand 
dhnacteric  year  of  Methodism,  because  of  the  changes 
which  now  took  place  in  the  form  of  its  original  constitution. 
Not,"  says  he,  "  that  these  changes  destroyed  at  once  the 
original  constitution  of  Methodism ;  but  the  seeds  of  its 
corruption  and  final  dissolution  were  this  year  solemnly 
planted,  and  have  since  been  carefully  watered  and 
nursed  by  a  powerful  party  among  the  preachers."  ^  The 
doctor  was  an  able  man  ;  but  he  can  scarcely  be  called  a 
prophet.  Of  course,  he  refers  to  Wesley's  deed  of  declara- 
tion, and  Wesley's  ordination  of  bishops  for  America  ;  both 
of  which  must  have  due  attention,  before  we  conclude  the 
present  year. 

Wesley  himself,  according  to  his  own  correspondence, 
seemed  to  grow  younger  as  he  grew  older.  In  a  letter  to 
"the  Rev.  Walter  Sellon,  at  Ledsham,  near  Ferrybridge, 
Yorkshire,"  and  dated,  "London,  January  10,  1784,"  he 
writes  : 

"  On  the  28th  of  last  June,  I  finished  my  eightieth  year.  When  I  was 
young,  I  had  weak  eyes,  trembling  hands,  and  abundance  of  infirmities. 
But,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  I  have  outlived  them  all.  I  have  no  infirmi- 
ties now,  but  what  I  judge  to  be  inseparable  from  flesh  and  blood.  This 
hath  God  wrought.  I  am  afraid  you  want  the  grand  medicine  which  I 
use, — exercise  and  change  of  air."  ^ 

On  the  same  day,  he  wrote  another  letter,  now  also,  like  the 
former,  for  the  first  time  published.  Methodism  had  recently 
been  introduced,  by  a  company  of  soldiers,  into  the  Channel 
islands  ;  and  Mr.  Robert  Carr  Brackenbury,  with  his  servant, 
Alexander  Kilham,  had  gone  to  promote  its  interests.  The 
letter  was  addressed,  "  Robert  Carr  Brackenbury,  Esq.,  in  St. 

Heliers,  Isle  of  Jersey." 

"London,  yamiary  10,  1784. 
"  Dear  Sir, — While  those  poor  sheep  were  scattered  abroad,  without 

^  Life  of  Wesley,  vol.  ii.,  p.  404.  ^  Manuscript  letter. 


A  Seven  Months    Joiirncy.  409 

any  shepherd,  and  without  any  connection  with  each  other,  it  is  no  wonder      1784 
that  they  were  cold  and  dead.      I   am  glad   you  have  gathered  a  few  of  ■ 

them  together,  and,  surely,  if  prayer  be  made  concerning  it,  God  will  pro-        ^ 
vide  you  with  a  convenient  place  to  meet  in.     Perhaps  an  application  to 
the  gentlemen,  who  have    hired    the  ballroom,  might    not  be  without 
success. 

"'Tis  pity  but  you  had  the  'Earnest  Appeal'  to  present  to  the  governor, 
as  well  as  the  minister.  I  trust  both  you  and  our  newly  connected, 
brethren  will  overcome  evil  with  good.  We  can  easily  print  the  rules  here, 
and  send  them  down  with  some  other  books.  'Tis  good  that  every  one 
should  know  our  whole  plan.  We  do  not  want  any  man  to  go  on  blind- 
fold.    Peace  be  with  your  spirit  ! 

"  1  am,  dear  sir,  your  affectionate  friend, 

"J.  Wesley." 

The  first  two  months  of  1784  were  chiefly  spent  in  London, 
with  the  exception  of  a  flying  visit  to  Colchester,  and  another 
to  Nottingham ;  Wesley's  errand  to  the  last  mentioned  place 
being  to  "preach  a  charity  sermon  for  the  general  hospital." 
He  had  a  grand  covenant  service  in  City  Road  chapel,  at- 
tended by  upwards  of  eighteen  hundred  people.  He  took 
counsel  with  the  London  preachers,  as  to  the  desirability  of 
the  Methodists  sending  missionaries  to  India.  He  read 
"Orlando  Furioso,"  and  says,  "Ariosto  had,  doubtless,  an  un- 
common genius,  and  subsequent  poets  have  been  greatly 
indebted  to  him  ;  yet,  it  is  hard  to  say,  which  was  the  most 
out  of  his  senses,  the  hero  or  the  poet.  He  has  not  the  least 
regard  even  to  probability ;  his  marvellous  transcends  all  con- 
ception. Who,  that  is  not  himself  out  of  his  senses,  would 
compare  Ariosto  with  Tasso  "i " 

On  the  1st  of  March,  the  venerable  Wesley, — as  agile  as  a 
boy,  above  fourscore  years  of  age,  and  yet  reading  the  Italian 
poet  with  all  the  zest  of  a  youth  still  at  school, — set  out  on 
a  seven  months*  journey,  first  to  Bristol,  then  to  Scotland, 
then  to  Leeds,  then  through  Wales  to  the  west  of  England, 
and  then  to  London,  which  he  reached  on  October  9.  With  a 
hasty  step,  we  must  try  to  follow  him. 

Wesley,  as  opportunity  permitted,  "  intermeddled  with  all 
wisdom,"  and,  to  the  end  of  life,  showed,  that  a  man  is  never 
too  old  to  learn.  At  Bradford,  in  Wiltshire,  he  says  :  "  I  was 
convinced  of  two  vulgar  errors ;  the  one,  that  nightingales 
v.'ill  not  li\/e  in  cages  ;  the  other,  that  they  only  sing  a  month 
or  two  in  the  year.     Samuel  Rayner  has  now  three  nightin- 


4IO  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

^7^4  gales  in  cages  ;  and  they  sing  almost  all  day  long,  from 
Age  8i    November  to  August." 

At  Stroud,  he  wrote  :  "  Here,  to  my  surprise,  I  found  the 
morning  preaching  was  given  up,  as  also  in  the  neighbouring 
places.  If  this  be  the  case  while  I  am  alive,  what  must  it  be 
when  I  am  gone .''  Give  up  this,  and  Methodism  too  will 
degenerate  into  a  mere  sect,  only  distinguished  by  some 
opinions  and  modes  of  worship." 

Wesley  considered,  that  preaching  at  five  o'clock  in  the 
morning  was  the  healthiest  exercise  in  the  world  ;  and  pro- 
bably he  was  not  far  from  being  right.  But  besides  this,  these 
early  matutinal  services  had  now,  for  five-and-forty  years, 
been  one  of  the  things  which  made  the  Methodists  ''  2. peculiar 
people,"  as  well  as  "  zealous  of  good  works."  No  other  church 
or  community,  in  England,  had  a  service  like  this.  It  was  a 
religious  ordinance  which  Wesley  dearly  loved.  In  thousands 
of  instances,  he  and  his  friends  had  proved  the  words,  "  Those 
that  seek  Me  early  shall  find  Me."  No  wonder  then,  that  he 
evinced  alarm  when  he  found  the  Methodists  giving  up  the 
morning  services.  Three  weeks  after  he  was  at  backslidden 
Stroud,  he  came  to  Chester,  and  expressed  himself  in  the 
strongest  terms  on  this  subject.     He  writes  : 

"  I  was  surprised,  when  I  came  to  Chester,  to  find  that  there  also  morn- 
ing preaching  was  quite  left  off,  for  this  worthy  reason :  '  Because  the 
people  will  not  come,  or,  at  least,  not  in  the  winter.'  If  so,  the  Methodists 
are  a  fallen  people.  Here  is  proof.  They  have  '  lost  their  first  love ' ;  and 
they  never  will  or  can  recover  it,  till  they 'do  the  first  works.'  As  soon 
as  I  set  foot  in  Georgia,  I  began  preaching  at  five  in  the  morning ;  and 
every  communicant,  that  is,  every  serious  person  in  the  town,  constantly 
attended  throughout  the  year  ;  I  mean,  came  every  morning,  winter  and 
summer,  unless  in  the  case  of  sickness.  They  did  so  till  I  left  the  pro- 
vince. In  the  year  1738,  when  God  began  His  great  work  in  England,  I 
began  preaching  at  the  same  hour,  winter  and  summer,  and  never  wanted 
a  congregation.  If  they  will  not  attend  now,  they  have  lost  their  zeal  ; 
and  then,  it  cannot  be  denied,  they  are  a  fallen  people.  And,  in  the 
meantime,  we  are  labouring  to  secure  the  preaching  houses  to  the  next 
generation  !  In  the  name  of  God,  let  us,  if  possible,  secure  the  present 
generation  from  drawing  back  to  perdition !  Let  all  the  preachers,  that 
are  still  alive  to  God,  join  together  as  one  man,  fast  and  pray,  lift  up  their 
voice  as  a  trumpet,  be  instant,  in  season,  out  of  season,  to  convince  them 
that  are  fallen;  and  exhort  them  instantly  to  'repent,  and  do  the  first 
works':  this  in  particular, — rising  in  the  morning,  without  which  neither 
their  souls  nor  bodies  can  long  remain  in  health." 


A  Seven  MontJis    yoiLrney.  4 1 1 

Perhaps  this  was  looking  at  the  thing  too  seriously.  That  17^4 
early  morning  service  is  highly  profitable  cannot  reasonably  Age  81 
be  called  in  question  ;  but,  that  it  should  begin  at  the  hour  of 
five  may  fairly  be  disputed.  Early  risers  are  persons  to  be 
envied  ;  they  breathe  the  purest  air,  listen  to  the  sweetest 
songs,  and  have  promptings  to  worship  God  that  the  sluggard 
never  feels. 

At  Tewkesbury,  Wesley  had  to  correct  the  "  impropriety 
of  standing  at  prayer,  and  sitting  while  singing  praise."  At 
Worcester,  he  "preached,  to  a  crowded  audience,  in  St. 
Andrew's  church."  At  Madeley,  he  preached  twice  in  the 
parish  church,  revised  the  vicar's  letters  to  Dr.  Priestley,  and 
declared,  that  there  was  hardly  another  man  in  England,  so 
fit  to  encounter  the  great  Socinian  philosopher  as  his  friend 
from  the  mountains  of  Switzerland.  At  Stafford,  he  preached, 
to  "  a  small  company,  in  a  deplorable  hole,  formerly  a  stable." 
At  Lane  End,  near  Newcastle  under  Lyne,  in  the  face  of 
one  of  the  most  piercing  winds  of  the  month  of  March,  he 
preached,  by  moonlight,  in  the  open  air,  the  congregation 
being  four  times  larger  than  the  chapel  could  contain.  At 
Burslem,  also,  for  the  same  reason,  he  was  obliged  to  abandon 
the  chapel  for  the  field.  At  Manchester,  on  Easter  Sunday, 
he  had  "near  a  thousand  communicants";  Thomas  Taylor 
says,  twelve  hundred.^ 

Thus  he  employed  himself  all  the  way  to  Whitehaven,  ^ 
where  he  "had  all  the  church  ministers"  to  hear  him,  "and 
most  of  the  gentry  in  the  town";  and,  to  his  evident  surprise, 
"  they  all  behaved  with  as  much  decency  as  if  they  had  been 
colliers."  At  Edinburgh,  he  writes  :  "  I  am  amazed  at  this 
people.  Use  the  most  cutting  words,  and  apply  them  in  the 
most  pointed  manner,  still  they  Jicar,  but  fed  no  more  than 
the  seats  they  sit  upon."  Throughout  Scotland,  morning 
preaching  and  prayer-meetings  had  almost  vanished.  "At 
Aberdeen,"  he  writes,  "  I  talked  largely  with  the  preachers, 
and  showed  them  the  hurt  it  did  both  to  them  and  the  people, 
for  any  one  preacher  to  stay  six  or  eight  weeks  together  in 
one  place.  Neither  can  he  find  matter  for  preaching  every 
morning  and  evening,  nor  will  the  people  come  to  hear  him. 

^  Manuscript  diary. 


412  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1784      Hence,  he  grows  cold  by  lying  in  bed,  and  so  do  the  people. 

A^i     Whereas,  if  he  never  stays  more  than  a  fortnight  together  in 

one  place,  he  may  find  matter  enough,  and  the  people  will 

gladly  hear  him.     The  preachers  immediately  drew  up  such  a 

plan  for  this  circuit,  which  they  determined  to  pursue." 

From  Aberdeen,  Wesley  went,  by  invitation,  to  Lady 
Banff's  at  Old  Meldrum,  where  he  preached  twice ;  and 
thence  to  Keith,  where  he  had  a  congregation  to  his  heart's 
content,  all  the  people  poor,  and  "not  a  silk  coat  among 
them."  At  Forres,  he  was  the  guest  of  Sir  Lodowick  Grant. 
In  making  his  way  to  Inverness,  by  the  mistake  of  his  coach- 
man, he  had  to  trudge,  through  heavy  rain,  twelve  miles  and 
a  half  on  foot,  but  says,  he  "was  no  more  tired"  than  when 
he  first  set  out.  At  Elgin,  he  preached  in  the  church,  and 
significantly  remarks  :  "  I  do  not  despair  of  good  being  done 
even  here,  provided  the  preachers  be  'sons  of  thunder.' "  At 
Newburgh,  he  found  "  the  liveliest  society  in  the  kingdom." 
At  Melval  House,  "the  grand  and  beautiful  seat  of  Lord 
Leven,"  he  was  hospitably  entertained  by  the  countess  and 
her  family,  and,  at  their  desire,  preached  from,  "  It  is  ap- 
pointed unto  men  once  to  die."  Here,  also,  he  wrote  his 
"  Thoughts  on  Nervous  Disorders."  His  next  halting  place 
was  at  Lady  Maxwell's,  "  who  appeared  to  be  clearly  saved 
from  sin,  although  exceedingly  depressed  by  the  tottering 
tenement  of  clay." 

After  thus  visiting  most  of  the  important  towns  in  Scot- 
land, Wesley  reached  Newcastle,  where,  on  Whitsunday,  he 
preached  thrice  to  large  congregations.  A  week  later,  he 
again  set  out,  on  his  unwearied  mission  ;  and,  at  Stockton, 
"found  an  uncommon  work  of  God  among  the  children," 
upwards  of  sixty  of  whom,  from  the  age  of  "  six  to  fourteen, 
were  under  serious  impressions,  and  earnestly  desirous  to  save 
their  souls."  He  writes  :  "As  soon  as  I  came  down  from  the 
desk,  I  was  enclosed  by  a  body  of  children  ;  all  of  whom 
sunk  down  upon  their  knees :  so  I  kneeled  down  myself,  and 
began  praying  for  them."  Beautiful  picture  this,- well  worth 
painting !  No  wonder  that  he  adds  :  "  abundance  of  people 
ran  back  into  the  house.  The  fire  kindled,  and  ran  from 
heart  to  heart,  till  few,  if  any,  were  unaffected.  Is  not  this  a 
new  thing  in  the  earth  }     God  begins  His  work  in  children. 


A  Seven  Mojiths   Joiiriiey.  413 


Thus  it  has  been  also  in  Cornwall,  Manchester,  and  Epworth.      ^7^4 
Thus  the  flame  spreads  to  those  of  riper  years  ;  till  at  length    Age  8f 
they  all  know  Him,  and  praise  Him  from  the  least  unto  the 
greatest." 

Having  visited  the  "dales,"  Darlington,  Northallerton, 
Thirsk,  Osmotherley,  and  other  places,  he  made  his  way  to 
Whitby,  where  he  wrote  :  "  The  society  here  may  be  a  pattern 
to  all  in  England.  They  despise  all  ornaments  but  good 
works,  together  with  a  meek  and  quiet  spirit.  I  did  not  see  a 
ruffle,  no,  nor  a  fashionable  cap  among  them  ;  though  many 
of  them  are  in  easy  circumstances.  About  forty  had  a  clear 
witness  of  being  saved  from  inbred  sin ;  and  seemed  to  walk 
in  the  full  light  of  God's  countenance." 

At  Scarborough,  Wesley  attended  church,  and  was  regaled 
with  one  of  the  bitterest  sermons  he  ever  heard.  "  So,"  says 
he,  "  all  I  have  done,  to  persuade  the  people  to  attend  the 
church,  is  overturned  at  once  !  And  all  who  preach  thus  will 
drive  the  Methodists  from  the  church,  in  spite  of  all  that  I 
can  do."  Two  years  after  this,  in  a  letter  to  his  brother,  he 
wrote:  "The  last  time  I  was  at  Scarborough,  I  earnestly 
exhorted  our  people  to  go  to  church  ;  and  I  went  myself. 
But  the  wretched  minister  preached  such  a  sermon,  that 
I  could  not  in  conscience  advise  them  to  hear  him  any 
more.    ^ 

From  Scarborough,  Wesley  proceeded  along  the  east  coast 
to  Hull  ;  thence  to  Pocklington  and  York  ;  and  thence  to 
Epworth,  where  he  spent  his  birthday,  and  preached  in  the 
market  place  of  the  town,  whose  church,  for  nine-and-thirty 
years,  had  been  blessed  with  the  able  and  faithful  ministry  of 
his  honoured  father.  He  writes  :  "June  28 — To-day  I  entered 
on  my  eighty-second  year,  and  found  myself  just  as  strong  to 
labour,  and  as  fit  for  any  exercise  of  body  or  mind,  as  I  was 
forty  years  ago.  I  do  not  impute  this  to  second  causes,  but 
to  the  sovereign  Lord  of  all.  It  is  He  who  bids  the  sun  of 
life  stand  still,  so  long  as  it  pleascth  Him,  I  am  as  strong  at 
eighty-one,  as  I  was  at  twenty-one  ;  but  abundantly  more 
healthy,  being  a  stranger  to  the  headache,  toothache,  and 
other  bodily  disorders  which  attended  me  in  my  youth.     We 

*  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xii.,  p.  144, 


414  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1784     can  only  say,    'The  Lord  reigneth!'     While  we  live,  let  us 
A^8i    live  to  Him!" 

Having  spent  a  week  in  visiting  the  Lincolnshire  societies, 
Wesley  proceeded  to  various  towns  in  the  west  riding  of 
Yorkshire ;  and  thence,  for  the  first  time,  to  Burnley.  He 
writes:  "  Burnley  had  been  tried  for  many  years,  but  without 
effect.  Now,  high  and  low,  rich  and  poor,  flocked  together 
.from  all  quarters  ;  and  all  were  eager  to  hear,  except  one 
man,  who  was  the  town  crier.  He  began  to  bawl  amain,  till 
his  wife  ran  to  him,  and  literally  stopped  his  noise ;  she 
seized  him  with  one  hand,  and  clapped  the  other  upon  his 
mouth,  so  that  he  could  not  get  out  one  word.  God  then 
began  a  work,  which,  I  am  persuaded,  will  not  soon  come 
to  an  end."     Wesley's  words  were  verified. 

Thomas  Dixon,  who  was  appointed  to  the  Colne  circuit 
in  1784,  remarks,  in  his  unpublished  diary:  "The  work 
of  God  at  Burnley  was  very  young  ;  but  many,  during  this 
year,  were  converted.  The  great  men  of  the  place  were 
angry,  and  agreed  to  banish  the  Methodist  preachers  from  the 
town.  The  proprietor  of  the  preaching  house  sent  us  notice 
to  quit  the  premises  ;  and  the  rest  of  the  gentlemen  pledged  ' 
themselves  not  to  let  us  have  another.  But  about  a  month 
before  the  expiration  of  the  notice,  the  Lord  converted  a  man, 
who  had  a  house  of  his  own,  which  he  opened  to  the  preachers ; 
and  now  we  had  a  better  preaching  place  than  we  had  before. 
Soon  after  a  chapel  was  erected."  One  of  the  first  members 
was  John  Eagin,who,  for  fifty  years,  maintained  an  unspotted 
character  ;  and  died,  in  1836,  saying,  "  I  am  happy."  ^ 

Leaving  Burnley,  Wesley  went  to  Otley,  where,  marvellous 
to  relate!  he  had  a  two  days' rest.  He  then,  on  July  18, 
preached  twice  in  Bingley  church,  a  great  part  of  his  congre- 
gation being  obliged  to  stand  outside.  He  writes  :  "Before 
service,  I  stepped  into  the  Sunday-school,  which  contains  two 
hundred  and  forty  children,  taught  every  Sunday  by  several 
masters,  and  superintended  by  the  curate.  So  many  children, 
in  one  parish,  are  restrained  from  open  sin,  and  taught  a  little 
good  manners,  at  least,  as  well  as  to  read  the  Bible.  I  find 
these  schools  springing  up  wherever  I  go.      Perhaps  God  may 

1  Methodist  Magazine,  1836,  p.  397. 


Snuday-schools.  4 1 5 


have  a  deeper  end  therein,  than   men  are  aware  of.     Who     1784 
knows  but  some  of  these  schools  may  become  nurseries  for    Age  81 
Christians  ?" 

This  is  Wesley's  first  notice  of  Sunday-schools.  Though 
such  schools  had  long  existed  in  a  few  isolated  cases,  it  was 
not  until  now  that  they  attracted  public  attention.  Miss 
Ball's  Methodist  Sunday-school  at  High  Wycombe  has  been 
already  mentioned  ;  and  it  has  also  been  stated,  that  Miss 
Cooke,  a  Methodist  young  lady  (afterwards  the  wife  of 
Samuel  Bradburn),  was  the  first  to  suggest  to  Robert 
Raikes  the  idea  of  instituting  a  Sunday-school  at  Gloucester. 
Raikes  commenced  that  school  about  the  year  1783.  At  all 
events,  his  account  of  it  was  dated  Gloucester,  June  5,  1784, 
and  was  published  in  the  January  number  of  W^esley's 
Arviiiiian  Magazine,  iot  1785,  with  the  title,  "An  Account 
of  the  Sunday  Charity  Schools,  lately  begun  in  various  parts 
of  England."  Wesley  was  one  of  the  first  to  catch  and  . 
patronise  the  Sunday-school  idea.  At  Bingley,  he  visited 
the  school  before  preaching  in  the  church,  and  gave  to 
Sunday-schools  one  of  their  happiest  designations,  "  nurseries 
for  Christians."  Similar  institutions  had  been  begun  in 
Leeds,  where  Wesley  was  about  to  hold  his  conference. 
The  town  was  already  divided  into  seven  divisions  ;  and 
had  twenty-six  schools,  containing  above  two  thousand 
scholars,  taught  by  forty-five  masters.  Each  school  com — 
menced  at  one  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  the  children  being 
taught  reading,  writing,  and  religion.  At  three,  they  were 
taken  to  their  respective  churches ;  then  conducted  back  to 
school,  where  a  portion  of  some  useful  book  was  read,  a 
psalm  sung,  and  the  whole  concluded  with  a  form  of  prayer, 
composed  and  printed  for  that  purpose.  Boys  and  girls  were 
kept  separate.  There  were  four  "  inquisitors,"  persons  whose 
office  it  was  to  spend  Sunday  afternoon  in  visiting  the  twenty- 
six  schools,  to  ascertain  who  were  absent,  and  then  in  seeking 
the -absentees  at  their  homes  or  in  the  public  streets.  The  _ 
masters  were  mostly  pious  men,  and  were  paid  from  one  to 
two  shillings  a  Sunday  for  their  services,  according  to  their 
respective  qualifications.  Each  had  a  written  list  of  his 
scholars'  names,  which  he  was  required  to  call  over,  every 
Sunday,  at  half-past  one,  and  half-past  five.     Five  clergymen 


4i6  Life  and  Tmies  of  Wesley. 

1784     visited  the  schools,   and   gave   addresses;  and  the  expenses 
Age" 81   of  the  first  year,  ending  in  July   1784,  were  about  -^234. 

Such  were  the  Sunday-schools  at  Leeds  when  Wesley,  for 
the  first  time,  visited  one  in  the  neighbouring  town  of 
Bingley.  Manchester  also  had  taken  up  Raikes'  Methodist 
idea;  and,  on  the  ist  of  August,  1784,  Wesley's  old  friend,  the 
Rev.  Cornelius  Bay  ley,  D.D.,  who  for  ten  years  had  been 
one  of  the  masters  of  Kingswood  school,  but  was  now  an 
ordained  clergyman  in  this  important  city,  published  an 
"Address  to  the  Public  on  Sunday-Schools,"  in  which  he 
gave  an  account  of  the  schools  at  Leeds,  and  urged  the  men 
of  Manchester  to  copy  so  excellent  an  example.  Bayley's 
address  produced  a  powerful  efi'ect ;  the  magistrates  patron- 
ised his  scheme  ;  and  the  result  was,  that  Cornelius  Bayley, 
D.D.,  the  quondam  Methodist,  and  master  of  Wesley's 
Kingswood  school,  became  one  of  the  chief,  though  not  only, 
instruments  of  establishing  Sunday-schools  in  Manchester 
and  its  neighbourhood.^ 

After  visiting  some  of  the  intermediate  towns  and  villages, 
Wesley  arrived  at  Leeds,  for  the  purpose  of  holding  his 
annual  conference.     He  writes  : 

"July  25,  Sunday — I  preached  to  several  thousands  at  Birstal,  and  to, 
at  least,  as  many  at  Leeds.  July  27,  Tuesday — Our  conference  began  ; 
at  which  four  of  our  brethren,  after  long  debate  (in  which  Mr.  Fletcher 
took  much  pains)  acknowledged  their  fault,  and  all  that  was  past  was 
forgotten.  July  29,  Thursday — Being  the  public  thanksgiving  day,  as 
there  was  not  room  for  us  in  the  old  church,  I  read  prayers,  as  well  as 
preached,  at  our  room.  Having  five  clergymen  to  assist  me,  we  admi- 
nistered the  Lord's  supper,  as    was    supposed,  to   sixteen  or  seventeen 


^  On  Sunday,  September  18,  1870,  the  London  Road  Methodist  Sunday- 
school,  Manchester,  removed  from  their  somewhat  dingy  premises  to  a 
new  and  more  commodious  building,  erected  in  Grosvenor  Street  East, 
and  adjoining  the  Wesleyan  chapel  there.  A  card  commemorative  of  the 
event  was  presented  to  each  person  joining  in  the  day's  proceedings, 
with  the  following  inscription  :  "  London  Road  Wesleyan  Sunday  School, 
founded  in  1785,  by  John  Lancaster,  and  first  conducted  by  him  in  a 
cellar  at  the  corner  of  Travis  Street.  It  was  soon  after  removed  to  a 
room  in  Worsley  Street,  built  specially  for  its  accommodation,  and  there 
carried  on  until  November  10,  181 1,  when  it  took  possession  of  the  then 
new  schools,  situated  behind  Borough  Buildings,  and  there  continued  until 
this  day,  when  it  was  again  removed  to  the  recently  erected  building 
adjoining  the  Grosvenor  Street  chapel,  in  connnemoration  of  which  event 
this  card  is  presented  to .     Manchester,  September  iS,  1870." 


Confei^ence  of  1784.  417 

hundred  persons.     August  i,  Sunday — We  were  fifteen  clergymen  at  the      1784 
old  church.     August  3,  Tuesday — Our  conference  concluded  in  much  love,       — 
to  the  great  disappointment  of  all."  S^ 

Such  are  Wesley's  brief  notices  of  this  momentous  confer- 
ence. Some  additional  incidents  must  be  added.  The  war 
of  American  independence  was  now  ended,  and  the  day  of 
public  thanksgiving  had  reference  to  that  event.  In  the 
morning,  at  five,  Thomas  Hanby  preached  from,  "  My  grace 
is  -sufficient  for  thee."  Wesley's  text,  previous  to  the  almost 
unparalleled  sacramental  service,  was  I  Corinthians  xiii.  1-4. 
The  fiv^e  clergymen  who  assisted  him  were  Messrs.  Coke, 
Fletcher,  Dillon,  Bayley,  and  Simpson.  In  the  afternoon,  the 
business  of  the  conference  was  resumed  ;  and,  at  night,  Wesley 
preached  again,  taking  as  his  text,  "  This  is  the  first  and 
great  commandment."  Altogether,  Wesley  preached  not 
fewer  than  eight  times  during  this  important  session,  besides 
regulating  the  ticklish  and  difficult  business  that  had  to  be 
transacted.  ^ 

The  "  long  debate,"  which  Wesley  mentions,  had  reference 
to  the  deed  of  declaration,  which  must  now  have  the  best 
attention  that  space  permits  us  to  give  it. 

At  an  early  period  of  his  history,  Wesley  published  a  model 
deed  for  the  settlement  of  chapels,  to  the  effect,  that  the 
trustees,  for  the  time  being,  should  permit  Wesley  himself 
and  such  other  persons  as  he  might,  from  time  to  time, 
appoint,  to  have  the  free  use  of  such  premises,  to  preach 
therein  God's  holy  word.  In  case  of  his  death,  the  same  right 
was  secured  to  his  brother ;  and  providing  that  his  brother's 
decease  occurred  before  that  of  William  Grimshaw,  the  same 
prerogatives  were  to  belong  to  the  last  mentioned.  After  the 
death  of  the  three  clergymen,  the  chapels  were  to  be  held,  in 
trust,  for  the  sole  use  of  such  persons  as  might  be  appointed 
at  the  yearly  conference  of  the  people  called  Methodists, 
provided,  that  the  said  persons  preached  no  other  doctrines 
than  those  contained  in  Wesley's  Notes  on  the  New  Testa- 
ment, and  in  his  four  volumes  of  sermons.^ 

Thus  the  matter  stood  in  1784.  According  to  Myles* 
Chronological  History,  there  were,  at  this  time,  in  the  United 

^  Melhcdist  Maj^azine,  1845,  PP-  '2,  13. 
^  Minutes  of  Conference,  vol.  i.,  p.  41. 
VOL.  TIL  E  E 


41 8  Life  arid  Times  of  Wesley. 

1784      Kingdom,  three  hundred  and   fifty-nine  Methodist  chapels; 
A^Tsi     and  it   may  be  fairly  presumed,   that    most    of  these  were 
settled  substantially  according  to  the  provisions  of  the  deed 
above  mentioned. 

Here  it  may  be  asked,  what  necessity  was  there  for  a 
further  deed  ?  The  answer  is,  that,  as  yet,  there  was  no  legal 
definition  of  what  was  meant  by  the  term  "conference  of  the 
people  called  Methodists."  To  supply  this  defect,  Wesley, 
on  the  28th  of  February,  1784,  executed  his  famous  deed  of 
declaration,  which,  a  few  days  afterwards,  was  enrolled  in  the 
high  court  of  chancery.  To  use  the  language  of  the  deed 
itself,  its  object  was  "to  explain  the  words,  'yearly  con- 
ference of  the  people  called  Methodists,'  and  to  declare  what 
persons  are  members  of  the  said  conference,  and  how  the 
succession  and  identity  thereof  is  to  be  continued." 

The  document  proceeds  to  state,  that  the  said  conference 
had  always  consisted  of  Methodist  preachers  whom  Wesley 
had  annually  invited  to  meet  him  for  the  following  purposes  : 
namely,  to  advise  with  him  for  the  promotion  of  the  gospel 
of  Christ ;  to  appoint  the  said  preachers,  and  other  preachers 
and  exhorters  in  connection  with  him,  to  the  use  and 
enjoyment  of  chapels  conveyed  upon  trust  as  aforesaid  ; 
to  expel  unworthy  preachers ;  and  to  admit  others  on 
probation. 

The  deed  then  gives  the  names  and  addresses  of  one  hun- 
dred preachers,  who  are  now  declared  to  be  the  members  of 
the  said  conference;  and  proceeds  to  state  (i)  That  they  and 
their  successors,  for  the  time  being  for  ever,  shall  assemble 
once  a  year.  (2)  That  the  act  of  the  majority  shall  be  the 
act  of  the  whole.  (3)  That  their  first  business,  when  they 
assemble,  shall  be  to  fill  up  vacancies.  (4)  That  no  act  of 
the  conference  assembled  shall  be  valid  unless  forty  of  its 
members  are  present.  (5)  That  the  duration  of  the  yearly 
conference  shall  not  be  less  than  five  days,  nor  more  than 
three  weeks.  (6)  That,  immediately  after  filling  up  vacan- 
cies, they  shall  choose  a  president  and  secretary  of  their 
assembly  out  of  themselves.  (7)  That  any  member  of  the 
conference,  absenting  himself  from  the  yearly  assembly 
thereof  for  two  years  successively,  without  the  consent  or  dis- 
pensation of  the   conference,  and  who  is  not  present  on  the 


Deed  of  Declaj'ation,  419 

first  day  of  the  third  yearly  asscmt)ly  thereof,  shall  forthwith  1784 
cease  to  be  a  member,  as  though  he  were  naturally  dead.  (8)  Age  81 
That  the  conference  shall  and  may  expel  any  member  thereof, 
or  any  person  admitted  into  connection  therewith,  for  any 
cause  which  to  the  conference  may  seem  fit  or  necessary.  {9) 
That  they  may  admit  into  connection  with  them  any  person, 
of  whom  they  approve,  to  be  preachers  of  God's  holy  word, 
under  the  care  and  direction  of  the  conference.  (10)  That  no 
person  shall  be  elected  a  member  of  the  conference,  who  has 
not  been  admitted  into  connection  with  the  conference,  as  a 
preacher,  for  twelve  months.  (11)  That  the  conference  shall 
not  appoint  any  person  to  the  use  of  a  chapel  or  chapels,  who 
is  not  either  a  member  of  the  conference,  or  admitted  into 
connection  with  the  same,  or  upon  trial ;  and  that  no  person 
shall  be  appointed  for  more  than  three  years  successively, 
except  ordained  ministers  of  the  Church  of  England.  {12) 
That  the  conference  may  appoint  the  place  of  holding  the 
yearly  assembly  thereof,  at  any  other  town,  or  city,  than 
London,  Bristol,  or  Leeds,  (13)  That  the  conference  may, 
when  it  shall  seem  expedient,  send  any  of  its  members  as 
delegates  to  Ireland,  or  other  parts  out  of  the  kingdom  of 
Great  Britain,  to  act  on  its  behalf,  and  with  all  the  powers  of 
the  conference  itself.  (14)  That  all  resolutions  and  acts 
whatsoever  of  the  conference  shall  be  written  in  the  journals 
of  the  conference,  and  be  signed  by  the  president  and  secre- 
tary thereof  for  the  time  being.  (15)  That  \vhenever  the 
conference  shall  be  reduced  under  the  number  of  forty  mem- 
bers, and  continue  so  reduced  for  three  years  successively  ;  or 
whenever  the  members  thereof  shall  decline  or  neglect  to 
meet  together  annually  during  the  space  of  three  years,  the 
conference  of  the  people  called  Methodists  shall  be  extin- 
guished, and  all  its  powers,  privileges,  and  advantages  shall 
cease.  (16)  That  nothing  in  this  deed  shall  extinguish  or 
lessen  the  life  estate  of  the  said  John  Wesley  and  Charles 
Wesley,  or  either  of  them,  in  any  of  the  chapels  in  which  they 
now  have,  or  may  have,  any  estate  or  interest,  power  or 
authority  w'hatsoever. 

Such  was  Wesley's  deed  of  declaration, — a  deed  recognised 
in  the  trust  deeds  of  all  the  chapels  that  Methodism  builds  ; 
and,  hence,  a  deed  investing  a  hundred  Methodist  preachers 


420  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1784  with  the  unexampled  power  of  determining,  irrespective  of 
Age  8i  trustees,  societies,  and  congregations,  who  shall  be  the  offici- 
ating ministers  in  the  thousands  of  chapels  occupied  by 
Methodist  societies  at  home  and  abroad,  throughout  the 
United  Kingdom  and  throughout  the  world.  We  repeat,  this 
is  an  unexampled  power ;  and  the  ministers,  invested  with  it, 
ought  to  feel,  that  they  have  a  corresponding  responsibility  to 
God  and  to  His  church.  High  is  the  honour;  the  responsi- 
bility is  fearful.  If  Methodism  should  ever  fail  in  its  duty,  or 
fall  to  pieces,  they,  above  all  men  else,  must  bear  the  blame. 

We  purposely  refrain  from  raising  the  vexed  question  about 
the  kind  of  church  government,  involved  in  this  great  settle- 
ment ;  and  proceed  to  notice  the  history  of  the  deed  of 
declaration,  up  to  the  time  of  its  being  signed  on  February 
28,  1784. 

Mr.  Pawson,  in  his  manuscript  memoir  of  Dr.  Whitehead, 
states  that,  from  the  year  1750,  all  Methodist  chapels  were 
settled  according  to  the  provisions  of  the  model  deed  that 
has  been  already  mentioned;  but  several  of  the  "wisest  and 
best  preachers  "  were  not  satisfied,  and,  from  time  to  time, 
brought  up  the  matter  at  the  yearly  conferences,  and  earnestly 
urged  Wesley  to  do  something  more  to  preserve  the  chapels 
for  the  purpose  which  the  original  builders  intended.  Wesley 
replied,  that  the  trust  deed  in  itself  was  quite  sufficient ;  that 
it  had  been  drawn  up  by  three  of  the  most  eminent  counsel- 
lors in  London ;  and  that,  even  supposing  there  might  be 
some  defect  in  it,  no  one  would  be  so  mad  as  to  go  to  law 
with  an  entire  body  of  people  like  the  Methodists.  Such 
reasoning  failed  to  satisfy  the  preachers,  especially  Messrs. 
Hampson  and  Oddie,  both  of  whom,  says  Pawson,  "were 
men  of  remarkably  deep  understanding  and  sound  judg- 
ment." At  length,  Wesley  began  to  yield  to  the  pressure 
that  was  brought  upon  him  ;  and  various  schemes  were  pro- 
pounded to  accomplish  the  purpose  upon  which  men  like 
Hampson  and  Oddie  had  set  their  hearts.  One  was  to 
consolidate  all  the  chapels  in  the  connexion  into  a  general 
trust,  the  trustees  to  be  chosen  out  of  all  the  large  societies 
throughout  the  three  kingdoms.  Another  was  to  have  all  the 
chapel  deeds  brought  to  London,  and  deposited  in  a  strong 
box,  to  be  provided  for  the  purpose ;  and,  in  execution   of 


Deed  of  Declaration.  421 

this  project,  many  were  actually  sent,  and  some  were  thereby      i_7^4 
lost.     All  this  occurred  previous  to  Dr.  Coke's  uniting  himself    Age  81 
with  Wesley ;  and,  from  Pawson's  testimony,  wc  now  turn  to 
that  of  Coke. 

In  his  "Address  to  the  Methodist  Society  in  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland,  on  the  Settlement  of  Preaching  Houses,"  Coke 
relates  that,  at  the  conference  of  1782,  the  preachers  seemed 
to  be  universally  alarmed  at  the  danger  arising  from  the  want 
of  a  legal  definition  of  what  was  meant  by  the  term,  "the 
conference  of  the  people  called  Methodists";  and  unani- 
mously wished  some  method  to  be  taken  to  remove  a  danger 
which  appeared  to  them  to  be  pregnant  with  evils  of  the  first 
magnitude.  In  consequence  of  this.  Coke  took  the  opinion 
of  Mr.  Maddox,  one  of  the  first  counsel  of  the  day,  and 
ascertained,  that  the  law  would  not  recognise  the  conference, 
without  some  further  definition  ;  and,  consequently,  that  there 
was  nothing  to  preserve  the  Methodist  connexion  from  being 
shivered  into  a  thousand  fragments  after  Wesley's  death.  To 
prevent  this,  Mr.  Maddox  advised,  that  Wesley  should  execute 
a  deed,  specifying  the  persons  by  name  who  composed  the 
conference,  together  with  the  mode  of  succession  for  its  per- 
petuity. Dr.  Coke  read  Mr.  Maddox's  opinion  to  the  confer- 
ence of  1783  ;  and  the  whole  conference  expressed  their  wish 
that  such  a  deed  should  be  drawn  up  and  executed.  Coke 
immediately  set  to  work,  and,  with  the  assistance  of  Mr. 
Clulow,  a  solicitor,  and  Mr.  Maddox,  the  barrister,  a  draft  of 
the  deed  was  carefully  prepared,  and  submitted  to  Wesley  for 
his  approval.  Coke's  opinion  was,  that  every  preacher,  in  full 
connexion,  should  have  his  name  inserted  ;  and  that  admis- 
sion into  full  connexion  should,  in  the  future,  be  looked  upon 
as  admission  into  membership  with  the  conference.  Wesley 
demurred  to  this,  and  determined  to  limit  the  number  of 
members  to  one  hundred,  and,  without  any  advice  from  Coke, 
made  his  own  selections.  In  this  form,  the  deed  was  executed; 
and  Coke  sent  copies  of  it  to  all  the  assistants  of  circuits 
throughout  the  United  Kingdom.' 

We  believe  that  this  is,  substantially,  all  that  can  be  said 
respecting  the  origin  of  what  has  been  termed  Methodism's 
Magna  Charta. 

*  Drew's  Life  of  Coke,  p.  37. 


422 


Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 


1784  What  was  the  result?  There  were,  at  the  conference  of 
Age  81  1783,  one  hundred  and  ninety-two  preachers  appointed  to 
sixty-nine  circuits,  throughout  the  three  kingdoms.  We  have 
no  hesitancy  in  saying,  that  we  think  it  would  have  been 
wise  to  have  inserted  the  names  of  the  whole  of  these  in  the 
deed  of  declaration,  with  the  exception  of  twenty-two,  who 
were  still  on  trial,  and  not  admitted  into  full  connexion.  All 
seemed  to  have  an  equal  right  to  this  ;  and,  thereby,  all  would 
have  been  satisfied.  Instead  of  this,  W^esley  proceeded  to  the 
invidious  task  of  selecting  a  hundred,  and  rejecting  ninety- 
two.  It  was  a  perilous  experiment ;  and  the  peril  was  aug- 
mented by  the  mode  in  which  the  experiment  was  made. 
For  instance,  sixteen  were  elected  who  had  travelled  less  than 
four  years ;  whereas  among  the  rejected  were  the  following. 

Thomas  Lee travelled 

■  John  Atlay 

Joseph  Thompson 

John  Poole 

William  Ashman 

Jonathan  Hern 

William  Eels 

Thomas  Mitchell* 

Joseph  Pilmoor 

Besides,  where  was  the  fairness  of  choosing  and  refusing 
the  following  preachers,  who,  at  the  time,  were  colleagues  in 
the  same  circuit } 


ellec 

1    36 

years. 

21 

25 

25 

19 

15 

12 

36 

19 

Natnes  of  Chosen.  Years  standing. 

Joshua  Keighley 3 

Josepfh  Cole 3 

Jonathan  Cousins     ....  3 

WiUiam  Green 3 

Joseph  Taylor 6 

WiUiam  Hoskins     .     .    .     .  i 

WiUiam  Myles 6 

William  Simpson     ....  4 

James  Wray 2 

Henry  Foster 3 


Names  of  Rejected. 

William  Horner     . 

Simon  Day   .     .     . 

Robert  Empringham 

John  Hampson,  sen. 

John  Wittam    .     . 

John  Watson     .     . 
(  John  Hampson,  jun. 
(  George  Snowden    . 

Thomas  Johnson   . 

Thomas  Wride .     . 

George  Mowat  .     . 


Years  standing. 
13 
17 
21 

31 

16 

12 

6 

14 

31 
15 
13 


Wesley  doubtless  had  a  right  to  make  any  selection  that 
he  liked  ;  but  those  who  were  not  selected  had  an  equal  right 
to  grumble  ;  and  we  are  not  surprised  that,  sooner  or  later, 


Deed  of  Declaration.  423 

not  fewer  than   nearly  thirty  of  the  rejected  withdrew  from      1784 
the  connexion  altoG^ether.  A^e  81 

John  Pawson  writes  : 

"  Mr.  Wesley,  designedly  or  otherwise,  left  out  the  names  of  several  of 
the  old  and  respectable  preachers  ;  and  these  good  men  were  exceedingly 
grieved  and  not  without  reason.  Many  of  the  trustees  also  were  alarmed, 
thinking  that  we  wished  to  make  the  chapels  our  own  property ;  but 
nothing  of  the  kind  was  ever  contemplated.  The  one  design  of  the  deed, 
to  my  certain  knowledge,  was  to  prevent  any  preacher,  who  might  be 
inclined  to  settle,  from  taking  possession  of  any  of  our  chapels.  The 
preachers,  whose  names  were  inserted  in  the  deed,  so  far  from  being 
desirous  to  be  distinguished  above  their  brethren,  very  cheerfully  complied 
with  Mr.  Wesley's  desire,  and  gave  up  every  privilege  granted  to  them  in 
the  deed,  except  that  of  electing  their  own  president  and  secretary,  which 
appears  to  me  to  be  a  matter  of  little  consequence."  ^ 

There  can  be  no  question,  that  the  deed  of  declaration 
occasioned  great  excitement.     John  Hampson,  jun.,  says: 

"  Every  itinerant  had  always  considered  himself  as  a  member  of  con- 
ference ;  and,  hence,  when  the  ninety-one,  who  were  to  be  excluded,  saw 
the  deed,  it  was  with  astonishment  and  indignation.  The  injustice  of  the 
thing  stared  them  in  the  face  ;  and  they  found  that,  in  consenting  to  such 
a  deed,  they  had  consented,  that  all  the  affairs  of  the  connexion  should  be 
lodged  in  the  hundred  mentioned  in  the  declaration  ;  that  they  should  be 
the  lords  and  rulers  of  the  rest ;  and  should  have  it  in  their  power  to 
turn  any  other  preacher  out  of  the  conference,  and  tell  him  he  had  no 
business  there.  The  exclusion  itself  was  both  an  iniquitous  and  a  morti- 
fying measure.  But  the  partiality  of  it  rendered  it  still  more  oppressive. 
Some  of  the  oldest  and  ablest  preachers,  in  the  connexion,  were  excluded. 
Many  of  the  selected  members  were  not  only  deficient  in  abilities,  but 
some  of  them,  at  the  time  of  their  insertion  in  the  deed,  were  only  upon 
trial  ;  while  the  chief  qualifications  of  others  were  ignorance,  fanaticism, 
and  ductility.  Under  such  circumstances,  it  is  no  wonder  if  the  persons 
excluded  thought  themselves  aggrieved.  They  were  really  so,  and 
they  made  no  scruple  to  declare  their  sentiments.  They  sent  circular 
letters,  inviting  all  the  preachers  to  canvass  the  business  at  the  ensuing 
conference  ;  and  a  large  number  assembled.  Many  of  them  were  as 
averse  to  the  deed,  as  those  who  had  so  decidedly  opposed  it,  and  had 
repeatedly  execrated  the  measure,  both  by  letter  and  in  conversation;  but 
they  had  not  the  courage  to  avow  their  sentiments  in  conference.  Mr. 
Wesley  made  a  speech,  and  invited  all  who  were  of  his  mind  to  stand  up. 
They  all  rose  to  a  man.  The  five  were  found  guilty,  and  it  was  unani- 
mously determined,  that  they  should  either  make  concessions  or  be 
dismissed.     Urged  by  the  entreaties  of  Mr.   Fletcher,  and  anxious    for 

'  Manuscript  memoir  of  Whitehead. 


424  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 


Age  81 


1784  the  restoration  of  peace,  the  preachers  in  the  opposition  apologised  to 
Mr.  Wesley,  for  printing  the  circular  letter,  without  having  first  appealed 
to  conference."^ 

Such,  in  substance,  and  omitting  acrid  comments,  is  the 
account  given  by  John  Hampson,  jun.  ;  and  there  can  be 
httle  doubt  that,  in  the  main,  it  is  quite  correct.  The  printed 
circular  he  mentions  was  issued  by  his  father,  and  was 
entitled,  "An  Appeal  to  the  Reverend  John  and  Charles 
Wesley ;  to  all  the  preachers  who  act  in  connection  with 
them;  and  to  every  member  of  their  respective  societies  in 
England,  Scotland,  Ireland,  and  America."  ^  Another  circular 
was  drawn  up  by  James  Oddie,  in  the  form  of  a  petition 
to  Wesley  and  the  legalised  conference,  to  the  effect,  that  the 
preachers,  whose  names  had  been  inserted  in  the  deed,  would 
sign  an  agreement  that,  at  the  death  of  Wesley,  they  would 
refrain  from  taking  any  advantage  of  their  position,  but  would 
invite  the  excluded  to  their  first  conference,  and  would  treat 
them,  in  all  respects,  as  equals.  This  was  first  suggested  by 
Robert  Oastler,  of  Thirsk  ;  and  was  widely  circulated,  and 
received  with  favour  ;=^  and,  perhaps,  it  was  this  that  evoked 
the  following  letter,  which  was  written  on  April  7,  1785,  and 
entrusted  to  Joseph  Bradford,  to  deliver  to  the  conference, 
at  their  first  meeting  after  the  writer's  death. 

"My  dear  Brethren, — Some  of  our  travelling  preachers  have  ex- 
pressed a  fear,  that,  after  my  decease,  you  would  exclude  them,  either 
from  preaching  in  connection  with  you,  or  from  some  other  privileges 
which  they  now  enjoy.  I  know  no  other  way  to  prevent  any  such  incon- 
venience, than  to  leave  these  my  last  words  with  you. 

"  I  beseech  you,  by  the  mercies  of  God,  that  you  never  avail  yourselves 
of  the  deed  of  declaration,  to  assume  any  superiority  over  your  brethren; 
but  let  all  things  go  on,  among  those  itinerants  who  choose  to  remain 
together,  exactly  in  the  same  manner  as  when  I  was  with  you,  so  far  as 
circumstances  will  permit. 

"In  particular,  I  beseech  you,  if  you  ever  loved  me,  and  if  you  now  love 
God  and  your  brethren,  to  have  no  respect  of  persons  in  stationing  the 
preachers,  in  choosing  children  for  Kingsvvood  school,  in  disposing  of  the 
yearly  contribution  and  the  preachers'  fund,  or  any  other  of  the  pubhc 
money  ;  but  do   all  things  with  a  single  eye,  as  I   have  done  from  the 


1  Hampson's  Life  of  Wesley. 

2  Smith's  History  of  Methodism,  vol.  i,,  p.  523. 

3  Manuscript, 


Deed  of  Declaration.  425 

beginning-.     Go  on  thus,  doing  all  things  without  prejudice  or  partiality,      1784 
and  God  will  be  with  you  even  to  the  end.  .       \ 

"John  Wesley."  1        ^^''^^' 

This  was  a  serious  crisis  in  the  history  of  Methodism. 
Fortunately,  it  passed  over  without  any  other  immediate 
consequences  than  the  retirement  of  the  five  principal 
opponents  to  the  deed  of  declaration,  namely,  the  two 
Hampsons,  Joseph  Pilmoor,  William  Eels,  and  John  Atlay. 
Considerable  excitement,  however,  existed ;  and,  in  the  spring 
of  1785,  Wesley  found  it  desirable  to  write  his  "  Thoughts 
upon  some  late  Occurrences."  He  gives  the  history  of  the 
origin  of  his  conferences  ;  and  states  that  the  term  conference 
meant  not  so  much  conversation,  as  the  persons  that  con- 
ferred, that  it  had  become  necessary  to  define  the  term,  and 
that,  at  the  conference  of  1783,  he  had  been  requested  to  fix 
the  determinate  meaning  of  the  word.  He  accordingly  took 
counsel's  opinion  how  to  act,  and  was  advised  to  execute  a 
deed  of  declaration.  At  first,  he  thought  of  naming  only  ten 
or  twelve ;  but,  on  second  thoughts,  he  believed  there  w^ould 
be  more  safety  in  a  greater  number  of  counsellors,  and,  there- 
fore, named  a  hundred  ;  as  many  as,  he  judged,  could  meet 
without  too  great  expense,  and  without  leaving  any  circuit 
without  preachers  while  the  conference  assembled.     He  adds  : 

"  In  naming  these  preachers,  as  I  had  no  adviser,  so  I  had  no  respect 
of  persons  ;  but  I  simply  set  down  those  that,  according  to  the  best  of  my 
judgment,  were  most  proper.  But  I  am  not  infallible.  I  might  mistake, 
and  think  better  of  some  than  they  deserved.  However,  I  did  my  best;  if 
I  did  wrong,  it  was  not  the  error  of  my  will,  but  of  my  judgment. 

"  This  was  the  rise,  and  this  the  nature,  of  that  famous  deed  of  declara- 
tion,— that  vile,  wicked  deed,  concerning  which  you  have  heard  such  an 
outcry  !  And  now,  can  any  one  tell  me  how  to  mend  it,  or  how  it  could 
have  been  made  better  ?  '  O  yes.  You  might  have  inserted  two  hundred, 
as  well  as  one  hundred,  preachers.'  No  ;  for  then  the  expense  of  meeting 
would  have  been  double,  and  all  the  circuits  would  have  been  without 
preachers.  '  But  you  might  have  named  other  preachers  instead  of  these.' 
True,  if  I  had  thought  as  well  of  them  as  they  did  of  themselves.  But  I 
did  not :  therefore,  I  could  do  no  otherwise  than  I  did,  without  sinning 
against  God  and  my  own  conscience. 

"'  But  what  need  was  there  for  any  deed  at  all?'  There  was  the  utmost 
need  of  it  ;  without  some  authentic  deed  fixing  the  meaning  of  the  term, 
the  moment  I  died,  the  conference  had  been  nothing.     Therefore,  any  of 

^  Myles'  History,  p.  201. 


426  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 


^7^4      the  proprietors  of  the  land  on  which  our  preaching   houses  were   built 
AtTe  81     "light  have  seized  them  for  their  own  use  ;  and  there  would  have  been 
none  to  hinder  them ;  for  the  conference  would  have  been  nobody,  a  mere 
empty  name. 

"  You  see  then,  in  all  the  pains  I  have  taken  about  this  absolutely 
necessary  deed,  I  have  been  labouring,  not  for  myself  (I  have  no  interest 
therein),  but  for  the  whole  body  of  Methodists ;  in  order  to  fix  them  upon 
such  a  foundation  as  is  likely  to  stand  as  long  as  the  sun  and  moon 
endure.  That  is,  if  they  continue  to  walk  by  faith,  and  to  show  forth  their 
faith  by  their  works  ;  otherwise,  I  pray  God  to  root  out  the  memorial  of 
them  from  the  earth. 

"John  Wesley.' 

"Plymouth  Dock,  March  2,,  1785." 

We  have  done.  All  the  facts,  within  our  knowledge,  have 
been  given.  The  reader  must  form  his  own  opinion.  Com- 
ment would  be  easy  ;  but  we  purposely  refrain  ;  only  adding, 
that,  by  Wesley's  famous  deed  of  declaration,  the  Methodist 
conference  became  a  legally  incorporated  institution  ;  and 
that,  without  this,  the  Methodist  itinerancy  must  have  ceased, 
and  Methodism  itself  have  been  broken  up  into  congrega- 
tional churches. 

We  must  now  advert  to  another  matter,  which,  if  not  of 
equal,  was  of  great  importance,  nainely,  the  episcopal  organis- 
ation of  the  Methodist  societies  in  America.  This  has  been 
the  subject  of  bewildering  controversy  for  more  than  eighty 
years.  Wesley  and  Coke  have  been  bitterly  assailed,  and  as 
warmly  defended.  We  will  narrate  the  facts  as  simply  and 
briefly  as  we  can. 

During  the  American  war,  which  was  now  ended,  the 
American  Methodists  had  multiplied  with  marvellous  rapidity. 
In  1774,  they  numbered  2073;  in  1784,  they  were  14,988; 
showing  an  increase  of  12,915.  They  had  46  circuits,  and 
^l  itinerant,  besides  some  hundreds  of  local,  preachers.^  All 
these,  so  far  as  the  sacraments  were  concerned,  were  as  sheep 
without  shepherds.  Some  of  the  clergymen  of  the  Church  of 
England  had  taken  military  commissions  in  the  army  ;  others 
were  destitute  of  both  piety  and  sense ;  and  nearly  all 
opposed  and  persecuted  the  Methodists  to  the  utmost  of 
their  power.     Bishop    White    testified,  that  "the  Church   of 


"^  Methodist  Magazins,  1785,  p.  269.  ^  American  minutes. 


Ordination  of  Preacha^s  for  America.      427 


England  was  becoming  more  and  more  unpopular, — with  1784 
some,  because  it  was  not  considered  as  promoting  piety, —  Age  81 
and  with  others,  because  they  thought  the  provision  for  it 
a  useless  burden  on  the  community."  At  the  termination 
of  the  revolutionary  struggle,  says  Dr.  Hawks,  himself  a 
clergyman,  "  a  large  number  of  the  churches  in  Virginia 
were  destroyed  or  irreparably  injured  ;  twenty-three  of  her 
ninety-five  parishes  were  extinct  or  forsaken ;  and  of  the 
remaining  seventy-two,  thirty-four  were  destitute  of  minis- 
terial services ;  while  of  her  ninety-eight  clergymen,  only 
twenty-eight  remained."  The  Rev.  Mr.  Jarratt,  another 
clergyman  of  the  Church  of  England,  stated,  that  "most 
of  the  clergy  preached  what  was  little  better  than  deism," 
and  were  bitter  revilers  and  persecutors  of  those  who 
preached  the  truth.^ 

Under  these  circumstances,  the  Methodists  demanded  of 
their  preachers  the  administration  of  the  sacraments.  Many 
of  the  societies  had  been  months,  some  of  them  years,  without 
these  sacred  ordinances.  Five  years  before  this,  in  1779,  the 
preachers  in  the  south  proceeded  to  ordain  themselves  by  the 
hands  of  three  of  their  senior  members,  unwilling  that  their 
people  should  longer  be  denied  the  Lord's  supper,  and  their 
children  and  probationary  members  the  rite  of  baptism. 
Asbury  was  greatly  annoyed  at  this,  and,  a  year  afterwards, 
with  difficulty  succeeded  in  persuading  them  to  suspend  the 
administration  of  the  sacraments  till  further  advice  could  be 
received  from  Wesley .^  Asbury  wrote  to  Wesley,  telling  him  of 
the  greatness  of  the  work,  and  of  the  division  that  had  taken 
place  in  Virginia,  on  account  of  the  people's  uneasiness 
respecting  the  sacraments.  Thousands  of  their  children  were 
unbaptized,  and  the  members  of  the  societies,  in  general, 
had  not  partaken  of  the  Lord's  supper  for  many  years.' 
"  Dear  sir,"  says  he,  on  March  20,  1784,  "we  are  greatly  in 
need  of  help.  A  minister,  and  such  preachers  as  you  can  fully 
recommend,  will  be  very  acceptable.  Without  your  recom- 
mendation, we  shall  receive  none.     But  nothing  is  so  pleasing 


1  Bangs'  "  Original  Church  of  Christ,"  p.  114. 

2  Stevens'  History  of  Methodism,  vol.  ii.,  p.  212. 

s  Moore's  Life  of  Wesley,  vol.  ii.,  p.  326. 


428  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 


1784     to  me,  sir,  as  the  thought  of  seeing  you  here  ;  which  is  the 
Age~8i    ardent  desire  of  thousands  more  in  America."^ 

Wesley's  going  was  impossible.  He  had  tried  (as  we  have 
already  seen)  to  induce  Bishop  Lowth  to  ordain  a  minister, 
and  had  failed.  What  else  remained  t  He  thought  of  Dr. 
Coke,  who  replied  as  follows. 

"Near  Dublin,  April  17,  1784. 

"  Honoured  and  very  dear  Sir, — I  intended  to  trouble  you  no 
more  about  my  going  to  America ;  but  your  observations  incline  me  to 
address  you  again  on  the  subject. 

"If  some  one,  in  whom  you  could  place  the  fullest  confidence,  and 
whom  you  think  likely  to  have  sufficient  influence  and  prudence  and 
delicacy  of  conduct  for  the  purpose,  were  to  go  over  and  return,  you 
would  then  have  a  source  of  sufficient  information  to  determine  on  any 
points  or  propositions.  I  may  be  destitute  of  the  last  mentioned  essential 
qualification  (to  the  former  I  lay  claim  without  reserve);  otherwise  my 
taking  such  a  voyage  might  be  expedient. 

"  By  this  means,  you  might  have  fuller  information  concerning  the  state 
of  the  country  and  the  societies  than  epistolary  correspondence  can  give 
you  ;  and  there  might  be  a  cement  of  union,  remaining  after  your 
death,  between  the  societies  and  preachers  of  the  two  countries.  If  the 
awful  event  of  your  decease  should  happen  before  my  removal  to  the 
world  of  spirits,  it  is  almost  certain,  that  I  should  have  business  enough, 
of  indispensable  importance,  on  my  hands  in  these  kingdoms. 

"  I  am,  dear  sir,  your  most  dutiful  and  most  affectionate  son, 

"Thomas  Coke."^ 

This  is  a  curiously  expressed  letter  ;  but  if  it  means  any- 
thing, it  means,  that  if  Wesley  would  be  good  enough  to 
think  and  say,  that  Coke  had  "sufficient  influence,  and 
prudence,  and  delicacy  of  conduct,"  he  was  willing  to  become 
Wesley's  envoy  to  the  American  Methodists. 

Here  the  matter  rested,  until  the  assembling  of  the  con- 
ference at  Leeds.  Mr.  Pawson,  in  his  manuscript  memoir  of 
Dr.  Whitehead,  relates,  that  ordination  was  first  proposed  by 
Wesley  himself  in  his  select  committee  of  consultation. 
Pawson  was  a  member,  and  was  present.  He  writes  :  "  The 
preachers  were  astonished  when  this  was  mentioned,  and,  to 
a  man,  opposed  it.  But  I  plainly  saw  that  it  would  be  dene, 
as  Mr.  Wesley's  mind  appeared  to  be  quite  made  up." 

Coke,  Whatcoat,  and  Vasey  were  appointed  to  America  ; 


"^  Methodist  Magazine,  1786,  p.  682.  ^  Manuscript  letter. 


Ordifiaiioji  of  PixacJicrs  for  America.      429 

and,  six  days  after  the  conference   concluded,  Coke  wrote  to      17  84 
Wesley  as  follows.  Age~8i 

^'■August  9,  1784. 
•  "  Honoured    and    dear  Sir, — The  more  maturely  I  consider   the 
subject,  the  more  expedient  it  appears  to  me,  that  the  power  of  ordaining 
others  should  be  received  by  me   from  you,  by  the  imposition  of  your 
hands ;    and    that  you  should   lay    hands    on    brother    Whatcoat    and 
brother  Vasey,  for  the  following  reasons  :  (i)  It  seems  to  me   the  most 
scriptural  way,    and   most   agreeable   to    the  practice   of   the  primitive 
churches.     (2)  I  may  want  all  the  influence,  in  America,  which  you  can 
throw  into  my  scale.     Mr.  Brackenbury  informed  me  at  Leeds,  that  he 
saw  a  letter  from  Mr.  Asbury,  in   which  he   observed  that  he  would  not 
receive  any  person,  deputed  by  you,  with  any  part  of  the  superintendency 
of  the  work  invested  in   him  ;    or    words    which   evidently    implied    so 
much.     I  do  not  find  the  least  degree  of  prejudice  in  my  mind  against 
Mr.  Asbury  ;  on  the  contrary,  I  find  a  very  great  love  and  esteem  ;  and 
am  determined  not  to  stir  a  finger  without  his  consent,  unless  necessity 
obliges  me  ;  but  rather  to  be  at  his  feet  in  all  things.     But,  as  the  journey 
is  long,  and  you  cannot  spare  me  often,  it  is  well  to  provide  against  all 
events  ;  and  I  am  satisfied  that  an  authority,  formally  received  from  you, 
will  be  fully  admitted  ;  and  that  my  exercising  the  office  of  ordination, 
without  that  formal  authority,  may  be  disputed,   and   perhaps,  on  other 
accounts,  opposed.    I  think  you  have  tried  me  too  often  to  doubt,  whether 
I  will,  in  any  degree,  use  the  power  you  are  pleased   to  invest  me  with, 
farther  than  I  believe  absolutely  necessary  for  the  prosperity  of  the  work. 

"  In  respect  of  my  brethren  Whatcoat  and  Vasey,  it  is  very  uncertain 
whether  any  of  the  clergy,  mentioned  by  brother  Rankin,  except  Mr. 
Jarratt,  will  stir  a  step  with  me  in  the  work ;  and  it  is  by  no  means  certain, 
that  even  he  will  choose  to  join  me  in  ordaining  ;  and  propriety  and 
universal  practice  make  it  expedient,  that  I  should  have  two  presbyters 
with  me  in  this  work.  In  short,  it  appears  to  me,  that  everything  should 
be  prepared,  and  everything  proper  be  done,  that  can  possibly  be  done,  on 

this  side  the  water.       You  can  do  all  this  in  Mr.  C n's  house,  in  your 

chamber  ;  and  afterwards,  (according  to  Mr.  Fletcher's  advice,)  give  us 
letters  testimonial  of  the  different  offices  with  which  you  have  been 
pleased  to  invest  us.  For  the  purpose  of  laying  hands  on  brothers  What- 
coat and  Vasey,  I  can  bring  Mr.  Creighton  down  with  me,  by  which  you 
will  have  two  presbyters  with  you. 

"  In  respect  to  brother  Rankin's  argument,  that  you  will  escape  a  great 
deal  of  odium  by  omitting  this,  it  is  nothing.  Either  it  will  be  known,  or 
not  known.  If  not  known,  then  no  odium  will  arise  ;  but  if  known,  you 
will  be  obliged  to  acknowledge,  that  I  acted  under  your  direction,  or  suffer 
me  to  sink  under  the  weight  of  my  enemies,  with  perhaps  your  brother 
at  the  head  of  them.     I  shall  entreat  you  to  ponder  these  things. 

"  Your  most  dutiful,  THOMAS  COKE."' 

'Whitehead's  Life  of  Wesley,  vol.  ii.,  p.  417. 


430  Z?)^  and  Times  of  Wesley, 

^784  Would  it  not  seem  from  this,  that  Wesley  had  no 
Age 81  idea  of  ordaining  any  one  himself;  but,  that  he  intended 
Coke,  who,  as  a  presbyter  of  the  same  church,  had  coequal 
power,  to  go  out  to  America  for  that  purpose  ?  There  can  be 
no  question,  that  there  is  force  in  Dr.  Whitehead's  critique, 
that  "  Dr.  Coke  had  the  same  right  to  ordain  Mr.  Wesley, 
that  Mr.  Wesley  had  to  ordain  Dr.  Coke."  Wesley,  we 
think,  never  intended  doing  this  ;  but,  at  Coke's  request,  he 
acquiesced. 

Of  his  power  to  ordain  others,  Wesley  had  no  doubt. 
Nearly  forty  years  before  this,  he  had  been  convinced,  by 
Lord  King's  Account  of  the  Primitive  Church,  "  that  bishops 
and  presbyters  are  of  one  order."  In  1756,  he  wrote  :  "  I 
still  believe  the  episcopal  form  of  church  government,  to  agree 
with  the  practice  and  writings  of  the  apostles ;  but,  that  it  is 
prescribed  in  Scripture,  I  do  not  believe.  This  opinion,  which 
I  once  zealously  espoused,  I  have  been  heartily  ashamed  of, 
ever  since  I  read  Bishop  Stillingfleet's  *  Irenicon,*  I  think  he 
has  unanswerably  proved,  that  neither  Christ  nor  His  apostles 
prescribe  any  particular  form  of  church  government ;  and  that 
the  plea  of  Divine  right,  for  diocesan  episcopacy,  was  never 
heard  of  in  the  primitive  church."  1  Again,  in  1761,  in  a  letter 
to  a  friend,  he  repeated,  that  Stillingfleet  had  fully  convinced 
him,  that  to  believe  that  none  but  episcopal  ordination  was 
valid  "was  an  entire  mistake."^  And  again,  in  1780,  he 
shocked  the  high  church  bigotry  of  his  brother,  by  declaring, 
"  I  verily  believe  I  have  as  good  a  right  to  ordain,  as  to 
administer  the  Lord's  supper."  ^ 

His  right  to  ordain,  then,  was  no  new  assumption  of 
Wesley,  adopted  in  his  old  age,  or  in  his  Imbecility,  as  some 
of  his  critics  have  alleged.  It  was  a  firm  conviction  of  forty 
years'  standing. 

Besides,  there  was  another  fact,  which  might  have  some 
influence  with  him,  but  which  none  of  his  biographers  have 
noticed.  The  Methodists,  under  the  care  of  the  Countess  of 
Huntingdon,  stood  in  the  same  relation  to  the  Church  of 
England  that  the  Methodists  under  Wesley  did.  They  varied, 


*  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xiii.,  p.  200.  *  Ibid.  p.  223. 

^  Ibid.  vol.  xii.,  p.  137. 


Two  Clci'gymcn  become  Dissentei's.  431 

not  dissented,  from  the  Church.  Recently,  however,  there  ^784 
had  been  a  formal  and  avowed  secession.  Many  of  Lady  Age  81 
Huntingdon's  chapels  were  supplied  by  ordained  clergymen, 
and,  among  others,  a  large  building  in  Spafields,  previously 
known  as  the  Pantheon.  This  edifice  stood  in  the  parish  of 
Clerkenwell,  of  which  the  Rev.  William  Sellon  was  minister. 
Mr.  Sellon  claimed  the  right  of  appointing  ministers  and 
clerks  to  the  Spafields  chapel ;  also  the  right  of  himself 
to  officiate  within  its  walls  as  often  as  he  liked.  He  further 
demanded  the  sum  of  ^^40  a  year,  in  consideration  of  his  per- 
mitting two  of  the  Countess's  preachers  to  occupy  the  said 
chapel ;  also  all  the  sacramental  collections  ;  and  four  collec- 
tions yearly,  for  the  benefit  of  the  children  of  the  charity 
school  of  Clerkenwell  parish  ;  and,  finally,  that,  for  the  due 
performance  of  these  demands,  the  proprietors  should  sign  a 
bond  for  ^lOOO. 

Of  course,  the  proprietors  refused  to  comply  with  such 
demands.  Mr.  Sellon  then  instituted  a  suit  in  the  consistorial 
court  of  the  Bishop  of  London,  and  cited  the  Revs.  Messrs. 
Jones  and  Taylor,  the  ofiiciating  clergymen,  and  both  of  them 
ordained,  to  answer  for  their  irregularity  in  preaching  in  a 
place  not  episcopally  consecrated,  and  for  carrying  on  Divine 
worship  there,  contrary  to  the  wish  of  the  minister  of  the 
parish.  Verdicts  were  obtained  against  them.  The  question 
was  then  removed  to  the  ecclesiastical  courts  ;  and  was  again 
decided  against  the  ministers  of  the  countess,  and  in  favour 
of  Mr.  Sellon,  who  obtained  the  name  of  Sanballat. 

This  was  a  momentous  matter.  Hitherto,  Romaine,  Venn, 
and  others  had  preached  for  the  countess  ;  but  now,  as  or- 
dained clergymen,  in  danger  of  prosecution,  they  had  to  with- 
draw their  services  ;  and  some  of  the  most  important  chapels 
were  left  without  supplies.  The  crisis  was  serious.  The 
countess  took  counsel  with  her  friends  ;  and,  at  length,  it  was 
determined,  that  IMessrs.  Wills  and  Taylor  should  formally 
secede  from  the  Church  of  England,  and  should  take  upon 
themselves  to  ordain  others :  both  of  them  had  received 
episcopal  ordination  themselves,  both  were  scholars  and  able 
preachers,  and  Mr.  Wills  had  married  Miss  Wheeler,  the 
countess's  niece.  Accordingly,  these  two  ministers  issued  an 
address  to    the  archbishops  and    bishops  of   the   Church   of 


43 2  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley, 

1784     England,  stating  that,  because  they  could  not,  as  clergymen  of 

Age  81    the  Established  Church,  continue  preaching  to  their  present 

congregations,  without  "  knowingly  and  wilfully  opposing  the 

Church's  laws,"  they  had  resolved  to  secede  peaceably,  and  to 

put  themselves  under  the  protection  of  the  Toleration  Act. 

Here  then  was  a  formal  Methodist  secession  from  the 
Established  Church.  But  more  than  this  :  on  March  9, 
1783,  these  two  seceding  clergymen  begun  to  do  what  Wesley 
did  eighteen  months  afterwards, — they  held  their  first  ordina- 
tion. This  was  in  Spafields  chapel.  The  service  commenced 
at  9  a.m.,  and  lasted  about  seven  hours.  The  names  of  the 
six  young  men,  then  set  apart  to  the  Christian  ministry,  were 
Thomas  Jones,  Samuel  Beaufoy,  Thomas  Cannon,  John  John- 
son, William  Green,  and  Joel  Abraham  Knight.  During  the 
service,  Mr.  Wills  addressed  the  congregation,  and  assigned 
his  reasons  for  believing  that  he  had  the  right  to  ordain, 
namely,  that  presbyters  and  bishops  were  the  same  order,  and 
that,  as  he  and  Mr.  Taylor  had  been  ordained  presbyters,  they 
had  really  been  ordained  bishops,  and  had  as  much  right  to 
ordain  others  as  any  bishop  in  the  land.^ 

Wesley  was  acquainted  with  all  this,  though  he  never  men- 
tions it.  P^or  aught  he  knew,  an  action  might  be  commenced 
against  himself  and  the  other  clergymen  preaching  in  City 
Road,  West  Street,  and  elsewhere,  similar  to  that  which  had 
been  successfully  prosecuted  against  the  Countess  of  Hunting- 
don's preachers  at  Spafields.  It  was  time  to  look  about.  He  held 
exactly  the  same  views  respecting  presbyters  and  bishops  that 
had  been  publicly  avowed  by  Messrs.  Wills  and  Taylor ;  and 
now,  in  September  1784,  reduced  them  to  practice  by  proceed- 
ing to  Bristol,  and  there  ordaining  Coke,  Whatcoat,  and  Vasey. 

Passing  by  the  ordinations  of  Whatcoat  and  Vasey,  which 
involve  no  difficulty  except  Wesley's  churchmanship,  the  or- 
dination of  Coke  is  a  perplexing  puzzle.  Coke  had  been 
already  ordained  a  deacon  and  a  priest  of  the  Church  of 
England  ;  and,  hence,  his  ministerial  status  was  the  same  as 
Wesley's.  What  further  ordination  was  needed  .-*  Wesley 
intended  none  ;  but  Coke  wished  it. 

*  "  Life  and  Times  of  Lady  Huntingdon  ;  "  and  "  Authentic  Narrative 
of  Primary  Ordination  in  Spafields  Chapel,  1784." 


Oi'dination  of  Pi^cachcrs  foj"  America.        433 

Wesley  was  the  founder  and  father  of  the  Methodists.  1784 
There  were  15,000  in  America  whom  he  had  never  seen.  In  a~8i 
no  sense  were  these  members  of  the  Church  of  England ;  for, 
at  the  termination  of  the  war,  no  state  church  was  recognised. 
What  were  they .''  Not  presbyterians,  not  Dissenters,  not 
quakers,  not  anything,  except  simple  Methodists.  They 
were  without  sacraments.  They  wished  to  have  them. 
As  Christians,  they  had  a  right  to  them.  But  who  was 
to  administer  }  Common  sense  would  have  said,  the  men 
by  whose  preaching  they  had  been  converted  ;  but  here 
priestly  prejudice  stepped  in,  and  forbad  men,  whom  God 
had  called  to  preach,  to  administer  the  sacraments,  until 
episcopal  or  presbyterian  hands  had  been  put  upon  them. 
Things  were  brought  into  a  dead  lock.  The  question  was, 
are  the  Methodist  preachers  in  America  to  administer 
the  sacraments  without  ordination  .-'  Or  shall  Wesley  or 
some  one  else  go  from  England  to  give  them  ordination .'' 
Wesley,  a  man  of  action,  decided  to  send  Coke,  and  Coke 
consented  ;  but,  before  starting,  he  wished  to  have  an 
additional  ordination  himself  What  was  that  ordination  to 
be  .''  The  only  one  possible  was  this.  Wesley  was  the  vener- 
able father  of  the  15,000  Methodists  in  America.  He  was  not 
able  to  visit  them  himself;  but  sends  them  Dr.  Coke.  The 
doctor  pretends,  that  it  is  more  than  possible,  that  some  of 
the  American  preachers  and  societies  will  refuse  to  acknow- 
ledge his  authority.  To  remove  this  objection,  Wesley,  at 
Bristol,  in  a  private  room,  holds  a  religious  service,  puts  his 
hands  upon  the  head  of  Coke,  and,  (to  use  his  own  words,) 
sets  him  apart  as  a  siipcrintaidcnt  of  the  work  in  America, 
and  gives  him  a  written  testimonial  to  that  effect.  This  was 
all  that  Wesley  did,  and  all  that  Wesley  meant ;  but  we 
greatly  doubt  whether  it  was  all  that  the  departing  envoy 
wished. 

With  the  highest  respect  for  Dr.  Coke,  and  his  general 
excellences,  it  is  no  detraction  to  assert,  that  he  was 
dangerously  ambitious,  and  that  the  height  of  his  ambition 
was  a  desire  to  be  a  bishop.  Some  years  after  this.  Coke, 
unknown  to  Wesley  and  Asbury,  addressed  a  confiden- 
tial letter  to  Dr.  White,  bishop  of  the  protestant  episcopal 
church  of  Pennsylvania,  which,  if  it  meant  anything,  meant 

VOL.  III.  F  F 


434  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1784  that  he  would  Hke  the  Methodists  of  America  to  be  reunited  to 
Age"8i  the  Enghsh  Church,  on  condition  that  he  himself  was  ordained 
to  be  their  bishop.  In  1794,  he  secretly  summoned  a  meeting, 
at  Lichfield,  of  the  most  influential  of  the  English  preachers, 
and  passed  a  resolution,  that  the  conference  should  appoint 
an  order  of  bishops,  to  ordain  deacons  and  elders,  he  himself, 
of  course,  expecting  to  be  a  member  of  the  prelatical  brother- 
hood. And  again,  it  is  a  well  known  fact,  that,  within  twelve 
months  of  his  lamented  death,  he  wrote  to  the  Earl  of  Liver- 
pool, stating  that  he  was  willing  to  return  most  fully  into  the 
bosom  of  the  Established  Church,  on  condition,  that  his 
royal  highness  the  Prince  Regent,  and  the  government, 
would  appoint  him  their  bishop  in  India.  These  are  un- 
pleasant facts  ;  which  we  would  rather  have  consigned  to 
oblivion,  had  they  not  been  necessary  to  vindicate  Wesley 
from  the  huge  inconsistency  of  ordaining  a  coequal  presbyter 
to  be  a  bishop.  Wesley  meant  the  ceremony  to  be  a  mere 
formality  likely  to  recommend  his  delegate  to  the  favour  of 
the  Methodists  in  America:  Coke,  in  his  ambition,  wished,  and 
intended  it  to  be  considered  as,  an  ordination  to  a  bishopric. 
This  will  be  clear  as  we  proceed  farther.  The  following  are 
the  "  letters  testimonial,"  which  Coke  asked  to  have. 

"  To  all  to  whom  these  presents  shall  come,  John  Wesley,  late  Fellow 
of  Lincoln  College  in  Oxford,  Presbyter  of  the  Church  of  England, 
sendeth  greeting. 

"  Whereas  many  of  the  people  in  the  southern  provinces  of  North 
America,  who  desire  to  continue  under  my  care,  and  still  adhere  to  the 
doctrine  and  discipline  of  the  Church  of  England,  are  greatly  distressed 
for  want  of  ministers  to  administer  the  sacraments  of  baptism  and  the 
Lord's  supper,  according  to  the  usage  of  the  same  Church  ;  and  whereas 
there  does  not  appear  to  be  any  other  way  of  supplying  them  with 
ministers  : 

"  Know  all  men,  that  I,  John  Wesley,  think  myself  to  be  providentially 
called,  at  this  time,  to  set  apart  some  persons  for  the  work  of  the  ministry 
in  America.  And,  therefore,  under  the  protection  of  almighty  God,  and 
with  a  single  eye  to  His  glory,  I  have  this  day  set  apart  as  a  superin- 
tendent, by  the  imposition  of  my  hands,  and  prayer,  (being  assisted  by 
other  ordained  ministers,')  Thomas  Coke,  doctor  of  civil  law,  a  presbyter 
of  the  Church  of  England,  and  a  man  whom  I  judge  to  be  well  qualified 

'  The  Rev.  James  Creighton  was  present ;  but  Charles  Wesley  was  not, 
though  he  was  in  Bristol  at  the  time. — (Jackson's  Life  of  C.  Wesley, 
vol.  ii.,  p.  389.) 


Oi'dination  of  Preachers  for  America.        435 

for  that  great  work.     And   I   do  hereby  recommend  him  to  all  whom  it      1784. 
may  concern,  as  a  fit   person  to  preside  over  the  flock  of  Christ.     In       — 
testimony  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  seal,  this  second     Age  81 
day  of  September,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  seven  hundred 
and  eighty-four. 

"John  Wesley." ' 

"  Bristol,  September  10,  1784. 
"  To  Dr.  Coke,  Mr.  Asbiiry,  and  our  Brethren  in  North  America. 

"  By  a  very  uncommon  train  of  providences,  many  of  the  provinces  of 
North  America  are  totally  disjoined  from  the  mother  country,  and 
erected  into  independent  states.  The  English  government  has  no 
authority  over  them,  either  civil  or  ecclesiastical,  any  more  than  over  the 
states  of  Holland.  A  civil  authority  is  exercised  over  them,  partly  by 
the  congress,  partly  by  the  provincial  assemblies.  But  no  one  either 
exercises  or  claims  any  ecclesiastical  authority  at  all.  In  this  peculiar 
situation,  some  thousands  of  the  inhabitants  of  these  states  desire  my 
advice,  and,  in  compliance  with  their  desire,  I  have  drawn  up  a  little 
sketch. 

"  Lord  King's  account  of  the  primitive  church  convinced  me,  many 
years  ago,  that  bishops  and  presbyters  are  the  same  order,  and  conse- 
quently have  the  same  right  to  ordain.  For  many  years,  I  have  been 
importuned,  from  time  to  time,  to  exercise  this  right,  by  ordaining  part  of 
our  travelling  preachers.  But  I  have  still  refused  ;  not  only  for  peace 
sake,  but  because  I  was-  determined,  as  little  as  possible,  to  violate  the 
established  order  of  the  national  church  to  which  I  belonged. 

"  But  the  case  is  widely  diiTerent  between  England  and  North  America, 
Here  there  are  bishops,  who  have  a  legal  jurisdiction  ;  in  America  there 
are  none,  neither  any  parish  minister  ;  so  that,  for  some  hundreds  of 
miles  together,  there  is  none  either  to  baptize,  or  to  adtnmister  the  Lord's 
supper.  Here,  therefore,  my  scruples  are  at  an  end  ;  and  I  conceive 
myself  at  full  liberty,  as  I  violate  no  order,  and  invade  no  man's  rights, 
by  appointing  and  sending  labourers  into  the  harvest. 

"  I  have  accordingly  appointed  Dr.  Coke  and  Mr.  Francis  Asbury  to 
be  joint  superintendents  over  our  brethren  in  North  America  ;  as  also 
Richard  Whatcoat  and  Thomas  Vasey,  to  act  as  elders  among  them,  by 
baptizing  and  administenng  the  Lord's  supper.  And  I  have  prepared  a 
liturgy,  little  differing  from  that  of  the  Church  of  England,  (I  think  the 
best  constituted  national  church  in  the  world,)  which  I  advise  all  the 
travelling  preachers  to  use  on  the  Lord's  day,  in  all  the  congregations, 
reading  the  litany  only  on  Wednesdays  and  Fridays,  and  praying  extem- 
pore on  all  other  days.  I  also  advise  the  elders  to  admmister  the  supper 
of  the  Lord,  on  every  Lord's  day. 

"  If  any  one  will  point  out  a  more  rational  and  scriptural  way  of  feeding 
and  guiding  these  poor  sheep  in  the  wilderness,  I  will  gladly  embrace  it. 
At  present,  I  cannot  see  any  better  method  than  that  I  have  taken. 

*  Drew's  Life  of  Coke,  p.  66. 


43^  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1784  "  It  has,  indeed,  been  proposed  to  desire  the  EngHsh  bishops  to  ordain 

,  \  part  of  our  preachers  for  America.  But  to  this  I  object:  (i)  I  desired  the 
Bishop  of  London  to  ordain  one,  but  could  not  prevail.  (2)  If  they  con- 
sented, we  know  the  slowness  of  their  proceedings ;  but  the  matter 
admits  of  no  delay.  (3)  If  they  would  ordain  them  now,  they  would 
expect  to  govern  them ;  and  how  grievously  would  this  entangle  us  !  (4) 
As  our  American  brethren  are  now  totally  disentangled,  both  from  the 
state  and  the  English  hierarchy,  we  dare  not  entangle  them  again,  either 
with  the  one  or  the  other.  They  are  now  at  full  liberty,  simply  to  follow 
the  Scriptures  and  the  primitive  church.  And  we  judge  it  best,  that 
they  should  stand  fast  in  that  liberty,  wherewith  God  has  so  strangely  set 

t^^"'^^'^^-  "JOHN  Wesley."^ 

"  These  are  the  steps,"  says  Wesley  in  another  place, 
"which,  not  of  choice,  but  necessity,  I  have  slowly  and 
deliberately  taken.  If  any  one  is  pleased  to  call  this 
separating  from  the  ChnrcJi,  he  may.  But  the  law  of  England 
does  not  call  it  so  ;  nor  can  any  one  properly  be  said  so  to 
do,  unless,  out  of  conscience,  he  refuses  to  join  in  the  service, 
and  partake  of  the  sacraments  administered  therein."  ^ 

Eight  days  after  the  date  of  the  above  letter.  Coke,  What- 
coat,  and  Vasey  set  sail  for  America,  where  they  arrived  on 
November  3.  A  conference  of  nearly  sixty  preachers  met  in 
Baltimore  on  December  24.  Three  days  later.  Coke  ordained 
Asbury  ;  and  the  two  then  ordained  a  number  of  elders  and 
deacons.  Coke  preached  a  sermon,  which  was  published, 
with  the  title,  "  The  Substance  of  a  Sermon  preached  at 
Baltimore,  in  the  State  of  Maryland,  before  the  General 
Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  on  the  27th 
of  December,  1784,  at  the  Ordination  of  the  Rev,  Francis 
Asbury  to  the  office  of  Superintendent.  By  Thomas  Coke, 
LL.D.,  Superintendent  of  the  said  Church.  Published  at  the 
desire  of  the  Conference."      i2mo,  22  pages. 

The  title  is  worth  observing.  Coke  and  Asbury  are  super- 
intendents ;  the  Methodist  church  is  episeopal, — a  church 
governed  by  bishops.  The  sermon  begins  with  an  onslaught 
on  the  Church  of  England  in  America.  "  The  churches  had, 
in  general,  been  filled  with  the  parasites  and  bottle  com- 
panions of  the  rich  and  great.  The  humble  and  importunate 
entreaties,  of  the  oppressed  flocks,  were  contemned  and  de- 

*  Methodist  Magazine,  1785,  p.  602.  2  jbid,  1786,  p.  677. 


Ordination  of  Preachers  for  America.        437 

spised.  The  drunkard,  the  fornicator,  and  the  extortioner,  ^7^4 
triumphed  over  bleeding  Zion,  because  they  were  faithful  Age  81 
abettors  of  the  ruling  powers.  But  these  intolerable  fetters 
were  now  struck  off;  and  the  antichristian  union,  which  before 
subsisted  between  church  and  state,  was  broken  asunder." 
Coke  then  proceeds  to  answer  the  question,  "What  right  have 
you  to  exercise  the  episcopal  office.'"  "To  me,^'  says  he, 
"  the  most  manifest  and  clear.  God  has  been  pleased,  by 
Mr.  Wesley,  to  raise  up,  in  America  and  Europe,  a  numerous 
society,  well  known  by  the  name  of  Methodists.  The  whole 
body  have  invariably  esteemed  this  man  as  their  chief  pastor, 
under  Christ ;  and  we  are  fully  persuaded,  he  has  a  right  to 
ordain.  Besides,  we  have  every  qualification  for  an  episcopal 
church,  which  that  of  Alexandria  possessed  for  two  hundred 
years ;  our  bishops,  or  superintendents  (as  we  rather  call 
them),  having  been  elected  by  the  suffrages  of  the  whole  body 
of  our  ministers  through  the  continent,  assembled  in  general 
conference." 

This  is  scarcely  conclusive  reasoning,  but  it  shows  that, 
from  the  very  first,  Coke  assumed,  what  Wesley  never  gave 
him,  the  title  of  a  bishop.  Five  years  later,  in  May,  1789, 
Coke  and  Asbury  presented  an  address  to  Washington,  the 
president  of  the  United  States,  beginning  with  the  words, 
"We,  the  bishops  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church";^  and 
at  the  conference  of  the  same  year  the  first  question  asked 
was  :  "  Who  are  the  persons  that  exercise  the  episcopal  office 
in  the  Methodist  church  in  Europe  and  America  .''  Answer. 
John  Wesley,  Thomas  Coke,  and  Francis  Asbury,  by  regular 
order  and  succession."^ 

This  grandiloquent  parade  of  office  must  net  be  ascribed  to 
Wesley.  He  never  sanctioned  it ;  he  positively  condemned 
it.  Besides,  even  allowing  that  Coke  and  Asbury  had  a  right 
to  designate  themselves  bishops  of  the  IMethodist  churches  in 
America,  what  was  their  authority  for  pronouncing  Wesley 
the  bishop  of  the  Methodist  church  in  Europe  .-*  They  had 
none.  It  was  an  unwarrantable  liberty  taken  with  the  name 
of  a  venerable  man,  who  had  censured  the  use  of  such  an 
appellation,  and  whose   humility  and   modesty  Coke  would 

'  Coke's  Life,  by  Etheridge.  ^  American  minutes. 


43^  Z?)^  and  Tivies  of  Wesley. 

1784     have  been  none  the  worse  for  copying.     As  it  was,  Wesley 
Age  8i    was  held  up  to  ridicule,  and  made  to  suffer,  on  account  of  the 
episcopal  ambition  of  his  friends. 

We  have  no  fault  to  find  with  the  American  Methodists 
being  called  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  They  have 
the  fullest  right  to  such  a  designation  if  they  choose  to  use  it ; 
but  it  was  a  name  which  Wesley  never  used  ;  and  to  censure 
him  for  ordaining  bishops  is  to  censure  him  for  what  he  never 
did.  He  ordained  a  superintendent ;  but  he  never  thought  to 
call  him  bishop.     Hence  the  following  to  Asbury. 

"  London,  September  20,  1788. 

".  .  .  There  is  indeed  a  wide  difference  between  the  relation  wherein 
you  stand  to  the  Americans,  and  the  relation  wherein  I  stand  to  all  the 
Methodists.  You  are  the  elder  brother  of  the  American  Methodists  ;  I 
am,  under  God,  the  father  of  the  whole  family.  Therefore,  I  naturally 
care  for  you  all  in  a  manner  no  other  person  can  do.  Therefore,  I,  in  a 
measure,  provide  for  you  all;  for  the  supplies  which  Dr.  Coke  provides 
for  you,  he  could  not  provide,  were  it  not  for  me, — were  it  not  that  I  not 
only  permit  him  to  collect,  but  also  support  him  in  so  doing. 

"But  in  one  point,  my  dear  brother,  I  am  a  little  afraid,  both  the  doctor 
and  you  differ  from  me.  I  study  to  be  little  ;  you  study  to  be  great.  I 
creep;  you  strut  along.  I  found  a  school;  you  a  college  !  nay,  and  call  it 
after  your  own  names  I'  O,  beware  ;  do  not  seek  to  be  something  !  Let 
me  be  nothing,  and  '  Christ  be  all  in  all !' 

"  One  instance  of  this,  of  your  greatness,  has  given  me  great  concern. 
How  can  you,  how  dare  you,  suffer  yourself  to  be  called  bishop?  I 
shudder,  I  start  at  the  very  thought  !  Men  may  call  me  a  knave  or  a  fool, 
a  rascal,  a  scoundrel,  and  I  am  content ;  but  they  shall  never,  by  my 
consent,  call  me  bishop  !  For  my  sake,  for  God's  sake,  for  Christ's  sake, 
put  a  full  end  to  this  !  Let  the  presbyterians  do  what  they  please,  but  let 
the  Methodists  know  their  calling  better. 

"  Thus,  my  dear  Franky,  I  have  told  you  all  that  is  in  my  heart.     And 

let  this,  when  I  am  no  more  seen,  bear  witness  how  sincerely  I  am  your 

affectionate  friend  and  brother, 

"JohnWesley."2 

Coke,  in  his  letter,  dated  August  9,  1784,  mentions  the 
"odium"  which  Wesley  was  likely  to  incur  by  the  ordinations 
which  he  himself  was  soliciting  ;  and,  with  a  want  of  chivalry 
not  to  be  commended,  requests  Wesley  to  acknowledge  that 
the  deed  was  all  his  own,  otherwise  Coke  would  "  sink  under 


*  Cokesbury  college,  twice  burned  down. 
2  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xiii.,  p.  70. 


Ordination  of  Preache7's  for  America.        439 

the  weight  of  his  enemies,  with  Charles  Wesley  at  the  head      ^7^4 
of  them."     The  apprehension    was  not  unfounded.     Charles    Age  81 
Wesley  knew  nothing  of  the  ordinations  in  Bristol  till  they 
were  over  ;  but,  of  course,  it  was  impossible  to  keep  them 
secret ;  and  great  was  the  excitement  which  the  revelation 
created.     One  of  the  preachers  wrote  : 

"Ordination  among  Methodists!  Amazing  indeed!  Surely  it  never 
began  in  the  midst  of  a  multitude  of  counsellors  ;  and,  I  greatly  fear,  the 
Son  of  Man  was  not  secretary  of  state,  or  not  present,  when  the  business 
was  brought  on  and  carried.  Who  is  the  father  of  this  monster,  so  long 
dreaded  by  the  father  of  his  people,  and  by  most  of  his  sons?  Whoever 
he  be,  time  will  prove  him  to  be  a  felon  to  Methodism,  and  discover  his 
assassinating  knife  sticking  fast  in  the  vitals  of  its  body.  Years  to  come 
will  speak  in  groans  the  opprobrious  anniversary  of  our  religious  madness 
for  gowns  and  bands." 

Another  wrote :  *'  I  wish  they  had  been  asleep  when  they 
began  this  business  of  ordination  :  it  is  neither  episcopal  nor 
prcsbytcrian  ;  but  a  mere  hodge-podge  of  inconsistencies."  ^ 

On  April  28,  1785,  Charles  Wesley  addressed  a  long  letter 
to  Dr.  Chandler,  an  episcopal  clergyman,  who  was  about  to 
embark  for  America,  from  which  the  following  is  an  extract. 

"  I  never  lost  my  dread  of  separation,  or  ceased  to  guard  our  societies 
against  it.  I  frequently  told  them  :  '  I  am  your  servant  as  long  as  you 
remain  in  the  Church  of  England;  but  no  longer.  Should  you  forsake 
her,  you  would  renounce  me.' 

"  Some  of  the  lay  preachers  very  early  discovered  an  inclination  to 
separate,  which  induced  my  brother  to  print  his  '  Reasons  against  Separa- 
tion.' As  often  as  it  appeared,  we  beat  down  the  schismatical  spirit.  If 
any  one  did  leave  the  Church,  at  the  same  time  he  left  our  society.  For 
near  fifty  years,  we  kept  the  sheep  in  the  fold  ;  and,  having  filled  the 
number  of  our  days,  only  waited  to  depart  in  peace. 

"  After  our  having  continued  friends  for  above  seventy  years,  and  fellow 
labourers  for  above  yf/?i',  can  anything  but  death  part  us  ?  I  can  scarcely 
yet  believe  it,  that,  in  his  eighty-second  year,  my  brother,  my  old,  intimate 
friend  and  companion,  should  have  assumed  the  episcopal  character, 
ordained  elders,  consecrated  a  bishop,  and  sent  him  to  ordain  our  lay 
preachers  in  America  !  I  was  then  in  Bristol,  at  his  elbow  ;  yet  he  never 
gave  me  the  least  hint  of  his  intention.  How  was  he  surprised  into  so 
rash  an  action  ?     He  certainly  persuaded  himself  that  it  was  right, 

"  Lord  Mansfield  told  me  last  year,  that  ordination  was  separation. 
This  my  brother  does  not  and  will  not  see  ;  or  that  he  has  renounced  the 

*  Whitehead's  Life  of  Wesley,  vol.  ii.,  p.  419. 


AgeSi 


440  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1784  principles  and  practice  of  his  whole  life  ;  that  he  has  acted  contrary  to  all 
his  declarations,  protestations,  and  writings  ;  robbed  his  friends  of  their 
boasting ;  and  left  an  indelible  blot  on  his  name,  as  long  as  it  shall  be 
remembered  ! 

"  Thus  our  partnership  here  is  dissolved,  but  not  our  friendship.  I  have 
taken  him  for  better  for  worse,  till  death  do  us  part ;  or,  rather,  reunite 
us  in  love  inseparable.  I  have  lived  on  earth  a  little  too  long,  who  have 
lived  to  see  this  evil  day.  But  I  shall  very  soon  be  taken  from  it,  in 
stedfast  faith,  that  the  Lord  will  maintain  His  own  cause,  and  carry  on 
His  own  work,  and  fulfil  His  promise  to  His  church,  '  Lo,  I  am  with 
you  always,  even  to  the  end  !' 

"What  will  become  of  these  poor  sheep  in  the  wilderness,  the  American 
Methodists  ?  How  have  they  been  betrayed  into  a  separation  from  the 
Church  of  England,  which  their  preachers  and  they  no  more  intended 
than  the  Methodists  here  !  Had  they  had  patience  a  little  longer,  they 
would  have  seen  a  real  bishop  in  America,  consecrated  by  three  Scotch 
bishops,  who  have  their  consecration  from  the  Enghsh  bishops,  and  are 
acknowledged  by  them  as  the  same  with  themselves.  There  is,  therefore, 
not  the  least  difference  betwixt  the  members  of  Bishop  Seabury's '  church, 
and  the  members  of  the  Church  of  England.  He  told  me  he  looked  upon 
the  Methodists  in  America  as  sound  members  of  the  Church,  and  was 
ready  to  ordain  any  of  their  preachers  whom  he  should  find  duly  qualified. 
His  ordination  would  be  indeed  genuine,  valid,  and  episcopal.  But  what 
are  your  poor  Methodists  now?  Only  a  new  sect  of  presbyterians.  And, 
after  my  brother's  death,  which  is  now  so  near,  what  will  be  their  end  ? 
They  will  lose  all  their  influence  and  importance  ;  they  will  turn  aside  to 
vain  janglings;  they  will  settle  again  upon  their  lees;  and,  like  other  sects 
of  Dissenters,  come  to  nothing."  ^ 

'  Dr.  Samuel  Seabury  was  a  missionary  of  the  Society  for  the  Propa- 
gation of  the  Gospel.  After  the  ratification  of  the  treaty  of  peace,  the 
American  episcopal  church  felt  it  necessary,  not  to  remain  dependent 
on  the  good  offices  of  a  prelate  residing  in  England,  but  to  have 
bishops  of  its  own.  Accordingly,  the  clergy  in  Connecticut  assem- 
bled in  a  voluntary  convention,  and  elected  Seabury.  The  election  was 
easily  accomplished  ;  the  consecration  was  more  difficult,  Seabury  came 
to  England,  asking  of  the  archbishops  of  the  English  Church  a  boon 
which,  for  a  hundred  and  fifty  years,  had  been  asked  in  vain,  namely, 
that  episcopalians  in  America  might  have  ordained  bishops  of  their  own. 
At  the  time,  the  see  of  Canterbury  was  vacant  ;  and  the  archbishop  of 
York  was  unable  to  take  measures  for  the  consecration  of  an  American 
citizen,  without  the  authority  of  parliament.  A  long  delay  was  unavoidable, 
and,  under  the  circumstances,  Seabury  proceeded  to  Scotland,  where  he 
applied  for  consecration  to  the  bishops  of  the  Scottish  episcopal  church. 
His  application  was  granted,  and  he  was  solemnly  ordained  at  Aberdeen, 
on  November  14,  1784,  by  the  bishops  of  Aberdeen,  Ross,  and  Moray. — 
(Caswall's  American  Church,  p.  124.)  This  Avill  explain  the  meaning  of 
C.  Wesley's  letter  ;  but  is  it  surprising  that,  amid  all  these  changes,  diffi- 
culties, and  confusions,  Wesley  took  upon  himself  to  ordain  deacons  and 
presbyters  for  the  abandoned  Methodists  of  America  .'' 

*  Jackson's  Life  of  C.  Wesley,  vol.  ii.,  p.  392. 


Ordinatio7t  of  Prcac/icrs  for  Scotland,  &c.    44 1 

Charles   Wesley   hints,    that    his    brother    was    ''surprised     1784 
into  the  rash  act"  of  ordaining.     Perhaps  he  was;  but  did    a^Si 
he  afterwards  regret  it  ?     In  answering  this  question,  we  must 
use  materials  which  properly  belong  to  succeeding  years.^ 

It  is  a  fact,  which  cannot  be  denied,  that,  while  Wesley 
himself  was,  to  some  extent,  welcomed  in  Scotland,  by  the 
ministers    of  the    kirk,   the    Methodists,   in    many   instances, 
were  substantially  in  the  same  position  as  the  Methodists  in 
America.     There    were,    indeed,    clergymen   of   the    English 
Church   in  Scotland  ;  but  several  of  them  absolutely  refused 
to  admit  the   IMethodists   to  the  sacraments,   except   on  the 
condition  that    they   would    renounce    all    future   connection 
wath  the    Methodist    ministry    and    discipline.^      There    was, 
therefore,  the  same  necessity  to  ordain  for  the  one  country 
as    for    the    other.      Accordingly,    Wesley,    in    his   journal, 
writes:     "1785:    August    i  —  Having,    with    a    few    select 
friends,  weighed   the  matter  thoroughly,  I  yielded    to   their 
judgment,  and   set  apart   three  of  our  well  tried   preachers, 
John  Pawson,  Thomas  Hanby,  and  Joseph  Taylor,  to  minister 
in  Scotland."     A  year  afterwards,  at  the  conference  of  1786, 
he  ordained  Joshua  Keighley  and  Charles  Atmore,  for  Scot- 
land ;  William  Warrener,  for  Antigua  ;  and  William  Hammet, 
for  Newfoundland.     A  year  later,  five  others  were  ordained  ; 
in    1788,  when  Wesley  was  in   Scotland,    John    Barber  and 
Joseph  Cownley  received  ordination  at  his  hands  ;  and,  at  the 
ensuing  conference,  seven  others,  including  Alexander  ]\Iather, 
who  was  ordained  to  the  office,  not  only  of  deacon  and  elder, 
but  of  superintendent.     On  Ash  Wednesday  in  1789,  Wesley 
ordained  Henry  Moore  and   Thomas  Rankin  ;  and   this,  we 
believe,  completes  the  list  of  those  upon  whom  Wesley  laid 
his  hands.     All  these  ordinations  were  in  private  ;  and  many 
of  them  at  four  o'clock  in  the  morning.     Some  of  the  favoured 
ones  were  intended  for  Scotland ;  some  for  foreign  missions ; 

^  The  Rev.  James  Creighton,  in  his  reply  to  Bradburn's  pamphlet  in 
1793,  affirms  that  Wesley  repented,  with  tears,  that  he  had  ordained  any 
of  his  preachers.  He  states,  that  he  expressed  his  sorrow  for  this  at  the 
conference  of  1789,  and  occasionally  afterwards  till  his  death.  Creighton 
adds  :  "  About  six  weeks  before  he  died,  he  said,  '  The  preachers  are  now 
too  powerful  for  me.'"  This  must  pass  for  as  much  as  it  is  worth  ;  James 
Creighton  was  a  clergyman. 

^  Jackson's  Life  of  C.  Wesley,  vol.  ii.,  p.  3S2. 


442  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1784     and  a  few,  as  Mather,  Moore,  and  Rankin,  were  employed  in 
_A.ge  81     England.       In    most    instances,    probably  in    all,   they  were 
ordained  deacons  on  one  day ;  and,  on  the  day  following,  re- 
ceived the  ordination  of  elders,  Wesley  giving  to  each  letters 
testimonial.^  Wesley  justified  his  ordinations  for  Scotland  thus. 

"After  Dr.  Coke's  return  from  America,  many  of  our  friends  begged  I 
I  would  consider  the  case  of  Scotland,  where  we  had  been  labouring  for 

many  years,  and  had  seen  so  little  fruit  of  our  labours.  Multitudes, 
indeed,  have  set  out  well,  but  they  were  soon  turned  out  of  the  way ;  chiefly 
by  their  ministers  either  disputing  against  the  truth,  or  refusing  to  admit 
them  to  the  Lord's  supper,  yea,  or  to  baptize  their  children,  unless  they 
would  promise  to  have  no  fellowship  with  the  Methodists.  Many,  who  did 
so,  soon  lost  all  they  had  gained,  and  became  more  the  children  of  hell 
than  before.  To  prevent  this,  I,  at  length,  consented  to  take  the  same 
step  with  regard  to  Scotland,  which  I  had  done  with  regard  to  America. 
But  this  is  not  a  separation  from  the  Church  at  all.  Not  from  the  Church 
of  Scotland,  for  we  were  never  connected  therewith,  any  further  than  we 
are  now  :  nor  from  the  Church  of  Enp-land;  for  this  is  not  concerned  in 
the  steps  which  are  taken  in  Scotland,  Whatever  then  is  done  in 
America,  or  Scotland,  is  no  separation  from  the  Church  of  England.  I 
have  no  thought  of  this  ;  I  have  many  objections  against  it.  It  is  a  totally 
different  case.  '  But  for  all  this,  is  it  not  possible  there  may  be  such  a 
separation  after  you  are  dead  ?'  Undoubtedly  it  is.  But  what  I  said  at 
our  first  conference  above  forty  years  ago,  I  say  still :  *  I  dare  not  omit 
doing  what  good  I  can  while  I  live,  for  fear  of  evils  that  may  follow  when 
I  am  dead.' "  » 

There  is  some  force  in  this,  so  far  as  it  regards  Scotland. 
The  Scotch  Methodists  never  professed  themselves  to  be 
members  of  the  Church  of  England  ;  in  fact,  they  regarded 
that  church  almost  with  as  much  abhorrence  as  they  cherished 
towards  the  Church  of  Rome.  Hence  the  following  extract 
from  one  of  Pawson's  unpublished  letters,  dated  "  Edinburgh, 
October  8,  1785." 

"  Dr.  Coke  intends  to  be  \vith  us  on  Sunday,  the  23rd  instant,  when  we 
are  to  have  the  sacrament  again  ;  but  Mr.  Wesley  is  against  us  having  it 
in  the  Scotch  form,  and  I  am  well  satisfied  our  new  plan  will  answer  no 
end  at  all  in  Scotland,  but  will  prove  a  hindrance  to  the  work  of  God. 
The  people  generally  hate  the  very  name  of  Prayer-Book,  and  everything 
belonging  to  it,  as  they  have  always  been  taught  to  believe  it  a  limb  of 
antichrist,   and  very  little  better  than  the  popish  mass-book.     Popery, 

'  Manuscripts;  also  Methodist  Magazine,  1867,  p.  622. 
2  Methodist  Magazine,  1*786,  p.  678. 


Letters  on   Wesley  s  Ordinations.  443 

prelacy,  and  all  such  things,  they  hold  in  the  greatest  detestation.     They      1784 


would  soon  tell  us:  'I  dunna  ken  what  you  mean  by  these  unca  inventions. 
We  belong  to  the  gude  old  kirk  of  Scotland,  and  will  not  join  with  the 
whore  of  Babylon  at  all.' " 

In  reference  to  the  English  ordinations,  Mr,  Pawson 
writes : 

"  Mr.  Wesley  knew  the  state  of  the  societies  in  England  required  such 
measures  to  be  taken,  or  many  of  the  people  would  leave  the  connexion  ; 
and  had  the  preachers,  after  his  death,  only  acted  upon  his  plan, 
and  quietly  granted  the  people,  who  desired  the  sacraments,  that  privi- 
lege, no  division  would  have  taken  place.*  He  foresaw,  that  the 
]\Iethodists  would  soon  become  a  distinct  body.  He  was  deeply  pre- 
judiced against  presbyterian,  and  as  much  in  favour  of  episcopal, 
government.  In  order,  therefore,  to  preserve  all  that  is  valuable  in  the 
Church  of  England  among  the  Methodists,  he  ordained  Mr.  Mather  and 
Dr.  Coke,  bishops.  These  he  undoubtedly  designed  should  ordain 
others.  Mr.  Mather  told  us  so  at  the  Manchester  conference,  in  1 791.2  \ 
believe,  Mr.  Wesley's  first  thought  of  ordaining  arose  out  of  the  bishop 
of  London  refusing  to  ordain  a  preacher  for  America  ;  but  that  he 
originally  intended  to  ordain  preachers  for  England  is  what  I  never 
could  believe  ;  and,  with  respect  to  Scotland,  he  often  declared  to 
me,  and  in  the  congregation  at  Edinburgh,  that  he  was  over  per- 
suaded to  it.  And,  a  few  months  before  his  death,  he  was  so  annoyed 
with  Dr.  Coke's  conduct,  in  persuading  the  people  to  depart  from  the 
original  plan,  that  he  threatened,  in  a  letter,  to  have  no  more  to  do  with 
him,  unless  he  desisted  from  such  a  course  of  procedure."^ 

We  give  this  as  we  find  it ;  and  now  turn  to  a-  deeply- 
interesting  correspondence  between  Wesley  and  his  brother. 
Within  a  fortnight  after  the  ordination  of  Pawson,  Hanby, 
and  Taylor,  at  the  conference  of  1785,  and  in  which  Wesley, 
Coke,  and  Creighton  took  part/  Charles  Wesley  wrote  to  his 
brother  as  follows. 

"Bristol,  August  14,  1785. 

"  Dear  Brother, — I  have  been  reading  over  again  your  '  Reasons 
against  a  Separation,'  printed  in  1758,  and  your  Works;  and 
entreat  you,  in  the  name  of  God,  and  for  Christ's  sake,  to  read  them 
again  yourself,  with  previous  prayer,  and  stop,  and  proceed  no  farther, 
till  you  receive  an  answer  to  your  inquiry,  'Lord,  what  wouldst  Thou  have 
me  to  do  ?' 

"  Every  word  of  your  eleven  pages  deserves  the  deepest  consideration ; 


*  Manuscript  memoir  of  Whitehead.  '^  Manuscript  letter. 

*  Manuscript  letter.  '♦Pawson's  manuscript. 


Age  Si 


444  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1784      not  to  mention  my  testimony  and  hymns.     Only  the  seventh  I  could  wish 

— '        you  to  read, — a  prophecy  which  I  pray  God  may  never  come  to  pass. 

^^  ''  Near  thirty  years,  since  then,  you  have  stood  against  the  importunate 

solicitations  of  your  preachers,  who  have   scarcely  at  last  prevailed.     I 

was   your   natural   ally,    and    faithful   friend  ;  and,  while  you  continued 

faithful  to  yourself,  we  two  could  chase  a  thousand. 

"  But  w'hen  once  you  began  ordaining  in  America,  I  knew,  and  you 
knew,  that  your  preachers  here  would  never  rest  till  you  ordained  them. 
You  told  me,  they  would  separate  by-and-by.  The  doctor  tells  us  the 
same.  His  Methodist  episcopal  church  in  Baltimore  was  intended  to 
beget  a  Methodist  episcopal  church  here.  You  know  he  comes,  armed 
with  your  authority,  to  make  us  all  Dissenters.  One  of  your  sons  assured 
me,  that  not  a  preacher  in  London  would  refuse  orders  from  the 
doctor. 

"Alas  !  what  trouble  are  you  preparing  for  yourself,  as  well  as  for  me, 
and  for  your  oldest,  truest,  and  best  friends  !  Before  you  have  quite 
broken  down  the  bridge,  stop,  and  consider  !  If  your  sons  have  no  regard 
for  you,  have  some  regard  for  yourself.  Go  to  your  grave  in  peace  ;  at 
least,  suffer  me  to  go  first,  before  this  ruin  is  under  your  hand.  So  much, 
I  think,  you  owe  to  my  father,  to  my  brother,  and  to  me,  as  to  stay  till  I 
am  taken  from  the  evil.  I  am  on  the  brink  of  the  grave.  Do  not  push 
me  in,  or  embitter  my  last  moments.  Let  us  not  leave  an  indehble  blot 
on  our  memory ;  but  let  us  leave  behind  us  the  name  and  character  of 
honest  men. 

"  This  letter  is  a  debt  to  our  parents,  and  to  our  brother,  as  well  as  to 
you,  and  to 

"  Your  faithful  friend, 

"Charles  Wesley."' 

Five  days  afterwards,  Wesley  replied  as  follows.  The  line 
of  poetry  was  his  brother's. 

"  Plymouth,  August  19,  1785. 

"  Dear  Brother, — I  will  tell  you  my  thoughts  with  all  simplicity, 
and  wait  for  better  information.  If  you  agree  with  me,  well  ;  if  not,  we 
can,  as  Mr.  Whitefield  used  to  say,  agree  to  disagree. 

"  For  these  forty  years,  I  have  been  in  doubt  concerning  that  question, 
What  obedience  is  due  to 

*  Heathenish  priests  and  mitred  infidels'? 

"  I  have,  from  time  to  time,  proposed  my  doubts  to  the  most  pious  and 
sensible  clergymen  I  knew.  But  they  gave  me  no  satisfaction.  Rather, 
they  seemed  to  be  puzzled  as  well  as  me. 

"  Obedience  I  always  paid  to  the  bishops,  in  obedience  to  the  laws  of 
the  land.  But  I  cannot  see,  that  I  am  under  any  obligation  to  obey  them 
further  than  those  laws  require, 

'  Jackson's  Life  of  C.  Wesley,  vol.  ii.,  p.  394. 


Letters  on   Wesley  s  Ordinations.  445 

"It  is  in  obedience  to  these  laws,  that  I  have  never  exercised  in  Eng-  I7°4 
hmd  the  power  which,  I  beheve,  God  has  given  me.  I  firmly  believe,  I  ^„g  gj 
am  a  scriptural  fTrio-KOTrof,  as  much  as  any  man  in  England,  or  in 
Europe  ;  for  the  uninterrupted  succession  I  know  to  be  a  fable,  which  no 
man  ever  did  or  can  prove.  But  this  does  in  no  wise  interfere  with  my 
remaining  in  the  Church  of  England,  from  which  I  have  no  more  desire 
to  separate  than  I  had  fifty  years  ago.  I  still  attend  all  the  ordinances  of 
the  Church,  at  all  opportunities  ;  and  I  constantly  and  earnestly  advise 
all  that  are  connected  with  me  so  to  do.  When  Mr.  Smyth  pressed  us  to 
separate  from  the  Church,  he  meant,  '  Go  to  church  no  more.'  And  this 
was  what  I  meant  twenty-seven  years  ago,  when  I  persuaded  our  brethren 
not  to  separate  from  the  Church. 

"But  here  another  question  occurs:  'What  is  the  Church  of  England?' 
It  is  not  all  the  people  of  England.  Papists  and  Dissenters  are  no  part 
thereof.  It  is  not  all  the  people  of  England,  except  papists  and  Dissenters. 
Then  we  should  have  a  glorious  church  indeed  !  No  ;  according  to  our 
twentieth  article,  a  particular  church  is  '  a  congregation  of  faithful  people 
among  whom  the  word  of  God  is  preached,  and  the  sacraments  duly 
administered.'  Here  is  a  true  logical  definition,  containing  both  the 
essence  and  the  properties  of  a  church.  What  then,  according  to  this 
definition,  is  the  Church  of  England?  Does  it  mean  all  the  believers  in 
England  (except  the  papists  and  Dissenters)  who  have  the  word  of  God 
and  the  sacraments  duly  administered  among  them  ?  I  fear,  this  does  not 
come  up  to  your  idea  of  the  Church  of  England.  Well,  what  more  do 
you  include  in  the  phrase  ?  'Why,  all  the  believers  that  adhere  to  the 
doctrine  and  discipline  established  by  the  convocation  under  Queen  Eliza- 
beth.' Nay,  that  discipline  is  well-nigh  vanished  away  ;  and  the  doctrine 
both  you  and  I  adhere  to. 

"  All  these  *  Reasons  against  a  Separation  from  the  Church,'  in  this 
sense,  I  subscribe  to  still.  What  then  are  you  frighted  at  ?  I  no  more 
separate  from  it  now  than  I  did  in  1758.  I  submit  still  (though  sometimes 
with  a  doubting  conscience)  to  '  mitred  infidels.'  I  do,  indeed,  vary  from 
them  in  some  points  of  doctrine,  and  in  some  points  of  discipline  (by 
preaching  abroad,  for  instance,  by  praying  extempore,  and  by  forming 
societies)  ;  but  not  a  hair's  breadth  farther  than  I  believe  to  be  meet, 
right,  and  my  bounden  duty.  I  walk  still  by  the  same  rule  I  have  done 
for  between  forty  and  fifty  years.  I  do  nothing  rashly.  It  is  not  likely  I 
should.  The  high  day  of  my  blood  is  over.  If  you  will  go  on  hand  in  hand 
with  me,  do.  But  do  not  hinder  me,  if  you  will  not  help.  Perhaps  if  you 
had  kept  close  to  me,  I  might  have  done  better.  However,  with  or  with- 
out help,  I  creep  on  ;  and  as  I  have  been  hitherto,  so  I  trust  I  shall 
always  be, 

"  Your  affectionate  friend  and  brother, 

"John  Wesley."* 


'  Methodist  Magazine,  1 786,  p.  50. 


44^  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

ijZ^         To    this    letter    Charles    Wesley    returned    the    following 
Age  8i     reply. 

"  Marylebone,  September  8,  1785. 

"  Dear  Brother, — I  will  tell  you  my  thoughts  with  the  same 
simplicity.  There  is  no  danger  of  our  quarrelling  ;  for  the  second  blow 
makes  the  quarrel ;  and  you  are  the  last  man  upon  earth  whom  I  would 
wish  to  quarrel  with. 

"  That  juvenile  line  of  mine, 

'Heathenish  priests,  and  mitred  infidels,' 

I  disown,  renounce,  and  with  shame  recant.     I  never  knew  of  more  than 
one  'mitred  infidel,'  and  for  him  I  took  Mr.  Law's  word. 

"  I  do  not  understand  what  obedience  to  the  bishops  you  dread.  They 
have  let  us  alone,  and  left  us  to  act  just  as  we  pleased,  for  these  fifty 
years.  At  present,  some  of  them  are  quite  friendly  toward  us,  particularly 
toward  you.  The  churches  are  all  open  to  you ;  and  never  could  there 
be  less  pretence  for  a  separation. 

"  That  you  are  a  scriptural  enivKonos,  or  overseer,  I  do  not  dispute. 
,  And  so  is  every  minister  who  has  the  cure  of  souls.     Neither  need  we 

dispute  whether  the  uninterrupted  succession  be  fabulous,  as  you  believe ; 
or  real,  as  I  believe  ;  or  whether  Lord  King  be  right  or  wrong. 

"  Your  definition  of  the  Church  of  England  is  the  same  in  prose  with 
mine  in  verse.  By  the  way,  read  over  my  '  Epistle,'  to  oblige  me,  and 
tell  me  you  have  read  it,  and  likewise  your  own  '  Reasons.' 

"  You  write,  *  all  these  reasons  against  a  separation  from  the  Church,  I 
subscribe  to  still.  What  then  are  you  frighted  at  ?  I  no  more  separate 
from  it  than  I  did  in  the  year  1758  ;  I  submit  still  to  its  bishops  ;  I  do 
indeed  vary  from  them  in  some  points  of  discipline ;  (by  preaching 
abroad,  for  instance,  praying  extempore,  and  by  forming  societies ') ; 
(might  you  not  add,  and  by  ordaining?)  '  1  still  walk  by  the  same  rule  I 
have  done  for  between  forty  and  fifty  years;  I  do  nothing  rashly.' 

"  If  I  could  prove  your  actual  separation,  I  would  not ;  neither  wish  to 
see  it  proved  by  any  other.  But  do  you  not  allow,  that  the  doctor  has 
separated  1  Do  you  not  know  and  approve  of  his  avowed  design  and 
resolution  to  get  all  the  Methodists  of  the  three  kingdoms  into  a  distinct, 
compact  body  ?  Have  you  seen  his  ordination  sermon  ?  Is  the  high  day 
of  his  blood  over  ?  Does  he  do  nothing  rashly  ?  Have  you  not  made 
yourself  the  author  of  all  his  actions .''  I  need  not  remind  you,  qidfacit 
per  alitim  facit  per  se. 

"I  must  not  leave  unanswered  your  surprising  question,  *  What  then 
are  you  frighted  at  ?'  At  the  doctor's  rashness,  and  your  supporting  him 
in  his  ambitious  pursuits  ;  at  an  approaching  schism,  as  causeless  and 
unprovoked  as  the  American  rebellion;  at  your  own  eternal  disgrace,  and 
all  those  frightful  evils  which  your  'Reasons'  describe. 

"'  If  you  will  go  on  hand  in  hand  with  me,  do.'  I  do  go,  or  rather 
creep  on,  in  the  old  way  in  which  we  set  out  together,  and  trust  to  con- 
tinue in  it,  till  I  finish  my  course. 


Letters  on   Wesley  s  Ordinations.  447 

"'Perhaps  if  you  had  kept  dose  to  me,  I   might  have  done  better.'      1784 
When  you  took  that  fatal  step  at  Bristol,  I  kept  as  close  to  you  as  close      .      "„ 
could  be ;  for  I  was  all  the  time  at  your  elbow.   You  might  certainly  have 
done  better,  if  you  had  taken  me  into  your  counsel. 

"  I  thank  you  for  your  intention  to  remain  my  friend  ;  herein  my  heart 
is  as  your  heart ;  whom  God  hath  joined  let  not  man  put  asunder.  We 
have  taken  each  other  for  better  for  worse,  till  death  do  us — part  ?  No  ; 
but  unite  eternally.  Therefore,  in  the  love  which  never  faileth,  I  am  your 
affectionate  friend  and  brother, 

"  Charles  Wesley."^ 

Five  days  later,  Wesley  replied. 

"  Sepietnber  13,  1785. 

"Dear  Brother, — I  see  no  use  of  you  and  me  disputing  together; 
for  neither  of  us  is  likely  to  convince  the  other.  You  say,  I  separate  from 
the  Church  ;  I  say,  I  do  not.     Then  let  it  stand. 

"  Your  verse  is  a  sad  truth.  I  see  fifty  times  more  of  England  than 
you  do  ;  and  I  find  few  exceptions  to  it. 

"  I  believe  Dr.  Coke  is  as  free  from  ambition  as  from  covetousness. 
He  has  done  nothing  rashly,  that  I  know  ;  but  he  has  spoken  rashly, 
which  he  retracted  the  moment  I  spoke  to  him  of  it.  To  publish,  as  his 
present  thoughts,  what  he  had  before  retracted,  was  not  fair  play.  He  is 
now  such  a  right  hand  to  me  as  Thomas  Walsh  was.  If  you  will  not  or 
cannot  help  me  yourself,  do  not  hinder  those  that  can  and  will.  I  must 
and  will  save  as  many  souls  as  I  can  while  I  live,  without  being  careful 
about  what  may  possibly  be  when  I  die. 

"  I  pray  do  not  confound  the  intellects  of  the  people  in  London.  You 
may  thereby  a  little  weaken  my  hands,  but  you  will  greatly  weaken  your 
own.  "  I  am,  etc., 

"John  Wesley."2 

Wesley  failed  to  grapple  with  his  brother's  question  ;  or 
rather  he  declined.  Charles's  point  evidently  was  the  same  as 
Lord  Mansfield's, — "  ordination  was  separation."  No  doubt 
this  was  strictly  accurate.  Wesley  was  too  keen  sighted  not 
to  see  it ;  but  he  was  too  much  a  churchman  to  acknowledge 
it.  He  felt  himself  unable  to  reply  to  his  brother's  argument ; 
and,  therefore,  really  did  not  attempt  to  reply  at  all. 

Two  brief  letters  more,  and  then  we  quit  the  subject  of 

ordination.     Six  days  after  the  date  of  the  above,  Charles 

W'esley  replied  as  follows. 

"  London,  September  19,  1785. 
"  Dear  Brother, — I  did  not  say,  you  separate  from  the  Church;  but 
I  did  say,  *  If  I  could  prove  it,  I  would  not.' 

»  C.  Wesley's  Life,  vol.  ii.,  p.  398.  .       2  jbid. 


44'^  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 


1784  "  That  '  sad  truth'  is  not  a  new  truth;  you  saw  it  when  you  expressed 

^r~Oj     in  your  '  Reasons'  such  tenderness  of  love  for  the  unconverted  clergy. 
"  Of  your  second  Thomas  Walsh  we  had  better  talk  than  write. 
"  How  'confound  their  intellects'  ?  how  'weaken  your  hands  '?    I  know 
nothing  which  I  do  to  prevent  the  possible  separation,  but  pray.     God 
forbid  I   should  sin  against  Him  by  ceasing  to   pray  for  the  Church  of 
England;  and  for  you,  while  my  breath  remains  in  me  ! 

"  I  am,  your  affectionate  brother, 

"  Charles  WESLEy." ' 

Again : 

"  Bristol,  July  27,  1786. 

"  Dear  Brother, — I  cannot  rest,  living  or  dying,  unless  I  deal  as 
faithfully  with  you  as  I  am  persuaded  you  would  deal  with  me,  if  you  were 
in  my  place,  and  I  in  yours. 

"  I  believe  you  have  been  too  hasty  in  ordaining.  I  believe  God  left 
you  to  yourself  in  that  matter,  as  He  left  Hezekiah,  to  show  you  the 
secret  pride  M'hich  was  in  your  heart.  I  believe  Lord  Mansfield's  decisive 
words  to  me,  *  ordination  is  separation.' 

"Thus  I  have  discharged  my  duty  to  God  and  His  church,  and  ap- 
proved myself  your  faithful  friend  and  affectionate  brother, 

"  Charles  Wesley.''^ 

This  is  a  long,  and,  we  fear,  a  wearisome  account  of  what, 
abstractedly  considered,  was  a  trivial  thing.  John  Wesley's 
preachers,  being  called  of  God,  were  as  much  ministers  of 
Christ,  and  as  much  entitled  to  administer  the  sacraments  of 
the  church,  without  the  imposition  of  his  hands  as  with  it. 
We  raise  no  objection  to  the  formality  ;  we  think  it  right, 
and,  because  of  its  solemnity,  likely  to  be  useful ;  but  to  con- 
tend that  the  thing  itself  is  necessary,  would  be  to  condemn 
all  the  grand  old  Methodist  preachers,  who  flourished  from 
the  year  1795,  when  their  administration  of  sacraments  was 
authorised  by  the  Methodist  conference,  to  the  year  1836, 
when,  for  the  first  time,  ordination  by  imposition  of  hands 
was  solemnly  enacted,  and  declared  to  be  a  "  standing  rule 
and  usage  in  future  years." 

This,  however,  is  not  the  point  in  question.  The  right  or 
wrong,  of  ordaining,  is  left  to  others  to  discuss.  There  can  be 
no  doubt  that,  as  a  minister  of  Christ,  Wesley  had  as  much 
right  to  ordain  as  any  bishop,  priest,  or  presbytery  in  exist- 
ence ;    but  he  had  no  right  to  this  as   a  clergyman    of  the 

^  C.  Wesley's  Life,  vol.  ii.,  p.  398. 
2  Methodist  Magazine,  1867,  p.  625. 


Wesley  a  Dissenter.  449 

Church  of  England;  and,  by  acting  as  he  did,  he  became,      1784 
what  he  was  unwilHng  to  acknowledge,  a  Dissenter,  a  sepa-    AseSi 
ratist   from    that   church.      Such   was    the  opinion    of   Lord 
Mansfield  ;  and  such  was  the  argument  of  Wesley's  brother. 
Wesley  refused  to  acknowledge  this  ;  but,  feeling  the  impos- 
sibility of  the  thing,  he  declined  to  attempt  refuting  it.     With 
great   inconsistency,  he  still  persisted    in    calling   himself    a 
member  of  the   Church  of  England  ■}  and,   as  will   be  seen, 
to  the  day  of  his  death,    told   the    Methodists   that  if  they 
left  the    Church  they  would    leave    him.      All    things    con-    • 
sidered,  this  was   not  surprising;  but  it  was   absurd.     Great 
allowance    must    be     made    for    Wesley ;    but    to    reconcile 
Wesley's  practice  and  profession,  in  this  matter,  during  the 
last  seven  years  of  his  eventful  life,  is  simply  impossible. 

Much  space  has  been  occupied  with  these  recitals  ;  but, 
remembering  that  no  event,  in  Wesley's  history,  has 
occasioned  more  controversy  than  his  act  of  ordaining 
preachers,  it  became  a  duty  to  give  all  the  facts  concerning  it 
within  our  knowledge. 

We  now  return  to  the  conference  of  1784.  As  soon  as  its 
sessions  ended,  Wesley  again  set  out  on  his  evangelistic 
ramblings  ;  and,  two  days  afterwards,  came  to  Shrewsbury, 
and  preached  a  funeral  sermon  "  in  memory  of  good  John 
Appleton."  John  was  a  currier,  and  became  a  Methodist 
under  circumstances  somewhat  peculiar,  and  which  are  worth 
relating. 

While  at  Bristol,  he  happened  to  go  into  a  church,  where 
the  minister  preached  a  violent  sermon,  which  he  had  already 
delivered  in  two  other  churches,  against  "  the  upstart  Method- 
ists." Shortly  after,  he  had  to  preach  again  in  the  church  of 
St.  Nicholas,  but,  while  announcing  his  text,  was  suddenly 
seized  with  a  rattling  in  his  throat,  fell  backward  against  the 


^  Let  us  suppose  John  Hampson,not  only  to  have  formed  societies,  dif- 
ferent from  the  Methodist  societies,  but  also  to  have  ordained  local 
preachers  to  administer  to  them  the  sacraments  ;  and  let  us  suppose 
further,  that,  despite  this,  John  Hampson  still  persisted  in  calling  him- 
self a  Methodist:  and  we  have  a  case  analogous  to  that  of  Wesley. 
Under  such  circumstances,  would  Wesley  have  admitted  Hampson's 
claim  to  continued  membership  among  the  Methodists?  We  trow  not ; 
and  yet  this  is  exactly  the  sort  of  claim  which  he  himself  makes  in 
reference  to  the  Church  of  England. 

VOL.  in.  G  G 


450  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley, 

1784  pulpit  door,  rolled  down  the  steps,  was  carried  home,  and 
Age  8i  died.  Mr.  Appleton  was  present,  and  was  so  greatly  shocked 
with  this  event,  that,  when  he  returned  to  Shrewsbury,  he 
took  a  house,  in  which  he  fitted  up  a  room  for  religious  service, 
and  began  to  preach  himself.  In  1781,  at  his  own  expense, 
he  built  the  Methodists  a  chapel,  which  Wesley  opened.  A 
more  devoted  Christian  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  than  good 
John  Appleton.  His  labour,  as  a  working  currier,  was  hard; 
but,  for  many  years,  besides  preaching  every  Sunday,  he 
preached  twice  a  week  on  the  week  days,  and  had  full  and 
attentive  congregations.  He  died  in  the  full  triumph  of 
faith  on  the  ist  of  May,  1784.' 

From  Shrewsbury,  Wesley  made  his  way,  through  Wales, 
to  Bristol,  which  he  reached  on  August  29,  and  where,  a 
few  days  afterwards,  he  ordained  Coke,  Whatcoat,  and  Vasey. 
The  next  month  was  spent  in  incessant  preaching  in  the 
surrounding  neighbourhood. 

Here  we   pause  to  insert  two  of   his  remarkable    letters  : 

the  first  to  Miss  Bishop,  the  mistress  of  a  boarding  school  ; 

the  second   to   the  Right   Hon.    William    Pitt,    now   in    the 

twenty-fifth    year     of    his    age,     and     prime     minister     of 

England. 

"  Haverfordwest,  August  18,  1784. 

"  My  dear  Sister, — It  seems  God  Himself  has  already  decided  the 
question  concerning  dancing.  He  has  shown  His  approbation  of  your 
conduct,  by  sending  these  children  to  you  again.  If  dancing  be  not  evil 
in  itself,  yet,  it  leads  young  women  to  numberless  evils.  And  the  hazard 
of  these,  on  the  one  side,  seems  far  to  overbalance  the  little  inconveni- 
ences, on  the  other.  Therefore,  thus  much  may  certainly  be  said,  you 
have  chosen  the  more  excellent  way. 

"  I  would  recommend  very  few  novels  to  young  persons,  for  fear  they 
should  be  desirous  of  more.  Mr.  Brooke  wrote  one  more,  beside  the 
'  Earl  of  Moreland,'  '  The  History  of  the  Human  Heart.'  I  think,  it  is 
well  worth  reading,  though  it  is  not  equal  to  his  former  production.  The 
want  of  novels  may  be  more  than  supplied  by  well  chosen  history  :  such 
as  'The  Concise  History  of  England,'  'The  Concise  History  of  the 
Church,'  Rollin's  Ancient  History,  Hooke's  Roman  History  (the  only 
impartial  one  extant),  and  a  few  more.  For  the  elder  and  more  sensible 
children,  Malebranche's  '  Search  after  Truth 'is  an  excellent  French  book. 
Perhaps,  you  might  add  Locke's  '  Essay  on  the  Human  Understanding,' 
with  the  remarks  upon  it  in  the  Arminiaii  Magazine.     I  had  forgotten 

*  Methodist  Magazine,  1 790,  p.  636. 


AgeSi 


Wesley  s  Letter  to   William  Pitt.  451 

that    beautiful    book,  'The    Travels  of    Cyrus,'  whether  in   French  or      1784 
English. 

"  I  always  am  your  affectionate  friend  and  brother, 

"John  Wesley."' 

The  letter  to  Pitt  was  one  such  as  prime  ministers  seldom 
get. 

"  Bath,  September  6,  1 784. 

"Sir, — Your  former  goodness,  shown  to  Mr.  Ellison,^  emboldens  me 
to  take  the  liberty  of  recommending  to  your  notice  an  old  friend,  Lieu- 
tenant Webb.^ 

"  On  my  mentioning  formerly  some  of  his  services  to  Lord  North,  his 
lordship  was  pleased  to  order  him  ^100  a  year.  But  as  it  has  since  been 
reduced,  it  is  hardly  a  maintenance  for  himself  and  his  family.  If  you 
would  be  so  good  as  to  remember  him  in  this,  or  any  other  way,  I  should 
esteem  it  a  particular  favour. 

"  Will  you  excuse  me,  sir,  for  going  out  of  my  province  by  hinting  a  few 
things,  which  have  been  long  upon  my  mind?  If  those  hints  do  not 
deserve  any  further  notice,  they  may  be  forgiven  and  forgotten. 

"  New  taxes  must  undoubtedly  be  imposed  ;  but  may  not  more  money 
be  produced  by  the  old  ones  ?     For  instance : 

"  I.  When  the  land  tax  is  four  shillings  in  the  pound,  I  know  some  towns 
which  pay  regularly  seven  or  five  pence.  Nay,  I  know  one  town  where 
they  pay  one  penny  in  the  pound.     Is  there  no  help  for  this  ? 

"2.  As  to  the  window  tax  :  I  know  a  gentleman  who  has  near  a 
hundred  windows  in  his  house,  and  he  told  me  he  paid  for  twenty. 

"  3.  The  same  gentleman  told  me  :  '  We  have  above  one  hundred  men 
servants  in  this  town,  but  not  above  ten  are  paid  for.' 

"4.  I  firmly  believe,  that,  in  Cornwall  alone,  the  king  is  defrauded  of 
half  a  million  yearly  in  customs.  What  does  this  amount  to  in  all 
Great  Britain  ?     Surely  not  so  little  as  five  millions. 

"  5.  Servants  of  distillers  inform  me,  that  their  masters  do  not  pay  for  a 
fortieth  part  of  what  they  distil.  And  this  duty  last  year,  (if  I  am  rightly 
informed,)  amounted  only  to  ^20,000.  But  have  not  the  spirits  distilled 
this  year  cost  20,000  lives  of  his  majesty's  liege  subjects  ?  Is  not  then 
the  blood  of  these  men  vilely  bartered  for  ^20,000  ?  not  to  say  anything 
of  the  enormous  wickedness,  which  has  been  occasioned  thereby  ;  and 
not  to  suppose  that  these  poor  wretches  have  any  souls !  But,  (to  consider 
money  alone,)  is  the  king  a  gainer,  or  an  immense  loser?  To  say  nothing 
of  many  millions  of  quarters  of  corn  destroyed,  which,  if  exported,  would 
have  added  more  than  ;/^2o,ooo  to  the  revenue,  be  it  considered,  '  Dead 
men  pay  no  taxes.'     So  that,  by  the  death  of  20,000  persons  yearly,  (and 

1  Methodist  Magazine,  1807,  p.  472  ;  and  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xiii., 
p.  36. 

2  Wesley's  nephew,  an  excise  officer  (Clarke's  "  Wesley  Family,"  vol. 
ii.,  p.  273). 

3  Commonly  called  Captain  Webb. 


Age 


452  Life  and  Thnes  of  Wesley. 

1784      this  computation  is  far  under  the  mark,)  the  revenue  loses  far  more  than 
it  gains. 

"  But  I  may  urge  another  consideration  to  you.  You  are  a  man.  You 
have  not  lost  human  feelings.  You  do  not  love  to  drink  human  blood. 
You  are  a  son  of  Lord  Chatham.  Nay,  if  I  mistake  not,  you  are  a 
Christian.  Dare  you  then  sustain  a  sinking  nation  ?  Is  the  God  whom 
you  serve  able  to  deliver  from  ten  thousand  enemies  ?  I  beheve  He 
is.  Nay,  and  you  believe  it.  O,  may  you  fear  nothing  but  displeasing 
Him! 

"  May  I  add  a  word  on  another  head  ?  How  would  your  benevolent 
heart  rejoice,  if  a  stop  could  be  put  to  that  scandal  of  the  English  nation, 
suicide ! 

"  The  present  laws  against  it  avail  nothing ;  for  every  such  murderer  is 
brought  in  non  compos.  If  he  was  a  poor  man,  the  jurors  forswear  them- 
selves from  pity.  If  he  was  rich,  they  hope  to  be  well  paid  for  it.  So  no 
ignominy  pursues  either  the  living  or  the  dead,  and  self  murder  increases 
daily.     But  what  help  ? 

"  I  conceive  this  horrid  crime  might  be  totally  prevented,  and  that 
without  doing  the  least  hurt  to  either  the  living  or  the  dead.  Do  you  not 
remember,  sir,  how  the  rage  for  self  murder  among  the  Spartan  matrons 
was  stopped  at  once  ?  Would  it  not  have  the  same  effect  in  England,  if 
an  act  of  parliament  were  passed,  repealing  all  other  acts  and  appointing 
that  every  self  murderer  should  be  hanged  in  chains  ? 

"  Suppose  your  influence  could  prevent  suicide  by  this  means,  you 
would  do  more  service  to  your  country  than  any  prime  minister  has  done 
these  hundred  years.  Your  name  would  be  precious  to  all  true  English- 
men as  long  as  England  continued  a  nation.  And,  what  is  infinitely 
more,  a  greater  Monarch  than  King  George  would  say  to  you,  '  Well 
done,  good  and  faithful  servant.'  I  earnestly  commit  you  to  His  care,  and 
am,  sir,  your  willing  servant, 

"John  Wesley." ^ 

Methodism  was  established  not  only  in  America,  but  also 
in  Nova  Scotia  and  Newfoundland,  though  neither  of  these 
countries  found  a  place  in  the  conference  minutes  till  1785. 
William  Black,  now  a  young  man  of  twenty-four,  had  begun 
to  pray  and  preach,  and  had  witnessed  the  conversion  of 
hundreds.  Societies  had  been  formed  ;  and  quarterly  meet- 
ings held  ;  and,  for  three  years,  Black  had  devoted  himself 
wholly  to  the  work  of  the  ministry,  without  being  formally 
recognised  as  one  of  Wesley's  itinerant  preachers.  He  had 
encountered  no  ordinary  difficulties  in  the  prosecution  of  his 
work.      The  Rev.   Henry  Alline,  a  Calvinist    preacher,  had 

'^Methodist  Magazine,  1850,  p.  161. 


Letters  to   Williarn  Black.  453 


o 


divided  his  societies,  by  sowinf^  the  seeds  of  antinomian  error;  1784 
and  Methodist  meetings  had  been  illegally  disturbed,  and  AgeSi 
broken  up,  by  English  soldiers :  but,  in  the  midst  of  all, 
young  Black  courageously  persevered.  He  applied  to  Wesley 
for  assistance  ;  and  he  himself  expressed  a  wish  to  come  to 
Kingswood  school  to  fit  himself  more  fully  for  the  Christian 
ministry.  During  the  year  1784,  Weslby  addressed  to  him 
the  two  following  letters. 

"  Inverness,  May  ir,  1784. 

"  My  dear  Brother, — I  am  glad  you  have  given  a  little  assistance 
to  our  brethren  at  Halifax,  and  along  the  coast.  There  is  no  charity 
under  heaven  to  be  compared  to  this, — the  bringing  light  to  the  poor 
heathens,  that  are  called  Christians,  but,  nevertheless,  still  sit  in  darkness 
and  the  shadow  of  death.  I  am  in  great  hopes,  that  some  of  the  emigrants, 
from  New  York,  are  really  alive  to  God.  And,  if  so,  they  will  every  way 
be  a  valuable  acquisition  to  the  province  where  their  lot  is  now  cast. 

'•'There  is  no  part  of  Calvinism  or  antmomianism  which  is  not  fully 
answered  in  some  part  of  our  writings  ;  particularly  in  the  '  Preservative 
against  Unsettled  Notions  in  Religion.'  I  have  no  more  to  do  with 
answering  books.  It  will  be  sufficient  if  you  recommend,  to  Mr.  Alline's 
friends,  some  of  the  tracts  that  are  already  written.  As  to  himself,  I  fear 
he  is  wiser  in  his  own  eyes  than  seven  men  that  can  render  a  reason. 

"  The  work  of  God  goes  on  with  a  steady  pace  in  various  parts  of 
England.  But,  still,  the  love  of  many  will  wax  cold,  while  many  others 
are  continually  added  to  supply  their  place.  In  the  west  of  England,  in 
Lancashire,  and  in  Yorkshire,  God  still  mightily  makes  bare  His  arm. 
He  convinces  many,  justifies  many,  and  many  are  perfected  in  love. 

"  My  great  advice  to  those  who  are  united  together,  is,  Let  brotherly 
love  continue  !  See  that  ye  fall  not  out  by  the  way  !  Hold  the  unity  of 
the  Spirit  in  the  bond  of  peace  !  Bear  ye  one  another's  burdens,  and  so 
fulfil  the  law  of  Christ  ! 

I  am,  your  affectionate  brother, 

"John  Wesley." * 


a 


"London,  October  15,  1784, 
"  My  dear  Brother, — A  letter  of  yours,  some  time  ago,  gave  me 
hopes  of  meeting  you  in  England  ;  as  you  seemed  desirous  of  spending 
some  time  here,  to  improve  yourself  in  learning.  But,  as  you  have  now 
entered  into  a  different  state,  I  do  not  expect  we  shall  meet  in  this  world. 
But  you  have  a  large  field  of  action  where  you  arc,  without  wandering 
into  Europe.  Your  present  parish  is  wide  enough,  namely.  Nova  Scotia 
and  Newfoundland.  I  do  not  advise  you  to  go  any  farther.  In  the 
United  States,  there  are  abundance  of  preacher?.     They  can  spare  four 


Black's  Memoirs,  p.  ii2. 


AgeSi 


454  Life  a7id  Times  of  Wesley. 

1 784  preachers  to  you,  better  than  you  can  spare  one  to  them.  If  I  am  rightly 
informed,  they  have  already  sent  you  one  or  two  ;  and  they  may  afford 
you  one  or  two  more,  if  it  please  God  to  give  a  prosperous  voyage  to  Dr. 
Coke  and  his  fellow  labourers.  Does  there  not  want  a  closer  and  more 
direct  connection  between  you  of  the  north,  and  the  societies  under 
Francis  Asbury?  Is  it  not  more  advisable,  that  you  should  have  a 
constant  correspondence  with  each  other,  and  act  by  united  counsels.'' 
Perhaps  it  is  for  want  of  this,  that  so  many  have  drawn  back.  I  want  a 
more  particular  account  of  the  societies  in  Nova  Scotia  and  Newfound- 
land. I  am  not  at  all  glad  of  Mr.  Scurr's  intention  to  remove  from  Nova 
Scotia  to  the  south.  That  is  going  from  a  place,  where  he  is  much 
wanted,  to  a  place  where  he  is  not  wanted.  I  think,  if  he  got  ;^io,ooo 
thereby,  it  would  be  but  a  poor  bargain  ;  that  is,  upon  the  supposition, 
which  you  and  I  make,  that  souls  are  of  more  value  than  gold.  Peace  be 
with  all  your  spirits ! 

"  I  am,  your  affectionate  brother, 

"  John  Wesley."  ' 

Wesley  returned  to  London  on  October  9,  and,  nine  days 
afterwards,  set  out  on  his  usual  visit  to  the  societies  in  Oxford- 
shire. He  then  went  off  to  Norfolk;  and  spent  the  rest  of 
the  year  in  London,  and  the  surrounding  counties.  He  had 
a  long  interview  with  Pascal  Paoli,  the  great  Corsican  general. 
He  visited  convicts,  under  sentence  of  death,  in  Newgate, 
preached  the  condemned  criminals'  sermon,  forty-seven  of 
these  unhappy  creatures  being  present,  all  in  chains,  and  most 
of  them  in  tears.  Burglars  broke  into  his  house,  in  City  Road. 
He  met  with  Simeon,  who  had  been  with  Fletcher  at  Madeley, 
and,  for  fifty-three  years  afterwards,  was  rector  of  Trinity 
church,  Cambridge.  Jottings  like  these  might  be  multi- 
plied ;  Wesley's  life  was  full  of  them.  We  conclude  with  an 
unpublished  letter  to  Henry  Moore,  who  was  now  at  Dublin. 

"  London,  November  4,  1 784. 
"My  dear  Brother, — I  am  glad  you  spoke  freely  to  Mr.  Collins. 
He  is  a  good  man,  but  not  very  adviseable.  If  he  should  declare  open 
war  in  England,  he  will  do  little  or  no  harm.  Mr.  Smyth  will  not  be  fond 
of  him,  if  he  preaches  at  Plunkett  Street.^  There  will  not  soon  be  a 
coalition  between  Arminianism  and  Calvinism.  This  we  found  even  in 
Holland. 


'  Black's  Memoirs,  p.  126. 

^  The  Rev.  Edward  Smyth  was  about  to  become  minister  of  Bethesda 
chapel,  Dublin.  The  Rev,  Brian  Collins  seems  to  have  been  in  Dublin 
at  the  same  time. 


V/esieys  Publications^  in  1784.  455 

"  If  James  Rogers  and  you  keep  to  the  Church  still,  a  few,  I  doubt  not,  1784 
will  follow  your  example.  We  made  just  allowance  enough  for  leaving  .""o 
the  Church  at  the  last  conference.  " 

"  I  am,  with  kind  love  to  Nancy,  yours  affectionately, 

"John  Wesley." 

Besides  "  The  Sunday  Service  of  the  Methodists  in 
America,"  and  a  tract  or  two,  Wesley  pubHshed  nothing-,  in 
1784,  except  his  Arminian  Magazine.  This  was  as  racy  and 
rich  as  ever.  "  The  Calvinist  Cabinet  Unlocked  "  was  con- 
tinued from  the  previous  volume,  and  run  through  the  whole 
of  this.  Like  its  predecessors,  it  contained  six  original 
sermons  by  Wesley  himself.  In  that  on  Dissipation,  he 
expresses  the  startling  opinion  :  "  There  is  not,  on  the  face 
of  the  earth,  another  nation  so  perfectly  dissipated  and 
ungodly  as  England  ;  not  only  so  totally  without  God  in  the 
w^orld,  but  so  openly  setting  Him  at  defiance.  There  never 
was  an  age,  that  we  read  of  in  history,  since  Julius  Caesar, 
since  Noah,  since  Adam,  wherein  dissipation  and  ungodliness 
did  so  generally  prevail,  both  among  high  and  low,  rich  and 
poor."  In  the  sermon  on  Patience,  he  gives  an  interesting 
account  of  the  way  in  which  he  was  led  to  embrace  the 
doctrine  of  Christian  perfection;  and  observes  that,  in  1762, 
there  were  652  members  of  the  London  society,  who  pro- 
fessed to  have  attained  to  this  state  of  grace.  That  on  the 
text,  "  We  know  in  part,"  is  a  marvellous  production,  such 
as  none  but  a  man  like  Wesley  could  have  written.  In  the 
sermon  on  the  "  Wisdom  and  Knowledge  of  God,"  as  dis- 
played in  the  history  of  the  church,  after  giving  one  of 
his  most  interesting  accounts  of  the  rise  of  Methodism, 
he  does  not  hide  the  fact,  that  many  of  the  Methodist 
preachers  and  people  had  not  been  faithful.  Speaking  of 
the  first  preachers,  he  says,  they  "were  young,  poor,  igno- 
rant men,  without  experience,  learning,  or  art ;  but  simple 
of  heart,  devoted  to  God,  full  of  faith  and  zeal,  seeking  no 
honour,  no  profit,  no  pleasure,  no  ease,  but  merely  to  save 
souls ;  fearing  neither  want,  pain,  persecution,  nor  whatever 
man  could  do  unto  them  :  yea,  not  counting  their  lives  dear 
unto  them,  so  they  might  finish  their  course  with  joy."  But 
in  process  of  time,  "  several  of  the  preachers  increased  in 
other  knowledge  ;  but  not  proportionably  in  the  knowledge 


45^  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1784  of  God.  They  grew  less  simple,  less  alive  to  God,  and  less 
Age  81  devoted  to  Him.  They  were  less  zealous  for  God,  and 
consequently  less  active,  less  diligent  in  His  service.  Some 
of  them  begun  to  desire  the  praise  of  men,  and  not  the 
praise  of  God  only  ;  some,  to  be  weary  of  a  wandering  life, 
and  to  seek  ease  and  quietness.  Some  began  to  fear  the 
faces  of  men  ;  to  be  ashamed  of  their  calling ;  to  be  un- 
willing to  deny  themselves,  to  take  up  their  cross  daily, 
and  endure  hardness  as  good  soldiers  of  Jesus  Christ. 
Wherever  these  preachers  laboured,  there  was  not  much 
fruit  of  their  labours.  Their  word  was  not,  as  formerly, 
clothed  with  power;  it- carried  with  it  no  demonstration  of 
the  Spirit!"  Weighty  words  these!  especially  as  coming 
from  an  old  man  of  more  than  eighty,  one  of  the  keenest 
observers  of  facts,  himself  the  founder  of  Methodism,  now 
nearly  at  the  close  of  his  remarkable  career.  And  equally 
pungent  are  his  remarks  respecting  the  people.  Referring 
to  the  causes  of  Methodist  backslidings,  he  writes :  "  But  of 
all  the  temptations,  none  so  struck  at  the  whole  work  of  God, 
as  the  deceitfulness  of  riches  ;  a  thousand  melancholy  proofs 
of  which  I  have  seen,  within  these  last  fifty  years.  I  have  not 
known  threescore  rich  persons,  perhaps  not  half  the  number, 
during  threescore  years,  who,  as  far  as  I  can  judge,  were  not 
less  holy  than  they  would  have  been,  had  they  been  poor.  By 
riches,  I  mean  not  thousands  of  pounds  ;  but  any  more  than 
will  procure  the  conveniences  of  life."  "  Having  gained  and 
saved  all  you  can,  give  all  you  can  :  else  your  money  will  eat 
your  flesh  as  fire,  and  will  sink  you  to  the  nethermost  hell ! 
O  beware  of  laying  up  treasures  upon  earth  !  Is  it  not  trea- 
suring up  wrath  against  the  day  of  wrath  .-'  Lord !  I  have 
warned  them  :  but  if  they  will  not  be  warned,  what  can  I  do 
more  .-'  I  can  only  give  them  up  unto  their  own  hearts'  lusts, 
and  let  them  follow  their  own  imaginations  !  By  not  taking 
this  warning,  it  is  certain  many  of  the  Methodists  are  already 
fallen.  Many  are  falling  at  this  very  time.  And  there  is 
great  reason  to  apprehend,  that  many  more  will  fall,  most  of 
whom  will  rise  no  more  ! "  If  Wesley  found  it  necessary  to 
say  this  in  1784,  what  would  he  have  said  in  1871  t 

In  the  sermons,  on  Obedience  to  Parents,  and  Companion- 
ship with   the  Wicked,  the  reader  will   find  most  valuable 


Wesley  s  PublicatmiSy  in  1784.  457 

advices,   such  as  none    but  a  longj  experienced  casuist    like      1784 
Wesley  has  wisdom  and  confidence  enough  to  give.  Age  81 

Further'  description  of  the  Magazine,  for  1784,  is  scarcely 
needed.  The  letters  and  the  poetry  are  quite  equal  to  those 
in  the  former  volumes  ;  the  biographies  are  rich  in  Christian 
experience  ;  the  anecdotes  quaint  and  instructive.  Extracts 
from  his  "  Natural  Philosophy  "  are  given  in  every  number, 
and  also  from  Bryant's  Ancient  Mythology.  Benson's  Letters 
on  Polygamy  run  through  the  whole.  The  supernatural  dis- 
turbances at  Epworth  parsonage  are  related  ;  and,  as  if  in 
anticipation  of  his  own  death,  Wesley  tells  his  readers,  that,  not 
"  to  lessen  the  honour  of  the  house  of  God,  or  infect  it  wnth 
unwholesome  vapours,  he  has  left  orders  to  bury  his  remains, 
not  in  the  new  chapel  in  City  Road,  but  in  the  burying 
ground  adjoining  it ;"  and  then,  to  show  that  "  epitaphs 
ought  to  be  prepared  by  persons  who  have  some  knowledge 
of  grammatical  and  typographical  accuracy ;  and  not  be  left 
to  illiterate  relations,  parish  clerks,  or  stonemasons,  to  the 
great  scandal  of  the  nation  in  general,  and  of  religion  in 
particular,"  he  gives  the  following,  taken  from  a  tombstone 
in  Arbroath  churchyard. 

"  Here  lyis  Alexand  Peter,  present  Town  Treasurer  of  Arbroth,  who 

died day  January  1630. 

"  Such  a  Treasurer  was  not  since,  nor  yet  before, 
For  common  works,  calsais,  brigs,  and  schoir — • 
Of  all  others  he  did  excel  ; 
He  deviced  our  skoel,  and  he  hung  our  belL" 


I7S5. 

^IzP  "XT  LESLEY  began  the  year  1785,  by  spending  five  days  in 
Age  82  V  V  walking  through  London,  often  ankle  deep  in  sludge 
and  melting  snow,  to  beg  ;^200,  which  he  employed  in  pur- 
chasing clothing  for  the  poor.  He  visited  the  destitute  in 
their  own  houses,  "  to  see  with  his  own  eyes  what  their  wants 
were,  and  how  they  might  be  effectually  relieved."  Besides 
preaching  in  his  own  chapels,  he  preached  in  Spitalfields,  St. 
Ethelburga's,  and  Stepney  churches.  As  usual,  he  met  the 
London  classes,  from  which  he  received,  as  ticket  money, 
£48  ys.,  out  of  which  he  was  paid  his  quarter's  salary,  £1^.^ 
His  activity  was  unabated  and  marvellous. 

He  wrote  as  follows,  to  Mr.  Stretton,  in  Newfoundland. 

"  London,  February  25,  1785. 
"My  dear  Brother,— If  that  deadly  enemy  of  true  religion,  popery, 
is  breaking  in  upon  you,  there  is  indeed  no  time  to  be  lost ;  for  it  is  far 
easier  to  prevent  the  plague  than  to  stop  it.  Last  autumn  Dr.  Coke  sailed 
from  England,  and  is  now  visiting  the  flock  in  the  midland  provinces  of 
America,  and  setting  them  on  the  New  Testament  plan,  to  which  they  all 
willingly  and  joyfully  conform.  I  trust,  they  will  no  more  want  such 
pastors,  as  are  after  God's  own  heart.  After  he  has  gone  through  these 
parts,  he  intends  to  see  the  brethren  in  Nova  Scotia,  probably  attended 
with  one  or  two  able  preachers,  who  will  be  willing  to  abide  there.  A  day 
or  two  ago,  I  wrote  and  desired  him  to  call  upon  our  brethren  also  in 
Newfoundland,  and  leave  a  preacher  there  hkewise.  About  food  and 
raiment  we  take  no  thought ;  our  heavenly  Father  knoweth  that  we  need 
these  things,  and  He  will  provide  ;  only  let  us  be  faithful  and  diligent  in 
feeding  His  flock.  Your  preacher  will  be  ordained.  You  shall  want  no 
assistance  that  is  in  the  power  of  your  affectionate  friend  and  brother, 

"John  Wesley."^ 

At  the  previous  conference,  Wesley  had  appointed  William 
Moore  to  Plymouth.  Moore  was  an  itinerant  of  ten  years' 
standing,  and  was  dissatisfied  with  Wesley's  deed  of  de- 
claration ;    and,   instead   of  serving  Wesley,  as  he  had  done 

'  City  Road  society  book, 
^  Methodist  Magazine,  1824,  p.  307. 


William  Moore,  at  Plymouth.  459 

formerly,  he  dissevered  the  connection.  He  hired  a  room,  1785 
drew  away  about  forty  of  the  Plymouth  Methodists,  and  a^u^ 
formed  a  society  of  his  own.  He  issued  "  An  Appeal  to  the 
Inhabitants  of  the  Town  of  Saltash,"  8vo,  8  pages  ;  telling  the 
people,  that  he  preached  none  other  doctrines  than  those  con- 
tained in  the  articles,  homilies,  and  prayers  of  the  Church  of 
England  ;  that  he  coveted  no  man's  silver,  gold,  or  apparel ; 
and  that  he  was  actuated  only  by  a  sincere  desire  to  serve 
them.  Moore  was  evidently  a  man  of  education,  courage, 
and  Christian  zeal  ;  and  might  have  occupied  a  superior 
position  among  his  brethren.  But  Wesley's  seeming  partiality, 
in  the  constitution  of  his  conference,  led  to  Moore's  secession; 
and  here,  at  Plymouth,  he  had  become  a  somewhat  formidable 
rival.  Wesley  was  summoned,  and,  in  a  most  bitter  frost, 
off  he  went,  on  February  28,  to  put  wrong  things  right. 
Here  he  spent  six  days,  and  left  the  society  "confirmed  in 
the  truth  more  than  ever." 

Leaving  Plymouth,  Wesley  came  to  Bristol,  where  he  em- 
ployed a  fortnight  in  visiting  and  preaching  to  neighbouring 
societies. 

On  March  21,  he  started  off  to  Ireland,  preaching  all  the 
way  to  Liverpool,  and,  notwithstanding  frost  and  snow,  and 
bitter  cold,  frequently  in  the  open  air.  He  arrived  at  Dublin 
on  April  11,  and  found  "two  such  preachers,"  James  Rogers 
and  Andrew  Blair,  "with  two  such  wives  as  he  knew  not 
where  to  find  again." 

Having  spent  a  week  in  Dublin,  he  set  out  for  the  provinces. 
He  often  preached  in  churches,  and  not  unfrequently  in  the 
open  air.  Everywhere,  with  one  or  two  exceptions,  the  people 
welcomed  him  ;  congregations  were  large,  and  societies,  in 
general,  were  lively.  Two  months  were  occupied  in  this 
employment.  His  labours  were  almost  incredible.  All  over 
Ireland  he  went,  preaching  every  day,  and  often  twice  or  thrice 
a  day,  not  only  in  Methodist  meeting-houses,  but  in  churches, 
presbyterian  chapels,  in  factories,  in  bowling  greens,  in  assem- 
bly rooms,  in  courthouses,  in  barns,  in  "sloping  meadows," 
in  "  shady  orchards,"  in  groves  and  avenues,  in  linen  halls,  in 
churchyards  and  streets,  everywhere,  where  he  had  a  chance. 
We  know,  with  certainty,  that,  minute  as  are  the  details  of 
Wesley's  journals,  he,  by  no  means,   mentions  every  sermon 


4^0  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1 7^5      that  he  delivered,  and  every  society  that  he  visited  ;  and  yet, 
Age  82    in  this  two  months'  Irish  provincial  tour,  he  records  the  names 
of  not  fewer  than  between  fifty  and  sixty  towns,  in  which  he 
preached,  collectively,  about  fourscore  discourses. 

At  Prosperous,  he  found  a  town  built  within  the  last  five 
years,  by  Captain  Brooke,  who  employed  two  thousand  people 
in  the  manufacturing  of  cotton ;  a  Methodist  society  of  fifty 
members  had  been  formed  ;  and  Wesley  preached  to  two 
crowded  congregations.  On  his  way  to  Cork,  he  was  met  by 
about  thirty  horsemen,  who  escorted  him  to  the  city,  where 
he  met  a  society  of  about  four  hundred  members,  consider- 
ably more  than  there  are  at  the  present  time.  At  Kinsale,  "all 
behaved  well,  but  a  few  officers."  He  adds  :  "  the  poor  in  Ire- 
land, in  general,  are  well  behaved ;  all  the  ill  breeding  is  among 
well  dressed  people."  At  Limerick,  he  assisted  at  a  service, 
in  the  cathedral,  which  lasted  from  eleven  o'clock  till  three. 
At  Killchrist,  he  was  the  guest  of  Colonel  Pearse ;  but  says, 
"  the  house  being  full  of  genteel  company,  I  was  out  of  my 
element  ;  there  being  no  room  to  talk  upon  the  only  subject 
which  deserves  the  attention  of  a  rational  creature."  At 
Ballinrobe,  he  visited  the  charter  school,  the  children  of 
which  were  ragged  and  dirty.  "  The  schoolroom  was  not 
much  bigger  than  a  small  closet  : "  three  beds  had  to  serve 
for  fifteen  boys,  and  five  for  nineteen  girls ;  and  five  farthings 
a  day  were  allowed  the  master  for  the  sustenance  of  each  of 
the  hunger  bitten  pupils.  Wesley  was  so  disgusted  with 
the  thing,  that  he  reported  the  case  to  the  commissioners  for 
charter  schools  in  Dublin. 

On  June  18,  he  got  back  to  Dublin,  where  he  spent  his 
birthday,  on  the  28th,  and  wrote  :  "  By  the  good  providence 
of  God,  I  finished  the  eighty-second  year  of  my  age.  Is  any- 
thing too  hard  for  God  .-•  It  is  now  eleven  years  since  I  have 
felt  any  such  thing  as  weariness :  many  times  I  speak  till  my 
voice  fails,  and  I  can  speak  no  longer  ;  frequently  I  walk  till 
my  strength  fails,  and  I  can  walk  no  farther  ;  yet,  even  then, 
I  feel  no  sensation  of  weariness,  but  am  perfectly  easy  from 
head  to  foot.  I  dare  not  impute  this  to  natural  causes ;  it  is 
the  will  of  God." 

Having  held  the  Irish  conference  he  set  sail  for  England, 
on  July  10,  leaving,  says  he,  "the  work  of  God  increasing  in 


Meihodism  in  Ireland.  461 

every  part  of  the  kingdom,  more  than  it  has  done  for  many     1785 
years."     "  Here  is  a  set  of  excellent  young  preachers  ;  nine    Age  82 
in  ten  of  them  are  much  devoted  to  God.     I  think,  number 
for  number,  they  exceed  their  fellow  labourers  in  England."^ 

The  following  letter  refers  to  the  same  subject,  and  is  too 
interesting  to  be  omitted.     It  was  addressed  to  Miss  Ritchie. 


't5 


"  Dublin,  June  26,  1785. 

"  My  dear  Betsy, — Our  Lord  has  indeed  poured  out  abundance  of 
blessings,  almost  in  every  part  of  this  kingdom.  I  have  now  gone 
through  every  province,  and  visited  all  the  chief  societies,  and  I  have 
found  far  the  greater  part  of  them  increasing  both  in  number  and  strength. 
Many  are  convinced  of  sin  ;  many  justified  ;  and  not  a  few  perfected  in 
love.  One  means  of  which  is,  that  several  of  our  young  preachers,  of 
whom  we  made  little  account,  appear  to  be,  contrary  to  all  expectation, 
men  full  of  faith  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost ;  and  they  are  pushing  out,  to 
the  right  hand  and  the  left  ;  and,  wherever  they  go,  God  prospers  their 
labours.  I  know  not  whether  Thomas  Walsh  will  not  revive  in  two,  if 
not  three,  of  them. 

"  Many  years  ago  I  was  saying  :  *  I  cannot  imagine  how  Mr.  Whitefield 
can  keep  his  soul  alive,  as  he  is  not  now  going  through  honour  and 
dishonour,  evil  report  and  good  report  ;  having  nothing  but  honour  and 
good  report  attending  him  wherever  he  goes.'  It  is  now  my  own  case  ; 
I  am  just  in  the  condition  now  that  he  was  then  in.  I  am  become, 
I  know  not  how,  an  honourable  man.  The  scandal  of  the  cross  is  ceased  ; 
and  all  the  kingdom,  rich  and  poor,  papists  and  protestants,  behave  with 
courtesy,  nay,  and  seeming  good  will  !  It  seems  as  if  I  had  well-nigh 
finished  my  course,  and  our  Lord  was  giving  me  an  honourable  discharge. 

"Peace  be  with  your  spirit  !     Adieu  ! 

"John  Wesley."* 

A  letter,  from  Wesley  to  Mr.  Stretton,  has  been  already 
given,  announcing  that  preachers  were  about  to  be  sent  to 
Nova  Scotia  and  Newfoundland.  This  was  already  done  ; 
and  Freeborn  Garretson  and  James  Cromwell  Avere 
labouring,  in  the  former  country,  with  great  success. 
Wesley,  while  in  Ireland,  wrote  to  Garretson  as  follows. 

"Dublin,  Jinic  16,  1785. 

"My  dear  Brother,— I   am  glad  brother   Cromwell   and  you  have 

undertaken  that  'labour  of  love'  of  visiting   Nova  Scotia;  and  doubt 

not  but  you  act  in  full  concert  with  the  little  handful,  who  were  almost 

alone  till  you  came.     It  will  be  the  wisest  way  to  make  all  those  who 


'  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xii.,  p.  143.  ^  Ibid,  vol.  xiii.,  p.  6l. 


462  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 


^785  desire  to  join  together,  thoroughly  acquainted  with  the  whole  Methodist 
^  ^^  plan  ;  and  to  accustom  them,  from  the  very  beginning,  to  the  accurate 
^^  observance  of  all  our  rules.  Let  none  of  them  rest  in  being  half  Christians. 
Whatever  they  do,  let  them  do  it  with  their  might  ;  and  it  will  be  well,  as 
soon  as  any  of  them  find  peace  with  God,  to  exhort  them  to  '  go  on  to 
perfection.'  The  more  explicitly  and  strongly  you  press  all  believers  to 
aspire  after  full  sanctification,  as  attainable  now  by  simple  faith,  the  more 
the  whole  work  of  God  will  prosper. 

"  I  do  not  expect  any  great  matters  from  the  bishop.  I  doubt  his  eye 
is  not  single  ;  and  if  it  be  not,  he  will  do  little  good  to  you,  or  any  one 
else.  It  may  be  a  comfort  to  you,  that  you  have  no  need  of  him.  You 
want  nothing  which  he  can  give. 

"  You  do  not  know  the  state  of  the  English  Methodists;  they  do  not  roll 
in  money,  like  many  of  the  American  Methodists.  It  is  with  the  utmost 
difficulty,  that  we  can  raise  five  or  six  hundred  pounds  a  year  to  supply 
our  contingent  expenses  ;  so  that  it  is  entirely  impracticable  to  raise  ^{^500 
among  them  to  build  houses  in  America.  It  is  true,  they  might  do  much; 
but  it  is  a  sad  observation,  they  that  have  most  money  have  usually  least 
grace. 

"  The  peace  of  God  be  with  all  your  spirits  !  I  am  your  affectionate 
friend  and  brother,  a  ^^^^  WESLEY." » 

Thus  was  Methodism  spreading.  We  find  it  firmly  planted 
throughout  the  whole  of  the  United  Kingdom.  Its  members 
in  America  were  counted  by  thousands.  It  had  its  societies 
in  the  West  Indies.  It  had  taken  root  in  Newfoundland  and 
Nova  Scotia.  And,  besides  all  this,  it  was  beginning  to  exert 
indirectly  a  benign  influence  on  other  lands,  where,  since 
then,  religion  has  been  extensively  revived.  The  Methodist 
mission  to   Sweden,  begun  by  Joseph   Rayner  Stephens,  in 

1826,  was  facilitated  by  Methodist  feeling,  imbibed  from 
Wesley,  in  1785.  Hence  the  following  letter,  from  an  aged 
clergyman  of  the  established  church  of  Sweden,    written  in 

1827,  and  addressed  to  Mr.  Stephens. 

"  It  affected  my  heart  to  see,  in  the  newspapers  of  Stockholm,  that  an 
adherent  to  the  famous  and  venerable  Mr.  J.  Wesley  had  established  a 
chapel,  for  Divine  service,  in  our  metropolis.  Mr.  Wesley  was  an  old 
acquaintance  of  mine  when  I  resided  in  England  in  the  years  1784-86. 
He  was  more  ;  he  was  my  dear  friend,  and  with  him  I  agreed  in  his 
Christian  principles  and  opinions.  I  was  exceedingly  pleased  with  him, 
and  with  his  religion  of  love,  joy,  and  peace.  I  very  often  waited  on  him 
at  his  house;  and  I  was  several  times  in  company  with  him  in  the  circle  of 

*  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xiii.,  p.  66. 


Death  of  Perrond  and  Fletcher.  463 

his  friends,  where  I  went  to  prayer  with  them.     I  learned  of  him,  to  be  a      1785 
father  to  the  people  that  might  be  entrusted  to  me.     I  shall  never  forget        — 
the  amiable  Mr.  Wesley.     He  was  so  good  as  to  give  me  a  remembrance        ^ 
of  him,  by  a  present  of  one  of  his  writings,  called  'An  Appeal,'  etc..  in 
which  he   wrote   these   lines,  '  Domino   N.  S.  S.  dono  dedit  Johannes 
Wesley,  ct7'c.  Kal,  Augusti,  1785.'     He  gave  me  also  several  other  of  his 
Christian  pamphlets.     I    am  far  advanced  in  age  ;  towards  seventy-six 
years  old  :  but,  if  the  almighty  God  grant  me  life  and  health,  perhaps  I 
may  make  a  tour  to  Stockholm  next  summer,  when  I  have  done  with  my 
catechumens  ;  and  then  I  shall  certainly  wait  upon  you,  and  make  one  of 
your  auditory.* 

While  Wesley  was  forming  new  friendships,  old  ones  were 
being  severed  by  death.  It  was  in  1785,  that  he  thus  lost  two 
of  the  most  valuable  and  valued  friends  that  he  ever  had, — 
Vincent  Perronet,  and  John  Fletcher,  the  vicars  of  Shoreham 
and  Madeley.  The  former  was  in  the  ninety-second  year  of 
his  age,  and  died,  while  Wesley  was  in  Ireland,  on  the  9th 
of  May.  Charles  Wesley  buried  him,  and  preached  his 
funeral  sermon.  For  the  last  twenty  years,  he  had  enjoyed 
such  a  degree  of  fellowship  with  God  as  rarely  falls  to 
the  lot  of  man  in  the  present  world.  He  lived  chiefly 
in  his  library ;  but,  when  he  mingled  with  his  friends,  was 
always  cheerful.  His  favourite  study  was  the  fulfilment  of 
prophecy,  and  the  second  coming  and  visible  reign  of 
Christ  on  earth.^ 

While  Perronet  was  the  oldest,  Fletcher  was  the  most 
valuable  friend  that  Wesley  had.  No  man  had  rendered,  to 
Methodism  and  its  founder,  the  service  that  the  vicar  of 
Madeley  had.  Compared  with  the  vicar  of  Shoreham,  he 
was  young ;  but  his  life  was  fraught  with  incalculable 
blessings  to  the  church  of  Christ.  Only  four  years  before 
his  death,  he  had  married  Miss  Bosanquet,  who,  for  thirty 
years,  revered  his  memory,  and  remained  his  widow,  till  the 
two  were  reunited  in  a  better  world  than  this.  As  we 
have  already  seen,  he  was  present  at  Wesley's  last  conference, 
in  Leeds  ;  and  it  was  chiefly  by  his  almost  angelic  inter- 
position and  services,  that  the  results  of  that  conference  were 
not  much  more  disastrous  than  they  were.  His  wife  was 
with  him,  and  writes :  "  O  how  deeply  was  he  afi"ected  con- 


"^  Methodist  Magazine,  1828,  p.  46.  *  Ibid.  1799,  P-  161. 


464  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 


1 785  cerning  the  welfare  of  his  brethren !  When  any  little 
A^82  disputes  arose  among  them,  his  inmost  soul  groaned  be- 
neath the  burden  ;  and,  by  two  or  three  in  the  morning,  I 
was  sure  to  hear  him  breathing  out  prayer  for  the  peace 
and  prosperity  of  Zion.  When  I  observed  to  him,  I  was 
afraid  it  would  hurt  his  health,  and  wished  him  to  sleep 
more,  he  would  answer,  '  O  Polly,  the  cause  of  God  lies  near 
my  heart!'  "* 

Twelve  months  afterwards,  this  seraphic  man  expired,  some 
of  his  last  words  being  :  "  O  Polly,  my  dear  Polly,  God  is 
love  !  Shout !  shout  aloud  !  I  want  a  gust  of  praise  to  go  to 
the  ends  of  the  earth  !  "  He  died  August  14,  1785,  having, 
on  the  previous  sabbath,  read  prayers,  preached,  and  admi- 
nistered the  Lord's  supper,  in  his  parish  church.  Wesley,  at 
the  time,  was  in  the  west  of  England,  and  unable  either  to 
see  him,  or  to  attend  his  funeral ;  but,  as  soon  as  possible, 
he  published  a  sermon  in  memory  of  him,  taking  the 
same  text  as  his  brother  Charles  had  taken  at  the  death  of- 
Perronet :  "  Mark  the  perfect  man,  and  behold  the  upright ; 
for  the  end  of  that  man  is  peace."     Wesley  writes  : 

"  I  was  intimately  acquainted  with  him  for  above  thirty  years  ;  I  con- 
versed with  him  morning,  noon,  and  night,  without  the  least  reserve, 
during  a  journey  of  many  hundred  miles  ;  and,  in  all  that  time,  I  never 
heard  him  speak  one  improper  word,  nor  saw  him  do  an  improper  action. 
Many  exemplary  men  have  I  known,  holy  in  heart  and  Ufe,  within  four- 
score years;  but  one  equal  to  him  I  have  not  known,  one  so  inwardly 
and  outwardly  devoted  to  God.  So  unblamable  a  character,  in  every 
respect,  I  have  not  found  cither  in  Europe  or  America  ;  and  I  scarce 
expect  to  find  such  another  on  this  side  of  eternity." 

Wesley  arrived  in  London,  from  Ireland,  on  July  14 ;  and, 
on  the  following  Sunday,  preached,  morning  and  evening, 
on  the  education  of  children.  The  next  morning,  at  five 
o'clock,  he  met  the  children  of  the  congregation  at  City  Road, 
the  morning  chapel  being  full  of  juveniles,  and  many  standing 
in  the  larger  chapel.  The  service  was  unique.  When,  either 
before  or. since,  was  there  such  a  congregation  at  such  an 

hour .'' 

Wesley  writes:  "July  26,  Tuesday— Our  conference  began; 


1  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xi.,  p.  334. 


Conference  ^1785.  465 

at  which  about  seventy  preachers  were  present,  whom  I  had  17^5 
invited  by  name.  One  consequence  of  this  was,  that  we  had  Age  82 
no  contention  or  altercation  at  all ;  but  everything  proposed 
was  calmly  considered,  and  determined  as  we  judged  would 
be  most  for  the  glory  of  God."  The  deed  of  declaration  was 
again  discussed  ;  and  seventy  preachers  present  signed  docu- 
ments, that  they  approved  of  it.  Eight  preachers  left  the 
connexion,  including  William  Moore  and  the  two  Hampsons. 
Nova  Scotia,  Newfoundland,  and  Antigua,  for  the  first  time, 
appeared  in  the  list  of  circuits.  It  was  declared,  that  it  was 
improper  to  sell  books,  to  employ  hairdressers,  or  to  talk  of 
worldly  things,  on  Sundays  ;  and  that  it  was  entirely  wrong 
to  send  Methodist  children  to  dancing  schools,  and  for 
dancing  masters  to  be  admitted  into  Methodist  boarding 
schools. 

The  conference  was  closed  on  August  3,  and,  five  days 
afterwards,  Wesley  set  out  for  Cornwall;^  and  on  September  3 
,  got  back  to  Bristol,  where  he  wrote:  "Sunday,  September  4 — 
Finding  a  report  had  been  spread  abroad,  that  I  was  going 
to  leave  the  Church,  to  satisfy  those  that  were  grieved 
concerning  it,  I  openly  declared  in  the  evening,  that  I  had  no 
more  thought  of  separating  from  the  Church  than  I  had  forty 
years  ago." 

Here,  and  in  the  neighbourhood,  he  spent  a  month.  On 
October  3,  he  returned  to  London  ;  and,  the  next  day,  set 
out  for  Hertfordshire.  A  week  later,  he  was  off  to  Oxford- 
shire ;  and  the  week  after  that,  to  Norfolk.  He  writes : 
"  October  22 — I  returned  to  Norwich ;  and,  in  the  evening, 
spoke  home  to  an  uncommonly  large  congregation  ;  telling 
them,  '  Of  all  the  people  I  have  seen  in  the  kingdom,  for 
between  forty  and  fifty  years,  you  have  been  the  most 
fickle,  and    yet   the    most  stubborn.'       However,   our  labour 

^  Among  other  places,  Wesley  preached  at  St.  Austell,  where  his  host 
had  a  httle  girl,  twelve  years  of  age,  who  had  recently  been  admitted 
into  the  Methodist  society  by  Adam  Clarke.  That  little  girl  is  now 
Mrs.  Shaw,  aged  ninety-eight,  and  well  remembers  Wesley  taking  her, 
more  than  once,  in  his  carriage  for  a  drive,  and  showing  her  other  marks 
of  affectionate  attention.  Mrs.  Shaw — happy,  intelligent,  and  full  of  faith, 
— is  a  mother  in  Israel,  and  probably  the  oldest  Methodist  now  living.  The 
writer  has  in  his  possession,  in  Mrs.  Shaw's  own  handwriting,  a  beautiful 
hymn  of  five  stanzas,  composed  by  her,  in  the  month  of  May,  1869. 

VOL.  III.  H  H 


466  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1785      has  not  been   lost,  for  many  have  died   in  peace  ;  and   God 
Age82    is  able  to  say  to  the  residue  of  these  dry  bones,  '  Live  ! '  " 

Querulous  and  quarrelsome  Thomas  Wride  was,  at  this 
time,  the  assistant  in  Norwich  circuit,  and,  from  a  large  mass 
of  his  manuscripts  in  the  author's  possession,  the  following 
facts  are  gleaned.  A  monument  to  the  memory  of  Mr. 
Turner  had  been  erected  in  the  chapel,  on  which  were 
chiselled  certain  "doggrel  verses,"  with  which  Wride  was 
greatly  dissatisfied.  He  had  told  the  society,  on  September 
4,  what  they  might  expect  from  him,  in  reference  to  meeting 
in  class,  showing  tickets,  etc.;  and  says  "the  terror  of  his 
countenance  had  awed  them,  and  several  had  owned  that 
they  were  afraid  of  him."  He  had  received  a  quantity  of 
sermons  for  sale,  and,  among  others.  Dr.  Coke's  sermon, 
preached  in  Baltimore,  at  the  ordination  of  Asbury;  which, 
he  says,  he  is  reluctant  to  put  into  circulation.  He  writes: 
"  It  amounts  to  a  formal  separation  from  the  Church  of 
England,  and,  in  the  end,  will  tear  up  Methodism  by  the 
roots.  Whatever  may  be  said  of  America,  I  cannot  think  it 
right,  for  us  here,  to  declare  ourselves  independent  of  the 
Church  of  England,  while  we  enjoy  the  privileges  we  have 
always  done.  I  dread  the  consequence  ;  for,  if  we  are  inde- 
pendents, hardly  any  will  come  to  us,  but  such  as  choose  to 
change  their  religion;  whereas,  those  to  whom  the  Methodists 
have  been  mainly  useful  had  no  religion  to  change."  Wride 
was  also  dissatisfied  with  his  colleagues;  for  J.  McKersey  would 
sing  a  hymn  between  the  first  prayer  and  the  sermon ;  and 
James  McByron  would  permit  the  congregations  to  sing 
anthems.  McKersey  also  refused  to  preach  at  five  in  the 
mornings ;  for  though,  as  he  said,  he  could  rise  soon  enough, 
he  was  not  able  to  preach  till  he  had  had  his  breakfast;  and,  in 
consequence,  WVide  had  advised  him  to  take  his  breakfast  to 
bed  with  him.  Wride  acknowledges,  that  the  Methodists  at 
Norwich  had  not  been  used  to  morning  preaching.  The  rich 
would  not  attend;  and,  as  the  poor  did  not  begin  to  work  till 
eight  o'clock,  and  could  not  afford  to  burn  a  fire,  they  were 
reluctant  to  rise  so  early.  Hence,  when  he  himself  had 
preached,  his  congregation  consisted  only  of  his  wife  and  two 
others,  Mr.  McKersey,  further,  had  neglected  the  select 
band;    and  had  declared  he  v/ould  "rather  go  twelve  miles 


Thomas    Wride.  46  7 


than  meet  the  children."    Wride  multiplies  complaints  against      1785 
the  leading  singers,  and   against  the  leaders,  Messrs.  Booty,     Age82 
Best,  James  and   George  Hay,  Kilburn,  Senior,  Flegg,  and 
Johnson;    and    declares    that    a    preacher,    sent   to  Norwich 
circuit,  ought  to  combine  in  himself  the  qualities  of  "the  lion, 
the  lamb,  the  dove,  the  serpent,  and  the  ox." 

Poor  Wride !  The  contention  continued,  and,  early  in 
1786,  Wesley  had  to  remove  him  to  another  post  of  duty; 
but,  before  doing  so,  he  addressed  to  him  the  following  letters, 
which  have  not  before  been  published. 

"  London,  November  8,  1 785. 
"Dear  Tommy, — James  Byron  is  an  amiable  young  man  ;  at  present 
full  of  faith  and  love.  -  If  possible,  guard  him  from  those  that  will  be 
inclined  to  love  him  too  well.     Then  he  will  be  as  useful  a  fellow  labourer 
as  you  can  desire.     And  set  him  a  pattern  in  all  things. 

"  I  am,  dear  Tommy,  your  affectionate  friend  and  brother, 

"John  Wesley." 

"  London,  November  1 7,  1 785. 
"  Dear  Tommy, — Deal  plainly,  and  yet  tenderly  with  James  Byron, 
and  he  will  be  a  very  useful  labourer.  But  none  can  be  a  Methodist 
preacher,  unless  he  is  both  able  and  willing  to  preach  in  the  morning  ; 
which  is  the  most  healthy  exercise  in  the  world.  I  desire,  that  none  of 
our  preachers  would  sing  oftener  than  twice  at  one  service.  We  need 
nothing  to  fill  up  our  hour. 

"In  every  place,  where  there  is  a  sufficient  number  of  believers,  do  all 
you  can  to  prevail  upon  them  to  meet  in  band.  Be  mild ;  be  serious ;  and 
you  will  conquer  all  things. 

. "  I  am,  dear  Tommy,  your  affectionate  friend  and  brother, 

"John  Wesley." 

"London,  Z>^r^/«^<?r  14,  1785. 
"Dear  Tommy, — Have  patience  with  the  young  men,  and  they  will 
mend  upon  your  hands.  But  remember !  soft  and  fair  goes  far.  For  twenty 
years  and  upwards,  we  had  good  morning  congregations  at  Norwich  ; 
but  they  might  begin  at  six  till  Ladyday.  I  desire  brother  Byron  to  try 
what  he  can  do :  better  days  will  come. 

"I  pray,  let  the  doggrel  hymn  be  no  more  sung  in  our  chapel.  If 
they  do  not  soon  come  to  their  senses  at  Norwich,  I  will  remove  you  to 
Colchester.     Be  mild  !     Be  serious  ! 

"  I  am,  dear  Tommy,  your  affectionate  friend  and  brother, 

"John  Wesley." 

Tommy  Wride  was  not  the  only  preacher  that  gave  Wesley 
trouble.     For  twelve  years,  Michael  Moorhouse  had  been  one 


4^8  Life  and  Times    of  Wesley. 

1785  of  his  itinerants,  and  had  had  his  share  of  persecution.  In 
A"e~82  ^17'^>  while  preaching  in  the  market  place  at  Melton  Mow- 
bray, he  was  pulled  down  by  a  ruthless  mob,  and,  with  three 
other  peaceable  men,  dragged  to  the  Black  Hole,  where 
means  were  used  to  impress  him  for  the  army.  ^  Moorhouse 
now  was  discontented,  and,  in  1785,  published  a  broadsheet  of 
sixteen  columns,  in  small  type,  entitled  "  An  Appeal  to 
Honest  Men,"  and  full  of  petty  grievances,  particularly  with 
regard  to  the  influence  of  John  Crook  and  Wesley,  and 
respecting  his  own  appointments  to  inferior  circuits.  At  the 
conference  of  1786,  he  left  the  work  ;  and  then  embodied  the 
wailings  of  his  Appeal  in  an  octavo  volume  of  128  pages,  with 
the  title,  "Defence  of  Mr.  Michael  Moorhouse,  written  by 
himself"  He  bitterly  complains  of  Wesley  for  suffering  some 
of  the  wives  of  his  preachers  to  dine  on  potatoes  and  butter- 
milk, while  others  were  pampered  with  good  cheer;  and  for 
allowing  their  husbands  to  wear  great  coats,  and  to  use 
umbrellas  on  a  rainy  day.  The  Monthly  Reviciv,  in  noticing 
poor  Moorhouse's  notable  production,  quietly  remarks  :  "  The 
labourer  is  certainly  worthy  of  his  hire,  but,  in  adjusting 
the  hire  to  the  labourer,  a  good  deal  must  depend  on  the 
workman's  skill ;  and,  if  we  are  to  judge  of  Master  Michael 
Moorhouse's  preaching  abilities,  from  his  illiterate  and  silly 
performance,  we  do  not  see  how  his  master  could  have 
afforded  him  higher  wages  :  perhaps  he  might  fare  better,  if 
he  were  to  return  to  his  lawful  occupation." 

These  were  among  the  petty  annoyances  of  Wesley's  busy 
life.  He  had,  in  all  conscience,  enough  to  do  without  these  ; 
but,  in  his  position,  such  vexations  were  inevitable. 

Returning  from  Norfolk,  Wesley  spent  the  rest  of  the  year 
in  London,  and  in  preaching  tours  through  Northamptonshire 
and  Kent. 

Before  proceeding  to  notice  his  publications,  it  is  right  to 
say  that,  at  this  time,  an  important  pamphlet  of  twelve  pages 
was  issued  with  the  following  title  :  "  Free  Thoughts  concern- 
ing a  Separation  of  the  People  called  Methodists  from  the 
Church  of  England,  addressed  to  the  Preachers  in  the 
Methodist    Connexion,    by    a    Layman    of     the    Methodist 


^  Thomas  Dixon's  manuscript  autobiography. 


Separation  fi'oin  the  Ckiirc/i.  469 

society."     The  pamphlet   may  be  taken  as  an  echo   of   the      1785 
opinions  then  prevalent,  and  a  brief  account    of  it   may  be    Age82 
useful. 

The  writer  states,  that  the  arguments,  used  in  favour  of 
separation,  are,  not  that  the  government,  service,  and  doctrine 
of  the  Church  are  unscriptural,  but,  that  the  clergy  are  not 
converted  men  ;  that  Methodism  loses  many  of  its  members 
through  the  sacraments  not  being  administered  ;  that  the 
Church  of  England  is  a  fallen  church ;  that  the  time  is  fully 
come  when  the  Methodists  ought  to  be  an  independent  body; 
that  the  good  effects  of  separation  are  already  seen  in  the 
continent  of  America  ;  and  that  separation  will  probably  take 
place  at  Mr.  Wesley's  death. 

Having  endeavoured  to  refute  these  arguments,  the  author 
proceeds  to  give  his  reasons  against  separation  :  namely  (i) 
many  of  the  Methodists  are  zealous  for  the  Church  of 
England,  and  would  be  offended  ;  (2)  separation  implies  or- 
dination, which  would  be  a  bone  of  contention,  an  apple  of 
discord,  among  the  preachers,  as  to  who  should  be  ordainers ; 
(3)  these  "gownsmen  or  ordainers  would  have  the  government 
of  the  body  more  and  more  devolved  upon  them,  and,  instead 
of  being  itinerants,  would  become  resident  in  one. place,  the 
itinerant  plan  thereby  becoming  gradually  weakened,  or 
continued  only  by  razu  lads  on  trial." 

The  arguments,  pro  and  coji,  are  given  as  we  find  them  ; 
and  merely  to  show  the  grounds  taken  by  the  opposing  parties 
in  1785. 

Excepting  Fletcher's  funeral  sermon,  8vo,  32  pages,  Wesley's 
publications  were  only  four  in  number. 

1.  "  A  Pocket  Hymn  Book  for  the  use  of  Christians  of  all 
Denominations."     24mo,  208  pages. 

2.  "  An  Extract  from  the  Rev.  Mr.  John  Wesley's  Journal, 
from  August  9,  1779,  to  August  20,  1782."      i2mo,  92  pages. 

3.  "A  Call  to  the  Unconverted.  By  R.  Baxter."  i2mo, 
y6  pages. 

4.  The  Arminian  Magazine.     8vo,  66Z  pages. 

The  Arminian  Magazine  contains  extracts  from  Dr. 
Whitby's  Discourses  on  the  Five  Points,  and  from  Maun- 
drell's  Journey  from  Aleppo  to  Jerusalem.  There  are  bio- 
graphical accounts   of  William  McCormick,  Martha  Rogers, 


470  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 


^25.5  Nancy  Bissaker,  James  Creighton,  Ann  Roylands,  John 
Age  82  Pritchard,  and  many  others.  There  are  more  than  thirty 
letters,  and  as  many  poetic  pieces.  There  is  Wesley's  sermon 
on  his  favourite  text,  i  Corinthians  xiii.  1-3.  Also  his  sermon 
on  perfection,  in  which  his  most  matured  views,  on  this 
momentous  subject,  are  stated  with  his  wonted  lucidity.  The 
sermon  on  Hebrews  xiii.  17  is  remarkable.  The  point  he  en- 
deavours to  establish  is,  that,  "  It  is  the  duty  of  every  private 
Christian  to  obey  his  spiritual  pastor,  by  either  doing  or  leaving 
undone  anything  of  an  indifferent  nature  ;  anything  that  is 
in  no  way  determined  in  the  word  of  God."  In  applying  the 
principle  to  himself  and  the  Methodists,  he  asks :  "  Do  you 
take  my  advice  with  regard  to  dress  1  I  published  that  advice 
above  thirty  years  ago  ;  I  have  repeated  it  a  thousand  times 
since.  I  have  advised  you  to  lay  aside  all  needless  orna- 
ments :  to  avoid  all  needless  expense :  to  be  patterns  of  plain- 
ness to  all  that  are  round  about  you.  Have  you  taken  this 
advice  t  Are  you  all  exemplarily  plain  in  your  apparel  ?  as 
plain  as  quakers  or  Moravians  ?  If  not,  you  declare  hereby 
to  all  the  world,  that  you  will  not  obey  them  that  are  over 
you  in  the  Lord."  Wesley's  doctrine  maybe  disputed;  but 
the  practical  use  to  which  he  puts  it  deserves  attention.  There 
are  three  more  of  his  original  sermons — on  John  i.  47  ;  Philip- 
pians  ii.  12,  13  ;  and  Revelation  xxi.  5— which  are  well  worth 


reading. 


1786. 

WESLEY  spent  the  first  two  months  of  1786  in  London.  1786 
He  went  to  the  House  of  Lords  at  the  opening  of  Age  83 
parHament,  and  heard  King  George  HI.  read  the  royal 
speech.  He  writes  :  "  How  agreeably  was  I  surprised.  He 
pronounced  every  Avord  with  exact  propriety.  I  much  doubt 
whether  there  be  any  other  king  in  Europe,  that  is  so  just 
and  natural  a  speaker." 

Wesley  had  a  remarkable  season  at  City  Road.  While 
preaching,  the  power  of  God  came  down ;  the  preacher  broke 
out  in  prayer  ;  and  the  congregation  burst  into  a  loud  and 
general  cry. 

Of  his  own  religious  feelings  he  wrote  : 

"  February  24, 1 786. — I  do  not  remember  to  have  heard  or  read  anything 
like  my  own  experience.  Almost  ever  since  I  can  remember,  I  have  been 
led  on  in  a  peculiar  way.  I  go  on  in  an  even  line,  being  very  little  raised  at 
one  time,  or  depressed  at  another.  Count  Zinzendorf  observes,  there  are 
three  different  ways  wherein  it  pleases  God  to  lead  His  people.  Some  are 
guided,  almost  in  every  instance,  by  apposite  texts  of  Scripture.  Others 
see  a  clear  and  plain  reason  for  everything  they  are  to  do.  And,  yet, 
others  are  led  not  so  much  by  Scripture  and  reason  as  by  particular 
impressions.  I  am  very  rarely  led  by  impressions,  but  generally  by 
reason  and  by  Scripture.  I  see  abundantly  more  than  I  feel.  I  want  to 
feel  more  love  and  zeal  for  God."  ' 

On  February  26,  Wesley  set  out,  in  a  snowstorm,  on  a 
journey  which  occupied  more  than  the  next  four  months. 
His  first  halt  was  at  Newbury,  where  he  had  "a  large  and 
serious  congregation;"  but  where,  he  says,  he  passed  such  a 
night  as  he  had  not  passed  for  forty  years,  his  lodging  room 
being  as  cold  as  the  outward  air.  He  writes  :  "  I  could  not 
sleep  at  all  till  three  in  the  morning.  I  rose  at  four,  and  set 
out  at  five." 

The  next  fortnight  was  spent  at  Bristol  and  in  its  vicinity 
On  Sunday,  March  5,  he  went  through  an  amount  of  labour 

^  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xiii.,  p.  62. 


472  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1786  which  would  have  appalled  most  men  half  his  age.  "I  read 
^Z^g,  prayers,"  says  he,  "and  preached,  and  administered  the 
sacrament  to  about  five  hundred  communicants.  At  three,  I 
preached  in  Temple  church  ;  at  five  in  the  New  Room." 

Eight  days  later,  he  started  ofif  to  Scotland,  when  the  roads 
were  blocked  up  with  snow,  and  the  Aveather  intensely  cold. 
More  than  a  week  was  spent  at  Birmingham:  during  which  he 
had  another  sacramental  service,  as  large  as  that  at  Bristol  ; 
and  preached  at  Madeley  a  funeral  sermon  for  the  sainted 
Fletcher,  taking  as  his  text  Revelation  xiv.  i-/.^  At  Lane 
End,  after  it  was  dark,  and  in  a  piercingly  cold  wind,  he  says  : 
"  I  was  constrained  to  preach  abroad  ;  and  none  of  us  seemed 
to  regard  the  weather,  for  God  warmed  our  hearts."  At 
Burslem,  in  the  same  inclement  season,  the  congregation  was 
such,  that  the  venerable  preacher  was  obliged  again  to  take 
his  stand  in  the  open  air.  Aftet"  preaching  at  Congleton, 
Macclesfield,  and  other  places,  he  came  to  Chapel-en-le-Frith, 
where  a  large  number  had  been  converted,  but  who  needed 
discipline.  He  writes  :  "  Frequently  three  or  four,  yea,  ten 
or  twelve,  pray  aloud  all  together.  Some  of  them,  perhaps 
many,  scream  all  together  as  loud  as  they  possibly  can. 
Some  use  improper,  yea,  indecent,  expressions  in  prayer. 
Several  drop  down  as  dead,  and  are  as  stiff  as  a  corpse  ; 
but,  in  a  while,  they  start  up,  and  cry,  '  Glory !  Glory ! ' 
perhaps  twenty  times  together.  Just  so  do  the  French 
prophets,  and  very  lately  the  jumpers,  in  Wales,  bring  the 
real  work  into  contempt.  Yet,  whenever  we  reprove  them, 
it  should  be  in  the  most  mild  and  gentle  manner  possible." 

At  Bolton,  he  had,  in  his  congregation,  five  hundred  and 
fifty  children,  all  scholars  in  the  Methodist  Sunday-school ; 
and  it  was  either  now,  or  soon  after,  that  he  preached  to  them 
a  sermon,  from  Psalm  xxxiv.  ii,  in  which  he  engaged  to  use 
no  word  of  more  than  two  syllables,  and  literally  fulfilled  his 
pledge.^ 

His  congregations  throughout  Lancashire,  and  the  west 
riding  of  Yorkshire,  were  enormous,  often  compelling  him 
to  preach  out  of  doors.  His  popularity  was  greater  than 
ever.     Churches   were  offered   for  his  use,  and   accepted,  at 


^  Mrs.  Mortimer's  Life.  ^  Banning's  Memoirs. 


Met}iodis7it  in  Scotland.  473 

Haworth,  Binglcy,   Heptonstall,  Todmorden,  Horsforth,  and      1786 
York.     Persecution  had  ceased  ;  and  everywhere  the  Christian    ^(^83 
veteran  was  greeted  with  the  welcomes  of  admiring  and  loving 
crowds. 

Leaving  York  on  the  8th  of  May,  Wesley,  for  the  first  time, 
visited  the  town  of  Easingwold,  where  was  a  class  of  seventeen 
members,  the  leader  of  which  was  John  Barber  •}  and  where 
a  chapel  had  been  built,  costing  £\\o,  only  half  of  which  was 
paid.^     To  open  this  was  the  object  of  Wesley's  visit. 

He  then  proceeded  to  Scotland,  where  the  Methodists  were 
now  really  .a  distinct  and  separated  church  ;  for  not  only  had 
Hanby,  Pawson,  and  others  been  ordained,  and  invested  with 
gown  and  bands,  but  sacraments  were  administered ;  and, 
while  society  tickets  admitted  to  society  meetings  and  the 
lovefeasts,  circular  metal  tokens  seemed  to  become  the 
badge  of  church  membership,  having  on  one  side  the  letters 
"  M.  C,"  and  on  the  other  the  words,  "  Do  this  in  remembrance 
of  Me."  The  tokens  admitted  the  owners  to  the  table  of  the 
Lord. 

On  the  1st  of  June,  Wesley  laid  the  foundation  stone  of  a 
new  chapel  at  Alnwick ;  and,  on  the  following  Sunday, 
preached  three  times  out  of  doors,  to  vast  congregations,  at 
Gateshead  and  Newcastle. 

On  the  5th  of  June,  he  set  out  southwards.  Pursuing  his 
usual  route,  he  came  to  Hull,  a  fortnight  afterAvards,  and,  at 
the  vicar's  invitation,  preached  twice  to  immense  crowds  "  in 
one  of  the  largest  parish  churches  in  England."  The  next 
day,  he  rode  seventy-six  miles,  and  preached  at  Malton, 
Pocklington,  and  Swinfleet.  "Sufficient,"  says  he,  "for  this 
day  was  the  labour  thereof ;  but  still  I  was  no  more  tired 
than  when  I  rose  in  the  morning."  Can  such  a  fact  as  this 
be  paralleled .-'  The  day  after,  he  preached  at  Crowle,  and 
Epworth  ;  and  the  next  day  after  that,  at  Scotter,  Brigg,  and 
Grimsby.  At  Louth,  for  the  first  time,  he  saw  the  people 
"affected."  At  Gainsborough,  his  old  friend,  Sir  Nevil 
Hickman,  was  dead  ;  but  he  made  the  yard  of  his  house  his 
preaching  place.  On  Saturday  and  Sunday,  June  24  and  25, 
he  preached  at  New  Inn,  Newark,  Retford,  Misterton,  Over- 

*  Manuscript.  ^  Manuscript  letter  by  Mather. 


474  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1^6     thorpe,  and  Epworth,  six  times,  at  six  dififerent  towns,  in  two 
Age  83    days,  the  preacher  himself  eighty-three  years  of  age  ! 

He  writes:  "1786,  June  30 — I  turned  aside  to  Barnsley, 
formerly  famous  for  all  manner  of  wickedness.  They  were 
then  ready  to  tear  any  Methodist  preacher  to  pieces.  Now 
not  a  dog  wagged  his  tongue.  I  preached  near  the  market 
place  to  a  large  congregation  ;  and,  I  believe,  the  word  sunk 
into  many  hearts ;  they  seemed  to  drink  in  every  word. 
Surely  God  will  have  a  people  in  this  place." 

Wesley  might  well  speak  of  the  brutal  wickedness  of 
Barnsley.  Three  years  before,  a  man  resolved  to  murder 
Henry  Longden,  ran  up  to  him  while  preaching,  aimed  a 
blow  w'hich  w^ould  probably  have  been  fatal,  but  Longden 
leaped  aside,  and  providentially  escaped.^  On  another  oc- 
casion, Jeremiah  Cocker,  while  preaching  in  the  market  place, 
was  pulled  down,  dragged  through  the  streets,  and  pelted  with 
rotten  eggs,  one  of  which  had  a  dead  gosling  in  it.  Cocker 
applied  to  the  vicar  of  Sheffield  for  protection  ;  the  rioters 
were  committed  for  trial  at  the  Rotherham  sessions  ;  but 
were  acquitted,  on  the  ground  that,  though  the  preacher  was 
licensed  to  preach,  the  spot  he  chose  was  not  licensed  as  a 
preaching  place !  Here  John  Barber,  a  few  months  before 
Wesley's  visit,  w^as  saluted  with  a  shower  of  stones,  was 
seriously  hurt,  and  was  rescued  by  a  friendly  quaker,  who 
lived  in  "  Barnsley  Folly."  At  another  time,  a  mob,  of 
some  hundreds,  assembled  with  cows'  horns,  drums,  and 
other  noisy  instruments,  and  most  effectually  prevented  the 
preacher  being  heard.  Mr.  Raynor,  a  currier,  having  lent  his 
house  for  preaching,  the  Barnsley  roughs  made  a  bonfire  at 
the  door,  compelled  the  congregation  to  seek  egress  by  some 
other  way,  and  pelted  them  most  mercilessly  with  filth  of  the 
foulest  kind.  Such  are  specimens  of  the  treatment  received 
by  the  poor  Methodists  in  Barnsley,  between  the  years  1780 
and  1786.  The  society  was  small,  not  numbering  a  dozen 
members  ;  and  they  had  no  preaching  room,  except  Raynor's 
house,  till  about  1792,  when  Alexander  Mather  secured  a 
small  chamber  over  a  w^eaver's  shop  in  Church  Street.^ 

From  Barnsley,  Wesley  went  to  Sheffield,  where  he  selected 


'  Longden's  Life.  2  Manuscripts. 


Wesley  at  Sheffield,  and  Weiitworth  House.    475 

as  his  text,  "It  is  high  time  to  awake  out  of  sleep";  and  an  1786 
anonymous  hearer  sent  him  a  letter,  saying,  that  he  could  Age~83 
remember  nothing  that  he  said,  except  that  "  rising  early  was 
good  for  the  nerves!"  Here  he  spent  several  days,  held  the 
quarterly  meeting  and  a  lovefeast,  administered  the  sacrament 
to  six  or  seven  hundred  persons,  visited  Wentworth  House, 
baptized  Joseph  Benson's  infant  daughter,'  and  was  Mr. 
Holy's  guest.  After  preaching,  crowds  were  wont  to  follow 
him  to  his  hospitable  lodging  ;  the  streets  were  lined,  and 
the  windows  of  the  houses  thronged  with  eager  but  respectful 
gazers,  Wesley  all  the  while  emptying  his  pockets  in  scatter- 
ing gifts  among  the  poor.  A  vast  concourse  of  people  as- 
sembled on  the  green,  at  the  front  of  Mr.  Holy's  house ; 
Wesley  walked  into  the  midst  of  them,  knelt  down,  and 
asked  God  to  bless  them.  The  place  became  a  Bochim  ;  the 
crowd  wept  and  literally  wailed  at  the  thought  of  losing  him  ; 
he  prayed  again  ;  and  then  darted  into  Mr.  Holy's  dwelling, 
and  hid  himself.^  What  a  contrast  to  the  reception  given  to 
his  brother  in  1743  ! 

His  visit  to  Wentworth  House  has  been  mentioned.  It  is 
a  curious  fact,  but  attentive  readers  of  Wesley's  journal  will 
easily  perceive,  that,  as  Wesley  grew  older,  he  took  far  more 
interest  in  visiting  scenes  of  beauty  and  historic  buildings 
than  he  did  in  the  earlier  parts  of  his  illustrious  career.  How 
to  account  for  this,  we  know  not ;  but  so  it  was. 

Tradition  says,  that  Wesley  was  accompanied  by  Mr. 
Birks,  of  Thorpe,  and  that,  when  they  were  leaving,  Mr.  Birks 
asked  Mr.  Hall,  the  steward,  if  it  would  be  agreeable  for  Mr. 
Wesley  to  pray  with  the  family  before  he  left.  Permission 
was  courteously  given  ;  the  household  were  summoned  ;  and 
Wentworth  House  was  none  the  worse  for  the  prayer  which 
the  arch  Methodist  offered  beneath  its  roof. 

From  Sheffield,  Wesley  proceeded,  by  way  of  Belper  and 
Derby,  to  Ilkestone.  This  was  his  first  and  last  visit  to  the 
last  mentioned  town,  and  the  circumstances  connected  with  it 
are  worth  relating.  For  many  years,  the  only  Methodist  in 
Ilkestone  had  been  a  poor  old  w'oman.  The  preachers 
preached,  but,  apparently,  without  effect.     At  length,  the  old 

^  Methodist  Magazine,  1836,  p.  166.  ^  Manuscript 


t> 


476  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1786  woman  died,  and  John  Crook  resolved  to  preach  a  funeral 
Ase's^  sermon.  A  large  congregation  assembled  at  the  front  of  a 
public  house,  Mr.  Crook  stood  upon  a  stone  used  by  travel- 
lers for  mounting  horses.  The  sermon  was  worthy  of  the 
Methodist  apostle  of  the  Isle  of  Man  ;  and,  at  its  close,  the 
preacher  received  a  message  from  the  vicar  of  the  parish, 
requesting  him  to  wait  upon  him  next  morning.  John  went, 
and  was  received  with  kindness.  "Sir,"  said  the  clergyman, 
"I  heard  you  preach  last  night  with  pleasure  ;  in  what  college 
were  you  educated.-'"  "I  never  attended  college,"  was  the 
answer.  "  Sir,"  rejoined  the  vicar,  "  I  have  heard  many  of 
the  heads  of  our  universities  preach,  but  I  never  heard 
a  defence  of  our  establishment  equal  to  yours.  You  are 
welcome  to  my  pulpit  next  Sunday."  Crook  replied,  that  he 
was  not  ordained  ;  and  proposed  that,  instead  of  preaching 
ivitJiiii  the  church,  he  should  preach  at  the  church's  door. 
The  proposal  was  accepted  ;  the  vicar  published  from  the 
pulpit  the  intended  service  ;  the  itinerant  selected  as  his  text, 
"  He  that  believeth  and  is  baptized  shall  be  saved  ;  he  that 
believeth  not  shall  be  damned  ;"  under  that  sermon,  the 
priest  was  deeply  convinced  of  sin,  and  next  Sunday  told  his 
congregation,  that  he  was  an  earnest  seeker  of  salvation  ;  he 
learnt  that  Crook  was  one  of  Wesley's  preachers,  and  sent  to 
Wesley  an  invitation;*  and  here,  on  Thursday  July  6,  we 
find  him.  He  writes  :  "  Though  the  church  is  large,  it  was 
sufficiently  crowded.  The  vicar  read  prayers  with  great 
earnestness  and  propriety;  I  preached;  and  the  people  seemed 
all  ear.  Surely  good  will  be  done  in  this  place  ;  though  it  is 
strongly  opposed  both  by  the  Calvinists  and  Socinians." 

Good  was  done.  Among  Wesley's  hearers  was  a  joiner, 
Richard  Birch.  Wesley's  discourse  reached  his  heart.  He 
was  converted  ;  and,  finding  that  there  was  in  the  town  a 
class  of  four  Methodists,  he  became  the  fifth  ;  and,  before  the 
year  expired,  he  and  his  friends  built  a  chapel. 

Wesley  arrived  in  London,  after  an  absence  of  nearly 
twenty  weeks,  on  July  13.  Four  days  were  spent  in  town, 
and  then  he  started  off  again  to  Bristol,  for  the  purpose  of 
holding  his  annual  conference.     He  writes  : 

1  Memoirs  of  Rev.  H.  Taft,  M.D.,  p.  6, 


Separation  from  the  Church.  477 

"July  25,  Tuesday — Our   conference  began:    about   eighty   preachers      1786 
attended.     We  met  every  day  at  six  and  nine  in  the  morning,  and  at  two      a~o, 
in  the  afternoon.    On  Tuesday,  and  on  Wednesday  morning,  the  characters        " 
of  the  preachers  were  considered.     On  Thursday,  in  the  afternoon,  we 
permitted  any  of  the  society  to  be  present  ;  and  weighed  what  was  said 
about  separating  from  the  Church  ;  but  we  all  determined  to  continue 
therein,    without    one    dissenting    voice  ;    and    I    doubt    not    but    this 
determination   will    stand,   at   least,   till    I    am    removed  into   a   better 
world.      The    conference   concluded   on   Tuesday    morning,    August    i. 
Great  had  been    the    expectations   of  many,  that  we  should  have  had 
warm  debates  ;  but,  by  the  mercy  of  God,  we  had  none  at  all;  everything 
was  transacted  with  great  calmness ;  and  we  parted,  as  we  met,  in  peace 
and  love." 

Separation  from  the  Church  was  afrain  the  great  question  of 
the  day.  From  the  above  extract,  taken  from  his  journal,  it 
is  evident,  that  Wesley  was  more  than  apprehensive  that  such 
a  separation  would  occur  subsequent  to  his  decease ;  but  it  is 
equally  evident,  that  he  was  glad  to  have  it  postponed  till 
then.  In  an  unpublished  letter  to  Thomas  Taylor,  dated 
February  21,  1786,  he  writes  :  "The  wise  bishop  Gibson  once 
said,  'Why  cannot  these  gentlemen  leave  the  Church?  Then 
they  could  do  no  more  harm.'  Read  '  no  more  good,'  and  it 
would  have  been  a  truth.  I  believe,  if  we  had  then  left  the 
Church,  we  should  not  have  done  a  tenth  of  the  good  which 
we  have  done.  But  I  do  not  insist  upon  this  head.  I  go 
calmly  and  quietly  on  my  way,  doing  what  I  conceive  to  be 
the  will  of  God.  I  do  not,  will  not,  concern  myself  with 
what  will  be  done  when  I  am  dead.  I  take  no  thought  about 
that.  If  I  did,  I  should  probably  shut  myself  up  at  Kings- 
vi^ood  or  Newcastle,  and  leave  you  all  to  yourselves." 

"  I  love  the  Church,"  said  Wesley  to  his  brother,  in  letters 
written  during  the  spring  of  1786,  "as  sincerely  as  ever  I  did; 
and  I  tell  our  societies  everywhere,  *  The  Methodists  will  not 
leave  the  Church,  at  least  while  I  live.' "  "  Eight  or  ten 
preachers,  it  is  probable  (but  I  have  not  met  with  one  yet), 
will  say  something  about  leaving  the  Church,  before  the 
conference.  It  is  not  improbable  many  will  be  driven  out  of 
it  where  there  are  Calvinist  ministers." 

Such  were  Wesley's  wishes,  and  such  were  his  apprehen- 
sions. Wesley  expected  eight  or  ten  of  his  preachers  to 
bring  the  business  before  conference.     This  was  done  by  Dr. 


47^  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1786      Coke,  who  had  returned  from  his  episcopal  tour  in  the  United 
_A^^3    States,     Mr.  Pawson  writes  : 

"  Dr.  Coke  thought,  that  our  public  services  in  the  large  towns  ought 
to  be  held  in  church  hours,  and  was  freely  speaking  in  the  conference 
upon  that  subject,  and  urging  its  necessity  from  the  fact  that  nearly  all  the 
converted  clergymen  in  the  kingdom  were  Calvinists.  Upon  hearing 
this,  Mr.  Charles  Wesley,  with  a  very  loud  voice,  and  in  great  anger,  cried 
out,  '  No,'  which  was  the  only  word  he  uttered  during  the  whole  of  the 
conference  sittings.  Mr.  Mather,  however,  got  up  and  confirmed  what 
Dr.  Coke  had  said,  which  we  all  knew  to  be  a  truth." ^ 

This  debate  seems  to  have  issued  in  the  adoption  of  a 
document,  which  Wesley  drew  up  three  days  before  the 
conference  met. 

"  In  what  cases  do  we  allow  of  service  in  church  hours  ?     I  answer: 

"  r.  When  the  minister  is  a  notoriously  wicked  man. 

"  2.  When  he  preaches  Arian,  or  any  equally  pernicious  doctrine. 

"  3.  When  there  are  not  churches  in  the  town  sufficient  to  contain  half 
the  people. 
•"4.  Where  there  is  no  church  at  all  within  two  or  three  miles. 

"  We  advise  every  one,  who  preaches  in  the  church  hours,  to  read  the 
psalms  and  lessons,  with  part  of  the  church  prayers  ;  because,  we  appre- 
hend, this  will  endear  the  church  service  to  our  brethren,  who  probably 
would  be  prejudiced  against  it,  if  they  heard  none  but  extemporary 
prayer." 

Considering  the  character  of  not  a  few  of  the  ministers  of 
the  Church  of  England  in  1786  ;  remembering  the  number  of 
pulpits  from  which  were  preached  Arianism,  and  especially 
Calvinism,  both  of  which  the  Methodists  considered  . " per- 
fiicious  doctrines" \  and,  further,  bearing  in  mind  the  scanty 
provision  made  by  the  Established  Church  for  the  great 
populations,  these  concessions,  in  reference  to  having 
Methodist  services  in  church  hours,  were  really  much  more 
extensive  than,  at  first  sight,  appears. 

This  was  the  last  conference  at  which  Charles  Wesley  was 
present.  At  its  conclusion,  he  preached  from  his  favourite 
text,  "  I  will  bring  the  third  part  through  the  fire;"  and  told 
the  congregation,  that,  after  the  death  of  himself  and  his 
brother,  there  would  be  a  split  among  the  Methodists,  and 
not  more  than  a  third  part  of  the  preachers  and  of  the  people 

*  Unpublished  manuscript. 


Separation  from  the  Church.  479 

would    remain    faithful    to   the    Established    Church.      Upon     ^786 
these,  however,  God  would  pour  out  His  Spirit  more  abund-    Age  83 
antly  than  ever,  and   His  work  would  prosper  in  their  hands. 
"  This,"  said  he,  "  was  the  case  w^ith  the  Moravians  when  Count 
Zinzendorf  died.  So  it  w^as  when  Mr.  Whiteficld  was  removed; 
and  thus  it  will  be  with  the  Methodists."  ^ 

Before  the  conference  was  concluded,  Charles  Wesley  wrote 
as  follows  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Latrobe,  Moravian  minister  in 
London  : 

"  My  brother,  and  I,  and  the  preachers  were  unanimous  for  continuing 
in  the  old  ship.  The  preachers  of  a  Dissenting  spirit  will  probably,  after 
our  death,  set  up  for  themselves,  and  draw  away  disciples  after  them.  An 
old  baptist  minister,  forty  years  ago,  told  me,  he  looked  on  the  Methodists 
as  a  seminary  for  the  Dissenters.  My  desire  and  design,  from  the  begin- 
ning to  this  day,  is,  to  leave  them  in  the  lap  of  their  mother.  The  bishops 
might,  if  they  pleased,  save  the  largest  and  soundest  part  of  them  back 
into  the  Church  ;  perhaps  to  leaven  the  whole  lump,  as  Archbishop  Potter 
said  to  me.  But  I  fear,  betwixt  you  and  me,  their  lordships  care  fortiotte 
0/ these  tilings.  The  great  evil,  which  I  have  dreaded  for  near  fifty  years, 
is  a  schism."  ^ 

Other  matters  were  debated  at  the  '  conference  of  1786. 
The  old  rules  respecting  the  windows,  doors,  and  pews  of 
chapels  were  to  be  strictly  observed  and  kept ;  and  no  assist- 
ant was  to  allow  collections  for  a  new  chapel,  "  till  every  step 
had  been  taken  to  secure  it,  on  the  conference  plan,  by  a  trust 
deed,  a  bond,  or  sufficient  articles  of  agreement."  And 
Wesley  concluded  by  giving  the  following  advices  to  the 
preachers,  (i)  To  re-establish  morning  preaching,  in  all  large 
towns,  at  least ;  and  to  exert  themselves  in  restoring  the 
bands,  and  the  select  societies.  (2)  Always  to  conclude  the 
service  in  about  an  hour.  (3)  Never  to  scream.  (4)  Never 
to  lean  upon,  or  beat  the  Bible.  (5)  Wherever  they  preached, 
to  meet  the  society.  (6)  Not  to  go  home  at  nights,  except 
in  cases  of  the  utmost  necessity.  (7)  Never  to  preach  funeral 
sermons,  but  for  eminently  holy  persons,  to  preach  none  for 
hire,  and  to  beware  of  panegyric,  particularly  in  London.  (8) 
To  hold  more  lovcfeasts.  (9)  To  introduce  no  new  tunes  ;  to 
see  that  none  sing  too  slow,  and  that  the  women  sing  their 


'  Pawson's  manuscripts. 
2  Life  of  C.  Wesley,  by  Jackson,  vol.  ii.,  p.  402. 


480  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 


1786  parts  ;  and  to  exhort  all  to  sing,  and  all  to  stand  at  singing, 
\ge83  as  well  as  to  kneel  at  prayers.  (10)  To  let  none  repeat  the 
last  line,  unless  the  preacher  does.  And,  (11)  To  inform  the 
leaders,  that  every  assistant  is  to  change  both  the  stewards 
and  the  leaders  when  he  sees  good ;  and  that  no  leader  has 
power  to  put  any  person  either  into  or  out  of  the  society. 

Nova  Scotia,  Newfoundland,  and  Antigua  were  now 
Methodist  circuits,  and  had,  unitedly,  nine  itinerant  preachers, 
and  2179  members  of  society.  These  were  Methodist  mis- 
sions, though  not  designated  such.  And  here  let  it  be  re- 
marked, that  the  Methodist  Missionary  Society  was  really 
founded  in  1784.     Where  is  the  proof  of  this.? 

The  following  is  an  exact  copy  of  a  printed  document, 
kindly  lent  by  the  Rev.  G.  Mather,  and  addressed,  by  Dr. 
Coke,  to  "The  Rev.  Mr.  Fletcher,  at  Madeley,  near  Shiffnal, 
Cheshire." 

"A  Plan  of  the  Society  for  the  Establishment  of  Missions  among  the 
Heathen. 

"  I.  Eveiy  person  who  subscribes  two  guineas  yearly,  or  more,  is  to  be 
admitted  a  member  of  the  society. 

"  2.  A  general  meeting  of  the  subscribers  shall  be  held  annually  on  the 
last  Tuesday  in  January. 

"  3.  The  first  general  meeting  shall  be  held  on  the  last  Tuesday  in 
January  1784,  at  No.  11,  in  West  Street,  near  the  Seven  Dials,  London, 
at  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon. 

"  4.  At  every  general  meeting,  a  committee  of  seven,  or  more,  shall  be 
chosen,  by  the  majority  of  the  subscribers,  to  transact  the  business  of  the 
society  for  the  ensuing  year. 

"  5.  The  general  meeting  shall  receive  and  examine  the  accounts  of  the 
committee,  for  the  preceding  year,  of  all  sums  paid  to  the  use  of  the 
society,  of  the  purposes  to  which  the  whole  or  any  part  thereof  shall  have 
been  applied,  and  also  the  report  of  all  they  have  done,  and  the  advices 
they  have  received. 

"  6.  The  committee,  or  the  majority  of  them,  shall  have  power:  First, 
to  call  in  the  sums  subscribed,  or  any  part  thereof,  and  to  receive  all 
collections,  legacies,  or  other  voluntary  contributions.  Secondly,  to  agree 
with  any  they  shall  approve,  who  may  offer  to  go  abroad,  either  as  mis- 
sionaries, or  in  any  civil  employment.  Thirdly,  to  procure  the  best  in- 
struction that  can  be  obtained  for  such  persons,  in  the  language  of  the 
country  for  which  they  are  intended,  before  they  go  abroad.  Fourthly, 
to  provide  for  their  expenses,  in  going  and  continuing  abroad,  and  for 
their  return  home,  after  such  time,  and  under  such  circumstances,  as  may 
be  thought  most  expedient.  Fifthly,  to  print  the  Scriptures,  or  so  much 
thereof  as  the  funds  of  the  society  may  admit,  for  the  use  of  any  heathen 


Fii'st  MetJiodist  Missionary  Report.  48 1 


country.  And,  sixthly,  to  do  every  other  act  which  to  them  may  appear 
necessary,  so  far  as  the  common  stock  of  the  society  will  allow,  for  car- 
rying the  design  of  the  society  into  execution. 

"  7.  The  committee  shall  keep  an  account  of  the  subscribers'  names, 
and  all  sums  received  for  the  use  of  the  society,  together  with  such  ex- 
tracts of  the  entries  of  their  proceedings,  and  advices,  as  may  show  those 
who  are  concerned  all  that  has  been  done  both  at  home  and  abroad  ; 
which  statement  shall  be  signed  by  at  least  three  of  the  committee. 

"  8.  The  committee,  for  the  new  year,  shall  send  a  copy  of  the  report 
for  the  past  year,  to  all  the  members  of  the  society,  who  were  not  present 
at  the  preceding  general  meeting,  and  (free  of  postage)  to  every  clergy- 
man, minister,  or  other  person,  from  whom  any  collection,  legacy,  or  other 
benefaction  shall  have  been  received  within  the  time  concerning  which 
the  report  is  made. 

"  9.  The  committee,  if  they  see  it  necessary,  shall  have  power  to  choose 
a  secretary. 

"  10.  The  committee  shall,  at  no  time,  have  any  claim  on  the  members  of 
the  society,  for  any  sum  which  may  exceed  the  common  stock  of  the  society. 

"N.B.  Those  who  subscribe  before  the  first  general  meeting,  and  to 
whom  it  may  not  be  convenient  to  attend,  are  desired  to  favour  the 
general  meeting,  by  letter  according  to  the  above  direction,  with  any 
important  remarks  which  may  occur  to  them  on  the  business,  that  the 
subscribers  present  may  be  assisted,  as  far  as  possible,  in  settling  the 
rules  of  the  society  to  the  satisfaction  of  all  concerned. 

"  We  have  been  already  favoured  with  the  names  of  the  following  sub- 
scribers, viz. 


Dr.  Coke        .... 
Rev.  Mr.  Simpson,  Mac 

clesfield      .... 
Rev.   Mr.  Bickerstaff,  o 

Leicester    .... 
Mr.  Rose,  of  Dorking 
Mr.  Horton,  of  London 
Mr.  Ryley, 

Mr.  Riddsdale  „         „ 
Mr.  Jay,  „         „ 

Mr.  Dewey,       „ 
Mr.  Mandell,  of  Bath 
Mr.  Jaqucs,  of    Walling 

ford 

Mr.    Butting,     of     Higl 

Wycombe  .... 
Mr.  John  Clark,  of  New 

port,    in    the    Isle    o 


Wight 


2 


2     2 


2     2 


d. 
o 


o 
o 
o 
o 
o 
o 
o 
o 


I   s.   d. 
Mr.    Barton,   of    Isle    of 

Wight 220 

Mr.    Henry    Brooke,    of 

Dublin 220 

Master  and  Miss  Blash- 

ford,  of  Dublin  ...440 

Mrs.  Kirkover,  of  Dublin     220 

Mr.  Smith,  Russia  mer- 
chant, of  London    ..550 

Mr.  D'Olier,  of  Dublin  .220 

Mrs.  Smyth,     „         „      .220 

The  Rev.  Mr.   Fletcher, 

of  Madeley    ....220 

Miss  Salmon      ....220 

]\Ir.  Houlton,  of  London, 
an  occasional  subscri- 
ber       10  10    o 

Mrs.  King,  of  Dublin      .220 


Miss   Eliza  Johnson,    of 

Bristol 2 

VOL.  in. 


^66    3     o 


I  I 


1786 
Age  83 


482  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1 786  "  To  all  the  real  lovers  of  matikiinl. 

pZr~Q^         "The  present  institution  is  so  agreeable  to  the  finest  fechngs  of  piety. 
'^  and  benevolence,  that  little  need  be  added  for  its  recommendation.     The 

candid  of  every  denomination,  (even  those  who  are  entirely  unconnected 
with  the  Methodists,  and  are  determined  to  be  so,)  will  acknowledge  the 
amazing  change  which  our  preaching  has  wrought  upon  the  ignorant  and 
uncivilised,  at  least,  throughout  these  nations  ;  and  they  will  admit,  that 
the  spirit  of  a  missionary  must  be  of  the  most  zealous,  most  devoted,  and 
self  denying  kind  ;  nor  is  anything  more  required  to  constitute  a  mis- 
sionary for  the  heathen  nations,  than  good  sense,  integrity,  great  piety, 
and  amazing  zeal.  Men,  possessing  all  these  qualifications  in  a  high  degree, 
we  have  among  us  ;  and  we  doubt  not  but  some  of  these  will  accept  of  the 
arduous  undertaking,  not  counting  their  lives  dear,  if  they  may  but  pro- 
mote the  kingdom  of  Christ,  and  the  present  and  eternal  welfare  of  their 
fellow  creatures  ;  and  we  trust  nothing  shall  be  wanting,  as  far  as  time, 
strength,  and  abilities  will  admit,  to  give  the  fullest  and  highest  satisfaction 
to  the  promoters  of  the  plan,  on  the  part  of  your  devoted  servants, 

"  Thomas  Coke, 
"  Thomas  Parker. 
"Those  who  are  willing  to  promote  the  institution  are  desired  to  send 
their  names,  places  of  abode,    and  sums    subscribed,  to  the  Rev.   Dr. 
Coke,  in  London,  or  Thomas  Parker,  Esq.,  barrister  at  law,  in  York." 

Such  was  the  first  Methodist  missionary  report  ever  pub- 
lished. On  the  third  page  of  the  foHo  sheet,  from  which  the 
above  is  taken,  is  the  following  in  manuscript. 

"  Near  Plymouth,  January  6,  1784. 
"  My  very  dear  Sir, — Lest  Mr.  Parker  should  neglect  to  send  you 
one  of  our  plans  for  the  establishment  of  foreign  missions,  I  take  the 
liberty  of  doing  it.  Ten  subscribers  more,  of  two  guineas  per  annum, 
have  favoured  me  with  their  names.  \i  you  can  get  a  few  subscribers 
more,  we  shall  be  obliged  to  you. 

"  We  have  now  a  very  wonderful  outpouring  of  the  Spirit  in  the  west 
of  Cornwall.  I  have  been  obliged  to  make  a  winter  campaign  of  it,  and 
preach  here  and  there  out  of  doors. 

"  I  beg  my  affectionate  respects  to  Mrs.   Fletcher,  and  entreat  you  to 
'  pray  for  your  most  aftectionate  friend  and  brother, 

"Thomas  Coke." 

A  few  months  after  the  above  report  was  sent  to  Fletcher, 
Coke  set  sail  to  America,  and  returned  only  in  time  to  attend 
the  English  conference  of  1785.  Henceforward,  Christian 
missions  absorbed  his  time  and  energies. 

It  is  a  well  known  fact,  that  Warren  Hastings  was  the  first 
governor  general  of  India;  and  that,  in  1786,  his  celebrated 
trial  was  commenced,  and  was    protracted    for    nearly  eight 


Proposed  Missions  to  India.  483 

years,  during  which  one  hundred  and  forty  days  were  spent  ^2_ 
in  its  prosecution.  Space  forbids  further  remarks  concerning  Age  83 
this  great  event ;  but  the  excitement  created  in  England  by 
the  affairs  of  India  had,  doubtless,  something  to  do  with  the 
following  correspondence  between  Dr.  Coke  and  a  gentleman 
in  that  countr}'.  Coke  had  written  to  him  as  early  as  1784, 
respecting  the  establishment  of  missions  in  India,  and  now 
his  correspondent  replied.  He  sympathises  with  Coke's  pro- 
posal, but  foresees  the  arduous  character  of  the  undertaking. 
He  writes:  "The  leading  features  in  the  character  of  the 
Mahommedans  are  pride  and  cruelty,  treachery  and  love  of 
power  ;  and  those  of  the  Hindoos,  abject  servility,  cunning, 
lying,  dishonesty,  and  excessive  love  of  money."  "  Humanly 
speaking,  the  probabilities  of  converting  either  the  Hindoos 
or  Mahommedans  appear  to  be  very  small."  Reasons  are 
assigned  for  this,  showing  the  writer  to  be  a  well  informed 
and  accomplished  man.  He  proceeds  to  say:  "The difficulties 
are  great ;  greater  it  may  be,  in  some  respects,  than  were  those 
of  the  first  preachers  among  the  freer  and  more  polished 
people  of  the  Roman  empire.  Nevertheless,  the  same  Divine 
power  that  then  made  a  few  obscure,  and,  for  the  most  part, 
unlearned  men,  triumph  over  the  united  resistance  of  the 
spiritual,  secular,  and  carnal  powers  of  this  world,  remains 
unchanged." 

Coke  answered  this  long  and  able  letter,  on   January  25, 
1786,  and  said  : 

"  At  present,  our  openings  in  America,  and  the  pressing  invitations  we 
have  lately  received  from  Nova  Scotia,  the  West  Indies,  and  the  States, 
call  for  all  the  help  we  can  possibly  afford  our  brethren  in  that  quarter  of 
the  world.  The  high  esteem  which  the  government  has  for  Mr.  Wesley, 
I  am  well  persuaded,  would  procure  for  us  the  assistance  which  you 
think  to  be  necessary  ;  but  Mr.  Wesley  himself  seems  to  have  a  doubt 
whether  that  would  be  the  most  excellent  way.  In  Great  Britain,  Ire- 
land, and  America,  we  have  gone  on  what  appears,  at  first  sight  at  least, 
to  be  a  more  evangelical  plan.  Our  missionaries  have  not  at  all  con- 
cerned themselves  with  applications  to  the  civil  power.  They  have  been 
exact  in  their  submission  to  all  its  laws,  and  laid  themselves  out  in  the 
most  extensive  manner  for  God.  It  appears  very  expedient,  that  our 
missionaries  should  visit  the  settlements  of  the  Danish  missionaries  in 
India,  and  take  every  step  they  can  to  improve  themselves  in  the  language 
of  the  people.  Mr.  Wesley  is  of  opinion  that  not  less  than  half-a-dozen 
should  be  at   first  sent  on  such  a  mission  ;  and,  as  soon  as  the  present 


484  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1786      extraordinary  calls  from  America  are  answered,  I  trust  we  shall  be  able  to 

. — ;,       turn  our  thoughts  to  Bengal."  ^ 
Age  83  o  « 

For  want  of  means,  India  had  to  be  abandoned ;  but,  in  the 
month  of  March,  Coke  issued  "  An  Address  to  the  Pious  and 
Benevolent,  proposing  an  annual  subscription  for  the  support 
of  Missionaries  in  the  Highlands  and  adjacent  Islands  of 
Scotland,  the  isles  of  Jersey,  Guernsey,  and  Newfoundland, 
the  West  Indies,  and  the  provinces  of  Nova  Scotia  and 
Quebec ;"  to  which  was  prefixed  the  following  letter  by 
Wesley. 

"Bristol,  JlTatrh  12,  1786. 

"  Dear  Sir, — I  greatly  approve  of  your  proposal,  for  raising  a  sub- 
scription, in  order  to  send  missionaries  to  the  highlands  of  Scotland,  the 
islands  of  Jersey  and  Guernsey,  the  Leeward  Islands,  Quebec,  Nova 
Scotia,  and  Newfoundland.  It  is  not  easy  to  conceive  the  extreme  want 
there  is,  in  all  these  places,  of  men  that  will  not  count  their  lives  dear  unto 
themselves,  so  they  may  testify  the  gospel  of  the  grace  of  God. 
"  I  am,  dear  sir,  your  affectionate  brother, 

"  John  Wesley,"  2 

Coke  commenced  his  Address  as  follows. 

"Deafly  beloved  in  the  Lord, — Some  time  past,  I  took  the  liberty  of 
addressing  you,  in  behalf  of  a  mission  intended  to  be  established  in  the 
British  dominions  in  Asia  ;  and  many  of  you  very  generously  entered 
into  that  important  plan.  We  have  not,  indeed,  lost  sight  of  it  at  present ; 
on  the  contrary,  we  have  lately  received  a  letter  of  encouragement  from  a 
principal  gentleman  in  the  province  of  Bengal.  But  the  providence  of 
God  has  lately  opened  to  us  so  many  doors  nearer  home,  that  Mr. 
Wesley  thinks  it  imprudent  to  hazard,  at  present,  the  lives  of  any  of  our 
preachers,  by  sending  them  to  so  great  a  distance,  and  amidst  so  many 
uncertainties  and  difficulties  ;  when  so  large  a  field  of  action  is  afforded 
us  in  countries  to  which  we  have  so  much  easier  admittance,  and  where 
the  success,  through  the  blessing  of  God,  is  more  or  less  certain." 

He  then  explains  the  openings  in  the  places  already  men- 
tioned.     The  address  is  dated  March  13,  1786.^ 

In  this  way,  Methodist  missions  were  fairly  started  ;  and, 
on  September  24,  1786,  Coke  set  sail,  with  Messrs.  Hammet, 
Warrener,  and  Clarke  ;  Warrener  being  intended  for  Antigua; 
and  Clarke  and  Hammet  for  Newfoundland.* 

Messrs.    Garretson    and    Black   were  already  labouring  in 

^  Methodist  Magazine,  1792,  p.  333.  2  i\,\^^  jg^o,  p.  574. 

^Ibid.  p.  577.  ■*  Coke's  Life. 


Age  83 


Letters.  485 

Nova  Scotia,  and,  to  them,  Wesley  addressed  the  following     1786 
letters. 

"London,  September  2,0,  1786. 
"  My  dear  Brother,— I  trust,  before  this  comes  to  hand,  you  and 
Dr.  Coke  will  have  met.  I  can  exceedingly  ill  spare  him  from  England, 
as  I  have  no  clergyman  capable  of  supplying  his  lack  of  service ;  but  I 
was  convinced  he  was  more  wanted  in  America  than  in  Europe.  I  was 
far  off  from  London  when  he  set  sail.  Most  of  those  in  England,  who 
have  riches,  love  money,  even  the  Methodists;  at  least,  those  who  are 
called  so.  The  poor  are  the  Christians.  I  am  quite  out  of  conceit  with 
almost  all  those  who  have  this  world's  goods.  Let  us  take  care  to  lay  up 
treasure  in  heaven. 

"John  Wesley."  * 

^^  November  2,0,  1786. 

"My  dear  Brother,— You  have  good  reason  to  be  thankful  to  God 
that  He  lets  you  see  the  fruit  of  your  labours.  Whenever  any  are  awakened, 
you  do  well  to  join  them  together  immediately.  But  I  do  not  advise  you  to 
go  on  too  fast.  It  is  not  expedient  to  break  up  more  ground  than  you 
can  keep ;  to  preach  at  any  more  places  than  you,  or  your  brethren,  can 
constantly  attend.  To  preach  once  in  a  place,  and  no  more,  very  seldom 
does  any  good  ;  it  only  alarms  the  devil  and  his  children,  and  makes  them 
more  upon  their  guard  against  a  first  assault. 

"Wherever  there  is  any  church  service,  I  do  not  approveof  any  appoint- 
ment the  same  hour;  because  I  love  the  Church  of  England,  and  would 
assist,  not  oppose,  it  all  I  can.  How  do  the  inhabitants  of  Shelburne, 
Halifax,  and  other  parts  of  the  province,  go  on  as  to  temporal  things  ? 
Have  they  trade  ?  Have  they  sufficiency  of  food,  and  the  other  neces- 
saries of  life  ?  And  do  they  increase  or  decrease  in  numbers  ?  It  seems 
there  is  a  scarcity  of  some  things, — of  good  ink,  for  yours  is  so  pale  that 
many  of  your  words  are  not  legible. 

"As  I  take  it  for  granted,  that  you  have  had  several  conversations  with 
Dr.  Coke,  I  doubt  not  you  proposed  all  your  difficulties  to  him,  and 
received  full  satisfaction  concerning  them.  Probably,  we  shall  send  a 
little  help  for  your  building,  if  we  live  till  conference.  Observe  the  rules 
for  building  laid  down  in  the  minutes.     I  am  afraid  of  another  American 

revolution 

"John  Wesley." 2 

Both  the  above  were  addressed  to  Garretson  ;  the  following 

was  sent  to  Black. 

"  London,  November  26,  1 786. 
"My  dear  Brother, — It  is  indeed  a  matter  of  joy,  that  our  Lord  is 
still  carrying  on  His  work  throughout  Great  Britain  and  Ireland.      In  the 
time  of  Dr.  Jonathan  Edwards,  there  were  several  gracious  showers  in 

*  Wesley's  Works,  voL  xiii.,  p.  67.  ^  Ibid. 


Age  83 


486  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1786  New  England  ;  but  there  were  large  intermissions  between  one  and  an- 
other :  whereas,  with  us  there  has  been  no  intermission  at  all  for  seven- 
and-forty  years,  but  the  work  of  God  has  been  continually  increasing. 

"  The  same  thing,  I  am  in  hopes,  you  will  now  see  in  America  likewise. 
See  that  you  expect  it,  and  that  you  seek  it  in  His  appointed  ways,  namely, 
with  fasting  and  linintermitted  prayer.  And  take  care  that  you  be  not 
at  all  discouraged,  though  you  should  not  always  have  an  immediate 
answer.     You  know 

'  His  manner  and  His  times  are  best.' 

Therefore  pray  always  !     Pray,  and  faint  not.     I  commend  you  all  to  our 
Great  Shepherd ;  and  am  your  affectionate  brother, 

"John  Wesley." ^ 

Wesley's  correspondence  is  so  vast,  that  selection  is  diffi- 
cult; but  two  or  three  other  letters,  written  in  1786,  may  be 
given  here.  The  first  was  sent  to  Mr.  Lawrence  Frost,  of 
Liverpool,  with  a  request  that  it  might  be  handed  to  the 
mayor,  and  has  not  been  previously  published.  One  of 
Wesley's  preachers  had  been  interrupted  while  preaching  to  a 
large  multitude,  near  the  old  Fishstones,  and  Wesley  wrote  to 
the  chief  magistrate  as  follows. 

"  To  the  Mayor  of  Liverpool. 

"Bristol,  July  29,  1786. 
"Sir, — Some  preachers,  in  connection  with  me,  have  thought  it  their 
duty  to  call  sinners  to  repentance  even  in  the  open  air.  If  they  have 
violated  any  law  thereby,  let  them  suffer  the  penalty  of  that  law.  But, 
if  not,  whoever  molests  them  on  that  account  will  be  called  to  answer  it 
in  his  majesty's  court  of  King's  Bench.  I  have  had  a  suit  already  in 
that  court,  with  a  magistrate  (Heap),  and,  if  I  am  forced  to  it,  am  ready 
to  commence  another. 

"  I  am,  sir,  your  obedient  servant, 

"John  Wesley." 

The  letter  was  effectual.  Ever  afterwards,  the  constables 
were  civil,  and  wisely  let  the  Methodists  alone. 

William  Simpson  was  one  of  Wesley's  itinerants,  and,  at 
this  time,  was  assistant  in  the  Tliirsk  circuit,  where  he  had  to 
contend  with  troubles  somewhat  different  to  those  at  Liver- 
pool, but  for  which  Wesley  prescribed  as  sharp  a  remedy.  In 
the  month  of  November,  he  wrote  him  as  follows. 

"  The  Sunday  preaching  may  continue  at  Jervas  for  the  present.     I 
^  Memoirs  of  Black,  p.  158. 


Age  Sj 


Wesley  s  ''Studying  Hours.'"  487 

-  V. 

suppose  the  society  at  Jervas  is  as  large  as  that  at  Northallerton;  and      1786 
this  is  a  point  which  is  much  to  be  considered. 

"  You  must  needs  expel  out  of  the  society  at  Knaresborough  those  that 
will  be  contentious.  When  you  have  to  do  with  those  stubborn  spirits,  it 
is  absolutely  necessary,  either  to  mend  them  or  end  them  :  and  ten  persons 
of  a  quiet  temper  are  better  than  thirty  contentious  ones.  Undoubtedly 
some  of  the  eloquent  men  will  be  sending  me  heavy  complaints.  It  is 
well,  therefore,  that  you  spoke  first. 

"  I  am,  dear  Billy,  your  affectionate  friend  and  brother, 

"  John  Wesley."  ^ 

We  must  now  return  to  Wesley's  journal.  A  week  after 
the  conclusion  of  the  Bristol  conference,  he  set  sail  for 
Holland,  accompanied  by  Messrs.  Broadbent  and  Bracken- 
bury.  There  he  mingled  with  many  Christian  friends  ;  gave 
many  Scripture  expositions  in  private  houses;  saw  many 
scenes  of  beauty ;  and  employed  all  his  leisure  hours  in 
writing.  On  September  5,  he  returned  to  London,  where  he 
spent  two  days  in  preaching  and  answering  letters;  and  then 
set  off  to  Bristol,  where  he  continued  till  September  26, 
when  he  got  back  to  London,  and  naively  wrote :  "  I  now 
applied  myself  in  earnest  to  the  writing  of  Mr.  Fletcher's  life, 
having  procured  the  best  materials  I  could.  To  this  I  dedi- 
cated all  the  time  I  could  spare,  till  November,  from  five  in 
the  morning  till  eight  at  night.  These  are  my  studying 
hours  ;  I  cannot  write  longer  in  a  day  without  hurting  my 
eyes."  We  should  think  not !  Fifteen  hours  a  day  of  uninter- 
mitting  labour  in  the  case  of  a  man  eighty-three  years  of  age  ! 
"  Once  or  twice,"  he  wrote  on  December  12,  "  Once  or  twice,  I 
have  been  a  little  out  of  order  this  autumn  ;  but  it  was  only 
for  a  day  or  two  at  a  time.  In  general,  my  health  has  been 
better  for  these  last  ten  years,  than  it  ever  was  for  ten  years 
together  since  I  was  born.  Ever  since  that  good  fever,  which 
I  had  in  the  north  of  Ireland,  I  have  had,  as  it  were,  a  new 
constitution.  All  my  pains  and  aches  have  forsaken  me,  and 
I    am    a    stranger  even  to  weariness  of    any  kind.     This    is 

the  Lord's   doing,  and   it  may  well  be   marvellous  in  all  our 

'^  2 
eyes. 

At  the  beginning  of  October,  he  went  on  a  preaching  excur- 
sion to  Chatham  and  Sheerness.     Then  he  set  off  to  Norfolk; 

^  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xiii.,  pp.  86,  87.  ^  Ym^_  vol.  xiii.,  p.  92. 


48 8  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley, 

1786  and,  on  his  way  back  to  town,  preached  Mrs.  Shewell's  funeral 
A^8^  sermon  at  Barnet.  At  this  period,  the  father  of  the  late 
Rev.  Dr.  Leifchild  was  the  chief  Methodist  in  Barnet,  and  the 
doctor  himself  a  little  boy.  "  Upon  arriving,"  wrote  this  dis- 
tinguished minister,  "he  drove  to  my  father's  house;  and,  when 
the  door  of  his  carriage  was  opened,  he  came  out  arrayed  in 
his  canonicals.  Childlike,  I  ran  to  lay  hold  of  him,  but  my 
father  pulled  me  back  ;  upon  which,  extending  his  hand,  he 
said:  'Suffer  little  children  to  come  unto  me,  and  forbid 
them  not,  for  of  such  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven.' " 

The  next  five  weeks  were  spent  in  London,  partly  in 
preaching,  partly  in  meeting  classes,  and  partly  in  writing 
Fletcher's  Life.  The  only  holiday  he  took  was  a  trip  to 
Hampton  Court,  which  he  pronounced  "  the  finest  palace  the 
king  of  England  had  "  ;  but  even  this  was  scarcely  a  holiday, 
for  he  preached  at  Wandsworth  on  his  way  back  to  town. 
He  had  a  brush  with  the  Deptford  Methodists,  who  urgently 
requested  to  be  allowed  to  have  service  in  the  Methodist 
chapel  at  the  same  time  as  there  was  service  in  the  church. 
"It  is  easy  to  see,"  he  writes,  "that  this  would  be  a  formal 
separation  from  the  Church.  We  fixed  both  our  morning  and 
evening  service,  all  over  England,  at  such  hours  as  not  to 
interfere  with  the  Church  ;  with  this  very  design, — that  those 
of  the  Church,  if  they  chose  it,  might  attend  both  the  one  and 
the  other.  But  to  fix  it  at  the  same  hour  is  obliging  them  to 
separate  either  from  the  Church  or  us  ;  and  this  I  judge  to  be, 
not  only  inexpedient,  but  totally  unlawful  for  me  to  do." 
This  style  of  reasoning  can  only  be  harmonized  with  the 
enactments  of  the  previous  conference,  on  the  supposition 
that  the  Church  minister  at  Deptford  was  not  such  as  Wesley 
then  described. 

Wesley  concluded  the  year  by  preaching  from,  "  Set 
thy  house  in  order,"  and,  among  other  things,  strongly 
exhorted  the  people  to  make  their  wills. 

Except  the  Life  of  Fletcher,  i2mo,  227  pages,  Wesley 
seems  to  have  published  nothing,  in  1786,  but  his  Arminian 
Magazine,  8vo,  688  pages. 

The  volume  bears  the  same  character  as  previous  ones. 
There  are  again  six  original  sermons  by  Wesley :  the 
Church ;    Divine    Providence ;   Schism  ;    Friendship  with   the 


JVeskys  Publications,  in   i  7S6.  489 

World;  Visiting  the  Sick;    and  the  Eternity  of  God.     The     ^7^6 
sermon   on    the  Church  was   a   sermon  for  the  times ;    and,    Age  83 
remembering   the    agitation    among   the    Methodists  on    the 
subject  of  separation,   an   extract   here  will   not    be    out   of 
place. 

"The  catholic,  or  universal,  church  is  all  the  persons  in  the  universe, 
whom  God  hath  so  called  out  of  the  world,  as  to  be  one  body,  united  by 
one  Spirit,  having  one  faith,  one  hope,  one  baptism ;  one  God  and  Father 
of  all,  who  is  above  all,  and  through  all,  and  in  them  all.  That  part  of 
this  great  body,  of  the  universal  church,  which  inhabits  any  one  kingdom 
or  nation,  we  may  properly  term  a  italioiial  church,  as  the  Church  of 
France,  the  Church  of  England,  the  Church  of  Scotland.  A  smaller  part, 
of  the  universal  church,  are  the  Christians  that  inhabit  any  city  or  town, 
as  the  church  of  Ephesus.  Two  or  three  Christian  brethren  united  to- 
gether are  a  church  in  the  narrowest  sense.  Such  was  the  church  in  the 
house  of  Philemon,  and  that  in  the  house  of  Nymphas.  A  particular 
church  may,  therefore,  consist  of  any  number  of  members,  whether  two 
or  three,  or  two  or  three  millions.  But  still,  whether  they  be  larger  or 
smaller,  the  same  idea  is  to  be  preserved.  They  are  one  body,  and  have 
one  Spirit,  one  Lord,  one  hope,  one  faith,  one  baptism,  one  God  and 
Father  of  all." 

One  more  extract,  from  the  Magazine  for  1786,  must  suffice. 
Addressing  those  afflicted  with  lowness  of  spirits,  Wesley- 
writes: 

"  I.  Sacredly  abstain  from  all  spirituous  liquors.  Touch  them  not,  on 
any  pretence  whatever.  To  others  they  may  sometimes  be  of  use;  but  to 
nervous  persons  they  are  deadly  poison. 

"  2.  If  you  drink  any,  drink  but  little  tea,  and  none  at  all  without  eating, 
or  without  sugar  and  cream. 

"  3.  Every  day  of  your  life,  take,  at  least,  an  hour's  exercise,  between 
breakfast  and  dinner. 

"  4.  Take  no  more  food  than  nature  requires.  Dine  upon  one  thing, 
except  pudding  or  pie.  Eat  no  flesh  at  supper;  but  something  light  and 
easy  of  digestion. 

"  5.  Sleep  early,  and  rise  early.  Unless  you  are  ill,  never  lie  in  bed 
much  above  seven  hours.  Then  you  will  never  lie  awake ;  your  flesh  will 
be  firm,  and  your  spirits  lively. 

"  6.  Above  all,  beware  of  anger !  beware  of  worldly  sorrow !  beware  of 
the  fear  that  hath  torment !  beware  of  foolish  and  hurtful  desires !  beware 
of  inordinate  affection!" 


1787. 

^ll^     ^T  LESLEY  writes  : 

Age  S4  VV  "1787.  Monday,  January  i — We  began  the  service  at  four  in 
the  morning,  to  an  unusually  large  congregation.  We  had  another  com- 
fortable opportunity  at  the  new  chapel  at  the  usual  hour,  and  a  third  in 
the  evening  at  W^est  Street." 

"  January  2 — I  went  to  Deptford  ;  but  it  seemed,  I  was  got  into  a  den 
of  lions.  Most  of  the  leading  men  of  the  society  were  mad  for  separating 
from  the  Church.  I  endeavoured  to  reason  with  them,  but  in  vain :  they 
had  neither  sense  nor  even  good  manners  left.  At  length,  after  meeting 
the  whole  society,  I  told  them:  '  If  you  are  resolved,  you  may  have  your 
service  in  church  hours;  but,  remember,  from  that  time,  you  will  see  my 
face  no  more.'  This  struck  deep  ;  and,  from  that  hour,  I  have  heard  no 
more  of  separating  from  the  Church." 

Considering  the  steps  that  Wesley  had  already  taken,  this 
is  somewhat  amusing  ;  as  are  also  the  two  following  letters, 
written   soon   after,   the    first    to  William   Percival,'  and  the  ' 
second  to  Samuel  Bardsley, 

"  London,  February  17,  1787. 
"  Dear  Billy, — You  cannot  be  too  watchful  against  evil  speaking,  or 
too  zealous  for  the  poor  Church  of  England.  I  commend  sister  Percival 
for  having  her  child  baptized  there,  and  for  returning  public  thanks.  By 
all  means,  go  to  church  as  often  as  you  can,  and  exhort  all  the  Methodists 
so  to  do.  They  that  are  enemies  to  the  Church  are  enemies  to  me.  I 
am  a  friend  to  it,  and  ever  was.  By  our  reading  prayers,  we  prevent  our 
people  contracting  an  hatred  for  forms  of  prayer ;  which  would  naturally 
be  the  case,  if  wc  always  prayed  extempore. 

"  I  am,  dear  Billy,  your  affectionate  brother, 

"  John  Wesley."  2 

"Birmingham,  Matrh  25,  1787. 

"  Dear  Sammy, — Brother  Jackson  should  advise  brother  Ridall,^  not 

to  please  the  devil  by  preaching  himself  to  death.     I  still  think,  when  the 

Methodists  leave  the  Church  of  England,  God  will  leave  them.     Every 

year  more  and  more  of  the  clergy  are  convinced  of  the  truth,  and  grow 


^  Percival  was  one  of  the  itinerant  preachers  at  Newcastle  on  Tyne. 

-  Methodist  Magazine,  1834,  p.  674. 

2  Bardsley's  colleagues  in  Colne  circuit. 


Age  84 


Wesley  begging  for  the  Poor.  49 1 

well  affected  towards  us.     It  would  be  contrary  to  all  common  sense,  as      1787 
well  as  to  good  conscience,  to  make  a  separation  now. 

"  I  am,  dear  Sammy,  your  affectionate  brother, 

"John  Wesley." ^ 

Before  proceeding  with  Wesley's  history,  we  insert  another 
letter  belonging  to  this  period.  It  is  now  for  the  first  time 
published,  and  refers  to  John  Hutchinson,  the  founder  of 
Hutchinsonianism. 

"  London,  Febfuaty  4,  1787. 
"My  dear  Sister, — I  think  Mr.  Hutchinson  was  a  man  of  strong 
understanding,  but  greatly  obscured  by  uncommon  pride  and  sourness  of 
temper.  He  was  the  twin  soul  of  Dr.  Bentley.  Many  of  his  remarks  I 
exceedingly  approve  of.  That  upon  the  sin  of  Uzzah  is  highly  probable. 
His  writings  to  me  are  far  more  agreeable  than  those  of  Dr.  Harmer  ;2 
an  exceeding  pretty  writer,  who  seems  to  propose  Dr.  Blair  for  his 
pattern.  Both  the  one  and  the  other  are  quite  too  elegant  for  me.  Give 
me  plain,  strong  Dr.  Home.  Your  letters  (as  well  as  your  conversation) 
are  always  agreeable  to,  my  dear  sister, 

"  Your  affectionate  friend  and  brother, 

"J.  Wesley." 

Wesley  was  always  ready  for  all  kinds  of  useful  work, — 
reading,  writing,  preaching,  praying,  and  begging  for  the  poor. 
Towards  the  close  of  his  career,  especially,  he  seems  to 
have  commenced  almost  every  year  by  an  effort  to  relieve 
the  miseries  of  his  destitute  fellow  creatures.  Accordingly, 
at  the  opening  of  1787,  five  days  were  spent  in  traversing  the 
streets  of  London  to  obtain  subscriptions  for  this  purpose. 
About  two  hundred  members  of  his  own  London  society  were 
in  great  distress;  and  he  hoped  to  provide  for  them  and  for 
others,  at  least,  food  and  clothing.  He  writes  :  "  I  was  much 
disappointed.  Six  or  seven,  indeed,  of  our  brethren,  gave 
;^iO  apiece.  If  forty  or  fifty  had  done  this,  I  could  have 
carried  my  design  into  execution.  However,  much  good  was 
done  with  i^200,  and  many  sorrowful  hearts  made  glad." 

Seven  years  previous  to  this,  Wesley  had  preached  his 
first  sermon  at  Newark  upon  Trent.  He  was  now  invited  to 
open  a  new  chapel  there;  and  took  coach,  for  that  purpose, 
on  February  9,  travelled  all  night,  and  arrived  next  day.     On 


^  Manuscript  letter  in  British  Museum. 

^  Dr.  Harmer  had  recently  published  vols.  iii.  and  iv.  of  his  "  Observa- 
tions on  various  Passages  of  Scripture." 


492  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 


1787      Sunday  morning,  February  11,  at  nine  o'clock,  he  preached 
■^^^8^    in  the  "  hghtsome,    cheerful   building "  ;    and  again  at  half- 
past  five  in  the  afternoon  ;  when  the  mayor  and  several  alder- 
men of  the  town  were  present. 

This  was  a  kind  of  service  which  now  frequently  fell  to 
Wesley's  lot.  On  Sunday,  February  25,  after  preaching 
twice  in  London,  he  took  the  mail  coach,  and,  by  travelling 
all  night,  arrived  at  Exeter  in  about  four-and-twenty  hours. 
He  then  hurried  off  to  Plymouth,  and  opened  a  new  chapel 
there.  On  Sunday  morning,  March  4,  he  conducted  a  service, 
which  lasted  from  half-past  nine  to  nearly  one  o'clock  ;  and,  in 
the  evening,  the  throng  was  such,  that,  in  order  to  reach  the 
pulpit,  he  was  literally  lifted  over  the  people's  heads.  At  five 
o'clock  next  morning,  the  chapel  was  again  crowded  ;  and,  at 
six,  he  departed  by  coach,  "  leaving,"  says  he,  "  such  a  flame 
behind  us  as  was  never  kindled  here  before." 

Notwithstanding  the  heavy  services  of  the  previous  day,  he 
travelled  all  the  way  to  Exeter  in  a  continuous  rain,  and 
again  preached  "  to  as  many  as  could  possibly  squeeze  "  into 
the  chapel ;  and  says,  "  I  know  not,  that  I  ever  saw  such  an 
impression  made  on  the  people  of  Exeter  before." 

After  this,  he  proceeded  to  Bristol,  where  "the  work  of 
God  had  much  increased,  especially  among  the  young  men,^' 
but  where,  out  of  sixteen  hundred  members,  only  five,  or  ten, 
or,  at  the  most,  a  dozen  hearers  formed  the  five  o'clock  morning 
congregations.  Wesley  says,  he  strongly  warned  them  of 
their  indolence  ;  and,  during  his  stay,  the  congregations  were 
increased  to  three  hundred  ;  but  even  this  was  small,  con- 
sidering the  prestige  of  the  place,  and  the  fame  of  the 
unequalled  minister. 

Wesley  now  was  suffering  considerable  anxiety  respecting 
Dr.  Coke,  who,  with  his  three  missionaries,  had  set  sail,  five 
months  before,  for  Newfoundland,  but  who,  unknown  to 
Wesley,  had  been  drifted  to  the  West  Indies.  Hence  the 
following,  addressed  to  William  Black. 

"  London,  Februaty  20,  1787. 

"  My   dear    Brother, — After  various   unfortunate   hindrances   and 

delays.  Dr.  Coke  embarked  on  board  a  small  brig,  in   the   middle  of 

October,  and  was,  by  furious  winds,  twice   beat  back  into  the  harbour. 

They  set  sail  a  third  time,  with  a  crazy,  shattered  vessel,  on  the  i8th  of 


Revival  at  Biirslnn.  493 


October.     We  have  not  heard  anything  either  from  him  or  of  him  since.       ^7^7 
I  hope  you  have  heard  of  him  in  America.  Ace84 

"You  have  great  reason  to  be  thankful  to  God  for  the  progress  of  His 
work  in  Nova  Scotia.  This  is  far  from  being  the  case  in  Newfoundland, 
where  poor  John  McGeary  appears  to  be  utterly  discouraged  ;  not  only 
through  want  of  success,  but  through  want  of  the  conveniences,  yea, 
necessaries  of  life.  Truly,  if  I  could  have  supposed,  that  those  who  made 
me  fair  promises  would  have  suffered  a  preacher  to  want  bread,  I  should 
have  sent  him  into  other  parts,  where  he  would  have  wanted  nothing. 

"  I  hear  very  different  accounts  of  the  state  of  your  provinces.  Is  there 
plenty  or  scarcity  in  Nova  Scotia,  and  New  England  ?  How  does  it  fare 
with  Halifax  and  Shelburne,  in  particular  ?  Do  the  buildings  and  people 
increase  or  decrease  1  Public  accounts  I  cannot  at  all  depend  upon  ; 
but  upon_;w/r  word  I  can  depend.     Peace  be  with  all  your  spirits  ! 

"  I  am,  dear  Billy,  your  affectionate  friend  and  brother, 

"John  Wesley." » 

On  March  19,  Wesley  left  Bristol  for  Ireland,  preaching  on 
the  way  at  Stroud,  Cirencester,  Gloucester,  and  numerous 
other  places.  At  Birmingham,  he  administered  the  sacrament 
to  seven  or  eight  hundred  communicants.  At  Wolverhamp- 
ton, he  opened  a  new  chapel.  At  Burslem,  he  held  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  lovefeasts  he  had  ever  witnessed  ;  for  here 
there  had  been  "such  an  outpouring  of  the  Spirit  as  had  not 
been  in  any  other  part  of  the  kingdom  ;  particularly  in  the 
meetings  for  prayer.  Fifteen  or  twenty  had  been  justified  in 
a  day ;  some  of  them  the  most  notorious,  abandoned  sinners, 
in  all  the  country."  He  "  appointed  to  preach  at  five  in  the 
morning  of  March  30,  but,  soon  after  four,  he  was  saluted  by 
a  concert  of  music,  both  vocal  and  instrumental,  making  the 
air  ring,  with  a  hymn  to  the  tune  of  Judas  Maccabeus.  It 
was,"  says  he,  "  a  good  prelude  ;  so  I  began  almost  half  an 
hour  before  five  ;  yet  the  house  was  crowded  both  above  and 
below." 

He  writes  :  "Saturday,  March  31 — I  went  onto  Maccles- 
field, and  found  a  people  still  alive  to  God,  in  spite  of  swiftly 
increasing  riches.  If  they  continue  so,  it  will  be  the  only 
instance  I  have  known,  in  above  half  a  century.  I  warned 
them  in  the  strongest  terms  I  could,  and  believe  some  of  them 
had  ears  to  hear." 

He  arrived  in  Dublin  on  Good  Friday,  April  6.     On  Easter 

'  Black's  Memoirs,  p.  185. 


494  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 


^787  Sunday  he  preached  in  Bethesda  chapel,  of  which  his  friend, 
Age  84  the  Rev.  Edward  Smyth,  was  chaplain.  He  writes  :  "  Mr. 
Smyth  read  prayers,  and  gaye  out  the  hymns,  which  were 
sung  by  fifteen  or  twenty  fine  singers  ;  the  rest  of  the  congre- 
gation listening  with  much  attention,  and  as  much  devotion, 
as  they  would  have  done  to  an  opera.  But  is  this  Christian 
worship  ?  Or  ought  it  ever  to  be  suffered  in  a  Christian 
church  .-*  It  was  thought  we  had  between  seven  and  eight 
hundred  communicants." 

At  this  period,  the  Dublin  society,  with  the  exception  of 
that  in  London,  was  the  largest  in  the  world,  containing 
upwards  of  elev^en  hundred  members,  being  more  than  there 
were  in  the  whole  of  the  five  Dublin  circuits  in  1870! 

Having  spent  ten  days  in  Dublin,  he  set  out  for  the  pro- 
vinces. It  would  be,  substantially,  a  reiteration  of  former 
narratives,  to  follow  him  in  his  wanderings.  He  met  with  no 
persecution  ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  with  the  warmest  welcomes. 
Almost  everywhere  the  work  of  God  was  prospering  ;  and  the 
people  vied  with  each  other  to  show  him  kindness.  He  writes: 
"  May  29 — The  old  murderer  is  restrained  from  hurting  me  ; 
but  it  seems  he  has"  power  over  my  horses.  One  of  them  I 
was  obliged  to  leave  in  Dublin,  and  afterwards  another,  having 
bought  two  to  supply  their  places  ;  the  third  soon  got  an  ugly 
swelling  in  his  shoulders,  so  that  we  doubted  whether  we 
could  go  on  ;  and  a  boy  at  Clones,  riding,  I  suppose  galloping, 
the  fourth  over  stones,  the  horse  fell  and  nearly  lamed  him- 
self." Perhaps  Wesley  blamed  the  devil  Avhen  he  ought  to 
have  blamed  his  own  long  journeys. 

It  was  in  one  of  these  Irish  tours  that,  preaching  at  a 
certain  place  in  the  afternoon,  and  being  expected,  in  the 
evening,  at  a  town  several  miles  distant,  he  desired  his  chaise 
to  be  ready  at  the  close  of  the  service,  so  that  he  might 
start  at  once.  As  he  left  the  chapel,  the  people,  as  usual, 
crowded  about  him,  to  shake  hands  with  him  ;  among  others, 
a  Methodist  shoemaker  pressed  forward,  and  put  into  his 
hand  a  brown  paper  parcel,  saying  with  manifest  emotion  : 
"  Sir,  this  may  be  of  use  to  you  in  your  journey."  Wesley 
thanked  him,  put  the  parcel  into  his  pocket,  and  away  he 
went.  After  travelling  some  distance,  his  curiosity  prompted 
him  to  examine  the   nature  of  Crispin's   present,   which  he 


Howar'd,  the  Philanthropist.  495 

found  to  be  an  awl  and  a  strong  waxed  thread.     The  road     1787 
was  rugged  and  lonely  ;  and  after  a  sudden  jerk,  the  horses     Age  84 
stopped.     "  What 's  the   matter  .>  "  asked   Wesley.     "  Matter 
enough!"    replied    the    coachman;    "one    of    the     traces    is 
broken,  and  we  can't   go    on."      Wesley  bethought    him  of 
his  awl  and  thread  ;  they  were  at  once  produced  ;  the  trace 
was    mended  ;    and  so,   by  the    poor    shoemaker's    gift,    the 
congregation    was    saved  from    being   disappointed    of   their 
preacher,  and  Wesley  from  a  tiresome  detention  in  a  houseless 
neighbourhood.^ 

Wesley  got  back  to  Dublin  on  the  21st  of  June,  having 
preached  considerably  more  than  a  hundred  times  during  his 
ten  weeks'  tour.  A  week  later,  on  his  birthday,  June  28,  he 
wrote :  "  I  had  the  pleasure  of  a  conversation  with  Mr. 
Howard,  I  think  one  of  the  greatest  men  in  Europe.  No- 
thing, but  the  mighty  power  of  God,  can  enable  him  to  go 
through  his  difficult  and  dangerous  employments." 

The  great  philanthropist  was  as  much  pleased  with  Wesley, 
as  Wesley  was  with  him.  "  I  was  encouraged  by  him,"  said 
he  to  Alexander  Knox,  Esq.,  "  to  go  on  vigorously  with  my 
own  designs.  I  saw  in  him  how  much  a  single  man  might 
achieve  by  zeal  and  perseverance  ;  and  I  thought,  why  may 
not  I  do  as  much  in  my  way,  as  Mr.  Wesley  has  done  in  his, 
if  I  am  only  as  assiduous  and  persevering  }  and  I  deter- 
mined I  would  pursue  my  work  wath  more  alacrity  than 
ever.   •* 

Howard,  in  early  life,  had  heard  Wesley  preach,  in  Bedford- 
shire, and  was  deeply  impressed  with  his  discourse.  In  1789, 
he  called  at  Wesley's  house,  in  London,  to  present  him  with 
his  latest  publication,  "An  Account  of  the  Principal  Lazar- 
ettos in  Europe,"  in  quarto  ;  but  Wesley  was  not  at  home. 
"  Present,"  said  he,  "  my  respects  and  love  to  Mr.  Wesley  ; 
tell  him,  I  had  hoped  to  have  seen  him  once  more  :  perhaps, 
we  may  meet  again  in  this  world,  but,  if  not,  we  shall  meet  I 
trust  in  a  better."^  And  away  he  went  on  his  mission  of 
mercy  to  Russia,  where  he  fell  an  honoured  victim  to  his 
benevolence,  on  January  20,  1790. 


'  Memoirs  of  Burgess. 
2  Life  of  Henry  Moore,  p.  271.  ^  Ibid.  p.  272. 


496  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1 7^7  Having   held  his    Irish   conference,   Wesley   preached    his 

Age  84  farewell  sermon,  in  Dublin,  on  the  nth  of  July;  and  arriving 
in  England  on  the  12th,  he  proceeded  to  Manchester,  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  which  he  continued  until  August  6.  Here 
he  held  his  English  conference,  though,  in  his  journal,  he  never 
mentions  it.  The  preachers  were  specially  invited  ;  but,  on 
what  principle  the  invitations  were  given,  it  is  difficult  to  state. 
Thomas  Taylor  was  assistant  at  Leeds,  within  fifty  miles  of 
Manchester,  and  moreover  was  one  of  the  hundred  mentioned 
in  Wesley's  deed  of  declaration  ;  but  he  was  also  in  favour  of 
the  Methodists  having  the  sacraments  from  the  hands  of  their 
own  preachers  ;  in  other  words,  he  was  in  favour  of  separation 
from  the  Established  Church  ;  and,  perhaps,  this  was  one 
of  the  reasons  why  he  was  not  invited  to  the  conference  at 
Manchester.     At  all  events,  he  writes  : 

"  Mr.  Wesley  has  sent  his  special  summons  to  each  preacher  whom  he 
wishes  to  attend  conference,  and  has  expressly  forbidden  any  one  else  to 
go.  I  am  unbidden,  and  think  I  am  ill  used.  After  labouring,  with  some 
degree  of  success,  for  more  than  twenty-four  years,  and  without  a  crime 
having  ever  been  alleged  against  me,  I  am  debarred  of  a  privilege 
granted  to  others  who  were  converted  under  me,  and  whom  I  took  into 
society.  This  is  a  flagrant  injustice.  Besides,  I  am  a  member  of  the 
legal  conference.  I'll  venture  to  go,  let  consequences  be  what  they  may. 
If  I  am  thrown  overboard,  I  will  swim  as  well  as  I  can,  believing  the 
Lord  will  take  me  up." 

Mr.  Taylor's  complaint  was  not  without  reason.  He  went ; 
but  says,  he  had  little  satisfaction,  for  much  of  the  time  was 
spent  in  trying  to  supersede  the  hymn-book  published  by 
Robert  Spence.^ 

The  original  edition  of  the  minutes  of  the  Manchester 
conference  is  now  before  us,  i2mo,  20  pages  ;  but  there  is 
not  a  single  syllable  on  what  was  the  great  question  of  the 
day,  separation  from  the  Church.  And  yet  this  was  a 
question  again  and  again  introduced.  Two  years  before, 
Wesley  had  ordained  Pawson  for  Scotland,  and,  ever  since, 
had  addressed  him  as  "reverend,"  Pawson  wearing  gown 
and  bands,  and  administering  the  sacraments  to  the  Scottish 
Methodists.  Now  that  Pawson  was  brought  back  to  England, 
he  had  to  dofif  his  canonicals,  and  had  his  letters  from  Wesley 

*  Manuscript  journal. 


Separation  from  the  C/mrck.  497 


inscribed  with  "  Mr.,"  instead  of  "  Rev."  He  loudly  remon-  1787 
strated ;  but  got  no  redress ;  and  at  length,  like  a  good  ^~g 
Christian,  more  anxious  to  save  souls  than  to  wear  sacerdotal 
robes,  submitted  to  obey  orders  which  were  strangely  incon- 
sistent with  Wesley's  ordaining  acts,  and  went  on  his  way 
rejoicing.  Pawson  writes  as  follows,  to  his  bosom  friend, 
Charles  Atmore. 

"Thorner,  August  8, 1787. 

"  My  very  dear  Brother,— Our  conference  ended  on  last  Saturday. 
There  were  many  preachers,  and  abundance  of  people,  I  think  more  than 
I  ever  saw  at  any  conference  before.  Almost  the  whole  time  was  taken 
up  with  temporal  affairs.  Mr.  Wesley  was  in  great  haste,  as  he  and  Dr. 
Coke  were  going  to  Guernsey  and  Jersey.  There  has  been  a  general 
revival  of  the  work  of  God.  Mr.  Wesley  seems  more  determined  to  abide 
in  the  Church  than  ever.  He  talked  about  it  again  and  again,  in  the 
public  conference,  in  the  society,  etc.  ;  and  in  such  a  hot,  fiery  spirit,  as  I 
did  not  like  to  see.  He  talked  of  fighting  with  a  flail,  and  of  putting  all 
out  of  society  who  do  not  go  to  church.  IVe  are  to  be  just  what  we  were 
before  we  came  to  Scotland, — no  sacraments,  no  gowns,  no  nothing  at  all 
of  any  kind  whatsoever.  With  much  entreaty,  1  got  him  to  ordain  Mr. 
McAUum  and  Suter.  Two  more  were  ordained,  one  for  the  West  Indies, 
and  one  for  Nova  Scotia. 

"  Charles  Wesley,  the  Sunday  before  the  conference  opened,  spoke,  to 
the  society  in  London,  to  this  effect :  '  I  told  you,  forty  years  ago,  that, 
from  among  yourselves,  grievous  wolves  would  arise,  who  would  rend  and 
tear  the  flock.  You  now  see  my  words  fulfilled.  These  self  created 
bishops,  and  self  made  priests,  are  the  very  men.  But  I  charge  you  all, 
in  the  presence  of  God,  never  receive  the  sacrament  from  any  of  them.'  ' 
So  you  see,  he  has  discharged  the  people  from  receiving  the  sacrament 
of  his  own  brother;  for  who  but  he  is  the  self  created  bishop?  O  cursed 
prejudice !  O  furious  bigotiy !  How  does  the  fire  from  hell  burn  in  that 
poor  miserable  man's  breast ! 

"  Perhaps,  if  I  live  till  next  conference,  I  may  petition  to  return  to 
Scotland,  as  there  seems  to  be  no  prospect  of  doing  anything,  but  just  in 
the  old  way,  while  Mr.  Wesley  lives.  Solomon  says,  there  is  no  new  thing 
under  the  sun  ;  but  here  we  see  something,  which,  I  believe,  was  never 

'  In  his  "  Short  Hymns  on  Select  Passages  of  the  Holy  Scriptures," 
published  in  1762,  Charles  Wesley  wrote,  concerning  the  poor  itinerants: 
"  Raised  from  the  people's  lowest  lees. 
Guard,  Lord,  Thy  preaching  witnesses, 
Nor  let  their  pride  the  honour  claim 
Of  sealing  covenants  in  Thy  name: 
Rather  than  suffer  them  to  dare 
Usurp  the  priestly  character, 
Save  from  the  arrogant  offence, 
And  snatch  them  uncorrupted  hence." 
(Hymn  on  Numbers  xvi.  10.)       "Wesley  Poetry,"  vol.  ix.,  p.  79, 

VOL.  in.  K  K 


49^  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 


1787  seen  in  the  Christian  church  before, — that  men,  approved  of  God  and 
AccSa  ^^^^^^  brethren,  and  that  for  many  years,  should  be  regularly  ordained,  and 
act  in  the  capacity  of  ministers,  and  yet  should  be  deposed  from  that 
office  by  one  single  man,  and  that  without  any  crime  committed,  great 
or  small,  real  or  pretended.  Even  the  pope  himself  never  acted  such 
a  part  as  this.  What  an  astonishing  degree  of  power  does  our  aged 
father  and  friend  exercise!  However,  I  am  satisfied,  and  have  nothing 
but  love  in  my  heart  toward  the  good  old  man.  But  really  it  will  not 
bear  the  light  at  all.     Most  affectionately  yours, 

"John  Pawson."^ 

This  was  pretty  strong  to  come  from  a  man  like  Pavvson  ; 
but  it  furnishes  a  glimpse  of  the  proceedings  of  the  conference 
of  1787,  concerning  which  so  little  has  been  written,  and 
shows  the  awkward  position  into  which  Wesley  had  put 
himself  by  his  ordinations  of  men  from  whom  he  now  with- 
drew the  authority  that  he  had  previously  given. 

Never,  however,  had  Methodism  been  so  prosperous  as 
now.  The  increase  of  members,  in  the  United  Kingdom, 
during  the  present  year,  was  nearly  four  thousand  ;  and  in 
America,  6849.  Letters,  dated  August,  1787,  contain  most 
marvellous  intelligence.  It  was  computed  that,  in  Brunswick 
county,  Virginia,  not  fewer  than  seven  thousand  persons 
were  under  deep  conviction  of  their  sin  and  danger  ;  and 
as  many  as  fifty  in  a  day  were  savingly  converted.  At 
a  recent  quarterly  meeting,  six  thousand  were  assembled, 
and  hundreds  were  crying  for  mercy,  including  some  of  the 
principal  inhabitants  of  the  land,  and  not  a  few  who  had 
been  persecutors.^ 

^  Manuscript  letter. 

2  Methodist  Magazine,  1788,  p.  486.  It  is  only  fair  to  add  that  all  was 
not  sunshine  in  America.  At  the  conference  of  1784,  the  American 
preachers  had  recorded  a  declaration  that,  "during  the  life  of  Mr.  Wesley 
they  were  ready  to  obey  his  commands  in  matters  belonging  to  church 
government";  but,  in  1787,  and  thenceforward,  this  declaration  was 
omitted  from  their  printed  minutes.  Why  ?  Because  Wesley,  without 
consulting  them,  had  changed  the  time  and  place  of  holding  their  con- 
ference, and  had  appointed  Richard  Whatcoat  to  be  co-superintendent 
with  Francis  Asbury. — (Etheridge's  Life  of  Coke,  p.  173.)  Dr.  Coke  was 
present,  and,  in  a  letter  printed  four  years  afterwards,  pronounced  this  an 
"excommunication"  of  Wesley,  and  declared  that,  in  his  opinion,  it 
hastened  Wesley's  death ;  for,  "  from  the  time  he  was  informed  of  it,  he 
began  to  hang  down  his  head,  and  to  think  he  had  lived  long  enough." — 
("  Impartial  Statement  of  the  known  Inconsistencies  of  Rev.  Dr.  Coke." 
By  William  Hammet  :  1792.)  We  gravely  doubt  the  correctness  of  Dr. 
Coke's  opinion. 


Sir  Robert  Peel.  499 


The  Manchester  conference  concluded  on  Saturday,  1787 
August  4,  and,  on  the  following  day,  besides  meeting  the  Age  84 
select  society,  Wesley  preached  twice,  and,  with  the  assist- 
ance of  his  brother  clergymen,  administered  the  sacrament  to 
twelve  or  thirteen  hundred  communicants.  There  are  two 
other  incidents,  in  connection  with  this  conference,  too  inter- 
esting to  be  omitted. 

At  this  period,  the  grandfather  of  the  present  Sir  Robert 
Peel   was   thirty-seven  years    of  age,   and  one   of  the  most 
successful  men  in  Lancashire.     The  leisure  of  his  youthful 
days  had  been  spent  in  reading  and  study,  and,  before  he 
attained  to  his  majority,  a  great  portion  of  his  time  had  been 
devoted  to  the  improvement  of  machinery.     At  the  age  of 
twenty-three,  he  embarked  in  the  cotton  trade,  and,  by  his 
industry  and   perseverance,  had  already  become  a    man    of 
wealth,   though   his  riches   fell   immensely  short  of  the  two 
millions  which,  it  is  said,  he  left  behind  him  at  his  death  in 
1830.      Wesley  writes  :    "  i/S/,  July    27 — I   was    invited  to 
breakfast  at  Bury,  by  Mr.  Peel,  a  calico  printer  ;  who,  a  few 
years  ago,  began  with  ;^S00,  and   is  now  supposed  to  have 
gained  ^^50,000.      Oh,  what  a  miracle  if  he  lose  not  his  soul!" 
The  invitation  was  accepted,  and,  long  after  this,  when  the 
calico  printer  had  become  a  baronet,   and  had  entered  par- 
liament, Wesley's  visit  was  one  of  the  pleasing  reminiscences 
of  his  remarkable  career.     To  the  end  of  life,  he  cherished  a 
warm  affection  for  the  Methodists.     "  Mj/  lads,"  said  he,  when 
some  of  his  Methodist  workmen  applied  to  him  for  the  sit2  of 
Tamworth  chapel,^  "  My  lads,  do  not  build  your  chapel  too 
large,  for  people  like  to  go  to  a  little  chapel  well  filled  better 
than  to  a  larger  one  comparatively  empty.     I   often  go  to 
your .  chapels    in   Manchester,  Liverpool,    and    London,    and 
have  no  wish  to  find  myself  alone  in  a  large  pew,  and  pointed 
at   as   Sir  Robert  Peel.     I  have  left   most   of  my  works   in 
Lancashire  under  the  management  of  Methodists,  and  they 
serve  me  excellently  well.     When  I  resided  there,  I  asked 
Mr.  Wesley,  at  one  of  his  conferences,  to  come  and  breakfast 
with  me ;  and  he  agreed,  on  condition  that  he  might  bring 
some   of  his    children   with    hr.:.        Of  course,    I  consented, 

*  Wesley  Banner^  '^SOj  p.  114- 


500  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1787      and  he  came  accompanied  by  six-and-thirty  of  his  itinerant 
Age~84    preachers."     This  was  a  curious  episode  in  the  history  both 
of  Wesley  and  the  founder  of  the  distinguished  family  that 
bears  his  name. 

No  man  in  the  nation  took  a  greater  interest  in  the  institu- 
tion of  Sunday-schools  than  Wesley.  "  I  am  glad,"  said  he, 
to  Richard  Rodda,  in  a  letter  dated  January  17,  1787,  "  I  am 
glad  you  have  -taken  in  hand  that  blessed  work  of  setting  up 
Sunday-schools  in  Chester.  It  seems,  these  will  be  one  great 
means  of  reviving  religion  throughout  the  nation.  I  Avonder 
Satan  has  not  sent  out  some  able  champion  against  them."  ^ 

It  was  three  years  since  Raikes  had  first  called  attention 
to  the  importance  of  Sunday-schools  in  the  Gloucester 
Journal ;  and  already  these  "  nurseries  for  Christians  "  had 
I  begun  to  dot  and  to  adorn  the  country.  That  at  Chester 
j)  altogether  originated  with  the  Chester  Methodists,  though 
the  rules  were  submitted  to  the  bishop  of  the  diocese,  and 
had  his  entire  approval.  It  contained  nearly  seven  hundred 
children,  who  were  taken  to  church  once  every  Sunday. 
"  We  had  no  intention,"  said  Richard  Rodda,  "  as  some 
persons  represented,  to  make  disciples  to  Methodism,  but  to 
train  them  up  in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord, 
that  they  might  become  useful  members  of  civil  and  religious 
society."^ 

Some  idea  may  be  formed  of  the  popularity  of  this  new 
institution  of  the  Christian  church,  from  the  fact  that,  in 
1785,  a  Sunday-school  society  was  formed,  which,  within  two 
years,  was  the  means  of  establishing  more  than  two  hundred 
schools  ;  and  that  it  was  calculated,  in  1787,  that  the  num- 
ber of  children  then  taught  in  Sunday-scliools  exceeded  two 
hundred  thousand."^ 

As  already  stated,  more  than  once,  there  were  a  few  which 
existed  long  before  Raikes'  school  at  Gloucester, — as,  for 
instance,  Miss  Hannah  Ball's,  at  Wycombe,  founded  in  1769. 
ij  There  was  also  another  at  Little  Lever,  the  birthplace  of 
Oliver  Heywood,  four  miles  from  Bolton,  in  Lancashire.  Here 
James  Hey  resided,  a  poor  man  who  obtained  a  living  by 
winding  bobbins  for  weavers.     About  the  year  I77S>  James 

^  Methodist  Magazine,  1846,  p.  562.  "^  Ibid.  ^  j^ij^  p_  ^g^. 


Siinday-scJiools.  501 


got  the  use  of  a  room  in  a  cottage,  to  which,  twice  every  1787 
Sunday,  he  summoned  the  boys  and  girls  of  the  neighbour-  k^%> 
hood,  to  teach  them  reading,  his  substitute  for  a  bell  being  an 
old  brass  mortar  and  pestle.  ]\Ir.  Adam  Crompton,  the  paper 
manufacturer,  sent  him  a  supply  of  books ;  three  branch 
establishments  were  formed ;  subscriptions  were  given  ;  and  a 
shilling  per  Sunday  paid  to  each  teacher  for  his  Sunday 
services.' 

In  June  1785,  a  Methodist  school  was  started  in  the  old 
Ridgway  Gates  chapel,  Bolton,  chiefly  through  the  instru- 
mentality of  George  Eskrick,  who  was  its  principal  manager  as 
long  as  he  lived.  One  of  the  scholars  present,  the  first  Sunday, 
was  Peter  Haslam,  eleven  years  of  age,  afterwards  a  most 
devout  and  useful  itinerant  preacher,- — the  first  fruits  of  others 
w^ho,  in  the  same  institution,  received  their  first  trainings  for  the 
Christian  ministry.  In  the  course  of  a  few  years,  the  number 
of  scholars,  attending  the  Bolton  Sunday-school,  was  2,000 ; 
and  the  average  number,  for  the  first  thirty  years  of  its  exist- 
ence, was  1800.^  Children  came  to  it,  several  miles,  from  all 
the  country  round  about.  Reading  and  WTiting  were  taught. 
Each  class  was  spoken  to  separately  every  Sunday  on 
religious  subjects.  The  masters  were  devoted  to  their  work, 
and  all  gave  their  services  gratuitously.  The  change  in  the 
manners  and  morals  of  the  children  was  marvellous  ;  and 
about  a  hundred  of  them  sang  like  seraphs.*  No  wonder, 
that  such  a  school  attracted  the  attention  of  Wesley.  Hence, 
on  the  very  day  when  he  and  six-and-thirty  of  his  itinerants 
breakfasted  with  the  father  of  the  Peels,  he  wrote  : 

"  From  Mr.  Peel's  we  went  to  Bolton.  Here  are  eight  hundred  poor 
children,  taught  in  our  Sunday-schools,  by  about  eighty  masters,  who 
receive  no  pay  but  what  they  are  to  receive  from  their  Great  Master, 
About  a  hundred  of  them,  part  boys  and  part  girls,  are  taught  to  sing  ; 
and  they  sang  so  true,  that,  all  singing  together,  there  seemed  to  be  but 
one  voice.  The  house  was  throughly  filled,  while  I  explained  and 
applied  the  first  commandment.     What  is  all  morality  or  religion  without 


^  Methodist  Magazine,  1836,  p.  286.  The  Rev.  Uavid  Simpson,  also,  is 
said  to  have  commenced  Sunday-schools,  in  Macclesfield,  as  early  as  the 
year  1778. — {Evajigelical  Magazine,  1842,  p.  84.) 

2  Methodist  Magazine,  1805,  p.  i.  ^  Manuscript  letter. 

4  Methodist  Magazine,  1 788,  p.  490. 


502  Life  cind  Times  of  Wesley. 

17*^7      this?     A  mere  castle  in  the  air.     In  the  evening,  many  of  the  children 

eC'^    8a     ^'■'^^  hovering  round  the  house,  I  desired  forty  or  fifty  to  come  in  and  sing, 

'  Vital  spark  of  heavenly  flame.'    Although  some  of  them  were  silent,  not 

being  able  to  sing  for  tears,  yet  the  harmony  was  such  as  I  believe  could 

not  be  equalled  in  the  king's  chapel." 

This  was  not  bounce,  nor  was  it  the  random  garrulity  of  an 
aged  man.  Nine  months  afterwards,  Wesley  came  again,  and 
wrote  : 

"  This  I  must  avow,  there  is  not  such  another  set  of  singers  in  any  of 
the  Methodist  congregations  in  the  three  kingdoms  as  there  is  at  Bolton. 
There  cannot  be ;  for  we  have  near  a  hundred  such  trebles, — boys  and 
girls,  selected  out  of  our  Sunday-schools,  and  accurately  taught — as  are 
not  to  be  found  together  in  any  chapel,  cathedral,  or  music  room  within 
the  four  seas.  Besides,  the  spirit  with  which  they  all  sing,  and  the  beauty 
of  many  of  them,  so  suits  the  melody,  that  I  defy  any  to  exceed  it ; 
except  the  singing  of  angels  in  our  Father's  house." 

Good  singing  is  a  good  thing,  and,  like  most  other  good 
things,  is  far  from  being  common.  Had  this  been  the  only 
result  of  Bolton  Sunday-school,  the  school  would  have  existed 
to  good  purpose.  But  hear  Wesley's  description,  written 
"Sunday,  April  20,  1788,"  and  let  Methodist  Sunday-school 
teachers  now  conscientiously  and  diligently  endeavour  to 
make  their  establishments  resemble  that  at  Bolton  then. 

"At  eight,  and  at  one,  the  house  was  throughly  filled.  About  three,  I 
met  between  900  and  a  thousand  of  the  children  belonging  to  our  Sunday- 
schools.  I  never  saw  such  a  sight  before.  They  were  all  exactly  clean, 
as  well  as  plain,  in  their  apparel.  All  were  serious  and  well  behaved. 
Many,  both  boys  and  girls,  had  as  beautiful  faces  as,  I  believe,  England 
or  Europe  can  afford.  When  they  all  sung  together,  and  none  of  them 
out  of  tune,  the  melody  was  beyond  that  of  any  theatre  ;  and,  what  is  the 
best  of  all,  many  of  them  truly  fear  God,  and  some  rejoice  in  His  salvation. 
These  are  a  pattern  to  all  the  town.  Their  usual  diversion  is  to  visit  the 
poor  that  are  sick,  (sometimes  six,  or  eight,  or  ten  together,)  to  exhort, 
comfort,  and  pray  with  them.  Frequently  ten  or  more  of  them  get 
together  to  sing  and  pray  by  themselves  ;  sometimes  thirty  or  forty  ;  and 
are  so  earnestly  engaged,  alternately  singing,  praying,  and  crying,  that 
they  know  not  how  to  part." 

We  have  already  stated  that,  the  day  after  Wesley  closed 
his  conference  at  Manchester,  he  preached  twice,  and,  assisted 
by  others,  administered  the  Lord's  supper  to  twelve  or 
thirteen  hundred  persons.  The  next  day,  August  6,  he  secured 
the  whole  of  the  coach,  that   run   between   Manchester  and 


A   Coach  Load  of  Methodist  Preachers.        503 

Birmingham,  for  himself  and  his  friends.  Six  packed  them-  1787 
selves  within,  and  eight  arranged  themselves  without,  and  off  Age  84 
tliey  all  set  at  midnight ;  but  even  the  presence  of  fourteen 
Methodist  preachers  was  not  an  insurance  against  accident.  No 
doubt,  many  a  hymn  was  sung  as  they  whisked  away  through 
beautiful  Cheshire  scenery,  the  stars  shining  approvingly,  and 
the  fields  all  round  wrapped  in  solemn  silence ;  but,  a  little 
before  three  in  the  morning,  when  approaching  Conglcton,  the 
coach  broke  down  beneath  its  unwonted  burden,  and  had  to 
be  abandoned  for  another.  In  about  an  hour,  number  two 
was  crippled  like  number  one  ;  while  one  of  the  horses  was 
so  knocked  up  as  to  be  scarcely  able  to  go  at  all  This 
Methodist  monopoly  of  the  Birmingham  stage  coach  issued, 
not  in  a  moonlight  pleasure  trip,  but  in  a  series  of  disasters 
which  men  so  pious  and  so  good  had  not  expected.  The 
distance  was  not  great ;  but  nineteen  hours  were  spent  in 
getting  over  it.  The  party  arrived  at  Birmingham  at  7  p.m.  ; 
Wesley  found  a  congregation  waiting ;  he  stepped  out  of  the 
coach  into  the  chapel,  and  began  preaching  without  delay. 
"  And  such,"  says  he,  "  was  the  goodness  of  God,  that  I  found 
no  more  weariness  when  I  had  done  than  if  I  had  rested  all 
the  day." 

This  was  marvellous,  in  the  case  of  an  old  man,  above 
eighty  ;  but,  notwithstanding  this,  he  was  off  again,  before 
five  o'clock  next  morning ;  travelled  nearly  eleven  hours;  and, 
at  night,  preached  in  the  new  chapel  at  Gloucester.  But  even 
this  was  not  all.  The  morning  after,  he  set  out  again  at  two 
o'clock,  travelled  till  half-past  four  in  the  afternoon,  and 
preached  at  Salisbury  in  the  evening.  Next  morning  at  four, 
he  took  chaise  to  Southampton,  where,  on  August  9  and  10, 
he  preached  thrice. 

Here  the  Methodists  worshipped  in  an  auction  room ;  and 
then  in  a  loft,  used  by  a  bricklayer  in  stowing  away  his 
scaffolding,  and  which  acquired  imperishable  fame  as  the 
spiritual  birthplace  of  Elizabeth  Wallbridge,  the  "Dairyman's 
Daughter."^ 

Wesley,  accompanied  by  Dr.  Coke  and  Joseph  Bradford, 
was  now  on  his  way  to  the  Channel  islands  ;  where  Methodism 

'  Smith's  History  of  Methodism. 


504  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 


1787  had  been  introduced  as  early  as  the  year  1783,  by  certain 
K^%a,  Methodist  soldiers,  who  wrote  to  England  for  a  preacher. 
Robert  Carr  Brackenbury,  a  gentleman  of  fortune,  rented  a 
house  in  the  town  of  St.  Heliers,  Jersey;  and  he  and  his 
attendant,  Alexander  Kilham,  preached  throughout  the  island, 
amid  violent  persecution,  but  with  great  success.^  At  the 
conference  of  1786,  Adam  Clarke  was  sent ;  and  now  there 
were,  in  the  three  islands  of  Jersey,  Guernsey,  and  Alderney, 
Methodist  societies  containing  three  hundred  members. 

On  Saturday,  August  11,  Wesley  and  his  friends  started 
from  Southampton  for  Guernsey,  but,  before  the  day  was 
ended,  had  to  put  into  Yarmouth  harbour,  in  the  Isle  of 
Wight,  where  they  were  detained  till  Monday,  but  improved 
their  detention  by  preaching  four  times  in  the  market  house. 
On  Monday  the  storm  had  abated,  and  they  again  set  out  ; 
but,  in  the  afternoon,  were  glad  to  seek  shelter  at  Swanage, 
where  Wesley  found  a  small  society,  and  preached  in  the 
presbyterian  chapel.  Again  they  went  on  board,  and 
hoped  to  reach  Guernsey  on  Tuesday  afternoon  ;  but  the 
storm  obliged  them  to  steer  for  the  isle  of  Alderney,  in 
the  bay  of  which  they  narrowly  escaped  being  dashed  to 
pieces.  Having  slept  in  a  five  bedded  room,  and  preached 
upon  the  beach,  they  again  set  sail  for  Guernsey,  where  they 
at  last  arrived,  and  were  warmly  welcomed  by  Mr.  De  Jersey. 
Here  five  days  were  spent,  during  which  Wesley  preached 
seven  sermons,  and  dined  at  the  governor's. 

On  Monday,  August  20,  they  landed  in  Jersey,  where  they 
were  detained  by  storms  and  hurricanes  till  the  28th.  During 
the  eight  days,  Wesley  preached  a  dozen  sermons,  Mr. 
Brackenbury  acting  as  his  interpreter. 

On  the  28th,  he  returned  to  Guernsey,  where,  by  stress  of 
weather,  he  was  obliged  to  stay  till  September  6,  but  still 
employed  himself  as  actively  as  ever.  He  then  sailed  for 
Penzance,  in  Cornwall,  and  arrived  in  safety. 

Wesley's  labours  in  the  Channel  islands  were  greatly 
blessed ;  but  his  voyages  were  adventurous,  and,  more  than 
once,  extremely  dangerous.  They  were  also  rich  in  religious 
incidents.     On   one  occasion,  two    of  the    sailors,  who  were 

^  Drew's  Life  of  Coke. 


Wesley  on  the  Waves.  505 

aloft,  swore  most   dreadfully  ;  and,  greatly  to  the  surprise  of     1787 
his  companions,   Wesley   seemed   not    to   notice  them.       At    Age  84 
length,  the  sailors  still  swearing,  Wesley  looked  up  to  them, 
and  said  :  "  Swear  louder,  and  then   perhaps  God  Almighty 
will  hear  you."     The  ironical  reproof  stopped  the  blasphemy.^ 

Another  incident  is  worth  relating.  Wesley  writes  in  his 
journal  :  "  September  6 — We  went  on  board  with  a  fair, 
moderate  wind  ;  but  we  had  just  entered  the  ship  when  the 
wind  died  away.  We  cried  to  God  for  help  ;  and  it  presently 
sprung  up,  exactly  fair,  and  did  not  cease  till  it  brought  us 
into  Penzance  bay."  This  is  all ;  but  Adam  Clarke,  who  was 
present,  gives  further  details.  Wesley  was  reading  in  the 
cabin ;  but,  hearing  the  noise  and  bustle  occasioned  by 
putting  about  the  vessel,  to  stand  on  her  different  tacks, 
he  looked  out  of  the  cabin  door,  and  asked  what  was  matter. 
Being  told,  he  quietly  remarked,  "  Then  let  us  go  to  prayer." 
Coke,  Bradford,  and  Clarke  having  prayed,  Wesley  began  : 
"  Almighty  and  everlasting  God,  Thou  hast  svvay  everywhere, 
and  all  things  serve  the  purposes  of  Thy  will  :  Thou  boldest 
the  winds  in  Thy  hands,  and  sittest  upon  the  waterfloods, 
and  reignest  a  King  for  ever :  command  these  winds  and  these 
waves  that  they  obey  Thcc;  and  take  us  speedily  and  safely 
to  the  haven  whither  we  would  be  !  "  The  power  of  his  peti- 
tion was  felt  by  all  :  he  rose  from  his  knees,  made  no  remark, 
and  resumed  his  reading.  Clarke  went  on  deck,  and,  to  his 
surprise,  found  the  vessel  standing  her  right  course,  with  a 
steady  breeze,  which  brought  them  safe  to  Cornwall.^ 

Wesley  was  more  than  satisfied  with  his  trip  to  these  lovely 
islands.  "  Here,"  says  he,  "  is  an  open  door  :  high  and  low, 
rich  and  poor,  receive  the  word  gladly  ;  so  that  I  could  not 
regret  being  detained  by  contrary  winds  several  days  longer 
than  we  intended."  ^ 

Wesley's  landing  in  Cornwall  was  unexpected,  but  not 
unwelcome.  Rewrites:  "We  appeared  to  our  friends  here 
as  men  risen  from  the  dead.  Great  was  their  rejoicing  over 
us  ;  and  great  was  the  power  of  God  in  the  midst  of  the  con- 


^  Reynolds's  "  Anecdotes  of  Wesley,"  p.  25. 

-  Life  of  Clarke,  vol.  i.,  p.  259. 

^  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xiii.,  p.  So. 


5o6  Life  and  Times   of  Wesley. 

1787     gregation."     On   Saturday,  September  8,  he  preached  twice, 

Age  84    out  of  doors,  to  large  congregations  ;  and,  the  day  following, 

thrice,  besides  meeting  a  society  in  a  chapel  "  exactly  round, 

and  composed  wdiolly  of  brazen  slags,  which,"  says  Wesley^ 

"  I  suppose  will  last  as  long  as  the  earth." 

On  September  14,  he  got  to  Bristol,  where  he  spent  the 
next  three  weeks.  First  of  all,  "  with  the  assistance  of  two 
of  his  friends,  he  had  to  answer  abiuidance  of  letters','  the 
accumulation  of  the  last  five  weeks.  Then,  he  had  to  visit 
the  "  country  societies  "  round  about,  and,  among  others,  that 
at  Castle  Carey,  where  the  mob  had  thrown  the  first  preacher, 
that  visited  the  place,  into  a  horse  pond.  On  October  8,  he 
returned  to  London,  where  he  employed  the  next  {&\^  days 
"  in  answering  letters,  and  preparing  matter  for  the  maga- 
zine." One  or  two  of  the  letters,  belonging  to  this  period, 
may  be  inserted  here. 

The  first  was  addressed  to  William  Black,  in  Nova  Scotia, 
who  was  considerably  troubled  with  a  recent  importation  from 
Scotland,  in  the  form  of  a  presbyterian  minister,  who  was 
more  a  Socinian  than  a  Calvinist. 

"  Near  Bath,  September  26,  1787. 

"My  dear  Brother, — You  have  great  reason  to  praise  God  for  the 
great  things  that  He  hath  done,  and  to  expect  still  greater  things  than 
these.  Your  grand  difficulty,  now,  will  be  to  guard  your  flock  against 
that  accomplished  seducer.  When  you  mentioned  a  person  came  from 
Scotland,  I  took  it  for  granted  that  he  was  a  Calvinist.  But  I  find  it  is 
not  so  well ;  for  I  take  a  Socinian  to  be  far  worse  than  even  a  predesti- 
narian.  Nevertheless,  I  advise  you  and  all  our  preachers,  never  oppose 
him  openly.  Doing  thus  would  only  give  the  unawakened  world  an 
advantage  against  you  all.  I  advise  you  farther,  never  speak  severely, 
much  less  contemptuously,  of  him  in  any  mixed  company.  You  must  use 
no  weapons  in  opposing  him,  but  only  those  of  truth  and  love.  Your 
wisdom  is:  (i)  Strongly  to  inculcate  the  doctrines  which  he  denies;  but 
without  taking  any  notice  of  him,  or  seeming  to  know  that  any  one  does 
deny  them.  (2)  To  advise  all  our  brethren  (but  not  in  public)  never  to 
hear  him,  at  the  peril  of  their  souls.  And  (3)  narrowly  to  inquire  whether 
any  one  is  staggered,  and  to  set  such  an  one  right  as  soon  as  possible. 
Thus,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  even  those  that  are  lame  will  not  be  turned 
out  of  the  way.     Peace  be  with  your  spirit  ! 

"  I  am,  dear  Billy,  your  affectionate  friend  and  brother, 

"John  Wesley.'" 

'  Black's  Memoirs,  p.  200. 


yonatkan  Crow t her.  507  ' 

The  next  has  not  before  been  published.  Jonathan  1787 
Crowther  and  Duncan  McAlkim  had  been  appointed  to  AgeS^ 
succeed  Edward  Burbeck  and  Joshua  Keighley,  in  Scotland. 
On  arriving',  they  found  the  former  "  dying  of  fever  in  a 
lousy  bed" ;  and  the  latter  already  dead  and  buried.  Their 
journey  had  been  adventurous  and  dangerous  ;  their  circuit 
(Inverness)  was  large  ;  and  their  allowances  next  to  nothing  ; 
for  Crowther  received  only  fifty  shillings  for  the  whole  year's 
labour  ;  and  forty  of  these  he  spent  in  removing  to  Dunbar. 
He  wrote  to  Wesley  :  "  No  man  is  fit  for  Inverness  circuit, 
unless  his  flesh  be  brass,  his  bones  iron,  and  his  heart  harder 
than  a  stoic's."  After  giving  an  account  of  the  death  of 
Burbeck  and  Keighley,  he  adds  :  "  I  too  shall  probably  be 
sacrificed  in  this  miserable  corner ;  and,  if  I  were  doing  good, 
I  should  be  content  (if  I  had  them)  to  sacrifice  seven  lives 
every  year ;  but  to  live  in  misery,  and  to  die  in  banishment, 
for  next  to  nothing,  is  afflicting  indeed."  ^ 

Poor  Crowther  was  downhearted,  and  no  wonder.    Wesley's 

reply  was  characteristic. 

"  Near  Bath,  September  25,  1787. 
"Dear  Jonathan, — The  sum  of  the  matter  is,  you  want  money;  and 
money  you  shall  have,  if  I  can  beg,  borrow,  or  anything  but  steal.  I  say, 
therefore,  '  Dwell  in  the  land,  and  be  doing  good,  and,  verily,  thou  shalt 
be  fed.'  I  should  be  sorry  for  the  death  of  Mr.  Burbeck,  but  that  I  know 
God  does  all  things  well ;  and,  if  His  work  prospers  in  your  hands,  this 
will  make  your  labours  light.  Our  preachers  now  find,  in  the  north  of 
Scotland,  what  they  formerly  found  all  over  England  ;  yet  they  went  on  ; 
and  when  I  had  only  blackberries  to  eat  in  Cornwall,  still  God  gave  me 
strength  sufficient  for  my  work,     I  am,  etc., 

"John  Wesley." 
"P.S.— To  Mr.  Atlay: 

Pay  to  Jonathan  Crowther,  or  his  order,  Five  Guineas. 

"John  Wesley." * 

The  next  two  letters  refer  to  a  case  of  discipline  in  the 
Channel  islands,  in  which  Wesley  displayed  greater  liberality 
than  some  of  his  itinerants.  The  first  was  written  to  Robert 
Carr  Brackenbury,  the  second  to  Adam  Clarke. 

"London,  C>(r/tf^^?r  20,  1787. 

"  Dear  Sir, — Mr. is  undoubtedly  a  good  young  man  ;  and  has  a 

tolerably  good  understanding.     But  he  thinks  it  better  than  it  is  ;  and,  in 

^  Crowther's  manuscript  autobiography.  ^  iijij_ 


5oS  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1787      consequence,  is  apt  to  put  himself  in  your  or  my  place.     For  these  fifty 


Age  84 


years,  if  any  one  said,  '  If  you  do  not  put  such  an  one  out  of  society,  I 
will  go  out  of  it';  I  have  said,  '  Pray  go  ;  1,  not  you,  are  to  judge  who 
shall  stay.'     I,  therefore,  greatly  approve  of  your  purpose,  to  give  Mr. 

W a  full  hearing  in  the  presence  of  all  the  preachers.     I  have  often 

repented  of  judging  too  severely ;  but  very  seldom  of  being  too  merciful. 
As  the  point  is  undoubtedly  of  very  great  importance,  it  deserved  serious 
consideration ;  and  I  am.  glad  you  took  the  pains  to  consider  it,  and 
discussed  it  so  admirably  well,  according  to  Scripture  and  sound  reason. 
"  I  ever  am,  dear  sir,  your  affectionate  friend  and  brother, 

"  John  Wesley."  ^ 

"  London,  December  8,  1787. 
"...  Brother  de  Quetevillc  and  you  do  not  mind  what  I  say.  I  do 
not  wonder  at  him,  (he  does  not  know  me,)  but  I  do  at  you.  His  natural 
temper  is  stern  ;  yours  is  not.  Therefore,  I  expect  yon  to  regard  me, 
whether  he  does  or  no.  We  have  no  such  custom  among  our  societies, 
nor  ever  had,  as  for  a  man  to  acknowledge  his  fault  before  a  whole  society. 
There  shall  be  no  such  custom  while  I  live.  If  he  acknowledge  it  before 
the  preachers  it  is  enough. 

"John  Wesley." 2 

In  the  month  of  May  of  the  present  year,  there  was  insti- 
tuted, in  London,  a  society  for  the  suppression  of  the  slave 
trade,  of  which  the  chief  members  were  Granville  Sharp, 
William  Dillwyn,  Thomas  Clarkson,  and  William  Wilberforce. 
In  this,  as  in  other  great  beneficent  movements,  Wesley  was 
one  of  the  pioneers.  Thirteen  years  previously,  he  had 
published  his  "Thoughts  upon  Slavery";  and,  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  present  year,  had  inserted  a  long  letter,  on 
the  same  subject,  in  his  Arininiaii  Magazine.  The  formation 
of  an  antislavery  society  was  to  him  a  joy  ;  and  he,  at  once, 
wrote  to  the  committee,  expressing  his  satisfaction.  He 
desired  to  warn  them,  that  they  must  expect  great  difficulties 
and  great  opposition  ;  for  those  interested  in  the  system  of 
slavery  were  a  powerful  body,  and  would  employ  hireling 
writers,  who  would  have  neither  justice  nor  mercy.  As  for 
himself,  he  would  do  all  he  could  to  promote  the  object  of 
their  institution.  He  would  reprint  a  new  and  large  edition 
of  his  "  Thoughts  on  Slavery,"  and  circulate  it  among  his 
friends   in  England  and  Ireland,  to  whom   he  would  add  a 


'  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xiii.,  p.  6. 
^  Wesley  an  Times,  Sept.  28,  1868. 


Antislavery  Society.  509 


few    words    in  favour  of  their    design.     He   then    concluded      1787 
in  these  words  :  "  I  commend  you  to  Him,  who  is  able  to    ^^^84 
carry  you  through  all  opposition,  and  support  you  under  all 
discouragements." 

On  the  30th  of  October,  1787,  he  sent  a  second  letter,  which 
was  read  to  the  society,  and  in  which  he  said,  that  he  had 
now  read  the  publications  which  the  committee  had  sent  him, 
and  that  he  took,  if  possible,  a  still  deeper  interest  in  their 
cause.  He  exhorted  them  to  more  than  ordinary  diligence 
and  perseverance ;  to  be  prepared  for  opposition ;  to  be 
cautious  about  the  manner  of  procuring  information  and 
evidence,  that  no  stain  might  fall  upon  their  character ;  and 
to  take  care  that  the  question  should  be  argued  as  well  upon 
the  consideration  of  interest  as  of  humanity  and  justice,  the 
former  of  which  he  feared  would  have  more  weight  than  the 
latter.i 

Wesley  fulfilled  his  promise  to  render  help.  Hence  the 
following  to  Mr.  Thomas  Funnell,  Lewes,  Sussex. 

"  November  2\,  1787. 
"My  dear  Brother, — Whatever  assistance  I  can  give  those  generous 
men,  who  join  to  oppose  that  execrable  trade,  I  certainly  shall  give.  I 
have  printed  a  large  edition  of  the  '  Thoughts  on  Slavery,'  and  dispersed 
them  to  every  part  of  England.  But  there  will  be  vehement  opposition 
made,  both  by  slave  merchants  and  slave  holders  ;  and  they  are  mighty 
men  :  but  our  comfort  is.  He  that  dvvelleth  on  high  is  mightier. 

"  I  am,  your  affectionate  brother, 
"John  Wesley." 2 

Thus  began  a  struggle,  which  lasted  six-and-forty  years, 
and  terminated  in  the  Emancipation  Act,  which  took  effect  en 
August  I,  1834.  Wesley  died  four  years  after  the  fight 
commenced  ;  Wilberforce  just  as  the  victory  was  being  won, 
for  he  expired  while  the  resolutions,  preparatory  to  the  bill, 
were  being  passed  in  the  House  of  Commons. 

The  last  three  months  of  the  year  1787  were  spent  in 
London,  and  in  the  usual  journeys  through  the  surrounding 
counties.  On  October  15,  he  began  what  he  calls  his  "  little 
tour  through  Oxfordshire,"  and  preached  twice  a  day,  besides 
travelling.     At  this  time,  Joseph  Entwisle  and  Richard  Reece 

'  Clarkson's  "Abolition  of  the  Slave  Trade,"  vol.  i.,  p.  447. 
^  Mctliodist  Magazine,  1S27,  p.  391. 


5IO  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1787  were  in  the  "  Oxfordshire  "  circuit.  The  former,  a  young  man 
A.<^4  of  twenty,  while  riding  with  Wesley,  had  the  misfortune  to  have 
a  horse  whose  pace  was  swifter  than  its  steps  were  sure.  The 
nag  fell  with  suddenness,  the  young  preacher  made  a  summer- 
sault over  the  head  of  the  prostrate  animal,  and  alighted  on 
his  feet  unhurt,  "Well  done!"  cried  Wesley,  delighted  with 
the  agility  of  his  youthful  friend,  and,  no  doubt,  remembering 
many  of  his  own  marvellous  escapes, — "  Well  done,  Joseph ! 
I  could  not  have  done  better  than  that  myself"^ 

Richard  Recce  also  used  to  relate  an  anecdote  respecting 
Wesley's  visit  to  this,  his  first  circuit,  in  1787.  Wesley  was 
accompanied  by  Thomas  Rankin,  and  the  two  came  to  Oxford, 
where  Wesley  had  to  preach  in  the  chapel  in  New  Inn  Hall 
Lane.  The  front  gallery  Avas  filled  with  gownsmen,  who, 
whatever  other  accomplishments  they  had  acquired,  still  lacked 
the  politeness  of  gentlemen,  for,  as  soon  as  Wesley  began  to 
read  his  text,  the  beardless  boys,  in  gowns  and  college  caps, 
began  to  cheer.  Up  jumped  Rankin,  his  Scotch  blood  boil- 
ing, and,  with  stentorian  voice,  cried  :  "  In  the  name  of  God, 
gentlemen,  what  can  ye  mean,  to  interrupt  and  insult  a  servant 
of  the  Lord,  about  to  preach  salvation  .-'"  Wesley,  more  used 
to  such  behaviour  than  his  impetuous  friend,  calmly  said, 
"Sit  down.  Tommy,  sit  down";  and  then  quietly  proceeded 
with  his  discourse.^ 

In  his  excursion  through  Kent,  Wesley  preached  both 
morning  and  evening,  every  day.  In  Hertfordshire,  he  met 
Simeon  from  Cambridge. 

"  Sir,"  said  young  Simeon,  "  Sir,  I  understand  you  are  called 
an  Arminian  ;  now  I  am  sometimes  called  a  Calvinist,  and 
therefore,  I  suppose,  we  are  to  draw  daggers.  But,  before  I 
begin  to  combat,  with  your  permission,  I  will  ask  you  a  few 
questions,  not  from  impertinent  curiosity,  but  for  real  instruc- 
tion. Pray  sir,  do  you  feel  yourself  a  depraved  creature,  so 
depraved  that  you  would  never  have  thought  of  turning  to 
God,  if  God  had  not  put  it  into  your  heart .''" 

"  Yes,"  said  the  veteran,  "  I  do  indeed." 

"  And  do  you  utterly  despair  of  recommending  yourself  to 


'  Entwisle's  Memoir,  p.  36. 

^  Wesley  an  Times  ^  June  19,  1849. 


Simeon  catechizing  Wesley.  5  1 1 


God  by  anything  that  you  can   do;  and   look   for  salvation      1787 
solely  through  the  blood  and  righteousness  of  Christ  ?"  h^Z^, 

"  Yes,  solely  through  Christ." 

"  But,  sir,  supposing  you  were  Jirst  saved  by  Christ,  are  you 
not  somehow  or  other  to  save  yourself  afterwards,  by  your 
good  works  ? " 

"  No  ;  I  must  be  saved  by  Christ,  from  first  to  last." 

"Allowing,  then,  that  you  were  first  turned  by  the  grace  of 
God,  are  you  not  in  some  way  or  other  to  keep  yourself  by 
your  own  power  ?  " 


"  No." 

"  What,  then  ?  are  you  to  be  upheld  every  hour  and  every 
moment  by  God,  as  much  as  an  infant  in  its  mother's  arms  .-'  " 

"  Yes,  altogether." 

"  And  is  all  your  hope  in  the  grace  and  mercy  of  God,  to 
preserve  you  unto  His  heavenly  kingdom  ?" 

"Yes,  I  have  no  hope  but  in  Him." 

"  Then,  sir,  with  your  leave,  I  will  put  up  my  dagger  again : 
for  this  is  all  my  Calvinism  ;  this  is  my  election,  my  justifica- 
tion, my  final  perseverance.  It  is  in  substance  all  that  I  hold, 
and  as  I  hold  it ;  and,  therefore,  if  you  please,  instead  of 
searching  out  terms  and  phrases  to  be  a  ground  of  contention 
between  us,  we  will  cordially  unite  in  those  things  wherein  we 
agree.    '■ 

Such  was  the  catechetical  examination  instituted  by  a 
young  parson  of  twenty-eight,  and  submitted  to  by  an  old 
man  of  eighty-four. 

In  November,  Wesley  took  another  step,  which  virtually 
involved  a  separation  from  the  Church  of  England.  Seventeen 
years  before,  in  warning  his  preachers  against  such  a  separa- 
tion, he  had  not  only  directed  them  and  the  people  to  attend 
the  services  and  sacraments  of  the  Church,  but  to  guard  against 
calling  preachers  "  ministers,"  and  their  places  of  worship 
"  meeting-houses."  "  Do  not,"  said  he,  "  license  them  as  such : 
the  proper  form  of  a  petition  to  the  judge  or  justice  is,  'A.  B. 
desires  to  have  his  house  in  C —  licensed  for  public  worship." 
He  continued  :  "  Do  not  license  yourself  till  you  are  con- 
strained ;  and  then  not  as  a  Dissenter,  but  a  Methodist.     It  is 


1  « 


Wesley  the  Worthy,"  by  Dr.  Dobbin,  p.  91. 


512  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

17S7     time    enough    when   you    are  prosecuted,  to  take  the   oaths. 
Age  84    And  by  so  doing  you  are  Hcensed."  ^ 

Hitherto,  Wesley  had  been  opposed  to  hcensing,  except 
in  cases  of  necessity,  simply  on  the  ground  that  this  savoured 
of  separation  from  the  Established  Church.     Now  he  writes  : 

"  1787,  November  3 — I  had  a  long  conversation  with  Mr.  Ckilow,"  [his 
legal  adviser,]  "  on  that  execrable  act  called  the  Conventicle  Act.  After 
consulting  the  Act  of  Toleration,  with  that  of  the  fourteenth  of  Queen 
Anne,  we  were  both  clearly  convinced,  that  it  was  the  safest  way  to  license 
all  our  chapels,  and  all  our  travelling  preachers,  not  as  Dissenters,  but 
simply  'preachers  of  the  gospel';  and  that  no  justice,  or  bench  of 
justices,  has  any  authority  to  refuse  licensing  either  the  house  or  the 
preachers." 

The  "  execrable  Conventicle  Act "  was  levelled  against 
Dissenters  from  the  Church  of  England  ;  the  Act  of  Toleration 
was  passed  for  the  relief  of  such  Dissenters  ;  and  Wesley,  by 
availing  himself  of  the  provisions  of  that  act,  ipso  facto, 
conceded  the  point  that  the  Methodists  were  Dissenters. 

He  still,  however,  persisted  in  asserting  that  the  Methodists 
were  members  of  the  Church  of  England  ;  and  this  involved 
both  him  and  them  in  further  difficulties.  In  some  instances, 
the  magistrates  remarked  :  "  You  profess  yourselves  to  be 
members  of  the  Church  of  England  ;  therefore,  your  licences 
are  worthless  ;  nor  can  you,  as  members  of  the  Church, 
receive  any  benefit  from  the  Act  of  Toleration."  This  was  a 
subtle  distinction  ;  and  Wesley  saw  that  the  Methodists  must 
either  profess  themselves  Dissenters,  or  be  subjected  to  an 
indefinite  amount  of  trouble.  He  was  unwilling  to  alter  their 
relation  to  the  Established  Church  ;  and  yet  he  wished  them 
to  be  saved  from  this  embarrassment.  Hence  the  following, 
addressed  to  a  member  of  parliament.^ 

"  Dear  Sir, — Last  month,  a  few  poor  people  met  together  in  Somerset- 
shire, to  pray,  and  to  praise  God,  in  a  friend's  house  ;  there  was  no  preach- 
ing at  all.  Two  neighbouring  justices  fined  the  man  of  the  house  ;^2o. 
I  suppose,  he  was  not  worth  twenty  shillings.  Upon  this,  his  household 
goods  were  distrained,  and   sold  to  pay  the  fine.     He  appealed  to  the 

'  Large  Minutes,  1770. 

^  Henry  Moore  says  this  letter  was  written  in  the  autumn  of  1790;  and 
that,  when  the  lawyer,  at  the  head  of  the  persecution,  boasted  that  he 
•would  drive  Methodism  out  of  Somersetshire,  Wesley  quietly  remarked, 
"  Yes,  when  he  can  drive  God  out  of  it." — (Life  of  Wesley,  vol.  ii.,  p.  383.) 


Separation  from  the  Chu7xh.  513 


quarter  sessions ;  but  all  the  justices  averred,  '  The  Methodists  could  have  i  787 
no  relief  from  the  Act  of  Toleration,  because  they  went  to  church ;  and  that,  — "_ 
so  long  as  they  did  so,  the  Conventicle  Act  should  be  executed  upon  them.        ^^ 

"  Last  Sunday,  when  one  of  our  preachers  was  beginning  to  speak  to  a 
quiet  congregation,  a  neighbouring  justice  sent  a  constable  to  seize  him, 
though  he  was  licensed  ;  and  would  not  release  him  till  he  had  paid  £,20, 
telling  him  his  licence  was  good  for  nothing,  '  because  he  was  a  Church- 
man.' 

"  Now,  sir,  what  can  the  Methodists  do  .?  They  are  liable  to  be  ruined 
by  the  Conventicle  Act,  and  they  have  no  relief  from  the  Act  of  Tolera- 
tion !  If  this  is  not  oppression,  what  is  ?  Where  then  is  English  liberty  ? 
the  liberty  of  Christians,  yea,  of  every  rational  creature  ?  who,  as  such, 
has  a  right  to  worship  God  according  to  his  own  conscience.  But,  waiving 
the  question  of  right  and  wrong,  what  prudence  is  there  in  oppressing 
such  a  body  of  loyal  subjects.?  If  these  good  magistrates  could  drive  them, 
not  only  out  of  Somersetshire,  but  out  of  England,  who  would  be  gainers 
thereby  ?  Not  his  majesty,  whom  we  honour  and  love  ;  not  his  ministers, 
whom  we  love  and  serve  for  his  sake.  Do  they  wish  to  throw  away  so 
many  thousand  friends,  who  are  now  bound  to  them  by  stronger  ties 
than  that  of  interest  ?  If  you  will  speak  a  word  to  Mr.  Pitt  on  that  head, 
you  will  oblige  yours,  etc.  "  John  Wesley." 

About  the  same  time,  Wesley  wrote  as  follows  to  a  bishop.^ 

"  My  Lord, — I  am  a  dying  man,  having  already  one  foot  in  the  grave. 
Humanly  speaking,  I  cannot  long  creep  upon  the  earth,  being  now  nearer 
ninety  than  eighty  years  of  age.  But  I  cannot  die  in  peace,  before  I  have 
discharged  this  office  of  Christian  love  to  your  lordship.  I  write  without 
ceremony,  as  neither  hoping  nor  fearing  anything  from  your  lordship,  or 
any  man  living.  And  I  ask,  in  the  name  and  presence  of  Him,  to  whom 
both  you  and  I  are  shortly  to  give  an  account,  why  do  you  trouble  those 
that  are  quiet  in  the  land  ;  those  that  fear  God  and  work  righteousness .'' 
Does  your  lordship  know  what  the  Methodists  are  ?  That  many  thousands 
of  them  are  zealous  members  of  the  Church  of  England  ;  and  strongly 
attached,  not  only  to  his  majesty,  but  to  his  present  ministry?  Why 
should  your  lordship,  setting  religion  out  of  the  question,  throw  away  such 
a  body  of  respectable  friends  ?  Is  it  for  their  religious  sentiments?  Alas, 
my  lord,  is  this  a  time  to  persecute  any  man  for  conscience  sake?  I 
beseech  you,  my  lord,  do  as  you  would  be  done  to.  You  are  a  man  of 
sense;  you  are  a  man  of  learning  ;  nay,  I  verily  believe,  (what  is  of  infi- 
nitely more  value,)  you  are  a  man  of  piety.  Then  think,  and  let  thinlc  I 
pray  God  to  bless  you  with  the  choicest  of  His  blessings. 

"  I  am,  my  lord,  etc., 

"John  Wesley." 2 

1  This  letter  is  without  date.  Henry  Moore  says  it  was  written  about 
1790.     (Wesley's  Life,  vol.  ii.,  p.  383.) 

2  Atmore's  "  History  of  Persecution,"  p.  420. 

VOL.  III.  L  L 


514  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1787  Is  it  surprising,  that  the  Methodists  wished  to  separate  from 

Age84  the  Church  of  England,  and  that  Wesley  was  led,  in  fact 
driven,  to  take  the  dissenting  steps  he  did  ?  And  yet,  to  the 
very  last,  we  find  him  still  adhering  to  the  church  of  his  early 
choice.  Already  the  Methodists  had  begun  to  have  service  in 
church  hours  ;  but  this  was  far  from  having  his  warm  approval. 
Only  two  days  after  his  consultation  with  Mr.  Clulow,  he  went 
to  Dorking,  where  he  wrote  : 

"  The  congregation  was,  as  usual,  large  and  serious.  But  there  is  no 
increase  in  the  society.  So  that  we  have  profited  nothing  by  having  our 
service  in  the  church  hours,  which  some  imagined  would  have  done 
wonders.  I  do  not  know  that  it  has  done  more  good  anywhere  in 
England;  in  Scotland  I  believe  it  has." 

If  possible,  Wesley  was  more  popular  than  ever.  He 
writes  : 

"  November  4 — The  congregation  at  the  new  chapel "  [City  Road]  "  was 
far  larger  than  usual ;  and  the  number  of  communicants  was  so  great, 
that  I  was  obliged  to  consecrate  thrice.'"  "  November  9 — A  friend  offering 
to  bear  my  expenses,  I  set  out  to  Nottingham,  where  I  preached  a  charity 
sermon  for  the  infirmary,  which  was  the  design  of  my  coming.  This  is 
not  a  county  infirmary,  but  is  open  to  all  England ;  yea,  to  all  the  world  ; 
and  everything  about  it  is  so  neat,  so  convenient,  and  so  well  ordered, 
that  I  have  seen  none  like  it  in  the  three  kingdoms."  ^  "  November  25 — 
I  preached  two  charity  sermons  at  West  Street,  in  behalf  of  our  poor 
children."  "December  16 — After  preaching  at  Spitalfields,  I  hastened  to 
St.  John's,  Clerkenwell,  and  preached  a  charity  sermon  for  the  Finsbury 
dispensary;  as  I  would  gladly  countenance  every  institution  of  the 
kind." 

All  this  was  extra  work  ;  for  Wesley's  chief  employment, 
at  the  end  of  every  year,  was  preaching  to  the  London 
Methodists,  and  meeting  the  London  classes.  Strange  to 
say,  the  latter  was  to  Wesley  an  irksome  task.  Hence  he 
writes : 

"1787,  November  19 — I  began  the  tinpleasing  work  of  visiting  the 
classes.  I  still  continue  to  do  this  in  London  and  Bristol,  as  well  as  in 
Cork  and  Dubhn.  With  the  other  societies,  their  respective  assistants 
supply  my  lack  of  service." 

There  were  also  other  things,  far  from  pleasant,  requiring 

^  The  infirmary  was  built  in  1781,  on  land  partly  given  by  the  Duke  of 
Newcastle,  and  partly  by  the  corporation.  During  the  first  thirty  years 
of  its  existence,  it  afforded  assistance  to  33,926  persons. 


Wesley  s  Publications,  in   1787.  515 

his  attention.     A  Laodicean  spirit  had  crept  in   among  the      1787 
London   Methodists,  and,  in   strong  terms,  he    had  to  warn     Age  84 
them  of  their  sin  and  danger.     They  were  also  ;^300  in  debt, 
and    he    found    it    necessary   to  devise  means    to    make    the 
income  equal  to  the  expenditure.     His  preachers  also,  and  his 
household,  vexed  him.     He  writes  : 

"1787,  Sunday,  December  9 — I  went  down  at  half-hour  past  five,  but 
found  no  preacher  in  the  chapel,  though  we  had  three  or  four  in  the 
house;  so  I  preached  myself.  Afterwards,  inquiring  why  none  of  my 
family  attended  the  morning  preaching,  they  said  it  was  because  they  sat 
up  too  late.  I  resolved  to  put  a  stop  to  this ;  and,  therefore,  ordered,  that 
(i)  every  one  under,  my  roof  should  go  to  bed  at  nine;  that  (2)  every 
one  might  attend  the  morning  preaching ;  and  so  they  have  done  ever 
since." 

Amid  all  this  labour  and  annoyance,  it  is  amusing  to  find 
this  venerable  man,  in  the  eighty-fifth  year  of  his  age,  visiting 
what  then  answered  to  the  Madame  Tussaud's  exhibition  of 
1871,  and  evincing  a  curiosity  and  a  keenness  of  observation 
not  often  equalled  by  the  visitors  of  the  present  time.  Hence 
the  following. 

"December  10 — I  was  desired  to  see  the  celebrated  waxwork  at  the 
museum  in  Spring  Gardens.  It  exhibits  most  of  the  crowned  heads  in 
Europe,  and  shows  their  characters  in  their  countenance.  Sense  and 
majesty  appear  in  the  king  of  Spain ;  dulness  and  sottishness  in  the  king 
of  France ;  infernal  subtlety  in  the  late  king  of  Prussia ;  (as  well  as  in 
the  skeleton  Voltaire ;)  calmness  and  humanity  in  the  emperor,  and  king  of 
Portugal;  exquisite  stupidity  in  the  prince  of  Orange;  and  amazing 
coarseness,  with  everything  that  is  unamiable,  in  czarina. 

With  the  exception  of  contributing  to  the  Arniinian 
Magazine,  Wesley's  literary  life  was  ended.  He  revised 
former  publications,  as,  for  instance,  his  Notes  on  the  New 
Testament;  and  he  occasionally  published  an  extract  from 
some  other  author;  but  all  the  original  productions  of  his  mind 
and  pen  were  now  published  in  the  magazine.  During  this 
present  year,  he  committed  to  the  press  a  new  pocket  hymn- 
book,  24mo,  240  pages ;  but  the  work  was  compiled,  not  W7'itten, 
and  was  intended  as  a  substitute  for  the  volume  issued  in  1785. 
He  also  published  "Conjectures  concerning  the  Nature  of 
Future  Happiness.  Translated  from  the  French  of  Monsieur 
Bonnet, of  Geneva:"  i2mo,  12  pages, — a  remarkable  tract,  little 


5i6  Life  arid  Times  of  Wesley. 

^787      known,  but  full  of  thought.i    The  following  is  Wesley's  address 

Age 84    "To  the  Reader."    "Dublin,  April  7,   1787.    I    am  happy  in 

communicating  to   men  of  sense  in  this  kingdom,  and  at  a 

very  low  price,  one  of  the  most  sensible  tracts  I  ever  read. — 

John  Wesley." 

The  magazine,  as  usual,  contains  six  original  sermons  by 
Wesley,  several  of  them  among  the  most  able  and  interesting 
that  he  ever  wrote.  That  on  Temptation  is  m.arked  by  great 
discrimination  and  beauty.  The  one  on  Dress  fearlessly 
denounces  what  was  then,  and  still  is,  a  fearfully  prevailing 
evil.  Having  laid  down  the  principles,  that  "  slovenliness  is 
no  part  of  religion  "  ;  and  that  "  there  may  undoubtedly  be  a 
moderate  difference  of  apparel,  between  persons  of  different 
stations " ;  he  proceeds  to  show,  that  the  natural  effects  of 
"adorning  ourselves  with  gold,  or  pearls,  or  costly  array," 
are  pride,  vanity,  anger,  and  lust ;  and  concludes  with  one -of 
his  most  withering  addresses  to  the  Methodists  then  living, 
and  which  the  Methodists  of  the  present  day  would  do  well  to 
ponder. 

"  Have  not  many  of  you  grown  finer  as  fast  as  you  have  grown  richer? 
As  you  increased  in  substance,  have  you  not  increased  in  dress  ?  Witness 
the  profusion  of  ribbons,  gauze,  or  Hnen  about  your  heads  !  What  have  you 
profited  then  by  bearing  the  reproach  of  Christ  'i  by  being  called  Method- 
ists ?  Are  you  not  as  fashionably  dressed  as  others  of  your  rank  that  are  no 
Methodists  ?  Do  you  ask,  '  But  may  we  not  as  well  buy  fashionable  things 
as  unfashionable  V  I  answer.  Not  if  they  give  you  a  bold,  immodest  look, 
as  those  huge  hats,  bonnets,  headdresses  do.  And  not,  if  they  cost  more. 
*  But  I  can  afford  \X.'  Oh,  lay  aside  for  ever  that  idle  nonsensical  word  ! 
No  Christian  can  afford  to  waste  any  part  of  the  substance  which  God 
has  entrusted  him  with.  How  can  it  be,  that,  after  so  many  warnings, 
you  persist  in  the  same  folly?  Is  it  not  hence?  There  are  among  you 
some  that  neither  profit  themselves  by  all  they  hear,  nor  are  willing  that 
others  should  ;  and  these,  if  any  of  you  are  almost  persuaded  to  dress  as 
Christians,  reason,  and  rally,  and  laugh  you  out  of  it.  O  ye  pretty  trifiers, 
I  entreat  you  not  to  do  the  devil's  work  any  longer.  Whatever  ye  do 
yourselves,  do  not  harden  the  hearts  of  others.  And  you,  that  are  of  a 
better  mind,  avoid  these  tempters  with  all  possible  care.  You  answer, 
universal  custom  is  against  me.     Not  only  the  profane,  but  the  religious 

^  Its  republication  would  enrich  the  pages  of  the  Methodist  Magazine 
of  the  present  day.  One  conjecture  is,  that,  after  the  resurrection,  "our 
eyes  may  unite  in  themselves  the  qualities  of  microscopes  and  telescopes, 
and  accommodate  themselves  exactly  to  all  distances." 


Wesley  on  the  Dress  of  Methodists.  5 1 7 

world,  run  violently  the  other  way.  Look  into,  I  do  not  say  the  theatres,  1787  ' 
but  the  churches,  nay,  and  the  meetings  of  every  denomination  (except  — 
a  few  old  fashioned  quakers,  or  the  people  called  Moravians)  ;  look  into  the  ^^ 
congregations,  in  London  or  elsewhere,  of  those  that  are  styled  gospel  minis- 
ters ;  look  into  Northampton  chapel,  yea,  into  the  Tabernacle,  or  the  chapel 
in  Tottenham  Court  Road ;  nay,  look  into  the  chapel  in  West  Street,  or  that 
in  the  City  Road  ;  look  at  the  very  people  that  sit  under  the  pulpit,  or  by 
the  side  of  it, — and  are  not  those  that  can  afford  it  (I  can  hardly  refrain  from 
doing  them  the  honour  of  naming  their  names)  as  richly,  as  fashionably 
adorned,  as  those  of  the  same  rank  in  other  places  ?  This  is  a  melancholy 
truth.  I  am  ashamed  of  it ;  but  I  know  not  how  to  help  it.  I  call  heaven 
and  earth  to  witness  this  day,  that  it  is  not  my  fault.  The  trumpet  has 
not  given  an  uncertain  sound,  for  near  fifty  years  last  past.  O  God  ! 
Thou  knowest  I  have  borne  a  clear  and  faithful  testimony.  In  print,  in 
preaching,  in  meeting  the  society,  I  have  not  shunned  to  declare  the  whole 
counsel  of  God.  I  am,  therefore,  clear  of  the  blood  of  those  that  will  not 
hear.  It  lies  upon  their  own  heads.  And,  yet,  I  warn  you  once  more,  in 
the  name,  and  in  the  presence  of  God,  that  the  number  of  those  that 
rebel  against  God  is  no  excuse  for  their  rebellion.  He  hath  expressly 
told  us,  Thou  shalt  not  follow  the  niultitjide  to  do  evil.  I  conjure  you,  all 
who  have  any  regard  for  me,  show  me,  before  I  go  hence,  that  I  have  not 
laboured,  even  in  this  respect,  in  vain,  for  near  half  a  century.  Let  me 
see,  before  I  die,  a  Methodist  congregation  full  as  plainly  dressed  as  a 
quaker  congregation.  Only  be  more  consistent  with  yourselves.  Let 
your  dress  be  cheap  as  well  as  plain  ;  otherwise,  you  do  but  trifle  with 
God  and  me,  and  your  own  souls,  I  pray,  let  there  be  no  costly  silks 
among  you,  how  grave  soever  they  may  be.  Let  there  be  no  quaker  linen, 
proverbially  so  called,  for  their  exquisite  fineness  ;  no  Brussels  lace  ; 
no  elephantine  hats  or  bonnets,  those  scandals  of  female  modesty.  Be 
all  of  a  piece,  dressed,  from  head  to  foot,  as  persons  professing  godliness j 
professing  to  do  everything  small  and  great,  with  the  single  view  of 
pleasing  God." 

Wesley's  sermon  on  the  Lord's  Supper  was  written  in  1732, 
and  has  been  already  noticed.  To  the  sentiments  then 
avowed,  he  still  adhered. 

That  on  the  More  Excellent  Way  is  characteristic  of  him- 
self ;  and  re-enforces  his  views  on  early  rising,  on  the  manner 
of  transacting  business,  on  food,  conversation,  amusements, 
and  money.     One  or  two  extracts  may  be  given. 

"  Diversions  are  of  various  kinds.  Some  are  almost  peculiar  to  men, 
as  the  sports  of  the  field, — hunting,  shooting,  fishing.  Others  are  in- 
differently used  by  persons  of  both  sexes, — as  races,  masquerades,  plays, 
assembhes,  balls,  cards,  dancing  and  music  ;  to  which  may  be  added,  the 
reading  of  plays,  novels,  romances,  newspapers,  and  fashionable  poetry. 
Some  diversions,  which  were  formerly  in  great  request,  are  now  fallen  into 


5i8  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 


1787       disrepute.     The  nobility  and  gentry,  (in  England  at  least,)  seem  totally  to 
— -        disregard  the  once  fashionable   diversion   of  hawking  ;  and  the  vulgar 

*»  ^  themselves  are  no  longer  diverted  by  men  hacking  and  hewing  each 
other  in  pieces  at  broad  sword.  The  noble  game  of  quarter  staff,  like- 
wise, is  now  exercised  by  very  few.  Yea,  cudgelling  has  lost  its  humour, 
even  in  Wales  itself.  Bear  baiting  is  now  very  seldom  seen,  and  bull 
baiting  not  very  often.  And  it  seems  cock  fighting  would  totally  cease  in 
England,  were  it  not  for  two  or  three  right  honourable  patrons.  It  is  not 
needful  to  say  anything  more  of  these  foul  '  remains  of  Gothic  barbarity/ 
than  that  they  are  a  reproach,  not  only  to  all  religion,  but  even  to  human 
nature.  One  would  not  pass  so  severe  a  censure  on  the  sports  of  the 
field.  Let  those,  who  have  nothing  better  to  do,  still  run  foxes  and  hares 
out  of  breath.  Neither  need  much  be  said  about  horse  races,  till  some 
man  of  sense  will  undertake  to  defend  them.  It  seems  a  great  deal  more 
may  be  said  in  defence  of  seeing  a  serious  tragedy.  I  could  not  do  it 
with  a  clear  conscience,  at  least,  not  in  an  English  theatre,  the  sink  of  all 
profaneness  and  debauchery ;  but  possibly  others  can.  I  cannot  say 
quite  so  much  for  balls,  or  assemblies  ;  which  are  more  reputable  than 
masquerades,  but  must  be  allowed,  by  all  impartial  persons,  to  have 
exactly  the  same  tendency.  So  undoubtedly  have  all  public  dancings. 
Of  playing  at  cards,  I  say  the  same  as  seeing  of  plays.  I  could  not  do  it 
with  a  clear  conscience.  But  I  am  not  obliged  to  pass  any  sentence  on 
those  that  are  otherwise  minded.  I  leave  them  to  their  own  Master;  to 
Him  let  them  stand  or  fall. 

"  But  supposing  these,  as  well  as  the  reading  of  plays,  novels,  news- 
papers, and  the  like,  to  be  quite  iiinoccjit  diversions,  yet  are  there  not 
more  excellent  ways  of  diverting  themselves,  for  those  that  love  or  fear 
God  ?  Would  men  of  fortune  divert  themselves  in  the  open  air  ?  They 
may  do  it,  by  cultivating  and  improving  their  lands,  by  planting  their 
grounds,  by  laying  out,  carrying  on,  and  perfecting  their  gardens  and 
orchards.  At  other  times,  they  may  visit  and  converse  with  the  most 
serious  and  sensible  of  their  neighbours  ;  or  they  may  visit  the  sick,  the 
poor,  the  widows,  and  fatherless  in  their  afflictions.  Do  they  desire 
to  divert  themselves  in  the  house  ?  They  may  read  useful  history,  pious 
and  elegant  poetry,  or  several  branches  of  natural  philosophy.  If  you 
have  time,  you  may  divert  yourselves  by  music,  and  perhaps  by  philo- 
sophical experiments.  But,  above  all,  when  you  have  once  learned  the 
use  of  prayer,  you  will  find,  that  this  will  fill  every  space  of  hfe,  be  inter- 
fused with  all  your  employments,  and,  wherever  you  are,  whatever  you  do, 
embrace  you  on  every  side.     Then  you  will  be  able  to  say  boldly  : 

'With  me  no  melancholy  void. 
No  moment  lingers  unemployed, 

Or  unimproved  below  ; 
My  weariness  of  life  is  gone, 
Who  live  to  serve  my  God  alone, 

And  only  Jesus  know.'" 


Wesley  on   Worldly   Wealth.  519 

On  the  subject  of  money,  Wesley's  "  More  Excellent  Way,"      17^7 
to  the  worldly  minded,  is  equally  startling,   but  one  which    Age  84 
he  himself,  for  fifty  years,  invariably  adopted. 

"  If  you  have  a  family,  seriously  consider,  before  God,  how  much  each 
member  of  it  wants,  in  order  to  have  what  is  needful  for  life  and  godli- 
ness. And,  in  general,  do  not  allow  them  less,  nor  much  more  than  you 
allow  yourself.  This  being  done,  fix  your  purpose,  to  gain  no  more.  I 
charge  you,  in  the  name  of  God,  do  not  increase  your  substance  !  As  it 
comes  daily  or  yearly,  so  let  it  go :  otherwise  you  lay  up  treasures  upon 
ea}-th;  and  this  our  Lord  as  flatly  forbids,  as  murder  and  adultery.  By 
doing  it,  therefore,  you  would  treasure  up  to  yourselves  wrath  against  the 
day  of  Tvrath,  and  revelation  of  the  righteous  judgment  of  God.  But 
suppose  it  were  not  forbidden,  how  can  you,  on  principles  of  reason,  spend 
your  money  in  a  way,  which  God  may  possibly  fo7give,  instead  of  spend- 
ing it  in  a  manner  which  He  will  certainly  reward?  You  will  have  no 
reward  in  heaven,  for  what  you  lay  tip:  you  will,  for  what  you  lay  out. 
Every  pound  you  put  into  the  earthly  bank  is  sunk ;  it  brings  no  interest 
above.  But  every  pound  you  give  to  the  poor  is  put  into  the  bank  of 
heaven;  and  it  will  bring  glorious  interest;  yea,  and  such  as  will  be 
accumulating  to  all  eternity." 

This  was  plain  speaking;  but  who  will  undertake  to  gain- 
say it  ? 

The  sermon  on  Christian  Courtesy  is  full  of  the  wisdom 
of  an  aged,  and  widely  experienced,  saint ;  while  that  on 
Former  Times  Better  than  These  is  equally  remarkable, 
and  well  worth  reading. 

The  Anniniaji  Magazine  for  1787  is  enriched,  as  usual, 
with  letters,  poetry,  biography,  apparition  anecdotes,  and 
choice  extracts  from  other  writers  ;  but,  besides  these,  there  are 
a  few  other  productions  from  Wesley's  pen,  as  his  able  article 
"  On  Allegorical  Writings  in  general,  and  especially  the 
Parables  of  our  Lord";  and  his  weighty  "Thoughts  upon 
Methodism."  We  can  only  afford  space  for  an  extract  from 
the  latter.     He  writes  : 

"  I  am  not  afraid,  that  the  people  called  Methodists  should  ever  cease 
to  exist  either  in  Europe  or  America.  But  I  am  afraid,  lest  they  should 
only  exist  as  a  dead  sect,  having  the  form  of  religion  without  the  power. 
And  this  undoubtedly  will  be  the  case,  unless  they  hold  fast  both  the 
doctrine,  spirit,  and  discipline  with  which  they  first  set  out." 

After  describing  the  rise  of  Methodism,  he  proceeds : 

"  From  this  short  sketch  of  Methodism,  any  man  of  understanding 
may  easily  discern,  that  it  is  only  plain,  scriptural  religion,  guarded  by  a 


520  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1787  few  prudential  regulations.  The  essence  of  it  is  holiness  of  heart  and 
l~~c,  life  ;  the  circumstantials  all  point  to  this.  And  as  long  as  they  are 
joined  together  in  the  people  called  Methodists,  no  weapon  formed 
against  them  shall  prosper.  But,  if  even  the  circumstantial  parts  are 
despised,  the  essential  will  soon  be  lost.  And  if  ever  the  essential  parts 
should  evaporate,  what  remains  will  be  dung  and  dross. 

"  It  nearly  concerns  us  to  see  how  the  case  stands  with  us  at  present. 
I  fear,  wherever  riches  have  increased  (exceeding  few  are  the  exceptions) 
the  essence  of  religion,  the  mind  that  was  in  Christ,  has  decreased  in  the 
same  proportion.  Therefore,  I  do  not  see  how  it  is  possible,  in  the  nature 
of  things,  for  any  revival  of  true  religion  to  continue  long.  For  religion 
must  necessarily  produce  both  industry  and  frugality  ;  and  these  cannot 
but  produce  riches.  But  as  riches  increase,  so  will  pride,  anger,  and  love 
of  the  world  in  all  its  branches. 

"How  then  is  it  possible  that  Methodism,  that  is,  the  religion  of  the 
heart,  though  it  flourishes  now  as  a  green  bay  tree,  should  continue  in 
this  state  ?  For  the  Methodists  in  every  place  grow  diligent  and  frugal  ; 
consequently,  they  increase  in  goods.  Hence,  they  proportionably  in- 
crease in  pride,  in  the  desire  of  the  flesh,  the  desire  of  the  eyes,  and  the 
pride  of  life.  So,  although  the  form  of  religion  remains,  the  spirit  is 
swiftly  vanishing  away. 

"  Is  there  no  way  to  prevent  this  ?  this  continual  declension  of  pure 
religion  ?  We  ought  not  to  forbid  people  to  be  diligent  and  frugal ;  we 
must  exhort  all  Christians,  to  gain  all  they  can,  and  to  save  all  they  can  : 
that  is,  in  effect,  to  grow  rich  !  What  way  then,  I  ask  again,  can  wc  take, 
that  our  money  may  not  sink  us  to  the  nethermost  hell?  There  is  one 
way,  and  there  is  no  other  under  heaven.  If  those  who  gain  all  they  can, 
and  save  all  they  can,  will  likewise  give  all  they  can,  then  the  more  they 
gain,  the  more  they  will  grow  in  grace,  and  the  more  treasure  they  will 
lay  up  in  heaven." 

Wesley  knew  not  how  to  flatter.  However  painful  to  him- 
self or  to  others,  when  he  deemed  it  needful,  he  never  tried 
to  conceal  his  thoughts.  The  above  was  not  likely  to  win 
him  the  applause  of  prosperous  and  rich  Methodists ;  but 
that  to  him  was  a  matter  of  indifference.  His  great  anxiety 
was  to  perpetuate  Methodism, — not  merely  Methodists. 


1788. 

WESLEY  had  published,  in  the  ten  volumes  of  his  1788 
Arminian  Magazine  already  issued,  forty-two  original  aT~s 
sermons  by  himself;  and  he  now  ascertained,  that  a 
clergyman,  in  the  west  of  PIngland,  intended  to  reprint 
them  in  a  separate  form.  Wesley  had  been  frequently 
solicited  to  do  this  himself;  but  had  as  often  answered,  "I 
leave  this  for  my  executors."  Now,  to  prevent  piracy,  he 
determined  to  be  his  own  republisher  ;  and  issued  these 
invaluable  discourses,  with  a  few  others,  in  four  volumes, 
i2mo;  to  which  he  prefixed  a  preface,  from  which  the 
following  characteristic  extract  is  taken. 

"  Is  there  need  to  apologise  to  sensible  persons  for  the  plainness  of  my 
style  ?  A  gentleman,  whom  I  much  love  and  respect,  lately  informed 
me,  with  much  tenderness  and  courtesy,  that  men  of  candour  made  great 
allowance  for  the  decay  of  my  faculties  ;  and  did  not  expect  me  to  write 
now,  either  with  regard  to  sentiment  or  language,  as  I  did  thirty  or  forty 
years  ago.  Perhaps  they  are  decayed ;  though  I  am  not  conscious  of  it. 
But  is  not  this  a  fit  occasion  to  explain  myself  concerning  the  style 
which   I  use  from   choice,  not  necessity?     I  could  even  now  write  as 

floridly  and  rhetorically  as  even  the  admired  Dr.  B ;  but  I  dare  not ; 

because  I  seek  the  honour  that  cometh  from  God  only.  What  is  the 
praise  of  man  to  me,  that  have  one  foot  in  the  grave,  and  am  stepping 
into  the  land  whence  I  shall  not  return  ?  Therefore,  I  dare  no  more 
write  in  a  fine  style  than  wear  a  fine  coat.  But  were  it  otherwise,  had  I 
time  to  spare,  I  should  still  write  just  as  I  do.  I  should  purposely 
decline,  what  many  admire,  a  highly  ornamental  style.  I  cannot  admire 
French  oratory;  I  despise  it  from  my  heart.  Let  those  that  please  be  in 
raptures  at  the  pretty,  elegant  sentences  of  Massillon  or  ]3ourdaloue  ;  but 
give  me  the  plain  nervous  style  of  Dr.  South,  Dr.  Bates,  or  Mr.  John 
Howe  ;  and,  for  elegance,  show  me  any  French  writer  who  exceeds  Dean 
Young,  or  Mr.  Seed.  Let  who  will  admire  the  French  frippery,  I  am  still 
for  plain  sound  English. 

"  I  think  a  preacher  or  writer  of  sermons  has  lost  his  way,  when  he 
imitates  any  of  the  French  orators  ;  even  the  most  famous  of  them ;  even 
Massillon  or  Bourdaloue.  Only  let  his  language  be  plain,  proper,  and 
clear;  and  it  is  enough.  God  Himself  has  told  us  how  to  speak,  both 
as  to  the  matter  and  manner:  '  If  any  man  speak'  in  the  name  of  God, 
'let  him  speak  as  the  oracles  of  God';  and  if  he  would  imitate  any  part 


0 


522  Life  a?td  Times  of  Wesley. 


1 788      of  these  above  the  rest,  let  it  be  the  First  Epistle  of  St.  John.     This  is  the 
.■     "o       style,  the  most  excellent  style,  for  every  gospel  preacher.     And  let  him 
aim  at  no  more  ornament  than  he  finds  in  that  sentence,  which  is  the 
sum  of  the  whole  gospel,  'We  love  Him,  because  He  first  loved  us.'" 

Wesley's  journal  for  the  first  two  months  of  1788  is 
lost ;  but  existing  letters  show,  that  the  time  was  spent 
in  London.  The  following  have  not  hitherto  been  published ; 
and,  though  brief,  refer  to  two  subjects  of  the  highest 
interest,  —  Sunday-schools  and  cottage  prayer-meetings. 
The  first  was  addressed  to  Duncan  Wright,  who  was  now 
at  Bolton ;  the  second  to  William  Simpson,  at  Stockton 
upon  Tees. 

"  London,  January  9,  1788. 
"  Dear  Duncan, — You  send  me  a  comfortable  account  of  the  work 
of  God  in  your  circuit.  I  cannot  doubt  but  a  blessing  redounds  to  you 
all  for  the  sake  of  the  poor  children.  I  verily  think,  these  Sunday- 
schools  are  one  of  the  noblest  specimens  of  charity,  which  have  been  set 
on  foot  in  England  since  the  time  of  William  the  Conqueror. 

"  If  Michael  Fenwick  has  a  mind  to  go  to  Dumfries  and  assist  Robert 
Dall,  you  may  give  him  three  guineas,  which  he  must  husband  well.  He 
may  write  to  me  from  thence. 

"  I  am,  dear  Duncan,  your  affectionate  friend  and  brother, 

"John  Wesley." 

"London,  January  18,  1788. 
"  Dear  Billy, — You  did  exceeding  well  to    enlarge  the  number    of 
praver-meetings,   and  to    fix  them  in  serious  courts.       I   do  not  know 
that    any   means   of  grace    whatever    has  been   more    owned   of    God 
than  this. 

"It  is  not  now,  but  at  the  time  of  conference,  that  children  are 
received  into  Kingswood  school. 

"  I  am  glad  sister  Moor  has  not  forgotten  me.  I  hope  sister  Middleton 
also  thinks  of  me  sometimes.  You  are  Avelcome  to  the  four  volumes 
of  sermons. 

"  I  am,  dear  Billy,  your  affectionate  friend  and  brother, 

"John  Wesley." 

Charles  Wesley  was  now  dying.  Long,  loving,  and 
faithful  had  been  the  friendship  between  the  two  brothers. 
Their  opinions  had  often  differed  ;  but  their  affection  had 
never  failed.  Their  most  serious  difference  had  been  on 
the  subject  of  separation  from  the  Church  of  England, 
ordinations,  and  the  administration  of  the  sacraments ;  but, 
even  on  these  matters,  Charles,  while  writing  strongly,  never 


Death  of  Charles   Wesley.  523 

wrote    unbrotherly.      His   last   letter,   in    our   possession,  on      1788 

these  disputed  topics,  is  as  follows.  Age  85 

"  April  %  1787. 
"  Dear  Brother, — I  served  West  Street  chapel  on  Friday  and 
Sunday.  Next  Saturday,  I  propose  to  sleep  in  your  bed.  Stand  to 
your  own  proposal:  'Let  us  agree  to  differ.'  I  leave  America  and 
Scotland  to  your  latest  thoughts  and  recognitions  ;  only  observing  now, 
that  you  are  exactly  right.  Keep  your  authority  while  you  live;  and, 
after  your  death,  detur  digniori,  or  rather,  digiiioribiis.  You  cannot 
settle  the  succession :  you  cannot   divine  how  God  will  settle  it.     Have 

the  people  of given  you  leave  to  die,  E.  A.  P.  J.  ?  ^ 

"  I  am,  etc., 

"C.  Wesley."* 

It  would  almost  seem  from  this,  that  Charles  was  disposed 
to  abandon  his  objections  to  the  ordinations  for  America 
and  Scotland ;  but,  be  that  as  it  may,  we  have  here  some  of 
his  last  thoughts  respecting  the  Methodists.  He  evidently 
believed  that,  after  his  brother's  death,  they  would  exist 
as  a  separated  people,  and  he  wished  them  to  be  governed 
by  those  of  themselves  who  were  worthiest. 

Wesley  loved  his  brother,  and  on  February  18,  1788, 
addressed  to  him  the  following  laconic  note. 

"  Dear  Brother, — You  must  go  out  every  day,  or  die.  Do  not  die 
to  save  charges.  You  certainly  need  not  want  anything  as  long  as  I 
live.  "John  Wesley." 3 

Ten  days  after  this,  Wesley  left  London,  for  his  long 
northern  journey,  saying  :  "  If  I  see  it  again,  well ;  if  not,  I 
pray  God  to  raise  up  others,  that  Avill  be  more  faithful  and 
more  successful  in  His  work  !  I  find,  by  an  increase  of  years, 
(i)  Less  activity  ;  I  walk  slower,  particularly  up  hill :  (2)  My 
memory  is  not  so  quick :  (3)  I  cannot  read  so  well  by  candle- 
light. But,  I  bless  God,  that  all  my  other  powers  of  body  and 
mind  remain  just  what  they  were." 

A  month  later,  Wesley's  brother  had  entered  into  rest. 
They  had  parted,  not  to  meet  again  till  they  met  in  heaven. 


1  Four  letters,  standing  for  Ecclesice  Anglicance  Presbyter  Johannes: 
"John,  presbyter  of  the  Church  of  England."  Wesley,  in  early  life„  some- 
times used  this  signature  in  writing  to  his  brother. 

2  Moore's  Life  of  Wesley,  vol.  ii.,  p.  359. 

3  Jackson's  Life  of  C,  Wesley,  vol.  ii.,  p.  437. 


5^4  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1788      Wesley,    however,   thought  that   his  brother    might    recover. 
Age  85    Hence  the  following,  written  on  March  2. 

"  Dear  Brother, — Many  inquire  after  you,  and  express  much  affec- 
tion, and  desire  of  seeing  you.  In  good  time  !  You  are  first  suffering 
the  will  of  God.  Afterwards,  He  has  a  httle  more  for  you  to  do  :  that  is, 
provided  you  now  take  up  your  cross,  (for  that  it  frequently  must  be,) 
and  go  out,  at  least,  an  hour  in  a  day,  I  would  not  blame  you,  if  it  were 
two  or  three.  Never  mind  expense.  I  can  make  that  up.  You  shall 
not  die  to  save  charges.     Peace  be  with  all  your  spirits  ! 

"John  Wesley."" 

Three  days  later  he  wrote  again. 

"  March  t„  1788. 
"Dear  Brother, — I  hope  you  keep  to  your  rule,  of  going  out  every 
day,  although  it  may  sometimes  be  a  cross.     Keep  to  this  but  one  month, 
and  I  am  persuaded  you  will  be  as  well  as  you  were  at  this  time  twelve- 
month.    Adieu  ! 

"John  Wesley." 2 

Here,  with  one  exception,  epistolary  correspondence 
between  the  two  brothers  ceased.  Charles  was  too  feeble 
to  continue  it,  and  his  daughter  became  his  substitute.  In 
reply  to  one  of  her  letters,  Wesley  wrote  as  follows. 

"Bristol,  Alcurh  7,  1788. 

"  My  dear  Sally, — When  my  appetite  was  entirely  gone,  so  that  all 
I  could  take  at  dinner  was  a  roasted  turnip,  it  was  restored  in  a  few  days, 
by  riding  out  daily,  after  taking  ten  drops  of  elixir  of  vitriol  in  a  glass 
of  water.  It  is  highly  probable,  this  would  have  the  same  effect  in  my 
brother's  case.  But,  in  the  mean  time,  I  wish  he  would  see  Dr.  White- 
head. I  am  persuaded  there  is  not  such  another  physician  in  England  ; 
although,  to  confound  human  wisdom,  he  does  not  know  how  to  cure  his 
own  wife. 

"He  must  lie  in  bed  as  Httle  as  possible  in  the  daytime;  otherwise  it 
•will  hinder  his  sleeping  at  night. 

"  Now,  Sally,  tell  your  brothers  from  me,  that  their  tenderly  respectful 
behaviour  to  their  father,  (even  to  asking  his  pardon,  if  in  anything  they 
have  offended  him,)  will  be  the  best  cordial  for  him  under  heaven.  I 
know  not  but  they  may  save  his  life  thereby.  To  know  nothing  will  be 
•wanting,  on  your  part,  gives  great  satisfaction  to,  my  dear  Sally, 

"  Yours  very  affectionately, 

"John  Wesley." ^ 


^  Jackson's  Life  of  C.  Wesley,  vol.  ii.,  p.  438. 
2  Ibid.  p.  438.  2  Ibid.  p.  439. 


Death  of  Chai'les   Wesley.  525 


To   Samuel  Bradburn,  now  stationed  in   London,  Wesley      1788 
addressed  the  following  hitherto  unpublished  letter.  A^85 

"  Bristol,  March  13,  1788. 

"Dear  Sammy,— With  regard  to  my  brother,  I  advise  you:  (i) 
Whether  he  will  or  no,  (at  least,  if  not  done  already,)  carry  Ur.  Whitehead 
to  him.  (2)  If  he  cannot  go  out,  and  yet  must  have  exercise  or  die,  persuade 

him  to  use twice  or  thrice  a  day,  and  procure  one  for  him.     (3)  I 

earnestly  advise  him  to  be  electrified  ;  not  shocked,  but  only  filled  with 
electric  fire.  (4)  Inquire  if  he  has  made  his  will,  though  I  think  it 
scarcely  possible  he  should  have  delayed  it. 

"  The  tunes,  which  brother  Rhodes  left  with  you,  should  be  immediately 
printed  in  the  cheap  form.     Kind  love  to  Sophy. 

"  I  am,  dear  Sammy,  your  affectionate  friend  and  brother, 

"J.   W^ESLEY." 

Four  days  later,  Wesley  wrote  his  last  letter  to  his  brother, 

"  Bristol,  il/^z;-67/  17,  17S8. 
"Dear  Brother, — I  am  just  setting  out  on  my  northern  journey,  but 
must  snatch  time  to  write  two  or  three  lines.  I  stand  and  admire  the 
wise  and  gracious  dispensations  of  Divine  providence  !  Never  was  there 
before  so  loud  a  call  to  all  that  are  under  your  roof.  If  they  have  not 
hitherto  sufficiently  regarded  either  you,  or  the  God  of  their  fathers,  what 
is  more  calculated  to  convince  them,  than  to  see  you  so  long  hovering  upon 
the  borders  of  the  grave?  And,  I  verily  believe,  if  they  receive  the 
admonition,  God  will  raise  you  up  again.  I  know  you  have  the  sentence 
of  death  in  yourself:  so  had  I  more  than  twelve  years  ago.  I  know 
nature  is  utterly  exhausted :  but  is  not  nature  subject  to  His  word.?  I  do 
not  depend  upon  physicians,  but  upon  Him  that  raiseth  the  dead.  Only 
let  your  whole  family  stir  themselves  up,  and  be  instant  in  prayer;  then  I 
have  only  to  say  to  each,  'If  thou  canst  believe,  thou  shalt  see  the  glory 
of  God!'  Be  strong  in  the  Lord,  and  in  the  power  of  His  might. 
Adieu  ! 

"John  Wesley."^ 

It  ■' 

Another  letter  must  be  inserted,  written  three  days  after 
the  above,  to  his  niece,  Miss  Wesley. 

"  Worcester,  March  20,  1 788. 

"My  dear  Sally,— Mr.  Whitefield  had,  for  a  considerable  time, 
thrown  up  all  the  food  he  took.  I  advised  him  to  slit  a  large  onion  across 
the  grain,  and  bind  it  warm  on  the  pit  of  his  stomach.  He  vomited  no 
more.  Pray  apply  this  to  my  brother's  stomach,  the  next  time  he 
eats. 

"  One  in  Yorkshire,  who  was  dying  for  want  of  food,  as  she  threw  up 
all  she  took,  was  saved  by  the  following  means  :  Boil  crusts  of  white 


'  Jackson's  Life  of  C.  Wesley,  vol.  ii.,  p.  440. 


526  Life  and   Times  of  Wesley. 

1788      bread  to  the  consistence  of  a  jelly  ;  add  a  few  drops  of  lemon  juice,  and 
.       o^     a  little  loaf  sugar;  take  a  spoonful  once  or  twice  an  hour.     By  all  means, 
let  him  try  this. 

"  If  neither  of  these  avail,  (which  I  think  will  not  bathe  case,)  remem- 
ber the  lady  at  Paris,  who  lived  several  weeks  without  swallowing  a  grain, 
by  applying  thin  slices  of  beef  to  the  stomach. 

"But,  above  all,  let  prayer  be  made  continually;  and,  probably,  he 
will  be  stronger  after  this  illness  than  he  has  been  these  ten  years.  Is 
anything  too  hard  for  God?  On  Sunday  I  am  to  be  at  Birmingham;  on 
Sunday  sennight,  at  Madeley.      My  dear  Sally,  adieu  ! 

"John  Wesley."' 

Nine  days  after  this,  on  March  29,  Charles  Wesley  died. 
It  is  a  curious  incident,  that  Wesley,  at  the  time,  was  preach- 
ing in  Shropshire,  and  (as  was  afterwards  ascertained)  he  and 
his  congregation,  at  the  very  moment  of  his  brother's  exit, 


were  smging 


"  Come  let  us  join  our  friends  above, 

That  have  obtained  the  prize. 
And,  on  the  eagle  wings  of  love, 

To  joys  celestial  rise  : 
Let  all  the  saints  terrestrial  sing, 

With  those  to  glory  gone  ; 
For  all  the  servants  of  our  King, 

In  earth  and  heaven,  are  one. 

One  family  we  dwell  in  Him, 

One  church,  above,  beneath. 
Though  now  divided  by  the  stream, 

The  narrow  stream,  of  death  : 
One  army  of  the  living  God, 

To  His  command  we  bow ; 
Part  of  His  host  have  crossed  the  flood, 

And  part  are  crossing  no2u."  ^ 

Samuel  Bradburn,  the  assistant  in  the  City  Road  circuit, 
immediately  dispatched  a  letter  to  Wesley,  informing  him  of 
his  brother's  death;  but,  in  consequence  of  its  being  mis- 
directed, it  failed  to  reach  him  till  April  4,  the  day  before  the 
burial.  Wesley  was  at  Macclesfield,  and  to  get  to  London 
in  time  for  the  funeral  was  impossible.  Hence  the  following 
letter  to  the  bereaved  widow. 


'  Jackson's  Life  of  C.  Wesley,  vol.  ii.,  p.  441. 
*  "  The  Aliens  of  Shiney  Row,"  p.  59. 


Age  85 


Death  of  Charles   Wesley.  527 

"  Macclesfield,  April  4,  1 788.  1788 
"  Dear  Sister, — Half  an  hour  ago,  I  received  a  letter  from  Mr.  Brad- 
burn,  informing  me  of  my  brother's  death.  For  eleven  or  twelve  days 
before,  I  had  not  one  line  concerning  him.  The  last  I  had  was  from 
Charles,  which  I  delayed  to  answer,  expecting  every  day  to  receive  some 
further  information.  We  have  only  now  to  learn  that  great  lesson,  '  The 
Lord  gave,  and  the  Lord  hath  taken  away ;  blessed  be  the  name  of  the 
Lord!'  If  it  had  been  necessary,  in  order  to  serve  either  him  or  you, 
I  should  not  have  thought  much  of  coming  up  to  London.  Indeed,  to 
serve  you,  or  your  dear  family,  in  anything  that  is  in  my  power,  will 
always  be  a  pleasure  to,  dear  sister,  your  affectionate  friend  and  brother, 

"  John  Wesley."  ^ 

Wesley  had  no  disposition  to  tell  the  deep  sorrows  of  his 
heart ;  but  that  he  severely  felt  the  departure  of  his  brother, 
there  can  be  no  question.  A  fortnight  afterwards,  when  at 
Bolton,  he  attempted  to  give  out,  as  his  second  hymn,  the 
one  beginning  with  the  words,  "  Come,  O  Thou  Traveller 
unknown  ";  but  when  he  came  to  the  lines, — 

"  My  company  before  is  gone, 
And  I  am  left  alone  with  Thee," — 

the  bereaved  old  man  sunk  beneath  emotion  which  was 
uncontrollable,  burst  into  a  flood  of  tears,  sat  down  in  the 
pulpit,  and  hid  his  face  with  his  hands.  The  crowded 
congregation  well  knew  the  cause  of  his  speechless  excite- 
ment; singing  ceased;  and  the  chapel  became  a  Bochim. 
At  length,  Wesley  recovered  himself,  rose  again,  and  went 
through  a  ser\ace  which  was  never  forgotten  by  those  who 
were  present  at  it.^ 

Wesley  intended  to  write  his  brother's  life,  and  began  to 
collect  materials  for  it ;  but  his  other  engagements  were  too 
numerous  to  admit  of  the  fulfilment  of  his  purpose.  The 
following  is  the  obituary  published  in  the  conference  minutes. 

"  Mr.  Charles  Wesley,  who,  after  spending  fourscore  years  with 
much  sorrow  and  pain,  quietly  retired  into  Abraham's  bosom.  He  had  no 
disease ;  but,  after  a  gradual  decay  of  some  months, 

'  The  weary  wheels  of  life  stood  still  at  last.' 

His  least  praise  was  his  talent  for  poetry;  although  Dr.  Watts  did  not 
scruple  to  say,  that  that  single  poem,  'Wrestling  Jacob,'  was  worth  all 
the  verses  he  himself  had  written." 

^  Jackson's  Life  of  C.  Wesley,  vol.  ii.,  p.  442. 
-  Methodist  Recorder,  Dec.  5,  1861. 


528  Life  a7id  Times  of  Wesley. 

1788  This  is  not  the  place,  nor  indeed  have  we  room  for  it,  to 

Age  85  write  a  critique  on  the  hfe  and  character  of  this  remarkable 
man.  It  would  be  easy  to  give  the  opinions  of  those  who 
knew  him, — Whitehead,  Moore,  Coke,  Bradburn,  Clarke,  and 
Pawson, — some  in  favour,  and  others  to  the  contrary.  Suffice 
it  to  say,  that,  had  he  done  nothing  more  than  furnish  the 
Methodists,  and  the  church  of  Christ  generally,  with  his  incom- 
parable hymns,  in  which  so  many  millions  have  devoutly  wor- 
shipped the  God.  of  heaven,  he  would  have  rendered  service  to 
the  cause  of  truth  and  piety  which  no  language  can  adequately 
describe.  His  "  hymns,  and  psalms,  and  spiritual  songs,"  for  a 
hundred  and  thirty  years,  have  been  the  metrical  liturgy  of 
the  people  called  Methodists,  and  to  them  countless  multitudes 
have  been  indebted  for  not  a  few  of  their  richest  blessings. 

True  to  his  high  church  principles,  Charles  Wesley,  instead 
of  selecting  the  burial  ground  of  his  brother's  chapel  in 
City  Road,  desired  to  be  interred  in  the  consecrated  church- 
yard of  St.  Marylebone.  This,  to  Wesley,  was  a  painful 
disappointment.  "  It  is  a  pity,"  said,  he,  in  a  letter  to  the 
Rev.  Peard  Dickenson,  "  but  the  remains  of  my  brother  had 
been  deposited  with  mine.  Certainly  that  ground  is  holy  as 
any  in  England  ;  and  it  contains  a  large  quantity  of  '  bonny 
dead.'  "  ^  So  deeply  did  he  feel  this,  that,  seven  weeks  after 
his  brother's  funeral,  he  wrote  an  article,  at  Dumfries,  on  the 
consecration  of  churches  and  burial  grounds,  which  he  pub- 
lished in  his  magazine  ;  and  in  which,  after  showing,  that 
there  is  no  law  of  England,  or  of  the  English  Church, 
enjoining  such  a  practice,  he  remarks  : 

"  Neither  is  it  enjoined  by  the  law  of  God.  Where  do  we  find  one 
word,  in  the  New  Testament,  enjoining  any  such  thing  ?  Neither  do  I 
remember  any  precedent  of  it  in  the  purest  ages  of  the  church.  It  seems 
to  have  entered,  and  gradually  spread  itself,  with  the  other  innovations 
and  superstitions  of  the  Church  of  Rome.  For  this  reason,  I  never 
wished  that  any  bishop  should  consecrate  any  chapel  or  burial  ground  of 
mine.  Indeed,  I  should  not  dare  to  suffer  it ;  as  I  am  clearly  persuaded 
the  thing  is  wrong  in  itself,  being  not  authorised  either  by  any  law  of 
God,  or  by  any  law  of  the  land.  In  consequence  of  which,  I  conceive, 
that  either  the  clerk  or  the  sexton  may  as  well  consecrate  the  church,  or 
the  churchyard,  as  the  bishop.     With  regard  to  the  latter,  I  know  not 

*  Jackson's  Life  of  C.  Wesley,  vol.  ii.,  p.  445. 


Consecrating  Burial  Grounds.  529 

who  could  answer  that  plain  question:  You  say,  *  This  is  consecrated  1788 
ground,  so  many  feet  broad,  and  so  many  long^ ;  but  pray  how  deep  is  it  ?  ^  g^ 
'Deep!  what  does  that  signify?'  Oh,  a  great  deal!  for  if  my  grave  be 
dug  too  deep,  I  may  happen  to  get  out  of  the  consecrated  ground !  And 
who  can  tell,  what  unhappy  consequences  may  follow  from  this !  I  take 
the  whole  of  this  practice  to  be  a  mere  relic  of  Romish  superstition.  And 
I  wonder,  that  any  sensible  protestant  should  think  it  right  to  counte- 
nance it ;  much  more  that  any  reasonable  man  should  plead  for  the 
necessity  of  it !  Surely  it  is  high  time  now,  that  we  should  be  guided,  not 
by  custom,  but  by  Scripture  and  reason."  * 

This  was  a  heavy  blow  at  his  brother's  prejudice.  Wesley 
himself  resolved  to  be  buried  in  the  ground  connected  with 
the  chapel  in  the  City  Road,  and  he  wished  his  brother  to  be 
buried  with  him.  To  this  Charles  objected,  because  the 
ground  had  not  been  consecrated  by  a  bishop  !  The  objection 
was  foolish  ;  and  the  burial,  in  another  place,  occasioned 
considerable  gossip.  John  Pawson,  in  a  letter  dated  April  28, 
1788,  remarks  :  "  Charles  Wesley  would  not  be  buried  at  the 
new  chapel,  because  it  was  not  consecrated  ;  nor  by  any  of 
our  ministers,  but  by  one  of  his  own  choosing.  He  sent  for 
the  parson  of  the  parish  where'  he  lived,  and  said :  '  Sir, 
whatever  the  world  may  have  thought  of  me,  I  have  lived, 
and  I  die,  in  the  communion  of  the  Church  of  England,  and  I 
will  be  buried  in  the  yard  of  my  parish  church.'  "  ^  Wesley 
well  knew  that  remarks  like  these  were  current ;  and  he  owed 
it  to  his  people  to  publish  his  thoughts  on  a  subject,  which, 
however  insignificant  in  itself,  was  not  unlikely  to  be  a 
gossiping  gangrene  in  his  societies. 

Wesley's  affection  for  his  brother  was  evinced  in  the 
continued  kindness  exercised  towards  his  brother's  family. 
According  to  his  own  account  book,  he  gave  to  them,  in  this 
the  year  of  their  bereavement,  at  least,  two  hundred  guineas. 
He  also  assured  his  brother's  widow  that,  as  long  as  he  lived, 
he  would  help  her  to  the  utmost  of  his  power.  The  two 
following  letters  may  fitly  draw  the  curtain  on  Charles 
Wesley's  death  and  burial. 

"7///)/ 25, 1788. 

"My  dear  Sister,— You  know  well  what  a  regard  I  had  for  Miss 
Gwynne,  before  she  was  Mrs.  Wesley.     And  it  has  not  ceased  from  that 

'^  Methodist  Magazine,  1788,  p.  543. 
2  Manuscript  letter. 

VOL.   III.  M  M 


Age  85 


530  Life  mid  Times  of  Wesley. 

1788  time  till  now.  I  am  persuaded  it  never  will.  Therefore,  I  will  speak 
without  reserve  just  what  comes  into  my  mind.  I  have  sometimes 
thought  you  are  a  little  lilce  me.  My  wife  used  to  tell  me,  '  My  dear,  you 
are  too  generous.  You  don't  know  the  value  of  money.'  I  could  not 
wholly  deny  the  charge.  Possibly,  you  may  sometimes  lean  to  the  same 
extreme.  I  know  you  are  of  a  generous  spirit.  You  have  an  open  heart, 
and  an  open  hand.  But  may  it  not  sometimes  be  too  open,  more  so  than 
your  circumstances  will  allow  ?  Is  it  not  an  instance  of  Christian,  as  well 
as  worldly,  prudence,  to  cut  our  coat  according  to  our  cloth  ?  If  your 
circumstances  are  a  little  narrower,  should  you  not  contract  your  expenses 
too  ?  I  need  but  just  give  you  this  hint,  which  I  doubt  not  you  will  take 
kindly  from,  my  dear  Sally, 

"  Your  affectionate  friend  and  brother, 

"John  Wesley."' 

"  December  21,  1788. 
"My  dear  Sister, — It  is  undoubtedly  true,  that  some  silly  people, 
(whether  in  the  society  or  not  I  cannot  tell,)  have  frequently  talked  in  that 
manner,  both  of  my  brother  and  me.  They  have  said,  that  we  were  well 
paid  for  our  labours.  And,  indeed,  so  we  were,  but  not  by  man.  Yet, 
this  is  no  more  than  we  were  to  expect,  especially  from  busybodies  in 
other  men's  matters.  And  it  is  no  more  possible  to  restrain  their  tongues, 
than  it  is  to  bind  up  the  wind.  But  it  is  sufficient  for  us,  that  our  own 
conscience  condemned  us  not  ;  and  that  our  record  is  with  the  Most 
High. 

"  What  has  concerned  me  more  than  this  idle  slander  is  a  trial  of 
another  kind.  I  supposed,  when  John  Atlay  left  me,  that  he  had  left  me 
one  or  two  hundred  pounds  beforehand.  On  the  contrary,  I  am  one 
or  two  hundred  pounds  behindhand,  and  shall  not  recover  myself  till  after 
Christmas.  Some  of  the  first  moneys  I  receive,  I  shall  set  apart  for  you; 
and  in  everything  that  is  in  my  power,  you  may  depend  upon  the  willing 
assistance  of, 

"  Dear  Sally,  your  affectionate  friend  and  brother, 

"John  Wesley." 2 

We  must  now  return  to  Wesley's  journal.  On  the  last  day 
in  February,  he  left  London,  for  Bath  and  Bristol.  The  mayor 
of  Bristol  invited  him  to  preach  in  the  civic  church,  which 
invitation  he  accepted.  His  worship  and  most  of  the  alder- 
men were  present  ;  and  Wesley,  fearing  no  man's  frown,  and 
courting  no  man's  favour,  took  for  his  text  the  fearful  narra- 
tive of  the  rich  man  and  Lazarus  ;  and  then  dined,  with  the 
rich  men,  at  the  rich  man's  table,  in  the  mansion  house.  The 
most    remarkable    incident,    however,    occurred    in    his   own 

*  Jackson's  Life  of  C.  W^esley,  vol.  ii.,  p.  449.  2  jbi^^ 


Remarkable  Incident  at  Bristol.  531 

chapel  on  Thursday  evening,  the  6th  of  ]\Tarch.  At  that  1788 
time,  one  of  the  great  questions  of  the  day  was  the  subject  Age  85 
of  slavery ;  and  Wesley  had  announced  his  intention  to 
preach  on  it.  The  chapel,  in  consequence,  was  densely 
crowded,  with  both  rich  and  poor.  Wesley  selected  as  his 
text,  "  God  shall  enlarge  Japheth  :  and  he  shall  dwell  in  the 
tents  of  Shem  :  and  Canaan  shall  be  his  servant."  The  rest 
we  give  in  the  words  of  Wesley  himself.     He  writes  : 

"About  the  middle  of  the  discourse,  while  there  was  on  every  side 
attention  still  as  night,  a  vehement  noise  arose,  none  could  tell  why,  and 
shot  like  lightning  through  the  congregation.  The  terror  and  confusion 
were  inexpressible.  You  might  have  imagined  it  was  a  city  taken  by 
storm.  The  people  rushed  upon  each  other  with  the  utmost  violence  ; 
the  benches  were  broken  in  pieces  ;  and  nine  tenths  of  the  congregation 
appeared  to  be  struck  with  the  same  panic.  In  about  six  minutes,  the 
storm  ceased,  almost  as  suddenly  as  it  rose ;  and,  all  being  calm,  I  went 
on  without  the  least  interruption.  It  was  the  strangest  incident  of  the 
kind  I  ever  remember ;  and,  I  believe,  none  can  account  for  it,  without 
supposing  some  praeternatural  influence.  Satan  fought,  lest  his  kingdom 
should  be  delivered  up.  We  set  the  next  day  apart  as  a  day  of  fasting 
and  prayer,  that  God  would  remember  those  poor  outcasts  of  men,"  [the 
slaves,]  "  and  make  a  way  for  them  to  escape,  and  break  their  chains 
asunder." 

The  sceptic  will  sneer  at  Wesley's  solution  ;  but,  before  he 
does  so,  he  ought  himself  to  supply  a  better.  Opinions 
respecting  this  mysterious  commotion  will  be  different ;  but 
all  parties  will  unite  in  admiring  Wesley's  sympathy  with  the 
suffering  slave.  Wesley  was  the  first  Englishman  who 
appointed  a  fast  day  to  pray  that  slavery  might  cease. 

On  the  17th  of  March,  Wesley  set  out  on  his  journey  to 
the  north.  Everywhere  he  had  enormous  congregations  ;  and 
frequently  was  obliged,  in  wintry  weather,  to  preach  in  the 
open  air.  Mrs.  Fletcher,  at  Madeley,  wrote  :  "  I  could  not 
but  discern  a  great  change  in  him.  His  soul  seems  far  more 
sunk  into  God,  and  such  an  unction  attends  his  word,  that 
each  sermon  was  indeed  spirit  and  life."  ^ 

Exactly  eight  weeks  were  occupied  in  reaching  the  Scottish 
border  ;  and,  during  this  interval,  Wesley  preached  more  than 
eighty  sermons,  in  fifty-seven  different  towns  and  villages. 
In  seven  instances,  all  in  Yorkshire,  he  preached  in  churches. 

^  Mrs.  Fletcher's  Life,  p.  251. 


532  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

The  crowds  were  greater  than  ever ;    and,  almost  in  every- 
place he  visited,  he  found  the  work  of  God  progressing. 

On  the  13th  of  May,  Wesley  visited  Dumfries,  where  he 
had  stationed  Robert  Dall,  at  the  conference  of  1787. 
Dumfries  was  without  a  chapel,  and  without  a  society  ;  but 
Mr.  Dall  had  just  the  sort  of  energy  which  such  a  place 
required  ;  and  Wesley  knew  it.  The  following  letters  to  his 
home  missionary  have  not  before  been  published. 

"  London,  December  i,  1787. 
"  Dear  Robert, — You  have  reason  to  praise  God,  who  has  prospered 
you,  and  given  you  to  see  the  fruit  of  your  labours.  Our  all  dispensing 
God  has  called  us  to  preach  the  plain  gospel.  I  am  glad  your  hands  are 
strengthened  in  corresponding  with  the  brethren.  I  will  desire  any  to 
change  with  you  when  you  see  it  best,  and,  if  I  live  till  spring,  please 
God,  I  will  visit  you  at  Dumfries. 
"  I  am,  with  love  to  sister  Dall,  your  affectionate  friend  and  brother, 

"  John  Wesley." 

"London,  February  11,  1788. 
"Dear  Robert, — I  allow  you  to  build  at  Dumfries,  providing  any  one 
will  lend  a  hundred  guineas  on  interest. 
"  I  hope  to  see  you,  God  willing,  in  May. 

"  I  am,  etc., 

"  John  Wesley." 

Robert  Dall  was  one  of  Wesley's  favourites,  and  so  was  his 
Christian  wife,  to  whom,  said  Wesley,  in  another  unpublished 
letter  now  before  us,  "  God  has  given  both  sense  and  grace." 
This  godly  couple  set  all  their  energies  to  work  ;  and,  by 
begging  of  their  friends  in  all  parts  of  the  United  Kingdom, 
succeeded,  in  three  months,  in  building  the  unique  chapel 
which  Wesley  describes  below.  The  effort  was  regarded  as 
gigantic ;  and  Wesley's  visit  was  a  sort  of  triumphant  top 
stone  to  the  whole  affair.  "  Such,'^  writes  Mrs.  Gordon 
Playdell  to  Mr.  Dall,  "such  was  the  general  prejudice 
against  Mr.  Wesley,  that  I  really  feared  his  coming  would 
end  your  hopeful  prosperity ;  but  God  has  disappointed  all 
my  fears,  and  outdone  all  my  hopes.  The  popularity,  which 
met  him  here,  was  marvellous.  The  turn  in  his  favour  was 
such  as  none  but  God  could  have  brought  about.  You  have 
been  all  along  respected,  and  the  esteem  for  you  grows  more 
and  more.  Your  pious,  unwearied  attentions  to  the  poor 
criminals  have  increased  the  general  regard  for  you,  and  your 


Chapel  at  DiLmfries.  533 

sermons  in  the  jail  been  much  approved."^     "  Mr.  Wesley,"      1788 
wrote   Charles   Atmore,   "  was  much  pleased  with   Dumfries    Age~8s 
and  you.     He  has  given  you  a  place  in  his  journal,  and  what 
you  have  done  at  Dumfries  will  be  a  memorial  of  you  to  all 
generations." 

We  could  quote  a  large  number  of  other  letters  relative  to 
the  same  subject  ;  but  the  above  is  a  sufficient  preface  to  the 
following  racy  extract  from  Wesley's  journal. 

"  May  13 — To-day,  we  went  through  lovely  roads  to  Dumfries. 
Robert  Dall  soon  found  me  out.  He  has  behaved  exceeding  well,  and 
done  much  good  here  :  but  he  is  a  bold  man  ;  he  has  begun  building  a 
preaching  house,  larger  than  any  in  Scotland,  except  those  in  Glasgow 
and  Edinburgh!  In  the  evening,  I  preached  abroad  in  a  convenient 
street,  on  one  side  of  the  town.  Rich  and  poor  attended  from  every 
quarter,  of  whatever  denomination ;  and  every  one  seemed  to  hear  for 
life.  Surely  the  Scots  are  the  best  hearers  in  Europe  !  At  five,  next 
morning,  I  was  importuned  to  preach  in  the  preaching  house;  but  such 
an  one  I  never  saw  before.  It  had  no  windows  at  all:  so  that,  although 
the  sun  shone  bright,  we  could  see  nothing  without  candles." 

Wesley's  next  halting  place  was  Glasgow.  It  had  been 
widely  reported,  by  some  of  the  Scottish  ministers,  that  he 
was  about  to  publish  a  new  edition  of  the  Bible,  and  to  leave 
out  part  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  St.  John's  Apocalypse, 
and  other  portions  of  the  inspired  writings ;  ^  but,  notwith- 
standing this,  says  Charles  Atmore,  in  the  letter  before 
quoted,  "  he  was  far  better  received  in  Glasgow  than  ever." 

Here  he  spent  three  days  ;  preached  six  sermons  ;  gave  an 
account  concerning  the  rise  and  progress  of  Methodism ;  and 
ordained  John  Barber.^ 

Speaking  of  the  Glasgow  chapel,  Wesley  writes  :  "  It  will 
contain  about  as  many  as  the  chapel  at  Bath.  But  oh  the 
difference  !  It  has  the  pulpit  on  one  side  ;  and  has  exactly 
the  look  of  a  presbyterian  meeting-house.  It  is  the  very 
sister  of  our  house  at  Brentford.  Perhaps  an  omen  of  what 
will  be  when  I  am  gone." 

In  his  address  on  Methodism,  which  was  delivered  to  the 
congregation,  he  remarked  : 

"  There  is  no  other   religious    society  under   heaven,  which    requires 

^  Manuscript  letter.  ^  j_  Pavvson's  manuscript  letter. 

3  Methodist  Magazine,  1845,  p.  1 1 1. 


534  /  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

nothing  of  men  in  order  to  their  admission  into  it,  but  a  desire  to  save 
their  souls.  Look  all  around  you,  you  cannot  be  admitted  into  the  church, 
or  society  of  the  presbyterians,  anabaptists,  quakers,  or  any  others,  unless 
you  hold  the  same  opinions  with  them,  and  adhere  to  the  same  mode  of 
worship.  The  Methodists  alone  do  not  insist  on  your  holding  this  or 
that  opinion ;  but  they  think  and  let  think  Neither  do  they  impose  any 
particular  mode  of  worship  ;  but  you  may  continue  to  worship  in  your 
former  manner,  be  it  what  it  may.  Now,  I  do  not  know  any  other  reli- 
gious society,  either  ancient  or  modern,  wherein  such  liberty  of  conscience 
is  now  allowed,  or  has  been  allowed,  since  the  age  of  the  apostles.  Here 
is  our  glorying ;  and  a  glorying  peculiar  to  us.  What  society  shares  it 
with  us  V 

From  Glasgow,  Wesley  went  to  Edinburgh,  where  he 
wrote  :  "  I  still  find  a  frankness  and  openness  in  the  people 
of  Edinburgh,  which  I  find  in  few  other  parts  of  the  kingdom. 
I  spent  two  days  among  them  with  much  satisfaction  ;  and  I 
was  not  at  all  disappomted,  in  finding  no  such  increase, 
either  in  the  congregation  or  the  society,  as  many  expected 
from  their  leaving  the  kirk." 

Wesley  here  recognises  the  Edinburgh  Methodists  as 
a  separated  people,  in  other  words,  a  cJuircJi ;  but  adroitly  inti- 
mates, that  the  result  was  not  equal  to  what  many  of  his  friends 
had  ventured  to  expect.  How  stands  the  case.''  In  1766, 
when  the  numbers  were  first  given,  Edinburgh  circuit  had  165 
members  of  society,  who,  in  the  next  four  years,  dwindled  to 
62.  Then  the  circuit  rallied,  and,  in  four  years  more,  the 
numbers  rose  to  287.  In  the  next  quadrennial  period,  we 
find  them  reduced  to  161.  In  1785,  when  the  ordinations 
for  Scotland  took  place,  Edinburgh  had  134  Methodists  ;  now, 
in  1788,  it  had  330  ;  which,  however,  at  Wesley's  death  in 
1791,  were  reduced  to  205.  These  are  curious  statistics;  and 
help  to  cast  light  on  Wesley's  meaning. 

On  May  25,  Wesley  reached  Newcastle,  which,  for  the  next 
fortnight,  was  the  centre  of  his  labours.  Two  incidents,  in 
connection  with  this  visit,  are  worth  recording. 

Three  years  before,  John  Hampson,  jun.,  greatly  offended, 
had  relinquished  the  itinerancy,  and  was  now  a  clergyman 
at  Sunderland.  Strangely  enough,  Hampson  invited 
Wesley  to  occupy  his  pulpit,  and  Wesley  willingly  accepted 
the  invitation.  The  church  was  crowded  both  morning  and 
afternoon. 


A  Northern  Fanatic.  535 

The  other  incident  occurred  at  Stanhope,  famed  "  for  no-  1 7S8 
thing  but  a  very  uncommon  degree  of  wickedness."  The  Age  85 
preaching  place  was  an  upper  room,  and  the  congregation 
large.  Presently,  the  main  beam,  that  supported  the  room, 
gave  way,  and  a  frightful  hubbub  followed.  "  One  man," 
says  Wesley,  "  leaped  out  of  the  window ;  the  rest  quietly 
went  out  ;  and  nothing  was  hurt  except  a  poor  dog  beneath 
the  window.  I  then  preached  in  the  open  air,  to  twice  or 
thrice  as  many  as  the  room  would  have  contained,  who  were 
all  attention."  This,  which  might  have  been  a  serious  cata- 
strophe, happened  at  five  o'clock  on  a  summer's  morning. 

On  the  9th  of  June,  Wesley  left    Newcastle  for  the  south. 
Reaching  Darlington,  he  writes  : 

"  Margaret  Barlow  came  to  me  ;  and  I  asked  her  abundance  of  questions. 
I  was  soon  convinced,  that  she  was  not  only  sincere,  but  deep  in  grace  ; 
and,  therefore,  incapable  of  deceit.  I  was  convinced  likewise,  that  she 
had  frequent  intercourse  with  a  spirit  that  appeared  to  her  in  the  form  of 
an  angel.  I  know  not  how  to  judge  of  the  rest.  Her  account  was  : — 
*  For  above  a  year,  I  have  seen  this  angel,  whose  face  is  exceeding 
beautiful :  her  raiment  white  as  snow,  and  glistering  like  silver ;  her  voice 
unspeakably  soft  and  musical.  She  tells  me  many  things  before  they 
come  to  pass.  She  foretold  I  should  be  ill  at  such  a  time,  in  such  a 
manner,  and  well  at  such  an  hour  ;  and  it  was  so  exactly.  She  has  said, 
such  a  person  shall  die  at  such  a  time  ;  and  he  did  so.  Abov^  two 
months  ago,  she  told  me  your  brother  was  dead ;  (I  did  not  know  you  had 
a  brother  ;)  and  that  he  was  in  heaven.  And  some  time  since,  she  told 
me.  you  will  die  in  less  than  a  year.  But  what  she  has  most  earnestly 
and  frequently  told  me,  is,  that  God  will,  in  a  short  time,  be  avenged  on 
obstinate  sinners,  and  will  destroy  them  with  fire  from  heaven.'" 

Wesley  adds  : 

"  Whether  this  will  be  so  or  no,  I  cannot  tell  ;  but  when  we  were  alone 
there  was  a  wonderful  power  in  her  words  ;  and,  as  the  Indian  said  to 
David  Brainerd,  '  They  did  good  to  my  heart.'  It  is  above  a  year  since 
this  girl  was  visited  in  this  manner,  being  then  between  fourteen  and 
fifteen  years  old.  But  she  was  then  quite  a  womanish  girl,  and  of  un- 
blamable behaviour.  Suppose  that  which  appeared  to  her  was  really  an 
angel  ;  yet  from  the  face,  the  voice,  and  the  apparel,  she  might  easily 
mistake  him  for  a  female  ;  and  this  mistake  is  of  little  consequence. 
Much  good  has  already  resulted  from  this  odd  event  ;  and  is  likely  to 
ensue  ;  provided  those  who  believe,  and  those  who  disbelieve,  her  report, 
have  but  patience  with  each  other." 

Marvellous  !  Who  was  Margaret  Barlow  }  The  answer 
involves  an  episode  in  Methodistic  history. 


53^  Life  arid  Times  of  Wesley. 

17S8  In  the  conference  minutes  for  1778,  John  Blades  is  reported 

Age  85  as  one  of  Wesley's  itinerant  preachers  on  trial  ;  but,  beyond 
this,  he  is  never  mentioned.  Blades  was  a  native  of  North- 
umberland, a  weakminded  fanatic,  totally  unfit  for  the 
itinerant  work.  Perhaps,  for  this  reason,  he  was  not  appointed 
to  a  circuit.  For  some  years,  however,  he  acted,  in  the 
capacity  of  a  local  preacher,  in  the  north  of  England.  He 
then  began  to  preach  consummate  nonsense  respecting  the 
privileges  of  believers,  and,  with  such  success  that,  when  he 
left  the  Methodists  in  1784,  he  was  enabled  to  form  separate 
societies  in  a  large  number  of  places  in  the  county  of  Durham, 
and  in  the  north  of  Yorkshire.  Among  his  followers,  who 
were  called  Bladonians}  was  Ralph  Hodgson,  a  miller  at  West 
Auckland,  in  whose  house  Margaret  Barlow  was  a  servant. 
We  have  before  us  a  long  unpublished  letter,  written  by  this 
dusty  enthusiast,  only  a  fortnight  before  Wesley's  interview 
with  his  servant  girl  at  Darlington.  It  is  addressed  to  "  Mr. 
Richard  Steel,  Tanner,  Wolsingham.  With  all  possible 
speed":  and  is  dated.  May  27,  1788.  Hodgson  tells  his 
friend  Steel  that  an  angel  from  the  Lord  had  appeared  to 
him,  and  stated  that  the  "wicked  were  about  to  be  destroyed 
from  off  the  face  of  the  earth."  He  also  urges  Steel  to  join 
with  him  in  making  this  angelic  revelation  as  widely  known 
as  possible. 

It  is  a  curious  fact  that  Hodgson  waited  upon  Wesley  at 
Newcastle,  for  the  purpose  of  converting  him  to  his  opinions  ; 
and  that  he  accompanied  his  clairvoyant  servant,  Margaret 
Barlow,  to  meet  Wesley  at  the  house  of  Thomas  Pickering,  at 
Darlington.  He  also  wrote  a  long  letter,  dated  "  West  Auck- 
land, October  26,  1788,"  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Agutter,  St.  Mary 
Magdalen  college,  Oxford,  in  which  he  informed  that  gentle- 
man that  Margaret  Barlow  had  been  his  servant  about  two 
years  ;  that  she  had  attended  the  services  of  the  Methodists  ; 
that  an  angel  had  appeared  to  her  in  the  form  of  a  female, 
and  with  a  lustre  brighter  than  the  light  of  a  thousand 
candles  ;  that  the  angel  had  come  to  her  in  the  daytime  as 
well  as  night ;  and  had  made  known  to  her  the  state  of  many 
who  were  dead,  as  well  as  many  who  were  still  alive  ;  but  that 

^  Methodist  MagazUie,  1797,  p.  553. 


Wesley's  Credulity.  537 

the  principal  matter,  which  the  angel  had  revealed,  was  the     1788 
exact  day  when  the  wicked  would  be  destroyed.     Margaret    AgeSj 
also  had  been  much  disturbed  by  the  appearance  of  two  evil 
spirits,    both    clad    in    black,    and    wearing   horns ;    but    the 
recital  of  her  visions  had  produced  effects  great  and  blessed. 

What  was  the  result  of  all  this  religious  raving  ?  Margaret, 
at  length,  announced  the  exact  day  when  the  destruction  of 
the  wicked  was  to  be  accomplished.  Intense  excitement  fol- 
lowed. Some  sold  their  clothing  and  property,  and  distributed 
the  proceeds  among  the  poor ;  and  others  exulted  at  the 
thought  of  the  possessions  of  the  wicked  being  distributed 
among  themselves.  The  day  came,  numbers  having  sat  up  all 
night  to  watch  its  dawning.  Portentous  signs  appeared.  The 
heavens  gathered  blackness,  lightnings  flashed,  and  thunders 
roared.  At  Barnardcastle  it  was  the  day  of  the  weekly 
market.  The  people  were  frantic,  some  with  hope,  and  some 
with  fear.  Cries  were  heard,  "  It  is  coming  !  It  is  coming  ! " 
The  business  of  the  market  was  suspended  ;  and  consterna- 
tion was  general.  At  length,  the  clouds  were  scattered,  the 
heavens  brightened,  the  day  passed  over,  and  all  things  con- 
tinued as  they  were.  The  bubble  burst ;  Blades,  Hodgson, 
his  wife,  and  Margaret  Barlow  were  discredited,  and  fled 
across  the  Atlantic  ;  where  most,  if  not  all  of  them,  joined 
the  shakers,  whose  principles  and  morals,  to  say  the  least, 
were  capable  of  great  improvement. 

The  reader  will  excuse  this  lengthened  digression  concern- 
ing a  mad  miller  and  his  servant  maid.  We  have  purposely 
omitted  the  numerous  stories,  of  a  similar  description,  which 
Wesley  has  inserted  in  his  journal  and  magazine  ;  but  one 
instance  seemed  necessary,  to  illustrate  what  was  unquestion- 
ably a  feature  in  Wesley's  character, — excessive  credulity  in 
receiving  doubtful  proofs  of  the  existence  and  nearness  of  an 
unseen  world  of  spirits.  We  are  not  inclined  to  say  hard  things 
concerning  this.  It  was  a  weakness,  but  not  a  sin.  Besides, 
though  some  of  the  stories,  referred  to,  were  ridiculously 
foolish,  it  would  be  rashness  to  deny  that  some  of  the  others 
were  strictly  and  startlingly  true.  And  further,  we  honestly 
declare  that,  in  an  age  like  this,  when  the  general  tendency 
is  to  scepticism  rather  than  to  credulity,  we  should  hail,  as 
no  bad  omen,  the  appearance  of  a  disposition,  like  that  of 


538  Life  and  Twies  of  Wesley. 

1788     Wesley,  to  cherish,   not  denounce,  any    and    every  evidence 

Age85     ^f  another  and  future  state  of  being. 

On  leaving  Darlington,  Wesley  proceeded  to  Whitby, 
where  he  was  advertised  to  open  a  new  chapel ;  but,  as  often 
happens  now,  when  the  day  arrived,  the  building  was  far  from 
being  ready.  For  want  of  stairs,  the  people  had  to  be  admit- 
ted to  the  gallery  through  one  of  the  back  windows  near  the 
pulpit  ;  and,  for  want  of  a  gallery  front,  a  number  of  stalwart 
Yorkshiremen  squatted  themselves  all  round  the  gallery 
ledge,  their  backs  protecting  the  people  behind  them,  and 
their  feet  dangling  over  the  heads  of  those  below.'  Wesley 
writes  : 

"June  13,  Friday. — At  eight,  I  preached  to  a  lovely  congregation  at 
Stokesley;  and,  at  eleven,  in  Guisborough,  to  one  far  larger.  In  the 
evening,  I  preached  at  Whitby,  in  the  new  house,  thoroughly  filled  above 
and  below.  The  unfinished  galleries,  having  as  yet  no  fronts,  were  fright- 
ful to  look  upon.  It  is  the  most  curious  house  we  have  in  England.  You 
go  up  to  it  by  about  forty  steps ;  and  have  then  before  you  a  lofty  front, 
I  judge,  near  fifty  feet  high,  and  fifty-four  feet  broad." 

Wesley  spent  the  next  two  days  in  Whitby,  preaching 
twice  on  Saturday,  and  thrice  on  Sunday,  and  finishing  up 
with  a  Yorkshire  lovefeast. 

From  the  "plain  people  at  Whitby"  Wesley  went  to  the 
Scarborough  elegants ;  and  thence  to  Bridlington,  Malton, 
Beverley,  and  Hull.  In  the  last  mentioned  town,  Joseph 
Benson  and  the  Methodists  had  recently  erected  George  Yard 
chapel,  an  edifice  of  which  Benson  was  immensely  proud,  and 
whose  account  of  its  opening  services,  six  months  before, 
drew  from  Wesley  the  following  laconic  letter. 

"  Dear  Joseph, — I  greatly  rejoice  in  the  erection  of  your  new  preach- 
ing house;  and  in  the  tokens  of  the  Divine  presence  with  which  you  and 
the  people  were  favoured  at  the  opening;  but  if  it  be  at  all  equal  to  the 
new  chapel  in  London,  I  will  engage  to  eat  it. 

"  I  am,  yours  affectionately, 

"John  Wesley."^ 

Wesley's  new  chapel  in  City  Road  was  his  beau  ideal,  and 
great  was  his  jealousy  of   all  pretentious   competitors ;  but 

^  Memoir  of  Mrs.  Knaggs. 
2  Methodist  Magazine,  1836,  p.  492. 


An  early  Breakfast.  539 

still  he  was  obliged  to  acknowledge,  that   even   George  Yard     1788 
chapel,  Hull,  was  "  well  built,  and  elegantly  finished ;  hand-    AgeSs 
some,  but  not  gaudy." 

During  his  stay  in  Hull,  he  preached  twice  in  the  high 
church,  by  the  invitation  of  the  vicar,  Mr.  Clark  ;  and  thrice 
in  Benson's  pet  chapel. 

Notwithstanding  his  three  heavy  services  on  the  previous 
day,  Wesley,  an  old  man,  in  the  eighty-fifth  year  of  his  age, 
set  out  on  June  23,  and  not  only  travelled  all  the  way  from 
Hull  to  York,  but,  preached  four  sermons  in  four  different 
towns  and  villages. 

At  York  a  happy  reconciliation  was  brought  about. 
Wesley  had  been  greatly  annoyed  with  Robert  Spence  for 
publishing  the  "York  Hymn  Book";  and  Robert  had 
been  so  grieved  by  Wesley's  strictures  as  to  be  strongly 
tempted  to  leave  the  Methodists.  Wesley  and  the  grand 
old  Methodist  at  York,  however,  were  not  the  men  to  harbour 
malice ;  and,  by  appointment,  the  oft*ending  bookseller 
breakfasted  with  Wesley,  at  three  d clock  in  the  morning, 
and  all  past  diff'erences  were  consigned  to  the  shades  of 
charitable  oblivion.' 

A  three  o'clock  breakfast !  And  yet,  this,  with  Wesley, 
was  not  at  all  unusual.  His  energy,  diligence,  and  punctuality 
were  marvellous.  Addressing  his  coachman,  at  this  early 
breakfast  in  the  city  of  York,  he  said,  "  Have  the  carriage 
at  the  door  at  four.  I  do  not  mean  a  quarter  or  five  minutes 
past,  but  four."  The  man  knew  what  his  master  meant ;  and, 
as  the  minster  clock  struck  four,  Wesley  had  shaken  hands 
wdth  Robert  Spence,  and  was  entering  his  chaise.^  Railways, 
since  then,  have  helped  to  make  some  men  punctual ;  but 
Wesley  was  perfect  in  this  human  excellence  long  before 
railway  engines  began  to  whistle. 

Wesley  made  his  way  to  Epworth,  where  he  spent  his 
birthday.     He  writes : 

"June  28. — I  this  day  enter  on  my  eighty-fifth  year  ^ :  and  what  cause 
have  I  to  praise  God,  as  for  a  thousand  spiritual  blessings,  so,  for  bodily 
blessings  also  !     How  little  have  I  suffered  yet  by  '  the  rush  of  numerous 


'  Memoirs  of  Spence,  p.  26.  -  Ibid. 

^  It  ought  to  have  been  eighty-sixth. 


540  Life  and  Tmies  of  Wesley. 

1788  years!'  It  is  true,  I  am  not  so  agile  as  I  was  in  times  past.  I  do  not 
.  o  run  or  walk  so  fast  as  I  did ;  my  sight  is  a  little  decayed  ;  my  left  eye  is 
grown  dim,  and  hardly  serves  me  to  read ;  I  have  daily  some  pain  in  the 
ball  of  my  right  eye,  as  also  in  my  right  temple,  (occasioned  by  a  blow 
received  some  months  since,)  and  in  my  right  shoulder  and  arm,  which  I 
impute  partly  to  a  sprain,  and  partly  to  the  rheumatism.  I  find,  likewise, 
some  decay  in  my  memory,  with  regard  to  names  and  things  lately  past  ; 
but  not  at  all  with  regard  to  what  I  have  read  or  heard  twenty,  forty,  or 
sixty  years  ago ;  neither  do  I  find  any  decay  in  my  hearing,  smell,  taste, 
or  appetite ;  (though  I  want  but  a  third  part  of  the  food  I  did  once ;)  nor 
do  I  feel  any  such  thing  as  wearihess,  either  in  travelling  or  preaching  ; 
and  I  am  not  conscious  of  any  decay  in  writing  sermons;  which  I  do  as 
readily,  and  I  believe,  as  correctly,  as  ever. 

"To  what  cause  can  I  impute  this,  that  I  am  as  I  am?  First,  doubtless, 
to  the  power  of  God,  fitting  me  for  the  work  to  which  I  am  called,  as 
long  as  He  pleases  to  continue  me  therein;  and,  next,  subordinately  to 
this,  to  the  prayers  of  His  children. 

"  May  we  not  impute  it,  as  inferior  means,  (1)  To  my  constant  exercise 
and  change  of  air  1  (2)  To  my  never  having  lost  a  night's  sleep,  sick 
or  well,  at  land  or  at  sea,  since  I  was  born  ?  (3)  To  my  having 
sleep  at  command ;  so  that,  whenever  I  feel  myself  almost  worn  out,  I 
call  it,  and  it  comes,  day  or  night?  (4)  To  my  having  constantly,  for 
above  sixty  years,  risen  at  four  in  the  morning  ?  (5)  To  my  constant 
preaching  at  five  in  the  morning,  for  above  fifty  years  ?  (6)  To 
my  having  had  so  little  pain  in  my  life;  and  so  little  sorrow,  or  anxious 
care  ? 

"  Even  now,  though  I  find  pain  daily  in  my  eye,  or  temple,  or  arm;  yet 
it  is  never  violent,  and  seldom  lasts  many  minutes  at  a  time.  Whether 
or  not  this  is  sent  to  give  me  warning,  that  I  am  shortly  to  quit  this 
tabernacle,  I  do  not  know ;  but  be  it  one  way  or  the  other,  I  have  only  to 
say, 

'  My  remnant  of  days 

I  spend  to  His  praise, 
Who  died  the  whole  w^orld  to  redeem  ; 

Be  they  many  or  few. 

My  days  are  His  due. 
And  they  all  are  devoted  to  Him.'" 

Wesley's  two  texts  on  this  memorable  birthday  were 
appropriate.  Here,  eighty-five  years  before,  he  had  been 
born,  in  the  Epworth  parsonage  ;  and  now,  in  the  morning,  he 
preached  from,  "  So  teach  us  to  number  our  days,  that  we 
may  apply  our  hearts  unto  wisdom "  ;  and,  in  the  evening, 
from,  "  Beware,  therefore,  lest  that  come  upon  you,  which 
is  spoken  of  in  the  prophets ;  behold,  ye  despisers,  and 
wonder,  and  perish  ;  for  I  work  a  work  in  your  days,  a  work 


Demoniacs.  541 


which  ye  shall  in  no  wise  believe,  though  a  man  declare  it     1788 
unto  you."  ^  A^85 

This  may  be  a  fitting  place  to  insert  a  selection  from 
Wesley's  letters,  written  in  the  previous  six  months. 

The  first  was  addressed  to  William  Black,  one  of  his  mis- 
sionaries in  Nova  Scotia.  Black  had  related  to  Wesley  the 
cases  of  certain  demoniacs,  and  particularly  one  which  he 
himself  had  seen.  When  Black  approached,  it  was  with  the 
utmost  difficulty  that  four  men  could  hold  the  poor  wretch, 
and  prevent  him  doing  the  missionary  serious  injury.  Black 
immediately  fell  upon  his  knees,  and  began  to  pray.  In  an 
instant,  the  frenzy  of  the  man  subsided ;  and  the  lips,  that  a 
few  moments  before  had  uttered  blasphemy,  began  to  syllable 
the  praises  of  the  great   Redeemer.      Wesley's  letter  is  as 

follows. 

"  Gloucester, -/I/^rc/i  19,  1788. 

"  My  dear  Brother, — I  am  glad  to  find  you  are  still  going  on  in  the 
glorious  work  to  which  you  are  called.  We  have  need  to  make  haste 
therein  ;  to  use  all  diligence.  For  the  work  is  great ;  the  day  is  short ; 
and  lonely  is  the  night  wherein  no  man  can  work. 

"It  is  well  that  Satan  is  constrained  to  show  himself  so  plainly  in  the  case 
of  those  poor  demoniacs.  Thereby,  he  weakens  his  own  kingdom,  and 
excites  us  to  assault  him  more  zealously.  In  the  beginning  of  the  work 
in  England  and  Ireland,  we  had  many  cases  of  the  kind.  But  he  now 
chooses  to  assault  us  by  subtlety  more  than  by  strength. 

"  I  wish  you  would  do  all  you  possibly  can  to  keep  our  brethren  in  peace 
with  each  other.  Your  pains  will  not  be  lost  on  poor  John  Mc Geary. 
There  is  much  good  in  him.  Indeed,  he  is  naturally  of  a  bold,  forward 
temper  ;  but  I  hope  his  zeal  is  now  according  to  knowledge. 

"  Praying  that  you  may  increase  with  all  the  increase  of  God,  I  am 

your  affectionate  friend  and  brother, 

"John  Wesley." * 

The  next  is  brief,  but  interesting.  Agnes  Collinson  was 
now  a  remarkable  child,  twelve  years  old.  Six  years  after- 
ward.s,  she  became  the  wife  of  Mr.  Joseph  Bulmer  ;  and  lived 
to  be  the  authoress  of  "  Messiah's  Kingdom,"  in  twelve 
books,  486  pages,  and  of  the  beautiful  hymn,  which  is  so 
often  sung  at  the  laying  of  the  foundation  stones  of 
Methodist  chapels,  "Thou  who  hast  in  Zion  laid,"  etc. 

Mrs.  Bulmer  was  born  a  poet,  and,  at  the  death  of  Charles 

'Black's  Memoirs,  p.  219. 


542  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1788     Wesley,   wrote    an    elegy,   which  was    sent  to  the    surviving 
Age  85    brother,  and  evoked  the  following  characteristic  letter. 

"My  dear  Maiden,— Beware  of  pride  ;  beware  of  flattery;  suffer 
none  to  commend  you  to  your  face  ;  remember,  one  good  temper  is  of 
more  value,  in  the  sight  of  God,  than  a  thousand  good  verses.  All 
you  want  is  to  have  the  mind  that  was  in  Christ,  and  to  walk  as 
Christ  walked. 

"  I  am,  etc., 

"John  Wesley."' 

The  following  is  now  for  the  first  time  published.  William 
Simpson,  to  whom  it  was  addressed,  was  assistant  in  the 
Yarm  circuit. 

"Near  Colne,  April 2^,  1788. 
"Dear  Billy, — You  did  well  to  expel  those  who  marry  ungodly 
persons, — a  real  evil,  which  we  never  can  tolerate.  You  should  speak  to 
every  believer  singly  concerning  meeting  in  band.  There  were  always 
some  in  Yarm  circuit,  though  not  many.  No  circuit  ever  did,  or  ever  will 
flourish,  unless  there  are  bands  in  the  large  societies.  It  is  a  good  sign, 
that  so  many  of  our  preachers  are  willing  to  contribute  to  those  necessary 
expenses.  They  used  to  be  much  straitened  in  their  bowels,  whenever 
money  was  wanted.  You  have  now  good  encouragement  to  remain 
another  year  in  the  circuit.  But  you  know  two  preachers  do  not  remain 
in  the  same  circuit  more  than  one  year. 

"  I  am,  dear  Billy,  your  affectionate  friend  and  brother, 

"John  Wesley." 

Dr.  Coke  was  an  innovator.  Finding  that  many  of  the 
Dublin  Methodists  were  in  the  habit  of  attending  Dissenting 
chapels  on  the  sabbath,  he,  in  order  to  prevent  this,  directed 
that,  on  three  Sundays  out  of  four,  there  should  be  service  in 
Whitefriar  Street  chapel  in  church  hours ;  and  that,  on  the 
fourth,  the  Methodists  should  be  recommended  to  attend  St. 
Patrick's  church,  and  receive  the  sacrament.^  Henry  Moore 
was  the  assistant  in  the  Dublin  circuit ;  was  nearly  as  old  a 
man  as  Coke ;  and,  as  a  preacher,  his  superior.  Coke's 
assumption  to  act  as  Wesley's  vicar  gave  great  offence,  and 
the  new  arrangement  had  to  be  abandoned.^  The  following 
letters  refer  to  this  Dublin  fracas,  and  are  not  without  interest, 
as  evincing  Wesley's  persistent  adherence  to  the  Established 

'  Bulmer's  Memoir,  p.  4. 
2  Smith's  "  Methodism  in  Ireland."  ^  Ibid. 


Separation  from  the  Chiu'ch.  543 

Church.    The  first  three  were  addressed  to  Moore;  the  fourth     1788 

to  Coke.  A^5 

"  Leeds,  May  6,  1 788. 
"Dear  Henry, — The  doctor  is  too  warm.  He  ought  to  have  had 
more  regard  to  so  respectable  a  body  of  men  as  applied  to  him.  I  am  a 
Church  of  England  man  ;  and,  as  I  said  fifty  years  ago,  so  I  say  still,  in 
the  Church  I  will  live  and  die,  unless  I  am  thrust  out.  We  must  have  no 
more  service  at  Whitefriars  in  the  church  hours.  Leave  all  contention 
before  it  be  meddled  with.     Follow  after  peace. 

"I  am,  etc., 

"John  Wesley."^ 

"Whitehaven,  Afay  11,  1788. 
"Dear  Henry, —  Still,  the  more  I  reflect,  the  more  I  am  convinced, 
that  the  Methodists  ought  not  to  leave  the  Church.  I  judge,  that  to  lose 
a  thousand,  yea,  ten  thousand,  of  our  people,  would  be  a  less  evil  than 
this.  '  But  many  had  much  comfort  in  this.'  So  they  would  in  any  7ie7i/ 
tiling.  I  believe  Satan  himself  would  give  them  comfort  herein ;  for  he 
knows  what  the  end  would  be.  Our  glory  has  hitherto  been  not  to  be  a 
separate  body : 

'  Hoc  Ithacus  veht.' 

"But  whatever  Mr.  Smyth  does,  I  am  for  the  old  way.  I  advise  you  to 
abide  in  it,  till  you  find  another  new  event,  although,  indeed,  you  may 
expect  it  every  day ;  namely,  the  removal  of  your  affectionate  friend  and 

^™^^^^'  "  John  Wesley.''^ 

"  Glasgow,  May  12,  1788. 
"  Dear  Henry, — I  allow  two  points :  i.  That,  while  Dr.  Coke  is  in 
Dublin,  he  may  have  service  at  eleven  o'clock  as  before.  2.  That,  on 
condition  that  our  brethren  will  attend  St.  Patrick's  one  Sunday  in  four, 
you  may  read  prayers  the  other  three  in  the  room.  When  Dr.  Coke 
returns  from  Dublin,  he  should  immediately  send  me  word  who  is  proper 
to  succeed  you  there.  I  shall  be  glad,  if  I  can,  to  have  Nancy  and  you 
at  Bristol  next  year.  It  is  not  unlikely,  I  may  finish  my  course  there  ; 
and,  if  so,  I  should  love  to  have  her  to  close  my  eyes.  My  brother  said,  I 
should  follow  him  within  the  year.  But,  be  that  as  it  may,  by  Gods  help, 
I  will  live  to-day.  «  I  am,  etc., 

"John  Wesley." s 

"  GLASGO^v,  May  16,  1788. 
Dear  Sir, — I  came   hither  this  morning.     There  is  a  fair  opening 
at  Dumfries,  and  a  prospect  of  much  good,     I  like  your  proposal  concern- 
ing Joseph  Cownlcy,''  and  will  talk  with    him  about  it  if  1  live  to  see 
Newcastle. 


'  Manuscript  letters  in  Mission  House.  *  Ibid.  ^Ibid. 

*  A  proposal  to  ordain  him.     See  Metliodist  Magazine^  1845,  P-  ^'2. 


544  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 


"  As  I  said  before,  so  I  say  still,  I  cannot,  I  dare  not,  leave  the  Church, 
for  the  reasons  we  all  agreed  to  thirty  years  ago  in  the  conference  at 
Leeds.  Thus  far  only  I  could  go.  On  condition,  that  our  people  would 
receive  the  Lord's  supper  once  a  month  either  at  St.  Patrick's,  or  their 
own  parish  church  (the  reasonableness  of  which  should  be  strongly  and 
largely  explained),— on  this  condition,  I  would  allow  Henry  Moore  to 
read  the  morning  service  at  Whitefriars  on  the  other  Sundays. 

"  I  wonder  at  the  imprudence  of  Mr.  Edward  Smyth,  to  say  nothing  of 
his  unkindness.     You  did  well  in  changing  the  stewards  at  Waterford. 
"  I  am,  dear  sir,  yours  most  affectionately, 

"  John  Wesley."  ' 

The  following,  hitherto  unpublished,  letter  was  addressed 
to  Thomas  Taylor,  then  stationed  at  Manchester,  and  refers 
to  a  gigantic  evil  which  still  exists. 

"Near  Newcastle,  7««^  7, 1788. 
"  Dear  Tommy, — I  have  no  time  to  spend  on  controversy  about  the 
Church,  unless  I  had  leisure  to  write  a  folio. 

"It  is  no  wonder,  that  everyone  should  be  ruined  who  concerns  himself 
with  that  execrable  bill  trade.     In  London,  I  expel  every  one  out  of  our 
society  who  has  anything  to  do  with  it.    Whoever  endorses  a  bill,  (that  is, 
promises  to  pay,)  for  more  than  he  is  worth,  is  either  a  fool  or  a  knave. 
"  I  am,  dear  Tommy,  your  affectionate  friend  and  brother, 

"  John  Wesley." 

When  Wesley  was  at  Bradford,  in  the  month  of  May,  he 
preached  in  the  parish  church,  and,  in  the  course  of  his 
sermon,  quoted  the  opinion  of  Bengelius,  that  the  millennial 
reign  of  Christ  would  begin  in  the  year  1836.  Some  one 
present  circulated  this  as  the  opinion  of  Wesley  himself  ;  and, 
as  the  opinion  of  such  a  man  was  regarded  of  high  import- 
ance, the  rumoured  prophecy  ran  throughout  the  kingdom, 
and  more  than  one  of  Wesley's  friends  wrote  to  ask  if  what 
was  said  was  true.  The  following  is  Wesley's  reply  to 
Christopher  Hopper. 

"My  dear  Brother,— I  said  nothing,  less  or  more,  in  Bradford 
church,  concerning  the  end  of  the  world,  neither  concerning  my  own 
opinion,  but  what  follows :— That  Bengelius  had  given  it  as  his  opinion, 
not  that  the  world  would  then  end,  but,  that  the  millennial  reign  of 
Christ  would  begin  in  the  year  1836.  I  have  no  opinion  at  all  upon  the 
head;    I  can   determine  nothing  about  it.      These  calculations  are  far 


Manuscript  letters  in  Mission  House. 


Separation  from  the  Church.  545 

above,  out  of  my  sight.      I  have  only  one  thing  to  do, — to  save  my  soul,      1788 
and  those  that  hear  me.  .      ^ 

"  I  am,  yours  affectionately,  ^^    ^ 

"  John  Wesley."  ' 

We  left  Wesley  celebrating  his  eighty-sixth  birthday,  in 
his  birthplace,  Epworth.  Here  he  preached  four  or  five 
sermons,  held  a  lovefeast,  and  attended  sacred  service  in  his 
father's  church.     He  writes  : 

"Mr.  Gibson  read  the  prayers  with  seriousness,  and  preached  a  plain, 
useful  sermon  ;  but  I  was  sorry  to  see  scarce  twenty  communicants, 
half  of  whom  came  on  my  account.  I  was  informed,  likewise,  that 
scarce  fifty  persons  used  to  attend  the  Sunday  service.  What  can  be 
done  to  remedy  this  sore  evil  ?  I  fain  would  prevent  the  members  here 
from  leaving  the  Church  ;  but  I  cannot  do  it.  As  I\Ir.  Gibson  is  not  a 
pious  man,  but  rather  an  enemy  to  piety,  who  frequently  preaches 
against  the  truth,  and  those  that  hold  and  love  it,  I  cannot,  with  all  my 
influence,  persuade  them  either  to  hear  him,  or  to  attend  the  sacrament 
administered  by  him.  If  I  cannot  carry  this  point  even  while  I  live,  who 
then  can  do  it  when  I  die  ?  And  the  case  of  Epworth  is  the  case  of  every 
church,  where  the  minister  neither  loves  nor  preaches  the  gospel ;  the 
Methodists  will  not  attend  his  administrations.  What  then  is  to  be 
done .?" 

This  is  amusing.  Here  we  find  Wesley  acknowledging, 
that,  in  the  very  place  where  his  father  had  been  rector  for 
nearly  forty  years,  the  Methodists  had,  ipso  facto,  separated 
from  the  Church,  and  that  he,  with  all  his  influence,  had  not 
sufficient  power  to  hinder  it. 

During  the  next  fortnight,  Wesley  preached,  on  an  average, 

twice  a  day,  until  his  arrival  in   London,  on  July   15.     The 

following    letters    belong    to    this    period.      The    first    was 

addressed  to  Mr.  John  Mann,  one  of  his  missionaries  in  Nova 

Scotia. 

"  June  30,  1 7S8. 
"My  dear  Brother, — I  am  greatly  concerned  for  the  prosperity  of 
the  work  of  God  in  Nova  Scotia.  It  seems  some  way  to  lie  nearer  my 
heart  than  even  that  in  the  United  States  ;  many  of  our  brethren  there 
are,  we  may  hope,  strong  in  the  Lord,  and  in  the  power  of  His  might  ; 
but  I  look  upon  those  in  the  northern  provinces  to  be  younger,  and 
tender  children,  and  consequently  to  stand  in  need  of  our  utmost  care. 
I  hope  all  of  you,  that  watch  over  them,  are  exactly  of  one  mind,  and  of 
one  judgment  ;  that  you  take  care  always  to  speak  the  same  things,  and 
to  watch  over  one  another  in  love. 

*  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xii.,  p.  298. 
.      VOL.  in.  N  N 


54^  Life  a7id  Times  of  Wesley. 

1788  "Mr.  Wray  is  a  workman  that  need  not  be  ashamed.     I  am  glad  to 

."T^g-  hear  of  his  safe  arrival.  Although  he  has  not  much  learning,^  he  has, 
what  is  far  better,  uprightness  of  heart,  and  devotedness  to  God.  I 
doubt  not  but  he  and  you  will  be  one,  and  go  on  your  way  hand  in  hand. 
Whatever  opposers  you  meet  with,  Calvinists,  papists,  antinomians,  or 
any  other,  have  a  particular  care,  that  they  do  not  take  up  too  much 
either  of  your  thoughts  or  time.  You  have  better  work  ;  keep  to  your 
one  point,  Christ  dving  for  us,  and  living  in  us  ;  so  will  you  fulfil  the  joy 
of, 

"  My  dear  brethren,  your  affectionate  friend  and  brother, 

"John   Wesley."  2 


r 


The  following  was  addressed  to  Samuel  Bradburn,  and,  up 
to  the  present,  has  not  been  published. 

"Epworth,  July  6,  1788. 
"  Dear  SAMMY,^To-morro\v  evening,  I  hope  to  be  at  Doncaster  ;  on 
Wednesday,  at  Sheffield  ;  and  to-morrow  sennight,  at  London,  bring- 
ing my  daughter  with  me.  That  evening  I  should  not  object  to  preaching 
at  West  Street.  On  Tuesday  morning,  I  would  breakfast  in  Chesterfield 
Street,  if  my  sister  will  be  ready  at  eight  o'clock.  Then  I  must  hide 
myself  till  Sunday  ;  when  I  will  preach  at  one  or  the  other  chapel  for 
Kingswood.     Peace  be  with  you  and  yours  ! 

"  I  am,  dear  Sammy,  etc., 
"John  Wesley." 

The  next,  addressed  to  Mr.  Jasper  Winscomb,  is  also  now 

for  the  first  time  printed. 

"London,  July  16,  1788. 
"Dear  Jasper, — If  all  our  society  at  Portsmouth,  or  elsewhere,  sepa- 
rate from  the  Church,  I  cannot  help  it.  But,  I  will  not.  Therefore,  I  can  in 
no  wise  consent  to  the  having  service  in  church  hours.  YoJi  used  to  love 
the  Church  ;  then  keep  to  it,  and  exhort  all  our  people  to  do  the  same.  If 
it  be  true,  that  brother  Hayter  is  used  to  talk  against  the  other  preachers, 
as  well  as  against  Thomas  Warwick,  brother  Hayter  and  I  shall  not  agree. 
Of  dividing  circuits  we  may  speak  at  the  conference. 

"  I  am,  dear  Jasper,  your  affectionate  brother, 

"John  Wesley." 

The  following  also  has  not  before  been  published.     It  was 


'  James  Wray  was  a  member  of  Wesley's  legalised  conference.  After 
travelling  six  years  in  English  circuits,  he  now  went,  as  an  ordained 
missionary  superintendent  to  Nova  Scotia.  It  is  a  curious  fact  that  the 
Nova  Scotians  objected  to  him,  not  only  on  the  ground  of  his  want  of 
learning,  but  because  he  was"  ^«  Englishman!  On  hearing  of  this, 
Wesley,  in  an  unpublished  letter,  wrote  :  "  O  American  gratitude !  Lord, 
I  appeal  to  Thee  ! " 

2  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xiv.,  p.  343. 


ei 


Separation  from  the  CJmrch.  547 

addressed  to  "Mr.  Churchcy,  attorney  at   law,  near  the  Hay,      1788 
Brecon" ;  and   refers  to  certain    poetical    productions   which    actTss 
Mr.  Churchey  wished  to  print. 

"  Near  London,  July  22,  1788. 
My  dear  Brother,— I  am  glad  you  spoke  to  Mr.  Cowper.»     What 
pity  it  is  that  such  talents  as  his  should  be  employed  in  so  useless  a 
manner! 

"Mr.  Bradburn  delivered  your  papers  to  me  a  few  days  ago  ;  but  this 
is  so  busy  a  time,  that  I  had  not  leisure  to  go  through  them  till  to-day.  In 
the  Transhxtion  of  the  Art  of  Printing,  tlierc  are  many  very  good  lines; 
but  there  are  some  that  want  a  good  deal  of  filing  ;  and  many  that  are 
obscure.  The  sense  is  so  much  clouded,  that  it  is  not  easy  to  be  under- 
stood. For  many  years,  I  have  not  had  any  booksellers  but  Mr.  Atlay 
and  my  assistants.  Some  of  the  shorter  copies  are  good  sense  and  good 
poetry. 

"  My  dear  brother  has  left  a  translation  of  the  Book  of  Psalms,  and 
verses  enough  to  make,  at  least,  six  volumes  in  duodecimo.  I  could  but 
ill  spare  him,  now  I  am  myself  so  far  declined  into  the  vale  of  years.  But 
it  is  the  Lord  ;  let  Him  do  what  seemeth  Him  good.  Our  time  is  now 
short.     Let  my  dear  sister  Churchey,  and  you,  and  I  make  the  best  of  it. 

"I  am  your  affectionate  brother, 
"John  Wesley." 

A  week  after  the  above  letter  was  written,  Wesley  opened 
his  conference,  which  continued  its  sittings  till  August  6. 
Besides  presiding,  he  preached  every  evening,  and  on  the 
conference  Sunday  twice.  The  last  day  was  kept  as  a  solemn 
fast, — prayer-meetings  being  held  at  five,  nine,  and  one,  and 
the  day  concluded  with  a  watchnight.  No  wonder,  that  the 
old  Methodist  preachers  returned  from  conferences, '  to  their 
respective  circuits,  like  flames  of  fire.     Wesley  writes  ; 

"  One  of  the  most  important  points  considered  at  this  conference  was 
that  of  leaving  the  Church.  The  sum  of  a  long  conversation  was  :  (i) 
that,  in  a  course  of  fifty  years,  we  had  neither  premeditatedly  nor  will- 
ingly varied  from  it  in  one  article  either  of  doctrine  or  discipline  ;  (2) 
that  we  were  not  yet  conscious  of  varying  from  it  in  any  point  of  doc- 
trine ;  (3)  that  we  have,  in  a  course  of  years,  out  of  necessity,  not  of 
choice,  slowly  and  warily  varied  in  some  points  of  discipline,  by  preach- 
ing in  the  fields,  by  extemporary  prayer,  by  employing  lay  preachers, 
by  forming  and  regulating  societies,  and  by  holding  yearly  conferences. 

^  Cowper  had  recently  published  "  The  Task,"  and  was  now  employed 
in  his  translation  of  Homer.  In  another  letter,  Wesley  says:  "I  think  Mr. 
Cowper  has  done  as  much  as  is  possible  to  be  done  with  his  lamentable 
story.     I  can  only  wish  he  had  a  better  subject." 


548  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1788      But  we  did  none  of  these  things  till  we  were    convinced  we  could  no 

longer  omit  them,  but  at  the  peril  of  our  souls." 

Age  85 

This  was  correct  so  far  as  it  went ;  but  Wesley  ought  to 
have  added,  the  ordaining  of  preachers,  the  licensing  of 
chapels  ;  and,  further,  that  in  this  selfsame  year  he  had 
published  a  i2mo  volume  of  430  pages,  entitled,  "The 
Sunday  Service  of  the  Methodists  ;  with  other  Occasional 
Services " ;  in  reality,  an  altered  edition  of  the  Prayer-Book 
of  the  Church  of  England,  attached  to  which  was  a  "  Collec- 
tion of  Psalms  and  Hymns  for  the  Lord's  Day,"  composed  by 
himself  and  his  brother.     Wesley,  in  his  preface,  says: 

"  Little  alteration  is  made  in  the  following  edition  of  it,  [The  Prayer- 
Book,]  except  in  the  following  instances: 

"  I.  Most  of  the  holy  days  (so  called)  are  omitted,  as,  at  present, 
answering  no  valuable  end. 

"  2.  The  service  of  the  Lord's  day,  the  length  of  which  has  often  been 
complained  of,  is  considerably  shortened. 

"3.  Some  sentences,  in  the  offices  of  baptism,  and  for  the  burial  of  the 
dead,  are  omitted.    And, 

"4.  Many  psalms  left  out,  and  many  parts  of  the  others,  as  being 
highly  improper  for  the  mouths  of  a  Christian  congregation." 

Throughout  his  book,  Wesley  uses  the  word  "  minister," 
instead  of  the  objectionable  word  "  priest."  The  half  popish 
canticle  in  the  morning  prayer,  "  Benedicite,  omnia  opera,"  is 
left  out.  In  the  communion  service,  the  word  "  elder"  is 
used  instead  of  "  priest"  ;  and,  in  the  public  baptism  of  infants, 
Wesley  dispenses  with  signing  the  child  with  the  sign  of 
the  cross,  and  leaves  out  the  sentence,  in  the  thanksgiving, 
that  "it  hath  pleased  God  to  regenerate  this  infant  with  His 
Holy  Spirit."  The  "order  of  confirmation"  is  omitted,  and  no 
reference  is  made  to  godfathers  and  godmothers.  The  "  order 
for  the  visitation  of  the  sick"  is  totally  expunged,  and  of 
course  the  popish  absolution,  "  by  His  (Christ's)  authority 
committed  to  me,  I  absolve  thee  from  all  thy  sins,  in  the 
name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy 
Ghost.  Amen."  In  lieu  of  the  three  forms  for  ordaining 
deacons,  priests,  and  bishops,  Wesley  gives  three  for  "  ordain- 
ing superintendents,  elders,  and  deacons"  Wesley  takes  equal 
liberty  with  the  articles  of  religion.  Some  are  entirely 
omitted  ;  others  are  abridged,  or  variously  altered. 


Sepa7'ation  from  the  Church.  549 

We  find  no  fault  with  all  this.  Upon  the  whole,  we  regard  17^^ 
Wesley's  expurgations  as  emendations.*  His  prayer-book  is  Age  85 
purged  from  popish  and  Calvinian  errors ;  and,  in  that 
respect,  is  superior  to  the  prayer-book  of  the  Church  of 
England.  This,  however,  is  not  the  point  in  question  ;  but 
rather,  whether,  after  Wesley  had  done  all  this,  he  could  be 
fairly  and  honestly  considered  a  member  and  minister  of  the 
Established  Church.  The  Rev.  G.  Nott,  in  his  Bampton 
lecture,  delivered  eleven  years  after  Wesley's  death,  elabo- 
rately argued  this  matter,  and  returned  a  negative  reply  ;  and, 
we  confess,  it  seems  impossible  to  refute  his  general  con- 
clusion, namely,  that  both  "  Wesley  and  Whitefield  are  to  be 
regarded  as  separatists  from  the  Church  of  England." ^  To 
the  day  of  his  death,  Wesley  protested  against  this  ;  but  his 
warmest  friends  must  admit  that,  though  both  were  undeni- 
ably sincere,  yet,  in  this  respect,  profession  and  practice  were 
at  variance. 

Three  years  before  this,  he  had  ordained  Joseph  Taylor, 
who,  ever  since,  had  preached  in  gown  and  bands,  and  ad- 
ministered the  sacraments  in  Scotland.  Joseph  was  now 
appointed  to  Nottingham  circuit;  and,  of  course,  as  an 
ordained  minister,  dreamed  that  he  was  the  same  in  England 
as  he  had  been  in  Scotland.  But  not  so.  Wesley,  who,  three 
years  before,  had  f rocked  his  itinerant  for  the  people  across 
the  Tweed,  now  unfrocked  him  for  the  people  bordering  on 
the  Trent.     Hence  the  following. 

"  London,  November  16,  1788. 
"Dear  Joseph, — I  take  knowledge  of  your  spirit,  and  believe  it  is  yout 
desire  to  do  all  things  right.  Our  friends  in  Newark  should  not  have  for- 
gotten, that  we  have  determined  over  and  over  'not  to  leave  the  Church.' 
Before  they  had  given  you  that  foolish  advice,  they  should  have  consulted 
me.  I  desire  you  would  not  wear  the  surplice,  nor  administer  the  Lord's 
supper,  any  more. 

"  I  am,  dear  Joseph,  your  affectionate  friend  and  brother, 

"John  Wesley."3 

Such  was  the  frequent  clashing  between  practice  and  pro- 

>  Except  in  the  case  of  the  psalms,  where  about  thirty  are  discarded, 
and  about  sixty  mutilated.     The  propriety  of  this  may  be  fairly  doubted. 
2  See  Nott's  Bampton  Lecture,  1802. 
»  The  Wesley  an,  Nov.  4,  1846. 


550  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

fession.  The  prayer-book,  above  mentioned,  had  been  put 
into  the  hands  of  the  Methodists  ;  and  yet,  because  of  its 
alterations  and  abridgments,  it  was  of  no  use  in  services  con- 
ducted in  the  Church  of  England.  For  what  then  was  it 
intended  ?  The  following  extract,  from  the  minutes  of  con- 
ference in  1/88,  supplies  an  answer. 

"(2-  21.  What  further  directions  may  be  given  concerning  the  prayers 
of  the  Church  of  England  ? 

"^.  The  assistants  shall  have  a  discretionary  power  to  read  the 
Prayer-Book  in  the  preaching  houses  on  Sunday  mornings,  where  they 
think  it  expedient,  if  the  generality  of  the  society  acquiesce  with  it;  on 
condition  that  Divine  service  never  be  perfoi-med  in  the  church  hours  on 
the  Sundays  when  the  sacrament  is  administered  in  the  parish  church 
where  the  preaching  house  is  situated;  and  that  the  people  be  strenuously 
exhorted  to  attend  the  sacrament  in  the  parish  church  on  those  Sundays." 

This  may  be  vaguely  worded  ;  but  there  can  be  no  mistake 
about  its  meaning.  By  Wesley's  authority,  and  that  of  his 
conference,  assistants  everywhere  were  permitted  to  do  what 
Dr.  Coke  had  authorised  to  be  done  in  Dublin,  namely,  that, 
on  certain  conditions,  there  should  be  Divine  service  in 
Methodist  chapels  in  the  same  hours  as  Divine  service  was 
performed  in  the  parish  churches  adjoining  them.  If  this  was 
not  separation,  what  was  it .-' 

There  were  two  other  points  discussed  at  the  conference  of 
1788,  of  great  importance.  Many  of  the  preachers  were 
shamefully  left  without  adequate  support,  and  were  actually 
obliged,  either  to  starve  from  hunger,  or  to  go  from  house  to 
house  to  obtain  their  meals.  Wesley  was  annoyed,  perhaps 
indignant;  and,  to  remedy  this  glaring  evil,  the  assistants 
were  directed  to  enforce,  that  every  member,  who  could 
afford  it,  should  contribute,  in  the  classmeetings,  a  penny 
per  week,  and  a  shilling  per  quarter,  at  the  quarterly  visita- 
tion, for  the  maintenance  of  the  preachers  appointed  to 
watch  over  them.  And,  in  addition,  Wesley  issued  the  fol- 
lowing address. 

"  To  our  Societies  in  England  and  Ireland. 

"  Fifty  years  ago,  and  for  several  years  following,  all  our  preachers 
were  single  men,  when,  in  process  of  time,  a  few  of  them  married.  Those 
with  whom  they  laboured  maintained  both  them  and  their  wives,  there 
being  then  no  settled  allowance  either  for  the  one  or  the  other.    But  above 


Dewsbiuy  Chapel  Case.  5  5 1 

thirty  years  ago,  it  was   found  most  convenient  to  fix  a  stated  allowance      1788 
for  both,'  and  this  was   found  by  the  circuits  where  they  were  stationed;        — - 
till  one  year  some  of  the  circuits  complained  of  poverty.     Dr,  Coke  and       ^^    ^ 
I    supplied   what   was  wanting.     The   next    year,  the  number  of  wives 
increasing,  three  or  four  of   them  were  supplied  out  of  the  contingent 
fund.     This  was  a  bad  precedent,  for  more  and  more  wives  were  thrown 
upon  this  fund,  till  it  was  likely  to  be  swallowed  up  thereby.^     We  could 
think  of  no  way  to  prevent  this,  but  to  consider  the  state  of  our  societies 
in  England  and  Ireland,  and  to  beg  the  members  of  each  circuit  to  give 
us  that    assistance    which    they    can    easily  do   without   hurting    their 
families. 

"  Within  these  fifty  years,  the  substance  of  the  Methodists  is  increased 
in  proportion  to  their  numbers.  Therefore,  if  you  are  not  straitened  in 
your  own  bowels,  this  will  be  no  grievance,  but  you  will  cheerfully  give 
food  and  raiment  to  those  who  give  up  all  their  time,  and  strength,  and 
labour  to  your  service. 

"  London,  yf//'^'-/^j-/ 2,  1788.  "John  Wesley." 

No  wonder  that,  in  his  later  years,  Wesley  so  often  wrote 
and  spoke  of  the  corrupting  influence  of  the  riches  of  rich 
Methodists  ! 

The  other  affair,  which  demanded  the  attention  of  Wesley's 
conference,  in  1788,  was  equally  unpleasant.  Six  years  before, 
as  we  have  already  seen,  the  trustees,  at  Birstal,  claimed  the 
power  of  appointing  preachers  to  their  chapel.  This  was 
followed  by  the  deed  of  declaration  in  1784.  At  the  very 
time  this  deed  was  being  signed,  the  same  subject  was  revived 
at  Devvsbury,  a  town  contiguous  to  Birstal. 

^  As  a  curious  specimen  of  the  way  in  which  things  were  managed  in 
the  early  days  of  Methodism,  the  following  extracts  are  given  from  "  The 
Dales"  circuit  book,  whose  accounts  extend  from  1765  to  1791.         s.   d. 
"1765.  Dec.  7.  Thomas  Rankin.    Two  meals,  and  horse  one  night     i     o 

1766.  March  29.  John  Ellis.     Six  meals,  and  horse  three  nights, 

shirt  washed,  and  pennyworth  of  paper 2  10 

„       Sept.    28.   Jeremiah    Robertshaw.      Twelve    meals,    and 

horse  four  nights,  and  shirt  washing 5     3" 

The  reader  can  calculate  how  many  meals  a  day  were  allowed  to  these 
godly  men,  and  how  much  per  meal.  Besides  these  allowances  for  board, 
each  preacher  was  entitled  to  receive,  as  quarterage,  for  himself  ;^3 ;  and, 
for  his  wife,  if  he  had  one,  £z  \os. 

2  The  contingent  fund,  raised  by  the  yearly  collection  in  the  classes, 
was  originally  intended  to  defray  law  expenses,  and  to  pay,  or  reduce, 
chapel  debts.  In  this  year,  1788,  the  income  of  the  fund  was  ^^1203  "js.  \d., 
out  of  which  was  paid  for  law  expenses,  ^37  4^.  2d.;  for  chapels, 
£106  15^".  od. ;  and  for  the  deficiencies  of  the  preachers  and  their  families, 
;^433  i8i'.  id.  It  was  high  time  for  Wesley  to  take  action;  though  his 
effort  to  correct  the  evil  was  without  effect. 


552  L'^fe  ci^id  Times  of  Wesley. 

1788  Here  it  had  been  proposed  to  build   a  new  chapel.     Mr. 

Ase~85  V^lton,  the  assistant,  refused  to  move  in  the  matter,  unless  it 
was  agreed  that  the  chapel  should  be  settled  according  to  the 
conference  plan.  Mr.  Heald  and  some  others  wished  to  obtain 
from  Wesley  certain  concessions,  and  wrote  to  John  Atlay, 
the  book  steward,  to  secure  them,     Atlay  replied  as  follows. 

"  London,  February  22,  1784. 

"My  dear  Sir, —  I  have,  this  morning,  been  with  Mr.  Wesley,  and 
have  laid  your  letter  before  him.^  He  is  not  only  wilHng,  but  desires, 
it  be  inserted  in  your  deed,  that,  if  ever  the  conference,  or  the 
preacher  appointed  by  conference,  refuse  or  neglect  to  provide  a  preacher 
for  your  chapel  for  three  or  four  Sundays,  then  the  trustees  shall  have 
it  in  their  own  power  to  call  one  whom  they  please,  and  the  power  of 
nomination  shall  be  theirs  in  future. 

"  If  any  preacher,  appomted  to  serve  your  chapel,  should  be  proved 
guilty  of  immorality,  the  trustees  shall  have  a  power  to  reject  him ;  and, 
if  the  conference  does  not  send  another  to  fill  up  his  place,  you  shall 
have  a  power  to  call  one  to  do  it.  "John  Atlay." 

On  the  receipt  of  this  letter,  Valton  solicited  subscriptions, 
and  preached  at  the  laying  of  the  foundation  stone.  ^ 

Five  days  after  the  date  of  the  above  letter,  the  deed  of 
declaration  was  executed  ;  and,  among  other  names  omitted, 
in  the  constitution  of  the  legal  conference,  were  those  of  John 
Atlay  and  William  Eels,  the  first  of  whom  had  been  a 
preacher  one-and-twenty  years,  and  the  second  twelve.  This, 
by  no  means,  increased  Atlay 's  loyalty.  In  an  unpublished 
letter,  dated  September  17,  1785,  he  writes:  "Mr.  Ilampson 
is  well  provided  for.  I  have  begun  to  do  a  little  business  for 
myself  as  coal  merchant ;  and  have  reason  to  think  it  will  do 
well  for  me.     I  have  not  left  the  book  room,  nor  do  I  intend 

^  In  a  i2mo  pamphlet,  published  in  1788,  and  entitled,  "A  Reply  to 
what  the  Rev.  Dr.  Coke  is  pleased  to  call  '  The  State  of  the  Dewsbury 
House,'  being  a  Vindication  of  the  Conduct  of  the  Trustees  of  that 
House," — it  is  stated,  that  the  questions  proposed  to  Wesley  by  Mr. 
Heald  were:  (i)  ■■' If  the  conference  should  neglect  to  supply  the  house 
with  preachers,  would  it  be  understood  to  remain  the  property  of  the 
conference,  or  would  the  trustees  have  a  power  to  provide  for  themselves  ? 
(2)  If  any  preacher,  sent  them,  should  be  found  guilty  of  immorality, 
would  the  trustees  have  a  power  of  rejecting  him  ?"  It  further  states,  that 
the  trustees  had,  in  Wesley's  own  handwriting,  a  paragraph  to  the  effect 
that  "the  assistants  and  leaders  were  to  be  the  proper  judges"  of  a 
preacher  charged  with  immorality.  This  certainly  clashes  with  Wesley's 
letter,  given  hereafter,  and  dated  July  30,  1788. 

2  "The  State  of  Dewsbury  House,"     By  Dr.  Coke. 


Dewsbiiry  Chapel  Case.  553 

\\.  at  present.     I  have  my  trials  ;  but  the  disagreeable  things      1788 
I  have  met  with,   in  our  connexion,   have  really  raised  my     Age  85 
heart  to  God." 

In  another,  bearing  date,  April  iS,  1786,  he  says:  "You 
smile  at  my  commencing  coal  merchant.  There  was  a  time 
when  I  could  have  trusted  to  my  good  old  friend  "  (Wesley) 
"  for  everything  that  I  wanted,  or  was  likely  to  want ;  but 
late  occurrences  have  given  me  a  check  ;  and,  I  really  think, 
the  thing  is  right  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord,"  He  then  proceeds 
to  state  that  he  had  lately  been  attending  the  ministry  of 
Mr.  Latrobe,  the  Moravian  minister,  and  that  he  increasingly 
admired  him  every  time  he  heard  him. 

These  extracts  may  help  to  throw  some  light  on  Atlay's 
subsequent  conduct. 

Meanwhile,  Dewsbury  chapel  was  completed,  and  a  draft 
of  the  trust  deed  was  sent,  by  Parson  Greenwood,  to  Man- 
chester conference,  in  1787,  for  perusal.  This  was  handed 
officially  to  Alexander  Mather,  who  strongly  objected  to  its 
provisions ;  and  complained  that  the  trustees  had  not  inserted 
a  clause,  to  the  effect,  "that  no  preacher  should  be  sent  away 
till  he  was  tried,  and  found  guilty,  before  his  peers,  or  the 
neighbouring  assistant  preachers."  The  trustees  refused  to 
yield,  thus,  in  reality,  making  themselves,  as  Dr.  Coke  put 
it,  "accusers,  jury,  judges,  and  executioners."^     Wesley  had 

^  By  the  kindness  of  Mr.  Robinson,  of  Dewsbur)%  we  have  before  us  a 
copy  of  the  original  trust  deed,  from  which  we  learn  that,  if,  after  a 
vacancy,  Wesley  or  the  conference  refused  or  neglected,  for  the  space  of 
forty  days,  to  appoint  a  preacher;  or  if  the  preacher  appointed  should 
"  not  conduct  or  conform  himself  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  trustees  or, 
the  major  part  of  them,  it  should  be  lawful  for  the  said  trustees,  or  such 
major  part,  not  only  to  displace  such  preacher,  (after  giving  him  one 
month's  previous  notice  thereof  in  writing.)  but  also  to  appoint  such  other 
preacher  as  they  should  deem  more  proper,  and  better  qualified  to  benefit 
the  society."  I'he  deed  is  dated  January  31,  1788,  and  the  names  and 
occupations  of  the  trustees  are  as  follows. 


John  Hcald,  maltster. 
John  Robinson,  weaver. 
Joseph  Gill,  clothier. 
John  Beaumont,  cordwaincr. 
John  Lancaster,  currier. 
John  Howgate,  sen.,  clothier, 
John  Howgate,  jun.,  clothier. 
Barlholmew  Archer,  clothier. 
William  Walker,  clothier. 


John  Thorns,  clothier. 
Isaac  Wilman,  clothier. 
Abraham  Thomas,  clothier. 
Timothy  Parker,  clothier. 
John  Hirst,  clothier. 
Joseph  Bennett,  farmer. 
Thomas  Bromley,  clolliier. 
Benjamin  Whitakcr,  farmer. 


554  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1788      appointed   Parson  Greenwood  and   William   Percival  to   the 
Age85    t)ewsbury  circuit ;  but,  on  October  23,  he  instructed  them  to 
abandon  the  chapel  and  to  leave  the  trustees  to  provide  for 
themselves  to  their  hearts'  content. 

Mr.  Mather,  at  the  time,  was  in  the  Sheffield  circuit,  and 
obtained  Wesley's  consent  to  become  mediator  between 
the  contending  parties.  Accordingly  he  went,  and  pro- 
posed to  the  trustees  that  they  should  have  power:  (i) 
To  mortgage  the  premises  for  the  debt  unpaid,  (2)  To 
let  the  seats  at  any  price  they  liked.  (3)  To  appoint 
their  own  stewards,  and  dispose  of  their  own  income. 
He  further  proposed,  that  no  assistant  should  expel  a 
trustee  from  the  society  but  by  the  consent  of  the  majority 
of  his  co-trustees.  All  this  was  palatable;  but  what  followed 
was  otherwise.  Mather,  of  course,  had  no  objection  to  a 
preacher  being  dismissed  for  immorality,  as  was  proposed  in 
Atlay's  letter  ;  but  he  wished  to  institute  a  court  in  which 
the  accused  might  have  a  fair  and  impartial  trial ;  and.,  hence, 
requested  that  a  clause  might  be  inserted  in  the  trust  deed, 
providing  that  three  of  the  nearest  assistants  should  be 
judges;  that,  if  they  found  the  charges  proved,  they  should 
join  with  the  trustees  in  requesting  Wesley,  or  the  president 
of  the  conference  for  the  time  being,  to  remove  the  guilty 
preacher,  and  to  send  another  in  his  place ;  that,  if  this  was 
not  done  within  a  specified  time,  the  trustees  should  do  it 
themselves  ;  and  that,  if  the  conference  next  ensuing  did  not 
send  another  preacher,  then  the  election  of  preachers  was  to 
remain  with  the  trustees,  and  the  power  of  conference,  to 
appoint  preachers  to  Dewsbury  chapel,  to  be  forfeited  for 
ever.  This  the  trustees  stubbornly  rejected;  and  the  further 
consideration  of  the  matter  was  postponed  till  February  5, 
1788.  At  this  second  interview,  it  was  proposed  by  Mr. 
Mather,  that  an  appeal  should  be  made  to  the  subscribers  to 
decide  whether  the  clauses  he  had  named  should  be  inserted 
in  the  deed ;  and  that  their  decision  should  be  final.  This 
also  was  refused  ;  and  now,  when  all  further  negotiation 
seemed  impossible,  Mather,  by  Wesley's  request,  informed 
the  seatholders,  "  that  they  were  not  to  pay  any  more  rent 
till  the  matter  was  settled  between  him  and  the  trustees." 
Thus  the  affair  was  left  till  the  conference  of  1788  ;  when  a 


Dewsbury  Chapel  Case.  555 

committee  met  on  the  subject.  John  Atlay  was  present,  and  1788 
remarked,  that  if  he  were  to  go  down  to  Dewsbury  he  would  AgeS- 
soon  settle  matters  with  the  trustees.  Mather  objected  to 
Atlay's  suggestion,  and  said  :  "  Mr,  Atlay,  it  is  reported,  that 
you  have  promised  the  trustees,  that,  if  Mr.  Wesley  withdraws 
the  preachers  from  Dewsbury,  you  will  yourself  go  and  serve 
them.  I  ask  you  then,  before  God  and  these  brethren,  have 
you  made  any  such  promise,  or  have  you  not.'"  Atlay 
reluctantly  acknowledged,  that  he  had  ;  and,  further,  that  he 
had  also  advised  the  Methodists  at  Malton  not  to  settle  their 
chapel  on  the  conference  plan.  Next  morning  Wesley  wrote 
as  follows.  . 

"  To  the  Trustees  0/  Dewsbury. 

"  London,  ^u/y  30,  1788. 
"  My  dear  Brethren, — The  question  between  us  is,  *  By  whom  shall 
the  preachers  sent,  from  time  to  time,  to  Dewsbury  be  judged.'"  You  say, 
'  By  the  trustees.'  I  say,  '  By  their  peers — the  preachers  met  in  con- 
ference.' You  say,  'Give  up  this,  and  we  will  receive  them,'  I  say,  '  I 
cannot,  I  dare  not,  give  up  this.'  Therefore,  if  you  will  npt  receive  them 
on  these  terms,  you  renounce  connection  with  your  affectionate  brother, 

"John  Wesley." 

As  the  trustees  still  held  out,  the  conference  decided  that 
another  deputation,  consisting  of  Mather,  Pawson,  Thompson, 
Greenwood,  and  Percival,  should  meet  at  Dewsbury  on 
August  14.  The  deputies  asked,  "  Have  you  executed  a  trust 
deed.''"  The  trustees  answered,  "  Yes."  "Can  we  see  it  .-*  " 
"  No."  "  Will  you  add  to  it  a  clause  such  as  Mr.  Wesley 
washes?"  "No."  Such,  In  substance,  were  the  proceedings 
of  the  meeting.  The  result  was,  as  before  stated,  the 
preachers,  who  had  been  appointed  at  Dewsbury,  were  at 
once  removed  ;  the  chapel  was  abandoned  ;  and  the  preachers 
in  the  Birstal  circuit  once  more  commenced  Methodism  at 
Dewsbury,  by  preaching  in  the  open  streets.^ 

Five  days  after  the  date  of  the  Dewsbury  meeting,  John 
Atlay,  who,  as  we  have  seen,  had  joined  to  Wesley's  book 
stewardship  the  business  of  a  coal  merchant,  and  had  also  been 
toying  with  the  Dewsbur}'-  trustees,  wrote  as  follows  to  Wesley. 

"London,  Auf^ist  19,  1788. 
"  Reverend  and  dear  Sir, — I  was  in  hopes  matters  at  Dewsbury 

'  Mather's  "State  of  Dewsbury  House." 


55^  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

T7B8      would  have  been  made  up;    but,  by  a  letter  yesterday,  I  am  informed 
^^    o      that  their  preachers   are  removed  from  them,   and  their  place  declared 
"^  vacant;  in  consequence  of  which,  the  trustees  have  most  solemnly  called 

me  to  come  amongst  them.  They  plead  my  promise  ;  and  I  cannot  go 
back  from  it.  With  me  a  promise  is  sacred,  though  it  should  be  ever  so 
much  to  my  hurt  ;  and,  as  to  temporals,  it  must  hurt  me  much.  But  I 
regard  not  that,  if  there  is  a  prospect  that  I  shall  be  much  more  useful 
there  than  I  ever  have  been,  or  can  be,  in  London.  But  it  gives  me  more 
pain  than  I  can  express,  when  I  tell  you  that,  in  order  to  go  there,  I  must 
quit  the  book  room.  The  longest  that  I  can  stay  in  it  will  be  till  the  25th 
of  September  ;  and,  by  that  time,  you  will  be  able  to  get  one  for  my  place. 
I  think  the  fittest  man  in  the  world  for  it  is  Joseph  Bradford.  If  he 
should  be  appointed,  he  may  come  directly,  and  stay  with  us  till  we 
go  ;  and,  by  that  time,  I  could  teach  him  more  than  he  can  learn  in 
three  months  without  me  ;  but  these  things  I  leave  to  your  superior 
judgment. 

"  I  have  only  now  to  request  a  few  things  of  you.  Do  not  be  angry 
with  me  for  leaving  you,  after  having  spent  fifteen  of  the  best  years  of  my 
life  in  serving  you,  with  more  care,  fear,  labour,  and  pain,  than  all  the 
years  of  my  life  have  produced.  Do  not  blame  me  for  going  to  a  people 
you  have  left  ;  they  are  the  Lord's  redeemed  ones,  and  some  of  them 
living  members  of  His  body.  Do  not  disown  me,  nor  forbid  my  preaching 
in  any  of  your  places  ;  but  give  me  leave,  where  and  when  it  is  agreeable 
to  the  preachers,  to  preach  in  your  houses.  But  if  this  request  cannot  be 
complied  with,  then  drop  me  silently  ;  and  let  me  be  of  too  little  conse- 
quence to  say  anything  about  me  from  the  pulpit  or  press.  I  beg  you  will 
write  by  return  of  post ;  and  do  not  write  unkindly  to  your  faithful  servant 

and  friend, 

"John  Atlav.''^ 

Was  this  the  whine  of  a  mercenary  man .''  or  was  it  the 
genuine  effusion  of  a  loving  and  honest  heart .-'  Tlie  reader 
must  answer  for  himself;  remembering,  however,  that  the 
Dewsbury  chapel  had  been  built,  not  by  the  money  of  the 
trustees,  but  by  the  subscriptions  of  the  Methodists  ;  that 
three  years  previous  to  this,  Atlay  had  entertained  the 
thought  of  ultimately  leaving  Wesley's  stewardship,  and, 
with  an  eye  to  that,  had  begun  the  business  of  selling  coals  ; 
and,  further,  that,  since  then,  he  had  unquestionably  en- 
couraged the  Dewsbury  trustees  in  their  rebellion,  by 
promising  to  become  their  preacher,  when  Wesley  withdrew 
his.  What  was  Wesley's  answer  to  his  double  dealing 
friend  .-* 

1 "  Letters  by  Rev.  J.  Wesley  and  Mr.  John  Atlay."     1790. 


Dewsbiiiy  Chapel  Case.  557 

"Pembroke,  August  23,  1788.  1788 

"My  dear  Brother, — If  you  are  persuaded,  that  such  a  promise  a^7~c 
(which  is  the  whole  and  sole  cause  of  the  breach  at  Dewsbury)  is  binding,  ^ 
you  must  follow  your  persuasion.  You  will  have  blame  enough  from  other 
persons  ;  my  hand  shall  not  be  upon  you.  If  I  can  do  you  good,  I  will  ; 
but  shall  certainly  do  you  no  harm.  George  Whitfield  is  the  person  I 
choose  to  succeed  you.  I  wish  you  would  teach  him  as  much  as  you  can 
without  delay. 

"  I  am,  with  kind  love  to  sister  Atlay,  your  affectionate  brother, 

"John  Wesley." 

Thus  did  Wesley  dispose  of  his  book  steward's  mischievous 
promise ;  his  pert  nomination  of  Joseph  Bradford  as  his 
successor ;  and  his  whimpering  prayer  that  Wesley  would  not 
punish  him  for  his  naughty  tricks. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  insert  the  whole  of  the  corre- 
spondence. Suffice  it  to  say,  that  Wesley  requested  Atlay, 
before  he  left,  to  employ  "  one  or  two  proper  persons  to  take 
an  inventory  of  all  the  books  in  the  shop  and  under  the 
chapel,"  so  that  George  Whitfield  might  know  what  was 
put  into  his  care.     Atlay's  reply  to  this  was  the  following. 

"  London,  September  20,  1 788. 
"Reverend  and  dear  Sir, — We  have  almost  this  moment  finished 
our  job  of  taking  the  stock  ;  and,  as  near  as  we  can  tell,  your  stock  is  this 
day  worth  ;^I3, 751  iS-r.  ^d.,  according  to  the  prices  fixed  in  the  catalogue. 
However,  you  may  be  sure  it  is  not  less  than  that.  Most  of  these  are 
saleable  things.  You  will  be  sure  to  find  sale  for  them,  if  you  live  ;  and, 
if  not,  they  will  be  of  equal  value  to  those  to  whom  you  leave  them. 

"I  am,  etc.,  "John  Atlay." 

Atlay  went  to  Dewsbury  on  September  24,  and  took 
possession  of  the  chapel  built  with  the  money  of  Methodists, 
We  have  before  us  a  number  of  Mr.  Pawson's  letters,  written 
at  this  period,  and  in  reference  to  the  Dewsbury  unpleasant- 
ness. Pawson  went,  and  preached  to  the  discontented 
Methodists  ;  and  spent  two  days  in  endeavouring  to  put  them 
right ;  but  without  effect.  Mr.  Mather  was  "highly  offended" 
on  account  of  this  ;  and  ]\Ir.  Atlay  wrote  to  Pawson  "  a 
thundering  letter."  Under  date  of  September  16,  1788, 
Pawson  says  : 

"  You  see  the  blessedness  of  striving  to  make  peace.  The  assistants  of 
the  neighbouring  circuits  are  to  preach  in  the  streets  at  Dewsbury,  in  their 
turns.  This  is  pain  and  grief  to  me.  To  preach  in  opposition,  Methodists 
against  Methodists,  is  painful  beyond  expression.    I  believe  all  might  have 


55^  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1788  been  prevented  by  loving-,  prudent  preachers.  We  have  had  a  few  un- 
.  ^  worthy  men  among  us,  who  have  been  a  great  burden  to  us  and  to  the 
people  ;  but  we  do  not  lay  them  aside.  Therefore,  the  people  will  oblige 
us  to  do  it,  by  making  deeds  like  that  at  Dewsbury.  Some  of  our 
preachers  do  not  live  near  to  God,  and  do  not  endeavour,  by  reading  and 
prayer,  to  render  themselves  acceptable  to  the  people.  But  now  it  seems 
as  though  the  people  would  make  them  look  about  them  a  little." 

From  other  unpublished  letters,  we  learn  that  Atlay  and 
Eels^  had  large  congregations ;  that  they  had  taken  with 
them  the  whole  of  the  Dewsbury  society,  except  a  good  man 
and  his  wife,  of  the  name  of  Drake  ;  and  that  one  of  the 
trustees  soon  became  a  bankrupt,  and  was  said  to  have 
squandered  a  considerable  amount  of  Atlay 's  money. 
Difficulties  speedily  ensued  ;  hence  the  following,  extracted 
from  a  letter  dated 

"BiRSTAL,  December  18,  1789. 
"...  Mr.  Atlay  and  Mr.  Eels  cannot  supply  the  places  they  have 
at  present.  They  want  another  preacher,  but  cannot  get  one.  They  have 
tried  to  get  Mr.  Holmes,  who  left  us  last  conference,  but  he  is  engaged  to 
Sheerness,  as  the  society  there  is  divided.  Besides,  I  understand,  they 
are  all  for  the  Church,  and  utterly  against  separation,  ordination,  etc.  The 
devil  can  no  longer  set  themen  of  the  world  against  us  ;  but  he  is  trying 
a  much  more  effectual  way,  setting  the  people  and  preachers  one 
against  another. 

"John  Pawson."^ 

Thus  did  Mr.  Atlay  really  set  up  an  iviperium  in  iinpcrio. 

He    called    himself    a    Methodist ;     and     yet    was    setting 

Methodism's  founder  at   defiance.     Not  content  with  taking 

possession  of  the  Dewsbury  circuit,  he  went  to  Shields,  and 

there,  and  in  Newcastle,  and   other  places,  founded  separate 

societies.     At     length,   he    and   his   friend   Eels   quarrelled. 

Hence  the  following. 

"BiRSTAL,  I\Iay  17,  1791. 
"...    Mr.  Atlay  and  Mr.  Eels  have  differed  and  parted.     Mr.  Atlay  is 
gone  to  London,  and  whether  he  will  return  to  Dewsbury  is  quite  un- 
certain.    I  believe  very  few  desire  or  expect  it.     He  has  treated  Mr.  Eels 
in  a  very  unkind  and  unbrotherly  manner  ever  since  he  came  to  Dewsbury, 

^  By  some  strange  oversight,  William  Eels,  at  the  conference  of  1788, 
was  left  without  an  appointment ;  and,  at  the  time  of  Atlay's  arrival 
there,  was  actually  at  Dewsbury,  endeavouring  to  make  peace.  Hearing 
of  this,  and  mistaking  Eels'  motive,  Mr.  Mather  impetuously  took  steps 
to  prevent  his  preaching  in  other  Methodist  pulpits.  "  This  was  the  only 
cause  of  his  uniting  with  John  Atlay." — (Pawson's  manuscripts.) 

^  Unpublished  letter. 


Age  85 


yohri  At /ay  and  Williain  Eels.  559 

and  Mr.  Eels  was  determined  to  bear  it  no  longer.  The  trustees  had  a  1788 
meeting,  and  determined  that  Mr.  Eels  should  stay,  and  be,  in  every 
respect,  equal  to  Mr.  Atlay.  They  are  greatly  displeased  with  Mr.  Atlay's 
conduct,  as  well  as  with  his  doctrines.  He  has  got  deep  into  Mr. 
Manners'  ^  opinions,  and  says  that  he  has  believed  them  these  twenty 
years.  Mr.  Eels  is  very  friendly,  and  I  believe  most  sincerely  wishes  a 
reconciliation,  and  I  hope  will  endeavour  to  bring  it  about. 

"John  Pawson."^ 

William  Eels  died  within  two  years  after  this.  In  the 
meantime,  the  Dewsbury  trustees  began  to  entertain  "  shock- 
ing opinions"  of  their  friend  Atlay  ;  and  in  September,  1792, 
sent  for  Pawson  to  effect  a  reunion.^ 

We  need  not  pursue  the  subject  farther.  Here  we  have 
the  rise,  the  progress,  and  collapse  of  the  Atlayite  rebellion. 
We  could  give  a  number  of  Atlay's  letters,  showing  that,  in 
1789,  he  coquetted  with  Alexander  McNab,  and  tried  to  secure 
the  co-operation  of  James  Oddie.  But  the  traitorous  book 
steward  has  already  occupied  more  space  than  his  worth 
deserves.  We  only  add,  that,  to  all  his  other  faults,  he 
added  that  of  circulating  the  most  infamous  reports  reflecting 
on  Wesley's  moral  character  ;*  which  extorted  from  Wesley 
the  following  characteristic  "  Word  to  whom  it  may  Concern," 
inserted  in  his  Magazine  iox  1790,  just  after  the  appearance 
of  Atlay's  pamphlet  on  the  subject. 

"In  August,  1788,  Mr.  Atlay  wrote  me  word,  *I  must  look  out  for 
another  servant,  for  he  would  go  to  Dewsbury  on  September  25.'  So  far 
was  I  from 'bidding  him  go,'  that  I  knew  nothing  of  it  till  that  hour. 
But  I  then  told  him,  '  Go  and  serve  them '  :  seeing  I  found  he  would  serve 
me  no  longer. 

"He  sent  me  word  that  I  had  in  London  ;!^i3,75i  iSj.  ^d.,  stock  in 
books.  Desiring  to  know  exactly,  I  employed  two  booksellers  to  take  an 
account  of  my  stock.  The  account  they  brought  in,  October  31,  1788, 
was  : 

'Value  of  stock,  errors  excepted,  ^4827  \os.  i)\d. 

'John  Parsons, 
Thomas  Scollick.' 

^  Nicholas  Manners  was  one  of  Wesley's  itinerant  preachers  from  1759 
to  1784.  He  was  an  able  man.  His  heresy,  in  substance,  was,  that,  in 
consequence  of  the  work  and  death  of  Christ,  all  men  arc  born  in  the 
same  state  as  that  in  which  Adam  stood  previous  to  his  fall. 

2  Unpublished  letter.  ^  Pawson's  manuscript  letters. 

^  We  have,  in  manuscript,  his  most  malignant  slander,  but  prefer  with- 
holding it.  No  wonder  John  Atlay  wrote,  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Mcrryweather, 
of  Yarm,  in  1785,  "You  know  I  never  mount  high  in  profession  of  grace." 


Age  8S 


560^  Life  aitd  Times  of  Wesley. 

178S  "Why  did  John  Atlay  so  wonderfully  overrate  my  stock?     Certainly 

to  do  me  honour  in  the  eyes  of  the  world. 

"  I  never  approved  of  his  going  to  Devvsbury  ;  but  I  submitted  to  what 
I  could  not  help. 

"  With  respect  to  Dewsbury  House,  there  never  was  any  dispute  about 
the  property  of  preachins^  houses,  that  was  an  artful  misrepresentation ; 
but  merely  the  appointing  of  preachers  in  them. 

"  If  John  Atlay  has  a  mind  to  throw  any  more  dirt  upon  me,  I  do  not 
know  I  shall  take  any  pains  to  wipe  it  off.  I  have  but  a  few  days  to  live  j 
and  I  wish  to  spend  those  in  peace. 

" London, />(^.  25,  1790,  "John  Wesley." 

These  are  long,  perhaps  tedious,  statements ;  but  they  are 
not  without  interest,  as  helping  to  illustrate  the  life  and 
character  of  Wesley.  His  career  was  a  long  continued  scene 
of  trouble.  Mobs  assailed  him  first ;  then  parsons  and 
pamphleteers  ;  then  his  friends,  the  Calvinists  ;  and,  last  of 
all,  his  vexations  were  chiefly  those  occasioned  by  some  of  his 
own  faithless  followers. 

Not  to  return  to  Dewsbury,  it  may  be  added  here, 
that,  at  the  conference  of  1789,  the  preachers  subscribed 
i^2o6  towards  the  erection  of  a  new  chapel  ;  and  Wesley 
issued  two  circulars,  stating  the  case  to  the  Methodists  in 
general,  and  asking  their  assistance.  After  mentioning  that 
the  former  chapel  had  been  built  by  the  contributions  of  the 
people,  (the  trustees  themselves  not  giving  a  quarter  of  what  it 
cost,)  he  continues  : 

"  Observe,  here  is  no  dispute  about  the  right  of  houses  at  all.  I  have 
no  right  to  any  preaching  house  in  England.  What  I  claim  is,  a  right  of 
stationing  the  preachers.  This  these  trustees  have  robbed  me  of  in  the 
present  instance.  Therefore,  only  one  of  these  two  ways  can  be  taken  ; 
either  to  sue  for  this  house,  or  to  build  another :  we  prefer  the  latter, 
being  the  most  friendly  way. 

"  I  beg,  therefore,  my  brethren,  for  the  love  of  God ;  for  the  love  of  me, 
your  old  and  well-nigh  worn  out  servant ;  for  the  love  of  ancient  Method- 
ism, which,  if  itinerancy  is  interrupted,  will  speedily  come  to  nothing  ; 
for  the  love  of  justice,  mercy,  and  truth,  which  are  all  so  grievously  violated 
by  the  detention  of  this  house ;  that  you  will  set  your  shoulders  to  the 
necessary  work.  Be  not  straitened  in  your  own  bowels.  We  have  never 
had  such  a  cause  before.  Let  not  then  unkind,  unjust,  fraudulent  men, 
have  cause  to  rejoice  in  their  bad  labour.  This  is  a  common  cause. 
Exert  yourselves  to  the  utmost.  I  have  subscribed  ;^5o.  So  has  Dr.  Coke. 
The  preachers  have  done  all  they  could.  O  let  them  that  have  much  give 
plentcously !     Perhaps,  this  is  the  last  labour  of  love  I  may  have  occasion 


Itinerancy.  561 


to  recommend  to  you  ;  let  it  then  stand  as  one  more  monument  of  your      1788 
real  gratitude  to,  my  dear  brethren,  your  old,  affectionate  brother,  : 

"John  Wesley."'  se»S 

We  now  return  to  the  conference  of  1788.  These  were 
not  the  only  things  to  try  Wesley's  patience.  An  effort  was 
made  to  set  aside  the  itinerant  plan  in  Scotland, — a  plan  to 
which,  as  already  shown,  Wesley  attached  the  utmost  im- 
portance.    This  evoked  the  following  letter  to  Lady  Maxwell. 

"  London,  August  8,  1788. 
"  Alv  DEAR  Lady, — It  is  certain,  many  persons,  both  in  Scotland  and 
England,  would  be  well  pleased  to  have  the  same  preachers  always.  But 
we  cannot  forsake  the  plan  of  acting,  which  we  have  followed  from  the 
beginning.  For  fifty  years,  God  has  been  pleased  to  bless  the  itinerant 
plan  ;  the  last  year  most  of  all  ;  it  must  not  be  altered,  till  I  am  removed; 
and,  I  hope,  it  will  remain  till  our  Lord  comes  to  reign  upon  earth. 

"John  Wesley."2 

To  the  same  effect  was  another,  written  three  months  later, 
and  addressed  to  Jasper  Winscomb. 

"  London,  November  8,  1 788. 
"Dear  Jasper, — William  Cashman  advised  you  like  a  heathen.     Mr. 
Valton  deserves  pay,  as  well  as  you  do.     But  he  does  not  want  it,  and, 
therefore,  scorns  to  take  it,  knowing  the  poverty  of  the  land. 

"  I  am  glad  to  hear  so  good  an  account  of  the  Isle  of  Wight.  The 
work  of  God  will  flourish  there,  if  it  be  steadily  pursued. 

"  No  preacher  ought  to  stay  either  at  Portsmouth,  or  Sarum,  or  any 
other  place,  a  whole  week  together.  That  is  not  the  Methodist  plan  at 
all.     It  is  a  novel  abuse. 

"  I  am,  dear  Jasper,  your  affectionate  brother, 

"John  Wesley."^ 

On  the  loth  of  August,  Wesley  set  out  for  Wales  and  the 
west  of  England  ;  generally  preaching  twice  a  day,  and  on  the 
Sundays  thrice,  and  everywhere  to  crowded  congregations. 

On  the  28th  of  September,  he  returned  to  London,  and, 
two  days  after,  went  off  to  Norfolk.  The  remainder  of  the 
year  was  employed,  as  usual,  in  the  metropolis  and  the 
surrounding  counties. 

These  were  not  pleasure  trips ;  but  made  in  wintry  weather, 
in   frost   and   snow ;    the   veteran   of    eighty-five   preaching 

"^  Methodist  Magazine,  1790,  p.  103. 
'  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xii.,  p.  328. 
^  Methodist  Magazine,  1859,  p.  247. 

VOL.  in.  00 


562  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1788      almost  daily,  both    night  and  morning-,  and  attending  to   a 
Age  85    thousand  things  which  demanded  his  attention.^     He  writes. 

"  December  10,  and  the  following  days,  I  corrected  my  brother's 
posthumous  poems ;  being  short  psalms,  and  hymns  on  the  four  gospels, 
and  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  They  make  five  volumes  in  quarto,  contain- 
ing eighteen  or  nineteen  hundred  pages.  Many  of  them  are  little,  if  any, 
inferior  to  his  former  poems,  having  the  same  justness  and  strength 
of  thought,  with  the  same  beauty  of  expression ;  yea,  the  same  keenness 
of  wit  on  proper  occasions,  as  bright  and  piercing  as  ever.  Some  are 
bad;  some  mean;  some  most  excellently  good.  They  give  the  true 
sense  of  Scripture,  always  in  good  English,  generally  in  good  verse ; 
many  of  them  are  equal  to  most,  if  not  to  any,  he  ever  wrote ;  but 
some  still  savour  of  that  poisonous  mysticism,  with  which  we  were  both 
not  a  little  tainted  before  we  went  to  America.  This  gave  a  gloomy 
cast,  first  to  his  mind,  and  then  to  many  of  his  verses  ;  this  made  him 
frequently  describe  religion  as  a  melancholy  thing ;  this  so  often 
sounded  in  his  ears,  'To  the  desert!'  and  strongly  persuaded  in  favour 
of  solitude." 

What  had  Wesley  to  say  respecting  himself?     He  writes. 

"About  this  time  "  [December  15]  "  I  was  reflecting  on  the  gentle  steps 
whereby  age  steals  upon  us.  Take  only  one  instance.  Four  years  ago, 
my  sight  was  as  good  as  it  was  at  five-and-tvventy.  I  then  began  to 
observe,  that  I  did  not  see  things  quite  so  clear  with  my  left  eye  as  with 
my  right ;  all  objects  appeared  a  little  browner  to  that  eye.  I  began  next 
to  find  a  little  difficulty  in  reading  a  small  print  by  candlelight.  A  year 
after,  I  found  it  in  reading  such  a  print  by  daylight.  In  the  winter  of 
1786,  I  could  not  well  read  our  four  shilling  hymn-book,  unless  with  a 
large  candle  ;  the  next  year,  I  could  not  read  letters,  if  wrote  with  a  small 
or  bad  hand.  Last  winter,  a  pearl  appeared  on  my  left  eye,  the  sight  of 
which  grew  exceeding  dim.  The  right  eye  seems  unaltered;  only  I  am 
a  great  deal  nearer  sighted  than  ever  I  was.  Thua  are  '  those  that  look 
out  at  the  windows  darkened';  one  of  the  marks  of  old  age.    But,  I  bless 

'  Among  other  places,  he  preached  at  Sevenoaks,  and  is  said  to  have 
used  these  words :  "  When  a  sinner  is  awakened,  the  baptists  begin  to 
trouble  him  about  outward  forms,  and  modes  of  worship,  and  that  of 
baptism.  They  had  better  cut  his  throat,"  etc.  Whether  the  exact 
words  were  used  we  have  no  means  of  knowing ;  but  a  warm  controversy 
sprung  out  of  the  affair.  Mr.  William  Kingsford  issued  "  A  Vindication 
of  the  Baptists  from  the  Criminality  of  a  Charge  exhibited  against  them 
by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Wesley."  This  was  answered  by  T.  C,  supposed  by 
Kingsford  to  be  the  Rev.  Mr.  Coleman.  (Query  Thomas  Coke .'')  And 
this  was  replied  to  by  Kingsford  m  a  shilling  pamphlet,  bearing  the 
title,  "  Three  Letters  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Wesley,  containing  remarks  on 
a  Piece  lately  published,  with  his  approbation,  and  Three  Challenges 
to  all  the  Methodists  in  the  Kingdom."  The  whole  thing  was  "much 
ado  about  nothing." 


Age  85 


Wesley  witJioiit  a  Scrmojt.  563 

God,  'the  grasshopper  is'  not  'a  burden.'     I  am  still  capable  of  travelling,       1788 
and  my  memory  is  much  the  same  as  it  ever  was  ;  and  so,  I  think,  is  my 
understanding." 

Thus  did  Wesley  take  stock  of  himself. 

On  Christmas  day,  he  preached  at  four  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  in  City  Road,  again  at  eleven,  and  in  West 
Street  in  the  evening.  On  the  last  Sunday  in  the  year,  he 
had  an  exceedingly  large  congregation  in  Allhallows  church, 
Lombard  Street ;  and,  concerning  this,  there  is  an  anecdote 
worth  relating.  The  sermon  was  for  the  benefit  of  forty-eight 
poor  children  belonging  to  St.  Ethelburga  society.  "  Sir,"  said 
Wesley  to  his  attendant  while  putting  on  his  gown,  "  it  is  above 
fifty  years  since  I  first  preached  in  this  church  ;  I  remember  it 
from  a  particular  circumstance.  I  came  without  a  sermon  ; 
and,  going  up  the  pulpit  stairs,  I  hesitated,  and  returned  into 
the  vestry,  under  much  mental  confusion  and  agitation.  A 
woman,  who  stood  by,  noticed  my  concern,  and  said,  '  Pray, 
sir,  what  is  the  matter.'''  I  replied,  *I  have  not  brought  a 
sermon  with  me.'  Putting  her  hand  on  my  shoulder,  she 
said,  'Is  that  all.''  Cannot  you  trust  God  for  a  sermon?' 
This  question  had  such  an  effect  upon  me,  that  I  ascended 
the  pulpit,  preached  extempore,  with  great  freedom  to 
myself,  and  acceptance  to  the  people  ;  and  have  never  since 
taken  a  written  sermon  into  the  pulpit."  ^  "A  word  spoken 
in  due  season,  how  good  is  it !" 

Wesley's  publications,  in  1788,  have  all  been  noticed, 
except  his  Magazine ;  and,  concerning  this,  it  is  not  needful 
to  say  much.  There  are,  as  usual,  six  new  sermons  from 
the  venerable  editor's  own  pen  :  namely.  On  Reproving  Sin; 
The  Signs  of  the  Times;  Man;  The  Ministry  of  Wicked 
Ministers  ;  Conscience  ;  and  Faith. 

Wesley  concludes  the  first  of  these  thus  : 

"  I  have  now  only  a  few  words  to  add  unto  you,  my  brethren,  who  are 
vulgarly  called  Methodists.  I  never  heard  or  read  of  any  considerable 
revival  of  religion,  which  was  not  attended  with  a  spirit  of  reproving.  I 
believe,  it  cannot  be  otherwise  ;  for  what  is  faith  unless  it  worketh  by 
love?  Thus  it  was  in  every  part  of  England,  when  the  present  revival  of 
religion  began  about  fifty  years  ago.  All  the  subjects  of  that  revival, — 
all  the  Methodists,  in  every  place,  were  reprovers  of  outward  sin.     And, 

"^  Methodist  Magazine,  1825,  p.  105. 


564  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1788      indeed,  so  are  all  that,  being  justified    by  faith,  have  peace  with  God 

J'^    g      through  Jesus  Christ.      Such   they  are  at  first ;  and  if  they  use  that 

*"  precious  gift,  it  will  never  be  taken  away.     Come,  brethren  !    In  the  name 

of  God,  let  us  begin  again !      Rich  or  poor,  let  us  all  arise  as  one  man ! 

And,  in  any  wise,  let  every  man  rebuke  his  neighbour,  and  not  suffer  sin 

upon  him  !" 

Wesley's  sermon,  on  attending  the  ministry  of  unconverted 
ministers,  would  never  have  been  written,  had  he  not  been 
pressed  by  the  objections  of  Methodists,  and  yet  determined 
to  prevent  their  leaving  the  Established  Church.  Its  argu- 
ments are  specious,  not  sound.  It  might  puzzle  the  simple 
minded  Methodists ;  but  it  would  not  convince  them  they 
were  wrong.  It  was  a  feeble  attempt  to  get  converted  people 
to  sit  under  an  unconverted  ministry.  We  conclude  with 
one  extract. 

"  It  has  been  loudly  affirmed,  that  most  of  those  persons  now  in  con- 
nection with  me,  who  believe  it  their  duty  to  call  sinners  to  repentance, 
having  been  taken  immediately  from  low  trades,  tailors,  shoemakers,  and 
the  like,  are  a  set  of  poor,  stupid,  illiterate  men,  that  scarce  know  their 
right  hand  from  their  left ;  yet,  I  cannot  but  say,  that  I  would  sooner  cut 
off  my  right  hand,  than  suffer  one  of  them  to  speak  a  word  in  any  of  our 
chapels,  if  I  had  not  reasonable  proof,  that  he  had  more  knowledge  in 
the  holy  Scriptures,  more  knowledge  of  himself,  more  knowledge  of  God 
and  of  the  things  of  God,  than  nine  in  ten  of  the  clergymen  I  have 
conversed  with,  either  at  the  universities,  or  elsewhere.  Undoubtedly, 
there  are  many  clergymen  in  these  kingdoms,  that  are  not  only  free  from 
outward  sin,  but  men  of  eminent  learning,  and,  what  is  infinitely  more, 
deeply  acquainted  with  God.  But,  still,  I  am  constrained  to  confess,  that 
the  far  greater  part  of  those  ministers  I  have  conversed  with,  for  above 
half  a  century,  have  not  been  holy  men, — not  devoted  to  God, — not 
deeply  acquainted  either  with  God  or  themselves." 

Such  was  Wesley's  reluctant  confession  ;  and  yet,  to 
prevent  what  he  called  a  separation  from  the  Established 
Church,  he  elaborately  persuades  the  Methodists,  that  they 
ought  to  receive  the  sacraments  from  these  men  ;  instead  of 
requiring  them  at  the  hands  of  the  converted  artisans,  who 
had  preached  so  successfully,  and  who,  according  to  Wesley's 
own  confession,  were,  even  in  point  of  scripticral  knozvlcdgc,  the 
superiors  of  the  unconverted  gentlemen,  trained  in  colleges, 
and  made  priests  or  deacons — not  by  Christ, — but  by  bishops! 


I7S9. 

WESLEY  wrote :  1789 

"January   i,  1789 — If  this  is  to  be  the  last  year  of  my  Hfe,      ATTse 
according  to  some  of  those  prophecies,  I  hope  it  will  be  the  best.      I  am 
not  careful  about  it,  but  heartily  receive  the  advice  of  the  angel  in  Milton, — 
'  How  well  is  thine  ;  how  long,  permit  to  Heaven.' 

"January  5 — I  once  more  sat  for  my  picture.  Mr.  Romney  is  a  painter 
indeed.  He  struck  off  an  exact  likeness  at  once;  and  did  more  in  an 
hour  than  Sir  Joshua  did  in  ten.* 

"  January  9 — I  left  no  money  to  any  one  in  my  will,  because  I  had  none. 
But  now,  considering  that,  whenever  I  am  removed,  money  will  soon  arise 
by  sale  of  books,  I  added  a  few  legacies  by  a  codicil,  to  be  paid  as  soon 
as  may  be.  But  I  would  fain  do  a  little  good  while  I  live  ;  for  who  can 
tell  what  will  come  after  him  ?  " 

"January  11 — I  again  warned  the  congregation,  as  strongly  as  I  could, 
against  conformity  to  the  world.  But  who  will  take  the  warning?  If 
hardly  one  in  ten,  yet  is  my  record  with  the  Most  High.'' 

"January  20 — I  retired  in  order  to  finish  my  year's  accounts.  If 
possible,  I  must  be  a  better  economist;  for,  instead  of  having  anything 
beforehand,  I  am  now  considerably  in  debt ;  but  this  I  do  not  like.  I 
would  fain  settle  even  my  accounts  before  I  die." 

It  was  at  this  period  that  the  following  unpublished  letter 
was  written.  Duncan  McAllum  had  been  ordained  by- 
Wesley  in  1787,  and  the  reader  Avill  observe  that,  instead 
of  addressing  him  as  he  addressed  his  preachers  in  general, 
he  gives  him  the  title  of  **  reverendi" 

"  London,  January  20,  1 789. 
"Dear  Duncan, — By  all  means  choose  trustees  without  delay;  and 
let  them  be  such  as  belong  to  the  circuit ;  only  such  as  you  can  depend 
upon,  both  for  judgment  and  honesty.  I  think  it  is  by  prayer  that 
you  must  alter  the  purpose  of  the  Earl  of  Findlater.  I  am  not 
at  all  surprised  at  the  behaviour  of  John  Atlay.  In  a  year  or  two,  he 
will  find  whether  he  has  changed  for  the  better.  He  was  the  first  occa- 
sion of  the  division  at  Dewsbury,  by  sending  word  to  the  trustees,  that, 


*  The  photographic  portrait,  in  the  present  volume,  is  taken  from 
Romney's  painting,  by  the  kind  permission  of  its  possessor,  the  Rev.  G. 
Stringer  Rovve. 


566  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1780      ^^  ^^  conference  would  not  supply  them  with  preachers,  he  would  come 

himself,  and  settle  among  them. 

Age  86         u  J  ^^  •w'x'Ca.  love   to   sister  McAllum,   your  affectionate   friend  and 

^^°^^^'''  "John  Wesley. 

"To  the  Rev.  Mr.  McAllum,  Inverness." 

Four  days  later,  he  wrote  as  follows  to  Freeborn  Garretson, 

in  America. 

"  London,  January  24,  1 789. 
"  My  dear  Brother, — It  signifies  but  little  where  we  are,  so  we  are 
but  fully  employed  for  our  good  Master.  Whether  you  went,  therefore,  to 
the  east,  it  is  all  one,  so  you  were  labouring  to  promote  His  work.  You 
are  following  the  order, of  His  providence,  wherever  it  appeared,  as  a 
holy  man  expressed  it,  in  a  kind  of  holy  disordered  order.  But  there  is 
one  expression,  that  occurs  twice  or  thrice  in  yours,  which  gives  me 
some  concern:  you  speak  of  finding  freedom  to  do  this  or  that.  This 
is  a  word  much  liable  to  be  abused.  If  I  have  plain  Scripture,  or  plain 
reason,  for  doing  a  thing, — well.  These  are  my  rules,  and  my  only  rules. 
I  regard  not  whether  I  had  freedom  or  no.  This  is  an  unscriptural 
expression,  and  a  very  fallacious  rule.  I  wish  to  be  in  every  point,  great 
and  small,  a  scriptural,  rational  Christian. 

"  I  am,  your  affectionate  friend  and  brother, 

"John  Wesley." ^ 

At  the  end  of  January,  Wesley  went  to  open  new  chapels  at 
Rye  and  Winchelsea.  Returning  to  London,  the  month  of 
February  was  spent  in  preaching,  in  writing,  in  meeting 
classes  and  the  local  preachers,  and  in  ordaining  Henry 
Moore  and  Thomas  Rankin,  the  last  of  his  preachers  upon 
whom  he  laid  his  hands.^ 

The  following  anecdotes,  related  in  the  Life  of  Moore, 
belong  to  the  present  year,  and  are  strikingly  characteristic 
of  Wesley  and  his  friends. 

One  of  the  leading  men,  in  the  London  circuit,  (though 
not  a  member,)  had  been  in  the  habit  of  receiving  the 
sacrament  from  the  hands  of  Wesley  and  his  brother  clergy- 
men, but  had  fallen  into  sin.  Henry  Moore  waited  upon 
him  for  an  explanation  of  his  conduct,  and,  not  being 
satisfied,  told  him  he  should  be  obliged  to  refuse  him  a 
note  of  admission  to  the  Lord's  supper.  The  gentleman 
was  annoyed,  and  went  to  one  of  Wesley's  clergy,  whom 
he  persuaded  to  apply  to  Wesley  on  his  behalf  Entering 
the  vestry  while  Wesley  was  writing  the  note,  Moore  with 


^  Life  of  Garretson.  ^  Methodist  Magazine,  1 867,  p.  623. 


Anecdotes  of  Wesley.  567 

his   honest  sternness   accosted  him:   "Sir,   do   you   mean  to      1789 

give    a  note  of   admission    to    Mr. ?"     "Yes,    Henry,"    a^86 

repHed  Wesley,  "  I  have  reason  to  beUeve  the  report  of  his 
conduct  is  a  mistake."  "  I  have  fully  examined  it,"  answered 
Moore,  "and  I  find  it  no  mistake;  and,  if  you  give  him  a 
note,  I  shall  not  take  the  sacrament  myself"  Wesley,  in 
reply,  observed,  "  I  would  take  the  sacrament  if  the  devil 
himself  were  there."  "  So  would  I,"  said  Moore,  "  but  not 
if  you  gave  him  a  note  of  admission."  The  Irishman  came 
off  with  flying  colours  ;  for  Wesley  put  the  note  into  the  fire, 
and  left  the  erring  one  to  think  and  to  repent. 

Mrs.  Hall  was  Wesley's  only  surviving  sister,  and  was  an 
inmate  of  his  house,  but  not  a  Methodist.  One  day,  the  two 
called  on  Henry  Moore.  "  Brother,"  said  Mrs.  Hall,  "  I 
should  like  to  attend  the  religious  meetings  of  your  people. 
Have  I  your  leave.''"  "O  yes,"  said  he,  "you  may  goto 
them."  "  Then,"  rejoined  this  friend  of  the  great  Dr. 
Johnson,  "having  your  permission,  I  shall  not  ask  that  of 
any  one  else."  "  Yes,  you  must ;"  replied  her  brother,  remem- 
bering that  Moore  was  circuit  assistant,  "  when  I  am  not  here, 
you  must  ask  leave  of  Henry  Moore." 

In  these  days,  it  was  customary  for  the  itinerant  and  local 
preachers  to  take  breakfast  together,  on  Sunday  mornings,  at 
City  Road.  On  one  occasion,  when  Wesley  was  present,  a  young 
man  rose  and  found  fault  with  one  of  his  seniors.  The  Scotch 
blood  of  Thomas  Rankin  was  roused,  and  he  sharply  rebuked 
the  juvenile  for  his  impertinence  ;  but,  in  turn,  was  as  sharply 
rebuked  himself.  Wesley  instantly  replied  :  "  I  will  thank  the 
youngest  man  among  you  to  tell  me  of  any  fault  you  see  in 
me  ;  in  doing  so,  I  shall  consider  him  as  my  best  friend." 
This  was  quite  enough  to  silence  Rankin. 

"Henry  Moore,"  saiid  W^esley,  "you  are  a  witness  that  what 
John  Atlay  said,  when  he  left  us,  is  untrue.  He  said,  *  Mr. 
Wesley  could  never  bear  a  man  who  contradicted  him.'  Now 
no  man  in  England  has  contradicted  me  as  much  as  you  have 
done;  and  yet,  Henry,  I  love  you  still.     You  are  right." 

Hundreds  of  such  anecdotes  might  be  given  :  these  must 
serve  as  specimens. 

On  Sunday,  the  1st  of  March,  after  preaching  to  two 
crowded  congregations,  in  City  Road,  Wesley  and  three  of 


568  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

his  preachers  took  coach  for  Bath  ;  and  "  spent,"  says  he,  "  a 
comfortable  night,  partly  in  sound  sleep,  and  partly  in  singing 
praise  to  God."  Such,  after  a  hard  day,  at  seven  o'clock  in  a 
winter's  night,  was  the  start  of  an  old  man  of  eighty-six,  on  a 
five  months'  preaching  tour  1 

At  Bath  and  Bristol,  he  spent  a  fortnight,  in  preaching  and 
meeting  classes,  and  then  set  out  for  Ireland.  On  the  way,  he 
preached  at  Stroud,  Gloucester,  and  Tewkesbury.  At  Bir- 
mingham, he  opened  a  new  chapel,  and  remarks  :  "  Saturday, 
March  21 — I  had  a  day  of  rest,  only  preaching  morning  and 
evening."  The  passage  from  Holyhead,  instead  of  occupying 
four  hours,  as  at  present,  occupied  thirty-six,  and,  during  it, 
the  venerable  voyager  was  a  serious  sufferer.  "  I  do  not 
remember,"  he  writes,  "  that  I  was  ever  so  sick  at  sea  before  ; 
but  this  was  little  to  the  cramp  which  held  most  of  the  night 
with  little  intermission."  He  arrived  at  Dublin  quay  at  eight 
on  Sunday  morning,  and,  notwithstanding  the  illness  from 
which  he  had  suffered,  went  direct  to  Dublin  chapel,  and 
"preached  on  the  sickness  and  recovery  of  King  Hezekiah 
and  King  George,"  and  afterwards  administered  the  sacra- 
ment to  about  five  hundred  people. 

At  this  sacramental  service,  he  employed  his  assistant, 
William  INIyles,  in  giving  the  cup  to  the  communicants;  an 
act  which  occasioned  huge  offence,  for  William  Myles  was  not 
ordained.  In  the  week  following,  a  long  paragraph  appeared 
in  the  Dublin  Evening  Post,  setting  forth,  that  "  the  ChurcJi 
was  in  danger!  and  calling  upon  the  archbishop  to  use  his 
authority;  for  a  Mr.  William  Myles,  a  layman,  had  assisted 
Mr.  Wesley  in  administering  the  Lord's  supper;  the  greatest 
innovation  that  had  been  witnessed  for  the  last  fifty  years  !" 
"  This  brought  on,"  says  Mr.  Myles,  "  a  newspaper  contro- 
versy, which  continued  for  three  months.  My  name  was 
bandied  about  to  some  purpose ;  but  I  endeavoured  in 
patience  to  possess  my  soul.  At  the  expiration  of  the  three 
months,  the  subscribers  desired  the  printer  to  put  no  more 
Methodist  nonsense  into  his  paper  ;  and  he  had  the  good 
sense  to  listen  to  the  requisition  of  his  customers,  which 
happily  terminated  this  exquisitely  silly  controversy."^ 

^  Methodist  Magazine,  1797,  p.  313. 


Separation  from  the  Church.  569 

On   Wesley's  arrival  at  Dublin,    he   had,   to   use  his  own     17^9 
expression,  "  letter  upon  letter,"  concerning  the  alteration  in    Age  86 
the  Sunday  service,  which  had  been  introduced  by  Dr.  Coke ; 
and,  hence,  he  addressed  the  following. 

"  To  certain  Persons  in  Dublin. 
"Whitefriar  Street,  Dublin,  MarcJt  31,  1789, 

"My  dear  Brethren,— I  much  approve  of  the  manner  and  spirit 
wherein  you  write  concerning  these  tender  points.  I  explained  myself 
upon  them,  in  some  measure,  on  Sunday  :  I  will  do  it  more  fully  now. 

"At  present,  I  have  nothing  to  do  with  Dr.  Coke:  but  I  answer  for 
myself.  I  do  not  separate  from  the  Church,  nor  have  any  intention  so  to 
do.  Neither  do  they,  that  meet  on  Sunday  noon,  separate  from  the 
Church,  any  more  than  they  did  before :  nay,  less  ;  for  they  attend  the 
church  and  sacrament  oftener  now  than  they  did  two  years  ago. 

"'But  this  occasions  much  strife.'  True;  but  they  make  the  strife 
who  do  not  attend  the  service.  Let  them  quietly  either  come  or  stay 
away,  and  there  will  be  no  strife  at  all. 

" '  But  those  that  attend  say,  those  that  do  not  are  fallen  from  grace.' 
No,  they  do  not  give  them  a  bad  word ;  but  they  surely  will  fall  from 
grace,  if  they  do  not  let  them  alone  who  follow  their  own  consciences. 

"But  you  'fear  this  will  make  way  for  a  total  separation  from  the 
Church.'  You  have  no  ground  for  this  fear.  There  can  be  no  such 
separation  while  I  live.     Leave  to  God  what  may  come  after. 

"  But,  to  speak  plainly,  do  not  you  separate  from  the  Church  1  Yea, 
much  more  than  those  you  blame  ?  Pray,  how  often  have  you  been  at 
church  since  Christmas.'*  Twelve  times  in  twelve  weeks?  And  how  long 
have  you  been  so  fond  of  the  Church  ?  Are  you  fond  of  it  at  all  ?  Do 
not  you  go  oftener  to  a  Dissenting  meeting  than  either  to  St.  Patrick's,  or 
your  parish  church  ? 

"My  dear  brethren,  you  and  I  have  but  a  short  time  to  stay  together. 
*  My  race  of  glory  is  run,  and  race  of  shame;  and  I  shall  shortly  be  with 
those  that  rest.'  Therefore,  as  one  that  loves  you  well,  and  has  loved  you 
long,  I  advise  you,  in  the  presence  and  in  the  fear  of  God:  (i)  Either 
quietly  attend  the  Sunday  service,  or  quietly  refrain  from  it ;  then  there 
will  be  no  strife  at  all.  Now  you  make  the  strife  of  which  you  complain. 
(2)  Make  not  this  a  pretence  for  being  weary  of  well  doing.  Do  not,  for 
so  poor  a  reason,  withdraw  your  subscription  from  the  school  or  the 
preachers.     What  a  miserable  revenge  would  this  be  !     Never  let  it  be 

said,  that  my  friend  A ■  K ,  that  brother  D ,  or  B ,  were 

capable  of  this.  From  this  hour,  let  this  idle  strife  be  buried  in  eternal 
oblivion.  Talk  not  of  it  any  more.  If  it  be  possible,  think  not  of  it  any 
more.  Rather  think,  'the  Judge  standeth  at  the  door;'  let  us  prepare 
to  meet  our  God  ! 

"  John  Wesley."  > 

^  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xiii.,  p.  253. 


5/0  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1789  Such  was  Wesley's  attempt  to  defend  the  Dubhn  Methodist 

Age  86  service  in  church  hours  ;  or  rather,  such  was  his  attack  on 
those  who  were  opposed  to  it.  No  doubt  his  accusations  were 
founded  upon  facts;  but  this  was  hardly  an  answer  to  the 
argument  of  objectors,  that  having  service  in  church  hours 
was,  ipso  facto,  separation  from  the  Church.  He  tells  us,  that 
one  consequence  of  Dr.  Coke's  new  arrangement  was,  that 
three  times  more  Methodists  now  went  to  St.  Patrick's,  on  the 
first  Sunday  in  every  month,  than  had  done  for  ten  or  twenty 
years  before  ;  and  that,  on  the  first  Sunday  of  April,  when 
he  went  himself,  many  of  them  went  with  him  ;  the  number 
of  communicants  being  about  five  hundred,  or,  in  other 
words,  more  communicants,  on  that  single  Sunday,  than  St. 
Patrick's  used  to  have  the  whole  year  round,  before  the 
Methodists  were  known  in  Ireland.  The  arrangement,  says 
Wesley,  that  the  Methodists  in  Dublin  should  have  service  in 
church  hours,  "  on  condition  that  they  would  attend  St. 
Patrick's  every  first  Sunday  in  the  month,  was  made,  not  to 
prepare  for,  but  to  prevent,  a  separation  from  the  Church." 
There  can  be  no  question,  that  this  was  Wesley's  wish;  but 
it  may  be  doubted  whether  it  was  Dr.  Coke's  intention. 

During  this  Dublin  fracas,  Wesley  sent,  at  least,  one  letter 
to  the  public  papers.     The  following  is  an  extract, 

"  To  the  Printer  of  the  '■Dublin  Chronicle.^ 

"  Londonderry,  June  2,  1789. 

"Sir, — As  soon  as  I  was  gone  from  Dublin,  the  Observer  came  forth, 
only  with  his  face  covered.  Afterwards,  he  came  out,  under  another 
name,  and  made  a  silly  defence  for  me,  that  he  might  have  the  honour  of 
answering  it.  His  words  are  smoother  than  oil,  and  flow  (who  can 
doubt  it .'')  from  mere  love  both  to  me  and  the  people. 

'•  But  what  does  this  smooth,  candid  writer  endeavour  to  prove,  with  all 
the  softness  and  good  humour  imaginable  ?  Only  this  point,  (to  explain 
it  in  plain  English,)  that  I  am  a  double  tongued  knave,  an  old  crafty 
hypocrite,  who  have  used  religion  merely  for  a  "cloak,  and  have  worn  a 
mask  for  these  fifty  years,  saying  one  thing  and  meaning  another.  A 
bold  charge  this,  only  it  happens  that  matter  of  fact  contradicts  it  from 
beginning  to  end." 

Wesley  then  proceeds  to  give  an  outline  of  his  history 
from  his  youth  to  the  time  when  he  took  the  French  churches 
in  West  Street,  Seven  Dials,  and  in  Spitalfields,  and  he  and  his 
brother  began  to  preach  in  them  in  church  hours  ;  and  states 


't>^ 


Separation  from  the  C/iiwch.  571 

that  the  two  archbishops  of  Canterbury,  Potter  and  Seeker,      17S9 
and  the  two  bishops  of  London,  Gibson   and   Lowth,  never    ^"§5 
blamed  them  for  this,  or  thought  or  called  it  separation  from 
the  Church ;  only,  on  one  occasion,  Archbishop  Potter  said  : 
"  These  gentlemen  are  irregular ;  but  they  have  done  good, 
and  I  pray  God  to  bless  them."     Wesley  continues : 

"  It  may  be  observed  that,  all  this  time,  if  my  brother  or  I  were  ill,  I 
desired  one  of  our  other  preachers,  though  not  ordained,  to  preach  in 
either  tof  the  chapels,  after  reading  part  of  the  Church  prayers.  This 
both  my  brother  and  I  judged  would  endear  the  Church  prayers  to  them, 
whereas,  if  they  were  used  wholly  to  extemporary  prayer,  they  would 
naturally  contract  a  kind  of  contempt,  if  not  aversion,  to  forms  of  prayer; 
so  careful  were  we,  from  the  beginning,  to  prevent  their  leaving  the 
Church. 

"When  the  Rev.  Mr.  Edward  Smyth  came  to  live  in  Dublin,  he 
earnestly  advised  me  to  leave  the  Church  ;  meaning  thereby,  (as  all 
sensible  men  do,)  to  renounce  all  connection  with  it,  to  attend  the  services 
of  it  no  more,  and  to  advise  all  our  societies  to  take  the  same  steps.  I 
judged  this  to  be  a  matter  of  great  importance,  and  would,  therefore,  do 
nothing  hastily  ;  but  referred  it  to  the  body  of  preachers,  then  met  in 
conference.  We  had  several  meetings,  in  which  he  proposed  all  his 
reasons  for  it  at  large.  They  were  severally  considered,  and  answered, 
and  we  all  determined  not  to  leave  the  Church. 

"A  year  ago,  Dr.  Coke  began  officiating  at  our  chapel  in  Dublin. 
This  was  no  more  than  had  been  done  in  London  for  between  forty  and 
fifty  years.  Some  persons  immediately  began  to  cry  out,  '  This  is  leaving 
the  Church,  which  Mr,  Wesley  has  continually  declared  he  would  never 
do.'  And  I  declare  so  still.  But  I  appeal  to  all  the  world,  I  appeal  to 
common  sense,  I  appeal  to  the  Observer  himself,  could  I  mean  hereby, 
'  I  will  not  have  service  in  church  hours'  ?  No  ;  but  I  denied,  and  do  deny 
still,  that  this  is  leaving  the  Church,  either  in  the  sense  of  Bishop  Gibson, 
or  of  Mr.  Smyth  at  the  Dublin  conference.  Yet,  by  this  outcry,  many  well 
meaning  people  were  frighted  well-nigh  out  of  their  senses. 

" '  But  see  the  consequence  of  having  Sunday  service  here  !  See  the 
confusion  this  occasioned  !'  Some  time  since,  while  a  popular  preacher 
was  preaching  at  Leeds,  one  cried  out,  '  Fire  !  Fire ! '  The  people  took 
fright,  some  leaped  over  the  gallery,  and  several  legs  and  arms  were 
broken.  But  upon  whom  were  these  consequences  to  be  charged  ?  Not 
on  the  preacher,  but  on  him  that  made  the  outcry.  Apply  this  to  the 
present  case.  I  have  kindled  no  more  fire  in  Dublin  than  I  did  in 
London.  It  is  the  Observer  and  a  few  other  mischief  makers,  who 
fright  the  people  out  of  their  senses  ;  and  they  must  answer  to  God 
for  the  consequence. 

"  This  is  my  answer  to  them  that  trouble  me,  and  will  not  let  my  grey 
hairs  go  down  to  the  grave  in  peace.  I  am  not  a  njari  of  duplicity  ;  I  am 
not  an  old  hypocrite,  a  double  tongued  knave.     More  than  forty  years,  I 


572  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 


lySg      have  frequented  Ireland.     I  have  wished  to  do  some  good  here.     I  now 

'       tell  a  plain  tale,  that  'the  good  that  is  in  me  may  not  be  evil  spoken  of.' 

^  I  have  no  temporal  end  to  serve.     I  seek  not  the  honour  that  cometh  of 

men.     It  is  not  for  pleasure,  that,  at  this  time  of  life,  I  travel  three  or  four 

thousand  miles  a  year.     It  is  not  for  gain. 

*  No  foot  of  land  do  I  possess, 
No  cottage  in  this  wilderness  ; 

A  poor  wayfaring  man, 
I  lodge  awhile  in  tents  below, 
Or  gladly  wander  to  and  fro, 
Till  I  my  Canaan  gain.' 

"John  Wesley. 

"P.S.  At  the  desire  of  a  friend,  I  add  a  few  words  in  answer  to  one 
or  two  other  objections. 

"  First.  When  I  said,  '  I  believe  I  am  a  scriptural  bishop,'  I  spoke  on 
Lord  King's  supposition,  that  bishops  and  presbyters  are  essentially  one 
order. 

"  Secondly.  I  did  desire  Mr.  Myles  to  assist  me  in  delivering  the  cup. 
Now,  be  this  right  or  wrong,  how  does  it  prove  the  point  now  in  question, 
that  I  leave  the  Church  ?  I  ask  (2)  What  law  of  the  Church  forbids  this .'' 
And  (3)  What  law  of  the  primitive  church  1  Did  not  the  priest  in  the 
primitive  church  send  both  the  bread  and  wine  to  the  sick  by  whom  he 
pleased,  though  not  ordained  at  all  ? 

"  Thirdly.  The  Observer  affirms,  *  To  say  you  will  not  leave  the 
church,  meaning  thereby  all  true  believers  in  England,  is  trifling.'  Cer- 
tainly ;  but  I  do  not  mean  so  when  I  say, '  I  will  not  leave  the  Church.' 
I  mean,  unless  I  see  more  reason  for  it  than  I  ever  yet  saw,  I  will  not  leave 
the  Church  of  England  as  by  law  established,  while  the  breath  of  God  is 
in  my  nostrils." ' 

Such  was  Wesley's  manifesto  in  1789  ;  in  reality,  a  defence 
of  a  thing  he  had  often  condemned, — Methodist  service  in 
church  hours. 

While  Wesley  was  thus  attacked  in  the  public  press,  he  met 
with  the  greatest  respect  and  attention  from  several  persons 
of  distinguished  rank  in  Dublin  and  its  environs  ;  the  Earl  of 
Moira  among  the  number.  "  They  seemed,"  says  Mr.  Myles, 
"  to  think  it  a  blessing  to  have  him  beneath  their  roof"  ^ 
Many  of  them  flocked  to  hear  him,  on  Good  Friday,  when  he 
preached,  morning  and  evening,  in  the  elegant  chapel  of  his 
old    clerical    dissenting    friend,    the    Rev.    Edward    Smyth. 

^Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xiii.,  p.  254. 
^  Methodist  Magazhic,  1831,  p.  298. 


Rebellions.  573 


Neither  grand  people,  however,  nor  grand  chapels,  were  at  all  17^9 
prized  by  Wesley,  except  as  they  furnished  opportunities  of  Age  86 
Christian  usefulness.  "  At  both  times  on  Good  Friday,"  says 
he,  "  we  had  a  brilliant  congregation,  among  whom  were 
honourable  and  right  honourable  persons ;  but  I  felt  they 
were  all  given  into  my  hands ;  for  God  was  in  the  midst. 
What  a  mercy  it  is,  what  a  marvellous  condescension  in  God, 
to  provide  such  places  as  Bethesda,  and  Lady  Huntingdon's 
chapels,  for  these  delicate  hearers,  who  could  not  bear  sound 
doctrine  if  it  were  not  set  off  with  these  pretty  trifles  !  " 

Dublin  was  not  the  only  place  which,  at  this  time,  gave 
Wesley  trouble.  The  Dewsbury  circuit  was  entirely  wrested 
by  his  traitorous  book  steward  ;  and  now,  the  same  rebellion 
against  giving  Wesley,  and  (after  his  death)  Wesley's  con- 
ference, the  sole  power  to  appoint  preachers,  was  showing  itself 
at  Shields.  Hence  the  following,  addressed  to  the  three 
itinerant  preachers  stationed  in  the  Newcastle  circuit. 

"  Dublin,  Apr/t  i  r,  1 789. 

"  I  require  you  three,  Peter  Mill,  Joseph  Thompson,  and  John  Stamp, 
without  consulting  or  regarding  any  person  whatever,  to  require  a  positive 
answer  of  Edward  Coats,  within  three  weeks  after  the  receipt  of  this, 
'Will  you,  or  will  you  not,  settle  the  house  at  Milburn  Place,  North 
Shields,  on  the  Methodist  plan?'  If  he  will  not  do  it  within  another 
week,  I  farther  require  that  none  of  you  preach  in  that  house,  unless  you 
will  renounce  all  connection  with  your  affectionate  brother, 

'•John  Wesley. 

"  I  am  at  a  point.     I  will  be  trifled  with  no  longer."  * 

Was  this  more  hasty  than  wise }  John  Pawson  seemed  to 
think  so.  The  following  is  taken  from  one  of  his  unpublished 
letters,  to  Charles  Atmore,  dated  "  Leeds,  May  9,  1789." 

"What  a  pity  it  is  that  Mr.  Wesley  will  pursue  these  violent  measures! 
If  he  goes  thus,  there  will  be  divisions  upon  divisions  among  us.  Mr. 
Hanby  informs  me,  that,  at  North  and  South  Shields,  and  at  Alnwick, 
they  refuse  to  settle  their  houses  upon  the  conference  plan  ;  and,  at 
Newcastle,  they  have  been  talking  of  building  a  chapel  for  the 
Rev.  Mr.  CoUins,  and  of  inviting  some  of  the  best  preachers  to  settle 
among  them,  and  make  a  circuit  by  themselves,  I  suppose  Mr.  Sagar 
would  tell  you,  they  had  strange  commotions  among  them  when  he  was 
there." 

1  Methodist  Magazi)ie,  1845,  P-  "7- 


574  Zz/^  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1789  But  even  this  was  not  all.     In  1785,  Wesley  ordained  John 

Age  86  Pawson  and  Thomas  Hanby  for  Scotland  ;  where,  for  two 
years,  they  had  administered  the  sacraments,  and  had 
preached  in  gown  and  bands.  In  1787,  as  already  stated,  he 
brought  them  back  to  England,  commanded  them  to  doff 
their  canonicals,  and,  being  in  England,  to  discontinue  their 
sacramental  services.  This,  to  Pawson,  was  exceedingly 
annoying  ;  but  he  hardly  had  the  pluck  of  Hanby  in  resisting 
it.  Hanby  and  Joseph  Taylor,  (who  had  also  been  ordained, 
and  was  in  the  same  dubious  position,)  were  now  stationed  in 
the  Nottingham  circuit  ;  and  many  of  the  Methodists,  aware 
of  their  ordination,  naturally  wished  them  to  administer  to 
them  the  Christian  ordinances  ;  but  this  Wesley  imperiously 
prohibited.  Taylor  yielded;  Hanby  persisted.  The  follow- 
ing extracts,  from  two  of  his  unprinted  letters,  will  be  read 
with  interest.  The  first  was  addressed  to  James  Oddie  ;  the 
second  to  Richard  Rodda. 

"  Grantham,  May  21,  1789. 

"  My  very  dear  Brother, — I  have  been  in  deep  waters  on  account 
of  my  administering  the  Lord's  supper,  which  I  think  it  my  duty  to  do, 
especially  to  those  who,  for  conscience  sake,  cannot  go  to  church.  Mr. 
Wesley  ordered  me  to  desist.  I  told  him,  if  I  did,  I  should  sin,  because 
I  was  persuaded  it  was  my  duty.  Then  he  instructed  the  London  clergy 
and  preachers  to  take  me  in  hand.  I  have  received  their  letter,  and  have 
replied,  that  I  must  still  do  as  I  have  done  ;  and  that,  if  Mr.  Wesley  has 
given  me  up  into  their  hands,  they  must  act  according  to  their  own 
judgment ;  for  what  I  was  now  doing  was  from  a  Divine  conviction  of 
my  duty.  Thus  the  matter  rests.  F"or  some  time,  I  have  expected 
another  preacher  to  take  my  place  ;  but,  as  he  has  not  come,  perhaps, 
they  will  refer  the  matter  to  conference.  Mr.  Wesley  has  ordered  Joseph 
Taylor,  (who  opposes  me  all  he  can,)  to  remove  the  leaders  who  have 
promoted  the  sacraments  ;  if  he  does  so,  I  expect  there  will  be  a  division. 

"  See,  my  brother,  my  situation.  I  am  much  afraid  of  myself,  lest  I 
should  defile  my  conscience  by  yielding  to  the  importunity  of  the 
preachers.  I  am  of  all  others  the  most  improper  person  to  make  a  stand 
in  defence  of  Christ's  precious  and  most  neglected  ordinance.  However, 
hitherto,  through  infinite  mercy,  I  have  been  firm  and  immovable  ;  and 
our  solemnities  are  much  owned  of  God ;  and  I  have  much  employment 
in  the  sacred  service.  I  meet  with  great  opposition  from  the  high  church 
bigots;  but  yet  there  are  many,  who  will  stand  by  me,  let  the  consequence 
be  what  it  will. 

"  Let  me  hear  from  you  soon ;  and  advise  your  very  affectionate  friend 
and  brother, 

"  Thomas  Hanby." 


Original  Letters,  by   Thomas  Handy.  575 

"  Plumtree,  June  4,  1789.  1789 
**  My  dear  Friend, — O  yes !  my  sin  is  not  to  be  forgiven  unless  I  Age~86 
repent,  which  I  cannot  do.  That  is  too  late,  because  I  cannot  seek  it 
with  tears.  Mr.  Wesley  has  declared,  that  he  will  exclude  the  preachers 
who  administer  the  Lord's  supper  in  England.  For  some  time,  I  have 
expected  to  be  unshipped ;  but  whether  hands  are  scarce,  or  I  am  to  be 
permitted  to  finish  my  voyage,  which  will  be  the  last  week  in  July,  I 
cannot  tell. 

"  I  came  under  no  such  obligations  to  Mr.  Wesley,  not  to  administer  in 
England.  If  this  prohibition  had  been  laid  upon  me,  I  hope  I  should 
have  refused  his  offer  of  nothitig.  I  am  in  the  fire,  but,  like  the  sala- 
mander, I  live  there.  I  am  up  to  the  chin  in  deep  waters ;  but  not 
drowned.  Mr.  Mather  sent  me  a  threatening  bull ;  Mr.  Wesley  a  second ; 
and,  to  complete  the  work,  the  clergy  in  London,  Mr.  Rankin  and  Mr. 
Moore,  joined  their  artillery.  The  last  in  command  is  my  colleague, 
Joseph  Taylor,  who  opposes  me  with  the  utmost  warmth.  You  will 
readily  conclude,  '  Poor  Hanby  will  be  overpowered  by  numbers.'  True ; 
but  I  still  keep  the  field,  for  all  that,  and  mean  to  die  there.  I  am  single 
handed,  for  my  brethren,  who  promised  to  support  me,  have  deserted  to 
the  strongest  party,  not  an  unusual  case.  I  grant,  that  those  who  are 
called  to  preach  have  an  equal  right  to  administer;  but  do  not  talk  of 
'  depreciating  ordination.'  Mr.  Wesley  did  that,  seven  years  ago,  when  he 
published  in  the  newspapers  those  who  had  presumed  to  be  ordained  by 
the  Greek  bishop.  I  expect,  he  will  depreciate  me,  though  he  himself 
ordained  me,  and  commanded  me  to  administer  the  ordinances  in  the 
church  of  God. 

"  When  the  great  opposition  against  the  sacraments  was  formed,  Mr. 
Taylor  had  administered  once ;  and  I  had  promised  to  do  so  in  two  other 
places;  and  when  my  engagements  were  fulfilled,  I  proposed  to  desist 
from  proceeding  further,  (as  he  had  done,)  for  I  saw  there  was  no 
withstanding  so  formidable  a  body.  However,  I  was  brought  into  deep 
distress  of  mind,  by  the  earnest  request  of  the  people,  who  had  not 
communicated  for  years,  and  who  would  not  communicate  with  drinking, 
whoring,  swearing,  and  fighting  parsons.  The  Lord  let  me  see  that  His 
ordinance  was  become  obsolete,  and  that  it  was  an  unreasonable  stretch 
of  power,  in  any  human  creature,  to  say,  *  If  you  will  not  communicate 
with  these  wicked  men,  you  shall  not  communicate  at  all.'  This  appeared 
to  me  as  an  abrogation  of  Christ's  commanded  ordinance,  for  which  no 
one,  either  man  or  angel,  had  authority.  I  saw  it  was  my  duty  to  stand 
forth  in  defence  of  this  ordinance,  and  to  sufter  for  it ;  for  suffer  I  am  sure 
to  do.  Mr.  Wesley,  for  many  years,  has  treated  me  contemptuously, 
putting  me  beneath  the  weakest  and  most  suspicious  characters,  (viz. 
Briscoe  and  Fenwick,)  and,  therefore,  I  expect  no  favour  in  that  quarter. 

"  I  begin  to  look  out  for  some  poor  cottage,  to  which  I  may  retire,  and 
wait  the  opening  of  Providence.  '  Vox popiili  vox  Dei,'  is  my  motto ;  and, 
whatever  others  may  say  or  think  of  me,  I  have  no  other  motive  but  the 
principle   of  Divine   love.      I    can  promise   my  sect  neither  riches  nor 


5  7^  Life  and  Tmies  of  Wesley. 

1789  honour,  by  my  opposition  to  the  conference;  but  quite  the  reverse.  To  bo 
^  "o,  expelled  the  connexion,  after  thirty-five  years  of  uninterrupted  labour,  is, 
to  me,  a  very  painful  thought;  but  I  see  I  must  suffer  it;  and  shall  only 
take  away  with  me  this  motto,  *  Driven  from  Methodism  for  defending  the 
injured,  and  nearly  abrogated  and  obsolete,  ordinance  of  Christ.'  Farewell, 
Mr.  Wesley !     Farewell,  Mr.  Rodda !     Farewell,  conference ! 

"  I  have  written  Mr.  Wesley  my  reasons  for  acting  in  opposition  to  his 
will,  and  my  reasons  why  I  must  still  act  as  I  do ;  but  he  has  given  me 
no  answer.  Well,  I  am  nothing.  I  only  want  to  be  the  servant  of  God ; 
and  I  see  I  must  be  His  servant  in  His  own  way.  If  we  may  judge  of 
the  propriety  of  our  action,  by  His  sacred  presence,  I  can  assure  you 
the  tokens  of  that  presence  are  wonderfully  manifested  in  our  assemblies. 

"Many  of  the  people  in  this  circuit  intend  to  apply  again  for  the  ordi- 
nance ;  and,  perhaps,  their  petition  will  be  treated  with  the  same  contempt 
as  their  last  was  at  Manchester. 

"  I  am  your  very  affectionate,  and  much  obliged  friend  and  brother, 

"Thomas  Hanby." 

This  was  a  painful  state  of  things ;  Dewsbury,  Shields, 
Nottingham,  and  DubHn,  in  rebelUon ;  and  now  Thomas 
Hanby,  ordained  by  Wesley,  and  one  of  his  best  preachers, 
in  danger  of  expulsion,  for  doing  what  he  deemed  to  be  his 
duty.  Fortunately,  this  unbending  minister  was  saved  ;  and 
became  the  elected  president  of  the  fourth  conference  that  was 
held  after  Wesley's  death.  On  Christmas  day,  in  1796,  he 
preached  thrice  in  Nottingham,  and  met  four  or  five  classes 
for  the  renewal  of  their  quarterly  tickets.  This  was  his  last 
labour  of  love.  Four  days  aftervv^ards,  he  died,  saying :  "  I 
am  departing  ;  but  I  have  fought  a  good  fight."  ^ 

Wesley  left  Dublin,  on  his  preaching  tour  through  the  Irish 
provinces,  on  the  13th  of  April,  and  returned  on  the  19th  of 
June.  In  this  nine  weeks'  journey  he  preached  about  a 
hundred  sermons,  in  more  than  sixty  diliferent  towns  and 
villages,  at  least  a  dozen  times  in  the  open  air,  half-a-dozen 
times  in  churches,  and  once  in  a  place  which,  he  says,  was 
"  large,  but  not  elegant — a  cow  house." 

During  a  part  of  the  time,  he  was  seriously  unwell,  being 
attacked  with  a  complaint  which  was  new  to  him,  diabetes. 
He  wrote  to  London  for  the  advice  of  Dr.  Whitehead,  and, 
though  the  disease  abated  under  the  doctor's  treatment,  he 
suffered  from  it,  more  or  less,  to  the  time  of  his  decease.^ 

'  Atmore's  "Methodist  Memorial." 
*  Moore's  Life  of  Wesley,  vol.  ii.,  p.  379. 


An  Ij'ish  Dinner.  577 


"  I  was  delighted,"  says  Mr.  Alexander  Knox,  "  to  find  his  1789 
cheerfulness  in  no  respect  abated.  It  was  too  obvious  that  Age86 
his  bodily  frame  was  sinking  ;  but  his  spirit  was  as  alert  as 
ever ;  and  he  was  little  less  the  life  of  the  company  he  hap- 
pened to  be  in,  than  he  had  been  three-and-twenty  years 
before,  when  I  first  knew  him.  Such  unclouded  sunshine  of 
the  breast,  in  the  deepest  winter  of  age,  and  on  the  felt  verge 
of  eternity,  bespoke  a  mind  whose  recollections  were  as 
unsullied  as  its  present  sensations  were  serene." 

In  illustration  of  Mr.  Knox's  testimony,  an  anecdote  may 
be  added.  At  this  time,  Mr.  (afterwards  the  Rev.)  Joseph 
Burgess  was  quartermaster  of  a  regiment  of  soldiers  in  Sligo 
barracks,  and  had  the  honour  of  entertaining  Wesley  as  his 
guest.  A  large  party  of  friends  were  assembled  to  meet  the 
venerable  visitor  at  dinner ;  and,  while  the  meal  was  in 
progress,  he  suddenly  laid  down  his  knife  and  fork,  clasped 
his  hands,  and  lifted  up  his  eyes,  as  in  the  attitude  of  praise 
and  prayer.  In  an  instant,  feasting  was  suspended,  and  all 
the  guests  were  silent.  Wesley  then  gave  out,  and  sang  with 
great  animation, 

"  And  can  we  forget, 

In  tasting  our  meat, 
The  angelical  food  which  ere  long  we  shall  eat ; 

When  enrolled  with  the  blest, 

In  glory  we  rest, 
And  for  ever  sit  down  at  the  heavenly  feast  ?" 

The  happy  old  man,  so  near  to  the  gates  of  heaven,  then 
quietly  resumed  his  knife  and  fork  ;  and  all  felt  that  this 
beautiful  spontaneous  episode,  in  the  midst  of  an  Irish 
dinner,  had  done  them  good.^ 

Wesley  spent  three  weeks  more  in  Dublin  and  its  vicinity. 
He  visited  the  classes,  which  contained  above  a  thousand 
members,  after  he  had  excluded  about  a  hundred.  He  also 
held  his  Irish  conference,  at  which,  of  the  sixty  preachers 
then  employed  in  the  sister  island,  between  forty  and  fifty 
were  present.     He  writes  : 

"  I  found  such  a  body  of  men  as  I  hardly  believed  could  have  been 
found  together  in  Ireland;  men  of  so  sound  experience,  so  deep  piety, 

^Methodist  Magazine,  1840,  p.  543. 
VOL.  Ill  P  P 


57^  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 


1789  and  so  strong  understanding.  I  am  convinced,  they  are  no  way  inferioi 
.  'or  to  the  Enghsh  conference,  except  it  be  in  number.  I  never  saw  such  a 
number  of  preachers  before,  so  unanimous  in  all  points,  particularly  as  to 
leaving  the  Church,  which  none  of  them  had  the  least  thought  of.  It  is 
no  wonder,  that  there  has  been  this  year  so  large  an  increase  of  the 
society." 

On  the  conference  Sunday,  Wesley  and  his  preachers,  and 
a  large  number  of  the  Dublin  Methodists,  attended  the  service 
in  St.  Patrick's.  "The  dean,"  says  he,  "preached  a  serious, 
useful  sermon  ;  and  we  had  such  a  company  of  communicants 
as,  I  suppose,  had  scarce  been  seen  there  together,  for  above 
a  hundred  years." 

On  his  birthday  he  wrote  : 

"June  28. — This  day  I  enter  on  my  eighty-sixth  year.'  I  now  find,  I 
grow  old:  (i)  My  sight  is  decayed;  so  that  I  cannot  read  a  small  print, 
unless  in  a  strong  light.  (2)  My  strength  is  decayed ;  so  that  I  walk  much 
slower  than  I  did  some  years  since.  (3)  My  memory  of  names,  whether 
of  persons  or  places,  is  decayed ;  till  I  stop  a  little  to  recollect  them. 
What  I  should  be  afraid  of,  is,  if  I  took  thought  for  the  morrow,  that  my 
body  should  weigh  down  my  mind ;  and  create  either  stubbornness,  by  the 
decrease  of  my  understanding,  or  peevishness,  by  the  increase  of  bodily 
infirmities :  but  Thou  shalt  answer  for  me,  O  Lord  my  God." 

At  length,  on  July  12,  Wesley  bid  adieu  to  the  shores  of 
Ireland,  for  ever.  It  was  a  touching  scene.  Multitudes 
followed  him  to  the  ship.  Before  he  went  on  board,  he  read 
a  hymn  ;  and  the  crowd,  as  far  as  emotion  would  let  them, 
joined  the  sainted  patriarch  in  singing.  He  then  dropped 
upon  his  knees,  and  asked  God  to  bless  them,  their  families, 
the  Church,  and  Ireland.  Shaking  of  hands  followed  ;  many 
wept  most  profusely ;  and  not  a  few  fell  on  the  old  man's 
neck  and  kissed  him.  He  stepped  on  deck  ;  the  vessel  moved; 
and  then,  with  his  hands  still  lifted  up  in  prayer,  the  winds 
of  heaven  wafted  him  from  an  island  which  he  dearly  loved ; 
and  the  warm  hearted  Irish  Methodists  "saw  his  face  no 
more.  ^ 

Before  proceeding  with  Wesley's  history,  another  selection 
from  his  letters  may  be  welcome.  The  first  was  addressed  to 
a  man  who  deserves  a  passjng  notice. 

'  It  ought  to  have  been  eighty-seventh. 
*  "Anecdotes  of  the  Wesleys,"  p.  312. 


Walter  Chm^chey.  579 


Walter  Churchey  was  an  enthusiastic  Welshman  ;  a  lawyer  1789 
with  a  large  family  and  a  slender  purse ;  a  good,  earnest,  Age  86 
conceited  old  Methodist,  who,  unfortunately  for  his  wife  and 
children,  had  more  delight  in  writing  poetry  than  he  had 
employment  in  preparing  briefs.  He  was  one  of  Wesley's 
correspondents  as  early  as  1771  •}  exchanged  letters  with 
Wesley's  brother  Charles  ;  was  an  acquaintance  of  the  saintly 
Fletcher ;  and  an  intimate  friend  of  Joseph  Benson  and  Dr. 
Coke.  He  claimed  the  honour,  which  belonged  to  others,  of 
having  first  suggested  to  Wesley  the  publishing  of  his 
Arniinian  Magazine  \^  and,  in  a  manuscript  letter  before  us, 
states  that  he  it  was  who  originated  the  scheme  for  reducinsr 
what  he  calls  "  the  national  debt  "  of  Methodism  in  the  year 
1800.  He  was  a  good  man,  though  perhaps  flighty,  very 
diligent  but  very  poor,  a  warm  admirer  of  Methodist 
doctrine,  but  withal  a  millenarian,  who  wrote,  in  the  letter  just 
mentioned  :  "  I  have  lost  my  friend,  Wesley  ;  but  I  shall  see 
him  again,  perhaps  soon,  even  upon  earth,  where  the  sriffcrers 
for  Christ  are  to  rise  to  reign  in  His  spiritual  kingdom  on 
earth  a  thousand  years.     I  grow  daily  a  greater  Brotherite."  ^ 

In  1786,  Churchey  wished  to  enrich  the  world  with  his 
poetical  productions;  and,  among  others,  consulted  Wesley 
and  the  poet  Cowper.  The  latter,  in  reply,  remarked  :  "  I  find 
your  versification  smooth,  your  language  correct  and  forcible, 
and  especially  in  your  translation  of  the  Art  of  Printing.  But 
you  ask  me,  would  I  advise  you  to  publish  .-'  I  would  advise 
every  man  to  publish,  whose  subjects  are  well  chosen,  whose 
sentiments  are  just,  and  who  can  afford  to  be  a  loser,  if  that 
should  happen,  by  his  publication."* 

Thus  encouraged,  the  sanguine  Welshrqan  set  to  work ; 
Wesley  helped  him  in  obtaining  subscribers  ;  the  poems  were 
published  ;  the  reviewers  were  revilers  ;  and  poor  Churchey 
was  poorer  than  ever. 

The  following  letters,  among  others,  were  addressed  to  this 


'  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xii.,  p.  404. 
"^  Methodist  Magazine,  1823,  p.  13  ^. 

3  A  reference  to  Richard  Brothers,  the  prophecy  expounder  of   that 
period. 

■•  Cowper's  W^orks,  Bohn's  edit.,  vol.  iii.,  p.  370. 


580  Life  aiid  Times  of  Wesley. 

1789     worthy,  but  needy  man.  The  first  and  second  have  not  before 
Age  86    been  published. 

"'Lo^no^,  February  11,  1789. 
"  AlY  DEAR  Brother,— On  Monday,  March  2,  I  hope  to  be  in  Bath 
or  Bristol,  and  then  we  may  talk  about  the  number  of  copies.  I  have  been 
much  more  concerned  than  you,  for  these  sixty  years,  in  printing  books, 
both  with  and  without  subscription ;  and  I  still  think,  with  all  our  skill 
and  industry,  we  shall  be  hard  set  to  procure  three  hundred  subscribers. 
Perhaps  three  hundred  mdiy promise;  but  we  must  never  imagine  that  all 
who  promise  will  perform.  But  of  this  we  may  talk  more,  when  we  meet 
at  Bristol. 

"  I  suppose  every  one  that  loves  King  George  loves  Mr.  Pitt.  Peace 
be  with  all  your  spirits  ! 

"  I  am  your  affectionate  brother, 

"John  Wesley." 

"  Clones,  iT/izy  25,  1789. 

"  My  dear  Brother,— I  am  afraid  of  delay.  I  doubt,  I  shall 
not  be  able  to  be  as  good  as  our  word,  although,  in  the  last  pro- 
posals, I  have  protracted  the  time  of  dehvery  till  the  ist  of ,  August. 
As  you  are  not  a  stripling,  I  wonder  you  have  not  yet  learnt  the  difference 
heiwQcn  promise  and  performance.  I  allow,  at  least,  five-and-twenty  per 
cent ;  and,  from  this  conviction,  I  say  to  each  of  my  subscribers  (what, 
indeed,  j^;/  cannot  say  so  decently  \.o  yours),  '  Sir,  down  with  your  money.' 

"  I  know  Dr.  Ogilvie  well.  He  is  a  lovely  man  and  an  excellent  poet. 
I  commend  you  for  inoculating  the  children.  I  beheve  the  hand  of  God 
is  in  our  present  work  :  therefore,  it  must  prosper.  Indeed,  I  love  sister 
Churchey,  and  am  your  affectionate  friend  and  brother, 

"John  Wesley." 

The  following,  besides  referring  to  Churchey's  poems,  is 
possessed  of  interest  as  containing  an  allusion  to  the  prayer- 
book  published  in  178S  ;  and  also  Wesley's  final  testimony 
concerning  the  great  philanthropist,  John  Howard,  who  died 
seven  months  afterwards. 

"Dublin,  yuue  20,  1789. 

"My  dear  Brother, — Michael  is   an   original.     He  tells  lies 

innumerable,  many  of  them  plausible  enough.  But  many  talk  full  as 
plausibly  as  he  ;  and  they  that  can  believe  him,  may. 

"  I  do  not  doubt,  but  some  part  of  your  verse,  as  well  as  prose,  will  reach 
the  hearts  of  some  of  the  rich. 

"  Dr.  Coke  made  two  or  three  little  alterations  in  the  prayer-book 
without  my  knowledge.  I  took  particular  care  throughout,  to  alter 
nothing  merely  for  altering's  sake.  In  religion,  I  am  for  as  few  inno- 
vations as  possible ;  I  love  the  old  wine  best.  And  if  it  were  only  on 
this  account,  I  prefer  'if/iie/i'  before  'w/io  art  in  heaven.' 


A  Session  of  Methodist  ''Eldei'sy  581 

.  -  -        —  -  •  -  - 

"Mr.  Howard  is  really  an  extraordinary  man.     God  has  raised  him  up      1789 
to  be  a  blessing  to  many  nations.     I  do  not  doubt,  but  there  has  been        — - 
something  more  than  natural  in  his  preservation  hitherto,  and  should  not    "^^ 
wonder  if  the  providence  of  God  should  hereafter  be  still  more  conspi- 
cuous in  his  favour. 

"  About  three  weeks  hence,  I  expect  to  embark  for  England.     Peace  be 
with  you  and  yours  ! 

"  1  am  your  affectionate  brother, 

"John  Wesley.' 

While  in  Ireland,  Wesley  was  troubled  with  the  affairs  of 
Scotland.  Two  years  before  this,  John  Pawson,  eager  to 
exercise  his  newly  acquired  episcopal  or  presbyterian  power, 
— ^whichever  the  reader  has  a  mind  to  call  it, — began,  in 
Glasgow,  a  species  of  Methodism,  which  was  not  Wesley's, 
but  his  own.  He  ordained  seven  elders,  who  were  to  meet 
weekly,  and  to  have  the  supervision  of  the  temporal  and 
spiritual  affairs  of  the  Glasgow  Methodists.  In  a  book, 
Pawson  wrote  the  rules,  which  were  to  regulate  their  conduct. 
Among  others,  one  regulation  was,  that  no  person  should  be 
admitted  into  the  society,  or  be  expelled  from  it,  but  by  a 
majority  of  these  ordained  elders  ;  for,  though  the  itinerant 
preacher  might  preside  at  their  meetings,  he  was  not  allowed 
to  vote.  No  doubt,  honest  but  simple  Pawson  expected 
good  and  great  results.  The  elders,  however,  like  Pawson, 
had  no  notion  of  being  invested  with  ecclesiastical  office 
without  using  it ;  and,  hence,  all  sorts  of  paltry  cases  were 
got  up,  apparently  for  the  purpose  of  enabling  the  newly 
fledged  elders  to  show  their  skill  in  settling  them.  One 
must  suffice,  as  a  specimen.  Thomas  Tassey,  the  most 
vigilant  and  active  of  the  official  seven,  alleged  that  Peggy 
had  become  a  lodger  with  Peggy ,  and  had  com- 
mitted theft  ;  and  that,  as  the  time  for  the  administration  of 
the  sacrament  was    approaching,  the  charge  against  Peggy 

ought    to    be    judicially    examined.       Accordingly,  a 

sessions  was  appointed.  The  elders,  the  accuser,  the 
accused,  and  the  witnesses  were  present.  Beside  these,  there 
were  also  the  two  circuit  preachers,  Jonathan  Crowther  and 
Joseph  Cownley,  whom  Crowther  justly  designates  "  two 
poor  ciphers,"  seeing,  though  they  might   preside,  they  had 

'  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xii.,  p.  409. 


582  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley, 


17S9     no  power  to  vote.     The  charge  was,  that  when  Peggy 

Age  86    ^vent  to  lodge  with  Peggy ,  the  latter  Peggy  bought  half 

an  ounce  of  tea,  and  a  farthing's  worth  of  oil ;  that  these 
household  provisions  did  not  last  so  long  as  usual ;    and  that 

the  probability  was,  that  the  property  of  Peggy had,  to 

some  extent,    been    feloniously   appropriated  by  her  lodger, 

Peggy •       The    affair    was    so    serious,    and    withal    so 

solemnly  conducted,  that  it  became  needful  to  adjourn.  At 
the  second  sessions,  Crowther  (who,  though  not  allowed  to 
vote,  had  a  right  to  examine  witnesses),  asked  the  Peggy 
whose  property  was  in  question,  how  often  she  had  made 
herself  tea  out  of  the  half  ounce,  part  of  which  had  been 
stolen.  Peggy  dolorously  answered,  "  Only  seven  times." 
She  was  then  examined  respecting  her  farthing  s  worth  of  oil ; 
and  it  was  ascertained,  that,  though  it  had  not  lasted  as  long 
as  usual,  she  had  been  using  a  ne%v  feather  in  applying  it ;  and 
it  was  thought  that  the  7iew  feather  might  have  absorbed  the 
quantity  which  Peggy,  the  lodger,  was  accused  of  stealing. 

So  the  matter  ended.  Jonathan  Crowther  was  disgusted, 
and  told  Pawson's  ordained  elders,  that  their  discipline  resem- 
bled the  wisdom  of  Solomon,  for  it  took  cognisance  of  every- 
thing, from  the  hyssop  on  the  wall  to  the  cedars  of  mount 
Lebanon.  The  system  had  been  instituted  by  Pawson,  one 
of  Wesley's  confidential  friends,  and  a  preacher  of  seventeen 
years'  standing.  Crowther  was  young  and  inexperienced, 
only  in  the  fifth  year  of  his  itinerant  life  ;  but  he  was 
gifted  with  common  sense,  and  saw  that,  if  this  ordained 
machinery  was  continued,  Methodism  must  be  ruined. 
Wesley  had  been  in  Scotland  twelve  months  before  ;  but, 
strangely  enough,  appears  to  have  been  kept  in  ignorance 
of  the  new  court  at  Glasgow.  At  all  events,  Jonathan 
Crowther  now  wrote  to  him  ;  and  received  the  following 
decisive  answer. 

"Cork,  May  10,  1789. 
"My  dear  Brother, — 'Sessions'!  'elders'!  We  Methodists  have 
no  such  custom,  neither  any  of  the  churches  of  God  that  are  under  our 
care.  I  require  you,  Jonathan  Crowther,  immediately  to  dissolve  that 
session  (so  called)  at  Glasgow.  Discharge  them  from  meeting  any  more. 
And  if  they  will  leave  the  society,  let  them  leave  it.  We  acknowledge 
only  preachers,  stewards,  and  leaders  among  us,  over  which  the  assistant 
in  each  circuit  presides.     You  ought  to  have  kept  to  the  Methodist  plan 


Disturbance  at  Dubli7i,  583 

from   the  beginning.     Who  had  my  authority  to  vary  from  it?     If  the      1789 
people  of  Glasgow,  or  any  other  place,  are  weary  of  us,  we  will  leave  them      •  „„  05 
to  themselves.     But  we  are  willing  to  be  still  their  servants,  for  Christ's 
sake,  according  to  our  own  discipline,  but  no  other. 

"John  Wesley."  1 

Before  accompanying  Wesley  on  his  way  back  to  England, 
we  insert  another  letter,  which  is  abridged  in  Wesley's  col- 
lected works.  Adam  Clarke  was  in  the  isle  of  Jersey  ;  but 
Wesley  wished  him  to  remove  to  Dublin,  on  account  of  the 
disturbed  state  of  the  society  in  that  city.  His  old  friend, 
the  Rev.  Edward  Smyth,  was  now  one  of  his  bitter  enemies. 
Hence  the  following. 

.     "Near  Dublin,  June  25,  1789. 

"  Dear  Adam, — You  send  me  good  news  with  regard  to  the  islands. 
Who  can  hurt  us,  if  God  is  on  our  side  ?  Trials  may  come,  but  they  are 
all  good.  I  have  not  been  so  tried  for  many  years.  Every  week  and  almost 
every  day,  I  am  bespattered  in  the  public  papers,  either  by  Mr.  Smyth,  or 
by  Mr.  Mann,  his  curate.  Smooth,  but  bitter  as  wormwood,  are  their  words  ; 
and  five  or  six  of  our  richest  members  have  left  the  society,  because  (they 
say)  '  I  have  left  the  Church.'  Many  are  in  tears  on  account  of  it  ;  and 
many  are  terribly  frightened,  and  crying  out,  '  Oh  !  what  will  the  end  be?' 
What  will  it  be  ?  Why,  '  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest,  peace  on  earth, 
and  goodwill  among  men.' 

"  But,  meantime,  what  is  to  be  done  ?  What  will  be  the  most  effectual 
means  to  stem  this  furious  torrent  ?  I  have  just  visited  the  classes,  and 
find  still  in  the  society  upwards  of  a  thousand  members  ;  and,  among 
these,  many  as  deep  Christians  as  any  I  have  met  with  in  Europe.  But 
who  is  able  to  watch  over  them,  that  they  may  not  be  moved  from  their 
steadfastness  ?  I  know  none  more  proper  than  Adam  Clarke  and  his 
wife.  Indeed,  it  may  seem  hard  for  them  to  go  into  a  strange  land  again. 
Well,  you  may  come  to  me  at  Leeds,  at  the  latter  end  of  next  month  ;  and 
if  you  can  show  me  any  that  are  more  proper,  I  will  send  them  in  your 
stead.2    That  God  may  be  glorified,  is  all  that  is  desired  by,  dear  Adam, 

"  Your  affectionate  friend  and  brother, 

"John  Wesley." ^ 

It  has  been  already  stated,  that  Wesley  embarked  for 
England  on  July  I3.  William  Myles  was  with  him,  and  says: 
*'  We  had  a  pleasant  passage ;  Mr.  Wesley  preached,  and  we 
sang  hymns  most  of  the  way."  *  The  passage  lasted  about 
six-and-thirty  hours. 

*  Crowther's  manuscript  autobiography. 

2  Thomas  Rutherford  was  sent  in  this  emergency. 

3  Wesley  a  11  Times,  June  11,  1866. 
'^Methodist  Magazine^  I797>  P-  3'3' 


5S4  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

17S9  After  holding  services  at  Chester  and  Northwich,  Wesley 

Age  86  made  his  way  to  Manchester,  where  he  and  Coke  administered 
the  sacrament  to  about  twelve  hundred  communicants.  At 
Dewsbury,  where  John  Atlay  had  taken  both  the  Methodists 
and  their  chapel,  Wesley  preached  out  of  doors,  in  a  drench- 
ing rain.  He  then  proceeded  to  Leeds  for  the  purpose  of 
holding  his  annual  conference  ;  and,  on  the  day  before  it 
began  its  sessions,  preached  from  what  would  be  a  good 
conference  text  at  the  present  time  :  "  O  Timothy,  keep  that 
which  is  committed  to  thy  trust,  avoiding  profane  and  vain 
babblings,  and  oppositions  of  science  falsely  so  called." 

As  usual,  Wesley,  besides  conducting  the  business  of  the 
conference,  preached  every  day  during  its  sittings  ;  and  his 
texts  throughout  were  equally  well  timed,  namely  :  "  Train 
up  a  child  in  the  way  he  should  go  ;  and  when  he  is  old  he 
will  not  depart  from  it."  "  We  through  the  Spirit  wait  for 
the  hope  of  righteousness  by  faith."  "  Woe  unto  the  world 
because  of  offences  !  for  it  must  needs  be  that  offences  come  ; 
but  woe  to  that  man  by  whom  the  offence  cometh."  "To  the 
weak  became  I  as  weak,  that  I  might  gain  the  weak  ;  I  am 
made  all  things  to  all  men,  that  I  might  by  all  means  save 
some."  "  Well,  Master,  Thou  hast  said  the  truth  ;  for  there  is 
one  God  ;  and  there  is  none  other  but  He."  *T  have  a  message 
from  God  unto  thee."  "  If  any  man  speak,  let  him  speak  as 
the  oracles  of  God."  ^  Here  was  a  word  in  season  for  every 
one.  Rare  was  the  treat  to  attend  a  conference  like  this.  On 
the  conference  Sunday,  Wesley  seems  to  have  devolved  the 
preaching  upon  others  ;  but  the  day  was  not  an  idle  one.  He 
writes  :  "  with  the  assistance  of  three  other  clergymen,  I 
administered  the  sacrament  to  fifteen  or  sixteen  hundred 
persons."  When  and  where  are  such  sacramental  services 
held  at  present .'' 

What  may  be  called  the  conference  sermon  was  preached 
by  a  local  preacher,  perhaps  the  only  instance  of  the  kind  in 
Methodism's  history.  James  Hamilton,  M.D.,  was  the 
preacher  ;  his  text,  "  Trust  ye  not  in  lying  words,  saying,  the 
temple  of  the  Lord,  the  temple  of  the  Lord,  the  temple 
of  the  Lord,  are  these."     His  sermon  was  printed,  and  was 

'  Methodist  Magasine,  1845,  P-  ^  'S- 


A  Conference  Sermon.  585 

sold  "at  the   Rev.   Mr.  Wesley's    preaching  houses   in  town      17S9 
and  country,"  with  the  following  title  :  "  A  Sermon  preached    Age86 
at    Leeds,    July  29,    1789,  before    the   Methodist    Preachers, 
assembled  in  Conference,  and  a  large  body  of  the  people  in 
connection  with  them  ;  and  now  published  at  the  request  of 
many  of  the  Hearers." 

This  also  was  a  sermon  for  the  times,  and  evidently  had 
Wesley's  approbation.  Its  gist  may  be  gathered  from  a  fev/ 
brief  extracts. 

After  dwelling  on  the  functions  of  the  priests  and  scribes 
of  the  Jewish  church,  the  preacher  said  : 

"  But  as  all  external  religion  is  of  no  use,  any  farther  than  as  it  advances 
the  spiritual  kingdom  of  Christ  in  the  soul ;  and  as  the  Jews  too  often 
lost  sight  of  this,  resting  in  their  types  and  ceremonies,  God  called  a  race 
of  men,  named  prophets,  who  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  priesthood  ; 
men  full  of  the  Holy  Ghost  ;  and  sent  them  to  declare  that  all  external 
religion  is  nothing  worth,  when  it  fails  to  produce  purity  of  heart.  The 
prophets  were,  (with  two  or  three  exceptions,)  what  we  call  laymen, — taken 
from  the  common  occupations  in  Judaea,  chiefly  farmers  and  shepherds, — 
holy  men,  men  of  strong  faith,  their  hearts  overflowing  with  zeal  for  the 
honour  of  God, — men  of  invincible  courage,  practising  the  strictest  tempe- 
rance, and  clothed  in  the  plainest  manner." 

Dr.  Hamilton  then  proceeded  to  argue,  that  Methodist 
preachers  bore  some  analogy  to  these  special  messengers  of 
God  in  ancient  times  ;  and  after  an  affectionate  allusion  to 
the  two  Wesleys,  and  to  Whitefield,  continued: 

"And  here  mark  the  Divine  wisdom.  Although  their  brother  priests 
in  the  Church  thrust  them  from  them,  and  although  their  names  were 
cast  out  as  evil  above  the  names  of  all  men,  they  ever  retained  a 
strong  and  affectionate  attachment  to  the  men  who  had  thus  abused 
them,  and  to  the  Church  of  which  they  were  members  ;  and  this  has 
been,  in  the  overruling  hand  of  God,  the  great  means  of  carrying  on 
that  glorious  spiritual  work  which  we  now  behold.  Had  it  not  been  for 
this  attachment,  the  Methodists  would  have,  long  ere  this,  become  a  dis- 
tinct body,  separate  from  the  Church  and  all  others  ;  and,  I  fear,  in  con- 
sequence thereof,  would  have  sunk  into  the  dead  formality  of  the  numerous 
sects,  with  which  the  world  is  harassed  and  divided." 

Then  proceeding  to  address  the  assembled  conference,  the 
preacher  added  : 

"  Will  ye  bear  with  me,  ye  spiritual  messengers  of  the  Lord,  while  I 
presume  to  say  a  few  words  \.q>  you  ?  See  with  what  a  holy  calling  ye  are 
called  ;  for  what  a  glorious  and  important  end  God  has  raised  you  up  ! 


5 86  Life  a7id  Times  of  Wesley. 

1 789  Even  to  set  spiritual  religion  before  the  eyes  of  all  men  ;  to  cry  to  men  of 
'        all  opinions,  sects,  and  parties,  'Trust  not  unto  lying  words,  saying.  The 

'^  temple  of  the  Lord  are  these' ;  to  bring  them,  from  resting  in  external 

duties,  to  the  possession  of  internal  holiness  ;  from  an  opinion  in  the  head, 
to  the  love  of  God  in  the  heart.  Let  then  the  dead  bury  their  dead  !  Let 
the  formalist  and  the  pharisee,  the  church  bigot  and  the  sectary,  contend 
for  ways  of  thinking,  gestures  in  worship,  and  modes  of  church  govern- 
ment ;  but  may  ye  never  forget,  that  ye  are  sent  for  a  nobler  end ;  that 
your  commission  is  the  same  as  Paul's,  not  to  baptize,  but  to  preach  the 
gospel.  Although  I  am  neither  a  prophet,  nor  the  son  of  a  prophet ;  yet 
forgive  me  when  I  express  my  fears,  that,  if  ever  the  Methodists  leave 
their  several  churches  ;  if  ever  ye  set  up  as  a  separate  people  by  external 
distinctions  and  creeds  ;  if  ye  substitute  a  silken  gown  and  sash  for  rough 
garments  and  a  leathern  girdle,  and  call  one  another,  Rabbi  !  Rabbi !  then 
the  glory  will  depart  from  you,  and  God  will  raise  up  another  people.  He 
will  call  other  lay  preachers,  no  matter  by  what  name  ;  and  He  will  send 
them  to  call  yoii  from  opinions  and  forms,  and  to  sound  in  your  ears, 
'  Trust  not  unto  lying  words,  saying,  The  temple  of  the  Lord,  the  temple  of 
the  Lord,  the  temple  of  the  Lord  are  these. ' " 

Hamilton's  sermon,  to  say  the  least,  was  ingenious  ;  and  re- 
ferring as  it  does  to  the  great  topic  of  the  day,  separation  from 
the  Church,  these  extracts  will  not  be  regarded  as  out  of  place. 

Wesley  says,  there  were  about  a  hundred  preachers  present  ' 
at  the  conference  ;  Atmore  says,  about  a  hundred  and  thirty;^ 
be  that  as  it  may,  one  hundred  and  fifteen  of  them  signed  a 
declaration,  that  they  entirely  approved  of  Methodist  chapels 
being  settled  on  the  conference  plan  ;  and,  among  these,  were 
several  who,  soon  after,  distinguished  themselves  as  Methodist 
reformers,  namely,  William  Thorn,  Henry  Taylor,  and 
Alexander  Kilham. 

The  principal  subjects  discussed  arc  thus  referred  to  in 
Wesley's  journal. 

"July  28 — The  case  of  separation  from  the  Church  was  largely  con- 
sidered, and  we  were  all  unanimous  against  it.  August  i — We  considered 
the  case  of  Dewsbury  house,  which  the  self  elected  trustees  have  robbed  us 
of.  The  point  they  contended  for  was  this, — that  they  should  have  a  right 
of  rejecting  any  preachers  they  disapproved  of.  But  this,  we  say,  would 
destroy  itinerancy.  So  they  chose  John  Atlay  for  a  preacher,  who  adopted 
Wilham  Eels  for  his  curate.  Nothing  remained  but  to  build  another 
preaching  house,  towards  which  we  subscribed  ^206  on  the  spot."  ^ 

Besides  these,   some   other  points  were   decided  ;  namely, 
*  Methodist  Magazine,  1845,  ?•  I'S- 


Conference  of  17S9.  587 


that  the  preachers  should  read  the  rules  of  the  society  in  1789 
every  society  once  a  quarter ;  that  no  person  should  be  Age  86 
admitted  to  lovefeasts  without  a  society  ticket,  or  a  note 
from  the  assistant ;  that  every  watchnight  should  be  con- 
tinued till  midnight  ;  that  the  collections  at  lovefeasts  should 
be  most  conscientiously  given  to  the  poor  ;  that  preachers 
should  not  go  out  to  supper,  and  should  be  home  before  nine 
at  night ;  that  preachers'  children  should  dress  exactly 
according  to  the  band  rules  ;  that  only  one  preacher  should 
come  in  future  to  the  conference  from  Scotland,  except  those 
that  were  to  be  admitted  into  full  connexion  ;  and  that  no 
books  should  be  published  without  Wesley's  sanction,  and 
that  those  approved  by  him  should  be  printed  at  his  press  in 
London,  and  be  sold  by  his  book  steward. 

We  give  these  legislative  enactments  as  we  find  them.  The 
last  bore  hardly  on  strong  minded  writers,  like  Thomas 
Taylor  and  Joseph  Benson. 

The  day  after  the  conference  concluded,  Wesley  set  out  for 
London,  and  thence,  for  the  last  time,  to  Cornwall.  His  first 
day's  journey  was  seventy  miles,  and  his  second  eighty,  and 
to  this  amount  of  labour  was  added  preaching.  One  day  in 
London  was  devoted  to  business ;  on  the  next,  which  was 
Sunday,  the  patriarchal  preacher  delivered  two  sermons  in 
the  chapel  in  City  Road,  set  out  at  seven  o'clock,  p.m., 
travelled  all  night,  and  reached  Bristol  about  noon  on 
Monday.  Without  delay,  he  hurried  on  to  Plymouth,  preach- 
ing at  Taunton,  Collumpton,  and  Exeter.  At  Plymouth 
there  had  been,  what  he  calls,  a  "senseless  quarrel";  but  he 
administered  the  sacrament  to  six  hundred  people,  and 
preached  to  an  enormous  congregation  out  of  doors. 

Arriving  at  St.  Austell,  he  says :  "  I  knew  not  where  to 
preach,  the  street  being  so  dirty,  and  the  preaching  house  so 
small.  At  length,  we  determined  to  squeeze  as  many  as  we 
could  into  the  preaching  house  ;  and  truly  God  was  there." 
At  Truro,  the  street,  leading  to  the  chapel,  being  blocked  up 
with  starving  tinners  demanding  an  increase  to  their  wages, 
and  a  troop  of  soldiers  who  were  keeping  peace,  Wesley  was 
obliged  to  preach  "  under  the  coinage  hall."  Forty  years  had 
elapsed  since  he  was  last  at  Falmouth,  and  then  he  was 
"  taken  prisoner  by  an   immense  mob,  gaping   and  roaring 


588  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1789  like  lions  ;  now  high  and  low  lined  the  street,  from  one  end 
A(T^6  of  ^^  town  to  the  other,  out  of  stark  love  and  kindness";  and 
he  preached  to  the  largest  congregation  he  had  ever  seen  in 
Cornwall,  except  in  or  near  Redruth.  The  same  sort  of  scenes 
awaited  him  at  Helstone,  St.  Just,  Newlyn,  and  Penzance. 
In  Gwennap  pit  his  congregation  was  calculated  at  five-and- 
twenty  thousand.  This  remarkable  spot  was  first  used  by 
Wesley,  as  a  place  for  preaching,  in  1762,  on  account  of  the 
wind  being  so  boisterous  as  to  prevent  him  occupying  his 
usual  stand  in  the  town  itself.  "  At  a  small  distance,"  says 
he,  "  was  a  hollow  capable  of  containing  many  thousand 
people.  I  stood  on  one  side  of  this  amphitheatre,  toward  the 
top,  with  the  people  beneath,  and  on  all  sides."  Many  since 
then  had  been  the  marvellous  scenes  he  had  witnessed  in  this 
"  the  finest  natural  amphitheatre  in  the  kingdom."  There 
can  be  little  doubt,  that  the  estimated  numbers  were  some- 
times greater  than  the  real  ;  but  still,  it  was  here,  on  this 
Cornish  common,  that  Wesley  had  the  largest  congregations 
to  whom  he  ever  preached.  The  place  is  now  one  of  the 
"sights"  of  Cornwall.  Here  an  annual  service  has  been 
held  ever  since  Wesley's  death  ;  and  now,  on  every  Whit- 
monday,  thousands  wend  their  way,  in  every  style  of  convey- 
ance, from  the  donkey  cart  of  the  poor  peasant  to  the  dashing 
carriage  of  the  wealthy  squire,  and  assembling  within  the 
area  and  around  the  banks  of  this  consecrated  hollow,  join  in 
one  vast  act  of  worship,  offered  to  the  God  of  heaven.  Here 
we  have  Methodism's  yearly  pilgrimage,  made  by  hosts  of 
Cornish  Methodists,  not  to  honour  man,  but  to  commemorate 
the  mercies  of  their  fathers'  God,  and  to  ask  His  help  and 
blessing  on  behalf  of  themselves  and  their  posterity. 

Eleven  days  were  spent  in  Cornwall,  during  which  Wesley 
preached,  at  least,  seventeen  times,  nine  of  which  were  in  the 
open  air.  "There  is,"  says  he,  "a  fair  prospect  in  Cornwall, 
from  Launceston  to  the  Land's  End." 

On  his  way  back,  we  find  him  preaching  at  Tavistock, 
Plymouth,  Exeter,  Tiverton,  Halberton,  Taunton,  Castle 
Carey,  Ditcheat,  and  Shepton  Mallet,  eleven  sermons,  in 
seven  days,  besides  the  travelling  from  Cornwall  to  Bristol. 
No  wonder  that  the  venerable  traveller  sometimes  started  at 
three  o'clock  in  the  morning  ! 


"  The  lovely  Family  at  Bal/iamy  589 

Bristol  was  the  centre  of  Wesley's  labours  from  September    17S9 
5  to  October  5.     On  one  of  the  Sundays,  he  preached  twice  ^^^6 
in  his  own  chapel,  and  once  in  Temple  church  ;  but  writes : 
"  It   was  full  as  much  as   I  could  do.     I  doubt  I   must  not 
hereafter  attempt  to  preach  more  than  twice  a  day." 

On  October  5,  he  started  from  Bristol  at  four  o'clock  in 
the  morning,  for  London.     Arriving  in  town,  he  wrote  : 

"  I  am  now  as  well,  by  the  good  providence  of  God,  as  I  am  likely  to 
be  while  I  live.  My  sight  is  so  decayed,  that  I  cannot  well  read  by 
candlelight ;  but  I  can  write  as  well  as  ever ;  and  my  strength  is  much 
lessened,  so  that  I  cannot  easily  preach  above  tv;ice  a  day.  I5ut,  I  bless 
God,  my  memory  is  not  much  decayed;  and  my  understanding  is  as  clear 
as  it  has  been  these  fifty  years." 

Having  spent  five  days  in  London,  he  set  out  for  Norfolk. 
The  remainder  of  the  year  was  employed,  as  usual,  partly  in 
London,  and  partly  in  his  long  accustomed  preaching  tours 
to  the  surrounding  counties.  On  the  last  Sunday  in  the 
year,  he  occupied  the  pulpit  of  St.  Luke's,  his  parish  church. 
"  The  tables  are  turned,"  says  he;  "I  have  now  more  invita- 
tions to  preach  in  churches  than  I  can  accept  of." 

One  of  his  London  retreats  was,  what  he  calls,  "  the  lovely 
family  at  Balham."  This  was,  doubtless,  the  family  of 
George  Wolff,  Esq.,  one  of  his  executors, — a  merchant,  and 
also  consul  general  to  the  court  of  Denmark, — a  gentleman 
of  unassuming  manners,  deeply  pious,  and  one  of  the  most 
liberal  of  the  metropolitan  Methodists, — for  many  years  the 
confidential  friend  of  Wesley,  and  who  died  at  Balham,  in 
1828,  at  the  age  of  ninety-two.^ 

Before  concluding  the  year,  we  insert  a  further  selection 
from  Wesley's  letters. 

The  first  was  to  his  nephew,  Samuel  Wesley,  the  musical 
genius,  now  twenty-three  years  of  age,  and  is  strikingly 
characteristic  of  the  venerable  writer. 

"  Near  Bristol,  September  16,  17S9. 

"  My  dear  Sammy, — It  gives  me  pleasure  to  hear,  that  you  have  so 

much  resolution,  that  you  go  to  bed  at  ten,  and  rise  at  four  o'clock.     Let 

not  the  increase  of  cold  affright  you  from  your  purposes.    Bear  your  cross, 

and  it  will  bear  you.     I  advise  you  carefully  to  read  over  Kcmpis,  the  Life 

>  Methodist  Magazine,  1828,  p.  286. 


Age  86 


590  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1789      of  Gregory  Lopez,  and  that  of  Mons.  de  Renty.     They  are  all  among  my 
brother's  books. 

"  I  am,  dear  Sammy,  your  affectionate  uncle  and  friend, 

"John  Wesley."' 

The  next  beautifully  illustrates  the  benevolence  of  Wesley, 
and  the  faithfulness  of  his  friendship.  Mr.  Salmon,  at  the 
time  referred  to,  was  not  a  member  of  the  Methodist  society, 
but  only  an  occasional  hearer;  and,  yet,  the  instance  of  his 
liberality,  which  Wesley  mentions,  was  not  the  only  one 
which  does  honour  to  his  character.  In  1762,  Wesley  opened 
a  new  chapel  at  Shepton  Mallet,  with  a  mudden  floor ;  and, 
in  this  state,  it  was  occupied  for  years,  when  Mr.  Salmon 
gave  the  stewards  £\o  to  improve  the  floor,  and  to  supply 
back  rails  to  the  benches.^  Richard  Rodda,  to  whom  the 
following  was  addressed,  now  filled  the  office  of  assistant 
at  Manchester. 

"  Wallingford,  October -li,,  1789. 

"  My  dear  Brother, — You  are  a  man  whom  I  can  trust :  whatever 
)-ou  do,  you  will  do  it  with  your  might.  Some  years  since,  we  wanted  a 
preaching  place  near  Coleford,  in  Somersetshire.  A  neighbouring  gentle- 
man, Mr.  Salmon,  gave  us  ground  to  build  on,  and  timber  for  the  house, 
and  desired  me  to  use  his  house  as  my  own.  He  is  now  by  wicked  men 
reduced  to  want. 

"  I  am  informed,  a  master  for  a  poorhouse  is  wanted  at  Manchester. 
Pray  inquire,  and,  if  it  be  so,  leave  no  means  untried  to  procure  the  place 
for  him.  Apply,  in  my  name,  to  B.  Barlow,  D.  Yates,  T.  Phillips,  Dr. 
Easton,  Mr.  Brocklchurst,  Stonehouse,  and  all  that  have  a  regard  for  me. 
Make  all  the  interest  you  can.  Leave  no  stone  unturned.  'Join  hands 
with  God  to  make  a  good  man  live.'  I  hope  you  will  send  me  word  in 
London,  that  you  have  exerted  yourself,  and  are  not  without  a  prospect  of 
success. 

"  I  am,  dear  Richard,  your  affectionate  friend  and  brother, 

"John  Wesley." ^ 

The  following  letter  is  now,  for  the  first  time,  published. 
The  Liverpool  Methodists  were  about  to  build  their  Mount 
Pleasant  chapel.  An  expenditure  of  i^i  lOO  startled  Wesley. 
What  would  he  have  said  to  the  expenditure  of  as  many 
thousands  ?    And  yet  Liverpool  Methodism  docs  the  one  now 

^  Wesley  Banner,  1851,  p.  405. 

'  Methodist  Magazine,  1827,  p.  285. 

^  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xii.,  p.  478. 


Mount  Pleasant  Chapel,  Liverpool.  591 

with  as  much  nonchalance  as  it  did  the  other  then.  The  letter     17S9 
was  addressed  to  Mr.  Lawrence  Frost.  Age  86 

"  London,  October  23,  1789. 
"My  dear  Brother,— You  are  bold  people  !  Two  hundred  pounds, 
purchase  money,  besides  nine  hundred  pounds !  But  I  do  not  use  to 
damp  any  good  design.  Go  on  in  the  name  of  God.  It  is  true,  your 
deed  is  clumsy  enough.  I  am  surprised,  that  no  Methodist  will  take  my 
advice.  I  have  more  experience,  in  these  things,  than  any  attorney  in  the 
land.  And  have  I  not  the  Methodist  interest  as  much  at  heart  ?  Oh, 
why  will  you  alter  the  beautiful  deed  we  have  already .''  why  will  you 
employ  any  attorney  at  all  ?  Only  to  seek  a  knot  in  a  bulrush  ;  only  to 
puzzle  the  cause.     Well,  comfort  yourself.     You  will  not  long  be  troubled 

with 

"  Your  affectionate  brother, 

"John  Wesley." 

The  next,  which  was  written  to  William  Black,  in  Nova 
Scotia,  is  interesting  as  containing  a  reference  to  Wesley's 
labours,  and  his  professed  adherence  to  the  Church. 

"  London,  November  2t,  1789. 
"  My  dear  Brother,— Your  letter  has  given  me  great  satisfaction. 
My  fears  are  vanished  away.  I  am  persuaded,  brother  Wray,  Stretton, 
and  you,  will  go  on  hand  in  hand,  and  that  each  of  you  will  take  an  equal 
share  in  the  common  labour.  I  do  so  myself.  I  labour  now  just  as  I  did 
twenty  or  forty  years  ago.  By  all  means,  proceed  by  common  consent, 
and  think  not  of  separating  from  the  Church  of  England.  I  am  more  and 
more  confirmed  in  the  judgment  which  our  whole  conference  passed  on 
that  head,  in  the  year  1758. 

"  I  am  your  affectionate  friend  and  brother, 

"John  Wesley."' 

Thirty-two  years  before,  Wesley  preached  his  first  and  last 
sermon  in  Bideford.  For  long  it  had  been  a  barren  soil,  but, 
in  1788,  was  made  a  circuit  town  ;  and  now  simple  minded, 
sanctified  Samuel  Bardsley  was  labouring  with  great  success. 
'T  am  glad,"  says  Wesley  to  this  godly  man,  "to  hear  so  good 
an  account  of  the  work  of  God  at  Bideford.  It  had  held  out 
long,  and  seemed  to  bid  defiance  to  the  gospel."^  Bardsley 
was  all  aloqe  ;  and  Michael  Fenwick,  fond  of  meddling,  wrote 
to  him  :  "Dear  Sammy, — Write  a  pressing  letter  every  post, 
imtil  Mr.  Wesley  sends  you  another  preacher.     It  is  cruel  to 

'  Black's  Memoirs,  p.  251. 
2  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xii.,  p.  472 


592  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 


let  you  be  all  alone  in  that  great  wide  circuit  ;  and  I  will  tell 
Mr.  Wesley  so.  I  am  glad,  that  Col.  Buck  is  the  reigning 
mayor  with  you.  Pray,  when  you  see  him,  give  my  Christian 
respects  to  him,  and  tell  him,  I  am  glad  he  is  raised  to  be  the 
first  magistrate  in  Bideford."  Fenwick  was  without  an 
appointment,  and  was  resident  at  Hexham.  Wesley  took 
him  at  his  word,  and  sent  him  to  Bideford.  Poor  Michael 
seems  to  have  been  a  stormy  petrel.  No  sooner  was  he  come, 
than  there  was  serious  trouble.     Hence  the  following. 

'■'■December  25,  1789. 
"  Most  esteemed  Friend,— Yesterday,  I  waited  upon  the  lord 
lieutenant  for  this  county,  Lord  Fortescue,  and  we  spent  an  hour  together 
in  a  close,  pointed  conversation,  respecting  the  hot  persecution  at  Bideford. 
His  lordship  told  me,  he  will  go  over  and  inquire  into  matters,  for  he 
thinks  our  hves  are  in  danger,  seeing  that  the  mayor  of  Bideford  and  the 
other  justices  have  thrown  open  the  flood  gates  to  the  mob,  to  do  with  us 
as  they  please.  I  recommended  to  his  lordship  the  23rd  of  Matthew, 
(only  changing  the  word  Jerusalem  into  that  of  Bideford,)  in  which  our 
blessed  Lord  describes  the  men.  His  lordship  is  greatly  alarmed  at  our 
present  situation;  but,  the  next  week,  he  will  be  with  his  majesty,  and 
will  let  him  know  of  our  treatment ;  and  they  must  take  the  consequences. 
My  dear  brother,  never  fear :  only  believe ;  and  we  shall  see  great  things 
in  due  time.     I  shall  conquer,  or  die  in  the  field. 

"  I  am  your  affectionate  friend, 

"Michael  Fenwick."i 

The  above  not  only  furnishes  a  glimpse  of  Methodist  affairs 
at  Bideford,  but  casts  light  on  the  following  letters,  which 
Wesley  sent  to  Bardslcy. 

"  Northampton,  November  25,  1789. 
"Dear  Sammy,— Yours  of  the  21st  instant  was  sent  to  me  hither. 
You  have  done  exceeding  well  to  take  the  upper  room.  If  need  be,  we 
will  help  you  out.  Let  us  have  no  law,  if  it  be  possible  to  avoid  it :  that 
is  the  last  and  worst  remedy.  Try  every  other  remedy  first.  It  is  a  good 
providence,  that  the  mayor  of  Bideford  is  a  friendly  man.  Prayer  will 
avail  much  in  all  cases.  Encourage  our  poor  people  to  be  instant  in 
prayer.     Take  care  of  poor  Michael;  and  do  not  forget, 

"  Dear  Sammy,  your  affectionate  brother, 

"John  Wesley."^ 

"Newcastle  under  Lyne,  March  29,  1790. 
"  Dear  Sammy,— Take    particular  care,    that  neither  Michael  Fen- 
wick, nor  any  other,  give    any  just  offence  ;   and  especially,   that  they 


Manuscript  letter.  ^  Methodist  Magazine,  1825,  p.  675. 


MetJiodisni  in  the  Isle  of  Man.  59; 


offend  not  God  ;    then  He  will  make  your  enemies  to  be  at  peace  with      1780 
you.  — 

"  If  I  remember  well,  I  did  write  to  the  mayor  of  Bidcford  ;  and  I  ^^^  ^^ 
expect,  that  makes  him  more  quiet.  By  meekness,  gentleness,  and 
patience,  with  faith  and  prayer,  you  will  prevail  at  Torrington  also.  You 
have  only  to  go  on  calmly  and  steadily,  and  God  will  arise  and  maintain 
His  own  cause.  Only  let  us  labour  to  have  a  conscience  void  of  offence 
toward  God,  and  toward  man. 

"  I  am,  dear  Sammy,  your  affectionate  friend  and  brother, 

"John  Wesley." » 

All  must  admire  this  advice.  During  this  year  of  storm 
and  tempest,  the  Bideford  Methodists  increased  from  eighty- 
three  to  one  hundred  and  forty. 

We  insert  one  more  letter.  In  the  Isle  of  Man  there 
were  2569  Methodists,  within  five  hundred  of  the  number 
there  are  at  present.  Then  there  was  one  circuit  ;  now 
there  are  four  :  then  there  were  three  itinerant  preachers ; 
now  there  are  ten.  George  Holder  was  assistant ;  and  to 
him  Wesley  addressed  the  following. 

"Near  London,  November  29,  1789, 
"Dear  George, — You  did  well  to  remember  the  case  of  Dewsbury 
house,  and  to  send  what  you  could  to  Mr.  Mather. 

"  I  exceedingly  disapprove  of  publishing  anything  in  the  Manx  language. 
On  the  contrary,  we  should  do  everything  in  our  power  to  abolish  it  from 
the  earth,  and  persuade  every  member  of  our  society  to  learn  and  talk 
English.  This  would  be  much  hindered  by  providing  them  with  hymns 
in  their  own  language.  Therefore,  gently  and  quietly  let  the  proposal 
drop. 

"  I  hope  you  and  your  fellow  labourers  are  of  one  heart.  Peace  be 
with  your  spirits  ! 

"  I  am,  dear  George,  your  affectionate  friend  and  brother, 

"John  Wesley." 2 

Wesley  would  take  no  step  to  gratify  the  linguistic  folly  of 
the  Manx  Methodists  ;  but  he  was  still  actively  employed  in 
supplying  books  to  his  English  readers.  His  publications, 
in  1789,  were  : 

1.  "The  Life  of  Mr.  Silas  Told."     i8mo,  113  pages. 

2.  "A  Short  Account  of  the  Life  and  Death  of  Jane 
Newland,  of  Dublin."     i2mo,  12  pages. 

3.  "  An  Extract  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  John  Wesley's  Journal, 

HVesley's  Works,  vol.  xii.,  p.  473.  ^  Ibid.  vol.  xiii.,  p.  108. 

VOL.  in.  Q  Q 


594  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1789     from    September   4,   1782,  to  June    28,    1786."      l2mo,    134 
A^Tse    pages. 

4.  "  Minutes  of  Several  Conversations  between  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Wesley  and  others.  From  the  year  1744,  to  the  year 
1789."     i2mo,  51  pages. 

5.  His  chief  pubHcation,  of  course,  was  his  Arminian 
Magazine,  8vo,  679  pages. 

As  usual,  it  contains  six  of  his  own  sermons.  Those  on 
Man,  Faith,  and  the  Omnipresence  of  God,  are  among  the 
ablest  he  ever  wrote.  That  on  the  Rich  Man  and  Lazarus 
is  a  powerful  exposition  of  the  text,  which  Wesley  believed 
to  be,  not  merely  a  parable,  but  a  history.  The  sermon  on 
Riches  is  boldly  faithful,  and  must  have  made  the  rich 
Methodists  of  that  period  wince  and  tremble  ;  as,  indeed,  it 
ought  to  make  such  Methodists  wince  and  tremble  at  the 
present  day.  The  following,  addressed  to  rich  men,  are  the 
concluding  paragraphs. 

"  O  how  pitiable  is  your  condition  !  And  who  is  able  to  help  you  ? 
You  need  more  plain  dealing  than  any  men  in  the  world  ;  and  you  meet 
with  less.  For  how  few  dare  to  speak  as  plain  X^o  yon,  as  they  would  to 
one  of  your  servants  ?  No  man  living  that  either  hopes  to  gain  anything 
by  your  favour,  or  fears  to  lose  anything  by  your  displeasure.  Oh  that  God 
would  give  me  acceptable  words,  and  cause  them  to  sink  deep  into  your 
hearts  !  Many  of  you  have  known  me  long,  well-nigh  from  your  infancy ! 
You  have  frequently  helped  me,  when  I  stood  in  need.  May  I  not  say, 
you  loved  me  ?  But  now  the  time  of  our  parting  is  at  hand  ;  my  feet  are 
just  stumbling  upon  the  dark  mountains.  I  would  leave  one  word  with 
you,  before  I  go  hence  ;  and  you  may  remember  it  when  1  am  no  more 
seen. 

"  O  let  your  heart  be  whole  with  God  !  Seek  your  happiness  in  Him, 
and  Him  alone.  Beware,  that  you  cleave  not  to  the  dust !  This  earth  is 
not  your  place.  See  that  you  use  this  world  as  not  abusing  it ;  use  the 
world,  and  enjoy  God.  Sit  as  loose  to  all  things  here  below,  as  if  you 
were  a  poor  beggar.  Be  a  good  steward  of  the  manifold  gifts  of  God  ; 
that,  when  you  are  called  to  give  an  account  of  your  stewardship,  He  may 
say,  *  Well  done,  good  and  faithful  servant ;  enter  thou  into  the  joy  of  thy 
Lord.'" 

Nothing  can  be  plainer  than  that,  for  several  of  the  last 
years  of  his  life,  Wesley  regarded  the  growing  riches  of 
the  Methodists  as  one  of  their  greatest  dangers.  His 
magazines,  to  say  nothing  of  his  letters  and  his  journals,  are 
full  of  this.      Hence,    his   eighteen    lengthy  extracts  on  the 


Wesley  warning  rich  AletJiodists.  595 


Surest  Way  of  Thriving-,  running  through  the  whole  of  the  ^7^9 
magazine  of  1788,  and  part  of  that  for  1789.  Hence,  the  A^86 
solemn  warning,  contained  in  his  brief  article  on  "The  Origin 
of  Image  Worship  among  Christians";  an  article  meriting  the 
serious  thought  of  those  wealthy  Methodists,  who  are 
adorning  (?)  their  chapels  with  painted  windows  and  emblem- 
atic pulpits.  Citations  might  be  multiplied,  all  tending  to 
show  that,  rightly  or  wrongly,  Wesley  regarded  the  growth  of 
riches  among  Christians,  not  as  a  good  to  be  desired,  but  as 
a  necessary  evil,  and  a  serious  danger. 

The  only  sermon,  which  remains  unnoticed,  is  that  on 
God's  Vineyard, — a  sermon  on  the  doctrine,  spiritual  helps, 
discipline,  and  outward  protection  of  Methodism.  He  tells 
us  that,  notwithstanding  the  assistance  they  received  from 
Peter  Bohler,  he  and  the  other  Oxford  Methodists  "  were 
never  clearly  convinced,  that  we  are  justified  by  faith  alone, 
till  they  carefully  consulted  the  homilies  of  the  Church  of 
England,  and  compared  them  with  the  sacred  writings, 
particularly  St.  Paul's  epistle  to  the  Romans."  He  pro- 
pounds the  principle,  which  Dr.  James  Hamilton  enlarged 
upon  in  his  conference  sermon,  already  mentioned,  that 
for  the  Methodists  to  have  become  a  separate  sect,  like 
the  Moravians,  "would  have  been  a  direct  contradiction  to 
the  whole  design  of  God  in  raising  them  up,  to  spread 
scriptural  religion  throughout  the  land,  among  people  of  every 
denomination,  leaving  every  one  to  hold  his  own  opinions, 
and  to  follow  his  own  mode  of  worship."  Having  shown  the 
great  advantages  that  the  Methodists  had  enjoyed,  his  early 
hopes  concerning  them,  and  how  these  hopes  had  hardly  been 
realised,  he  concludes  with  the  following  address  to  the  rich 
members  of  the  society, 

"  O  ye  that  have  riches  in  possession,  once  more  hear  the  word  of  the 
Lord  !  Ye  that  are  rich  in  this  world,  that  have  food  to  eat,  and  raiment 
to  put  on,  and  something  over  !  Are  you  clear  of  the  curse  ?  of  loving 
the  world?  Are  you  sensible  of  your  danger.?  Do  you  feel,  *  How 
hardly  will  they  that  have  riches  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven'? 
Do  you  continue  unburnt  in  the  midst  of  fire  .-*  Are  you  untouched  with 
the  love  of  the  world  ?  Are  you  clear  from  the  desire  of  the  flesh,  the 
desire  of  the  eye,  and  the  pride  of  life  .''  Do  you  ////  a  knife  to  your  throat 
when  you  sit  down  to  meat,  lest  your  table  should  be  a  snare  to  you  ? 
Is  not  your  belly  your  god?     Is  not  eating  and  drinking,  or  any  other 


Age  86 


596  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1789  pleasure  of  sense,  the  greatest  pleasure  you  enjoy?  Do  not  you  seek 
happiness  in  dress,  furniture,  pictures,  gardens  ;  or  anything  else  that 
pleases  the  eye?  Do  not  you  grow  soft  and  delicate?  unable  to  bear 
cold,  heat,  the  wind  or  the  rain,  as  you  did  when  you  were  poor  ?  Are  you 
not  increasing  in  goods,  laying  up  treasures  on  earth  ;  instead  of  restoring  to 
God,  in  the  poor,  not  so  much  or  so  much,  but  all  that  you  can  spare ! 
Surely  '  it  is  easier  for  a  camel  to  go  through  the  eye  of  a  needle,  than  for  a 
rich  man  to  enter  the  kingdom  of  heaven  !'" 

There  are  other  contributions  by  Wesley,  in  the  Magazine 
for  1789,  Avhich  ought  to  have  attention.  There  is  an  ex- 
quisitely drawn  up  article  on  "  The  Nature  of  Inspiration, 
clearly  explained  and  enforced,  as  applicable  to  the  Old 
and  New  Testament "  ;  and  also  his  piece  "  On  the  Manners 
of  the  Times";  neither  of  which  has  been  included  in  Wesley's 
collected  works.  And  there  are  also  his  "  Thoughts  on  Sepa- 
ration from  the  Church,"  and  his  "Thoughts  upon  a  late 
Phenomenon;"  both  of  them  really  on  the  same  subject. 
After  showing  how  revivals  of  religion  have  generally  ended 
in  the  formation  of  separate  sects,  and  thereby  rarely  lasted, 
according  to  Luther's  dictum,  "  longer  than  a  generation,  that 
is,  thirty  years,"  Wesley  remarks  : 

"The  Methodists  have  been  solicited  again  and  again,  to  separate  from 
the  Established  Church,  and  to  form  themselves  into  a  distinct  body, 
independent  of  all  other  religious  societies.  Thirty  years  ago,  this  was 
seriously  considered  among  them,  at  a  general  conference.  All  the 
arguments,  urged  on  one  side  and  the  other,  were  considered  at  large  ;  and 
it  was  determined,  without  one  dissenting  voice,  that  they  '  ought  not  to 
separate  from  the  Church.' 

"  This  is  a  new  thing  in  the  world  ;  this  is  the  peculiar  glory  of  the 
people  called  Methodists.  In  spite  of  all  manner  of  temptations,  they 
■will  not  separate  from  the  Church,  What  many  so  earnestly  covet,  they 
abhor  ;  they  will  not  be  a  distinct  body.  Now  what  instance  have  we  of 
this  before,  either  in  ancient  or  modern  history,  of  a  body  of  people,  in 
such  circumstances,  who  will  not  be  a  distinct  party,  but  choose  to  remain 
in  connection  with  their  own  church,  that  they  may  be  more  effectually 
the  servants  of  all  ?  This,  I  say  again,  is  an  utterly  new  phenomenon !  I 
never  saw,  heard,  or  read  of  anything  like  it.  The  Methodists  will  not 
separate  from  the  Church,  although  continually  reproached  for  doing  it  ; 
although  it  would  free  them  from  abundance  of  inconveniences,  and  make 
their  path  much  smoother  and  easier  ;  and  although  many  of  their  friends 
earnestly  advise,  and  their  enemies  provoke  them  to  it, — the  clergy  in 
particular  ;  most  of  whom,  far  from  thanking  them  for  continuing  in  the 
Church,  use  all  the  means  in  their  power,  fair  and  unfair,  to  drive  them  out 
of  it." 


1790. 

WESLEY'S  career  is  drawing  to  a  close.  He  himself  1790 
was  on  the  "  Delectable  mountains,"  basking  in  the  Age  87 
sheen  of  the  celestial  city ;  but  all  around  him,  or  rather 
beneath  him,  was  darkness  and  confusion.  The  riots  of  1789 
were  about  to  culminate  in  the  indescribable  horrors  of  the 
French  revolution.  Burke  wrote  against  this  terrible  up- 
heaving ;  Dr.  Price  applauded  it.  English  newspapers,  all  at 
once,  became  Galilean  and  republican  ;  and  overflowed  wnth 
abuse  of  the  old  constitution, — abuse  of  the  Church, — abuse  of 
the  aristocracy, — abuse  of  almost  everything  except  the 
French  insurrection,  and  the  men  who  made  it.  Thomas 
Paine  and  his  friends  were  in  the  highest  feather ;  and  infidel 
and  revolutionary  pamphlets  were  published  with  prodigal 
profusion.  Even  Fox,  in  parliament,  declared  that  the  French 
army,  by  refusing  to  obey  the  court  and  to  act  against  the 
people,  had  set  a  glorious  example  to  all  the  armies  of 
Europe  ;  to  which  Burke,  who  had  hitherto  been  Fox's  friend, 
replied,  that  the  revolutionists  were  "  an  irrational,  unprin- 
cipled, proscribing,  confiscating,  plundering,  ferocious,  bloody, 
tyrannical  democracy."  It  W'as  amid  such  excitement,  that 
Wesley  spent  his  last  days  on  earth. 

He  began  the  year  in  London,  and  wrote  in  his  journal : 

"  1790,  January  I. — I  am  now  an  old  man,  decayed  from  head  to  foot  : 
my  e)es  are  dim  ;  my  right  hand  shakes  much  ;  my  mouth  is  hot  and 
dry  every  morning  ;  I  have  ahngering  fever  almost  every  day  ;  my  motion 
is  weak  and. slow.  However,  blessed  be  God,  I  do  not  slack  my  labour  ; 
I  can  preach  and  write  still." 

Henry  Moore  observes  : 

"  Being  in  the  house  with  him  when  he  wrote  thus,  I  was  greatly 
surprised.  I  knew  it  must  be  as  he  said  ;  but  I  could  not  imagine  his 
weakness  was  so  great.  He  still  rose  at  his  usual  hour,  four  o'clock,  and 
went  through  the  many  duties  of  the  day,  not  indeed  with  the  same 
apparent  vigour,  but  without  complaint,  and  with  a  degree  of  resolution 
that  was  astonishing." ' 

*  Life  of  Wesley,  vol.  ii.,  p.  380. 


59S  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1790  On  Saturday,  January  2,  he  preached  at  Snowsfields.  The 
Age  87  next  day,  Sunday,  he  held  the  covenant  service  in  the  City 
Road  chapel,  at  which  nearly  two  thousand  persons  were 
present.  A  few  days  were  then  devoted  to  writing  letters, 
two  of  which  we  give.  The  first  has  not  before  been 
published.  It  was  addressed  to  Daniel  Jackson,  then  ap- 
pointed to  the  Stockport  circuit. 

"  London,  yamiary  2,  1 790. 
"  My  dear  Brother, — It  is  no  wonder  many  of  the  societies  should 
be  in  a  poor  condition,  considering  what  poor  care  has  lately  been  taken 
of  them.     They  will  soon  find  the  difference. 

"  The  books  that  are  damaged  you  may  give  away  as  you  judge 
proper. 

"None  ought  to  have  made  a  collection  for  any  place  before  the  house  at 
Dewsbury  was  built.     However,  do  what  you  can,  and  you  do  enough. 

*'  I  am,  with  love  to  sister  Jackson, 

"  Your  affectionate  friend  and  brother, 

"J.  Wesley." 

The  next  was  written  to  John  Mason,  the  assistant  in  the 
St.  Austell  circuit. 

"  Near  London,  Jamiary  13,  1790. 

"  My  dear  Brother, — As  long  as  I  live,  the  people  shall  have  no 
share  in  choosing  either  stewards  or  leaders  among  the  Methodists. 
We  have  not,  and  never  had,  any  such  custom.  We  are  no  republicans, 
and  never  intend  to  be.  It  would  be  better  for  those,  that  are  so  minded, 
to  go  quietly  away.  I  have  been  uniform,  both  in  doctrine  and  discipline, 
for  above  these  fifty  years  ;  and  it  is  a  little  too  late  for  me  to  turn  into  a 
new  path,  now  I  am  old  and  grey  headed.  Neither  good  old  brother 
Porna  (God  bless  him  !)  expects  it  from  me,  nor  brother  Wood,  nor  brother 
Flamank. 

"  If  you  and  I  shall  be  called  hence  this  year,  we  may  bless  God  that 
we  have  not  lived  in  vain.  Come,  let  us  have  a  few  more  strokes  at 
Satan's  kingdom,  and  then  we  shall  depart  in  peace  ! 

"  I  am,  your  affectionate  friend  and  brother, 

"John  Wesley." ' 

On  Sunday,  January  17,  Wesley  buried  Mrs.  Dornford,  a 
good  woman ;  and  preached  her  funeral  sermon.  In  the 
afternoon,  he  preached  to  a  large  congregation,  in  the  church 
of  Great  St.  Helen's. 

On    Monday,   January   25,   he   went    to    Dorking,   "and 

^  Methodist  Magazine,  1S30,  p-  251. 


Wesley  starts  on  a  Five  Months   yonrncy.    599 

laboured  to  awaken  a  harmless,  honest,  drowsy  people,  who,      ^79° 
for  many  years,  seemed  to  stand  stock  still,  neither  increasing    Age  87 
nor  decreasing." 

On  January  29,  Wesley  writes  :  "  We  held  our  general 
quarterly  meeting,  whereby  it  appeared,  that  the  society 
received  and  expended  about  ;^3000  a  year ;  but  our  expense 
still  exceeds  our  income." 

The  next  eight  days  were  employed  in  meeting  the  London 
classes,  containing  about  2500  members. 

During  the  month  of  February,  we  find  him  preaching  a 
funeral  sermon  for  Robert  Windsor  ;  and  sermons  to  children 
• — beautiful  sights — at  West  Street,  and  at  City  Road.  He 
retired  to  his  friend  Mr.  Wolff's,  at  Balham,  "  to  finish  his 
sermons,  and  to  put  all  his  little  things  in  order."  He 
"submitted  to  importunity,  and  once  more  sat  for  his  picture." 
He  "  dined  at  Mr.  Baker's,  one  of  the  sheriffs  of  London  ;  a 
plain  man,  who  still  lived  in  an  inn  yard!" 

On  Sunday,  February  28,  which,  for  five  months,  was  his 
last  day  in  London,  he  preached  to  enormous  congregations, 
at  City  Road,  West  Street,  and  Brentford  ;  and  then  started 
off  on  his  long  journey  to  the  north.  Before  we  follow  him, 
two  short  letters  may  be  welcome  ;  the  first  to  Adam  Clarke 
at  Bristol,  the  second  to  ]\Iiss  Bisson  in  the  Channel  islands. 

"  London, /^f<5;v/«; J  11,  1790. 
"Dear  Adam, — On  Monday,  IMarch  i,  I  hope  to  set  out  hence;  and 
to  preach  that  evening,  and  on  Tuesday,  at  half-past  si.K  o'clock,  at  Bath. 
On  Thursday,  if  he  desires  it,  I  will  dine  at  Mr.  Durbin's;  and,  on 
Monday  following,  begin  as  usual  to  meet  the  classes.  I  am  not  at  all 
sorry  that  James  Gore  is  removed  from  this  evil  world.  You  and  I  shall 
follow  him  in  due  time;  as  soon  as  our  work  is  done.  Many  of  our 
friends  have  been  lately  gathered  into  the  garner,  as  ripe  shocks  of  wheat 
Peace  be  with  both  your  spirits !     I  am,  dear  Adam,  etc., 

"John  Wesley."  1 

"London,  February  13,  1790. 
"  My  dear  Sister, — I  love  to  see  your  name  at  the  bottom  of  a  letter, 
especially  when  it  brings  me  the  good  news,  that  your  spirit  is  still 
rejoicing  in  God  your  Saviour.  My  sight  is  so  far  decayed,  that  I  cannot 
well  read  a  small  print  by  candlelight ;  but  I  can  write  almost  as  vvell  as 
ever  I  could ;  and  it  does  me  no  harm,  but  rather  good,  to  preach  once  or 
twice  a  day,     A  few  days  since,  I  had  a  letter  from  one  of  our  sisters  in 

^  Dunn's  Life  of  Clarke,  p.  72. 


Age  8; 


600  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1790  Scotland,  whose  experience  agrees  much  with  yours;  only  she  goes 
farther;  she  speaks  of  being  'taken  up  into  heaven,  surrounded  with  the 
blessed  Trinity,  and  let  into  God  the  Father.'  I  commend  you  to  His 
care ;  and  am,  etc, 

"John  Wesley." 

Wesley  spent  a  fortnight  at  Bath,  Bristol,  and  Kingswood  ; 
preached  daily ;  visited  the  sick  ;  and  met  the  Bristol  classes. 
On  one  of  the  Sundays,  at  least,  he  preached  thrice  ;  having 
on  the  night  previous  occupied  the  pulpit  of  his  friend,  the 
Rev.  Joseph  Easterbrook,  in  Temple  church.  He  writes  : 
"Mr.  Easterbrook  has  lately  been  very  ill ;  but  God  has  again 
lifted  up  his  head  to  be  a  father  to  the  poor  a  little  longer." 

This  indefatigable  clergyman  was  the  son  of  the  Bristol 
bellman  ;  was  educated  at  Kingswood  school ;  became  assist- 
ant master  at  Trevecca  college  ;  obtained  ordination  ;  was 
presented  to  Temple  church  by  the  Bristol  corporation  ;  and 
succeeded  James  Roquet  as  chaplain  of  Newgate  prison.^ 
Fletcher,  in  writing  to  the  Countess  of  Huntingdon  concern- 
ing him,  says,  when  he  first  entered  Trevecca,  he  began  to 
live  upon  water  and  potatoes  ;  and  yet,  besides  attending  to 
his  scholastic  duties,  he  preached  every  evening  in  the  week, 
and  occasionally  as  many  as  four  times  on  Sundays.  Atmore 
states  that,  in  Bristol,  it  was  Easterbrook's  invariable  rule  to 
send  those,  who  were  awakened  under  his  ministry,  to  meet 
in  class  among  the  Methodists.  His  work  was  now  nearly 
ended.  When  Wesley  came  again  to  Bristol,  in  September, 
he  wrote:  "Mr.  Easterbrook  is  ill  of  a  disorder  which  no 
physician  understands,  and  which  it  seems  God  alone  can 
cure.  He  is  a  pattern  to  all  Bristol,  and  indeed  to  all  in 
England ;  having,  besides  his  other  incessant  labours,  which 
were  never  intermitted,  preached  in  every  house  in  his 
parish!"  Within  four  months  after  this,  Easterbrook  was 
dead,  and  Henry  Moore  preached  for  him  a  funeral  sermon, 
which  was  printed.  He  died  on  the  21st  of  January,  1791,  in 
the  fortieth  year  of  his  age,  some  of  his  last  words  being 
"  God  does  all  things  well.  I  have  no  fear  of  death  or  of 
judgment."  ^ 


^  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xiii.,  p.  105. 
'  Pawson's  manuscripts,  ^  Moore's  sermon. 


A    Three  Months   Preachincr  Plan.  60  r 


While  at  Bristol,  Wesley  addressed  the  following  character-      i79<^ 
istic  letter,  not  before  published,  to  Jasper  Winscomb,  one  of    Age  87 
his  preachers  in  the  Isle  of  Wight.    What  would  Wesley  have 
said  concerning  the  circuit  divisions  of  the  present  day  ? 

"Bristol,  March  13,  1790. 
"  Dear  Jasper, — The  story  of  Thomas  Whitvvood  is  very  remarkable, 
and  the  story  is  well  told,  and  God  has  done  much  honour  to  him  by  the 
happy  effects  which  have  been  consequent  on  his  death.  I  am  in  no  haste 
at  all  concerning  building,  without  having  paid  some  more  of  our  debts. 
I  am  likewise  in  no  haste  to  multiply  preachers,  or  to  divide  circuits. 
Most  of  our  circuits  are  too  small  rather  than  too  large.  I  wish  we  had 
no  circuit  with  fewer  than  three  preachers  on  it,  or  less  than  four  hundred 
miles'  riding  in  four  weeks.  Certainly,  no  circuit  shall  be  divided  before 
conference.  If  we  do  not  take  care  we  shall  all  degenerate  into  milksops. 
'  Soldiers  of  Christ,  arise ! ' 

"  I  am,  dear  Jasper,  etc., 

"  John  Wesley," 

On  leaving  London,  the  following  circular,  bearing  Wesley's 
signature,  was  issued,  indicating  to  his  friends  the  places  he 
meant  to  visit,  in  his  journey  to  the  north.  It  furnishes  a 
bird's  eye  view  of  the  Herculean  labours  of  an  old  man  nearly 
eighty-seven  years  of  age,  and  also  helps  to  fill  up  a  gap  in 
Wesley's  journal.  It  must  be  remembered,  that  the  means  of 
transit  in  1790  were  not  what  they  are  at  present ;  and  that, 
at  every  place  mentioned,  Wesley  preached  at  least  once, 
and  often  several  times  more  than  that.  It  will  also  be  seen, 
that  from  three  to  four  days  were  employed  in  some  of  the 
principal  societies,  where  he  arranged  to  spend  his  Sundays. 

"London',  March  i,  1790. 
"  As  many  persons  desire  to  know  where  I  am  from  this  time  till  the 
conference,  I  here  set  down  my  route,  which,  if  God  permit,  I  shall  keep 
till  that  time. 

March. 
Monday,  15,  Stroud;  16,  Gloucester;  17,  Worcester;  18,  Stourport; 

19,  Birmingham. 
Monday,   22,   Wednesbury;    23,    Dudley  and  Wolverhampton;    24, 
Madele/;    25,  Salop;  26,   Madeley;    27,  Newcastle  under  Lyne; 
28,  Lane  End  and  Burslem. 
Monday,  29,  Congleton;  30,  Macclesfield. 

April. 
Thursday,  I,  Stockport;  2,  Manchester. 

Monday,  5,  Nantwich  and  Liverpool;  7,  Warrington  and  Chester; 
9,  Wigan;  10,  Bolton. 


6o2  Life  and  Tinics  of  Wesley. 

1790  Monday,  12,  Blackburn;  13,  Colne;   17,  Keighlcy;  18,  Haworth  and 

—  Halifax. 

^^    '  Tuesday,    20,    Huddersfield;     21,    Dewsbury;    24,   Wakefield;    25, 

Birstal  and  Leeds. 
Tuesday,  27,  Bradford;  29,  Otley. 

May. 
Saturday,  I,  Parkgate;  2,  York;  4,  Pocklington;  6,  Newcastle. 
Monday,  10,  Alnwick;  12,  Dunbar;   13,  Edinburgh. 
Tuesday,  18,  Dundee;  19,  Arbroath;  20,  Aberdeen. 

"N.B.  I  have  not  yet  finally  settled  the  rest  of  my  plan.  I  probably 
shall,  if  I  come  to  York.  Many  persons  are  continually  teasing  me  to 
visit  more  places.     Now  let  them  judge  whether  I  have  not  work  enough. 

"John  Wesley." 

To  this  circular,  two  postscripts  were  added,  by  some  other 
hand,  namely : 

"  Those  persons,  who  have  occasion  to  write  to  Mr.  Wesley,  are 
requested  to  direct  their  letters  according  to  this  plan,  and  not  to 
London." 

"Our  friends  here  earnestly  desire  that  Mr.  Wesley  may  be  remembered 
in  prayer,  especially  at  the  next  quarterly  fast,  that  his  strength  may  be 
continued,  and,  if  it  please  God,  increased  also." 

Such  was  Wesley's  plan  of  travel  and  of  labour  for  the 
next  ten  weeks  ;  but  even  this  was  a  mere  outline;  and  it  will 
be  found,  as  we  follow  him,  that  he  preached  at  many  places 
besides  the  above  mentioned. 

At  Stroud,  on  March  15,  hundreds  were  unable  to  get  into 
the  chapel.  On  the  day  following-,  he  preached  to  two  other 
crowds,  at  Painswick,  and  at  Gloucester,  March  17,  the 
chapel  at  Tewkesbury  was  not  large  enough  to  hold  the 
noonday  congregation;  and  at  Worcester,  in  the  evening,  he 
"found  much  comfort  among  a  well  established  people." 

Twenty  years  before  this,  Stourport  did  not  exist ;  now 
there  were  a  couple  of  streets,  at  least,  and  also  a  prosperous 
trade.  In  1780,  John  Cowell  came  with  his  family  from 
Wolverhampton  ;  and,  soon  after,  Thomas  Hanby  preached 
the  first  Methodist  sermon,  in  an  upper  room,  at  Mr.  Morris's.^ 
A  chapel  was  soon  erected,  towards  which  Mr.  Cowell  was  a 
large  contributor.  The  chapel  was  to  be  occupied  by  both 
Calvinist  and  Arminian    preachers.      The    Arminians    were 

>  Methodist  Magazine,  1832,  p.  594. 


JlIci/iodis??i  at  Stoiwport.  60 


•> 


speedily  ejected  ;  and,  rather  than  appeal  to  law,  Mr.  Cowcll,  179° 
at  his  own  expense,  built  another  and  a  larger  chapel,  which  Age  87 
Wesley  opened  in  1788.  He  now  visited  them  again  ;  had  a 
crowded  congregation  ;  was  pleased  with  their  attention  ;  but 
writes  :  "  The  moment  I  ceased  speaking,  fourscore  or  one 
hundred  begun  talking  all  at  once,  I  do  not  remember  to 
have  been  present  at  such  a  scene  before.  This  must  be 
amended  ;  otherwise,  if  I  should  live,  I  will  see  Stourport  no 
more." 

March  19,  at  eleven  a.m.,  Wesley  preached  at  Ouinton  ; 
and,  at  night,  to  a  densely  packed  congregation  at  Birming- 
ham. Next  day,  Saturday,  the  same  scene  was  repeated  ; 
and,  on  Sunday,  when  he  opened  a  new  meeting-house,  and 
preached  twice,  hundreds  of  people  were  unable  to  get  in. 
Joseph  Benson,  at  this  time  stationed  in  Birmingham,  met 
Wesley  at  Stourport,  and  writes  :  "  I  found  him  much 
stronger  and  better  than  I  expected.  Still  his  sight  is  so 
defective,  that  he  is  much  at  a  loss  in  giving  out  hymns,  in 
reading  his  text,  and  in  referring  to  any  portion  of  Scripture. 
In  conversation,  he  seemed  much  as  usual,  lively  and  enter- 
taining."^ 

On  Monday,  March  22,  at  Wednesbury,  as  many  as  could 
squeezed  into  the  chapel,  and  the  rest  were  fain  to  be  listeners 
outside.  The  next  day,  he  opened  a  new  meeting-house, 
"one  of  the  neatest  in  England,"  at  Dudley;  and,  at  night, 
preached  at  Wolverhampton.  Three  days  were  spent  at 
Madeley  and  Salop  ;  one  sermon  was  written ;  and  four  w'ere 
preached.  Week'  day  though  it  was,  Madeley  church  was 
crowded ;  and  so  also  was  the  meeting  place  at  Salop  ;  but 
concerning  the  Salopians,  Wesley  writes :  "  I  was  much 
ashamed  for  them.  The  moment  I  had  done  speaking,  I 
suppose  fifty  of  them  were  talking  all  at  once  ;  and  no 
wonder  they  had  neither  sense  nor  good  manners,  for  they 
were  gentlefolks ! " 

The  halt  at  Madeley  gave  him  the  opportunity,  not  only 
to  write  his  sermon  on  the  wedding  garment,  but  to  write 
letters  to  his  friends.  To  Adam  Clarke  he  expresses  the 
opinion,    that    "animal    magnetism    is    diabolical    from    the 


'  Benson's  Life,  by  ]\IacdonalJ,  p.  209. 


6o4  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1790     beginning  to  the  end  ;"  he  also   advises  him  to  consult  Dr. 

Age87  Whitehead  about  his  health,  and  requests  him  to  follow  all 
the  doctor's  directions,  "  except  the  leaving  off  preaching  "  ; 
naively  adding,  "  I  think,  if  I  had  taken  this  advice  many 
years  since,  I  should  not  have  been  a  living  man/'^ 

Charles  Atmore  had  recently  commenced  a  Sunday-school, 
in  the  Orphan  House,  at  Newcastle,  consisting  of  seventy 
teachers  and  more  than  a  thousand  children.^  And  Michael 
Longridge,  one  of  Wesley's  best  local  preachers,  in  the  north 
of  England,  had  published  a  l2mo  pamphlet  of  13  pages, 
•  entitled,  "  Sunday-schools  Recommended  as  a  Religious 
Institution :  with  a  Plan  for  their  Extension  at  a  small 
Expense."  All  this  had  Wesley's  cordial  approval ;  and, 
hence,  the  following  letter  to  Atmore,  which,  besides  a  refer- 
ence to  the  Sunday-schools,  also  contains  an  addition  to 
Wesley's  preaching  plan. 

"  Madeley,  March  24,  1790. 
"Dear  Charles, — I  am  glad  you  have  set  up  Sunday-schools  in 
Newcastle,  It  is  one  of  the  noblest  institutions  which  has  been  seen  in 
Europe  for  some  centuries,  and  will  increase  more  and  more,  provided 
the  teachers  and  inspectors  do  their  duties.  Nothing  can  prevent  the 
increase  of  this  blessed  work,  but  the  neglect  of  the  instruments.  There- 
fore, be  sure  to  watch  over  these  with  all  care,  that  they  may  not  grow 
weary  in  well  doing. 

"  I  shall  be  at  Darlington,  if  God  permit,  on  Tuesday  and  Wednesday, 
May  4th  and  5th;  on  Thursday,  at  Durham  to  preach  at  twelve  o'clock  at 
noon ;  and  at  Newcastle  between  four  and  five  in  the  afternoon,  Grace 
be  with  you  and  yours ! 

"  I  am,  dear  Charles,  etc., 

"John  Wesley," ^ 

To  return.  According  to  announcement,  Wesley,  on 
Saturday,  March  27,  preached  at  Newcastle  under  Lyne ; 
and,  on  the  day  following,  twice,  to  large  crowds,  in  the  open 
air,  at  Lane  End,  and  at  Burslem.  At  nine  o'clock  on 
Monday  morning,  he  opened  Tunstall  new  chapel,  "the  most 
elegant  he  had  seen  since  he  left  Bath";  and,  at  night, 
preached  at  Congleton,  the  clergyman  of  the  parish,  "  the 
mayor,  and  all  the  heads  of  the  town,"  forming  a  part  of  his 

*  Dunn's  Life  of  Clarke,  pp,  72,  73, 

2  Methodist  Magazine,  1845,  p.  119. 

3  Wesley's  Works,  vol,  xiii.,  p.  113. 


An  2uipiiblishcd  Letter.  605 


congregation.  He  quietly  remarks:  "That  I  might  not  179° 
overshoot  them,  I  preached  on,  '  So  teach  us  to  number  our  Age  87 
days  that  we  may  apply  our  hearts  unto  wisdom.' " 

Two  days  were  spent  at  Macclesfield,  and  two  crowded 
audiences  were  addressed.  Here,  also,  one  of  his  horses  died. 
On  April  i,  he  had  a  large  congregation  at  Stockport.  The 
next  day.  Good  Friday,  he  preached  at  Oldham  and  Man- 
chester ;  a-nd,  at  the  latter  place,  again  on  Saturday. 

On  Easter  Sunday,  at  Manchester,  he  preached  twice,  and 
held  a  sacramental  service  at  which  there  were  about  sixteen 
hundred  communicants ! 

Next  day,  he  preached  thrice,  at  Altrincham,  Northwich, 
and  Chester ;  and,  in  each  place,  had  crowded  congregations. 
At  Warrington,  "  the  chapel  was  well  filled  with  serious 
hearers"  ;  and,  at  Liverpool,  multitudes  were  not  able  to  get 
in.  At  Wigan,  the  chapel  " was  more  than  filled";  and  "in 
the  lovely  house  at  Bolton  "  he  preached  to,  what  he  calls, 
"  one  of  the  loveliest  congregations  in  England."  This  was 
on  April  10 ;  and,  from  this  date  to  May  24,  there  is  a 
chasm  in  Wesley's  journal,  which  we  shall  endeavour  to  fill 
up  ;  first  of  all,  however,  giving  an  unpublished  letter,  ad- 
dressed to  Thomas  Taylor,  who,  with  William  Simpson,  was 
stationed  at  Hull. 

"Manchester,  April \,  1790. 
"  Dear  Tommy, — I  did  not  approve  of  Dr.  Coke's  making  collections 
either  in  yours  or  any  other  circuit.  I  told  him  so,  and  am  not  well 
pleased  with  his  doing  it.  It  was  very  ill  done.  It  is  exceeding  probable, 
that  sea  bathing  will  be  of  use  to  brother  Simpson,  especially  if  he  be 
temperate  in  all  things. 

"  I  do  not  know  what  you  mean  concerning  talking  '  about  the  Church.' 
I  advise  all  our  brethren,  that  have  been  brought  up  in  the  Church,  to 
continue  there  ;  and  there  I  leave  the  matter.  The  Methodists  are  to 
spread  life  among  all  denominations ;  which  they  will  do,  till  they  form  a 
separate  sect. 

"  I  am,  dear  Tommy,  etc., 

"John  Wesley." 

According  to  Wesley's  plan,  the  week,  intervening  between 
April  10  and  17,  was  to  be  spent  in  visiting  Blackburn, 
Colne,  Keighley,  Haworth,  and  Halifax.  But,  besides  these 
places,  he  also  preached  at  Preston,  from  Revelation  xxii.  17  ; 


6o6  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1790     and  was  the  guest  of  Mrs.  Emmett  of  Walton,^  where  he  wrote 
Age  87    the  following  letter  to  the  celebrated  Ann  Cutler,  commonly- 
called  "praying  Nanny." 

"Walton,  April  15,  1790. 
"  My  dear  Sister, — There  is  something  in  the  dealings  of  God  with 
your  soul,  which  is  out  of  the  common  way.  But  I  have  known  several 
whom  He  has  been  pleased  to  lead  in  exactly  the  same  way,  and  parti- 
cularly in  manifesting  to  them  distinctly  the  three  Persons  of  the  ever 
blessed  Trinity.  You  may  tell  all  your  experience  to  me  any  time  ;  but 
will  need  to  be  cautious  in  speaking  to  others,  for  they  would  not  under- 
stand what  you  say.  Go  on  in  the  name  of  God,  and  in  the  power  of 
His  might.  Pray  for  the  whole  spirit  of  humility  ;  and  I  wish  that  you 
would  write  and  speak  without  reserve  to,  dear  Nanny, 

"  Yours  affectionately, 

"John  Wesley."^ 

Wesley  spent  April  21  at  Halifax;^  and,  in  connection 
with  his  visit  here,  preached  at  Bradshaw,  where,  on  his  tot- 
tering up  the  pulpit  stairs,  the  whole  congregation  burst  into 
a  flood  of  tears.  More  than  once,  his  memory  failed  him,  and 
Joseph  Bradford  and  William  Thompson  had  to  act  the  part 
of  remembrancers.  The  visit  was  memorable  in  more  respects 
than  one.  While  the  congregation  was  waiting  for  the 
venerable  preacher,  and  a  crowd  was  assembled  at  the  door, 
a  woman  of  the  name  of  Wilson  mockingly  exclaimed, 
"They  are  waiting  for  their  God";  no  sooner  was  the  sentence 
uttered  than  she  fell  senseless  to  the  ground,  and,  the  day 
following,  she  expired.* 

The  next  few  days,  according  to  Wesley's  plan,  were 
employed  at  Huddersfield,  Dewsbury,  Wakefield,  Birstal, 
Leeds,  Bradford,  and  Otley,  On  the  3rd  of  May,  he  came  to 
York.  Thomas  Taylor,  in  his  unpublished  diary,  remarks  : 
"  ]\Iay  3 — I  went  to  York,  and  was  amazed  to  meet  such  a 
number  of  travelling  preachers,  fifteen  or  sixteen  of  them. 
Mr.  Wesley  preached  a  useful  sermon ;  and,  after  preaching, 
we  had  a  meeting  respecting  one  of  our  number  who  was 
accused  of  drunkenness." 

On  the  5th  of  May,  Wesley  was  met  at  Darlington  by  his 


*"  Methodism  in  Preston,"  p.  44.  ^  Cutler's  Life,  p.  5. 

^  Methodist  Magazine,  1 792,  p.  66. 
*"  Methodism  in  HaUfax,"  p.  181. 


A  Backslider  Healed.  607 

son  in  law,  ]\Ir.  William  Smith,  and  by  Charles  Atmore,  from  179° 
Newcastle.  Atmore  writes  :  "We  heard  him  preach  in  the  Age  87 
evening,  from  *  He  is  before  all  things,  and  by  Him  all  things 
consist.'  He  appears  very  feeble  ;  and  no  wonder,  he  being 
nearly  eighty-seven  years  of  age.  His  sight  has  failed  so 
much,  that  he  cannot  see  to  give  out  the  hymn  ;  yet  his 
voice  is  strong,  and  his  spirits  remarkably  lively.  Surely  this 
great  and  good  man  is  the  prodigy  of  the  present  age." 

Old  as  he  was,  Wesley  set  out  next  morning,  at  half-past 
three  o'clock,  for  Newcastle,  where  he  preached,  in  the 
evening,  from  Isaiah  Ivii.  1,2.  The  following  night  (Friday) 
he  preached  again  his  remarkable  sermon  to  the  children  of 
the  Sunday-school,  taking  as  his  text  Psalm  xxxiv.  1 1  ; 
the  sermon  being  literally  composed  and  delivered  in  words 
of  not  more  than  two  syllables.^  On  Saturday,  May  8, 
we  find  him  at  North  Shields,  preaching,  says  Atmore, 
"  an  excellent  sermon,  from  *  What  things  were  gain  to  me, 
these  I  counted  loss  for  Christ.'  "  Next  day,  Sunday,  May 
9,  he  addressed  a  crowd  of  several  thousands,  on  Byker  Hill, 
from  Matthew  vii.  24 ;  and,  in  the  evening,  at  the  Orphan 
House,  took  his  old  favourite  text,  "  By  grace  are  ye  saved, 
through  faith."  "  The  house,"  writes  Atmore,  "  was  much 
crowded,  and  many  hundreds  returned,  not  being  able  to 
obtain  an  entrance."     Atmore  continues  : 

"  He  was  highly  honoured  in  his  ministry ;  particularly  to  one  who  had 
been  in  a  state  of  great  despair  for  many  years.  As  soon  as  he  arrived 
at  the  Orphan  House,  Mr.  Wesley  inquired  after  this  individual,  and  I 
accompanied  him  in  visiting  him.  As  soon  as  he  entered  the  room, 
where  the  poor  man  was,  he  went  up  to  him,  and  said,  '  Brother  Reed,  I 
have  a  word  from  God  unto  thee ;  Jesus  Christ  maketh  thee  whole.'  He 
then  knelt  down  to  pray  ;  and  such  a  season  I  have  seldom  experienced. 
Hope  instantly  sprang  up,  and  despair  gave  place;  and,  although  Reed 
had  not  been  out  of  his  habitation,  nor  even  from  his  wretched  bed,  for 
several  years,  he  went  that  evening  to  hear  Mr.  Wesley  preach  ;  and  God 
graciously  confirmed  the  testimony  of  His  servant  in  restoring  him  to  'the 
light  of  His  countenance.'"^ 

On  Monday,  May  10,  Wesley  proceeded  on  his  journey  to 
Scotland.  Of  his  labours  during  the  next  fortnight,  we  have 
no    record  ;    but,  on  May   25,  we  find    him   preaching    to    a 

'  See  page  472  of  this  volume. 
^Methodist  Magazine,  1845,  p.  121. 


6o8  Life  and  Tiines  of  Wesley. 

1790  crowded  audience  at  Aberdeen  ;  then  at  Brechin,  Glasgow, 
Ape87  ^"*^  Dumfries.  The  last  mentioned  town  was  now  a  part  of 
the  Glasgow  circuit,  and  had,  as  its  resident  preacher,  Mr. 
Yewdall,  who  writes  :  "  In  the  latter  end  of  May,  Mr.  Wesley 
visited  us.  He  came  from  Glasgow  that  day,  (about  seventy 
miles,)  but  his  strength  was  almost  exhausted,  and,  when  he 
attempted  to  preach,  very  few  could  hear  him.  His  sight 
was  likwise  much  decayed,  so  that  he  could  neither  read  the 
hymn  or  text.  The  wheels  of  life  were  ready  to  stand  still  ; 
but  his  conversation  was  agreeably  edifying,  being  mixed 
with  the  wisdom  and  gravity  of  a  parent,  and  the  artless 
simplicity  of  a  child."  ^ 

From  Dumfries,  Wesley  proceeded,  on  June  2,  to  Carlisle, 
where  the  chapel  would  not  near  contain  his  congregation. 
Thence  he  went  to  Hexham,  where  he  "found  a  loving 
people,  much  alive  to  God,  and  consequently  increasing 
daily." 

On  Friday,  June  4,  he  once  again,  and,  for  the  last  time, 
reached  Newcastle.     He  writes  : 

"  In  this  and  Kingswood  house,  were  I  to  do  my  own  will,  I  should 
choose  to  spend  the  short  remainder  of  my  days.  But  it  cannot  be  ;  this 
is  not  my  rest.  This  and  the  next  evening,  we  had  a  numerous  congrega- 
tion; and  the  people  seemed  much  alive.  Sunday,  June  6,  I  was  invited 
to  preach  in  Lemsley  church,  on  the  side  of  Gateshead  Fell;  but,  some 
hours  after,  the  minister  changed  his  mind.  So  I  preached  in  our  own 
preaching  house,  which  contained  the  greater  part  of  the  congregation  ; 
among  whom  were  Sir  Henry  Liddell  and  his  lady,  with  a  great  number 
of  his  servants.  The  chapel  was  hot  as  a  stove ;  but  neither  high  nor 
low  seemed  to  regard  it :  for  God  was  there !  The  Orphan  House  was 
equally  crowded  in  the  evening;  but  the  rain  would  not  suffer  me  to 
preach  abroad.  Monday,  June  7,  I  transcribed  the  stations  of  the 
preachers.  Tuesday,  June  8,  I  wrote  a  form  for  settling  the  preaching 
houses,  without  any  superfluous  words,  which  shall  be  used  for  the  time 
to  come,  verbatim,  for  all  the  houses  to  which  I  contribute  anything.  I 
will  no  more  encourage  that  villainous  tautology  of  lawyers,  which  is  the 
scandal  of  our  nation.  In  the  evening,  I  preached  to  the  children  of  our 
Sunday-school;  six  or  seven  hundred  of  whom  were  present.  Observe, 
none  of  our  masters  or  mistresses  teach  for  pay  :  they  seek  a  reward  that 
man  cannot  give." 

Two  days  after  this,  Wesley  left  Newcastle,  where  he  had 
'^Methodist  Magazine,  1795,  p.  423. 


Adam  Clarke.  609 


spent  so  many  happy  hours,  for  ever.     Before  we  follow  him,      1790 
three  more  of  his   letters  may  be    acceptable ;    the   first   to    Age~87 
Henry  Moore,  the  second  to  the  wife  of  Adam  Clarke,  the 
third  to  Miss  Bisson. 

"Dumfries,  yune  i,  1790. 
"My  dear  Henry,— So  I  am  upon  the  borders  of  England  once 
again.  My  sight  is  much  as  it  was,  but  I  doubt  I  shall  not  recover  my 
strength,  till  I  use  that  noble  medicine,  preaching  in  the  morning.  But 
where  can  we  put  poor  Adam  Clarke?  He  must  not  preach  himself  to 
death.  What  circuit  is  he  equal  to  ?  Where  can  he  have  rest  as  well  as 
labour  1    The  best  place  I  can  think  of,  at  present,  is  Leeds. 

"  The  dying  words  of  the  Prince  of  Orange  are  much  upon  my  mind 
this  morning:  '  Lord  have  mercy  upon  the  people !'  I  never  saw  so  much 
likehhood  of  doing  good  in  Scotland  as  there  is  now,  if  all  our  preachers 
here  would  be  Methodists  indeed !  Tell  dear  Nancy  to  love  me  as  well 
as  she  can. 

"  I  am,  my  dear  Henry,  etc., 

"J.  Wesley."' 

"Dumfries,  June  r,  1790. 

"  My  dear  Sister, — The  great  question  is.  What  can  be  done  for 
Adam  Clarke?  Now,  will  you  save  his  life?  Look  round;  consider  if 
there  be  any  circuit  where  he  can  have  much  rest,  and  httle  work;  or 
shall  he  and  you  spend  September  in  my  rooms  at  Kingswood,  on  con- 
dition that  he  shall  preach  but  twice  a  week,  and  ride  to  the  Hotwells 
every  day?  I  think  he  must  do  this,  or  die;  and  I  do  not  want  him 
(neither  do  you)  to  run  away  from  us  in  haste.  You  need  not  be  told, 
that  this  will  be  attended  with  some  expense ;  if  it  be,  we  can  make  it 
easy.  I  am  apt  to  think  this  will  be  the  best  way.  In  the  meantime,  let 
him  do  as  much  as  he  can,  and  no  more. 

"  It  is  probable,  I  shall  stay  with  you  a  little  longer,  as  my  strength 
does  not  much  decline.  I  travelled  yesterday  nearly  eighty  miles,  and 
preached  in  the  evening  without  any  pain.  The  Lord  does  what  pleases 
Him.     Peace  be  with  all  your  spirits  ! 

"  I  am,  etc., 

"John  Wesley." 2 

"  Newcastle,  yi/nc  6,  1790. 
"  My  dear  Sister, — To  hear  from  you  is  always  a  pleasure  to  me; 
though  it  is  a  pleasure  mixed  with  concern  when  I  hear  of  your  weakness 
or  sickness;  only  I  know  the  Lord  loveth  whom  He  chasteneth.  But  of 
what  kind  is  your  illness  ?  Perhaps  I  might  be  enabled  to  tell  you  how  to 
remove  it ;  and  if  you  can  recover  your  health,  you  ought ;  for  health  is  a 
great  blessing. 

'  Moore's  Life,  p.  89. 
2  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xiii.,  p.  94. 

VOL.  in.  R  R 


6 10  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

I  790  "In  August  last,  my  strength  failed  almost  at  once  ;  and  my  sight,  in  a 

.  g  great  measure,  went  from  me.  But  all  is  well  ;  I  can  still  write  almost  as 
easily  as  ever  ;  and  I  can  read  in  a  clear  light  ;  and,  I  think,  if  I  could 
not  read  or  write  at  all,  I  could  still  say  something  for  God.  When  you 
have  more  strength,  tell  me  more  of  the  work  of  God,  whether  in  yourself 
or  those  round  about  you.  And  ought  you  not  to  let  me  know  if  you  are 
in  any  temporal  distress  .-*     For  everything  that  concerns  you,  concerns, 

my  dear  Jenny,  yours  most  affectionately, 

"John  Wesley."* 

On  leaving  Newcastle,  on  the  loth  of  June,  Wesley  pro- 
ceeded, over  rough  roads  and  high  hills,  a  distance  of  at  least 
thirty  miles,  to  Weardale,  where  he  preached  both  at  noon 
and  night.  On  the  nth,  he  preached  twice  in  the  open  air, 
at  Stanhope  and  at  Durham,  the  crowds  being  so  immense 
that  the  chapels  were  utterly  unable  to  contain  them.  The 
1 2th  and  13th  he  spent  at  Sunderland,  where  he  preached 
thrice :  once  in  the  Methodist  chapel  ;  a  second  time  in 
Monkwcarmouth  church,  for  the  benefit  of  the  Sunday- 
school  ;  and  a  third,  to  many  thousands  of  people,  out  of 
doors. 

During  the  ensuing  week,  we  find  him  preaching  at 
Hartlepool,  Stockton,  Yarm,  Potto,  Hutton  Rudby,  Stokes- 
ley,  and  Whitby.  At  the  last  mentioned  town,  he  spent 
Sunday,  June  20,  preached  twice,  attended  church,  and  wrote 
in  his  journal  :  "  It  was  very  providential,  that  part  of  the 
adjoining  mountain  fell  down,  and  demolished  our  old 
meeting-house,  with  many  houses  besides  ;  by  which  means 
we  have  one  of  the  most  beautiful  chapels  in  Great  Britain, 
finely  situated  on  the  steep  side  of  the  mountain.  In  all 
England,  I  have  not  seen  a  more  affectionate  people  than 
thpse  at  Whitby." 

This  was  high  praise  of  these  Yorkshire  fishermen  ;  but  it 
was  not  unmerited.  Warm  hearts  often  beat  under  rough 
exteriors.  Besides,  the  Methodist  society  at  Whitby  was  now 
well-nigh  a  model.  Most  of  the  two  hundred  and  fifty 
members  met  in  band.  Their  itinerant  preachers  preached 
to  them  three  mornings  every  week ;  and,  on  the  other 
mornings,  they  were  either  supplied  with  local  preachers,  or 
held  prayer-meetings.     At  noon,  every  Friday,  they  had  their 

*  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xiii.,  p.  105. 


A    Yorkshire  Cavalcade.  6 1 1 

intercession  meeting;  and,  after  the   toils   of  the  week  were      179° 
ended,  they  met  together  every  Saturday  night,   to  ask  God    Age  87 
to  fit  their  minds  and  hearts  for  the  services  of  Sunday.^ 

On  June  21,  Wesley  preached  at  Pickering  and  Malton  ; 
and,  on  the  following  days,  at  Scarborough,  Bridlington, 
Beverley,  and  Hull.  At  Hull,  he  spent  Sunday,  June  27, 
and  also  his  birthday.     He  writes  : 

"  Friday,  June  25 — About  noon  I  preached  at  Beverley,  to  a  serious, 
well  behaved  congregation;  and,  in  the  evening,  to  one  equally  serious, 
and  far  more  numerous,  at  Hull.  Saturday,  26,  was  a  day  of  satisfaction. 
I  preached  at  seven  in  the  morning,  and  at  six  in  the  evening,  to  as  many 
as  our  house  would  contain  ;  the  ground  being  too  wet  for  the  congrega- 
tion to  stand  abroad." 

This  is  a  simple  entry,  and  gives  no  idea  of  the  commotion 
created  by  Wesley's  visit.  Thomas  Taylor,  who  was  now  the 
assistant  in  the  Hull  circuit,  writes  in  his  diary  :  "  I  and 
many  friends  from  Hull  met  INIr.  Wesley  at  Beverley.  We 
dined  at  an  inn.  He  preached,  and  we  hastened  to  Hull. 
Many  people  attending  this  evening."  Taylor  is  as  laconic 
as  Wesley ;  but,  from  another  source,  we  learn,  that  the 
"  many  friends  from  Hull"  were  a  regular  cavalcade  of  forty 
persons,  some  in  chaises,  and  the  rest  on  horses.  All  these 
dined  with  W^esley  at  his  inn  at  Beverley ;  spirits  w^ere  lively, 
and  conversation  brisk  ;  but,  in  the  midst  of  it,  and  while  all 
present  were  utterly  oblivious  of  the  flight  of  time,  W^esley 
pulled  out  his  watch,  started  on  his  feet,  bid  his  friends  good 
day,  stepped  into  his  carriage,  and  was  gone  before  they  had 
time  to  remonstrate,  or  to  wish  him  to  wait  for  the  cavalcade  to 
attend  him.  Horses  were  saddled,  and  carriages  got  ready  with 
as  much  celerity  as  possible  ;  but  the  old  man  was  on  his 
way,  and  it  was  with  the  utmost  difficulty  that  "  the  horsemen 
and  the  chariots  "  overtook  the  illustrious  visitor  in  sufficient 
time  to  do  him  honour  in  the  sight  of  their  fellow  citizens.^ 

On  his  birthday,  he  wrote  : 

"  Monday,  June  28. — This  day,  I  enter  into  my  eighty-eighth  year.  For 
above  eighty-six  years,  I  found  none  of  the  infirmities  of  old  age  ;  my 
eyes  did  not  wax  dim,  neither  was  my  natural  strength  abated ;  but,  last 

'  Kilham's  Life,  by  Blackwell,  p.  1 14. 
^Methodist  Magazine,  1836,  p.  494. 


6 12  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1790      August,  I  found  almost  a  sudden  change.     My  eyes  were  so  dim,  that  no 

1       glasses  would  help  me.     My  strength  likewise  now  quite  forsook  me  ;  and 

probably  will  not  return  in  this  world.     But  I  feel  no  pain  from  head  to 

foot  ;   only  it  seems  nature  is  exhausted  ;  and,  humanly  speaking,  will 

sink  more  and  more,  till  '  the  weary  springs  of  life  stand  still  at  last.' " 

Thus  did  the  venerable  man  calmly  contemplate  the  in- 
evitable closing"  of  his  remarkable  career.  No  weary  child  of 
innocence  ever  went  to  its  welcome  couch  with  greater 
serenity  than  Wesley  went  down  the  steps  leading  to  his 
sepulchre. 

Here  we  pause  again,  to  insert  another  selection  of  his 
letters.  The  first  was  addressed  to  William  Black,  in  Nova 
Scotia. 

"  Sunderland,  June  14,  1790. 

"  My  DEAR  Brother, — You  did  well  to  send  me  an  account  of  your 
little  societies.  Here  is  a  good  beginning,  though  it  is,  as  yet,  in  many 
places,,  a  day  of  small  things  ;  and  although  it  does  not  please  God  to 
carry  on  His  work  so  rapidly  with  you  as  in  the  United  States.  But  one 
soul  is  worth  all  the  merchandise  in  the  world  ;  and,  whoever  gets  money, 
do  you  win  souls. 

"  Never  was  there,  throughout  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland,  so  great 
a  thirst  for  the  pure  word  of  God  as  there  is  at  this  day.  The  same  we 
find  in  the  little  islands  of  Man,  Wight,  Jersey,  Guernsey,  and  Alderney 
in  the  Western  Ocean.  In  the  Isle  of  Man  alone  (thirty  miles  long)  the 
societies  contain  about  four-and-twenty  hundred  members.  I  have  just 
now  finished  my  route  through  Scotland,  where  I  never  had  such  congre- 
gations before.  So  it  pleases  God  to  give  me  a  little  more  to  do,  before 
He  calls  me  hence. 

"  What  has  become  of  brother  Scurr,  Dodson,  and  our  other  Yorkshire' 
friends  1  Some  of  them  doubtless  are  gone  into  a  farther  country  ;  but 
some  I  suppose  remain.  I  doubt  you  do  not  keep  up  a  constant  inter- 
course with  each  other.     Love  as  brethren  ! 

"  I  am,  dear  William,  etc., 
"John  Wesley.'" 

The  following,  kindly  lent  by  Charles  Reed,  Esq.,  M.P.,  has 
not  before  been  published.  It  was  addressed  to  William 
Thom,  the  assistant  appointed  to  Sarum  circuit. 

"  Malton,  June  21,  1790. 
"My  dear  Brother, — I  concur  in  the  judgment  of  my  brother,  that 
the  using  of  the  form  of  prayer  will  tend  to  unite  our  people  to  the  Church, 
rather  than  to  separate  them  from  it  ;  especially  if  you  earnestly  insist  on 
their  going  to  church  every  fourth  Sunday. 

^  Black's  Memoirs,  p.  265. 


Letter  to  a  Bishop.  613 


"  I  am  very  indifferent  concerning  the  preaching  house,  and  shall  not      1790 
concern  myself  about  it  any  more.     I  have  lost  £,\o  by  it  already,  although    •  — - 
to  no  purpose.     If  anything  more  is  done  concerning  it,  it  must  be  done 
by  the  people  at  Sarum  themselves. 

"  I  am,  with  love  to  sister  Thorn,  dear  Billy,  your  affectionate  friend  and 
brother,  "J.  WESLEY." 

The  next  was  addressed  to  a  bishop,  whose  name  is  not 

given. 

"  Hull,  June  26,  1790. 

"  My  Lord, — It  may  seem  strange,  that  one,  who  is  not  acquainted  with 
your  lordship,  should  trouble  you  with  a  letter.  But  I  am  constrained  to 
do  it ;  I  beheve  it  is  my  duty  both  to  God  and  your  lordship.  And  I  must 
speak  plain  ;  having  nothing  to  hope  or  fear  in  this  world,  which  I  am  on 
the  point  of  leaving. 

"  The  Methodists,  in  general,  my  lord,  are  members  of  the  Church  of 
England.  They  hold  all  her  doctrines,  attend  her  service,  and  partake  of 
her  sacraments.  They  do  not  willingly  do  harm  to  any  one,  but  do  what 
good  they  can  to  all.  To  encourage  each  other  herein,  they  frequently 
spend  an  hour  together  in  prayer  and  mutual  exhortation.  Permit  me 
then  to  ask,  '  Ctii  bono  ?  for  what  reasonable  end,  would  your  lordship 
drive  these  people  out  of  the  Church  ?'  Are  they  not  as  quiet,  as  inoffensive, 
nay,  as  pious,  as  any  of  their  neighbours  ?  except  perhaps  here  and  there 
a  hairbrained  man,  who  knows  not  what  he  is  about.  Do  you  ask, '  Who 
drives  them  out  of  the  Church  V  Your  lordship  does  ;  and  that  in  the 
most  cruel  manner  ;  yea,  and  the  most  disingenuous  manner.  They  desire 
a  licence  to  worship  God  after  their  own  conscience.  Your  lordship 
refuses  it  ;  and  then  punishes  them  for  not  having  a  licence  !  So  your 
lordship  leaves  them  only  this  alternative,  '  Leave  the  Church  or  starve.' 
And  is  it  a  Christian,  yea,  a  protestant  bishop,  that  so  persecutes  his  own 
flock?  I  S2iy persecutes ;  for  it  is  persecution,  to  all  intents  and  purposes. 
You  do  not  burn  them,  indeed,  but  you  starve  them  ;  and  how  small  is  the 
difference  !  And  your  lordship  does  this,  under  colour  of  a  vile,  execrable 
law,  not  a  whit  better  than  that  de  hceretico  coinburendo  !  So  persecution, 
which  is  banished  out  of  France,  is  again  countenanced  in  England ! 

"  O  my  lord,  for  God's  sake,  for  Christ's  sake,  for  pity's  sake,  suffer  the 

poor  people  to  enjoy  their  religious,  as  well  as  civil  liberty  !     I  am  on  the 

brink  of  eternity  !     Perhaps  so  is  your  lordship  too  !     How  soon  may  you 

also  be   called,  to  give  an   account  of  your   stewardship,  to  the  great 

Shepherd  and  Bishop  of  our  souls  !     May  He  enable  both  you  and  me  to 

do  it  with  joy  !     So  prays,  my   lord,  your  lordship's  dutiful   son    and 

servant, 

"John  Wesley," > 

The  following  letter  is  without  date,  but  is  too  character- 
istic to  be  omitted. 

*  Moore's  Life  of  Wesley,  vol.  ii.,  p.  384. 


6 14  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 


1790  "You  give  five  reasons  why  the  Rev.  Mr.  P will  come  no  more  among 


Age  87 


us.  I.  Because  we  despise  the  ministers  of  the  Church  of  England.  This 
I  flatly  deny  :  I  am  answering  letters,  this  very  post,  which  bitterly  blame 
me  for  just  the  contrary.  2.  Because  so  much  backbiting  and  evil 
speaking  is  suffered  amongst  our  people.  It  is  not  suffered  ;  all  possible 
means  are  used,  both  to  prevent  and  remove  it.  3.  Because  I,  who 
have  written  so  much  against  hoarding  up  money,  have  put  out  ;!^ 700  to 
interest.  I  never  put  sixpence  out  to  interest  since  I  was  born  ;  nor  had 
I  ever  ^100  together,  my  own,  since  I  came  into  the  world.  4.  Because 
our  lay  preachers  have  told  many  stories  of  my  brother  and  me.  If  they 
did,  I  am  sorry  for  them  ;  when  I  hear  the  particulars,  I  can  answer,  and, 
perhaps,  make  those  ashamed  who  believed  them.  5.  Because  we  did  not 
help  a  friend  in  distress.  We  did  help  him  as  far  as  we  were  able.  '  But  we 
might  have  made  his  case  known  to  Mr.  G.,  Lady  H.,  etc'  So  we  did, 
more  than  once  ;  but  we  could  not  pull  money  from  them,  whether  they 
would  or  no.  Therefore,  these  reasons  are  of  no  weight.  You  conclude 
with  praying,  that  God  would  remove  pride  and  malice  from  amongst  us. 
Of  pride,  I  have  too  much  ;  of  malice,  I  have  none  ;  however,  the  prayer 
is  good,  and  I  thank  you  for  it."  ' 

The  next  was  addressed  to  Adam  Clarke,  then  at  Bristol. 

"  June  28,  1 790. 

"  Dear  Adam,— I  often  wonder  at  the  people  of  Bristol.  They  are  so 
honest,  yet  so  dull,  'tis  scarce  possible  to  strike  any  fire  into  them.  Only 
with  God  all  things  are  possible.  Many  years  ago,  I  put  the  society  at 
Bath  into  a  way  wherein,  if  they  had  persevered,  they  would  now  have  owed 
nothing.  They  were  at  Plymouth  but  thirty  in  number,  and  their  debt 
was  ^1400.  I  advised  them,  let  every  member  subscribe  monthly  what 
he  can  ;  and  a  hundred  at  the  Dock  promised  to  do  the  same.  '  I,'  said 
one,  'will  give  a  crown  a  month';  'I,'  said  another,  ' half-a-crown.' 
Many  subscribed  a  shilling,  sixpence,  or  threepence  a  month.  And  now 
the  debt  is  paid.  I  began  such  a  subscription  in  Bath  ;  as  I  have  done  in 
many  places  with  success.  But  they  left  it  off  in  two  or  three  weeks. 
Why  1  Because  I  gave  four  guineas  to  prevent  one,  that  was  arrested, 
from  going  to  jail  !  Good  reason,  was  it  not  ?  '  Why,'  said  one  and 
another,  '  might  he  not  have  given  it  to  vie  ?' 

"  On  Monday  four  weeks,  I  shall  probably  set  out  for  Bristol.  Peace 
be  with  your  spirits.  u  j  ^^^  ^tc, 

"John  Wesley."  '^ 

While  on  money  matters,  let  an  explanation  be  given. 
Wesley  asserts,  in  one  of  the  foregoing  letters,  that  he  never 
had,  at  one  time,  since  he  was  born,  ;^iOO  that  was  his  own. 


1  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xiii.,  p.  139. 
^  Dunn's  Life  of  Clarke,  p.  73. 


Weskys  Benefactions.  615 

No  doubt,  excepting  an  occasional  legacy,  this  was  strictly  i79° 
true  ;  and  yet,  towards  the  close  of  life,  a  year  never  passed  Age  87 
without  his  giving  hundreds  of  pounds  away  in  charity. 
Wesley  not  only  kept  a  journal  of  his  labours,  but  account 
books  of  his  income  and  expenditure.  The  last  of  these 
has,  at  the  end  of  it,  the  following  entry,  in  Wesley's  own 
handwriting,  but  in  penmanship  which  it  is  extremely  difficult 
to  decipher : 

"  N.B.  For  upwards  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. 

"John  Wesley, 

"7///K  16,  1790." 

What  was  Wesley's  income  t  lie  had  ^^"30  a  year  from 
the  London  circuit  f  and,  in  the  country,  the  Methodists 
occasionally,  but  not  often,  paid  his  hostelry  bill,  and  other 
similar  expenses  incurred  in  travelling.  But  this  was  not 
all.  Wesley  was  the  proprietor  of  a  large  publishing  and 
book  concern,  from  which  he  derived  considerable  profits ; 
but  be  the  profits  what  they  might,  they  were  at  once  dis- 
tributed in  the  work  of  God,  and  in  acts  of  charity.  In  as 
brief  a  form  as  possible,  we  give,  from  the  book  above 
mentioned,  a  few  items  belonging  to  the  last  nine  years  of 
Wesley's  life. 

In  1782,  Wesley  received  £^^1  \<^s.  Of  this,  he  spent 
^5  iQj-.  for  clothes.  The  balance,  ;;^356,  he,  with  his  own 
hands,  gave  away  ;  and,  during  the  same  year,  John  Atlay,  his 
book  steward,  by  his  directions,  gave  a  further  sum  of  ;^237  I3J-.; 
making  ;^593  13^".  for  the  year. 

In  1783,  he,  and  his  steward  by  his  orders,  gave  ;^832  \s.  6d, 
In  1784,  ;^534  17s.  6d.  In  1785,  ^^851  12s.  In  1786,  ^^738  5^. 
In  1787,  including  his  travelling  expenses,  £c)6l  4s.  In  1788, 
the  last  year  Atlay  acted  for  him,  the  two  united  gave  in 
charity  ^^^738  4^-. 

At  the  end  of  his  accounts  for  1789,  he  writes  : 

'  Ought  it  not  to  be  sixty-eight. 

2  An  error  occurred  in  the  first  edition  of  this  volume,  on  page  224.  It 
was  there  stated,  that  Wesley  received  ^60  a  year  ;  it  ought  to  have  been 
_;^3o.  According  to  the  old  circuit  book,  at  City  Road,  it  was  the  custom 
to  pay  him  ^^15  in  the  first  quarter  of  each  year,  and  ^^15  in  the  last. 


6i6  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

^79°  «  I  have  given  this  year  by  myself ;^2o6    o    o 

Age  87  By  George  Whitfield^ 560    o    o 

Travelling 60    o    o 

"  But  I  can  be  accurate  no^     .    ,     '  Not  as  /  will,  but  as  Thou  wilt."' 

No  one  can  dispute  that  the  profits  of  Wesley's  book 
estabhshment  were  as  much  his  own  property  as  the  profits 
of  any  of  the  great  publishing  houses  in  Paternoster  Row  ; 
but,  of  these  profits,  he  literally  spent  none  upon  himself, 
except  for  an  occasional  suit  of  clothes.  All  were  most 
scrupulously  given,  as  fast  as  they  were  realised,  and  some- 
times faster,  to  the  support  and  extension  of  the  great  work 
to  which  his  long  life  Avas  cheerfully  devoted,  and  to  the 
relief  of  the  distresses  of  his  fellow  creatures  as  far  as  he 
had  the  power.  Dr.  Whitehead  says,  it  was  supposed  that, 
in  the  course  of  fifty  years,  Wesley  gave  away  between  twenty 
and  thirty  thousand  pounds.  Henry  Moore  writes  :  "  Mr. 
Wesley's  accounts  lie  before  me,  and  his  expenses  are  noted 
with  the  greatest  exactness.  Every  penny  is  recorded  ;  and, 
I  am  persuaded,  the  supposed  ;^30,ooo  might  be  increased 
several  thousands  more."^ 

Wesley  made  a  will,  in  which  he  bequeathed  his  book 
business,  and  his  books  then  on  sale,  (subject  to  a  rent  charge 
of  ^85  a  year  to  the  widow  and  children  of  his  brother,)  to 
the  Methodist  conference,  in  trust  "  for  carrying  on  the  work 
of  God,  by  itinerant  preachers "  ;  his  furniture,  books,  and 
whatever  else  belonged  to  him  at  Kingswood,  to  Coke, 
Mather,  and  Moore,  "in  trust,  to  be  still  employed  in 
teaching  and  maintaining  the  children  of  poor  travelling 
preachers" ;  all  the  books  which  belonged  to  him  in  his 
studies  at  London  and  other  places,  to  Coke,  Whitehead,  and 
Moore,  "  in  trust,  for  the  use  of  the  preachers  who  shall 
labour  there  from  time  to  time"  ;  all  his  manuscripts  to  the 
same    Coke,    Whitehead,    and    Moore,    "to    be    burned,  or 


'  Now  his  steward.  ^  The  sentence  is  unfinished. 

2  Samuel  Bradburn  remarks  :  "  I  know  that,  from  the  conference  of 
1780  to  the  conference  of  1781,  he  gave  away,  in  prhmte  cha7i(ies,  above 
^^1400.  He  told  me  himself,  in  1787,  that  he  never  gave  away,  out  of  his 
own  pocket,  less  than  ^1000  a  year."  Bradburn  adds  :  "He  never  re- 
lieved poor  people  in  the  street,  but  he  either  took  off,  or  removed,  his  hat 
to  them,  when  they  thanked  him," 


Wesley  s  Last   Will.  617 

published,  as  they  saw  good"  ;  his  gowns,  cassocks,  sashes,  179° 
and  bands  in  City  Road  chapel,  "  for  the  use  of  the  clergymen  Age  87 
attending  there";  his  "pelisse  to  the  Rev,  Mr.  Creighton"; 
all  the  rest  of  his  "wearing  apparel  to  four  of  the  travelling 
preachers  that  wanted  it  most " ;  his  watch  to  Joseph 
Bradford ;  his  gold  seal  to  Elizabeth  Ritchie ;  his  chaise  and 
horses  to  James  Ward  and  Charles  Wheeler,  "  in  trust,  to  be 
sold,  and  the  money  to  be  divided,  one  half  to  Hannah 
Abbott,  and  the  other  to  the  members  of  the  select  society" ; 
and  copies  of  the  eight  volumes  of  his  sermons  to  "  each 
travelling  preacher  who  should  remain  in  the  connexion  six 
months  after  his  decease." 

All  this  was  property,  but  not  money.  Hitherto,  not  a 
coin  has  been  bequeathed  ;  but  still  there  are  six  clauses  in 
Wesley's  will,  which  may  be  designated  monetary.  We  give 
them  in  substance,  though  the  first  two  seem  to  contradict 
each  other,  (i)  All  the  coins,  and  whatever  else  was  found 
in  the  drawer  of  his  bureau  at  London,  to  his  granddaughters, 
Mary  and  Jane  Smith.  (2)  Whatever  money  remained  in 
his  bureau  and  pockets,  to  Thomas  Briscoe,  William  Collins, 
John  Easton,  and  Isaac  Brown.  (3)  Out  of  the  first  money 
arising  from  the  sale  of  books,  £Afi  to  his  sister  Martha,  ^^40 
to  Mr.  Creighton,  and  £60  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Heath.  (4)  The 
annuity  of  iJ"5,  left  by  Roger  Shiel  to  Kingswood  school,  to 
be  paid  to  Henry  Brooke,  Arthur  Keene,  and  William  White- 
stone.  (5)  A  pound  each  to  the  six  poor  men  who  should 
carry  his  body  to  the  grave.  (6)  Any  personal  estate,  undis- 
posed of,  to  be  given  to  his  two  nieces,  E.  Ellison,  S.  Collet, 
equally. 

The  reader  has  here  the  substance  of  Wesley's  will.  Where 
were  his  hoardings,  his  money  put  out  to  interest,  his  landed, 
household,  and  chapel  property .''  He  had  none.  He  died, 
as  he  had  lived,  without  a  purse.  He  had  been  his  own 
executor  as  far  as  possible  ;  and  now  had  nothing  to  bequeath, 
except  what,  in  his  lifetime,  could  not  easily  be  turned  into 
current  coin. 

We  return  to  his  itinerary.  Leaving  Hull,  Wesley  pro- 
ceeded to  Lincolnshire.  On  June  29,  the  crowd  at  Owston 
was  such  that  he  had  to  preach  in  the  open  air.  At  Lincoln, 
his  text  was,  "One  thing  is  needful."     "Is  this  the  great  Mr. 


6i8  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1790  Wesley;?"  exclaimed  a  lady  when  retiring  :  "why,  the  poorest 
AgeS;  person  in  the  chapel  might  understand  him."  "  Yes,"  replied 
a  gentleman;  "in  this  he  displays  his  greatness,  that  while 
the  most  ignorant  can  understand  him,  the  most  learned  are 
edified,  and  can  take  no  offence."  ^  On  Friday,  July  2,  he 
preached  twice,  once  out  of  doors  at  Newton,  and  a  second 
time  in  the  chapel  at  Gainsborough.  On  Saturday,  he 
preached  at  Epworth,  and  met  the  society.  On  Sunday, 
July  4,  he  attended  his  father's  church,  where  the  congregation 
was  five  times,  and  the  attendance  at  sacrament  ten  times, 
larger  than  usual.  Besides  this,  he  preached  at  Misterton,  to 
a  great  multitude,  "under  a  spreading  tree";  and,  in  Epworth  . 
market  place,  to  "such  a  congregation  as  was  never  seen  at 
Epworth  before." 

Here  occurs  an  eight  weeks'  hiatus  in  Wesley's  journal. 
The  space  between  July  4  and  August  27  we  shall  fill  up  in 
the  best  way  we  can. 

i  At  Doncaster,  where  he  had  a  crowded  congregation,  a 
burly  butcher,  noted  for  his  popery,  his  wickedness,  and  his 
pugilistic  feats,  was  converted,  became  a  Methodist,  and,  to  . 
his  dying  day,  continued  a  peaceful,  humble,  loving  Christian.^ 
This  was  probably  on  July  5,  as,  on  the  day  following,  he  was 
at  Rotherham.^  There  can  be  no  question,  that  Sheffield  also 
would  be  visited  ;  and,  most  likely,  Derby  and  Nottingham  ; 
also  perhaps  Castle  Donington,  Leicester,  Coventry,  and 
other  places.  At  all  events,  the  Castle  Donington  old 
stewards'  book  contains  this  item :  "  1790.  Paid  for  Mr. 
Wesley's  carriage  through  the  circuit,  £i  6j."* 

We  cannot  trace  him  farther;  but,  three  weeks  after  he  was 
at  Doncaster  and  Rotherham,  he  opened  his  conference  at 
Bristol, — the  last  that  he  attended.  Charles  Atmore  writes  : 
"  Mr.  Wesley  appeared  very  feeble  ;  his  eyesight  had  failed  so 
much  that  he  could  not  see  to  give  out  the  hymns  ;  yet  his 
voice  was  strong,  his  spirit  remarkably  lively,  and  the  powers 
of  his  mind,  and  his  love  towards  his  fellow  creatures,  were  as 
bright  and  as  ardent  as  ever."^ 


^  Methodist  Magazine,  1825,  p.  25. 

2  Ibid.  1828,  p.  741  ;   and  Christian  Miscellany,  1847,  P-  ^73- 

3  Methodist  Magazine,  1 792,  p.  288.    ^  Ibid.  1 856,  p.  234.    *  Ibid,  i  S45,  p.  1 23. 


Conference  of  \']<^o.  619 

The  only  legislation  at    this    conference    was    concerning      1790 
preachers  and  preaching  houses.  Age  87 

In  reference  to  the  latter,  it  was  determined  :  (i)  That,  in 
future,  all  chapels  should  be  built  on  the  same  plan  as  those 
in  Bath  and  in  City  Road.  (2)  No  chapel  should  be  under- 
taken without  the  consent  of  a  majority  of  the  connexional 
building  committee.  (3)  Not  a  stone  was  to  be  laid,  till  the 
chapel  was  settled  after  the  Methodist  form,  verbatim  ;  nor 
until  two  thirds  of  the  estimated  expense  were  subscribed  ; 
and  no  collections  were  to  be  made  for  any  chapel  except  in 
the  circuit  where  it  was  to  be  erected. 

Then  in  reference  to  preachers:  (i)  None,  in  future,  were 
to  attend  conference,  except  those  whose  travelling  expenses 
were  paid  by  the  circuits  in  which  they  respectively  laboured. 
Those  in  Scotland  and  Wales  were  to  be  the  only  exceptions. 
(2)  The  assistants  were  to  tell  the  people,  that  every  circuit 
must  bear  its  own  burden,  and  that  those  circuits  which  "  did 
not  provide  for  their  preachers  and  their  children,  (except 
Scotland,  Ireland,  and  Wales,)  should  have  no  more  preachers 
sent  to  them,  for  the  time  to  come,  than  they  would  provide 
for."  (3)  No  assistant  was  to  take  into  society  any  one  put 
out  by  his  predecessor,  without  consulting  him.  (4)  Preachers 
were  never  to  hasten  home  to  their  families,  after  evening 
preaching,  till  they  had  met  the  society.  (5)  No  preacher 
was  to  leave  conference  before  the  conclusion  of  it,  without 
consent  publicly  obtained.  (6)  No  preacher  was  to  preach 
three  times  the  same  day  to  the  same  congregation ;  or  oftener 
than  twice  on  a  week  day,  or  thrice  on  Sundays. 

In  reference  to  the  last  of  these  regulations,  Adam  Clarke 
relates  that  Wesley  was  outwitted.  In  a  private  meeting  with 
some  of  his  principal  and  senior  preachers,  Wesley  proposed 
that  no  preacher  should  preach  thrice  on  the  same  day.  Messrs. 
Mather,  Pawson,  Thompson,  and  others  objected.  Wesley 
replied:  "  It  must  be  given  up;  we  shall  lose  our  preachers 
by  such  excessive  labour."  They  answered  :  "  We  have  all 
done  so ;  and  you,  even  at  a  very  advanced  age,  have  con- 
tinued to  do  so."  "  What  I  have  done,"  said  he,  "  is  out  of 
the  question :  my  life  and  strength  have  been  under  an 
especial  providence  ;  besides,  I  know  better  than  they  how  to 
preach  without  injuring  myself;  and  no  man  can  preach  thrice 


620 


Life  a7td  Times  of  Wesley. 


1790 
AgTs: 


a  day  without  killing  himself  sooner  or  later ;  and  the  custom 
shall  not  be  continued."  The  objectors  pressed  the  point  no 
further,  finding  that  he  was  determined  ;  but  deceived  him 
after  all,  by  altering  the  minute  thus,  when  it  was  sent  to 
press  :  "  No  preacher  shall  preach  three  times  the  same  day, 
to  the  same  congrcgationy 

This  was  not  ingenuous.  Wesley  was  right ;  and  Methodism 
has  paid  an  incalculable  penalty  by  disregarding  his  almost 
dying  wish.      Clarke  justly  remarks  : 

"  He  who  preaches  the  gospel,  as  he  ought,  must  do  it  with  his  whole 
strength  of  body  and  soul ;  and  he  who  undertakes  a  labour  of  this  kind 
thrice  every  Lord's  day  will  infallibly  shorten  his  life  by  it.  He  who, 
instead  of  ptrachitig,  talks  to  the  people, — merely  speaks  about  good 
things,  or  tells  a  religious  story, — will  never  injure  himself  by  such  an 
employment :  but  such  a  person  does  not  labour  in  the  word  and  doctrine ; 
he  tells  his  tale  ;  and,  as  he  preaches,  so  his  congregation  believes ;  and 
sinners  are  left  as  he  found  them."  ^ 

During  the  last  decade  of  years  in  Wesley's  life,  Methodism 
had  made  amazing  progress.  In  1780,  there  were  64  circuits  in 
the  United  Kingdom  ;  now  there  were  1 1 5.  Then  there  were 
171  itinerant  preachers  employed;  now  there  were  294.  Then 
there  were  43,380  members  of  society  ;  now  there  were  71,568. 
Then  there  were  no  missionary  stations  ;  now  19  missionaries 
were  appointed  to  Antigua,  Barbadoes,  St.  Vincent's,  St. 
Christopher's,  Nevis,  Tortola,  Jamaica,  Nova  Scotia,  and 
Newfoundland,  which  had  an  aggregate  membership  of  5350 
persons, — 800  in  Nova  Scotia  and  Newfoundland,  and  4550 
in  the  West  Indies.  In  1780,  there  were  in  America  twenty 
circuits,  42  itinerant  preachers,  and  8504  members  of  society. 
In  1790,  there  were  114  circuits,  228  itinerant  preachers,  and 
57,631  members  of  society. 

These  statistics,  put  into  another  form,  will  stand  thus. 


Methodist  Circuits 
throughout  the  world. 

Methodist  Itinerant 
Preachers. 

Methodist  Members. 

1790 
1780 

240 
84 

541 
213 

134,549 
52,334 

Increase 
in  10  years. 

}                156 

328 

82,215 

^  Clarke's  Life,  vol.  i.,  p.  277. 


Dress.  62 1 

Marvellous  had  been  the  success  of  Methodism  up  to  the     i79° 
)^ear  1780  ;  and,  yet,  the  results  during  the  last  ten  years  of    Age  87 
Wesley's  life  were  much  more  than  double  the  united  results 
of  the  forty  years  preceding  ! 

Before  leaving  the  conference  of  1790,  we  insert  an  unpub- 
lished letter,  addressed  by  Miss  Ritchie  to  the  wife  of  one  of 
Wesley's  clerical  assistants,  the  Rev.  Peard  Dickenson. 

"  Aligns  1 2,,  1790. 

"...  I  felt  much  for  our  Zion  previous  to  the  conference.  Our 
dear  and  honoured  father's  state  of  health  was  alarming;  but  prayer 
was  heard,  and  he  is  much  better,  and  things  have  such  an  appearance  as 
revives  my  hope  that  we  shall  still  go  on  in  the  good  old  way. 

"  Mr.  Wesley  has  very  openly  and  fully  declared  his  sentiments  respect- 
ing the  impropriety  of  a  separation  from  the  Church;  and  the  preachers, 
in  general,  have  agreed  to  abide  by  the  old  plan.  I  sincerely  pity  Dr. 
Coke  ;  but  I  really  believe  good  will  be  brought  out  of  evil. 

"  The  preachers  have  had  a  most  searching  conference,  and  the  Lord 
has  been  very  present.  The  preachers'  dress  has  been  largely  debated,  and 
what  is  verging  towards  worldly  conformity  is  to  be  laid  aside.  We  all 
lament  dress  as  a  growing  evil  among  the  Methodists ;  and,  if  the 
preachers  are  not  patterns  in  this  respect,  how  can  they  exhort  the 
people?  One  morning,  at  breakfast,  among  a  very  few  select  friends, 
Mr.  Wesley  said  he  had  some  things  to  complain  of,  which  he  had  better 
mention  before  half-a-dozen  persons  than  before  a  hundred.  Among 
other  things,  he  spoke  with  disapprobation  of  the  ruffles  on  Mr.  Dicken- 
son's shirts.  I  endeavoured  to  soften  matters,  saying,  that  you  desired  to 
take  them  off,  and  that,  if  this  was  not  already  done,  it  was  because  you 
had  been  prevented  ;  on  which  I  was  requested  to  mention  to  you  the 
conversation  which  had  taken  place.  My  dear  sister,  let  me  beg  of  you 
then,  never  to  let  IMr.  Dickenson  wear  a  ruffled  shirt  again.  You  both 
love  our  dear  father  too  well  to  giieve  him.     Yours  in  Jesus, 

"  Elizabeth  Ritchie." 

As  soon  as  the  Bristol  conference  was  ended,  the  veteran 
evangelist  again  set  out  on  his  glorious  mission,  and  spent 
the  next  three  weeks  in  Whales.  At  Brecon,  he  preached  in 
the  town  hall  ;  and  in  Watton  chapel,  on  the  state  of  the 
church  at  Ephesus,  and  our  Lord's  lamentation  over  Jerusa- 
lem.^ At  Haverfordwest,  he  wrote  as  follows,  to  Thomas 
Roberts,  then  a  young  preacher,  of  four  years'  standing, 
whom  he  had  just  appointed  to  the  Bristol  circuit. 


'  Methodist  Magazine,  1847,  p.  211. 


622  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1790  "  Haverfordwest,  August  13,  1790. 


Age  87 


"Dear  Tommy, — Now  I  shall  make  a  trial  of  you,  whether  I  can 
confide  in  you  or  no.  Since  I  came  hither,  I  have  been  much  concerned. 
This  is  the  most  important  circuit  in  all  Wales  ;  but  it  has  been  vilely 
neglected  by  the  assistant,  whom,  therefore,  I  can  trust  no  more.  I  can 
trust  you,  even  in  so  critical  a  case.  I  desire,  therefore,  that,  whoever 
opposes,  you  will  set  out  immediately,  and  come  hither  as  soon  as  ever 
you  can.  I  wish  you  could  meet  fne  at  Cardiff,  or  Cowbridge.  You  will 
see,  by  the  printed  plan,  when  I  shall  be  at  either  of  those  places.  If  you 
have  not  notice  enough  to  do  this,  meet  me  to-morrow  sennight  at  the 
New  Passage,  unless  you  can  get  a  passage  by  the  weekly  boat  to  Swansea. 
If  it  be  possible,  do  not  fail.  It  may  be,  this  may  be  the  beginning  of  a 
lasting  friendship  between  you  and,  dear  Tommy,  yours,  etc., 

"  John  Wesley."  1 

At  Pembroke,  Wesky  Avrote  the  following  to  Mr.  William 
Mears,  a  useful  local  preacher,  at  Rochester. 

"Pembroke,  August  16,  1790. 
"  My  dear  Brother, — It  is  my  desire  that  all  things  be  done  to  the 
satisfaction  of  all  parties.     If,  therefore,  it  be  more  convenient,  let  brother 
Pritchard's^  family  be  at  Canterbury,  and  sister  Boone^  lodge  in  Chatham 
house. 

"  Why  do  you  not  again  set  on  foot  a  weekly  subscription  in  order  to 
lessen  your  debt  ?  Have  neither  the  preachers  nor  the  people  any  spirit 
in  them  ?  Who  begins  .''  I  will  give  half-a-crown  a  week  for  a  year,  if 
all  of  you  will  make  it  up  twenty  shillings. 

"  I  am,  dear  Billy,  your  affectionate  brother, 

"John  Wesley."* 

In  a  letter  to  his  niece,  Miss  Sarah  Wesley,  dated  "  Near 
Cowbridge,  August  18,  1790,"  he  writes  :  "I  always  reprove 
profane  sailors,  or,  what  is  worse,  profane  gentlemen  ;  and 
many  of  them  will  receive  it  civilly,  if  not  thankfully.  They 
all  know^,  captains  as  well  as  common  men,  that  swearing  is 
not  necessary.  And,  even  now,  we  have  captains  of  several 
men-of-war  who  do  not  swear  at  all ;  and  never  were  men 
better  obeyed."  ^ 

Thus  was  Wesley  always  about  his  heavenly  Father's  work. 
On  August  27,  he  returned  to  Bristol,  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  which  he  was  busily  employed  till  September  2']. 

^  Methodist  Magazine,  1837,  p.  ir. 
2  The  assistant  in  Chatham  circuit, 
'  The  wife  of  Charles  Boone,  the  assistant  in  Canterbury  circuit. 

*  Local  Preachers'  Magazitie,  1851,  p.  75. 

*  Methodist  Magazine,  1847,  p.  656. 


A  Dubliji  Revival.  623 

In  the  morning  of  Sunday,   August  29,   he   read  prayers,      1790 
preached,   and  administered  the  Lord's  supper,  a  service   in    AgeS? 
which,    without    assistance,    he   was    occupied    for   three    full 
hours;  and,  yet,  in  the  afternoon,  he  preached  again,  out  of 
doors.     The  next  day,  we  find  him  preaching  twice,  at  Castle 
Carey,  and  Ditcheat. 

On  Tuesday  31,  he  was  visited  by  a  liisus  natiircc,  William 
Kingston,  born  without  arms,  who,  in  Wesley's  presence,  took 
his  teacup  between  his  toes,  and  the  toast  with  his  other 
foot ;  and  afterwards,  by  another  feat,  showed  himself  to  be  a 
man  of  no  mean  penmanship.  On  the  same  day,  Wesley  had 
"  a  lovely  congregation  at  Shepton  Mallet,"  and  a  crowded 
one  at  Pensford. 

During  the  remainder  of  the  week,  he  preached  at  Bristol, 
and  corrected  and  abridged  the  Life  of  Mrs.  Scudamore. 

On  Saturday,  September  4,  he  went  to  Bath  and  preached; 
and  on  Sunday,  the  5th,  writes  :  "  At  ten  we  had  a  numerous 
congregation,  and  more  communicants  than  ever  I  saw  here 
before.  This  day,  I  cut  off  that  vile  custom,  I  know  not 
when  or  how  it  began,  of  preaching  three  times  a  day  by  the 
same  preacher  to  the  same  congregation  ;  enough  to  weary 
out  both  the  bodies  and  minds  of  the  speaker,  as  well  as  his 
hearers."  On  Monday,  Tuesday,  and  Wednesday,  in  the 
ensuing  week,  he  preached  once  daily,  and  on  Friday  twice. 

On  Sunday,  September  12,  he  employed  himself  in  Bristol, 
and,  during  the  week  following,  met  the  classes,  containing 
944  members,  and  likewise  preached  at  Thornbur}-,  and  at 
Kingswood. 

In  labour  like  this  the  whole  month  was  spent. 

At  the  preceding  conference,  Wesley  had  appointed  Adam 
Clarke  to  the  Dublin  circuit,  and,  on  September  5,  Adam 
wrote  him  a  long  letter,  telling  him  that  Thomas  Rutherford 
had  been  laid  aside  by  rheumatic  fever,  and  that  the  results 
of  a  religious  revival  had  been  destroyed  by  the  extravagant 
irregularities  of  those  who  conducted  the  prayer-meetings 
during  Mr.  Rutherford's  illness.  These  meetings  had  been, 
and  still  were,  kept  up  till  ten  or  eleven  o'clock  on  Sunday 
nights,  and  sometimes  till  twelve  and  one  ;  and  it  was  no 
uncommon  thing  for  a  person,  in  the  midst  of  them,  to  give 
an  exhortation  of  half  or  three  quarters  of  an  hour's  continu- 


624  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

^79°      ance.     Clarke  wished  to  correct  these  irregularities,  and  wrote 
Age  87    to  Wesley  for  advice/  who  replied  to  him  as  follows. 

"  Bristol,  September  9,  1790, 
"  Dear  Adam, — Did  not  the  terrible  weather  that  you  had  at  sea  make 
you  forget  your  fatigue  by  land  ?     Come,  set  one  against  the  other,  and 
you  have  no  great  reason  to  complain  of  your  journey. 

"  You  will  have  need  of  all  the  courage  and  prudence  God  has  given 
you.  Indeed,  you  will  want  constant  supplies  of  both.  Very  gently,  and 
very  steadily,  you  should  proceed  between  the  rocks  on  either  hand. 
In  the  great  revival  at  London,  my  first  difficulty  was,  to  bring  into 
temper  those  who  opposed  the  work  ;  and  my  next,  to  check  and  regulate 
the  extravagances  of  those  that  promoted  it.  And  this  was  far  the 
hardest  part  of  the  work ;  for  many  of  them  would  bear  no  check  at  all. 
But  I  followed  one  rule,  though  with  all  calmness :  *  You  must  either  bend 
or  break.'  Meantime,  while  you  act  exactly  right,  expect  to  be  blamed  by 
both  sides.  I  will  give  you  a  few  directions,  (i)  See  that  no  prayer- 
meeting  continue  later  than  nine  at  night,  particularly  on  Sunday :  let 
the  house  be  emptied  before  the  clock  strikes  nine.  (2)  Let  there  be  no 
exhortation  at  any  prayer-meeting.  (3)  Beware  of  jealousy,  or  judging 
one  another.  (4)  Never  think  a  man  is  an  enemy  to  the  work,  because 
he  reproves  irregularities.     Peace  be  with  you  and  yours  ! 

"  I  am,  etc., 

"John  Wesley."^ 

Clarke  acted  upon  Wesley's  good  advice,  and  wrote  him 
the  results.     Wesley  answered. 

"  Bedford,  October  28,  1790. 

"Dear  Adam, — I  am  glad  my  letter  had  so  good  an  effect.  I  dearly 
love  our  precious  society  in  Dublin,  and  cannot  but  be  keenly  sensible  of 
anything  that  gives  them  disturbance.  I  am  glad  our  leaders  have 
adopted  that  excellent  method  of  regularly  changing  their  classes.  Wher- 
ever this  has  been  done,  it  has  been  a  means  of  quickening  both  the  leaders 
and  the  people.     I  wish  this  custom  could  be  more  extensively  introduced. 

"  You  did  well  to  prevent  all  irregular  and  turbulent  prayer-meetings, 
and,  at  all  hazards,  to  keep  the  meetings  of  the  society  private. 

"  Poor  Mr.  Smyth  is  now  used  just  as  he  used  me.  He  must  either 
bend  or  break.  Although  you  cannot  solicit  any  of  Bethesda  to  join  with 
us,  yet  neither  can  you  refuse  them  when  they  offer  their  hand. 

"  You  do  well  to  offer  all  possible  courtesy  to  Mr.  William  Smyth  and 
his  family. 

"  As  long  as  the  society  in  Dublin  continues  upward  of  a  thousand,  you 
will  have  no  reason  to  complain. 

"  I  am,  etc., 

"John  Wesley."' 

^  Wesley  an  Times,  June  11,  1866.  ^  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xiii.,  p.  98. 

^  Wesley  an  Times,  June  11,  1866. 


Christian  Perfection.  625 


Before  returning  to  Wesley's  journal,  another  letter  may      1790 
be  welcome.      It  was  addressed  to  Mr.  Robert  C.  Bracken-    a~87 
bur)^       Wesley's   reference  to  himself  is  touching ;    and  his 
remarks    on  the  doctrine  of    Christian    perfection    ought   to 
be  remembered. 

"  Bristol,  September  15, 1790. 

"  Dear  Sir,— I  am  glad  to  find  you  are  in  better  bodily  health,  and 
not  weary  and  faint  in  your  mind.  My  body  seems  nearly  to  have  done 
its  work,  and  to  be  almost  worn  out.  Last  month,  my  strength  was  nearly 
gone,  and  I  could  have  sat  almost  still  from  morning  to  night.  But, 
blessed  be  God,  I  crept  about  a  little,  and  made  shift  to  preach  once  a  day. 
On  Monday,  I  ventured  a  little  further;  and,  after  I  had  preached  three 
times  (once  in  the  open  air),  I  found  my  strength  so  restored,  that  I  could 
have  preached  again  without  inconvenience. 

"  I   am  glad  brother  D has  more  light  with  regard  to  full  sanctifi- 

cation.  This  doctrine  is  the  grand  deposiitim  which  God  has  lodged  with 
the  people  called  Methodists;  and,  for  the  sake  of  propagating  this 
chiefly,  He  appeared  to  have  raised  them  up. 

"  I  congratulate  you  upon  sitting  loose  to  all  below ;  stedfast  in  the 
liberty  wherewith  Christ  has  made  you  free.  Moderate  riding  on  horse- 
back, chiefly  in  the  south  of  England,  would  improve  your  health.  If  you 
choose  to  accompany  me,  in  any  of  my  little  journeys  on  this  side 
Christmas,  whenever  you  were  tired  you  might  go  into  my  carriage.  I 
am  not  so  ready  a  writer  as  I  was  once  ;  but,  I  bless  God,  I  can  scrawl 
a  little, — enough  to  assure  you  that, 

"  I  am,  dear  sir,  your  affectionate  friend  and  brother, 

■  "John  Wesley."' 

On  Monday,  September  27,  Wesley  set  out  from  Bristol 
to  London,  and  preached  at  Devizes  and  Salisbury,  On 
Wednesday  we  find  him  preaching  at  Winchester  and  Ports- 
mouth ;  and  on  Thursday  and  P>iday  at  Newport,  in  the 
Isle  of  Wight.  1^ 

On  Saturday,  October  2,  he  left  Portsmouth,  at  two  o'clock 
in  the  morning ;  and,  at  Cobham,  twenty  miles  from  London, 
was  met  by  James  and  Hester  Ann  Rogers,  and  six  other 
friends,  in  carriages,  to  welcome  him.^  Mr.  Rogers  writes  : 
"  He  arrived  in  good  health  and  spirits.  Wc  all  dined  at 
Cobham,  and,  about  six  in  the  evening,  reached  London, 
where  we  praised  the  Lord  with  joyful  hearts."  3 


'Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xiii.,  p.  8. 

^  This  was  done  with  the  approbation  of  the  London  stewards,  who  paid 
£\  igs.  for  the  carriages  and  expenses.     (City  Road  society  book.) 
^  Life  of  James  Rogers,  p.  44. 

VOL.  III.  S  S 


626  Life  and  Th)ies  of  Wesley. 

1790  The  next  day,  Sunday,  October  3,  he  preached  twice  in  the 

Age  87     City  Road  chapel,  and  held  a  lovefeast.     Rogers  says  : 

"  Many  souls  were  greatly  comforted.  Indeed,  his  preaching,  during 
the  whole  winter,  was  attended  with  uncommon  unction ;  and  he  fre- 
quently spoke,  both  in  his  sermons  and  exhortations,  as  if  each  time  were 
to  be  his  last;  and  often  desired  the  people  to  receive  what  he  advanced 
as  his  dying  charge.  His  conversation  also,  in  his  family,  seemed  to 
indicate  a  presentiment  of  death.  He  frequently  spoke  of  the  state  of 
separate  spirits,  and  their  particular  employments ;  and,  for  the  last  three 
months  of  his  life,  there  were  scarcely  three  evenings  passed  together,  but 
he  gave  out  and  sung,  in  the  family,  the  hymn  beginning  with  the  line, 
*  Shrinking  from  the  cold  hand  of  death.' "^ 

After  spending  two  short  days  in  London,  Wesley  set  off, 
on  October  5,  to  Rye,  a  distance  of  upwards  of  sixty  miles, 
and  preached  to  a  large  and  serious  congregation.  The  day 
after,  for  the  last  time,  he  preached  in  the  open  air.  This  was 
at  Winchelsea,  beneath  an  ash  tree,  in  the  churchyard, — a 
tree  long  protected  by  the  vicar  of  the  parish,  and  known 
for  miles  round,  by  the  name  of  "Wesley's  Tree,"  though 
often  mutilated  by  pilgrim  Methodists,  who  chopped  and 
lopped  it  for  wood  to  make  it  into  Methodist  snuff  boxes, 
and  other  iin  Wesleyan  mementoes  of  Wesley's  last  outdoor 
preaching  service.  On  one  occasion,  a  local  preacher  was 
detected  in  the  act  of  bearing  away  a  bough  in  pious 
triumph,  was  apprehended  for  the  theft,  had  to  beg  for 
mercy,  was  solemnly  reprimanded,  and  was  threatened  with 
transportation,  in  case  of  repeating  the  offence.  Wesley's  text, 
at  Winchelsea,  was  a  part  of  Christ's  first  outdoor  sermon, 
"  The  kingdom  of  God  is  at  hand  ;  repent  ye,  and  believe  the 
gospel ;"  and  he  writes  :  "  It  seemed  as  if  all  that  heard  were, 
for  the  present,  almost  persuaded  to  be  Christians."  Robert 
Miller  was  with  him  at  the  time,  and  says:  "The  word  was 
attended  with  mighty  power,  and  the  tears  of  the  people 
flowed  in  torrents."^  On  the  evening  of  the  same  day,  he 
preached  again  at  Rye. 

Returning  to  London,  for  the  services  on  Sunday,  October 
10,  Wesley  started  on  the  day  following  for  Norfolk.  At 
Colchester,  things  were  disheartening,  but  he  says    he  had, 

'  Life  of  James  Rogers,  p.  44. 
2  Youth's  Instrucioy,  1833,  p.  330. 


A  Shoemaker,  and  a  Sheep  Stealer.  627 

"on  IMonday  and  Tuesday  evenings,  wonderful  congregations  ^79*^ 
of  rich  and  poor,  clergy  and  laity."  One  of  his  hearers  was  Age  87 
a  shoemaker,  a  young  man  of  twenty-four,  who  was  then 
convinced  of  sin,  became  a  useful  local  preacher,  and  often 
returned  from  his  appointments  besmeared,  from  head  to  foot, 
with  the  filthy  missiles  of  persecuting  mobs.  William  Candler, 
the  preaching  shoemaker,  took  a  deep  interest  in  the  spiritual 
welfare  of  soldiers,  and  was  not  unrewarded  ;  for,  one  morning, 
to  his  great  surprise,  he  received  a  government  commission  to 
make  military  shoes,  and  an  extraordinary  despatch,  from  the 
Colchester  commanding  officer,  that  all  the  shoemakers  in  the 
regiments  stationed  at  Harwich,  Ipswich,  and  Colchester,  should 
assist  him  in  executing  the  martial  order.  For  near  fifty 
years,  William  Candler  rendered  important  service  to  the  cause 
of  Christ,  and  then,  in  1838,  died,  kissing  his  family,  and 
whispering  to  each,  "  Good  bye  ;  God  bless  you  !  "  ^ 

In  years  past,  Colchester  had  been  one  of  Wesley's  favourite 
places  ;  but  now,  he  says,  "  the  society  was  lessened,  and 
cold  enough  ;  preaching  was  discontinued,  and  the  spirit  of 
Methodism  quite  gone,  from  the  preachers  and  the  people." 
All  this  was  the  result  of  the  clerical  interference  of  the  Rev. 

Mr.  S ,  of  St.  Peter's,  who  had  adopted  the  theory,  that, 

wherever  there  was  a  gospel  ministry  in  the  Church,  Methodist 
preaching  ought  to  cease,  and  Methodist  societies  be  handed 
over  to  the  care  of  the  gospel  clergyman.  To  accomplish 
this  at  Colchester,  no  pains  were  spared,  and  even  gifts  and 
bribes  were  used.  Wesley  was  annoyed,  and,  in  the  course  of 
his  sermon,  said  :  "  I  understand  there  is  a  sheep  stealer  in 
Colchester,  who  takes  both  sheep  and  lambs  from  his  neigh- 
bour's fold  at  will.  Now,  I  charge  that  man  to  desist ;  or  to 
meet  me,  and  answer  for  his  deeds,  at  the  bar  of  God,  in  the 
day  of  judgment."  The  reverend  gentleman  was  present;  and 
his  subsequent  conduct  showed  that  he  was  not  a  forgetful 
hearer.  ^ 

Wesley  had,  in  his  congregation,  at  Colchester,  another 
remarkable  hearer,  Henry  Crabb  Robinson,  who  writes  : 

"It  was,  I  believe,  in  October  1790,  that  I  heard  John  Wesley  in  the 


^  Methodist  Magazine,  1S41,  p.  i.  *  Ibid. 


628  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 


1790  great  round  meeting-house  at  Colchester.  He  stood  in  a  wide  pulpit,  and 
— •  on  each  side  of  him  stood  a  minister,  and  the  two  held  him  up,  having 
^^  "^  their  hands  under  his  armpits.  His  feeble  voice  was  barely  audible  ;  but 
his  reverend  countenance,  especially  his  long  white  locks,  formed  a  picture 
never  to  be  forgotten.  There  was  a  vast  crowd  of  lovers  and  admirers. 
It  was  for  the  most  part  a  pantomime,  but  the  pantomime  went  to  the 
heart.  Of  the  kind,  I  never  saw  anything  comparable  to  it  in  after 
life." 

Considering  the  long  picturesque  life  which  Mr.  Robinson 
lived  subsequent  to  this,  the  last  sentence  is  remarkable.  In 
a  letter  dated  October  18,  1790,  this  young  auditor,  then 
fifteen  years  of  age,  remarks  : 

"  I  felt  great  satisfaction  last  week  in  hearing  that  veteran  in  the  service 
of  God,  the  Rev.  John  Wesley.  At  another  time,  and  not  knowing  the 
man,  I  should  almost  have  ridiculed  his  figure.  Far  from  it  now,  I 
looked  upon  him  with  a  respect  bordering  upon  enthusiasm.  After  the 
people  had  sung  one  verse  of  a  hymn,  he  arose  and  said  :  'It  gives  me  a 
great  pleasure  to  find  that  you  have  not  lost  your  singing  ;  neither  men 
nor  women.  You  have  not  forgotten  a  single  note.  And  I  hope,  by  the 
assistance  of  God,  which  enables  you  to  sing  well,  you  may  do  all,  other 
things  well.'  A  universal  'Amen'  followed.  At  the  end  of  every  head  or 
division  of  his  discourse,  he  finished  by  a  kind  of  prayer,  a  momentary 
wish  as  it  were,  not  consisting  of  more  than  three  or  four  words,  which  was 
always  followed  by  a  universal  buzz.  His  discourse  was  short.  The  text 
I  could  not  hear.  After  the  last  prayer,  he  rose  up  and  addressed  the 
people  on  liberality  of  sentiment,  and  spoke  much  against  refusing  to  join 
with  any  congregation  on  account  of  difference  in  opinion."^ 

On  Wednesday,  October  1 3,  Wesley  went  from  Colchester 
to  NorAvich,  and  writes  :  "  I  preached  ;  but  the  house  would 
in  nowise  contain  the  congregation.  How  wonderfully  is  the 
tide  turned!  I  am  become  an  honourable  man  at  Norwich, 
God  has,  at  length,  made  our  enemies  to  be  at  peace  with  us  ; 
and  scarce  any  but  antinomians  open  their  mouths  against 
us." 

The  next  day,  he  preached  at  Yarmouth,  to  a  congrega- 
tion "  far  too  large  to  get  into  the  chapel."  And  the  day 
following  at  Lowestoft.  Here  again,  he  had  another  dis- 
tinguished hearer,  the  poet  Crabbe  ;  and  repeated  the  well 
known  lines  from  Anacreon,  with  an  application  of  his  own. 

*  "  Diary,  Reminiscences,  and  Correspondence  of  Henry  Crabb 
Robinson,"  vol.  i.,  p.  20. 


Age  87 


IVeslcy  and  Crabbe  the  Poet.  629 

"  Oft  am  I  by  woman  told,  179° 

Poor  Anacreon  !  thou  grow'st  old  ; 
See,  thine  hairs  are  falling  all  : 
Poor  Anacreon  !  how  they  fall ! 
Whether  I  grow  old  or  no. 
By  these  signs,  I  do  not  know ; 
But  this  I  need  not  to  be  told, 
'Tis  time  to  live,  if  I  grow  old." 

Crabbe  was  greatly  struck  with  the  reverend  appearance 
of  the  aged  preacher,  with  his  cheerful  air,  and  the  beautiful 
cadence  he  gave  to  the  lines  he  quoted  ;  and,  after  the 
service,  was  introduced  to  him,  and  was  received  with  bene- 
volent politeness.^ 

On  Saturday,  October  i6,  Wesley  preached  at  Loddon  and 
at  Norwich;  and,  next  day,  twice  again  in  the  latter  city, 
besides  administering  the  sacrament  at  seven  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  to  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  persons.  He  writes : 
"  I  take  knowledge,  that  the  last  year's  preachers  were  in 
earnest.  Afterwards,  we  went  to  our  own  parish  church ; 
although  there  was  no  sermon  there,  nor  at  any  of  the  thirty- 
six  churches  in  the  town,  save  the  cathedral  and  St.  Peter's." 
Who  will  say  that  Methodist  preaching  was  not  needed  in 
this  noH-preaching  diocesan  city  .-* 

On  Monday,  October  i8,  Wesley  preached  at  Swaffham, 
and  at  Lynn.  At  the  latter  place,  he  preached  again  on 
Tuesday,  administered  the  sacrament,^  made  a  collection  for 
the  Sunday-schools,  and  had  present  to  hear  him  all  the 
clergymen  of  the  town,  except  one,  whose  lameness  prevented 
his  attending.  On  Wednesday,  the  20th,  he  occupied  the 
church  at  Diss,  one  of  the  largest  in  the  county.  "I  suppose," 
says  he,  "  it  has  not  been  so  filled  these  hundred  years."  His 
text  was,  "  Seek  ye  the  Lord  while  He  may  be  found"  ;  and 
the  results  of  the  sermon  were  remarkable  and  lasting.* 

On  the  evening  of  the  same  day,  and  also  on  the  day 
following,  he  preached  at  Bury  St.  Edmunds  ;  and  on  Friday, 
October  22,  returned  to  London. 

The  last  entry,  in  Wesley's  published  journal,  is  dated  two 
days  later.     "  Sunday,  October  24 — I  explained,  to  a  numer- 

Crabbc's  Life.  "  Methodist  Magazine,  1856,  p.  203. 

3  Reynolds'  "  Anecdotes  of  Wesley,"  p.  39. 


630  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1790     ous  congregation,   in   Spitalfields  church,  'the  whole  armour 

A^S;    of  God.'     St.  Paul's,  Shadwell,  was  still  more  crowded  in  the 

afternoon,  while  I  enforced  that  important  truth,  'one  thing  is 

needful';  and  I  hope  many,  even  then,  resolved  to  choose  the 

better  part." 

There  can  be  little  doubt,  that  the  rest  of  the  year  was 
occupied  with  what  Wesley  often  called  his"  "  little  journeys^' 
into  Bedfordshire,  Northamptonshire,  Hertfordshire,  Kent, 
etc.  The  reader  will  catch  glimpses  of  him  in  the  following 
letters. 

The  first  was  addressed  to  his  niece,  Miss  Sarah  Wesley,  at 
Mrs.  Whitcomb's,  in  Margate.  The  reference  to  his  relatives 
is  significant  and  painful. 

"  London,  October  5,  1790. 

"  Dear  Sally, — I  am  glad  you  are  situated  so  comfortably.  Mrs. 
Wliitcomb  does  really  fear  God ;  and,  I  hope,  before  you  leave  her  house, 
will  know  what  it  is  to  love  Him.  Providence  has  not  sent  you  to  spend 
a  little  time  in  Margate  merely  on  your  own  account.  Before  you  leave  jt, 
she,  with  several  others,  shall  have  reason  to  praise  God  that  you  came. 
See  that  you  lose  no  time,  A  word  spoken  in  season  how  good  is  it  ! 
Warn  every  one,  and  exhort  every  one,  if  by  any  means  you  may  save 
some.  '  In  the  morning  sow  thy  seed,  and  in  the.  evening  withhold  not 
thy  hand ;  for  thou  knowest  not  which  shall  prosper.'  Say  not,  *  I  can  do 
nothing,  I  am  slow  of  speech.'  True;  but  who  made  the  tongue  ?  You 
have  seen  sister  Boon,  a  loving,  simple  hearted  woman.  Be  a  follower  of 
her,  as  she  is  of  Christ.  Why  should  you  not  meet  in  her  class  ?  I  think 
you  will  not  be  ashamed.  Is  it  not  a  good  opportunity  of  coming  a  little 
nearer  to  them  that  love  you  well  ?  Let  me  have  the  comfort  of  one 
relation,  at  least,  that  will  be  an  assistant  to  me  in  the  blessed  work  of 
God. 

"  I  must  visit  other  places  before  I  come  into  Kent,  as  well  as  visit  the 
classes  in  London ;  so  that  I  cannot  be  at  Margate  till  the  latter  end  of 
next  month.     If  you  stay  there  till  then,  you  will  see  me. 

"  I  am,  my  dear  Sally,  your  affectionate  uncle, 

"John  Wesley."* 

The  next  was  written  the  day  after  his  return  to  town  from 
Norfolk,  and  was  addressed  to  James  Macdonald,  then 
stationed  at  Newry,  in  Ireland.  It  will  be  seen,  that  the 
Methodist  sin  of  neglecting  fasting  is  not  of  recent  growth. 

"London,  October  2^,  1790. 

"  My  dear  Brother,— You  have  great  reason  to  praise  God  for  His 


*  Methodist  Magazine,  1846,  p.  11 89. 


A  Large  Circuit.  631 


late  glorious  work  at  and  near  Newry;  and  I  make  no  doubt,  but  it  will  179^ 
continue,  yea,  and  increase,  if  the  subjects  of  it  continue  to  walk  humbly  ^^  g^ 
and  closely  with  God.  Exhort  all  our  brethren  steadily  to  wait  upon  God 
in  the  appointed  means  of  fasting  and  prayer ;  the  former  of  which  has 
been  almost  universally  neglected  by  the  Methodists,  both  in  England 
and  Ireland.  But  it  is  a  true  remark  of  Kempis :  '  The  more  thou  deniest 
thyself,  the  more  thou  wilt  grow  in  grace.' 

"  I  am,  etc., 

"John  Wesley."* 

Something  has  been  already  said  respecting  the  division  of 
circuits.  The  Dales  circuit  in  1790  had  forty-three  preaching 
places,  including  Barnardcastle,  Bishop  Auckland,  Appleby, 
Alstone,  Allendale,  Wolsingham,  Hexham,  Penrith,  and 
Kendal, — now  all  of  them  circuit  towns  themselves.  The 
nearest  neighbouring  circuit,  eastwards,  was  Yarm  ;  west- 
wards, Whitehaven  ;  northwards,  Newcastle ;  and  south- 
wards, Thirsk.  This  will  give  the  reader  an  idea  of  the 
enormous  region  embraced  in  the  Dales  circuit  at  the  time  to 
which  we  are  now  adverting.  Within  the.  same  border,  there 
are  now  not  fewer  than  at  least  twenty  circuit  towns,  most  of 
them  the  centre  of  a  large  cluster  of  smaller  towns  and 
villages.^  The  Dales  circuit,  in  1790,  had  three  itinerant 
preachers,  and  980  members  of  society,  who  contributed  for 
the  maintenance  of  their  preaching  triumvirate,  during  the 
quarter  in  which  Wesley  died,  the  sum  of  £2(^  ^s.  6d., 
sevenpence  per  member  per  quarter,  and  aftbrding  £()  i6s.  2d. 
for  the  support  of  each  preacher,  his  wife,  and  family,  and  the 
general  maintenance  of  Methodist  machinery  throughout  the 
circuit.^  George  Holder  was  the  assistant,  and  Jonathan 
Hern  and  John  Wittam  were  his  colleagues.  The  feed  was 
poor,  the  pay  pauperish,  the  journeys  long,  the  roads  bad,  the 
region  mountainous,  and  the  work  heavy.  There  was  a  wish 
to  divide  the  circuit ;  but  the  following  was  Wesley's  reply 

to  Holder. 

"  London,  October  30,  1 790. 
"  Dear  George, — The  assistant  in  every  circuit  (not  the  leaders)  is  to 
determine  how  each  preacher  is  to  travel.      If  Jonathan  Hern  will  not,  or 


^  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xiii.,  p.  113. 

^  Merely  in  the  circuits  aljove  mentioned  (a  fraction  of  the  Dales 
circuit)  there  are,  at  present,*78i9  members.  (See  Minutes  of  Conference, 
1870.) 

^  Circuit  manuscript  books. 


632  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1790      cannot,  take  his  turn  with  his  fellow  labourers,  I  must  send  another  that 

— "        will.     1  do  not  like  dividing  circuits.     Could  not   three  or  more  of  the 

^  northern  places   be  added  to  the  Sunderland  or   Newcastle  circuits,  in 

order  to  lessen  yours,  and  bring  it  into  a  six  weeks'  circuit  ?     Pray  send 

me  the  manner  of  your  travelling  through  your  circuit.     I  think,  I  shall 

order  it  better. 

"  I  am,  with  love  to  sister  Holder,  dear  George,  yours,  etc., 

"  John  Wesley."  * 

A  small  circuit  then  was  one  of  the  things  which  Wesley 
thought  inimical  to  the  interests  of  Methodism.  Was  Wesley 
right .''  Unless  Methodist  preachers  can  become  thoroughly 
pastoral  in  their  habits, — a  thing  which  triennial  changes 
render  extremely  difficult, — would  it  not  be  better  for  circuits 
to  be  of  such  a  size  as  to  make  daily  preaching  a  healthy 
duty,  instead  of  being  so  circumscribed  that  one  or  two 
sermons,  between  sabbaths,  is  all  that  their  necessities 
require  ?  This  is  a  serious  problem,  which  we  must  leave 
to  be  solved  by  others. 

Another  hindrance,  as  Wesley  thought,  to  Methodist 
progress,  was  the  neglect  of  reading.  Hence  the  following 
extract  from  an  unpublished  letter,  dated  November  8,  1790. 

"  If  you  and  your  wife  strengthen  each  other's  hands  in  God,  then  you 
will  surely  receive  a  blessing  from  Him.  But  it  is  not  abundance  of 
money,  or  any  creature,  that  can  make  us  happy  without  Him. 

"  It  cannot  be  that  the  people  should  grow  in  grace,  unless  they  give 
themselves  to  reading.  A  reading  people  will  always  be  a  knowing 
people.  A  people  who  talk  much  will  know  little.  Press  this  upon  them 
with  your  might ;  and  you  will  soon  see  the  fruit  of  your  labours." 

An  extract  from  another  letter  may  be  given  here.  The 
letter  was  addressed  to  Alexander  Mather. 

"  No,  Aleck,  no  !  The  danger  of  ruin  to  Methodism  docs  not  lie  here. 
It  springs  from  quite  a  different  quarter.  Our  preachers,  many  of  them, 
are  fallen.  They  are  not  spiritual  They  are  not  alive  to  God.  They 
are  soft,  enervated,  fearful  of  shame,  toil,  hardship.  They  have  not  the 
spirit  which  God  gave  to  Thomas  Lee  at  Pateley  Bridge,  or  to  you  at 
Boston.  Give  me  one  hundred  preachers,  who  fear  nothing  but  sin,  and 
desire  nothing  but  God,  and  I  care  not  a  straw  whether  they  be  clergy- 
men or  laymen,  such  alone  will  shake  the  gates  of  hell,  and  set  up  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  upon  earth,"  2 

1   Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xiii.,  p.  109. 
2  Sigston's  Life  of  Bramwell. 


Wesley  s  Publications,  in   1790.  633 

As  we  have  often  shown,  Wesley  regarded  the  preaching  of     1790 
the  doctrine  of  Christian  perfection  as  of  the  utmost  import-    ^^g  g^ 
ance.     The  following  letter  to  Adam  Clarke  is  to  the  same 
effect. 

"  London,  November  26,  1 790. 

"  Dear  Adam, — To  retain  the  grace  of  God,  is  much  more  than  to 
gain  it  ;  hardly  one  in  three  docs  this.  And  this  should  be  strongly  and 
explicitly  urged  on  all  who  have  tasted  of  perfect  love.  If  we  can  prove 
that  any  of  our  local  preachers  or  leaders,  either  directly  or  indirectly, 
speak  against  it,  let  him  be  a  local  preacher  or  leader  no  longer.  I 
doubt  whether  he  should  continue  in  society.  Because  he,  that  could 
speak  thus  in  our  congregations,  cannot  be  an  honest  man.  I  wish  sister 
Clarke  to  do  what  she  can,  but  no  more  than  she  can.  Betsy  Ritchie, 
Miss  Johnson,  and  Mary  Clarke  are  women  after  my  own  heart.  Last 
week  I  had  an  excellent  letter  from  Mrs.  Pawson,  (a  glorious  witness  of 
full  salvation.)  showing  how  impossible  it  is  to  retain  pure  love  without 
growing  therein.     I  am,  etc., 

"John  Wesley." ' 

Such  letters  might  be  greatly  multiplied.  ,  We  only  add 
another.  He  was  now  an  old  man,  and  extremely  feeble  ; 
and  Mr.  Ireland,  having  heard  that  claret  wine  had  been 
recommended  to  him  by  his  medical  adviser,  sent  him  a 
small  ■'^'ase  as  a  present.  The  wine  was  seized  by  the  custom 
house  authorities,  to  whom  Wesley  addressed  the  following 
laconic  letter. 

"  City  Road,  Noveviber  14,  1790. 

"  Gentlemen, — Two  or  three  days  ago,  Mr.  Ireland  sent  me,  as  a 
present,  two  dozen  of  French  claret,  which  I  am  .ordered  to  drink,  during 
my  present  weakness.  At  the  White  Swan  it  was  seized.  Beg  it  may  be 
restored  to, 

"  Your  obedient  servant, 

"John  Wesley. 

"  Whatever  duty  comes  due,  I  will  see  duly  paid." 

The  letter  seems  to  have  been  returned  to  the  dying  man  ; 
and,  across  it,  a  government  official  curtly  wrote :  "  No. 
M.  W."  2 

Wesley's  only  publication,  in  1790,  besides  the  thirteenth 
volume  of  his  lilagazinc,  was  his  translation  of  "  The  New 
Testament,  with  an  Analysis  of  the  several  Books  and 
Chapters."     i6mo,  424  pages.     In  his  preface,  he  remarks  : 

'  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xiii.,  p.  99. 
2  Manuscript  letter,  kindly  lent  by  Charles  Reed,  Esq.,  M.P, 


634  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1790  "In  this   edition,  the  translation  is  brought  as  near  as  possible  to  the 

— -  original  ;  yet  the  alterations  are  few  and  seemingly  small  ;  but  they  may 
^^  '  be  of  considerable  importance.  Though  the  old  division  of  chapters  is 
retained,  for  the  more  easy  finding  of  any  text,  yet  the  whole  is  likewise 
divided,  according  to  the  sense,  into  distinct  sections  ;  a  little  circum- 
stance which  makes  many  passages  more  intelligible  to  the  reader.  The 
analysis  of  every  book  and  epistle  is  prefixed  to  it.  And  this  view  of  the 
general  scope  of  each  will  give  light  to  all  the  particulars." 

It  ought  to  be  remarked,  that  this  is,  by  no  means,  a 
verbatim  reprint  of  Wesley's  translation,  published  with  his 
Notes  in  1755.  The  book  is  extremely  scarce;  but  the 
variations  are  too  numerous  and  minute  to  Be  pointed  out  in 
a  work  like  this. 

As  it  respects  the  Jllagaaine,  there  can  be  no  doubt,  that  all 
the  articles  composing  it  may  be  considered  to  be  in  harmony 
with  Wesley's  own  sentiments  ;  but,  as  usual,  in  this  review, 
we  only  notice  the  articles  which  Wesley  himself  contributed ; 
and  that,  principally,  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  knowledge 
of  his  latest  opinions  and  feelings.  We  pass  over  his 
"Thoughts  on  Memory";  his  critique  on  Captain  Wilson's 
"Account  of  the  Pelew  Islands";  and  his  "Thoughts  on 
Suicide";  and  direct  attention  to  his  last,  his  dying  ma"f}ifesto, 
on  separation  from  the  Established  Church.  The  article 
is  dated,  "December  11,  1789,"  and  is  in  the  April  number 
of  the  Magazine  for  1790. 

He  states  that,  next  to  the  primitive  church,  he  had,  from 
childhood,  esteemed  the  Church  of  England  as  the  most 
scriptural,  national  church  in  the  world  ;  and  had,  therefore, 
not  only  assented  to  all  the  doctrines,  but  observed  all  the 
rubric  in  the  liturgy  ;  and  that  with  all  possible  exactness, 
even  at  the  peril  of  his  life.  He  proceeds  to  give  the  history 
of  the  rise  of  Methodism,  and  of  his  own  irregularities ;  and 
thus  concludes : 

"  I  never  had  any  design  of  separating  from  the  Church.  I  have  no 
such  design  now.  I  do  not  believe,  the  Methodists  in  general  design  it, 
when  I  am  no  more  seen.  I  do,  and  will  do,  all  that  is  in  my  power 
to  prevent  such  an  event.  IN  evertheless,  in  spite  of  all  tbat  I  can  do,  many 
of  them  will  separate  from  it  (although,  I  am  apt  to  think,  not  one  half, 
perhaps  not  one  third  of  them).  These  will  be  so  bold  and  injudicious  as 
to  form  a  separate  party,  which,  consequently,  will  dwindle  away  into  a 
dry,  dull,  separate  party.     In  flat  opposition  to  these,  I  declare  once  more, 


Separation  from  the  Church.  635 

that  I  live  and  die  a  member  of  the  Church  of  England  ;  and  that  none,       179° 
who  regard  my  judgment  or  advice,  will  ever  separate  from  it."  .      "g 

To  the  same  effect  is  his  sermon  on  "  No  man  taketh  this 
honour  unto  himself,  but  he  that  is  called  of  God,  as  was 
Aaron," — a  sermon  which  he  wrote  at  Cork,  in  May  1789,  and 
published  in  his  magazine,  twelve  months  afterwards.  He 
correctly  maintains  that,  in  ancient  times,  the  offices  of  priest 
and  preacher  were  entirely  distinct.  Priests  were  not 
preachers  ;  and  preachers,  or  prophets,  were  not  priests. 
He  argues  that,  in  the  New  Testament,  the  office  of  an 
evangelist  is  not  the  same  as  that  of  a  pastor.  Pastors 
presided  over  the  flock,  and  administered  the  sacraments  ; 
evangelists  helped  them,  and  preached  the  word.  He  asserts 
that  the  same  distinction  is  recognised  in  the  English, 
presbyterian,  and  Roman  churches ;  and  then,  coming  to 
Methodism,  tells  his  readers  that  Methodist  itinerant  preachers 
are  evangelists,  not  pastors  ;  and  that,  their  work  is  wholly 
and  solely  to  preach,  not  to  administer  sacraments.  His 
address  to  them  is  worth  quoting. 

"  God  has  commissioned  you  to  call  sinners  to  repentance  ;  but  it  does 
by  no  means  follow  from  hence,  that  ye  are  commissioned  to  baptize,  or 
to  administer  the  Lord's  supper.  Ye  never  dreamt  of  this,  for  ten  or 
twenty  years  after  ye  began  to  preach.  Ye  did  not  then,  like  Korah 
Dafhan,  and  Abiram,  seek  the  pricstJiood  also.  Ye  knew,  '  No  man 
taketh  this  honour  to  himself,  but  he  that  is  called  of  God,  as  was  Aaron.' 
O  contain  yourselves  within  your  own  bounds.  Be  content  with  preaching 
the  gospel.  Do  the  work  of  evangelists.  I  earnestly  advise  you,  abide 
in  your  place  ;  keep  your  own  station.  Ye  were  fifty  years  ago, — those  of 
you  that  were  then  Methodist  preachers, — extraordinary  messengers  of 
God,  not  going  in  your  own  will,  but  thrust  out,  not  to  supersede,  but  to 
provoke  to  jealousy  the  ordinary  messengers.  In  God's  name,  stop  there  ! 
Both  by  your  preaching  and  example,  provoke  them  to  love  and  good 
works.  Ye  are  a  new  phenomenon  in  the  earth  ;  a  body  of  people,  who, 
being  of  no  sect  or  party,  are  friends  to  all  parties,  and  endeavour  to 
forward  all,  in  the  knowledge  and  love  of  God  and  man.  Ye  yourselves 
were,  at  first,  called  in  the  Church  of  England  ;  and  though  ye  have  and 
will  have  a  thousand  temptations  to  leave  it,  regard  them  not.  Be  Church 
of  England  men  still.  Do  not  cast  away  the  peculiar  glory  which  God 
hath  put  upon  you,  and  frustrate  the  design  of  Providence,  the  very  end 
for  which  God  raised  you  up." 

In   reply  to  the  charge  that  he  himself  had  already  sepa- 
rated from  the  Church,  Wesley  allows,  that  he  deviated  from 


636  Life  and  Tifjtes  of  Wesley. 


179°     the  rules  of  the  Church  in  " preaching  abroad,"  in  "praying 
Age  87    extempore,"    in    forming    societies,    and    in    employing   lay 
preachers ;  but  he  adds  : 

"  All  this  is  not  separating  from  the  Church.  So  far  from  it,  that, 
whenever  I  have  opportunity,  I  attend  the  Church  service  myself,  and 
advise  all  our  societies  so  to  do.  Nevertheless,  the  generality  even  of 
religious  people  naturally  think,  'I  am  inconsistent.'  And  they  cannot 
but  think  so,  unless  they  observe  my  two  principles.  The  one,  that  I  dare 
not  separate  from  the  Church,  that  I  believe  it  would  be  a  sin  so  to  do  ; 
the  other,  that  I  believe  it  would  be  a  sin  not  to  riaty  from  it  in  the  points 
above  mentioned.  I  say,  put  these  two  principles  together,  first,  I  will  not 
separate  from  the  Church  ;  yet,  secondly,  in  cases  of  necessity,  I  will 
vary  from  it  ;  and  inconsistency  vanishes  away.  I  have  been  true  to  my 
profession  from  1 730  to  this  day." 

Here  ^ve  leave  the  matter.  This  is  the  last  time  we  shall 
quote  Wesley  on  separation  from  the  Church.  We  care  not 
either  to  vindicate  or  to  condemn  his  thoughts  and  course  of 
conduct.  In  a  few  lines,  Wesley  here  says  all  that  can  be 
said  in  favour  of  the  anomalous  position  in  which  he  stood  : 
he  did  not  separate,  but  he  varied  from  the  Church  of  England. 
It  will  be  difficult  for  either  sophistry  or  sound  argument  to 
make  either  more  or  less  than  this  of  the  vexed  question, — 
the  difference  between  Wesley's  profession  and  his  practice  in 
reference  to  his  continued  adherence  to,  or  separation  from, 
the  Established  Church.  He  lived  and  died  a  hearty,  but 
inconsistent  Churchman. 

There  is  another  point  which  must  be  mentioned.  The 
reader  has  already  seen  Wesley's  intense  anxiety  in  reference 
to  rich  Methodists.  In  the  last  fourteen  sermons  that  he 
wrote,  during  the  last  two  years  of  his  eventful  life,  and  which 
were,  for  the  first  time,  published  in  the  magazines  for  1790, 
1791,  and  1792,  he  again  and  again,  in  the  strongest  and 
most  affecting  language,  reverts  to  this  momentous  matter. 
Exception  may  be  taken  to  his  opinions ;  but  they  are 
worthy  of  being  quoted.  They  are  the  last  sentiments  of  an 
old  man,  with  unparalleled  experience ;  and,  throughout  a 
long  life,  were  by  himself  reduced  to  practice.  The  following 
are  extracts. 

In  the  remarkable  sermon,  on  Jeremiah  viii.  22,  written  in 
Dublin,    July    2,    1789,    in    which    he    tries    to    answer   the 


Wesley  warning  Rich  JMetJiodists.  637 

question,  "Why  has   Christianity  done   so  Httle  good  in  the      ^79° 
Avorld  ?  "  he  writes  :  Age  87 

"  Who  regards  those  solemn  words,  Lay  7iot  up  for  yourselves  treasures 
upon  earth  ?  Of  the  three  rules,  which  are  laid  down  on  this  head,  in  the 
sermon  on  The  Mammon  of  Unrighteousness,  you  may  find  many  that 
observe  the  first  rule,  namely,  Gain  all  you  can.  You  may  find  a  few  that 
observe  the  second.  Save  all  you  can.  But  how  many  have  you  found, 
that  observe  the  third  rule.  Give  all  you  can  ?  Have  you  reason  to  believe, 
that  five  hundred  of  these  are  to  be  found  among  fifty  thousand 
Methodists  ?  And,  yet,  nothing  can  be  more  plain,  than  that  all  who 
observe  the  two  first  rules,  without  the  third,  will  be  twofold  more  the 
chiliiren  of  hell  than  ever  they  were  before. 

"  O  that  God  would  enable  me  once  more,  before  I  go  hence  and  am 
no  more  seen,  to  lift  up  my  voice  like  a  trumpet  to  those  \s\iO  gain  and  save 
all  they  can,  but  do  not  give  all  they  can  !  Ye  are  the  men,  some  of  the 
chief  men,  who  continually  grieve  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God,  and,  in  a  great 
measure,  stop  His  gracious  influence  from  descending  on  our  assemblies. 
Many  of  your  brethren,  beloved  of  God,  have  not  food  to  eat ;  they  have 
not  raiment  to  put  on  ;  they  have  not  a  place  where  to  lay  their  head. 
And  why  are  they  thus  distressed  ?  Because _j'^z;  impiously,  unjustly,  and 
cruelly  detain  from  them  what  your  Master  and  theirs  lodges  in  your 
hands,  on  purpose  to  supply  their  wants.  In  the  name  of  God,  what  are 
you  doing  ?  Do  you  neither  fear  God,  nor  regard  man  ?  Why  do  you  not 
deal  your  bread  to  the  hungry  ?  And  cover  the  naked  with  a  garment  ? 
Have  you  laid  out,  in  your  own  costly  apparel,  what  would  have  answered 
both  these  intentions?  Did  God  command  you  so  to  do.''  Does  He 
commend  you  for  so  doing  .''  Did  He  entrust  you  with  His,— not  your, — 
goods  for  this  end  ?  And  does  He  now  say,  '  Servant  of  God,  well  done' .'' 
You  well  know  He  does  not.  This  idle  expense  has  no  approbation, 
either  from  God  or  your  own  conscience.  But,  you  say,  *  You  can  afford 
it  ! '  O  be  ashamed  to  take  such  miserable  nonsense  into  your  mouths. 
Never  more  utter  such  stupid  cant,  such  palpable  absurdity !  Can  any 
steward  afford  to  be  an  arrant  knave?  to  waste  his  lord's  goods?  Can 
any  servant  afford  Iq  lay  out  his  master's  money,  any  otherwise  than  his 
master  appoints  him  ?  So  far  from  it,  that  whoever  does  this  ought  to  be 
excluded  from  a  Christian  society. 

"I  am  distressed.  I  know  not  what  to  do.  I  see  what  I  might  have  done 
once.  I  might  have  said  peremptorily  and  expressly,  '  Here  I  am  :  I  and 
my  Bible.  I  will  not,  I  dare  not,  vary  from  this  book,  either  in  great  things 
or  small.  I  have  no  power  to  dispense  with  one  jot  or  tittle  of  what  is 
contained  therein.  I  am  determined  to  be  a  Bible  Christian,  not  almost  but 
altogether.  Who  will  meet  me  on  this  ground  ?  Join  me  on  this,  or  not  at 
all.'  With  regard  to  dress  in  particular,  I  might  have  been  as  firm,  (and  I 
now  see  it  would  have  been  far  better,)  as  either  the  people  called  quakers, 
or  the  Moravian  brethren.  I  might  have  said,  '  This  is  our  manner  of 
'  dress,  which  we  know  is  both  scriptural  and  rational.     If  you  join  with  us, 


6t,S  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1790      you  3re  to  dress  as  we  do  :  but  you  need  not  join  us  unless  you  please.' 

But   alas!  the  time  is  now  past.     And  what  I  can  do  now,  I  cannot  tell. 

Age  7  -pj^g  Methodists  grow  more  and  more  self  indulgent,  because  they  grow 
ricli.  Although  many  of  them  are  still  deplorably  poor  [Tell  it  not  in 
Cathj  publish  it  not  in  the  it  reds  of  AskelonJ),  yet  many  others,  in  the 
space  of  twenty,  thirty,  or  forty  years,  are  twenty,  thirty,  yea,  a  hundred 
times  richer  than  they  \\cre  when  they  first  entered  the  society.  And  it  is 
an  observation  which  admits  of  few  exceptions,  that  nine  in  ten  of  these 
decreased  in  grace,  in  the  same  proportion  as  they  increased  in  wealth. 
Indeed,  according  to  the  natural  tendency  of  riches,  we  cannot  expect 
it  to  be  otherwise. 

"  But  how  astonishing  a  thing  is  this  !  Does  it  not  seem  (and  yet  this 
cannot  be  !)  that  true  scriptural  Christianity  has  a  tendency,  in  process  of 
time,  to  undermine  and  destroy  itself.''  For,  wherever  it  spreads,  it  Aust 
cause  diligence  and  frugality,  which,  in  the  natural  course  of  things,  beget 
riches.  And  riches  naturally  beget  pride,  love  of  the  world,  and  every 
temper  that  is  destructive  to  Christianity.  Now,  if  there  be  no  way  to 
prevent  this,  Christianity  is  inconsistent  with  itself,  and,  of  consequence, 
cannot  stand,  cannot  long  continue  among  any  people  ;  since,  wherever  it 
generally  prevails,  it  saps  its  own  foundation. 

"But,  allowing  that  diligence  and  frugality  must  produce  riches,  is  there 
no  means  to  hinder  riches  destroying  the  religion  of  those  that  possess 
them  .''  I  can  see  only  one  possible  way  ;  find  out  another  who  can.  Do 
you  gain  all  you  can,  and  save  all  you  can?  Then  you  must,  in  the  nature 
of  things,  grow  rich.  Then  if  you  have  any  desire  to  escape  the  damna- 
tion of  hell,  ^w  all  you  can  ;  otherwise  I  can  have  no  more  hope  of  your 
salvation,  than  for 'that  of  Judas  Iscariot. 

"  I  call  God  to  record  upon  my  soul,  that  I  advise  no  more  than  I 
practise.  I  do,  blessed  be  God,  gain,  and  save,  and  give  all  I  can.  And 
so,  I  trust  in  God,  I  shall  do,  while  the  breath  of  God  is  in  my  nostrils. 
But  what  then  .?  I  count  all  things  but  loss,  for  the  excellency  of  the 
knowledge  of  Jesus,  my  Lord!     Still 

'  I  give  up  every  plea  beside,  . 
Lord,  I  am  damned  !  but  Thou  hast  died  !'" ' 

To  the  same  effect  is  Wesley's  searching  and  terrible  sermon, 
on  the  Rich  Fool,  written  at  Balham,  February  19,  1790  ;  and 
another  written  at  Bristol,  September  21,  1790,  on  the  text, 
"  If  riches  increase,  set  not  thine  heart  upon  them."  In  the 
latter  sermon,  he  writes  : 

"  By  whatsoever  means  thy  riches  increase,  whether  with  or  without 
labour  ;  whether  by  trade,  legacies,  or  any  other  way,  unless  thy  charities 
increase  in  the  same  proportion, — unless  thou  givest  a  full  tenth  of  thy 

"  Methodist  Magazine,  1790,  pp.  348,  400,  etc.. 


Wesley  zuarning  Rich  Methodists.  639 

substance,  of  thy  fixed  and  occasional  income,  thou  dost  undoubtedly  set      179° 
thy  heart  upon  thy  gold,  and  it  will  eat  thy  flesh  as  fire.  .      "„ 

"But  O !  who  can  convince  a  rich  man,  that  he  sets  his  heart  upon 
riches  ?  For  considerably  above  half  a  century,  I  have  spoken  on  this 
head,  with  all  the  plainness  that  was  in  my  power.  But  with  how  little 
effect  ?  I  doubt  whether  I  have,  in  all  that  time,  convinced  fifty  misers 
of  covetousness. 

'•'  I  have  a  message  from  God  unto  thee,  O  rich  man,  whether  thou  Avilt 
hear,  or  whether  thou  wilt  forbear.  Riches  have  increased  with  thee  ;  at 
the  peril  of  thy  soul,  set  not  thine  heart  upon  them.  Be  thankful  to  Him 
that  gave  thee  such  a  talent,  so  much  power  of  doing  good.  Yet  dare  not 
to  rejoice  over  them,  but  with  fear  and  trembling.  {y 

"  Let  us  descend  to  particulars  ;  and  see  that  each  of  you  deal  faithfully 
with  his  own  soul.  If  any  of  you  have  now  twice,  thrice,  or  four  times  as 
much  substance  as  when  you  first  saw  my  face,  faithfully  examine  yourselves, 
and  see  if  you  do  not  set  your  hearts,  if  not  directly  on  riches  themselves, 
yet,  on  some  of  the  things  that  are  purchaseablc  thereby,  which  comes  to 
the  same  thing.  Do  you  not  eat  more  plentifully  or  more  delicately  than  you 
did  ten  or  twenty  years  ago  1  Do  not  you  use  more  drink,  or  drink  of  a 
more  costly  kind,  than  you  did  then  ?  Do  you  sleep  on  as  hard  a  bed  as 
you  did  once,  suppose  your  health  will  bear  it  ?  Do  yoyi  fast  as  often  now 
you  are  rich,  as  you  did  when  you  were  poor  ?  Ought  you  not  in  all 
reason  to  do  this,  rather  more  often  than  more  seldom?  I  am  afraid,  your 
own  heart  condemns  you.     You  are  not  clear  in  this  matter. 

"  Do  not  some  of  you  seek  no  small  part  of  happiness  in  that  trifle  of 
trifles,  dress  ?  Do  not  you  bestow  more  money,  or,  which  is  the  same, 
more  time  and  pains  upon  it,  than  you  did  once  ?  I  doubt  this  is  not  done 
to  please  God.  Then  it  pleases  the  devil.  If  you  laid  aside  your  needless 
ornaments,  some  years  since,  ruffles,  necklaces,  spider  caps,  ugly,  unbecom- 
ing bonnets,  costly  linen,  expensive  laces,  have  you  not,  in  defiance  of 
religion  and  reason,  taken  to  them  again  ? 

"  After  having  served  you  between  sixty  and  seventy  years,  with  dim 
eyes,  shaking  hands,  and  tottering  feet,  I  give  you  one  more  advice  before 
I  sink  into  the  dust.  Mark  those  words  of  St.  Paul,  Those  that  desire, 
or  endeavour,  to  be  rich,  that  moment,  fall  into  temptation;  yea,  a  deep 
gulf  of  temptation,  out  of  which  nothing  less  than  Almighty  power  can 
deliver  them.  Permit  me  to  come  a  little  closer  still :  perhaps  I  may 
not  trouble  you  any  more  on  this  head.  I  am  pained  for  you  tliat  are 
rich  in  this  "world.  Do  you  give  all  you  can  .''  You  who  receive  ^500 
a  year,  and  spend  only  ^200,  do  you  give  ^{^300  back  to  God.?  If 
not,  you  certainly  rob  God  of  that  ^300.  '  Nay,  may  I  not  do  what  I  will 
•w\i\i  my  0W71  ? '  Here  lies  the  ground  of  your  mistake.  It  is  not  your 
own.  It  cannot  be,  unless  you  are  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth.  'However, 
I  must  provide  for  my  children.'  Certainly.  But  how .''  By  making 
them  rich  ?  When  you  will  probably  make  them  heathens,  as  some  of 
you  have  done  already.  Leave  them  enough  to  live  on,  not  in  idleness 
and  luxury,  but  by  honest  industry.     And  if  you  have  not  children,  upon 


640  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1790      what  scriptural  or  rational  principle  can  you  leave   a  groat  behind  you, 
■„       more  than  will  bury  you  ?     I  pray  consider  :  What  are  you  the  better  for 
"  °  what  you  leave  behind  you  ?     What  does  it  signify,  whether  you  leave 

behind  you  ten  thousand  pounds,  or  ten  thousand  shoes  and  boots  ?  Oh, 
leave  nothing  behind  you !  Send  all  you  have  before  you  into  a  better 
world !  Lend  it,  lend  it  all  unto  the  Lord,  and  it  shall  be  paid  you  again  ! 
Is  there  any  danger  that  His  truth  should  fail  ?  It  is  fixed  as  the  pillars 
of  heaven.  Haste,  haste,  my  brethren,  haste !  lest  you  be  called  away, 
before  you  have  settled  what  you  have,  on  this  security !"  ^ 

To  say  the  least,  this  was  plain  speaking,  such  as  is  seldom 
heard  at  present ;  the  following,  in  the  sermon  on  Matthew 
vi.  22,  23,  written  at  Bristol,  September  25,  1789,  is  terrific. 

"  How  great  is  the  darkness  of  that  execrable  wretch  (I  can  give  him  no 
better  title,  be  he  rich  or  poor),  who  will  sell  his  own  child  to  the  devil  ! 
who  will  barter  her  own  eternal  happiness,  for  any  quantity  of  gold  or 
silver  !  What  a  monster  would  any  man  be  accounted,  who  devoured  the 
flesh  of  his  own  offspring  !  And  is  he  not  as  great  a  monster,  who,  by  his 
own  act  and  deed,  gives  her  to  be  devoured  by  that  roaring  lion  ?  As  he 
certainly  does  (so  far  as  is  in  his  power),  who  marries  her  to  an  ungodly 
man.  'But  he  is  rich;  he  has  ;^  10,000  !'  What  if  it  were  ^100,000? 
The  more  the  worse  ;  the  less  probability  will  she  have  of  escaping  the 
damnation  of  hell.  With  what  face  w-ilt  thou  look  upon  her,  when  she 
tells  thee  in  the  realms  below,  'Thou  hast  plunged  me  into  this  place  of 
torment  !  Hadst  thou  given  me  to  a  good  man,  however  poor,  I  might 
now  have  been  in  Abraham's  bosom  !' 

"  Are  any  of  you,  that  are  called  Methodists,  seeking  to  marry  your 
children  well  (as  the  cant  phrase  is),  that  is,  to  sell  them  to  some  purchaser, 
that  has  much  money,  but  little  or  no  religion  ?  Have  ye  profited  no 
more  by  all  ye  have  heard.''  Man,  woman,  think  what  you  are  about. 
Dare  you  also  sell  your  child  to  the  devil  ?  You  undoubtedly  do  this  (as 
far  as  in  you  lies),  when  you  marry  a  son  or  a  daughter  to  a  child  of  the 
devil,  though  it  be  one  that  wallows  in  gold  and  silver.  O  take  warning 
in  time  !  Beware  of  the  gilded  bait  !  Death  and  hell  are  hid  beneath. 
Prefer  grace  before  gold  and  precious  stones  ;  glory  in  heaven,  to  riches 
on  earth  !  If  you  do  not,  you  are  worse  than  the  very  Canaanites.  They 
only  made  their  children /<wj  throui^h  ///^y?;-^  to  Moloch.  You  make 
■^oxvcs,  pass  into  the  fire  that  never  shall  be  quenched,  and  to  stay  in  it  for 
ever.  O  how  great  is  the  darkness  that  causes  you,  after  you  have  done 
this,  to  wipe  your  mouth  and  say,  you  have  done  no  evil  / 

"  Upwards  of  fifty  years,  I  have  ministered  unto  you.  I  have  been  your 
servant  for  Christ's  sake.  During  this  time,  I  have  given  you  many 
solemn  warnings  on  this  head.  I  now  give  you  one  more,  perhaps  the 
last.      Dare  any  of  you,  in  choosing  your  calling  or  situation,  eye  the 

'  Methodist  Magazine,  '792,  p.  341,  etc. 


Wesley  s  Last   JVords  to  the  Methodists.       641 

things  on  earth,  rather  than  the  things  above  ?     In  choosing  a  profession       1790 
or  a  companion  of  Hfe  for  your  child,  do  you  look  at  earth  or  heaven  ?        — ■ 
And  can  you  deliberately  prefer,  either  for  yourself  or  your  offspring,  a     '  ^ 
child  of  the  devil  with  money,  to  a  child  of  God  without  it  ?     Repent, 
repent  of  your  vile  earthly  mindedness  !    Renounce  the  title  of  Christians  ; 
or  prefer,  both  in  your  own  case  and  the  case  of  your  children,  grace  to 
money,  and  heaven  to  earth.      For  the  time  to  come,  at  least,  let  your  eye 
be  single,  that  your  whole  body  inay  be  full  of  light!" 

These  were  Wesley's  last  words  to  the  Methodists.  The 
extracts  are  long ;  but,  in  this  moijey  making,  mammon 
worshipping,  intensely  worldly  age,  they  may  be  useful. 

The  other  sermons,  published  in  the  last  year  of  Wesley's 
life,  and  in  the  year  subsequent  to  his  death,  are  well  worthy 
of  the  reader's  notice.  That  on  "  Knowing  Christ  after  the 
flesh"  is  perhaps  the  only  one,  in  the  English  language,  on 
such  a  subject.  That  on  the  text,  "  There  is  one  God,"  is 
characteristically  thoughtful,  keen,  logical,  and  evangelical. 
That  on  "Walking  by  Faith,"  terse,  vigorous,  earnest,  practical, 
and  terribly  faithful.  That  on  "  The  Wedding  Garment," 
an  excellent  exposition  of  an  often  ill  used  text.  That  on 
"  The  Deceitfulness  of  the  Human  Heart "  is  one  which 
none  but  a  man  like  Wesley  could  have  preached.  That 
on  "  Atheism,"  ingenious,  searching,  and  powerful.  That  on 
"  The  Treasure  in  Earthen  Vessels,"  simple  and  beautiful. 
While  that  on  "  Life  like  a  Dream  "  was  being  printed  on  the 
very  day  when  Wesley's  corpse  lay  in  the  chapel  in  City 
Road ;  and  that  on  "  Faith,  the  evidence  of  things  not 
seen,"  was  the  last  he  ever  wrote,  and  was  finished  only  six 
weeks  previous  to  his  death. 

Both  the  last  mentioned  deserve  quoting.  They  are  the 
profoundly  interesting  musings  of  an  old  man,  conscious  that 
he  must  soon  enter  the  spiritual  and  unseen  world.  Imagining 
a  disembodied  soul  before  him,  he  thus  soliloquises. 

"  Now  that  your  eyes  are  open,  see  how  inexpressibly  different  are  all 
the  things  that  are  now  around  you  !  What  a  difference  do  you  perceive 
in  yourself!  Where  is  your  body.''  Your  house  of  clay?  Where  are 
your  hmbs  ?  your  hands,  your  feet,  your  head  ?  There  they  lie  ;  cold, 
insensible !  What  a  change  is  in  the  immortal  spirit  !  You  see  every- 
thing around  you  :  but  how  ?  Not  with  eyes  of  flesh  and  blood  !  You 
hear  ;  but  not  by  a  stream  of  undulating  air,  striking  on  an  extended 
membrane.  You  feel  ;  but  in  how  wonderful  a  manner  !  You  have  no 
VOL.  Ill  T  T 


642  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 


1790      nerves  to  convey  the  ethereal  fire  to  the  common  sensory  ;  rather  are  you 
not  now  all  eye,  all  ear,  all  feeling,  all  perception  ? " 


Age  87 


Again,  in  his  last,  the  sermon  on  faith  : 

"  How  will  this  material  universe  appear  to  a  disembodied  spirit  ?  Who 
can  tell  whether  any  of  these  objects,  that  now  surround  us,  will  appear 
the  same  as  they  do  now  ?  What  astonishing  scenes  will  then  discover 
themselves  to  our  newly  opening  senses !  Probably  fields  of  ether,  not 
only  tenfold,  but  ten  thousand  fold,  '  the  length  of  this  terrene.'  And 
with  what  variety  of  furniture,  animate  and  inanimate  !  How  many  orders 
of  beings,  not  discovered  by  organs  of  flesh  and  blood !  Perhaps 
*  thrones,  dominions,  principalities,  and,  powers  !'  And  shall  we  not  then, 
as  far  as  angels'  ken,  survey  the  bounds  of  creation,  and  see  every  place 
where  the  Almighty 

*  Stopped  His  rapid  wheels,  and  said. 
This  be  thy  just  circumference,  O  world  !' 

Yea,  shall  we  not  be  able  to  move,  quick  as  thought,  through  the  wide 
realms  of  uncreated  night  ?  Above  all,  the  moment  we  step  into  eternity, 
shall  we  not  feel  ourselves  swallowed  up  of  Him,  who  is  in  this  and  every 
place,  who  filleth  heaven  and  earth  ?  It  is  only  the  veil  of  flesh  and  blood 
which  now  hinders  us  from  perceiving,  that  the  great  Creator  cannot  but 
fill  the  whole  immensity  of  space.  He  is  every  moment  above  us,  beneath 
us,  and  on  every  side.  Indeed,  in  this  dark  abode,  this  land  of  shadows, 
this  region  of  sin  and  death,  the  thick  cloud,  which  is  interposed  between, 
conceals  Him  from  our  sight.  But  then  the  veil  will  disappear,  and  He 
will  appear  in  unclouded  majesty,  God  over  all,  blessed  for  ever  ! " 

The  blessed  old  man  already  had  glimpses  of  the  shining 
ones,  and  of  the  gates  of  that  celestial  city,  into  which,  six 
weeks  after  these  words  were  written,  he  triumphantly  entered. 


o 


I79I. 

NLY   two   months   of    Wesley's   eventful   life   are   left     1791 
unnarrated.     The  following  letters,   belonging  to  this    aTTss 
period,  will  be  read  with  interest. 

The  first  was  addressed  to  Adam  Clarke,  who,  in  Dublin, 
had  buried  his  eldest  daughter,  and  was  himself  dangerously 
afflicted  with  rheumatic  affection  in  the  head.^ 

"January  3,  1791. 

"  Dear  Adam, — You  startle  me  when  you  talk  of  grieving  so  much  for 
the  death  of  an  infant.  This  is  certainly  a  proof  of  inordinate  affection ; 
and,  if  you  love  them  thus,  all  your  children  will  die.  How  did  Mr.  De 
Renty  behave  when  he  supposed  his  wife  to  be  dying  ?  There  is  a  pattern 
for  a  Christian. 

"  But  you  forget  to  send  me  anything  about  magnetism.     John  Bredin 

is  a  weak  brother:  let  him  not  complain.     He  behaved  ill  both  at  Jersey 

and  Guernsey ;  but  let  him  behave  well  now,  and  that  will  be  forgotten.     I 

wish  my  dear  sister  Clarke  and  you  many  happy  years ;  and  am,  dear 

Adam,  etc., 

"John  Wesley." ^ 

The  next  has  not  before  been  published.  It  was  written 
to  Thomas  Taylor,  then  in  the  Hull  circuit.  Dr.  King 
was  made  archbishop  of  Dublin  in  1702,  and  died  in 
1729.  He  was  author  of  "  De  Origine  Mali^'  written  to  prove, 
that  the  existence  of  natural  and  moral  evil  is  not  incom- 
patible with  the  power  and  goodness  of  the  Deity,  and  may 
be  accounted  for  without  the  supposition  of  an  evil  principle. 

"  London,  January  6,  1791. 

"  Dear  Tommv,— With  regard  to  the  powerful  workings  of  the  Spirit, 
I  think  those  words  of  our  Lord  are  chiefly  to  be  understood :  '  The  wind 
bloweth  where  it  listeth,  and  thou  hearest  the  sound  thereof,'  (thou  art 
sure  of  the  fact,)  'but  canst  not  tell  whence  it  cometh,  or  whither  it 
goeth.' 

"  Make  your  yearly  subscription  when  you  see  best,  only  take  care  it 
does  not  interfere  with  any  other  subscription. 

1  Clarke's  Life,  vol.  i.,  pp.  278,  283. 
2  Wesley  Banner,  1852,  p.  275  ;  and  Wesleyan  Times,  June  I,  1S66 


644  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1791  "  The  tract  of  Archbishop  King  has  been  particularly  admired  by  many 

AeeSS  Psi'sons  of  excellent  sense.  I  do  not  admire  it  so  much  as  they  do ;  but  I 
like  it  well.  Yet,  I  have  corrected  a  far  better  tract  on  the  same  subject, 
perhaps,  the  last  I  shall  have  to  publish.^ 

"  Indeed,  I  hope  I  shall  not  live  to  be  useless.  I  -wish  you  and  yours 
many  happy  years,  and  am,  dear  Tommy,  etc., 

"John  Wesley." 

The  next  letter,  addressed  to  Miss  Bolton  of  Witney,  con- 
tains an  important  reference  to  Wesley's  state  of  health. 

"  London,  Jamtary  12,  1791. 
"  My  dear  Nancy, — I   thank    you   for  your  welcome   present,   and 
rejoice  to  hear  that  your  health  is  better.     What  is  it,  which  is  good  for 
us,  that  our  Lord  will  not  give,  if  we  can  but  trust  Him  ? 

"  These  four  last  days,  I  have  had  better  health  than  I  had  for  several 
months  before.  Only  my  sight  continues  much  as  it  was.  But  good  is 
the  will  of  the  Lord. 

"  I  am,  dear  Nancy,  affectionately  yours, 

"J.  Wesley." 2 

The  following  was  addressed  to  the  wife  of  Adam  Clarke, 
and  refers  to  her  husband's  serious  affliction,  as  well  as  to  the 
loss  of  their  daughter. 

"  London,  Jmntary  18,  1791.     . 

"My  dear  Sister, — Before  this  time,  I  hope  God  has  heard  prayer, 

and  given  brother  Clarke  a  little  more  ease.     I   should  suspect  a  dropsy 

in  the  brain,  which,  though  formerly  judged  incurable,  has  lately  been 

cured. 

"  Both  brother  Clarke  and  you  have  large  proofs  that  whom  the  Lord 
loveth  He  chasteneth.  He  knoweth  the  way  whence  you  go  ;  when  you 
have  been  tried,  you  shall  come  forth  as  gold. 

"  I  wonder  at  the  folly  of  Mr.  V.  Surely,  he  is  a  very  weak  man.  But 
I  shall  judge  better  when  I  have  seen  his  performances.  Peace  be  multi- 
plied again  ! 

"  I  am,  my  dear  sister,  ever  yours, 

"John  Wesley." ^ 


^  This  was  probably  "  An  Essay  on  the  Liberty  of  Moral  Agents," 
published  consecutively  in  the  first  five  numbers  of  the  Arminian  Magazine 
for  1 791,  and  concerning  which  Wesley  writes :  "I  do  not  remember  to 
have  ever  seen  a  more  strong  and  beautiful  treatise  on  moral  liberty  than 
the  following  ;  which  I,  therefore,  earnestly  recommend  to  the  considera- 
tion of  all  those  who  desire  'to  vindicate  the  ways  of  God  with  man.'" 

2  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xiii.,  p.  157. 

3  Dunn's  Life  of  Clarke,  p.  80. 


IVesley  oji  Female  Preaching.  645 

John  Booth  was  now  assistant   in  Keighley  circuit,  and  to      179^ 
him  was  addressed  the  following-.  Age88 

"  London,  Jammry  29,  1791. 
"  My  dear  Brother, — You  give  mc  a  very  agreeable  account  of  the 
progress  of  the  work  of  God  in  your  circuit.  As  to  the  poor,  self  conceited 
enthusiasts  in  Keighley,  it  seems  best  that  you  should  never  name  them 
in  public  ;  but,  when  occasion  offers,  strike  at  the  root  of  their  errors,  by 
clearly  proving  the  truth  which  they  deny.  And  whenever  you  meet 
with  any  of  them  in  private,  then  speak  and  spare  not.  Whenever  you 
have  opportunity  of  speaking  to  believers,  urge  them  to  go  on  to  perfec- 
tion. Spare  no  pains  ;  and  God,  even  our  own  God,  still  give  you  His 
blessing ! 

"  I  am,  etc., 

"  John  Wesley."  ^ 

IMiss  Cambridge  was  an  Irish  Methodist,  twenty-nine  years 
of  age,  and  had  established  meetings  in  various  parts  of  the 
town  of  Bandon,  at  which  she  prayed  and  occasionally 
exhorted.  She  had  also  held  similar  meetings  at  Kinsale, 
Youghal,  and  other  places.  Many  of  the  Methodists,  and 
some  of  the  Methodist  preachers,  pronounced  her  public 
addresses  to  be  entirely  irregular,  and  what  ought  not  to  be 
tolerated  in  the  Christian  church.  She  wrote  to  Wesley  for 
advice ;  and  received  the  following  reply, — Wesley's  last 
utterance  on  female  preaching. 

"London,  January  31,  1791. 
"  My  dear  Sister, — I  received  your  letter  an  hour  ago.  I  thank  you 
for  writing  so  largely  and  so  freely  ;  do  so  always  to  me  as  your  friend,  as 
one  that  loves  you  well.  Mr.  Barber  has  the  glory  of  God  at  heart ;  and 
so  have  his  fellow  labourers.  Give  them  all  honour,  and  obey  them  in  all 
things  as  fapas  conscience  permits.  But  it  will  not  permit  you  to  be  silent 
when  God  commands  you  to  speak ;  yet,  I  would  have  you  give  as  little 
offence  as  possible  ;  and,  therefore,  I  would  advise  you  not  to  speak  at 
any  place  where  a  preacher  is  speaking  at  the  same  time,  lest  you  should 
draw  away  his  hearers.  Also,  avoid  the  first  appearance  of  pride  or 
magnifying  yourself.  If  you  want  books,  or  anything,  let  me  know  ;  I 
have  your  happiness  much  at  heart.  During  the  little  time  I  have  to 
stay  on  earth,  pray  for, 

"  Your  affectionate  brother, 
,  "John  Wesley."  2 

Ezekiel  Cooper   was  the  son  of  an  officer  in  the  army  of 

*  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xiii.,  p.  146. 
*  Memoir  of  Miss  A.  Cambridge,  p.  39. 


646  Life  a7id  Times  of  Wesley, 


1 79 1  the  American  revolution,  and  was  now  twenty-eight  years  of 
Age  88  age,  and  a  Methodist  preacher  at  AnnapoHs.  He  was  a  man 
of  great  mental  vigour  and  versatility,  almost  unequalled  in 
debate,  and  was  called,  by  the  American  Methodists,  Lyairgus, 
in  reference  to  his  profound  wisdom.  He  was  a  diligent 
student,  and  a  close  observer  of  men  and  things,  lived  a  long 
life  of  celibacy,  was  frugal  to  a  fault,  left  behind  him  an  estate 
of  about  fifty  thousand  dollars,  and  died  in  1847,  the  oldest 
Methodist  preacher  in  the  world.  When  he  entered  the 
ministry  in  1783,  the  American  Methodists  numbered  eighty- 
three  preachers,  and  fifteen  thousand  members ;  when  he 
died,  their  ministry  numbered  five  thousand,  and  their  mem- 
bership above  a  million.^  To  him  Wesley  wrote  the  last 
letter  which  he  posted  to  America. 

"  Near  London,  February  i,  1791. 

"  My  DEAR  Brother, — Those  that  desire  to  write,  or  to  say  anything, 
to  me,  have  no  time  to  lose,  for  time  has  shaken  me  by  the  hand,  and 
death  is  not  far  behind.  But  I  have  reason  to  be  thankful  for  the  time 
that  is  past.  I  felt  few  of  the  infirmities  of  old  age,  for  fourscore  and  six 
years.  It  was  not  till  a  year  and  a  half  ago,  that  my  strength  and  my 
sight  failed.  And  still  I  am  enabled  to  scrawl  a  little,  and  to  creep, 
though  I  cannot  run.  Probably  I  should  not  be  able  to  do  so  much,  did 
not  many  of  you  assist  mc  by  your  prayers. 

"  I  have  given  a  distinct  account  of  the  work  of  God,  which  has  been 
wrought  in  Britain  and  Ireland,  for  more  than  half  a  century.  We  want 
some  of  you  to  give  us  a  connected  relation,  of  what  our  Lord  has  been 
doing  in  America,  since  the  time  that  Richard  Boardman  accepted  the 
invitation,  and  left  his  country  to  serve  you.  See  that  you  never  give 
place  to  one  thought  of  separating  from  your  brethren  in  Europe.  Lose 
no  opportunity  of  declaring  to  all  men,  that  the  Methodists  are  one  people 
in  all  the  world,  and  that  it  is  their  full  determination  so  to  continue, — 
'  Though  mountains  rise,  and  oceans  roll, 
To  sever  us  in  vain.' 

"  To  the  care  of  our  common  Lord  I  commit  you,  and  am  your  affec- 
tionate friend  and  brother, 

"John  Wesley." 2 

Such   was     Wesley's    dying    legacy   to   the    transatlantic 
Methodists.  , 

The  next  is   brief,  but  full  of  interest.     For  many  years 

^  Sprague's  "  Annals  of  the  American  Methodist  Pulpit." 
^  Methodist  Magazine,  1 804,  p.  46. 


Wesley  s  Last  Lette7's.  647 

Wesley  had  been  accustomed  to  leave  London,  on,  or  about,  179^ 
the  1st  of  March,  for  what  he  was  accustomed  to  call  his  Age  88 
long  journey,  to  the  north,  or  to  Ireland.  Though  so  aged 
and  feeble,  he  fully  intended  to  do  the  same  again ;  and 
Henry  Moore  relates,  that,  in  reference  to  this,  he  actually 
sent  his  chaise  and  his  horses  before  him  to  Bristol,  and  took 
places  for  himself  and  his  friends  in  the  Bath  coach  ;  but, 
almost  on  the  very  day  when  he  purposed  to  begin  afresh  his 
"  long  journey"  on  earth,  the  venerable  pilgrim  left  earth 
for  heaven. 

"  London,  February  6,  1791. 
"  Dear  Sir, —  On  Wednesday,  March  17,  I  purpose,  if  God  permit,  to 
come  from  Gloucester  to  Worcester;   and,  on   Thursday,  the   i8th,   to 
Stourport.     If  our  friends  at  Worcester  are  displeased,  \vc  cannot  help  it. 
Wishing  you  and  yours  all  happiness, 

"  I  am,  dear  sir,  your  affectionate  servant, 

"John  Wesley." 

The  letter  was  addressed  to  Mr.  York,  of  Stourport ;  but 
was  not  sent.  At  the  bottom  of  it  is  the  last  line  that 
Wesley  ever  wrote. 

"  February  28 — This  morning  I  found  this  in  my  bureau."  * 

In  a  letter,  given  on  page  622,  Mr.  Thomas  Roberts  was 
directed,  in  an  emergency,  to  leave  Bristol  for  Haverford- 
west circuit.  He  went,  and  had  to  encounter  difficulties. 
Wesley  now  wrote  to  him  as  follows. 

"  London,  February  8,  1791. 
"  My  dear  Brother, — Who  was  it  that  opposed  your  reducing  the 
preachers,  in  the  circuit,  to  two?  and  on  what  pretence  ?  We  must  needs 
reduce  all  our  expenses  everywhere  as  far  as  possible.  You  must  never 
leave  off  till  you  carry  this  point,  and  constitute  bands  in  each  large 
society.  When  the  lecture  begins  at  Carmarthen,  it  will  then  be  time 
enough  to  prevent  any  ill  effects  of  it.  I  am  glad  to  hear  your  journey 
home  has  not  been  in  vain.     My  best  wishes  attend  my  friends  at  Traison 

and  Langwair. 

"  I  am,  dear  Tommy,  yours,  etc., 

"John  Wesley." 

The  original,  from  which  this  is  copied,  was  written  by  an 
amanuensis,  but  is  signed  in  Wesley's  own  tremulous  hand- 
writing. 

1  Wesley's  Works,  vol.  xiii.,  p.  147. 


648  Life  and  Times    of  Wesley. 

1791  We  have  already  seen  that  Adam  Clarke  had  been  danger- 

Age"88  ously  ill  in  Dublin.  In  fact,  it  was  reported  in  England  that 
he  was  dead  ;  and  William  Stevens  actually  preached  his 
funeral  sermon  in  the  isle  of  Jersey.  He  was  now  slowly 
recovering,  had  entered  himself  a  medical  student  in  Trinity 
college',  Dublin,  and  had  founded  a  "Strangers'  Friend 
Society,"  like  those  already  instituted  in  London,  and  in 
Bristol'     To  him  Wesley  now  addressed  the  following. 

"London,  February  9,  1791. 

"  Dear  Adam, — You  have  great  reason  to  bless  God  for  giving  you 
strength  according  to  your  day.  He  has  indeed  supported  you  in  an 
uncommon  manner  under  these  complicated  afflictions.  You  may  well 
say,  '  I  will  put  my  trust  in  Thee  as  long  as  I  live.'  I  will  desire  Dr. 
Whitehead  thoroughly  to  consider  your  case,  and  to  give  us  his  thoughts 
upon  it.  I  am  not  afraid  of  your  doing  too  little,  but  too  much,  I  am  in 
continual  danger  of  this.  Do  little  at  a  time,  that  you  may  do  the  more. 
IVIy  love  to  sisters  Cookman  and  Boyle,  but  it  is  a  doubt  with  me  whether 
I  shall  cross  the  seas  any  more. 

"  What  preacher  was  it  who  first  omitted  meeting  the  select  society  ?  I 
wonder  it  did  not  destroy  the  work ! 

"  You  have  done  right  in  setting  up  the  strangers'  society  :  it  is  an 
excellent  institution. 

"  I  am  quite  at  a  loss  concerning  Mr.  Maddan  ;  I  know  not  what  to 
think  of  him.     Send  me  your  best  thoughts  concerning  him. 

"  Let  not  the  excluded  preachers  by  any  means  creep  in  again.  In  any 
wise,  write,  and  send  me  your  thoughts  on  animal  maguctism.  I  set  my 
face  against  that  device  of  Satan.  Two  of  our  preachers  here  are  in 
danger  of  that  satanical  delusion  ;  but,  if  they  persist  to  defend  it,  I  must 
drop  them.     I  know  its  principles  full  well. 

"  With  much  love  to  your  wife,  I  am,  etc., 

"John  Wesley," 2 

Wesley  was  quite  ready  to  "  cross  seas,"  as  he  had  already 
done  so  often,  in  his  Master's  service  ;  but  he  might  well 
doubt  his  ability.  Exactly  three  weeks  after  writing  thus  to 
Adam  Clarke,  he  crossed  the  dark  river  of  de"a±h. 

For  sixty-five  years,  Wesley  had  been  an  earnest,  la- 
borious, self  denying,  and  unceasing  preacher  of  "  the  glorious 
gospel  of  the  blessed  God";  and,  notwithstanding  his  extreme 
age  and  feebleness,  he  continued  in  his  beloved  employ  until 


'  Everett's  Life  of  Clarke. 
2  Wesley  an  Times,  June  i,  1866. 


Wesley  s  Last   Week  of  Public  Labour.        649 

within  seven  days  of  his  decease.     The  following  was  his  last      1791 
week  of  public  labour.  AgeSS 

On  Thursday,  February  17,  he  preached  at  Lambeth,  then 
a  thriving  suburban  village,  from  the  text,  "  Labour  not  for 
the  meat  which  pcrisheth  ;  but  for  that  which  endureth  to 
everlasting  life."  Returning  home,  he  seemed  to  be  unwell, 
and  said  he  had  taken  cold. 

Friday  the  i8th,  he  read  and  wrote  as  usual,  dined  at  Mr. 
Urling's,  and  preached  at  Chelsea,  in  the  evening,  from  the 
words,  "  The  king's  business  requireth  haste."  Once  or  twice 
he  was  obliged  to  stop,  and  to  tell  the  people  that  his  cold  so 
affected  his  voice  as  to  prevent  his  speaking  without  these 
necessary  pauses.  He  had,  as  usual,  arranged  to  meet  the 
classes  for  the  renewal  of  their  tickets  ;  but  was  persuaded  to 
leave  this  part  of  his  work  to  his  companions,  James  Rogers, 
and  Joseph  Bradford. 

Saturday,  the  19th,  was  principally  employed  in  reading 
and  writing.  The  following  was  addressed  to  Mrs.  Susanna 
Knapp,  of  Worcester,  and  shows  his  unquenchable  Christian 
ardour, 

"\^0^T>0^,  February  19,  1791. 

"  My  dear  Suky, — As  the  state  of  my  health  is  exceeding  wavering, 
and  waxes  worse,  I  cannnot  yet  lay  down  any  plans  for  my  future  journeys. 
Indeed,  I  propose,  if  God  permit,  to  set  out  for  Bristol  on  the  28th  instant ; 
but  how  much  further  I  shall  be  able  to  go,  I  cannot  yet  determine.  If  I 
am  pretty  well,  I  hope  to  be  at  Worcester  about  the  22nd  of  March.  To 
find  you  and  yours  in  health  of  body  and  mind  will  be  a  great  pleasure  to, 
"  My  dear  Suky,  yours  affectionately, 

"J.  Wesley."! 

On  the  same  day,  Wesley  went  out  to  dinner,  at  Mrs. 
Griffith's,  Islington,  and,  while  there,  desired  a  friend  to  read 
to  him  the  fourth  and  three  following  chapters  of  the  book  of 
Job,  containing  the  speech  of  Eliphaz,  and  the  answer  of  Job, 
and  strikingly  appropriate  to  the  case  of  a  dying  man.  After 
dinner,  he  purposed  to  meet  the  penitents  at  City  Road,  but 
was  prevailed  on  to  allow  Mr.  Brackenbury  to  t^ke  his  place. 

Next  morning  (Sunday)  he  rose,  at  his  usual  hour,  but  was 
utterly  unfit  for  the  sabbath  services.  At  seven  o'clock,  he 
was  obliged   to  lie  down  again  ;    and    slept  for  above  three 

'  Manuscript  letter,  kindly  lent  by  Mr.  Dimblcby  of  Malvern. 


650  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 


1791  hours.  In  the  afternoon,  he  had  again  to  go  to  bed;  had 
Age~88  another  sleep  ;  and  then,  after  two  of  his  own  sermons  had 
been  read  to  him,  came  downstairs  to  supper. 

On  Monday,  the  21st,  he  seemed  better,  and,  despite 
persuasion,  would  fulfil  an  engagement  he  had  made  to  dine 
at  Twickenham.  His  niece.  Miss  Sarah  Wesley,  and  Miss 
Ritchie,  went  with  him.  On  the  way  he  called  upon  Lady 
Mary  Fitzgerald,  and  conversed  and  prayed  most  sweetly. 

Tuesday,  the  22nd,  he  proceeded  with  his  usual  work  ; 
dined  at  Mr,  Plorton's,  Islington  ;  and  preached  in  City  Road 
chapel,  from,  "  We  through  the  Spirit  wait  for  the  hope  of 
righteousness  by  faith."     After  this,  he  met  the  leaders. 

Wednesday,  February  23,  he  arose  at  four  a.m.,  as  he  also 
did  the  day  following,  and,  accompanied  by  Mr.  Rogers,  set 
out  to  Leatherhead,  eighteen  miles  from  London,  to  visit  a 
magistrate,  in  whose  dining  room  he  preached,  from  "Seek ye 
the  Lord  while  He  may  be  found  ;  call  upon  Him  while  He 
is  near."     This  was  Wesley's  last  sermon. 

Thursday,  February  24,  he  spent  with  his  old  friend,  Mr. 
Wolff,  at  Balham,  where  he  was  cheerful,  and  seemed  nearly 
as  well  as  usual.^ 

During  the  day,  he  wrote  his  last  letter,  which  was 
addressed  to  Wilberforce,  who  had  brought  before  parliament 
the  question,  which  Wesley  was  one  of  the  first  to  advocate, 
the  abolition  of  slavery. 

"  London,  February  24,  1791. 

"  My  dear  Sir,— Unless  the  Divine  Power  has  raised  you  up  to  be  as 
Athanasius,  contra  mimdum,  I  see  not  how  you  can  go  through  your 
glorious  enterprise,  in  opposing  that  execrable  villainy,  which  is  the 
scandal  of  religion,  of  England,  and  of  human  nature.  Unless  God 
has  raised  you  up  for  this  very  thing,  you  will  be  worn  out  by  the  opposi- 
tion of  men  and  devils ;  but,  if  God  be  for  you,  who  can  be  against 
you  ?  Are  all  of  them  together  stronger  than  God?  0\  ^be  not  weary 
in  well  doing.'  Go  on,  in  the  name  of  God,  and  in  the  power  of  His 
might,  till  even  American  slavery,  the  vilest  that  ever  saw  the  sun,  shall 
vanish  away  before  it. 

"  Reading  this  morning  a  tract,  wrote  by  a  poor  African,  I  was  particu- 
larly struck  by  that  circumstance, — that  a  man  who  has  a  black  skin, 
being  wronged  or  outraged  by  a  white  man,  can  have  no  redress;  it  being 


*  Life  of  James  Rogers. 


Aire  88 


JVcsleys  La  si  Lcikr.  65 1 

a  law,  in  our  colonies,  that  the  oaih  of  a  black,  against  a  white,  goes  for      1791 
nothing.     What  villainy  is  this  ! 

"  That  He  who  has  guided  you,  from  your  youth  up,  may  continue  to 
strengthen  you  in  this  and  all  things,  is  the  prayer  of,  dear  sir, 

"  Your  affectionate  servant, 

"John  Wesley."' 

Friday,  February  25,  Mr.  Wolff  having  brouglit  him  home, 
to  City  Road,  Wesley  went  upstairs,  and  requested  that,  for 
half  an  hour,  he  should  be  left  alone.  When  the  time  expired, 
faithful  Joseph  Bradford  found  him  so  unwell,  that  he  sent 
for  Dr.  Whitehead.  "  Doctor,^'  said  the  dying  patriarch, 
"  they  are  more  afraid  than  hurt." 

Saturday,  February  26,  was  principally  passed  in  drowsiness 
and  sleep. 

Sunday  morning,  February  27,  he  seemed  better,  got  up, 
sat  in  his  chair,  looked  cheerful,  and  repeated,  from  one  of  his 
brother's  hymns, — 

"  Till  glad  I  lay  this  body  down, 
Thy  servant,  Lord,  attend  ! 
And  oh !  my  life  of  mercy  crown. 
With  a  triumphant  end !" 

And  then,  soon  after,  with  marked  emphasis,  he  said,  "Our 
friend  Lazarus  sleepeth."  His  niece.  Miss  Wesley,  and  Miss 
Ritchie  prayed  with  him.  "  When  at  Bristol,"  said  he,  allud- 
ing to  his  illness  there  in  1753,  "  my  words  were, 

*  I  the  chief  of  sinners  am, 
But  Jesus  died  for  me !' " 

Miss  Ritchie  asked,  "  Is  that  your  language  now.?"  "Yes," 
said  he.  "Christ  is  all!  He  is  all!"  He  then  dozed,  and 
sometimes  wandered  ;  but,  in  his  wanderings,  was  always 
preaching  or  meeting  classes. 

On  Monday,  February  28,  his  weakness  increased.  Dr. 
Whitehead  wished  for  further  assistance.  Wesley  replied  : 
"  Dr.  Whitehead  knows  my  constitution  better  than  any  one. 
I  am  quite  satisfied,  and  will  have  no  one  clsc."^     Most  of  the 

*  Wilberforce's  Life,  vol.  i.,  p.  297;  and  Moore's  Life  of  Wesley,  vol.  ii., 

P-  437- 

2  Jacob  Jones,  Esq.,  however,  seems  to  have  been  called  in.  He  was  then 
a  young  man,  and  had  just  joined  the  Methodists.  He  died,  in  Finsbury 
Square,  in  1830. — {Methodist  AMagazi/w,  1830,  p.  511.) 


652  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1 791  day  was  spent  in  sleep.  He  seldom  spoke  ;  but,  once,  in  a 
Age  88  wakeful  interval,  was  heard  saying,  in  a  low,  distinct  voice, 
"  There  is  no  way  into  the  holiest,  but  by  the  blood  of  Jesus." 
Then  referring  to  the  text,  "  Ye  know  the  grace  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  that,  though  He  was  rich,"  etc.,  he  remarked, 
with  solemn  emphasis,  "  That  is  the  foundation,  the  only 
foundation,  there  is  no  other."  It  was  now  evident  to  all,  that 
he  was  beginning  to  sleep  his  last  sleep.  His  friends  were 
intensely  anxious  and  alarmed.  Poor,  broken  hearted,  Joseph 
Bradford  despatched  notes  to  the  preachers,  asking  their 
prayers,  in  the  following  terms. 

"  February  27,  I  jgi. 
"  Dear  Brother, — Mr.  Wesley  is  very  ill :  pray  !  pray  !  pray  ! 

"  I  am  your  affectionate  brother, 

"Joseph  Bradford."^ 

All  was  unavailing.  Wesley's  work  was  ended.  On 
Tuesday,  March  i,  after  a  restless  night,  being  asked  if  he 
suffered  pain,  he  answered,  "  No,"  and  began  singing, — 

"  All  glory  to  God  in  the  sky, 

And  peace  upon  earth  be  restored ! 
O  Jesus,  exalted  on  high, 

Appear  our  omnipotent  Lord. 
Who,  meanly  in  Bethlehem  born, 

Didst  stoop  to  redeem  a  lost  race, 
Once  more  to  Thy  people  return, 

And  reign  in  Thy  kingdom  of  grace. 

Oh,  wouldst  Thou  again  be  made  known, 

Again  in  the  Spirit  descend  ; 
And  set  up  in  each  of  Thy  own 

A  kingdom  that  never  shall  end! 
Thou  only  art  able  to  bless. 

And  make  the  glad  nations  obey, 
And  bid  the  dire  enmity  cease. 

And  bow  the  whole  world  to  Thy  sway," 

Here,  while  breathing  faith  and  universal  benevolence,  his 
strength  failed.  "  I  want  to  write,"  said  he.  A  pen  was  put 
into  his  hand,  and  paper  was  placed  before  him.  His  hand 
had  forgot  its  cunning.  "  I  cannot,"  said  the  dying  man. 
"  Let  me  write  for  you,"   remarked   Miss  Ritchie  :  "  tell  me 

'  Smith's  "  History  of  Methodism,"  vol.  i.,  p.  608. 


JVesIeys  Las  I  Son^  on  Earth.  653 

what  you  wish  to  say."     "Nothing,"   he   replied,  "but  that     1791 


God  is  with  us." 

"  I  will  get  up,^'  said  he ;  and,  while  his  friends  were 
arranging  his  clothes,  the  happy  old  man  again  began 
singing,— 

"  I  'II  praise  my  Maker  while  I  've  breath ; 
And,  when  my  voice  is  lost  in  death, 

Praise  shall  employ  my  nobler  powers : 
My  days  of  praise  shall  ne'er  be  past, 
While  life,  and  thought,  and  being  last, 

Or  immortality  endures. 

Happy  the  man  whose  hopes  rely 
On  Israel's  God ;  He  made  the  sky, 

And  earth,  and  seas,  with  all  their  train  ; 
His  truth  for  ever  stands  secuie, 
He  saves  the'  oppressed,  He  feeds  the  poor, 

And  none  shall  find  His  promise  vain." 

Once  more  seated  in  his  chair,  he,  in  a  weak  voice,  said  : 
"  Lord,  Thou  givest  strength  to  those  that  can  speak,  and  to 
those  that  cannot.  Speak,  Lord,  to  all  our  hearts,  and  let 
them  know  that  Thou  loosest  tongues."  And  again  he  began 
to  sing,  what  proved  to  be  his  last  song  on  earth  : 

"  To  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost, 
Who  sweetly  all  agree." 

But  here  his  voice  failed,  and,   after  gasping  for  breath,  he 
said:  "Now  w'e  have  done.     Let  us  all  go." 

Full  of  happiness,  but  utterly  exhausted,  he  was  put  to 
bed,  where,  after  a  short  but  quiet  sleep,  he  opened  his  eyes, 
and,  addressing  the  weeping  watchers  who  stood  around 
him,  said,  "  Pray,  and  praise!"  and,  of  course,  they  at  once 
complied.  Then  he  asked  Joseph  Bradford  about  the  key 
and  contents  of  his  bureau,  remarking,  "  I  would  have  all 
things  ready  for  my  executors.  Let  me  be  buried  in  nothing 
but  what  is  woollen,  and  let  my  corpse  be  carried  in  my 
coffin  into  the  chapel."  And  then,  as  if  no  other  earthly 
matters  required  his  attention,  he  again  called  out,  "  Pray  and 
praise  !  "  Down  fell  his  friends  upon  their  knees,  and  ferv^ent 
were  the  dying  patriarch's  responses,  especially  to  John 
Broadbent's  prayer,  that  God  would  still  bless  the  system  of 
doctrine  and  discipline,  which  Wesley  had  been  the  means  of 


Age  88 


654  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 


^791     establishing-.     On  rising,  from  prayer,  each  watcher  drew  near 

Age  88    to  the  bed  of  the  expiring  saint,  and,  with  affectionate  sohcit- 

ude,  awaited  the  coming  of  the  shining  ones  to  conduct  him 

home.     With   the    utmost    placidity,    he    saluted    each   one 

present,  shook  hands,  and  said,  "Farewell !  farewell!" 

Conflict  there  was  none.  The  scene  was  the  peaceful 
setting  of  a  glorious  sun,  undisturbed  by  the  slightest  sough- 
ing wind,  undimmed  by  the  smallest  intervening  cloud. 

He  tried  to  speak  ;  but  his  friends  found  it  difficult  to 
make  out  what  he  meant,  except  that  he  wished  his  sermon 
on  "  The  Love  of  God  to  Fallen  Man,"  founded  on  the  text, 
"Not  as  the  offence,  so  also  is  the  free  gift,"  to  be  "scattered 
abroad,  and  given  to  everybody."^  Seeing  that  those  around 
him  were  at  a  loss  to  understand  -what  he  tried  to  say, 
the  grand  old  Christian  gladiator  paused  ;  and,  summoning, 
for  a  final  effort,  all  the  little  strength  he  had  remaining,  he 
exclaimed,  in  a  tone  well-nigh  supernatural,  "  The  best  of  all 
is,  God  is  with  us!"  And  then,  after  another  pause,  and 
while  lifting  his  arm  in  grateful  triumph,  he  emphatically 
reiterated,  "  The  best  of  all  is,  God  is  with  us!" 

Nature  was  once  more  exhausted.  Some  one  wetted  his 
parched  lips.  "  It  will  not  do,"  said  he  ;  "  we  must  take  the 
consequence.     Never  mind  the  poor  carcase." 

James  Rogers  and  Thomas  Rankin  Avere  standing  by 
his  bed  ;  but  his  sight  was  so  nearly  gone,  that  he  was 
unable  to  recognise  their  features.  "Who  are  these.''"  he 
asked.  "  Sir,"  said  Mr.  Rogers,  "  we  are  come  to  rejoice  with 
you ;  you  are  going  to  receive  your  crown."  "  It  is  the 
Lord's  doing,"  replied  Wesley,  "  and  it  is  marvellous  in  our 
eyes." 

Being  told  that  his  brother's  widow  had  come  to  see  him, 
he  thanked  her,  affectionately  endeavoured  to  kiss  her,  and 
remarked,  "  He  giveth  His  servants  rest."  She  wet  his  lips  ; 
on  which  he  repeated  his  constant  thanksgiving  after  meals  : 
"We  thank  Thee,  O  Lord,  for  these  and  all  Thy  mercies. 
Bless  the  Church  and  king,  and  grant  us  truth  and  peace, 
through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord,  for  ever  and  ever!"     Then, 

Mn  compliance  with  his  wish,  ten  thousand  copies  were  printed,  and 
gratuitously  distributed.     (Rogers'  Life.) 


Wesley s  Death.  655 


pausing  a  little,  he  cried,   "The  clouds  drop  fatness."     After      1791 
another  pause,  "  The  Lord  of  hosts  is  with  us  ;  the   God  of    ^^^88 
Jacob  is  our  refuge  !    Pray  and  praise  !"   And  again  his  friends 
fell  upon  their  knees. 

During  the  night,  he  scores  of  times  repeated  the  words, 
"  I'll  praise.  I'll  praise!"  but  could  say  nothing  more.  Next 
morning,  Wednesday,  March  2,  Joseph  Bradford  prayed  with 
him.  It  was  a  few  minutes  before  ten  o'clock.  Around  the 
bed  there  knelt  his  niece.  Miss  Sarah  Wesley  ;  one  of  his 
executors,  Mr,  Horton  ;  his  medical  attendant.  Dr.  White- 
head ;  his  book  steward,  George  Whitfield ;  the  present 
occupants  of  his  house,  James  and  Hester  Ann  Rogers,  and 
their  little  boy ;  and  his  friends  and  visitors,  Robert  Carr 
Brackenbury,  and  Elizabeth  Ritchie, — eleven  persons  alto- 
gether. Bradford,  so  long  Wesley's  faithful  friend  and 
travelling  companion,  was  the  mouthpiece  of  the  other  ten.  ' 
"Farewell!"  cried  Wesley, — the  last  word  he  uttered;  and 
then,  as  Joseph  Bradford  was  saying,  "  Lift  up  your  heads,  O 
ye  gates  ;  and  be  ye  lift  up,  ye  everlasting  doors  ;  and  this 
heir  of  glory  shall  come  in !"  Wesley  gathered  up  his  feet  in 
the  presence  of  his  brethren  ;  and,  without  a  groan  and  with- 
out a  sigh,  was  gone.  He  died  about  ten  o'clock  a.m.,  on 
Wednesday,  IVIarch  2,  1791.^ 

What  followed  .''     "Children  !  "  said  John  Wesley's  mother, 

"as  soon  as  I  am  dead,  sing  a  song  of  praise!"     As  soon  as 

Wesley  himself  died,  his  friends,   standing  about  his  corpse, 

sang : 

"  Waiting  to  receive  thy  spirit, 

Lo !  the  Saviour  stands  above  ; 
Shows  the  purchase  of  His  merit, 
Reaches  out  the  crown  of  love." 

And  then  they  knelt  down,  and  prayed,  that  the  mantle  of  the 
ascended  Elijah  might  rest  upon  his  followers.^ 

Wesley's  remains  were  interred,  behind  the  chapel  in  City 
Road,  on  the  9th  of  March.  Such  was  the  excitement  created 
by  his  death,  that,  within  twelve  hours  only  before  the  funeral 
took  place,  it  was  determined,  in  order  to  prevent  the 
assembline    of   an    inconvenient    crowd,    that    the    funereal 

'James  Rogers'  Life.  ^''^mhgntic  Narrative,"  1791. 


656  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1791      solemnities  should  be  performed  at  the  early  hour  of  five  a.m. 

A^^S    T^"^^  notice  to  his  friends  was  short  ;    but  hundreds  attended  ; 

and  to  each  one  was  given  a  biscuit,  in  an  envelope,  engraven 

with  a  beautifully  executed  portrait  of  the  departed,  dressed 

in  canonicals,  surmounted  by  a  halo  and  a  crown. 

Much  remains  unsaid ;  but  our  space  is  gone.  Whilst 
the  present  pages  are  passing  through  the  press,  we  learn, 
that  "  a  most  eligible  site,  in  Westminster  Abbey,  has  been 
courteously  offered,"  by  the  dean  of  that  noble  edifice,  for 
the  erection  of  a  "  public  monument "  to  Wesley  and  his 
brother  Charles  ;  and  that  arrangements  are  being  made  to 
secure  the  services  of  "  a  first  class  sculptor,"  at  the  cost  of 
about  iJ^Soo.  Thus  the  wheel  turns  round.  One  hundred  and 
thirty  years  ago,  W^esley  was  shut  out  of  every  church  in 
England  ;  now  marble  medallion  profiles  of  himself  and  his 
'  brother,  accompanied  with  suitable  inscriptions,  are  deemed 
deserving  of  a  niche  in  England's  grandest  cathedral.  The 
man  who,  a  century  since,  was  the  best  abused  man  in  the 
British  isles,  is  now  hardly  ever  mentioned  but  with  affec- 
tionate respect.  In  the  literature  of  the  age ;  in  its  lectures 
and  debates  ;  in  chapels  and  in  churches  ;  in  synods,  con- 
gresses, and  all  sorts  of  conferences  ;  by  the  highest  lords 
and  the  most  illustrious  commoners,  the  once  persecuted 
Methodist  is  now  extolled  ;  and  the  judgment  of  Southey, 
in  a  letter  to  Wilberforce,  is  tacitly  confirmed  :  "  I  consider 
Wesley  as  the  most  influential  mind  of  the  last  century, 
— the  man  who  will  have  produced  the  greatest  effects, 
centuries,  or  perhaps  millenniums  hence,  if  the  present  race  of 
men  should  continue  so  long." 

In  person,  Wesley  was  rather  below  the  middle  size,  but 
beautifully  proportioned,  without  an  atom  of  superfluous 
flesh,  yet  muscular  and  strong ;  with  a  forehead  clear  and 
smooth,  a  bright,  penetrating  eye,  and  a  lovely  face,  which 
retained  the  freshness  of  its  complexion  to  the  latest  period  of 
his  life. 

In  general  scholarship  and  knowledge,  he  had  few 
superiors ;  whilst  such  was  his  acquaintance  with  the  New 
Testament,  that,  when  at  a  loss  to  repeat  a  text  in  the  words 
of  the  authorised  translation,  he  was  never  at  a  loss  to  quote 
it  in  the  original  Greek. 


AtUJiorsJiip  and  Preaching.  657 

As  an  author,  the  chief  characteristics  of  his  style  arc  I79i 
brevity,  perspicuity,  and  strength.  He  abhorred  verboseness,  Age  88 
and  constantly  endeavoured  to  say  everything  in  the  feuest 
words  possible.  "  I  never  think,"  said  he,  "  of  my  style  at  all, 
but  just  set  down  the  words  that  come  first  Only  when  I 
transcribe  anything  for  the  press,  then  I  think  it  my  duty  to 
see  that  every  phrase  be  clear,  pure,  proper,  and  easy.  Con- 
ciseness, which  is  now  as  it  were  natural  to  me,  brings  quantum 
sufficit  of  strength."  Not  for  want  of  genius,  but  for  want  of 
time,  and  for  want  of  disposition  to  make  it  otherwise,  his 
style  is  one  of  naked  and  self  dependent  strength,  unaccom- 
panied with  gaudy  colouring,  and  equally  undiluted  with  the 
pretentious  puerilities  of  weak  and  little  minds.  It  is  impossi- 
ble to  abridge  his  writings  without  omitting  thoughts  as  well 
as  words.  Who  can  abridge  Euclid's  Elements  without 
maiming  them .''  And  who  can  take  from  the  works  of 
Wesley  without  reducing  their  specific  gravity  .'* 

In  the  pulpit,  Wesley's  attitude  was  graceful  and  easy  ;  his 
action  calm,  natural,  pleasing,  and  expressive ;  and  his  voice, 
not  loud,  but  clear  and  manly.  Whitefield  was  the  greater 
orator ;  Wesley  the  better  divine.  Wesley's  preaching  was 
without  Whitefield's  Demosthenic  eloquence ;  but  it  had  the 
accuracy  of  a  scholar,  the  authority  of  an  ambassador,  the 
unction  of  a  saint,  the  power  of  God.  It  was  always  search- 
ing ;  but  not  often  terrible  and  severe,  except  when  addressed 
to  congregations  rich,  respectable,  and  polite.  "  Sir,"  said  a 
friend  to  him,  after  he  had  preached  to  a  genteel  audience 
from  the  words,  "  Ye  serpents,  ye  generation  of  vipers,  how 
can  ye  escape  the  damnation  of  hell  .'*"  "  Sir,"  said  Wesley's 
off"ended  hearer,  "  such  a  sermon  would  have  been  suitable  in 
Billingsgate;  but  it  was  highly  improper  here";  to  whom 
Wesley  quietly,  but  significantly,  remarked:  "If  I  had  been  hi 
Billingsgate,  my  text  should  have  been,  '  Behold  the  Lamb  of 
God,  which  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world.' "  The  poor 
need  to  be  told  the  terribleness  of  their  danger,  and  the  rich 
more ;  but,  unfortunately,  the  poor  hear  most  of  this,  and  the 
rich  least.     Wesley  was  a  faithful  minister  to  both. 

In  social  life,  Wesley  was  a  Christian  gentleman,  and,  with 
perfect  ease,  accommodated  himself  to  both  the  high  and  low, 
the  rich  and  poor.     Placid,  benevolent,  and  full  of  anecdote, 

VOL.  Ill  U  U 


658  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 


1 791  wit, and  wisdom,  his  conversation  was  not  often  equalled;  and 
AeeSS  was  generally  concluded  with  two  or  three  verses  of  a  hymn, 
applicable  to  what  had  just  been  spoken.  Though  never 
trifling,  he  was  always  cheerful ;  sometimes  saying,  "  I  dare 
no  more  fret  than  citrsc  or  swear."  His  sprightliness  among 
his  friends  never  left  him  ;  but  was  as  conspicuous  at  eighty- 
seven  as  at  seventeen.  He  was  at  home  in  mansions,  and 
equally  in  cottages  ;  courteous  to  all,  and  especially  to  the 
young,  often  remarking,  "  I  reverence  the  young,  because 
they  may  be  useful  after  I  am  dead." 

Of  his  piety  nothing  need  be  said.  "  His  modesty,"  writes 
Bradburn,  "prevented  him  saying  much  concerning  his  own 
religious  feelings.  In  public,  he  hardly  ever  spoke  of  the 
state  of  his  own  soul  ;  but,  in  1781,  he  told  me  that  his 
experience  might  almost  at  any  time  be  expressed  in  the 
following  lines  : 

*  O  Thou,  who  earnest  from  above, 
The  pure  celestial  fire  to'  impart, 
Kindle  a  flame  of  sacred  love 
On  the  mean  altar  of  my  heart ! 

There  let  it  for  Thy  glory  burn, 

With  inextinguishable  blaze, 
And  trembling  to  its  source  return, 

In  humble  love  and  fervent  praise!'" 

His  industry  is  almost  without  a  parallel.  In  many  things, 
he  was  gentle  and  easy  to  be  entreated  ;  but,  in  his  earnest- 
ness in  redeeming  time,  he  was  decisive  and  inexorable.  While 
kept  waiting  for  his  carriage,  on  one  occasion,  he  passionately 
exclaimed,  "  I  have  lost  ten  minutes  for  ever  ! ''  "  You  have 
no  need  to  be  in  a  hurry !  "  said  a  friend  :  "  Hurry,"  he  replied, 
"  I  have  no  time  to  be  in  a  hurry."  It  has  been  calculated, 
that,  during  the  fifty  years  of  his  itinerant  ministry,  he  travel- 
led a  quarter  of  a  million  of  miles,  and  preached  more  than 
forty  thousand  sermons.  In  these  volumes,  we  have  seen 
him  rising  with  the  lark,  travelling  with  the  sun,  preaching 
throughout  the  three  kingdoms,  and  always  acting  in  har- 
mony with  his  own  well  known  utterance,  "  The  world  is  my 
parish  !  "  Looking  at  his  travelling,  the  marvel  is  how  he 
found  time  to  write ;  and,  looking  at  his  books,  the  marvel  is 
how  he  found  time  to  preach.     His  hands  were  always  full  ; 


Wit.  659 

but  his  action  was  never'  fluttered.     He  was  always  moving,      1791 
and  yet,  in  the  midst  of  his  ceaseless  toils,  betraying  no  more    AgeS8 
bustle  than  a  planet  in  its  course.      His  mission  was  too  great 
to  allow  time  for  trifles. 

Was  Wesley  without  faults  ?  Not  so  ;  no  man  but  "  the 
Man  Christ  Jesus "  ever  was.  Wesley,  for  instance,  was 
naturally  irritable  ;  but  even  that  was  better  than  being 
apathetic.  "  Tommy,"  said  Wesley  once,  "  touch  that !  " 
pointing  to  a  dock.  The  itinerant  did  so.  "Do  you  feel 
anything  .-* "  asked  Wesley.  "  No,"  replied  his  friend. 
"Touch  that !  "  continued  Wesley,  pointing  to  a  nettle.  His 
companion  obeyed,  and,  in  consequence,  was  stung.  "  Now, 
Tommy,"  remarked  Wesley,  "  some  men  are  like  docks  ;  say 
what  you  will  to  them,  they  are  stupid  and  insensible. 
Others  are  like  nettles ;  touch  them,  and  they  resent  it. 
Tommy,  you  are  a  nettle  ;  and,  for  my  part,  I  would  rather 
have  to  do  with  a  nettle  than  a  dock." 

Numberless  instances  of  Wesley's  wit  and  repartee  might 
easily  be  given.  "  Stop  that  man  from  speaking  ! "  exclaimed 
Charles  Wesley  at  one  of  the  early  conferences,  when  a 
preacher  rose  up,  and,  full  of  the  love  of  Christ  and  irrepressible 
emotion,  began  to  relate  his  religious  experience.  "Stop 
that  man  from  speaking  !  "  said  Charles  ;  "  let  us  attend  to 
business !  "  but  still  the  good  man  proceeded.  "  Unless  he 
stops,  I  '11  leave  the  conference,"  continued  Charles.  Wesley 
himself,  revelling  in  the  itinerant's  religious  recital,  effectu- 
ally cooled  the  warmth  of  his  brother's  temper  by  quietly 
remarking,  "  Reach  him  his  hat !  " 

On  another  occasion,  when  about  to  dine  with  a  rich 
Methodist,  one  of  his  preachers,  who  was  present,  with  more 
piety  than  politeness,  cried  out  :  "  O  sir,  what  a  sumptuous 
dinner  !  Things  are  very  diftcrent  to  what  they  were  form- 
erly 1  There  is  now  but  little  self  denial  amongst  the 
Methodists !  "  Wesley  pointed  to  the  abundantly  furnished 
table,  and  then  silenced  the  preacher's  untimely  eloquence 
by  saying,  "My  brother,  there  is  a  fine  opportunity  for  self 
denial  now." 

Thus  was  Wesley  always  "instant  in  season,  and  out  of 
season."  Always  and  everywhere  he  was  ready  to  turn 
passing  incidents  to  practical  account.     "  Pray,  sir,  let  us  go," 


66o  Life  and  Times  of  Wesley. 

1791  said  one  of  his  friends,  whilst  two  women,  near  BilHngsgate 
Age  88  market,  were  quarrelhng  most  furiously,  and  using  language 
far  more  forceful  than  pious  :  "  Pray,  sir,  let  us  go  ;  I  cannot 
stand  it."  "  Stay,  Sammy,"  replied  Wesley,  as  he  looked  at 
the  viragoes,  who  were  evidently  inspired,  though  not  from 
heaven.  "  Stay,  Sammy,"  answered  the  man  who  had  eyes 
for  everything  ;  "  stay,  and  learn  how  to  preach  !  " 

We  must  close.  Taking  him  altogether,  Wesley  is  a  man 
sid  generis.  He  stands  alone  :  he  has  had  no  successor  ;  no 
one  like  him  went  before  ;  no  contemporary  was  a  coequal. 
There  was  a  wholeness  about  the  man,  such  as  is  rarely  seen. 
His  physique,  his  genius,  his  wit,  his  penetration,  his  judg- 
ment, his  memory,  his  beneficence,  his  religion,  his  diligence, 
his  conversation,  his  courteousness,  his  manners,  and  his  dress, 
— made  him  as  perfect  as  we  ever  expect  man  to  be  on 
this  side  heaven.  "  A  greater  poet  may  rise  than  Homer  or 
Milton,"  writes  Dr.  Dobbin,  "a  greater  theologian  than 
Calvin,  a  greater  philosopher  than  Bacon,  a  greater  drama- 
tist than  any  of  ancient  or  modern  fame  ;  but  a  more 
distinguished  revivalist  of  the  churches  than  John  Wesley, 
never."  "  He  was  a  man,"  says  Lord  Macaulay,  "  whose 
eloquence  and  logical  acuteness  might  have  rendered  him 
eminent  in  literature  ;  whose  genius  for  government  was 
not  inferior  to  that  of  Richelieu  ;  and  who  devoted  all  his 
powers,  in  defiance  of  obloquy  and  derision,  to  what  he 
sincerely  considered  the  highest  good  of  his  species." 

But,  in  the  case  of  a  man  like  Wesley,  panegyric  is  out 
of  place.  He  is  one  of  the  very  few,  whose  memory  can 
afford  to  do  without  it.  His  well  won  and  world  wide  fame 
requires  no  inscription  on  his  moijj^mcntal  marble, — whether 
in  England  or  in  America,  in  Westminster  or  in  Washington, 
' — more  elaborate  than  this  : 

JOHN     WESLEY, 

Born,    a.S.    1703. 

Bitti,  a.S.  1791. 


APPENDIX. 


[As  some  American  Methodists  have  expressed  dissatisfaction  with  Mr.  Tyer- 
man's  views  (vol.  iii.,  p.  i^zbet  srcj.)  of  Wesley's  ordination  of  Coke  and  organization 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  the  following  exhaustive  review  of  the  ques- 
tion is  cited  from  Dr.  Abel  Stevens's  History  of  Alethodism,  vol.  ii.,  p.  209  et  scq. 

It  is  another  of  the  great  providential  facts  of  Wesley's  history 
that  the  same  year  which  gave  a  constitutional  security  to  Meth- 
odism in  Great  Britain  was  signalized  by  its  episcopal  organization 
in  America,  a  measure  which,  by  its  consequences,  may  well  be 
ranked  among  the  most  important  events  of  Wesley's  important 
life.  Here  again  did  he  follow,  with  simple  wisdom,  the  guidance 
of  that  divine  Providence,  the  recognition  of  which  in  the  affairs  of 
men,  and  especially  in  the  affairs  of  the  Church,  was  the  crowning 
maxim  of  his  philosophy  and  the  crowning  fact  of  his  policy.  He 
had  been  providentially  preparing  for  this  new  and  momentous  ex- 
igency by  that  gradual  development  of  his  personal  opinions  which 
we  have  already  traced.  Bigoted  even,  as  a  High-Churchman,  at 
tlie  beginning  of  his  career,  we  have  seen  him,  year  after  year,  attain- 
ing more  liberal  views  of  ecclesiastical  policy.  Nearly  forty  years 
before  his  ordinations  for  America,  he  had,  after  reading  Lord  King's 
"Primitive  Church,"  renounced  the  opinion  that  a  distinction  of  or- 
der, rather  than  of  office,  existed  between  bishops  and  presbyters.^ 
Fifteen  years  later  he  denied  the  necessity,  though  not  the  expedi- 
ency, of  episcopal  ordination.  Bishop  Stillingfleet  had  convinced 
him  that  it  was  "  an  entire  mistake  that  none  but  episcopal  ordina- 
tion was  valid."-  Henceforth  he  held  that  presbyters  and  bishops, 
identical  in  order,  differing  only  in  office,  had  essentially  the  same 
right  of  ordination.  It  was  not  possible  for  a  man  like  Wesley, 
keen,  quick,  fearless,  and  candid,  to  remain  long  in  any  ecclesiastical 
prejudice  now  that  he  was*on  this  track  of  progressive  opinions. 
He  soon  broke  away  from  all  other  regard  for  questions  of  Church 
government  than  that  of  Scriptural  expediency  ;  and  as  early  as 
1756,  when  in  his  maturest  intellectual  vigor,  he  declares  :  "As  to 
my  own  judgment,  I  still  believe  '  the  episcopal  form  of  Church  gov- 

*  History  of  Methodism,  vol.  i.,  book  iii.,  chap  v.  The  persistent  misrepresen- 
tations of  him  on  this  point  are  astonishing.  The  Rev.  Edwin  .Sidney  (Life  of 
Walker,  of  Truro,  p.  260)  says  that  "when  he  wanted  ordained  preachers  for 
America,  he,  of  a  sudden,  /;/  his  old  a^c,  found  out,  by  reading  Lord  King's  Ac- 
count of  the  Primitive  Church,  that  bishops  and  presbyters  are  of  the  same  or- 
der." This  inexcusable  violation  of  historical  truth  is  common  in  the  writings  of 
Churchmen  against  Methodism. 

^  A  Letter  to  a  Friend,  Works,  vol.  vii.,  p.  301. 


662  Appendix. 

ernment  to  be  Scriptural  and  apostolical' — I  mean,  well  agreeing 
with  the  practice  and  writings  of  the  apostles  ;  but  that  it  is  pre- 
scribed in  Scripture  I  do  not  believe.  This  opinion,  which  I  once 
zealously  espoused,  I  have  been  heartily  ashamed  of  ever  since  I 
read  Bishop  Stillingfleet's  *  Irenicon.'  I  think  he  has  unanswera- 
bly proved  that  '  neither  Christ  nor  his  apostles  prescribe  any  par- 
ticular form  of  Church  government,  and  that  the  plea  of  divine 
right  for  diocesan  episcopacy  was  never  heard  of  in  the  primitive 
Church.'  "• 

It  was,  then,  by  no  new  assumption  in  his  old  age — in  his  imbe- 
cility, as  some  of  his  critics  allege,  that  he  now  met  the  necessities 
of  American  Methodism  by  ordaining  men  to  provide  for  them. 
His  keenest-eyed  associates  could  as  yet  detect  no  declension  of 
his  faculties;  and  if  they  could,  still  his  course  in  this  case  was  in 
accordance  with  the  reasonings  of  his  best  days,  and  he  but  repeats 
his  long-established  opinions  when  he  now  asserts,  "  I  firmly  believe 
I  am  a  Scriptural  episcopos  as  much  as  any  man  in  England,  for  the 
uninterrupted  succession  I  know  to  be  a  fable,  which  no  man  ever 
did  or  can  prove.  "'- 

Methodism  had  spread  rapidly  in  America,  notwithstanding  the 
war  of  the  Revolution.  It  now  comprised  eighty-three  traveling 
preachers,  besides  some  hundreds  of  local  preachers,  and  about  fif- 
teen thousand  members  and  many  thousands  of  hearers,  and  its  ec- 
clesiastical plans  were  extending  a  network  of  powerful  agencies 
over  the  country.  The  Revolution  had  not  only  dissolved  the  civil, 
but  also  the  ecclesiastical  relations  of  the  colonies  to  England. 
Many  of  the  English  clergy,  on  whom  the  Methodist  societies  had 
depended  for  the  sacraments,  had  fled  from  the  land,  or  had  entered 
political  or  military  life,  and  the  Episcopal  Church  had  been  gener- 
ally disabled.  In  Virginia,  the  centre  of  its  colonial  strength,  it  had 
rapidly  declined,  morally  as  well  as  numerically.  At  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  it  included  not  more  than  one  third  of  the 
population  of  that  province.^  At  the  beginning  of  the  war  the  sixty- 
one  counties  of  Virginia  contained  ninety-five  parishes,  one  hundred 
and  sixty-four  churches,  and  ninety-one  clergymen.  At  the  conclu- 
sion of  the  contest  many  of  her  churches  were  in  ruins,  nearly  a 
fourth  of  her  parishes  "  extinct  or  forsaken,"  and  thirty-four  of  the 
remaining  seventy-two  were  without  pastoral  supplies  ;  twenty-eight 
only  of  her  ninety-one  clerg}-men  remained,  and  these,  with  an  addi- 
tion, soon  after  the  war,  of  eight  from  other  parts  of  the  country, 
ministered  in  but  thirty-six  parishes.*  In  the  year  in  which  Wesley 
ordained  an  American  Methodist  bishop,  "  memorials"  to  the  Vir- 

*  Letter  to  Rev.  Mr.  Clark, Works,  vol.  vii.,  p.  284- 
=  "On  the  Church,"  Works, vol.  vii.,  p. 312. 

'  Burk's  History  of  Virginia,  vol.  ii.,  p.  180.  Hawks  (Contributions  to  the  Ec- 
clesiastical History  of  the  United  States  of  America,  vol.  i.,  chap,  ix.)  doubts 
Burk's  estimate.  Dr.  Hawks's  volume  needs  important  emendations,  especially 
m  respect  to  Methodism. 

*  Hawks's  "  Contributions,"  vol.  i.,  chap.  .\. 


Appendix.  663 


ginia  Legislature  for  the  incorporation  of  the  "  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church  in  Virginia,"  and  for  other  advantages  to  religion,  were  met 
by  counter  petitions  that  "  no  step  might  be  taken  in  aid  of  religion, 
but  that  it  might  be  left  to  its  own  superior  and  successful  influ- 
ence.'" The  memorials  were  postponed  till  the  next  session,  and 
then  rejected  ;  but  a  bill  for  the  "  incorporation  of  all  religious  so- 
cieties which  may  apply  for  the  same"  was  adopted.  In  other  parts 
of  the  country  the  English  Church  never  had  been  numerically 
strong,  and  its  existence  was  now  precarious,  except  in  two  or  three 
large  cities. 

Under  these  circumstances  the  Methodists  demanded  of  their 
preachers  the  administration  of  the  sacraments.  Many  of  the  soci- 
eties had  been  months,  some  of  them  years,  without  them.  The 
demand  was  not  only  urgent,  it  was  logically  valid,  but  by  the  ma- 
jority of  the  preachers  it  was  not  deemed  expedient.  The  prudent 
delay  which  Wesley,  notwithstanding  his  liberal  ecclesiastical  prin- 
ciples, had  practiced  in  England,  aftbrded  a  lesson  which  their  good 
sense  could  not  disregard.  They  exhorted  their  people,  therefore, 
to  wait  patiently  till  he  could  be  consulted.  Thomas  Rankin,  one 
of  Wesley's  missionaries,  presiding  at  the  Conference  of  Deer  Creek, 
Maryland,  1777,  induced  them  to  delay  one  year.  At  the  next  ses- 
sion the  subject  was  again  prudently  postponed,  as  no  English 
preacher  was  present,  Rankin  having  returned  to  England,  and  As- 
bury  being  absent  and  sick.  In  1779  the  question  occasioned  a 
virtual  schism,  the  preachers  of  the  South  being  resolute  for  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  sacraments,  those  of  the  North  still  pleading  for 
patient  delay.  The  latter  met  in  Conference  at  Judge  White's  resi- 
dence, the  retreat  of  Asbury,  in  Delaware  ;  the  former  at  Brocken- 
back  Church,  Fluvanna  County,  Virginia,  where  they  made  their 
own  appointments,  and  proceeded  to  ordain  themselves  by  the 
hands  of  three  of  their  senior  members,  unwilling  that  their  people 
should  longer  be  denied  their  right  to  the  Lord's  Supper,  and  their 
children  and  probationary  members  the  rite  of  baptism.  At  the 
session  of  1780  Asbury  was  authorized  to  visit  the  Southern  preach- 
ers, and,  if  possible,  conciliate  them.  He  met  them  in  Conference  ; 
they  appeared  determined  not  to  recede,  but  at  last  consented  to 
suspend  the  administration  of  the  sacraments  till  further  advice 
could  be  received  from  Wesley.  The  breach  was  thus  happily  re- 
paired, but  must  evidently  soon  again  be  opened  if  redress  should 
not  be  obtained. 2 

What  could  Wesley  do  under  these  circumstances  ?  \Miat  but 
exercise  the  right  of  ordination  which  he  had  for  years  theoretic- 
ally claimed,  but  practically  and  prudently  declined  ?  He  had  im- 
portuned "the  authorities  of  the  English  Church  in  behalf  of  the 
Americans.  In  this  very  year  he  had  written  two  letters  to  Lowth, 
Bishop  of  London,  imploring  ordination  for  a  single  preacher,  who 

*  Journals  of  the  Virginia  Assembly,  1784. 

*  Bangs's  Hist.  M.E.  Church,  vol.  i.,  pp.  135-7. 


664  Appendix. 


might  appease  the  urgency  of  the  American  brethren  by  traveling 
among  them  as  a  presbyter,  and  by  giving  them  the  sacraments  ; 
but  the  request  was  denied,  Lowth  replying  that  "  there  are  three 
ministers  in  that  country  already."  "What  are  these,"  rejoined 
Wesley,  "  to  watch  over  all  that  extensive  country  ?  I  mourn  for 
poor  America,  for  the  sheep  scattered  up  and  down  therein — part 
of  them  have  no  shepherds  at  all,  and  the  case  of  the  rest  is  little 
better,  for  their  shepherds  pity  them  not."^  If  there  was  any  im- 
prudence on  the  part  of  Wesley  in  this  emergency,  it  was  certainly 
in  his  long-continued  patience,  for  he  delayed  yet  nearly  four  years. 
When  he  yielded,  it  was  only  after  the  triumph  of  the  American 
arms  and  the  acknowledged  independence  of  the  colonies  ;  and  not 
then  till  urged  to  it  by  his  most  revered  counselors.  Fletcher,  of 
Madeley,  was  one  of  these.  That  good  man's  interest  for  Ameri- 
can Methodism  should  endear  his  memory  to  the  American  Church. 
He  had  thoughts  at  one  time  of  going  to  the  New  ^^'o^ld  and  of 
giving  himself  to  its  struggling  societies,  but  his  feeble  health  for- 
bade him. 

Fletcher  was  present  with  Wesley  and  Coke  at  the  Leeds  Con- 
ference of  1784,  and  there,  with  his  assistance,^  the  question  was 
brought  to  an  issue.  Wesley  had  previously  consulted  with  Coke 
respecting  it.  He  represented  to  Coke  that  as  the  Revolution  had 
separated  the  United  States  from  the  mother  country,  and  the  Epis- 
copal Establishment  was  utterly  abolished  in  the  States,  it  became 
his  duty,  as  providentially  at  the  head  of  the  Methodist  societies,  to 
obey  their  demand  and  furnish  for  them  the  means  of  grace.  He 
referred  to  the  example  of  the  Alexandrian  Church,  which,  at  the 
death  of  its  bishops,  provided  their  successors  through  ordination 
by  its  presbyters — a  historical  fact  exemplified  during  two  hundred 
years.  Recognized  as  their  foimder  by  the  American  Methodists, 
required  by  them  to  provide  for  their  new  necessities,  and  unable 
to  induce  the  English  prelates  to  do  so,  he  proposed  to  appoint  Coke, 
that  he  might  go  to  the  American  societies  as  their  superintendent 
or  bishop,  ordain  their  preachers,  and  thus  afford  them  the  sacra- 
ments with  the  least  possible  irregularity.  Coke  hesitated,  but  in 
two  months  wrote  to  Wesley  accepting  the  office.^  Accordingl}-, 
accompanied  by  Rev.  James  Creighton,  a  presbyter  of  the  Church 
of  England,  Coke  met  him  at  Bristol,  and  on  the  second  of  Septem- 
ber, 1784,  was  ordained  superintendent  or  bishop  of  the  Methodist  so- 
cieties in  America,  an  act  of  as  high  propriety  and  dignity  as  it  was 
of  urgent  necessity.  Richard  Whatcoat  and  Thomas  Vasey  were 
at  the  same  time  ordained  presbyters  ;  and  on  the  third  of  Novem- 
ber, attended  by  his  two  presbyters  (the  number  necessary  to  as- 
sist a  bishop  in  ordination,  according  to  the  usages  of  the  English 
Church),  Coke  arrived  in  the  Republic,  and  proceeded  to  ordain 
Francis  Asbury,  first  as  a  deacon,  then  as  a  presbyter,  and  finally 


'  Works,  vol.  vii.,  p.  231. 

^  Coke's  Letter  to  Wesley,  Smith's  History  of  Wesleyan  Methodism,  vol.  i., 
book  ii.,  chap.  6.  =*  Drew's  Life  of  Coke,  chap.  5. 


Appendix.  665 


as  a  bishop,  and  to  settle  the  organization  of  American  Methodism, 
one  of  the  most  important  ecclesiastical  events  (whether  for  good 
or  evil)  of  the  eighteenth  century,  or  indeed  since  the  Reformation, 
as  its  historical  consequences  attest. 

The  Colonial  English  Church  being  dissolved  by  the  Revolution, 
its  dwindled  fragments  were  yet  floating,  as  had  been  the  Methodist 
societies,  on  the  stormy  tide  of  events.  Methodism  preceded  it  in 
reorganization.  The  Methodist  bishops  were  the  first  Protestant 
bishops,  and  Methodism  was  the  first  Protestant  Episcopal  Church 
of  the  New  World  ;i  and  as  Wesley  had  given  it  the  Anglican  Arti- 
cles of  Religion  (omitting  the  seventeenth,  on  Predestination),  and 
the  Liturgy,  wisely  abridged,  it  became,  both  by  its  precedent  organ- 
ization and  its  subsequent  numerical  importance,  the  real  successor 
to  the  Anglican  Church  in  America. 

Of  course  this  extraordinary  but  necessary  measure  met  with  op- 
position from  Charles  Wesley.  He  still  retained  his  High-Church 
opinions ;  he  denounced  the  ordinations  as  schism  ;  with  his  usual 
haste  he  predicted  that  Coke  would  return  from  "  his  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  in  Baltimore"  to  "make  us  all  Dissenters  here." 
The  poet  was  no  legislator ;  he  became  pathetic  in  his  remonstran- 
ces to  his  brother;  "alas!"  he  wrote,  "what  trouble  are  you  pre- 
paring for  yourself,  as  well  as  for  me,  and  for  your  oldest,  truest, 
best  friends !  Before  you  have  quite  broken  down  the  bridge,  stop 
and  consider  !  If  your  sons  have  no  regard  for  you,  have  some  for 
yourself  Go  to  your  grave  in  peace  ;  at  least  suffer  me  to  go  first, 
before  this  ruin  is  under  your  hand."  He  did  soon  after  go  to  his 
grave  in  peace,  except  the  alarms  of  his  imaginary  fears,  and  the 
only  evidence  of  the  predicted  "  ruin"  is  seen  to-day  in  the  preva- 
lent and  permanent  success  of  Methodism  in  both  hemispheres. 

The  next  year  after  the  ordination  of  Coke,  Wesley  records  in  his 
Journal :  "  I  was  now^  considering  how  strangely  the  grain  of  mus- 
tard-seed, planted  about  fifty  years  ago,  had  grown  up.  It  spread 
through  all  Great  Britain  and  Irelatid,  the  Isle  of  Wight,  and  the 
Isle  of  Man  ;  then  to  America,  through  the  whole  continent,  into 
Canada,  the  Leeward  Islands,  and  Newfoundland.  And  the  socie- 
ties in  all  these  parts  walk  by  one  rule,  knowing  religion  is  holy 
tempers,  and  striving  to  worship  God,  not  in  form  only,  but  likewise 
in  spirit  and  in  truth."  His  policy  becomes  more  and  more  lib- 
eral as  he  now  finds  it  necessary  to  fortify  his  cause  before  his  ap- 
proaching death.  The  following  year  (1786)  he  ordained  six  or 
seven  more  preachers,  sending  some  to  Scotland,  and  others  to  the 
West  Indies,-  but  he  ordained  none  as  yet  for  England,  where  he 
and  his  clerical  friends  could  partially  supply  the  sacraments. 
Three  years  later  he  ordained  Mather,  Rankin,  and  Moore.^    About 

'  Unless  the  Moravians  arc  to  be  considered  an  exception, 

^  Jackson's  Charles  Wesley,  chap.  26. 

^  "To  administer  the  sacraments  of  baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper  according 
to  the  usages  of  the  Church  of  England,"  says  the  certificate  of  ordination  (see  it 
in  Life  of  Henry  Moore,  p.  134,  Am.  cd.) ;  and  yet  a  living  Churchman  (Dr.  Pu- 


666  Appendix. 


a  score  of  lay  preachers  received  ordination  from  his  hands,  and  for 
no  other  purpose  but  that  they  might  administer  the  sacraments  in 
cases  of  necessity. 

Thus  did  providential  events  give  shape  and  security  to  Method- 
ism, as  its  aged  leader  approached  his  end. 

No  act  of  Wesley's  public  life  has  been  more  misrepresented,  if 
not  misunderstood,  than  his  ordination  of  Coke,  and  the  consequent 
episcopal  organization  of  his  American  societies.  Churchmen,  so 
called,  have  especially  insisted  that  he  did  not  design  to  confer  upon 
Coke  the  character  of  a  bishop ;  that  Coke's  new  office  was  design- 
ed to  be  a  species  of  supervisory  appointment,  vague  and  contin- 
gent— something  widely  different  from  episcopacy,  however  difficult 
to  define  ;  and  that,  therefore,  the  distinct  existence  of  American 
Methodism,  as  an  episcopal  Church,  is  a  fact  contrary  to  the  inten- 
tion of  Wesley. 

No  extant  forensic  argument,  founded  upon  documentary  evi- 
dence, is  stronger  than  would  be  a  right  collocation  of  the  evidence 
which  sustains  the  claim  of  American  Methodism  respecting  this 
question.  All  Methodist  authorities,  British  as  well  as  American, 
support  that  claim  ;  its  proofs  have  been  more  or  less  cited  again 
and  again,  but  they  have  not  usually  been  drawn  out  in  detail.  Pre- 
sented in  their  right  series,  they  become  absolutely  decisive,  and 
must  conclude  the  controversy  with  all  candid  minds.  It  is  appro- 
priate, at  this  point  of  our  narrative,  to  review  the  argument.  In 
stating  the  facts  which  compose  it,  in  their  successive  relations  one 
to  another,  some  repetition  will  be  necessary ;  but  the  highest  logic 
— mathematical  demonstration  itself — is  that  in  which  not  only  the 
postulates,  but  the  successive  i^roofs  most  often  recur  to  strengthen 
the  advancing  demonstration. 

It  has  been  seen  that,  as  before  the  American  Revolution  the  two 
countries  were  under  one  government,  the  two  Methodist  bodies 
were  also.  Wesley's  "  Minutes"  were  the  discipline  of  the  Ameri- 
can as  well  as  the  British  Methodists  ;  and  Asbury  represented  his 
person  in  America,  vested  w'ith  much  greater  powers  than  have  since 
belonged  to  the  American  Methodist  bishops.  Thus  was  the  Amer- 
ican Church  governed  for  years  by  the  paternal  direction  of  Wesley. 
It  has  been  further  shown  that,  as  none  of  the  American  preachers 
were  ordained,  the  societies  were  dependent  for  the  sacraments  upon 
the  clergy  of  the  English  Church  in  the  colonies  ;  that  at  the  Revo- 
lution most  of  these  left  the  country,  and  the, Methodists  were  there- 
by deprived  of  those  means  of  grace  ;  that  many  societies  insisted 

sey's  Letter  to  the  Bishop  of  Oxford,  p.  151)  says  that  "  Wesley  reluctantly  took 
the  step  of  ordaining  at  all  ;"  and  that  "  to  the  last  he  refused,  in  the  strongest 
terms,  his  consent  that  those  thus  ordained  should  take  upon  them  to  administer  the 
sacraments.  He  felt  that  it  exceeded  his  powers,  and  so  inhiljited  it,  however  it 
might  diminish  the  numbers  of  the  society  he  had  formed."  The  biographers  of 
Wilberforce  (vol.  i.,  p.  248)  also  say :  "  Nor  were  any  of  his  preachers  suffered 
during  his  lifetijne  to  attempt  to  administer  the  sacraments  of  his  Church.''^  It  is 
high  time  that  such  fictions  should  cease  among  English  Churchmen.  It  seems 
that  they  have  yet  to  learn  how  thorough  and  noble  a  heretic  Wesley  really  was. 


Appendix.  667 

upon  having  them  without  ordination  ;  that  a  general  strife  ensued, 
and  a  large  portion  ot"  the  Southern  societies  revolted  ;  that  a  com- 
promise was  effected  until  they  could  apply  to  Wesley  for  powers  to 
ordain  and  to  administer  the  sacraments  ;  and  that,  in  meeting  their 
demand,  he  ordained  and  sent  over  Dr.  Coke,  with  episcopal  pow- 
ers, under  the  name  of  superintendent,  to  ordain  Francis  Asbury  a 
"joint  superintendent,"  and  to  ordain  the  preachers  to  the  offices  of 
deacons  and  elders.  He  sent  also  a  printed  liturgy,  or  "  Sunday 
Service,"  containing,  besides  the  usual  prayers,  forms  for  "  ordaining 
superintendents,  elders,  and  deacons,"  the  ".Articles  of  Religion," 
and  "A  Collection  of  Psalms  and  Hymns."  Coke  also  bore  from 
him  a  circular  letter  to  the  societies,  stating  reasons  for  the  new 
measures,  the  chief  one  being  the  demand  of  the  American  societies. 
"When  Coke  arrived,  the  preachers  assembled  in  Baltimore  to  receive 
him  and  the  new  arrangements  borne  by  him  from  ^Vesley.  The 
adoption  of  the  provisions  thus  made  by  Wesley,  at  the  request  of 
"  some  thousands  of  the  inhabitants  of  these  states,"  is  what  is  call- 
ed the  "  organization"  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  The 
"  Minutes,"  which  had  before  been  the  law  of  the  Church,  were  con- 
tinued, with  such  additions  as  were  required  by  these  new  arrange- 
ments. There  was  no  revolution  of  the  Church  polity,  and  no  new 
powers  were  imparted  to  Asbury,  except  authority  to  ordain.  Ev- 
ery thing  proceeded  as  before,  except  that  the  American  societies 
no  longer  depended  upon  the  Church  of  England  for  the  sacraments, 
but  received  them  from  their  own  preachers.  Thus,  then,  it  appears 
that  the  so-called  "organization"  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
at  Baltimore  was  simply  and  substantially  the  adoption  of  the  sys- 
tem appointed  by  Wesley.  In  respect  to  the  very  term  "  episcopal" 
itself,  the  Conference  of  Baltimore  said,  in  their  "  Minutes"  of  the 
so-called  organization,  that,  "  following  the  counsel  of  Mr.  John 
Wesley,  who  recommended  the  cpisc'opal  mode  of  Church  government, 
we  thought  it  best  to  become  an  episcopal  Church."^  The  Minutes 
containing  this  declaration  were,  six  months  afterward,  in  the  hands 
of  Wesley,  and  were  published  in  England  without  a  word  of  disap- 
probation from  him  ;  and  when  Coke  was  attacked  in  an  English 
pamphlet  for  his  proceedings  at  Baltimore,  he  publicly  defended 
himself  by  declaring  that  he  had  "  done  nothing  without  the  direc- 
tion of  Mr.  Wesley."  This  he  did  in  a  publication,  under  the  eye 
of  Wesley.2 

It  should  be  frankly  admitted,  however,  that  Wesley,  while  he  es- 
tablished the  American  episcopacy,  did  not  approve  the  use  of  the 
title  of  "  bishop,"  because  of  the  adventitious  dignities  associated 
with  it.  But  let  it  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  American  societies 
had  been  in  existence  nearly  four  years  under  the  express  title  of 
an  "Episcopal  Church,"  with  the  uninterrupted  approbation  of  Wes- 

*  Minutes  of  1785,  in  Minutes  of  the  Annual  Conference  of  the  M.  E.  Church, 
vol.  i.,  p.  22.     New  York,  1840. 

=  Drew's  Life  of  Coke,  chap.  6.  Ilis  assailant  is  supposed  to  have  been  Charles 
Wesley.     Etheredge's  Coke,  book  ii.,  chap.  7. 


668  Appendix. 


ley,  before  the  name  bishop  was  personally  applied  to  their  superin- 
tendents.^ Not  till  this  term  was  so  applied  did  he  demur.  He 
then  wrote  a  letter  to  Bishop  Asbury  objecting  strongly  to  his  being 
"  called  a  bishop."  And  it  is  on  this  letter,  more  than  any  thing 
else,  that  the  opponents  of  Methodism  have  founded  their  allegation 
that  Wesley  did  not  design  to  establish  the  American  Methodist 
episcopacy,  but  that  Coke  and  the  Baltimore  Conference  exceeded 
his  intentions  in  assuming  it.  Quotations  from  this  letter  have  been 
incessantly  given  in  a  form  adapted  only  to  produce  a  false  effect, 
for  the  letter  can  be  rightly  comprehended  only  by  the  aid  of  the 
historical  facts  of  the  case. 

Did  Wesley,  then,  design,  by  his  ordination  of  Coke,  to  confer  on 
him  the  office  of  a  bishop,  and  to  constitute  the  American  Methodist 
societies  an  episcopal  Church  ?  Three  things  are  to  be  assumed  as 
preliminary  to  this  inquiry  : 

1.  That  Wesley  was  a  decided  Episcopalian.  What  man  was 
ever  more  attached  to  the  national  episcopacy  of  England  ?  We 
have  already  cited  proofs  that  he  believed  the  "  episcopal  form  of 
Church  government  to  be  Scriptural  and  apostolical,"  that  is,  "well 
agreeing  with  the  practice  and  writings  of  the  apostles,"  though  that 
it  is  prescribed  in  Scripture  he  did  not  believe. 

2.  That  Wesley,  while  he  believed  in  episcopacy,  belonged  to  that 
class  of  Episcopalians  who  contend  that  episcopacy  is  not  a  dis- 
tinct "order"  (in  the  usual  technical  or  ecclesiastical  sense  of  the 
term),  but  a  distinct  office  in  the  ministry ;  that  bishops  and  pres- 
byters, or  elders,  are  of  the  same  order,  and  have  essentially  the 
same  prerogatives  ;  but  that,  for  convenience,  some  of  this  order 
may  be  raised  to  the  episcopal  office,  and  some  of  the  functions 
originally  pertaining  to  the  whole  order,  as  ordination,  for  example, 
may  be  confined  to  them  ;  the  presbyter  thus  elevated  being  but 
primus  inter  pares — the  first  among  equals — a  presiding  officer.- 

3.  That  the  words  episcopos  (Greek),  superintendent  (Latin),  and 
bishop  (English)^  have  the  same  meaning,  namely,  an  overseer. 

With  these  preliminaries,  we  recur  to  the  questions,  Did  Wesley 
appoint  Coke  to  the  episcopal  office  ?  Did  he  establish  the  Amer- 
ican Methodist  episcopacy  ?     Let  us  look  at  the  evidence. 

1  It  had  been  used,  however,  all  this  time,  in  the  Minutes,  as  explanatory  of  the 
word  "superintendent."  The  Minutes  say  that,  " following  the  counsel  of  Mr. 
John  Wesley,  who  recommended  the  episcopal  mode  of  Church  government,  we 
thought  it  best  to  become  an  episcopal  Church,  making  the  episcopal  office  elect- 
ive, and  the  elected  superintendent,  or  bishop,  amenable  to  the  body  of  ministers 
and  preachers."  Minutes,  vol.  i.,  p.  22.  New  York,  1840.  It  was  not  in  the  bish- 
ops' address  to  Washington  in  1789  that  the  title  was  ^x%t  personally  assumed. 
The  Discipline  of  1787  so  used  it.  Emory's  History  of  the  Discipline,  p.  82. 
But,  as  we  have  just  seen,  the  tide  was  inserted  in  the  Minutes  of  the  Organiza- 
tion of  the  Church  (1784,  1785)  as  synonymous  with  "superintendent."  Minutes 
1785,  vol.  i.,  p.  22.  Wesley's  letter  of  reproof  to  Asbury  was  written  before  the 
bishops'  address  to  Washington. 

^  See  his  circular  letter  to  the  American  Societies,  Drew's  Coke,  chap.  5. 

^  Bishop  (Saxon,  bischop)  is  a  corruption  of  the  Latinized  Greek  word  episco- 
pus.     Its  analogy  to  the  second  and  third  syllables  of  the  latter  is  obvious. 


Appendix.  669 


1.  Wesley  mentions,  in  Coke's  certificate  of  ordination,  as  a  rea- 
son for  ordaining  him,  that  the  Methodists  in  America  desired  "  still 
to  adhere  to  the  doctrine  and  discipline  of  the  Church  of  En- 
gland."^ That  Church  in  America  was  dissolved  by  the  Revolution  ; 
he  therefore  appointed  Coke,  with  an  episcopal  form  of  government, 
a  ritual,  and  articles  of  religion,  to  meet  the  exigency.  If  Coke  was 
appointed  merely  to  some  such  indefinite  and  contingent  supervi- 
sory office  as  "  Church"  writers  allege,  if  he  possessed  not  the  au- 
thoritative functions  of  episcopacy,  wherein  did  his  appointment 
answer  the  purpose  mentioned  by  Wesley — "the  discipline  of  the 
Church  of  England  ?"  Wherein  consists  the  main  feature  of  the  dis- 
cipline of  the  English  Church  ?  In  its  episcopal  superintendence. 
Wherein  does  American  Methodism  resemble  it?  Certainly  not  in 
class-meetings,  itinerancy,  and  other  characteristic  peculiarities,  but 
in  its  episcopal  regimen.  Wesley's  lai\guage  is  without  sense  if  this 
is  not  its  meaning. 

2.  Why  did  Wesley  attach  so  much  importance  to  the  appoint- 
ment if  it  was  of  the  secondary  character  alleged  ?  He  says  in  his 
circular  letter  respecting  Coke's  ordination,  "  For  many  years  I 
have  been  importuned,  from  time  to  time,  to  exercise  this  right  by 
ordaining  part  of  our  traveling  preachers  ;  but  I  have  still  refused, 
not  only  for  peace'  sake,  but  because  I  was  determined  as  little  as 
possible  to  violate  the  established  order  of  the  national  Church  to 
which  I  belonged.  But  the  case  is  widely  different  between  En- 
gland and  America.  Here  there  are  bishops  who  have  a  legal  ju- 
risdiction. In  America  there  are  none,  neither  any  parish  minis- 
ters, so  that  for  some  hundred  miles  together  there  are  none  either 
to  baptize  or  administer  the  sacrament.  Here,  therefore,  my  scru- 
ples are  at  an  end  !" 

Scruples  !  What  could  have  been  his  "  scruples"  about  sending 
Coke  on  such  a  secondary  errand  as  the  opponents  of  the  Method- 
ist episcopacy  assert .''  He  had  already  sent  Asbury  and  others  to 
America,  and  to  Asbury  he  had  actually  assigned  such  a  special  yet 
secondary  office,  but  unaccompanied  with  the  ordination  and  au- 
thority of  episcopacy.  This  he  had  done  years  before,  without  any 
scruple  whatever ;  but  during  all  this  time  he  had  been  scrupling 
about  this  new  and  solemn  measure,  till  the  Revolution  relieved 
him  by  abolishing  the  jurisdiction  of  the  English  bishops  in  the 
colonies.  There  is  certainly  sheer  absurdity  in  all  this  if  Wesley 
merely  gave  to  Coke  and  Asbury  a  sort  of  indefinite  though  special 
commission  in  the  American  Church,  not  including  in  it  the  dis- 
tinctive functions  of  episcopacy.  We  can  conceive  of  nothing  in 
the  nature  of  such  a  commission  to  excite  such  scruples — a  com- 
mission which  had  long  since  been  given  to  Asbury. 

Again  :  When  Wesley  proposed  to  Coke  his  ordination  to  this  new 
office,  some  six  or  seven  months  before  it  was  conferred.  Coke  "was 
startled  at  a  measure  so  unprecedented  in  modern  days,"  and  doubt 

'  I")ie\v's  Life  of  Coke,  chap.  5. 


670  Appe7idix. 


ed  Wesley's  authority  to  ordain  him,  as  Wesley  himself  was  not  a 
bishop.^  Wesley  recommended  him  to  read  Lord  King's  Primitive 
Church,  and  gave  him  time  to  reflect.  Coke  passed  two  months  in 
Scotland,  and,  on  satisfying  his  doubts,  wrote  to  Wesley  accepting 
the  appointment,  and  was  afterward  ordained,  with  solemn  forms 
and  the  imposition  of  hands,  by  Wesley,  assisted  by  presbyters  of 
the  Church  of  England.  What  could  have  possibly  been  the  per- 
tinency of  all  these  former  scruples  of  Wesley,  this  surprise,  and 
doubt,  and  delay  of  Coke,  this  reference  to  ecclesiastical  antiquity, 
and  to  a  book  which  demonstrates  the  right  of  presbyters  to  ordain 
bishops  in  given  cases,  and  these  solemn  forms,  if  they  related  mere- 
ly to  the  alleged  species  of  appointment,  especially  as  this  very 
species  of  commission  had  already  existed  for  some  years  in  the 
person  of  Asbury  ? 

3.  It  is  evident,  beyond  all  question,  that  Wesley  did  not  consider 
this  solemn  act  in  the  subordinate  sense  of  an  appointment,  but  as 
an  "ordination,"  using  the  word  in  its  strictest  ecclesiastical  appli- 
cation. In  his  circular  letter  he  says,  "  For  many  years  I  have  been 
importuned  ...  to  exercise  this  right  by  ordaining  a  part  of  our 
traveling  preachers  ;  but  I  have  still  refused  .  .  .  because  I  was  de- 
termined as  little  as  possible  to  violate  the  established  order  of  the 
national  Church.  .  .  .  Here  my  scruples  are  at  an  end."  Here  the 
word  ordaining  is  expressly  used  ;  and  if  the  new  appointment  was 
not  a  regular  "ordination,"  but  a  species  of  nondescript  commis- 
sion, solemnized  by  the  mere  forms  of  ordination,  how  could  it  be 
an  interference  with  the  "established  order  of  the  national  Church?" 
How,  especially,  could  it  be  such  an  interference,  in  any  important 
sense  different  from  that  which  Wesley  had  already,  for  years,  been 
exercising  without  "  scruple,"  in  sending  to  America  his  unordained 
preachers }  It  was  clearly  an  ordination,  in  the  ecclesiastical  sense 
of  the  term  ;  but  there  have  been  only  three  ordinations  claimed  in 
the  Christian  world,  namely,  to  the  offices  of,  i.  Deacons;  2.  Eld- 
ers or  presbyters ;  and,  3.  Bishops.  If,  then,  Coke  was  ordained 
by  \yesley,  and  was  not  ordained  a  bishop,  it  becomes  at  once  a 
pertinent  but  unanswerable  question, To  what  was  he  ordained  t  He 
had  been  a  presbyter  for  years.  To  what,  then,  did  Wesley  ordain 
him,  if  not  to  the  next  recognized  office  } 

Let  it  be  remembered  that  Whatcoat  and  Vasey  were  ordained 
elders  for  America  at  the  time  of  Coke's  ordination,  but  by  a  dis- 
tinct act.  If  Coke  did  not  receive  a  higher  ordination  (that  is,  epis- 
copal, for  this  is  the  only  higher  one),  why  was  he  ordained  sepa- 
rately from  them,  though  on  the  same  occasion  ?  And  why  did  Wes- 
ley, in  his  circular  letter,  declare  to  the  American  Methodists  that, 
while  Whatcoat  and  Vasey  were  "  to  act  as  elders  among  them," 
Coke  and  Asbury  were  "to  be  joint  superintendents  over  them.?" 

4.  Wesley,  in  his  circular  letter,  appeals  to  Lord  King's  Sketch 
of  the  Primitive  Church  to  show  that  he,  as  a  presbyter,  had  a  right, 

'  Drew's  Life  of  Coke,  chap.  5. 


Appendix.  671 

under  his  peculiar  circumstances,  to  perform  these  ordinations. 
Lord  King  establishes  the  second  of  the  above  preliminary  state- 
ments, and  the  right  of  presbyters  to  ordain.  And  ^Vesley  cites 
particularly  his  reference  to  the  Alexandrian  Church,  where,  on  the 
decease  of  a  bishop,  the  presbyters  ordained  his  successor. 

Why  now  this  reference  to  Lord  King  and  the  Alexandrian 
Church — proving  that  presbyters  could  ordain — in  justification  of 
Wesley's  proceedings,  if  he  did  not  ordain  .?  And  if  he  did  ordain 
Coke,  it  may  again  be  asked,  as  Coke  was  already  a  presbyter,  1"o 
what  was  he  thus  ordained,  if  it  was  not  to  the  only  remaining  office 
— the  episcopacy.^  And  still  more  pointedly  may  it  be  asked.  What 
propriety  was  there  in  Wesley's  justifying  himself  by  referring  to 
the  ordination  of  bishops  by  the  presbyters  of  Alexandria  if  he 
himself  had  not  ordained  a  bishop  ? 

5.  Wesley  prepared  at  this  time  a  Pra3-er-Book  for  the  American 
Church — an  abridgment  of  the  English  Liturgy — to  be  used  under 
the  new  arrangement.     It  contains  the  forms  for  the  ordination  of, 

1.  Deacons ;  2.  Elders  ;  3.  Superintendents  ;  and  directs  expressly 
that  all  preachers  elected  to  the  office  of  deacon,  elder,  or  superin- 
tendent shall  be  presented  to  the  superintendent  "to  be  ordained." 
Let  it  be  remarked  then,  i.  That  here  the  very  word  ordain  is  used. 

2.  We  have  here  the  three  distinct  offices  of  the  ministry  stated  in 
order,  according  to  the  understanding  of  Wesle)',  and  of  all  Episco- 
palians throughout  the  world.  3.  That  not  only  is  the  name  of 
bishop  changed  to  that  of  superintendent,  but  the  name  of  presby- 
ter, or  priest,  to  that  of  elder — the  new  names  being  in  both  cases 
synonymous  with  the  old  ones.  If  the  change  of  the  former  name 
implies  a  difference  in  the  office  also,  why  does  not  the  change 
in  the  latter  imply  the  same  ?  4.  These  forms  of  ordination  were 
taken  from  the  forms  in  the  English  Liturgy  for  the  ordination  of 
deacons,  presbyters,  and  bishops,  the  names  of  the  latter  two  be- 
ing changed  to  synonymous  terms,  namely,  elders  and  superintend- 
ents. The  opponents  of  the  Methodist  episcopacy  readily  grant 
that  elder  means  presbyter,  yet,  as  soon  as  superintendents  are  men- 
tioned as  bishops,  they  protest.  5.  These  forms  show  that  Wesley 
not  only  created  the  Alethodist  episcopacy,  but  designed  it  to  con- 
tinue after  Coke  and  Asbury's  decease  ;  they  were  printed  for  per- 
manent use. 

6.  By  reading  Coke's  letter  to  Wesle}',  consenting  to  and  direct- 
ing about  his  proposed  ordination,  it  will  be  seen  that  \\'hatcoat 
and  Vasey  were  ordained  presbyters  at  Coke's  request,  because 
"  propriety  and  universal  practice,"  he  says,  "  make  it  expedient  that 
I  should  have  two  presbyters  with  me  in  this  work."^  That  is,  Coke 
requests,  and  Wesley  grants,  that  two  presbyters  shall  be  ordained 
to  accompany  Coke  in  his  new  office,  because  "propriety  and  uni- 
versal practice"  require  that  two  presbyters  assist  a  bishop  in  or- 
daining ;  and  yet  Coke  was  not  appointed  to  the  office  of  a  bishop  I 


'  Smith's  History  of  Methodism,  vol.  i.,  book  ii..  chap,  vi.,  p.  !;4i. 


672  Appe7idix. 


Coke  in  this  letter,  let  it  be  repeated,  requests  that  these  two  men 
should  be  made  "  presbyters  ;"  Wesley  complies  ;  and  yet,  in  the 
forms  of  the  Prayer-Book,  or  Discipline,  they  are  called  "elders." 
The  name  only  was  changed,  therefore,  not  the  thing;  why,  then,  is 
not  the  inference  just,  that  the  other  change  in  these  forms,  that  of 
bishop  to  superintendent,  is  only  in  the  name,  not  in  the  thing  ? 
The  rule  certainly  ought  to  "work  both  ways." 

7.  Charles  Wesley  was  a  rigid  High-Churchman,  and  opposed  to 
all  ordinations  by  his  brother.  The  latter  knew  his  views  so  well 
that  he  would  not  expose  the  present  measure  to  interruption  by 
acquainting  him  with  it  till  it  was  consummated.  Though  Charles 
AVesley  was  a  presbyter  of  the  Church  of  England,  and  in  the  town 
at  the  time,  yet  other  presbyters  were  summoned  to  meet  the  de- 
mand of"  propriety  and  universal  practice"  on  such  occasions,  while 
he  was  carefully  avoided.  Now  why  this  remarkable  precaution 
against  the  High-Church  prejudices  of  his  brother  respecting  ordi- 
nations if  he  did  not  in  these  proceedings  ordain  ?  If  it  be  replied 
that  Charles  was  not  only  opposed  to  his  brother's  ordaining  a  bish- 
op, but  equally  to  his  ordaining  to  the  other  offices  of  the  ministry, 
and,  therefore,  the  ordinations  might  have  been  confined  to  the  lat- 
ter, and  yet  such  precautions  be  proper,  it  may  then  be  asked  again, 
How  can  we  suppose  Coke  to  be  now  ordained  to  these  lower  offices 
when  he  had  already  received  them,  and  had  exercised  them  for 
years  ? 

8.  As  soon  as  Charles  Wesley  learned  these  proceedings  he  was 
profoundly  afflicted.  His  correspondence  with  his  brother^  shows 
that  he  understood  them  in  tlie  manner  that  the  American  Method- 
ists do,  and  Wesley  never  corrected  this  interpretation.  He  defends 
himself,  but  never  denies  the  facts.  Charles  Wesley  speaks  of 
Coke's  "  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  Baltimore,"  alluding  to 
the  name  assumed  by  the  American  Church  at  its  organization  in 
that  city.  Wesley,  in  his  reply,  utters  not  a  word  in  denial  or  dis- 
approval of  this  title,  but  simply  vindicates  the  necessity  of  his  course 
in  respect  to  the  American  Methodists.  Charles  Wesley,  in  re- 
sponse, speaks  of  the  doctor's  "  ambition"  and  "  rashness."  Wes- 
ley, though  he  knew  the  Church  had  been  organized  at  Baltimore 
with  the  title  of  "  Episcopal,"  and  had  used  the  very  word  "  bishop," 
but  not  as  a  personal  title,  says, "  I  believe  Dr.  Coke  as  free  from 
ambition  as  covetousness.  He  has  done  nothing  rashly  that  I 
know."  Charles  Wesley,  in  his  letter  to  Dr.  Chandler,  a  clergyman 
about  to  sail  for  America,  speaks  of  his  brother  having  "  assumed 
the  episcopal  character,  ordained  elders,  consecrated  a  bishop,  and 
sent  him  to  ordain  our  lay  preachers  in  America,"  showing  thus 
what  the  office  really  was,  though  the  name  was  changed.  Evident- 
ly it  was  only  the  appellation  of  bishop,  applied  to  the  superintend- 
ents in  person,  that  Wesley  disapproved. 

9.  The  Conference  at  which  the  Church  was  organized  termina- 


■  Jackson's  Charles  Wesley,  chap.  26. 


Appendix.  67 


t 


ted  January  i,  17S5.  The  Minutes  were  published  by  Coke,  with 
the  title  "  General  Minutes  of  the  Conferences  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  in  America."  The  Minutes,  as  has  been  stated, 
expressly  say  that  the  American  societies  were  formed  into  an  Epis- 
copal Church,  and  this,  too,  at  the  "  recommendation"  of  Wesley. 
By  July,  Coke  was  with  Wesley  at  the  British  Conference.  By  the 
26th  of  the  preceding  June,  his  own  Journal,  containing  this  phrase, 
was  inspected  by  Wesley.  Coke  also  took  to  England  the  Ameri- 
can Minutes,  and  they  were  printed  on  a  press  which  Wesley  used, 
and  under  his  own  eye.  The  Baltimore  proceedings  were  therefore 
known  to  Wesley,  but  we  hear  of  no  remonstrance  from  him.  They 
soon  became  known,  by  the  Minutes,  to  the  public  ;  and  when  Coke 
was  attacked  publicly  for  what  he  had  done,  he  replied,  as  we  have 
seen,  through  the  press,  that  "  he  had  done  nothing  but  under  the 
direction  of  Mr.  Wesley."  Wesley  never  denied  it.  How  are  all 
these  facts  explicable  on  the  supposition  that  Coke  and  Asbury  had 
ambitiously  broken  over  Wesley's  restrictions  ? 

ID.  One  of  Charles  Wesley's  greatest  fears  was,  as  we  have  no- 
ticed, that  the  English  preachers  would  be  ordained  by  Coke.  He 
had  prevailed  upon  his  brother  to  refuse  them  ordination  for  years. 
He  now  writes,  with  deep  concern,  that  "  not  a  preacher  in  London 
would  refuse  orders  from  the  doctor."  "  He  comes  armed  with  your 
authority  to  make  us  all  Dissenters."  Now,  why  all  this  sudden 
disposition  of  the  English  preachers  to  receive  "  orders  from  the 
doctor,"  if  it  was  not  understood  that  he  had  received  episcopal 
powers,  and  they  despaired  of  ever  getting  ordination  from  the  na- 
tional bishops  ?  If  it  is  replied,  they  believed,  with  Wesley,  that, 
under  necessary  circumstances,  presbyters  could  ordain,  and'  there- 
fore desired  it  from  Coke,  not  in  view  of  his  new  appointment,  but 
because  he  was  a  presbyter  of  the  Church  of  England,  then  it  may 
be  properly  asked,  why  did  they  not  seek  it  before  ?  for  Coke  had 
been  a  presbyter  among  them  for  years.  Why  start  up  with  such  a 
demand  all  at  once  as  soon  as  they  learned  of  the  new  position  of 
Coke  ?  And  how  could  Charles  Wesley  say  in  this  case, "  He  comes 
armed  with  your  authority  ?"  for  his  authority  as  a  presbyter  he  ob- 
tained from  a  bishop  of  the  English  Church  years  before  he  knew 
Wesley. 

II.  The  term  bishop  was  not  personally  applied  in  the  Discipline 
to  the  American  superintendents  till  about  three  j'ears  after  the  "or- 
ganization" of  the  Church,  and  Wesley's  objurgatory  letter  to  As- 
bury was  not  written  till  four  years  after  it.  During  all  this  inter- 
val, however,  the  American  societies  were  called  an  "  Episcopal 
Church."  Six  months  after  adopting  the  name,  its  Minutes  were, 
as  stated,  inspected  by  Wesley,  and  published  under  his  auspices  ; 
they  were  called  the  "  Minutes  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
in  America  ;"  and  they  expressly  declare  that,  "following  the  coun- 
sel of  Mr.  John  Wesley,  who  recommended  the  episcopal  mode  of 
Church  government,  we  thought  it  best  to  become  an  Episcopal 
Church  ;"  yet,  as  has  been  shown,  during  this  long  interim  Wesley 

VOL.  III.  X  X 


674  Appendix. 


never  uttered  a  syllable  against  this  assumption  !  When  his  broth- 
er writes  him,  accusing  Coke  of  rashness,  he  replies  that  "  the  doc- 
tor has  done  nothing  rashly ;"  and  when  Coke  is  accused  through 
the  press,  he  declares,  under  Wesley's  eye,  and  without  contradic- 
tion, that  "he  had  done  nothing  without  the  direction  of  Mr.  Wes- 
ley." What,  now,  do  all  these  incidents  imply?  What  but  that 
Wesley  did  approve  the  American  episcopacy — that  it  was  estab- 
lished by  his  direction  ?  Yet  four  years  after,  when  the  appellation 
of  bishop  had  been  applied  personally  to  the  American  episcopoi, 
this  letter  of  Wesley  was  written.  What  further  does  this  imply? 
What  but  that  it  was  not  the  thing  he  condemned,  but  the  name  ? 
The  thing  had  existed  for  years  uncondemned,  nay,  defended  by 
him  ;  the  very  name  "Episcopal,"  so  far  as  it  applied  to  the  Church 
collectively,  he  did  not  condemn  ;  the  title  "bishop,"  as  a  definition 
or  synonym  of  "  superintendent"  in  the  Minutes,  he  did  not  con- 
demn;  but  the  personal  title  of  bishop  he  disapproved,  because  of 
its  objectionable  associations.  Is  it  possible  to  escape  this  infer- 
ence? 

Thus  we  see  that,  whatever  view  we  take  of  the  subject,  we  are 
compelled  to  one  conclusion  :  that  Wesley  did  create  and  establish 
the  American  Methodist  episcopate.  The  man  who  gainsays  such 
evidence  must  be  given  up  as  incorrigible.  There  can  be  no  rea- 
soning with  him. 

And  now,  what  is  the  sum  of  this  evidence  ?  It  has  already  been 
presented  with  sufficient  detail,  but  let  us  retrace  the  successive  and 
decisive  steps  of  the  argument.  Here  we  have  Wesley  proposing 
to  establish  "  the  discipline  of  the  Church  of  England"  among  the 
American  Methodists,  and  to  do  so  he  ordains  for  them  bishops, 
and  gives  them  an  episcopal  regimen  ;  yet,  according  to  their  an- 
tagonists, he  never  designed  them  to  be  a  distinct  Church,  but  only 
a  "  society"  in  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  !  Wesley  and  Coke 
have  "  scruples,"  delays,  references  to  antiquity,  imposition  of  hands, 
and  other  solemn  forms,  conforming  to  the  "universal  practice"  of 
episcopal  ordination,  and  yet  all  concerning  some  nondescript  kind 
of  appointment,  analogous  to  that  which  is  conferred  upon  a  mis- 
sionary in  charge  over  his  brethren  in  a  foreign  station  !  Wesley 
speaks  of  it  as  "  ordaining,"  and  of  his  refusing  to  use  the  right  be- 
fore the  Revolution  because  it  would  have  interfered  with  the  "es- 
tablished order  of  the  national  Church  ;"  and  yet  a  mere  secondary 
commission  of  Coke,  such  a  one  as  had  existed  in  the  person  of  As- 
bury  for  years,  is  the  momentous  interference  with  the  established 
order  of  the  national  Church — though  there  was  nothing  in  that  or- 
der with  which  it  could  interfere,  the  national  Church  never  having 
had  any  such  appointments  !  Wesley  solemnly  "  ordains"  Coke  ; 
and  yet  it  is  not  to  the  episcopal  office,  though  he  had  been  ordain- 
ed to  all  the  other  offices  to  which  ordination  is  appropriate  years 
before  !  Wesley  ordains  two  other  men  to  the  office  of  elders,  and 
at  the  same  time  separately  and  formally  ordains  Coke,  who  had  al- 
ready borne  this  office  ;  but  still  Coke's  new  office  is  not  the  only 


Appendix.  675 


remaining  one  that  could  be  conferred  upon  hiin  !  Wesley  refers 
to  the  ordination  of  bishops  by  the  presbyters  of  Alexandria  in  jus- 
tification of  his  ordination  of  Coke,  and  yet  he  does  not  ordain  Coke 
a  bishop !  Wesley  prepares  for  the  American  Church  a  Prayer- 
Book,  abridged  from  that  of  the  Church  of  England,  prescribing  the 
English  forms  for  the  three  offices  of  deacons,  presbyters,  and  bish- 
ops ;  the  two  former  are  admitted  unquestionably  to  be  what  they 
are  in  England,  and  yet  the  latter  is  explained  into  something  new 
and  anomalous,  answering  to  nothing  ever  heard  of  in  the  Church 
of  England  or  in  any  other  episcopal  Church  !  In  these  forms  the 
old  names  of  two  of  the  offices  are  changed  to  new  but  synonymous 
appellations — that  of  presbyter  or  priest  to  elder,  that  of  bishop  to 
superintendent ;  in  the  former  case,  the  change  of  the  name  is  not 
for  a  moment  supposed  to  imply  a  change  of  the  thing,  and  yet,  in 
the  other  case,  the  change  of  the  name  invalidates  entirely  the  thing, 
without  a  particle  more  evidence  for  it  in  one  case  than  in  the  oth- 
er !  Charles  Wesley,  being  a  High-Churchman,  is  kept  unaware  of 
his  brother's  proceedings  till  they  are  accomplished,  though  he  is  in 
the  town  at  the  time  of  the  ordination  ;  and  yet  it  is  no  ordination, 
but  a  species  of  appointment  against  which  he  could  have  had  no 
episcopal  prejudice  whatever  !  When  he  learns  the  facts  he  is  over- 
whelmed with  surprise,  and  in  his  correspondence  exclaims  against 
his  "  brother's  consecration  of  a  bishop,"  and  "  Dr.  Coke's  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church"  at  Baltimore  ;  and  Wesley,  in  his  replies,  never  de- 
nies these  titles,  but  simply  vindicates  his  ordinations,  and  says  that 
Coke  had  "  done  nothing  rashly  ;"  yet  there  was  no  bishop,  no  epis- 
copal office  appointed,  no  distinct  episcopal  Church  established,  but 
Coke  had  fabricated  the  whole  !  When  the  preachers  in  England, 
trained,  from  childhood,  under  episcopacy,  hear  of  Coke's  new  office, 
they  are,  to  the  great  alarm  of  Charles  Wesley,  suddenly  seized  with 
a  desire  to  be  ordained  by  Coke,  though  they  fully  know  that  he  is 
no  bishop,  but  the  same  presbyter  that  he  had  been  among  them  for 
years  !  In  six  months  after  the  organization  of  the  American  Church, 
Coke  publishes  its  Minutes,  with  the  title  "  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  in  America,"  in  London,  under  the  eye  of  Wesley,  and  in 
these  Minutes  it  is  declared  that  Wesley  "  recommended  the  episco- 
pal mode  of  Church  government ;"  but  no  remonstrance  is  heard 
from  Wesley  !  When  Coke  is  condemned  through  the  press  for  his 
proceedings,  he  publicly  replies  that  he  had  done  "  nothing  without 
the  direction  of  Mr.  Wesley  •"  no  rebuke  follows  from  Wesley,  but 
Coke  goes  on  as  usual,  active  in  his  Conferences,  and  maintained  in 
his  new  position  ;  and  3'et  his  American  proceedings  were  an  ambi- 
tious plot,  contrary  to  the  will  of  AVesley  !  The  American  Method- 
ists had  borne  the  title  "  Episcopal  Church,"  with  Wesley's  full  ap- 
proval, for  four  years,  when,  on  the  use  of  the  personal  title  of  bishop, 
Wesley  writes  his  letter  to  Asburj^ ;  and  yet  it  is  not  the  mere  per- 
sonal title  he  condemns,  but  the  office  which  for  four  years  he  had 
left  uncondemned,  nay,  had  vindicated  ! 

And  now,  looking  again  at  this  series  of  arguments,  will  not  the 


676  Appendix. 


American  Methodists  be  acquitted  of  presumption  when  they  as- 
sume that  they  may  here  make  a  triumphant  stand,  surrounded  by 
evidence  altogether  impregnable?  The  mighty  ecclesiastical  sys- 
tem under  which  it  has  pleased  God  to  give  them  and  their  fam- 
ilies spiritual  shelter  and  fellowship  with  his  saints,  and  whose  effi- 
ciency has  surprised  the  Christian  world,  is  not,  as  their  opponents 
would  represent,  an  imposition  of  their  preachers,  and  contrary  to 
the  wishes  of  Wesley,  but  was  legitimately  received  from  his  hands 
as  the  providential  founder  of  Methodism. 

If  Wesley's  strong  repugnance  to  the  mere  name  of  bishop  had 
been  expressed  before  its  adoption  by  the  American  Church,  it 
would  probably  not  have  been  adopted.  Still,  the  American  Church 
was  now  a  separate  organization,  and  was  at  perfect  liberty  to  dis- 
sent from  Wesley  on  a  matter  of  mere  expediency.  The  Church 
thought  it  had  good  reasons  to  use  the  name.  The  American  Meth- 
odists were  mostly  of  English  origin.  The  people  of  their  country 
anions:  whom  Methodism  was  most  successful  were  either  from  En- 
gland  or  of  immediate  English  descent,  and  had  been  educated  to 
consider  episcopacy  a  wholesome  and  apostolical  government  of 
the  Church.  The  Church  approved  and  had  the  office,  why  not, 
then,  have  the  name  ?  especially  as,  without  the  name,  the  office  it- 
self would  be  liable  to  lose,  in  the  eyes  of  the  people,  its  peculiar 
character,  and  thereby  ica\  in  that  appeal  to  their  long-established 
opinions  which  Methodism  had  a  right,  both  from  principle  and  ex- 
pediency, to  make  ?  The  English  Establishment  having  been  dis- 
solved in  this  countr}%  and  the  Protestant  Episcopalians  not  being 
yet  organized  on  an  independent  basis,  and  the  episcopal  organiza- 
tion of  the  Methodists  having  preceded  that  of  the  Protestant  Epis- 
copalians, the  Methodist  Church  had  a  clear  right  to  present  itself 
to  the  American  public  as  competent  to  aid  in  supplying  the  place 
of  the  abolished  Establishment,  having  the  same  essential  principles 
without  its  peculiar  defects. 

And  may  not  the  circumstance  of  the  assumption  of  an  episcopal 
character,  nominally  as  well  as  really,  by  the  American  IMethodists, 
be  considered  providential  ?  Episcopacy,  both  in  America  and  En- 
gland, has  reached  an  excess  of  presumption  and  arrogance.  The 
moderate  party,  once  declared  by  Bishop  White,  of  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church,  to  include  a  large  majority  of  American  Episco- 
palians,^ has  nearly  disappeared.  Was  it  not  providential,  under 
these  circumstances,  that  a  body  of  Christians  should  appear,  ex- 
ceeding every  other  in  success,  and  nominally  and  practically  bear- 
ing an  episcopal  character,  without  any  of  its  presumptuous  preten- 
sions ?  Amid  the  uncharitable  assumptions  of  prelatical  Episcopa- 
lians, the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  stands  forth  a  monument  of 
the  laborious  and  simple  episcopacy  of  the  early  ages,  its  success, 
as  well  as  its  humility,  contrasting  it  signally  with  its  more  preten- 
tious but  feebler  sister.     It  has  thus  practically  vindicated  episco- 

'  Case  of  the  Prot.  Epis.  Church  in  the  United  States,  etc.,  p.  25. 


Appendix.  677 


pacy  as  an  expedient  form  of  ecclesiastical  government,  and  assu- 
redly it  needs  vindication  in  these  days. 

Such,  then,  is  the  evidence  which  should,  with  all  men  of  self-re- 
spectful candor,  conclude  decisively  the  question  of  Wesley's  design 
and  agency  in  the  organization  of  American  Methodism. 

Driven  from  this  ground,  objectors  retreat  to  an  equally  untenable 
one  by  alleging  that  the  episcopal  organization  of  the  societies  in 
America  is  to  be  attributed  to  the  influence  of  ambitious  counselors 
over  Wesley  in  the  imbecility  of  his  old  age.  It  has  already  been 
shown  that  he  as  yet  betrayed  no  such  imbecility ;  but  it  has  still 
more  conclusively  been  demonstrated  that  the  ecclesiastical  opin- 
ions which  sanction  this  great  act  were  adopted  in  the  prime  of  his 
manhood.  They  were  the  well-considered  and  fully  demonstrated 
convictions  of  two  score  years,  before  he  yielded  to  the  unavoida- 
ble necessity  of  giving  them  practical  effect.  Few  facts  in  the  his- 
tory of  Methodism  are  more  interesting  and  instructive  than  the 
gradual  development  of  Wesley's  own  mind  and  character  under  his 
extraordinary  and  accumulating  responsibilities  ;  it  has  therefore 
been  studiously  traced  throughout  the  preceding  pages.  No  read- 
er who  has  followed  our  narrative  will  accept  this  last  objection  to 
the  American  Methodist  episcopacy,  and  no  possible  ground  of  ar- 
gument remains  for  its  opponents  but  the  prelatical  charge  against 
its  legitimacy,  founded  in  the  traditional  and  exploded  ecclesias 
ticism  of  obsolete  ages.  Methodists  are  content,  with  Wesle3%  to 
pronounce  the  apostolic  succession  "  a  fable  which  no  man  ever  did, 
or  ever  can  prove,"  and  believe  that,  in  this  age,  they  need  not  anx- 
iously challenge  any  advantage  which  their  opponents  can  claim 
from  a  pretension  so  incompatible  alike  with  the  letter  and  the 
charity  of  the  Gospel,  as  well  as  with  the  Christian  enlightenment 
of  modern  times. ^ 

[Attempts  have  been  made  to  impugn  Coke,  as  having  overween- 
ingly  led  Wesley  into  this  important  measure.-  The  charge,  how- 
ever, were  it  valid,  could  not  affect  the  validity  of  the  measure  itself 
as  genuinely  Wesleyan,  and  as  giving  to  American  Methodism  an 
Episcopal  organization.  After  the  preceding  review,  no  one  can 
doubt  that  the  whole  proceeding  was  in  accordance  with  "Wesley's 
own  views  of  Church  government.  He  was,  as  we  have  seen,  a  de- 
cided Episcopalian,  and  he  designed  to  give  the  American  Method- 
ist, as  he  says,  "  the  discipline  of  the  Church  of  England  ;"  that  is 

•  Wesley  was  in  good  company  among  Churchmen  in  his  denunciation  of  the 
"fable"  of  the  succession.  Chillingworth  said,  "  I  am  fully  persuaded  there  hath 
been  no  such  succession."  Bishop  Stillingflcet  declares  that  "  this  succession  is 
as  muddy  as  the  Tiber  itself"  IJishop  Iloadley  asserts,  "It  hath  not  pleased 
God,  in  his  providence,  to  keep  up  any  proof  of  the  least  probability,  or  moral 
possibility,  of  a  regular  uninterrupted  succession  ;  but  there  is  a  great  appear- 
ance, and,  humanly  speaking,  a  certainty  to  the  contrary,  that  the  succession  hath 
often  been  interrupted."  Archbishop  Whately  says  "  there  is  not  a  minister  in 
all  Christendom  who  is  able  to  trace  up,  with  approach  to  certainty,  his  spiritual 
pedigree." 

"  Tyerman's  Wesley,  vol.  iii.     An.  1784. 


678  Appendix. 


to  say,  an  Episcopal  regimen.  His  appeal  to  Lord  King's  proof, 
that  the  presbyters  of  Alexandria  ordained  bishops,  could  otherwise 
have  no  relevancy.  His  use  of  this  proof  with  Coke,  while  the  latter 
hesitated,  shows  what  was  his  original  design,  and  it  is  impossible 
to  conceive  what  merely  Presbyterian  system,  without  a  "  superin- 
tendency"  or  episcopate,  could  at  this  time  fit  into  the  itinerant 
ministerial  scheme  of  the  American  Church,  where  Rankin  and  As- 
bury  had  hitherto  been  superintendents,  though  without  ordination 
or  the  power  to  ordain. 

Whether  Coke  influenced  Wesley  or  not  does  not,  then,  let  it  be 
repeated,  affect  the  main  question.  Whether  Wesley  was  influenced 
or  not,  he  did  construct  and  solemnly  appoint  the  Episcopal  system 
of  the  American. Methodists,  such  as  it  was  adopted  by  the  Confer- 
ence of  1784;  he  did  provide  for  its  perpetuation  by  abridging, 
printing,  and  sending  over  with  Coke  the  English  Liturgy,  contain- 
ing its  forms  of  ordination  for  the  threefold  ministerial  functions 
recognized  in  the  Anglican  Church,  and  all  these  acts  were  in  strict 
accordance  with  his  long-avowed  ideas  of  Church  government. 

Coke's  character  alone,  then,  is  concerned  in  this  charge.  That 
character,  however,  is  dear  to  all  Methodists,  and  important,  not  to 
the  validity,  but  to  the  historical  character  of  the  American  episco- 
pate. He  is  to  stand  forever  as  its  first  representative.  I  have 
elsewhere  sketched  his  remarkable  life  and  character.^  Though  he 
had  essential  greatness,  he  had,  doubtless,  characteristic  weaknesses 
also.  There  have  been  few^  great  men  without  them.  The  faults  of 
such  men  become  the  more  noticeable,  either  by  contrast  with  or 
by  partaking  of  their  greatness  ;  and  the  vanity  of  ordinary  human 
nature  is  eagerly  disposed,  in  self-gratulation,  to  criticise,  as  pecul- 
iar defects  of  superior  minds,  infirmities  which  are  common  to  all. 
Practical  energy  was  his  chief  intellectual  trait,  and,  if  it  was  some- 
times effer\'escent,  it  was  never  evanescent.  He  had  a  leading 
agency  in  the  greatest  facts  of  Methodism,  and  it  was  impossible 
that  the  series  of  momentous  deeds  which  mark  his  career  could 
have  been  the  result  of  mere  accident  or  fortune.  They  must  have 
been  legitimate  to  the  man.  Neither  Whitefield  nor  Wesley  ex- 
ceeded him  in  ministerial  travels.  It  is  probable  that  no  Methodist 
of  his  day,  it  is  doubtful  whether  any  Protestant  of  his  day,  contrib- 
uted more  from  his  own  property  for  the  spread  of  the  Gospel.  His 
biographer  says  that  he  expended  the  whole  of  his  patrimonial  es- 
tate, which  was  large,  on  his  missions  and  their  chapels.  He  was 
married  twice  ;  both  his  wives  were  like-minded  with  himself,  and 
both  had  considerable  fortunes,  which  were  used  like  his  own.  In 
1794  was  published  an  account  of  his  missionary  receipts  and  dis- 
bursements for  the  preceding  year,  from  which  it  appeared  that 
there  were  due  him  nearly  eleven  thousand  dollars  ;  but  he  gave  the 
whole  sum  to  the  cause.     Flying,  during  nearly  forty  years,  over 

'  History  of  Methodism,  vol.  W'l.,  fassim.  History  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  vol.  ii., 
p.  151  ;  vol.  iv.,  p.  503. 


Appendix.  679 


England,  Scotland,  Wales,  and  Ireland  ;  crossing  the  Atlantic  eight- 
een times;  traversing  the  United  States  and  the  West  Indies;  the 
first  who  suggested  the  organization  of  English  Methodism  by  Wes- 
ley's Deed  of  Declaration  ;  the  organizer,  under  Wesley,  of  Ameri- 
can Methodism  ;  one  of  the  first,  if  not  the  very  first,  of  Protestant 
bishops  in  the  Western  hemisphere  ;  the  founder  of  the  Methodist 
missions  in  the  West  Indies,  in  Africa,  and  in  Asia,  as  well  as  in 
Ireland,  Wales,  and  England ;  the  official  and  almost  sole  director 
of  the  missionary  operations  of  the  denomination  during  his  long 
public  life,  and  the  founder  of  the  first  Tract  Society  in  the  world, 
he  must  be  recognized  as  one  of  the  chief  representative  men  of 
modern  religious  history,  if  not,  indeed,  as  Asbury  pronounced  him, 
"  the  greatest  man  of  the  last  century  as  a  minister  of  Christ." 

Asbury,  who  hesitated  not  thus  to  place  him  above  Wesley  "  as 
a  minister  of  Christ,"  knew  him  well,  and  especially  knew  him  in 
those  transactions  for  which  he  has  been  most  blamed.  A  set- 
tled and  wealthy  clergyman  of  the  Establishment,  bearing  the 
highest  literary  title  which  its  universities  could  give,  a  man  of 
high  family  and  high  prospects,  he  forsook,  under  the  influence 
of  deepened  religious  feelings,  all  his  apparent  advantages,  to  be- 
come a  wandering  evangelist  in  Wesley's  despised  but  heroic  band 
of  itinerants.  He  became,  as  Wesley  called  him,  "  the  right  hand" 
of  the  great  founder.  His  spirit  flamed  with  evangelic  zeal.  He 
expressed  truly  his  own  character  in  the  exclamation,  recorded 
on  the  high  seas,  when  passing  for  the  first  time  to  America,  "  I 
want  the  wings  of  an  eagle  and  the  voice  of  a  trumpet,  that  I 
may  proclaim  the  Gospel  through  the  East  and  the  West,  the 
North  and  the  South."  He  seemed  almost  ubiquitous  in  the  United 
States,  superintending  its  ministry,  and  in  the  United  Kingdom,  ad- 
ministering the  affairs  of  the  Wesleyan  Church,  founding  and  con- 
ducting its  Irish,  its  Welsh,  its  "  Domestic,"  and  its  Foreign  Mis- 
sions, virtually  embodying  in  his  own  person  the  whole  missionary 
enterprise  of  English  Alethodism.  When  an  old  man  of  nearly  sev- 
enty years  he  conceived  the  project  of  introducing  Methodism  into 
Asia.  He  presented  himself  before  the  British  Conference,  and, 
against  great  opposition,  entreated,  with  tears,  to  be  sent  as  a  mis- 
sionary to  India,  offering  to  defray  the  expenses  of  himself  and  seven 
chosen  colleagues.  The  Conference  could  not  resist  his  appeal, 
and  at  length,  on  the  30th  of  December,  1813,  he  departed  with  his 
little  band,  consisting  of  nine  persons  besides  himself.  He  died  on 
the  voyage,  and  was  buried  in  the  Indian  Ocean  ;  but,  though  the 
great  leader  was  no  more,  his  spirit  remained,  and  the  successful 
East  Indian  Missions  of  Methodism  are  the  sublime  results.  His- 
tory should  respect  the  reputation  of  such  a  man. 

The  charge  of  his  leading  Wesley  into  the  measures  for  the  or- 
ganization of  the  American  Church  is  made  in  spite  of  the  express 
testimony  of  Drew,  his  intimate  friend  and  biographer,  who  says  that 
"Wesley,  in  his  study,  'City  Road,'  first  divulged  his  purpose  to 
Coke,"  and  that,  arguing  with  him  there  on  the  ordination  of  bishops 


68o  Appendix. 


by  presbyters  in  the  Alexandrian  Church,  he  concluded  by  propos- 
ing "  that,  being  himself  a  presbyter,  Coke  should  accept  ordination 
from  his  hands,  and  proceed  to  the  continent  of  America  to  super- 
intend the  societies  in  the  United  States."^ 

A  letter  from  Coke  to  Wesley,  proposing  that  a  messenger  should 
be  sent  to  America  to  inspect  the  field  and  report  to  Wesley,  has 
been  cited  as  proof  of  Coke's  overweening  wish  for  such  an  appoint- 
ment.2  The  hostile  critic  seems  not  to  be  aware  that  this  letter  was 
written  after  Wesley's  proposition  to  send  Coke  as  superintendent. 
The  conversation  in  Wesley's  London  study  was  in  February,  1784. 
Coke's  letter,  proposing  a  preliminary  inspection  and  report  of  the 
wants  of  the  American  societies,  was  not  written  till  the  middle  of 
April  ["Near  Dublin,  April  17,  1784"].  It  was  actually  sent  while 
he  was  yet  considering  Wesley's  proposition.  It  showed  his  hesi- 
tancy rather  than  his  eagerness  for  the  new  office. 

Thus  far,  then,  no  solicitation,  no  selfish  management,  is  apparent 
in  the  course  of  Coke.  If,  contrary  to  Drew's  express  statement, 
the  particular  act  of  Coke's  ordination  by  Wesley  was  by  the  request 
of  Coke  himself,  it  does  not  materially  affect  the  question  of  either 
the  American  Church  system  or  Coke's  character.  Wesley  undoubt- 
edly designed,  as  we  have  seen,  that  the  former  should  be  a  system 
of  superintendency,  of  practical  episcopacy  "  conformed  to  the  dis- 
cipline of  the  Church  of  England,"  as  he  expressly  says — such  as, 
in  fact,  it  had  hitherto  been,  except  that  its  superintendents  had  not 
yet  the  function  of  ordination,  which  was  now  to  be  supplied.  If 
he  had  not  at  first  designed  to  ordain  Coke  (according  to  his  rea- 
soning about  the  Alexandrian  example),  it  was  doubtless  because  he 
had  assumed  that  Coke,  being  already  a  presbyter,  could,  in  accord- 
ance with  that  example,  ordain  Asbury  a  superintendent,  and  com- 
plete the  organization  of  the  American  Church.  Now  Wesley  had, 
as  we  have  seen,  for  years  believed  in  the  essential  parity  of  presby- 
ters and  bishops,  and  their  equal  right  to  ordain.  Coke's  request  (if 
any  there  were)  for  more  formal  authorization  by  Wesley  himself  was 
perfectly  correspondent  with  Wesley's  theory  and  design,  and,  this 
being  the  fact,  it  was  indisputably  expedient,  as  Wesley  himself  saw. 
The  agitations  and  debates  among  the  American  Methodists  ren- 
dered it  necessary  that  he  should  bear  with  him  the  highest  possible 
sanction  of  Wesley,  who  was  recognized  as  founder  and  superinten- 

1  Drew's  Life  of  Coke,  p.  62.  Etheridge  (Life  of  Coke,  p.  loi)  says  :  "  A  writer 
in  the  Quarterly  Review  affirms  that  it  was  Coke  who  first  requested  Wesley  to 
make  him  a  bishop,  and  send  him  as  such  to  America.  The  opposite  is  the 
truth  :  the  request  came  from  Wesley,  and  took  Coke  by  surprise.  He  had  not 
even  given  the  clerical  question  involved  in  the  project  any  serious  consideration  ; 
and  he  first  required  of  Wesley  some  time  for  investigation,  before  he  could 
express  with  confidence  an  opinion  upon  it  at  all.  He  now  applied  himself  to 
those  Biblical  and  patristic  studies  which  bear  upon  the  subject,  and  after  the 
lapse  of  two  months,  spent  partly  in  Scotland,  communicated  to  Wesley  that  the 
conclusions  at  which  he  had  arrived  enabled  him,  without  any  hesitation,  to  con- 
cur with  himself  as  to  the  abstract  lawfulness  of  the  measure  which  had  been 
propounded." 

^  Tyerman's  Wesley,  vol.  iii.,  p.  428. 


Appendix.  68 1 


dent  of  the  whole  Methodist  cause.  Coke's  Hability  to  disaffected 
criticism  at  home,  especially  from  Charles  Wesley  (whose  opinions 
were  well  known),  gave  him  a  right  to  claim,  as  he  did  in  his  letter 
to  Wesley,  that  the  latter  should  "  be  obliged  to  acknowledge  that  I 
acted  under  your  direction" — a  phrase  which  would  have  been  in- 
admissible had  not  Wesley's  designs  corresponded  fully  with  his 
own.  This  objection  to  Coke,  then,  is  not  relevant.  His  course 
was  logical ;  it  was  prudent ;  it  was  necessary ;  and  its  historical 
results  have  proved  its  supreme  wisdom. 

Almost  every  other  disputed  act  of  Coke's  life  has  been  adduced 
to  confirm  the  unfounded  objection  to  his  course  in  this  great  meas- 
ure. It  has  been  alleged  that  he  wrote  to  Bishop  White,  of  Phila- 
delphia, that  "  he  would  like  the  Methodists  of  America  to  be  re- 
united to  the  English  [American  Protestant  Episcopal]  Church  on 
condition  that  he  himself  were  ordained  to  be  their  bishop."'  Coke 
was  already  a  bishop,  and  Asbury  another,  in  America ;  their  de- 
nomination was  already  more  extended  than  the  Protestant  Episco- 
pal Church,  and  it  had  an  immeasurably  better  prospect  in  the  new 
republic.  Coke's  impulsive  zeal  and  catholicity  led  him  to  think, 
what  many  Churchmen,  if  not  Methodists,  have  since  thought,  that 
a  union  of  the  two  bodies  would  be  a  blessing  to  common  Christian- 
ity. If  he  was  imprudent,  he  was  nevertheless  charitable  in  his  de- 
sire. It  did  more  credit  to  his  heart  than  discredit  to  his  head. 
He  did  not  propose  it,  as  alleged,  in  order  to  be  "  ordained  their 
bishop."  He  included  his  Episcopal  colleague,  Asbury,  and  all  his 
ministerial  brethren.  The  union  was  to  be  made  "  on  terms  which 
in  no  wise  compromised  the  honor  or  rights  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church."'^  "I  never  did  apply,"  says  Coke, "to  the  General 
Convention,  or  any  other  Convention,  for  reconsecration.  I  never 
intended  that  either  Bishop  Asbury  or  myself  should  give  up  our 
episcopal  office  if  the  junction  were  to  take  place." 

It  has  been  alleged  against  him,  as  an  "  unpleasant  fact,"  and  as 
illustrating  his  course  in  the  present  case  with  Wesley,  that  he  solic- 
ited the  "  Prince  Regent  and  the  government  to  appoint  him  their 
bishop  in  India,"  and  this  "  within  twelve  months  of  his  lamented 
death. "^  This  aspersion  is  founded  in  incidents  connected  with 
that  last  heroic  mission  to  India  above  noticed,  for  which,  in  his  old 
age,  he  sublimely  sacrificed  his  property,  his  episcopal  functions  in 
America,  and  his  life,  but  founded  the  whole  East  India  INIethodist 
w^ork.  The  British  domination  there  had,  to  his  eyes,  opened  a 
door  for  the  Gospel  to  all  Asia.  For  some  years  he  had  been  plan- 
ning and  working  for  a  mission  to  the  Hindoos  ;  the  East  India  Com- 
pany's government  "  had  steadily  opposed"  their  evangelization  ; 
Coke  knew  that  he  could  not  accomplish  his  grand  designs  without 
authority  from  the  home  government  in  an  episcopal  appointment ; 
for  this  reason  he  sought  that  appointment.     He  was  still  a  priest 

'  Tyerman,  vol.  iii.,  p.  344. 

^  History  of  M.  E.  Church,  vol.  iii.,  p.  41.     Also  vol.  iv.,  p.  443. 

^  Tyerman,  vol,  iii.,  p.  434. 


682  Appendix. 


of  the  national  Church,  and  the  Wesleyans  were  all  yet  considered 
as  members  of  that  Church.  He  proved  the  purity  of  his  purpose 
when  his  application  failed,  for  then,  as  we  have  seen,  he  stood,  an 
aged  and  broken  man,  before  the  British  Conference,  and  extorted, 
•by  his  entreaties,  his  tears,  and  the  pledge  of  his  own  property,  its 
consent  to  let  him  go,  with  a  corps  of  Methodist  evangelists,  and  at- 
tempt the  great  work  in  the  only  way  that  remained  for  him.^ 

Again,  it  is  alleged  that  "  in  1794  he  secretly  summoned  a  meeting 
of  the  most  influential  of  the  English  preachers,  and  passed  a  resolu- 
tion that  the  Conference  should  appoint  an  order  of  bishops  to  ordain 
deacons  and  elders,  he  himself,  of  course,  expecting  to  be  a  member 
of  the  prelatical  brotherhood."'^  The  real  facts  of  this  case,  as  in 
the  others,  need  but  to  be  correctly  stated  to  fully  vindicate  Coke. 
Wesley  had  been  dead  some  three  years  ;  the  Wesleyans  were  in 
the  greatest  anxiety  and  distraction  respecting  their  permanent  or- 
ganization during  these  years  ;  the  very  existence  of  the  body  seemed 
periled  ;  ministerial  disputes  and  popular  agitation  prevailed,  ending 
at  last  in  the  Kilham  schism  ;  the  people  were  clamoring  for  the 
sacraments — the  preachers  were  not  empowered,  by  ordination,  to 
administer  them.  "At  present  we  really  have  no  government,"  wrote 
Pawson,  the  president  of  the  Conference,  toward  the  latter  part  of 
1793.  "It  will  by  no  means  answer  our  ends  to  dispute  one  with 
another  as  to  which  is  the  most  scriptural  form  of  Church  govern- 
ment. We  should  consider  our  present  circumstances,  and  endeavor 
to  agree  upon  some  method  by  which  our  people  may  have  the  ordi- 
nances of  God,  and,  at  the  same  time,  be  preserved  from  division.  I 
care  not  a  rush  whether  it  be  Episcopal  or  Presbyterian  ;  I  believe 
neither  of  them  to  be  purely  scriptural.  But  our  preachers  and  peo- 
ple in  general  are  prejudiced  against  the  latter  ;  consequently,  if  the 
former  will  answer  our  end,  we  ought  to  embrace  it.  Indeed,  I  be- 
lieve it  will  suit  our  present  plan  far  better  than  the  other.  The  de- 
sign of  Mr. Wesley  will  weigh  much  with  many,  which  now  evidently 
appears  to  have  been  this  :  He  foresaw  that  the  Methodists  would, 
after  his  death,  soon  become  a  distinct  people  ;  he  was  deeply  preju- 
diced against  a  Presbyterian,  and  was  as  much  in  favor  of  an  Epis- 
copal form  of  government.  In  order,  therefore,  to  preserve  all  that 
was  valuable  in  the  Church  of  England  among  the  Methodists,  he 
ordained  Mr.  Mather  and  Dr.  Coke  bishops.  These  he  undoubtedly 
designed  should  ordain  others.  Mr.  Mather  told  us  so  at  the  Man- 
chester Conference,  but  we  did  not  then  understand  him.  I  see  no 
way  of  coming  to  any  good  settlement  but  on  the  plan  I  mentioned 
before.  I  sincerely  wish  that  Dr.  Coke  and  Mr.  Mather  may  be  al- 
lowed to  be  what  they  are,  bishops.  We  must  have  ordination 
among  us  at  any  rate."^     It  was  in  these  circumstances  that  Coke 

^  See  Etheridge's  Coke,  p.  368.  Etheridge  gives  all  the  facts  of  the  case,  and 
fully  vindicates  Coke  from  the  charge  of  unchristian  ambition. 

^  Tyerman,  vol.  iii.,  p.  434. 

^  Smith,  History  of  Methodism,  etc.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  4, 3.  Stevens's  History  of  Meth- 
odism, vol.  iii.,  p.  51. 


AppC7idix.  68 


o 


met  some  of  the  most  venerable  and  devoted  preachers  at  Litchfield. 
He  "  addressed  them  on  the  agitated  state  of  the  Connection,  and 
the  perils  which  menaced  it;  he  referred  to  the  success  of  Method- 
ism in  the  New  World  under  its  Episcopal  organization,  and  the  re- 
lief which  ^V' esley's  establishment  of  this  form  of  government  there 
had  given  to  a  similar  controversy.  He  offered  ordination  to  the 
brethren  who  were  present.  His  motive  was  disinterested,  for  he 
already  possessed  the  Episcopal  office  and  dignity,  conferred  by  an 
authority  which  they  all  venerated  above  that  of  any  archbishop  of 
the  realm.  Most  of  the  meeting  approved  his  proposition,  but  Moore, 
who  had  been  ordained  by  Wesley,  very  wisely  suggested  that  they 
should  confine  their  proceedings  to  the  discussion  of  its  practicabil- 
ity, and  defer  its  decision  to  the  next  Conference.  He,  however, 
pronounced  the  measure  a  scriptural  and  suitable  expedient  for  the 
government  of  any  Christian  Church.  Mather  concurred  with 
Moore.  They  adjourned  after  adopting  a  series  of  resolutions 
which  were  to  be  submitted  with  all  their  signatures  to  the  Annual 
Conference."^  It  is  certainly  remarkable  that  a  sinister  motive 
could  be  imputed  to  Coke  in  these  circumstances — to  him  who  had 
already  a  diocese  co-extensive  with  the  United  States  of  America. 

An  impartial  revision,  then,  of  all  the  facts  directly  or  indirectly 
involved  in  this  discussion,  results,  first,  in  a  vindication  of  the 
Episcopal  government,  adopted  at  Baltimore  in  1784,  as  the  genu- 
ine work  of  Wesley  himself,  accordant  with  his  previously  declared 
opinions  on  the  subject ;  and,  secondly,  of  Coke's  conduct  respect- 
ing it,  as  also  in  the  other  above  facts  alleged  against  him.  Wesley 
was  just  when,  after  the  whole  measure  had  transpired,  he  declared 
Coke  to  "  have  done  nothing  rashly,"  and  that  he  was  "  as  free  from 
ambition  as  from  covetousness."] 

'  History  of  Methodism,  vol.  iii.,  p.  52. 


INDEX. 


Aberdeen,    ii.  404,  470,  568  ;    iii.  10, 

411. 
"Act  of  Toleration,"  ii.  385. 
Adam,    Rev.    Thomas,    ii.   209,   251  ; 

iii.  18. 
Adams,  Rev.  Mr.,  i.  485. 
Adams,  Tliomas,  i.  536. 
"Advice  to  a  Young  Clergyman,"  i. 

106. 
Affleck,  Andrew,  ii.  471. 
African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 

i-.  9- 

African  Mission  proposed,  iii.  272. 
Agutter,  Rev.  Mr.,  iii.  536. 
Alemouth,  ii.  140. 
Alliance,  Quadruple,  ii.  557. 
Alnwick,  ii.   166,  276,  328 ;    ii.  473, 

573- 
Alpraham,  iii.  352. 
Ambition,  i.  20. 
American  Colonies,  i.  1 14. 
American  Indians,  i.  1 15,  124,  130. 
American  Methodism,  i.  8,  9 ;  iii.  47, 

60,  62,  75,  116,  151,    175,  194,  248, 

331,  426,  498,  646. 
American     Rebellion,    iii.    147,    185, 

237- 
American  Wesleyan  Methodists,  i.  9. 
Amsterdam,  i.  197;  iii.  394,  395. 
Andrews,  Mr.,  iii.  28. 
Andrews,  Rev.  John,  i.  428  ;  ii.  493. 
Animal  Magnetism,  iii.  603,  648. 
Annesley,  Dr.  Samuel,  i.  285. 
Antigua,  iii.  151,  195,  273. 
Antinomianism,  i.  477,  481,  519;    ii. 

400  ;  iii.  14. 
Antislavery  Society,  iii.  508. 
Apparitions,  i.  22,  23;  iii.  II,  40,  41. 
Appleton,  John,  iii.  449. 
Arbroath,  iii.  66,  120,  457. 
Armagh,  ii.  601  ;  iii.  41,  154. 
Arminian  Magazine,  iii.  251,  280,  316, 

344.  346,  367.  388,  406,  455.  469, 
488,  508,  515,  563,  594,634. 

Asbury,  Francis,  ii.  610;  iii.  7,  1 10, 
175,  195,  248,  429,  435,  438. 

Ashbourne,  ii.  195. 

Ashburton,  ii.  585. 

Ashby  de  la  Zouch,  ii.  501. 

Ashton  under  Lyne,  iii.  371. 


Assistants,  duties  of,  i.  445,  499. 
Athlone,  ii.  4,  35,  37,  78,  601. 
Atlay,    John,   iii.  207,  297,  315,  404, 

552-558,  565,  567. 
Atmore,     Charles,    iii.  441,   533,  604, 

607,  618. 
Atterbury,  Bishop,  i.  42,  60. 
Aughrim,  ii.  4,  78. 
Aylesbury,  iii.  29. 

Backhouse,  Rev.  William,  ii.  489. 
Baddiley,    Rev.   William,  ii.   195,  205, 

211. 

Bagshaw,  Matthew,  ii.  560. 

Baildon,  iii.  362. 

Bailey,  Rev.  Mr.,  ii.  90. 

Balham,  iii.  589,  599,  650. 

Ball,  Hannah,  ii.  534  ;  iii.  241. 

Ball,  Roger,  ii.  77, 

Ballinrobe,  iii.  460. 

Bandon,  ii.  36,  81,  304,  354;   iii.  645. 

Bandroom  Methodists,  i.  5. 

Bands,  Methodist,  i.  445,  463 ;  ii.  475, 

516;  iii.  22,  542. 
Banff,  Lady,  iii.  412. 
Baptism,  i.  229;  ii.  135,  264. 
Barber,  John,  iii.  441,  474,  533,  645. 
Barclay's  Apology,  i.  489. 
Bardsley,    Samuel,    ii.    540  ;    iii.   156, 

164,  208,  348,  353,  402,  591,  592. 
Barlow,  Margaret,  iii.  535. 
Bamardcastle,   ii.    141,  434,  472,  535, 

569  ;  iii.  18,  293,  537. 
Barnes,  John,  ii.  552. 
Barnet,  iii.  488. 
Barnsley,  iii.  474. 
Bate,  Rev.  James,  i.  249. 
Bateman,  Rev.  Richard  T.,  i.  548. 
Bath,  ii.  557,  587  ;    iii.  252,  290,  305, 

614,  623. 
Bath  yoiinial,  ii.  41. 
Baxter,  John,  iii.  273. 
Bayley,    Dr.    Cornelius,  ii.    261  ;    iii. 

397,  416. 
Beard,  Thomas,  i.  441. 
Beau  Nash,  i.  237. 
Bedford,  ii.  160,  274,  300,340,  3";8. 
Bedford,  Rev.  Arthur,  i.  209,  364. 
Behmen,  Jacob,  ii.  265  ;  iii.  341,  388. 
Belfast,  ii.  240,  445,  600. 


686 


Index. 


Bell,    George,   u.  433,  441,  444-  450. 

460,  462,  507,  556  ;  iii.  13,  29,  59. 
Benefactions,  Wesley's,  iii.  615. 
Benezet,  Anthony,  iii.  1 15. 
Bennet,  John,  i.  472  ;    ii.42,  57,  129; 

iii.  119. 
Bennett,  Rev.  Mr.,  i.  458. 
Bennis,  Elizabeth,  iii.  45. 
Benson,    Joseph,   ii.  474;    iii.  35,  51, 

70,  73,  no,  152,  168,  215,  247,  270, 

272,  324,  334,  341,  538,  603. 
Beresford,  Miss,  ii.  195. 
Berridge,  Rev.  John,  ii.  309,  324,  331- 

333,   356,   370,   397.   444,  459,  463, 

491  ;  iii.  2,  158. 
Berwick,  ii.  328. 
Bethnal  Green,  iii.  193. 
Beveiley,  ii.  330,  502  ;  iii.  61 1. 
Bible  Christians,  i.  6. 
Bible,  Study  of,  i.  532. 
Bideford,  iii.  591. 
Bigg,  Thomas,  ii.  53. 
Bingham,  iii.  69. 
Bingley,    ii.  275,   411,  573;  iii.   225, 

243,  325,  414. 
Birmingham,    i.  488  ;  n.  115,  163,  195, 

348,  399,  500  ;  iii-  7,  392,  472,  493, 

503,  568,  603. 
Birr,  ii.  4. 
Birstal,  i.  369,  383,  440;  ii.  121,   139, 

331,  412  ;  iii.  270,  373,  404. 
Bishop  of  Bristol,  i.  246. 
Bishop,  Letter  to  a,  iii.  513,  613. 
Bishop,  Miss,  ii.  559;  iii.  86,   97,  278, 

357,  450- 
Bishops,  Interview  with,  i.  230. 

Bisson,  Miss,  iii.  599,  609. 

Black,  William,  iii.  401,  452,  484,  492, 

506,  541,  591,  612. 
Blackburn,  iii.  325. 
Blackheath,  i.  359. 
Blackwell,  Ebenezer,  i.  555,   558,  559; 

ii.  5,  26,83,  107,  142,  169,  174,    185, 

196,  219,   236,  275,   304,  326,  352, 
414,  506  ;  iii.  251. 

Blackwell,  Richard,  ii.  587. 

Blades,  John,  iii.  536. 

Blair,  Andrew,  iii.  459. 

Blarney,  ii.  37. 

Blendon,  i.  173,  178. 

Boarding  Schools,  iii.  120. 

Boardman,  Richard,  iii.  47,  54* 

Bogie,  James,  iii.  362. 

Bohler,   Peter,   i.    177,  179.  181,    186, 

197,  532  ;  ii.  156-158 ;  iii.  201,  595. 
Bolton,  i.  547  ;  ii.  18,  57,  116;  ui.  191, 

351,  472,  501,  527. 
Bolton,  Edward,  ii.  498. 
Bolton,  Miss,  ii.  498  ;  iii.  644. 
Bolzius,  Martin,  i.  15 1. 
Book  Stewards'  Circular,  ii.  179. 


Books  recommended  by  Dr.  Doddridge, 

i-  517- 
Books    recommended   by    Wesley,   iii. 

359,  450- 
Booth,  Alice,  i.  546. 

Booth,  John,  iii.  645. 

Boothbank,  i.  546. 

Borlase,  Dr.,  i.  453,  470. 

Bosanquet,    Miss,    ii.    286,    289,     517, 

5S8;    iii.  68,    III,    206,     208,    213, 

240,  329. 
Boston,  ii.  327,  413;  iii.  327. 
Boswell,  James,  iii.  294. 
Bourke,  Richard,  ii.  603. 
Bourne,  Hugh,  ii.  609. 
Bowden,  Dr.  Samuel,  ii.  190- 
Bowman,  Rev.  William,  i.  328. 
Brackenbury,  Robert  C,  iii.  338,  393, 

408,   429,   4S7,    504,   507,   625,  649, 

Bradburn,   Samuel,  iii.  177,  251,  287, 

315,    334,  336,  355,  376,   525,  526, 
546,  616. 

Bradford  (Yorkshire),  ii.  12,  331,  569. 

Bradford  (Wilts),  iii.  52,  409. 

Bradford,  Joseph,  iii.  16,  156,  203, 
204,  338,  403,  557,  606,  649,  651, 
652,  655. 

Brainerd,  David,  iii.  36. 

Brammah,  Alice,  iii.  29. 

lirammah,  William,  iii.  243. 

]5ram\vell,  William,  iii.  354. 

Brandon,  John,  ii.  170,  281. 

Breage,  ii.  218. 

Brecon,  i.  457. 

Bredin,  John,  iii.  1 5 1,  643. 

Brcttell,  Jeremiah,  iii.  403. 

Bribery,  i.  554;  ii.  515- 

Briggs,  William,  ii.  176-179. 

Briscoe,  Thomas,  iii.  375. 

Bristol,  i.  234,  296,  390,  391,  425,  461  ; 
ii.  I,  25,  75,  85, 86, 171, 190,  235, 255, 
290,  339-  362,  425,  481,  512,  514, 
546,  587;  iii.  28,  52,  75,  no,  129, 
157,  165,  178,  236,  349,  364,370, 
391,  396,  404,  492,  530,  568,  589, 
600,  622. 

Bristol  Weekly  Intelligencer,  ii.  85. 

Broadbent,  John,  iii.  393,  487. 

Brooke,  Heniy,  iii.  172,  342,  392. 

liroughton.  Rev.  J.,  i.  68,  83,  102, 
108,  132,  178. 

Broughton,  Sir  Thomas,  iii.  1 19. 
Brute  Creation,  iii.  347. 
Bryan,  Jonathan,  iii.  117. 
Bryant,  Thomas,  ii.  487. 
Buchan,  Earl,  iii.  2. 
Bull,  Patrick,  iii.  189. 
Bulmer,  Agnes,  iii.  541. 
Bumby,  John  H.,  ii.  277. 
Bunting,  Dr.,  i.  340. 


Index. 


6S7 


Bunyan's  Pilgrim's  Progress,  i.  434. 

Burbeck,  Edward,  iii.  507. 

Burgess,  Joseph,  iii.  577. 

Burnet,  Bishop,  i.  64. 

Burnley,  iii.  414. 

Burslem,  ii.  349;  iii.  8,  127,  472,  493. 

Burton,  Dr.  John,  i.  loS,  136. 

Burton  on  Trent,  ii.  560. 

Bury,  iii.   166. 

Bush,  Elijah,  iii.  231,  364. 

Butterworth,  Joseph,  i.  545. 

Butterworth,  Rev.  John,  i.  545. 

Butts,  Thomas,  ii.  142,  176-179. 

Buxton,  iii.  393. 

Byrom,  Dr.    i.  135.  210,  243-  484- 

Byron,  James  Mac,  iii.  7,  406. 


Cadogan,  Dr.,  iii.  no,  1S2. 
Cadogan,  Rev.  W.  B.,  iii.  179. 
Calling  of  Methodist  Preachers,  iii.  635. 
"Calm  Address,"   Publication   of,   iii. 

186-192. 
Calvinism,  i.  39;  ii.  191-193;    iii.  278. 
Calvinist  Concessions,  i.  349. 
Calvinist   Controversy,   iii.   71,   81,  86, 

97,  136,  158,  179,  209,  228,  232,  259. 
Calvinistic  Methodists,  i.  402,  511. 
Camborne,  i.  453. 
Cambridge,  Miss,  iii.  645. 
Candler,  William,  iii.  627. 
Canterbury,  ii.  69,  230,  309,  339,  425, 

5"- 

Cardiff,  i.  560. 

Carlisle,  iii.  63. 

Carrickfergus,  ii.  240,  350,  445. 

Castle  Carey,  iii.  506. 

Castlebar,  iii.  153. 

Catechism,  ii.  64. 

Catechumen  Classes,  ii.  362. 

Catholic  Spirit,  ii.  374. 

Causton,  Thomas,  i.  143,  152,  162. 

Cavignac,  General,  ii.  350. 

Cayley,  Cornelius,  ii.  317. 

Celibacy,  i.  432  ;  ii.  6,  551. 

Cennick,  John,  i.  225,   263,    274,   277, 

295.  331.  343.  344,   360,  402,  419, 

556,  559;  ii.  23,  loi. 
Chandler,  Samuel,  ii.  493. 
Channel  Islands,  iii.  503-505. 
Chapel  Affairs,  i.  II,  270,  519;  ii.  291, 

539,  584,  610  ;  iii.  30,  70,  152,  21O, 

325-  5"'  533.  614.  619,  622. 
Chapel-en-le-Frith,  iii.  472. 
Chapman,  Mrs.,  i.  138. 
Chapman,  Rev.  Jacob,  ii.  482. 
Chapman,  \Villiam,  i.  133. 
Charlton,  Mary,  iii.  353. 
Charter  House  School,  i.  19. 
Chatham,  iii.  6. 
Cheltenham,  ii.  559  ;  iii.  7. 


Chester,  i.  547;    ii.  142,   448,  565  ;  iii. 

410,  500. 
Chesterlield,  iii.  226. 
Chester-le- Street,  ii.  277,  329,  538. 
Cheyne,  Dr.,  i.  27. 
Children's  Meetings,  i.  446  ;  iii.  23. 
Chinley,  i.  459. 
Chipping,  ii.  116. 
Christian,  Almost  a,  i.  175- 
Christian,  David,  i.  200 
"  Christian  Library,"  ii.  26,  65. 
Church  Government,  i.  499  ;  ii.  257. 
Church,  Rev.  Thomas,  i.  455,  478,  530. 
Church,  Stephen,  ii.  376. 
Church,  William,  iii.  277. 
Churchey,  Walter,  iii.  244,  282,  547,  579. 
Circuits,  Division  of,  iii.  601,  632. 
City  Road  Chapel,    iii.   220,    241,243, 

251,  255,  275,  297. 
Clanmain,  ii.  445. 
Clark,  Rev.  James,  ii.  244,  373. 
Clarke,   Adam,  ii.  1 19,   227;    iii.   342, 

386,  397,    504,  507,   583-   599,  609, 

614,  619,  623,  643,  644,  648. 
Clarkson,  Thomas,  iii.  115. 
Class  Meetings,  i.  379,  380;  ii.  516;  iii. 

215,  328,  550. 
Classes,  Methodist,  i.  353,  377;  iii.  391. 
Classical  Learning,  i.  il 7. 
Classleaders,  i.  446  ;  iii.  109.. 
Clayton,  Rev.  John,   i.  68,  83,  93,  94  ; 

ii.  138. 
Clements,  William,  i.  494. 
Clergy,   Advice  to  Young,  ii.  63. 
Clerical  Costume,  ii.  33S. 
Clippendale,  Mrs.,  iii.   I16. 
Clive,  Sir  Edward,  ii.  300. 
Clones,  iii.  202. 
Clonmel,  ii.  237. 
Clowes,  William,  ii.  609. 
Clulow,  Elizabeth,  iii.  8. 
Coates,  Alexander,  ii.  413. 
Cobham,  Mr.,  ii.  351. 
Cockburn,  Dr.,  ii.  278. 
Cocker,  Jeremiah,  ii.  502 ;  iii.  226,  474. 
Coke,  Dr.   Thomas,   iii.   16,  214,  222, 

244,  271,  297,    299,  310,  334,  361, 

378,  396,  403,  421,   428-432,   478, 

480-485,    492,  542,    552,  562,   570, 

580,  605. 
Colbeck,  Thomas,  ii.  14. 
Colchester,  ii.  313,  324,  327,  334,  342; 

iii.  627. 
Coleford,  i.  487  ;  ii.  236  ;  iii   590. 
College.  Methodist,  proposed,  ii.  36O; 
Colley,  Rev.  Benjamin,  ii.  413,  614. 
Collins,    Rev.   Brian,  iii.  310.  315,  335, 

391,454,  573. 
Coine,  ii.  15  ;  iii.  226,  243. 
Cologne,  i.  197. 
Communion  of  Saints,  iii.  157- 


688 


Index. 


Community,  The  Christian,  iii.  134. 

Companions,  Trifling,  i.  54. 

Conferences,  Methodist,  i.  441,  497, 
527,  551  ;  iL  5,  60,  104,  120,  144, 
166,  187,  240,  27S,  305,  333,  354, 
41S,  448,  474,  479,  511,  538,  5S4, 
608;  iii.  21,  45,  70,  no,  126,  156, 
177,  209,  226,  245,  270,  302,  328, 
36 r,  372,  396,  465,  477,  496,  547, 
584,  598,  618. 

Congleton,  ii.  349  ;  iii.  8,  165,  604. 

Coningsby,  ii.  11,  327. 

Connexion,  Lady  Huntingdon's,  i.  5  > 
iii.  430-432. 

Consecration  of  Churches,  etc.,  ii.  512; 
iii.  528. 

Conversation,  iii.  3. 

Conversion,  Instantaneous,  i.  178. 

Convicts,  i.  175  ;  ii.  27. 

Conyers,  Rev.  Dr.,  ii.  335,  473,  502. 

Coolylough,  ii.  354. 

Cooper,  Jane,  ii.  450,  494. 

Cooper,  Ezekiel,  iii.  645. 

Cooper,  IMiss,  i.  382. 

Cordeux,  Rev.  Mr.,  ii.  571. 

Cork,  ii.  36,  80,  147,  237,  304;  iii. 
42,  269,  460. 

Cornwall,  i.  415,  555;  ii.  362. 

Costerdine,  Robert,  iii.  48. 

Coughlan,   Lawrence,  ii.  313  ;  iii.  25, 

Courcy,  Rev.  Richard  de,  ii.  471;  iii.  65, 

84. 
Coventry,  lii.  295,  399. 
Coward,  William,  ii.  276. 
Cownley,  Joseph,  ii.  53,  83,  117,  129, 

200,    206,    230,    253,    38 1,    3S7  ;  iii. 

441,  543,  5S1. 
Crabbe,  the  Poet,  iii.  629. 
Craftsman,  i.  475- 
Credulity,  iii.  537. 
Creighton,   Rev.  James,  iii.   276,  429, 

434,  441- 
Cricket,  John,   iii.  391. 
Crook,  John,  iii.  228,  476. 
Crosby,   Sarah,   ii.  2S6,  289,  398,  436, 

565  ;  iii.  41,  68. 
Crowther,  Jonathan,  iii.  507,  58 1. 
Cud  worth,    William,  i.    482  ;    ii.   400, 

527- 
Cussons,  George,   i.   11  ;    ii.  410 ;  iii. 

315- 
Cutler,  Ann,  iii.  606. 

"  Dairyman's  Daughter,"  The,  iii.  387, 

503- 
Dales  Circuit,  iii.  631. 
Dall,  Robert,  iii.  225,  304,  532. 
Darlington,  ii.  407  ;  iii.  293,  535,  606. 
Damey,  William,  i.  545  ;  ii.  128  j  iii. 

68. 


Dartmouth,  Lord,  ii.  509,  511 ;  iii.  197. 
Davenport,  Rev.  Thomas,  iii.  383. 
Deal,  i.  173. 
Deaths,    Happy,   i.  294,355,395;    iii. 

218,  219. 
Deed  of  Declaration,  iii.  408,  417,  465. 
Delamotte,   Charles,   i.    117,   118,  134, 

135,  140,  146,  164. 
Delamotte,  William,  i.  299. 
Delany,  Dr.,  i.  80. 
Deleznot,  Rev.  Mr.,  i.  353. 
Delph,  iii.  323. 

Demoniacs,  i.  401,  531  ;  iii.  541. 
Depravity,  National,  i.  62. 
Deptford,  iii.  488,  490. 
Derby,  ii.  398,  501  ;  iii.  244. 
Devizes,  i.  538. 
Dewsbury,  iii.  275,  565. 
Dewsbury  Chapel  Case,  iii.  551. 
Dickenson,  Rev.  Peard,  iii.  621. 
Dillon,  John,  ii.  603. 
Dingle,  Thomas,  iii.  27. 
Dispensary  opened,  i.  11,  525. 
Diss,  iii.  629. 
Diversions,  iii.  517. 
Dixon,  Rev.  Mr.,  i.  160. 
Dixon,  Thomas,  iii.  295,  326,  414. 
Dobbin,  Dr.,  quoted,  iii.  660. 
Dobinson,  Mr.,  ii.  501. 
Dodd,  Dr. ,  ii.  23 1,  526,  597  ;  iii.  237-240. 
Doddridge,  Dr.,  i.  251,  300,  383,  490, 

515.516. 
Dodvvell,  Rev.  William,  iii.  356,  383. 
Dogmatism,  ii.  542. 
Doncaster,  i.  493  ;  ii.  502  ;  iii.  618. 
Dover,  ii.  339,  363,  548. 
Downes,  John,  i.  402,  418,  441,   51S; 

ii.  26,  134,  226,  450,  461. 
Downes,  Rev.  John,  ii.  342. 
Dram  Drinking,  ii.  390,  540;  iii.  44. 
Dress,  i.   139;  ii.   390;  iii.  413,   470 

517,621. 
"Drummer  Jack,"  ii.  19. 
Drunkenness,  i.  503. 
Dublin,  i.  556  ;  ii.  3,  35,   77,  82,    143, 

236,  272,   301,  350,   445,  447,  537  J 

iii.  41,  109,  202,  206,  251,  269,  313, 

392,  459,  493,  542,  5 68,  623. 
Dublin  Chronicle,  iii.  570. 
Dublin  Evening  Post,  iii.  568. 
Dudley,  ii.  115,  500. 
Dumfries,  ii.  164  ;  iii.  532,  608. 
Dunbar,  ii.  276,  471  ;  iii.  66. 
Dundee,  ii.  567. 
Dunlop,  Andrew,  iii.  315. 
Dunstan,  Edward,  i.  543. 
Durham,  i.  458 ;  ii.  277,  407,  588 ;  iii. 

610. 

Earthquakes,  ii.  71,  212. 
Easingvvold,  iii.  473. 


Index. 


689 


Easterbrook,  Rev.  Joseph,  iii.  35,  600. 

Easton,  John,  iii.  342. 

Edinberry,  ii.  35,  302. 

Edinburgh,    ii.   118,  470,  503,  568;  iii. 

63,  121,  371,  411,  534. 
Ediication  of  Children,  iii.  399. 
Education  of  the  Wesleys,  i.  17. 
Edwards,  John,  i.  537  ;  ii.  241. 
Edwards,  Rev.  Jonathan,  i.  218,  500. 
Eels,  William,  iii.  558. 
Egginton,  Rev.  Mr.,  i.  407,  414. 
Election,  i.  311,  334,  349  ;  ii.  144,  145, 

536. 
Electricity,  ii.  161. 
Elizabeth,  Queen,  iii.  32. 
Ellison,  Richard,  ii.  139. 
Elmoor,  Micah,  i.  541. 
Elocution,  ii.  60. 
Ely,  iii.  178. 
Embury,   Philip,  ii.  146,  239,  607  ;  iii. 

47- 
England  needed  Methodism,  i.  173. 
England,  State  of,  i.  16,  42,  60  ;  ii.  393; 

iii.  185,  286,  318. 
Enniskillen,  iii.  153. 
Entwisle,  Joseph,  iii.  29,  509. 
Episcopacy,  ii.  244,  257. 
Epitaphs,  iii.  457. 
Epworth,  i.  91,  387,  405,  45^,  488,  493. 

540;  ii.  8,   120,  278,  300,  327,  413, 

473  ;  iii-  371,  413,  539,  545>  618. 
Epworth,  Fire  at,  i.  17. 
Epworth  Rectory,  i.  95. 
Erasmus,  Bishop,  ii.  486. 
Erskine,  Rev.  Ralph,  i.  264. 
Escrick,  George,  iii.  351. 
Eustick,  Mr.,  i.  507. 
Evans,  Caleb,  iii.  187,  188. 
Evans,  John,  i.  494. 
Evans,  Rev.  Theophilus,  ii.  229. 
Everton,  ii.  311,  331,  341,  397,  444. 
Evesham,  ii.  163,  399,  560;  iii.  47. 
Exeter,  i.  419,  473,  554;  ii.  448;  iii. 

302,  384,  492. 

Faith,  i.  52,   167,   177,   182,  186,  238, 

552;  ii.  216. 
Falmouth,  i.  471  ;  ii.  279;  iii.  587. 
Family  Religion,  i.  466. 
Fanaticism,    i.    188,   395  ;  ii.  434,  454, 

460. 
Fasting,  i.  81  ;  iii.  157,   164,  179,  2S7, 

631. 
Faversham,  i.  173  :  ii,  548. 
Female  Preaching,  ii.  398  ;  iii.  41,  iii, 

645. 
Fenwick,  John,  ii.  612. 
Fenwick,  Michael,  ii.  219,  278;  iii.  351, 

.39i>  522. 
Ferguson,  William,  iii.  394. 
Fenars,  Earl,  ii.  364. 

VOL.  III. 


Fetter  Lane  .Society,  i.  301,  30S. 
Field  Preaching,  i.  227,  233,  235,  446  ; 

ii-  329,  339;  iii-  588,  626. 
Final  Perseverance,  i.  313 ;  ii.  135,  536. 
P'itzgerald,  L.idy  Mary,  iii.  650. 
Fleetwood,  William,  i.  364. 
Fletcher,  Rev.  John,  ii.  220,  262,  299, 

308,  437,  464,  556,  563  ;  iii-  3,  I9, 
34.  87,  92,  95,  100,  136,  140,  147, 
158,  181,  190,  209,  212,  232,  234, 
247,  290,  361,  370,  416,  429,  463, 
472.  480,  487-. 

Fleury,  Claude,  ii.  64. 

Fleury,  Rev.  Mr.,  iii.  113. 

Foggs  Weekly  Journal,  i.  85,  86. 

"Fool  of  Quality,"  iii.  342. 

Foote,  Samuel,  ii.  366,  591. 

Fothergill,  Dr.,  ii.  161,  174,  189. 

Foundery,  Old,  i.  271,  551  ;  ii.  498  ; 
iii.  220,  303. 

Fox,   John.  ii.  421. 

Francke's  Orphanage,  i.  199. 

Francks,  Samuel,  ii.  345  ;  iii.  155,  207. 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  ii.  161, 

Frederica,  i.  124,  131,  134. 

"Free  Grace,"  Sermon,   l    317,   320, 

.323- 
Free,  Rev.  Dr.,  ii.  321. 
Freedom  of  Speech,  i.  497. 
French  Invasion,  threatened,  1.  438  ;  ii. 

323- 
French  Language,  ii.  260. 
French  Prisoners,  ii.  339. 
French  Revolution,  iii.  597. 
Frome,  i.  473  ;  ii.  190  ;  iii.  28. 
Fulneck,  i.  544. 
Funeral,  Irish,  ii.  79- 
Furley,  Rev.  Samuel,  ii,  1S6,  450, 

Gainsborough,  ii,  330,  331,  413,  502, 
Gallatin,  Colonel,  ii.  117,  1S9. 
Gambold,   Rev.  John,   i.   68,  70,  108, 

179,  281,  337,  339,  361  ;  iii.  222. 
Garden,  Rev.  Mr.,  i.  139,  326, 
Gardiner,  Lady,  ii,  470. 
Gardner,  John,  ii.  253. 
Garretson,  Freeborn,  iii.  461,  484,  566, 
Gateshead,  ii.  328. 
Gawksham,  ii.  275. 
Gayer,  Mr.,  iii.  203. 
GcntlemaiCs  Magazine,  i.  357. 
Georgia,  i.  109-117,  120,  i^. 
Georgian  Mission,  i.  169. 
German  Methodists,  i.  9. 
Ghosts,  i.  22. 
Gib,  Rev,  Adam,  i,  374. 
Gibraltar,  iii.  46. 
Gibson,  Bishop,  i.  207,  217,  244,  454, 

548. 
Gifted  Itinerants,  ii.  84. 
Gilbert,  Francis,  ii.  298,  535;  iii.  151. 

V  Y 


690 


Index. 


Gilbert,  Miss  Mary,  ii.  535. 

Gilbert,    Nathaniel,    ii.   297,    535  ;    iii. 

273- 
Gilbert,  Nicholas,  11.  382. 

Gill,  Rev.  Dr.,  ii.  148,  191. 

Gillies,  Rev.  John,  ii.    164,    165,  276, 

328  ;  iii.  9. 

Girl,  Starving,  i.  7 1. 

Giving,  ii.  516. 

Glasbrook,  James,  ii.  353,  587. 

Glasgow,  ii.  164,  276,  328,  568  ;  iii.  9, 

533- 
Glass,  John,  ii.  293. 
Glenorchy,  Lady,  ii.  47 1,  604 ;  iii.  64. 
Gloucester,  iii.  6,  503. 
Godfathers,  ii.  148. 
Goldney,  Edward,  iL  375. 
Goodday,   Rev.  Thomas,  ii.  334,  335, 

606. 
Goodenough,  Matthew,  iii.  259. 
Gordon,  Lord  George,  iii.  323,  341. 
Gordon  Riots,  iii.  318. 
Gospel  Magazine,  iii.  89,  105,  179,  233, 

237,  256,  314. 
Gospel  Preaching,  iii.   135. 
Grant,  Sir  Archibald,  ii.  404, 
Grant,  Sir  Lodowick,  iii.  412. 
Grantham,  iii.  356. 
Grantham,  Rfv.  Thomas,  i.  366. 
Granville,  Mary,  i.  74. 
Graves,  Rev.  C.  G.,  i.  339,  382,  391, 

406,  414. 
Green,  Rev.  Dr.,  ii.  370. 
Green,  Rev.  Thomas,  ii.  217. 
Greenwood,  Parson,  iiL  352,  553-555' 
Greenwood,  Paul,  ii.  38 1. 
Gregory,  Dr.,  iii.  122. 
Grey,  Rev.  Zachary,  i.  325,  476. 
(iriffith,  Rev.  Thomas,  ii.  229. 
Grimsby,  i.  406,  488;  ii.  11,  278,  327, 

502  ;  iii.  294. 
Grimshaw,  Rev.  William,  i.  536,  544; 

ii.  13,    17,    165,   166,   204,  211,   245, 

275,    327.   363.   384.   387,  412,  415. 

423,  478,  573  ;.i'i-  373. 
Grou,  Monsieur,  ii.  11. 

Guier,  Philip,  ii.  144,  146. 
Guisborough,  ii.  409. 
Guiseley,  ii.  330. 

Gwennap,  i.  524,  540  ;  ii.  289  ;  iii.  275, 
364,  588. 

Ilaime,  John,  i.  494  ;  ii.  164,  190. 

Hales,  Rev.  Dr.,  i.  265. 

Halifax,  i.  544;  ii.  12,  573;  iii.  126, 

291,  606. 
Hall,  Westley,  i.  68,  99,  117,  132,  285, 

337,  496,  561  ;   ii-87;  iii.  212. 
Hall,  Mrs.,  iii.  567. 
Halyburton,  Thomas,  i.  287. 
Hamilton,  Dr.  James,  iii.  122,  163,  584. 


Hammet,  William,  iii.  441. 
Hampson,  John,  ii.  102,  189,  226,  381, 

398,  511.  579;  iii-  251,  277,  298, 
334,  420,  423,  424,  449,  534,  552. 

Hampton,  i.  426, 

Hanby,  Thomas,  ii.  470,  560;  iii.  71, 
85,  n8,  417,  441,  574,  602. 

Harman,  John,  ii.  373,  498. 

Harris,  Howel,  i.  220,  275,  277,  299, 

307,  315,  321,  342,  349,   375,  402, 

535  ;  ii.  68,  154,  236,  479,  555,  60S; 

iii.  128. 
Harrison,  Hannah,  ii.  421  ;  iii.  41. 
Harrison,  Nathaniel,  i.  384. 
Hart,  Joseph,  i.  364. 
Hartlepool,  ii.  277,  330. 
Hartley,  Rev.  Thomas,  ii.  518. 
Haverfordwest,  ii.  595. 
Haweis,  Rev.  Dr.,  ii.  463,  499  ;  iii.  34. 
Hawes,  Dr.,  i.  564. 
Hawnby,  ii.  277. 
Haworth,  ii.  12,  33,  69,  155,  275,  330, 

363,  4.12,  573  ;  iii.  292,  325. 
Hayes,  ii.  70. 
Hayes,  Eleanor,  i.  165. 
Hayfield,  ii.  195. 
Healey,  John,  i.  440  ;  ii.  2. 
Hebrew  Points,  ii.  260. 
Heck,  Barbara,  ii.  239,  607  ;  iii.  47. 
Hclme,  John,  ii.  455. 
Helmsley,  ii.  335,  473,  502. 
Helstone,  ii.  218,  585. 
Heptonstall,  ii.  18,  141. 
Heresy,  ii.  244. 
Hermhuth,  i.  199,  202-207. 
Hertford,  iii.  28. 
Hervey,  Rev.  James,  i.  68,    132,    133; 

ii.  194,  227,  261,  293,  315,  526,  535  ; 

iii.  56. 
Hervey,  T.,  i.  252. 
Hewgill,  William,  ii.  277. 
Hexham,  i.  507. 
Hey,  William,  iii.  363. 
Hicks,  Rev.  Mr.,  ii.  310. 
High  Churchism,  i.  95,    147,    152,    160, 

496. 
Hill,  Rev.  Rowland,  iii.  106,  137,  255, 

258,  266. 
Hill,  Sir  Richard,  iii.   32,  34,    54,    75, 

106,  136,  159,  179,  266. 
Hilton,  John,  iii.  245. 
Hinckley,  iii.  295,  392. 
Hitchcock,  Rev.  Dr.,  ii.  428. 
Hitchins,  Thomas,  i.  524. 
Hoblin,  Rev.  Mr.,  i.  417. 
Hobson,  Elizabeth,  iii.  lO. 
Hodges,  Rev.  John,  i.  442. 
Hodgson,  Ralph,  iii.  536. 
Holder,  George,  iii.  362,  593,  631. 
Holland,  i.  196;  iii.  393.  487. 
"Honest  Munchin,"  i.  413. 


I?idex. 


691 


Hooker,  Mr.,  i.  326. 

Hopkey,  Miss,  i.  146-149,  169, 

Hopper,  Christopher,   i.   543,    545  ;  ii. 

52,  75,  118,  254,  381,  383,  404,  407, 

462,  612  ;  iii.  152,  169,  297,  355,  382. 
Homcastle,  ii.  327,  413,  566. 
Home,  Bishop,  ii.  457  ;  iii.  34. 
Home,  Melville,  i.  11. 
Horton,  John,  iii.  17,  650,  655. 
Hoskins,  John,  iii.  176. 
Hosmer,  John,  ii.  408. 
Hospital,  Methodist,  proposed,  ii.  360. 
How,  John,  ii.  290. 
Howard,  John^  iii.  495,  581. 
Huddersfield,    ii.   274,  414,    541  ;    iii. 

292. 
Hull,  ii.  139,  330,  410;   iii.  473,   538, 

611. 
Humane  Society,  Royal,  iii.  251. 
Hume,  David,  iii.  121. 
Humphreys,  Dr.,  1.  141. 
Humphreys,  Joseph,  i.  346,  402. 
Hunt,  John,  ii.  606. 
Huntingdon,    Lady,   i.    339,    341,    369, 

381  ;  ii.    20,  68,  245,  326,   337,   364, 

448,  462,  508,   556,   604  ;  iii.  2,   34, 

59,  73,  88,  92,  431. 
Hurd,  Dr.,  ii.  493. 
Husk,  General,  i.  492. 
Hutchins,  Mr.,  i.  179. 
Hutchinson,  John,  ii.  260;  iii.  4.91, 
Hutton,  James,  i.  108,   132,   181,   182, 

236,  298,  300,  307,    342,    420,    477  ; 

ii.  158,  159,  220,  222. 
Hutton,  Mrs.,  i.  189. 
Hutton,  Rev.  Mr.,  i.  189. 
Hutton  Rudby,  ii.  409,  570, 
Hymn  Book,   Methodist,    ii.  181  ;   iii. 

343- 
Hymn  Singing  in  Scotland,  ii.  164. 
Hymn  Writing,  i.  397. 
"Hymns  and  Sacred  Poems,"  i.  290. 

I 'Anson,  Mr.,  ii.  358. 

Ilkestone,  iii.  475. 

Imputed    Righteousness,   ii.  458,  469, 

551  ;  iii.  14. 
Infidelity  and  Popery,  i.  140. 
Infidelity  at  0.\ford,  i.  65. 
Ingham,  Benjamin,  i.  68,  108,  117,  I18, 

122,    126,    127,    135,    137,    196,  198, 

250,  277,  299,  306,  328,  338  ;  ii.  116, 

164,  166,  534;  iii.  255. 
Innys,  Rev.  Mr.,  i.  538. 
Inverness,  iii.  65,  293,  507. 
Ireland,  i.  556. 
Irish  Methodists,  iii.  42,  227. 
Irish  Primitive  Methodists,  i.  6. 
Isle  of  Man,  iii.  228,  241,  354,  593. 
Isle  of  Wight,   i.    12 1,    171  ;  ii.   304  ; 

iii.  386. 


Itinerancy,  iii.  167,  168,  561. 
Itinerant   Preachers   Advised,    ii.    163, 

199. 
Itinerant  Preachers  in  1 744,  i.  459. 

Jackson,  Daniel,  iii.  598. 

Jackson,  Thomas,  ii.  1 14. 

Jaco,  Peter,  i.  555  ;  iii.  297. 

Jane,  John,  ii.  75. 

Janitor,  Grateful,  i.  24. 

Jarratt,  Rev.  Mr.,  iii.  15 1. 

Jenkins,  Herbert,  i.  537. 

Jephson,  Rev.  Alexander,  ii.  369. 

Johnson,   Dr.   Samuel,   i.    51,    61  ;    iii. 

185,  238,  294,  406. 
Johnson,  John,  ii.  359,  383. 
Johnson,  Miss,  iii.  272. 
Johnson,  Thomas,  ii.  416. 
Jones,  Jacob,  iii.  651. 
Jones,  Rev,  Griffith,  i.  221. 
Jones,  Rev.  John,  ii.  11,  202,  203,  358, 

486,  507  ;  iii.  205. 
Jones,  Rev.  Thomas,  ii.  324. 
Jumpers,  Welsh,  ii.  480. 
Justification,  i.  52,  306,  443,  497. 

Keighley,  i.  544  ;  ii.  330  ;  iii.  243,  289. 
Keighley,  Joshua,  iii.  441,  507. 
Keith,  Jeannie,  i.  542  ;  ii.  52,  166. 
Kelso,  ii.  276  ;  iii.  371. 
Kempis,  Thomas  a,  i.  33-36,    106;  iii. 

63  r. 
Kendal,  ii,  164,  505,  535. 
Kennicott,  Dr.,  i.  448. 
Kennington  Common,  i.  228. 
Kershaw,  James,  ii.  531,  535  ;  iii.  362. 
Kilham,  Alexander,  iii.  408,  504. 
Kinchin,  Charles,  i.  67,  225. 
King,  Archbishop,  iii.  643. 
King,  John,  iii.  207, 
King,  Lord,  i.  508. 
Kingsford,  William,  iii.  562. 
Kingswood,   i.  227,   268,   519;  ii.  34, 

75,  86,  89,  290,  425;  iii.  110. 
Kingswood   School,   i.  269  ;  ii.  "J,  121, 

171,  241,  287,  297,  454,  559  ;  iii.  51, 

70,  129,  367,  396-400. 
Kinnard,  iii.  41. 
Kinsale,  ii.  147,  354  ;  iii.  460. 
Kirkby,  Rev.  John,  ii.  70. 
Kirkham,  Robert,  i.  49. 
Knaresborough,  ii.  411. 
Knight,  Titus,  ii.  573. 
Knox,  Alexander,  ii.  536,  577, 
Koker,  Dr.,  i.  196 ;  ii.  57, 

Lackington,  James,  i,  550. 
Lacy,  David,  ii.  275. 
Lambeth,  iii.  217,  649. 
Lancaster,  John,  iii.  416. 
Lancaster,  Rev.  Nathaniel,  ii.  616. 


692 


Index. 


Land,  Rev.  Tristam,  i.  242. 

Lloyd,  Rev.  David,  iii.  402. 

Landau  Church,  i.  458. 

Lloyd,  Rev.  Richard,  ii.  79. 

Lane  End,  iii.  41 1,  472. 

JAoyd's  Evening  Post,  ii.  348,  3SS 

428. 

Laneast,  i.  458. 

Logic,  ii.  90. 

Langhome,  Dr.,  ii.  213,  455. 

London  Chronicle,  ii.  460. 

Langston,  Mr.,  ii.  375. 

London  Circuit  Plan  in  1792,  iii.  . 

223. 

Languages,  ii.  135. 

London  Daily  Post,  ii.  58. 

Larwood,  Samuel,  ii.  187. 

London  Evening  Post,  i.  473. 

Latrobe,   Benjamin,  i.  556. 

London  in  1739,  i.  213. 

Laughing,  i.  293. 

London  Magazine,  ii.  292,  427. 

Launceston,  ii.  190,  218,  361. 

London  Methodist  Chapels,  ii.  89 

;  iii. 

Lavington,  Bishop,  ii.  23,  91,  134, 

150. 

216. 

Law,  WiUiam,  i.  50,  83,  99,  132, 

185- 

London  Methodist  Day  School,  i. 

550- 

187,  284,    330,    399;    ii.    63, 

265, 

London  Methodist  Society,  i.  420, 

461, 

269 ;  iii.  36. 

489. 

Lay  Preaching,  i.  201,  276;  ii.  246. 

Londonderry,  ii.  536  ;  iii.  42,  202. 

Learning,   Wesley  on,   i.  367  ;    ii.  64, 

Longden,  Henry,  iii.  474. 

491. 

Longridge,  Michael,  iii.  604. 

Leatherhead,  iii.  650. 

Lots,  Casting,  i.  147,  232,  323,  53 

I. 

Lee,  Thomas,  ii.  572  ;  iii.  326,  32 

7- 

Loughborough,  iii.  69. 

Leeds,  1.  490,  495.  S'S  ;  "•  2,  33. 

120, 

Lovefeast  at  Fetter  Lane,  i.  229. 

139,  166,  316,  399,  448,  584  ;  iii.  45, 

Lovefeasts,  Methodist,  ii.  341,  53? 

. 

68,  126,  206,  270,  292,  356,  41  _ 

)• 

Lowes,  Matthew,  iii.  6,  70,  71,  78 

. 

Leek,  iii.  118. 

Lowestoft,  ii.  512  ;  iii.  628. 

Lefevre,  Mrs.,  ii.  109. 

Lowth,  Bishop,  ii.  596  ;  iii.  251,  332. 

Leicester,  ii.  170,  28 1. 

Loyalty,    Methodist,  i.  439,    440, 

491 ; 

Leifchild,  Rev.  Dr.,  iii.  48S. 

iii.  235,  236,  286. 

Leighton  Buzzard,  iii.  1 14. 

Lunell,  Mr.,  i.  557  ;  ii.    5. 

Leith,  iii.  123. 

Lurgan,  ii.  303,  445  ;  iii.  202. 

Leland,  Dr.  Thomas,  ii.  493. 

Lutheran  Reformation,  i.  2. 

Lending  Society,  i.  550. 

Luton,  iii.  114. 

Leominster,  i.  524. 

Lynn,  iii.  629. 

Letters  for  first  time  published,  i.  26,  27, 

29.  37,  94,   131.  132,   136,  137, 

224, 

McAllum,  Duncan,  iii.  272,  293, 

497. 

233,  306,  3i2;ii.  112,  167,201, 

253, 

507,   565- 

281,  360,  416,   503,   508,   563, 

564, 

Macaulay,  Lord,   iii.  660. 

612  ;  iii.  3,  5,  31,    54,   55,   69 

70, 

Macclesfield,  ii.  448;   iii.  8,   165, 

370, 

72,78,83,88,95,  150,  177,204, 

212, 

393,  404,  493,  501.  605. 

225,  230,  273,    277,  284,  288, 

289, 

M 'Donald,  James,  iii.  630. 

293,  304,   315,    324,  336,   337, 

349, 

M 'Geary,  John,  iii.  493. 

355,  358,   376,   377,  378,   382, 

392, 

M 'Geary,  Thomas,  iii.  399. 

404,  408,  428,  442,  454,  467, 

477, 

M'Gowan,  John,  ii.  407  ;  iii.  34, 

314- 

4S2,  486,  491,  497,   507,   522, 

525, 

Machiavel,   Nicholas,  i.   134. 

532,  542-544,   546,   565,  580, 

590, 

M 'Kersey,  J.,  iii.  466. 

592,   598,   601,  605,   621,   632, 

633, 

Mackford,  Mr.,  ii.  14. 

643,  649. 

Mackie,  George,  iii.  134. 

Leven,  Lord,  iii.  412. 

M'Nab,  Alexander,   iii.  84,    85, 

303, 

Lewen,  Miss,  ii.  588. 

348,  559. 

Ley,  William,  ii.  353  ;  iii.  17. 

Madan,  Rev.  Martin,  ii.  283,  448, 

499, 

Leytonstone,  ii.  287. 

556. 

Libraries,  i.  499. 

Maddox,  Mr.,  iii.  421. 

Licensing  Chapels,  iii.  511. 

Madeley,    ii.  299 ;  iii.    290,    370, 

411, 

Lichfield,  Bishop  of,  i.  61. 

472,  603. 

Limerick,  ii.  36, 37,  78,  354, 448;  iii 

460. 

Maldon,  ii.  300. 

Lincoln,  iii.  327,  617. 

Malton,  ii.  570. 

Lisbon,  Earthquake  at,  ii.  223. 

Manchester,   i.  92,    174,   545;  ii. 

138, 

Lisburn,  ii.  240,  445  ;  iii.  1 54. 

164,    327,  399,  448,  478,  540 

;    111. 

Liskeard,  ii.  290. 

"9,  313,  337,  350,  353,  393, 

411, 

List  of  Itinerants,  ii.  126. 

416,  496,  605. 

Liverpool,  ii.   196,  274,  301,  328, 

448, 

Mann,  John,  iii.  544. 

566,  600;  iii.  9,  486,  590. 

Manners,  John,  ii.  415,  570« 

Index. 


69: 


Manners,  Nicholas,  ii.  306  ;  iii.  559. 

Manning,  Rev.  Charles,  i.  551;  ii.  70,  lOi. 

March,  Miss,  iii.  177. 

Marienbourn,  i.  197. 

Marriage  with  deceased  wife's  sister,  ii. 

259- 
Marriages,  Improper,   iii.  364,  640. 
Marriott,  Thomas,  i.  465. 
Marvellous  Escape,  iii.  169. 
Mary,  Queen  of  Scotland,  iii.  32. 
Maskew,  Jonathan,   ii.  41 1  ;  iii.  68. 
Mason,  John,  ii.  170;  iii.  598. 
Mason,  William,  iii.  75. 
Massiot,  James,  ii.  304. 
Mathematics,  ii.  389. 
Mather,   Alexander,  ii.  184,    488;    iii. 

155,    204,   327,    375,   441,  478,  553, 

558,  575- 
Maud,  Rev.  J.,  i.  474. 
Maxfield,   Thomas,   i.    274,    302,    369, 

454,  470;    ii-    381,    432,    436,    440, 

450,   454,    462,    464,  474,   482,  486, 

507,  556;  iii.  26,  59,  115,  261,  296. 
Maxwell,   Lady,  ii.  471,  503,  603;  iii. 

40,  65,  84,  86,  561. 
Mayer,  Matthew,  ii.  328,  473  ;  iii.  290. 
Mayor,  First  Methodist,  ii.  274. 
Mayor  of  Grampound,  ii.  290. 
Means  of  Grace,  i.  304. 
Mears,  William,  iii.  622. 
Meek,  Jenny,  i.  487. 
Meggot,  Samuel,  ii.  472. 
Mellar  I3am,  ii.  142. 
Meriton,  Rev.  John,  i.  442,  458,  539; 

ii.  3. 
Merryweather,    George,    ii.    408,    415, 

565,  612  ;  iii.  69,  83. 
Methodism,  Growth  of,   ii.   538. 
Methodism's  first  Lay  Preacher,  i.  274. 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  i.  8. 
Methodist  JSIanifestoes,  i.  484  ;  ii.  533. 
Methodist,  Name  of,  i.  67,  331. 
Methodist  New  Connexion,  i.  5. 
Methodist  Newspapers,  i.  il. 
Methodism,   Perpetuation  of,   iii.  49. 
Methodist  Protestant  Church,  i.  9. 
Methodist   Statistics,  i.   7,   9;   ii.  608, 

609;  iii.  330,  620. 
Methodists  not  perfect,  ii.  540,  5S0. 
Middleton,   Dr.  Conyers,  ii.  34,  61. 
Middleton,  John,  ii.  409. 
Midsomer  Norton,  iii.  231. 
Mill,  Peter,  iii.  573. 
Millard,  Henry,  i.  453. 
'Millenarianism,  ii.  220,  521  ;  iii.  544. 
Miller,  Robert,  ii.  483  ;  iii.  626. 
Milner,  Rev.  J.,  ii.  1 16, 141,  164, 166,330. 
Milton,  John,  ii.  495. 
Ministerial  Responsil)ility,  iii.  121. 
Ministers,  Unconverted,  iii.  564. 
Minulla,  ii.  304. 


Miracles,  i.  531  ;  ii.  87. 

Missionary  Collection,  First  Methodist, 

ii.  606. 
Missionary  Report,  First  Methodist,  iii. 

480. 
Missionaries,  Wesley  on,  i.  135,   142; 

ii.  606. 
Missions,   Methodist,  iii.  46;  iii.  272- 

274,  480-484. 
Missions  to  India  proposed,  iii.  483. 
Mitchell,  Thomas,  ii.  44,  381  ;  iii.  68. 
"Mitre,"  The,   ii.  241,  254. 
Molther,  Philip  II.,  i.  297,  301,  302. 
Monmouth,  iii.  339. 
Monro,  Dr.,  iii.  122. 
Montanists,  ii.  87. 
Moon,  Elizabeth,  ii.  409. 
Moore,  Henry,  i.  147,  350;  ii.  lOi,  1 15  ; 

iii.  16,   224,  246,  441,  543,  566,  575, 

598,  609,  616,  647. 
Moore,  William,  iii.  458. 
Moorfields,  i.  214. 
Moorhouse,  Michael,  iii.  467. 
Moravian  Missions,  i.  300. 
Moravianism,  i.  205,  206,  210,  281  ;  ii. 

155,  467;  iii-  72- 
Moravians,  i.    121,   126,  195,  279,  310, 

337,477,478,  535;  ii-  58,95- 
Morgan,  James,  ii.  358  ;  iii.  16,  23,  41. 
Morgan,  R.,  i.  131. 
Morgan,  William,  i.  67,  84. 
Morley,  ii.  331. 
Morley,  Dr.,  i.  58. 

Morning  Preaching,  iii.  22,  167,  410. 
Morpeth,  ii.  329. 
Morris,  James,  ii.  315. 
Moss,  Richard,  i.  471,  482  ;  ii.  II. 
Murgatroyd,  John,  i.  3S5. 
Murlin,  John,  ii.  381  ;  iii.  292. 
Murray,  Grace,  i.  541,  543;  ii.  12,45-56. 
Music,  ii.  500. 
Musselburgh,  ii.  I18,  276. 
Myles,  William,  iii.  154,  56S,  572,  583. 
Mystics,  The,  i.  133;  ii.  519. 

Nantwich,   ii.   163;  iii.   I18. 
National  Alarm,  iii.  267,  286. 
National  Churches,  i.  509. 
National  Commotion,  ii.  234  ;  iii.  39. 
National  Distress  and  its  Remedies,  iii. 

130. 
Naval  and  Military  Bible  Society,  iii. 

3I5- 
Neath,   i.  525  ;  iii.  20. 

Nelson,  John,  i.  369,  381,    383,   418, 

420,  441,  458,  507,  544  ;  il.  53,  169, 

3S3,  573  ;  iii-  70,  373- 
Nervousness,  iii.  274,  489. 
New  P,irth,  i.  230. 
New  Mills,  iii.  9. 
New  York,  ii.  607  ;  iii.  47. 


694 


Index. 


Newark,  iii.  327,  491,  549. 
Newbury,  iii.  29,  62,  471. 
Newcastle  on  Tyne,   i.  385,   392,  403- 

405,  425,  431,  461,  483,  487,  490, 
494,  513,  541 ;  "•    12,  33,  49,  56, 

112,   117,    120,    140,     166,    2t2,     328, 

406,  418,  470,  503,  537,  567,  569, 
595,  603,  606;  iii.  7,  17,  66,  123, 
169,  202,  215,  241,  294,  355,  412, 
573,  604,  607,  608. 

Newfoundland,  iii.  25,  176,  458, 

Newgate  Prison,  ii.  396. 

Newlyn,  i.  555  ;  ii.  25. 

Newman,  Miss,  ii.  560. 

Newry,  ii.  445,  600. 

Newspaper,  First  Methodist,  i.  346. 

Newton,  Rev.  John,  ii.  295,  314,  349, 

363  ;  iii.  33. 
Nitschmann,  David,  i.   1 17,    119,  146. 
Nitschmann,  Hannah,  ii.  I57. 
Norris,  Dr.  John,  i.  367. 
North,  Lord,  iii.  197. 
Northallerton,  i.  486,  487. 
Northampton,  ii.  587. 
Northtawton,  ii.  544. 
Northwich,  i.  547. 
Norton,  Mr.,  ii.  256. 
Norwich,  ii.    123,    189,  218,  273,  290, 

309,  313,   317,    325,  333,  342,  348, 

381,  397,  444,  482,  512,    534,  615; 

ui.  178,  405,  465,  629. 
Norwood,  ii.  290. 

"  Notes  on  New  Testament, "  ii.  184,  226. 
"Notes  on  Old  Testament,"  ii.  552. 
Nottingham,  i.  339,  440,  507,  518  ;    ii. 

514,560;  iii.  409,  514. 
Nova  Scotia,  iii.  401,  497,  545. 
Novels,  iii.  172,  450. 
Nowell,  Dr.,  iii.  32,  54,  108. 

Oastler,  Robert,  iii.  424. 

Oddie,  James,  iii.  70,  71,  420,  559.  574. 

Oglethorpe,  General,   i.    lio,  117,  118, 

122,    129,  136,  146. 
Okeley,  Francis,  ii.  301. 
Oldham,  iii.  290,  371. 
Oldham,  Adam,  iii.  119. 
O'Leary,  Arthur,  iii.  320. 
Oliphant,  Lawrence,  ii.  190. 
Oliver,  John,  iii.  71. 
Olivers,  Thomas,  ii.  489,   588  ;  iii.  41, 

104,    106-108,    140,    156,    158,    166, 

181,    188,  259,  2S5. 
Oratorios,  ii.  499. 
Ordination,  i.  510. 
Ordination  of  Methodist   Preachers,  ii. 

202,  487;  iii.  311,  331,  427. 
Ordination  Vows,  i.  100. 
Original  Sin,  i.  443  ;  ii.  294. 
Orphan  House,  Newcastle,  i.  393,  519, 

543- 


Orphanage,  Methodist,  ii.  517. 
Orton,  Rev.  Job,  iii.  19. 
Osborn,  Thomas,  ii.  359. 
Osmotherley,   i.  485,    487,    490,    541, 

544;    ii.    12,    107,    140,    212,    277, 

409. 
Otley,  ii.  330,  410,  416. 
Oulton,  John,  ii.  370. 
Owen,  Miss,  iii.  129. 
Oxford,  i.  174,    179,  182,   224;  iii.   29, 

32. 
Oxford  Methodists,   66-74,  83-88,  90, 
92,  106,  182,  361. 


Padiham,  ii.  275  ;  iii.  291. 

Palatines,  ii.  146,  238,  354. 

Paoli,  General,  iii.  454. 

Papists,  i.,  485  ;  ii.  384;  iii.  318-323. 

Parkhurst,  Dr.,  ii.  180. 

Pastoral  Visitation,  i.  420,  446  ;  ii. 
313,  580;  iii.  23,  125,  164. 

Pateley,  ii.  572  ;  iii.  326. 

Pawson,  John,  ii.  112,  443,  511,  547; 
iii.  163,  221,  297,  300,  310-312,  420, 
423.  428,  441,   442,   496,    529,    557, 

573,  582. 

Payne,  John,  ii.  493. 

Pearse,  Colonel,  iii.  460. 

Pearson,  George,  iii.  8. 

Pebworth,  iii.  7. 

Peel,  Sir  Robert,  iii.  499. 

Pembroke,  iii.  20,  no. 

Penitents,  i.  445. 

Penn,  Rev.  James,  ii.  456. 

Pennington,  William,  ii.  532. 

Penrith,  iii.  327. 

Pensford,  i.  236. 

Perfection,  Christian,  i.  88,  288,  313, 
3 '6,  334,  339,  349,  365,  444,  461, 
49S,  535,  553;  ii-  215,  232,  306, 
346,  399,  4'3,  4>6,  43 1,  439,  442, 
447,  449-453,  461,  465,  482,  494, 
507,  535,  546,  550,  562,  593,  596; 
iii.  12,  14,  22,  26,  59,  121,  462,  625, 

633- 
Periam,  Joseph,  i.  247. 
Perronet,    Charles,    i.   559  ;    ii.   2,   34, 

84,    109,    189,    200,    201,    206,    381, 

548. 
Perronet,  Edward,  ii.  57,  84,  loi,  104, 

200,  230,  241,  254,  419. 
Perronet,   Rev.   Vincent,   i.    512,   525  ; 

ii.  6,  8,  54,  62,  92,  104,  107,  108,  129, 

130,    149,  179,   230,   298,  467,   549; 

iii.  53,96,  122,  296,  390,  463. 
Persecution,  i.  236,  238,  296,  331,356, 

396,    425,  453,   470,    547  ;  ii.  2,   37, 

272,  291,  353. 
Persecutors,  Death  of,  ii.  278. 
Perth,  iii.  10,  120,  168. 


Index. 


695 


Peters,  Sarah,  ii.  27,  28. 
Philanthropy,    i.    294,    332,    352  ;    ii. 

348,  467  ;  iii.  458,  491. 
Philips,   Sir  John,  i.  132. 
Pickering,  ii.  570. 
Pickles,  Joseph,  ii.  41 1. 
Piercy,  George,  ii.  607. 
Piers,  Rev.  Henry,  i.  375,  427. 
Pilkington,  Mrs.,  ii.  77. 
Pilmoor,  Joseph,  iii.  47,  54,  17S. 
Pine,  William,  iii.  iSS,  211. 
Piracy,  i.  465. 

Pitt,  Right  lion.  William,  iii.  450. 
Placey,  ii.  276. 
Plagiarism,  i.  366. 
Plainness,  ii.  183. 
Playdell,  Mrs.,  iii.  532. 
Plendelieth,  Rev.  Mr.,  iii.  13. 
Plummer,  Stephen,  ii.  171. 
Plymouth,    i.    554;    ii.    190,361,   5S5 ; 

iii.  28,  384,  459,  492,  587. 
Pocklington,  ii.  140,  278. 
Poor  House,  Methodist,  i.  549. 
Popery,  iii.  315,  318,  388. 
Poplar,  iii.  115. 
Port  Isaac,  i.  555  ;  ii.  361. 
Portadown,  ii.  600. 
Portarlington,  ii.  37,    78,  82,   302,  353, 

447 ;  I'l-  42. 

Portsmouth,  ii.  170. 

Potter,    Archbishop,  i.  43  ;  ii.  16  ;  iii. 

571- 

Potter,  Rev.  Mr.,  ii.  317. 

Potto,  ii.  409. 

Power,  Autocratic,  ii.  577  ;  iii.  305,  3   9. 

Prayer  Answered,  i.  232  ;  iii.  204. 

Prayer  Book,  Methodist,  iii.  548. 

Prayer  Meetings,  iii.  135,  522,  623. 

Preachers'  Allowances,  iii.  550. 

Preachers,  how  to  mend,  ii.  582. 

Preachers,  First  ISIethodist,  iii.  455. 

Preaching,  Extempore,  iii.  563. 

Preaching,  Gospel,  ii.  130. 

Preaching  the  Law,  ii.  84. 

Preaching,  Lay,  i.  369  ;  ii.  245. 

Preaching,  Methodist,  i.  515. 

Predestination,  i.  40,  318,  319,  366; 
ii.  148  ;  iii.    14,  54. 

Preston,  iii.  354. 

Preston  Pans,  ii.  567. 

Pretender,  The,  i.  42,  4S9. 

Price,  Dr.,  iii.  234. 

Primitive  Methodists,  i.  6  ;  ii.  609. 

Prince  Edward's  Island,  iii.  66. 

Pritchard,  John,  ii.  547. 

Protestant  Association,  iii.  318. 

Publications,  Anti-AIethodist,  i.  325, 
364,  426,  454,  474,  513;  ii.  iSo, 
217,  229,  270,  291,  367,  427,  455, 
489.  525.  537.550.  590,  616;  iii. 
35.  56,  79.  255,  261,  314. 


Publications,  Wesley's,  i.  90,  105,  210, 
288,  333,  365,  397,  430,  463,  500, 
529,  562  ;  li.  29,  60,  89,  135,  142, 
147,  i8r,    191,    220,   264,  293,  317, 

345.  389.  429,  457,  494.  532,  550, 
593,  617  ;  iii.  36,  57,  80,  112,  145, 
161,  182,  210,  234,  260,  267,  280, 
315,  342,  366,  387,  406,  455,  469, 
488,  515,  593,  633. 

Pul)low,  iii.  129. 

Punctuality,  iii.  539. 

Quakerism,  i.  489  ;  ii.  30  ;  iii.  245,  246. 
(Quarterly  Meetings,  ii.  42. 
Quarterly  Visitation,  i.  380;  iii.  514. 
Questions  to  Candidates,  ii.  583. 
Quick,  Catherine,  i.  416. 
Quincy,    Rev.    Samuel,    i.    114,     126, 
127. 

Rankin,  Thomas,  ii.  507,  532,  545 ;  iii. 
69.  97.  194,  248,  297,  299,  300,  429, 
441,  510,  566,  567,  575,  654. 

Reading  (Berks.),  ii.  2i8.- 

Reading  recommended,  ii.  515  ;  iiL 
359,  632. 

Redemption,  Universal,  i.  535. 

Reece,  Richard,  iii.  29,  509. 

Reeves,  Jonathan,  i.  453,  454,  473. 

Religion,  how  to  Revive,  iii.  22. 

Religious  Cheerfulness,  i.   138. 

Religious    Reformations    Compared,  i. 

533- 
Religious    Revivals,    L   2 1 8,   220,   222, 

223,  467;  iii.    124. 
Religious  Societies,  i.  254. 
Relly,  James,  i.  536  ;  ii.  240,  400. 
Relly,  John,  i.  537. 
Renty,  Monsieur  de,  1.  366. 
Repentance,  i.  52,  497  ;  iii.  24. 
Reprobation,  i.  317  ;  ii.  144,  145. 
Reproving  Sin,  iii.  622. 
Reynolds,  John,  ii.  484. 
Richardson,  Rev.  John,  ii.    507,   573 ; 

iii.  222,  299. 
Rich  Methodists  Warned,  iii.  456,  516, 

519.  563.  594.  636. 
Riches,  Danger  of,  iii.  347. 
Richmond  (Yorkshire),  iii.  18. 
Ridley,  Mr.,  i.  491,  494, 
Rimius,  Henry,  ii.  156. 
Riots  in  Staffordshire,  L  407. 
Ripon,  ii.  569  ;  iii.  326. 
Ritchie,   Miss,   ii.  411;    iii.   243.    337, 

461,  621,  650,  651. 
Ritualism,  i.   168. 
Robe,  Rev.  James,  i.  222. 
Robetrs,  Thomas,  iii.  621,  647. 
Robertson,  Dr.,  iii.  120. 
Robin  Hood's  Bay,  ii.  277,  330,  409. 
Robinson,  Archbishop,  i.  277. 
Robinson,  Henry  Crabb,  iii.  628. 


696 


Index. 


Rochdale,  ii.  57. 

Rochester,  iii.  622. 

Rodda,    Richard,    iii.    248,    500,    574, 

590. 
Rogers,    Hester  Anne,    iii.    166,    371, 

392,  650. 
Rogers,  James,  iii.  178,  348,  459,  625, 

649,  650,  654. 
Rolvenden,  ii.  359. 
Romaine,   Rev.    William,   ii.  219,  277, 

412,448,  459,  463,  534,  556;  iii.  75. 
Romley,    Rev.  Mr.,    i.   405,  45S,   488, 

493;  ii-  II. 
Roquet,  Rev.  James,  ii.    11,  546:  iii. 

16,  188. 
Rotherham,  ii.  69,  278,  331,  412,  502. 
Roughlee,  ii.  14. 
Rousseau,  iii.  58. 
Rowell,  Jacob,  ii.  144,  381,  565. 
Rules  of  Methodist  Societies,  i.  430. 
Rutherford,  Thomas,  iiL  304,  623. 
Rutherforth,  Rev.  Dr.,  ii.  490;  iii.  36. 
Ryan,    Sarah,    ii.  109,  285,  297,    517, 

562. 
Rye,  iii.  566. 
Ryles,  Mr.,  iii.  8. 

SabbathDesecration,  i.  501 ;  iii.  366,  372. 
Sacraments,  i.   81,   353,   501  ;  ii.   263; 

iii.  574-576. 
Sagar,  William,  iii.  243. 
Salisbury,  ii.  87,  218  ;  iii.  52,  503. 
Salmon,  Mr.,  i.  117  ;  iii.  118. 
Saltzburghers,  i.  112. 
Salvation  by  Faith,  i.  183,  238. 
Sandeman,   Robert,  ii.  293,  534  ;  iii.  3. 
Sandemanianism,  ii.  293,  550. 
Saunderson,  Hugh,  iii.  42. 
Savannah,  i.  123,  126,  128,  161,  163. 
Scarborough,   ii.   330,    410,    509;    iiL 

413- 

Schism,  ii.  244. 

Schisms,  i.  325,  344. 

Scilly  Islands,  i.  419. 

Scotch  Funerals,  iii.  167. 

Scotch  National  Assembly,  ii.  567. 

Scotland,  Methodism  in,  ii.  119. 

Scots  Magazine,  i.  239,  357, 

Scott,  Captain,  ii.  587. 

Scott,  Francis,  ii.  12. 

Scott,  Sir  Walter,  iii.  371. 

Seabury,  Dr.  Samuel,  iii.  440, 

Seeker,  Archbishop,  i,  500. 

Selby,  ii.  327. 

Select  Societies,  i.  445. 

Sellon,  Rev.  Waher,  ii.  8,  li,  201, 
281,  359,  531  ;  iii-  54,  55,  81,  87, 
91,  108,  117,  140,  180,  408,  431. 

Separation  from  Church  of  England,  il 
198,  200,  241,  279,  317,  380,  402, 
416,  444,  477,   526,  575  ;  iii.  12,  18, 


23,  270,  278,  330,  363,  391,  413, 
431,  436,  449,  465,  468,  477,  488, 
490,  496,  511,  523,  534,  542,  545, 
547,  569,  613,  634. 
Sermons  before  University,  i.  362,  448. 
Settle,  iii.  242. 

Sevenoaks,  i.  376,  525 ;  iii.  562. 
Seward,  William,  i.  342. 
Shackerley,  ii.  18. 
Shadford,  George,  iii.  175,  248. 
Shaftesbury,  ii.  86,  87,  218,  5S5. 
Sharpc,  Granville,  iii.  114. 
Shaw,  Mrs.,  iii.  465. 
Sheemess,  ii.  615. 
Shefiield,    i.    390,    425,   48S  ;    ii.    139, 

278,    328,    331,    501,    561  ;   iii.    48, 

328,  336,  348,  474- 
Shent,  William,  ii.    118,  595  ;  iii.  289, 

296. 
Shepherd,  Mr.,  i.  416,  418. 
"Shepherd  of  Salisbury  Plain,"  iii.  53. 
Shepton  Mallet,   i.   524 ;  ii.  i,  2,  86  ; 

iii.  590. 
Sherlock,  Bishop,  ii.  72. 
Shields,  i.  404  ;  ii.  329  ;  iii.  18,  573. 
Shirley,  Dady  Frances,  ii.  32,  194. 
Shirley,  Rev.  Walter,  ii.  337,  364,  380; 

iii-  65,  93. 
Shoreham,  i.  507,  525  ;  iii.  53. 
Short  Prayers,  ii.  577. 
Shrewsbury,  iii.  19,  449. 
Silvester,  Rev.  Tipping,  i.  209. 
Simeon,  Rev.  Charles,  iii.  454,  510. 
Simpson,  Rev.   David,    iii.    165,    336, 

370,  404,  501- 
Simpson,   Rev.   Mr.,  i.   302,   303,  338, 

476. 
Simpson,  Thomas,  iii.  397. 
Simpson,  William,  iii.  4S6,  522,  542. 
Singing,  i.   398;   ii.  429;    iii.   20,   22, 

352,  502. 
Skelton,  Charles,  ii.  36,  129,  134,  187, 

241. 
Skerret,  Rev.  Dr.,  i.  239, 
Skircoat  Green,  i.  513. 
Slanders,  i.  357. 

Slavery,  ii.  132;  iii.  114,  183,  650. 
Sleep,  i.  72  ;  iii.  357,  359. 
Sligo,  11.  354,  445  ;  iii.  269. 
Slocomb,  John,  i.  440. 
Smalbroke,  Bishop,  i.  504. 
Smith,  Christopher,  ii.  408. 
Smith,  John,  ii.  350. 
Smith,  Rev.  Haddon,  iii.  80. 
Smith,  Rev.  Thomas,  iii.  337. 
Smith,  William,  ii.   112;  iii.  16,    169, 

607. 
Smyth,  Agnes,  iii.  241. 
Smyth,  Aquila,  i.  326. 
Smyth,    Rev.    Edward,    iii.    241,    304, 
313.  454,  494,  571,  572,  583,  624. 


Index. 


697 


Smuggling,  ii.  277,   449,  515,  617;  iii. 

215. 
Snowsfields  Chapel,  i.  421. 
Snuff  taking,  ii.  540. 
Societies,  Methodist,  i.  278,  444. 
Society  for  Reformation  of  Manners,  ii. 

468. 
Society  Meetings,  i.  446. 
Socinianism,  ii.  295. 
Soldiers,  i.  432  ;  ii.  231,  237. 
South  Leigh,  ii.  498. 
South  Sea  Bubble,  i.  43. 
Southall,  Mr.,  ii.  500. 
Southampton,  iii.  503. 
Southey,   Robert,  i.  265  ;  iii.  656. 
Spangenberg,  Rev.  Mr.,  i.  125,  420. 
Sparrow,  Samuel,  iii.  117. 
Spence,  Robert,  iii.  496,  539. 
Spencer,  William,  ii.   11. 
Spitalfields,  ii.  534  ;  iii.  25. 
St.  Agnes,  i.  554  ;  ii.  289,  361. 
St.  Austell,  ii.  290  ;  iii.  465,  587. 
St.  Helens,  iii.  371. 
St.  Ives,   i.   416,  453,  454.  554;  ii.  87, 

171,  218,  361,  587,  610. 
St.  Just,   i.   489,  524;    ii.  25,  87,  218, 

289,  361. 
Stafford,  iii.  403,  411. 
Stamp,  John,  iii.  573. 
Stanhope,  iii.  535. 
Staniforth,  Samson,  ii.  487. 
Stanton  Harcourt,  i.  174,  179. 
Stationing  Preachers,  iii.  271,  339,  373, 

418. 
Stebbing,  Rev.  Dr.,  i.  240,  475. 
Stennett,  Dr.,  iii.  13. 
Stephens,  Joseph  Rayner,  iii.  462. 
Stephens,  William,  i.  162,  164. 
Sterne,  Lawrence,  ii.  369,  590;  iii.  114. 
Stevens,  William,  iii.  648. 
Stewards,  London,  i.  422,  549. 
Stockport,  iii.  327. 
Stockton,    ii.    12,    120,    277,  330,  407  ; 

iii.  412. 
Stokesley,  ii.  330. 

Stonehouse,  Rev.  Mr.,  i.  179,  305,  514. 
Stourport,  iii.  602,  647. 
Strangers'  Friend  Society,  i.    11  ;   iii. 

252. 
Stroud,  ii.  500,  535  ;  iii.  391,  410. 
Sunday  Schools,    i.    10 ;    ii.    534  ;  iii. 

414,  500,  522,  604. 
Sunderland,  i.  404  ;    ii.  140,   277,  329, 

618  ;  iii.  48,  328,  336,  348,  474. 
Suter,  Alexander,  iii.  497. 
Swaddlers,  i.  559. 
Swearing,  i.  502. 

Sweden,  Methodism  in,  iii.  66,  462. 
Swedenborg,  iii.  59,  407. 
Swindells,    Robert,   ii.   2,  3,   29,    122, 

129. 


Syke  House,  i.  458. 

Tadcaster,  ii.  327,  330. 

Taunton,  i.  419  ;  ii.    133  ;  iii.  27,  211, 

214. 
Taxes,  ii.  390  ;  iii.  451. 
Taylor,  David,   i.    10,    382,    3S3,    390, 

426 ;  ii.  42. 
Taylor,  Dr.,  ii.  18,  291,  294. 
Taylor,  Rev.  Mr.,  iii.  431. 
Taylor,  Lsaac,  i.  266. 
Taylor,  Jeremy,  i.  35,  36. 
Taylor,  Joseph,  iii.  391,  441,  549,  574- 
Taylor,   Thomas,  iii.   9,   20,   177,   225, 

227,  243,    246.    271,   284,  287,  292, 
306,    334,   361,  496,   544,   606,   611, 

643-  . 
Tea  Drinking,   i.  521. 

Teetotalism,  i.  I17  ;  iii.   III. 
Tennant,  Thomas,  iii.  224. 
Terryhugan,  ii.  303. 
Teulon,  Mr.,  iii.  17. 
Tewkesbury,  iii.  411. 
Theatres,  ii.  514. 
Theological  Institution,  i.  543. 
Thirsk,  i.  544  ;  ii.  567,  595  ;  iii.  424. 
Thom,  William,  iii.  6i2. 
Thompson,  Joseph,  ii.  568  ;  iii.  573. 
Thompson,  Rev.  Mr.,  i.  458;  iii.  384. 
Thompson,  Thomas,  iii.  272. 
Thompson,  William,  iii.  152,  606. 
Thornton,  Mrs.,  iii.  78. 
Thorold,  Sir  John,  i.  132,  478. 
Thurot,  Commodore,  ii.  350. 
Ticket,  Unique  Society,  ii.  188. 
Tipton,  i.  406. 
Tissot,  Dr.,  ii.  345  ;  iii.  57. 
Tiverton,  ii.  86,  87,  133;  iii.  275. 
Todmorden,  ii.  141. 
Told,  Silas,  i.  273  ;  ii.  3S7  ;  iii.  279. 
Toltschig,  John,  i.  196. 
Tomo  Chichi,  i.  114,  126. 
Tompson,  Richard,  ii.  214. 
Toplady,   Rev.  Augustus,  ii.  315,  487 
iii.  54,    81,    139,    158,  179,  lyo,  210, 

228,  232,  25S,  266. 
Tottie,  Rev.  Dr.,  ii.  591. 
Towcester,  ii.  348. 
Townsend,  Rev.  Joseph,  ii.  604. 
Tract  Distribution,  i.  496. 

Tract  Society,    Methodist,    i.    11;    iii. 

Tracts,  Publication  of,  i.  505. 

Trapp,  Rev.  Dr.,  i.  241,  329  ;  ii.  63. 

Tratham,  David,  ii.  129. 

Trelawny,  Sir  Harry,  iii.  339. 

Trcmljath,  John,  i.  493,  558;  iii.  385. 

Trevecca,  ii.  236. 

Trcvecca  College,  iii.  34,  50,  8'3,    128, 

255- 
Tripp,  Ann,  ii.  289. 


698 


Index. 


Troutbeck,  Dr.,   ii.  8. 
Trowbridge,  ii.  190;  iii.  338. 
Ti-uro,  ii.  449,  585  ;  iii.  587. 
Tucker,  Rev.  Dr.,  i.  244,   399. 
Tullamore,  ii.  4,  78,  303 ;  iii.  269. 
Tunstall,  iii.  604. 
Tyerman,   Elizabeth,  i.  486. 
Tverman,  Rev.  Daniel,  iii.  387. 
Tyrell's  Pass,  ii.  2,  78,  353. 

Ulverstone,  ii.  69. 

Union,  i.  321  ;  ii.  542. 

Union,  Clerical,  proposed,  ii.  508. 

Union  of  Methodists,  i.  51 1. 

United  Methodist  Free  Churches,  i.  6. 

Unthank,  John,  ii.  407. 

Uxbridge,  ii.  71. 

Valton,  John,  iii.  337.  383,  552- 
Vasey,  Thomas,  iii.  428. 
Vegetarianism,  i.  1 1 7,  525. 
Venn,  Rev.  Henry,  i.  II  ;  ii.  186,  252, 
337,412,  414,  448.  459,  541  ;  iii.  18. 
Visitors,  Methodist,  i.  353,  422. 
Voltaire,  iii.  58,  288. 
Voltaire  and  Wesley  contrasted,  i.  44. 
Vowler,  Rev.  Mr.,  ii.  279. 

Wakefield,  i.  440;  ii.  12,  139;  iii.  184. 

Waldron,  Isaac,  ii.  387. 

Walker,    Rev.    Samuel,   ii.    207,    21 1, 

244,  250,  279,  317,  414,  585. 
Walpole,  Horace,  ii.  32,  72,  558. 
Walpole,  Sir  Robert,  i.  103,  136. 
Walsal,  i.  407  ;  ii.  501. 
Walsh,  Thomas,  i.  462  ;  ii.    146,    147, 

200,  202,  206,   239,   261,   273,  304, 

534,  597- 
"Wandsworth,  ii.  25,  297. 
Wanley,  Dean,  ii.   570. 
Warburton,  Bishop,    i.  208 ;    ii.   450, 

454,  492,  519. 
Ward,  Elizabeth,  ii.   407. 
W'ard,  Valentine,  ii.   47 1. 
Warminster,  ii.  I,   308. 
Warne,  Jonathan,  iii.    139. 
Warrener,  William,  iii.   441. 
"Warrington,  ii.  565  ;  iii.  352. 
"Watchnight,  First,  L  333. 
Watchnight  Service,  iii.   252. 
Waterford,  ii.    X47 ;  iii.    153,  202. 
Waterland,  Rev.   Daniel,  i.   330. 
Watson,  Richard,  i.  265  ;  ii.    102. 
Watteville,  Baron,  i.    196. 
Watts,  Dr.,  iii.   334,  346. 
Weardale,  ii,   406,  503,   569;  iii.  123, 

610. 
Webb,  Captain,    ii.    546,  607  ;  iii.   47, 

451- 
Webster,  Rev.  Dr.,  iii.  64,  3c 4. 
Webster,  Eleazer,  i.  543. 


Wednesbury,  i.  406,  495  ;  ii.  115,  348, 
399,  501,  600  ;  iii.  603. 

IVdekly  Miscellany,  i.  250,  326,  358. 

Welch,  Thomas,  iii.  399. 

Wells,  Samuel,  iii.  302. 

Welsh  Cah'inistic  Methodists,  i.  4, 

Wentworth,  General,  i.  493. 

Wentworth  House,  iii.  475. 

Wesley,  Charles,  jun. ,  iii.  345,  360. 

Wesley,  Mrs.  Charles,  ii.  35  ;  iii.  654. 

Wesley,  Rev.  Charles,  i.  67,  117,  126- 
128,  131,  137,  178,  179,  i8i,  188, 
210,  226,  229,  232,  253,  260,  264, 
279,  295,  299,  302,   303,  310,  317, 

324,    331,  336,  341,  343,   349,  404, 

406,  407,  412,  416,  425,  437,  439, 

440,  448,  458,  470,  487,   506,  538, 

559  ;  ii-  2,  6,  32-34,  40,   52,  73,  95, 

101,    103,    107,   113,  118,    122,  127, 

130,  137,  138,  143,  147,  172,  175, 
189,   201,    206,   230,  244-253,   271, 

307,  319,  357,  358,  361,  365,  381, 
387,  388,  396,  4 '6,  431,  441,  448, 
453,  459,  462,  487,  497,  506,  507, 
511,  556,  562,  574,  595,  596,  602; 
\\\.  I,  5,  12,  92,  97,  100,  135,  171, 
194,  204,  207,  222,  225,  233,  246, 
257,  261,  296,  309,  312,   316,  330, 

355,   376,  434,  439,  443,  478,  497, 

522,  529,  562,  659. 
Wesley  Family,  The,  i.  16. 
Wesley's  Brother  Samuel,  i.  24,  29,  46, 

133,  188-194,  252,  264,  286,  287. 
Wesley's  Father,  i.  16,  30,  39,  41,  45, 

98,   102,  103. 
Wesley's  First  Convert,  i.  49. 
Wesley's  Journals  Commenced,  i.  35. 
Wesley's   Marriage  and   Wife,   ii.  101, 

III-I15  ;  iii.  20,  30,  84,    126,   207, 

233,  365- 
Wesley's  Mother,  i.  23,  26,  27,  29,  32, 

34,  37-39,  127,  132,  285,  369,  390. 
Wesley's  Nephew  Samuel,  iii.  345,  361. 
Wesley's    Niece    Sarah,   iii.   356,   524, 

622,  630,  650,  651,  655. 
Wesley's  Poetry,  i.  47. 
Wesley's  Sister  Emily,  i.  33,  94,  424; 

ii.  406. 
Wesley's  Sister  Keziah,  i.  99,  161. 
Wesley's  Sister  Martha  (Mrs.  Hall),  IL 

406,  589  ;  iii.  16,  567. 
Wesley's  Sister  Mehetabel  (Mrs.  Wright), 

ii.  74,  406. 
Wesley's  Will,  in  1 768,  iii.  15. 
Wesley's  Will,  in  1789,  iii.  616. 
Wesleyan  Methodism,  i.  3. 
Wesleyan  Reform  Union,  i.  7, 
West,  Hon.  James,  ii.  234. 
West  Bromwich,  i.  406  ;  iii.  7,  290. 
West  Street  Chapel,  i.  421. 
Westall,  Thomas,  i.  440,  453. 


hidex. 


699 


Westminster  jfournal,  i.  473  ;  ii.  397. 
Whatcoat,  Richard,  i.  442  ;  iii.  428. 
\Vheatley,  Benjamin,  i.  543. 
Wheatley,   James,    iL    121,    189,  309, 

313.  325- 

Wheatley,  Rev.  Charles,  i.  240. 

Whiston,  Rev.  Thomas,  i.  325. 

Whitaker,  John,  li.  410. 

Whitby,  ii.  409  ;  iii.  68,  413,  538,  610. 

Whitchurch,  ii.  339. 

White,  Rev.  George,  ii.  15. 

Whitefield,  Rev.  George,  i.  68,  104, 
108,  132,  141,  171,  179,  221,  226, 
232,  233,  243,  247,  250,  252,  254, 
269,    277,    311-316,   321,   322,  327, 

336,  342,  344,  346-349.  372,  402, 
414,  426,  437,  455,  470,  477,  506, 
535  ;  ii-  19,  22,  24,  32,  33,  42,  53, 
68,  95,  118,  132,  137,  147,  150,  154, 
156,  167,  175,  185,  209,  219,  223, 
228,  234,  272,  297,  366,  371,  373, 
396,  415,  416,  426,  431,  448,  459, 
463,  470,  493,  497,  537,  548,  556, 
562,  595,  £08,  614  ;  Iii.  I,  34,  39, 
60,  71,  76,  78,  85,  89,  255,  261. 

Whitehaven,  ii.  1 1 7,  504;  iii.  411. 

Whitehead,  Dr.,  ii.  103,  474;  iii.  16, 
298,  616,  650,  651. 

Whitelamb,  Rev.  John,  i.  68,  389. 

Whitfield,  George,  iii.  393,  557,  650. 

Whitford,  John,  ii.  57,  187. 

Wickedness,    Abounding,   i.    215,    503, 

532  ;  ii.  72. 
Wickham,  ii.  141. 
Wigan,  ii.  566  ;  iii.  352,  371. 
Wilberforce,    William,    iii.    115,    509, 

650. 
Wilder,  Rev.  John,  i.  239. 
Wilkes,  John,  iii.  37,  81,  145. 
Wilkinson,  Benjamin,  ii.  411. 
Williams,  Rev.  Joseph,  i.  252,  536. 
Williams,  Robert,  i.  429. 
Williams,  Thomas,  i.  557  ;  ii.  536. 
Williams,  William,  ii.  481. 
Williamson,  William,  i.  146,   149,  163. 


Wills,  Rev.  Mr.,  iii.  431. 
Winchel.>ea,  iii.  566,  O26. 
Windsor,  i.  174. 
Windsor,  Robert,  ii.   189. 
Winscomb,  Jasper,  iii.  546,  561,  601. 
Winter,  Cornelius,  ii.  616  ;  iii.  128. 
Witchcraft,  iii.  II,  171. 
Witness  of  the  .Spirit,  i.  190-195,  201, 

207,    2S5,    552;    ii.    l68,    216,  491  ; 

iii.  24,  57. 
Witney,  ii.  496. 
Wogan,  William,  i.   138. 
Wolfenden,  Mrs.,  iii.  203. 
Wolff,  George,  iii.  589,  599,  650. 
Wolverhampton,   ii.   399  ;    iii.    7,    164, 

493- 
Wood,  John,  iii.  354. 
Wood,  Samuel,  ii.  144. 
Wooler,  ii.  276. 

Worcester,  ii.  127;  iii.  7,  647,  649. 
Worksop,  iii.  328. 
Worship,  Methodist,  ii.  282,  576. 
Wrangel,  Dr.,  iii.  66. 
Wray,  James,  iii.  546. 
Wrestlingworth,  ii.  311. 
Wride,  Thomas,  iii.  466. 
Wright,  Duncan,  ii.  569 ;  iii.  362,  522. 
Wroote,  i.  57. 
Wycombe,  ii.  534;  iii.  241,  251. 

Yarm,  ii.  12,  277,  408,  569;   iii.  83. 

Yarmouth,  ii.  555,  615. 

Yeadon,  iii.  68. 

Yearly  Collection,  iii.  5,  551. 

Yewdall,  Zechariah,    ii.   471  ;  iiL   338, 

608. 
York,  ii.  120,  140,  214,  278,  327,  410, 

500,  571  ;  iii.  539,  606. 
Yorkshire  Methodism,  ii.  608. 

Zeal,  Christian,  iii.  346. 

Zinzendorf,    Count,    i.     181,    196-198, 

206,  298,  300,  339,   477  ;  ii.  58,  88, 

97,  116,  220. 


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M'Clintoek  and  Strong's  Cyclopedia. 

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BALDWIN'S  PRE-HISTORIC  NATIONS.  Pre-Historic  Nations  ;  or,  Inquiries  con- 
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Probable  Relation  to  a  still  Older  Civilization  of  the  Ethiopians  or  Cushites  of 
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12ino,  Cloth,  $175. 

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HENRY  WARD  BEECHER'S  SERMONS.  Sermons  by  Henry  Ward  Beeoher, 
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DRAPER'S  INTELLECTUAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  EUROPE.  A  History  of  the 
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BROUGHAM'S  AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  Life  and  Times  of  Henuv,  Lord  Beocgiiam. 
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REINDEER,  DOGS,  AND  SNOW-SHOES.  A  Journal  of  Siberian  Travel  nnd  Ex- 
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CARLYLE'S  FREDERICK  THE  GREAT.  History  of  Fricdrich  11.,  called  Frederick 
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CARLISLE'S  FRENCH  REVOLUTION.  History  of  the  French  Revolntion.  Newly 
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CARLYLE'S  OLIVER  CROMWELL.  Letters  and  Speeches  of  Oliver  Cromwell. 
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eURTIS'S  HISTORY  OF  THE  CONSTITT'TION.  History  of  the  Origin,  Formation, 
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CcKTis.     2  vols.,  Svo,  Cloth,  $0  00. 

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