John Wesley and Death
John Wesley and Death » Wesley A. Chambers The eighteenth century was brutal. Illegitimate children were abandoned in the streets. At the height of the gin era (1740-1742) burials in London were twice as many as the baptisms.' The pillory often proved a fatal punishment for minor offences while the number of offences punished by death soared to two hundred. *
Public hangings were popular spectacles: the public burning of women, dead or alive, was still practised in English law.?
The Wesley family was part of this society. Of the nineteen children born to Samuel and Susanna Wesley only nine reached maturity. The same cloud of death hung over Charles Wesley's family. Ofhis eight children five died in infancy. In John's lifetime prior to his sailing for Georgia, a brother had died in 1705, an unknown sibling in 1709, sister Mary in 1734, and his father in 1735:
John Wesley's theology of death From early childhood John Wesley had been carefully instructed in the teaching of the Church of England. According to the baptismal liturgy all men are conceived and born in sin,* and partake of original sin which inclines to evil. Therefore every person born into the world deserves God's wrath and damnation.°
By baptism a child is regenerate® and spared condemnation, yet the infection remains.
In preparing for ordination Wesley was obliged to give such issues Closer consideration. His correspondence with his brother
Samuel shows he grappled with the fate of those condemned to hell, i.e. with whether there is a second death or eternal punishment. To avoid such a fate there was need for great
John Wesley and Death
holiness, for without it none could with confidence appear before God.
Wesley's Notes on the Old and New Testaments reveal his mature thinking. Commenting on Romans 6.23 he classified death under three headings — temporal, spiritual and eternal.
Temporal death was brought about by Adam's sin. In it the body is forsaken by the soul, and becomes dust. Wesley's exposition of Genesis 3.21 makes the point that the skins of animals were not only for our primal parents' clothing but also to teach them precisely what death is. Adam's tilling the ground was to keep him humble and to remind him of his latter end. Yet while our primal parents were excluded from the privileges of the state of innocency, they were not abandoned to despair 'God's thoughts of love designing them for a second state of probation upon new terms'.'
Spiritual death is the result of sin in the second state of probation. Sin, which is the sting of death, is full of hellish poison, and works death in a person.® Without sin death could have no power.? Yet a person physically alive can be spiritually dead, i.e. 'absolutely devoid of all spiritual life and as incapable of quickening yourselves as a person literally dead'.'°
Eternal death is the second death which takes place in the 'lake of fire' and is the portion of those who have not overcome the fear of death in times of persecution.'' At the general resurrection of the dead, death gives up the bodies and Hades the souls of the departed, so that each person is reunited in body and soul. In the following judgement the saints have everlasting joy'* but the fearful, unbelieving, idolaters, etc. suffer the second death. This judgement is eternal because the sentence pronounced is irreversible and its effects remain for ever.'?
Yet victory has been made possible through Christ's conquest of death, sin and Hades.'* Indeed death is totally conquered.'°
In the meantime death is 'King of a vast domain','® terrible to natural man and particularly terrible when death is violent.''
Everyone who knows not Christ fears death to some extent.'® Such a person is 'subject to bondage and in a slavish, uncomfortable state'. True believers are delivered from this bondage.'9
emphases are exposed in his selection of hymns for his hymnals. In the Charles-Town Hymnal, published in 1737, there are hymns on "Triumph over Death''® which is inherent in
John Wesley: Contemporary Perspectives 'Faith in Christ'.?' Further, there is the possibility of "Heaven
Begun on Earth',"? yet the haunting question remains:
When rising from the bed of death O'erwhelmed by guilt and fear, I view my Maker face to face, O how shall I appear?*?
What strikes the reader is Wesley's head-knowledge that was to become the heart-experienced reality of later years. Such themes as 'triumph over death' and 'heaven begun on earth' were to become the joyous experience of the Methodist people. In the
hymnal there were fourteen hymns on death, thirteen on judgement, thirteen on heaven, and one on hell which reflects Wesley's early observation that repentance induced by fear is transitory unless it is accompanied by a real love of goodness.** Though
Wesley believed in and*had clear views on the reality of hell and the second death, his mature emphasisJay upon the possibilities of the soul being restored in the divine image and the joy of heaven being experienced on earth and consummated in heaven. This stands in marked contrast with the popular image of him as a hell-fire preacher and marks him off from many evangelicals who were not so sparing in their threats of hell to induce repentance.*°
John Wesley's experience of death While Wesley was sorting out his theological understanding of death it is apparent that he had personal problems in relation to it.
The death of 'Robin' Griffiths (1727) in particular made him acutely aware of the shortness of life which imperilled the process of sanctification and therefore of readiness to appear before God in judgement. It was a stressful time for all concerned, not least for Wesley, who had been in close touch with the deceased. To relieve the grieving father Wesley preached on the Sunday after the funeral and commented in a letter to his mother:
I never gave more reason to suspect my doctrine did not agree with my practice for a sickness and a pain in the stomach, attended by violent loosness, which seized me the day he was buried, altered me so much in three days, and made me look so pale and thin, that those who saw me could not but observe it.°
John Wesley and Death
We know that up to this time Wesley's own skirmish with death in the Epworth rectory fire still exercised a continuing 'strong impression' on his mind. In this letter Wesley clearly states that his body language did not harmonize with his intellectual belief.
One can legitimately infer that in all probability Wesley had not come to terms with death in his own experience. Between what he knew and what he felt there was an incongruity which may well be taken to indicate an unresolved trauma.
This view is supported by his reaction to the violent storms experienced in the Atlantic crossing of 1735. Wesley honestly recorded his reactions: afraid to die — unwilling to die.*" The same is true of his reactions to storms on land."® In theory death meant being with Christ; but the dreadful thought of appearing before the judgement seat of God made him realize that he did not have the kind of faith that could overcome the fear of death. As he realized at 'Robin' Griffith's funeral, so he realized in the deaththreatening storms of the Atlantic. His head told him his faith should overcome his fear of death; his emotional reactions revealed the poverty of his faith and his unreadiness to die. How to overcome this fear of death — and the ensuing experiences of the soul — was Wesley's major problem.
Back in the security of London he reflected upon his spiritual plight:
... I have a fair summer religion. I can talk well: and believe myself when no danger is near. But let death look me in the face, and my spirit is troubled. Nor can I say "To die is gain!'
I have a sin of fear, that when I've spun My last thread, I shall perish on the shore.
. Oh, who will deliver me from this fear of death?
What shall I do? Where shall I fly? .
. .*9 Searching for an answer to the fear of death In his search for an answer, Wesley had sought help from a friend who advised him to look upon this fear as his cross to quicken his good resolutions. When the fear was dormant he should forget about it and get on with his ministry.3° Who this friend was we do not know. However well meant, this advice did not solve Wesley's problem nor resolve the disparity between his belief and his
John Wesley: Contemporary Perspectives involuntary reactions.
More help came from his introduction to the writings of Bishop Jeremy Taylor and of Thomas a Kempis. Fundamental to Taylor's work is the omnipresence and omniscience of God, whois 'the great eye of the world aways watching over our actions, and an ever open ear to hear all our words'. He is especially present in the consciences ofall people, good and bad, by way of testimony and judgment. 'He is the remembrancer to call our actions to mind; witness to bring them to judgment, and a judge to acquit or condemn.'*' In short,
Wesley learned ultimate accountability. As one who must give an account, he began to keep a diary in order to be able to reflect upon how his time, i.e. his life, was spent.
In Taylor Wesley also discovered a way to overcome his 'sin of fear'. If saints cannot sin because they always behold the face of God, then ifmen practised the presence of God, they too would not sin.3* In effect holiness was the key to overcoming his problem.
Wesley wanted assurance in this matter but found Taylor unsatisfactory, although his teaching about pardon for sin encouraged him to believe that change was possible.*%
If Taylor taught Wesley the practice of the presence of God as the means of achieving holiness, a Kempis gave him understanding of inward holiness. Wesley's initial criticisms were overcome by his mother, who gave him a clearer perception of 4 Kempis's concept of Christian perfection as necessary not only for happiness in time but also in eternity.54 This clearer perception launched Wesley into a decade (1725-35) of intensive following of 4 Kempis, whose work he translated and published in English as The Christian Pattern.
Wesley's introduction to The Christian Pattern is a window into his religious understanding prior to his leaving for Georgia. The essence of Christian perfection is love which unites the soul to God. Perfect love implies entire humility, absolute self-renunciation and the union of the will with God. This perfection is only achieved by passing through several stages viz, the purging of all wilful and habitual sin; the practising of all the virtues of Christ; the union with God by love. The chief instruments of Christian perfection are the grace of God and, subservient to this, prayer, self-examination and the holy communion.
Wesley acknowledged the priority of grace as the chief means of perfection, but the emphasis of his practice was upon imitating
John Wesley and Death
Christ in both attitude and behaviour. He clearly defined the form of godliness in terms of love: the power was derived from emulation and the holy communion.
In 1729 this personal quest for Christian perfection was enriched by the formation of the Holy Club.2° The members had supper together, reviewed the events of the day, read the Greek New
Testament, attended the sacrament weekly and did what good they could. Doing good was the form of godliness; communicating was the power to do it.3° Different members added specific activities which fleshed out the general concept of doing good. William
Morgan began visiting the local prison and a prisoner under sentence of death; Wesley initiated instruction for poor children and took an interest in the freshmen at the university; John Clayton began visiting poor families and the workhouse. In the course of time these activities were allocated to different members of the group who followed up the people involved in a caring manner.?'
The power for this work lay in communicating weekly, for the sacraments were effective vehicles of divine grace, as were scripture reading, prayer and mutual correction.3®
John Clayton of Brazen-Nose College also introduced the fasts and festivals of the Church into the practice of the first Oxford
Methodists. On the principle that the nearer the source the purer was the fountain, the earliest commentators were regarded as the truest interpreters of scripture, and the primitive church was thought to provide the truest practice of the church. Wesley was strongly influenced by this non-juror influence and became an avid reader of the writings of the early fathers. This was not historical nostalgia; it was an attempt to recover the form and power inherent in the faith which for him at least was the answer to his urgent personal problem. What power enabled the martyrs and confessors of the church to overcome the fear of death and to die triumphantly?
Wesley was seeking to locate the source of the power inherent in the Gospel: power which he believed to be available to him and to his generation if only he could find it.
It was the Georgia experience which brought him into contact with a group of Christians who had the kind of faith that overcame the fear of death. He caught a glimpse of it on 25 January 1736, when he recorded in his Journal:
...at seven I went to the Germans... In the midst of the psalm wherewith their services began (wherein we were
John Wesley: Contemporary Perspectives mentioning the power of God) the sea broke over, split the mainsail in pieces, and poured in between the decks, as if the great deep had already swallowed us up. A terrible screaming began among the English. The Germans (looked up and without intermission) calmly sang on. I asked one of them afterwards, 'Was you not afraid?' He answered, 'I thank God, no.' I asked, 'But were not your women and children afraid?' He replied mildly 'No; our women and children are not afraid to die'... This was the most glorious day which I have hitherto seen.
Here was the power to overcome the fear of death. Wesley wanted it. He eagerly sought opportunities to talk with the Moravian settlers in Georgia, and later with Peter Bohler.
Wesley and Bohler had much in common: a university background, a missionary zeal, a concern for the disadvantaged, an experience of death which deeply shocked each.*? But Bohler also represented a group of Christians who had overcome the fear of death and whose ecclesiastical simplitity, akin to the primitive church, was much admired by Wesley. In the first of thirteen contacts, Bohler pointed out that Wesley must allow the scriptures to speak for themselves, then introduced him to the nature of saving faith and encouraged him to preach it though he did not then possess it. Doing so, Wesley observed the difference in people's behaviour when he spoke to them about turning to God.*°
This led to a conversation about the fruits of saving faith, viz. holiness and happiness. Amazed, Wesley found verification of it in the scriptures. Preaching to Clifford (a condemned prisoner) from Hebrews 9.27, Wesley saw him change from fear of death to a sense of pardon, and die with composed cheerfulness, enjoying
'perfect peace in the confidence that he was accepted in the Beloved'.*'
But Clifford's death posed real problems for Wesley. He disbelieved in death-bed repentance, because much time was needed to cultivate the virtues of Christ essential to appearing before God with any confidence. Yet Clifford died in peace with God and in composed cheerfulness .
. the fruit of saving faith.
Bohler's assertion that faith could be given in a moment was beyond Wesley's comprehension. Turning to the Scriptures he found it to be the norm. Boéhler then spoke about the object of saving faith and several people testified that for them it was 'the
John Wesley and Death
blood of Christ' which effected their passing from 'sin and fear to holiness and happiness'. Bohler had not finished yet. Faith in 'the blood of Christ' must be seen in the context of the grace of God.#
On 3 May he spoke to both John and Charles about the nature of the one, true, living faith whereby through grace alone we are saved. This was exciting. After preaching from Romans 8.32
Wesley recorded in his Journal: 'My heart was now so enlarged as to declare the love of God to all that were oppressed by the devil, that I did not wonder in the least when I was afterwards told ''Sir, you must preach here no more." #3 Wesley's preaching had turned one hundred and eighty degrees. Instead of preaching the necessity of our love to God in terms of I Corinthians 13.3, he now preached God's love to us from Romans 8.32. He was excited about it. It was God's love that, ina moment, issued in the change from sin and fear to holiness and happiness. It was the experience of the first Christians. It was the experience of newly found friends and strangers. It was good news to proclaim, not a duty to be enforced. It was hope for solving his problem, the fear of death.
Bohler's final contact was by letter on the eve of his departure for America. In it he emphasized 'how great, how inexpressible, how unexhausted' is 'God's love in Christ and urged Wesley to put Christ in mind of his promises assuring him that He could not refrain from doing for him what He had done for so many others.*4 On 24 May Wesley went unwillingly to a Society meeting in Aldersgate Street, where Luther's preface to the Epistle to the Romans was being read. Wesley records:
About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.* Faith in Christ had overcome the terrors of the law and its consequence, death.
In the fortnight that followed he was buffetted by many temptations, but he was sure of two things — he had peace with
John Wesley: Contemporary Perspectives God and victory over sin. But joy was fickle. Most disturbing was a letter from Oxford which asserted that whoever had any degree of doubt or fear was not weak in faith, but had no faith at all.4° This really questioned the validity of his experience. From the scriptures he concluded that he was a 'babe in Christ' and felt so 'sawn asunder' by such doubtful disputations that he determined to visit Herrnhut in the hope that mature Christians there would establish him in the faith and enable him to go from strength to strength. Almost a year later he was to assess again his spiritual progress and conclude that he was not a Christian. He never questioned God's love to him, but he questioned his love for God.
He had no feeling for God, little to show of the fruits of the Spirit, and the love of the world still possessed him. He saw himself as having the faith of a servant rather than the faith of a son. One suspects that his sense of assurance was fulfilled only when he discovered his role as an evangelist which his Journal records as the opening of a 'new period' of his life.*" Prior to Aldersgate he had a vocation but no good news to proclaim and no assurance of salvation — only a great fear of death. Through Bohler he discovered the message and at Aldersgate Street experienced the grace of God and some of the fruits of saving faith. At Hanham
Mount there was a fusion of his newly discovered theology of saving faith, his vocation as a servant of God's mission to the poor and neglected, and his experience of the divine love. There he opened his mission with the same words as his Master in the synagogue at Nazareth. It was to proclaim liberty from sin and the fear of hell.4® From this fusion of vocation, message and personal experience flowed an amazing era of evangelistic activity which even the Wednesbury riots of October 1743 could not stop. Some say he was a figure larger than life: others that he suffered from a martyr complex. Whatever he had, the fear of death no longer terrified him. Rather he was prepared to accept death when, where and however required.
'Hereafter no man can take anything from me, no life, no honour, no estate; since I am ready to lay them down, as soon as I perceive that Thou requirest them at my hands..
.'49
The fear of death had been conquered.
How then did this conquest of the fear of death effect Wesley's post-Aldersgate ministry?
John Wesley and Death
Death in Wesley's preaching, pastoral care and polity Attention has already been drawn to the difference in texts from which he preached before and after Aldersgate. Instead of pressing the duty of love to God, he proclaimed the love of God to all mankind. This does not mean that the theological significance of death was neglected. He took that seriously, warning his hearers that death was the consequence of unrepented sin. But any man who preaches for a verdict has the solemn responsibility of continuing spiritual oversight of those who respond. In Wesley's subsequent counselling death was also an important component.
'Do you deserve to die?' the penitent was asked. Acquiescence in the divine judgement upon his sin was taken as evidence of genuine repentance. To such the promises of Christ were spoken.
When the divine grace was accepted, the penitent was asked 'Are you willing to die?' Willingness to die was seen as readiness to appear before God trusting in Christ alone for pardon and acceptance. In this way death was used to awaken the careless and to test the genuineness of the penitent and the reality of the experience of the pardoned.*° Wesley classified his hearers as 'natural man', 'awakened',
'babes in Christ' and 'fathers in Christ' and directed his preaching and fashioned his counselling and polity accordingly. The following table broadly illustrates Wesley's integration of these factors.
Spiritual Aim of the Theme Polity condition of Preacher the hearer natural man to awaken to judgement, field spiritual peril death preaching awakened to bring toa the promises Society sense of pardon — of Christ, meeting and peace with atonement, God love of God babes in to encourage sanctification Class Christ growth in love of the meeting toGod and man_ whole of life fathers to encourage to entire Band in Christ press on to sanctification Meeting perfection in love as a present possibility
John Wesley: Contemporary Perspectives While delegating much of his pastoral responsibility to preachers and class leaders in connexion with him, Wesley gave much time to personal counselling in interviews and letter writing.
Special concern was given to those skirmishing with death.
Soldiers In the course of duty soldiers were subject to the real possibility of violent death. It is not surprising that Wesley showed them special concern. Letters from some of them appear in his Journal. John
Haime records the overcoming of his fear of death by an overwhelming sense of God's love to him; Sampson Stanisforth not only knew the indwelling peace of God driving out his fear of death, but while advancing into battle told his comrades of the happiness of the man who has God's peace in his heart; John
Evans, with both legs taken off by a chain-shot, lay across the barrel of the cannon 'praising God and exhorting all that were round about him, which he did till his spirit returned to God'.*'
Condemned prisoners Early Methodists also gave special attention to condemned prisoners. Conspicuous in this work were John and Charles
Wesley, Silas Told and Sarah Peters. After visiting ten condemned men for over a week, Charles Wesley and Mr Bray spent the night before the execution with them in their cell. The time was spent in prayer and concluded with the sacrament.
Charles Wesley accompanied the men to the gallows in the death cart and witnessed the execution. 'None showed any natural terror of death: not one showed any struggle for life." He had never seen
'such calm triumph' and noted in his Journal 'that hour spent under the gallows was the most blessed hour' of his life.5* He had witnessed the power of the Gospel to overcome the fear of death, enabling men to die with dignity, peace and joy.
The sick and dying Assiduous visitation of the sick had always been part of Wesley's pastoral practice, but after 1738 this had not only the previous force of facing death squarely but also provided a specific opportunity to counsel the sick to an assurance of salvation so that they could die in peace with God and in the hope of sharing in a blessed immortality. This ministry was often enriched by the local
John Wesley and Death
Society meeting around the sick-bed and sharing in the eucharist.
Such meetings had a double importance. Being legal in canon law they enabled members of Society to receive sacramental nourishment when they were excluded from the parish communion: they also gave the sick and the dying a sense of continuing fellowship with the people of God here and hereafter. One has only to read the obituaries in the Methodist Magazines for the record of scores of ordinary Methodist people who 'died triumphantly' in 'full assurance of faith'>3 and the Minutes of Conference from 1778 for many of Wesley's preachers who died 'fully delivered from the fear of death', finishing 'their course with joy', 'in full triumph of faith'.
This strong sense of the unity of the church militant and triumphant found voice in Charles Wesley's eucharist and love feast hymns, and even in the tea meeting grace.
Realized eschatology was part of their lives in Society, Class and Band meetings. These were a sip of the cup of joy which lay beyond death. On this basis what need was there to fear? They died believing, in hope, in peace, with joy, with dignity and in anticipation of the fulfilment of their lives in heaven. In short, they died triumphantly.
This they owed to John Wesley who sought, found and shared his theological answer to his deeply felt psychological problem — the fear of death.