1766 With the exception of his usual Kentish tour, the rest of Age 63 the year was spent in London. Here he preached on family religion, which he calls "the grand desideratum among the Methodists." He also delivered one or more discourses, as he had previously done in Bristol, on the education of children, "wherein," says he, "we are shamefully wanting." Some of the Bristol people answered, by saying, "Oh, he has no children of his own!" But the London Methodists were convinced of their defects. He also commenced a course of sermons on Christian perfection, "if haply," says he, "that thirst after it might return, which was so general a few years ago. Since that time, how deeply have we grieved the Holy Spirit of God! Yet two or three have lately received His pure love; and a few more are brought to the birth." Every one must be struck with Wesley's almost unequalled labours,-labours prosecuted, not for honour, inasmuch as, for the present, at all events, they only brought him contempt and ridicule; nor for fortune, inasmuch as he took nothing from the people among whom he laboured, except, occasionally when his purse was empty, a few pence or shillings to pay his turnpike gates or his ostler's bill. Indeed, money, like all his other talents, he devoted entirely to the work of God. He sometimes had it; but he never kept it. "Hundreds and thousands," says Thomas Olivers, "are for ever draining Mr. Wesley's pocket to the last shilling, as those about him are eye witnesses."1 A remarkable instance of this occurred in the year 1766. Two years before, when at Durham, he met with Miss Lewen, a young lady of about two-and-twenty, with a yearly income of £600, at her own disposal. Some months previously, she had found peace with God, and had joined the Methodists. A friendship sprung up. Her father treated Wesley with the utmost civility, and said, he had done his daughter more good than all the physicians had; and wished her to go to London, where she might have the benefit of his advice, and also communion with his people. She went, and made her abode with Miss Bosanquet, Sarah Crosby, and Sarah Ryan, 1 Olivers' "Rod for a Reviler." 1766 at their orphanage at Leytonstone. Her health was exceedingly infirm, suffering as she did from a heart disease. In Age 63 October, 1766, after a few days' illness, she expired; some of her last words being, "Oh now I know I shall be with Christ for ever! Yes, I shall be with Thee, O Lord, for ever! Oh for ever! for ever! for ever! Yes! I shall be with Thee for ever!" Wesley went to visit her, but found her dead; and, after describing her last moments, writes: "So died Margaret Lewen! a pattern to all young women of fortune in England: a real Bible Christian." Wesley's serious accident, by the falling of his horse in Southwark, at the end of 1765, has been already mentioned. A few months after, Miss Lewen gave him a chaise and a pair of horses, which, as occasion required, he began to use. She also left him a legacy of £1000, and "a sum of money,' says Lloyd's Evening Post, "to build a chapel, under his direction." The latter statement is a doubtful one; but it is a fact that, in a codicil, she bequeathed to Miss Bosanquet's orphanage £2000, and wished to make it ten or twelve; but Miss Bosanquet prevailed upon her to let her take the codicil and burn it.3 Considerable unpleasantness ensued; but, on August 11, 1767, Wesley writes: "I came to a friendly conclusion with Mr. Lewen. He agreed to pay the legacies on the 2nd of November, and we relinquished the residue of the estate. So the harpy lawyers are happily disappointed, and the design of the dying saint, in some measure, answered." By Miss Lewen's will Wesley became the owner of £1000, probably the largest sum that he ever had in his possession. The money, however, was soon gone. In reference to it, Wesley says: "I am God's steward for the poor;" and among the poor it was speedily distributed. His own sister, Mrs. Hall, deserted by her worthless husband, applied for a portion, but applied too late. Hence the following characteristic letter, written within two years after Miss Lewen's death. 1766 Age 63 "KINGSWOOD, October 6, 1768. "DEAR PATTY,-You do not consider, money never stays with me: it would burn me if it did. I throw it out of my hands as soon as possible, lest it should find a way into my heart. Therefore, you should have spoken to me while I was in London, and before Miss Lewen's money flew away. However, I know not, but I may still spare you £5, provided you will not say, 'I will never ask you again,' because this is more than you can tell; and you must not promise more than you can perform. "Oh how busy are mankind! and about what trifles! Things that pass away as a dream! Vanity of vanities, all is vanity, but to love and serve God. "I am, dear Patty, your ever affectionate, "JOHN WESLEY.” 1 It is pleasant to be loved; it is painful to be hated and despised. Wesley had as great a share of both hatred and affection as most who have ever lived. For more than thirty years, he had been the butt of malice, as well as the object of Christian sympathy and love. He was the cynosure towards which both loving and malignant eyes were turned. This state of things still continued. Much has been already said concerning Methodist persecution; much yet remains unsaid. In 1766, a translation of Formey's Ecclesiastical History, in two volumes, was given to the public, and had attached to it an appendix, containing "an account of Mr. Wesley and his sect." The translator tries to write fairly, but still speaks of Wesley's doctrines as issuing "in spiritual pride," and as having a dangerous influence on “virtuous practice." The Gospel Magazine, also, deemed it its pious duty to publish" A Dialogue between the Foundery and the Tabernacle, occasioned by the late publication of the Rev. Mr. John Wesley's sermon upon Imputed Righteousness.'" The Tabernacle, of course, bombards the Foundery, and thinks that it wins a glorious victory. Wesley "writes neither with the wisdom of the scholar, the judgment of the divine, the ability of the critic, nor with a becoming mildness and moderation. His principles also are very erroneous." Laurence Sterne, clever but self conceited, pretentiously generous, but sensually selfish, published his "Yorick's Ser 1 Methodist Magazine, 1845, p. 1168. mons and Meditations," and adorned them by describing 1766 Methodist preachers as "illiterate mechanics, much fitter to Age 63 make a pulpit than to get into one." The Rev. John Tottie, D.D., archdeacon of Worcester, and chaplain in ordinary to his majesty, at the request of the clergy, issued "Two Charges, delivered in the diocese of Worcester, in the years 1763 and 1766: one against the Papists, and the other against the Methodists "; the reverend archdeacon advancing the postulatum, that "the tenets and practices of the Methodist teachers are conformable to those of the papists, and have a direct tendency to lead men into popery." Not only Churchmen, but Dissenters, mustered to the battle. A shilling pamphlet was published, with the title, "The Causes and Reasons of the present Declension among the Congregational Churches in London and the Country; interspersed with reflections on Methodism and Sandemanianism." Methodism was growing; congregationalism was declining. Why? The writer attributes the declension to "the encroachments of the Methodists and the Sandemanians"; and strongly censures the congregationalists for their "departure from the Bible, for the sake of following the inventions of men, the cant of fanatics, and the nostrums of systematic divines." Poetry likes to live among flowers, and in scenes of sublimity and beauty; in 1766, it found a fresh well of inspiration, and made the old Foundery its Helicon. The newspapers were enriched with poetical effusions, like "A Modern Summer's Evening," in which "Methodists to church repair, Porters, tinkers, crowds, in shoals, More their own than neighbours' souls."1 Besides these, the public were amused by the publication of "The Methodist and Mimic," a tale in Hudibrastic verse; by Peter Paragraph; inscribed to Samuel Foote, Esq., who doubtless nursed the bantling with natural affection. There was also "The New Bath Guide; or, Memoirs of 1 Lloyd's Evening Post, July 25, 1766. Age 63 1766 the B-r-d Family, in a series of poetical Epistles;" the whole of which are rakish, vile productions, and that on Methodism so pollutingly obscene, that it would be criminal to quote it. And then, to crown the whole, there was "The Methodist. A poem. By the author of the 'Powers of the Pen,' and the 'Curate.'" Two extracts may be given as fair specimens of the whole. After portraying Whitefield, the illustrious poet describes Wesley thus. "A second agent, like the first, Who on demoniac milk was nursed, Lean is the saint, and lank, to show How bright his inward candles shine." Wesley's itinerants afford the poetic author wondrous amusement. suffice: A very few of his sketchy couplets must "Salvation now is all the cant; Salvation is the only want: Of the new birth they prate, and prate, With prayers, with sermons, groans, and creeds. |