The life and times of the Rev. John Wesley, M.A., founder of the Methodists. Vol. 2 (of 3)Tyerman, L. (Luke)
History
The life and times of the Rev. John Wesley, M.A., founder of the Methodists. Vol. 2 (of 3)
Tyerman, L. (Luke)
Methodism; Wesley, John, 1703-1791
A week later, he wrote: “September 15.—I read a short ‘Narrative of
Count Zinzendorf’s Life, written by himself.’ Was there ever such a
Proteus under the sun as this Lord Freydeck, Domine de Thurstain, etc.,
etc.? For he has almost as many names as he has faces or shapes. O when
will he learn (with all his learning) simplicity and godly sincerity?
When will he be an upright follower of the Lamb, so that no guile may
be found in his mouth?”
To some this language may seem somewhat harsh; but was it so? Take
the commencement of a letter which Zinzendorf addressed to the
Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1749. “We, Lewis, by Divine providence,
bishop, Liturgus, and Ordinary of the churches known by the name of
the Brethren; and, under the auspices of the same, Advocate during
life, with full power over the hierarchy of the Slavonic Unity; Custos
Rotulorum, and Prolocutor both of the general Synod and of the Tropus
of instruction; by these presents declare,” etc. Or take the following
from Spangenberg, who says he thus enumerates all the titles of the
count, because he not unfrequently availed himself of them:—“The
individual whose character I have attempted to pourtray, was Nicolas
Lewis, Count and Lord of Zinzendorf and Pottendorf, lord of the
baronies of Freydeck, Schöneck, Thurnstein, and the vale of Wachovia,
lord of the manor of Upper, Middle, and Lower Bertholdsdorf, Hereditary
Warden of the Chace to his imperial Roman majesty, in the Duchy of
Austria, below the Ens, and at one time Aulic and Justicial Counsellor
to the Elector of Saxony.” Compare this sickening bombast with Wesley’s
most flattering description of himself: “John Wesley, M.A., Fellow of
Lincoln College, Oxford.” Unfortunately we shall have to return to
this high-flown German gentleman.
It seems to have been some time during the present year, that the
Methodists of London began to occupy the French church, in Grey
Eagle Street, Spitalfields. This chapel had been built by the French
protestant refugees, and is said to have had for its minister, from
1700 to 1705, the eminent French protestant preacher, James Saurin.
It is now a part of the brewery of Truman, Buxton, and Hanbury.[104]
Here, on September 21, Wesley held a watchnight, and remarks: “I often
wonder at the peculiar providence of God on these occasions. I do not
know that, in so many years, one person has ever been hurt, either in
London, Bristol, or Dublin, in going so late in the night to and from
all parts of the town.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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