John Wesley
John Wesley (
June 17,
1703–
March 2,
1791) was an
18th-century Anglican clergyman and
Christian theologian who was an early leader in the
Methodist movement. Methodism had three rises, the first at
Oxford University with the founding of the so-called "Holy Club", the second while Wesley was parish priest in
Savannah, Georgia, and the third in
London after Wesley's return to England. The movement took form from its third rise in the early 1740s with Wesley, along with others, itinerant field preaching and the subsequent founding of religious societies for the formation of believers. This was the first widely successful
evangelical movement in the
United Kingdom. Wesley's Methodist Connexion included societies throughout England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland before spreading to other parts of the English-speaking world and beyond. He divided his religious societies further into classes and bands for intensive accountability and religious instruction.
Methodists, under Wesley's direction, became leaders in many social justice issues of the day including
prison reform and
abolitionism movements. Wesley's strength as a theologian lay in his ability to combine seemingly opposing theological stances. His greatest theological achievement was his promotion of what he termed "Christian perfection", or holiness of heart and life. Wesley insisted that in this life, the Christian could come to a state where the love of God, or perfect love, reigned supreme in one's heart. His evangelical theology, especially his understanding of Christian perfection, was firmly grounded in his sacramental theology. He continually insisted on the general use of the means of grace (prayer, Scripture meditation, and Holy Communion, etc.) as the means by which God transformed the believer. Throughout his life, Wesley remained within the Church of England and insisted that his movement was well within the bounds of the Anglican Church. His maverick use of church policy put him at odds with many within the Church of England, though toward the end of his life he was widely respected.
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"Remembering John Wesley", Wroot, near Epworth |
John Wesley was born in
Epworth, 23 miles (37 km) northwest of
Lincoln, the son of
Samuel Wesley, a graduate of
Oxford, and a minister of the
Church of England. In 1689 Samuel married Susanna Annesley, twenty-fourth child of Dr. Samuel Annesley. Both Samuel and Susanna had been raised in
Dissenting homes before becoming members of the
Established Church early in adulthood. Susanna herself became a mother of nineteen children. In 1696 Samuel Wesley was appointed rector of Epworth, where John, the fifteenth child, was born.
At the age of six, John was rescued from the burning rectory. This escape made a deep impression on his mind; and he spoke of himself as a "brand plucked from the burning," and as a child of
Providence.
The Wesley children's early education was given by their parents in the Epworth rectory. Each child, including the girls, was taught to read, beginning at the age of five. In 1713 John was admitted to the
Charterhouse School, London, where he lived the studious, methodical, and (for a while) religious life in which he had been trained at home.
In
1720, Wesley entered
Christ Church College, Oxford, and received his
Master of Arts in
1727. He was ordained deacon in 1725 and elected fellow of
Lincoln College in the following year. He was his father's curate for two years, and then returned to Oxford to fulfil his functions as fellow.
During his early years, John had enjoyed a deep religious experience. His biographer, Tyerman, says that he went to Charterhouse a saint; but he became negligent of his religious duties, and left a sinner.
Leading Wesley scholars point to 1725 as the date of Wesley's conversion. In the year of his ordination he read
Thomas à Kempis and
Jeremy Taylor, and began to seek the religious truths which underlay the great revival of the 18th century. The reading of Law's
Christian Perfection and
Serious Call gave him, he said, a more sublime view of the law of God; and he resolved to keep it, inwardly and outwardly, as sacredly as possible. He pursued a rigidly methodical and abstemious life, studied the Scriptures, and performed his religious duties diligently, depriving himself so that he would have alms to give. He devoted himself to a godly life. He began to seek after holiness of heart and life. Many have misunderstood this time in his life as legalistic when in fact it was during his Oxford days that Wesley began to discover the true practice of the Christian faith, an understanding, like so many others in his life, that would continue to develop both while he was in Georgia and after his subsequent return to England in 1738.
The year of his return to
Oxford (1729) marks the beginning of the rise of
Methodism. The famous "holy club" was formed by John's younger brother,
Charles Wesley, and some fellow students, derisively called "Methodists" because of their methodical habits.
When, in 1735, a clergyman "inured to contempt of the ornaments and conveniences of life, to bodily austerities, and to serious thoughts," was wanted by Governor
James Oglethorpe to go to the
Province of Georgia, Wesley responded, accompanied by his brother and follower, Charles, and remained in the colony for two years, first landing at Peeper (now
Cockspur) Island on
February 6th 1736. A monument stands near the spot where Wesley conducted a service of thanksgiving, and is now part of the
Fort Pulaski National Monument.
While in Georgia, he began the first Sunday school. He had had an unhappy love affair and felt that his mission (to convert the Indians and deepen and regulate the religious life of the colonists) had been a failure. Charges were brought against him, forcing his departure.
Some of the charges brought against him were on account of his unusual liturgical "experiments". A journal entry in 1735 reports that he spent 3 hours "revising" the
Book of Common Prayer. One of his parishioners reportedly told Wesley, "The people… say they are Protestants. But as for you, they cannot tell what religion you are of. They never heard of such religion before. They do not know what to make of it." This indicates that Wesley's intense reading of the Church Fathers and
Eastern Orthodox Church writers such as
Macarius of Egypt influenced his approaches and baffled those who knew him. His nicknames of "a papist", "a Jesuit", "a
Jacobite", and a "Presbyterian papist" indicate those of his day simply had no "box" to put Wesley in. They only knew he did not fit into what they expected or wanted. He returned to England in 1738.
Wesley returned to England depressed and beaten. It was at this point that he turned to the
Moravians, a group with whom he had become familiar in Georgia. His Aldersgate experience of
May 24,
1738, at a Moravian meeting in
Aldersgate Street,
London, in which he heard a reading of
Luther's preface to the
Epistle to the Romans, and penned the now famous lines "I felt my heart strangely warmed", is but one of many experiences in Wesley's journey of faith. A few weeks later he preached a remarkable sermon on the doctrine of present personal salvation by faith, which was followed by another, on God's grace "free in all, and free for all."
Though his understanding of both justification and the assurance matured, He never stopped preaching the importance of faith for salvation and the witness of God's Spirit with the spirit of the believer that they were, indeed, a child of God.
He allied himself with the Moravian society in Fetter Lane, and in 1738 went to
Herrnhut, the Moravian headquarters in
Germany. On his return to England he drew up rules for the "bands" into which the Fetter Lane Society was divided, and published a collection of
hymns for them. He met frequently with this and other religious societies in London, but did not preach often in 1738, because most of the
parish churches were closed to him.
Wesley's Oxford friend, the evangelist
George Whitefield, upon his return from America, was also excluded from the churches of
Bristol; and, going to the neighbouring village of
Kingswood, preached in the open air, in February 1739, to a company of miners. Wesley hesitated to accept Whitefield's earnest request to copy this bold step. Overcoming his scruples, he preached his first sermon in the open air, near Bristol, in April of that year.
He was still unhappy about the idea of field preaching, and would have thought, "till very lately," such a method of saving souls as "almost a sin." These open-air services were very successful; and he never again hesitated to preach in any place where an assembly could be got together, more than once using his father's
tombstone at Epworth as a
pulpit. He continued for fifty years — entering churches when he was invited, and taking his stand in the fields, in halls, cottages, and chapels, when the churches would not receive him.
Late in 1739 Wesley broke with the Moravians in London. Wesley had helped them organize the
Fetter Lane Society; and those converted by his preaching and that of his brother and Whitefield had become members of their bands. Butfinding, as he said, that they had fallen into
heresies, especially
quietism, he decided to form his own followers into a separate society. "Thus," he wrote, "without any previous plan, began the Methodist Society in England." Similar societies were soon formed in Bristol and Kingswood, and wherever Wesley and his friends made converts.
From 1739 onward Wesley and the Methodists were persecuted by clergymen and magistrates. They were attacked in sermons and in print and at times attacked by mobs. They remained always at work among the neglected and needy. They were denounced as promulgators of strange doctrines, fomenters of religious disturbances; as blind fanatics, leading people astray, claiming miraculous gifts, attacking the clergy of the
Church of England, and trying to reestablish
Catholicism.
Feeling, however, that the church failed in its duty to call sinners to repentance, that many of the clergymen were corrupt and that souls were perishing in their sins, Wesley regarded himself as commissioned by God to bring about revival in the church; and no opposition, or persecution, or obstacles could prevail against the divine urgency and authority of this commission. The prejudices of his High-church training, his strict notions of the methods and proprieties of public worship, his views of the apostolic succession and the prerogatives of the priest, even his most cherished convictions, were not allowed to stand in the way.
Unwilling that people should perish in their sins and unable to reach them from church pulpits, he began field-preaching. Seeing that he and the few clergymen cooperating with him could not do the work that needed to be done, he was led, as early as 1739, to approve of lay preaching; men and women who were not episcopally ordained were permitted to preach and do pastoral work. Thus one of the great features of Methodism, to which it has largely owed its success, was adopted by Wesley in answer to a necessity.
As his societies needed houses to worship in, Wesley began to provide chapels, first in Bristol, then in London and elsewhere. The Bristol chapel (1739) was at first in the hands of trustees; a large debt was contracted, and Wesley's friends urged him to keep it under his own control, so the deed was cancelled, and he became sole trustee. Following this precedent, all Methodist chapels were committed in trust to him until by a "deed of declaration" all his interests in them were transferred to a body of preachers called the "
Legal Hundred."
When disorder arose among some members of the societies, he adopted the plan of giving tickets to members, with their names written by his own hand. These were renewed every three months. Those deemed unworthy did not receive new tickets, and dropped out of the society without disturbance. The tickets were regarded as commendatory letters.
When the debt on a chapel became a burden, it was proposed that one in twelve members should collect offerings regularly from the eleven allotted to him. Out of this, under Wesley's care, grew, in 1742, the Methodist
class-meeting system. In order to keep the disorderly out of the societies, Wesley established a probationary system, and undertook to visit each society regularly: the quarterly visitation, or conference. As the societies increased, he could not keep up contact effectively; so he drew up in 1743 a set of "General Rules" for the "United Societies," which were the nucleus of the Methodist
Discipline and still exist.
General Rules: It is therefore expected of all who continue therein that they should continue to evidence their desire of salvation,First: By doing no harm, by avoiding evil of every kind . . . ;Secondly: By . . . doing good of every possible sort, and, as far as possible, to all . . . ;Thirdly: By attending upon all the ordinances of GodAs the number of preachers and preaching-places increased, doctrinal and administrative matters needed to be discussed; so the two Wesleys, with four other clergymen and four lay preachers, met for consultation in London in 1744. This was the first Methodist conference. Two years later, in order that the preachers might work more systematically and the societies receive their services more regularly, Wesley appointed "helpers" to definitive circuits, each of which included at least thirty appointments a month. Believing that their usefulness and efficiency were promoted by being changed from one circuit to another every year or two, he established the "itinerancy", and insisted that his preachers submit to its rules. When, in1788, some objected to the frequent changes, he wrote, "For fifty years God has been pleased to bless the itinerant plan, the last year most of all. It must not be altered till I am removed, and I hope it will remain till our Lord comes to reign on earth."
As his societies multiplied, and the elements of an ecclesiastical system were gradually adopted, the breach between Wesley and the Church of England widened. The question of separation from that church, urged, on the one side,by some of his preachers and societies, but most strenuously opposed by his brother Charles and others, needed to be considered, but Wesley refused to leave the Church of England. In 1745 Wesley wrote that he would make any concession which his conscience permitted, in order to live in harmony with the clergy, but could not give up the doctrine of an inward and present salvation by faith alone. He would not stop preaching or dissolve the societies or end lay preaching. As a clergyman within the Established Church, he had no plans to go further. "We dare not," he said, "administer
baptism or the
Lord's Supper without a commission from a bishop in the
apostolic succession."
But the next year he read Lord King on the Primitive Church, and Wesley was convinced by it that apostolic succession was a fiction, and that he was "a scriptural
episcopos as much as any man in England." Some years later
Stillingfleet's
Irenicon led him to renounce the opinion that Christ or his apostles prescribed any form of church government, and to declare
ordination valid when performed by a
presbyter. It was not until about forty years later that he ordained by the laying on of hands, and even then only for those who would serve outside of England.
When he had waited long enough, and the
Bishop of London had refused to ordain a minister for the American Methodists who were without the ordinances, Wesley ordained preachers for Scotland and England and America, with power to administer the
sacraments in 1784. Though already a presbyter in the Church of England, Wesley consecrated, by laying on of hands, Dr.
Thomas Coke to be superintendent in America. He also ordained Richard Whatcoat and Thomas Vasey as presbyters. He intended that Coke, and Asbury who Coke would subsequently consecrate in America, should ordain others in the newly founded Methodist Episcopal Church. This alarmed his brother Charles, who begged him to stop before he had "quite broken down the bridge," and not embitter his [Charles'] last moments on earth, nor "leave an indelible blot on our memory." Wesley replied that he had not separated from the church, nor did he intend to, but he must and would save as many souls as he could whilealive, "without being careful about what may possibly be when I die." Although he rejoiced that the Methodists in America were free, he advised his English followers to remain in the established church; and he himself died within it.
Wesley was a strong controversialist. The most notable of his controversies was that on
Calvinism. His father was of the
Arminian school in the church; but John decided for himself while in college and expressed himself strongly against the doctrines of election and reprobation.
Whitefield inclined to
Calvinism. In his first tour in America, he embraced the views of the New England School of Calvinism; and when Wesley preached a sermon on
Free Grace, attacking
predestination as blasphemous, representing "God as worse than the devil," Whitefield asked him (1739) not to repeat or publish the discourse, not wanting a dispute. Wesley's sermon was published, and among the many replies to it was one by Whitefield. Separation followed in 1741. Wesley wrote that those who held universal redemption did not desire separation, but "those who held particular redemption would not hear of any accommodation."
Whitefield,
Harris,
Cennick, and others, became the founders of
Calvinistic Methodism. Whitefield and Wesley, however, were soon back on friendly terms, and their friendship remained thenceforth unbroken, though they traveled different paths. Occasional publications appeared on Calvinistic doctrines, by Wesley and others; but in 1770 the controversy broke out anew with violence and bitterness.
Toplady, Berridge,
Rowland,
Richard Hill, and others were engaged on the one side, and Wesley and Fletcher on the other. Toplady was editor of
The Gospel Magazine, which was filled with the controversy. Wesley in 1778 began the publication of
The Arminian Magazine, not, he said, to convince Calvinists, but to preserve Methodists and to teach the truth that "God willeth all men to be saved." A "lasting peace" could be secured in no other way.
20th century Wesley scholar
Albert Outler argued in his introduction to the 1964 collection
John Wesley (ISBN 0195028104) that Wesley developed his theology by using what Outler termed the
Wesleyan Quadrilateral. In this method, Wesley interpreted Scripture through the lens of Church Tradition, Reason, and Personal Experience.
The doctrines which Wesley emphasized in his sermons and writings are
prevenient grace, present personal salvation by faith, the witness of the Spirit, and sanctification. He defined the witness of the Spirit as: "an inward impression on the soul of believers, whereby the spirit of God directly testifies to their spirit that they are the children of God."
Sanctification he spoke of (1790) as the "grand
depositum which God has lodged with the people called `Methodists'." Wesley taught that sanctification was obtainable instantaneously by faith, between justification and death. It was not "sinless perfection" that he contended for; but he believed that those who are "perfect in love" feel no sin. He was anxious that this doctrine should be constantly preached for the system of Wesleyan Arminianism, the foundations of which were laid by Wesley and Fletcher (see
Jacob Hermann,
Arminianism).
Two comparatively recent works which explain Wesley's theological positions are Randy Maddox's 1994 book
Responsible Grace: John Wesley's Practical Theology (ISBN 0687003342) and
Thomas Oden's 1994 book
John Wesley's Scriptural Christianity: A Plain Exposition of His Teaching on Christian Doctrine (ISBN 031075321X).
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Statue of John Wesley next to his house on City Road, London. (January 2006) |
Wesley travelled constantly, generally on horseback, preaching twice or thrice a day. He formed societies, opened chapels, examined and commissioned preachers, administered aid charities, prescribed for the sick, helped to pioneer the use of electric shock for the treatment of illness, superintended schools and orphanages, received at least £20,000 for his publications, but used little of it for himself. His charities were limited only by his means. He died poor. He rose at four in the morning, lived simply and methodically, and was never idle if he could help it.
He is described as below medium height, well proportioned, strong, with a bright eye, a clear complexion, and a saintly, intellectual face. He married very unhappily, at the age of forty-eight, a widow, Mary Vazeille, and had no children; she left him fifteen years later. He died peacefully, after a short illness, leaving as the result of his life-work 135,000 members, and 541 itinerant preachers under the name "Methodist." He is buried in a small graveyard behind Wesley's Chapel in
City Road,
London.
Despite his achievements he never quite overcame profound self-doubt. At the age of 63, he wrote to his brother, (possibly speaking in metaphors) "I do not love God. I never did. Therefore I never believed, in the Christian sense of the word." (Quoted, Tomkins
John Wesley: A Biography (Eerdmans, 2003) 168.)
Wesley was a logical thinker, and expressed himself clearly, concisely and forcefully in writing. His written sermons are characterized by spiritual earnestness and simplicity. They are doctrinal but not dogmatic. His
Notes on the New Testament (1755) are enlightening. Both the
Sermons (about 140) and the
Notes are doctrinal standards. Wesley was a fluent, powerful and effective preacher. He usually preached spontaneously and briefly, though occasionally at great length.
As an organizer, a religious leader and a statesman, he was eminent. He knew how to lead and control men to achieve his purposes. He used his power, not to provoke rebellion, but to inspire love. His mission was to spread "Scriptural holiness"; his means and plans were such as Providence indicated. The course thus masked out for him he pursued with a determination from which nothing could distract him.
Wesley's prose
Works were first collected by himself (32 vols., Bristol, 1771-74, frequently reprinted in editions varying greatly in the number of volumes). His chief prose works are a standard publication in seven octavo volumes of the Methodist Book Concern, New York. The
Poetical Works of John and Charles, ed. G. Osborn, appeared in 13 vols., London, 1868-72.
Besides his
Sermons and
Notes already referred to, are his
Journals (originally published in 20 parts, London, 1740-89; new ed. by N. Curnock containing notes from unpublished diaries, 6 vols., vols. i.-ii., London and New York, 1909-11);
The Doctrine of Original Sin (Bristol, 1757; in reply to Dr.
John Taylor of Norwich); "An Earnest Appeal to Men of Reason and Religion
(originally published in three parts; 2d ed., Bristol, 1743), an elaborate defence of Methodism, describing the evils of the times in society and the church; a Plain Account of Christian Perfection'' (1766).
Wesley adapted the
Book of Common Prayer for use by
American Methodists. In his
Watch Night service, he made use of a
pietist prayer now generally known as the
Wesley Covenant Prayer, perhaps his most famous contribution to Christian
liturgy.
Today, many follow Wesley's teachings. He continues to be the primary theological interpreter for
Methodists the world over; the largest Wesleyan body being The
United Methodist Church. The teachings of Wesley also served as a basis for the
Holiness movement, from which
Pentecostalism, parts of the
Charismatic movement, and the
Christian and Missionary Alliance are offshoots. Wesley's call to personal and social holiness continues to challenge Christians who struggle to discern what it means to participate in the
Kingdom of God.
Wesley's legacy is also preserved in
Kingswood School which he founded in 1748 in order to educate the children of the growing number of Methodist preachers.
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List of people on stamps of Ireland*
Wesley Theological Seminary*
The Supernatural Occurrences of John Wesley*
Epworth* [
1] Wesleyan Theological Society
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An Online Exhibition*
Online works*
The Methodist Church in Great Britain*
John Wesley as a British abolitionist
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John Wesley at CCEL
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John Wesley info from the United Methodist Church
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Wesley Center Online at Northwest Nazarene University
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A Page on the Reverend John Wesley Collection of over 500 quotes sorted by category, along with sermons and published writing
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Wesley chapel/museum in London
