“1. Watch and pray continually against pride. Always remember, _much
grace_ does not imply _much light_. These do not always go together.
Give not place to the dangerous mistake that none can teach _you_,
but those that are themselves saved from sin. 2. Beware of that
daughter of pride, enthusiasm. Do not hastily ascribe things to
God. Do not easily suppose dreams, voices, impressions, visions, or
revelations to be from God. They may be from Him. They may be from
nature. They may be from the devil. Try all things by the written
word, and let all bow down before it. 3. Beware of antinomianism,
making void the law, or any part of it, through faith. Do not put your
head on the hole of a cockatrice’s den. Beware of Moravianism, the
most refined antinomianism that ever was under the sun, producing the
grossest libertinism, and most flagrant breach of every moral precept,
such as could only have sprung from the abuse of true Christian
experience. Beware of Moravian bigotry, stillness, self indulgence,
censoriousness, and solifidianism. 4. Beware of sins of omission. Lose
no opportunity of doing good in any kind. Give no place to indolence.
Lose no shred of time. Do not talk much; neither long at a time: few
can converse profitably above an hour. Keep at the utmost distance
from pious chit-chat, from religious gossiping. 5. Beware of desiring
anything but God. Admit no desire of pleasing food, or of any pleasure
of sense; no desire of pleasing the eye, or the imagination, by
anything grand, or new, or beautiful; no desire of money, of praise,
or esteem; of happiness in _any creature_. 6. Beware of schism, of
making a rent in the church of Christ. Do not extol, or run down, any
preacher. Never omit meeting your class or band; never absent yourself
from any public meeting. These are the very sinews of our society.
Beware of impatience of contradiction, of touchiness, of testiness.
Beware of tempting others to separate from _you_. Be particularly
careful in speaking of yourself. Avoid all magnificent, pompous words.
7. Be exemplary in all things; particularly in outward things, as in
dress; in little things; in laying out your money, avoiding every
needless expense; in deep, steady seriousness; and in the solidity and
usefulness of all your conversation.”
Such are some of the salient points in Wesley’s “Farther Thoughts upon
Christian Perfection.” Opinions respecting them will vary; but all will
admit the sincerity and intense earnestness of the man who wrote them.
Let us now track his footsteps in 1763. With the exception of a brief
visit to Norwich, and another to Bristol, the first four months were
spent in London and its vicinity, during which two or three incidents
occurred, besides the perfectionist agitation, that are worth
mentioning.
One was the death of Mrs. Charity Perronet, the good vicar of
Shoreham’s wife, whom Wesley buried on February 11.
Another was an effort to relieve the sufferings of the London poor.
The year opened with one of the severest frosts on record. The Thames
was so covered with ice, that passengers and carriages crossed from
one shore to the other; and booths were erected, and fairs held, on
the river’s ice-glazed surface. Navigation was entirely stopped, and
many thousands of watermen, with their families, were plunged into
extreme distress. In some places, the ice was measured, and found to
be six feet thick. Sea gulls came up as high as London Bridge; and
other birds, in great numbers, were driven from their usual haunts,
and were seen in the streets of the metropolis. Many persons were
frozen to death; and large bodies of famished men wandered throughout
the capital, begging bread and clothes.[513] Wesley was not the man
to witness such suffering without endeavouring to relieve it. “Great
numbers,” says _Lloyd’s Evening Post_, “of poor people had pease
pottage and barley broth given them at the Foundery, at the expense of
Mr. Wesley; and a collection was made, in the same place of worship,
for further supplying the necessities of the destitute, at which
upwards of £100 was contributed.”[514] Considering the value of money
at that period, this was not amiss for the poor Foundery Methodists.
A third incident must be mentioned. We have just seen Wesley trying
to relieve misery; we shall now see him endeavouring to put an end to
vice. The Society for the Reformation of Manners was first instituted
about the year 1677.[515] From 1730 to 1757, the society was defunct.
In the last mentioned year, and perhaps as one of the results of
Methodism, it was revived. The approbation of the lord mayor of London,
and of the court of aldermen, was obtained. Thousands of books of
instruction were sent to parish officers and parish constables, to
remind them of their duty. The laws against immorality were again
enforced. Streets, and fields, and public houses were swept of their
notorious offenders. In five years, about ten thousand persons were
brought to justice, chiefly for gambling, swearing, sabbath breaking,
lewdness, and selling obscene engravings.
There can be little doubt that Wesley was connected with the revival
of this useful association. At all events, in 1763, when the society
consisted of one hundred and sixty members, nearly half of that number
were Methodists.[516] On January 30, the society met at Wesley’s
chapel, in West Street, Seven Dials; where he preached, before its
members, the annual sermon, taking as his text the very scripture which
had been selected by his father, when performing the same service
sixty-five years before: “Who will rise up with me against the wicked?”
Wesley attached considerable importance to this sermon, as is seen from
the fact, that he retired to Lewisham to compose and write it, and that
it was immediately published in an octavo pamphlet of thirty pages.
Three years afterwards, the society, a second time, ceased to be;
chiefly through an action instituted against it in the King’s Bench,
where an adverse verdict was obtained, by the false swearing of a man
whom the society subsequently convicted of wilful perjury. Still the
death blow to the society was struck. Wesley writes: “They could never
recover the expense of that suit. Lord, how long shall the ungodly
triumph?”
In the early part of the year 1763, a shameful fraud was attempted upon
Wesley, and is referred to in the following letter, published in the
_London Chronicle_.
“_April 5, 1763._
“SIR,—Some time since, I heard a man in the street bawling, ‘The
Scripture Doctrine of Imputed Righteousness, asserted and maintained
by the Rev. John Wesley.’ I was a little surprised, not having
published anything on the head; and more so when, upon reading it
over, I found not one line of it was mine, though I remembered to
have _read_ something like it. Soon after, to show what I really
do maintain, I published ‘Thoughts on the Imputed Righteousness of
Christ’: mentioning therein that ‘pious fraud,’ which constrained me
so to do.
“The modest author of the former publication now prints a second
edition of it, and faces me down before all the world, yea, and
proves, that it is mine.
“Would you not wonder, by what argument? Oh, the plainest in the
world. ‘There is not,’ says he, ‘the least fraud in the publication,
nor imposition on Mr. Wesley; for the words are transcribed from
the ninth and tenth volumes of his Christian Library.’ But the
Christian Library is not Mr. Wesley’s writing; it is ‘Extracts from
and Abridgments of’ other writers; the subject of which I highly
approve, but I will not be accountable for every expression. Much less
will I _father_ eight pages of I know not what, which a shameless
man has picked out of that work, tacked together in the manner he
thought good, and then published in my name. He puts me in mind of
what occurred some years since. A man was stretching his throat near
Moorfields, and screaming out: ‘A full and true Account of the Death
of the Rev. George Whitefield.’ One took hold of him, and said:
‘Sirrah! what do you mean? Mr. Whitefield is yonder before you.’ He
shrugged up his shoulders, and said: ‘Why, sir, an honest man must do
something to turn a penny.’
“I am, sir, your humble servant,
“JOHN WESLEY.”[517]
On the 16th of May, two months later than usual, Wesley left London
for the north.[518] By travelling in postchaises, he reached Newcastle
in three days, and in three more came to Edinburgh, where he had an
interview with his old friend Whitefield. He writes: “Humanly speaking,
he is worn out; but we have to do with Him who hath all power in heaven
and earth.”
At Edinburgh, the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland were
holding their annual conference, and many of the ministers, nobility,
and gentry flocked together to hear Wesley preach in the High School
yard, at seven a.m. He says: “I spake as plain as ever I did in my
life. But I never knew any in Scotland offended at plain dealing. In
this respect, the north Britons are a pattern to all mankind.”
One of Wesley’s hearers, on this occasion, was Lady Frances Gardiner,
the widow of the renowned Colonel Gardiner, who fell at the battle of
Preston Pans. A month afterwards, this Christian lady wrote to him,
congratulating him on sending Mr. Hanby and Mr. Roberts to Edinburgh,
where their labours had been greatly blessed; and then adding: “I have
never, I own, been at the preaching house in a morning yet, as they
preach so early; but I ventured to the High School yard the morning you
left Edinburgh; and it pleased God, even after I got home, to follow
part of your sermon with a blessing to me.”[519]
A year later, Wesley formed an acquaintance, at Edinburgh, with Lady
Maxwell, who about the year 1761 had been left a widow, at nineteen
years of age. She now became a Methodist; and, in 1770, for the purpose
of affording a Christian education to poor children, she established
a school in Edinburgh, which she liberally sustained for forty years;
and, at her death, made provision for its existence to the end of
time.[520] In the same year, Wesley was introduced to Lady Glenorchy,
who also, a few months afterwards, became a widow at the age of
thirty-one, and opened a chapel, which had been a popish church, for
the supply of which Wesley obtained the services of the Rev. Richard
de Courcy; the agreement being that, while this young minister of the
Church of England should take the principal duties of the chapel, one
night in the week should be set apart for the preaching of Wesley’s
itinerants; and that liberty should be given to any presbyterian
clergyman, who might be willing occasionally to officiate.[521] The
plan was utopian, and was soon a failure.
Of the Methodist chapel which, during the year 1763, was built in
Edinburgh,[522] we know nothing; but, in 1788, a second was erected,
under the auspices of Zechariah Yewdall,[523] which Valentine Ward
described as “a dirty, damp, dark, dangerous hole, seating six hundred
people;[524] and which, twenty-seven years afterwards, was bought by
the Edinburgh commissioners, for the sum of £1900, in order to build
the bridge from Shakespeare Square to Calton Hill.[525]
During his present stay in Scotland, Wesley also preached at Dunbar,
where, eleven years before, a company of English dragoons held a
prayer-meeting, at which Andrew Affleck was converted; became a member
of the Methodist society, which was then formed; and, for fifty-nine
years, lived the life of an earnest Christian, and then expired,
saying, “Dying is hard work, but the grace of God is sufficient for
me.”[526]
Wesley returned to Newcastle on the 1st of June, preaching at Alnwick
and Morpeth on his way. In a few days, he proceeded to Barnard castle,
where there was a remarkable revival of religion. A few months before,
the societies throughout “the dales,” or Barnard castle circuit, had
been exceeding lifeless. Samuel Meggot recommended them to observe
every Friday with fasting and prayer. The result has just been stated.
Twenty in Barnard castle had found peace with God, and twenty-eight had
been sanctified.
For sixteen years, Methodism had existed in this small country town,
and here, as in other places, had been baptized in suffering. Many a
time had Catherine Graves, one of the first members, been hunted by the
rabble, and been pricked with pins for the purpose of drawing blood,
and thereby depriving her of the power of sorcery; but now the Barnard
castle Methodists, comparatively speaking, were no longer a feeble
folk. They built themselves a chapel; and became the head of perhaps
the widest Methodist circuit then existing. They were pious, but they
were poor, and contributed, upon an average, not more than a farthing
per member per week; and, of course, their circuit allowances were
upon a corresponding scale. The following is a _verbatim et literatim_
extract from their stewards’ book, for the quarter ending Midsummer,
1768.
To Diner and Letters £ 1 0 0
Mr. Rowell and Family 5 15 0
Mr. Bramer and Wife 5 15 0
Mr. Hunter and Wife 4 6 0
Mr. Fenwick 3 5 0
Mr. Rowell to the Conference 2 2 0
Intrist 0 6 0
Mr. Bramer for the dockter 1 1 0
Mr. Rowell balance for his horse 2 12 0
Mr. Bramah’s House Rent 1 5 0
——————————
Quarter’s Expenditure £27 7 0
In other words, in 1768, three married Methodist ministers, and an
unmarried one, cost the Barnard castle circuit about £109 8_s._ a year;
or, including house rent, doctors’ bills, circuit horse, allowances for
wives, conference expenses, and interest on borrowed money, about ten
shillings and sixpence per minister per week. _O tempora! O mores!_
In his journey southwards, Wesley omitted visiting several of his
preaching places in the north of Yorkshire. One of these was Helmsley,
to which the following letter, by Dr. Conyers, refers.
“_June 7, 1763._
“REVEREND AND DEAR SIR,—I have had information, from many hands,
of your design of calling upon me at Helmsley, in your return from
Scotland. I take this opportunity, frankly and freely, to declare to
you, that my house and my heart are, and ever shall be, open to you. I
presume our archdeacon will be with me, from Stokesley, on Wednesday
evening, as he always takes a bed, and spends a night or two with me,
when he is upon his visitation, which is at this place on Friday next.
How far you may alter your design of preaching here, on that account,
I leave to yourself. I speak this not out of fear; for I love _you_
as I love my own soul: my only apprehension is, that he, being upon
the spot, may shut my church doors against you. But if you only mean
a friendly visit to me, I shall be glad to see you, let who will be
here; and it will be the comfort of my heart, to have you preach to my
flock in every room of my house, at any time when you come this way.
As far as the doctrine you teach has come to my knowledge, I know not
one part to which I could not subscribe, both with hand and heart.
“I am, reverend and dear sir, your affectionate friend and servant in
Christ,
“RICHARD CONYERS.”[527]
On the 13th of June, Wesley came to Epworth, where, while he was
preaching, “a kind of gentleman” hired a company of boys and a drunken
man to disturb the congregation. The boys shouted; the drunkard, as
well as he could articulate, bawled ribaldry and nonsense; and the
gentleman, with a French horn, did his utmost in blowing blasts of
discord; but, despite the hubbub, the congregation quietly listened to
the preacher’s sermon.
From Epworth, Wesley proceeded to Doncaster, Leeds, Dewsbury, and
Manchester. While at Manchester, he paid his first visit to Matthew
Mayer, at Portwood Hall, near Stockport, now a young man twenty-three
years of age, a Methodist of about four years’ standing, but who had
found peace with God only a few months before. In conjunction with
John Morris, he had established weekly prayer-meetings at Davyhulme,
Dukinfield, Ashton under Lyne, and other places, in one of which
John Whitehead, the biographer of Wesley, was converted. Wesley
invited young Mayer to accompany him to Birmingham, which invitation
was accepted; and thus commenced a remarkable career of earnest and
successful preaching, which lasted fifty years. Matthew Mayer never
became, in the common sense of the designation, an itinerant preacher;
and yet he itinerated tens of thousands of miles; and there are few
towns, or even large villages, in Cheshire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire,
the south of Lancashire, or the west of Yorkshire, in which there were
not numerous living witnesses of the Divine, converting power that
attended his preaching. Matthew Mayer was one of the most remarkable
local preachers that Methodism has ever had. He died in 1814, and
Joseph Benson went all the way from London to Lancashire, in the depth
of winter, purposely to preach his funeral sermon.
Wesley left Stockport on the 20th of June, and reached the metropolis
four days afterwards. Finding that the ferment, arising out of Thomas
Maxfield’s separation, still continued, he resolved to remain in London
until after his conference had met.
Unfortunately, no explicit record of the proceedings of this conference
exists. It is known that the first edition of what are called “The
Large Minutes” was published in 1753. A second edition, containing the
added legislation of the last ten years, was issued in 1763. Comparing
the two, we find the following decisions arrived at during the interval
between the dates just mentioned.
1. “We believe the design of God, in raising up the preachers called
Methodists, is to reform the nation, and, in particular, the Church;
to spread scriptural holiness over the land.”[528]
2. “The greatest hindrance to field preaching is to be expected from
the rich, or cowardly, or lazy Methodists. But regard them not,
neither stewards, leaders, nor people. Whenever the weather will
permit, go out in God’s name into the most public places, and call all
to repent and believe the gospel. Every assistant, at least, in every
circuit, should endeavour to preach abroad every Sunday; especially in
the old societies, lest they settle upon their lees.”[529]
3. In order to prevent strangers being present more than twice or
thrice at society meetings, “See that all, in every place, show their
tickets before they come in. If the stewards and leaders are not exact
and impartial herein, employ others which have more resolution.”[530]
4. “Examining and instructing the people” [under our care] “at their
own houses, at times set apart for that purpose, has never been
effectually done yet; though Thomas Walsh took some steps therein.
Who will take up that cross? It will be of great use to others, and
a blessing to his own soul. Do all you _can_ herein, if not all you
_would_. Inquire in each house, ‘Have you family prayer? Do you read
the Scripture in your family? Have you a fixed time for private
prayer?’ Examine each as to his growth in grace, and discharge of
relative duties.”[531]
5. “Should we insist everywhere on the band rules? particularly that
relating to ruffles?
“Answer. By all means. This is no time to give any encouragement to
superfluity of apparel. Therefore, give no band tickets to any in
England or Ireland, till they have left them off. In order to this,
(1) Read, in every society, the ‘Thoughts concerning Dress.’ (2) In
visiting the classes, be very mild, but very strict. (3) Allow no
exempt case, not even of a married woman; better one suffer than many.
“To encourage meeting in band: (1) In every large society, have a
lovefeast quarterly for the bands only. (2) Never fail to meet them,
apart from the society, once a week. (3) Exhort all believers to
embrace the advantage. (4) Give a band ticket to none till they have
met a quarter on trial.”[532]
6. “At each meeting of children, in every place, we may first set them
a lesson in the ‘Instructions,’ or ‘Tokens for Children,’ (2) Hear
them repeat it. (3) Explain it to them in an easy, familiar manner.
(4) Often ask, ‘What have I been saying?’ and strive to fasten it on
their hearts.”[533]