WESLEY'S RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE.
Mr. Wesley'sreligious experience deserves special notice. If he was raised up by God for any purpose, it was to revive spiritual Christianity, which included justification by faith, entire sanctification, and the witness of the Holy Spirit. To understand his own experience on these doctrines is the object of this chapter.
Let us first notice the external religious life which Mr. Wesley maintained prior to the wonderful change which occurred soon after his return from America. From his journals we learn that he said prayers both public and private, and read the Scriptures and other good books constantly. He experienced sensible comfort in reading à Kempis, resulting in an entire change in his conversation and life. He set apart two hours each day for religious retirement, and received the sacrament every week. He watched against every sin, whether in word or deed. He shook off all his trifling acquaintances, and was careful that every moment of his time should be improved. He not only watched over his own heart, buturged others to become religious. He visited those in prison, assisted the poor and sick, and did what he could with his presence and means for the souls and bodies of men. He deprived himself of all the superfluities and many of the necessaries of life that he might help others. He fasted twice each week, omitted no part of self-denial which he thought lawful, and carefully used in public and private at every opportunity all the means of grace. For the doing of these things he became a byword, but rejoiced that his name was cast out as evil. His sole aim was to do God's will and secure inward holiness. Sometimes he had joy, sometimes sorrow; sometimes the terror of the law alarmed him, and sometimes the comforts of the Gospel cheered him. He had many remarkable answers to prayer, and many sensible soul comforts.
Let us next notice Mr. Wesley's estimate of his own religious state at this time.
He found that he had not such faith in Christ as kept his heart from being troubled in time of danger, for in a storm he cried unto God every moment, but in a calm he did not. His words he discovered to be such as did not edify, especially his manner of speaking of his enemies. By these he was convinced of unbelief and pride. He gives a dark picture of his state at this time, much darker than the light of after years justified. "I went to America,"he says, "to convert the Indians, but O, who shall convert me? O, who will deliver me from this fear of death?"
On landing in England he writes: "It is now two years and almost four months since I left my native country in order to teach the Georgia Indians the nature of Christianity, but what have I learned myself in the meantime? Why, what I least of all expected—that I, who went to America to convert others, was never myself converted to God."
He further says: "This, then, have I learned in the ends of the earth—that I am fallen short of the glory of God, alienated from the life of God; I am a child of wrath, an heir of hell."
In later years, when carefully reconsidering his early experience, Mr. Wesley was not disposed to form the same severe judgment of his religious state. He wisely added several qualifying remarks which should not be omitted when his early language is employed. He could not say that he was not converted at this time, or that he was a child of wrath. To the expression, "I was never myself converted to God," is added this note: "I am not sure of that," strongly intimating that he believed he was then converted.
To the expression, "I am a child of wrath, an heir of hell," is added this note: "I believenot." It seemed to his own mature judgment that he was not the wretched sinner he had fancied himself to be in those sad hours of his early history. He says, "I had then the faith of aservant, though not that of ason." What he means by this expression may be gathered from a sermon which he preached some fifty years later. He says: "But what is the faith which is properly saving? what brings eternal salvation to all those that keep it to the end? It is such a divine conviction of God and the things of God as even in its infant state enables everyone that possesses it to fear God and work righteousness. And whosoever in every nation believes thus far, the apostle declares, is accepted of him. He actually is at that very moment in a state of acceptance. But he is at present only aservantof God, not properly ason. Meantime let it be well observed that the 'wrath of God' no longer abideth on him.
"Indeed, nearly fifty years ago, when the preachers commonly called Methodists began to preach that grand scriptural doctrine, salvation by faith, they were not sufficiently apprised of the difference between a servant and a child of God. They did not clearly understand that everyone who feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted of him. In consequence of this they are apt to make sad the hearts of those whom God hath not made sad.For they frequently asked those who feared God, 'Do you know that your sins are forgiven?' And upon their saying 'No,' immediately repeated, 'Then you are a child of the devil.' No, that does not follow. It might have been said (and it is all that can be said with propriety), 'Hitherto you are aservant; you are not achildof God.' The faith of a child is properly and directly a divine conviction whereby every child of God is enabled to testify, 'The life that I now live I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.' And whosoever hath this, the Spirit of God witnesseth with his spirit that he is a child of God."
Again he says: "The faith of a servant implies a divine evidence of the invisible world so far as it can exist without living experience. Whoever has attained this, the faith of a servant, 'feareth God and escheweth evil;' or, as is expressed by St. Peter, 'feareth God and worketh righteousness.' In consequence of which he is in a degree, as the apostle observes, 'accepted with him.' Elsewhere he is described in these words: 'He that feareth God and keepeth his commandments.'"
A careful examination of these quotations will convince anyone that the difference in Mr. Wesley's opinion between being aservantand asonis not that one is converted and the other is not, not that one is accepted by Godand the other rejected, but that one has the direct witness of the Spirit that he is a child of God and the other has not. This was Wesley's religious state when he returned to England. He was not that lost soul, that heir of hell, which he reckoned himself to be, but an accepted servant of God without the direct witness of the Spirit to his sonship.
Meeting Peter Böhler, February 7, 1738, he (Böhler) was made the instrument of a great blessing to his soul. Böhler was a Moravian, nine years the junior of Wesley; a most devout man, deeply versed in spiritual things, and well qualified to lead the earnest Oxford student into the path of peace. Wesley was astonished at the announcement of Böhler that true faith in Christ was inseparably attended by dominion over sin, and constant peace arising from a sense of forgiveness. He could in no way accept the doctrine until he had first examined the Scriptures and had heard the testimony of three witnesses adduced by Böhler. But what staggered him most was the doctrine of instantaneous conversion. This he could not accept. But a careful appeal to the Bible and the testimony of Böhler's witnesses settled the question. Thus "this man of erudition," says Mr. Tyerman, "and almost anchorite piety sat at the feet of this godly German like a little child, and was content to be thought a fool that he might be wise."
But the time drew near when the veil was to be rent, and he who had been for half a score of years a seeker was to behold the glories of the inner temple. His brother Charles had already received the gift of the Spirit, and Whitefield was rejoicing in the same blessing; but John still lingered. He became so oppressed with his spiritual state that he thought of abandoning preaching; but Böhler said: "By no means. Preach faith till you have it, and then because you have it you will preach it." So he began. He uttered strong words at St. Lawrence's and St. Catherine's, and was informed that he could preach no more in either place. At Great St. Helen's he spoke with such plainness that he was told he must preach no more there. At St. Ann's he spoke of free salvation by faith, and the doors of the church were closed against him. The same result attended his preaching at St. John's and St. Bennett's, until he found the words of a friend addressed to his brother true in his own case, that "wherever you go this 'foolishness ofpreaching' will alienate hearts from you and open mouths against you."
The simplicity of faith staggered the youthful philosopher. Böhler, in writing of the Wesleys to Zinzendorf, says: "Our mode of believing in the Saviour is so easy to Englishmen that they cannot reconcile themselves toit; if it were a little more artful, they could much sooner find their way into it."
Wesley's distress of soul continued until the 24th of May. At five in the morning of that auspicious day he opened his Testament and read: "There are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye may be partakers of the divine nature." Later in the day he opened the word and read: "Thou art not far from the kingdom of God." Having attended St. Paul's Cathedral in the afternoon, where the anthem was a great comfort to his soul, he went with great reluctance to a society meeting at night at Aldersgate Street. There he found one reading Luther's preface to the Romans; and at about a quarter before nine, while the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ was being described, "I felt," he says, "my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ—Christalone—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 death; and then I testified openly to all there what I now felt in my heart."
From this moment a new spiritual world opened upon the mind and heart of John Wesley. He not only began at once to pray for those who had ill-used him, but openly testified to all present what God had done for his soul.And from that hour onward, for fifty-three years, he bore through the land a heart flaming with love.
In 1744, more than six years subsequent to that blessed experience at Aldersgate, Mr. Wesley relates another experience which we must not overlook. It is related in these words: "In the evening while I was reading prayers at Snowfield I found such light and strength as I never remember to have had before. I saw every thought, as well as action or word, just as it was rising in my heart, and whether it was right before God or tainted with pride or selfishness. I never knew before—I mean not at this time—what it was to be still before God. I waked the next morning by the grace of God in the same spirit; and about eight, being with two or three that believed in Jesus, I felt such an awe and tender sense of the presence of God as greatly confirmed me therein; so that God was before me all the day long. I sought and found him in every place, and could truly say, when I lay down at night, 'Now I have lived to-day.'"
In 1771, referring to this experience, he says: "Many years since I saw that 'without holiness no man shall see the Lord.' I began by following after it, and inciting all with whom I had any intercourse to do the same. Ten years after God gave me a clearer view than I had before of the way how to attainit; namely, by faith in the Son of God. And immediately I declared to all, 'We are saved from sin, we are made holy, by faith.This I testified in private, in public, in print; and God confirmed it by athousand witnesses. I have continued to declare this for about thirty years; and God has continued to confirm the work of grace."
These experiences flamed out in his whole life. He claimed that he knew whereof he affirmed. While he advocated strongly the doctrines of Christianity, he was most earnest in promoting the experience of personal holiness.
A question has been propounded here eliciting much controversy, namely, "Did Mr. Wesley ever profess to have experienced the blessing of entire sanctification?" It does not appear to us to be a question of as much importance as many seem to imagine. The more important question is: Did Mr. Wesley believe and teach that such an experience was possible in this life? Did he encourage his people to seek such a blessing, and, when obtained, profess it in a humble spirit? This question among others was submitted to Dr. James M. Buckley: "Have we any record of Mr. Wesley's professing to be entirely sanctified; if so, where may it be found?" His answer will be regarded as entirely satisfactory to all unprejudiced minds.
"This question reappears from time to time, as though of great importance. We know of no record of his explicitly professing or saying in so many words, 'I am entirely sanctified;' no record of uttering words to that effect. But we have no more doubt that he habitually professed it than that he professed conversion. The relation John Wesley sustained to his followers, and to this doctrine, makes it certain that he professed it, and almost certain that there would be no special record of it.
"1. All Wesley's followers assumed him to be what he urged them to be. Before they were in a situation to make records his position was so fixed that to record his descriptions of this state would have been unthought of.
"2. He preached entire sanctification, and urged it upon his followers.
"3. He defended its attainability in many public controversies.
"4. He urged and defended the profession of it, under certain conditions and safeguards; made lists of professors; told men they had lost it because they did not profess; and said and did so many things, only to be explained upon the assumption that he professed to enjoy the blessing, that no other opinion can support it."[L]
Soon after this experience at Aldersgate Chapel Mr. Wesley made a journey to Herrnhut,Germany, to visit the Moravian brethren, but soon withdrew from them because of their errors in doctrine. He antagonized the dogma of Zinzendorf, that men are entirely sanctified at the moment when they are converted. His opinion of the count differed materially from his estimation of Böhler.
WESLEY'S MULTIPLIED LABORS.
Nosooner had Mr. Wesley experienced the transforming power of grace than he hastened to declare it to all, taking "the world" for his "parish."
After confessing to those immediately about him what God had done for his soul he flew with all possible speed to declare it to the miners in their darkness, to the Newgate felons in their loathsome cells, to the wealthy and refined worshipers at St. John's and St. Ives', offering in burning words a common salvation alike to the Newgate felon and to the St. John's and St. Ives' aristocracy.
Mr. Wesley was a most pertinacious adherent of the English Establishment, and never dreamed of attempting the salvation of souls by preaching the Gospel outside of her church walls until he was ruthlessly expelled from all her pulpits. But he had firmly resolved that neither bishops, nor curates, nor church wardens should stand between him and duty. But what to do and where to go he did not know. Every door seemed closed against him, and almost every face save the face of God frownedupon him. But while God smiled he knew no fear. In his extremity he took counsel of Whitefield, resulting in a firm purpose to do the work to which Providence seemed to have clearly called them. Churches were closed, to be sure, but the unsaved and perishing were everywhere except in the churches, and to reach and to save them they betook themselves to the wide, wide world. They were now seen in hospitals, administering spiritual comfort to the sick; in prisons, offering eternal life to condemned felons; at Kingswood, calling the dark colliers to a knowledge of the truth. In these places unfrequented by sacerdotal robes the Gospel of the grace of God was carried by these unhonored servants of Jesus. But soon prisons and hospitals were denied them, and then they fled to the fields and to the streets of the cities, choosing for their pulpits the market-house steps, a horse-block, a coal heap, a table, a stone wall, a mountain side, a horse's back, etc.
The colliers of Kingswood had no church, no Sabbath, no Gospel. They were the most corrupt, degraded, blasphemous class to be found in England. Southey describes them as "lawless, brutal, and worse than heathen." They seemed to have been forsaken of God and man. This was a fit place to test the power of "the Gospel of the grace of God." The intrepid Whitefield was the first to break theice. "Pulpits are denied," he says, "and the poor colliers are ready to perish." So he unfurled the Gospel banner "with a mountain for his pulpit," he says, "and the broad heavens for a sounding-board."
The Wesleys are lifting up their voices like trumpets in all parts of the kingdom. They are threading their way along the mountains of Wales, where the people know as little of Christianity as do the wild Indians of our Western plains. They are seen in Ireland, in all her towns and cities, calling her papal-cursed sons to a knowledge of Jesus. Again their voices are heard amid the hills and vales of Scotland, urging her stern clans to accept Jesus by faith alone. Then they are surrounded by tens of thousands of besmeared miners who are weeping for sin and rejoicing in deliverance from it.
Mr. Wesley and John Nelson for three weeks labored to introduce the Gospel into Cornwall. During this time they slept on the floor. Nelson says that Mr. Wesley had his great coat for his pillow, while Nelson had Burkitt'sNotes on the New Testamentfor his. After they had been there nearly three weeks, one morning about three o'clock, Mr. Wesley turned over, and finding Nelson awake, clapped him on his side, saying, "Brother Nelson, let us be of good cheer; I have one whole side yet, for the skin is off but one side."As they were leaving Cornwall Mr. Wesley stopped his horse to pick blackberries, saying, "Brother Nelson, we ought to be thankful that there are plenty of blackberries, for this is the best country I ever saw to get an appetite and the worst place to provide means to satisfy it." Still they courageously pushed forward, with the one purpose of saving men.
That we may aid the reader in getting a clearer and more comprehensive conception of the immense amount of labor performed by Mr. Wesley, we will arrange it under distinct heads:
1. His travels were immense. He averaged, during a period of fifty-four years, about five thousand miles a year, some say eight, making in all at least some two hundred and ninety thousand miles, a distance equal to circumnavigating the globe about twelve times. It must not be forgotten that most of this travel was performed on horseback. Think of riding around the globe on horseback twelve times!
2. The amount of his preaching was unparalleled. Mr. Wesley preached not less than twenty sermons a week—frequently many more. These sermons were delivered mostly in the open air and under circumstances calculated to test the nerve of the most vigorous frame. He did, in the matter of preaching, what no other man ever did—he preached on an average, for a period of fifty-four years,fifteen sermons a week, making in all forty-two thousand four hundred, besides numberless exhortations and addresses on a great variety of occasions.
A minister in these times does well to preach one hundred sermons a year. At this rate, to preach as many sermons as Mr. Wesley did, such a minister must live and preach four hundred and twenty-four years. Think of a minister preaching two sermons each week day and three each Sabbath for fifty-four years, and some idea can be formed of Mr. Wesley's labors in this department.
3. His literary labors were extraordinary. While traveling five thousand miles and more a year, or at least about fourteen miles a day, and preaching two sermons, and frequently five, each day, he read extensively. He read not less than two thousand two hundred volumes on all subjects, many of the volumes folios, after the old English style. His journals show that he read not only to understand, but to severely criticise his author as well.
The number of his publications will scarcely be credited by those who are not familiar with them, especially when we consider the amount of time he spent in traveling and preaching, and the urgency of his engagements, both of a public and private nature.
He wrote and published grammars of theHebrew, Greek, Latin, French, and English languages.
He was for many years editor of a monthly periodical of fifty-six pages, known as theArminian Magazine, requiring the undivided attention of any ordinary man in these times.
He wrote, abridged, revised, and published a library of fifty volumes known as theChristian Library, one of the most remarkable collections of Christian literature of the times. He subsequently reread and revised the whole work with great care, and it was afterward published in thirty volumes—a marvel of excellence and industry.
He published an abridgment of Mosheim'sEcclesiastical History, with important additions, in four volumes.
He published an abridgment of theHistory of England, in four volumes.
He compiled and published aCompendium of Natural Philosophy, in five volumes.
He arranged and published a collection of moral and sacred poems, in three volumes.
He published an abridgment of Milton'sParadise Lost, with notes. He published an abridgment of Young'sNight Thoughts.
He wrote and published a commentary on the whole Bible in four large volumes, but the portion on the Old Testament was rendered almost worthless by the abridgment of thenotes by the printer in order to get them within a given compass.
He compiled a complete dictionary of the English language, much used in his day. He compiled and published a history of Rome. He published selections from the Latin classics for the use of students.
He published an abridgment of Goodwin'sTreatise of Justification. He abridged and published in two volumes Brooke'sFool of Quality.
He wrote a good-sized work on electricity. He prepared and published three medical works for the common people; one entitledPrimitive Physicwas highly esteemed in the old country. He compiled and published six volumes of church music. His poetical works, in connection with those of his brother Charles, are said to have amounted to not less than forty volumes. Charles composed the larger part, but they passed under the revision of John, without which we doubt if Charles Wesley's hymns would have been what they are—the most beautiful and soul-inspiring in the English language.
In addition to all this there are seven large octavo volumes of sermons, letters, controversial papers, journals, etc. It is said that Mr. Wesley's works, including translations and abridgments, amounted to more than two hundred volumes, for we have not given herea complete list of his publications. To this must be added:
4. His pastoral labors. It is doubtful if any pastor in these times does more pastoral work than did Mr. Wesley. He speaks frequently of these labors. In London he visits all the members, and from house to house exhorts and comforts them. For some time he visited all the "Bands" and "Select Societies," appointing all the band and class leaders. He had under his personal care tens of thousands of souls.
To these multiplied labors he added the establishment of schools, building of chapels, raising of funds to carry on the work, and a special care over the whole movement. It may be affirmed that neither in his travels, his literary labors, his preaching, nor in his pastoral supervision of the flock of Christ has he often, if ever, been surpassed. "Few men could have traveled as much as he, had they omitted all else. Few could have preached as much without either travel or study. And few could have written and published as much had they avoided both travel and preaching." It is not too much to say that among uninspired men one of more extraordinary character than John Wesley never lived!
It may be asked, How was he able to accomplish so much? He improved every moment of every day to the very best advantage.
Mr. Fletcher, who for some time was his traveling companion, says: "His diligence is matchless. Though oppressed with the weight of seventy years and the care of more than thirty thousand souls, he shames still, by his unabated zeal and immense labors, all the young ministers of England, perhaps of Christendom. He has generally blown the Gospel trumpet and ridden twenty miles before the most of the professors who despise his labors have left their downy pillows. As he begins the day, the week, the year, so he concludes them, still intent upon extensive services for the glory of the Redeemer and the good of souls."
In order to save time he, in the first place, ascertained how much sleep he needed; and when once settled he never varied from it to the end of life. He rose at four in the morning and retired at ten in the evening, never losing at any time, he says, "ten minutes by wakefulness." The first hour of each day was devoted to private devotions; then every succeeding hour and moment was employed in earnest labor. His motto was, "Always in haste, but never in a hurry." "I have," he says, "no time to be in a hurry. Leisure and I have taken leave of each other."
He makes the remarkable statement that ten thousand cares were no more weight to his mind than ten thousand hairs to his head. "Iam never tired with writing, preaching, or traveling."
With all his travel, labor, and care, he declares that he "enjoyed more hours of private retirement than any man in England."
At the beginning of his extraordinary career he became the most rigid economist. Having thirty pounds a year, he lived on twenty-eight, and gave away two. The next year he received sixty pounds; he still lived on twenty-eight, and gave away thirty-two. The following year, out of ninety pounds, he gave away sixty-two, and the next year ninety-two pounds out of one hundred and twenty.
WESLEY'S DOMESTIC RELATIONS.
DivineProvidence seems to indicate that some men are ordained or set apart to celibacy; that the special work to which they are particularly called is such as to make it necessary that they should abstain from that otherwise legal, sacred, and highly honorable conjugal relation. Not that this duty is restricted to any order of the clergy—as in the Romish Church—but to particular persons in all the Churches who are divinely selected for special work. This was the case with Elijah and Elisha, with John the Baptist and St. Paul. To John Wesley in the Old World, and Bishop Asbury in the New, Providence seems to have indicated this course of life, though Wesley was slow to see it, and did not until his sad experience made it clear to him.
Though the world was his parish, he had a heart of love which craved deep, pure, soul companionship. He was made to love. Though he was a lamb in gentleness, he was a lion in courage. He was as daring as Richard the Lion-hearted, or as Ney or Murat, in the battle,yet he had a heart as simple as a child and as affectionate as an angel. He loved everybody. He was strongly attached to his mother, his sisters, and brothers. He clung ardently to his old associates, though they sometimes ill-treated him. With such a man a homeless, single life could only be submitted to under a sense of imperative duty.
After forty-seven years of single life, being of the opinion that he could be more useful in the married life than to remain single, and after first consulting his lifelong friend, Rev. Mr. Perronet, vicar of Shoreham, who fully approved his course, he then looked about to see who was a suitable person to become his helpmate. After a time he firmly believed he had found the proper one in the person of Mrs. Grace Murray, of Newcastle. She was the widow of Alexander Murray, of Scotland.
Mrs. Murray had been converted, while on a visit to London, under the ministry of Mr. Whitefield and the Wesleys. She at once joined the Methodists, abandoned all worldly and fashionable society, and devoted herself to the cause of God. It is true she was not allied to the aristocracy, and her husband followed the sea. Her husband, when he learned of her change, became greatly enraged, thinking all his pleasures were at an end, and threatened, if she did not abandon the Methodists and return to her former course of life,that he would commit her to the madhouse. This nearly broke her heart, and under its influence she became prostrated and sick nigh unto death. Her husband, seeing the effects of his treatment, relented, and invited the Methodists to come to his house and pray for his dying wife. Under a change of treatment, and the blessing of God, she recovered. The husband soon after left for a sea voyage, was taken sick, died, and was buried in the ocean. She sadly mourned his untimely death, for, in the main, he was a kind husband.
It was about this time that Mr. Wesley became acquainted with her, and recognized in her a valuable helper. She seems to have been a charming lady. Her deep piety, simplicity of character, amiable disposition, remarkable zeal, and active charity attracted his attention. He maintained at Newcastle a Preachers' House for himself and his preachers while in the city. He had there, also, an asylum for orphans and widows, for whom he made provision. Over this institution he installed Mrs. Murray as housekeeper. Finding her admirably suited to this work, especially among females, he appointed her class leader. She then, under his direction, visited the female classes in Bristol, London, etc. Her duty was to regulate the classes, organize female bands, and inspire her sisters to deeper piety and more active benevolence. Her devotion andunassuming manners won the affection of the people. They hailed her coming with a thousand welcomes, and parted with her with regret.
tall grandfather clockWESLEY'S CLOCK.
Mr. Wesley observed her spirit and labors, and began to feel that she was the providential companion for him—a real helpmate. Her tastes, temperament, and mission seemed to be one with his own. Without hesitation or reserve he offered her his hand. It was accepted with great cheerfulness. She declared herself ready to go with him to the ends of the earth, and esteemed it a great honor to be allied to him.
The marriage was to be celebrated in October, 1749. But on the first day of that month he met Charles Wesley and Mr. Whitefield at Leeds, and received the astounding intelligence from them that Grace Murray was married the night before, at Newcastle, to John Bennett—one of Wesley's preachers—and that they had been present and witnessed the marriage ceremony.
This singular affair has never been satisfactorily explained. It is evident that Charles Wesley and Mr. Whitefield for some cause encouraged the marriage of Mrs. Murray with Mr. Bennett; but what their motive could have been is not known. Several reasons have been given, but none seem worthy of the men. Whatever their motive, it must be acknowledgedto have been entirely unjustifiable. The conduct of the lady was equally inexplicable, and must ever remain so.
In this trying affair we cannot but admire the conduct of Mr. Wesley. Knowing the part that Mr. Whitefield had taken in the matter, he went the next morning to hear him preach, and speaks in high terms of his sermon. The day following he preached himself at Leeds in the morning, and in the afternoon met Mr. and Mrs. Bennett, and of the meeting he writes to a friend, "Such a scene I think you never saw." They never met again, except in London in 1788, when Mr. Wesley was eighty-five years of age, and when Mrs. Bennett had been a widow for nearly twenty-nine years. The meeting was brief, and no mention was made of former years.
Mr. Bennett was treated by Mr. Wesley with the utmost kindness. He, however, became an enemy of Mr. Wesley, withdrew from the Connection, and joined the Calvinists. He lived ten years, and died, leaving Mrs. Bennett a widow with five children, the eldest not eight years old. She lived a widow for nearly forty-four years. She subsequently returned to the Wesleyan Methodists, held class meetings in her house, and had the reputation of being a woman of excellent character and deep piety. She died February 23, 1803. Her last words were, "Glory be to thee, my God; peace thougivest." Dr. Bunting preached her funeral sermon. Whoever reads Mr. Tyerman's account of these events should also read Dr. Rigg'sLiving Wesley, in order to get an unbiased account of this transaction.
Mr. Wesley, baffled in his first attempt, and still believing it was his duty to marry, made a second effort; and this time he offered his hand to Mrs. Vazeille, the widow of a London merchant. She readily accepted the proposal, and the marriage was at once consummated. Says a recent writer, "He married a widow, and caught a tartar." She was a lady of independent fortune, with four children. Mr. Wesley declined to have anything to do with her wealth, and had it all settled upon herself and her children.
She was a woman of good standing in society, and was supposed to be a suitable person for the position she assumed. She was agreeable in person and quite faultless in manner, and could easily make herself useful to all classes. But appearances are said to be deceptive; at least it proved so in this case. She seems to have possessed a temper which, when aroused, was utterly uncontrollable.
Not four months of married life had passed before she began to complain of her husband. Before their marriage she agreed that he should not be expected to travel a mile less, or preach one sermon less, than before theirunion. But now she began to complain of everything—long journeys, bad roads, and poor fare. She was not willing to remain at home, for then she was without the attention she had a right to receive; and when he was at home he was preaching two or three times a day, visiting the sick, looking after the societies, and carrying on extensive correspondence.
From fancying herself neglected by her husband she became jealous of him—a most absurd and insane idea. But on this her insanity knew no bounds. She is said to have traveled a hundred miles in order to intercept him at some town, and watch from a window to ascertain who might be in the carriage with him. She went so far as to open his private letters and abstract his papers and place them in the hands of those who would use them to his damage. She would add to his letters—usually those from his female correspondents—to make them appear to contain words of questionable character. She used the newspapers to blacken his reputation. She went so far at times as to lay violent hands upon him, tear his hair, and otherwise abuse him. Said Mr. Hampson (who was not one of Mr. Wesley's warmest friends) to his son one day: "Jack, I was once on the point of committing murder. When I was in the north of Ireland I went into a room, and found Mrs. Wesley flaming with fury. Her husband was on the floor, where she hadbeen trailing him by the hair of his head; she herself was still holding in her hand venerable locks which she had plucked up by the roots. I felt," said the gigantic Hampson, "as though I could have knocked the soul out of her." Even Southey says: "Fain would she have made him, like Mark Antony, give up all for love; and, being disappointed in that hope, she tormented him in such a manner by her outrageous jealousy and abominable temper that she deserved to be classed in a triad with Xantippe and the wife of Job as one of the three bad wives." But finally she gathered up a quantity of his journals and other papers and left him, never to return. The only record which the good man makes is this: "I did not forsake her; I did not dismiss her; I will not recall her."
Wesley may not have been in all respects in this matter faultless. But no one could ever affirm that he was wanting in genuine affection. Charles Wesley, who knew the inwardness of all John's domestic troubles, affirms that "nothing could surpass my brother's patience with his perverse, peevish spouse."
Mrs. Wesley died in 1781, and the church people had it inscribed upon her tombstone that she was "a woman of exemplary piety." "But," says the late Professor Sheppard, "you know a tombstone is like a corporation—it has no body to be burned, and no soul to be damned."
WESLEY'S PERSECUTIONS.
Hadthe immense labors of John Wesley noted in a former chapter been performed under public patronage, cheered on by all, they would have seemed less arduous. Men may prosecute a reform when public opinion favors it with comparative ease, but with less entitlement to honor than he has a right to claim who does it in the face of passion and interest. The labors of John Wesley were prosecuted in the teeth of opposition such as seldom falls to the lot of man to endure. And what made it more dastardly and cruel was the fact that it was instigated and principally conducted by the officials of that Church of which he was a worthy member and ordained minister to the day of his death.
It is a sad fact, but nevertheless true, that most of the opposition and persecution encountered by reformers and revivalists have come from the churchmen of the times. It has been the Church opposing those who were honestly seeking her own reformation. When the Church substitutes forms for godliness, and devotes herself to ecclesiasticism instead ofsoul-saving, and place-seeking takes the place of piety, she is ready to resist all efforts for her restoration to spirituality as irregular and offensive.
No sooner had Wesley exposed the sins of the Church, especially those of the pulpit, than the pulpit denounced him; and the press, taking its keynote from the pulpit, thundered as though the "abomination of desolation" had actually "taken possession of the holy place." Then the idle rabble rushed to the front, and mob violence and mob law were the order of the hour.
The flaming denunciations of the pulpits of the Establishment against Mr. Wesley and his people have never been surpassed in the history of the English nation. Wesley says: "We were everywhere represented as mad dogs, and treated accordingly. In sermons, newspapers, and pamphlets of all kinds we were painted as unheard-of monsters. But this moved us not; we went on testifying salvation by faith both to small and great, and not counting our lives dear to ourselves, so we might finish our course with peace."
The Wesleys were represented as "bold movers of sedition and ringleaders of the rabble, to the disgrace of their order." They were denounced by learned divines as "restless deceivers of the people," "babblers," "insolent pretenders," "men of spiritual sleightand cunning craftiness." They were guilty of "indecent, false, and unchristian reflections on the clergy." They were "new-fangled teachers," "rash, uncharitable censurers," "intruding into other men's labors," and running "into wild fancies until the pale of the Church is too strait for them." They were "half dissentersinthe Church, and more dangeroustothe Church than those who were total dissenters from it."
Bishop Gibson declared that they endeavored "to justify their own extraordinary methods of teaching by casting unworthy reflections upon the parochial clergy as deficient in the discharge of their duty, and not instructing the people in the true doctrines of Christianity."
Even Dr. Doddridge is not at all "satisfied with the high pretenses they make to the divine influence." Dr. Trapp is bold in pronouncing them "a set of crack-brained enthusiasts and profane hypocrites."
TheWeekly Miscellanydenounces Wesley as the "ringleader, fomenter, and first cause of all divisions and feuds that have happened in Oxford, London, Bristol, and other places where he has been." He manages by "preaching, bookselling, wheedling, and sponging to get, it is believed, an income of £700 a year, some say £1,000. This is priestcraft to perfection."
Further on in life he is accused of "making unwarrantable dissensions in the Church," and "prejudicing the people wherever he comes against his brethren the clergy." He is a "sower and ringleader of dissension, endeavoring with unwearied assiduity to set the flock at variance with their ministers and each other," assuming to himself "great wisdom and high attainments in all spiritual knowledge." "You go," says this writer, "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 error by their pastors."
"It was Mr. Wesley's fidelity," says Mr. Tyerman, "far more than the novelties of his doctrines and proceedings that brought upon him the persecution he encountered."
The former friends of Wesley now turned against him on points merely doctrinal. No one can read the invectives of Sir Richard and Rev. Rowland Hill, Sir Walter Shirley and Rev. Augustus Toplady, without feelings of great astonishment. When Mr. Wesley had passed his threescore years and ten Mr. Toplady, a young man of thirty, attacked him in the most violent manner, employing epithets of the most abusive character. We select the following as samples from the many. Wesley is accused of the "sophistry of the Jesuit and the dictatorial authority of a pope." He is a"lurking, sly assassin," guilty of "audacity and falsehood;" a "knave," guilty of "mean, malicious impotence." He is an "Ishmaelite," a "bigot," a "papist," a "defamer," a "reviler," a "liar," without the "honesty of a heathen;" an "impudent slanderer," with "Satanic guilt only exceeded by Satan himself, if even by him." He is an "echo of Satan."
Robert Hall well said, "I would not incur the guilt of that virulent abuse which Toplady cast upon him [Wesley], for points merely speculative and of very little importance, for ten thousand worlds."
Poetswho should have sung for Jesus prostituted their gifts and burdened their songs with the bitterest invectives against Wesley and his people.
One entitles his poem "Perfection: a practical epistle, calmly addressed to the greatest hypocrite in England—that person being John Wesley."
Another poem was entitled "Methodism Displayed: a satire, illustrated and verified from John Wesley's fanatical Journals."
Another, entitled "The Mechanic Inspired: or, The Methodists' Welcome to Rome." As a specimen of this delectable production we give the following stanza: