
METHODIST
PENTECOST:
THE WESLEYAN HOLINESS
REVIVAL OF 1758–1763
Charles
H. Goodwin
In
the early, heady days of the Methodist revival Charles Wesley had prophesied to
his brother John, “Your day of Pentecost is not fully come but I doubt not
that it will: and you will then hear of persons sanctified, as frequently as you
do now hear persons justified.”
The prophecy was dramatically fulfilled between the years 1758–1763. At the
close of the latter year Wesley reflected:
Here
I stood and looked back on the late occurrences. Before Thomas Walsh left
England [on April 13, 1758]
God had begun that great work which He has continued ever since without any
considerable intermission. During that whole time many have been convinced of
sin, many justified, and many backsliders healed. But the peculiar work of this
season has been what St. Paul calls “The perfecting of the saints.” Many
persons in London, in Bristol, in York, and in various parts of both of England
and Ireland, have experienced so deep and universal a change as it had not
before entered into their hearts to conceive. After a deep conviction of inbred
sin, of their total fall from God, they have been so filled with faith and love
(and generally in a moment), that sin vanished, and they found that from that
time no pride, anger, desire, or unbelief. They could rejoice evermore, pray
without ceasing, and in everything give thanks.
On
the basis of what Wesley wrote about the revival of 1758–1763 it is possible
to define a Wesleyan Methodist holiness revival as a combination of
evangelical revivalism and Wesleyan perfectionism. An evangelical revival
emphasizes the sinner’s need for immediate justification by faith. Wesleyan
perfectionism emphasizes the saint’s need for immediate entire sanctification
by faith. Justification delivers the sinner from guilt, condemnation and
damnation. Entire sanctification delivers the saint from the power of inbred
sin. The justified Christian seeks to conquer sin while the entirely sanctified
Christian is the conqueror of sin.
These
two possibilities of the Christian life are offered evangelically as
instantaneous transformations rendered by the Spirit of God in response to
simple faith. It is the demand for an immediate decision which makes preaching
evangelical and creates a revival. “Evangelicalism is most impressive,
perhaps,” it has been said, “for the intensity it bestows on our decision to
choose, and from the consequences that flow from this. If we choose to accept
Jesus as our savior, then our lives will be in sublime revolution, every
molecule a dance, every minute scrutinized.”
During
a revival the revolutionary change wrought in a believer’s life was often
accompanied by a whole range of excessive emotional behavior—sobs, tears,
groans, cries of anguish, shouts of joy, falling into a dead faint, violent
convulsions, the pounding of fists on floor, table, chair, pew, and the
spontaneous, loud simultaneous praying of several people. The excitement could
continue for days or weeks, and spread out from the local religious community to
infect the surrounding area.
Some
idea of what took place in a holiness revival can be gained from the revival
which broke out at Otley, a village near Leeds in Yorkshire, on February 13,
1760. It was Wesley’s considered opinion that it was the revival at Otley
which inaugurated the climactic years of the Methodist Pentecost: “Here began
that glorious work of sanctification,” he wrote from the vantage point of
1781, “which had been nearly at a stand for twenty years.”
The
revival began in a cottage meeting for prayer, hymn singing, and conversation
about the necessity for sanctification. Many of those present were justified
Christians who “had no doubt of the favor of God” but who were oppressed by
“the burden they felt for the remains of indwelling sin, seeing in a clearer
light than ever before, the necessity of deliverance from it.” This sense of
oppression and desire for deliverance became so intense that all thirty people
present at the meeting began to groan in anguish. One, then another, began to
cry out, “Lord deliver me from my sinful nature.” These cries of anguish
gave way to shouts of praise from those who experienced the instantaneous
deliverance for which they were praying—“Blessed be the Lord God for ever,
for he hath cleansed my heart” and “Praise the Lord with me, for he hath
cleansed my heart from sin.” The experience of those who had been sanctified
influenced those who had not been justified to ask for pardon. Their sense of
guilt and condemnation allied to their fear of hell provoked cries of “I am
hanging over the pit of hell by a slender thread” and “I am in hell; O save
me, save me.” One proclaimed his deliverance in a markedly different tone of
voice—“Blessed be the Lord, for he hath pardoned my sins.” The group met
again the next evening when “One received remission of sins and three more
believed God had ‘cleansed them from all unrighteousness!’”
The
years of revival were also years of many trials for Wesley. The trials consisted
of Wesley’s problems in maintaining unity within Methodism and with the Church
of England. Wesley always maintained that Methodists were loyal members of the
Church of England because they attended the worship of their parish church. The
Anglican clergy, however, accused Wesley of being subversive through taking away
their congregations and imparting false teaching on subjects like assurance of
forgiveness. At the Conference of 1760 some of Wesley’s own preachers pressed
him for ordination on the grounds that they were already dissenters in
everything but name. Early in 1760 the three Methodist preachers at Norwich
had taken it upon themselves, in response to the requests of the local
Methodists, to administer the Lord’s Supper to them; and elsewhere Methodists
did not attend their local parish church on the grounds they were made to feel
unwelcome when they did so. Both Charles Wesley and William Grimshaw were
opposed to the ordination of the Methodist lay preachers on the grounds that it
would mean separation from the Church of England. Wesley, stiffened by the
support of Howell Harris, rejected the demands of the preachers.
The
doctrine of Christian Perfection was another source of controversy, and
ultimately of schism. In his review of the years 1758–1763 Wesley had to
confess that of those who had claimed to be entirely sanctified: “‘Tis
possible some who spoke in this manner were mistaken, and ‘tis certain some
have lost what they then received. A few (very few compared to the whole
number) first gave way to enthusiasm, then to pride, next to prejudice and
offence, and at last separated from their brethren. But although this laid a
huge stumbling-block in the way, still the work of God went on. Nor has it
ceased to this day in any of its branches. God still convinces, justifies,
sanctifies. We have lost only the dross, the enthusiasm, the prejudice and
offence. The pure gold remains, faith working by love, and we have ground to
believe, increases daily.”
Wesley’s
optimism was justified. Abel Stevens, the author of the centennial history of
Methodism, called the period between 1760–1770 the “Decade of Revivals,”
For Wesley, he says, it was a period of many trials: “But he closed this
period, at the Conference of 1770, with results and prospects such had never
before cheered him. He could hardly now fail to perceive that Methodism was to
be a permanent fact in the religious history of his country. Without design on
his part, its disciplinary system had developed into consistency and strength;
its chapels dotted the land; its ministerial plans formed a network of religious
labors which extended over England, Wales, Ireland, part of Scotland, and
reached even to North America and the West India islands. Seven years before,
“when the number of circuits was first recorded, they were but thirty-one;
they now amounted to fifty. Its corps of lay itinerants included one hundred
and twenty-one men, besides as many, perhaps more, local preachers who were
usually diligent laborers in their sectional spheres. The membership of its
societies was nearly 30,000 strong.”
The
special interest of the revival of 1758–1763 lies in the fact that it was the
first Methodist holiness revival. Methodism from its beginning was a holiness
movement. God’s design in raising up the Methodist preachers was “Not to
form any new sect; but to reform the nation, particularly the Church; and to
spread scriptural holiness over the land.”
The first Methodist revival of 1738–1743, however, although it did encourage
converts to move on to perfection, was primarily an evangelical revival with the
emphasis on “remission of sins through the death of Christ, and the nature of
faith in his blood.” The necessity for pressing on to perfection was spoken
of only occasionally—and in terms open to misunderstanding.
In his sermon on Christian Perfection preached in 1741 Wesley claimed that
only the entirely sanctified were true Christians: “Ye are ‘perfect men’
being grown up to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. It is of
these chiefly I speak in the latter part of this discourse; these only are
properly Christians.”
A careful observer of Methodism at Wednesbury in 1744 understood this to mean
Methodists were teaching “that every true Christian did arrive at such a
degree of perfection as to live entirely free from all sin; and all those who
had not made this progress were no Christians at all; That every person must
receive the Holy Ghost in a sensible manner, so as to feel and distinguish all
its several motions, which sometimes would be quite violent.”
To
prevent such a dire misunderstanding of Methodist teaching the Conference of
1746 found it necessary to draw a distinction between the general use of the
term “Sanctification to denote the gradual death to sin and growth in grace
begun at justification; and the particular use of the term “Entire
Sanctification” to denote that instantaneous total death to sin and entire
renewal in the love and image of God achieved through faith which enabled the
Christian to rejoice evermore, to pray without ceasing, and in everything to
give thanks. In the 1750 version of the sermon on Christian Perfection the
closing phrase was altered to read, “these only are perfect Christians.”
The
1758 Bristol Conference addressed itself to the question of the nature of entire
sanctification because James Rouquet and Thomas Walsh, two of his most
intelligent preachers, had caused great consternation and alarm at Dublin by
saying that, “A believer till perfect is under the curse of God and in a state
of damnation”, and “If you die before you have attained a state of
[perfection] you will surely perish.”
Accordingly the question was asked, “Do you say, ‘Everyone who is not saved
from all sin is in a state of damnation?’” The answer was, “So far from
it, that we will not say any one is in a state of damnation, that fears God and
really strives to please Him.” Wesley also took the opportunity to emphasize
that Christian Perfection did not exclude “all infirmities, ignorance, and
mistakes.” What Christian Perfection did imply was, “The loving God with all
the heart, so that every evil temper is destroyed, and every thought, and word,
and work springs from and is conducted to the end by the pure love of God and
our neighbor.”
In
1760 Wesley wrote his Thoughts on
Christian Perfection in which he drew a distinction between committing a sin
voluntarily as a deliberate transgression of a known law, and involuntarily as a
consequence of “the ignorance and mistakes inseparable from mortality.” The
perfected Christian was still liable to these involuntary transgressions, but
Wesley did not regard them as sins properly so called. Nevertheless, strictly
speaking, there was no such thing as sinless perfection, and he did not use the
term.
Some
of Wesley’s preachers were not impressed either by his claims or by his
definitions. Peter Jaco came away from the 1761 Conference without having been
provided with any passages of scripture to support the experience of
instantaneous Entire Perfection and saying “there is no state in this world
which will absolutely exempt the person in it from sin.”
Others continued to preach that entire sanctification meant freedom from all
sin, for in July 1761 William Grimshaw complained to Wesley that some of his
preachers were teaching that “He is a child of the devil who disbelieves the
doctrine of sinless perfection; and he is no true Christian, who has not
attained it.”
Thomas
Maxfield and George Bell took the doctrine to extremes. They claimed the
perfected Christian lived a life of angelic sinlessness on earth. “Their view
led to a dangerous combination of assertive infallibility and blatant
antinomianism; people began to imagine that they would not die or that they were
immune from temptation. Some, like Bell, also began to practice faith-healing
and speaking in tongues.”
Despite
all the controversy, misunderstanding, and abuse of the doctrine Wesley never
lost confidence in the hope of attaining and enjoying entire sanctification in
this life for many years prior to death. Wesley’s last recorded letter of 1763
was to Dorothy Furley of Bristol. He told her, “Salvation from sin is a deeper
and higher work than either you or Sarah Ryan can conceive. You had a taste of
it when you were justified; you since experienced the thing itself, only in a
low degree; and God gave you His Spirit that you might know the things which He
had freely given you. Hold fast the beginning of your confidence steadfast unto
the end. However, you are right in looking for a farther instantaneous change
as well as a gradual one.”
Here
is the combination of the evangelical revival with the Wesleyan perfectionism
which constitutes the distinctive Wesleyan holiness revival. This study looks at
three aspects of the holiness revival of 1758–1763: the course of the revival,
the reasons for its success, and the experience of entire sanctification. The
conclusion considers the ways in which, if any, the revival prefigured the
holiness revival of the nineteenth century.
A
Kindled Flame: The Course of the Revival
John
Wesley defined a revival as a great impression made upon a considerable number
of people. Two factors were at work in creating this impression: human curiosity
fostered by word of mouth throughout a community, and the preventing grace of
God in drawing people to hear the gospel message of justification by faith. John
Wesley described the course of revival thus: “Everywhere the work of God rises
higher and higher, till it comes to a point. Here it seems for a short time to
be at a stay; and then it gradually sinks again.”
A revival, therefore, consists of three stages: an arousal of religious interest
and excitement culminating in an intense period of religious excitement marked
by numerous sinners being converted, saints sanctified, and backsliders
restored, leading to a decline of excitement ending in acrimony and dissension.
The
holiness revival of 1758–1763 followed this pattern of the arousal, climax and
decline of religious excitement. The years of arousal were 1758 and 1759. The
climactic years were 1760–1762. The decline set in during the latter part of
1762 and continued into 1763.
The
Journal of John Wesley, the lives of the early Methodist preachers, and the
local histories of the more important centers of Methodism all bear witness to
the revival that took place between 1758–1763.
A.
The years of mounting excitement, 1758 and 1759. The last Sunday of January 1758
saw, in London, “an uncommon blessing at West Street and a still greater at
Spitalfields,” when Wesley was preaching. “Some could not refrain from
crying aloud to God. And he did not cast out their prayers.” Religious
excitement had not abated nearly three weeks later when Wesley preached on
Friday, February 13 “at West Street in the morning, at Spitalfields in the
afternoon, and Bull and Mouth in the evening, everywhere to a crowded
audience.”
On April 13, 1758 Thomas Walsh left for Ireland. Wesley followed suit on the
April 28. The end of August found him at Cork where, on the last Sunday of the
month, he “began meeting the children in the afternoon, though with little
hope of doing them good. But I had not spoke long on our natural state before
many of them were in tears, and five or six so affected that they could not
refrain from crying aloud to God. When I began to pray their cries increased, so
that my voice was soon lost. I have seen no such work among children for
eighteen or nineteen years.”
Thomas
Lee’s first appointment as a traveling preacher was to the Lincolnshire
Circuit in 1758. He traveled the arduous circuit for sixteen months spending
two months in the eastern part and then two months in the western part: “There
was a considerable increase in the societies, and many souls were brought to the
saving knowledge of God.”
There were other signs of revival in the unusually large congregations drawn to
hear Wesley preach in Liverpool, Bath, Shepton, Rye, Rolvedon, Northiam,
Colchester and Norwich. A large congregation at Swansea enjoyed, “A very
uncommon blessing.” At Cardiff “two or three were cut to the heart” during
a cottage meeting.
Wesley
spent November in the south-east of England. At Colchester he found that 12
persons had joined the Society within the space of three months. Moving to
Wrestlingworth he preached in the parish church of the evangelical priest, Mr.
Hicks, on the Thursday evening and the Friday morning of November
9 and 10
. In the middle of the Friday morning sermon “A woman before me dropped down
as dead as one had done the night before, in a short time she came to herself,
and remained deeply sensible of her want of Christ.”
He then travelled the four miles to Everton in the company of John Berridge,
the vicar of Everton. A few months before Berridge had undergone an evangelical
conversion: “For many years he was seeking to be justified by his works but a
few months ago, he was thoroughly convinced that ‘by grace’ we ‘are saved
through faith.’ Immediately he began to proclaim aloud the redemption that is
in Jesus; and confirmed his own word exactly as he did at Bristol in the
beginning, by working repentance and faith in the hearers and with the same
violent outward symptoms. I preached at six in the evening and five in the morning
and some were struck just as at Wrestlingworth.”
Alexander
Mather was appointed the superintendent minister of the York Circuit in 1759.
The circuit “included the whole of the West Riding, the Ainsty, and portions
of the North and East Ridings.”
York had been made the head of this new circuit in 1758, and on July 15, 1759
Wesley preached in the new chapel capable of accommodating 400 to 500 people. At
the society meeting at the close of the sermon he “began reading to the
society an account of the late work of God at Everton; but could not get
through. At first there were only silent tears on every side; but it was not
long before several were unable to refrain from weeping aloud; and quickly a
stout young man dropped down and roared as in the agonies of death. I did not
attempt to read any further but began wrestling with God in prayer.”
In Methodist history the combination of new circuit and new chapel frequently
create the conditions for a revival. The outbreak of revival fervour which
accompanied Wesley’s meetings in the new chapel was felt throughout the
circuit. Mather recorded that “1759 was the year the work at Whitney began,
and we had a great outpouring of the spirit in many places.”
There was another revival at Morley in the West Riding of Yorkshire. “A flame
is suddenly broke out here,” wrote Wesley, “where it is least of all
expected. And it spreads wider and wider. When God will work who is able to stay
his hand?”
Signs
of revival continued to be evident in Wesley’s ability to attract large
congregations wherever he went in the course of 1759. His meetings at Grimsby,
Morpeth, and Haxey attracted the largest crowds ever seen in those places. The
large congregations at Colchester, Mareham, North Ilkington, Selby, Acton
Bridge, Bradford, Sunderland, Birstall and North Scarle forced him to preach out
of doors. He was fortunate that the summer of 1759 was exceptionally hot. At
North and South Shields he witnessed the change that Methodism could make
within a community. “The greatest part,” he says of those who turned out to
hear him preach, “seemed to hear as for their lives. So are these lions also
become lambs.”
There were further deeply attentive congregations at Yarm, Hutton, Rudby,
Guisborough and Heptonstall.
B.
The high point of the revival, 1760-1762. 1760 got off to a good start. Wesley
discovered in January that at Brentford “after a stop of ten or twelve years
the work is broke out afresh.” In London the signs of revival exhibited in the
preceding two, years came to fruition during the ministry of Joseph Cownley when
“an extraordinary work commenced in London: the Kingdom of the Redeemer was
enlarged, many were added to the society and renewed in love.”
The revival at Otley in February has already been described.
The
faithful ministry of Christopher Hopper in Scotland, who preached every morning
at five o’clock on Castle Hill in Aberdeen despite the bricks and dead animals
that often flew about him, saw the work of the Lord prosper: “Sinners were
converted, mourners were comforted, and saints built up in their most holy
faith.”
The
progress of Methodism in 1760 was uneven. Wesley preached in the open air at
Dudley without interruption. The former den of lions had been tamed by the
steady behaviour of the Society which had made “an impression on most of the
town.” A similar transformation had taken place at Redruth where “A
multitude of people, rich and poor, calmly attended. So is the roughest become
one of the quietest towns in England.” At Stockport “more and more hear
the word of God and keep it.”
At
Limerick, however, Wesley found “a considerable decrease,” and at Bandon the
Society had declined from 290 to 233 members. Launceston contained “the
small remains of a dead, scattered society.” The society at Camelford was in
a similar condition. The spirit of revival was present at St. Ives and at St.
Just. Practically the whole, town attended Wesley’s open air meetings at St.
Ives, and St. Just had the largest congregation for fourteen years. In both
places the people listened attentively and penitently. Some wept with guilt at
St.1ves, and at St.Just others were struck dumb. Wesley “rejoined to the
society”, at St.Just, “ten or twelve backsliders.” At Plymouth Dock he
found only 34 members left out of an original 70. At four services over the
weekend of September 27 and 28 Wesley “strongly exhorted them to return to
God” to such good effect that, “Many were convinced afresh, many backsliders
cut to the heart.” Wesley left the society “once more between sixty and
seventy members.”
1761
was a good year for Thomas Rankin, on the little, newly formed Sussex circuit.
Faithful pastoral care and positive preaching brought about a revival in which,
“Every day some one or another was brought to the knowledge of God; others
filled with his pure love, and several awakened to a sense of their lost and
undone state.”
It was also another good year for Methodism as a whole. “It seems God was
pleased to pour out His spirit this year,” wrote Wesley, on every part of both
of England and Ireland—perhaps in a manner we have never seen before,
certainly not for twenty years.”
There
were some black spots. There was “a poor shattered society” at Evesham, and
Alnmouth was “a poor barren place, where there is as yet no fruit.” To
offset these disappointments was the success story of Yarmouth where Howell
Harris, an officer in the militia, had established a society in “a large and
populous town . . . as eminent both for wickedness and ignorance as even any
seaport in England.” Overflowing congregations at Birmingham encouraged Wesley
to hope “perhaps the time is come for the gospel to take root even in this
barren soil.” The ministry of Alexander Mather at Hulton Rudby in 1759 had
resulted in a society “about eighty in number” housed in a new building by
1761.
From
his preachers in the North of England Wesley learned that the widespread revival
under way in Yorkshire was exceeded by the one taking place in Lincolnshire,
where there had been no work like it since the time he had preached at Epworth
on his father’s tomb. While Wesley was exhorting the society at Manchester to
go on to perfection “a flame was kindled” which he hoped “neither men
nor devils shall ever be able to quench.” Elsewhere love and harmony prevailed
in societies formerly riven by disputes. Liverpool was “now entirely united
together in judgment as well as in affection.” All disputes were now forgotten
at Bolton, “and the Christians do indeed love one another.” God had
“breathed a spirit of love and peace,” at Norwich, “into all that remain
united together.”
The
cause of Methodism was flourishing in the main urban centers of Methodism.
Newcastle was on the verge of revival with many feeling “their hearts burn
with a fervent desire of being renewed in the whole image of God.” The same
spirit of expectation was to be found at Gateshead Fell and Fewston. “The
congregations were exceeding large,” at Bristol, “and the people hungering
and thirsting after righteousness.” Every day “afforded fresh instances of
persons convinced of sin or converted to God.” The decline at Kingswood had
been arrested: “The society, which had much decreased, being now increased
again to near three hundred members, many of whom are now athirst for full
redemption, which for some years they had almost forgot.” The revival begun at
London under Joseph Cownley in 1760 was still in progress, as was the revival
at Brentford which had been “for many years . . . the darkest, driest spot
of all in or near London. But now God has watered the barren wilderness, and it
is become a fruitful field.”
In
the midst of all the success of 1761 the spectre of secession hung over the
society at London—“the enemy was not wanting in his endeavours to sow
tares among the good soil.” Wesley was aware of the danger but “durst not
use violence, lest in plucking up the tares I should root up the wheat also.”
The
first eleven days of 1762 were
filled with revival fever. There were “near two thousand” at Spitalfields
for communion on January 1. The preaching house at Haverhill was crowded, there
was “a considerably larger congregation” at Steeple Bumstead, and the
“exceeding large preaching place” at Barkway was jampacked with people.
“God both wounded and healed” at Harston (where Wesley preached for the
first time by moonlight), at Melbourn, and at Stoke (Cambridgeshire). A typical
spontaneous praying revival broke out during Wesley’s sermon at Bottesham-Lode.
He had no sooner named his text, “when they had nothing to pay he frankly
forgave them both,” when “a murmur ran through the whole people, and many of
them were in tears.” The concern increased as Wesley went on preaching until
it seemed everyone in the large congregation was affected. A woman near Wesley
“cried with a bitter cry. But in a short time she shouted for joy. So did
several others, so that it was not easy to tell whether more were wounded or
comforted.”
Revival
fervor was much in evidence during Wesley’s visit to Ireland. He “added a
few members” to the society at Carrickfergus, “and left them in peace and
love.” He found “a poor shattered society reduced from fifty to eighteen
members” at Newton[ards]. Wesley spent three days with the society, leaving
behind him “between thirty and forty members full of desire, and hope, and
earnest resolutions not to be ‘almost but altogether Christians.’” He had
no success at Newry where only thirty two members were left “of near one
hundred”. Bandon’s decline had continued since his last visit in 1760 so
that the society was once again “much lessened and dead enough”. Three days
at Waterford, however, saw “several backsliders . . . healed; many awoke out
of sleep. And some mightily rejoiced in God their Savior.”
Wesley
took advantage of his visit to Edenderry to clear up a misconception about his
teaching on sanctification. Many people within the society had stopped reading
his sermons because they thought the sermons “were nothing but the law”
teaching that the holiness which qualified the soul for final salvation
consisted of one’s own good works. Wesley preached from Romans 10:6–8 to
those “toiling to work themselves unto holiness” to such good effect that at
the ensuing society meeting at the close of the service two of the “old
believers” were constrained to declare, “they believed God had cleansed them
from all sin.”
When
Wesley had visited Limerick in 1760 he had found a considerable decrease in
the society which he attributed to the lack of a preaching house, and he had
said he would not visit them again until they were prepared to build one.
Because they expressed a desire to comply with his wish the paid them an
extended visit beginning on June 30. “A considerable sum of money” was
willingly subscribed. Revival broke out at a Love-feast held on July 3: “Five
persons desired to return thanks to God for a clear sense of his pardoning love,
several others for an increase of faith and for deliverance from doubts and
fears. And two gave a plain, simple account of the manner whereby God had
cleansed their hearts, so that they now felt no anger, pride, or self-will, but
continual love and prayer and praise.”
The revival continued unabated for three weeks. On July 18 there were scenes of
intense excitement after the Sunday service: “All were in floods of tears;
they trembled, they cried, they prayed, they roared aloud, all of them lying on
the ground.” On July 25 Wesley was informed there were ten women and thirteen
men who confessed they were entirely sanctified.
Wesley
had spent March 2–29 at Dublin. The congregations were uncommonly large, and
by the time Wesley left, “several mourners had found peace with God, and some
believe he has saved them from all sin. Many more are all on fire for this
salvation, and a spirit of love runs through the whole people.” Wesley
returned July 24 to find “the flame not only continuing but increasing.” The
agent in fanning the flame of revival was John Manners, “a plain man of
middling sense, and not eloquent but rather rude in speech.” In the four
months Wesley had been away about forty people had been sanctified, and “the
same, if not larger number, had found remission of sins.”
Revival
was widespread throughout the North and the Midlands. Thomas Rankin moved to the
Sheffield Circuit in 1762: “The work of the Lord prospered, but particularly
in Sheffield and Rotherham. Many were added to the society, and several brought
to know the lifting and sanctifying influences of the grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Derby, Nottingham, Leicester, with several other places, partook of
the revival.” On his journey through Cheshire and Lancashire in the summer of
1762 Wesley was confronted with acts and accounts of revival throughout the
region. He found twelve people at Chester who “believed they were saved from
sin; and their lives did not contradict their profession.” At Manchester he
received news of revivals which had broken out at Congleton in Staffordshire
during a love-feast where “Five persons were assured of their acceptance with
God . . . four believed he had not only forgiven their sins, but likewise
cleansed them from all unrighteousness”; and at Burslem where a cold and dead
society had been rekindled by the fire of God’s love so that “Sometimes we
have had two, at other times six or seven, justified in one week; others find
the very remains of sin destroyed, and wait to be filled ‘with all the
fullness of God.’” At Liverpool Wesley found “such a work of God as had
never been known there before,” and spoke to 51 men women, and children “who
believed they were sanctified.”
He also received news of a revival that had broken out at Bolton with “seven
(if not more) justified, and six sanctified at one meeting, At Macclesfield he
was told of a revival in which forty people had claimed entire sanctification.
In
the summer of 1762 Thomas Taylor ventured into Pembrokeshire where he “formed
a circuit, including about 250 persons by Christmas.”
The flame of revival burned brightly in parts of Cornwall during Wesley’s
visit in the autumn. “A flame was kindled,” at Helston, “almost as soon as
[Wesley] began to speak, which increased more and more all the time [he] was
preaching, as well as during the meeting of the society.”
Many of the congregation at St. Hilary Downs “were athirst for God, and he did
not deceive their hope.” “God was in the midst,” at Newlyn, “and many
hearts broke in pieces.” “The society . . . more than doubled” at Port
Isaac.
Wesley
finished the year in London visiting the classes. He was confronted by many
“hot spirits” of whom “some were vehement for, some against, the meetings
for prayer which were in several parts of the town.” At Beech Lane he
experienced for himself the reasons for the hostility towards the prayer
meetings. The one at Beech Lane was “like a beer garden; full of noise,
brawling, cursing, swearing, blasphemy and confusion.” He moved the meeting to
the Foundry but the continued misbehavior of the people convinced Wesley that
George Bell “must not continue to pray at the Foundry.” Wesley, however, did
give Bell two more opportunities to amend his ways at West Street on December
26, and at the Foundry On December 29, before deciding, reluctantly, that Bell
would no longer be welcome at West Street and at the Foundry.
The
revival began its decline from the October 1762 as Wesley’s energies were
focused increasingly on preserving the London society from the harmful effects
of the activities of Thomas Maxfield and George Bell. At the end of 1762 Wesley
wrote: “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 the several years preceding. What the end will be I know not.
But it is enough that God knoweth.”
C.
The decline of the revival, 1763. The controversy between Wesley and Maxfield
and Bell came to a head between January 7 and February 5, 1763.
Bell had prophesied the world would come to an end on February 28. Wesley met
with Bell on January 7 in what proved to be an abortive attempt to “convince
him of his mistakes.” On January 25 a Mrs. Coventry who was an intimate friend
of Maxfield stormed into a meeting at which Wesley was present to throw down her
class “her ticket, with those of her husband, daughter and servants” with
the words, “Sir, we will have no more to do with you; Mr. Maxfield is our
teacher.” On February 4 George Bell returned his class ticket, saying,
“Blind John is not capable of teaching us; we will keep to Mr. Maxfield.”
The following day Thomas Maxfield ceased to meet in class.
On
February 9 Wesley wrote to the editor of the London Chronicle to report that
Bell was no longer a member of his society, and that he did not believe
“either that the end of the world or any signal calamity will be on the 28th
instant.” On the day previous to the predicted catastrophe Bell and some
companions waited on a mound near St. Luke’s hospital to view the destruction
of London. He was arrested and led away to prison. On the evening of February 28
Wesley preached at Spitalfields on “Prepare to meet thy God”. He showed
“the utter absurdity of the supposition that the world was due to end that
night.” Nevertheless “many were afraid to go to bed, and some wandered about
in the fields, being persuaded that if the world did not end, at least London
would be swallowed by an earthquake.”
Far away in the north-east, Darlington was in an uproar. When the fateful hour
had passed the fears of the people gave way to resentment, and they threatened
to pull down the preaching house, and to burn the Methodist preacher—who
happened to be George Storey. Undeterred by the threats to his person, Storey
held his meeting as advertised and quietened down the people by reading to
them Wesley’s advertisement disclaiming his association with Bell’s
prophecy as printed in the regional Newcastle paper.
The
breach between Wesley and Maxfield was finalised on April 28 when Maxfield
declined the opportunity to preach at the Foundery. The controversy over
perfection discredited the doctrine within Methodism. Wesley was dismayed to
find at Yarm, in June, that “the good doctrine of Christian perfection had not
been heard of there for some time. The wildness of our poor brethren in London
has put it out of countenance above two hundred miles away.” In 1764 Wesley
wrote to Charles: “The frightful stories wrote from London had made all our
preachers in the North afraid even to mutter about perfection; and, of course,
the people on all sides were grown good Calvinists in this point.”
As late as 1793, John Pawson could write from London, “We have a very blessed
work here; but the old people are so afraid of George Bell’s work returning
that they can hardly be persuaded it is the work of God.”
There
was still much to encourage Wesley during 1763. In Scotland the congregations
were large and composed of all classes of the community. Wesley was moved to
declare, “Surely never was there a more open door.” The Methodist societies
at Aberdeen and Edinburgh increased to the extent “that the want of chapels
was seriously felt.” The foundations of the chapel at Aberdeen were laid in
1764, and those of the chapel at Edinburgh in 1765.
Congregations in Wales were large, attentive and well behaved. Thomas Taylor
continued the work of revival begun at Cork by his predecessors Manningham and
Pennington: “It did not decrease during my stay, but increased more
abundantly.”
Congregations
were large and well behaved in the West Country at Bristol, Shepton Mallet, and
elsewhere. Thomas Rankin inherited the revival inspired by Wesley’s visit to
Cornwall in 1762: “Over a thousand joined the societies including some
hundreds entirely sanctified.”
Methodism continued to flourish in parts of the north. Wesley found the work at
Manchester “was greatly increasing.” John Pawson travelled the Howarth
Circuit where “the work prospered wonderfully; and I believe there was much
more good done in that circuit in that one year, than had been done in seven
years before that time. In Keighley, also, and in the neighbourhood there was a
glorious revival of the work of God, such as no one then living could remember
to have seen.”
Although Pawson does not mention the fact, William Grimshaw died on April 7,
1763. The revival may, in part, have been a response to this devastating loss.
George Storey was at Wear-Dale one Sunday afternoon when “the Divine power
descended upon the assembly; six persons, one after another, dropped down and,
as they came to themselves cried out for mercy. The work from that time revived
and spread through different parts of the Dale.” The 36 members of the Society
were doubled as a result of the revival.
In
conclusion it can be said that between 1758–1763, Wesleyan Methodism gained a
foothold in Wales, established itself in Scotland, and consolidated its presence
in the North, West, and Midlands of England.
A
Gospel for the Saved: Reasons for the Success of the Revival
The
preaching of entire sanctification been aptly described as “a gospel not
merely for sinners, but for the saved.”
It was a challenge to the second generation of Methodists “to discover higher
levels of personal holiness and new sources of spiritual power in a second
personal religious experience as definite and critical as their initial
Christian experience.”
The possibility of a higher life of grace came as a novelty to the second
generation of Methodists. Wesley’s exhortation to the Manchester society to on
to perfection in 1762 seemed to many of them, “a new doctrine. However they
all received it in love, and a flame was kindled,” wrote Wesley, “which I
trust neither men nor devils shall ever be able to quench.”
The
novelty of holiness preaching created much sharp discord within the Methodist
societies. Thus, in the spring of 1763, George Storey, somewhere on his round of
the Dale Circuit, was overtaken by his colleague Samuel Meggot who was in great
distress. Meggot had been overtaken by events of his own devising. To infuse new
life into the Barnard Castle society Meggot had advised them “to observe every
Friday with fasting and prayer. The very first Friday they met together, God
broke in upon them in a wonderful manner. . .” said Wesley in his account of
the revival. Six or seven of the members created confusion, uncertainty, and
animosity by claiming to have been entirely sanctified. Meggot galloped off to
find George Story to sort out the mess for him since it was Storey’s preaching
which had created the opportunity for claims to entire sanctification to be
made. On his arrival at Barnard Castle Storey was greeted with hostility as “a
setter forth of strange doctrines,” and was just about to stop preaching,
“when in an instant the power of God descended in a wonderful manner. The
assembly were all in tears, some praising God for pardoning mercy, and others
for purifying grace. And even those who could not yet understand this new
doctrine were constrained to say, ‘If we do not believe it, we shall never
speak against it any more.’ The snare of the enemy was effectually broken; and
from that time the work spread not only through the town, but also in the neighbouring
societies.”
Holiness
preaching, as Henry Rack points out, “offered a new incentive” to
Methodists for whom, “the original strangeness and shock value of conversion
had worn off.”
Alexander Mather’s “conviction of the need of a further change was
abundantly increased by the searching preaching” of Thomas Walsh.
Mather, in his turn, influenced Francis Asbury and Richard Whatcoat at
Wednesbury in 1761. Asbury was fifteen years of age when he heard Mather preach:
“young as I was, the Word of God made a deep impression on my heart which
brought me to Jesus Christ, who graciously justified my guilty soul through
faith in his precious blood; and soon showed me the excellency and necessity of
holiness.”
Whatcoat’s sense of need for the blessing of entire sanctification, and his
confidence in obtaining it was the result of “frequently hearing Mr. Mather
speak upon the subject.”
It
was the persistent, searching preaching of John Oldham on the need for entire
sanctification at Macclesfield which finally bore fruit during eight days in
March 1762. At the Monday night preaching service Oldham’s preaching, coupled
with news of revival at Bolton, Burslem and Congleton, created an expectation
for revival which broke out as people were leaving the room at the close of the
service. “A man, in whom the spirit of God had been striving mightily, fell
down on his knees and cried aloud for mercy.” Others present were affected in
the same manner. The meeting continued until six o’clock in the morning, and
was resumed every night until the following Monday.
In
addition to preaching on the need for entire sanctification, Wesley also
emphasized the importance of those who had been sanctified to bear public
testimony to their experience. “It requires a great degree of watchfulness
to retain the perfect love of God,” declared Wesley, “and one great means of
retaining it is frankly to declare what God has given you, and earnestly to
exhort all the believers you meet with to follow after full salvation.”
The
love-feast provided the ideal opportunity for testimonies to be given as Wesley
explained to the crowd assembled at Birstall on July 19, 1761: “The design of
a love-feast,” he told them, “is a free and familiar conversation, in which
everyman, yea, and woman, has liberty to speak whatever may be to the glory of
God.” From 1761 onwards the love-feast became a popular venue for the outbreak
of revival. On April 27, 1762 Wesley preached at Clonmain in the largest
preaching house in the north of Ireland. After the sermon Wesley held a
love-feast: “It was a wonderful time. God poured out His spirit abundantly.
Many were filled with consolation, particularly two who had come from Lisburn,
one a lifeless back-slider, the other a girl of sixteen, who had been some time
slightly convinced of sin. God gave her a clear evidence of his love—and
indeed in so uncommon a manner that it seemed her soul was all love. One of our
brethren was constrained openly to declare, he believed God had wrought this
change in him.”
Wesley
also circulated written accounts of the revivals taking place throughout the
British Isles together with testimonies to entire sanctification in order to
publicize the experience. These accounts also led to revival taking place. The
soldier, Duncan Wright, was stationed at Galway during 1761–63. He records
that: “Our little society at Galway was wonderfully blessed. As there was at
this time a glorious revival in many parts of the three kingdoms, I communicated
to them the intelligence I received of the work; and the fire soon kindled among
them also.”
Thomas Rankin went to hear John Wesley preach at Sunderland in June 1761. “His
preaching was attended with a peculiar blessing to my soul, in giving me a more
clear conception of purity of heart, and the way to obtain it by faith alone;
but when he read some letters in the society, giving an account of the work of
God in London, and some other places, I was so deeply affected with a sense of
inbred sin, that I was almost overwhelmed by it.”
The
Methodist Pentecost was essentially a praying revival. Prayer was the democratic
voice of Methodism. In a revival anyone could pray irrespective of age, sex,
occupation, education or social status. Prayer was the spontaneous expression of
popular fear, aspiration, fulfillment, anguish and joy. When a revival broke out
preaching frequently had to give way to prayer. After preaching to a large crowd
at Stoke in Cambridgeshire in the open air, Wesley moved into a cottage for a
meeting with the local society but “the excitement was so intense that
“after speaking a few words” Wesley “went to prayer. A cry began and soon
spread through the whole company, so that my voice was lost.”
Prayer
also commandeered the traditional, exclusive, society meeting held after the
preaching service and turned it into a spontaneous, open, prayer meeting. Thomas
Maxfield preached at Spitalfields on Sunday, March 15, 1761: “After the
sermon, the power of God was very present. Many were groaning and weeping,
when Sarah Webb, falling down to the ground, cried aloud, declaring that God had
set her soul at liberty. At the same time one at the bottom of the chapel
declared, The Lord had made him whole. The flame now began to spread, and
everyone seemed to feel, God was in that place.”
Alexander
Mather noted what was taking place and in 1760 deliberately changed the
society meeting at the close of the preaching service at Wednesbury into a
prayer meeting led by his wife as a technique for working up a revival. It was a
success. Some of the converts at Wednesbury set up their own prayer meeting at
Darlaston. There, a young apprentice, Thomas Day, experienced a dramatic
conversion which he proceeded to declare openly. This sparked off a revival so
that “even the wicked cried for mercy” when they heard him. Eighty-five new
members were added to the existing forty-eight of the society. Ground was
purchased and a preaching house built in 1761. The revival spread throughout the
circuit: “In one night it was common to see five or six (and sometimes more)
praising God for His pardoning mercy. And not a few in Birmingham, Dudley, and
Wolverhampton, as well as in Wednesbury and Darlaston, clearly testified that
the blood of Jesus Christ had cleansed them from all sin. Meantime the societies
increased greatly.” The older members were appalled by the noise and disorder
of the prayer meetings. Their objections were upheld by a retired travelling
preacher living in the area, and by other preachers passing through on their way
to conference. Mather was forced to discontinue the prayer meeting with the
result that: “Immediately the work began to decay, both as to its swiftness
and extensiveness . . . for want of seconding by prayer meetings the blow
given in the preaching.”
Mather
was thirty years ahead of his time. It was William Bramwell who would ultimately
make it acceptable to work up a revival, and it was between 1820 and 1850,
according to William Dean, that the after service society meeting was supplanted
by the prayer meeting.
Another
innovation was the setting up of independent cottage meetings devoted to
praying for holiness revival. John Manners informed Wesley from Dublin in May,
1762: “There are now three places in the city wherein as many as have
opportunity assemble day and night to pour out their soul before God for the
continuance and enlargement of His work.” In November, 1762 Wesley found the
impetus of the London revival was being sustained by “meetings for prayer
which were in several parts of the town.”
Elsewhere
in 1762 weekly cottage prayer meetings were being held at Dukinfield and
surrounding villages by Matthew Mayer and John Morris,
At Sheffield by William and Alice Brammah,
and at Halifax by James Parker, John Holroyde and Isaac Wade.
The
years of the revival were also the years of the global conflict between England
and France for commercial supremacy in North America, the Caribbean, West
Africa and India. It is possible that the noise, disorder, and irregular hours
of Methodist revival meetings provided an emotional outlet for the excitement
and tension engendered in national life by the fears and anxieties of being at
war. The significant revival at Otley on February 13, 1760 followed soon after
the naval victory at Quiberon Bay on November 20, 1759 which put a decisive end
to mounting fears among all levels of society of a French invasion.
Five
reasons for the success of the revival between 1758–1763 have been suggested:
the novelty of the call to holiness to the second generation of Methodists
accustomed to the call for justification, the preaching of Wesley and his
helpers on the need for holiness, the publicity given to the experience by
written and verbal testimonies, the use of prayer meetings, and the general
excitement of the years of warfare with France.
Souls
Struggling Into Life: The Experience of Sanctification
The
aim of this section is to examine the nature of the experience of entire
sanctification, and to see how valid it was in the face of the criticism that
it was a case of self-deception, merely the work of one’s own imagination.
Wesley addressed himself to the problem of how it could be known that “one is
saved from all sin.” He came up with what he considered to be three
reasonable proofs required of anyone who claimed to be perfected: “(1) If we
had clear evidence of his exemplary behavior for some time before this supposed
change. This would give us reason to believe he would not ‘lie for God,’ but
speak neither more nor less than he felt. (2) If he gave a distinct account of
the time and manner wherein the change was wrought, with sound speech that could
not be reproved. And (3) if it appeared that all his subsequent words and
actions were holy and unblameable.”
It
was just as important for the person who claimed to have been perfected to be
absolutely sure of the reality of his experience. It was not sufficient “to
feel all love and no sin” for several had experienced this for a time before
their souls were fully renewed: “None therefore ought to believe that the work
was done, till there is added the testimony of the Spirit witnessing his entire
sanctification as clearly as his justification.”
A
classic description of what was involved in being entirely sanctified is found
in the testimony of a certain M____ S____ of Wednesbury recorded by Wesley in
March 1760.
There
was a parallel relationship in Wesley’s thought between justification and
sanctification. “The one of these great truths does exceedingly illustrate
the other,” Wesley wrote. “Exactly as we are justified by faith so are we
sanctified by faith.”
The first proof required of the sanctified person was a genuine experience of
justification expressed in a changed life successful in conquering sin. The
testimony of M____ S____ begins, therefore with an account of her awakening to
her need for pardon, and her experience of justification.
She
was born April 8, 1736. Her father died when she was four years of age, and her
mother died when she was aged eleven years. She was not a religious person but
did turn to God in prayer for comfort in times of severe trouble. Her brother
must have been a Methodist because he persuaded her to attend a Methodist
cottage meeting when she was seventeen years old. She liked what she heard and
began to attend regularly. She was eighteen when she was awakened to her
spiritual condition as a lost sinner. “For three weeks I was in deep
distress,” she told Wesley, “which made me cry to God day and night. I had
comfort once or twice, but checked it, being afraid of deceiving myself.” She
was justified in December, 1754, “as Mr. Johnson was preaching one morning at
five o’clock in Darlaston, my soul was so filled with the love of God that I
had much ado to help crying out. I could only say, ‘Why me, Lord, why me?’
“When
I came home I was exceeding weak, having also a great pain in my head. But all
was sweet; I did not wish it to be otherwise. I was happy in God all the day
long. And so I was for several days.”
We
now come to the first proof. Inward sanctification began, according to Wesley,
“In the moment we are justified. The seed of every virtue is then sown in the
soul. From that time the believer gradually dies to sin and grows in grace.”
M____ S____, therefore, goes on to say, “From
this time I never committed any known sin, nor ever lost the love of God, though
I found abundance of temptations and many severe struggles. Yet I was more than
conqueror over all and found them easier and easier.”
This
account conforms to the statement that “A Christian is so far perfect as not
to commit sin. This is the glorious privilege every Christian, yea, though he
be but a babe in Christ.”
And yet, the justified Christian has only been born again in a lower sense
because “sin remains in him; yea the seed of all sin, till he is sanctified
throughout in in spirit, soul and body.”
The justified Christian still has to contend against pride, desire, self-will
and anger. And so M____ S____ goes on to describe her awakening to her need for
entire sanctification to complete what justification had begun. “About
Christmas 1758 I was deeply convinced there was a greater salvation than I had
attained. The more I saw of this and the more I prayed for it, the happier I
was. And my desires and hopes were continually increasing for above a year.”
Two
points can be made about this part of the testimony. The popular, prevalent
view was that just as justification should be preceded by “a considerable
tract of time” marked by much emotional toil and suffering so should
sanctification. Wesley dismissed this concept. “A year or a month is the same
with God as a thousand. If He wills, to do is present with Him. Much less is
there any necessity for much suffering. It is therefore our duty to pray and
look for full salvation every day, every hour, every moment, without waiting
till we have done or suffered more.”
Where one woman at Dublin was justified for seven years and seeking
sanctification for five, a Mr. Timmins was convinced of sin for only two months
before being justified, and sanctified a mere ten days later “After a
violent struggle he sunk down as dead. He was cold as clay. After about ten
minutes he came to himself and cried, ‘A new heart, a new heart.’ He said he
felt himself in an instant entirely emptied of sin and filled with God.”
The
second point is the manner in which entire sanctification should be sought.
Wesley said one should wait for “the fulfilling of the promise in universal
obedience; in keeping all the commandments; in denying ourselves, and taking
up the cross daily. These are the general means which God hath ordained for our
receiving his sanctifying grace. The particulars are prayer, searching the
scriptures, communicating, and fasting.”
In the testimony of M____ S____ it is prayer which is emphasized as the constant
expression of the soul’s intimate communion with God. Presumably the other
methods are taken for granted.
Wesley
then recorded the second proof for entire sanctification—“a distinct account
of the time and manner wherein the change was wrought,” “On January 30, 1760
Mr. Fugill talked with one who thought she had received the blessing. As she
spoke, my heart burned within me, and my desire was enlarged beyond expression.
I said to him, ‘O sir, when shall I be able to say as she says?’ He
answered, ‘Perhaps tonight.’ I said, ‘Nay. I am not earnest enough.’ He
replied, ‘That thought may keep you from it.’ I felt God was able and
willing to give it then, and was unspeakably happy. In the evening as he was
preaching, my heart was full, and more and more so, till I could contain no
more. I wanted only to be alone, that I might pour out my soul before God; and
when I came home I could do nothing but praise and give him thanks.”
In
this second proof are echoes of three emphases about perfection made in the
preface to the second volume of hymns published in 1741. Firstly that entire
sanctification is “receivable by mere faith, and hindered only by unbelief”.
In the case of M____ S____ her unbelief was her sense of a lack of earnestness.
Secondly that mere faith, “and consequently the salvation it brings, is . .
. given in an instant.” Thirdly “that instant may be now.”
M____ S____ feels that, “God was able and willing to give it then.” There is
also the “unspeakable happiness” of M____ S____ paralleled by the experience
of a woman at Barnard Castle who said the experience of sanctification was as
different from that of justification “as the noonday light from that of
daybreak,” and the woman at Dublin who described the difference between the
love of God she enjoyed as a justified Christian, and the love of God she now
enjoyed as a sanctified Christian, “as if her soul was taken into heaven.”
Wesley
ends the testimony of M____ S____ with the third proof. “From that moment I
have felt nothing but love in my heart; no sin of any kind. I trust I shall
never sin any more, nor any more offend God. I never find any cloud between God
and me; I walk in the light continually. I do ‘rejoice evermore, and pray
without ceasing.’ I have no desire but to do and suffer the will of God. I aim
at nothing but to please him. I am careful for nothing, but in all things make
my requests known to Him in thanksgiving and I have a continual witness in my
self that whatever I do, I do to His glory.”
There
is such a close resemblance between this part of the testimony, and the
following extract from “The Character of a Methodist” that heavy editing on
the part of Wesley is indicated: “From Him, therefore, he cheerfully receives
all, saying, ‘Good is the will of the Lord’; and whether He giveth or taketh
away, equally blessing the Name of the Lord. Whether in ease or pain, whether in
sickness or health, whether in life or death, he giveth thanks from the ground
of the heart to Him who orders it for good; into whose hands he hath wholly
committed his body and soul, ‘as into the hands of a faithful creator.’ He
is therefore ‘careful for nothing’, as having cast all his care on Him
that, ‘careth for him’; and ‘in all things resting on Him, after ‘making
his requests known to Him with thanksgiving.’”
Wesley
did not succeed in persuading the majority of either his preachers or the
Methodist people of the validity or value of the experience of entire
sanctification. At the height of the revival in 1762 he complained, “The
more I converse with the believers in Cornwall, the more I am convinced that
they have sustained great loss for want of the hearing the doctrine of Christian
perfection clearly and strongly enforced.”
In 1768 he was so conscious of fighting a losing battle that he asked his
brother Charles, “Shall we go on asserting perfection against all the world,
or shall we quietly let it drop?”
He came back strongly, however, at the Conference of 1769 to press home the
value of insisting on the experience of instantaneous sanctification before the
moment of death. All the preachers were agreed, he argued, that “from the
moment we are justified, there may be a gradual sanctification, a growing in
grace, a daily advance in the knowledge and love of God.” All the preachers
were convinced that they “must insist on the gradual change; and that
earnestly and continually.” Wesley then went on to say that the value of the
hope of instantaneous, entire sanctification lay in the incentive it gave to
pursue gradual change more earnestly and continuously—“constant experience
shows the more earnestly they expect this, the more swiftly and steadily does
the gradual work of God go on in their soul; the more watchful they are against
all sin, the more careful to grow in grace, the more zealous of good works, and
the more punctual in their attendance on all the ordinances of God. . . .
Destroy this hope, and that salvation stands still or, rather, decreases
daily.”
Wesley
failed to carry his preachers and his people with him. In 1772 he admitted, “I
find almost all our preachers in every circuit have done with Christian
perfection. They say they believe it; but they never preach it, or not once in a
quarter.”
The
main reason for Wesley’s failure may lie in the impression given by the
doctrine of Christian perfection that it was a denial of what was popularly
understood to be the central tenet of the doctrine of justification by
faith—namely, “entry to heaven is not earned as a reward for good works, but
is conferred by the unaided grace of God, signified by faith in the Lord
Jesus.” In other words, the Christian believer is saved in spite of himself.
Wesley’s insistence that faith must express itself in works worthy of
repentance and rebirth or perish, and that holiness was the only acceptable
qualification for heaven, seemed to place an unwelcome, papist emphasis upon
good works despite Wesley’s protestations and carefully worded defenses to the
contrary.
Michael
Watts’ verdict is, “In the eyes of rank and file Methodists there was no
necessary connection between their conversion experiences and Wesley’s
teaching on Christian perfection, and they preferred the simple Evangelical
message of justification by faith to their leader’s constant exhortations to
strive towards the goal of High Church ascetics.”
Mainstream Methodism chose the way of justification, rebirth and gradual
sanctification—to obey imperfectly the perfect will of God.
Conclusion
Wesley
lost the battle in Britain but won the war in North America. The three most
influential preachers he sent to America, Thomas Rankin, Francis Asbury and
Richard Whatcoat were all traditional Wesleyan Holiness preachers and staunch
exponents of holiness revival. These men engaged in vigorous, pointed, emotive
preaching reinforced with noisy, disorderly prayer meetings. Full scope was
given for lay witness and participation leading to uninhibited outbursts of
intense religious excitement and dramatic increases in Methodist membership. The
“American Pentecost” took place between 1784–1792 when 60,000 new
members and 183 new preachers were added to the Church. “The meetings”
conducted by the preachers, “were often scenes of the most intense spiritual
energy. Men fell down as dead under their word; others were roused to combat. .
. . The cries of the mourners mingled with the shouts of those who had found
peace and the assurance of salvation. Often the preachers themselves were
overcome and dissolved in tears. The meetings lasted for hours. Men and women
were eager for salvation, and, being saved, longed for the life of entire
sanctification. Many were filled with the perfect love of God and man, and
lived and died in a heavenly mind. Multitudes came to hear and see; some with
good intent, some with ill. But none left as they came. Both were conscious of
the power of the Spirit. And both spread the news, and tended to increase the
audience of the preachers.”
The
enthusiasm and lack of restraint of holiness revival brought the movement into
disrepute within Methodism as the church became more respectable, especially in
urban centers. When Nathan Bangs was appointed as the superintendent of the New
York churches he was offended by “the spirit of pride, presumption, and
bigotry, impatience of scriptural restraint and moderation, clapping of the
hands, screaming, and even jumping, which marred and disgraced the work of
God.”
Traditional
holiness revival went into decline in America as in England but only for a
short time in the late 1820s and early 1830s. In 1835, Sarah Lankford and her
sister, Phoebe Palmer, began to hold “Tuesday Meetings for the Promotion of
Holiness” in their homes. Thus began the great holiness revival of the
nineteenth century which brought into being the seventh largest family of
Christian churches in Protestantism. American Methodist revivalists like James
Caughey and the Palmers reintroduced classic Wesleyan Holiness preaching into
British Methodism where it was championed by people like John Brash, Thomas
Champness, and Samuel Chadwick, and institutionalized in the Stockport
Convention and Cliff College.
History vindicated John Wesley’s confidence in his doctrine of Christian
Perfection.
A
personal note to close on. The first book I was given to read after my
conversion was Oswald Chamber’s “My Utmost for His Highest.” I didn’t
understand the book but it did inspire me to pray for holiness one night in the
quiet of my “den.” As I was praying I felt the presence of God’s
holiness. The hairs stood up on the back of my neck in terror and I fled out of
the room onto the landing of our house. Four years later I found myself on the
platform of Wolverhampton Railway station waiting for the train to take me to
the Royal Artillery base camp at Oswestry to begin my term of National Service.
I opened my Bible at random for a reassuring word of scripture at Joshua 1:9,
“Be strong and of good courage; be not frightened, neither be dismayed; for
the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” I believed the promise and for
the next five months between August 1951 and January 1952 lived a Christian life
on the highest plane of love I have ever experienced. It came silently and
unannounced, and it left as suddenly and silently as it came. I’m glad I
didn’t know what had happened to me, and I’m glad there was no one around to
question me and to persuade me that I may have been leading a consciously
sinless Christian life. The essence of the experience was a desire to serve God
by being of service to my fellow recruits and by keeping myself unspotted by
the world. There was not the slightest inclination to check my spiritual pulse
or to examine my motives and feelings. I was content to lead my life as love led
me.
This
is the essence of holiness for me, and the finest Methodist exemplar of it for
me is William Bramwell. I end this study by quoting what James Everett wrote
about his benevolence in “The Wesley Banner and Revival Record” of
September, 1850.
Mr.
Bramwell’s indifference to mere worldly comfort or enjoyment made it an easy
thing for him to practice what is often termed such by mere courtesy,
benevolence. Although his means were ever limited, something was regularly
abstracted from his scanty income for the relief of the necessities. Money,
provisions, and wearing-apparel, were dispensed with a liberality which, in his
circumstances, savored of indiscretion. He has often bestowed the last penny he
had in hand upon some distressed individual. It was seldom he was master of two
coats at a time; the first deserving applicant was sure to become the owner of
one. Whilst in the Salford circuit, a friend one morning told him of a local
preacher who was in great poverty. On returning home in the evening, this friend
found a note from Mr. Bramwell requesting that he would forward a coat which
accompanied the letter, to the poor brother, without mentioning the matter to
anyone. The garment proved to be the very same which the donor had been wearing
at the time. There were, of course, many cases brought under his notice in which
he could furnish no appropriate relief. In one instance he was fortunate in
affording considerable consolation to a pious widow in a way which he perhaps
little expected. At his request, she handed him a short statement of her debts
and resources, exhibiting, alas, a most melancholy deficiency! The minister
glanced at the contents of the paper, and saw at once that it was a case for
which he could find no remedy, except by application to heaven. Hastily
scribbling some Hebrew characters upon the back of the paper, he folded it up
and returned it to her without a word. She took it, and probably thinking that
the document was a precious memento of some spiritual interference to be exerted
on her behalf, carried it about with her for several years, as an Eastern would
an amulet. The minister had doubtless consecrated the ceremony by silent prayer,
and calculated to some extent upon the efficacy of his future supplications.
The consequence was, that the anxiety of the poor widow was relieved by this
interview, and the calamity she had anticipated was in fact averted. The scrap
of paper now lies before us, but the Hebrew characters are scarcely
intelligible. Long after the incident had occurred she continued to regard it
with peculiar veneration. His charity sometimes displayed itself in a rather
curious form; he would give, to save others who might be crippled in their
circumstances the necessity of being benevolent. “One year,” says Dr.
Taft, “when the circuit debt at Salford was £200, Mr. Bramwell was solicitous
that ten persons might be found, if possible, to contribute £20 each, and he
would most gladly have been one of the ten, that an additional and a very oppressive
collection might not be made upon our people in general. Had his offer been
accepted in that case, he must have given his all.” This unrestrained
benevolence soon dissipated his private property, and largely encroached upon
his professional stipend. Everything that he had to give he gave without scruple.
He would have hailed with pleasure any scheme for making “all things
common” again amongst the disciples of Christ. He would deny himself what are
deemed indispensable comforts. Thus in Salford he refused to have a fire in his
“study,” because the Society was then poor and overburdened. He frequently
enjoined the strictest frugality upon Mrs. Bramwell, although her management was
so economical that none but a man determined to reduce his household expenditure
to the very narrowest limits would have thought a caution of the kind necessary.
“Ellen,” he would say, “remember that these things are paid for by the
pence of the poor, as well as by the pounds of the rich.
SOURCE:
Wesleyan
Theological Journal
Wesley
Center Online
Wesley.nnu.edu
W. R. Ward & R. P. Heitzenrater,
The Works of John Wesley, Volume 21, Journal and Diaries, IV
(1755–1765), (Abingdon, Nashville, 1992), 392.
T. Jackson, Lives
of the Early Methodist Preachers, Volume
3, (London, 1871), 262.
Ward & Heitzenrater,
Works, Volume 21, 438–439.
I am
indebted to Melvyn E. Dieter for this definition of a holiness revival in
his book, The Holiness Revival of the
Nineteenth Century (Scarecrow
Press, second edition, 1996), 17 & 27. Dieter, however, claims the
holiness revival was an American phenomenon dating from the third decade of
the nineteenth century. In my opinion it dates from the third decade of the
eighteenth century following upon Wesley’s reading of Jonathan Edwards’
“A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God in Northampton,
Massachusetts” which was published in England in 1737 and read by Wesley
on October 9, 1738. The insight that would lead to Wesley’s combination of
Edwards’ evangelical revivalism with his own perfectionist emphases was
present on January 4, 1739 when Wesley recognized that there were two levels
of Christian rebirth. A lower one associated with justification by faith
and the remission of sins, and a higher one involving “a thorough,
inward change by the love of God shed abroad in [the] heart.” W. R. Ward
& R. P. Heitzenrater,
The Works of John Wesley,
Volume 19, Journal and Diaries, 11
(1738–1743), (Abingdon, Nashville, 1992), 16 & 32.
James Wood,
“The God Child,” Sunday Telegraph Review, October 20, 1996.
Thomas Jackson, editor, Works of John Wesley,
Volume XIII (London, 1865), 331.
Ward & Heitzenrater,
Works,
Volume 21, 240–241.
A full account
of the problems Wesley faced during this period provided by R. P. Heitzenrater,
Wesley and The People Called
Methodists (Abingdon, Nashville,
1995), 199–214.
Ward & Heitzenrater,
Works, Volume 21, 439.
A. Stevens, The
History of the Religious Movement of the Eighteenth Century called Methodism,
Volume 1 (London, 1865), 349.
Jackson, Works, Volume VIII, 288.
Jackson, Works, Volume VIII, 273.
W. S.
Gunter, The Limits
of Love Divine (Kingswood,
1989), 104.
F. W. Hackwood,
Religious Wednesbury:
Its Creeds, Churches and Chapels.
(1900), 69. A Dr. Wilkes reported that on Sunday June 12,
1743 some Methodists, “fell down in church, made unusual noises,
and, like the French Prophets in Queen Anne’s time, pretended to receive
the Holy Ghost.” Stebbing Shaw, The
Antiquities of Staffordshire, Volume
2, (1797).
Gunter, The
Limits of Love Divine, 104.
John Telford, editor, The
Letters of John Wesley, Volume IV (Epworth, 1931), 10–11. Wesley must be held responsible for the
misunderstanding of preachers like Walsh and Rouquet
for he did teach that it was “necessary in the nature of things that a
soul should be saved from all sin before it enters into glory.” But he
also taught that “none that has faith can die before he is made ripe for
glory.” And that those who persevered in “the full assurance of hope”
right to the moment of death would be entirely sanctified “at the instant
of death, the moment before the soul leaves the body.” [Telford, Letters
IV, 11, 13, 187]
L. Tyerman,
The Life and Times
of John Wesley, Volume II (London, 1876), 307.
Gumer,
The Limits of Love Divine,
211.
Tyerman,
The Life and Times
of John Wesley, Volume 11, 306
Heitzenrater,
Wesley and the
People Called Methodists,
209–210.
Telford, Letters,
Volume IV, 225.
Jackson, Works,
Volume XIII, 352–353.
Ward & Heitzenrater,
Works,
Volume 21, 135.
Ward & Heitzenrater,
Works,
Volume 21, 159.
Jackson,
The Early Methodist Preachers,
Volume 4, 162
Ward & Heitzenrater,
Works,
Volume 21, 171.
Ward & Heitzenrater,
Works, Volume 21, 171.
John Lyth,
Glimpses of Early Methodism in York
(London, 1885), 90.
Ward & Heitzenrater,
Works, Volume
21, 209 & Lyth,
Glimpses of Early Methodism in York, 93.
Jackson, The
Early Methodist Preachers, Volume
2, 178.
Ward & Heitzenrater,
Works,
Volume 21, 211.
Ward & Heitzenrater,
Works,
Volume 21, 203.
Jackson, The
Early Methodist Preachers, Volume
2, 26.
Jackson, The
Early Methodist Preachers, Volume
1, 210.
Jackson, The
Early Methodist Preachers, Volume
2, 174.
Ward and Heitzenrater,
Works,
volume 21, 342.
Ward and Heitzenrater,
Works, Volume 21,
349.
Ward and Heitzenrater,
Works, volume 21, 372.
Jackson, Lives
of the Early Methodist Preachers, Volume
3, 103.
Jackson, Lives
of the Early Methodist Preachers, Volume
3, 104.
Jackson, Lives
of the Early Methodist Preachers, Volume
2, 83.
Ward and Heitzenrater,
Works,
Volume 21, 388.
A concise
account of the controversy between Wesley and Maxfield
is given by Allan Coppedge,
John Wesley in
Theological Controversy (Wesley
Heritage Press, 1987), 160–165.
Jackson, Lives
of the Early Methodist Preachers,
Volume 5, 238.
Telford, Letters,
Volume IV, 245 (quoted Coppedge,
John Wesley in Theological
Controversy, 165).
Gunter, The
Limits of Love Divine,
225–226.
David
Wilson, Methodism in
Scotland (Aberdeen,
1850), 6.
Jackson, Early
Methodist Preachers,
Volume 5, 26.
Jackson, Early
Methodist Preachers, Volume
5, 177.
Jackson, Early
Methodist Preachers, Volume
5, 28.
J. B. Figgis
quoted by Dieter, The Holiness Revival
of the Nineteenth Century, 153.
Dieter, The
Holiness Revival of the Nineteenth Century,
6.
Ward and Heitzenrater,
Works, Volume 21, 313.
Jackson, Early
Methodist Preachers, Volume
5, 239.
H. D. Rack, Reasonable
Enthusiast. John Wesley and the Rise of Methodism
(Epworth, 1989), 342.
Jackson, Early
Methodist Preachers, Volume 2, 189.
J. Lewis, Francis
Asbury: Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church
(Epworth, 1927), 45.
Jackson, Early
Methodist Preachers, Volume 5, 315.
B. Smith,
The History of
Methodism in Macclesfield
(London, 1875), 64–66.
Quoted by D. A.
Whedon,
“John Wesley’s Views of Entire Sanctification,” Wesleyan Methodist Magazine, 1862, 1093.
Jackson, Early
Methodist Preachers, Volume
2, 117.
Jackson, Early
Methodist Preachers, Volume
5, 168.
Jackson, Early
Methodist Preachers, Volume
2, 179-181. Billy Brammah
tried the same technique at Yarm
in 1763 with the same result. Wesley had to warn Brammah
that his wife’s prayer meetings were causing offence by their unseemly
disorder and enthusiasm: “Either Alice Brammah
must take advice or the Society warned to keep away from her.” Telford, Letters, Volume
V, 116.
W. W.
Dean, “The Methodist Class Meeting: The Significance of its Decline,” Proceedings
of the Wesley Historical Society, Volume
XLIII, 45.
W. D.
Lawson,
Wesleyan Methodist
Local Preachers (London,
1873), 315.
J. Dunston,
“Billy and Alice Brammah, Partners in
Ministry,” Proceedings of the
Wesley Historical Society, Volume XXXVI,
173.
L. F. Church, More
About the Early Methodists (Epworth, 1949), 145.
Wesley
reflected on the testimony of a woman at Barnard Castle who claimed to have
been sanctified and asked himself: “What, however, can be inferred if she
‘should be cold or dead in ten weeks or ten months’ time’—shall I
say, ‘She deceived herself; this was merely the work of her own
imagination?” (Ward and Heitzenrater,
Works, Volume
21, 414).
J. Wesley, A Plain Account of Christian Perfection (Epworth
1979), 48.
Wesley, A Plain
Account of Christian Perfection, 52.
Quoted by D. A. Whedon,
Wesleyan Methodist Magazine 1862, 1019.
Jackson, Works
Volume VIII, 374.
Wesley, Plain Account of Christian Perfection,
19.
Jackson, Works, Volume VIII,
374.
Quoted I. E. Page & J.
Brash, Scriptural Holiness as Taught by John Wesley (London,
1891), 66–67.
Ward and Heitzenrater,
Works, Volume 21, 376.
Jackson, Works,
Volume VIII, 374.
Wesley, Plain
Account of Christian Perfection,
27.
Ward and Heitzenrater,
Works, Volume
21, 414 & 378.
Wesley, Plain
Account of Christian Perfection,
11–12.
Quoted in M. R. Watts, The
Dissenters (Oxford, 1978), 434.
Watts, The
Dissenters, 434.
Jackson, Works,
Volume VIII, 316.
Watts, The
Dissenters, 434.
F. Femandez-Axmesto
& D. Wilson, Reformation. Christianity and the World 1500–2000
(Bantam Press, 1996), 82–83.
Thomas Jackson had to devote a paragraph of his
centenary history of Methodism to refuting the assertion of a Mr. Conder
that the Wesleyan Connection taught a doctrine substantially the same as
the Church of Rome to the effect “that men are justified by personal
holiness.” T. Jackson, The Centenary of Wesleyan Methodism (London,
1839), 165.
Watts, The
Dissenters, 434. The
reference to Wesley’s high Church ascetics is a reminder that Wesley’s
views on holiness were a legacy of his preconversion
days as a High Churchman. It was in 1725 that
he saw the necessity for “purity of intention,” the dedication of the
whole of life to God. In 1726 he
saw the necessity for “the religion of the heart”—“the giving even
of all my life to God . . . would profit me nothing, unless I gave all my
heart to Him.” In 1729 he
accepted the Bible “as the one, the only standard of truth, and the only
model of pure religion.” In his sermon on the “Circumcision of the
Heart” preached in 1733 he
brought these three insights together as the “mind of Christ” which was
summed up as the law to love God with all the heart, soul, mind, and
strength. See Wesley, Plain Account, 5–7.
Lewis, Francis
Asbury: Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
46.
R. Carwardine,
Transatlantic
Revivalism: Popular Revivalism in Britain and America 1790–1865 (Greenwood, 1978), 12.
See D. W. Bebbington,
“The Holiness Movements in British and Canadian Methodism in the late
Nineteenth Century” Proceedings of
the Wesley Historical Society, Volume 50, 203–228.
The Wesley Banner and Revival Record,
1850, 342–343.
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