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WESLEY, JOHN (1703-1791)
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See also:WESLEY, See also: He reached the conclusion that the religious friend who directed Wesley's See also:attention to the writings of See also: In See also:October he returned to Oxford, where he was appointed See also:Greek lecturer and See also:moderator of the classes. He gained considerable reputation in the disputation for his See also:master's degree in February 1727. He was now See also:free to follow his own course of studies and began to lose his love for See also:company, unless it were with those who were See also:drawn like himself to See also:religion. In See also:August he returned to See also:Lincolnshire, where he assisted his father till See also:November 1729. During those two years he paid three visits to the university. In the summer of 1729 he was up for two months. Almost every evening found him with the little society which had gathered See also:round See also: Wesley s spirit at this time is seen from his See also:sermon on " The See also:Circumcision of the See also:Heart," preached before the university on the 1st of See also:January 1733. In 1765 he said it " contains all that I now See also:teach concerning salvation from all sin, and loving See also:God with an undivided heart." Wesley See also:rose at four, lived on X28 a year and gave away the See also:remainder of his-income. He already displayed those gifts for leadership which were to find so conspicuous a See also: Wesley's father died on April 25, 1735, and in the following October John and Charles took See also:ship for Georgia, with Benjamin Ingham and Charles Delamotte. John was sent out by the Society for the See also:Propagation of the Gospel, and hoped to labour as a missionary among the See also:Indians, but though he had many interesting conversations with them the See also:mission was found to be impracticable. The See also:cabin of the " Simmonds" became a study for the four Methodists. The See also:calm confidence of their Moravian fellow-passengers amid the See also:Atlantic storms convinced Wesley that he did not possess the faith which casts out fear. Closer acquaintance with these See also:German friends in See also:Savannah deepened the impression. Wesley needed help, for he was beset by difficulties. Mrs See also:Hawkins and Mrs Welch poisoned the mind of See also:Colonel See also:Oglethorpe against the See also:brothers for a time. Wesley's See also:attachment to Miss Hopkey also led to much See also:pain and disappointment. All this is now seen more clearly in the standard edition of the Journal. Wesley was a stiff High Churchman, who scrupulously followed every detail of the rubrics. He insisted on baptizing children by trine See also:immersion, and refused the Communion to a pious German because he had not been baptized by a See also:minister who had been episcopally ordained. At the same time he was accused of " introducing into the church and service at the See also:altar compositions of See also:psalms and See also:hymns not inspected or authorized by any proper judicature." The See also:list of grievances presented by Wesley's enemies to. the See also:Grand See also:Jury at Savannah gives abundant See also:evidence of his unwearying labours for his See also:flock. The foundation of his future work as the father of Methodist hy mnody was laid in Georgia. His first Collection of Psalms and Hymns (See also:Charlestown, 1737) contains five of his incomparable See also:translations from the German, and on his return to England he published another Collection in 1738, with five more translations from the German and one from the See also:Spanish. In April 1736 Wesley formed a little society of See also:thirty or See also:forty of the serious members of his See also:congregation. He calls this the second rise of See also:Methodism, the first being at Oxford in November 1729. The company in Savannah met every Wednesday evening " in See also:order to a free conversation, begun and ended with singing and See also:prayer." A select company of these met at the parsonage on Sunday afternoons. In 1781 he writes, " I cannot but observe that these were the first rudiments of the Methodist See also:societies." In the presence of such facts we can understand the significance of the mission to Georgia. Wesley put down many severe things against himself on the return voyage, and he saw after-wards that even then he had the faith of a servant though not that of a son. In See also:London he met See also:Peter Bdhler who had been ordained by See also:Zinzendorf for work in Carolina. By BBhler Wesley was convinced that he lacked " that faith whereby alone we are saved." On Wednesday, May 24, 1738, he went to a society See also:meeting in Aldersgate See also:Street where See also:Luther's See also:Preface to the See also:Epistle to the See also:Romans was being read. " About a See also:quarter before nine, while he was describing the See also:change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did See also:trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and See also:death." Mr See also:Lecky points out the significance of that event. " It is scarcely an exaggeration to say that the See also:scene which took See also:place at that humble meeting in Aldersgate Street forms an See also:epoch in English See also:history. The conviction which then flashed upon one of the most powerful and most active intellects in England is the true source of English Methodism " (History of England in Eighteenth See also:Century, ii. 558).
Wesley spent some time during the summer of 1738 in visiting the Moravian See also:settlement at Herrnhuth and returned to London on September 15, 1738, with his faith greatly strengthened. He preached in all the churches that were open to him, spoke in many religious societies, visited Newgate and the Oxford prisons. On New Year's Day, 1739, the Wesleys, Whitefield and other friends had a Love Feast at Fetter See also:Lane. In February See also: The bands See also:united in a See also:conference every Wednesday evening. The society first met at James See also:Hutton's See also:shop, " The Bible and See also:Sun," See also:Wild Street, See also:west of See also:Temple See also:Bar. About the 25th of September it moved to Fetter Lane. Wesley describes this as the third beginning of Methodism. After the field preaching began converts multiplied. They found all the See also:world against them, and Wesley advised them to strengthen one another and talk together as often as they could. When he tried to visit them at their homes he found the task beyond him, and therefore invited them to meet him on See also:Thursday evenings. This meeting was held in the end of 1739 at the Foundery in Moorfields which Wesley had just secured as a preaching place. See also:Grave disorders had arisen in the society at Fetter Lane, and on the 25th of See also:July 1740 Wesley withdrew from it. About 25 men and 48 See also:women also See also:left and See also:cast in their See also:lot with the society at the Foundery. The See also:centenary of Method-ism was kept in 1839, a See also:hundred years after the society first met at the Foundery. Wesley's headquarters at Bristol were in the See also:Horse See also:Fair, where a room was built in May 1739 for two religious societies which had been accustomed to meet in See also:Nicholas Street and See also:Baldwin Street. To meet the cost of this See also:Captain See also:Fox suggested that each member should give a See also:penny per week. When it was urged that some were too poor to do this, he replied, " Then put eleven of the poorest with me; and if they can give anything, well: I will See also:call on them weekly, and if they can give nothing I will give for them as well as for myself." Others followed his example and were called leaders, a name given as early as the 5th of November 1738 to those who had See also:charge of the bands in London. Wesley saw that here was the very means he needed to See also:watch over his flock. The leaders thus became a body of See also:lay pastors. Those under their care formed a class. It proved more convenient to meet together and this gave opportunity for religious conversation and prayer. As thesociety increased Wesley found it needed " still greater care to See also:separate the See also:precious from the vile." He therefore arranged to meet the classes himself every quarter and gave a See also:ticket " under his own See also:hand " to every one " whose seriousness and good conversation " he found no See also:reason to doubt. The ticket furnished an easy means for guarding the meetings of the society against intrusion. " Bands " were formed for those who wished for closer communion. Love-feasts for fellowship and testimony were also introduced, according to the See also:custom of the primitive church. Watchnights were due to the See also:suggestion of a Kingswood See also:collier in 1740. Wesley issued the rules of the united societies in February 1743. Those who wished to enter the society must have " a See also:desire to flee from the wrath to come, to be saved from their sins." When admitted they were to give evidence of their desire for salvation " by doing no harm; by doing good of every possible sort; by attending upon all the means of See also:grace." It was expected that all who could do so would contribute the penny a week suggested in Bristol, and give a See also:shilling at the renewal of their quarterly ticket. Wesley had at first to take charge of the contributions, but as they See also:grew larger he appointed stewards to receive the See also:money, to pay debts, and to relieve the needy. The memorable arrangement in Bristol was made a few weeks before Wesley's field of labour was extended to the See also:north of England in May 1742. He found See also:Newcastle ripe for his See also:message. English See also:Christianity seemed to have no See also:power to uplift the See also:people. Dram-drinking was spreading like an epidemic. Freethinkers' clubs flourished. " The old religion," Lecky says, " seemed everywhere loosening round the minds of men, and indeed it had often no great See also:influence even on its defenders." Some of the See also:clergy in See also:country parishes were devoted workers, but See also:special zeal was resented or discouraged. The See also:doctrine of See also:election had led to a separation between Whitefield and the Wesleys in 1741. Wesley believed that the grace of God could transform every life that received it. He preached the doctrine of conscious See also:acceptance with God and daily growth. in holiness. Victory over sin was the See also:goal which he set before all his people. He made his See also:appeal to the conscience in the clearest See also:language, with the most cogent See also:argument, and with all the See also:weight of See also:personal conviction. Hearers like John See also:Nelson felt as though every word was aimed at themselves. No preacher of the century had this mastery over his See also:audience. His teaching may be described as Evangelical Arminianism and its See also:standards are his own four volumes of sermons and his Notes on the New Testament.
Up till 1742 Wesley's work was chiefly confined to London and Bristol, with the adjacent towns and villages or the places which lay between them. On his way to Newcastle that year Wesley visited Birstal, where John Nelson, the See also: In 1743 Wesley secured a west-end centre at West Street, Seven Dials, which for fifty years had a wonderful history. In August 1747 Wesley paid his first visit to See also:Ireland, where he had such success that he gave more than six years of his life to the country and crossed the. Irish Channel forty-two times. Ireland has its own conference presided over by a delegate from the See also:British conference. Wesley's first visit to See also:Scotland was in 1751. He paid twenty-two visits, which stirred up all the Scottish churches. Such See also:extension of his field would have been impossible had not Wesley been helped by a heroic See also:band of preachers. Wesley says: " See also:Joseph See also:Humphreys was the first lay preacher that assisted me in England, in the year 1738." That was probably help in the Fetter Lane Society, for Wesley then had no preaching place of his own. John Cennick, the hymn-writer and schoolmaster at Kingswood, began to preach there in 1739. Thomas See also:Maxwell, who was left to meet and pray with the members at the Foundery during the See also:absence of the Wesleys, began to preach. Wesley hurried to London to check this irregularity, but his mother urged him to hear Maxwell for himself, and he soon saw that such assistance was of the highest value. The autobiographies of these early Methodist preachers are among the classics of the Evangelical Revival. As the work advanced Wesley held a conference at the Foundery in 1744. Besides himself and his See also:brother, four other clergymen were See also:present and four " lay brethren." It was agreed that " lay assistants " were allow-able, but only in cases of See also:necessity. This necessity grew more urgent every year as Methodism extended. One of the preachers in each See also:circuit was the " assistant," who had See also:general oversight of the work, the others were " helpers." The conference became an annual gathering of Wesley's preachers. In the early conversations doctrine took a prominent place, but as Methodism spread the oversight of its growing organization occupied more time and more attention. In February 1784 Wesley's See also:deed of See also:declaration gave the conference a legal constitution. He named one hundred preachers who after his death were to meet once a year, fill up vacancies in their number, appoint a See also:president and secretary, station the preachers, admit proper persons into the See also:ministry, and take general oversight of the societies. In October 1768, a Methodist See also:chapel was opened in New See also:York. At the conference of 1769 two preachers, See also:Richard See also:Boardman and Joseph Pilmoor, volunteered to go out to take charge of the work. In 1771, See also:Francis See also:Asbury, the Wesley of See also:America, crossed the Atlantic. Methodism grew rapidly, and it became essential to See also:pro-vide its people with the sacraments. In September 1784 Wesley ordained his clerical helper, Dr See also:Coke, See also:superintendent (or bishop), and instructed him to ordain Asbury as his colleague. Richard Whatcoat and Thomas Vasey were ordained by Wesley, Coke and See also:Creighton to administer the sacraments in America. Wesley had reached the conclusion in 1746 that bishops and presbyters were essentially of one order (see METHODISM, See also:sect. " United States "). He' told his brother in 1785: " I firmly believe that I am a scriptural i7rivico7ros as much as any See also:man in England or in See also:Europe; for the uninterrupted See also:succession I know to be a See also:fable, which no man ever did or can prove." Other ordinations for the See also:administration of the sacraments in Scotland, the colonies and England followed. The interests of his work stood first with Wesley. He did everything that strong words against separation could do to bind his societies to the Church of England; he also did everything that legal documents and ordinations could do to secure the permanence of that great work for which God had raised him up. In the words of See also:Canon Overton and Rev. F. H. Relton (Hist. of Eng. Ch. 17'14–1800) : " It is purely a See also:modern notion that the Wesleyan See also:movement ever was, or ever was in-tended to be, except by Wesley, a church movement." Despite his strong sayings, it was Wesley who See also:broke the links to the church, for, as Lord See also:Mansfield put it, " ordination is separation." Wesley's See also:account of his itinerancy is given in his famous Journal, of which the first part appeared about 1739. Mr See also:Birrell has called it " the most amazing See also:record of human exertion ever penned by man." It is certainly Wesley's most picturesque See also:biography and the most vivid account of the evangelical revival that we possess. The rapid development of his work made a tremendous See also:strain upon Wesley's See also:powers. He generally travelled about 5000 M. a year and preached fifteen sermons a week. He had See also:constant encounters with the See also:mob, but his tact and courage never failed. His See also:rule was always to look a mob in the See also:face. Many delicious stories are told of his presence of mind and the skilful appeals which he made to the better feeling of the See also:crowd. Wesley's writings did much to open the eyes of candid men to his motives and his methods. Besides the incomparable Journal, his Appeals to Men of Reason and Religion also produced an extraordinary effect in allaying See also:prejudice and winning respect. He constantly sought to educate his own people. No man in the 18th century did so much to create a taste for good reading and to See also:supply it with books at the lowest prices. See also:Sir See also:Leslie See also:Stephen pays high praise to Wesley's writings, which went " straight to the See also:mark without one superfluous flourish." As a social reformer Wesley was far in advance of his time. He provided work for the deserving poor, supplied them with clothes and See also:food in seasons of special See also:distress. The profits on his cheap books enabled him to give away as much as £1400 a year. He established a lending stock to help struggling business men and did much to relieve debtors who had been thrown into See also:prison. He opened dispensaries in London and Bristol and was keenly interested in See also:medicine. Wesley's supreme See also:gift was his See also:genius for organization. He wasby no means ignorant of this. " I know this is the See also:peculiar See also:talent which God has given me." Wesley's special power lay in his quickness to avail himself of circumstances and of the suggestions made by those about him. The class-meeting, the love-feast, the watch-See also:night, the covenant service, leaders, stewards, lay preachers, all were the fruit of this readiness to avail himself of suggestions made by men or events. Wesley skilfully wove these into his See also:system, and kept the whole machinery moving harmoniously. He inspired his preachers and his people with his own spirit and made everything subordinate to his over-mastering purpose, the spread of scriptural holiness throughout the See also:land. In 1751 Wesley married See also:Mary Vazeille, a widow, but the See also:union was unfortunate and she finally left him. John See also:Fletcher, the See also:vicar of See also:Madeley, to whom Wesley had turned as a possible successor, died in 1785. He had gone to Wesley's help at West Street after his ordination at See also:Whitehall in 1757 and had been one of his See also:chief See also:allies ever since. He was beloved by all the preachers, and his Checks to Antinomianism show that he was a courteous controversialist. Charles Wesley died three years after Fletcher. During the last three years of his life John Wesley reaped the See also:harvest he had sown. Honours were lavished upon him. His people hailed every See also:appearance among them with delight, and his visits to various parts of the country were public holidays. His See also:interest in everything about him continued unabated. He had a See also:wealth of happy stories which made him the most delightful of companions in the homes of his people. See also:Robert See also:Southey never forgot how Wesley kissed his little See also:sister and put his hand on his See also:head and blessed him. See also: His See also:long life enabled him to perfect the organization of Methodism and to inspire his preachers and people with his own ideals, while he had conquered opposition by unwearying See also:patience and by See also:close adherence to the principles which he sought to teach. See also METHODISM, and the articles on the separate Methodist bodies; see also WESLEY FAMILY. (J. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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