The life and times of the Rev. John Wesley, M.A., founder of the Methodists. Vol. 1 (of 3)Tyerman, L. (Luke)
History
The life and times of the Rev. John Wesley, M.A., founder of the Methodists. Vol. 1 (of 3)
Tyerman, L. (Luke)
Methodism; Wesley, John, 1703-1791
April 25.—Wesley rebaptizes adults, on the ground that, _really_ they
have never been baptized before, the baptism of infants by sprinkling
being no true baptism in his esteem. When Whitefield returned from
Georgia, he preached at the Foundery, taking for his text, “O foolish
Galatians, who hath bewitched you?” For this he was immediately
excommunicated from the Foundery pulpit, lest the people should think
that Wesley was a conjuror. “Everybody allows that there are above
twenty, and some say forty, spinning wheels at the Foundery.” “Wesley
well knows how to breakfast with one of his devotees, dine with
another, and sup with a third, all of which retrenches the charges
of housekeeping at home. Those who sit in his gallery must subscribe
five shillings a quarter, and those who stand, a penny a week. He who
advances half-a-crown a quarter is admitted into the close society; and
he who doubles that amount becomes a member of the bands, where men and
women stay all night, but for what purpose is known only to God and to
themselves. The price for resolving cases of conscience is threepence
each. Wesley makes at least £50 by every edition of the hymns he
publishes; and thus, by his preaching, his bookselling, his workhouse,
his wheedling, and his sponging, it is generally believed that he gets
an income of £700 a year, and some say above £1000. This,” adds the
mendacious editor, “is priest-craft in perfection.”
May 9.—The writer speculates concerning what is likely to be the end
of the Methodist movement. 1. Some think if the Methodists are let
alone, they will, as a matter of course, fall to pieces. 2. Others
think that the irreconcilable differences between Wesley and Whitefield
will effect their ruin; for Whitefield has set up a conventicle of
boards not far from Wesley’s Foundery; and while one calls the other
schismatic, the other in requital calls him a heretic. 3. Some think
that their congregations, by neglecting their business and their work,
will be reduced to beggary, and this, of course, will ruin all. 4.
Lastly, others think their conduct will be such that the government
will find it necessary to suppress them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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