The Development of John Wesley's Vision of
Chapter 3
PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY IN THE WILDERNESS:
THE DEVELOPMENT OF JOHN WESLEY'S VISION
OF CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITY
John Wesley's early life exposed him to the cultural patterns of his age, with their reverence for classical and Christian antiquity. These patterns impinged upon Wesley in his home, in his School, in his
University, and in the new relationships he forged with Continental Pietists in his venture to Georgia in 1735. In each of these settings, and beyond the beginnings of the Methodist Revival in 1739, his views of the early Christian centuries continued to develop, and his vision of the ancient church inspired his revivalistic efforts.
To understand how Wesley's vision of Christian antiquity could function in tension with his culture, it is important to observe how his ideas of Christian antiquity actually emerged, since in almost every case his interests in Christian antiquity were inspired by programmatic concerns about the reform of the church. His vision for the reform of the church, however, and his correlated vision of ancient
Christianity, shifted significantly throughout his career. The account that follows attempts to describe Wesley's developing conceptions of Christian antiquity in some detail.
His Father's Advice Samuel Wesley functioned as a sort of funnel through which the Anglican culture of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries flowed into the rectory at Epworth and saturated its inhabitants. He was familiar with several ancient languages, and devoted his scholarly abilities to the production of a massive Latin exposition of the book of Job, Dissertationes in Librum Jobi, published in the year of his death
JOHN WESLEY AND CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITY
(1735). The book contains references to the intertestamental and early Christian literature on Job, and shows Samuel's familiarity with Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Syriac, and other ancient languages.'
Two documents from Samuel Wesley, both read by John, illustrate his interest in ancient Christianity. The first is a pamphlet entitled The Young Student's Library (1692), attributed to Samuel Wesley as Secretary of the Athenian Society. This work contains a list of books in various fields recommended to students by the Society. Among other books in divinity, it advises students to read Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History, The History of the General Councils, a Summa Conciliorum ("Summary of the Councils"), William Beveridge's Synodikon,
Cotelier's Ecclesiae graecae Monumenta ("Documents of the Greek Church"), and finally, "All the Fathers, as St. Ambrose, etc."? Striking in this list are the prominence of works on conciliar (that is, postNicene) theology, the blank reference to "All the Fathers," of whom the only one listed is from the later fourth century, and the inclusion of two works on Greek Christianity (those of Beveridge and Cotelier).
The conception of Christian antiquity one would gather from these works would be that of a Christian church established under the Roman Empire with a highly-developed system of ecclesiastical offices, institutions, dogmas, laws, and the like; but not "Roman," in the sense of yielding to papal supremacy.
Samuel Wesley passed on a more extensive prospectus of his recommended readings in ancient Christianity in his Advice to a Young
Clergyman (1735), written to Mr. Hoole, his curate at Epworth and Wroote, and published by John Wesley in the year that Samuel died.
The Advice deals with the clergy's "intention, converse and demeanour, reading prayers, studies, preaching and catechising, administrating the sacraments, and discipline." Thirty-four of the sixty-nine pages of this work are dedicated to a discussion of the clergy's studies.
Samuel urged the candidate for orders to study Latin, Greek, and, if at all possible, Hebrew. Ten pages are specifically concerned with early
Christian studies. In an early section, he recommended the New Testament Apocryphal works and the Apostolic Fathers. He took up postNicene Christian antiquity later in the book, noting that the fourth century marked the church's conflicts with Sabellianism and Arianism. He defended Eusebius's orthodoxy by noting Eusebius's assent to the Nicene Creed and its formulation of the homoousion. Samuel insisted that the teachings of Nicea were consistent with those of the ante-Nicene Christian writers, and on this subject he recommended the History of the Council of Nice, Eusebius, Athanasius, Basil, conciliar documents themselves, Chrysostom, and modern works by Tillemont,
Dupin, Pearson, and Bull. Samuel added a final paragraph in his con-
PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY IN THE WILDERNESS
sideration of patristic studies in which he recommended some fifthcentury and later writers, "if you have a mind to step a little lower."
These are Augustine, Jerome, Ambrose, Boethius, Cassiodore, Gildas, Bede, and the Saxon Councils and Homilies.? Among modern works in divinity, Samuel recommended some works concerned with early
Christianity, including books by Stillingfleet and Grotius (although he acknowledged some errors in them), Pearson's Exposition of the Creed and "Critique on Ignatius" (this must refer to the Vindiciae), Bull (again),
Beveridge's sermons, William Cave's Primitive Christianity, LeClerc ("has more wit than learning"), Bingham, and Nelson.' In his comments on preaching, Samuel suggested that his curate refer to the ancient Christian writers "for Illustration, and Probable, not Infallible,
Some indications of Samuel Wesley's estimate of Christian antiquity arise from these parts of his Advice and his Young Student's Library. Throughout both one sees the high approbation of Christian antiquity characteristic of the conservative Anglicanism of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. The Advice shows more regard for the first three Christian centuries, but gives its approval to fourthand fifth-century works, especially the Nicene formulation of Trinitarian dogma. Although Samuel was familiar with Beveridge and Cave, his defence of the Nicene formulations as consistent with anteNicene and scriptural teachings, his references to Bull, Pearson, and Wake, and his general appreciation for post-Nicene Christianity in the Young Student's Library and the Advice suggest that, among the various positions outlined in the previous chapter, his vision of Christian antiquity approximated that of such Anglican apologists as Bull, Pearson, and Wake. This apologetic outlook would be consistent with the fact that Samuel had converted to Anglicanism on dogmatic grounds.
In the winter of 1724-1725, John Wesley, still a scholar of Christ Church, decided to seek ordination as a priest of the Church of England. On the twenty-sixth of January, 1725, Samuel Wesley wrote him and promised to send the manuscript of his advice to Mr. Hoole (that is, the Advice to a Young Clergyman). In this and two subsequent letters in 1725, Samuel urged John to read Chrysostom's work De Sacerdotio
("On the Priesthood"). "Master it," he urged, "digest it."
From his father, then, John Wesley received the impetus to study Christian antiquity in the context of Anglican writers who had appealed to Christian antiquity in order to vindicate the doctrines and practices of the Church of England. If John Wesley had followed his father's prescription, his vision of ancient Christianity would have been tied to the culturally conservative Anglicanism of the seventeenth century which Samuel represented, but there is very little evi-