1745.

1745.

1745.

WHITEFIELD, during the whole of the year 1745, was in America. Charles Wesley spent about thirty-eight weeks in London; and about fourteen in Bristol, Wales, and the west of England. Wesley himself was nearly five months in London and its vicinity; about a month in Bristol and the neighbourhood; two months were spent in a tour to Cornwall; and four months in two journeys to Newcastle and the north of England.

Persecution somewhat abated, especially in the form of printed attacks and scandals; not because Methodism was less hated, but because the attention of the country was turned to the dangers arising from the invasion of the popish Pretender.

In Cornwall, however, Thomas Maxfield was seized for a soldier, and was put into the dungeon at Penzance. Edward Greenfield, of St. Just, a tanner, with a wife and seven children, was arrested under a warrant signed by Dr. Borlase. Wesley asked what objection there was to this peaceable and inoffensive man. The answer was, “The man is well enough in other things; but the gentlemen cannot bear his impudence. Why, sir, he says he knows his sins are forgiven.” This Cornish persecution was principally promoted by men like Borlase and Eustick. The latter came with a warrant for Wesley’s arrest; but sneaked away from its execution, like a blustering poltroon. While Wesley was preaching at Gwennap, two men, raging like maniacs, rode into the midst of the congregation, and began to lay hold upon the people. In the midst of the disturbance, Wesley and his friends commenced singing; when Mr. B. lost his patience, and bawled to his attendants, “Seize him, seize him. I say, seize the preacher for his majesty’s service.” The attendants not moving, he cursed them with the greatest bitterness, leaped off his horse, caught hold of Wesley’s cassock, crying, “I take you to serve his majesty.” Wesley walked with him for three quarters of a mile, when the courage of the bumptious bravo failed him, and he was glad to let the poor parson go. The day after this ignoble capture, Wesley was at Falmouth, where the rabble surrounded the house in which he was lodging, and roared, “Bring out the Canorum! Where is the Canorum?” (an unmeaning word which the Cornish generally used instead of Methodist.) They then forced open the outer door, and setting their shoulders to the inner one, cried out, “Avast, lads, avast!” Away went all the hinges; Wesley stepped into the midst of the privateering mob, and asked one after another, “To which of you have I done any wrong? To you? Or you? Or you?” All seemed speechless, until, thus questioning his furious assailants, Wesley found himself in the open street, where he cried to the assembled crowd, “Neighbours, countrymen! Do you desire to hear me speak?” “Yes, yes,” they answered vehemently; “he shall speak, he shall; no one shall hinder him!” Meanwhile, Mr. Thomas, the clergyman, and some other gentlemen came up; Wesley was rescued; his horse was sent before him to Penryn; he was despatched by water; and an item of nine shillings and some odd pence appeared in the parochial accounts “for driving the Methodists out of the parish.”

Wesley’s troubles, however, were not ended. His enemies ran along the shore to receive him at his landing. Wesley there confronted them, and, speaking to their leader, said, “I wish you a good night;” to which the wretch replied, “I wish you were in hell,” and then turned away with his companions. Wesley mounted his horse, and hurried forward to Tolcarn, where he had to preach the same evening. On the way, five well dressed horsemen were awaiting him, with a special warrant, from the Helstone magistrates, for his arrest. He rode into the midst of them, and announced who he was. A friendly clergyman, Mr. Collins, of Redruth, accidentally came by, and told the gentlemen that he had known Wesley at the Oxford university. Conversation followed, and Wesley was allowed to proceed upon his journey; one of those who had come out for his arrest telling him, that the reason of all this annoyance was, that all the gentlemen round about affirmed, that, for a long time, he had been in France and Spain; was now sent to England by the Pretender, and was raising societies to join him at his coming.

In the midst of all this, Wesley courageously rode to and fro, preaching from, “Love your enemies;” “Watch and pray;” and, “All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” At Tolcarn, while he was preaching, the mob assembled, and suddenly pushed him from the high wall on which he was standing. At Trevonan, just after he had begun his sermon, the constable and others came, and read the proclamation against riots. At Stithians, the churchwardens seized one of his hearers, and pressed him for a soldier.

Whilst these outrages were being perpetrated in Cornwall, Richard Moss was arrested at Epworth for preaching; but was delivered through the interference of Mr. Maw, in whose house he prayed and sang hymns till midnight; and then left for Robert Taylor’s, at Burnham, where he and the Epworth Methodists continued praying and praising God, till about four o’clock in the morning. At Betley, near Nantwich, a gentleman threatened to hire a mob to pull down the Methodist meeting-house, and to send all the Methodists for soldiers. At Bristol, a Methodist backslider declared he would “make affidavit that he had seen Wesley administer extreme unction to a woman, and give her a wafer, and say that was her passport to heaven.” At Woodley, in Cheshire, John Bennet and three other Methodists were pressed for soldiers, most of the press gang being Dissenters. The reverend Mr. Henry Wickham, one of the magistrates for the west riding of Yorkshire, issued a warrant to the constable of Keighley, “to convey the body of Jonathan Reeves to his majesty’s gaol and castle of York;” the only crime of which Jonathan was guilty being that of calling sinners to repentance; though the reverend magistrate chose to describe him as “a spy among us, and a dangerous man to the person and government of his majesty King George.” In Exeter, says The London Evening Post, for May 16, 1745, the Methodists had a meeting-house behind the Guildhall; and, on May 6, the mob gathered at the door, and pelted those who entered with potatoes, mud, and dung. On coming out, the congregation were all beaten, without exception; many were trampled under foot; many fled without their hats and wigs; and some without coats, or with half of them torn to tatters. Some of the women were lamed, and others stripped naked, and rolled most indecently in the kennel, their faces being besmeared with lampblack, flour, and dirt. This disgraceful mob consisted of some thousands of cowardly blackguards, and the disturbance was continued till midnight. The same newspaper, in its number issued on May 25, relates, with a sneer, that a Methodist vagrant had been apprehended at Frome; that he was a person of “very ill fame,” and was committed to prison; but another of the same sect, “a Scotchman, a travelling apostle,” had succeeded him, and was meeting with surprising success. He had already wrought several miracles, one of which was making a deaf old woman hear angels playing on celestial harps in the upper regions; and another was that of converting his own oatmeal into cake, and transforming his water into wine. He also cured distempers of the body as well as of the mind; though he often killed the one with his drugs, to save the other with his doctrine. The Westminster Journal for June 8, 1745, narrates that a noted Methodist preacher, named Tolly, had been pressed for a soldier in Staffordshire, and had appeared before the magistrates, attended by many of his “deluded followers of both sexes, who pretended he was a learned and holy man; and yet, it appeared that he was only a journeyman joiner, and had done great mischief among the colliers.” The poor luckless joiner was, therefore, coupled to a sturdy tinker, and sent off to Stafford jail. He had already been pressed once before, and the Methodists had subscribed £40 to obtain his freedom, and were intending to repeat the kindness; but the impeccable editor of the Westminster Journal hopes that the magistrates will be proof against golden bribes; for “such wretches” as Tolly “are incendiaries in a nation,” and greatly to be dreaded.

These were the chief acts of violence committed against the Methodists in 1745. As already stated, the press was still employed, though it was not so bitter as it had been previously. Newspapers and magazines found that news about the Pretender’s invasion was more taking with the public than elaborated diatribes against Wesley and his friends. During the year, however, there was published, by a clergyman unknown to fame, an octavo pamphlet of eighty pages, with the title:—“An Apology for the Clergy, in a Letter to a Gentleman of Fortune and great Reading, lately turned Methodist and Hermit; wherein is shown the weakness of those Objections, which Separatists in general pretend first induced them to leave the Established Church, and to look out for better guides somewhere else. By J. Maud, M.A., vicar of St. Neots, in the county of Huntingdon.” Mr. Maud alleges, that there is a powerful confederacy against the Church,—“a mixed multitude of Socinians, Presbyterians, Independents, Quakers, Anabaptists, Antinomians, Meer Moralists, Jesuits, Free Thinkers, and Methodists, and an infinite tribe of nameless sects, all hallooed on by the vicar of Jesus Christ and his creatures, to tear Christians to pieces, and to make sport for infidels and atheists.” The pamphlet is a spirited defence of the clergy, whom the “Methodist and Hermit” had libelled, and an attempt to show, that it was no trivial matter to be a faultless minister of Christ in an age when it was considered “a rude affront to any polite audience to tell men of their faults, or so much as to mention these harsh and dreadful sounding words, hell, damnation, devil, without a canting paraphrase, or a formal apology.”

A second pamphlet, published in 1745, was, “The Question, Whether it be right to turn Methodist, considered in a Dialogue between two members of the Church of England.” 8vo, 79 pages. The Methodists are branded as “unskilful teachers, doing great mischief to the peace of the Church, and to the souls of poor, ignorant people; by raising vain janglings about regeneration; by resolving all religion into instantaneous faith, and faith itself into impulses and mere animal sensations; by setting aside all necessity for repentance; and by casting off all works, as unnecessary to salvation.” The pamphlet is ably written; but is extremely false.

Another attack on Methodism was one published in the Craftsman, of June 22, and copied in the London Magazine and other periodicals of the period. It was, in fact, an onslaught upon the government of the day, entitled “Ministerial Methodism, or Methodists in Politics;” but, in castigating ministers of state, it grossly calumniates ministers of Christ. The Methodists are an “unaccountable strange sect, whose religion is founded on madness and folly.” They “hold, that there is no justification by good works, but by faith and grace only; and hereby banish that Divine part of our constitution, reason; and cut off the most essential recommendation to heaven, virtue.” By this “depraved doctrine” of “weak and, perhaps, designing teachers, misguided souls are dangerously led astray.” The “men are far gone in their mad principles of religion, suspend the hand of industry, become inactive, and leave all to Providence, without exercising either their heads or hands.”

The article, though neatly written, was supremely silly: Wesley, at the urgent request of his friends, answered it; but the thing was far more contemptible than some other attacks which had been allowed; properly enough, to pass unnoticed.

Another anti-Methodist publication, issued in 1745, was entitled, “An Earnest and Affectionate Address to the People called Methodists.” 12mo, 47 pages. This was published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, and was distributed gratuitously. Its author, an old antagonist, was the Rev. Dr. Stebbing. Two editions were exhausted in 1745, and a third sent out in 1746. It allows the Methodists to be honest and well meaning; but they are “greatly imposed upon,” and “ignorantly serve the designs of enthusiasm, and give credit to the most extravagant and groundless pretences.” The writer proceeds, with considerable ability, to examine the Methodist doctrines of regeneration, justification by faith alone, and the operations of the Holy Spirit; and concludes by saying that, though the Methodist teachers at first were only distinguished by “a peculiar strictness and regularity, and a decent observance of the rules of the Church, it was not long that they kept within these bounds. Being admired and followed, they became vain and conceited, and proceeded to open censures and contempt of their brethren. They grew loud and furious in their accusations and railings. They made most presumptuous pretences to Divine communications and directions;” and, when “their errors were pointed out, by some of the highest and most considerable of the clergy, with all possible meekness and temper, their answers were saucy and petulant. Fresh bitterness arose; more arrogant boasting; and more uncharitable revilings. They seized a pulpit or two without leave; and, in defiance of the law, exercised their ministry in fields and commons, and other unlicensed places. They set aside and altered the liturgy at their pleasure, and made use of extempore effusions of their own in the public worship of God.”

Such were some of the allegations brought against Wesley and his friends at the instance of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.

Another pamphlet, published in the same year, was “A Serious Address to Lay-Methodists to beware of the false pretences of their Teachers. With an Appendix containing an account of the fatal and bloody effects of enthusiasm, in the case of the family of the Dutartres in South Carolina, which was attended with the murder of two persons, and the execution of four for those murders. By a Sincere Protestant.” 8vo, 29 pages.

This was a frothy composition, asserting that “the Methodist preachers are wandering lights, gadding about with canting assurances, and leading people into bogs of delusion.” Its author was Dr. Zachary Grey, already mentioned (page 325) as the author of “The Quakers and Methodists compared.”

Besides all these attacks, Wesley had to endure much Moravian annoyance. At the commencement of the year, desiring to see once more his old friend Gambold, he called at James Hutton’s, and there met Mr. Simpson, “extremely gay, easy, and unconcerned;” “a new creature indeed! but not in the gospel sense.” Mr. Simpson, unhappily, was a specimen of others. The Moravians meant well; but they held and preached the grand old doctrine of salvation by faith only, so unguardedly that, as a matter of course, the rank weed of antinomianism sprung out of the soil of Christian truth. Antinomianism, according to Wesley, was now a torrent; not only in London but out of it. At Bristol, Wesley writes, “the Antinomians had taken true pains to seduce those who were showing their faith by their works; but they reaped little fruit of their bad labour; for, upon the most diligent inquiry, I could not find that seven persons out of seven hundred had been turned out of the old Bible way.” Whitefield, writing from America, remarks: “Antinomianism, I find, begins to show its head, and stalk abroad. May the glorious Redeemer cause it to hide its head again; and prevent His children’s spirits being embittered against each other.” In August, James Hutton, by order of Zinzendorf, published, in the Daily Advertiser, an advertisement, declaring that the Moravians had no connection with the two Wesleys; and subjoining one of the count’s prophecies, that Wesley and his brother would “soon run their heads against the wall.” To this Wesley simply said: “We will not, if we can help it.” Dissensions also had sprung up among the Unitas Fratrum themselves. Richard Viney had denounced Zinzendorf’s “more than papal domination;” and large numbers of the Yorkshire Moravians had sympathised with him. Zinzendorf was furious, and, in February 1744, wrote from Germany as follows:—

“I hereby declare, that I will have nothing more to do with those English Brethren, who have been mixed up in Viney’s rebellion. I disapprove of the absolution that is given to such Corah spirits. I laugh at the English national self righteousness in matters relating to our salvation. I desire to be erased from the list of English labourers, and not to be named among them, until all accomplices in the late revolt make an acknowledgment in writing of their having been deceived by Satan.

“The well-known little fool and poor sinner,



“Ludwig.”

This was pitiful tomfoolery; the raging of a lilliputian and disappointed pope.

During the year, a 12mo pamphlet, of forty-one pages, was published, with the title, “Extracts of Letters relating to Methodists and Moravians. By a Layman;” in which the Moravians are censured—1. For laying aside the use of their intellectual faculties in religious matters. 2. For refusing to take oaths before a magistrate. 3. For declining to take up arms in defence of their country, at the command of the civil power. And, 4. For their praying to and praising so constantly the Son of God, and so very seldom the Father. This was supposed to be written by Sir John Thorold; but as it makes no attack upon Wesley and his immediate followers it need not be farther noticed.

Another, and more important publication, was the following:—“Remarks on the Rev. Mr. John Wesley’s last Journal, wherein he gives an account of the tenets and proceedings of the Moravians, especially those in England, and of the divisions and perplexities of the Methodists: showing, by the concessions of Mr. Wesley himself, the many errors relating to faith and practice, which have already arisen among these deluded people; and, in a particular manner, explaining the very fatal tendency of denying good works to be conditions of our justification. In a letter to that gentleman. By Thomas Church, A.M., vicar of Battersea, and prebendary of St. Paul’s.” 8vo, 76 pages.

The pamphlet is calmly and ably written, and thus concludes: “The consequences of Methodism, which have hitherto appeared, are bad enough to induce you to leave it. It has introduced many disorders—Enthusiasm, Antinomianism, Calvinism, a neglect and contempt of God’s ordinances and almost all other duties, a great increase of our sects and divisions, and, in fine, presumption and despair in greater abundance than they were known before.”

The letter is dated, November 3, 1744, and has the following postscript:—“If you think proper to return any answer, I hope you will attentively consider the points objected to you, and not put me off with such a slight, superficial, declamatory thing as Mr. Whitefield, without any regard to his own character or the importance of the subject, published last year under the title of an answer to my letter to him; in which he did not vouchsafe to consider any one argument I had urged against him, and which no serious man could think deserved any notice.”

The “Remarks” deserved an answer. Wesley acknowledged, in after years, that Church “wrote as a gentleman.” “Mr. Church,” said he, in 1777, “was another kind of opponent than Mr. Rowland Hill; a gentleman, a scholar, and a Christian; and as such he both spoke and wrote.”

Accordingly, first of all, Mr. Webb published a letter in vindication of Wesley’s Journal, in reply to Mr. Church; and then Wesley himself issued a 12mo pamphlet of forty-six pages, entitled, “An Answer to the Rev. Mr. Church’s Remarks on the Rev. Mr. John Wesley’s last Journal.”

Wesley thus begins:—“Reverend sir,—My first desire and prayer to God is, that I may live peaceably with all men: my next, that if I must dispute at all, it may be with a man of understanding. Thus far, I rejoice on the present occasion. I rejoice also, that I have confidence of your sincerity, of your real desire to promote the glory of God, by peace and goodwill among men. I am likewise thankful to God for your calm manner of writing (a few paragraphs excepted); and yet more for this,—that such an opponent should, by writing in such a manner, give me an opportunity of explaining myself on those very heads whereon I wanted an occasion so to do.”

He then proceeds to say, that he wholly disapproved of the doctrines, “that there are no degrees in faith; that, in order to attain faith, we must abstain from all the ordinances of God; that a believer does not grow in holiness; and that he is not obliged to keep the commandments of God;” but, at the same time, he remarks, that he had already cleared the Moravian church from the charge of holding the first of these doctrines; that, with respect to the ordinances of God, their practice was better than their principle; and that he never knew a Moravian, except Molther, who affirmed that a believer does not grow in holiness. “Still,” he adds, “I am afraid their whole church is tainted with quietism, universal salvation, and antinomian opinions.” “As a church, they exalted themselves above measure, and despised others. He had scarce heard one Moravian brother own his church to be wrong in anything. Many of them he had heard speak of it, as if it were infallible; and some of them had set it up as the judge of all the earth, of all persons as well as doctrines. Some had said, there was no true church but theirs, and that there were no true Christians out of it. These were exceeding great mistakes; yet in as great mistakes holy men had both lived and died;—Thomas à Kempis, for instance, and Francis Sales.” He condemns them for “despising and decrying self denial; for their extending Christian liberty beyond all warrant of holy writ; for their want of zeal for good works; and, above all, for their using guile;” but he wishes not to condemn all for the sake of some, and expresses the belief that, next to some thousands in the Church of England, that is mainly the Methodists, the Moravians, with whom he had formed acquaintance, were, upon the whole, the best Christians in the world. They had much evil among them, but more good. They were the most self inconsistent people now existing; and yet he could not help but speak of them with tender affection, were it only for the benefits he had received from them; and, if the stumbling blocks above mentioned were put away, he should desire union with them above all things under heaven.

After this, Wesley gives his latest thoughts upon justification by faith alone, as published in his “Farther Appeal to Men of Reason and Religion,” which will be noticed hereafter.

In reply to Church’s assertion, that Wesley was guilty of enthusiasm to the highest degree, Wesley remarks, that he is no more like Church’s picture of an enthusiast than he is like a centaur. He made the word of God the rule of all his actions, and no more followed any secret impulse instead thereof, than he followed Mahommed or Confucius. He rested not on ecstasies at all, for he never felt them; but judged of his spiritual estate by the improvement of his heart and the tenour of his life conjointly. He desired neither his dreams nor his waking thoughts to be at all regarded, unless just so far as they agreed with the oracles of God.

Before leaving the Moravians, reference must be made to another pamphlet, issued in 1745. “A Short View of the Difference between the Moravian Brethren lately in England and the Rev. Mr. John and Charles Wesley. Extracted chiefly from a late Journal. London: printed by W. Strahan. Sold at the Foundery, etc. 1745.” 12mo, 24 pages. The pamphlet is dated, May 20, 1745, and is signed by both the Wesleys. Appended are six hymns bearing on the subject. The differences are contained in ten propositions; but having been referred to so frequently in the preceding pages, it is scarcely necessary to repeat them here. Suffice it to say, that the publication of these “Differences” was probably owing to the publication of Church’s remarks on Wesley’s Journal; and, that it was one, if not the main, reason of Zinzendorf and Hutton publishing, in the Daily Advertiser, that the Moravians had now no connection with the Wesleys. Wesley, in his pamphlet, uses language more than ordinarily strong. He pronounces several of the Moravian dogmas “utterly false.” He declares, that Zinzendorf’s definition of faith, namely, the historical knowledge that Christ has been a man and suffered death for us, “is a proposition directly subversive of the whole of the Christian revelation;” and that his doctrine, that “a believer is not holy in himself, but in Christ only,” is “a palpable self contradiction, and senseless jargon.” Zinzendorf’s temper was touchy, and it is not surprising, that he resented Wesley’s plain speaking, and commanded Hutton to publish the advertisement just mentioned.

The controversy still continued; and, during 1745, two other tracts were published by Wesley. (1) “A Dialogue between an Antinomian and his friend.” 12mo, 12 pages. (2) “A Second Dialogue between an Antinomian and his friend.” 12mo, 12 pages.

In both these tracts, the monstrousness of the Moravian and other errors is mercilessly exposed and censured. “All that is really uncommon in your doctrine,” says Wesley to his antinomian friend, “is a heap of broad absurdities, in most of which you grossly contradict yourselves, as well as Scripture and common sense. In the meantime, you boast and vapour, as if ye were the men, and wisdom should die with you. I pray God to humble you, and prove you, and show you what is in your heart!”

This was partly written in answer to a Dialogue that had been published by William Cudworth, who was, for some years, a follower of Whitefield, and then became minister of an Independent congregation, in Margaret Street, London, and died in 1763. The biographer of the Countess of Huntingdon states, that Cudworth “died in the comforts of the doctrines of grace, leaving behind him a character for eminent holiness and integrity.” Wesley’s description of the man is widely different; but, if Wesley ever felt the least bitterness towards any of his opponents, it was towards Cudworth. He describes him as an Antinomian; an absolute, avowed enemy to the law of God, which he never preached, or professed to preach, but termed all legalists who did. With him, preaching the law was an abomination. He would preach Christ, as he called it, but without one word either of holiness or good works.

Mr. Cudworth will again cross our path. Suffice it to say here, that, between him and Wesley, no love was lost. Affection for him was at zero; and he abhorred Wesley “as much as he did the pope, and ten times more than he did the devil.”

As already stated, Wesley made, during 1745, two journeys to Newcastle and the north of England.

The first of these was commenced on the 18th of February, and lasted to the 11th of May. Richard Moss was his companion, and not a few were the adventures with which they met. Locomotion was rendered extremely difficult in consequence of snow. In some places, a thaw, succeeded by a frost, had made the ground like glass; and often they were obliged to walk, it being impossible to ride, their horses frequently falling, even while they were leading them. At Gateshead Fell, the whole country appeared a great pathless waste of white; and, but for an honest man who became their guide, they knew not how to reach Newcastle. Wesley writes:—“Many a rough journey have I had before, but one like this I never had; between wind, and hail, and rain, and ice, and snow, and driving sleet, and piercing cold: but it is past; these days will return no more, and are therefore as though they had never been.” This rough journey of two hundred and eighty miles was performed on horseback, in six days, at the rate of nearly fifty miles a day.

The besetting sin of the Newcastle Methodists was the being offended with each other; and Wesley’s first work was to reconcile wrangling neighbours. On the second Sunday after his arrival, a brutal bully, who had been accustomed to abuse the Orphan House family, and to throw stones at them, assaulted Wesley in Pilgrim Street, and cursed and pushed him. The next day the following characteristic note was sent:—

“Robert Young,—I expect to see you between this and Friday, and to hear from you, that you are sensible of your fault; otherwise, in pity to your soul, I shall be obliged to inform the magistrates of your assaulting me yesterday in the street.

“I am, your real friend,

“John Wesley.”

Robert Young immediately came, and meekly begged pardon, and promised to amend his ways.

On the 11th of March, Wesley wrote a long letter to a friend, giving an account of the way in which the Methodist societies had sprung into existence, and then stating succinctly the present position of himself and his coadjutors. They were willing to make any concession, which their conscience would permit, in order to heal the breach between the clergy and themselves; but they could not desist from preaching the doctrine of inward and present salvation, as attainable by faith alone; nor could they promise not to preach in private houses, or in the open air; for, as things were now circumstanced, this would amount to a promise not to preach at all. They could not, with a safe conscience, dissolve their societies, for they apprehended that many souls would be lost thereby; neither could they advise the members one by one, their number rendering this impossible. They could not suffer those who walked disorderly still to mingle with the rest, because evil communications corrupt good manners; nor could they discharge the leaders, because it was through the leaders that disorderly walkers were detected. While they were resolved to behave with reverence towards the bishops of the Church, and with tenderness both to the character and persons of the inferior clergy, they desired not to be admitted to their pulpits, if they believed them to be preachers of false doctrine, or had the least scruple of conscience concerning this; but, at the same time, they desired that those clergymen who believed their doctrines to be true, and had no scruple at all in the matter, should not be either publicly or privately discouraged from inviting them to preach in their churches. If any one thought them heretics or schismatics, and deemed it his duty to preach or print against them, be it so; they had not the least objection; but, before doing so, they desired that he would calmly consider both sides of the question, and not condemn them unheard. If they were guilty of either Popery, sedition, or immorality, they desired no favour; but they also desired, that senseless tales concerning them should not be credited without proof. They desired not any preferment, favour, or recommendation, from authorities either in Church or state; but they asked—1. That, if anything material were laid to their charge, they might be permitted to answer for themselves. 2. That the clergy and magistrates would hinder their dependants from stirring up the rabble against them. And, 3. That they would effectually suppress, and thoroughly discountenance, all riots and popular insurrections, which evidently strike at the foundation of all government, whether of Church or state.

Such was Wesley’s position in 1745. Though the document was not published in his Journal for eight years afterwards, it was, in fact, a manifesto defining his relations to Church and state, and the course of action he felt it his duty to pursue; and, viewed in such a light, it is of great importance.

During his stay at Newcastle, Wesley received and entertained a strange visitor in his Orphan House. This was none other than a popish priest. Twelve months before, a royal proclamation had been published, ordering the laws against papists to be enforced, and commanding all such religionists to depart from the cities of London and Westminster; and likewise forbidding them to leave their country homes, in any direction, for more than five miles’ distance. This proclamation was occasioned by the preparations that were being made by the young Pretender to invade Great Britain. Papists, and especially papistical priests, were regarded, by the general public, with suspicion and abhorrence. This was natural. Their disloyalty to the house of Hanover was a well known fact; and their intrigues, in favour of the Stuart family, were now culminating in the approaching invasion on behalf of the eldest son of James II. Under such circumstances, it was a bold, we think an imprudent, act for Wesley to make a priest of the Church of Rome his guest. Still the visit led to results which, to the writer at least, are interesting.

The priest’s name was Adams, or Watson Adams. His home was at Osmotherley (the author’s native place), a village of about a thousand inhabitants, sixty miles south of Newcastle. The place had been famous as a papistical settlement, and was still resorted to by not a few adherents of that religion. The writer’s grandmother, for a long series of years, walked, every Sunday morning, over a bleak, roadless moor, full of bogs and pitfalls, a distance of at least twelve miles there and back, for the purpose of attending, in Osmotherley chapel, the reading of a few Latin prayers, not a word of which had she scholarship enough to understand. Here had been an important convent of Franciscan friars, the chapel of which was still standing. In the immediate neighbourhood were the ruins of another popish edifice, known by the name of “the Lady’s chapel”; and, within a mile, were the beautiful and extensive remains of Mount Grace, a Carthusian priory, founded in 1396.

Wesley’s account of the priest’s visit is as follows:—

“March 28.—A gentleman called at our house, and said, that he lived at Osmotherley, in Yorkshire; and had heard so many strange accounts of the Methodists, that he could not rest till he came to inquire for himself. I told him he was welcome to stay as long as he pleased, if he could live on our Lenten fare. He made no difficulty of this, and willingly stayed till the Monday sennight following; when he returned home, fully satisfied with his journey.”

The odd acquaintance thus begun was perpetuated. A week after this (on Easter Monday), Wesley began the day by preaching, at half-past four o’clock, to a large congregation, including “many of the rich and honourable.” He then set out for London, and, at eight o’clock, preached in the open air, to “a large and quiet congregation,” at Chester-le-street. Starting again, he reached Northallerton in the evening, and made the inn his preaching place. The priest, Adams, and some of his neighbours, including Elizabeth Tyerman, a Quakeress, formed part of his congregation. The priest wished Wesley to come and preach in his house at Osmotherley. The invitation was at once accepted; Wesley mounted; and, travelling up hill and down hill, seven miles more, reached the village a little before ten at night; having ridden during the day, over execrable roads, a distance of at least sixty miles, and preached thrice. Of course, at this season of the year, it had long been dark; and, in a village so sequestered, most of the inhabitants had retired to rest; but the priest and his friends went round the place, and, arousing the people, succeeded, in about an hour, in collecting a congregation in the chapel which formerly belonged to the Franciscan friars. Wesley preached to them, and, after midnight, went to bed, feeling, as he expressed it, “no weariness at all.” At five in the morning, he preached again, on Romans iii. 22, a sermon, in a popish chapel, on the great anti-popish doctrine of justification by faith alone, part of the congregation having sat up all night for fear they should not awake in sufficient time to hear him. Many of them either were or had been papists, and one who was present was the Quakeress already mentioned. After the sermon, this unbaptized woman, abruptly addressing Wesley, asked, “Dost thou think water baptism an ordinance of Christ?” Wesley replied, “What saith Peter? ‘Who can forbid water, that these should not be baptized, who have received the Holy Ghost even as we?’” Wesley adds: “I spoke but little more, before she cried out, ‘’Tis right! ’tis right! I will be baptized.’ And so she was, the same hour.“

On reaching Leeds, a week afterwards, Wesley wrote, as follows, to his brother Charles.

“Leeds, April 23, 1745.

“Dear Brother,—It was time for me to give them the ground at Newcastle, and to fly for my life. I grew more and more honourable every day: the rich and great flocking to us together, so that many times the room would not hold them. Iniquity, for the present, hath stopped her mouth; and it is almost fashionable to speak well of us. In all appearance, if I had stayed a month longer, the mayor and aldermen would have been with us.”

He then proceeds to give an account of his journey to Northallerton, where he found “a noble people, who received the word with all readiness of mind”; and of his setting out for Osmotherley, where he says: “I preached in a large chapel which belonged, a few years since, to a convent of Franciscan friars. I found I was got into the very centre of all the papists in the north of England. ‘Commessatorem haud satis commodum.’ This also hath God wrought.”

Thus began Methodism in Osmotherley, Wesley preaching the first sermon, in a popish chapel, at eleven o’clock at night, having been brought to the place by a popish priest and a Quaker woman. A society was formed soon after, the original class papers and society book of which, for 1750, and onwards, are still in existence. Four years afterwards, a chapel was erected, which still stands, and which, up to the year 1865, for the long period of one hundred and eleven years, was uninterruptedly occupied as a Methodist place of worship, being, with one exception (Coleford, in Somersetshire), the oldest Methodist chapel in the world, continuously used as such. In it, the writer was converted, and painfully he regrets that, in the present mania for new chapels, the society, without the least necessity, were barbarous enough to quit it for a more modern structure, not a whit more adapted to their church necessities, and, of course, destitute of the unequalled memories belonging to the ugly, but venerable pile, now, we fear, left to rats and ruin.

Osmotherley, nestled beneath moorland mountains, was one of Wesley’s favourite haunts. Though seven miles from the direct road between London and Newcastle, and a place difficult to reach, he paid at least sixteen visits to the place to which he was so strangely introduced. Nor did he forget or neglect his old friend, the popish priest. His house, on some occasions, was Wesley’s home. When he visited him, in 1776, he found him “just quivering over the grave”; and, at his visit a year later, he writes:—“I found my old friend was just dead, after living a recluse life near fifty years. From one that attended him, I learned that the sting of death was gone, and he calmly delivered up his soul to God.”

Leaving a place, for lingering too long at which the writer craves forbearance, we must follow Wesley in his evangelistic wanderings. He made his way to Sykehouse, to Epworth, and to Grimsby, at which last mentioned town he preached to a “stupidly rude and noisy congregation, encouraged thereto by a drunken alehouse keeper.” At Epworth, he preached at the market cross, having most of the adults in the town to hear him. He went to his father’s church, and there heard his old acquaintance, John Romley, preach a sermon which, “from beginning to end, was a railing accusation.” He returned to Leeds, Armley, Birstal, and Bradford.

Leaving the west riding, he made a tour in Lancashire, Cheshire, and Derbyshire, and then came round to Sheffield, where he preached on the floor of the Methodist meeting-house, “which the good Protestant mob had just pulled down,” to the largest and one of the quietest Sheffield congregations he had ever seen. He then made his way to Nottingham, Wednesbury, and Birmingham, at the last of which places “stones and dirt were flying from every side, almost without intermission, for near an hour.” On Saturday, May 11, he got to London, from which he had been absent about twelve weeks. Here he found things in an unsatisfactory state. There were more than two thousand members, above two thirds of whom were women. “The sower of tares had not been idle. Many were shaken; and some, who once seemed pillars, were moved from their steadfastness.” Numbers were “hugely in love” with what Wesley calls, “that solemn trifle, Robert Barclay’s Apology.” This he and his brother read over with them. “Their eyes were opened; they saw Barclay’s nakedness, and were ashamed.”

Having employed a month in London, Wesley set out for Cornwall, where he spent the next five weeks. The persecutions he encountered have been related at the commencement of the present chapter. Suffice it to remark here, that, during this Cornish tour, he did what he was rarely permitted to do elsewhere; he preached in not fewer than four churches, with the consent, or at the request, of their respective ministers. An odd event also happened to him at St. Just, where, as he himself was about to begin to preach, a kind of gentlewoman took his place, and “scolded, screamed, spit, and stamped, wrung her hands and distorted her face,” most violently. She had been bred a papist, and had been rejoiced to hear that Wesley was one; but, being now undeceived and disappointed, her anger was quite equal to what her joy had been. Like a true philosopher, Wesley let the vociferous lady have all the talking to herself, and “took no notice of her at all, good or bad.” Wesley returned to London on August 16.

Terrible was the national excitement which now existed. A few weeks before, Charles Edward Stuart had embarked from Brittany, with about fifty of his Scotch and Irish adherents, and had set up his standard in Scotland, emblazoned with the motto, “Tandem triumphans.” On the 4th of September, he proclaimed his father in the town of Perth; within a fortnight, he entered Edinburgh; and, a few days afterwards, fought the royal troops at Preston Pans, and was victorious. Under the pretentious title of “regent of the kingdoms of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland,” he marched his increasing forces to Carlisle, Lancaster, Manchester, and Derby; and was then driven back to Scotland, where, on April 16, 1746, was fought the decisive battle of Culloden. These brief remarks will help to illustrate Wesley’s Journal.

Five days after the proclamation of the Pretender, namely, on September 9, Wesley set out from London to Newcastle. On his way he called upon Doddridge, the great Dissenter, and addressed his students. His purpose was to go round by Epworth; but, “hearing of more and more commotions in the north,” he hastened to Newcastle. At Leeds, the mob pelted him and his society with dirt and stones, and were “ready to knock out all their brains for joy that the Duke of Tuscany was emperor.” At Osmotherley, he took occasion to visit the Carthusian priory, already mentioned; and, after describing the walls, cells, and gardens, expressed a sentiment which, however just, was at that time far from being popular:—“Who knows but some of the poor superstitious monks, who once served God here according to the light they had, may meet us, by-and-by, in that house of God, ‘not made with hands, eternal, in the heavens’?” On September 18, he reached Newcastle, in, what he calls, an “acceptable time.”

News had just arrived that the Pretender had entered Edinburgh. The inhabitants were in the utmost consternation. Wesley at once commenced preaching, selecting as his text, “Who can tell, if God will return, and repent, and turn away from His fierce anger, that we perish not?” The Newcastle Courant, for September 14 to September 21, is before us, containing an account of an association of his majesty’s Protestant subjects in Ireland, pledging their faith and honour, that they will, at the hazard of their lives and fortunes, oppose the abominable and unnatural rebellion now carried on in favour of the popish Pretender. There is also an address to the king by seven hundred and thirty of the merchants of London, and from the lord provost, magistrates, and council of Edinburgh, to the same effect.

The following loyal, if not finished, lines are published:—

The day after Wesley’s arrival, Mr. Ridley, the mayor, summoned all the householders of Newcastle to meet him at the town hall, and to sign an agreement, to the effect that they would hazard their goods and lives, in defending the town against the common enemy. He ordered the townsmen to be under arms, and to mount guard in turns. Pilgrim Street gate, just outside of which was Wesley’s Orphan House, was walled up; and Wesley and his society spent the day in fasting and in prayer. The agreement submitted by the mayor, and which was signed by eight hundred and thirteen inhabitants of the town, was, that they “do voluntarily oblige themselves to appear in person, or to provide daily, or when required, an able man to act in concert with his majesty’s forces in the town, for the defence thereof, against all his majesty’s enemies.” As Wesley did not accompany the householders to meet the mayor, he wrote to him the following letter:—

“To the Worshipful the Mayor of Newcastle.

“Sir,—My not waiting upon you at the town hall was not owing to any want of respect. I reverence you for your office’ sake; and much more for your zeal in the execution of it. I would to God, every magistrate in the land would copy after such an example! Much less was it owing to any disaffection to his majesty King George. But I knew not how far it might be either necessary or proper for me to appear on such an occasion. I have no fortune at Newcastle: I have only the bread I eat, and the use of a little room for a few weeks in the year.

“All I can do for his majesty, whom I honour and love,—I think not less than I did my own father,—is this: I cry unto God, day by day, in public and in private, to put all his enemies to confusion: and I exhort all that hear me to do the same; and, in their several stations, to exert themselves as loyal subjects; who, so long as they fear God, cannot but honour the king.

“Permit me, sir, to add a few words more, out of the fulness of my heart. I am persuaded you fear God, and have a deep sense that His kingdom ruleth over all. Unto whom then (I may ask you), should we flee for succour, but unto Him whom, by our sins, we have justly displeased? O, sir, is it not possible to give any check to these overflowings of ungodliness? to the open, flagrant wickedness, the drunkenness and profaneness, which so abound, even in our streets? I just take leave to suggest this. May the God whom you serve direct you in this, and all things! This is the daily prayer of, sir,

“Your obedient servant, for Christ’s sake,

“John Wesley.”

This was written on September 21, on which day arrived the news of General Cope’s disastrous defeat at Preston Pans. Newcastle was seized with panic. Many of the opulent of the inhabitants fled with the utmost precipitation, taking their most valuable effects with them. Wesley writes:—

“September 22.—The walls are mounted with cannon, and all things prepared for sustaining an assault. Our poor neighbours, on either hand, are busy in removing their goods. And most of the best houses in our street are left without either furniture or inhabitants. Those within the walls are almost equally busy in carrying away their money and their goods; and more and more of the gentry every hour ride southward as fast as they can. At eight, I preached at Gateshead, in a broad part of the street, near the popish chapel, on the wisdom of God in governing the world.”

Meanwhile, part of the Northumberland militia entered the town, namely, about four hundred horse, and above two hundred foot, all well armed, and headed by the county gentlemen. Still the alarms continued, and the storm seemed nearer every day. “Many,” says Wesley, “wondered we would still stay without the walls; others told us, we must remove quickly; for if the cannon began to play from the top of the gates, they would beat all the house about our ears. This made me look how the cannon on the gates were planted; and I could not but adore the providence of God, for it was obvious—(1) they were all planted in such a manner, that no shot could touch our house; (2) the cannon on Newgate so secured us on one side, and those upon Pilgrim Street gate on the other, that none could come near our house, either way, without being torn in pieces.”

Amid the most terrible alarms, Wesley continued preaching in Newcastle, and visiting the country societies round about. On October 8 he wrote the following characteristic letter to General Husk:—

“A surly man came to me this evening, as he said, from you. He would not deign to come upstairs to me, nor so much as into the house; but stood in the yard till I came, and then obliged me to go with him into the street, where he said, ‘You must pull down the battlements of your house, or to-morrow the general will pull them down for you.’

“Sir, to me this is nothing. But I humbly conceive it would not be proper for this man, whoever he is, to behave in such a manner to any other of his majesty’s subjects, at so critical a time as this.

“I am ready, if it may be for his majesty’s service, to pull not only the battlements, but the house down; or to give up any part of it, or the whole, into your excellency’s hands.”

Besides the troops already mentioned, the town had been reinforced by the entrance of six hundred Dutch soldiers, belonging to the regiment of General de la Rocque; and gentlemen volunteers had become expert in military exercise, especially the company with red and pink cockades. All persons residing outside the walls were ordered to take their ladders to the town’s yard, and their firearms to the mayor; and no person was to fire a gun at night under pain of imprisonment. Two hundred cannon were planted on the town walls; and the water gates on the quay side were all built up with gun holes in them.

Wesley, supposing the danger was over for the present, started off, on October 9, on a short tour to Epworth, leaving John Trembath to supply his place. At Ferrybridge he was conducted to General Wentworth, who read all the letters he had about him. At Doncaster, where he slept, or rather wished to sleep, he was surrounded by drunken, cursing, swearing soldiers. At Epworth, he had, for once, the satisfaction of hearing Mr. Romley preach “an earnest, affectionate sermon”; while he himself strongly exhorted the society to “fear God, and honour the king.” He then returned to Newcastle, by way of Sheffield, Birstal, Leeds, and Osmotherley, arriving on October 22, after an absence of thirteen days.

Within a week, the right honourable Fieldmarshal Wade, and Prince Maurice of Nassau, arrived with about nine thousand Dutch and English soldiers, which, when added to General St. George’s dragoons, General Sinclair’s Royal Scots, and other troops, made about fifteen thousand men, all encamped upon Newcastle moor. With such an influx, no wonder that wickedness abounded. Wesley was horrified, and on October 26 sent to Mr. Ridley, the mayor, the following letter:—

“Sir,—The fear of God, the love of my country, and the regard I have for his majesty King George, constrain me to write a few plain words to one who is no stranger to these principles of action.

“My soul has been pained day by day, even in walking the streets of Newcastle, at the senseless, shameless wickedness, the ignorant profaneness, of the poor men to whom our lives are entrusted. The continual cursing and swearing, the wanton blasphemy of the soldiers in general, must needs be a torture to the sober ear, whether of a Christian or an honest infidel. Can any that either fear God, or love their neighbour, hear this without concern? especially if they consider the interest of our country, as well as of these unhappy men themselves. For can it be expected, that God should be on their side who are daily affronting Him to His face? And if God be not on their side, how little will either their number, or courage, or strength avail?

“Is there no man that careth for these souls? Doubtless there are some who ought so to do. But many of these, if I am rightly informed, receive large pay, and do just nothing.

“I would to God it were in my power, in any degree, to supply their lack of service. I am ready to do what in me lies, to call these poor sinners to repentance, once or twice a day (while I remain in these parts), at any hour, or at any place. And I desire no pay at all for doing this; unless what my Lord shall give at His appearing.

“If it be objected (from our heathenish poet), ‘this conscience will make cowards of us all,’ I answer, let us judge by matter of fact. Let either friends or enemies speak. Did those who feared God behave as cowards at Fontenoy? Did John Haime, the dragoon, betray any cowardice, before or after his horse sunk under him? Or did William Clements, when he received the first ball in his left, and the second in his right arm? Or John Evans, when the cannon ball took off both his legs? Did he not call all about him, as long as he could speak, to praise and fear God, and honour the king? as one who feared nothing, but lest his last breath should be spent in vain.

“If it were objected, that I should only fill their heads with peculiar whims and notions; that might easily be known. Only let the officers hear with their own ears; and they may judge whether I do not preach the plain principles of manly, rational religion.

“Having myself no knowledge of the general, I took the liberty to make this offer to you. I have no interest herein; but I should rejoice to serve, as I am able, my king and country. If it be judged, that this will be of no real service, let the proposal die, and be forgotten. But I beg you, sir, to believe, that I have the same glorious cause, for which you have shown so becoming a zeal, earnestly at heart; and that therefore, I am, with warm respect, sir,—

Your most obedient servant,

“John Wesley.”

The mayor sent a message, to the effect that he would communicate the proposal to the general. We are not told whether the general gave his consent or not; but, five days afterwards, we find Wesley, in the midst of this huge encampment, preaching from, “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters!” “None,” says he, “attempted to make the least disturbance, from the beginning to the end. Yet I could not reach their hearts. The words of a scholar did not affect them, like those of a dragoon or a grenadier.”

In such circumstances, Wesley honestly acknowledges, that a layman, like John Haime, the brave dragoon, would have been more effective than himself. This, however, did not discourage him. The day following, he preached to the troops again. On this occasion, a lieutenant endeavoured to raise disturbance; but, when Wesley had finished, tried to make amends, by telling the soldiers that all that had been said was very good.

The next day, Saturday, November 2, his text was, “The Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise might be given to them that believe;” and he now began to see some fruit of his labour. On the Sunday, the camp was again his cathedral. Abundance of people flocked together, horse and foot, rich and poor, to whom he declared, “There is no difference; for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” He had long laid aside the German tongue, but, seeing a number of Germans standing disconsolate at the skirts of the congregation, he also addressed them, the poor troopers drinking in every word.

This terminated his labours in the camp on Newcastle moor. The next day he set out for London, and spoiled the Guy Fawkes holiday in Leeds, by informing the magistrates that he had met several expresses, sent to countermand the march of the army into Scotland; and that the rebels had passed the Tweed, and were marching southward. The hurry in the streets was quashed; bonfires were abandoned; and guns, squibs, and crackers were no longer the playthings of the uproarious crowd. Wesley proceeded on his journey, finding watchmen standing, with great solemnity, at the end of almost every village through which he passed. On entering Wednesbury, after it was dark, he was bogged in a quagmire; the people came with candles; and, getting out, and leaving them to disengage his horse, he hastened to Francis Ward’s, and, bedaubed with mire, at once commenced preaching. On the 13th of November he arrived safe in London, where he spent the rest of the year, in preaching, and finishing his “Farther Appeal.” He gave away some thousands of tracts among the common people; and his example was immediately copied by others. The lord mayor ordered a large quantity of papers, dissuading from cursing and swearing, to be printed, and distributed to the trainbands; and on December 18, “An Earnest Exhortation to Repentance” was given at all the church doors in London, to every person who came out, and a copy left at the house of every householder who happened to be absent. “I doubt not,” says Wesley, “but God gave a blessing therewith.”

Wesley’s old friend and brother-in-law, Westley Hall, was already a waverer; and, at the end of 1745, wrote a long letter, urging the two Wesleys to renounce the Church of England. Wesley’s reply is too long for insertion here; but it contains, besides other facts, some startling high church principles, which are well worth noting. He writes:—

“We believe it would not be right for us to administer either baptism or the Lord’s supper, unless we had a commission so to do from those bishops whom we apprehend to be in a succession from the apostles.”

“We believe there is, and always was, in every Christian church (whether dependent on the bishop of Rome or not), an outward priesthood, ordained by Jesus Christ, and an outward sacrifice offered therein, by men authorised to act as ambassadors of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.”

“We believe that the threefold order of ministers is not only authorised by its apostolical institution, but also by the written word.”

We must take Wesley as we find him; but is it not surprising to see him still tenaciously clinging, even in phraseology, to the doctrine of apostolical succession, and the offering of an outward sacrifice in the church, by an outward priesthood? He proceeds:—

“We allow, that many of the laws, customs, and practices of the ecclesiastical courts are really indefensible; but we no more look upon these filthy abuses, which adhere to our Church, as part of the building, than we look upon any filth which may adhere to the walls of Westminster Abbey as a part of that structure.”

“We will obey all the laws of that Church (such as we allow the rubrics to be, but not the customs of the ecclesiastical courts), so far as we can with a safe conscience; and, with the same restriction, we will obey the bishops, as executors of those laws; but their bare will, distinct from those laws, we do not profess to obey at all.”

“Field preaching is contrary to no law which we profess to obey; nor are we clear, that the allowing lay preachers is contrary to any such law. But if it is, this is one of the exempt cases; one wherein we cannot obey with a safe conscience.”

We have here a key to much in Wesley’s remarkable career. His doctrine of apostolical succession was a figment. His language concerning Church of England priests still offering an outward sacrifice savoured of the popish doctrine which all true Protestants reject, though, as will shortly be shown, the view he held was different from what his words express. His belief in the “threefold order of ministers” was changed a few weeks afterwards. Field preaching and the employment of lay preachers had much to do with making Methodism; and, without a continuance of these, Methodism will not maintain its power and its position.

Wesley’s conference, in 1745, commenced at Bristol, on the 1st of August, and was continued for five days following. Besides the two Wesleys, there was but one clergyman, Mr. Hodges, present. There were six itinerants: Thomas Richards, Samuel Larwood, Thomas Meyrick, Richard Moss, John Slocomb, and Herbert Jenkins; and also one gentleman, who was not a preacher at all, Marmaduke Gwynne, afterwards the father-in-law of Wesley’s brother Charles.

At the opening of the conference a principle was adopted, which ought to be practised in all similar assemblies, namely, that every one might speak freely whatever was in his heart, and that no one should be checked, either by word or look, even though what he was saying was entirely wrong. In an assembly of equals, met for purposes of deliberation and counsel, free speech like this is indispensable to satisfactory results.

During the first day of conference, the doctrine of justification was reviewed; and it was agreed, that, while faith in Christ is the sole condition of justification, repentance, that is, conviction of sin, must go before faith, and (supposing there be opportunity for them) fruits, or works meet for repentance, also.

On the second day, the Conference discussed the doctrines of assurance, of works done before justification, and of obedience. It was agreed neither to discourage nor encourage dreams, though it was admitted, that, by such means, saving faith is often given. On the subject of sanctification, it was laid down, that inward sanctification begins in the moment we are justified; that, from that time, the believer gradually dies to sin, and grows in grace; and that the seed of all sin remains in him, till he is sanctified throughout, in spirit, soul, and body. This entire sanctification is not ordinarily given till a little before death; but we ought to expect it sooner; for, though the generality of believers are not sanctified till near death, and though few of those to whom St. Paul wrote his epistles were so at the time he wrote, and though he himself was not sanctified at the time of writing his former epistles, this does not prove that we may not be sanctified to-day. It was further agreed, that sanctification should scarcely be preached at all to those who were not pressing forward; and when it was, it should always be by way of promise,—by drawing, rather than by driving. And, further, it was determined, that the general means which God has ordained for our receiving His sanctifying grace are keeping all His commandments, denying ourselves, and taking up our cross daily; and, that the particular are prayer, searching the Scriptures, communicating, and fasting.

The Methodist reader will find something here hardly in harmony with the decisions of the previous Conference, and with Wesley’s subsequent teaching. Twenty years after this, in answer to the question, “What shall we do, that this work of God may be wrought in us?” Wesley said:—

“In this, as in all other instances, ‘by grace we are saved through faith,’ Sanctification too is ‘not of works, lest any man should boast,’ ‘It is the gift of God,’ and is to be received by plain, simple faith. Suppose you are now labouring to abstain from all appearance of evil, zealous of good works, and walking diligently and carefully in all the ordinances of God; there is then only one point remaining: the voice of God to your soul is, ‘Believe, and be saved,’ First, believe that God has promised to save you from all sin, and to fill you with all holiness. Secondly, believe that He is able thus to save to the uttermost all that come unto God through Him. Thirdly, believe that He is willing as well as able. Fourthly, believe that He is not only able, but willing to do it now! Not when you come to die, not at any distant time, not to-morrow, but to-day. He will then enable you to believe, it is done, according to His word; and then ‘patience shall have its perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.’”

At the third day’s session, the Conference debated points of church government. The question was asked, “Is episcopal, presbyterian, or independent church government most agreeable to reason?” The answer given was, that each is a development of the other. A preacher preaches, and forms an independent congregation; he then forms another and another in the immediate vicinity of the first; this obliges him to appoint deacons, who look on the first pastor as their common father; and as these congregations increase, and as their deacons grow in years and grace, they need other subordinate deacons, or helpers; in respect of whom they are called presbyters, or elders; as their father in the Lord may be called the bishop, or overseer of them all. To say the least, this solution is ingenious.

With reference to Wesley’s assistants, fourteen in number, it was resolved, that they had nothing to do but to save souls; and that, in prosecuting this, they should, besides preaching every morning and every night, spend from six o’clock till twelve every day in reading, writing, and prayer; from twelve to five in visiting; and from five to six in private communion with God.

It was also determined what books should constitute the libraries for Wesley’s own use, at London, Bristol, and Newcastle,—namely, eleven on divinity; four on physic; two on natural philosophy; one (Whiston) on astronomy; one (the Universal) on history; two (Spenser and Milton) in poetry; sixteen in Latin; twelve in Greek; and one (Buxtorf’s Bible) in Hebrew.

While Wesley was thus conferring with his lay itinerants, he was, unconsciously, corresponding with a man, who soon became the highest dignitary in the Established Church.

Thomas Secker was six years the senior of Wesley. His father was a Dissenter, and he himself was designed for the Dissenting ministry. Scruples of conscience prevented this, and young Secker resolved to qualify himself for the practice of physic. At Leyden, he took the degree of M.D.; but, on returning to England, in 1721, he entered himself a gentleman commoner at Exeter College, Oxford; and, in the year following, was ordained a deacon of the Church of England. In 1724, he became rector of the valuable living of Houghton-le-spring; and, in 1725, married Bishop Benson’s sister. In 1733, he obtained the rectory of St. James’s; and, the year after, was raised to the see of Bristol. In 1737, he was translated to the diocese of Oxford; and, in 1758, was advanced to the primacy.

In the month of May, 1745, this distinguished man commenced a long, temperate, and able correspondence with Wesley, under the alias of John Smith. The correspondence was continued for nearly three years, and was first published by Mr. Moore, in his Life of Wesley, in 1825. Space forbids even an epitome of these able letters. They are full of interest, intelligence, and piety; and do honour to the head and heart of both the archbishop and the clerical itinerant.

The only thing which remains, before leaving the year 1745, is to notice Wesley’s publications. His answer to Church; his Dialogues on Antinomianism; and his Short View of the Difference between the Moravians and himself, have been already mentioned. The rest were partly original, and partly abridgments from the works of others.

1. “Thoughts concerning the present Revival of Religion in New England. By Jonathan Edwards. Abridged by John Wesley.” 12mo, 124 pages. This deeply interesting work was first published at Boston, in America, in a volume of more than two hundred pages, and has been referred to already in a previous chapter of the present book.

2. “An Extract of Mr. Richard Baxter’s Aphorisms on Justification.” 12mo, 36 pages. The pamphlet is divided into forty-five propositions, and, like all Baxter’s works, is full of Scripture truth, and well worth reading.

3. “Hymns on the Lord’s Supper; by John and Charles Wesley. With a preface concerning the Christian Sacrament and Sacrifice. Extracted from Dr. Brevint. By John Wesley.” 12mo, 166 pages. The hymns are a hundred and sixty-six in number, and are distinguished by great variety of thought and language. Several of the best are published in the Methodist Hymn-book. An extract from Brevint, which, by publishing, Wesley made his own, will help to explain his meaning in the objectionable phraseology he employed in his letter to Westley Hall.

“The Lord’s supper was chiefly ordained for a sacrament:—1. To represent the sufferings of Christ which are past, whereof it is a memorial. 2. To convey the first fruits of these sufferings, in present graces, whereof it is a means. 3. To assure us of glory to come, whereof it is an infallible pledge.”

“The sacrifice, which by a real oblation was not to be offered more than once, is, by a devout and thankful commemoration, to be offered up every day. The sacrifice in itself can never be repeated. Nevertheless, this sacrament, by our remembrance, becomes a kind of sacrifice, whereby we present before God the Father that precious oblation of His Son once offered. To men, the holy communion is a sacred table, where God’s minister is ordered to represent, from God his Master, the passion of His dear Son, as still fresh, and still powerful for their eternal salvation. And to God, it is an altar, whereon men mystically present to Him the same sacrifice, as still bleeding and sueing for mercy.”

The remainder of Wesley’s publications, in 1745, were original: namely:—

1. “An Earnest Persuasive to keep the Sabbath holy.” Four pages, 12mo. This was afterwards reprinted as “A Word to a Sabbath-breaker.”

Sabbath breaking, in the days of Wesley, was one of the crying sins of England. “How many are they,” he wrote, “in every city, as well as in this, who profane the sabbath with a high hand! How many in this, that openly defy God and the king, that break the laws, both Divine and human, by working at their trade, delivering their goods, receiving their pay, or following their ordinary business, in one branch or another, and ‘wiping their mouths and saying, I do no evil!’ How many buy and sell on the day of the Lord, even in the open streets of this city? How many open, or (with some modesty) half open their shops? even when they have not the pretence of perishable goods; without any pretence at all: money is their god, and gain their godliness. What also are all these droves in the skirts of the town, that well-nigh cover the face of the earth? till they drop one after another into the numerous receptacles prepared for them in every corner. They drink in iniquity like water. A whole army joins together, and, with one consent, in the face of the sun, runs upon the thick bosses of God’s buckler.”

This, written in 1745, is too true a picture of the state of things at the present day. Wesley regarded national depravity as turning chiefly on the two hinges of sabbath profanation, and the neglect of the education of children. Till some way was found of stopping these great inlets of wickedness, he had no hope of a general reformation. “The religious observance of the sabbath,” he writes, “is the best preservative of virtue and religion, and the neglect and profanation of it is the greatest inlet to vice and wickedness.” Holding such views, no wonder that he published the pointed, pithy tract to which we are now adverting.

2. “Swear not at all, saith the Lord God of Heaven and Earth.” Four pages, 12mo. This also was reprinted as “A Word to a Swearer.” Like all Wesley’s tracts, it is a model well worthy of imitation. Profane swearing was another of the senseless, stupid, shameless sins of the period in which Wesley lived. In another of his publications, issued in 1745, he asks: “In what city or town, in what market or exchange, in what street or place of public resort, is not the name of God taken in vain, day by day? From the noble to the peasant, who fails to call upon God in this, if in no other way? Whither can you turn, where can you go, without hearing some praying to God for damnation, either on his neighbour or himself? cursing those, without either fear or remorse, whom Christ hath bought to inherit a blessing!”

3. “A Word in Season; or, Advice to an Englishman.” Twelve pages, 12mo. This was published at the beginning of the rebellion, and shows what would be the dreadful results if the Pretender should become king of England by conquest. Popery would be established, and property would be confiscated. “Who can doubt,” he asks, “but one who should conquer England, by the assistance of France, would copy after the French rules of government?” He continues:—

“How dreadful then is the condition wherein we stand! On the very brink of utter destruction! But why are we thus? I am afraid the answer is too plain, to every considerate man. Because of our sins; because we have well-nigh filled up the measure of our iniquities. For what wickedness is there under heaven, which is not found among us at this day? Not to insist on sabbath breaking, thefts, cheating, fraud, extortion, violence, oppression, lying, robberies, sodomies and murders, which with a thousand unnamed villainies are common to us and our neighbour Christians of Holland, France, and Germany,—what a plentiful harvest we have of wickedness almost peculiar to ourselves! For who can vie with us in the direction of courts of justice? In the management of public charities? Or in the accomplished, barefaced wickedness, which so abounds in our prisons, and fleets, and armies? Who in Europe can compare with the sloth, laziness, luxury, and effeminacy of the English gentry? Or with the drunkenness, and stupid, senseless cursing and swearing, which are daily seen and heard in our streets? Add to all these that open and professed Deism and rejection of the gospel,—that public, avowed apostasy from the Christian faith, which reigns among the rich and great, and hath spread from them to all ranks and orders of men, and made us a people fitted for the destroyer of the gentiles.”

This, under the circumstances then existing, was bold writing; but Wesley was a bold man, and never shunned what he conceived to be his duty because it was difficult and dangerous.

4. “A Word to a Drunkard.” Four pages, 12mo. The following are the opening sentences:—

“Are you a man? God made you a man; but you make yourself a beast. Wherein does a man differ from a beast? Is it not chiefly in reason and understanding? But you throw away what reason you have. You strip yourself of your understanding. You do all you can to make yourself a mere beast; not a fool, not a madman only; but a swine, a poor filthy swine. Go and wallow with them in the mire! Go, drink on, till thy nakedness be uncovered, and shameful spewing be on thy glory! O how honourable is a beast of God’s making, compared to one who makes himself a beast! But that is not all. You make yourself a devil. You stir up all the devilish tempers that are in you, and gain others which perhaps were not in you. You cause the fire of anger, or malice, or lust to burn seven times hotter than before.”

5. It was also about this period, that Wesley wrote and published his small tract (12mo, four pages), entitled, “A Word to an Unhappy Woman.”

6. “Advice to the People called Methodists.” Twelve pages, 12mo. The advices are five in number:—1. To consider, with deep and frequent attention, the peculiar circumstances in which they stood; for their name, their principles, and their strictness of life were new. They were newly united together,—a poor, low, and insignificant people,—most even of their teachers being quite unlearned men. 2. Not to imagine that they could avoid giving offence. 3. To consider deeply with themselves, is the God whom we serve able to deliver us? 4. To be true to their principles. 5. Not to talk much of what they suffered.

7. Wesley’s last and most important publication was, “A Farther Appeal to men of Reason and Religion.” 12mo, 106 pages.

First of all, he gives a summary of the doctrines he teaches. He then proceeds to meet the objection, that justification by faith alone is not a scriptural doctrine, nor the doctrine of the Church of England. He next replies to the accusations of the Bishop of London, in his pamphlet, entitled, “Observations upon the Conduct and Behaviour of the Methodists,” which had been sent to every clergyman in the London diocese. Whitefield had already published an answer to this episcopal production, in two letters, addressed “to the right reverend the Bishop of London, and the other right reverend the bishops concerned in the publication thereof;” and now Wesley undertakes the same formidable task,—David against Goliath,—an outcast priest against a whole bench of bishops. Wesley dissects the prelate’s pamphlet, and, with a master’s brevity, refutes it bit by bit. He then replies to a similar production, which has been already noticed, “The Notions of the Methodists Disproved;” and after that proceeds to answer the “charge,” lately published by the Lord Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, Dr. Smalbroke, a man of some ability, but not over skilled in logic, who, in one of his best productions, “A Vindication of our Saviour’s Miracles,” showed his weakness by calculating the precise number of devils in the herd of Gadarenish swine. Wesley writes:—

“I conceive, not only, that your lordship has proved nothing hitherto; but that, strictly speaking, you have not attempted to prove anything, having taken for granted whatever came in your way. What is become of your demonstration? Leave it to the carmen and porters, its just proprietors; to the zealous apple-women, that cry after me in the street, ‘This is he that rails at the Whole Dutyful of man.’ But let every one that pretends to learning or reason be ashamed to mention it any more. O my lord, whom have you represented as rank, dreaming enthusiasts? as either deluded or designing men? Not only Bishop Pearson, a man hitherto accounted both sound in heart, and of good understanding; but likewise Archbishop Cranmer, Bishop Ridley, Bishop Latimer, Bishop Hooper; and all the venerable compilers of our liturgy and homilies: all the members of both the houses of convocation, by whom they were revised and approved: yea, King Edward, and all his lords and commons together, by whose authority they were established! And, with these modern enthusiasts, Origen, Chrysostom, and Athanasius are comprehended in the same censure.”

Wesley’s object in this important treatise may be gathered from its concluding paragraph:—

“I have now answered most of the current objections, particularly such as have appeared of weight to religious or reasonable men. I have endeavoured to show, first, that the doctrines I teach are no other than the great truths of the gospel. Secondly, that though I teach them not as I would, but as I can, yet it is in a manner not contrary to law. And thirdly, that the effects of thus preaching the gospel have not been such as was weakly or wickedly reported,—these reports being mere artifices of the devil, to hinder the work of God.”

Up to the present, most of Wesley’s publications were small and cheap; but they had an immense circulation, and not only paid expenses, but left a profit. In a sermon, written in the year 1780, he naively remarks: “Two-and-forty years ago, having a desire to furnish poor people with cheaper, shorter, and plainer books, than any I had seen, I wrote many small tracts, generally a penny apiece; and afterwards several larger. Some of these had such a sale as I never thought of; and, by this means, I unawares became rich. But I never desired or endeavoured after it. And now that it is come upon me unawares, I lay up no treasures upon earth; I lay up nothing at all. I cannot help leaving my books behind me whenever God calls me hence; but, in every other respect, my own hands will be my executors.”

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