2. “A Short Account of the Life and Death of Jane Newland, of Dublin.”
12mo, 12 pages.
3. “An Extract of the Rev. Mr. John Wesley’s Journal, from September
4, 1782, to June 28, 1786.” 12mo, 134 pages.
4. “Minutes of Several Conversations between the Rev. Mr. Wesley and
others. From the year 1744, to the year 1789.” 12mo, 51 pages.
5. His chief publication, 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 to _you_, 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 I 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 Surest Way of Thriving, running through the whole of
the magazine of 1788, and part of that for 1789. Hence, the 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 emblematic 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 propounds 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 _put 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 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,
which ought to have attention. There is an exquisitely 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
Separation 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.”