Next he learned that this solid foundation is not within but without; that it consists in the grace of God in Christ, and that faith is the only means by which we can be established upon it. In Wesley we see the same internal conflict, the same transition from the worksof the law to faith, as we see in Luther. And this emancipation from the bondage of the law, this deliverance of the soul striving after the assurance of salvation and the joy of faith, is neither a delusion nor a fanatical enthusiasm, as it has-often been called by those who have wished to hold up Wesley to contempt. It is the forth-putting of the long-concealed shoot, when at length it bursts its sheath. The soul, at last delivered from the yoke of the law and the bondage of sin, receives the assurance of salvation and the joy of faith;
Visit to Germany. 33 for, as Luther says, where the pardon of sin takes place, there follow life and peace."* Charles Wesley had already reached the same goal as his brother, and by a similar route. Three days earlier, he had found the assurance of pardon at the foot of the Cross.
George Whitefield, their old Oxford friend, had preceded them in the same path: while they were in Georgia seeking salvation by their own works, he had already become a new man. Thus were providentially prepared for their sacred
-work the three principal labourers in the great awakening which was about to overspread England.
Wesley was deeply indebted to the Moravians for having introduced him to a Christianity vastly superior in living energy to that he had hitherto known. This Church appeared to him to have understood, better than any other, the vital and practical character of Christian truth ; and he loved it with filial affection. At the decisive epoch in his spiritual life which he had now reached, he thought the time was come for him to realize a project that he had formed in Georgia, of visiting the home of that Christian community, in order that he might become better acquainted with it. This journey, which partook of the character of a religious pilgrimage and an act of filial devotion, he now accordingly undertook in company with several friends.
At Ysselstein, near Rotterdam, he found a small colony of Moravians, established on the territory of the Dowager Princess of Orange, and spent some agreeable hours under the roof of the pious Baron de Watteville. At Marienborn, near Frankfort, he met Count Zinzendorf, whom he had long wished to see. His conversations with this eminent
Christian were useful and agreeable. ' And here," says he, "T continually met with what I sought for, viz., living proofs
* C,H. Schill, article '' Methodism," in the Real-Encyklopedie of Dr. Herzog, vol. ix.
: D 34 Conversion. of the power of faith: persons saved from inward as well as outward sin, by 'the love of God shed abroad in their hearts,' and from all doubt and fear by the abiding witness of 'the Holy Ghost given unto them.'"
After spending twelve days in the little colony at Marienborn, Wesley resumed his journey to Herrnhuth, the seat of the principal Moravian community. He traversed a considerable part of Germany on foot, and at length, on the lst of August, 1738, arrived at this celebrated village, situated on the borders of Bohemia, which occupies a loftier place in Church history than many cities of renown. Here he saw in full activity a form of Christianity strongly contrasting with the Anglican, which alone he had hitherto known. Already connected by spiritual ties with the Moravian Church, he studied it closely and with deep sympathy, a sympathy indeed that may have hindered him for the time from forming an independent judgment on some of the less commendable aspects of this secluded community. Writing to his brother Samuel, he says,
"God has given me at length the desire of my heart. I am with a Church whose conversation is in heaven, in whom is the mind of Christ, and who walk as He walked.
As they have all one Lord and one faith, so they are all partakers of one spirit, the spirit of meekness and love, which uniformly and continually animates all their conversation, O how high and holy a thing Christianity is, and how widely distant from that which is so called, though it neither purifies the heart nor renews the life after the image of our blessed Redeemer ! "
By his intercourse with the Moravians, Wesley was confirmed in the doctrine of justification by faith which he had learned from Boéhler. The spectacle of a Church living according to this doctrine, so much neglected in his own country, convinced him of its practical efficacy. Few men were more useful to him than the pious Christian David, at The Church at Herrnhuth. 35 once both artisan and pastor, who had with his own hands built the first houses in the colony, and whose preaching and example had largely contributed to its spiritual edification. His conversation and discourses brought fresh light to Wesley's mind. Intercourse with such Christians, at the very commencement of his new life, could not but exert the happiest influence on his religious character and ministerial usefulness. From them he learned the power of living faith, and how it produces in the soul ardent love to the Saviour and to all Christians, and a total renunciation of the world and self.
What particularly impressed him at Herrnhuth, was the actual realization of a society pervaded by a truly Christian spirit. Everything was not equally commendable no doubt, but how many things there were to be found worthy of the highest eulogiums! "I would gladly," says he, "have spent my life here ; but my Master calling me to labour in other parts of His vineyard, I was constrained to take my leave of this happy place." He quitted it with regret, carrying home with him lessons and reminiscences, which afterwards became extremely useful. In fact, it would be difficult to exaggerate the importance of this visit on Wesley's religious and ecclesiastical progress. The "city of God" which he had beheld in the heart of Germany, he was destined to reproduce in England, with such differences as were rendered necessary by the difference between a nation of an essentially reflective disposition and a nation endowed with an active and enterprising spirit.
" Methodism," says an historian, "owes to Moravianism special obligations. First, it mtroduced Wesley into. that regenerated spiritual life, the supremacy of which over all ecclesiasticism and dogmatism, it was the appointed mission of Methodism to re-assert and promote in the Protestant world. Secondly, Wesley derived from it some of his clearest conceptions of the theological ideas which he was pd 2 36 Condition of England. to propagate as essentially related to this spiritual life; and he now returned from Herrnhuth, not only confirmed in his new religious experience, but in these most important doctrinal views. Thirdly, Zinzendorf's communities were based upon Spener's plan of reforming the Established
Churches, by forming 'little churches within them,' in despair of maintaining spiritual life among them otherwise; Wesley thus organized Methodism within the Anglican Church. And, fourthly, not only in this general analogy, but in many details of his discipline, can we trace the influence of Moravianism." * CHAPTER V.
MORAL AND RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF ENGLAND AT THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
We have been contemplating the providential preparation of the man whom God was about to call to the work of awakening the dormant religious life of England. Before entering upon the history of that work, it is desirable that we should show its necessity, by glancing at the moral and religious state of the country at the time when Wesley and his friends commenced their labours. This is a subject that deserves a detailed examination.
The main fault of English Protestantism was,. its too limited acceptance of the principles of the Reformation.
The progress of the movement was checked in consequence of the political events that accompanied its birth. One of * Stevens, History of Methodism, vol. i., page 108, American edition.
Faults of English Protestantism. 37 the greatest evils was that it owed its existence in part to the passions of Henry VIII. Scarcely had it escaped the hands of this so-called Reformer, when it fell into those of Mary ; and its most illustrious defenders, Cranmer, Latimer,
Hooper, and Ridley, perished in the flames. In the reign of Elizabeth it revived, but only to be bound up with the State, and to accept chains more degrading than those of persecution. It is not our business to relate the chequered features of its history under James I, Charles I., the Republic, and the two disastrous reigns that succeeded the Restoration.
Thus the English Reformation, nourished and brought up in the arms of the political power which more than once threatened to strangle it, was wanting in that spirit of independence which would have formed its strongest security. Instead of a radical revolution, it became a timid compromise with the past. It retained an_ hierarchical organization founded on the Roman-Catholic system, and preserved some traces of the same even in its doctrines.
The reformed clergy who, to have been equal to the needs of the age, should have been apostles, did not by any means reach the level of their duty. With a few exceptions, they were in a state of total ignorance; a great number of ministers, in the reign of Elizabeth, were unable to read. Their temporal condition was pitiable: during the week, according to Southey, they were obliged to turn tailors, joiners, waiters, or even, according to Macaulay, farm-labourers and swine-herds, too happy when the servants
the great houses regaled them with cold meat and beer.
/ Their moral and religious state was equally deplorable: to a notorious incapacity for their work they added a total lack of piety. Their numbers also were so insufficient that in many parishes it was the sexton who officiated. Such was for the most part the condition of the clergy, whose mission it was to instil the principles of the Reformation
38 Condition of England. into the minds of the English people. It may easily be seen, therefore, how it was that this movement failed to effect the spiritual transformation of the country.
Puritanism was undoubtedly the protest raised by a multitude of honest and devoted men against an inefficient Reformation based on political power. But, besides that this movement did not pervade the masses, it must be remembered that it very quickly degenerated. Though for a long time a school of virtue and manly piety, it soon lost its true character by becoming involved in political struggles, and it is certain that the majority of the churches to which it gave birth were, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, in a scarcely less torpid condition than the Establishment itself. These imperfections in the English
Reformation were among the most powerful causes of the moral and spiritual prostration which we shall find to have characterized the whole nation during the first half of the eighteenth century. The political changes which agitated the nation throughout the preceding century, largely contributed to the same result. Nothing corrupts the morals and principles of a people so much as the spectacle of frequent revolutions.
Few epochs appear, at first sight, so flourishing as the eighteenth century in England. Abroad, the English arms gained brilliant victories under Marlborough: at home, literature was adorned by such men as Johnson, Addison,
Swift, Pope, Young, Gray, and a crowd of talented authors ; while science took great strides, thanks to the genius of Isaac Newton. But if, passing by these external appearances, we penetrate to the vitals of society, we shall discover that they were full of hideous sores, and that, if God had not interposed, the whole body must have perished.
/ All impartial historians agree in painting the moral condition of England at this period in the most sombre colours.
The aristocracy were sunk in the deepest degradation, and Corruption of the Aristocracy. 39 the evil example was set by those who occupied the highest places in the land. The royal family itself was far from irreproachable: the court overflowed with gaming and debauchery: the private vices of George I. and George II. exerted the most baneful influence upon the nation,/ The prestige of royalty was on the wane, and when Montesquieu visited England in 1729, he remarked, "The king's influence daily diminishes."
The nobility, following such an example, regarded vice with revolting indifference. The records of those times are full of revelations which would be incredible, were they not attested by the best authorities. Corruption disgraced every department of the ecclesiastical system.» The Duke of Marlborough, the greatest general of the age, sold himself to every party in turn, and even to all parties at once, receiving money from William of Orange to betray James IL., then from James II. to betray William of Orange, and carrying on all the while covert intrigues with the enemies of his country. The most eminent men in the land, Russell,
Bolingbroke, Shrewsbury, Halifax, were very little better: they wavered between the Stuarts and the house of Hanover, made no scruple of securing two masters and receiving bribes from both ; violated their oaths without shame, plotted treason without remorse, and succeeded, in spite of these enormities, in making their way in the world. Robert
Walpole, who was prime minister for fifteen years, evinced an equally lax tone of morality: he used to boast that he could buy any man's conscience, and he fixed a high price upon his own. It was owing to him that the Treasury chambers became a veritable mart, to which every member of Parliament repaired, to barter away his vote. By well-placed bribery, the ministry commanded imposing majorities; and the House of Commons yielded implicit obedience to its will.
The passion for money turned many heads; so that peers, ministers, and the Prince of Wales himself, were 40 Condition of England. involved in fraudulent speculations by which they were at once dishonoured and enriched. Montesquieu, even though coming from France, where the greatest evils prevailed, was scandalized,-and wrote, " Money is here all-powerful: honour and virtue are little regarded."
Such facts, which it would be easy to multiply, prove that the influential classes set bad examples to the people, examples that were but too faithfully followed. The fashionable life of London was as corrupt as that of Versailles, and it lacked the external decency with which French politeness veiled its irregularities: vice here was accompanied by revolting brutality. Debauchery and drunkenness were widely prevalent; and those who indulged in such practices, gloried in their shame. . "It was no uncommon thing," says Addison, " for a man who had got drunk in good company, or who had spent the night in dissipation, to relate his adventures the next morning before ladies for whom he entertained the greatest respect."
Women who could endure such conversation afford us but a poor idea of their own morality, and, as a matter of fact, it was far from what it should have been. But what other results could be expected from such training as they received in homes disgraced by a most deplorable laxity,— at the theatre which Samuel Wesley brands as " infamous," and where the imagination and the heart were polluted by the grossest obscenities,—from the literature of the day, which delighted in picturing licentious scenes,—and even at church, where it was a mark of good breeding to display the utmost inattention to the dreary morality which formed the staple of the discourse?
The upper classes had, in fact, lost all regard for religion ; and there was nothing to arrest them as they neared the brink of ruin. Montesquieu again observes: "There
* Montesquieu, Notes sur ? Angleterre.
Infidel Literature. 41 is no religion in England; four or five members of the House of Commons attend the daily prayers. If one speaks of religion, everybody begins to laugh. When a man said in my presence, 'I believe thisas I believe the creed,' everybody burst out laughing." * Comparing the religious state of England with that of France, Montesquieu said, "In France I am thought to have too little religion, but in England to have too much."
In perfect accordance with this is the following testimony from Samuel Wesley, rector of Epworth, who little thought, while he was depicting in such sombre colours the religious condition of the country, that two of his sons, as yet unborn,— would contribute most largely to its reformation. "It is considered," says he, '' to be the mark of good breeding, or at least a proof of discernment and spirit, to turn everything sacred into ridicule, and to profane the glorious and dreadful name of God; and, on the other hand, we find that nothing is more disobliging and dishonourable than to reprove, unmask, and suppress such abuses.t "
Infidelity was, indeed, a fashion and almost a mania among the English aristocracy. It had its writers who catered to its taste, such as Lord Bolingbroke, the friend of Voltaire, called by M. Taine " a jeering sceptic, and a buyer and seller of consciences, marriages, and vows," and by Johnson, "a buffoon who loaded a popgun against Christianity, and a coward who paid another person half-a-crown to let it off ;" Collins, who carried his zeal against Christianity to the extreme of unfairness, forging imaginary texts and making false quotations ; Tindal, whose infidel pamphlets were so atrocious that Parliament, usually lax enough, ordered them to be burnt by the common hangman;
Toland, whose writings met with the same fate, called by Swift a "miserable sophist," and who, in his rage against * Montesquieu, Pensées diverses.
Sermon before the Society for the Reformation of Manners.
42 Condition of England. the Gospel, visited the taverns and public places, decrying its doctrines and mysteries, till he was reduced to poverty and compelled to beg his bread from door to door.
This profound degradation of the better instructed portion of English society, is recognized by all historians; and when we contemplate the aristocracy of the England of today, comparatively so enlightened and so religious, and mark its beneficial influence on the general progress of the nation, we are led to the conclusion that the religious reformation of the eighteenth century must have been most thorough in order to accomplish such a change.
/ Unhappily, the people too readily copied the vices of the great. The English people in the eighteenth century were fearfully degraded, especially in the large towns. The revolutions through which they had passed had engendered a strange proneness to disorder and intolerance of discipline.
Ignorant, like the rest of the lower classes in Europe generally at this epoch, they obeyed in turn the most capricious impulses, now rising in support of the Whigs, and then lending countenance to the Tories. Every opportunity for uproar and stone-throwing was eagerly seized, and the streets of London and of the large towns continually witnessed scenes of disorder which the authorities never attempted to check. Parliamentary struggles often had their counterparts in the streets, with stones and fists for arguments. The populace had two deep-rooted antipathies which they never cared to conceal; the one against the Papists, and the other against the Dissenters. On the occasion of Dr. Sacheverell's trial for preaching a sermon against the Government in 1710, there was a formidable riot'; and the populace showed their sympathy with the Doctor by burning and sacking several Dissenting chapels. In 1780, another riot took place, when "No Popery" was the cry: the mob demolished the prisons and released the State of the Lower Classes. 43 prisoners, and for three days ruled the metropolis, burning, pillaging, and massacring everywhere. "Barrels of gin were broken open in such numbers as to flood the streets with their contents. Women and children went down on their knees and drank themselves to death. Some were maddened by it, others stupified; and the houses burning on every side fell and buried them in their ruins." The coronation of George I. was celebrated in various parts of England by hostile demonstrations: here the health of the Pretender was drunk, there the King was burned in effigy: in one place the Dissenting chapels were destroyed; in another, the passengers were insulted who refused to join in the ery, " King James for ever!" On the other hand, there were mobs that burnt in effigy the Pope and the Pretender, and fought pitched battles with the Jacobites.
More than once, blood flowed in the public places.
"Even when party strifes ceased to rage," says M. De Witt, "the turbulent and licentious youth that frequented the coffee-houses were a plague to the public. They insulted modest women and peaceably disposed persons, attacked the passers-by, and threw them into the gutter ; and these were some of the more innocent amusements of the unruly subjects who, under the name of Mohawks, became the terror of London. At night, after priming themselves with drink, they sallied out into the streets sword in hand, upsetting and wounding those who had the misfortune to fall in with them. When they laid hands on a woman, they thrust her into a barrel and sent her rolling down a hill. Hach band had its own favourite diversion, and its peculiar mode of torture. One set took delight in slitting the nose or knocking the eye out; another in giving people what they called a sweating. This game consisted in forming a circle around the victim, and pricking him with the points of their swords on all sides, so as to keep his body in constant motion as he endeavoured
44 Condition of England. to avoid them. These Bacchanalian orgies were sometimes employed to wreak vengeance of the most terrible kind.
" After sun-down, it was impossible for respectable persons to venture abroad without a strong escort. If they escaped the Mohawks, they were in danger of encountering the highwaymen. From the 20th of January to the 10th of February, 1720, there were reported in the newspapers thirty such encounters in London and its vicinity alone." rance made frightful ravages among the lower classes. '"' Gin was introduced in 1684, and half a century later England consumed seven millions of gallons per annum.
The signs on the gin shops, by way of invitation, offered people enough to make them drunk for a penny, enough to make them dead drunk for twopence, and straw to lie upon into the bargain: when they became so intoxicated as to need the latter accommodation, they were carried into the cellar to sleep themselves sober. One could not walk the streets of London without meeting miserable creatures, lying insensible upon the pavement, whom the charity of the passers-by alone saved from being stifled in the mud or crushed beneath the wheels of the vehicles." Parliament vainly strove to interdict the sale of the liquid poison: a clandestine commerce in the article sprung up in all parts of England. If any gave information of these frauds upon the customs, the people threw them into the river ; and their attitude became so menacing that the House of Commons was compelled to repeal the law.
We have dwelt the longer upon the moral condition of the large towns, and on their taste for rioting, because it was on these towns that Wesley spent much of his evan-. gelical labours: the details we have given will show the immense difficulties he had to contend with.
The rural districts, though less demoralized, were in a state bordering on barbarism. The colliery population, Brutality and Intemperance. 45 so improved in the present day, were no better than savages. Drunkenness and debauchery were everywhere rampant. Amid such degradation it is no wonder that all kinds of superstitions prevailed. Many of these were remnants of Popery, still lingering two centuries after the Reformation. The Devonshire peasantry taught their children prayers to the saints. Elsewhere, in Wales for instance, many Druidical customs were yet in force.
Old houses were popularly believed to be haunted by evil spirits : sorcerers, fortune-tellers, and adventurers of every description plied their lucrative arts in broad daylight. Few could read, and, as to writing, that was a luxury for a lord. In all justice we must add, however, that at this period the whole rural population of Kurope was not more advanced.
Such was the condition of the people that Methodism was about to transform. The whole country seemed to ~ have reached the extreme limit of degradation, which leaves a nation no alternative but utter destruction, unless it consent to commence a new life. The moral degeneracy we 'have just described fully justifies the statement of a modern writer, himself a Churchman, who says that England had fallen into utter paganism when Wesley appeared, and the further assertion of an impartial historian that it was not one whit less corrupt than the Lower Empire or the old
But was nothing done to remedy this state of things?
Our answer is, Very little indeed. Let us, however, endeavour to point out some attempts at reformation that were made, previous to the Methodist revival. The literature of the age was for the most part implicated in the moral torpor of the nation: poetry, romance, and the stage were also too often effectual disseminators of corruption. There was, however, a division in the camp:
46 Condition of England. some men of great talents, such as Steele, Addison, Berkeley, and Johnson, strove to rear a barrier against the encroachments of vice. In certain periodical publications, written in a lively and satirical style, they lashed the vices and extravagances of the age with a freedom that does them credit. These productions enjoyed great popularity, and it is to their pages that we must turn for a true picture of the time. The Hssayists, as they are called, did a good work, but it was only superficial: by rendering vice ridiculous they made it blush, but could not scare it away.
It is not in literature alone that we trace this salutary reaction. Toward the close of the seventeenth century an interesting movement sprang up, whose existence is sufficient to prove that a portion of the nation still withstood the progress of corruption. A few influential members of the Established Church formed themselves into a society for the purpose of repressing vice by legal measures. The movement spread, and obtained the patronage of eminent personages in the Church and in the State: Queen Mary herself belonged to it, and ordered that the ancient laws for the suppression of scandalous vice should be vigorously carried out. Thus patronized, the Society for the Reformation of Manners soon became sufficiently powerful to deal effectually with incorrigible vice: armed with all the authority of the law, it rendered the most energetic assistance to the magistracy. In London especially, it succeeded in closing hundreds of houses of ill-fame, and brought to justice multitudes of players, common swearers, drunk and disorderly persons, who were fined, imprisoned, or publicly whipped by the hangman. 'These severe measures so far restrained vice, that, instead of stalking at large it sought concealment; but they were powerless to amend the morals of the people. Besides, while they punished the common herd of sinners, they usually spared those of a higher grade,
Society for the Reformation of Manners. 47
De Foe wittily compares these laws to cobwebs which catch the little flies and let the big ones escape. Still, this quickening of the national conscience was a hopeful augury, and a strong protest against the debasement of morals which set in at the Restoration.
Closely allied to this good work, and indeed anticipating it by several years, was the organization of small religious societies by three pious clergymen of the Anglican Church,
Horneck, Smithies, and Beveridge. A large number of young people having been converted through their instrumentality, they counselled them "to meet once a week and hold conversations that might tend to mutual edification."
This they accordingly did, and in addition raised funds to be bestowed on charitable objects. They visited the sick and the prisoners, they taught the children ; and it is said that by their persevering efforts a hundred schools were established in London and its vicinity. For some time these little societies were centres of zealous religious life, although their action was confined within too narrow limits. Had they possessed a more aggressive and enterprising character, they might have put forward the religious awakening of the nation by half a century. Unfortunately, they almost wholly prohibited evangelical action, properly so called, for fear of interfering with the rights of the clergy. Wesley, as we shall see, found them almost extinct, and succeeded in inspiring them with new vitality. If he availed himself, however, of Horneck's idea, it was only to develop it and make it more fruitful.
Though these religious societies did not produce a general revival of religion, yet they undoubtedly paved the way.
Their existence and continuance prove the presence of genuine religious influence amid the evils that we have just described. The Anglican clergy should have encouraged and promoted this interesting movement. But, unfortunately, they were not capable of doing so, as a 48 Condition of England. glance at their religious condition will sufficiently attest.
The clergy were, indeed, vastly improved since the days when, according to Macaulay, they scarcely rose above the social level of the domestic servants of the great houses.
Re-established in their benefices and richly endowed, the coffers of the clergy were replenished ; and the elite of English youth sought fortune and honour in the posts which the Church offered them. But though their social status was improved, their moral and religious character had not advanced in an equal ratio. Having nothing to fear from a discipline that had fallen into desuetude, the clergy followed their own inclinations ; and the parishes were well off when they possessed pastors in whom gross immorality was not joined to worldly indifference. Contemporary evidence is too strong for any defence to be made of these degenerate ecclesiastics. Voltaire, who visited England in 1726, states that, upon the whole, the English clergy were more moral than the French, and that, compared with a Parisian abbot "an Anglican dignitary is a Cato." But he adds, "The Anglican clergymen frequent the taverns, because custom sanctions it, and, if they get drunk, they do it seriously, and incur no disgrace." Many proofs of this are to be found in Wesley's journals.
There were to be found, indeed, among the ranks of the clergy, a few men of superior mind. Men of leisure and of learning, they were better able than others to devote themselves to literature, and to study the great political questions which were agitating the nation ; but they gave to such pursuits the time and energy that belonged to their flocks. All these pamphlet-writing, novel-writing, poetising clergymen, who, like Sterne and Swift, employed their talents in composing works whose morality even was frequently doubtful, were only diverting the sick man and creating a The Anglican Clergy. | 49 disgust for the powerful remedies which alone could restore him to health. We ask ourselves in sadness what kind of preaching he could offer his parishioners on the Sunday, who during the week had been writing Gulliver or Tristram Shandy. A ministry whose leisure hours were spent in the preparation of facetious or impure publications, was assuredly not equal to the task that properly belonged to it.
This general decay was not, however, everywhere equally extensive. 'The rise of the religious societies that we have mentioned proves the existence of pious and devoted ministers. Unfortunately, men of the class of Beveridge,
Horneck, and Smithies, were comparatively rare. Most men were content to sigh in silence, too timid to take the initiative in regard to measures of amendment. They felt desires for amendment, but they only manifested them in vague and incoherent aspirations. This small minority feared obloquy too much to show any open favour to the noble imprudences of the young reformers who vainly endeavoured to interest them in their exertions. Learning and distinction of every kind were not wanting to the clergy, to whose ranks belonged such men as William Sherlock, Daniel Waterland, Bishop Butler, and Dean Prideaux.
What was wanting was a comprehension of the needs of the people, and, above all, that practical and operative faith whith seeks in order to save the souls of men.
In describing the clergy themselves, we have virtually described their preaching. The immense majority of ministers were content to give their audiences meagre disquisitions on morality, which they read in a cold and formal manner. Some, in the large towns particularly, courted an ephemeral popularity, by pandering to the public taste, and dressing up in sentimental phrases the easy themes of natural religion. Others, as Dr. Samuel
Clarke, Bishop Hoadly, and the learned Whiston, openly E 50 Condition of England. taught Deism or Arianism, and excited even the attention of Voltaire, who said of them, "The Arian party have chosen an unlucky time for their resurrection, now that the world is disgusted with sectarian disputes."
Another original mode of preaching in the last century was practised by ministers who, being involved themselves in the public questions of the day, often transformed the pulpit into a political rostrum. The following is the portrait of one of the most eminent of this class, drawn by a skilful hand: 'One of the most refined ecclesiastics of the day, according to the fashion, was Robert South, a man armed cap-a-pie, a headstrong royalist and champion of divine right and passive obedience, a bitter controversialist, a calumniator of Nonconformists, and opponent of the Act of Toleration; who never disdained to vent his spleen in fierce and abusive language. No figure was too vulgar or too violent for him to use. He paints low life with all its coarse and revolting details. He dares everything, he shrinks from nothing, he is low. He is sneering and satirical, a pulpit buffoon and comedian. He paints men as he has seen them in daily life. The public will recognize the originals in the streets: the portraits only want the names." * The orthodox preaching, even as represented by such men as Tillotson, Bull, and Waterland, was lacking in evangelical force. Their pedantic dogmatism chilled and benumbed the hearer. The vital doctrines of the Gospel did not form the basis of their teachings. When it ceased to be truly evangelical, preaching ceased to be popular and impressive.
This decay of the Established Church had long engaged * Taine, History of English Literature. [It is only fair to remind the reader that other critics, while acknowledging serious defects, also point out great excellencies in South: Wesley himself praises his "plain, nervous style."—Tr. ] The Nonconformists. ae the attention of serious minds, and awakened the gravest solicitude. The pious Archbishop Leighton said in his energetic way, "The Church is a fair carcase without a ' spirit." The eloquent lament of Bishop Burnet has often been quoted, "Iam in the seventieth year of my age, and as I cannot speak long in this world in any sort, so I cannot hope for a more solemn occasion than this of speaking with all due freedom ..... I cannot look on without the deepest concern, when I see the imminent ruin hanging over this Church." Then he speaks of the ignorance of the clergy, of their slight esteem for the Scriptures, and the _ general disposition to engage in party politics, and neglect the care of souls. Archbishop Secker, and Bishops Gibson and Butler pass an equally severe judgment on the Church and clergy of the day.
The Nonconformists had been preserved from so deep a declension, both by their principles and by the vigorous vein of piety which still pervaded their ranks. Those were not dead Churches that reckoned among them such men as Isaac Watts, the celebrated hymn writer, Nathaniel
Lardner, the distinguished apologist, and Philip Doddridge, the author of several works full of unction and piety.
Unhappily, the excitements of the contest with the Establishment, which often bore a political character, together with endless internal broils, induced a general inattention to the work of spiritual aggression. Deism and Arianism also sounded from many pulpits which should have been better fenced; and the leaders of Dissent express similar regrets to those which fell from their Episcopal brethren. Dr.
Guyse says, "The religion of nature makes up the darling topics of our age ; and the religion of Jesus is valued only for the sake of that, and only so far as it carries on the light of nature, and is a bare improvement of that kind of light.
All that is distinctively Christian or peculiar to Christ, is waved and banished and despised." Isaac Watts, Abraham E 2 52 Condition of England.
Taylor, and John Hurrion are all agreed on this subject.
A second Reformation was necessary: but for this new work it was also necessary that God should raise up new men. 'There was nothing to indicate that the nation was on the eve of a great moral revolution; and Voltaire, after a brief sojourn in England, was able to say, "They are so disgusted in England with that kind of thing, that a new religion, or an old religion revived, would scarcely make its fortune." Voltaire was wrong: events soon offered a striking refutation of his statement ; for at the same time that he was announcing the decline of Christianity, and predicting its overthrow, a few pious Oxford students were forming an association that was to be the cradle, if not of a "new religion," yet of an "old religion revived." Most remarkable coincidence! The two men who were destined to act more powerfully than any others upon their contemporaries, at the same moment trod the soil of Britain,* and in view of a great nation corroded by scepticism and materialism, formed resolutions of an exactly opposite character. The one, mistaking the license of the wits for true liberty, determined to import into France the principles and methods of English infidelity ; the other profoundly impressed by the evils under which his country groaned, resolved to attempt its resuscitation through the Gospel.
Those who met in social intercourse the young Parisian exile with his biting wit, and the young Oxford collegian with his grave demeanour, doubted not that they looked on men who would move the age, though in opposite directions, and that their conflicting labours would create a universal commotion. For our part, judging of their work by results, we do not hesitate to say that we infinitely
Voltaire's sojourn in England commenced in 1726, and lasted three years, thus coinciding exactly with the beginning of the Methodist movement at Oxford, Wesley and Voltaire. 53 prefer the work of the great missionary to that of the great free-thinker ; the one labouring to elevate the souls of men, the other to destroy them, the one fighting for God, the other fighting against Him. And while every day more fully discloses the pernicious character of Voltaire's work, every day demonstrates more strikingly the excellence of that performed by Wesley.
THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE WORK.
BIRTH OF THE MOVEMENT.
Westy returned from Germany about the middle of September, 1738. His soul was overflowing with desire to devote its energies to God, but as yet he knew not the way by which the Lord was about to lead him. He had, indeed, no preconceived plan. Having a strong faith in the Providence of God, it became his habit continually to expect indications of the course he was to follow, taking no more thought for to-morrow's labours than for to-morrow's bread, and looking to God to mete out the one as well as the other.
He immediately commenced to labour with the greatest ardour, in the restricted sphere which was at this time open to him. There were still in existence in London several of the small religious societies founded by Horneck and his friends, the greater part of which, owing to the spiritual declension of the age, had been dissolved. Those which yet remained had recently been revived by the Moravians,
These centres of religious life had a strong attraction for Wesley at a time when he was so deeply desirous of spiritual
Justification by Faith. 55 progress and brotherly fellowship. Inflamed with the zeal of his first love, he by his warm exhortations contributed to the quickening of his brethren's faith.
But Wesley could not confine his zeal within the narrow limits of these small societies. He was drawn, as by an irresistible spell, toward the ignorant and degraded masses whose souls no man cared for. But people of this class rarely crossed the threshold of a church, and, in order to gain access to them, Wesley must quit the Church. He would, however, have hesitated long before coming to such a decision, had not the Anglican Church hastened it by closing her pulpits against him. On his return from Germany, he preached in many of her sanctuaries both in London and the provinces, as his episcopal ordination gave him the legal right to do. In his sermons he completely broke with the conventional custom, and, instead of dry morality, boldly announced the great evangelical doctrine of justification by faith, pressing it home upon the minds of men with the powerful earnestness which only a personal experience of salvation can inspire. This was a new thing in those days, and loud were the clamours it excited. He was charged with innovation and heresy, and threatened with expulsion from the churches if he persisted in preaching this new-fangled creed. The old charge this, always levelled in times of declension against those who would restiscitate the pristine faith; but Wesley heeded it not. Docile and devoted to the interests of the Church on all points of discipline, and so remote from Dissent that the very mention of it made his brain swim, he nevertheless refused to yield upon a point of doctrine ; and_ boldly appealed from the Church of that degenerate age to the Church of Cranmer and Latimer, the Church of the Thirtynine Articles. ''The doctrines we preach," he exclaims,
"are the doctrines of the Church of England; indeed, the fundamental doctrines of the Church. I differ in 56 Birth of the Movement. no point from those who adhere to them; but I differ from that part of the clergy who fae from the Church."
One after the other, the pulpits in which Wesley had been accustomed to preach were closed against him. One day, having to preach twice in the same place, he announced at the morning service that he would conclude his subject in the afternoon ; but the clergyman, alarmed by the first sermon, interfered to prevent the second. "A good remembrance," says Wesley, '"thatI should, if possible, declare at every time the whole counsel of God."
Though expelled from the sanctuaries, Wesley did not slacken his activity. In his journals we see him filled with that blessed longing for the salvation of souls which became the ruling passion of his life. He regularly visited the prisoners at Newgate, and preached the Gospel to them.
In this course of humble labour, he was frequently rewarded by success. In November, 1738, we find him upon the fatal scaffold in company with a condemned malefactor, who, having been converted through his instrumentality, desired him to be present with him in his last hours.
A few moments before he died, on being asked, " How do you feel your heart now ?" the condemned criminal replied, "'T feel a peace which I could uot have believed to be possible.
And I know it is the peace of God, which passeth all understanding." Charles Wesley, who had accompanied his brother, addressed a few words of exhortation to the crowd; and on the evening of the same day Wesley wrote in his journal, "O Lord God of my fathers, accept even me among them, and cast me not out from among Thy children! "
Amid these lowly evangelistic labours Wesley concluded the year 1738. At this time, the principal members of the band of Oxford students were together in London.
Charles Wesley, a most zealous ally of his brother John, Expulsion from the Churches. 57 like him attained the honour of expulsion from the metropolitan pulpits. Whitefield, just arrived from America, where he had been widely useful, was about to experience the same treatment.
On the first day of January, 1739, the two Wesleys, Whitefield, Ingham, Hall, and Kinchin were present ata lovefeast in Fetter Lane, with about sixty of the brethren.
The year that was to witness the birth of the great Revival was commenced by them in mutual prayer. This meeting was, as Whitefield says, ''a Pentecostal season indeed."
Five days later they met again, to confer together as to what was best to be done in the circumstances in which they now found themselves placed. They spent the day in fasting and prayer, and parted " with a full conviction," as Whitefield says, "that God was about to do great things among them."
The campaign that was about to commence still wanted, however, its battlefield. This arena was furnished by open-air preaching, and to Whitefield belongs the honour of haying been the first to occupy it. Though thousands flocked to-the churches to hear him, he had to undergo the same treatment as his friends: in three days, five pulpits were closed against him. In the face of this increasing' opposition, this brave young man of five-andtwenty did not hesitate long : he resolved to preach in the open air. -Opportunity was soon offered for carrying his design into effect. Ata little distance from Bristol there is a place called Kingswood, inhabited by a colliery population. These poor people were scarcely civilized: they had neither churches nor ministers, and none cared for the interests of their souls. During a visit that Whitefield paid to his native city of Bristol, he learned that many people had said of him, "If he will convert heathens, why does he not go to the colliers of Kingswood?" Finding his hands tied at Bristol, as. elsewhere, by the ill-will of the clergy, he
58 Birth of the Movement. decided todoso. One evening, the report of his arrival spread through Kingswood, and he found waiting for him a congregation of about two hundred colliers, to whom he preached the Gospel from the brow of a hill. This was0 Saturday, the 17th of February, 1739, a memorable date ner in the history of the English Revival, seeing that on that "Nh day the ground was chosen on which were to be gained
glorious victories. Encouraged by the success of this first attempt, Whitefield continued his open-air preach- /ing at Kingswood. On his second visit he had two thousand
——hearers, on his third from four to five thousand, and the 'numbers speedily mounted to ten, fifteen, and twenty thousand. Nothing was more affecting than the sight of ({these immense crowds listening spell-bound to the great
preacher ; and frequently the silent tears, overflowing the leyes of the colliers, and leaving the traces of their passage upon their dusky cheeks, were in proof that his word had found an echo in their hearts. Numerous conversions rewarded the labours of the young missionary.
Shortly after, Whitefield preached at Bristol itself in a public garden, and complete success attended this experiment. But he was anxious to visit other parts of England, before returning to America, where urgent duties were awaiting him. Unwilling to leave his new converts without a pastor, he wrote to his friend Wesley, and begged him to come to Bristol in order to carry on the work. After some hesitation, the latter complied with his request, and left
London. Arrived at Bristol, he debated with himself whether he ought to follow the example of his friend, and preach in the open-air too. "I could scarce reconcile imyself at first," he says, 'to this strange way of preaching
Ain the fields, having been all my life (till very lately) 80 tenacious of every point relating to decency and order, that I should have thought the saving of souls almost a sin,
'if it had not been done in a church."
He did not hesitate long: the voice of his calling was Ihpaley stronger than that of his prejudices, and on thesecond of April!!/ he preached to three thousand persons in a ground adjoining fie, a Bristol. From this moment the Revival of the eighteenth. century entered upon its proper course, in which it was to be blessed with glorious success. In exchanging the regular pulpit for the public places, Christian preaching threw off what was artificial and affected, and Wesley began to speak to the people in the language of the people.
Called now to carry on the work which his friend Whitefield had commenced at Bristol, he devoted himself to it with great ardour: he also knew how to consolidate it by uniting the few already awakened in the bonds of an extremely simple organization. He formed them into little | societies after the model of those of London, These were the first which he actually founded himself ; and they may be considered as the first class-meetings, although they did not yet bear that name. Wesley speaks of them in his journal, April the 4th, 1739, in the following terms: "In the evening three women agreed to meet together weekly, with the same intention as those at London, viz., 'to confess their faults one to another, and pray one for another, that they may be healed.' At eight, four young men agreed to meet in pursuance of the same design. How dare any man deny this to be (as to the substance of it) a means of grace ordained by God? Unless he will affirm (with Luther in the fury of his solifidianism) that St. James's Epistle is an epistle of straw." These small societies began almost immediately to increase in numbers, so much so that Wesley found himself obliged to build a place of worship for their ofthsap accommodation. On the 12th of May, 1739, " with the Se a voice of praise and thanksgiving," he solemnly laid the a foundation of the humble structure—the first Methodist chapel ever built. His friends at Bristol brought him some small subscriptions, and he valiantly assumed the 60 Birth of the Movement. responsibility of the undertaking. "Money, it is true," says he, "I had not, nor any human prospect or probability of procuring it: but I knew 'the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof ;' and in His name set out, nothing doubting."
Wesley was actively employed also among the colliers of Kingswood. Before leaving, Whitefield had laid the cornerstone of a school which was about to be established among them. Wesley superintended the erection of it, and on its completion engaged a master and mistress. This was an excellent basis for the work of evangelization, which latter itself continued to prosper. The people joyfully received the glad tidings of the Gospel to which they had hitherto been strangers ; and Kingswood soon became a changed place. It was no longer as formerly a haunt of debauchery and drunkenness ; fighting and quarrelling gave place to harmony and peace ; sacred hymns succeeded to lewd songs, and prayer to blasphemy.
Asa result of the preaching of Whitefield and Wesley, new wants were created among these converted colliers.
Desirous of partaking of the Lord's Supper, they repaired to the Bristol churches in such numbers that the regular ministers, unaccustomed to such manifestations of devotional feeling, and alarmed at the additional labour they occasioned, repelled them from the table under the pretext that they did not belong to their parish. Thus abandoned by their regular pastors, the colliers clung more closely than ever to the zealous missionaries who had awakened them from spiritual slumber. Wesley extended his pastoral labours to the towns and villages in the neighbourhood of Bristol, and already preached three times a day, at places very remote from each other. The new facilities afforded him by open-air preaching rendered it no longer necessary for him to confine himself to the narrow limits of a parish, or to the still narrower limits of the good-will of those
Wesley at Bristol. 61 ministers who might grant him the use of their pulpits.
From that time forward his preaching produced astonishing effects. Immense crowds assembled in the public places where he preached : neither rain nor storm could disperse them, and in general they gave him their patient and serious attention. This friendly feeling continued throughout the period of his first mission to Bristol, which extended over several months: more than once the people testified their sympathy by defending him against those who would have interrupted his preaching. On one occasion two men disturbed the congregation by singing a song; Wesley gave out a hymn, which was sung with so much spirit by the whole assembly as to drown the voices of the malcontents. At Bath, a certain personage, well known for his irregular life and love of good cheer, undertook to encounter him. " There was great expectation at Bath," says Wesley,
"of what a noted man was to do to me there ; and I was much entreated not to preach, because no one knew what might happen. By this report I also gained a much larger audience, among whom were many of the rich and great.
I told them plainly, the Scripture had concluded them all under sin,—high and low, rich and poor, one with another.
Many of them seemed to be a little surprised, and'were sinking apace into seriousness, when their champion appeared, and coming close to me, asked by what authority I did these' things. I replied, 'By the authority of Jesus
Christ, conveyed to me by the (now) Archbishop of Canterbury, when he laid hands upon me, and said, Take thou authority to preach the Gospel.' He said, 'This is contrary to Act of Parliament: this is a conventicle.' I answered,
'Sir, the conventicles mentioned in that Act (as the preamble shows) are seditious meetings; but this is not such ; here is no shadow of sedition; therefore it is not contrary to that Act.' He replied, 'I say itis: and, beside,
'your preaching frightens people out of their wits.' 'Sir, 62 Birth of the Movement. did you ever hear me preach?' 'No.' 'How then can you judge of what you never heard?' 'Sir, by common report!' 'Common report is not enough. Give me leave,
Sir, to ask, Is not your name Nash?' 'My name is Nash.'
'Sir, I dare not judge of you by common report: I think it not enough to judge by.' Here he paused awhile, and, having recovered himself, said, 'I desire to know what this people comes here for :' on which one replied, 'Sir, leave him to me: let an old woman answer him. You,
Mr. Nash, take care of your body; we take care of our souls, and for the food of our souls we come here.' He replied not a word, but walked away.".
Wesley aimed at something higher than evoking a fit of enthusiasm, which might soon prove evanescent. From the very commencement of this mission, he had witnessed nume- ~ yous conversions. What appears the most striking in the records of these conversions, which abound in the pages of his journals, is, that they were usually instantaneous: they were like thunder-claps, and one can scarcely help being reminded by them of some analogous facts of Apostolic times. These inward experiences were sometimes accompanied by extreme physical prostration and a kind of convulsion of the whole nature. Men in perfect health, led by curiosity to the services, were convinced of sin under the word, and fell to the ground in a deadly swoon, or lay groaning in anguish. They remained in this state for hours, sometimes for days ; and then in a moment their distress gave place to a profound tranquillity.
Even in London, shortly after his return from Germany, Wesley saw similar effects produced by his preaching.
One day while he was speaking at one of his meetings, a lady uttered a cry of distress. On his inquiring the cause, she told him that for three years she had been followed by a sense of her sins: that her husband, not understanding her grief, had consulted a clergyman, and after that a Remarkable Effects. 63 doctor, neither of whom had understood her case, but that the preaching she had now heard had shown her the way of salvation. Wesley prayed with her, and she soon found peace. At another time he met with one of those persons, so numerous in those days, who stigmatised his work as a dangerous novelty, and seemed greatly exasperated against him. Finding argument to be of none other effect than to inflame her more and more, and suspecting that this opposition sprung from an attempt to stifle an already awakened conscience, he proposed prayer. "In a few minutes she fell into an extreme agony, both of body and soul ; and soon after cried out with the utmost earnestness,
'Now I know I am forgiven for Christ's sake" And from that hour God set her face as a flint to declare the faith which before she persecuted."
At Bristol, the results of his first preaching were the same, and conversions were attended by still more remarkable signs. The services were continually interrupted by the cries and sobs of the hearers, seeking mercy. Conversions took place, accompanied by the most diversified and extraordinary incidents. At one time it is a mother, displeased at her daughter's sudden seizure, who is seized herself in the same manner, but revives under Wesley's prayers, and returns home with her daughter, full of joy.
At another time a member of the Society of Friends' was offended at the external manifestations, calling them mere mockery, and telling everybody that all who believe in them are hypocrites: one day while talking after this fashion at one of the meetings, he fell prostrate as if struck by a thunderbolt, and writhed in agony. Wesley pleaded on his behalf, and when the man came to himself, he exclaimed, "Now I know thou art a prophet of the Lord."
At the same meeting there was present a weaver, a strong Churchman, who had come to examine into these things for himself. He carried away with him a very unfavourable
64 Birth of the Movement. opinion, and everywhere spread it abroad that it was all a diabolical delusion. But Wesley's preaching had made a deeper impression than he was willing to confess even to himself, The next day, finding himself very uneasy in mind, he opened one of Wesley's tracts on salvation by faith : while he was reading it, he changed colour and fell to the ground, burdened with inexpressible anguish. The neighbours were alarmed and flocked to the house. They found him rolling on the ground, and screaming in an agony of despair. Two or three men tried to quiet him, but in vain. They ran to fetch Wesley: as soon as the poor man saw him, he cried out, " Ay, this is he who I said was a deceiver of the people. But God has overtaken me.
I said, it was all a delusion ; but this is no delusion." He then roared out, "O thou. devil! thou cursed devil! yea thou legion of devils! thou canst not stay. Christ will cast thee out. I° know His work is begun. Tear me to pieces, if thou wilt ; but thou canst not hurt me." Wesley prayed: his pangs ceased, and both his body and soul were set at liberty.
It should be said, however, that cases so extraordinary as this last were extremely rare, even at the beginning of Wesley's ministry. What was not rare, at this period, was for his preaching to be interrupted by the deep emotions of the multitude, and his voice drowned amid the groans of the penitents. After a time, these scenes became less common, and the Spirit of God wrought in a more gentle and uniform manner. Wesley carefully records facts like those we have just described, but scrupulously abstains from offering an explanation of them. So far from regarding
prostrations as essential elements of conversion, as fehas been affirmed without proof, he believed them to be either a device of the evil spirit, or else the natural conseKideties of deep inward anguish of soul. He, therefore, took care not to encourage, much less to excite, these
Physical Manifestations. 65 manifestations. His preaching had nothing in it to inflame the imagination : always calm and sober, it expended its force, not in ee nee but in demonstrating the truth.
To those who were scandalized by these scenes, (and many were so,) he said, "' Come and see." A doctor at Bristol, full of prejudices against this work, wished to ascertain the truth for himself, and came to one of Wesley's meetings.
A lady of his acquaintance, who was in perfect health, and of whose integrity he had no doubt, was that very day struck down by the Word, and, while he was present, fell into a state of great physical and mental anguish. The doctor watched the various symptoms with great attention, and when, after the lapse of some minutes, she was filled with peace and joy, he rose up and went away, declaring that the matter baffled all his science, and that he recognized in it the finger of God. ;
To his eldest brother, Samuel, who was greatly scandalized by these instantaneous conversions, and who severely criticised the entire movement, Wesley wrote, "The whole question turns chiefly, if not wholly, on matter of fact.
You deny that God does now work these effects: at least that He works them in such a manner. I affirm both, because I have heard those facts with my ears, and seen them with my eyes. I have seen, as far as it can be seen, very many persons changed in a moment from the spirit of horror, — fear, and despair, to the spirit of hope, joy, peace ; and from sinful desires, till then reigning over them, to a pure desire of doing the will of God. . .. Saw you him that was a lion till then, and is now a lamb; he that was a drunkard, but now exemplarily sober ; the whoremonger that was, who now abhors the very lusts of the flesh?
These are my living arguments for what I assert."
These are, undoubtedly, the best arguments. Let it not be forgotten, however, that physical manifestations have F 66 The Birth of the Movement. almost always accompanied the preaching of the Gospel during revivals that have followed long periods of spiritual torpor. In the eighteenth century, the preaching of salvation by faith was a novelty in England. Hence the amazement and agitation it produced in the minds of those who received the doctrine. Wesley, according to the apostolic method, preached the law as well as the Gospel. He placed in a strong light the heinousness of sin, and the deplorable consequences to which it led in this world and in the next.
Such preaching was not addressed to the imagination or the sensibilities : it was one continuous appeal to the conscience.
Who does not know that physical derangement is an ordinary effect of strong moral emotions? This is especially true of the masses, who have not acquired the art of disguising their feelings.
While Wesley made Bristol the centre from whence he extended his labours through all the surrounding districts, his brother Charles was accomplishing a similar work in London in concert with Whitefield, who delayed his return to America on account of the crowds that flocked to his preaching and refused to let him go. In the metropolis as at Bristol, he was the first to preach in the open air, having chosen for his field of operations the large plain of Moorfields, the ordinary resort of mountebanks and players, and where he sometimes preached to an audience of twenty or thirty thousand. Wesley, having visited London in the course of the month of June, preached there also, to the great joy of his friend, who wrote in his journal the same evening, "T
to bed rejoicing that another fresh inroad was made fa Satan's territories, by Mr. Wesley following me in field-preaching in London, as well as in Bristol."
This new work excited strong opposition on the part of the clergy. Many exceedingly bitter pamphlets had already been published against the Methodists, as they were now commonly called. The regular clergy, whose quiet had
The Wesleys and the Bishops. 67 been molested by the activity of the new missionaries, thundered against them from their pulpits, declaring that they preached faith without works, and thus sapped the foundations of all morality. The bishops also were alarmed at their progress. They beheld with amazement a movement, which at first appeared the dream of a few young enthusiasts, in the course of a single year taking such rapid strides, and threatening to embrace the whole country. Charles Wesley was cited to appear before the Archbishop of Canterbury to give an account of his "irregular conduct." The prelate reprimanded him smartly, and gave him to understand that unless he and his brother renounced their new mode of action, they would expose themselves to the penalties of the ecclesiastical canons, and even to excommunication itself. For a moment, these threats intimidated Charles Wesley. Happily, the ardent
Whitefield was at hand, and by his advice Charles went to Moorfields on the following Sunday, and, for the first time, preached under the open canopy of heaven to ten thousand people. That was the best reply which he could make to the prelate's menaces. By this courageous conduct, he cut off all possible retreat, and boldly proclaimed that he regarded the yoice of conscience more than that of an archbishop.
The ecclesiastical authorities at Bristol were no better disposed, and John Wesley was, in his turn, summoned to appear before the Bishop of that diocese. After a theological discussion on salvation by faith, in which the advan- . tage certainly did not lie with the prelate, the latter attacked Wesley and his friends with much bitterness, accusing them of pretending to receive extraordinary revelations and gifts of the Holy Ghost : then he inveighed strongly against his erratic courses, and said loftily, 'Sir, you have no business here. You are not commissioned to preach in this diocese. Therefore, J advise you to go hence." Wesley
F 2 68 The Birth of the Movement. replied firmly, "My Lord, my business on earth is, to do what good I can. Wherever, therefore, I think I can do most good, there must I stay, so long as 1 think so. At present,
I think Ican do most good here ; therefore, here Istay. As to my preaching here, a dispensation of the Gospel is committed to me; and woe is me if I preach not the Gospel, wherever I am in the habitable world. Your Lordship knows, being ordained a priest, by the commission I then received, I am a priest of the Church universal ; and being ordained as Fellow of a College, I was not limited to any particular cure, but have an indeterminate commission to preach the Word of God in any part of the Church of England. I do not therefore conceive that, in preaching here by this commission, I break any human law. Whenl am convinced I do, then it will be time to ask, Shall I obey
A minister of the universal Church Wesley most truly was, and less disposed than ever to confine his labours within the limits of a parish. From Bristol, which continued for the present to be his head-quarters, he extended his operations not only over the whole immediate neighbourhood, but through Wales, and Devonshire, to London and Oxford, thus anticipating that peaceful invasion of the whole country, of which he was to be the leader in subsequent years : everywhere he saw multitudes flocking around him, and could consistently affirm that many souls were ripe for the Gospel. Thus was founded the plan of itinerant preaching, which enabled him by the aid of a few labourers to extend his operations far and wide, and which was to become one of the constituent elements of his ecclesiastical organization. It was with this department of the work as with the rest : it sprang from the exigencies, of his position.
This memorable year, 1739, spent by Wesley in self-consuming toil, saw the foundations of Methodism laid at many A Minister of the Universal Church. 69 points simultaneously. London, Bristol, Kingswood, Wales, had heard the word from these ardent missionaries, and the revival had begun to assume a form of solid stability.
If Wesley at this time had attained a clearer conception of the grandeur of the work set before him, he had already also good reason to calculate on its success.
INTERNAL DIVISIONS: EXTERNAL PROGRESS.
From the moment of its birth, the Revival of the eighteenth century was agitated by internal conflicts, which threatened to paralyze its activity and neutralize its success. Under an apparent unity there lay concealed, in fact, the most opposite tendencies, which could not but sooner or later display themselves openly. Although agreed on the grand doctrine of salvation by faith, the leaders of the movement entertained different views on some secondary doctrinal points; and these divergences of opinion now began to appear.
For nearly two years, the Wesleys had been labouring in conjunction with the Moravians. In the capital particularly, those persons who had been awakened by their means, were for the most part united to the Morayian societies ; and the brothers themselves attended them when they were in London. But, at the close of the year 1739, Wesley's attention was called to the teachings of certain doctors recently arrived from Germany, who began to disseminate
Antinomian and Quietist errors among the Societies. "They affirmed," says Wesley, "that we were all in a wrong way 0 Internal Divisions: External Progress. still; that we had no faith at all; that faith admits of no degrees, and consequently weak faith is no faith ; that none is justified till he has a clean heart, and is incapable of any doubt or fear. They affirmed also, that there is no commandment in the New Testament, but 'to believe ;' that no other duty lies upon us; and that when a man does believe, he is not bound or obliged to do anything which is commanded there: in particular, that he is not subject to ordinances, that is (as they explained it) is not bound or obliged to pray, to communicate, to read or hear the Scriptures ;but may or may not use any of these things (being in no bondage) according as he finds his heart free to it.
They further affirmed that a believer cannot use any of these as a means of grace ; that indeed there is no such thing as any means of grace, this expression having no foundation in Scripture; and that an unbeliever, or one who has not a clean heart, ought not to use them at all; ought not to pray, or search the Scriptures, or communicate, but to 'be still,' that is, leave off these ' works of the law;' and then he will surely receive faith, which, till he is 'still,' he cannot have."