WESLEY. 
613 
mfean talents. Soon after his election to a fellowship, he 
became Greek lecturer and moderator of the classes, and un¬ 
dertook the instruction of pupils. In 1725, he was ordained 
by bishop Potter. During some years of his residenceat 
Oxford, he was much esteemed on account of his own cha¬ 
racter and conduct, and for his attention to discipline and 
good morals. Upon the perusal of some devotional books, 
and more especially Law’s “ Serious Call,” he became dif¬ 
fident as to his own religious state, and determined to pay 
stricter regard to what he conceived to be the essentials of a 
holy life. In 1729, he associated with a select number of 
collegians, who met and read together, first the classics on 
week-days, and on Sundays only divinity; but afterwards 
their meetings became exclusively religious. They visited 
the prisoners and sick poor, conversed together on the state 
of their minds, observed the ancient fasts of the church, and 
communicated every week. This society, which consisted of 
fifteen members, attracted notice on account of the strictness 
of (heir manners and deportment, and became the objects of 
ridicule to some young men in the university, who denomi¬ 
nated them Sacramentarians, the Godly Club, and Me¬ 
thodists. (See the article.) Some of the seniors of the 
colleges were alarmed by an introduction of fanaticism; and 
others encouraged them to proceed, and they received the 
approbation of the bishop of Oxford. Wesley, after his 
ordination, settled as assistant to his father at Epworth, who 
being desirous of retaining this church preferment in his fa¬ 
mily, wished him to seek interest for obtaining it; but his 
attachment to Oxford, and to the society which had been 
there formed, prevailed over every other consideration. In 
process of time he formed a purpose of going to Georgia, as 
a missionary; and accordingly he embarked for this pro¬ 
vince in the year 1735. The prospect of success in this 
mission seemed at first to be favourable; but several circum¬ 
stances occurred which changed his views, and induced him 
to leave Georgia, after a residence of one year and nine 
months. These circumstances, as some persons have related 
them, reflect no great honour on Wesley’s disposition and 
character. It appears, however, upon the whole, more es¬ 
pecially when we consider Whitfield’s success, in the same 
part of the world, that he was less qualified for a missionary 
than his fellow labourer. After his return to England, he 
felt dissatisfied about his own state, and entertained suspi¬ 
cions of the reality of his own conversion, though he had un¬ 
dertaken to convert others. Prepared for a sudden conver¬ 
sion, it actually happened at a place and time, and in a 
manner, which he has recorded. According to his own ac¬ 
count, this memorable event is referred to the 24th day of 
May, in the year 1738, at a quarter before nine in the even¬ 
ing, when some person at a society in Aldersgate-street was 
reading Luther’s preface to the epistle to the Romans. “ He 
felt his heart strangely warmed. He felt that he trusted in 
Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given to 
him, that Christ had taken away his sins, and saved him 
from the law of sin and death.” These feelings of assurance, 
however, were blended with occasional misgivings; and it 
seems that, in his case, enthusiasm could not instantaneously 
overpower his philosophical reasonings. His case is far from 
being singular in the history of persons of the same descrip¬ 
tion. About this time he took a journey to Germany, in 
order to derive a further confirmation of his faith from inter¬ 
course with congenial spirits at the head-quarters of the Mo¬ 
ravians, at Hernhuth. After his return to England, in Sep¬ 
tember, 1738, he entered on his course of labours, and 
preached or exhorted, frequently three or four times a day, 
in prisons and other places of the metropolis, as well as in 
various parts of the country, where the fervour of his zeal 
bore proportion to the degree of obloquy which he incurred. 
His discourses produced wonderful effects, and occasioned in 
the hearers swoonings, exclamations, convulsions, &c., 
which have been often the accompaniments of violent emo¬ 
tions. At Bristol, where he had been preceded by Whit¬ 
field, he collected large crowds of attendants in the open 
air. But it was now desirable that a building should be 
Vol. XXIV. No. 1660. 
erected for the accommodation of the followers of these po¬ 
pular preachers. In May, 1739, the first stone of such an 
edifice was laid at Bristol; and with this building com¬ 
menced the absolute and unlimited power which Wesley 
exercised over his followers. “ The direction of the work 
was first committed to eleven feoffees of his nomination ; but 
as it became necessary for him to engage for the payment of 
the workmen, and to collect money for this purpose, he vi¬ 
sited London, and upon consulting Whitfield and others, he 
was told, that they would do nothing in the matter, unless 
he would discharge the feoffees, and take the whole business 
into his own hands. They gave various reasons for this de¬ 
termination ; but one,” says Wesley, “ was enough, viz. that 
such feoffees would always have it in their power to controul 
me; and if I preached not as they liked, turn me out of the 
room that I had built.” He, therefore, assembled the feof¬ 
fees, and with their consent cancelled the instruments made 
before, and took the whole management into his own hands; 
and this precedent he ever after followed, so that all the nu¬ 
merous meetings of his class of Methodists were either vested 
in him, or in trustees who were bound to give admission 
into the pulpit either to him or to such preachers as he shall 
appoint. Unable to associate clergymen in the prosecution 
of his plan, which seems to have been his first design, he 
determined to employ lay-preachers as itinerants to the dif¬ 
ferent societies; and of their talents he formed some judg¬ 
ment by their performances at the meetings for prayer and 
mere private exhortation. Reserving to himself the nomina¬ 
tion of his preachers, his authority was extended as his so¬ 
cieties were multiplied. For the use of these societies, he and 
his brother Charles drew up a set of rules for the direction of 
their moral and religious conduct, which are said to have 
been formed upon the purest model of primitive Christianity. 
A circumstance occurred which threatened injury to the 
cause of Methodism; but it eventually contributed to its ex¬ 
tension, and to the establishment of Wesley without a rival 
at the head of his own body. Whitfield had imbibed a 
predilection for the doctrines of the Puritan divines, which 
were in general Calvinistic. Wesley’s opinions were Armi- 
nian ; so that it was impossible for these two leaders of se¬ 
parate tenets to unite. “ The differences between them 
turned upon the three points, unconditional election, irresist¬ 
ible grace, and final perseverance; concerning which topics 
their notions varied so much, that Whitfield plainly told his 
brother reformer, that they preached two different gospels, 
and that he would not only refuse to give him the right hand 
of fellowship, but was resolved publicly to preach against 
him and his brother wheresoever he preached at all.” Al¬ 
though they afterwards spoke of each other with esteem, yet 
their separation was entire and lasting. 
The system of discipline formed by Wesley was admirably 
contrived both for gaining proselytes, and for extending 
and making permanent his own influence. As he did not 
profess to establish a new or distinct sect, he did not inter¬ 
fere with the regular worship either of the establishment or 
of Dissenters, so that he and his preachers robbed no other 
ministers of their hearers; and they availed themselves of 
those seasons, which gave persons that were desirous of at¬ 
tending, leisure for this purpose. That he might not be 
charged with drawing people away from the established 
church, or other societies of Christians, he did not administer 
the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper in his own chapels, but 
recommended attendance for this purpose in the established 
church. The plan of itinerancy was a political measure in 
the system of Mr. Wesley, as variety serves to excite curio¬ 
sity, and to increase the number of his followers. It seems 
also to relieve preachers and hearers, when the stock of the 
former is small; and it also prevents these missionaries, if 
they may be so called, from forming permanent connections 
in any place whither they are sent, and of acquiring an in¬ 
fluence, which would be inconsistent with the supremacy 
of the chief. In order to maintain an union between 
the members of this body, and to exercise a degree of vigi¬ 
lant inspection with regard to their conduct, Wesley has di- 
6 P vided 
