Chapter XXV: Part II (10)

Wesley did more than this for the London society. Visiting the sick he regarded as an imperative Christian duty. Sending them help was not enough. Besides, to neglect this was not only to neglect a duty, but to lose a means of grace. “One great reason,” says Wesley, “why the rich have so little sympathy for the poor, is, because they so seldom visit them.” “All,” he adds, “who desire to escape the everlasting fire, and to inherit the everlasting kingdom, are equally concerned, according to their power, to practise this important duty.”[510] Holding such sentiments, Wesley himself, throughout life, visited the poor and the afflicted, to the utmost of his ability; but, of course, as an itinerant evangelist, when he had done his best, much was left untouched. Hence, in the year 1743, he appointed in London visitors of the sick, as distinct office bearers in his society.[511] Stewards had been appointed already, to receive the contributions of the society, which amounted to nearly £8 per week; and to distribute them, partly in repairing and paying for chapel premises, partly in paying debts, partly in other necessary expenses, and partly in relieving the afflicted and the poor. The stewards, seven in number, were to be frugal; to have no long accounts; to give none, that asked relief, either an ill word or an ill look; and to expect no thanks from man. They met together every Thursday morning at six o’clock, and distributed all the money paid to them up to the previous Tuesday night; so that all receipts and disbursements were concluded within the week. The stewards, however, soon found a difficulty with regard to the afflicted. Some were ready to perish before they heard of them; and, even when they became acquainted with their illness, being persons generally employed in trade, they were unable to visit them as often as they wished. To meet this deficiency, Wesley called together the whole of the London society; showed how impossible it was for the stewards to visit all the sick in all parts of the metropolis; desired the leaders to be more careful in inquiring after sick cases, and in giving early information concerning them; and then appealed to the assembled members and asked for volunteers for this important work. Numbers cheerfully responded, out of whom Wesley selected forty-six, whom he judged to be of the most tender, loving spirit. He then divided London into twenty-three districts, and arranged that the sick, in each district, should be visited, by a couple of visitors, three times every week; and that the visitors, besides inquiring into the state of the people’s souls, should relieve those of them in want, and should present their accounts to the stewards weekly. Wesley writes:—

“Upon reflection, I saw how exactly, in this also, we had
copied after the primitive church. What were the ancient
deacons? What was Phœbe, the deaconess, but such a visitor of
the sick?”

Four rules were to be observed:—

“1. Be plain and open in dealing with souls. 2. Be mild,
tender, patient. 3. Be cleanly in all you do for the sick. 4.
Be not nice.”

Wesley adds, five years afterwards:—

“We have ever since had great reason to praise God for His
continued blessing on this undertaking. Many lives have been
saved, many sicknesses healed, much pain and want prevented or
removed. Many heavy hearts have been made glad, many mourners
comforted; and the visitors have found, from Him whom they
serve, a present reward for all their labour.”[512]

The two thousand members of the London society contributed about £400 a year, or, at the rate of a shilling per member per quarter. The Bristol society consisted of seven hundred members, and, after the same ratio, would contribute £140 per year. Eight hundred members at Newcastle would raise £160; and the societies at Kingswood and other places might give £100 additional: thus making the Methodist income, for 1743, something like £800. Out of this, all chapel expenses had to be defrayed; a large proportion was given to the afflicted poor; something was necessary for the contingent expenses of Wesley’s helpers; and the remainder,—how much was it?—was perhaps given to the two Wesleys to meet some of their own necessary wants. These were the men preying upon the pockets of the poor, and making themselves a fortune out of other people’s money! Such falsehoods were current, and were not entirely disbelieved even by some of Wesley’s own relatives.

Poor Emily Wesley, a classical scholar, and no mean poet,—after teaching in a boarding school where she was ill used and worse paid, and after marrying a poor Quaker, who did little for her, and soon left her—was now a penniless and dependent widow, maintained entirely by her two brothers, and living at the Foundery. Emily, in a petulant humour, wrote to her brother John, accusing him of the want of kindness and of natural affection, notwithstanding his reputed riches. John, in reply, wrote one of his most pungent letters, of which the following is a copy:—

“NEWCASTLE, _June 30, 1743_.

“DEAR EMILY,—Once, I think, I told you my mind freely before;
I am constrained to do so once again. You say, ‘From the time
of my coming to London, till last Christmas, you would not do
me the least kindness.’ Do I dream, or you? Whose house were
you in for three months, and upwards? By whose money were you
sustained? It is a poor case, that I am forced to mention these
things.

“But, ‘I would not take you lodgings in fifteen weeks.’ No, nor
should I have done in fifteen years. I never once imagined,
that you expected _me_ to do this! Shall I leave the word of
God to serve tables? You should know I have quite other things
to mind; temporal things I shall mind less and less.

“‘When I was removed you never concerned yourself about me.’
That is not the fact. What my brother does, I do. Besides, I
myself spoke to you abundance of times, before Christmas last.

“‘When I was at preaching, you would scarce speak to me.’ Yes;
at least as much as to my sister Wright, or, indeed, as I did
to any else at those times.

“‘I impute all your unkindness to one principle you hold, that
natural affection is a great weakness, if not a sin.’ What is
this principle I hold? That natural affection is a sin? or that
adultery is a virtue? or that Mahommed was a prophet of God?
and that Jesus Christ was a son of Belial? You may as well
impute _all_ these principles to me as _one_. I hold one just
as much as the other. O Emmy, never let that idle, senseless
accusation come out of your mouth.

“Do you hold that principle, ‘that we ought to be just (_i.
e._ pay our debts) before we are merciful’? If I held it, I
should not give one shilling for these two years, either to
you or any other. And, indeed, I have, for some time, stayed
my hand; so that I give next to nothing, except what I give to
my relations. And I am often in doubt with regard to that, not
whether natural affection be not a sin; but whether it ought
to supersede common justice. You know nothing of my temporal
circumstances, and the straits I am in, almost continually; so
that were it not for the reputation of my great riches, I could
not stand one week.

“I have now done with myself, and have only a few words
concerning you. You are of all creatures the most unthankful
to God and man. I stand amazed at you. How little have you
profited under such means of improvement! Surely whenever
your eyes are opened, whenever you see your own tempers, with
the advantages you have enjoyed, you will make no scruple to
pronounce yourself, (whores and murderers not excepted,) the
very chief of sinners.—I am, etc.,

“JOHN WESLEY.”[513]

This is a caustic letter; and yet John Wesley was a loving brother. For nearly thirty years afterwards, Emily Harper was a resident in the preachers’ house at West Street, was a constant attendant on the ministry of her brothers, and died in peace, at the age of eighty, about the year 1772.

Much has been already related respecting the Methodist persecutions of 1743; but the whole has not been told. At Newcastle, three Dissenting ministers agreed together to exclude all from the holy communion, who would not refrain from attending Wesley’s ministry. One of them publicly affirmed, that the Methodist preachers were all papists, and that their doctrine was Popery. Another preached against them, and said, “Many texts in the Bible are for them; but you ought not to mind these texts; for the papists have put them in.” At Cowbridge, in Wales, when Wesley attempted to preach, the mob shouted, cursed, blasphemed, and threw showers of stones almost without intermission. At Bristol, a clergyman preached, in several of the city churches, against the _upstart_ Methodists; and was about to do so in the church of St. Nicholas, when, after naming his text, he was seized with a rattling in his throat, fell backward against the pulpit door, and, on the Sunday following, expired. At Egham, Wesley went to church, and listened to one of the most miserable sermons he ever heard; stuffed with dull, senseless, improbable lies against those whom the parson complimented with the title of “false prophets.”

At Sheffield, the ministers of the town so inflamed the people, that they were ready to tear the Methodists to pieces. An army officer drew his sword, and presented it at Charles Wesley’s breast. The meeting-house was ruthlessly demolished, and the mob encouraged by the constable. The windows of Mr. Bennett’s house, in which Charles Wesley lodged, were smashed to atoms; and stones flew thick and fast in all directions. Near Barley Hall, a few miles from Sheffield, Charles Wesley and David Taylor were assaulted with a storm of stones, eggs, and dirt; David was wounded in the head and lost his hat; and the clothes of his companion were besmeared with filth.[514]

At Hampton, in Gloucestershire, the mob threatened to make aprons of Whitefield’s gown; broke a young lady’s arm; threw Mr. Adams twice into a pool of water; seized Whitefield for the purpose of casting him into a pit of lime;[515] and, from four in the afternoon till midnight, continued rioting, and declaring that no Anabaptists, etc., should preach there, upon pain of being first put into a skin-pit, and afterwards into a brook. Women were pulled down the stairs by the hair of their heads; Mr. Williams was twice thrown into a hole full of noisome reptiles and stagnant water, and was beaten, and dragged along the kennel; while the Methodists, in general, were mobbed to such an extent, that many expected to be murdered, and hid themselves in holes and corners, to avoid their enemies.

All this was bad enough; but there was something else, perhaps, quite as painful. The press, in its attacks, became as virulent as ever. Among other publications issued, was the following: “The Notions of the Methodists fully disproved, with a Vindication of the Clergy of the Church of England from their Aspersions. In two Letters to the Rev. Mr. John Wesley. Newcastle: 1743.” In this precious morsel, of near a hundred pages, the Methodists are branded as “conceited, vain boasters,” and “ignorant, giddy, presumptuous enthusiasts.” Wesley is accused of “compassing sea and land to gain proselytes”; of “making unwarrantable dissensions in the Church”; and of “prejudicing the people, wherever he came, against his brethren the clergy.” “You are,” writes this northern pamphleteer, “guilty both of schism and rebellion, which are two very grievous and damnable sins. You are the sower and ringleader of dissension, endeavouring with unwearied assiduity to set the flock at variance with their ministers and each other. You assume to yourself great wisdom and high attainments in all spiritual knowledge; but it requires no depth of understanding, to judge whether your character and conduct suit that of the spiritually or carnally wise man in St. James. You scruple not to accuse the clergy of almost universally teaching devilish doctrine, and of being deceitful workers; but, however you may boast of your conversions, you will in the end render yourselves the ridicule of mankind. You go from one end of the nation to another, lamenting the heresies of your brethren, and instilling into the people’s minds, that they are led into errors by their pastors; when the truth is, you are perverting them with solifidian and antinomian blasphemies. Consider, sir, how wicked and abominable in the sight of God it is for you to misrepresent your brethren to the people, in this scandalous manner. The mischief is, the giddy multitude, like the Athenians, love to spend their time in nothing else but hearing some new thing. They are tired with the solid, plain, and rational way of preaching they have been accustomed to in the Church, and think it dry and insipid in comparison of the powerful charms of that ecstatic eloquence, those highflown metaphors, those pretty rhymes, those taking gestures, with which you tickle and bewitch them. You give a deplorable account of the debt you have contracted by the building of your meeting-houses; but unless you can bring better proof than you have hitherto done, of the necessity there is to give yourself all this trouble and expense, all wise and considerate men, without any breach of charity, will look upon subscriptions for carrying on your designs, as little less than picking the poor people’s pockets, and robbing them of that which should maintain their families.”

Such is a specimen of the malignant slanders cast upon Wesley by this northern clergyman.

It has been already stated, that the Rev. Henry Piers preached, in 1742, before the clergy of the deanery of Shoreham, a visitation sermon, which Wesley revised, and which, at the time of its delivery, gave great offence. The preacher chosen for this office, in 1743, was of another stamp; and his sermon also was published, with the following title: “Of Speaking as the Oracles of God. A Sermon, preached before the Reverend the Clergy of the Deanery of Shoreham, at the Visitation, held in the Parish Church of Farningham, on Thursday, May 19, 1743. By John Andrews, M.A., Vicar of that Church.” 8vo, 30 pages. The world would have sustained no loss, if Mr. Andrews’ sermon had not been printed. The preacher sneers at the fancies of theological empirics, in one paragraph, and, in the next, speaks of the doctrines of “justification and regeneration as questions and strifes of words, which profit not.” Mr. Piers’ visitation sermon is attacked on the subject of faith; and the assembled clergy of the deanery of Shoreham are officially informed, that “every one, that is rightly and duly baptized, not only receives the outward ordinance, but the inward and spiritual grace annexed to it.”

Another pamphlet, published at this period, was, “A Fine Picture of Enthusiasm, chiefly drawn by Dr. Scott; with an application to our modern Methodists.” 40 pages. Dedicated to the Bishop of London. In this miserable _morceau_, we are told, that “there are thousands flocking after those enthusiasts, Whitefield and Wesley, who appear to be deluding crowds of people into a passionate, mechanical religion.” One of them, at least, is suspected to be a masked Jesuit; and both have courted persecution, but have had a mortifying disappointment. The singing of the Methodists is enchanting, and their tunes the most melodious that ever were composed for church music; but their hymns are irrational, and, like their prayers, dwell upon a word, or are immediate addresses to the Son of God, and represent Him as much more compassionate to the human race than God the Father ever was. “One of these artful teachers,” says the writer, “has ordered the tickets for his people to be impressed with the crucifix; and this, with their _confessions_ and other customs, intimates a manifest fondness for the orthodox institutions of the Church of Rome. These _modest_ teachers have not failed to trumpet their own extraordinary piety and holiness, as well as their extraordinary knowledge and illumination; and this has been done with great effect among the people. Their doctrine has very generally occasioned disorder in the passions of their hearers; the screamings and convulsions common among them, in their public assemblies, being called convictions. Vast numbers have gone melancholy among them. Many have been led to quit their lawful and necessary employment; to neglect their husbands, children, and families; and from useful members in society have become mopes and visionaries, incapable of pursuing their proper business, or of supporting themselves with decency.”

A fourth publication, belonging to the year 1743, was “The Progress of Methodism in Bristol; or, the Methodist Unmasked: wherein the doctrines, discipline, policy, divisions, and successes of that novel sect are fully detected and properly displayed in Hudibrastick verse, by an Impartial Hand. To which is added, by way of appendix, the Paper-Controversy between Mr. Robert Williams, supported by Thomas Christie, Esq., Recorder of Savannah, and the Rev. Mr. Wesley, supported only by his own integrity and assurance. Together with authentic extracts, taken from a late narrative of the state of Georgia, relating to the conduct of that gentleman during his abode in that colony. Bristol: 1743.” 16mo, 72 pages.

Among other things, this mendacious pamphlet contains an affidavit, sworn by Robert Williams before Stephen Clutterbuck, Mayor of Bristol, to the effect, that two freeholders at Savannah became bail for Wesley’s appearance at the sessions to take his trial, and that he dishonourably escaped from the colony and left his bondsmen in the lurch. To this Wesley replied: “Captain Robert Williams, you know in your own soul, that every word of this is a pure invention, without one grain of truth from the beginning of it to the end. What amends can you ever make, either to God, or to me, or to the world? Into what a dreadful dilemma have you brought yourself! You must either openly retract an open slander, or you must wade through thick and thin to support it, till that God, to whom I appeal, shall maintain His own cause, and sweep you away from the earth.”[516]

Whitefield and Wesley, in this scurrilous production, are accused of preaching to get money, and of placing men with plates at each gate and stile of the fields in which they harangued the people, to gather collections for the Orphan House in Georgia and the Room in Bristol. Wesley is charged with pretending to work miracles; for, upon a company of women falling down before him, he first of all prays over them, then sings a hymn, and then exorcises devils. In the midst of a most severe winter, he had taken his converts, early in the morning, through frost and snow, to the river Froom, at Baptist Mills, where, on the ice being broken, he and they went into the water, where, with “limbs shuddering and teeth _hackering_,” he baptized or dipped them. Class-meetings are described, the leaders of which note the sins of those who confess to them, register them in a book, and, in due season, “report them to John, who admonishes one, reprimands another, and expels a third.” At first, each member gave a penny, but now the _lowest_ payment was twopence weekly. At present there were forty-eight classes in Bristol, each class containing “an even dozen.” After the watchnight meetings at Kingswood,

“Men, boys, and girls, and women too,
Come strolling home at morning two:”

and at the nightly lovefeasts, “the ghostly father and all his sons draw near—

“The pious sisters, wives, and misses,
And greet them well with holy kisses.”

But enough of this. What did Wesley himself publish in 1743?

1. “Nature, Design, and General Rules of the United Societies, in London, Bristol, Kingswood, and Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Newcastle-upon-Tyne: printed by John Gooding, on the Side. Price one penny. 1743.” Twelve pages.

This, the first edition of the “Rules,” is signed by John Wesley only, and bears date February 23, 1743. A second edition was issued, signed by both John and Charles Wesley, and dated May 1, 1743. The first edition has annexed “A Prayer for those who are convinced of Sin,” consisting of eighteen stanzas of four lines each, and from which is taken the beautiful hymn, numbered 462, in the Wesleyan Hymn-Book, and beginning with the line, “O let the prisoners‘mournful’ cries”; a production admirably appropriate to the circumstances in which the members of the first Methodist societies were placed.

Societies cannot exist without rules. Up to the present, Wesley had regulated his societies by _vivâ voce_ instructions and direct authority; but, as the Methodists increased and multiplied, this became more difficult, and hence the publication now mentioned. The Rules were both written and published at Newcastle upon Tyne. Eleven days after the date they bear, Wesley read them to the Newcastle society, and desired the members seriously to consider whether they were willing to observe them. The careful reader will remark the designation which Wesley gives to his societies, as well as his description of their “nature and design.” They are not “Wesleyan,” or “Methodist,” but “United Societies.” As compared with the rules now in use, there are a few variations in the original edition deserving of being noticed. For instance, in the list of the leader’s duties, the first in order was, to receive from each person in his class, once a week, what the members were willing to give toward _the relief of the poor_. This is now altered thus: “to receive what they are willing to give for the _support of the gospel_.” The present rule forbidding “_brother_ going to law _with brother_,” in the first and several subsequent editions, simply read, “going to law.” To the original rule, “the giving or taking things on usury,” has been added the words, “that is, unlawful interest;” and to the rule prohibiting “uncharitable or unprofitable conversation,” there was added, in the fourth edition, published in 1744, “especially, speaking evil of ministers or those in authority,” words now changed for “magistrates or ministers.” In the list of things forbidden in the present Rules, is the important one, “borrowing without a probability of paying; or taking up goods without a probability of paying for them;” this is not in the first editions. And among the duties enjoined is “_family_ and private prayer”; but in the first edition the word _family_ is not found, though, in the fourth edition, published twelve months afterwards, it was inserted.

The curious reader will forgive these trifles. They are all the variations found in the first edition of the Rules, as compared with the Rules now in use. The Rules themselves are too well known to require insertion.

2. Another of Wesley’s publications, in 1743, was “A Word in Season; or, Advice to a Soldier.” 12mo, six pages. This is a model tract, and shows that, from the first, soldiers excited Wesley’s sympathy.

3. “Thoughts on Marriage and Celibacy.” 12mo, twelve pages. A strange production, substantially embodied in the piece in Wesley’s collected works, entitled, “Thoughts on a Single Life” (see vol. xxiv., page 252, orig. edit.). What shall we say of this? Wesley admits, that the popish doctrine forbidding to marry is a doctrine of devils, and that a person may be as holy in a married as in a single state; but he proceeds to show, that the happy few who have power to abstain from marriage are free from a thousand nameless domestic trials which are found sooner or later in every family. They are at liberty from the greatest of all entanglements, the loving one creature above all others; they have leisure to improve themselves; and, having no wife or children to provide for, may give all their worldly substance to God. Those highly favoured celibates are exhorted to prize the advantages they enjoy, and to be careful to keep them; they are to avoid all needless conversation, much more all intimacy with those of the other sex; all softness and effeminacy; all delicacy and needless self indulgence; and all sloth, inactivity, and indolence. They are to sleep no more than nature requires; to use as much bodily exercise as they can; to fast, and practise self denial; to wait upon the Lord without distraction; and to give all their time and their money to God. On the whole, without disputing whether the married or single life is the more perfect state. Wesley concludes by adding, “We may safely say, Blessed are they who abstain from things lawful in themselves, in order to be more devoted to God.”

Thirty years afterwards, when Wesley was twitted for marrying, after expressing such opinions, he averred, that his opinions with regard to the advantages of a single life were still unchanged; and that he entered the married state “for reasons best known to himself.”[517] This was a lame reply to a reasonable reflection on inconsistency. Wesley’s tract was a mistake; or, if not, Wesley ought to have adopted his own principles, and have lived and died a celibate.

4. In July, 1743, Wesley wrote his “Instructions for Children,” which reached a second edition in 1745, 12mo, 38 pages. Prefixed, was a preface, addressed “to all parents and schoolmasters,” stating, that a great part of the tract was translated from the French, and that it contained “the true principles of the Christian education of children,” and that these “should in all reason be instilled into them, as soon as they can distinguish good from evil.”

The first twelve lessons are a catechism, respecting God, the creation and the fall of man, man’s redemption, the means of grace, hell, and heaven. Then follow lessons how to regulate our desires, understanding, joy, and practices.

Repenting is defined as “being thoroughly convinced of our sinfulness, guilt, and helplessness”; faith in Christ, as “a conviction that Christ has loved _me_ and given Himself for _me_;” holiness, as “the love of God and of all mankind for God’s sake.” Wesley asserts that “they who teach children to love praise, train them for the devil”; and that “fathers and mothers who give children everything they like, are the worst enemies they have.”

Wesley considered these “Instructions for Children,” extracted from Abbé Fleury and M. Poiret, superior, “for depth of sense and plainness of language, to anything in the English tongue.”[518] The Church Catechism he declared to be “utterly improper for children of six or seven years old,” and thought “it would be far better to teach them the short catechism, prefixed to the ‘Instructions.’”[519] Accordingly, he requested all his preachers to give children the “Instructions,” and to encourage them in committing the book to memory; while they themselves were to make it the subject of special study.[520]

Wesley’s attention to children is proverbial. “When I was a child,” said Robert Southey, “I was in a house, in Bristol, where Wesley was. On running downstairs before him, with a beautiful little sister of my own, he overtook us on the landing, when he lifted my sister in his arms and kissed her. Placing her on her feet again, he then put his hand upon my head, and blessed me; and I feel,” continued the bard, his eyes glistening with tears, and yet in a tone of grateful and tender recollection, “I feel as though I had the blessing of that good man upon me still.”[521]

In Wesley’s well known sermon on “Family Religion,” he lays it down that “the wickedness of children is generally owing to the fault or neglect of their parents.” The souls of children ought to be fed as often as their bodies. Methodists are exhorted not to send their sons “to any of the large public schools (for they are nurseries of all manner of wickedness), but to a private school, kept by some pious man, who endeavours to instruct a small number of children in religion and learning together.” He raises the same objection to “large boarding schools” for girls; for “in these seminaries, the children teach one another pride, vanity, affectation, intrigue, artifice, and, in short, everything which a Christian woman ought not to learn.” He adds: “I never yet knew a pious, sensible woman, that had been bred at a large boarding school, who did not aver, one might as well send a young maid to be bred in Drury Lane.”[522]

This is sweeping language; but at that period it was not without truth.

5. Another of Wesley’s publications, in 1743, was, “A Practical Treatise on Christian Perfection. Extracted from a late author.” 12mo, 115 pages. This was an abridgment of William Law’s pungent book, published in 1726.

6. Another was an abridgment of Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress,” 12mo, 49 pages, price fourpence. Little did Wesley think that, within a hundred years, the whole of the glorious dreamer’s immortal work would be sold for a fourth of the price charged for his own fragment.

7. Wesley’s last, and most important work, which reached a second edition in the year it was published, was “An Earnest Appeal to Men of Reason and Religion,” 12mo, 53 pages.[523]

This was a clarion cry which created greater consternation than ever in the camp of Wesley’s enemies. First of all, he describes religion—the faith by which it is attained—and its reasonableness. Then, turning from those who do not receive the Christian system to those who say they do, he charges them, in the name of God, either to profess themselves infidels, or to _be_ Christians; either to cast off the Bible, or their sins. “A common swearer, a sabbath breaker, a whoremonger, a drunkard, who says he believes the Scripture is of God, is a monster upon earth, the greatest contradiction to his own, as well as to the reason of all mankind.” After this, Wesley replies to the objections raised against Methodist doctrines, and to the calumny, that he and his coadjutors were papists in disguise, undermining the Church, and making preaching the means of replenishing their purses. It had been reported, that he received £1300 a year at the Foundery only, over and above what he received from Bristol, Kingswood, Newcastle, and other places. To this he answers, that the moneys given by the Methodists never come into his hands at all; but are received and expended by the stewards, in relieving the poor, and in buying, erecting, or repairing chapels; and that, so far from there being any overplus when this was done, he himself, at this moment, was in debt to the amount of £650, on account of the meeting-houses in London, Bristol, and Newcastle. He had “deliberately thrown up his ease, most of his friends, his reputation, and that way of life which of all others was most agreeable both to his natural temper and education; he had toiled day and night, spent all his time and strength, knowingly destroyed a firm constitution, and was hastening into weakness, pain, diseases, death,—to gain a debt of six or seven hundred pounds.” Then addressing himself to his brother clergy, he asks:—

“For what price will you preach eighteen or nineteen times
every week; and this throughout the year? What shall I give you
to travel seven or eight hundred miles, in all weathers, every
two or three months? For what salary will you abstain from all
other diversions than the doing good, and the praising God? I
am mistaken if you would not prefer strangling to such a life,
even with thousands of gold and silver.

“I will now simply tell you my sense of these matters, whether
you will hear or whether you will forbear. Food and raiment
I have; such food as I choose to eat, and such raiment as I
choose to put on: I have a place where to lay my head: I have
what is needful for life and godliness: and I apprehend this is
all the world can afford. The kings of the earth can give me
no more. For as to gold and silver, I count it dung and dross;
I trample it under my feet; I esteem it just as the mire of
the streets. I desire it not; I seek it not; I only fear lest
any of it should cleave to me, and I should not be able to
shake it off before my spirit returns to God. I will take care
(God being my helper), that none of the accursed thing shall
be found in my tents when the Lord calleth me hence. Hear ye
this, all you who have discovered the treasures which I am to
leave behind me; if I leave behind me £10,—above my debts and
my books, or what may happen to be due on account of them,—you
and all mankind bear witness against me, that I lived and died
a thief and a robber.”

Wesley kept his word; for, within twelve months of his decease, he closed his cash-book with the following words, written with a tremulous hand, so as to be scarcely legible:—“For upwards of eighty-six years, I have kept my accounts exactly; I will not attempt it any longer, being satisfied with the continual conviction, that I save all I can, and give all I can; that is, all I have.”

1744.

[Sidenote: 1744 Age 41]

Wesley spent more than half of the year 1744 in London and its immediate neighbourhood. He made about half-a-dozen visits to Bristol; and three months were occupied in a tour to Cornwall, thence to Yorkshire and Newcastle, and thence to London.

Charles Wesley spent the year in London, Bristol, Cornwall, Staffordshire, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, at Newcastle, Nottingham, Sheffield, and other intervening places.

Whitefield commenced the year with rejoicing over the birth of his firstborn,—a boy expected to be a minister, and publicly baptized in the Tabernacle, where thousands, on the occasion, joined in singing a doggrel hymn, written by an aged and doting widow. On the 8th of February, this infant prodigy suddenly expired in the Bell Inn, Gloucester, where Whitefield himself was born; and, after being taken to the church in which Whitefield was baptized, first communicated, and first preached, was then buried, Whitefield returning to London deeply pondering the meaning of what he calls “this blessed riddle.” The next four months were chiefly spent in the metropolis; after which he and his wife repaired to Plymouth for the purpose of sailing to America. Here they were detained for several weeks, waiting for the convoy in whose company the voyage was to be attempted. During the interval, Whitefield preached in the town and neighbourhood with great success, and was nearly murdered by a villain, who beat him most unmercifully with his golden-headed cane. At length, he set sail in company with nearly one hundred and fifty ships; and, after not a few adventures, landed in New England, at the end of October, but was so extremely ill, that, for several weeks, he was almost incapable of preaching. In point of fact, Whitefield preached but very little, during the year 1744, except in London and in Plymouth, and in their respective vicinities.

One of the chief events of 1744 was the threat of a French invasion. On the 15th of February, the king sent a message to the houses of parliament, to the effect, that he had received undoubted intelligence, that the eldest son of the pretender to his crown was arrived in France, and that preparations were being made to invade England.

Parliament replied, that they looked upon such a design with the greatest indignation and abhorrence, and would use every effort to frustrate and defeat so desperate and insolent an attempt.

Great excitement followed. The coast was watched with the utmost care. A double guard was mounted at the Tower, and also at St. James’s. All military officers were ordered to their posts of duty. Workmen in the king’s yards were directed to wear arms and accoutrements, and to be exercised every morning; and instructions were given to the militia of the county of Kent, to assemble at the earliest notice.[524] The Habeas Corpus act was suspended, and a proclamation was issued for a general fast. All papists and reputed papists were forbidden to remain within ten miles of the cities of Westminster and London. The Earl of Barrymore was arrested and committed to the Tower, on the charge of enlisting men for the Pretender. Loyal addresses were presented to the king by the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, by the merchants of London, by the convocation of the province of Canterbury, by the Quakers, by the Protestant Dissenters, and by many others. The city of Dublin offered a reward of £6000 for apprehending the Pretender, or his son, either alive or dead, should they attempt to land in Ireland; and sixty thousand fire arms and accoutrements were seized in suspected houses in the southern parts of that island. War was declared against France on the 29th of March, and the whole kingdom seemed to be inflamed with martial ardour.

How did this affect Wesley? Two days after the king informed parliament of the threatened invasion, Wesley and his London society held a day of solemn fasting and prayer. When the proclamation was published requiring all papists to leave London, though he had appointed to go out of town, he determined to stay, so as to cut off all occasion of reproach; but on the 2nd of March (the last day mentioned in the proclamation), while he was at a house in Spitalfields, a magistrate and the parish officers came in search of papists. Wesley was glad of the opportunity to explain the principles and the practices of the Methodists. The searchers were satisfied, and Wesley was allowed to depart in peace, a large mob merely gaping, staring, and hallooing as loud as they were able. Some of his friends pressed him to write an address to the king, on behalf of the Methodists. He did so, and described them as “a people scattered and peeled, and trodden underfoot; traduced as inclined to Popery, and consequently disaffected to his majesty.” They were, however, “a part of the Protestant Church established in these kingdoms; they detested the fundamental doctrines of the Church of Rome; and were steadily attached to his majesty’s royal person and illustrious house, and ready to obey him to the uttermost, in all things which they conceived to be agreeable to the written word of God.” “Silver and gold,” he adds, “most of us must own, we have none; but such as we have we humbly beg your majesty to accept, together with our hearts and prayers.” Charles Wesley objected to the sending of this address _in the name of the Methodists_, because it would constitute them a sect, or at least would _seem to allow_ that they were a body distinct from the national Church. He wished his brother to guard against this, and then, in the name of the Lord, to address the king.[525] Upon further consideration the address was laid aside.

Wesley’s troubles were not ended. On the 20th of March, he received a summons from the Surrey magistrates, to appear at the court at St. Margaret’s Hill. He did so, and asked, “Has any one anything to lay to my charge?” None replied; but, at length, one of the magistrates said, “Sir, are you willing to take the oaths to his majesty, and to sign the declaration against Popery?” Wesley replied, “I am”; which he did accordingly, and was permitted to depart in peace.

Why was this? Besides the general calumny cast upon the Methodists, that they were papists, it was at this time currently reported, that Wesley had recently been seen with the Pretender in France. Might not this be the reason of the unnecessary and annoying summons to appear at St. Margaret’s Hill?

In the same month, a warrant was issued, by a magistrate of the west riding of Yorkshire, to compel the attendance of five witnesses to give evidence at Wakefield, that they had heard Charles Wesley speak “treasonable words, as praying for the banished, or for the Pretender.” At the time appointed, March 15, Charles himself appeared in the magisterial court, and engaged to prove, that all the Methodists, “to a man, were true members of the Church of England, and loyal subjects of his majesty, King George”; and then desired their worships to administer to him the oaths. All the summoned witnesses retracted their accusations; and yet the Methodist itinerant was insulted at the door of the magistrates’ room, for eight long hours, when Mr. justice Burton, with consummate coolness, told him he might go, for they had nought against him. “Sir,” said Charles, “that is not sufficient: I cannot depart till my character is cleared. It is no trifling matter. Even my life is concerned in the charge.” At length, their worships reluctantly acknowledged, in explicit terms, that his “loyalty was unquestionable”; and he took his leave for Birstal, where the Methodists of the neighbourhood met him on a hill, and joined him in singing “praises lustily, and with a good courage.” All this arose out of one of the witnesses having heard him praying, on the 12th of February, that “the Lord would call home His banished”; the words being used, of course, in a sense purely spiritual.

Other inconveniences and acts of violence arose out of the threatened invasion of the French. John Slocomb, a poor baker’s boy, who was now one of Wesley’s preachers in Cornwall, was arrested, under a press warrant, and taken by his own uncle to prison, where he was kept a week, and then brought before the commissioners, who, finding no cause to punish or detain him, were obliged, at last, notwithstanding all their threatenings, to let him go. In Nottingham, two other preachers, John Healey and Thomas Westall, were similarly arrested, the magistrates demanding their horses for the king’s service, and refusing to believe they had none till they sent and searched. The case of John Nelson is known to every one, and will ever stand as one of the most sublime and tragic chapters in Methodistic history. John Downes, another itinerant, while preaching at Epworth, was seized and pressed for the king’s service, and sent as a prisoner to Lincoln gaol. And then, to all these must be added the mournful case of Thomas Beard, a quiet and peaceable man, who was torn from his trade, and wife and children, in Yorkshire, and sent away as a soldier, for no other crime, either committed or pretended, than that of calling sinners to repentance; and who, while lodged in the hospital at Newcastle, died; and, as one of the first martyrs among the Methodists, escaped from his cruel enemies on earth, to the company of the beatified in heaven.

Thus did the hot-headed friends of King George II. do their utmost to make leal Methodists disloyal to the throne and house of Hanover; but the effort failed; for, from first to last, more faithful subjects than Wesley’s followers the throne of England has never had. “It is my religion,” wrote Wesley, more than thirty years after this, “which obliges me to put men in mind to be subject to principalities and powers. Loyalty is with me an essential branch of religion, and which I am sorry any Methodist should forget. There is the closest connection, therefore, between my religious and political conduct; the selfsame authority enjoining me to fear God, and to honour the king.”[526]

Two events occurred, in the year 1744, which deserve special mention: the first Methodist conference, and Wesley’s last university sermon.

The conference began on Monday, June 25, and continued the five following days. It was held at the Foundery, London; and consisted of the two Wesleys, and four other clergymen, namely, John Hodges, Henry Piers, Samuel Taylor, and John Meriton; also of four lay preachers—Thomas Richards, Thomas Maxfield, John Bennet, and John Downes.[527]

Mr. Hodges was the rector of Wenvo, in Wales, a good man, who, from the first, was friendly to the Methodists, and who showed his love for Wesley, in 1758, by writing him a reproof for the tartness of some of his controversial writings, and which Wesley had the honest manliness to publish in his _Arminian Magazine_.

Mr. Piers has been already noticed. Samuel Taylor was the great great grandson of the celebrated Dr. Rowland Taylor, of Hadleigh, in Suffolk, who was forcibly ejected from his church; whom Gardiner, from the woolsack, addressed as “a knave, a traitor, and a villain”; whom Bonner was about to strike with his crosier, and was only hindered by Taylor telling him he would strike again; and who, amid the tears and prayers of his afflicted flock, was put into a pitch barrel, by the bloodthirsty papists, on the 9th of February, 1555, and was set on fire, one zealous vagabond flinging a fagot at his head, and another impatient ruffian cleaving his skull with a halbert, while he was singing in the flames, “In God have I put my trust, I will not fear what man can do unto me.” The descendant of this brave-hearted martyr partook of his ancestor’s zealous and heroic spirit. He was vicar of Quinton in Gloucestershire; but his heart was larger than his parish. Like Wesley, he went out into the highways and hedges, and was a sharer in the brutal persecutions of Wednesbury, Darlaston, and other places. Richard Whatcoat, one of the first Methodist bishops in America, when a child, sat under his ministry, and received impressions which he never lost.[528] As a preacher, Mr. Taylor was zealous, pathetic, and powerful. He died about the year 1750.[529]

Mr. Meriton had been educated in one of the universities, and was now a clergyman from the Isle of Man.[530] The last years of his life seem to have been chiefly spent in accompanying the two Wesleys in their preaching excursions, and in assisting them in the chapels they had built. He died in 1753.

Of the four lay members of the first Methodist conference, three afterwards left Wesley, and became ministers of other churches. John Downes was the only one who lived and died a Methodist.

The day before the conference commenced was one to be remembered. Besides the ordinary preaching services, a lovefeast was held, at which six ordained ministers were present; and, during the day, the sacrament was administered to the whole of the London society, now numbering between two and three thousand members. At this grand sacramental service five clergymen assisted.

On the day following, the conference was opened, with solemn prayer, a sermon by Charles Wesley, and the baptism of an adult, who there and then found peace with God.[531] The three points debated were:—1. What to teach. 2. How to teach. 3. How to regulate doctrine, discipline, and practice.

In reference to the first point, it was settled that, to be justified is to be pardoned, and received into God’s favour; that faith, preceded by repentance, is the condition of justification; that repentance is a conviction of sin; that faith, in general, is a Divine, supernatural _elenchos_ of things not seen; and that justifying faith is a conviction, by the Holy Ghost, that Christ loved me, and gave Himself for me; that no man can be justified and not know it; that the immediate fruits of justifying faith are peace, joy, love, power over all outward sin, and power to keep down inward sin; that wilful sin is inconsistent with justifying faith; that no believer need ever again come into condemnation; that works are necessary for the continuance of faith, which cannot be lost but for want of them; and that St. Paul and St. James do not contradict each other, when one says Abraham was not justified by works, and the other that he was, because they do not speak of the same justification, and because they do not speak of the same works,—St. Paul speaking of works that precede faith, and St. James of works that spring from it.

The Conference further agreed, that Adam’s sin is imputed to all mankind in the sense, that in consequence of such sin—(1) our bodies are mortal; (2) our souls disunited from God, and of a sinful, devilish nature; and (3) we are liable to death eternal. It was further agreed, that the Bible never expressly affirms, that God imputes the righteousness of Christ to any, but rather, that faith is imputed to us for righteousness. At the same time, the Conference conceived that, by the merits of Christ, all men are cleared from the guilt of Adam’s actual sin; that their bodies will become immortal after the resurrection; that their souls receive a capacity of spiritual life, and an actual spark or seed thereof; and that all believers are reconciled to God and made partakers of the Divine nature.

Sanctification was defined, a renewal in the image of God, in righteousness and true holiness; to be a _perfect Christian_ is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, implying the destruction of all inward sin; and faith is the condition and instrument by which such a state of grace is obtained.

Proceeding to other matters, the Conference resolved to defend the doctrine of the Church of England both by their preaching and living; to obey the bishops in all things indifferent, and to observe the canons as far as they could with a safe conscience; and, finally, to exert themselves to the utmost not to entail a schism in the Church, by their hearers forming themselves into a distinct sect; though they agreed that they must not neglect the present opportunity of saving souls, for fear of consequences which might possibly or probably happen, after they were dead.

The belief was expressed, that the design of God in raising up the preachers, called Methodists, was to reform the nation, more particularly the Church; and to spread scriptural holiness through the land. It was decided that, wherever they preached, they ought to endeavour to form societies, because where societies were not formed, the preacher would not be able to give proper instructions to them that were convinced of sin; nor the people to watch over one another in love, bear one another’s burdens, and build up each other in faith and holiness. It was stated, that the Methodists were divided into four sections; namely, the united societies, the bands, the select societies, and the penitents. The united societies, who were the most numerous, consisted of awakened persons. The bands were selected from these, and consisted of those who were supposed to have remission of sins. The select societies were taken from the bands, and were composed of those who seemed to walk in the light of God’s countenance. The penitents were those who, for the present, were fallen from grace. After this, the rules of the united societies, and of the bands, were read. The rules of the select societies were the same as those of the bands, with three additions:—1. That nothing spoken in their meetings be spoken again. 2. That every member submit to his minister in all indifferent things. 3. That, till they could have all things common, every member should bring, once a week, all he could spare toward a common stock. The penitents were left without rules.

It was agreed, that lay assistants were allowable only in cases of necessity. They were to expound every morning and evening; to meet the united societies, the bands, the select societies, and the penitents, once a week; to visit the classes once a quarter; to hear and decide all differences; to put the disorderly back on trial, and to receive on trial for the bands or society; to see that the stewards, the leaders, schoolmasters, and housekeepers faithfully discharged their several offices; and to meet the leaders and the stewards weekly, and to examine their accounts. They were to be serious; to converse sparingly and cautiously with women; to take no step towards marriage without first acquainting Wesley or his brother clergymen; and to do nothing as a _gentleman_, for they had no more to do with this character than with that of a dancing master. They were to be ashamed of nothing but sin; not of fetching wood, or drawing water; not of cleaning their own shoes, or their neighbour’s. They were to take no money of any one, and were to contract no debts without Wesley’s knowledge; they were not to mend the rules, but keep them; to employ their time as Wesley directed, and to keep journals, as well for Wesley’s satisfaction as for profit to themselves.[532]