John Wesley
A prominent figure in the revival movement known as Methodism within the Church of England, John Wesley was an English cleric, theologian, and evangelist who lived from June 28, 1703, to March 2, 1791. The independent Methodist movement, which is still going strong today, was dominated by the societies he established.
John Wesley received his education at Charterhouse and Christ Church in Oxford. Two years later, he was ordained as an Anglican clergyman after being chosen a fellow of Lincoln College in Oxford. He oversaw the “Holy Club,” a group at Oxford established to study and pursue a pious Christian life. He returned to London and joined a religious organization run by Moravian Christians following a fruitless two-year ministry stint in Savannah, Georgia. He had what is now known as his evangelical conversion on May 24, 1738. He started his own ministry after departing from the Moravians.
Adopting Arminian principles and traveling extensively to preach outside was a crucial phase in the growth of Wesley’s ministry. He assisted in the formation and organization of small Christian groups that spread religious teaching, discipleship, and intense, individual accountability throughout Great Britain and Ireland. He assigned both male and female itinerant, unordained missionaries to serve these populations. Methodists rose to prominence under Wesley’s leadership in a number of contemporary social concerns, such as the support for female preachers and the abolition of slavery.
Although he was not a systematic theologian, John Wesley argued against Calvinism and for the notion of Christian perfection, which he described as the reason that he felt God “raised up” Methodists into being. Though he preached that a believer was changed into the likeness of Christ by faith, his evangelicalism, which was strongly based in sacramental theology, believed that grace played a part in the believer’s sanctification. According to him, Christians could attain a state in which God’s love “reigned supreme in their hearts” throughout this life, which would grant them both internal and external sanctity. Methodist churches’ doctrine is still influenced by Wesley’s beliefs, which are collectively referred to as Wesleyan theology.
John Wesley was persecuted and prohibited from preaching in many parish churches during his early ministry years. He subsequently gained widespread esteem and was referred to as “the best-loved man in England” toward the end of his life.
John Wesley Biography
On June 28, 1703 (O.S. June 17), John Wesley was born at Epworth, which is 23 miles (37 km) northwest of Lincoln. Samuel Wesley and his wife Susanna Wesley (née Annesley) had him as their fifteenth child. Poet and University of Oxford graduate Samuel Wesley served as rector of Epworth starting in 1696. In 1689, he wed Susanna, the 25th child of dissenting pastor Samuel Annesley. Nine of the 19 children she eventually had survived infancy. As young adults, she and Samuel Wesley had joined the Church of England.
Wesley’s parents provided their children with their early schooling, as was the case with many households during that era. Every child, including the girls, began receiving reading instruction at the age of five. They were supposed to have memorized most of the New Testament by heart and to become fluent in Latin and Greek. Each youngster was inspected by Susanna Wesley prior to the midday meal and the nightly prayers. In order to provide them with thorough spiritual teaching, the youngsters were not permitted to eat in between meals and were interrogated individually by their mother one evening every week. At the age of eleven, Wesley was sent to London’s Charterhouse School in 1714 (John King became its master in 1715), where he lived the stoic, disciplined, and, for a while, devout life he had been taught at home.
In addition to his well-behaved childhood, John Wesley was forever changed by the rectory fire that happened on February 9, 1709, when he was five years old. The roof of the rectory caught fire after 11:00 p.m. The Wesleys were awakened by the sound of sparks on the children’s beds and shouts of “fire” coming from the street. They were able to evacuate all of their children from the house, with the exception of John, who was left stranded on an upper floor. A parishioner standing on another man’s shoulders hoisted Wesley out of a window as the roof collapsed and the stairs caught fire. His unique destiny and remarkable work were attested to by this childhood deliverance, which later became part of the Wesley legend.
The alleged haunting of Epworth Rectory between 1716 and 1717 also had an impact on Wesley. ‘Old Jeffery’ was the ghost that the Wesley family thought was responsible for the many disturbances they heard and the sporadic sightings of apparitions.
Education
Wesley enrolled at Oxford’s Christ Church in June 1720. John Wesley continued his studies at Christ Church to earn his master’s degree after graduating in 1724.
On September 19, 1725, he was consecrated a deacon, a prerequisite for becoming a fellow and tutor at the institution. Wesley was unanimously elected a fellow of Oxford’s Lincoln College on March 17, 1726. This came with a regular pay and the right to a room at the college. He continued his education by lecturing on the New Testament, teaching Greek and philosophy, and mediating daily arguments at the university. But his academic career was interrupted by a call to ministry. After earning his master’s degree, Wesley went back to Epworth in August 1727. In order to serve the nearby cure of Wroot, his father had asked him to help. Wesley was a parish curate for two years before being ordained as a priest on September 22, 1728.
He read Jeremy Taylor and Thomas à Kempis in the year of his ordination, demonstrated an interest in mysticism, and started looking for the fundamental principles that underpinned the 18th-century great revival. He claimed that after reading William Law’s Christian Perfection and A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life, he had a more profound understanding of God’s law and made the decision to uphold it as sacredly as possible on the inside and the outside because he thought that by obeying it, he would be saved.
He lived a strict, austere, and meticulous life, studied the Bible, and faithfully carried out his religious obligations, denying himself so that he might offer alms. He started pursuing life and heart holiness.
In order to keep his position as a junior fellow and at the request of the Rector of Lincoln College, John Wesley went to Oxford in November 1729.
John Wesley’s Aldersgate Experience Explained
Wesley’s experience in Georgia caused him to develop depression. He got the chance to reflect on his own religious beliefs while traveling back to England. After seeing how confidently the Moravians had spoken their faith, he discovered that, despite his commitment to live a life of following Christ, he was not pleased with his spiritual soundness and felt unqualified to preach. Peter Boehler, a Moravian clergyman who was waiting for authorization to leave for Georgia himself, provided advice to both him and Charles. Wesley was urged to “preach faith until you have it” by Boehler.
Wesley’s career was completely changed by his famous “Aldersgate experience” on May 24, 1738, when he heard a reading of Martin Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans at a Moravian gathering in Aldersgate Street, London. He had been helping at the service at St. Mary le Strand the week before, and John Heylyn’s sermon had much affected him. He had heard the choir at St. Paul’s Cathedral performing Psalm 130 earlier that day, in which the psalmist exhorts God to come “Out of the depths.”
However, on the evening of May 24, John Wesley was still a depressed person who went to a service. In his journal, Wesley described his experience at Aldersgate:
“In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s Preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation, and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”
Wesley’s sermon on the theory of personal salvation by faith was followed a few weeks later by another on God’s grace, which he described as “free in all, and free for all.” Daniel L. Burnett describes the event as a turning point, writing: “Wesley’s Aldersgate Experience is enormous in its significance… The names of Wesley and Methodism would probably be little more than unimportant anecdotes in the annals of church history without it. Wesley’s “Evangelical Conversion” is how Burnett characterizes this incident. Methodist congregations observe May 24 as Aldersgate Day.
Holy Club Oxford
His younger brother Charles (1707–88) enrolled at Christ Church while John Wesley was away, and he and two other students established a small club to study and work toward a pious Christian life. Upon his return, Wesley assumed leadership of the group, which saw a slight increase in membership and a significant boost in dedication. Every day, the group gathered from six to nine to read the Greek New Testament, pray, and recite psalms. They prayed for a certain virtue every day and for a few minutes every waking hour. The church celebrated Communion every Sunday, even though attendance was only required three times a year. As was customary in the old church, they fasted on Wednesdays and Fridays until nones (3:00 pm). The organization started visiting convicts in prison in 1730. The men cared for the sick, preached, educated, and, when feasible, freed gaoled debtors.
At a period when spirituality was at its lowest in Oxford, Wesley’s organization sparked a backlash. They were viewed as “enthusiasts” of religion, which at the time meant religious extremists. They were mockingly dubbed the “Holy Club” by university wits. After a group member, William Morgan, suffered a mental collapse and died, oppositional currents erupted. Wesley pointed out that Morgan had stopped fasting a year and a half later, refuting the accusation that “rigorous fasting” had accelerated his demise. Wesley mentioned the term “Methodist” that “some of our neighbors are pleased to compliment us” in the same letter that was extensively shared.
A published booklet (1732) by an unidentified author referred to John Wesley and his organization as “The Oxford Methodists” by that name. But there was some controversy around this ministry. Thomas Blair was convicted guilty of sodomy in 1732, but the Holy Club continued to support and minister to him. Wesley remained supportive of Blair, who was notorious among the villagers and his fellow inmates.
Wesleyan Theology
In his 1964 preface to the book John Wesley, 20th-century Wesleyan scholar Albert Outler contended that John Wesley used a technique he called the Wesleyan Quadrilateral to create his theology. According to this approach, Wesley held that Scripture (the Bible) was the only source of theological development and that it contained the live heart of Christianity. Despite being well-read for his day, Wesley referred to himself as “a man of one book,” demonstrating how important Scripture was to him. But according to him, doctrine needed to be consistent with Christian orthodoxy. Thus, tradition was seen as the Quadrilateral’s second component. Wesley argued that experienced faith will be a component of the theological approach.
To put it another way, if truth were truly true, it would be embodied in Christians’ individual experiences (collectively, not individually). Additionally, each doctrine ought to be logically defendable. He did not separate reason from faith. However, Wesley maintained that Scripture always had the final say over tradition, experience, and reason since only the Word of God was revealed “so far as it is necessary for our salvation.”
Prevenient grace, present personal salvation by faith, the Spirit’s testimony, and complete sanctification are the principles that Wesley emphasized in his writings and sermons.
Entire Sanctification
In 1790, he defined entire sanctification as the “grand depositum which God has lodged with the people called ‘Methodists'” and said that the spread of this concept was the cause for the creation of Methodists. Between justification and death, Wesley maintained that complete sanctification was possible following justification by faith. According to John Wesley, it is:
“That habitual disposition of soul which, in the sacred writings, is termed holiness; and which directly implies, the being cleansed from sin, ‘from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit;’ and, by consequence, the being endued with those virtues which were in Christ Jesus; the being so ‘renewed in the image of our mind,’ as to be ‘perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect.”
John Wesley argued that a Christian may be rendered “perfect in love” instead of using the word “sinless perfection” “because of its ambiguity.” Wesley studied Eastern Orthodoxy and was especially a supporter of the theosis theory. First and foremost, this love would entail that a believer’s motivations would be driven by a strong desire to serve God rather than being self-centered. It would be possible to avoid what Wesley referred to as “sin rightly so-called.” He was referring to a deliberate or conscious transgression of God’s will or laws.
Second, John Wesley believed that a Christian may live with a major guiding concern for the welfare of others if they were made perfect in love. Christ’s statement that the second great command is “to love your neighbor as you love yourself” served as the foundation for his argument. According to Wesley, a person with this mindset would refrain from committing a variety of transgressions against their neighbors. Wesley called this love “a fulfilment of the law of Christ.” It would be combined with a love for God that may be the main focus of a person’s religion. He said that people may be sure of their complete sanctification by the testimony of the Holy Spirit, and he defined perfection as a second blessing and an immediate sanctifying experience.
Personal Life
John Wesley preached two or three times a day while traveling widely, usually on horseback. “[Wesley] rode 250,000 miles, gave away 30,000 pounds,… and preached more than 40,000 sermons,” according to Stephen Tomkins. He established associations, established chapels, screened and hired preachers, ran aid organizations, gave medical advice to the ill, helped develop the use of electric shock as a cure for disease, and oversaw schools and orphanages, notably Kingswood School.
For health reasons, John Wesley avoided booze in later life and followed a vegetarian diet. He penned, “thanks be to God, since the time I gave up flesh meals and wine I have been delivered from all physical ills” . In both his letter to an alcoholic and his well-known sermon, The Use of Money, Wesley spoke against the perils of alcohol misuse. Wesley states in his sermon On Public Diversions: “You are going to sip of the wine when you see it sparkling in the cup. I implore you to discard it because I tell you it contains poison.
These prohibitions on alcohol consumption mostly applied to “hard liquors and spirits” rather than low-alcohol beer, which was frequently safer to consume than the tainted water of the era. In the 19th and 20th centuries, Methodist churches were leaders in the teetotal temperance movement, which eventually became standard practice in British Methodism.
He loved Charles Avison in particular, and he went to music concerts. “I went to the cathedral to hear Mr. Handel’s Messiah,” John Wesley wrote in his journal after seeing a performance in Bristol Cathedral in 1758. I don’t think the audience ever paid such attention to a sermon as they did throughout this performance. It surpassed my expectations in a lot of areas, particularly in a few of the choruses.
He has been described as “rather under the medium height, well proportioned, strong, with a bright eye, a clear complexion, and a saintly, intellectual face” . In 1751, at the age of 48, John Wesley married Mary Vazeille, a widow who was characterized as “a well-to-do widow and mother of four children,” despite his preference for celibacy over a marital tie. The pair didn’t have any kids. According to John Singleton, she left him by 1758 because she was allegedly unable to handle the competition for his time and dedication from the Methodist movement, which was growing at the time. Before they finally parted ways, Molly, as she was known, would return and depart from him multiple times.
In his notebook, John Wesley wrote cynically, “I did not forsake her, I did not dismiss her, I will not recall her.”
When George Whitefield passed away in 1770, Wesley composed a memorial sermon in which he acknowledged the contrasts between the two men and commended Whitefield’s positive traits: “There are numerous beliefs of a less important type… We can “agree to disagree” and ponder and let think about them, but in the meanwhile, let’s hold fast to the fundamentals.” Although Wesley himself credited Whitefield with coining the phrase, it had already been used in other contexts. Wesley may have been the first to use “agree to disagree” in print, in the contemporary sense of accepting disagreements.
When Wesley visited Lisburn, Ireland, in June 1775, he was quite sick. He recuperated while staying at the house of Henrietta Gayer, a prominent Methodist.
Death
John Wesley stopped preaching when his health deteriorated rapidly in his final years. Less than a year before his passing, on June 28, 1790, he wrote:
This day I enter into my eighty-eighth year. For above eighty-six years, I found none of the infirmities of old age: my eyes did not wax dim, neither was my natural strength abated. But last August, I found almost a sudden change. My eyes were so dim that no glasses would help me. My strength likewise now quite forsook me and probably will not return in this world.
