He served them faithfully, but his stiff high churchmanship antagonized them. He had a naive attachment to Sophia Hopkey, niece of the chief magistrate of Savannah , who married another man, and Wesley unwisely courted criticism by repelling her from Holy Communion. In December he fled from Georgia; misunderstandings and persecution stemming from the Sophia Hopkey episode forced him to go back to England.
From this point onward, at the age of 35, Wesley viewed his mission in life as one of proclaiming the good news of salvation by faith, which he did whenever a pulpit was offered him. The congregations of the Church of England, however, soon closed their doors to him because of his enthusiasm. For a year he worked through existing church societies, but resistance to his methods increased.
In George Whitefield , who later became a great preacher of the Evangelical revival in Great Britain and North America, persuaded Wesley to go to the unchurched masses. Wesley gathered converts into societies for continuing fellowship and spiritual growth, and he was asked by a London group to become their leader. Soon other such groups were formed in London, Bristol , and elsewhere. To avoid the scandal of unworthy members, Wesley published, in , Rules for the Methodist societies.
To promote new societies he became a widely travelled itinerant preacher. Because most ordained clergymen did not favour his approach, Wesley was compelled to seek the services of dedicated laymen, who also became itinerant preachers and helped administer the Methodist societies. Because the Bishop of London would not ordain some of his preachers to serve in the United States, Wesley took it upon himself, in , to do so. In the same year he pointed out that his societies operated independently of any control by the Church of England.
Toward the end of his life, Wesley became an honoured figure in the British Isles. We welcome suggested improvements to any of our articles. You can make it easier for us to review and, hopefully, publish your contribution by keeping a few points in mind. Your contribution may be further edited by our staff, and its publication is subject to our final approval. Unfortunately, our editorial approach may not be able to accommodate all contributions. Our editors will review what you've submitted, and if it meets our criteria, we'll add it to the article.
Please note that our editors may make some formatting changes or correct spelling or grammatical errors, and may also contact you if any clarifications are needed. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Learn More in these related Britannica articles: Not only on the basis of the universal Creator and Redeemer common to all humanity but also on the grounds of a shared Christian faith which he set forth as an….
As Wesley noted later,…. Evangelical Friends were concerned with emphasizing the inerrancy and uniqueness of the Bible, the incarnation and atonement of Christ, and other characteristic Protestant doctrines which, although seldom denied outright by Friends, had tended to be subordinated to the quietistic emphasis on….
Without it the names of Wesley and Methodism would likely be nothing more than obscure footnotes in the pages of church history. Burnett calls this event Wesley's "Evangelical Conversion". Wesley allied himself with the Moravian society in Fetter Lane. In he went to Herrnhut , the Moravian headquarters in Germany, to study. Wesley's Oxford friend, the evangelist George Whitefield , was also excluded from the churches of Bristol upon his return from America.
Going to the neighbouring village of Kingswood , in February , Whitefield preached in the open air to a company of miners. Wesley hesitated to accept Whitefield's call to copy this bold step. Overcoming his scruples, he preached the first time at Whitefield's invitation sermon in the open air , near Bristol, in April I could scarce reconcile myself to this strange way of preaching in the fields, of which he [Whitefield] set me an example on Sunday; having been all my life till very lately so tenacious of every point relating to decency and order, that I should have thought the saving of souls almost a sin if it had not been done in a church.
Wesley was unhappy about the idea of field preaching as he believed Anglican liturgy had much to offer in its practice.
Navigation menu
Earlier in his life he would have thought that such a method of saving souls was "almost a sin. From then on he took the opportunities to preach wherever an assembly could be brought together, more than once using his father's tombstone at Epworth as a pulpit. Late in Wesley broke with the Moravians in London. Wesley had helped them organise the Fetter Lane Society , and those converted by his preaching and that of his brother and Whitefield had become members of their bands.
But he believed they fell into heresy by supporting quietism , so he decided to form his own followers into a separate society. From onward, Wesley and the Methodists were persecuted by clergy and magistrates for various reasons. And for his own part, Wesley flouted many regulations of the Church of England concerning parish boundaries and who had authority to preach.
Clergy attacked them in sermons and in print, and at times mobs attacked them. Wesley and his followers continued to work among the neglected and needy. They were denounced as promulgators of strange doctrines, fomenters of religious disturbances; as blind fanatics, leading people astray, claiming miraculous gifts, attacking the clergy of the Church of England, and trying to re-establish Catholicism.
Wesley felt that the church failed to call sinners to repentance , that many of the clergy were corrupt, and that people were perishing in their sins. He believed he was commissioned by God to bring about revival in the church, and no opposition, persecution, or obstacles could prevail against the divine urgency and authority of this commission. The prejudices of his high-church training, his strict notions of the methods and proprieties of public worship, his views of the apostolic succession and the prerogatives of the priest, even his most cherished convictions, were not allowed to stand in the way.
Seeing that he and the few clergy co-operating with him could not do the work that needed to be done, Wesley was led, as early as , to approve local preachers. He evaluated and approved men who were not ordained by the Anglican Church to preach and do pastoral work. This expansion of lay preachers was one of the keys of the growth of Methodism. John Wesley's enormous success as a preacher was based upon an intuitive understanding of the central nervous system. He would open his sermon with a long and detailed description of the torments to which, unless they underwent conversion, his hearers would undoubtedly be condemned for all eternity.
Then, when terror and an agonizing sense of guilt had brought his audience to the verge, or in some cases over the verge, of a complete cerebral breakdown, he would change his tone and promise salvation to those who believed and repented. By this kind of preaching, Wesley converted thousands of men, women and children.
Intense, prolonged fear broke them down and produced a state of greatly intensified suggestibility. In this state they were able to accept the preacher's theological pronouncements without question. After which they were reintegrated by words of comfort, and emerged from their ordeal with new and generally better behavior patterns ineradicably implanted in their minds and nervous systems. Nevertheless, this was not the shared view of his preaching "strategy" and Huxley merely speculated with respect to the method Wesley used. As his societies needed houses to worship in, Wesley began to provide chapels, first in Bristol at the New Room , [46] then in London first The Foundery and then Wesley's Chapel and elsewhere.
The Foundery was an early chapel used by Wesley. When the Wesleys spotted the building atop Windmill Hill, north of Finsbury Fields , the structure which previously cast brass guns and mortars for the Royal Ordnance had been sitting vacant for 23 years; it had been abandoned because of an explosion on 10 May The Bristol chapel built in was at first in the hands of trustees. A large debt was contracted, and Wesley's friends urged him to keep it under his own control, so the deed was cancelled and he became sole trustee.
John Wesley | English clergyman | theranchhands.com
When disorder arose among some members of the societies, Wesley adopted giving tickets to members, with their names written by his own hand. These were renewed every three months. Those deemed unworthy did not receive new tickets and dropped out of the society without disturbance. The tickets were regarded as commendatory letters. When the debt on a chapel became a burden, it was proposed that one in 12 members should collect offerings regularly from the 11 allotted to him. Out of this grew the Methodist class-meeting system in To keep the disorderly out of the societies, Wesley established a probationary system.
He undertook to visit each society regularly in what became the quarterly visitation, or conference. As the number of societies increased, Wesley could not keep personal contact, so in he drew up a set of "General Rules" for the "United Societies". Wesley laid the foundations of what now constitutes the organisation of the Methodist Church. Over time, a shifting pattern of societies, circuits, quarterly meetings, annual Conferences, classes, bands, and select societies took shape.
Circuit officials met quarterly under a senior travelling preacher or "assistant. Classes of a dozen or so society members under a leader met weekly for spiritual fellowship and guidance. In early years, there were "bands" of the spiritually gifted who consciously pursued perfection. Those who were regarded to have achieved it were grouped in select societies or bands. In , there were 77 such members. There also was a category of penitents which consisted of backsliders.
As the number of preachers and preaching-places increased, doctrinal and administrative matters needed to be discussed; so John and Charles Wesley, along with four other clergy and four lay preachers, met for consultation in London in This was the first Methodist conference; subsequently, the conference with Wesley as its president became the ruling body of the Methodist movement. Each circuit included at least 30 appointments a month. Believing that the preacher's efficiency was promoted by his being changed from one circuit to another every year or two, Wesley established the " itinerancy " and insisted that his preachers submit to its rules.
John Wesley had strong links with the North West of England, visiting Manchester on at least fifteen occasions between and Wesley also has links to the Derbyshire town of Chapel-en-le-frith , where he visited four times between and His journal documents his first visit on 28 May preaching in the hamlet of Chapel Milton where the miller purportedly tried to drown out John with the sound of the watermill.
His following visit twenty years later he preached in a field at Townend in Chapel-en-le-frith and by his subsequent visit on 1 April a chapel had been built. All that remains of the original chapel is an archway inscribed "" at the back of the current Townend Methodist Church. Following an illness in John Wesley was nursed by a classleader and housekeeper at an orphan house in Newcastle, Grace Murray.
Taken with Grace he invited her to travel with him to Ireland in where he believed them to be betrothed though they were never married. It has been suggested that his brother Charles Wesley objected to the engagement [58] though this is disputed. Subsequently, Grace married John Bennett preacher and resident of Chapel-en-le-frith and John's last visit to Chapel-en-le-frith on 3 April at the age of 86 was at Grace's request.
As the societies multiplied, they adopted the elements of an ecclesiastical system. The divide between Wesley and the Church of England widened. The question of division from the Church of England was urged by some of his preachers and societies, but most strenuously opposed by his brother Charles. Wesley refused to leave the Church of England, believing that Anglicanism was "with all her blemishes, [ He could not give up the doctrine of an inward and present salvation by faith itself; he would not stop preaching, nor dissolve the societies, nor end preaching by lay members.
As a cleric of the established church he had no plans to go further. When, in , Wesley read Lord King 's account of the primitive church, he became convinced that apostolic succession could be transmitted through not only bishops, but also priests. He wrote that he was "a scriptural episkopos as much as many men in England. Many years later, Edward Stillingfleet 's Irenicon led him to decide that ordination and holy orders could be valid when performed by a presbyter priest rather than a bishop. In , he believed he could not longer wait for the Bishop of London to ordain someone for the American Methodists, who were without the sacraments after the American War of Independence.
Wesley ordained Thomas Coke as superintendent [64] of Methodists in the United States by the laying on of hands , although Coke was already a priest in the Church of England. He also ordained Richard Whatcoat and Thomas Vasey as presbyters. Whatcoat and Vasey sailed to America with Coke.
Wesley intended that Coke and Francis Asbury whom Coke ordained as superintendent by direction of Wesley should ordain others in the newly founded Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States. In , Coke and Asbury persuaded the American Methodists to refer to them as bishops rather than superintendents, [65] overruling Wesley's objections to the change. His brother, Charles, was alarmed by the ordinations and Wesley's evolving view of the matter. He begged Wesley to stop before he had "quite broken down the bridge" and not embitter his [Charles'] last moments on earth, nor "leave an indelible blot on our memory.
The 20th-century Wesley scholar Albert Outler argued in his introduction to the collection John Wesley that Wesley developed his theology by using a method that Outler termed the Wesleyan Quadrilateral. The centrality of Scripture was so important for Wesley that he called himself "a man of one book" [70] —meaning the Bible—although he was well-read for his day. However, he believed that doctrine had to be in keeping with Christian orthodox tradition.
So, tradition was considered the second aspect of the Quadrilateral. Wesley contended that a part of the theological method would involve experiential faith. In other words, truth would be vivified in personal experience of Christians overall, not individually , if it were really truth. And every doctrine must be able to be defended rationally.
He did not divorce faith from reason. Tradition, experience and reason, however, were subject always to Scripture, Wesley argued, because only there is the Word of God revealed "so far as it is necessary for our salvation. The doctrines which Wesley emphasised in his sermons and writings are Prevenient Grace , present personal salvation by faith, the witness of the Spirit, and sanctification.
Unlike the Calvinists of his day, Wesley did not believe in predestination , that is, that some persons had been elected by God for salvation and others for damnation. He understood that Christian orthodoxy insisted that salvation was only possible by the sovereign grace of God. He expressed his understanding of humanity's relationship to God as utter dependence upon God's grace. God was at work to enable all people to be capable of coming to faith by empowering humans to have actual existential freedom of response to God.
Wesley defined the witness of the Spirit as: This doctrine was closely related to his belief that salvation had to be "personal. Sanctification he described in as the "grand depositum which God has lodged with the people called 'Methodists'. He did not contend for "sinless perfection"; rather, he contended that a Christian could be made " perfect in love ". Wesley studied Eastern Orthodoxy and particularly the doctrine of Theosis. One would be able to keep from committing what Wesley called, "sin rightly so-called. A person could still be able to sin , but intentional or wilful sin could be avoided.
Secondly, to be made perfect in love meant, for Wesley, that a Christian could live with a primary guiding regard for others and their welfare. He based this on Christ's quote that the second great command is "to love your neighbour as you love yourself.
This love, plus the love for God that could be the central focus of a person's faith, would be what Wesley referred to as "a fulfilment of the law of Christ. Wesley entered controversies as he tried to enlarge church practice. The most notable of his controversies was that on Calvinism. His father was of the Arminian school in the church. Wesley came to his own conclusions while in college and expressed himself strongly against the doctrines of Calvinistic election and reprobation.
His system of thought has become known as Wesleyan Arminianism , the foundations of which were laid by Wesley and fellow preacher John William Fletcher. Whitefield inclined to Calvinism. When in Wesley preached a sermon on Freedom of Grace , attacking the Calvinistic understanding of predestination as blasphemous, as it represented "God as worse than the devil," Whitefield asked him not to repeat or publish the discourse, as he did not want a dispute. Wesley published his sermon anyway.
Whitefield was one of many who responded. The two men separated their practice in Wesley wrote that those who held to unlimited atonement did not desire separation, but "those who held 'particular redemption' would not hear of any accommodation. Whitefield, Harris , Cennick , and others, became the founders of Calvinistic Methodism. Whitefield and Wesley, however, were soon back on friendly terms, and their friendship remained unbroken although they travelled different paths.
When someone asked Whitefield if he thought he would see Wesley in heaven, Whitefield replied, "I fear not, for he will be so near the eternal throne and we at such a distance, we shall hardly get sight of him. In , the controversy broke out anew with violence and bitterness, as people's view of God related to their views of men and their possibilities. Augustus Toplady , Rowland , Richard Hill and others were engaged on one side, while Wesley and Fletcher stood on the other.
Toplady was editor of The Gospel Magazine , which had articles covering the controversy. In , Wesley began the publication of The Arminian Magazine , not, he said, to convince Calvinists, but to preserve Methodists. He wanted to teach the truth that "God willeth all men to be saved. Later in his ministry, Wesley was a keen abolitionist , [79] [80] speaking out and writing against the slave trade.
John Wesley
He published a pamphlet on slavery, titled Thoughts Upon Slavery, in He wrote, "Liberty is the right of every human creature, as soon as he breathes the vital air; and no human law can deprive him of that right which he derives from the law of nature". Women had an active role in Wesley's Methodism, and were encouraged to lead classes. In , he informally allowed Sarah Crosby , one of his converts and a class leader, to preach. For instance, in , Wesley allowed Crosby to give exhortations.
In the summer of , Mary Bosanquet wrote to John Wesley to defend hers and Sarah Crosby's work preaching and leading classes at her orphanage, Cross Hall. Wesley travelled widely , generally on horseback, preaching two or three times each day. Stephen Tomkins writes that "[Wesley] rode , miles, gave away 30, pounds, Wesley practised a vegetarian diet and in later life abstained from wine for health reasons.
I tell you there is poison in it! After attending a performance in Bristol Cathedral in , Wesley said: I doubt if that congregation was ever so serious at a sermon as they were during this performance. In many places, especially several of the choruses, it exceeded my expectation. He is described as below medium height, well proportioned, strong, with a bright eye, a clear complexion, and a saintly, intellectual face.
Vazeille left him 15 years later. Molly, as she was known, was to return and leave him again on several occasions before their final separation. In , at the death of George Whitefield, Wesley wrote a memorial sermon which praised Whitefield's admirable qualities and acknowledged the two men's differences: In these we may think and let think; we may ' agree to disagree. Wesley's health declined sharply towards the end of his life and he ceased preaching.
On 28 June , less than a year before his death, he wrote:. This day I enter into my eighty-eighth year. For above eighty-six years, I found none of the infirmities of old age: But last August, I found almost a sudden change. My eyes were so dim that no glasses would help me. My strength likewise now quite forsook me and probably will not return in this world.
Wesley died on 2 March , at the age of As he lay dying, his friends gathered around him, Wesley grasped their hands and said repeatedly, "Farewell, farewell. Because of his charitable nature he died poor, leaving as the result of his life's work , members and itinerant preachers under the name "Methodist". It has been said that "when John Wesley was carried to his grave, he left behind him a good library of books, a well-worn clergyman's gown" and the Methodist Church.
Wesley wrote, edited or abridged some publications. As well as theology he wrote about music, marriage, medicine, abolitionism and politics. His written sermons are characterised by spiritual earnestness and simplicity. They are doctrinal but not dogmatic.
The work reflects the influence of Christian mysticism in Wesley's ministry from the beginning to the end, [10] although he ever rejected it after the failure in Georgia mission. Wesley's prose , Works were first collected by himself 32 vols. His chief prose works are a standard publication in seven octavo volumes of the Methodist Book Concern, New York. The Poetical Works of John and Charles, ed. Osborn, appeared in 13 vols. In addition to his Sermons and Notes are his Journals originally published in 20 parts, London, —89; new ed.
Curnock containing notes from unpublished diaries, 6 vols. He also was a noted hymn-writer, translator and compiler of a hymnal. Wesley also wrote on divine physics, such as in Desideratum , subtitled Electricity made Plain and Useful by a Lover of Mankind and of Common Sense In spite of the proliferation of his literary output, Wesley was challenged for plagiarism for borrowing heavily from an essay by Samuel Johnson , publishing in March Initially denying the charge, Wesley later recanted and apologised officially.
Wesley continues to be the primary theological influence on Methodists and Methodist-heritage groups the world over; the largest bodies being the United Methodist Church , the Methodist Church of Great Britain and the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Wesleyan teachings also serve as a basis for the holiness movement , which includes denominations like the Wesleyan Church , the Free Methodist Church , the Church of the Nazarene , the Christian and Missionary Alliance , the Church of God Anderson, IN , and several smaller groups, and from which Pentecostalism and parts of the Charismatic Movement are offshoots.
In addition, he refined Arminianism with a strong evangelical emphasis on the Reformed doctrine of justification by faith. Wesley's house and chapel , which he built in on City Road in London, are still intact today and the chapel has a thriving congregation with regular services as well as the Museum of Methodism in the crypt.
Numerous schools, colleges, hospitals and other institutions are named after Wesley; additionally, many are named after Methodism.
In , Wesleyan University in Middletown , Connecticut, was the first institution of higher education in the United States to be named after Wesley. The now secular institution was founded as an all-male Methodist college. About 20 unrelated colleges and universities in the United States were subsequently named after him. Wesley's legacy is also preserved in Kingswood School , which he founded in to educate the children of the growing number of Methodist preachers.
Stained glass window at Lake Junaluska, North Carolina. Arthur Rank , produced the film John Wesley. The film was a live-action re-telling of the story of the life of Wesley, with Leonard Sachs in the title role. The film was directed by the award-winning film-maker John Jackman. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This article is about the 18th-century Methodist leader.
For other uses, see John Wesley disambiguation. Epworth, Lincolnshire , England. President of the Methodist Conference. History in the United States. Articles of Religion Assurance of salvation Conditional preservation of the saints. Four sources of theological authority. John Wesley Charles Wesley.
- ¿Cómo hacer pastoral urbana? (Spanish Edition).
- El Duende (Spanish Edition).
- Keep Exploring Britannica.
- ADDITIONAL MEDIA!
- 10 fascinating facts about John Wesley and United Methodism | United Methodist Communications.
- Maidens in Training.
Holiness movement Conservative holiness movement Pentecostalism Evangelicalism. The "Aldersgate Flame" commemorates the event and features text from Wesley's journal describing his experience. Wesley's Chapel , originally known as "City Road Chapel". This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
May Learn how and when to remove this template message. Display panel at Gwennap Pit, Cornwall, England. BBC via Wayback Machine. Archived from the original on 4 December Retrieved 1 August Retrieved 16 January Retrieved 25 August Oxford University Press, p. John and Charles Wesley: Preface by Albert Outler. William Law — Hendrickson Publishers".