The history of William Chapman also is wanting. He was ardently attached
to the two Wesleys; but, strangely enough, they never mention him. After
their departure from Oxford, he was the nightly companion of Hervey; but,
excepting the letter, dated “June 12, 1736,” already given in Hervey’s
Memoir (page 208), we possess no epistolary correspondence between the
two. Chapman, like all the other Oxford Methodists, was humble, earnest,
and devout. The following, hitherto unpublished, letter affords ample
evidence of this. It was addressed “To the Reverend Mr. John Wesley, at
Savannah, in Georgia, America.”
“PEMBROKE COLLEGE, _September 3, 1736_.
“REVEREND AND DEAR SIR,—Your kind concern and repeated
endeavours for my spiritual good, while at Oxford, will not
suffer me to think, that, you have utterly lost all remembrance
of me, though you have given me no testimony of your affection
since your leaving England. What shall I conjecture this
silence to be owing to? I will not inquire; but rather take
it as a providential punishment and scourge, for my slow and
slender proficiency under the blessed means I enjoyed of
your’s, and your dear brother’s conversation.
“Too, too late, alas! do I see how dreadfully I was wanting to
myself in not heartily embracing so glorious an opportunity
of laying in a stock of spiritual courage, sufficient to have
carried me victoriously on through a host of enemies. How does
my base ingratitude to my Heavenly Benefactor, like a frightful
spectre, present itself before me, for rejecting those kind
offers of health and salvation! And for not disengaging
myself from that bane of our spiritual progress,—_the fear
of the world_,—which was always as fetters upon my feet, and
manacles on my hands! O! through what a waste of uncomfortable,
barren, and dry ground,—through what a wilderness of sorrows,
perplexities, and distress, have I not been led, under the
conduct of this delusive spirit; when the holy and loving
Spirit of God would have led me into pleasant pastures, and
refreshed my thirsty soul with the waters of comfort, and
conducted me into those paths, which are pleasantness and
peace. But, blessed be God! for the sense of these things,
though, indeed, not till driven to it, by the pungency of the
affliction, by the misery and torment of a divided state of
heart, and the perpetual conflicts I endured. Blessed be the
most high God! I am once again, I trust, in the strait and
narrow way, that leadeth to the kingdom of heaven; from which
that I may never stir a foot, till the cord of life is loosed,
I dare say, you will not cease earnestly to request at the
throne of grace.
“I am sorry, I deferred writing till it was too late to say
more; though I cannot help telling you, before I conclude,
that, I sit every evening with Mr. Hervey,—that great champion
of the Lord of Hosts; and, that, I read, five times a week, to
a Religious Society, in St. Ebbs’ parish.
“Dear Sir, God Almighty prosper all your endeavours for the
good of souls! Depend upon it, in due time, you will reap, and
that abundantly, if you faint not. My prayers are with you.
O! that my body was there too, that, I might make up what I
have lost, under such shining examples. Do, dear Sir, write me
a long letter, by the first opportunity. Adieu! God and the
Angels be with you!
“I am yours, my dear Brother, sincerely in Christ,
“W. CHAPMAN.
“My Lady Cocks and sisters are now in Oxford; and they desire
their best services to you, and wish you good luck in the name
of the Lord.”
It is hoped, that, this fragment of the religious experience of the
Oxford Methodists will not be unacceptable. The men were intensely
earnest and sincere, but not happy.