The Rev. W. H. Fitchett says of John Wesley:
Had Wesley done nothing more than preach or write his memory
might have failed. But at this stage Wesley links himself by one
great achievement, not merely to English history, but to the
history of religion. He creates a church! He did not do this
consciously, or of deliberate purpose. He strove, indeed, not to
do it; he protested he would never do it. But as history shows,
he actually did it! And since history is not so much philosophy
teaching by examples as God interpreting Himself by events, we
are entitled to say that Wesley, in laying the foundations of a
new church, did something that, no doubt, outran his own human
vision, but which fulfilled a divine purpose.--“Wesley and His
Century.”
(2382)