After the Society for the Reformation of Manners had existed about forty years, most of its original members were dead, and it became defunct, and, from about 1730 to 1757, no such society existed. At that time, and perhaps as the result of the Methodist societies being instituted in 1739, the old Society for Reformation of Manners was revived. The approbation of the Lord Mayor of London and of the Court of Aldermen was obtained; and thousands of books of instruction were printed, and were sent to constables and parish officers to remind them of their duty. In the beginning of 1758, the laws against immorality were again enforced, and the streets and fields swept of their notorious offenders. In five years, about ten thousand persons were brought to justice, principally for gambling, swearing, Sabbath-breaking, lewdness, and selling obscene prints.[128] Who will deny that John Wesley had much to do with the revival of this society, as his father, Samuel Wesley, had to do with its early institution.[129] The society, at the first, arose out of the religious societies then existing; and we are strongly of opinion that the revival of the society, after it had become defunct, arose out of the Methodist societies of 1739, and which bore an almost exact resemblance to the religious societies of 1677. At all events, we find John Wesley thoroughly identifying himself with the revived Reformation Society of 1757. In 1763, he preached before the Society in West Street Chapel, Seven Dials, taking, as already stated, the very text that his father took sixty-five years before.[130] In 1764, he proposed to the London Leaders Meeting that they should have a congregational collection to assist to liquidate the heavy debt of the Society for the Reformation of Manners, though, at the very time, his own society debt in London was about £900.[131] And, in 1766, he dined with W. Welsh, the father of the revived Society, and most feelingly laments that it has a second time ceased to exist. The immediate cause of this, was an action instituted against the society, in the King’s Bench, which issued in a verdict with £300 damages. This verdict was obtained by the false swearing of a wretch whom the society afterwards convicted of wilful perjury. Still the death-blow to the Society was struck, and John Wesley writes: “They could never recover the expense of that suit. Lord, how long shall the ungodly triumph?”[132] ----- Footnote 128: _See_ Wesley’s _Works_, vol. vi. p. 145. Footnote 129: The person who was the principal means of resuscitating the Society for the Reformation of Manners was W. Welsh; but John Wesley was a personal friend of W. Welsh, and probably gave him counsel and encouragement.—_See_ Wesley’s _Journal_, February 2, 1766. Footnote 130: Wesley’s _Works_, vol. vi. p. 140. Footnote 131: Wesley’s _Journal_, Nov. 4, 1764. Footnote 132: Wesley’s _Works_, vol. iii. p. 230, and vol. vi. p. 157. -----