Transcriber’s Notes
Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. All
other spelling and punctuation remains unchanged.
Italics are represented thus _italic_.
[Illustration: JOHN WESLEY, M.A.
AGED FORTY.
From a scarce Engraving published in 1743.
Engraved by J. Cochran.]
THE
LIFE AND TIMES
OF THE
REV. JOHN WESLEY, M.A.,
Founder of the Methodists.
BY THE
REV. L. TYERMAN,
AUTHOR OF “THE LIFE AND TIMES OF REV. S. WESLEY, M.A.,”
(_Father of the Revds. J. and C. Wesley_).
IN THREE VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
[Illustration]
NEW YORK:
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
FRANKLIN SQUARE.
1872.
PREFACE.
Six Lives of Wesley have been already published, besides sketches
almost innumerable. What then justifies the present writer in
publishing another?
Hampson’s, ready for the press when Wesley died, is extremely meagre,
and was the work of an angry writer. Coke and Moore’s, issued in 1792,
was a hasty publication, written _currente calamo_, to get possession
of the market; and, like most things done in haste, was exceedingly
imperfect. Whitehead’s, dated 1793-6, was composed in the midst of
disgraceful contentions, and was tinged with party feeling. Southey’s,
printed in 1820, has literary charms; but, unintentionally, is full
of errors, and, for want of dates and chronological exactitude, is
extremely confusing. Moore’s, published in 1824, is the fullest
and most reliable; but, to a great extent, it is a mere reprint of
Whitehead’s, given to the public about thirty years previously.
Watson’s, issued in 1831, was not intended to supersede larger
publications, but was “contracted within moderate limits, and” avowedly
“prepared with special reference to general readers.”
These are the chief Lives of Wesley. Smaller ones are too numerous to
be mentioned; and, besides that, they are not _lives_, but _sketches_.
The publications of Hampson, of Coke and Moore, of Whitehead, and
of Moore, have long been out of print. Two Lives are still on
sale,—Southey’s and Watson’s; but the former is defective in details,
and is incorrect and misleading; and the latter, as already stated, was
never meant to occupy the place of a larger work.
It has long been confessed that a Life of Wesley, worthy of the man,
is a desideratum. Hampson, Coke, Moore, and Whitehead used, with a
sparing hand, the materials which were already accessible to all, and
added a few original papers, for the preservation of which every one
feels grateful. Southey acknowledges that he “had no private sources
of information”; and, in the list of books from which his materials
were chiefly taken, we find nothing but what is in the hands of most
Methodist students. Watson says, he had “the advantage of consulting
unpublished papers”; but it is not injustice to Watson, to say that
very few of these “unpublished papers” were embodied in his book.
This is not ill natured depreciation of previous biographers, all of
whom I revere, and wish to honour. But any ordinary reader, who will
take the trouble, may easily perceive, that the Lives of Wesley that
have been published, during the last seventy-six years, have contained
no additional information worth naming.
In this interval, Wesley has yearly been growing in historic fame,
until he is now, among all parties,—Churchmen, Methodists and
Dissenters, papists, protestants and infidels, statesmen, philosophers
and men of letters,—one of the greatest and most interesting studies
of the age. The world wishes to know something more respecting the
man, who, under God, was the means of bringing about the greatest
reformation of modern times. Since the publications of Whitehead,
Coke and Moore—his literary executors—innumerable letters and other
manuscripts have come to light; but no subsequent biographer has used
them. Besides, in the magazines, newspapers, broadsheets, pamphlets,
tracts, and songs, published during Wesley’s lifetime, there is a mine
of biographical material incalculably rich; but, hitherto, no one has
taken the trouble to delve and to explore it.
Ought this apathy and negligence to continue longer? Is it right to
keep the world, the church, and especially the Methodists, in ignorance
of what exists concerning one of the most remarkable men that ever
lived? I think not; and, hence, as no one else attempted it, I have
done my best to collect these scattered facts, and to give them to the
public in the following volumes.
For seventeen years, materials have been accumulating in my hands.
My own mass of original manuscripts is large. Thousands of Methodist
letters have been lent to me. Hundreds, almost thousands, of
publications, issued in Wesley’s lifetime, and bearing on the great
Methodist movement, have been consulted. Many of Wesley’s letters,
hitherto published only in periodicals, or in scarce books, have been
used; and not a few that, up to the present, have never yet appeared
in print. To mention all who have rendered me generous assistance is
almost impossible; but I cannot deny myself the pleasure of naming the
late Rev. Joseph Entwisle, Mr. Joseph Miller, of Newcastle, Mr. George
Stevenson, of Paternoster Row, and last, but not least, the Rev. Elijah
Hoole, D.D., for the ready access he gave me to the collection of
manuscripts in the Wesleyan Mission House.
My greatest difficulty has been, not the want of materials, but that
of making selections, and of giving in a condensed form all that I
thought important. Nothing, likely to be of general interest, has been
withheld. Nothing, derogatory to the subject of these memoirs, has been
kept back. Whatever else the work may be, it is _honest_.
I have tried to make Wesley his own biographer. I have not attempted
what may be called the _philosophy_ of Wesley’s life. I leave that to
others. As a rule, intelligent readers wish only to be possessed of
facts. They can form their own conclusions; and care but little about
the opinions of those by whom the facts are collected and narrated.
The temptation to moralise has oft been great; but I have tried to
practise self denial. Wesley was not a _designing_ man: cunning he had
none: he was a man of one idea: his sole aim was to save souls. This
was the philosophy of his life. All his actions had reference to this.
He had no preconceived plans; and, hence, it is needless to speculate
about his motives. The man is best known by what he _did_; not by what
philosophers may suspect he _thought_. Holding these opinions, my one
object has been to collect, collate, and register unvarnished facts;
and I hope I have not altogether failed.
Much that is false, or erroneous, concerning Wesley, has been
published; and it would have been an easy task to have refuted not a
few of the statements which even Methodists as well as others have
been accustomed to receive without gainsaying; but I had no room for
this. Besides, I had no wish to assume the part of a controversialist.
Comparison will show, that, in several instances, I differ from
previous biographers; but I would rather that the reader should
discover this for himself, than that I should state it. It may savour
of unpardonable temerity to disagree with the distinguished men who
have gone before me; but, if attacked, I am prepared to defend the
ground that I have taken. To avoid encumbering the margin, I have
omitted thousands of references; but I have them, and can give them, if
required.
The work has been arduous; but it has been a work of love. I have not
done what I wished, but what I could. A more literary and philosophic
writer might have been employed; but no labour has been spared in
pursuit of facts, and there has been no tampering with honour and
honesty in stating them.
The Portrait inserted in Vol. I. is taken from an exceedingly scarce
engraving, published in 1743, and made from a painting by J. Williams.
It is more than probable that this was the first likeness of Wesley
ever taken.
I only add, that I hope the reader will find the general Index at the
end of Vol. III. to be accurate and useful.
L. TYERMAN.
CLAPHAM PARK,
_July 5th, 1870_.
GENERAL CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION.
Methodism, its Greatness—Christianity during the first two
centuries—Lutheran Reformation—Statistics of “_Wesleyan_”
Methodism—Welsh Calvinistic Methodists—Countess of Huntingdon’s
Connexion—Methodist New Connexion—Band Room Methodists—Primitive
Methodists—Bible Christians—Primitive Methodists in Ireland—United
Methodist Free Churches—Wesleyan Reform Union—Other Methodist
Bodies—Methodists in America—Other Churches benefited by
Methodism—Sunday Schools—Bible Society—London and Church Missionary
Societies—Tract Societies—Dispensaries—Strangers’ Friend
Society—Chapels—Newspapers—An immense Organisation, and its Results 1-13
CHAPTER I.
WESLEY AT HOME, AT SCHOOL, AND AT COLLEGE.
1703-1725.
Wesley’s Birth—The Wesley Family—Fire at Epworth—Teaching
of Wesley’s Mother—Wesley’s Seriousness—Wesley at the
Charterhouse—Ambition—Backsliding—Ghosts—Original Letter—Wesley at
Oxford—A thankful Janitor—Wesley Ill and in Debt—Original Letters—Dr.
Cheyne—Original Letters—Wesley wishes to become a Minister—Letters
respecting this—Wesley finds his _first religious_ Friend—Thomas à
Kempis and Jeremy Taylor—Wesley begins his Journal—Turning point in
Wesley’s history—Original Letter—Other Letters 15-41
CHAPTER II.
WESLEY’S ORDINATION, ETC.
1725-1729.
State of England—Dr. Potter—Wesley and Voltaire—Wesley’s First Sermon—A
Funeral Sermon—Elected Fellow of Lincoln College—Letter from his
Father—Letters to his Brother Samuel—At Epworth and Wroote—Writing
Poetry and Hymns—Elected Greek Lecturer—His _first_ Convert—Robert
Kirkham—Courtship—William Law—Methodist Doctrines—The Mystics—Wesley
becomes M.A.—Gets rid of unprofitable Friends—Plan of Studies—Becomes
his father’s Curate—Ordained a Priest—Wroote—Wesley recalled to Oxford
42-59
CHAPTER III.
OXFORD METHODISM, ETC.
1729-1735.
Distinguished Men—National Immorality—Methodism needed—Infidelity at
Oxford—First Methodists at Oxford—Their Daily Life—Nicknames—Gambold on
Wesley—A Starving Girl—Early Rising—Earnest Piety—Wesley has the offer
of a Curacy—His Correspondence with Mary Granville—A Query—Wesley’s
Walk to Epworth—Methodist Sacramentarian Theory—Letter from Mr.
Clayton—Methodism attacked in _Fogg’s Weekly Journal_—First printed
Defence of Methodism—Wesley’s Sermon before the University—First
Publication—Female Methodists at Oxford—High Churchism—Wesley
urged to become his father’s Successor—Correspondence respecting
this—Wesley’s last Letter from his Father—Application for Epworth
Rectory—Whitefield—Wesley’s Publications 60-107
CHAPTER IV.
MISSION TO GEORGIA.
1735-1737.
Dispersion of Oxford Methodists—James Hutton—Dr.
Burton—Oglethorpe—Emigrants to Georgia—Saltzburghers—Other
Georgian Emigrants—America in 1735—Wesley’s Reasons for going to
Georgia—Letter to his Brother Samuel—Fellow Voyagers—Daily Life on
Shipboard—Detention at Cowes—Covenant in the Isle of Wight—Ingham
on the Moravians—The Voyage—Savannah—Indians of Georgia—Spangenberg
meets Wesley—Tomo-Chichi—Wesley on the Moravians—Begins his Ministry
in Georgia—A large Parish—C. Wesley and Ingham in hot water—Wesley
and Delamotte at Frederica—C. Wesley returns to England—Original
Letters to Wesley from Richard Morgan, Sir John Thorold, and William
Chapman—Wesley on the Mystics—Delamotte’s School—Ingham’s Return
to England—Wesley on Missionaries—Oglethorpe in Trouble—Original
Letters to Wesley—Wesley’s cheerful Religion—Life at Savannah—A Bad
Woman—Wesley goes Barefoot—Whitefield thinks of becoming Bishop—Wesley
wants Helpers—Thomas Causton—Miss Hopkey—Unfriendly Rumours—Extracts
from Wesley’s unpublished Journal—Proposed Marriage—High Churchism—An
Excommunication—Wesley Arrested—Letter to Mrs. Williamson—Extracts
from Wesley’s private Journal—List of Grievances—Further Facts
from Wesley’s manuscript Journal—Findings of the Jury—Wesley
Superseded—Immense Labours—Great Excitement in Savannah—Wesley’s
Farewell Sermons—Departure—In a Swamp—Companions—Sets sail for
England—Storms encountered—Wesley on Conversion, Faith, etc.—Wesley’s
Mission to Georgia not a Failure 108-170
CHAPTER V.
WESLEY IN TRANSITION.
1738.
Whitefield goes to Georgia—He returns to England—Crime
and Criminals—Wesley’s Labours in 1738—Wesley _almost a
Christian_—Doctrines which Wesley was taught by Bohler—When and
how was Wesley converted?—Peter Bohler—Wesley in heaviness—His
Sermon on “Salvation by Faith”—Doctrines which gave birth
to Methodism—Wesley in search of Truth—A petulant Letter to
William Law—Further Correspondence—Moravian Follies—Mrs. Hutton
and her Lodgers—Correspondence with Samuel Wesley—Strange
Confessions—Wesley in a Labyrinth—He becomes a member of the
Moravian Society—Rules of Fetter Lane Society—Wesley goes to
Germany—Watteville—Cologne—Marienborn—Wesley, under Zinzendorf’s
management, turns gardener—Herrnhuth—Christian David—Experiences of
Herrnhuthers—Their Daily Life—Wesley returns to London—Letters to
the Herrnhuthers and Zinzendorf—Wesley and Bishop Gibson—William
Warburton—First Sermons against the Methodists—Wesley’s Rules for Band
Societies—His first Hymn-Book 171-211
PART II.
1739.
London in 1739—Moorfields—Metropolitan Depravity—Provincial
ditto—Religious Revival in New England—Howel Harris and the Revival
in Wales—Great Religious Movement in Scotland—Wesley shut out of
Churches—Unpublished Letter from Wesley to Whitefield—A _Fracas_ at St.
Margaret’s, Westminster—Whitefield begins Out-door Preaching—Remarkable
Lovefeast in Fetter Lane—A Conference at Islington—Haziness—Interviews
with Bishops—Wesley’s Labours in London—Answers to Prayer—Original
Letter from Whitefield to Wesley—Wesley becomes an Out-door
Preacher—Sermons preached by Wesley in 1739—Reasons assigned
for Out-door Preaching—Methodist Congregations—“Beau” Nash and
Wesley—Persecution—The _Scots Magazine_—Rev. Ralph Skerrett,
D.D.—Rev. John Wilder, M.A.—Rev. Charles Wheatley, M.A.—Rev.
Henry Stebbing, D.D.—Rev. Joseph Trapp, D.D.—Rev. Tristam Land,
M.A.—Whitefield Abused—Rev. Josiah Tucker—Bishop Gibson—Whitefield’s
Reply to Gibson—Wesley and the Bishop of Bristol—Another Attack on
Whitefield—The _Weekly Miscellany_—“The Methodists, a Burlesque
Poem”—Rev. James Bate, M.A.—Doddridge on the Methodists—Rev.
Joseph Williams, of Kidderminster, and C. Wesley—“Religious
Societies”—Strange Scenes at Bristol, Kingswood, and London—Whitefield
respecting them—C. Wesley Condemns them—Rev. Ralph Erskine and others,
concerning them—Wesley’s Opinion—Kingswood—Kingswood School—First
Methodist Chapel Built—The London Foundery—John Cennick, Methodism’s
first Lay Preacher—Lay Preaching—Partly unpublished Letter from
Whitefield to Wesley—Moravian Heresies—First Methodist Society
Founded—Adventures—Differences between Wesley and the Clergy—Wesley and
his Mother—Death of Wesley’s Brother, Samuel—Wesley’s Publications in
1739 213-291
1740.
Wesley Robbed—Visit to the Thieves—Strange Occurrences at
Bristol—Happy Deaths—The Wesleys at Bristol and Kingswood—Philip
Henry Molther—Letters by Molther and James Hutton—Work done by
the Moravians—Hutton attacks Wesley—Wesley and the Moravians—Rev.
George Stonehouse—Original Letter from Ingham to Wesley—Moravian
Disputes—Wesley Expelled from Moravian Pulpits—Wesley’s Letter to
the Herrnhuthers—Another Bone of Contention—Unpublished Letter
from Whitefield to Wesley—Calvinian Correspondence—Wesley’s Sermon
on “Free Grace”—Pamphlets for and against it—Howel Harris on
Calvinism—Whitefield’s Answer to “Free Grace”—Whitefield and Wesley
separate—Anti-Methodist Publications—Thomas Whiston, A.B.—Rev.
Zachary Grey, LL.D.—Aquila Smyth—The _Weekly Miscellany_—Rev.
Alexander Garden—“The Expounder Expounded”—“The Imposture of Methodism
Displayed”—Other Publications—Dr. Daniel Waterland—Μεθοδεια—Brutal
Treatment—Wesley’s Success and Activity—First Watch-night
Meeting—Wesley’s Publications in 1740 292-335
1741.
Whitefield Itinerating—C. Wesley and the Moravians—Wesley among the
Moravians in the Midland Counties—Interview with Zinzendorf—Lady
Huntingdon and C. Wesley—Methodism’s first Martyr—Whitefield in
Trouble—Wesley and John Cennick—The first Methodist Schism—The first
Methodist Newspaper—Wesley’s Calvinistic Concessions—Attempted
Reunion—Wesley and his Societies—Methodist Visitors—Methodist
Tickets—Triumphant Deaths—Persecution—The _Scots Magazine_—The
_Gentleman’s Magazine_—The _Weekly Miscellany_—Proposed Methodist
Edifice on Blackheath—Horrible Outrages—Wesley Preaches before
Oxford University—Seriously Ill—Pamphlets against Methodism—William
Fleetwood—Joseph Hart—Arthur Bedford, M.A.—Wesley’s
Publications in 1741 336-368
1742.
Wesley’s Defence of his Lay Preachers—Whitefield Preaching in
Moorfields—Wesley and Whitefield Reunited—Bitter Attacks on Whitefield
in Scotland—Rev. Henry Piers—Formation of Methodist Classes—Wesley’s
first Visit to the North—Miss Cooper—Wesley at Bristol—Newcastle
on Tyne in 1742—Wesley Preaching there—At Epworth—Wesley and John
Whitelamb—Death of Wesley’s Mother—Charles Caspar Graves—C. Wesley
forms a Methodist Society at Newcastle—Wesley’s “Orphan House”—Dross
mixed with Gold—Persecution—Wesley’s Publications in 1742—Methodist
Singing 369-400
1743.
Incidents in Wesley’s Travels—Organisation of Calvinistic
Methodists—Newcastle Circuit—Comedy turned into Tragedy—Wesley
repelled from the Lord’s Supper—A Magdalen at Grimsby—Terrible
Riots in Staffordshire—“Honest Munchin”—Cornwall—C. Wesley at St.
Ives—A Trine Conference proposed—Wesley Pastoralizing—Two more
London Chapels taken—Methodist Stewards—Methodist Income—Letter
from Wesley to his Sister Emily—Persecutions—Wesley to a northern
Pamphleteer—Rev. John Andrews, M.A.—“A fine Picture of Enthusiasm”—“The
Methodist Unmasked”—Rules of the Methodist Societies—“Thoughts on
Marriage”—“Instructions for Children”—“Earnest Appeal” 401-436
1744.
Whitefield’s Labours—Threatened French Invasion—Methodist
Loyalty—Troubles—First Methodist Conference—Wesley’s Last
Sermon before the Oxford University—Dr. Kennicott on Wesley—Cornish
Persecution—Bishop Gibson attacks the Methodists—The
Rev. Thomas Church’s “Expostulatory Letter”—Foul Foamings
of a “Gentleman of Pembroke College”—Bishop of Lichfield’s
“Charge against Enthusiasm”—Presentment at Brecon Assizes—A
Three Months’ Journey—Scene in Laneast Church—Strange and
stirring Incidents—Wesley’s Lay Preachers—Christian Perfection—Rules
of Band Societies—Wesley’s Publications in 1744—Wesley
on Revivals of Religion 437-469
1745.
Persecution in Cornwall—Persecution in other places—Rev. John Maud,
M.A.—The _Craftsman_—Rev. Dr. Stebbing—Dr. Zachary Grey again—The
Moravians publicly disown Wesley—Rev. Thomas Church, A.M.—Wesley on
the Moravians—William Cudworth—A Rough Journey—Wesley’s Manifesto
defining his relationship to Church and State—A Popish Priest becomes
Wesley’s Guest—Methodism in Osmotherley—A Cornish Termagant—Terrible
National Excitement—Panic at Newcastle—Wesley’s Letter to the
Mayor of Newcastle—Troops on Newcastle Moor—Wesley preaching to
Soldiers—Wesley’s High Churchism—Conference of 1745—Wesley’s
Publications in 1745—Wesley on the Sacrament, the Sabbath, Swearing,
Drunkenness, etc.—Wesley unawares becomes Rich 470-505
1746.
Whitefield ranging in American Woods—C. Wesley jubilant in
Labour and Danger—John Nelson at Nottingham—Lord King makes
Wesley a Dissenter—Wesley attends the Conference of the
Calvinistic Methodists—Vincent Perronet—A Ten Days’ Ride—Wesley
accused of Falsehood—Methodist Preachers—Books to be read by
them—Antinomianism—Settlement of Methodist Chapels—Wesley forms
a “Tea”-total Society—Twelve young men in Wales—Wesley opens a
Dispensary—Conference of 1746—An Autobiographical Hymn—Wesley’s
Publications in 1746 506-534
1747.
Letter from Whitefield to Wesley on Union—Howel Harris—Joseph
Williams—Thomas Adams—James Relly—Herbert Jenkins—John
Edwards—Persecution at Devizes—Wesley going North—Grace Murray—Jeannie
Keith—Methodism’s first “Theological Institution”—Wesley coming
South—William Darney’s Societies—Methodism begun in Manchester—John
and Alice Crosse—Methodism at Northwich—Rev. R. T. Bateman—Wesley’s
“Poor House”—Wesley’s Foundery School—Wesley’s Lending Society—Wesley’s
huge Income—Conference of 1747—Wesley in Cornwall—Methodism begun
in Ireland—Swaddlers—Poor Lodgings—Irish Hymn-Book—Westley Hall’s
Infamy—Wesley’s Publications in 1747 535-564
INTRODUCTION.
_METHODISM: ITS GREATNESS._
IS it not a truth that Methodism is the greatest fact in the history of
the church of Christ? Methodism has now existed one hundred and thirty
years. Is there any other system that has spread itself so widely in an
equal period? We doubt it.
In the first two centuries of the Christian era, during a great part
of which men were blessed with plenary inspiration, and miracles were
wrought, the Christian religion sprung up in Judæa, Samaria, and
Galilee. Churches were raised at Antioch, in the beautiful isle of
Cyprus, in the neighbouring provinces of Pamphylia, and Pisidia, and
Lycaonia, and Galatia, and Phrygia, and, in fact, throughout Asia Minor
in general. Berea, Philippi, Thessalonica, Athens, Corinth, and other
cities in Greece, were visited with the light of truth. Christianity
then spread through a large portion of other parts of the Roman empire,
and reached as far as even Lyons in France.
This was marvellous success; but, as it respects geographical extent,
the spread of Methodism is more marvellous. The Roman empire embraced
the whole of the places above mentioned. It extended three thousand
miles in length and two thousand miles in breadth, and comprised the
most fertile and best cultivated part of the known world. Its limits
were the Atlantic on the west; the Rhine and Danube on the north;
the Euphrates on the east; and the deserts of Arabia and Africa on
the south. This was a vast area; but, compared with that over which
Methodism has spread itself during the last hundred and thirty years,
it is insignificantly small. If Methodism does not exist in Palestine,
Asia Minor, Arabia, Greece, or Egypt, it exists in Britain, France,
Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and
Africa: and, passing to other regions which the Romans never trod,
it has long since entered India and Ceylon; it has already won its
triumphs in the flowery land of the Chinese; it has a vast multitude of
adherents in Australia, and the islands of the Pacific Ocean; in the
West Indies its converts are numbered by tens of thousands; while in
America it has diffused its blessings from the most remote settlements
of Canada in the north to the Gulf of Mexico in the south, and from
Nova Scotia in the east to California in the west.
“See how great a flame aspires,
Kindled by a spark of grace;
Jesu’s love the nations fires,
Sets the kingdoms on a blaze.”
Take another epoch of the church’s history—the Reformation, begun by
Luther, in the year 1517. This immense revival of truth and godliness,
in the midst of a corrupted church, established itself in many parts
of the German empire, where it continues to the present day. It was
propagated in Sweden by one of Luther’s disciples, Olaus Petri. In
Denmark, it was spread by Martin Reinard and Carlostadt. In France,
it found a patroness in Margaret, Queen of Navarre. In Switzerland,
John Calvin became famous as one of its great apostles. It made
considerable progress in Spain, Hungary, Bohemia, and Poland. In the
Netherlands, upwards of a hundred thousand persons were cruelly put to
death because of their embracing it. In all the provinces of Italy,
but more especially in the territories of Venice, Tuscany, and Naples,
great numbers of people, of all ranks, were led by it to express an
aversion to the Papal yoke. In Spain, not a few embraced it, and even
Charles V. himself is presumed to have died a Protestant. In England,
Henry VIII. unintentionally helped it forward by usurping the chair of
church supremacy, hitherto occupied by his holiness the Pope; while
his only son, King Edward VI., was its brightest ornament, and, in
some respects, its most effectual support. In Ireland, George Brown,
Archbishop of Dublin, pulled down images, destroyed relics, and purged
the churches within his diocese from superstitious rites. While in
Scotland, John Knox, a disciple of Calvin, launched his thunders
against the Vatican, until he shook it to its base; and, at last,
Queen Elizabeth, by an army, put an end to Popery in the whole of the
Caledonian kingdom.
This was a glorious and wide-spread work, the blessed results of which
will be felt to the latest generations. But compare it with Methodism,
and say which, in the same number of years, made the greater progress,
and established itself in the widest extent of country. It is no
disparagement to the Protestant Reformation to affirm that, in this
respect, Methodism is immensely its superior.
Look at this religious system as it now exists. The “Methodist,” or
parent “Conference,” employs in Great Britain and Ireland 1782 regular
ministers. Besides these, there were, in 1864, in England only, 11,804
lay preachers, preaching 8754 sermons every sabbath-day. In the same
year, the number of preaching places in England only, was 6718, and
the number of sermons preached weekly, by ministers and lay preachers
combined, was 13,852.[1] To these must be added the lay preachers,
preaching places, etc., in Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Shetland, and the
Channel Islands. The number of church members in Great Britain and
Ireland is 365,285, with 21,223 on trial; and, calculating that the
hearers are three times as numerous as the church members, there are
considerably more than a million persons in the United Kingdom who are
attendants upon the religious services of the _parent_ Conference of
“the people called Methodists.” Some idea of their chapel and school
property may be formed from the fact that, during the last seven years,
there has been expended, in Great Britain only, in new erections and
in reducing debts on existing buildings, £1,672,541; and, towards
that amount of expenditure, there has been actually raised and paid
(exclusive of all Connexional collections, loans, and grants) the sum
of £1,284,498. During the ten years, from 1859 to 1868 inclusive, there
was raised for the support of the foreign missions of the Connexion
£1,408,235; and, if to this there be added the amount of the Jubilee
Fund, we find more than a million and a half sterling contributed
during the decade for the sustenance and extension of the Methodist
work in foreign lands. The missions now referred to are carried on
in Ireland, France, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Gibraltar, India,
Ceylon, China, South and West Africa, the West Indies, Canada, Eastern
British America, Australia, and Polynesia. In these distant places,
the committee having the management of the missions employ 3798 paid
agents, including 994 who are regularly ordained, and are wholly
engaged in the work of the Christian ministry. Besides these, there are
about 20,000 agents of the Society (as lay preachers, etc.), who are
rendering important service gratuitously; while the number of church
members is 154,187, and the number of attendants upon the religious
services more than half a million. Space prevents a reference to the
other institutions and funds of British Methodism, except to add that,
besides 174,721 children in the mission schools, the parent Connexion
has in Great Britain 698 day-schools, efficiently conducted by 1532
certificated, assistant, and pupil teachers, and containing 119,070
scholars; also 5328 Sunday-schools, containing 601,801 scholars, taught
by 103,441 persons who render their services gratuitously; and that the
total number of publications printed and issued by the English Book
Committee only, during the year ending June 1866, was four millions
one hundred and twenty-two thousand eight hundred, of which nearly two
millions were periodicals, and more than a quarter of a million were
hymn-books.
These statistics are significant of great facts. At a moderate
computation, there are at least two millions of persons regularly
worshipping in the chapels, schools, etc., of the original body of “the
people called Methodists.”
Leaving what is sometimes called the “Old Connexion,” we proceed to
glance at the _branches_ of the Methodist family.
_The Welsh Calvinistic Methodists._—The societies of this section of
Methodists were founded by Howel Harris, an early friend and companion
of Wesley and Whitefield, and principally exist in Wales. At the census
of 1851, they had 828 chapels, capable of accommodating about 212,000
persons, and which had cost nearly a million sterling. In 1853 they
had 207 ministers, 234 lay preachers, and 58,577 church members. _The
Countess of Huntingdon’s Connexion._—In 1748 Whitefield became the
chaplain of the Countess of Huntingdon, who, by his advice, assumed
a kind of leadership over his followers, erected chapels, engaged
ministers or laymen to officiate in them, and afterwards founded
a college at Trevecca, in Wales, for the education of Calvinistic
preachers. At her death, the college was transferred to Cheshunt, and
there it still exists. Although the name “Connexion” continues to be
used, the Congregational polity is practically adopted; and, of late
years, several of the congregations have become, in name as well as
virtually, Congregational churches. The number of chapels, mentioned in
the census of 1851, as belonging to this Connexion, was 109, containing
accommodation for 38,727 persons, and the attendance on the census
Sunday was 19,159.[2]
_The Methodist New Connexion_ was formed in the year 1797; the
principal, if not only difference, between it and the parent body,
being the different degrees of power allowed in each communion to the
laity. At the Conference of 1869, the New Connexion had, at home and
abroad, 260 ministers, and 35,706 church members.
_The Band Room Methodists_ had their origin in Manchester, in 1806.
Their chief leaders were John and E. Broadhurst, Holland Hoole,
Nathaniel Williamson, and Thomas Painter. Of the earnestness of these
godly men there can be no question; but, as in the case of many who
have been called revivalists, their zeal was often boisterous and
irregular, and sometimes obstinate. Their meetings were chiefly held in
what was known as the Band Room, in North Street. Their chief faults
were admitting persons to band meetings without showing their society
tickets; having penitent benches and noisy prayer-meetings; holding
cottage services; and, lastly and especially, acting independently
of leaders’ meetings. The Band Room Methodists still exist; but are
now called, “The United Free Gospel Churches.” They hold annual
conferences; have fifty-nine churches, chiefly in Lancashire and
Yorkshire; and differ from the parent Connexion, not in doctrines, but
in having no paid ministers.
_The Primitive Methodists_ sprang up in Staffordshire in 1810. The
doctrines they teach are precisely similar to those of the original
Connexion. At the conference of 1868 they had, at home and abroad, 943
ministers, about 14,000 lay preachers, nearly 10,000 classleaders,
3360 connexional chapels, 2963 rented chapels and rooms for religious
worship, 3282 Sunday-schools, above 40,000 Sunday-school teachers,
258,857 Sunday-school scholars, and 161,229 church members.
_The Bible Christians_, sometimes called “Bryanites,” were founded
by William O’Bryan, a Wesleyan local preacher, in Cornwall, in 1815.
They principally exist in Cornwall and the West of England, but also
have mission stations in the Channel Islands, the United States,
Canada, Prince Edward’s Island, and Australia. Like the parent
Connexion they have class-meetings, circuits, district-meetings, and
a Conference. Their statistics, for 1869, are about 700 chapels and
300 other preaching places, 254 ministers, 1759 lay preachers, 44,221
Sunday-school scholars, 8913 Sunday-school teachers, and 26,241 full
and accredited church members.
_The Primitive Methodists in Ireland_ seceded from the parent body in
1817. At that time the Irish Conference, at the urgent request of many
of the Irish societies, agreed that the ministers in full connection
should administer the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s supper, in
circuits making proper application to that effect. This occasioned
great commotion. A number of leaders and local preachers assembled at
Clones, in the beginning of 1817, and formed themselves into a separate
Connexion, the only difference between them and their quondam friends
being, that their ministers should not administer baptism and the
Lord’s supper, but should leave their societies at perfect liberty to
partake of those sacraments in the churches to which they respectively
belonged. In 1816 there were in Ireland 28,542 members of society;
but in two years, and in consequence of this senseless schism, that
number was reduced to 19,052. The new body took the name of Primitive
Methodists, and still continue a separated people on the one principle
already mentioned. In 1861, they had in Ireland, 61 circuits, 85
ministers, and 14,247 members of society.
_The United Methodist Free Churches_ are an amalgamation of three
different secessions from the original Connexion, 1. The Protestant
Methodists, who were formed into a distinct body in 1828, when upwards
of 1000 members separated from the Leeds societies, because of the
proceedings of the special district-meeting convened to settle the
disputes arising out of the introduction of an organ into Brunswick
Chapel. 2. The Wesleyan Methodist Association, which sprung out of
the controversy in 1834, concerning the then proposed Theological
Institution. 3. The Reformers, who were expelled, or who seceded,
during the terrible agitation which occurred in 1849. These amalgamated
bodies have, in 1869, ministers, 312; lay preachers, 3445; chapels,
1228; Sunday-scholars, 152,315; church members, 68,062.
_The Wesleyan Reform Union_ consists of those Reformers of 1849 who
refused to amalgamate with the United Methodist Free Churches. In
1868, the Union had 20 ministers, 608 lay preachers, 276 chapels and
preaching places, 580 classleaders, 18,475 Sunday-scholars, and 9393
church members.
The above comprise all the Methodist bodies now existing in the United
Kingdom. Some others have occasionally sprung up, such as the _Tent
Methodists_, the _Independent Methodists_, etc.; but they are now
either extinct or incorporated with other churches. Not reckoning the
Band Room Methodists, nor the Countess of Huntingdon’s Connexion, and
making a moderate _estimate_ of the Sunday-school scholars belonging
to the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists and to the Primitive Methodists in
Ireland, we arrive at the following results.
┌─────────────────────────┬────────────┬─────────────┬─────────────────┐
│ │ │ Number of │ Number of │
│ │ Number of │ church │ Sunday-school │
│ Denomination. │ ministers. │ members. │ scholars. │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────┼─────────────┼─────────────────┤
│ Wesleyan Methodists │ 3157 │ 557,995 │ 776,522 │
│ Welsh Calvinistic ditto │ 207 │ 58,577 │ 80,000 about│
│ New Connexion ditto │ 260 │ 35,706 │ 50,000 about│
│ Primitive ditto │ 943 │ 161,229 │ 258,857 │
│ Ditto (Ireland) ditto │ 85 │ 14,247 │ 20,000 about│
│ Bible Christians │ 254 │ 26,241 │ 44,221 │
│ United Methodist Free │ │ │ │
│ Churches │ 312 │ 68,062 │ 152,315 │
│ Wesleyan Reform Union │ 20 │ 9,393 │ 18,475 │
│ ├────────────┼─────────────┼─────────────────┤
│ Totals │ 5238 │ 931,450 │ 1,400,390 │
└─────────────────────────┴────────────┴─────────────┴─────────────────┘
Marvellous, however, as the success of Methodism has been in the
United Kingdom, it has been far more marvellous in the United States.
There it holds and preaches precisely the same doctrines as are held
and preached in England. There, as here, it is intensely loyal; and,
during the late terrific war, sent a hundred thousand white, and
seventy-five thousand, black troops into the field of battle under the
loyal flag. It is dotting the whole of the vast American continent with
its church edifices, and has perhaps the most powerful religious press
of which the world can boast. Let the reader ponder the significance
of the following statistics for the year 1869, taken from the _New
York Christian Advocate_, and referring exclusively to _the Methodist
Episcopal Church North_.
Bishops 10
Travelling preachers 8,830
Local preachers 10,340
Total ministerial force 19,179
Lay members in full connection 1,114,712
Lay members on probation 184,226
Total lay membership 1,298,938
Number of church edifices 12,048
Number of parsonages 3,963
Value of church edifices $47,253,067
Value of parsonages $6,862,230
Total value of churches and parsonages $54,115,297
Number of Sunday-schools 16,393
Number of officers and teachers 184,596
Number of scholars 1,179,984
In connection with its schools, there are libraries containing more
than two millions and a half of books. Its Book Concern has about
thirty cylinder power-presses in constant operation; and about 2000
different books on its catalogue, besides tracts, etc., and 14
periodicals, with an aggregate circulation of more than twelve millions
every year. It also has a great Missionary Society, with prosperous
missions in China, India, Africa, Bulgaria, Germany, Switzerland,
Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and other places.
The returns for _the Methodist Episcopal Church South_, in 1869, are
2581 ministers, 3951 lay preachers, and 535,040 church members.
_The Methodist Episcopal Church_ in Canada has 216 ministers, 224 lay
preachers, and 20,000 members.
Besides the above, there are other Transatlantic Methodists, as:—1.
The African Methodist Episcopal Church, which, in 1867, had 14
annual Conferences, 673 chapels, 509 travelling preachers, 727 local
preachers, 130,950 members, 33,134 Sunday-school scholars, and 40,716
volumes in Sunday-school libraries. 2. The Methodist Protestant Church,
with about 90,000 members. 3. The American Wesleyan Methodists, with
above 20,000 members. 4. The German Methodists, with 46,000 members.
5. Three or four smaller sects, which need no further notice. The
aggregate membership of these several Methodistic bodies may be fairly
estimated at about 300,000, and their ministers and preachers at 5000.
These are startling figures; put together in an abbreviated form, they
stand as follows:—
┌───────────────────────┬────────────────┬────────────┬───────────────┐
│ │ Ministers │ │ │
│ │ exclusive of │ Church │ Sunday-school │
│ │local preachers.│ members. │ scholars. │
├───────────────────────┼────────────────┼────────────┼───────────────┤
│ Great Britain, │ │ │ │
│ including Missions │ 5238 │ 931,450 │ 1,400,390 │
│ American Methodist │ │ │ │
│ Episcopal Church │ │ │ │
│ North │ 8840 │ 1,114,712 │ 1,179,984 │
│ Ditto South │ 2581 │ 535,040 │ say 500,000 │
│ Ditto Canada │ 216 │ 20,000 │ say 20,000 │
│ Other American │ │ │ │
│ Methodists │ 5000 │ 300,000 │ say 300,000 │
│ ├────────────────┼────────────┼───────────────┤
│ Totals │ 21,875 │ 2,901,202 │ 3,400,374 │
└───────────────────────┴────────────────┴────────────┴───────────────┘
Some of these figures are _estimated_ numbers, and are so given; the
others are statistics officially reported. Put the matter in another
form. Is it too much to calculate Methodist _hearers only_ at the rate
of twice the number of Methodist church members? If not, the estimated
result is as follows:
Church members throughout the world 2,901,202
Sunday scholars 3,400,373
Hearers only 5,802,404
─────────
Total 12,103,979
We thus make a total of more than twelve millions of persons receiving
Methodist instruction, and, from week to week, meeting together in
Methodist buildings for the purpose of worshipping Almighty God. The
statement is startling, but the statistics given entitle it to the
fullest consideration.
But rightly to estimate the results of Methodism during the last
hundred and thirty years, there are other facts to be remembered.
Who will deny, for instance, that Methodism has exercised a potent and
beneficial influence upon other churches: Episcopal, Presbyterian,
Independent, and Baptist churches have all been largely indebted
to Methodism, either directly or indirectly, for many of the best
ministers and agents they have ever had. It is a remarkable fact
that, during Wesley’s lifetime, of the 690 men who acted under him
as itinerant preachers, 249 relinquished the itinerant ministry.
These 249 _retirers_ included not a few of the most intelligent,
energetic, pious, and useful preachers that Wesley had. Some left him
on the ground of health; others began business, because as itinerant
preachers they were unable to support their wives and families; but a
large proportion became ordained ministers in other churches. In some
instances, the labours of these men, and their brother Methodists,
led to marvellous results. To give but one example,—David Taylor,
originally a servant of Lady Huntingdon, was one of Wesley’s first
preachers, but afterwards left the work. Taylor, however, was the
means of converting Samuel Deacon, an agricultural labourer; and the
two combined were the instruments, in the hands of God, of raising up
a number of churches in Yorkshire and the midland counties, which,
in 1770, were organised into the New Connexion of General Baptists;
and that Connexion, seventy years afterwards, in 1840, comprised 113
churches, having 11,358 members, a foreign missionary society, and two
theological academies.[3]
_Sunday-schools_ are now an important appendage of every church, and
have been a benefit to millions of immortal souls; but it deserves to
be mentioned that Hannah Ball, a young Methodist lady, had a Methodist
Sunday-school at High Wycombe fourteen years before Robert Raikes
began his at Gloucester; and that Sophia Cooke, another Methodist,
who afterwards became the wife of Samuel Bradburn, was the first who
suggested to Raikes the Sunday-school idea, and actually marched with
him, at the head of his troop of ragged urchins, the first Sunday they
were taken to the parish church.
The first _British Bible Society_ that existed, “The Naval and
Military,” was projected by George Cussons, and organised by a small
number of his Methodist companions. The _London Missionary Society_
originated in an appeal from Melville Horne, who, for some years, was
one of Wesley’s itinerant preachers, and then became the successor
of Fletcher as vicar of Madeley. The _Church Missionary Society_ was
started by John Venn, the son of Henry Venn the Methodist clergyman.
The first _Tract Society_ was formed by John Wesley and Thomas Coke,
in 1782, seventeen years before the organisation of the present great
Religious Tract Society in Paternoster Row—a society, by the way,
which was instituted chiefly by Rowland Hill, and two or three other
Calvinistic Methodists. It is believed that the first _Dispensary_ that
the world ever had was founded by Wesley himself in connection with the
old Foundery, in Moorfields. The _Strangers’ Friend Society_, paying,
every year, from forty to fifty thousand visits to the sick poor of
London, and relieving them as far as possible, is an institution to
which Methodism gave birth in 1785.
_Building churches_ is one of the great features of the age.
Unfortunately, England has had no religious worship census since
1851; but even then, according to the tables of Horace Mann, Esq.,
Methodism had, in England and Wales only, 11,835 places of worship,
with 2,231,017 sittings. In America, according to the census of 1860,
Methodism nine years ago provided church accommodation for 6,259,799,
which was two and a quarter millions more than was provided by any
other church whatever.
The _public press_ is one of the most powerful institutions of the
day. England has four Methodist newspapers; Ireland, one; France,
one; Germany, one; India, one; China, one; Australia, two; Canada and
British America, five; and the United States about fifty.
Let the reader think of twelve millions of people at present enjoying
the benefits of Methodist instruction; let him think of Methodism’s
21,875 ordained ministers, and of its tens of thousands of lay
preachers; let him think of the immense amount of its church property,
and of the well-nigh countless number of its church publications;
let him think of millions of young people in its schools, and of its
missionary agents almost all the wide world over; let him think of its
incalculable influence upon other churches, and of the unsectarian
institutions to which it has given rise; and then let him say whether
the bold suggestion already made is not strictly true, viz., that
“_Methodism is the greatest fact in the history of the church of
Christ_.”
Here we have an immensely ramified church organisation, everywhere
preaching the same momentous doctrines, and aiming at the same great
purpose. A day never passes without numbers of its converts being
admitted into heaven; and without many a poor wayward wanderer being
brought by it into the fold of Christ on earth. Thousands of its
temples are daily open; and “prayer,” by its churches, in one quarter
of the globe or in another, is “made continually.” It has belted the
entire planet with its myriad agents, who—in English, French, Dutch,
German, and Italian; in the various dialects and tongues of Africa,
India, and China; and in the newly formed languages of the Feegee and
the Friendly Islands—are calling to the nations, “Ho, every one that
thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye,
buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without
price.”
In England, it has had much to do with the almost incredible changes
that have taken place in English society during the last hundred
years. In Ireland, with Popery so rampant, a people so poor, and
emigration so vast, it has some five or six hundred chapels, besides
having many hundreds of small congregations in cottages, court-houses,
market-places, and village-greens. In Australia, it has more church
sittings than any other Christian community, the Church of England not
excepted; and has, at least, one twelfth of the colonists attending its
places of religious worship. In America, it has become the dominant
popular faith of the country, with its standard planted in every
city, town, and almost every village of the land, and is building
chapels at the rate of nearly two every day.[4] In the early period
of its history, it had its fair share of persecution, and was, to an
extent sufficient one would think to satisfy its founders, pelted and
hooted by vulgar mobs, mistreated by magistrates and courts, reviled
by religionists, and assailed by swarms of pamphleteers; it has had
no national endowments, and has had no favour from parliamentary
legislation; it has had no assistance from the State, and has been
looked upon with supercilious contempt by what, in England, is called
“the Church;” and yet despite all this, there is hardly a nation where
its influence has not been felt; and instead of finding it maimed and
lame and injured by fighting its past battles and winning its past
victories; or weak and palsied and inactive on account of approaching
age, it has never been more vigorous, by the blessing of God, than it
is at present; and is putting into motion an amount of machinery the
ultimate results of which no man’s mind can grasp.
Is all this concerning Methodism strictly true? We believe it is, and
hence we believe that the life of Methodism’s founder is a subject well
worth knowing. Who was he? What was he? Who were his companions? When
and where and how did he pass his time? We will try to show.
THE LIFE AND TIMES
OF
THE REV. JOHN WESLEY, M.A.
CHAPTER I.
_WESLEY AT HOME, AT SCHOOL, AND AT COLLEGE._
1703-1725.
[Sidenote: 1703]
JOHN WESLEY was born at Epworth, in the county of Lincoln, on the 17th
of June, 1703,[5] and was the son of Samuel and Susannah Wesley, the
former being the learned, laborious, and godly rector of the Epworth
parish from about the year 1696 to his death in 1735. The Wesley family
consisted of nineteen children, but, of these, nine died in infancy.
The name of one of the dead infants was John, and the name of another
Benjamin; and when the subject of this biography was born, his mother
united the two names by calling him John Benjamin. Second names are of
little use, and are often troublesome, and probably for this reason
Wesley’s second name was one which he never used.[6]
When Wesley was born, Queen Anne was commencing the twelve years of
English sovereignty which some have regarded as the Augustan age of
English learning. War was raging on the continent, and, at home, an
embittered fight was being fought between fiery Churchmen and fierce
Dissenters. Anne warmly favoured the high church party; and to augment
Church livings, gave out of the royal income “the first-fruits and the
tenths,” amounting to £16,000 a year. While Wesley was yet an infant,
the Whigs raised the cry of “the Church in danger,” but Parliament
passed a resolution that the cry was unfounded, and that those who gave
it birth were enemies to the queen, the Church, and the kingdom. Five
years after this, Dr. Sacheverell preached his firebrand sermon in St.
Paul’s Cathedral, and threw the nation into a state of unparalleled
excitement, the ultimate result of which was, the Tories became more
powerful than ever; and Queen Anne, in meeting her Parliament in 1710,
no longer condescended to use the word _toleration_ in reference to
Dissenters, but spoke of _indulgence_ to be allowed “to scrupulous
consciences,” while, after a long continued struggle, the high church
party succeeded in passing the obnoxious bill against occasional
conformity. All this occurred during Wesley’s childhood.
At the time of Wesley’s birth, his brother Samuel was a sprightly
boy, thirteen years of age, and a few months afterwards was sent to
Westminster School, where he became distinguished for his scholarship
and genius, and soon obtained a host of literary friends, from Lord
Oxford, the Mecænas of his age, down to Addison, Atterbury, Pope, and
Prior. Emilia Wesley, so gifted and so beautiful, was a year younger
than Samuel, and was developing her exquisite sensibility and taste
under the mental and moral cultivation of her mother. The ill-fated
Susannah was a frolicsome child, eight years old. Mary, already
deformed by an early sickness and the carelessness of her nurse, had
arrived at the age of seven, and was fast becoming the favourite of
her father’s family. The almost unequalled Mehetabel was six, and was
so advanced in learning that two years afterwards she read the New
Testament in Greek. Anne was yet an infant; and Martha, Charles, and
Keziah were still unborn.
In the year of Wesley’s nativity, his father was writing his “History
of the Old and New Testament, in Verse;” and also had the pleasure
or mortification (we hardly know which) of having his pamphlet on
Dissenting academies surreptitiously published by a man to whom it had
long before been sent as a private letter. Before Wesley was three
years old his father was ruthlessly thrust into gaol for debt; and
before he was six the parsonage was destroyed by fire. When the fire
occurred, his brother Charles was an infant not two months old, and he,
with John, three of their sisters, and their nurse, were all in the
same room, and fast asleep. Being aroused, the nurse seized Charles,
and bid the others follow. The three sisters did as they were bidden,
but John was left sleeping. The venerable rector counted heads, and
found John was wanting. At the same instant, a cry was heard. The
frantic father tried to ascend the burning stairs, but found it to be
impossible. He then dropped upon his knees in the blazing hall, and
despairing of the rescue of his child, commended him to God. Meanwhile
John had mounted a chest and was standing at the bedroom window. Quick
as thought, one man placed himself against the wall, and another stood
upon his shoulders, and just a moment before the roof fell in with a
fearful crash the child was rescued through the window, and safely
“plucked as a brand from the burning” house.
Our information respecting Wesley’s childhood is extremely limited. If
we strip off all the luxuriant verbiage in which imaginative writers
have indulged, the naked facts are the following.
Wesley, like all the other members of his father’s family, was indebted
for his elementary education to his mother. The principles upon which
she acted were unique. When the child was one year old, he was taught
to fear the rod, and, if he cried at all, to cry in softened tones.
Wesley long afterwards, in his sermon on the education of children,
enforces his mother’s practice, urging parents never to give a child
a thing for which it cries, on the ground that to do so would be a
recompence for crying, and he would certainly cry again.
Another of Mrs. Wesley’s principles of action was to limit her children
to three meals a day. Eating and drinking between meals was strictly
prohibited. All the children were washed and put to bed by eight
o’clock, and, on no account, was a servant to sit by a child till it
fell asleep.
The whole of the Wesley children were taught the Lord’s Prayer as
soon as they could speak, and repeated it every morning and every
night. Rudeness was never seen amongst them; and on no account were
they allowed to call each other by their proper names without the
addition of brother or sister, as the case might be. Six hours a day
were spent at school; and loud talking, playing, and running into the
yard, garden, or street, without permission, was rigorously forbidden.
None of them, except Kezzy, was taught to read till five years old,
and then only a single day was allowed wherein to learn the letters of
the alphabet, great and small—a task which all of them accomplished
except Mary and Anne, who were a day and a half before they knew them
perfectly. Psalms were sung every morning when school was opened, and
also every night when the duties of the day were ended. In addition to
all this, at the commencement and close of every day, each of the elder
children took one of the younger and read the Psalms appointed for the
day and a chapter in the Bible, after which they severally went to
their private devotions.
Mrs. Wesley, assisted by her husband, seems to have been the sole
instructor of her daughters, and also of her sons, until the latter
were sent to school in London; and never was there a family of children
who did their teacher greater credit.
From early childhood, John was remarkable for his sober and studious
disposition, and seemed to feel himself answerable to his reason and
his conscience for everything he did. He would do nothing without first
reflecting on its fitness and propriety. If asked, out of the common
way of meals, to have, for instance, a piece of bread or fruit, he
would answer with the coolest unconcern, “I thank you; I will think
of it.” To argue about a thing seemed instinctive, and was carried to
such a length that on one occasion his father almost chid him, saying,
“Child, you think to carry everything by dint of argument; but you
will find how little is ever done in the world by close reasoning.”
“I profess, sweetheart,” said the rector in a pet to Mrs. Wesley, “I
profess, sweetheart, I think our Jack would not attend to the most
pressing necessities of nature, unless he could give a reason for
it.”[7]
With all this meditative reasoning, there was mixed devotion. It is a
remarkable fact, scarce paralleled, that such was his consistency of
conduct, that his father admitted him to the communion table when he
was only eight years old;[8] and he himself informs us that, until he
was about the age of ten, he had not sinned away that “washing of the
Holy Ghost,” which he received in baptism.[9]
Between the age of eight and nine the small-pox attacked him; but he
bore the terrible affliction with manly and Christian fortitude. At the
time, his father was in London, and his mother writing him remarks:
“Jack has borne his disease bravely, like a man, and indeed like a
Christian, without complaint.”[10]
This is all that is known respecting Wesley during his childhood years
at Epworth. Imagination might conjure up his early thinkings, passions,
and attachments, the localities he loved to visit, and the sports, fun,
and frolic in which he occasionally indulged; but history, on such
subjects, is entirely silent; and for want of its honest statements we
look at him in the grave and sober aspect in which facts present him.
While yet a child, only ten and a half years old, Wesley passed
from under the tutelage of his accomplished mother, and became a
pupil at the Charterhouse, London. For his son’s admission into this
distinguished school, the Epworth rector was indebted to the friendly
services of the Duke of Buckingham, at that time the Lord Chamberlain
of the royal household.[11]
The privilege was great, and, to the day of his death, John Wesley
loved the place of his early education, and was accustomed to walk
through its courts and grounds once every year. He was not without
hardships; but he bore them bravely. Among other acts of cruelty, the
elder boys were accustomed, in addition to their own share of animal
food, to take by force that which was apportioned to the younger
scholars; and, in consequence of this, for a considerable part of the
five years that young Wesley spent at the Charterhouse, the only solid
food he got was bread. There was one thing, however, which contributed
to his general flow of health,—namely, his invariably carrying out a
strict command which his father gave him, to run round the Charterhouse
garden three times every morning. It is good for a man “to bear the
yoke in his youth,” and Wesley learned, as a boy, to suffer wrongfully
with a cheerful fortitude, and to submit to the cruel exactions of his
elder tyrants without acquiring either the cringing of a slave or a
despot’s imperious temper.
Wesley entered the school as the poor child of an impoverished parish
priest, and had to endure wrongs and insults neither few nor small;
but, though he was only sixteen years of age when he left, he had, by
his energy of character, his unconquerable patience, his assiduity, and
his progress in learning, acquired a high position among his fellows.
An old Methodist pamphlet[12] relates an anecdote, to the effect that
the Rev. A. Tooke,[13] master of the school, was struck with the fact
that, though Wesley was remarkably advanced in his studies, yet he
constantly associated with the inferior classes, and was accustomed
to harangue a number of the smaller boys surrounding him. On one
occasion Tooke broke in upon him in the midst of an oration, and
interrupted him, by desiring him to follow him into a private room.
Wesley reluctantly obeyed, and the master, addressing him, asked how
it was that he was so often found among the boys of the lower forms,
and sought not the company of the bigger boys, who were his equals? To
which the young orator replied, “Better to rule in hell than to serve
in heaven.”
This story was given by “an old member of society,” on what he calls
“the most authentic authority,” for the purpose of showing that Wesley,
even as a boy, was ambitious. Be it so. What then? Is ambition always,
and under all circumstances, a thing to be denounced? Ambition is
widely different from vanity, a paltry passion of petty minds; neither
is it necessarily accompanied with the use of improper means to attain
its object. Ambition is common to the human species. There are but few
without it, and who are not desirous of distinguishing themselves in
the circle in which they live. You see the passion in the aristocratic
noble toiling after a distinction which he desires to win; and you
equally see it in the poorest mechanic, who strives to surround himself
with poor admirers, and who delights in the superiority which he
enjoys over those who are, in some respects, beneath him. Besides, as
a rule, a man’s ambition is always in correspondence with his other
tastes, and faculties, and powers. Dr. Johnson wisely remarks, that
“Providence seldom sends any into the world with an inclination to
attempt great things, who have not abilities likewise to perform them;”
and Addison, an equally thoughtful student of human nature, observes
that “Men of the greatest abilities are most fired with ambition; and,
on the contrary, mean and narrow minds are the least actuated by it.”
To account for this may be difficult, but none will deny its truth.
Perhaps the difference may be occasioned by a man’s consciousness of
his own capacities making him despair of attaining positions which
others reach; or perhaps, which is more likely still, Providence, in
the very framing of his mind, has freed him from a passion, which would
be useless to the world, and a torment to himself.
On such grounds, then, we are quite prepared to argue that, even
allowing the above anonymous story to be strictly true, and allowing
also that it proves that Wesley as a boy was animated with ambition,
there is nothing in it which, for a moment, detracts from Wesley’s
honour and honest fame.
We wish that this were the only thing to be alleged against him during
his Charterhouse career. Unfortunately there is another fact far more
serious; for Wesley, while at this seat of learning, lost the religion
which had marked his character from the days of infancy. He writes
concerning this period of his history: “Outward restraints being
removed, I was much more negligent than before, even of outward duties,
and almost continually guilty of outward sins, which I knew to be such,
though they were not scandalous in the eye of the world. However, I
still read the Scriptures, and said my prayers morning and evening.
And what I now hoped to be saved by was,—1. Not being so bad as other
people. 2. Having still a kindness for religion. And, 3. Reading the
Bible, going to church, and saying my prayers.”[14]
Terrible is the danger when a child leaves a pious home for a public
school. John Wesley entered the Charterhouse a saint, and left it a
sinner.
It was during his residence at this celebrated school, that the
mysterious and preternatural voices were heard in his father’s house.
The often told story need not be repeated; but there can be no question
that its influence upon himself was powerful and important. He took
the trouble of obtaining minute particulars from his mother, from his
four sisters, Emily, Mary, Susannah, and Anne, and from Robin Brown.
He likewise transcribed his father’s diary, containing an account of
the disturbances;[15] thereby showing the intense interest he felt
in the affair. In fact, it would seem that, from this period, Wesley
was a firm believer in ghosts and apparitions. In his twentieth year,
we find him writing to his mother, in the gravest manner possible,
concerning what he calls “one of the most unaccountable stories he
had ever heard;”—namely, that of a lad in Ireland, who ever and anon
made an involuntary pilgrimage through the aerial regions, and feasted
with demigods _in nubibus_. In the same letter, Wesley relates an
adventure of his own; for, while walking a few days previously in the
neighbourhood of Oxford, he had observed a forlorn looking house,
which he found was unoccupied by mortals because it was haunted
by ghosts. Wesley tells his mother that he purposes to visit this
forsaken dwelling, and to assure himself whether what he had heard was
true. He further relates that a Mr. Barnesley, and two other of his
fellow-students, had recently seen an apparition in a field adjoining
Oxford, and that it had since been ascertained that Barnesley’s
mother died in Ireland at the very moment when the spectre had been
witnessed.[16]
Thus, at this early period of his history, Wesley’s mind, wisely or
unwisely, superstitiously or otherwise, was full of the supernatural;
and to the calm judgment of his philosophic mother he submits his
facts for her opinion. Three weeks afterwards she wrote:[17]—
“DEAR JACKY,—The story of Mr. Barnesley has afforded me many
curious speculations. I do not doubt the fact; but I cannot
understand why these apparitions are permitted. If they were
allowed to speak to us, and we had strength to bear such
converse,—if they had commission to inform us of anything
relating to their invisible world that would be of any use to
us in this,—if they would instruct us how to avoid danger,
or put us in a way of being wiser and better, there would be
sense in it; but to appear for no end that we know of, unless
to frighten people almost out of their wits, seems altogether
unreasonable.”
This was not a solution of Wesley’s difficulty. It was rather making
mystery more mysterious. The young student was full of anxious inquiry.
Isaac Taylor thinks that the strange Epworth episode so laid open
Wesley’s faculty of belief, that ever after a right of way for the
supernatural was opened through his mind; and, to the end of life,
there was nothing so marvellous that it could not freely pass where
“Old Jeffrey” had passed before it. Taylor adds: “Wesley’s most
prominent infirmity was his wonder-loving credulity; from the beginning
to the end of his course this weakness ruled him.” Other opportunities
will occur of testing the truthfulness of Taylor’s statement; but
here it may be observed, that for young Wesley to have regarded the
noises at Epworth with indifference would have been irreligious and
irrational. A metaphysician, vain of his philosophic powers, like
Isaac Taylor, may “deal with occult folk, such as Jeffrey, huffingly
and disrespectfully;” and may pretend to “catch in the Epworth
ghost a glimpse of an idiotic creature” belonging to some order of
invisible beings “not more intelligent than apes or pigs,” and which,
by some “mischance, was thrown over its boundary, and obtained leave
to disport itself among things palpable, and went to the extent of
its tether in freaks of bootless mischief;” but, in broaching such a
theory, Isaac Taylor, wishing to be witty, makes himself ridiculous.
John Wesley believed the noises to be supernatural; and Southey, as
great an authority as Taylor, defends his belief; and argues that such
occurrences have a tendency to explode the fine-spun theories of men
who deny another state of being, and to bring them to the conclusion
that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in
their philosophy. We have little doubt that the Epworth noises deepened
and most powerfully increased Wesley’s convictions of the existence of
an unseen world; and, in this way, exercised an important influence
on the whole of his future life. His notion,[18] that the disturbance
was occasioned by a messenger of Satan, sent to buffet his father for
a rash vow alleged to have been made fifteen years before, has been
shown to be utterly unfounded;[19] but the impressions it produced, or
rather strengthened, respecting invisible realities, were of the utmost
consequence in moulding his character, and in making him one of the
most earnest preachers of the Christian’s creed that ever lived.
During Wesley’s residence at the Charterhouse, his brother Samuel was
the head usher of Westminster School; and in 1719, Wesley seems, for
a time, to have become his brother’s guest. Charles was now a pupil
under Samuel’s tuition; and the latter, writing to his father, says:
“My brother Jack, I can faithfully assure you, gives you no manner of
discouragement from breeding your third son a scholar. Jack is a brave
boy, learning Hebrew as fast as he can.”[20]
In the following year, Wesley was elected to Christ Church, Oxford,
one of the noblest colleges in that illustrious seat of learning, and
here he continued until after his ordination in 1725. In reference
to this period, he writes: “I still said my prayers, both in public
and private; and read, with the Scriptures, several other books of
religion, especially comments on the New Testament. Yet I had not
all this while so much as a notion of inward holiness; nay, went
on habitually and, for the most part, very contentedly, in some or
other known sin; though with some intermission and short struggles,
especially before and after the holy communion, which I was obliged to
receive thrice a year.”[21]
Such was Wesley during the first five years he spent at Oxford. He
maintained the reputation for scholarship which he had acquired
at school; but there was no alteration in his moral and religious
character. He said his prayers and read good books, as perhaps
most Oxford students did; but, like others, he lived in sin, even
habitually, except about thrice a year, when he was compelled to
receive the sacrament. No doubt, like all the Wesley family, he was a
gay and sprightly companion, and full of wit and humour. He began to
amuse himself occasionally with writing verses, a specimen of which is
given by Dr. Whitehead and is reproduced by Joseph Nightingale. The
verses are six in number, and are merely the translation of a Latin
poem respecting a young lady to whom he gives the name of Cloe. As
Juno had a favourite peacock and Venus a favourite dove, so Cloe had a
favourite flea, whose bliss in being allowed to crawl over the young
lady’s person the poet makes it his business to describe. Henry Moore
is angry with Dr. Whitehead for having given the verses publicity; but
certainly without a cause. Had the piece been written by Wesley in
advanced life it might have deserved censure; but being written when he
was scarcely beyond his teens, it is only what a smart young fellow,
full of vivacity, might be expected to produce.
When Wesley went to Oxford his health was far from being vigorous and
robust. He was frequently troubled with bleeding at the nose. In a
letter to his mother, in 1723, he tells her that lately, while walking
in the country, he had bled so violently that he was almost choked,
nor could he at all abate the hæmorrhage till he stripped himself and
leaped into the river.
He also had to struggle with financial difficulty, and was not
unfrequently in debt. He sometimes had to borrow; and, more than
once, when requesting that his sisters would write to him, playfully
remarks, that, though he was “so poor, he would be able to spare the
postage for a letter now and then.” His friends were kind to him, and
his tutors were considerate. Soon after his entrance, his tutor, Mr.
Wigan, retired to one of his country livings, and was succeeded by Mr.
Sherman, who kindly told him that he would make his fees as low as
possible.[22] Of course he had the £40 per annum, which belonged to
him as a Charterhouse scholar; but this, with the utmost economy, was
hardly sufficient to meet all the expenses of a young Oxford student.
These financial embarrassments are often referred to in the subsequent
correspondence.
The following is from an unpublished letter, written by his mother.
“WROOTE, _August 19, 1724_.
“DEAR JACK,—I am uneasy because I have not heard from you. I
think you don’t do well to stand upon points, and to write only
letter for letter. Let me hear from you often, and inform me of
the state of your health, and whether you have any reasonable
hopes of being out of debt. I am most concerned for the good,
generous man that lent you ten pounds, and am ashamed to beg a
month or two longer, since he has been so kind as to grant us
so much time already. We were amused with your uncle’s coming
from India; but I suppose these fancies are laid aside. I wish
there had been anything in it, for then perhaps it would have
been in my power to have provided for you. But if all things
fail, I hope God will not forsake us. We have still His good
providence to depend on, which has a thousand expedients to
relieve us beyond our view.
“Dear Jack, be not discouraged; do your duty; keep close
to your studies, and hope for better days. Perhaps,
notwithstanding all, we shall pick up a few crumbs for you
before the end of the year.
“Dear Jacky, I beseech Almighty God to bless thee!
“SUSANNAH WESLEY.”
The following also, from another unpublished letter by his mother,
refers to the same subject.
“WROOTE, _September 10, 1724_.
“DEAR JACKY,—I am nothing glad that Mr.—— has paid himself out
of your exhibition; for though I cannot hope, I do not despair,
of my brother’s coming, or, at least, remembering me where he
is.
“The small-pox has been very mortal at Epworth most of this
summer. Our family have all had it except me, and I hope God
will preserve me from it.
“I heartily wish you were in orders, and could come and serve
as one of your father’s curates. Then I should see you often,
and could be more helpful to you than it is possible to be at
this distance.”
We subjoin an extract from another letter, written shortly after the
above, and for the first time published in the _Wesleyan Times_ of
January 29, 1866.
JOHN WESLEY TO HIS MOTHER.
“OXON, _November 1, 1724_.
“DEAR MOTHER,—We are most of us now very healthy at Oxford,
which may be in some measure owing to the frosty weather we
have had lately. Fruit is so very cheap that apples may be
had almost for fetching; and other things are both plentiful
and good. We have, indeed, something bad as well as good, for
a great many rogues are about the town, insomuch that it is
exceedingly unsafe to be out late at night. A gentleman of my
acquaintance, standing at the door of a coffee-house about
seven in the evening, had no sooner turned about, but his cap
and wig were snatched off his head, and, though he followed
the thief a great distance, he was unable to recover them. I
am pretty safe from such gentlemen; for unless they carried me
away, carcass and all, they would have but a poor purchase.
“The chief piece of news with us is concerning the famous Jack
Sheppard’s escape from Newgate, which is indeed as surprising
as most stories I have heard.
“I suppose you have seen the famous Dr. Cheyne’s ‘Book of
Health and Long Life,’ which is, as he says he expected, very
much cried down by the physicians. He refers almost everything
to temperance and exercise, and supports most things with
physical reasons. He entirely condemns eating anything salt
or high-seasoned, as also pork, fish, and stall-fed cattle;
and recommends for drink two pints of water and one of wine in
twenty-four hours, with eight ounces of animal, and twelve of
vegetable food in the same time. The book is chiefly directed
to studious and sedentary persons.
“I should have writ before now had I not had an unlucky cut
across my thumb, which almost jointed it, but is now nearly
cured. I should be exceedingly glad to keep a correspondence
with my sister Emily if she were willing, for I believe I have
not heard from her since I have been at Oxford. I have writ
once or twice to my sister Sukey too, but have not had an
answer either from her or my sister Hetty, from whom I have
more than once desired the Poem of the Dog. I should be glad to
hear how things go on at Wroote, which I now remember with more
pleasure than Epworth; so true it is, at least in me, that the
persons, not the place, make home so pleasant.
“The scantiness of my paper obliges me to conclude with begging
yours and my father’s blessing on
“Your dutiful son,
“For Mrs. Wesley, at Wroote, “JOHN WESLEY.”
“To be left at the Post-office, in Bawtry, Nottinghamshire.”
Dr. Cheyne, mentioned in the preceding letter, was educated at
Edinburgh, where his habits were temperate and sedentary; but,
proceeding to London, he associated with a number of young gentry,
to retain whose friendship it was necessary to indulge to the utmost
in table luxuries. The result was, Cheyne became nervous, scorbutic,
short-breathed, lethargic and listless; and was so enormously fat
as to be nearly thirty-three stones in weight. His life became an
intolerable burden, and, to cure himself, he adopted a milk and
vegetable diet, by means of which he recovered his strength, activity,
and cheerfulness. He became the author of several interesting works,
one of which was the book just noticed. Wesley, to a great extent,
adopted Cheyne’s prescription, and forty-six years after he read his
book at Oxford, wrote: “How marvellous are the ways of God! How has
He kept me even from a child! From ten to thirteen or fourteen, I had
little but bread to eat, and not great plenty of even that. I believe
this was so far from hurting me, that it laid the foundation of lasting
health. When I grew up, in consequence of reading Dr. Cheyne, I chose
to eat sparingly, and to drink water. This was another great means
of continuing my health, till I was about seven-and-twenty. I then
began spitting of blood, which continued several years. A warm climate
[Georgia] cured this. I was afterwards brought to the brink of death by
a fever; but it left me healthier than before. Eleven years after, I
was in the third stage of a consumption; in three months it pleased God
to remove this also. Since that I have known neither pain nor sickness,
and am now healthier than I was forty years ago.”[23] Cheyne became
one of Wesley’s favourites, and no wonder. After reading his “Natural
Method of Curing Diseases,” he designates it one of the most ingenious
books he had ever seen; but adds, “What epicure will ever regard it?
for the man talks against good eating and drinking!”[24] Cheyne died
in 1745, calmly giving up his soul to God, says Wesley, without any
struggle, either of body or mind.
Except the statement, that his _carcass_ was the only property he had,
Wesley makes not the least allusion, in the foregoing letter, to his
pecuniary embarrassments. Naturally enough, his mother was more anxious
than himself. Hence the following letter, hitherto unpublished, written
within a month afterwards.
“WROOTE, _November 24, 1724_.
“DEAR JACKY,—I have now three of your letters before me
unanswered. I take it very kindly that you write so often. I
am afraid of being chargeable, or I should miss few posts, it
being exceeding pleasant to me, in this solitude, to read your
letters, which, however, would be pleasing anywhere.
“Your disappointment, in not seeing us at Oxon, was not of such
consequence as mine in not meeting my brother in London; not
but your wonderful curiosities might excite a person of greater
faith than mine to travel to your museum to visit them. It is
almost a pity that somebody does not cut the wezand of that
keeper to cure his lying so enormously.
“I wish you would save all the money you can conveniently
spare, not to spend on a visit, but for a wiser and better
purpose,—to pay debts, and make yourself easy. I am not without
hope of meeting you next summer, if it please God to prolong
my mortal life. If you then be willing, and have time allowed
you to accompany me to Wroote, I will bear your charges, as God
shall enable me.
“I hope, at your leisure, you will oblige me with some more
verses on any, but rather on a religious subject.
“Dear Jack, I beseech Almighty God to bless you.
“SUSANNAH WESLEY.”
Mrs. Wesley’s brother, referred to in the foregoing letter, was in the
service of the East India Company; and, the public prints having stated
that he was returning to England in one of the company’s ships, Mrs.
Wesley proceeded to London to await his arrival, and to welcome him.
The information, however, was untrue, and both she and her son John
were doomed to a disappointment. Samuel, at the time, had a broken leg,
and had invited John to meet his mother at Westminster. John jocosely
congratulates Samuel, that, like the Dutch seaman who broke his leg by
a fall from the mainmast of his ship, he might thank God that he had
not broken his neck also; and then he adds that his mother’s letter
had made him weep for joy, for the two things he most wished for of
almost anything in the world, were again to see his mother, and to see
Westminster.[25]
Wesley was still in debt, a fact which gave his mother great anxiety.
His father also, as usual, was embarrassed, and yet, though offended
at his son’s want of thrift, did his utmost to afford him help. The
following are painfully interesting letters, and one of them is now for
the first time published—
“_January 5, 1725._
“DEAR SON,—Your brother will receive £5 for you next Saturday,
if Mr. S—— is paid the £10 he lent you; if not, I must go to
H——, but I promise you I shan’t forget that you are my son, if
you do not that I am
“Your loving father,
“SAMUEL WESLEY.”
“WROOTE, _January 26, 1725_.
“DEAR SON,—I am so well pleased with your decent behaviour,
or, at least, with your letters, that I hope I shall have no
occasion to remember any more some things that are past; and
since you have now for some time bit upon the bridle, I will
take care hereafter to put a little honey upon it, as oft as
I am able; but then it shall be of my own mere motion, as the
last £5 was, for I will bear no rivals in my kingdom.
“Your affectionate father,
“SAMUEL WESLEY.”[26]
Some will blame the writer for publishing such letters, on the ground
that they cast shadows on young Wesley’s character; but it ought to be
borne in mind that the work of a biographer is not to hide facts, but
to publish them. Why such an unwillingness to look at the specks as
well as sunshine in John Wesley’s history? Is it necessary, in order
to establish the high position which has been assigned to Wesley, that
the reader should be made to think that from first to last he was _sui
generis_, and altogether free from the infirmities, faults, and sins
of ordinary men? If it were, we would rather lower the position than
pervert the facts; but we maintain, that no such necessity exists.
When we say, that from the age of eleven to the age of twenty-two,
Wesley made no pretensions to be religious, and, except on rare
occasions, habitually lived in the practice of known sin, we only say
what is equally true of many of the greatest, wisest, and most godly
men that have ever lived. The fact is humiliating, and ought to be
deplored; but why hide it in one case more than in another? Wesley soon
became one of the holiest and most useful men living; but, except the
first ten years of his childhood, he was up to the age of twenty-two,
by his own confession, an habitual, if not profane and flagrant sinner;
and to his sin, he added the inconvenient and harassing infirmity of
his honest but imprudent father, and thoughtlessly contracted debts
greater than he had means to pay. His letters are without religious
sentiments, and his life was without a religious aim. We yield to no
man living in our high veneration of Wesley’s character; but, at the
same time, we cannot hide it from ourselves and others, that, being
human, he was frail, and, like all his fellows, had need to repent as
in dust and ashes, and to seek, through Christ, the forgiveness of his
sins and a change of heart.
But leaving this, we turn to another important matter. There is no
evidence to show, that, when Wesley went to Oxford, he intended or
wished to become a minister of the Established Church; it might be so,
but it might be otherwise. It is true that, by obtaining ordination, he
would become entitled to one of the Church livings at the disposal of
the Charterhouse governors; but Wesley was far too noble and too high
principled to seek admission into so sacred an office as the Christian
ministry merely to secure for himself a crust of bread. He might intend
to devote himself, like his brother Samuel, to tutorship; or he might
contemplate some other mode of maintenance. Certain it is, that it was
not until about the beginning of 1725, when he had been more than four
years at college, that he expressed a wish to become a minister of
Christ. The matter was properly submitted to his parents, and both gave
him the best advice they could.
His father told him that his principal motive for entering the ministry
must be, not, “as Eli’s sons, to eat a piece of bread,” but the glory
of God, and the good of men; and that, as a qualification for its
sacred functions, he ought to have a thorough knowledge of the Holy
Scriptures in their original languages. He was, however, not in haste
for his going into orders, and would give him further advice at some
future time.
On February 23, 1725, his mother wrote to him as follows:—
“DEAR JACKY,—The alteration of your temper has occasioned me
much speculation. I, who am apt to be sanguine, hope it may
proceed from the operations of God’s Holy Spirit, that by
taking away your relish of sensual enjoyments, He may prepare
and dispose your mind for a more serious and close application
to things of a more sublime and spiritual nature. If it be so,
happy are you if you cherish those dispositions, and now, in
good earnest, resolve to make religion the business of your
life; for, after all, that is the one thing that strictly
speaking is necessary, and all things else are comparatively
little to the purposes of life. I heartily wish you would now
enter upon a serious examination of yourself, that you may
know whether you have a reasonable hope of salvation; that is,
whether you are in a state of faith and repentance or not,
which you know are the conditions of the gospel covenant on
our part. If you are, the satisfaction of knowing it would
abundantly reward your pains; if not, you will find a more
reasonable occasion for tears than can be met with in a tragedy.
“Now I mention this, it calls to mind your letter to your
father about taking orders. I was much pleased with it, and
liked the proposal well; but it is an unhappiness almost
peculiar to our family, that your father and I seldom think
alike. I approve the disposition of your mind, and think the
sooner you are a deacon the better; because it may be an
inducement to greater application in the study of practical
divinity, which I humbly conceive is the best study for
candidates for orders. Mr. Wesley differs from me, and would
engage you, I believe, in critical learning, which, though
accidentally of use, is in nowise preferable to the other.
I earnestly pray God to avert that great evil from you of
engaging in trifling studies to the neglect of such as are
absolutely necessary. I dare advise nothing: God Almighty
direct and bless you! I have much to say, but cannot write you
more at present. I long to see you. We hear nothing of H——
which gives us some uneasiness. We have all writ, but can get
no answer. I wish all be well—Adieu!
“SUSANNAH WESLEY.”[27]
Three weeks after this, his father wrote to him, saying that he was now
inclined to his entering orders without delay, and exhorting him to
prayer and study in reference to such a step, promising that he would
struggle hard to obtain the money for the needful expenses.
Meanwhile, his sister Emilia wrote him a long letter, from which the
following extracts are taken:—
“WROOTE, _April 7, 1725_.
“DEAR BROTHER,—Whether you will be engaged before thirty, or
not, I cannot determine; but, if my advice be worth listening
to, never engage your affections before your worldly affairs
are in such a posture that you may marry soon. The contrary
practice has proved very pernicious in our family. I know you
are a young man encompassed with difficulties, and have passed
through many hardships already, and probably must through many
more before you are easy in the world; but, believe me, if ever
you come to suffer the torment of a hopeless love, all other
afflictions will seem small in comparison of this.
“I know not when we have had so good a year, both at Wroote and
at Epworth, as this year; but instead of saving anything to
clothe my sister or myself, we are just where we were. A noble
crop has almost all gone, beside Epworth living, to pay some
part of those infinite debts my father has run into, which are
so many, that were he to save £50 a year, he would not be clear
in the world this seven years. One thing I warn you of: let not
my giving you this account be any hindrance to your affairs. If
you want assistance in any case, my father is as able to give
it now as any time these last ten years; nor shall we be ever
the poorer for it.
“I have quite tired you now; pray be faithful to me. Let me
have one relation that I can trust. Never give a hint to any
one of aught I write to you; and continue to love your unhappy
but affectionate sister,
“EMILIA WESLEY.”[28]
Wesley now began to apply himself with diligence to the study of
divinity. He writes: “When I was about twenty-two, my father pressed
me to enter into holy orders. At the same time the providence of God
directing me to Kempis’s ‘Christian’s Pattern,’ I began to see that
true religion was seated in the heart, and that God’s law extended to
all our thoughts as well as words and actions. I was, however, angry at
Kempis for being too strict; though I read him only in Dean Stanhope’s
translation. Yet I had frequently much sensible comfort in reading
him, such as I was an utter stranger to before. Meeting likewise with
a religious friend, which I never had till now, I began to alter
the whole form of my conversation, and to set in earnest upon a new
life. I set apart an hour or two a day for religious retirement. I
communicated every week. I watched against all sin, whether in word or
deed. I began to aim at, and to pray for, inward holiness. So that now,
doing so much and living so good a life, I doubted not that I was a
good Christian.”[29]
What a confession! It was eleven years since Wesley left the parental
roof; but he never had a _religious friend_ till now. No wonder he had
gone astray.
Having written to his mother, stating some of the difficulties which
he had found in Kempis, she, on the 8th June, 1725, sent him a long
letter, which, however adapted to an enlightened Christian, was
useless, if not misleading, to an anxious inquirer not yet converted.
The entire letter is before us, containing, besides a large amount of
Christian casuistry, some family affairs of painful interest. These we
pass over, and merely give an extract in reference to Kempis:—
“I have Kempis by me; but have not read him lately. I cannot
recollect the passages you mention; but, believing you do him
justice, I do positively aver that he is extremely in the wrong
in that impious, I was about to say blasphemous, suggestion,
that God, by an irreversible decree, has determined any man to
be miserable even in this world. His intentions, as Himself,
are holy, just, and good; and all the miseries incident to men
here or hereafter proceed from themselves. I take Kempis to
have been an honest weak man, that had more zeal than knowledge.
“Your brother has brought us a heavy reckoning for you and
Charles. God be merciful to us all! Dear Jack, I earnestly
beseech Almighty God to bless you. Adieu!
“SUSANNAH WESLEY.”
Ten days after the date of his mother’s letter, he wrote to her again,
as follows:—
“_June 18, 1725._
“You have so well satisfied me as to the tenets of Thomas à
Kempis, that I have ventured to trouble you again on a more
dubious subject. Dr. Taylor, in his ‘Holy Living and Dying,’
says, ‘Whether God has forgiven us or no, we know not;
therefore, be sorrowful for ever having sinned.’ This seems to
contradict his own words in the next section, where he says
that ‘by the Lord’s supper all the members are united to one
another, and to Christ the Head. The Holy Ghost confers on us
the graces necessary for, and our souls receive the seed of, an
immortal life.’ Now surely these graces are of not so little
force as that we cannot perceive whether we have them or not.
If we dwell in Christ, and Christ in us (which He will not do
unless we are regenerate), certainly we must be sensible of it.
If we can never have any certainty of our being in a state of
salvation, good reason it is that every moment should be spent,
not in joy, but in fear and trembling; and then, undoubtedly,
in this life we are of all men the most miserable. God deliver
us from such a fearful expectation as this!”[30]
We thus find young Wesley carefully reading Thomas à Kempis and Jeremy
Taylor, and groping after two of the great doctrines which afterwards
distinguished his ministry: God’s love to _all_, and the privilege
of living in a state of conscious salvation. These and other topics
puzzled him, and yet he seemed to have an almost instinctive knowledge
of what is truth. We have seen his mother’s sentiments concerning
Kempis. His father, on the 14th of July following, observes that
though Kempis has gone to an extreme in teaching the doctrine of
self-mortification, yet, considering the age in which he wrote, there
was no need to be surprised at this. And then he adds: “Making some
grains of allowance, he may be read to great advantage. Notwithstanding
all his superstition and enthusiasm, it is almost impossible to peruse
him seriously, without admiring, and in some measure imitating, his
heroic strains of humility and piety and devotion.”
The books of Kempis and Taylor seem to have been the first on practical
divinity that Wesley read, and, to the day of his death, were held
in high esteem. Kempis’s “Pattern” was one of the first books that
Wesley published; and an extract from Taylor’s work forms a part of
his “Christian Library.” In his estimation, Taylor was a man of the
sublimest piety, and one of the greatest geniuses on earth;[31] and
Kempis is always spoken of in terms of high respect. What were the
results of Wesley’s reading?
1. To this incident we are indebted for Wesley’s long continued record
of the events and exercises of his daily life. In the preface to his
first journal, dated September 20, 1740, he states, that about fifteen
years ago (1725), in pursuance of an advice given by Bishop Taylor in
his “Rules for Holy Living and Dying,” he began to take a more exact
account than he had done before of the manner wherein he spent his
time, writing down how he had employed every hour. The practice thus
begun was uninterruptedly continued until his death, and issued in
giving to the world one of the most interesting works in the English
language; a work not only containing the best history of the great
reformer, and of the rise and growth of the Methodist movement, but
sparkling with the most racy remarks respecting men, books, places,
science, witches, ghosts, and almost everything with which the writer
came in contact.
2. Another, and far more important result of reading Kempis and
Taylor, was an entire change of life. He writes respecting Kempis’s
“Pattern:” “When I met with it in 1726,[32] the nature and extent of
inward religion, the religion of the heart, now appeared to me in a
stronger light than ever it had done before. I saw that giving even all
my life to God (supposing it possible to do this, and go no further)
would profit me nothing, unless I gave my heart, yea, all my heart, to
Him. I saw that simplicity of intention, and purity of affection, one
design in all we speak and do, and one desire ruling all our tempers,
are indeed the wings of the soul, without which she can never ascend to
God. I sought after this from that hour.”[33]
Again, in reference to Taylor’s “Holy Living and Dying,” he observes:
“In reading several parts of this book, I was exceedingly affected;
that part in particular which relates to purity of intention. Instantly
I resolved to dedicate all my life to God,—all my thoughts, and words,
and actions,—being thoroughly convinced there was no medium; but that
every part of my life (not some only) must either be a sacrifice to
God, or myself, that is, in effect, the devil.”[34]
Here, then, we have the turning-point in Wesley’s history. It was not
until thirteen years after this, that he received the consciousness of
being saved through faith in Christ; but from this time, his whole aim
was to serve God and his fellowmen, and to get safe to heaven. No man
could be more sincere, earnest, devout, diligent, and self-denying; and
yet, during this lengthened period, he lived and laboured in a mist.
His father was £350 in debt; but was now resolved to do his utmost to
obtain ordination for his son. He urged him to master St. Chrysostom
and the articles; and sent his “Letter to a Curate,” in manuscript, to
assist him in his preparations; and also wrote to the Bishop of Lincoln
in his favour.[35] Meanwhile his mother tried to solve some of his
scruples respecting the article on predestination;[36] and wrote him a
long letter, not hitherto published, from which we give the following
extracts:—
“Wroote, _July 21, 1725_.
“DEAR JACKEY,—Though I have a great deal of unpleasant
business, am infirm, and but slow of understanding, yet it is
a pleasure to me to correspond with you on religious subjects;
and, if it be of the least advantage to you, I shall greatly
rejoice. I know little or nothing of Dr. Taylor’s ‘Holy Living
and Dying,’ having not seen it for above twenty years; but
I think it is generally well esteemed. I cannot judge of
the rules you suppose impracticable; but I will tell you my
thoughts of humility as briefly as I can.”
Here follow her remarks on humility. She continues:—
“He is certainly right, that there is but one true repentance,
for repentance is a state not a transient act; and this state
begins in a change of the whole mind from evil to good, and
contains, in some sense, all the parts of a holy life.[37]
Repentance, in Scripture, is said to signify the whole of
obedience, as faith often includes repentance, and all the
subsequent acts of religion: ‘Repent, and thy sins shall be
forgiven thee;’ ‘Believe, and thou shalt be saved.’ If, after
this change, we fall into the contrary state—a state of wilful
impenitence—which is nothing less than a total apostasy—the
Scripture is plain; ‘There remaineth no more sacrifice for
sin;’ no place is left for repentance; for, by this formal
renunciation of our most holy faith, we ‘crucify afresh the Son
of God, and put Him to an open shame.’ But this is not the case
of those who never were converted; or of such who, having been
converted, fall nevertheless sometimes into their old sins,
through the fault of their nature, or the stress of temptation.
“I don’t well understand what he means by saying, ‘Whether
God has forgiven us or no, we know not.’ If he intends such
a certainty of pardon as cannot possibly admit of the least
doubt or scruple, he is infallibly in the right; for such an
absolute certainty we can never have till we come to heaven.
But if he means no more than that reasonable persuasion of
the forgiveness of sins, which a true penitent feels when he
reflects on the evidences of his own sincerity, he is certainly
in the wrong, for such a firm persuasion is actually enjoyed by
man in this life.
“The virtues which we have by the grace of God acquired, are
not of so little force as he supposes; for we may surely
perceive when we have them in any good degree. But when our
love to God, and faith in the Lord Jesus are weak (for there
is a great inequality in our lives); when, though we strive
against our sins, we have not so far overcome but that we
sometimes relapse into them again,—in such a case we shall be
often doubtful of our state. But when, by the assistance of the
Holy Spirit, we have made a considerable progress in religion,
and when habits of virtue are confirmed; when we find little
disturbance from any exorbitant appetite, and can maintain
an even tenour of life,—we shall be easy, and free from all
torment, doubts, or fears of our future happiness; for perfect
love will cast out fears.
“I am entirely of your opinion, that whenever we worthily
communicate, with faith, humility, etc., our sins are forgiven,
and will never rise in judgment against us if we forsake them.
The Scripture is so clear and express in this case, that I
think none can question the pardon of his sins if he repent,
except such as do not believe it.
“But if you would be free from fears and doubts concerning your
future happiness, every morning and evening commit your soul
to Jesus Christ, in a full faith in His power and will to save
you. If you do this seriously and constantly, He will take
you under His conduct; He will guide you by His Holy Spirit
into the way of truth, and give you strength to walk in it.
He will dispose of the events of God’s general providence to
your spiritual advantage; and if, to keep you humble and more
sensible of your dependence on Him, He permit you to fall into
lesser sins, be not discouraged; for He will certainly give you
repentance, and safely guide you through all the temptations of
this world, and, at the last, receive you to Himself in glory.
“Your father has written lately to you about your business. I
heartily wish you success, for I am greatly troubled at your
unhappy circumstances. I can do nothing at present but pray for
you. Dear Jack, I beseech Almighty God to bless you.
“SUSANNAH WESLEY.”
Part of Wesley’s reply to his mother’s letter is as follows:—
“_July 29, 1725._
“That we can never be so certain of the pardon of our sins as
to be assured they will never rise up against us, I firmly
believe. We know that they will infallibly do so if ever we
apostatize, and I am not satisfied what evidence there can be
of our final perseverance, till we have finished our course.
But I am persuaded we may know if we are now in a state of
salvation, since that is expressly promised in the Holy
Scriptures to our sincere endeavours, and we are, surely, able
to judge of our own sincerity.
“What shall I say of predestination? An everlasting purpose of
God to deliver some from damnation, does, I suppose, exclude
all from that deliverance who are not chosen. And if it was
inevitably decreed from eternity that such a determinate part
of mankind should be saved, and none beside them, a vast
majority of the world were only born to eternal death, without
so much as a possibility of avoiding it. How is this consistent
with either the Divine justice or mercy? Is it merciful to
ordain a creature to everlasting misery? Is it just to punish
man for crimes which he could not but commit? That God should
be the author of sin and injustice (which must, I think, be the
consequence of maintaining this opinion), is a contradiction
to the clearest ideas we have of the Divine nature and
perfections.”[38]
If the ideas of Wesley and his mother, on the way of attaining
salvation, had been as scriptural as his ideas on general redemption,
both would have been in a holier and happier frame of mind.
Wesley’s religion already made him the subject of contemptuous sneers.
Hence the following from his father:—
“WROOTE, _August 2, 1725_.
“DEAR SON,—If you be what you write I shall be happy. As to
the gentlemen candidates you mention, does anybody think the
devil is dead, or asleep, or that he has no agents left? Surely
virtue can bear being laughed at. The Captain and Master
endured something more for us before He entered into glory, and
unless we track His steps, in vain do we hope to share that
glory with Him.
“Nought else but blessing from your loving father,
“SAMUEL WESLEY.”
Wesley was still in doubt in reference to several matters which had
occurred to him during his late religious reading; and to relieve his
doubts, his mother sent him some of the ablest letters she ever penned.
The subjoined is taken from a long epistle now before us, and only part
of which has heretofore been published:—
“WROOTE, _August 18, 1725_.
“DEAR JACKEY,—Divine faith is an assent to whatever God has
revealed to us, because He has revealed it. And this is that
virtue of faith which is one of the two conditions of our
salvation by Jesus Christ. But this matter is so fully and
accurately explained by Bishop Pearson (under ‘I Believe’) that
I shall say no more of it.
“I have often wondered that men should be so vain as to amuse
themselves with searching into the decrees of God, which no
human wit can fathom, and do not rather employ their time and
powers in working out their salvation. Such studies tend more
to confound than to inform the understanding, and young people
had better let them alone. But since I find you have some
scruples concerning our article, Of Predestination, I will tell
you my thoughts of the matter. If they satisfy not, you may
desire your father’s direction, who is surely better qualified
for a casuist than I.
“The doctrine of predestination, as maintained by the rigid
Calvinists, is very shocking, and ought to be abhorred, because
it directly charges the most high God with being the author of
sin. I think you reason well and justly against it; for it is
certainly inconsistent with the justice and goodness of God
to lay any man under either a physical or moral necessity of
committing sin, and then to punish him for doing it.
“I firmly believe that God, from eternity, has elected some to
eternal life; but then I humbly conceive that this election
is founded on His foreknowledge, according to Romans viii.
29, 30. Whom, in His eternal prescience, God saw would make
a right use of their powers, and accept of offered mercy,
He did predestinate and adopt for His children. And that
they may be conformed to the image of His only Son, He calls
them to Himself, through the preaching of the gospel, and,
internally, by His Holy Spirit; which call they obeying,
repenting of their sins and believing in the Lord Jesus, He
justifies them, absolves them from the guilt of all their sins,
and acknowledges them as just and righteous persons, through
the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ. And having thus
justified, He receives them to glory—to heaven.
“This is the sum of what I believe concerning predestination,
which I think is agreeable to the analogy of faith; since it
does in nowise derogate from the glory of God’s free grace,
nor impair the liberty of man. Nor can it with more reason
be supposed that the prescience of God is the cause that so
many finally perish, than that one knowing the sun will rise
to-morrow is the cause of its rising.”
John Wesley substantially adopted his mother’s predestinarian views,
as may be seen in his sermon on the text which she expounds in the
foregoing letter; but his notions of that faith by which a sinner
is justified were, at present, like those of his mother, vague and
general, and far from being clear.
The time for Wesley’s ordination was now approaching, and the money
question again rose up like a spectre, and required attention. His
father writes:—
“BAWTRY, _September 1, 1725_.
“DEAR SON,—I came hither to-day because I cannot be at rest
till I make you easier. I could not possibly manufacture any
money for you here sooner than next Saturday. On Monday I
design to wait on Dr. Morley, and will try to prevail with
your brother to return you £8 with interest. I will assist you
in the charges for ordination, though I am myself just now
struggling for life. This £8 you may depend on the next week,
or the week after.
“Your affectionate father,
“SAMUEL WESLEY.”[39]
Difficulties were overcome, and Wesley, having prepared himself with
the most conscientious care for the ministerial office, was ordained
deacon on Sunday, September 19th, 1725.