THE THIRTEENTH PART

THE JOURNAL FROM OCTOBER 29, 1762, TO MAY 45, 1765

In the eighteenth century the definition of truth fired passion, and created controversies which separated chief friends, just as in previous centuries it had divided nations into hostile camps. Wesky formulated no Creed. His so called ' Standard Sermons' his ' Notes on the New Testament! and his ' conversations' on doctrine recorded in the Doctrinal Minutes, he himself regarded as the exposition of truths defined in the New Testament and restated in the Articles and Homilies of the Church of England. His nearest approach to a newly defined doctrine was that of Christian Perfection. But this also he placed, and justly placed, in the same category as Justification by Faith, the Witness of the Spirit, and the New Birth. They were all alike New Testament and Church of England doctrines. It is interesting to remember that his own study of this subject began coincidently with his own religious awakening-with Thomas a Kempis's 'Imitation of Christ',' Jeremy Taylor's ' Holy Living' and William Law's ' Christian Perfection.' Henceforth each springtide of his religious life and work was invariably associated with this doctrine. His influence over the Methodist preachers, and through them over the people, may be measured by the brightness with which this truth shone in the pulpits, the class-meetings, and the home circles of Methodism. The influence of this doctrine on the religious life of the times may be gauged by the popularity of hymns, written chiefly by Charles Wesley, for Believers seeking Full Redemption; by the extremes into which unbalanced minds drifted, and by the fierce controversies which were the inevitable result of such extremes. John Wesley strove to guard the preachers against unscriptural and extravagant views. His own opinions on the subject underwent modification in proportion as he saw the danger of mystical and the immeasurable value of practical interpretations. ' Christian Perfection' won for him great friendships and bitter enmities. It did more, perhaps, than anything else to differentiate Methodism from other religious communities, by sharply defining its faith and intensifying its zeal.

1762. OCT. 29, Fri. - I left Bristol, and the next day came to London.

Nov. 1, Mon. - I went down to Canterbury. Here I seriously reflected on some late occurrences, and, after weighing the matter thoroughly, wrote as follows: [Obviously to Thomas Maxfield. For Fletcher's opinion see his letter to Charles Wesley, Nov. 22, 1762 {Arm. Mag. 1795, p. 49). Henry Moore gives details of the dispute {Life of Wesley, vol. ii. pp. 218-31). For Maxfield Wesley had sincere regard. He was one of the first Methodist lay preachers. On Wesley's recommendation, Dr. Barnard, Bishop of Derry, ordained him in Bath (where the bishop was staying for his health), saying: ' Sir, I ordain you to assist that good man, that he may not work himself to death.' After some years of faithful service Maxfield fell into Antinomian error, and gave countenance to dreamers and fanatics. Wesley, wishing to save him, wrote the letter here published.]

Without any preface or ceremony, which is needless between you and me, I will simply and plainly tell what I dislike in your doctrine, spirit, or outward behavior. When I say yours, I include brother Bell [Bell, Maxfield's intimate friend, was a corporal in the King's Life Guards-a good man spoiled by visionaries and crazy ideas. See his letter to Wesley, written in 1761, and published in the Arm. Mag. 1780, in which he describes bis attainment of Christian perfection. Owen was his ally, and an enthusiast. They met in Guilford's house in a society of their own (see Tyerman's Life oj Wesley, vol. ii. pp. 433-4). An article entitled, 'Thoughts on the Work of Sanctification,' by ' G. C." (probably George Cussons, of West Street, who came to London from Yorkshire in 1 769), gives a vivid account of the ' Great Revival' and of what followed {Arm. Mag. 1790, p. 42):

About the years 1760 and 1761 there was a great work of God in London, which spread through the three kingdoms. Numbers were freely justified, and many truly cleansed from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, and enabled to love God with all their hearts.. They carried the fire of love with them.. and were astonishingly useful. G. C. then asks, ' Could these pillars fall We thought not. They thought not. Here commenced the work of the devil." Without naming any one, he describes the Maxfield-Bell fanaticism, of which he was ' an eye and ear witness.' They even professed ' to have the gifts of healing, and in London did really attempt to heal the blind and to raise the dead. After this they found fault with their ministers.... This caused a division... two hundred of these strong ones left the weaker to shift for themselves, and took with them a minister whom they chose.' The ' minister ' was Maxfield.] and Owen, and those who are most closely connected with them.

NOV. 1762

Letter to Maxfield

1. I like your doctrine of Perfection, or pure love; love excluding sin; your insisting that it is merely by faith; that consequently it is instantaneous (though preceded and followed by a gradual work), and that it may be now, at this instant.

But I dislike your supposing man may be as perfect as an angel; that he can be absolutely perfect; that he can be infallible, or above being tempted; or that the moment he is pure in heart he cannot fall from it.

I dislike the saying, This was not known or taught among us till within two or three years. I grant you did not know it. You have over and over denied instantaneous sanctification to me; but I have known and taught it (and so has my brother, as our writings show)[ But Charles Wesley, in reaction from the extravagances of Maxfield and Bell, modified his views (Jackson's Life of C. Wesley, vol. ii. p. 210).] above these twenty years.

I dislike your directly or indirectly depreciating justification, saying a justified person is not in Christ, is not born of God, is not a new creature, has not a new heart, is not sanctified, not a temple of the Holy Ghost, or that he cannot please God, or cannot grow in grace.

I dislike your saying that one saved from sin needs nothing more than looking to Jesus; needs not to hear or think of anything else; believe, believe, is enough; that he needs no self-examination, no times of private prayer; needs not mind little or outward things; and that he cannot be taught by any person who is not in the same state.

I dislike your affirming that justified persons in general persecute them that are saved from sin; that they have persecuted you on this account; and that for two years past you have been more persecuted by the two brothers than ever you was by the world in all your life.

2. As to your spirit, I like your confidence in God, and your zeal for the salvation of souls.

But I dislike something which has the appearance of pride, of overvaluing yourselves and undervaluing others; particularly the preachers; thinking not only that they are blind, and that they are not sent of God, but even that they are dead-dead to God, and walking in the way to hell; that they are going one way, you another; that they have no life in them. Your speaking of yourselves as though you were the only men who knew and taught the gospel; and as if not only all the clergy, but all the Methodists besides, were in utter darkness.

I dislike something that has the appearance of enthusiasm, overvaluing feelings and inward impressions; mistaking the mere work of imagination for the voice of the Spirit; expecting the end without the means; and undervaluing reason, knowledge, and wisdom in general.

I dislike something that has the appearance of Antinomianism, not magnifying the law, and making it honourable; not enough valuing tenderness of conscience and exact watchfulness in order thereto; using faith rather as contradistinguished from holiness than as productive of it.

But what I most of all dislike is, your littleness of love to your brethren, to your own society; your want of union of heart with them, and bowels of mercies toward them; your want of meekness, gentleness, longsuffering; your impatience of contradiction; your counting every man your enemy that reproves or admonishes you in love; your bigotry and narrowness of spirit, loving in a manner only those that love you; your censoriousness, proneness to think hardly of all who do not exactly agree with you; in one word, your divisive spirit. Indeed, I do not believe that any of you either design or desire a separation; but you do not enough fear, abhor, and detest it, shuddering at the very thought. And all the preceding tempers tend to it and gradually prepare you for it. Observe, I tell you before. God grant you may immediately and affectionately take the warning!

3. As to your outward behaviour, I like the general tenor of your life, devoted to God, and spent in doing good.

But I dislike your slighting any, the very least rules of the bands or society; and your doing anything that tends to hinder others from exactly observing them. Therefore,

I dislike your appointing such meetings as hinder others from attending either the public preaching or their class or band; or any other meeting which the rules of the society or their office requires them to attend.

I dislike your spending so much time in several meetings, as many that attend can ill spare from the other duties of their calling, unless they omit either the preaching, or their class, or band. This naturally tends to dissolve our society, by cutting the sinews of it.

As to your more public meetings, I like the praying fervently and largely for all the blessings of God; and I know much good has been done hereby, and hope much more will be done.

But I dislike several things therein: (i) the singing, or speaking, or praying, of several at once; (2) the praying to the Son of God only, or more than to the Father; (3) the using improper expressions in prayer; sometimes too bold, if not irreverent; sometimes too pompous and magnificent, extolling yourselves rather than God, and telling Him what you are, not what you want; (4) using poor, flat, bald hymns; (5) the never kneeling at prayer; (6) your using postures or gestures highly indecent; (7) your screaming, even so as to make the words unintelligible; (8) your affirming people will be justified or sanctified just now; (9) the affirming they are, when they are not; (10) the bidding them say, 'I believe'; (n) the bitterly condemning any that oppose, calling them wolves, &c.; and pronouncing them hypocrites, or not justified.

Read this calmly and impartially before the Lord, in prayer. So shall the evil cease, and the good remain; and you will then be more than ever united to

Your affectionate brother,

JOHN WESLEY. CANTERBURY, Nov. 2,1762.

Sat. 6.-Having had more satisfaction here than I had had for many years, I cheerfully commended the little flock to God. In the way to London I read The Death of Abel.[ By Solomon Gessner. Prohably the translation by Mary Collyer, London, 1761. Another translation, by Thomas Newcomb, ' attempted in the style of Milton.' See Arm. Mag. 1789, p. 527.Gessner was at once painter and poet (W.ff.S. vol. iv. p. 136).] That manner of writing, in prose run mad, I cordially dislike; yet, with all that disadvantage, it is excellent in its kind, as much above most modern poems as it is below Paradise Lost.

I had hopes of seeing a friend at Lewisham in my way [Probably Mrs. Dewal. See Mtthoaism in Lewisham, p. 20]; and so I did; but it was in her coffin. It is well, since she finished her course with joy. In due time I shall see her in glory.

Mon. 8.-I began visiting the classes, in many of which we had hot spirits to deal with. Some were vehement for, some against, the meetings for prayer which were in several parts of the town. I said little, being afraid of taking any step which I might afterwards repent of. One I heard of on Friday, and five on Saturday, who, if I did not act as they thought best, would leave the society. I cannot help it. I must still be guided by my own conscience.

Tues. 16.-I preached at Deptford and Welling, and Wednesday the 17th rode on to Sevenoaks; but it was with much difficulty; for it was a sharp frost, and our horses could very hardly keep their feet. Here likewise I found several who believed that God had cleansed them from all sin; and all of them (except perhaps one) lived so that one might believe them.

Fri. 19.-I called upon Jane Cooper,[ Wesley's estimate of her character and of her writing was very high. The fragments of her writing which remained after her death he published, saying of them, ' Though they're little, they are golden sands.' He told her story and quoted one of her letters in his Plain Account. See Green's Bibliograthy, No. 225.] praising God in the fires. The next day I saw her for the last time, in everything giving thanks, and overcoming all by the blood of the Lamb. A day or two after she fell asleep.

From Monday the 22nd to Friday the 26th I was employed in answering the Bishop of Gloucester's book.[ Warburton began lite as an attorney. Of his most famous literary work the orthodox said it was more dangerous to scripture truth than the deistical writers whom it attacked. In 1762 he published a work in two volumes, The Doctrine oj Grace: Or the Office and Operations oj the Holy Spirit Vindicated from the Insults of Infidelity and the Abuses of Fanaticism. Warburton sent the manuscript to Wesley with a request that he would notice its errors. Wesley says, 'After correcting the false readings, improper glosses, and other errors, returned it,' and wrote to his brother Charles (Jan. 5, 1762, Works, vol. xii. p. 122). ' I was a little surprised to find Bishop Warburton so entirely unacquainted with the New Testament; and, notwithstanding all his parade of learning, I believe he is no critic in Greek.' For Wesley's reply to Warburton see Works, vol. ix. pp. 117-173. Whitefield, Andrews of St. Mary's Hall, Oxford, John Payne, and Dr. Leland also replied. Sir Leslie Stephen, in his English Thought in the Eighteenth Century, says, ' If, as he elegantly expressed it, "he trimmed Hume's jacket" for not believing in the miracles, he belabored Wesley still more vigorously for believing they are not yet extinct.' See also Tyerman's Life of Wesley, vol. ii. p. 492; Green's Anti-Methodist Publications, No. 342, and Boswell's Life of Tohnson, p. 400, Fitzgerald's Edition.]

Wed.24.-Being determined to hear for myself, I stood where I could hear and see, without being seen. George Bell prayed, in the whole, pretty near a hour. His fervour of spirit I could not but admire. I afterwards told him what I did not admire; namely, (i) his screaming, every now and then, in so strange a manner, that one could scarce tell what he said; (2) his thinking he had the miraculous discernment of spirits; and (3) his sharply condemning his opposers.

Thur. 25.-I buried the remains of Jane Cooper, a pattern of all holiness, and of the wisdom which is from above, who was snatched hence before she had lived five-and-twenty years. In good time! God, who knew the tenderness of her spirit, took her away ' from the evil to come.'

Mon. 29.-I retired, to transcribe my answer to Bishop Warburton. My fragments of time I employed in reading and carefully considering the lives of Magdalen de Pazzi,[ A religious Carmelite, who died at Florence in 1607, was beatified by Urban VIII and canonized by Clement IX (1669) Her biography, written in Italian by Vincenzio Puccini, and translated into French by Dr. Thomas Smith (London, 1687), attempts to show that there was nothing but what was natural in her miracles. See Vaughan's Hours with the Mystics, vol. ii. p. 131.] and some other eminent Romish saints. I could not but observe (i) that many things related therein are highly improbable. I fear the relators did not scruple lying for the Church, or for the credit of their Order; (2) that many of their reputed virtues were really no virtues at all; being no fruits of the love of God or man, and no part of the mind which was in Christ Jesus; (3) that many of their applauded actions were neither commendable nor imitable; (4) that what was really good in their tempers or lives was so deeply tinctured with enthusiasm that most readers would be far more likely to receive hurt than good from these accounts of them.

DEC. 4, Sat.-At the desire of Mr. Maxfield, and the seeming desire of themselves, I baptized two foreigners (one of them in a Turkish habit), who professed themselves to have been Turks.[ See below, Jan. 5, 1763. On investigation they proved to be impostors.] On this I then remarked,' They may be what they profess, but I wait for further evidence. Their story is extremely plausible; it may be true, or it may not.'

Sun. 5.-To take away one ground of contention from many well-meaning people, in preaching on ' The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard-seed," I endeavored to show at large in what sense sanctification is gradual, and in what sense it is instantaneous. And (for the present, at least) many were delivered from vain reasonings and disputings.

Monday the 6th, and the following days, I corrected the notes upon the Revelation. Oh how little do we know of this deep book! At least, how little do I know! I can barely conjecture, not affirm any one point concerning that part of it which is yet unfulfilled.

Wed. 8.-I had a second opportunity of hearing George Bell. I believe part of what he said was from God (this was my reflection at that time), part from an heated imagination; but as he did not scream, and there was nothing dangerously wrong, I did not yet see cause to hinder him.

Dec. 1762

In London

All this time I observed a few of our brethren were diligently propagating that principle that none can teach those who are renewed in love unless he be in the state himself. I saw the tendency of this, but I saw that violent remedies would not avail.[ On Dec. 11 he wrote to his brother respecting the Maxfield-Bell revolt: ' For eighteen or twenty days I heard with both ears, but rarely opened my mouth.' He thus describes the meeting in Beech Lane; ' Like a bear-garden; full of noise, brawling, cursing, swearing, blasphemy, and confusion. Those who prayed were partly the occasion of this,

by their horrid screaming andunscriptural, enthusiastic expressions.' He removed

the meeting to the Foundery, and so cured the screaming and delivered the

society from worthless numbers. He reminds Charles that he bought the

ground before Kingswood School of Margaret Ward with his own money,

and pronounces Bishop Warburton a man of sense; ' but I verily think he

does not understand Greek' (Works, vol. xii. p. 123).] Mon. 13.-I mentioned this to some of my friends, and told them what would be the consequence; but they could not believe it, so I let it rest; only desiring them to remember I had told them before.

Sun. 19.-From Matt, xviii. 3 I endeavored to show those who use the word without understanding it what Christian simplicity properly is, and what it is not. It is not ignorance or folly; it is not enthusiasm or credulity. It is faith, humility, willingness to be taught, and freedom from evil reasonings.

Tues. 21.-I had an opportunity of looking over the register of St. Luke's Hospital [A' relief' insane-hospital, Bethlehem (corrupted to Bethlem and Bedlam) having become inadequate. It stood on the north boundary of Moorfields ms-li-ms to Bedlam. In 1790 it was replaced by the present Hospital in Old Street.]; and I was surprised to observe that three in four (at least) of those who are admitted receive a cure. I doubt this is not the case of any other lunatic hospital either in Great Britain or Ireland.

Wed. 22.-I heard George Bell once more, and was convinced he must not continue to pray at the Foundery. The reproach of Christ I am willing to bear, but not the reproach of enthusiasm, if I can help it.[ On Dec. 23 he wrote to his brother (Works, vol. xii. p. 124). Like others of the series, the letter seems to be part only of the original. The Maxfield trouble is still an insoluble mystery as well as the supreme hindrance to perfect success. Referring to imaginary converts in the Revival, he says: ' Some of these, and two or three others, are still wild. But the matter does not stick here. I could play with all these, if Thomas Maxfield were right. He is mali caput et rons [the head and fountain of the evil]; so inimitably wrong-headed, and so absolutely unconvincible; and yet (what is exceeding strange) God continues to bless his labors.' The Short History of the People called Methodists at this, as at other points, should be read. Practically it is another version of the Journal, here condensed, there fuller, but always worth study. The following, for instance, might fairly be woven into the Journal text, as another resume of the year now closing:All January, 1762, God continued to work mightily, not only in and about London, but in most parts of England and Ireland. February 5 I met at noon, as usual, those who believed they were saved from sin, and warned them of the enthusiasm that was breaking in by means of two or three weak, though good men, who, through a misconstrued text in the Revelation,inferred that they should not die. This gave great occasion of triumph to those that sought occasion; who rejoiced as though they had found great spoil. This year, from the beginning to the end, was a year never to be forgotten. Such a season I never saw before. Such a multitude of sinners were converted from the error of their ways, in all parts both of England and Ireland, and so many were filled with pure love.]

Sat. 25.-We met at the chapel in Spitalfields, to renew our covenant with God; and He did indeed appear in the midst of the congregation, and answer as it were by fire.

Sun. 26.-That I might do nothing hastily, I permitted George Bell to be once more (this evening) at the chapel in West Street, and once more (on Wednesday evening) at the Foundery. But it was worse and worse; he now spoke as from God what I knew God had not spoken. I therefore desired that he would come thither no more.

I well hoped this would a little repress the impetuosity of a few good but mistaken men; especially considering the case of Benjamin Harris, the most impetuous of them all. A week or two ago, as he was working in his garden, he was struck raving mad. He continued so till Tuesday, December 21, when he lay still and sensible, but could not speak; till, on Wednesday morning, his spirit returned to God.

Fri. 31.-I now stood and looked back on the past year; a year of uncommon trials and uncommon blessings. Abundance have been convinced of sin; very many have found peace with God; and in London only, I believe, full two hundred have been brought into glorious liberty. And yet I have had more care and trouble in six months than in several years preceding. What the end will be, I know not; but it is enough that God knows.

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