Wesley at eighty-two a marvel of activity — Ordination of Mather the same as the ordination of Coke, nothing more — Rare London pamphlet giving curious revelations of Wesley — Deductions from it — Perronet and Fletcher — Deed of Declaration causes secessions — Methodist laity conservative — Dr. Coke, father of missions — Wesley ordains as an illogical Churchman — Charles Wesley's death — Coke and service during Church hours — Farewell to Ireland — Wesley's old age — An autocrat to the last — Blind to judicial distinctions — Last Journal entry — The preachers outwit Wesley — He never abused his power; the error in trying to entail it — His last testimony against separation from the Church.
1785, and Wesley at eighty-two, finds him spending five days of January walking the streets of London in slush and snow, begging 200 for the poor and visiting the destitute in their own houses.
He met the London classes and received the weekly contributions, out of which he paid himself his quarter's salary of 15. He also preached in some of the National churches, invitations being now plentiful.
He was a marvel of activity and consecration. He wrote a letter to Mr. Stretton of Newfoundland, February 25, in which he says, "Last autumn Dr. Coke sailed from England, and is now visiting the flock in the midland provinces of America, and setting them on the New Testament plan, to which they all willingly and joyfully conform." Coke had carried a letter to them from him for public use,[1]
in which he declares that the Revolutionary War had set them free from "the State and the English hierarchy; we dare not entangle them again, either with the one or the other. They are now at full liberty, simply to follow the Scriptures and the primitive Church." Explaining his ordination of[2]
Mather as a Superintendent for Scotland he wrote: "After Dr. Coke's return from America, many of our friends begged that I would consider the case of Scotland . . . at length consented to take the same steps for Scotland which I had done with regard to America. But this is not separation from the Church . . . Whatever then is done in America or Scotland, is not separation from the Church of England." Dear old man! Guileless, ingenuous, unsuspicious, unmindful now that in these things he should be logically consistent, it was his idea of a "New Testament plan" to preserve his primacy over the world's Methodists, appointing Superintendents for sections not convenient for him to supervise personally, as in America and Scotland, to which Ireland would probably have been added but for the fact that Coke, the most available man for the position, and who held the Conference Presidency by Wesley's appointment for a series of years, was made his choice for America. It did not enter into his dream, even, that what he did would or could be perverted into the organization of a Church independent of him, either in Scotland or America. How the "joint superintendents"[3]
for America became bishops in due time, and how an Episcopal Church was organized, is a tale that will be worth the telling in its proper place.
At the previous Conference he had assigned William Moore to Plymouth. He was one of the dissatisfied with the Deed of Declaration and broke away from Wesley's authority and severed the
society in Plymouth. He was a man, says Tyerman, of "education, courage, and Christian zeal." He hired a room, drew off some forty of the society, and formed one of his own. Wesley was sent for, and, with the advantage of empire in property, soon settled matters to his satisfaction. It was naughty in Moore, but a peace measure as the Deed was intended to be is not always measured by peace.
Wesley visited Ireland, and in two months entered and preached in fifty or sixty towns about fourscore sermons. He passed his eighty-second birthday on the 28th of June, and finds himself in such health that he says, "I dare not impute this to natural causes; it is the will of God." He held the Irish Conference on July 10, Coke being absent on his mission. He is delighted with the Irish preachers and pays them the high compliment, "I think number for number they exceed their fellow-laborers in England." He was constantly forming new friends, but the old ones were rapidly dropping away. This year Vincent Perronet and John Fletcher died. The former was in the ninety-second year of his age, and died while Wesley was in Ireland, on the 9th of May. Charles Wesley buried him and preached his funeral sermon. Wesley was in the west of England when Fletcher died, August 14, 1785, and so could not attend his funeral. Next to the Wesleys and Whitefield, Methodism is most indebted to Fletcher. But for his almost angelic influence at the previous Conference of 1784, during the debate on the Deed of Declaration and the Ordination questions, serious results might have followed, menacing the very existence of the Conference and the societies. His life was saintly and his death triumphant.
The forty-second Conference convened at City Road in London, July 26. Wesley says: "Our Conference began; at which about seventy preachers were present, whom I had invited by name. One consequence of this was, that we had no contention or altercation at all; but everything proposed was calmly considered and determined as we judged would be most for the glory of God." Seventy[4]
preachers out of nearly two hundred. There is a charming simplicity in his record of the result; as though seventy out of two hundred, and they invited by name, could disagree to anything he proposed! Nevertheless, the Deed of Declaration was again brought up, and seventy preachers, all who were present, signed documents that they approved the Deed. Eight preachers left the connection, including Moore and the two Hampsons, without dispute among the ablest and hitherto truest men of the Conference. It was the beginning of other secessions on the same account. Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and Antigua appeared in the minutes. Once more itinerating, when he reached Bristol he heard a report that he was about to leave the National Church, and felt called upon to make a public denial. "I openly declared in the evening that I had no more thought of separating from the Church than I had forty years ago." Among the notable publications of this year under[5]
Methodist auspices was a twelve-page pamphlet with the title "Free Thoughts Concerning Separation of the People called Methodists from the Church of England, Addressed to the Preachers in the Methodist Connection by a Layman of the Methodist Society." It was a strong argument against separation, and is cited in proof that the Methodist laity, in the Wesleyan and Asburyan forms of it specially, have ever been most conservative; and yet, strange to say, under the polity of both these eminent leaders, the laity were shut out from participation in the government, the position being practically in regard to the people, that they were best qualified to exercise the trinity of virtues: Pray, Pay, and Obey. The concession made in these pages that the paternal system of Wesley — and it may be extended to Asbury — during his life was, all things considered, the most efficient, and for the time allowable, and if its advocates please, even providential, must be qualified by its trend in establishing a precedent for a class hierarchal of preachers exclusively. It is worth while to retrace our steps a few weeks to July 14, the second Sunday before the Conference met, to record one of the
most interesting events in Wesley's life. He preached the next morning at five o'clock to the Methodist children in City Road chapel. It was crowded with children. Tyerman says, "When, either before or since, was there such a congregation at such an hour?" It was one of the hygienic[6]
fallacies of Wesley that not himself only, but all his helpers, should preach at five o'clock in the morning. He believed it was one of the principal reasons his own health was so marvelously preserved, therefore everybody to be healthy must preach at five in the morning. There was much rebellion both by preachers and the people against a rule, serviceable for exceptions under which it was created, but unreasonable as a perpetual and arbitrary regulation. Preachers were disciplined for not observing this iron rule.
1786 and Wesley at eighty-three. From the opening of it to the forty-third Conference, July 25, at Bristol, his labors continued to be signalized by remarkable occurrences of which Tyerman gives details found in no other biography. At the Conference the question of separation from the Church was again mooted. Dr. Coke was the leader, "who had returned from his episcopal tour in the United States." The underscored word is by its author. Charles Wesley was present for the last time and[7]
uttered but one single word, an emphatic "No" when Dr. Coke in his separation speech affirmed that nearly all the converted clergymen in the kingdom were Calvinists. Sitting with closed doors was relaxed at this Conference to the extent of a single session. "On Thursday in the afternoon, we permitted any of the society to be present." Despite the discussion on separation, Wesley says in[8]
his Journal: "Great had been the expectation of many, that we should have had warm debates, but by the mercy of God we had none at all." A lover of peace, if matters moved smoothly in the[9]
channels he appointed, nothing is more common for no mention to be made at all of discussions or denials, if he thought that best. The total membership for the world was reported at 81,010.
It is a pleasure to introduce Dr. Coke in a shining light. He must be esteemed the father and founder of the Methodist Missionary Society, its lifelong advocate, and most laborious evangel. It had been inaugurated at the Conference of 1785. Before leaving for America Dr. Coke drew up a Plan and made a report which he referred to Fletcher. Its title is "A Plan of the Society for the Establishment of Missions among the Heathen." He never relaxed his efforts in this direction, and spent much of his independent fortune — he claimed to have an income of 1200 a year, an inheritance from his wealthy father as an only child — in it, and found his grave in the Indian Ocean, when sixty-seven years of age, in pursuance of his burning zeal in the cause. The mission to India had to be postponed, but other points nearer home and in America were pressed, and collections taken as a part of the regular work of Methodist preachers.
Passing mention must be made of Wesley's immense correspondence throughout his long life. It is simply past comprehension how he managed to do all he did. In the autumn of this year he undertook to write a "Life of Fletcher." He says: "To this I dedicated all the time I could spare till November, from five in the morning till eight at night. These are my studying hours. I cannot write longer in a day without hurting my eyes." Tyerman breaks out: "We should think not! Fifteen hours a day of unintermitting labor in the case of a man eighty-three years of age!" He writes: "In general my health has been better for the last ten years, than it ever has been for ten years together since I was born . . . All my pains and aches have forsaken me, and I am a stranger even to weariness of any kind." Impressed himself, he strongly exhorted the people to make their wills. He finished his "Life of Fletcher," a twelvemo. of 227 pages, a year's work itself for an ordinary man; but he published
nothing else save the Arminian Magazine, 688 pages, much of it his own composition. An extract shows that he had drifted away from all narrow views of what constituted a church: "Two or three Christian brethren united together are a church in the narrowest sense . . . the catholic or universal church is all the persons in the universe whom God hath called out of the world, etc. . . . the part inhabiting any one kingdom may be called a national church, etc." [10]
1787 and Wesley at eighty-four. He kept on ordaining, as has been shown, and he kept on resisting with all his power those, either among the preachers or the people, who were agitating for separation, thus persevering to the end in his illogical position as an Episcopalian. He wrote: "They that are enemies to the Church are enemies to me. I still think, when the Methodists leave the Church of England, God will leave them." The poor of London and elsewhere were much upon his heart, and he spent days begging for money to relieve them. At Bristol he was grieved to discover that out of a membership of sixteen hundred only a dozen hearers formed the five o'clock morning service. He admonished them on their indolence, and during his stay the number rose to some three hundred, but even the fame and authority of Wesley could not bring them out at this unreasonable hour as a permanent service. He meets with Howard the philanthropist, kindred spirits. He held his Irish Conference.
The forty-fourth Conference was held at Manchester, July 31. The statistics of every class showed great improvement. At this Conference he ordained Mather, Rankin, and Moore, not by joining with him in the service two of his own ordained preachers, but two presbyters of the National Church. Did he by this express doubt of his own ordinations even of presbyters, or did he do it to keep in all things as near the Church as possible? Probably the latter; but at his age and the mixed nature of the whole ordaining business, it is impossible to affirm. Stevens says: "The reordination of Mather as a bishop was significant." It was indeed, and when a man has committed himself to a strained view of a transaction, he easily juggles with words. Party bias in Methodism insists that superintendent and bishop, as Wesley understood it, are one and the same sequel of these pages will show that nothing is more untrue. Wesley makes no mention at all of this Conference in his Journal. Thomas Taylor, in charge at Leeds, only fifty miles from Manchester, and one of the hundred named in the Deed of Declaration, was not invited to the Conference for the only apparent reason, — he was in favor of separation. He loudly complains in his manuscript Journal: "Mr. Wesley has sent his special summons to each preacher whom he wished to attend Conference, and has expressly forbidden any one else to go. I am unbidden, and think I am ill used . . . I'll venture to go, let the consequences be what they may." He had ordained Pawson for Scotland several years before who went to his work putting on bands and gowns, and Wesley addressed him as "Reverend." He was brought back to England, and now he was compelled to doff his canonicals and be addressed as "Mr." He was indignant, but submitted; his piety was greater than his love for sacerdotal robes. He wrote to a bosom friend: "Even the Pope himself never acted such a part as this. What an astonishing degree of power does our aged friend and father exercise." [11] These things give us an inkling of the kind of peace the Deed of Declaration and the Ordinations engendered. Yet never was Methodism more prosperous. The net increase for the year in England alone was near four thousand. The doctrines and means of grace were more and more potent, under the blessing of the Lord, with the people. There are not wanting those who couple Wesley's discipline and major proceedings as the cause. It is submitted that proceedings that bring not peace but a sword cannot minister to real prosperity. The Sunday-school work was magnified and the children taught to sing, and their presence in the chapel
services vastly improved the singing. Wesley was delighted. William Bramwell, Richard Reece, Joseph Entwistle, and Pearl Dickinson are names now appearing, and immortal in Methodism. All his preachers were now licensed to save them from the Conventicle Act; but it widened a breach with the National Church and made ultimate separation inevitable. Wesley had ceased to publish except in the Arminian Magazine. Dr. Coke, and principally, Mr. Bradford were now his traveling companions. Everywhere he was received with worshipful respect. His flowing snow-white hair, his ruddy countenance, his searching eyes, which had lost none of their brightness, made him an angel visitant.
The forty-fifth Conference was held in London, July 29, 1788. The prosperity was unabated.
Among those received at this conference was John Hickling, who survived till 1859, aged ninety-three, the last of Wesley's "Helpers." He had preached more than seventy years, and at the time of his death was announced for six special occasions. Wesley had passed his eighty-fifth birthday with unusual incidents, and the year was marked with many events of a striking character, which may be found in Tyerman's "Life," but cannot be reproduced under limit of space. March 29 of this year Charles Wesley died. Wesley was at Macclesfield and could not get to London in time for the funeral. Charles had left instructions to be buried in "consecrated ground" and by clergymen of the National Church. Wesley was much grieved, for he wished him to be buried near him in City Road chapel ground. He intended to write his brother's Life, but he could not find the time. Dr.
Whitehead, by special request of the family, performed acceptably and successfully the task, having access to his Journal and all his private papers. On Christmas day of this year Wesley preached at City Road chapel, and on the last Sunday in the year at All Hallows church. His attendant while putting on his gown was addressed by Wesley. "Sir, it is above fifty years since I first preached in this church . . . I came without a sermon. A woman who stood by noticing my concern said, on learning the cause of my confusion, 'Cannot you trust God for a sermon?'" It had such an effect on him that he ascended the pulpit and preached extempore . . . "I have never since taken a written sermon with me into the pulpit."
1789, and Wesley at eighty-six. In January he sat for a picture by Romney, and he compliments him, "He struck off an exact likeness at once and did more in an hour than Sir Joshua did in ten." His sight and other faculties showed signs of decay, but in March he started on a five months' preaching tour over the kingdom. At Dublin chapel he called on William Myles, his assistant at this place, to aid him in administering the Lord's Supper, and he was not yet ordained. It gave great offense, and a controversy raged for three months over it in the Daily Dublin Evening Post. It was pronounced
"the greatest innovation that had been witnessed for fifty years." His reason for this step can be conjectured only. Under Dr. Coke's management the Dublin Methodists had service during the Church hours, to keep them from wandering from their own service at other hours, a practice Coke determined must be stopped. It led to farther controversy, and Wesley endeavored to justify Coke, though it was a thing he so often condemned. Notwithstanding these divarications of his own he stickled and insisted that other rules should be obeyed to the letter. At Dewsbury the year before his book steward, Atlay, led a rebellion against his power to appoint exclusively the preacher. Atlay and the chapel were both lost to the connection. Now at Shields the same disaffection appeared. Wesley wrote a peremptory letter to the three circuit preachers, that they demand a settlement of the deed on the Conference plan within three weeks, and if within another week it was not complied with they were to withdraw and not preach in it. In a postscript he says: "I am at a point. I will be trifled with