1741

To his Brother Charles [1]

LONDON, April 21, 1741.

It is not possible for me to set out yet. I must go round and glean after G. Whitefield. I will take care of the books you mention. My Journal is not written yet. The bands and Society are my first care. The bands are purged; the Society is purging: and we continually feel whose hand is in the work.

Send the new-printed Hymns [Whitefield went to Bristol on April 22, and on the 25th wrote (Life, i. 478), ‘Dear Brother Charles [Wesley] is more and more rash. He has lately printed some very bad hymns.’ These were the Hymns on God's Everlasting Love; to which were added ‘The Cry of a Reprobate and the Horrible Decree.’ 18 hymns, 12mo, 36 pp. Printed in 1741 by S. & F. Farley, Bristol. The hymns were ‘very bad’ to a Calvinist.] immediately. We presented a thousand of Barclay [Wesley's Diary shows that he prepared Serious Considerations on Absolute Predestination, extracted from Robert Barclay, in Dec. 1740. It was published by Farley in 1741, 12mo, 24 pp.] to G. Whitefield's congregation on Sunday. On Sunday next I propose to distribute a thousand more at the Foundry.

I am settling a regular method of visiting the sick here. Eight or ten have offered themselves for the work, who are likely to have full employment; for more and more are taken ill every day. Our Lord will thoroughly purge His floor.

I rejoice in your speaking your mind freely. O let our love be without dissimulation!

But I can't yet agree with you in all points. Who is your informer concerning N. Bath I doubt the facts. Have you had them face to face Brother Nowers [See letter of March 21, 1740.] is not [in love with her]. Ask him about them. Let the premises be but proved, and I greatly commend the conclusion.

I am not clear that Brother Maxfield [Thomas Maxfield had been converted at Bristol in 1739 (see letter of May 28 of that year). Hecame to London with Wesley on March 25, 1741, and was busy there for the next few months.] should not expound at Greyhound Lane; nor can I as yet do without him. Our clergymen have miscarried full as much as the laymen; and that the Moravians are other than laymen I know not.

As yet I dare in no wise join with the Moravians: (1) Because their general scheme is Mystical, not scriptural, -- refined in every point above what is written, immeasurably beyond the plain doctrines of the gospel. (2) Because there is darkness and closeness in all their behavior, and guile in almost all their words. (3) Because they not only do not practice, but utterly despise and decry, self-denial and the daily cross. (4) Because they, upon principle, conform to the world in wearing gold and gay or costly apparel. (5) Because they extend Christian liberty, in this and many other respects, beyond what is warranted by Holy Writ. (6) Because they are by no means zealous of good works; or, at least, only to their own people. And (lastly) because they make inward religion swallow up outward in general. For these reasons chiefly I will rather, God being my helper, stand quite alone than join with them -- I mean, till I have full assurance that they will spread none of these errors among the little flock committed to my charge.

O my brother, my soul is grieved for you; the poison is in you; fair words have stole away your heart. I fear you can't now find any at Bristol in so great liberty as Marschall! ‘No English man or woman is like the Moravians!’ [Charles Wesley was now in Bristol. He endorsed the copy of this letter in the Colman Collection: ‘When I inclined to the Germans.’ He had evidently used the words ‘No English man or woman is like the Moravians.' His brother refers to the danger in the Journal, if. 418-20, 424. The trouble was not over. Lady Huntingdon (Life and Times, i. 41), in a letter to John Wesley on Oct. 24, speaks of Charles having declared open war on the Moravian Stillness, and regarded herself as ‘the instrument in God's hand that had delivered him from them.’] So the matter is come to a fair issue. Five of us did still stand together a few months since: but two are gone to the right hand (poor Hutchings [See letter of Dec. 20, 1746.] and Cennick); and two more to the left (Mr. Hall and you). Lord, if it be Thy gospel which I preach, arise and maintain Thine own cause!

To Joseph Humphreys [2]

LONDON, April 27, 1741.

MY DEAR BROTHER, -- I do not understand you. What doctrines do you mean that ‘Christ died for all’ or that ‘he that is born of God sinneth not’ These are not peculiar to me. The first is St. Paul’s, the second is St. John’s.

What grievous temptation do you mean Let us deal openly with one another. But if any doubt arise, O fly to Christ, and confer not with flesh and blood!

I least of all understand what you mean by ‘loving and respecting me.’ Ah, my brother, this will not hold for one month. You will in a very short time love and respect me just as poor Mr. Seward [See letter of March 20, 1739, to Whitefield.] did.

Yet ‘gracious art Thou, O Lord, and true are Thy judgments.’ Adieu.

To George Whitefield [3]

LONDON, April 27, 1741.

Would you have me deal plainly with you, my brother I believe you would: then, by the grace of God, I will.

Of many things I find you are not rightly informed; of others you speak what you have not well weighed.

‘The Society room at Bristol,’ you say, ‘is adorned.’ How Why, with a piece of green cloth nailed to the desk, two sconces for eight candles each in the middle, and -- nay, I know no more. Now, which of these could be spared I cannot tell; nor would I desire either more adorning or less.

But ‘lodgings are made for me or my brother.’ That is, in plain English, there is a little room by the school, where I speak with the people that come to me; and a garret, in which a bed is placed for me. And do you grudge me this Is this the voice of my brother, my son Whitefield

You say, farther, ‘that the children at Bristol are clothed as well as taught.’ I am sorry for it; for the cloth is not paid for yet, and was bought without my consent or knowledge. ‘But those of Kingswood have been neglected.’ This is not so, notwithstanding the heavy debt which lay upon it. One master and one mistress have been in the house ever since it has been capable of receiving them; a second master was placed there some months since; and I have long been seeking for two proper mistresses: so that as much has been done, as matters stand, if not more, than I can answer to God and man.

Well, but ‘you sent down Brother Cennick to be schoolmaster, whom I have turned out.' What, from being schoolmaster You know he never was so at all. You know he now neither designs nor desires it.

Hitherto, then, there is no ground for the heavy charge of ‘perverting your design for the poor colliers.’ Two years since, your design was to build them a school, that their children also might be taught to fear the Lord. To this end you collected some money more than once; how much I cannot say, till I have my papers. But this I know, it was not near one half of what has been expended on the work. This design you then recommended to me, and I pursued it with all my might, through such a train of difficulties as (I will be bold to say) you have not yet met with in your life. For many months I collected money wherever I was: in Kingswood for that house only; in Bristol for the schoolhouse to be built there; in other places generally for Bath. In June 1739, being able to procure none any other way, I bought a little piece of ground and began building thereon, though I had not then a quarter of the money requisite to finish. However, taking all the debt upon myself, the creditors were willing to stay: and then it was that I took possession of it in my own name -- viz. when the foundation was laid; and from that time to this only I immediately made my will, fixing my brother and you to succeed me therein.

Now, my brother, I will answer your main question. I think you can claim no right to that building, either in equity or law, before my demise. And every honest lawyer will tell you the same. But if you repent of your collecting the money towards it I will repay it as speedily as I can; although I now owe more than two hundred pounds on account of Kingswood School only.

But it is a poor case that you and I must be talking thus. Indeed, these things ought not so to be. It lay in your power to have prevented all, and yet to have borne testimony to what you call the truth. If you had disliked my sermon, you might have printed another on the same text, and have answered my proofs, without mentioning my name: this had been fair and friendly. Whereas to proceed as you have done is so far from friendship that it is not moral honesty. Moral honesty does not allow of a treacherous wound or of the bewraying of secrets. I will refer the point even to the judgment of Jews, Turk, Infidel, or heretic.

Indeed, among the latter (i.e. heretics) you publicly place me; for you rank all the maintainers of universal redemption with Socinians themselves. Alas! my brother, do you not know even this,--that the Socinians allow no redemption at all; that Socinus himself speaks thus -- Tota redemptionis nosfrae per Christurn metaphora [‘The whole of our redemption by Christ is a metaphor.’ See letters of June 19, 1731, and Sept. 24, 1753.] and says expressly, Christ did not die as a ransom for any, but only as an example for all mankind How easy were it for me to hit many other palpable blots in that which you call an answer to my sermon! And how above measure contemptible would you then appear to all impartial men, either of sense or learning! But I spare you; mine hand shall not be upon you. The Lord be judge between me and thee!

Alas, my brother, in what manner are you proceeding now, in what manner have you been proceeding even since you unwisely put that weapon into the enemies’ hand Why, you have been continually gathering up all the improper expressions of those who were supposed to be (in some sense) perfect, and then retailing them in your public preaching to the scoffers of the world! Now, you well know that this was just the same thing (in effect), and made the same impression on your hearers, as if under every one of those pictures [you wrote], ‘John Wesley.’ Was this fair or upright dealing

A Spaniard would have behaved more tenderly to his English prisoners.

Put the case now that I should make reprisals, that I should deal with you as you have done with me, that I should publicly repeat all the wrong expressions Which I have heard from Predestinarians, what would follow Why, all that heard me would run from a Predestinarian as they would from a mad dog.

But you are very safe; I cannot meet you here. This field you have all to yourself. I cannot dwell on those things, which have an immediate tendency to make you odious and contemptible. The general tenor both of my public and private exhortations, when I touch thereon at all (as even my enemies know if they would testify), is, ‘Spare the young man, even Absalom, for my sake.’

To Dr. Butler, Bishop of Bristol. [4]

BRISTOL, October 13, 1741.

MY LORD, -- Several persons have applied to flue for baptism. It has pleased God to make me instrumental in their conversion. This has given them such a prejudice for me, that they desire to be received into the Church by my ministry. They choose likewise to be baptized by immersion, and have engaged me to give your Lordship notice, as the Church requires.

To his Brother Charles [5]

BRISTOL, November 7, 1741.

DEAR BROTHER, -- All last week I found hanging upon me the effects of a violent cold I had contracted in Wales; not, I think (as Mr. Turner and Walcam supposed), by lying in a damp bed at St. Bride's, but rather by riding continually in the cold and wet nights and preaching immediately after. But I believed it would pass off, and so took little notice of it till Friday morning. I then found myself exceeding sick, and as I walked to Baptist Mills (to pray with Susanna Basil, who was ill of a fever) felt the wind pierce me, as it were, through. At my return I found myself something better; only I could not eat anything at all. Yet I felt no want of strength at the hour of intercession, nor at six in the evening, whilie I was opening and applying those words, 'Sun, stand thou still in Gibeon; and thou, moon, in the valley of Ajalon.' I was afterwards refreshed, and slept well; so that I apprehended no farther disorder, but rose in the morning as usual, and declared, with a strong voice and enlarged heart, ‘Neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith that worketh by love.' About two in the afternoon, just as I was set down to dinner, a shivering came upon me and a little pain in my back, but no sickness at all, so that I ate a little; and then, growing warm, went to see some that were sick. Finding myself worse about four, I would willingly have lain down. But having promised to see Mrs. Grevil, who had been out of order for some days, I went thither first, and thence to Weavers’ Hall. A man gave me a token for good as I went along: ‘Aye,’ said he, ‘he will be a martyr too by-and-by.’ The scripture I enforced was, ‘My little children, these things I write unto you that ye sin not. But if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.’ I found no want either of inward or outward strength. But afterwards finding my fever increased, I called on Dr. Middleton. By his advice I went home and took my bed: a strange thing to me who had not kept my bed a day (for five-and-thirty years) ever since I had the small-pox. I immediately fell into a profuse sweat, which continued till one or two in the morning. God then gave me refreshing sleep, and afterwards such tranquility of mind that this day, Sunday, November I, seemed the shortest day to me I had ever known in my life.

I think a little circumstance ought not to be omitted, although I know there may be an ill construction put upon it. Those words were now so strongly impressed upon my mind that for a considerable time I could not put them out of my thoughts: ‘Blessed is the man that provideth for the poor and needy; the Lord shall deliver him in the time of trouble. The Lord shall comfort him when he lieth sick upon his bed; make Thou all his bed in his sickness.’

On Sunday night likewise I slept well, and was easy all Monday morning. But about three in the afternoon the shivering returned much more violent than before. It continued till I was put to bed. I was then immediately as in a fiery furnace. In a little space I began sweating; but the sweating seemed to increase rather than allay the burning heat. Thus I remained till about eight o’clock, when I suddenly awaked out of a kind of doze, in such a sort of disorder (whether of body or mind, or both) as I know not how to describe. My heart and lungs, and all that was within me, and my soul too, seemed to be in perfect uproar. But I cried unto the Lord in my trouble, and He delivered me out of my distress.

I continued in a moderate sweat till near midnight, and then slept pretty well till morning. On Tuesday, November 3, about noon, I was removed to Mr. Hooper's. Here I enjoyed a blessed calm for several hours, the fit not returning till six in the evening; and then in such a manner as I never heard or read of. I had a quick pulse, attended with violent heat; but no pain, either in my head, or back, or limbs; no sickness, no stitch, no thirst. Surely God is a present help in time of trouble. And He does ‘make all’ my ‘bed in’ my ‘sickness.’

Wed. 4. -- Many of our brethren agreed to seek God to-day by fasting and prayer. About twelve my fever began to rage. At two I dozed a little, and suddenly awaked in such a disorder (only more violent) as that on Monday. The silver cord appeared to be just then loosing, and the wheel breaking at the cistern. The blood whirled to and fro, as if it would immediately force its way through all its vessels, especially in the breast, and excessive burning heat parched up my whole body, both within and without. About three, in a moment the commotion ceased, the heat was over, and the pain gone. Soon after, it made another attack, but not near so violent as the former. This lasted till half-past four, and then vanished away at once. I grew better and better till nine; then I fell asleep, and scarce awaked at all till morning.

Thur. 5. -- The noisy joy of the people in the streets [Guy Fawkes Day.] did not agree with me very well; though I am afraid it disordered their poor souls much more than it did my body. About five in the evening my cough returned, and, soon after, the heat and other symptoms; but with this remarkable circumstance, that for fourteen or fifteen hours following I had more or less sleep in every hour. This was one cause why I was never light-headed at all, but had the use of my understanding from the first hour of my illness to the last, as fully as when in perfect health.

Fri. 6. -- Between ten and twelve the main shock began. I can but give a faint account of this, not for want of memory, but of words. I felt in my body nothing but storm and tempest, hail-stones and coals of fire. But I do not remember that I felt any fear (such was the mercy of God!) nor any murmuring. And yet I found but a dull, heavy kind of patience, which I knew was not what it ought to be. The fever came rushing upon me as a lion, ready to break all my bones in pieces. My body grew weaker every moment; but I did not feel my soul put on strength. Then it came into my mind, ‘Be still, and see the salvation of the Lord. I will not stir hand or foot; but let Him do with me what is good in His own eyes.’ At once my heart was at ease. ‘My mouth was filled with laughter, and my tongue with joy.’ My eyes overflowed with tears, and I began to sing aloud. One who stood by said, ‘Now he is light-headed.’ I told her, ‘Oh no; I am not light-headed, but I am praising God. God is come to my help, and pain is nothing; glory be to God on high!’ I now found why it was not expedient for me to recover my health sooner: because then I should have lost this experimental proof, how little everything is which can befall the body so long as God carries the soul aloft, as it were on the wings of an eagle.

An hour after, I had one more grapple with the enemy, who then seemed to collect all his strength. I essayed to shake myself, and praise God as before, but I was not able; the power was departed from me. I was shorn of my strength, and became weak and like another man. Then I said, ‘Yet here I hold; lo, I come to bear Thy will, O God.’ Immediately He returned to my soul, and lifted up the light of His countenance. And I felt, ‘He rideth easily enough whom the grace of God carrieth.’

I supposed the fit was now over, it being about five in the afternoon, and began to compose myself for sleep; when I felt first a chill, and then a burning all over, attended with such an universal faintness, and weariness, and utter loss of strength, as if the whole frame of nature had been dissolved. Just then my nurse, I know not why, took me out of bed and placed me in a chair. Presently a purging began, which I believe saved my life. I grew easier from that hour, and had such a night's rest as I have not had before since it pleased God to lay His hand upon me.

To James Hutton [6]

BRISTOL, November 14, 1741.

DEAR JEMMY, -- Almost ever since the beginning of my illness [See previous letter.] (which it has now pleased God in some measure to remove) it has been much upon my mind, especially when I knew not but my Lord was requiring my soul of me, to cause a few words to be written in my name to you or some of the Brethren; and I look upon yours as a providential indication that the time of doing it is now come.

I am afraid that the Moravian teachers who have been lately in London (I mean Mr. Spangenberg, Molther, and the rest) have, with regard to my brother and me (I speak plainly), acted contrary to justice, mercy, and truth.

1. To justice. Is it just for you, my brethren, to enter thus into other men's labors without (I speak of present things), nay, quite contrary to, the judgment and consent of those who were laboring therein before Let us put a case. Suppose I, having learned German perfectly, should in the neighborhood of Marienborn, or in Herrnhut itself (the thing is supposable, if not practicable), go and preach directly contrary to the judgment and consent of the Count, I should think myself to be equally just with a robber on the highway.

2. To mercy. For where is your mercy in separating chief friends, in alluring from us to yourselves by oily words those who have grown up with us from the beginning, who have with us borne the burthen and heat of the day, and were till lately determined to live and die with us I mean (to mention no more) Mr. Gambold, Hutchings, Kinchin, and my brother Hall. What use are these of to you now you have them although, indeed, they are utterly useless to us. What possible end could the bereaving us of them answer, except it were this -- that, by necessitating us to undergo labours which our bodies could not bear, you might hasten our return to Him that sent us For my part, I cannot but declare my sense to be this--that, if I had now gone hence, I should have fallen in my uprightness, but my blood would God have required at your hands.

3. As to truth. How little have you regarded that golden rule ‘Let love be without dissimulation’! How much, very much, of reserve, darkness, and evasion has been in all your proceedings! so much that in very deed I know not now where to have you or how to understand what you say. I know not whether you receive the gospel as the adequate rule either of faith or practice. The good God have mercy upon you if you do or if you do not. To Him I commend my cause, and remain

Your sincere friend.

To Mr. James Hutton, Bookseller, In Little

Wild Street, Near Clare Market, London.

To a Clergyman [7]

Sunday Morning, [ about 1741.]

REVEREND SIR, -- A flying report which I heard last night occasions you this trouble. That I may not put you to any inconvenience (which I should be sorry to do; it would not be doing as I would be done to), I beg to know whether you have any scruples as to administering the Lord's Supper to, Reverend sir,

Your brother and servant.

Editor’s Introductory Notes

[1] After his return from America on March 11, 1741, Whitefield spent several weeks in the neighborhood of London; and Wesley found it necessary to stay there to deal with the difficulties he had created. It was a time of great anxiety, which told heavily on Wesley's health. No wonder his heart burned towards such Moravians as Peter Bhler, with whom he had long conversations on April 6 and May 2. His brother had been even more drawn to them; and this letter shows why Wesley could not join their Church. See Journal, if. 441-2, 451-2.

Jackson considers Wesley was mistaken in thinking Charles had again been affected by Moravian Stillness. See his Charles Wesley, i. 275-8.

[2] On September 9, 1790, Wesley read over Humphreys’ Experience and wrote that he was ‘the first lay preacher that assisted me in England in the year 1738. [Probably at Fetter Lane. On Sept. 1, 1740, he began to assist Wesley at the Foundry. See Journal, ii. 352n; Tyerman's Wesley, i. 347.] . . . He turned Calvinist, and joined Mr. Whitefield, and published an invective against my brother and me.’ He afterwards became a Presbyterian minister, and at last received Episcopal ordination. The ‘invective’ was a letter, not a bitter one, which Whitefield sent to the newspapers. He declared his love for Wesley, but his intention ‘openly to renounce your peculiar doctrines.’

[3] Whitefield had written a long letter to Wesley from Georgia on December 24, 1740. This was printed without his leave or Wesley's, and great numbers of copies were given away at the Foundry. Wesley procured one of them, explained the situation, and tore it in pieces. ‘Every one who had received it did the same.’ Wesley went to see Whitefield in London on March 28, and found that he was resolved to preach against the Wesleys, whose gospel he held to be different from his. On April 4 (Diary) Wesley talked freely with him as they rode in the coach, and on the 27th wrote this letter. See Journal, ii. 421-2, 439, 441; Tyerman's Whitefield, i. 469-75; and letter of April 21.

John Cennick was born at Reading in 1718, and was introduced to the Wesleys and Whitefield by Charles Kinchin. Wesley met him at Reading on March 9, 1739 (see letter of March i6 of that year). Cennick says in his Life that he stayed several days with Whitefield in London in June 1739. When he said he had a mind to visit the brethren at Bristol, Whitefield told him that Wesley was going to build a school for the colliers' children at Kingswood, and asked if he was willing to be one of the masters there. Cennick says he was ‘obedient’ to Whitefield's suggestion. He reached Bristol on June 12. Wesley had left that day in haste for London, but had given directions that Cennick was to be received ‘as his own self.’ Two days later he began to preach; and though on his return Wesley was desired to forbid him, he encouraged him to go on. Cennick recommended Wesley on August 16, 1740, to appoint William Spencer to be ‘a sort of usher to the school at Kingswood under me.’ Cennick himself was employed as lay preacher, not as schoolmaster. Whitefield was wrong in saying that Wesley had turned him out of his position as schoolmaster. He never held that position, though he seems to have taken some oversight of the school, and to have given it an hour or two when not engaged in preaching. Cennick became a strong Calvinist, and in March 1741 caused a division in the Society at Kingswood. In 1745 he joined the Moravians. He died in 1755, leaving hymns which are still loved and cherished. See Journal, if. 149-50n, 228n; W.H.S. vi. 101, 133.

[4] Joseph Butler (1692-1752), author of the Analogy, was Bishop of Bristol 1738-50. Wesley had two interviews with him, on August 16 and 18, 1739. See Diary in Journal, ii. 256-8n.

[5] Captain Turner and his wife were Bristol Methodists. Wesley's Diary (Journal, viii. 161-2, 164; ii. 415) notes his visits to their house. The captain was with Wesley in Wales (ibid. ii. 509-12). His report about a Religious Society at St. Ives led Charles Wesley to begin work in Cornwall in 1743 (Moore's Wesley, ii. 8). -- John Walcam was a broker and teaman in Castle Precincts, whose daughter's illness is described in Journal, iii. 527-30: see W.H.S. iv. 95-6. -- Dr. Middleton attended Charles Wesley without fee in August 1740. In July 1744 Charles ‘passed two hours in Christian conference and prayer with Dr. Middleton and the Church in his house.’ In 1754 he says the doctor had been a father to Mrs. Charles in her illness. When he died in 1760, the poet wrote some beautiful memorial verses about this true friend. -- Mr. Hooper was a maltster in Old Market Street. Charles Wesley visited Mrs. Hooper in her last illness, and preached her funeral sermon on May 8, 1741.

[6] Spangenberg was the Moravian minister in Savannah who asked Wesley the pointed questions as to his religious state on his arrival in America. He reached Georgia in June 1735, and on May 15, 1736, left to take charge of the work in Pennsylvania. He returned to London on October 24, 1739, and ‘on the next day was present at the English lovefeast, when he spoke so well respecting the phlegmatica cornplexio, ardent temperament, and warmth of affection infused into the soul by grace, and respecting the quiet repose to be found in the blood of Christ, that many of the brethren were penetrated to the heart.’ Wesley was in Bristol, and did not return to London till November 3, when he found that Molther's doctrine of Stillness was working mischief. Next day he heard Spangenberg exhort all to lie still in God's hand. On the 7th he had a long conference on the subject with Spangenberg. Molther had come to London on October 18 on his way to Pennsylvania, and remained till September 1740, when he was summoned to Germany. In 1741 a Synodal Conference was held in Red Lion Street from September 11 to 23, consisting of ‘the principal laborers in the Church of the Brethren.’ See Journal, i. 151, if. 312-16; Benham's Hutton, pp. 44, 74-5.

[7] This is an early letter, evidently sent to the clergyman in some place where Wesley was not even sure that he would be allowed to take the Lord's supper.

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