WESER WESLEY. 



13 



the entrance of the Lippe into that river, fifteen 

 miles north-west of Gueldres, seventeen east- 

 south-east of Cleves; Ion. 6 37' E.; lat. 51 29' 

 N.j population, including the garrison, 12,000. It 

 is strongly fortified, was once a Hanseatic town, and 

 has considerable commerce, navigation and manufac- 

 tures, particularly of spirituous liquors. It contains 

 a gymnasium, a theatre, four parish churches, &c. 



WESER, one of the large rivers of Germany, 

 originates from the union of the Werra (the source 

 of which is in Hildburghausen) and the Fulda, 

 which rises in the grand duchy of Fulda. At Miin- 

 den, in Hanover, they unite, and are called Weser, 

 which is believed to be only a contraction of the 

 original name of the Werra (Wisaraha, Wesara, 

 Wirraha). The Weser passes through the Hano- 

 verian principality of Gb'ttingen, Brunswick, the 

 principality of Calenberg, Schauenburg, the Prus- 

 sian province of Westphalia, Hoya, Verden, Bre- 

 men, and the duchy of Oldenburg, and empties into 

 the North sea, ten German or about forty-five 

 English miles below Bremen, after having received 

 several other rivers. The twenty-two tolls on 

 the Weser are extremely harassing and injurious to 

 internal commerce. One single toll, that of Els- 

 fleth, which at present is abolished, produced an- 

 nually 80100,000 German dollars. The history 

 of the exactions and injustice connected with the 

 tolls of one such river would show how little regard 

 has been paid to the interest of the people. In 

 1817, a project was formed for uniting the Weser 

 and the Elbe. The most important cities on the 

 Weser are Milnden, Hameln, Rinteln, Minden, 

 Nienburg and Bremen. 



WESLEY, JOHN, the second son of Samuel 

 Wesley, rector of Epworth, was born at Epvvorth, 

 June 17, 1703. He received his school education 

 at the Charter-house, whence he was removed to 

 Christ-church college, Oxford. After taking his 

 f:rst degree, he was, in 1724, elected fellow of Lin- 

 coln college, and, in 1726, graduated master of arts. 

 At this time, he was distinguished for his classical 

 attainments, skill in dialectics, and talent in poetry. 

 Soon after he was elected fellow, he was appointed 

 Greek lecturer, and took pupils ; and, in 1725, he 

 was ordained by bishop Potter. For some time 

 after his residence at Oxford, he was only distin- 

 guished as a grave, sedate young man ; but after a 

 while, the perusal of some devotional tracts, and 

 more especially Law's Serious Call, induced him to 

 consecrate himself more entirely to what he deemed 

 the essentials of a holy life. In 1729, he associated 

 with some friends of similar disposition, who met 

 and read together the classics on week-days, and 

 divinity on Sundays ; but shortly after, their meet- 

 ings became exclusively religious. This society 

 consisted of fifteen members, who, from the strict- 

 ness of their manners and deportment, were vari- 

 ously designated by the other students, but more 

 especially obtained the name of Methodists, which 

 appellation they themselves sanctioned and retained. 

 (See Methodists.) His father wished him to make 

 interest for the next presentation of his living of Ep- 

 worth ; but he was too much attached to Oxford, and 

 the manner in which he was engaged, to listen to his 

 advice. A mission to Georgia had soon after greater 

 attractions, and, in 1735, he accepted the invitation 

 of doctor Burton, one of the trustees for that newly 

 founded colony, to go over and preach to the In- 

 dians. He accordingly embarked the same year, 

 in company with his brother Charles, two other 

 missionaries, and several German Moravians. The 



disturbed state of the colony prevented all preach- 

 ing to the Indians ; and, although the colonists of 

 Savannah were at first attentive to the ministry of 

 Mr Wesley, his notions were too high church for his 

 hearers. He refused the Lord's supper to dissenters, 

 unless they would be rebaptized, insisted upon im- 

 mersion in the rite of baptism, and, by a variety of 

 ascetical practices, excited an unfavourable opinion 

 of his judgment. What most injured his reputa- 

 tion, however, was his conduct towards a young 

 lady, whom it was expected he would marry, and 

 whom he refused to admit to communion after her 

 marriage with another person, without deigning to 

 assign any reason. Legal proceedings were in con- 

 sequence commenced against him, previous to the 

 conclusion of which, after a consultation with his 

 friends, he became convinced that " God called him 

 to return to England ;" on which he gave public 

 notice of his intention to depart, and left Georgia 

 after an abode of a year and nine months. On his 

 arrival from America, he discovered that he, who 

 had been voyaging to con vert others, had never been 

 converted himself; and he felt, as he observed, "a 

 want of the victorious faith of more experienced 

 Christians." This conviction appears to have been 

 strengthened by a German Moravian missionary, 

 with whom he much communed, until at length, a 

 sudden conversion occurred, by his own account, 

 on the twenty-fourth of May, 1738, at a quarter 

 before nine in the evening, while a person in a so- 

 ciety in Aldersgate street was reading Luther's pre- 

 face to the Epistle to the Romans. To strengthen 

 his faith, he went over to Germany, and pro- 

 ceeded to Herrnhut. (q. v.) He returned in Sep- 

 tember, 1738, when he commenced the systematic 

 labours which made him the founder of the great 

 religious body of Methodists. He began to ex- 

 hort and to preach, often three or four times a day, 

 at the prisons and other places, in the metropolis, 

 and made frequent excursions into the country, 

 where his followers became rapidly very numerous. 

 His discourses were often attended with demon- 

 strations of the effect produced on the hearers, such 

 as swoonings, outcries, convulsions, and similar re- 

 sults of violent internal emotion and excitement. 

 He soon after accepted the invitation of Whitefield, 

 who had sometime before commenced the practice 

 of field preaching, to join him at Bristol ; and, in 

 May, 1739, the first stone of a Methodist meeting- 

 house was laid in that city. Some difficulties, which 

 arose as to the liability of the feoffees, nominated, 

 in the first instance, to the expenses of erection, by 

 inducing Mr Wesley to take it all into his own hands, 

 laid the foundation of the unlimited powers which 

 he obtained over his followers. Whatever chapels 

 were subsequently built by the connexion, were all 

 either vested in him or in trustees bound to give 

 admission to the pulpit as he should direct. It is 

 thought that his original plan was to form a union 

 of clergymen in order to further his scheme of con- 

 version by their joint efforts ; but the dislike of mi- 

 nisters of the establishment to join in it, reduced 

 him to the necessity of appointing lay preachers, 

 and employing them as itinerants among the differ- 

 ent societies of the persuasion. At the same time, 

 he assumed the power of nominating those preach- 

 ers, and thus, as the societies increased, his autho- 

 rity received indefinite augmentation. The opi- 

 nions of Wesley, being derived from the Arminian 

 theology, differed materially from those of White- 

 field on the points of unconditional election, irre- 

 sistible grace, and final perseverance ; in conse- 



