The English Church in the Eighteenth Century Part 35

[Footnote 732: To the same effect in his _Short History of Methodism_ Wesley wrote, 'Those who remain with Mr. Wesley are mostly Church of England men. They love her articles, her homilies, her liturgy, her discipline, and unwillingly vary from it in any instance.']

[Footnote 733: See also Wesley's _Works_, vol. xii. p. 446, &c.]

[Footnote 734: For this reason, among others, not much has been said in this sketch about Wesley's opinions, because they were different at different stages of his life. Moreover, though Wesley was an able man and a well-read man, and could write in admirably lucid and racy language, he can by no means be ranked among theologians of the first order. He could never, for instance, have met Dr. Clarke, as Waterland did; or, to compare him with one who was brought into contact with him, he could never have written the _Serious Call_, nor have answered Tindal, as Law did.]

[Footnote 735: 'I retract several expressions in our hymns which imply impossibility; of falling from perfection; I do not contend for the term "sinless," though I do not object against it.' And in a sermon on the text, 'In many things we offend all,' 'We are all liable to be mistaken, both in speculation and practice,' &c. 'Christian perfection certainly does admit of degrees,' &c.]

[Footnote 736: But, as a staunch Churchman, he agreed with the Baptismal Service. In his _Treatise on Baptism_ he writes, 'Regeneration, which our Church in so many places ascribes to baptism, is more than barely being admitted into the Church. By water we are regenerated or born again; a principle of grace is infused which will not be wholly taken away unless we quench the Spirit of G.o.d by long-continued wickedness.'

The same sentiments are expressed in his sermon on the 'New Birth.']

[Footnote 737: See _inter alia_, T. Somerville's _My Own Life and Times_ (1741-1841). 'He [J. Wesley] had attended, he told me, some of the most interesting debates at the General a.s.sembly, which he liked "very ill indeed," saying there was too much heat,' &c., pp. 253-4.]

[Footnote 738: See Tyerman, iii. 278.]

[Footnote 739: Southey, i. 301, &c.]

[Footnote 740: So said Charles (see Jackson's _Life of C. Wesley_).

John, however, gave a different account. 'My brother,' he said to John Pawson, 'suspects everybody, and he is continually imposed upon; but I suspect n.o.body, and I am never imposed upon.']

[Footnote 741: 'I seldom,' he wrote to Fletcher in 1768, 'find it profitable for _me_ to converse with any who are not athirst for perfection and big with the earnest expectation of receiving it every moment.'--Tyerman, iii. 4.]

[Footnote 742: 'With my latest breath will I bear testimony against giving up to infidels one great proof of the unseen world; I mean that of witchcraft and apparitions, confirmed by the testimony of all ages.'--Id. 11. See also T. Somerville's _My own Life and Times_, p.

254. 'On my asking him if he had seen Farmer's _Essays on Demoniacs_, then recently published, I recollect his answer was, "Nay, sir, I shall never open that book. Why should a man attend to arguments against possessions of the Devil, who has seen so many of them as I have?"']

[Footnote 743: Tyerman, iii. 252. It should not be forgotten that at the beginning as well as at the end of their career the Wesleys met with great consideration from some of the bishops. Charles Wesley speaks in the very highest terms of the 'affectionate' way in which Archbishop Potter treated him and his brother, and John seems never to have forgotten the advice which this 'great and good man' (as he calls him) gave him--'not to spend his time and strength in disputing about things of a disputable nature, but in testifying against open vice and promoting real holiness.']

[Footnote 744: Id. 384.]

[Footnote 745: Id. 411.]

[Footnote 746: Mr. Curteis (_Bampton Lectures_ for 1871, p. 382) calls Wesley 'the purest, n.o.blest, most saintly clergyman of the eighteenth century, whose whole life was pa.s.sed in the sincere and loyal effort to do good.']

[Footnote 747: This pa.s.sage on the contrast between Wesley and Whitefield was written before the author had read Tyerman's _Life of Whitefield_; a similar contrast will be found in that work, vol. i. p.

12.]

[Footnote 748: For some well-selected specimens of Whitefield's sermons see Tyerman's _Life of Whitefield_, vol. i. pp. 297-304, and ii. 567, &c.]

[Footnote 749: _Life and Times of the Rev. G. Whitefield_, by Robert Philip, p. 130, &c.]

[Footnote 750: Whitefield's _Letters_; a Select Collection written to his Intimate Friends and Persons of Distinction in England, Scotland, Ireland, and America, from 1734 to 1770, vol. i. p. 277, &c.]

[Footnote 751: See Whitefield's _Letters (ut supra), pa.s.sim_.]

[Footnote 752: Even Warburton owned, 'of Whitefield's oratorical powers, and their astonis.h.i.+ng influence on the minds of thousands, there can be no doubt. They are of a high order.'--_Life of Lady Huntingdon_, i.

450.]

[Footnote 753: See _Memoirs of the Rev. C. Wesley_, by Thomas Jackson, _pa.s.sim_.]

[Footnote 754: See Tyerman's _Life of John Wesley_, vol. iii. p. 310.]

[Footnote 755: This was written before the author had read Mr. Tyerman's _Life of Whitefield_; indeed, before that life was published. Mr.

Tyerman informs us that the dispute arose because some of the preachers informed Wesley that his brother Charles did not enforce discipline so strictly as himself, and that Charles agreed with Whitefield 'touching perseverance, at least, if not predestination too.'--Tyerman's _Life of Whitefield_, ii. 288.]

[Footnote 756: Gledstone's _Life of Whitefield_, p. 439, but surely Mr.

Gledstone is scarcely justified in adding quite gratuitously, 'John Wesley was not a man with whom it was easy to be on good terms; his lofty claims must have fretted his brother and created uneasiness.'

Charles Wesley was quite equal to cope with John if he had preferred any 'lofty claims' beyond those which an elder brother might naturally have upon a younger. But, in point of fact, there is no trace of any such rivalry between the brothers.]

[Footnote 757: See _Life and Times of Selina, Countess of Huntingdon_, by a member of the houses of s.h.i.+rley and Hastings, vol. ii. pp. 71, 72.]

[Footnote 758: For a fuller list of the 'brilliant a.s.semblies' which Lady Huntingdon gathered together, see Tyerman's _Life of Whitefield_, ii. 209, &c., and 407, &c. Mr. Tyerman takes a more hopeful view of the good that was done among these cla.s.ses than is taken in the text.]

[Footnote 759: See Gledstone's _Life of Whitefield_, p. 304.]

[Footnote 760: _Letters of Horace Walpole_, from 1744 to 1753.]

[Footnote 761: Not so Garrick's brother actor, Foote. The 'Minor' was a cruel attack upon Whitefield. Foote spoke an epilogue in the character of Whitefield, 'whom he dressed and imitated to the life.'--(See Forster's _Essays_, 'Samuel Foote.') Foote defended himself on the ground that Whitefield was 'ever profaning the name of G.o.d with blasphemous nonsense,' &c.]

[Footnote 762: _Marchmont Papers_, ii. 377.]

[Footnote 763: _Lady Huntingdon's Life_ (_ut supra_), ii. 379.]

[Footnote 764: See the _Christian Observer_, Oct. 1857, p. 707.]

[Footnote 765: Indeed, Lady Huntingdon appears to have been the originator of lay preaching among the Methodists. Of Maxwell, the first lay preacher, she wrote to John Wesley: 'The first time I _made him_ expound, expecting little from him, I sat over against him,' &c.--See _Life and Times of Lady Huntingdon_, i. 33.]

[Footnote 766: _Life of Lady Huntingdon_, ii. 490.]

[Footnote 767: Id. i. 309.]

[Footnote 768: _Life of Lady Huntingdon_, ii. 126, note.]

[Footnote 769: Id. ii. 325.]

[Footnote 770: Id. ii. 236.]

[Footnote 771: Id. i. 324.]

[Footnote 772: _Life of the Rev. Rowland Hill_, by the Rev. E. Sidney, p. 65.]

[Footnote 773: _Life of Lady Huntingdon_, ii. 315.]

[Footnote 774: Id. ii. 467.]

[Footnote 775: Gladstone's _Life of Whitefield_, p. 465.]

[Footnote 776: _Life of Lady Huntingdon_, ii. 423.]

[Footnote 777: Id. ii. 521.]