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
June 13.—Proposes the erection of a Methodist edifice on Blackheath.
The foundation stone is to be the tombstone that prevented the
resurrection of Dr. Emes, the famous French prophet. The principal
entrance is to be adorned with statues of the most eminent
field-preachers. The hall is to be decorated with a piece, in which the
principal figure is to be Enthusiasm, sitting in an easy chair, and
just delivered of two beauteous babes, the one called Superstition,
and the other Infidelity. On her right hand must be a grisly old
gentleman with a cloven foot, holding the new born children in a
receiver, which the Pope has blessed, and gazing upon them with most
fatherly affection. The _pang room_ of the building is to be for the
accommodation of those seized with the pangs of the new birth. All
who run mad about election must be lodged in the _predestination
room_,—which, by the way, is likely to be well peopled, and therefore
must be large, as well as dark and gloomy, and must be adorned with
the evolutions, intricacies, and involutions of a rusty chain, held
at one end by the Methodistic founder, and at the other by the devil.
The _disputation room_ is, like a cockpit, to be round as a hoop, so
that the disputants may have the pleasure of disputing in a circle.
The _expounding room_ is to be adorned with a picture of the founder,
with a pair of scissors in one hand and a Bible in the other; a motto
over his reverend head, “Dividing the word of God;” and all round about
scraps of paper supposed to be texts newly clipped from the sacred
Scriptures. The _refectory_ is to have a painting to represent Wesley,
Whitefield, and C. Graves at supper, with Madam Bourignon presiding.
Near her must be an ass’s head boiled with sprouts and bacon; and,
at the other end of the table, a dish of owls roasted and larded.
Having already helped Whitefield to the jaw bone of the ass’s head,
and Wesley to the sweet tooth, she now gives Mr. Graves a spoonful
of the brains and a bit of tongue, which he receives with a grateful
bow. The foundation stone is to be laid on the first of April; and the
procession to the site are to sing, not the psalms of David, for they
are not half good enough, but a hymn of Wesley’s own composing.
Ridicule like this was even worse than being pelted with brickbats and
rotten eggs.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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