Ps 139:23-24
Examine me, O God, and probe my thoughts.
Test me, and know my concerns.
See if there is any idolatrous way in me,
and lead me in the everlasting way.
Self-examination is the precondition for a holy life. Just as the psalmist1 opened his heart to God expecting His assessment, so too did John Wesley2.
2. In the year 1725, being in the twenty-third year of my age, I met with Bishop Taylor’s “Rule and Exercises of Holy Living and Dying.” In reading several parts of this book, I was exceedingly affected; that part in particular which relates to purity of intention. Instantly I resolved to dedicate all my life to God, all my thoughts, and words, and actions; being thoroughly convinced, there was no medium; but that every part of my life (not some only) must either be a sacrifice to God, or myself, that is, in effect, to the devil.
In the next year, John went to Oxford University, and in 1728, he was ordained as an Anglican priest. While at Oxford, a year later together with his brother Charles, and a few friends, formed a club to debate the Novum Testamentum Graece as well as the Classics and encourage each other to live a holy life.
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| The Holy Club. Preserved poster. Location: Santa Barbara Free Methodist Church3. |
“General Questions”
The method that helped Wesley to keep high standards of his daily spiritual discipline was a list of “General Questions” for personal reflection4. They appeared in his first printed publication5, A collection of forms of prayer for every day in the week in the year 1733. These questions are reproduced here for the benefit of the reader to ponder on their content and reflect on his spiritual condition. Reading them all at once may feel overwhelming, but it must be remembered that these questions were exercised over time. Spiritual progress occurs when taking one step at a time, little by little ...
Sunday Evening.
General Questions which a serious Christian may propose to himself, before he begins his Evening Devotions.
1. With what Degree of Attention and Fervour did I use my Morning Prayers, Publick or Private ?
2. Have I done any Thing without a present, or at least a previous, Perception, of its direct, or remote Tendency to the Glory of God ?
3. Did I in the Morning consider, what particular Virtue I was to exercise, and what Business I had to do, in the Day ?
4. Have I been zealous to undertake, and active in doing what Good I could ?
5. Have I interested myself any farther in the Affairs of others, than Charity required ?
6. Have I, before I visited, or was visited, considered how I might thereby give or receive Improvement ?
7. Have I mentioned any Failing or Fault of any Man, when it was not necessary for the Good of another ?
8. Have I unnecessarily grieved any one by Word or Deed ?
9. Have I before, or in, every considerable Conversation or Action, considered, how it might be a Means of improving in the Virtue of the Day ?
Particular Questions relating to the Love of God.
1. Have I set a-part some of this Day, to think upon his Perfections and Mercies ?
2. Have I laboured to make this Day, a Day of heavenly Rest, sacred to Divine Love ?
3. Have I employed those Parts of it in Works of Necessity and Mercy, which were not employed in Prayer, Reading, and Meditation ?
[...]
Monday Morning.
General Questions, which may be used every Morning.
Did I think of God first and last ?
Have I examined myself how I behaved since last Night’s Retirement ?
Am I resolved to do all the Good I can this Day, and to be diligent in the Business of my Calling ?
[...]
Monday Evening.
Particular Questions relating to the Love of our Neighbours.
1. Have I thought any Thing but my Conscience, too dear to part with, to please or serve my Neighbour ?
2. Have I rejoiced or grieved with him ?
3. Have I received his Infirmities with Pity, not with Anger ?
4. Have I contradicted any one, either where I had no End in View, or where there was no Probability of convincing ?
5. Have I let him, I thought in the Wrong [in a Trifle] have the last Word ?
[...]
Tuesday Evening.
Particular Questions relating to Humility
1. Have I laboured to conform all my Thoughts, Words, and Actions to these fundamental Maxims; I am Nothing, I have Nothing, I can do Nothing ?
2. Have I set apart some Time this Day, to think upon my Infirmities, Follies, and Sins ?
3. Have I ascribed to myself any Part of any Good which God did by my Hand ?
4. Have I said or done any Thing, with a View to the Praise of Men ?
5. Have I desired the Praise of Men ?
6. Have I taken Pleasure in it ?
7. Have I commended myself, or others, to their Faces, unless for God’s Sake, and then with Fear and Trembling ?
8. Have I despised any one’s Advice ?
9. Have I, when I thought so, said, I am in the wrong ?
10. Have I received Contempt for Things indifferent, with Meekness : For doing my Duty, with Joy ?
11. Have I omitted justifying myself where the Glory of God was not concerned ? Have I submitted to be thought in the wrong ?
12. Have I, when contemned, first prayed God it might not discourage, or puff me up : secondly that it might not be imputed to the Contemner : thirdly, that it might heal my Pride ?
13. Have I, without some particular Good in View, mentioned the Contempt I had met with ?
[...]
Wednesday Evening.
Particular Questions relating to Mortification.
1. Have I done any Thing merely because it was Pleasing.
2. Have I not only done what Passion solicited me to, but done just the contrary ?
3. Have I received the Inconveniences I could not avoid, as Means of Mortification chosen for me by God ?
4. Have I contrived Pretences to avoid Self-Denial ? In particular,
5. Have I thought any Occasion of denying myself too small to be embraced ?
6. Have I submitted my Will to the Will of every one that opposed it ; except where the Glory of God was concerned ?
7. Have I set apart some Time for endeavouring after a lively Sense of the Sufferings of Christ and my own Sins ? For deprecating God’s Judgment, and thinking how to amend ?
[...]
Thursday Evening.
Particular Questions relating to Resignation and Meekness.
1. Have I endeavoured to will what God wills, and that only ?
2. Have I received every Thing that has befallen me, without my Choice, as the Choice of Infinite Wisdom and Goodness for me, with Thanks ?
3. Have I (after doing what He requires of me to do concerning them) left all future Things absolutely to God’s Disposal ? That is, Have I laboured to be wholly indifferent to whichsoever Way He shall ordain for me ?
4. Have I resumed my Claim to my Body, Soul, Friends, Fame or Fortune, which I have made over to God ; or repented of my Gift, when God accepted any of them at my Hands ?
5. Have I endeavoured to be cheerful, mild and courteous in whatever I said or did ?
6. Have I said any Thing with a stern Look, Accent or Gesture ? Particularly with Regard to Religion ?
[...]
Friday Evening.
Questions relating to Mortification, see before the Prayers for Wednesday Evening.
[...]
Saturday Evening.
Particular Questions relating to Thankfulness.
1. Have I allotted some Time for thanking God for the Blessings of the past Week ?
2. Have I, in Order to be the more sensible of them, seriously and deliberately consider’d the several Circumstances that attended them ?
3. Have I consider’d each of them as an Obligation to greater Love, and consequently to stricter Holiness.
A shorter version of those questions was published nearly half a century later in The Arminian Magazine for June 1781 under the title A SCHEME of SELF-EXAMINATION, used by the first Methodists in Oxford6. They were similar, though not identical, and aimed thematically at the love of God (Sunday) and love of neighbor (Monday).
Sunday. Love of God and Simplicity : means of which are Prayer and Meditation.
1. HAVE I been simple and recollected in every thing I said or did ? Have I 1. been simple in every thing, i.e. looked upon God, my Good, my Pattern, my One Desire, my Disposer, Parent of Good; acted wholly for Him; bounded my Views with the present action or hour ? 2. Recollected ? i. e. Has this simple view been distinct and uninterrupted ? Have I, in order to keep it so, used the signs agreed upon with my Friends, wherever I was ? Have I done any thing without a previous perception of its being the Will of God ! Or, without a perception of its being an Exercise or a Means of the Virtue of the day ? Have I said any thing without it ?
2. Have I prayed with fervor ? At going in and out of Church ? In the Church ? Morning and evening in private ? Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, with my Friends, at rising ? Before lying down ? On Saturday noon ? All the time I am engaged in exterior work in private ? Before I go into the place of public or private prayer, for help therein ? Have I wherever I was, gone to Church morning and evening, unless for necessary mercy ? And spent from one hour to three in private ? Have I in private prayer frequently stopt short and observed what fervor ? Have I repeated it over and over, till I adverted to every word ? Have I at the beginning of every prayer or paragraph owned I cannot pray ? Have I paused before I concluded in his Name, and adverted to my Saviour now interceding for me at the right-hand of God, and offering up these prayers ?
3. Have I duly used Ejaculations ? i. e. Have I every hour prayed for Humility, Faith, Hope, Love, and the particular Virtue of the day ? Considered, with whom I was the last hour, what I did, and how ? With regard to Recollection, Love of Man, Humility, Self-denial, Resignation, and Thankfulness ? Considered the next hour in the same respects, offered up all I do to my Redeemer, begged his assistance in every particular, and commended my soul to his keeping ? Have I done this deliberately, (not in haste,) seriously, (not doing any thing else the while,) and fervently as I could ?
4. Have I duly prayed for the Virtue of the day ? i.e. Have I prayed for it at going out and coming in ? Deliberately, seriously, fervently ?
5. Have I used a Collect at nine, twelve, and three ? And Grace before and after eating ? (aloud at my own room,) Deliberately, seriously, fervently ?
6. Have I duly meditated ? Every day, unless for necessary mercy, 1. From six, &c. to prayers ? 2. From four to five, (What was particular in the Providence of this day ?) How ought the Virtue of the day to have been exerted upon it ? How did it fall short ? (Here faults.) 3. On Sunday from six to seven, with Kempis ? From three to four on Redemption, or God’s Attributes ? Wednesday and Friday from twelve to one on the Passion ? After ending a book, on what I had marked in it ?
Monday. Love of Man.
1. Have I been zealous to do, and active in doing good ? i.e. 1. Have I embraced every probable opportunity of doing good, and preventing, removing, or lessening evil ? 2. Have I pursued it with my might ? 3. Have I thought any thing too dear to part with, to serve my neighbour ? 4. Have I spent an hour at least every day in speaking to some one or other ? 5. Have I given any one up, till he expressly renounced me ? 6. Have I, before I spoke to any, learned, as far as I could, his temper, way of thinking, past life, and peculiar hinderances, internal and external ? Fixt the point to be aimed at ? Then the means to it ? 7. Have I in speaking, proposed the motives, then the difficulties, then ballanced them, then exhorted him to consider both calmly and deeply, and to pray earnestly for help ? 8. Have I, in speaking to a stranger, explained what Religion is not, (not negative, not external) and what it is, (a recovery of the image of God,) searched at what step in it he stops, and what makes him stop there ? Exhorted and directed him ? 9. Have I persuaded all I could to attend public Prayers, Sermons and Sacraments ? And in general, to obey the laws of the Church Catholic, the Church of England, the State, the University, and their respective Colleges ? 10. Have I, when taxed with any act of obedience, avowed it, and turned the attack with sweetness and firmness ? 11. Have I disputed upon any practical point, unless it was to be practised just then ? 12. Have I in disputing, (1.) Desired him, To define the terms of the question. To limit it : what he grants, what denies : (2.) Delayed speaking my opinion ; let him explain and prove his : then insinuated and pressed objections ? 13. Have I after every visit, asked him who went with me, Did I say any thing wrong ? 14. Have I, when any one asked Advice, directed and exhorted him with all my power ?
2. Have I rejoiced with and for my neighbour in Virtue or Pleasure ? Grieved with him in pain, for him in sin ?
3. Have I received his infirmities with pity, not anger ?
4. Have I thought or spoke unkindly of or to him ? Have I revealed any evil of any one, unless it was necessary to some particular good I had in view ? Have I then done it with all the tenderness of phrase and manner, consistent with that end ? Have I any way appeared to approve them that did otherwise ?
5. Has good-will been, and appeared to be, the spring of all my actions toward others ?
6. Have I duly used intercession ? 1. Before, 2. after speaking to any ? 3. For my Friends on Sunday ? 4. For my Pupils on Monday ? 5. For those who have particularly desired it, on Wednesday and Friday ? 6. For the Family in which I am, every day ?
Ten years later another self-assessment checklist was published under the title HEADS OF SELF-EXAMINATION, BY THE REV. MR. FLETCHER7.
1st. Did I awake spiritual, and was I watchful in keeping my mind from wandering this morning when I was rising ?
2d. Have I this day got nearer to God in times of prayer, or have I given way to a lazy, idle spirit ?
3d. Has my faith been weakened by unwatchfulness, or quickened by diligence this day ?
4th. Have I this day walked by faith, and eyed God in all things ?
5th. Have I denied myself in all unkind words and thoughts ; have I delighted in seeing others preferred before me, and can I lay my hand upon my heart, and say,
“That mercy I to others shew,
That mercy shew to me ?”
6th. Have I made the most of my precious time, as far as I had light, strength, and opportunity ?
7th. Have I kept the issues of my heart in the means of grace, so as to profit by them ?
8th. What have I done this day for the souls and bodies of God’s dear saints ?
9th. Have I laid out any thing to please myself, when I might have saved the money for the cause of God ?
10th. Have I governed well my tongue this day, remembering that “in a multitude of words there wanteth not sin ?”
11th. In how many instances have I denied myself this day ?
12th. Does my life and conversation adorn the gospel of Jesus Christ ?
There exists also non-Methodist testimony attributed to George Whitefield8. Its reliability is uncertain, but it is included here since it is very similar to the Rules of the band societies. Drawn up Dec. 25, 17389 and complements the picture of early Methodism10.
The following was copied from one under Mr. W----’s own Hand.
A Method of Confession drawn up for the Use of the Women Methodists. Taken from the Original.
THE Design of our Meeting together is to obey the Command of God ; ---- Confess your Faults one to another, and pray one for the other, that ye may be healed. ---- To this End we intend to meet twice a Week. ----- To come punctually at the Hour appointed, without some extraordinary Reason. ---- To begin (those of us who are present) exactly at the Hour, with Singing and Prayer. ---- To speak each of us in Order, plainly and freely, the true State of our Hearts, with the Faults of Thought, Word, and Deed, and the Temptations we have been in since our last Meeting.
---- To end every Meeting with Singing and Prayer, suited to the State of each Person present. ----
---- To desire some Person among us to speak her own State first, and then to ask the next in Order, as many and as searching Questions as may be, concerning their State, Sins, and Temptations.
Some of those Questions proposed to every one before she is admitted among us, may be to this Effect.-----
Have you a Witness of God’s Spirit with your Spirit, that you are a Child of God ?
Have you Joy in the Holy Ghost ?
Is the Love of God shed abroad in your Heart ? if not,
Have you the Forgiveness of your Sins ?
Has no Sin, inward or outward, Dominion over you ?
Have you Peace with God through Jesus Christ ? if not,
Do you see your self a lost Sinner ?
Do you know you deserve to be damned ?
Do you Despair of being sav’d, either by your own Works, or by your own Righteousness, and hope for Forgiveness of Sins and Justification, only through a living Faith in Christ Jesus ?
Do you desire to be told of your Faults ?
Do you desire to be told of all your Faults, and that plain and home ?
Do you desire that we should tell you whatever we think, whatever we hear concerning you ?
Do you desire that in doing this, we should come as close as possible, that we should cut to the Quick, and search your Heart to the Bottom ?
Is it your desire and design to be on this and on all Occasions entirely open, so as to speak every Thing that is in your Heart without Exception, without Disguise, and without Reserve ?
Are you in Love ?
Do you take more Pleasure in any Body than in God ?
Whom do you love just now, better than any other Person in the World ?
Is not the Person an Idol ? Does he not (especially in Publick Prayer) steal in between God and your Soul ?
Does any Court you ?
Is there any one whom you suspect to have any such Design ?
Is there any one who shews you more Respect than to other Women ?
Are not you pleas’d with That ?
How do you like him ?
How do you feel your self when he comes, when he stays, when he goes away ?
The last ten Questions may be ask’d as often as Occasion offers.
The Four following at every Morning.
What known Sin have you committed since our last Meeting.
What have you said, thought, or done, of which you doubt whether it may be a Sin ?
What Temptations have you felt ? How was you delivered from them ?
What Comforts or Communications have you had from God, since our last Meeting ?
The illness of William Morgan
Early Methodists’ almost monastic discipline (canonical hours of prayer, visiting sick and prisoners, fasting, appointed meetings) perceived as methodical, and implicitly extreme caught the attention of adversaries who mocked them with various designations e.g. the Godly Club, the Enthousiasts (=fanatics), the Sacramentarians, the Reforming Club, the Methodists11. The echo of those attacks was preserved in an anonymous pamphlet12:
The glorious Work they have in View,
They with the Church establish’d join,
Its Pow’r the more to undermine.
By Rule they eat, by Rule they drink;
Do all things else by Rule but think.
Accuse their Priests of loose Behaviour,
To get more in the Laymens Favour,
Method alone must guide ’em all,
Whence Methodists, themselves, they call,
Here I my Triumphs fix to come,
And here shalt thou fix thine, O Rome !
They were also blamed for a mental breakdown and the death of a group member William Morgan (Aug. 26, 1732), the same who convinced them with his good example to visit the sick and poor. Two primary sources describe those events: correspondence between the Morgans and the Wesleys13 and the memoirs14 of other Methodists. John Gambold, the fifth Oxford Methodist, left a brief biographical note15 about William:
He was a young man of an excellent disposition, and took all opportunities to make his companions in love with a good life ; to create in them a reverence for public worship ; and to tell them of their faults with a sweetness and simplicity that disarmed the worst tempers. He delighted much in works of charity. He kept several children at school ; and when he found beggars in the street, he would bring them into his chambers, and talk to them. Many such things he did ; and, being acquainted with Messrs. John and Charles Wesley, he invited them to join with him ; and proposed that they should meet frequently to encourage one another, and have some scheme to proceed by in their daily employments. About half a year after I got among them, Mr. Morgan died. His calm and resigned behaviour, hardly curbing in a confident joy in God, wrought very much upon me ; though, when I had an opportunity to observe him, he was under a lingering distemper. Some were displeased because he did not make some direct preparation for death ; but to a man who has overcome the world, and feels God within him, death is no new thing.
In the summer of 1731, William got ill and retired to Holt. His illness preoccupied Wesley’s family and friends. In the letter16 to his parents on Jun. 11, 1731, John reported:
Since our return our little company, that used to meet us on a Sunday evening, is shrunk into almost none at all. Mr. Morgan is sick at Holt; Mr. Boyce is at his father’s house at Barton; Mr. Kirkham must very shortly leave Oxford to be his uncle’s curate, and a young gentleman of Christ Church, who used to make a fourth, either afraid, or ashamed, or both, is returned to the ways of the world, and studiously shuns our company. However, the poor at the Castle have still the gospel preached to them, and some of their temporal wants supplied, our little fund rather increasing than diminishing. Nor have we yet been forced to discharge any of the children which Mr. Morgan left to our care, though I wish they too do not find the want of him - I am sure some of their parents will.
[...]
The motion and sun together in our last hundred and fifty miles’ walk so thoroughly carried off all our superfluous humours that we continue perfectly in health, though it is here a very sickly season. And Mr. Kirkham assures us, on the word of a priest and a physician, that if we will but take the same medicine once or twice a year we shall never need any other to keep us from the gout. When we were with him we touched two or three times upon a nice subject, but did not come to any full conclusion. The point debated was, What is the meaning of being ‘righteous overmuch’, or by the more common phrase, of being too strict in religion? And what danger there was of any of us falling into that extreme.
A similar question had bothered him a few years earlier, when he wrote17 to his mother on Jun. 18, 1725:
You have so well satisfied me as to the tenets of Thomas of Kempis that I have ventured to trouble you once more on a more dubious subject. I have heard one I take to be a person of good judgement say that she would advise no one very young to read Dr. Taylor, of Living and Dying. She added that he almost put her out of her senses when she was fifteen or sixteen year[s] old, because he seemed to exclude all from being in a [way of] salvation who did not come up to his rules, some of which are altogether impracticable.
Susanna Wesley, mother of John, asked for help from Matthew Wesley, a London physician, and informed John about it in the letter18 from Jul. 12, 1731:
Before Mr. Wesley went to Scarbro’ I informed him of what I knew of Mr. Morgan’s case. When he came back he told me that he had tried the spa at Scarbro’, and could assure me that it far exceeded all the spas in Europe. [...] Says he, ‘If that gentleman you told me of could by any means be gotten thither, though his age is the most dangerous time in life for his distemper, yet I am of opinion those waters would cure him.’ I thought good to tell you this, that you might, if you please inform Mr. Morgan of it, if ’tis proper.
In September John visited William19.
But at our return from Lincolnshire in September we had the pleasure of seeing him again, when, though he could not be so active with us as formerly, yet we were exceedingly glad to spent what time we could in talking and reading with him.
In another letter20 on Feb. 21, 1732, Susanna comforted John:
I am heartily sorry for Mr. Morgan. ’Tis no wonder that his illness should at last affect his mind; ’tis rather to be admired that it has not done it long ago. It’s a common case, and what all who are afflicted with any indisposition a great while together experience as well as he. Such is our make, such the condition of embodied spirits, that they cannot act with freedom or exert their native powers when the bodily organs are out of tune. This shows how necessary it is for people (especially the young) to improve the present blessing of health and strength by laying a strong foundation of piety towards God, of submission, patience and all other Christian virtues before the decline of life, before the shadows of the even lengthens [sic] upon them and those years draw nigh in which without solid piety they can find no pleasure.
In response21 on Feb. 28, 1732, John had already predicted William’s death:
A year ago Mr. Morgan was exceeding well pleased with the thoughts of dying shortly. He will not now bear to hear it named, though he can neither sleep, read, stand, nor sit. Yet without hands or feet or head or heart, he is very sure his illness is not at all increased. Surely, now he is a burden to himself, and almost useless to the world, his discharge can’t be far off.
William’s father was initially negative about Wesley’s society but then changed his mind. In the letter22 on Nov. 25, 1732, he wrote:
It was ill judged of my poor son to take to fasting with[out] regard to his health, which I knew nothing of, or I should have advised him against it. He was inclined to piety and virtue from his infancy. I must own I was much concerned at the strange accounts which were spread here of some extraordinary practices of a religious society which he had engaged in at Oxford, which you may be sure lost nothing in the carriage, lest through his youth and immaturity of judgement he might be hurried into zeals and enthusiastic notions that may prove pernicious. But now indeed that piety and holiness of life which he practised affords me some comfort in the midst of my affliction for the loss of him, having full assurance of his being for ever happy. The good account you are pleased to give of your own and your friends’ conduct in point of duty and religious offices, and the zealous approbation of them by the good old gentleman your father, signified in a manner and style becoming the best of men, reconciles and recommends that method of life to me, and makes me almost wish that I were one amongst you. I am very much obliged to you for the great pains you have been at in transcribing so long and so particular an account of your transactions for my perusal, and shall be always ready to vindicate you from any calumny or aspersion that I shall hear cast upon you; I am much obliged for yours and your brother’s great civilities and assistances to my dearest son.
In another letter23 on Nov. 22, 1733, Mr. Morgan shared with Wesley the circumstances of William’s death and entrusted him with being a tutor of his younger son, Richard, emphasizing caution in activities involved.
He was raging mad, and three men set over him to watch him and hold, and by the direction of the physicians he was threatened with ropes and chains, which were produced to him and rattled.
In his madness he used frequently to say that enthusiasm was his madness, and repeated often, ‘Oh religious madness!’ that they had hindered him from being now with God - meaning their hindering him from throwing himself out at the window - and named some other persons and things that I shan’t mention, but in his greatest rage never cursed or swore, or used any profane expressions. Some have told me since that they looked upon him to be disordered for some time before in his head, but God was pleased to take him to himself in seven day’s time, which no doubt the blisterings and severities used by the physicians and surgeon for his recovery precipitated.
These are melancholy reflections, which makes me earnestly desire that my surviving son should not go into those over-zealous ways which (as is apprehended) contributed to this great misfortune which finished my other son.
[...] for if I did not think very well of you, and had not a great opinion of your conduct and abilities, I should not put my only son under your tuition, which, I think, is the best proof a man can give of his good esteem and opinion of another. [...] and I hope I may be excused for being solicitous to prevent my present son’s falling into extremes, which, it is thought were so prejudicial to my other.
On Dec. 17, 1733, Wesley responded24, providing only an existing account of William’s progressing illness and his interpretation.
That my dear friend, now with God, was much disordered in his understanding I had often observed long before he left England. That he was likewise sincerely religious all observed; but whoever had seen his behaviour in the successive stages of his illness might as easily have mistaken darkness for light as his madness for his religion. They were not only different, but opposite, too, one counter-acting the other from its beginning. I cannot better describe his religion than in the words of the person who wrote his elegy:
Mild, sweet, serene, and tender was her mood,
Nor grave with sternness, nor with lightness free ;
Against example resolutely good,
Fervent in zeal, and warm in charity !
Who ne’er forsook her faith for love of peace,
Nor sought with fire and sword to show her zeal.
Duteous to rulers, when they most oppress ;
Patient in bearing ill and doing well.I
Directly contrary to every article of this was his madness. It was harsh, sour, cloudy, and severe. It was sometimes extravagantly light and sometimes sternly serious. It undermined his best resolutions by an absurd deference to example. It damped the fervour of his zeal, and gradually impaired the warmth of his charity. It had not indeed as yet attacked his duteous regard for his superiors, nor drove him to exterminate sin by fire and sword. For when it had so obscured that clear judgment whereon his holiness stood that his very faith and patience began to be in danger, the God whom he served came to his rescue and snatched him from the evil to come.
[...]
True it is, God was pleased for the trial both of him and us to visit him with a grievous illness. As his illness increased his reason declined, and consequently his religion built upon it. Till that melancholy effect of his disease I challenge all the fools who counted his preceding life madness to point out one extreme he was in of any sort, or one instance of his zeal which was not according to knowledge.3 ’Tis easy for any of them to declaim in general against enthusiasm, and carrying things too far, and even to prevail upon an unwary mind, shattered by sickness, to plead guilty to the accusation. But let them come to particulars, and I do hereby undertake to prove that every fact they allege against him is either absolutely false, or that it is agreeable to the strictest rules both of piety and Christian prudence.
Summary
Those historical circumstances reveal that not every form of Christian lifestyle can be practiced safely by everyone. Neither the Wesleys nor the professional physicians could help William. It showed not only the limits of medicine but also the shortcomings of modern Christian anthropology, i.e. understanding of human nature’s complexity. This event and many other sufferings of people25 that Wesley witnessed during his life challenged him to deal with medical topics extensively, which resulted in his publishing in 1747 Primitive physick; or, an easy and natural method of curing most diseases where he addressed two hundred and forty-three diseases (e.g. asthma, earache, ringworm, rickets, sciatica, scurvy, shingles, ulcers) and provided seven hundred and twenty-five recipes. There were twenty-four editions of this book by 1792. This book is a testimony of a man who at first faced limits in knowledge and incapability to help a friend, but he didn’t give up. Instead, being uneducated in medicine, he devoted an essential amount of his time to understanding human health to help others.
This is a common tragedy of humanity (including later Christianity) that since man disregarded the Laws of Nature, healthy living has become an enigma. Every next generation has more and more difficulties in grasping the phenomena of health. Working solutions in this domain are now expected more than ever, but modern Christianity doesn’t have any. Instead, everyone26 must follow a common hard path from ignorance to understanding by trial and error with perseverance. It would certainly be helpful if the approach of the early Christians continued uninterrupted, but unfortunately, the dust of history completely covered it.
Notes
[1] The NET Bible. Second edition. 2019. Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
[2] Wesley J. 1872. A plain account of Christian perfection, as believed and taught by the Reverend Mr. John Wesley, from the year 1725, to the year 1777. In: The works of John Wesley. Third edition. London: Wesleyan Methodist Book Room. p. 366.
[3] The details of this poster are unknown. Several Web pages reproduce it, e.g. Link 1, Link 2, Link 3. The original painting from 1861 is attributed to Marshall Claxton and is entitled The Institution of Methodism. John Wesley’s New Room.
[4] The question of whether such a list was included in his diaries must remain unanswered until the critical edition from his time at Oxford University is published. Heitzenrater RP, editor. Forthcoming 2024. Oxford diaries. Nashville: Abingdon Press. (The works of John Wesley; vol. 17).
[5] These questions come from the Bristol fifth edition. Some earlier editions don’t contain either preface or the questions for self-examination but have hymns inserted. Wesley J. 1755. A collection of forms of prayer for every day in the week. The fifth edition. Bristol: Printed: And sold by J. Palmer, in Wine-Street: By G. Woodfall, near Charing Cross, London; A. Dodd, at the Peacock in the Strand; J. Robinson, Ludgate-street; and T. Trye, near Gray’s-Inn. p. 15-73. Internet Archive.
[6] Wesley J. 1781. A scheme of self-examination, used by the first Methodists in Oxford. The Arminian Magazine for June 1781: 319–322. wesleyscholar.com.
[7] Fletcher J. 1791. Thirteen original letters written by the late Rev. John Fletcher, vicar of Madely, Shropshire. To which are added his heads of self-examination. Bath: Printed for and sold by Campbell and Gainsborough, at their Publick-Library, Burton Street, and S. Hazard at his Circulating-Library, Cheap-Street. Sold also by Messrs. Robinson, Paternoster-Row; Vernor, Birchin-Lane, and Wayland, Middle-Row, Holborn, London; Bulgin and Mills, Bristol; Luckman, Coventry; Mozely, Gainsborough; Pearson, Birmingham; and Wilson, Spence and Mawman, York. p. 37-38. Google Books.
[8] Tucker J. 1739. A method of confession drawn up for the use of the women Methodists. Taken from the original. In: The life and particular proceedings of the Rev. Mr. George Whitefield, from the time of his going to Crisp School, in Gloucester, to his embarking for Pensilvania. Compiled for the satisfaction of those persons who are desirous of reading the genuine account of that gentleman. By an impartial hand. London: Printed for J. Roberts, in Warwick-Lane. p. 17–20. Internet Archive.
[9] Wesley J, Wesley C. 1747. Rules of the band societies. Drawn up Dec. 25, 1738. In: The nature, design, and general rules, of the United Societies, in London, Bristol, Kingswood, and Newcastle upon Tyne. The fifth edition. Bristol: Printed by Felix Farley. p. 13-14. wesleyscholar.com. Note the difference in the following sentence: “Some of the Questions proposed to every one before he is admitted amongst us...”
[10] Werner D. 2010. John Wesley’s question: “How is your doing?” The Asbury Journal. 65(2):68–93.
[11] Tyerman L. 1873. The Oxford Methodists : memoirs of the Rev. Messrs. Clayton, Ingham, Gambold, Hervey and Broughton, with biographical notices of others. London: Hodder and Stoughton. p. 9. Internet Archive.
[12] The Methodists: an humorous burlesque poem, address’d to the Rev. Mr. Whitefield and his followers : proper to be bound up with his sermons, and the journals of his voyage to Georgia, &c. 1739. London: printed for John Brett, opposite St. Clement’s Church in the Strand. p. 15 (starting from the title page). Google Books.
[13] Baker F, editor. 1980. Letters 1 : 1721 - 1739. Oxford: Clarendon. (The works of John Wesley; vol. 25).
[14] Tyerman, op. cit.
[15] Ibidem, p. 13.
[16] Baker, op. cit. p. 281-283.
[17] Ibidem, p. 168.
[18] Ibidem, p. 292.
[19] Ibidem, p. 342.
[20] Wesley S. 1997. Susanna Wesley: the complete writings. Wallace C, editor. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 149.
[21] Baker, op. cit. p. 328.
[22] Ibidem, p. 346-347.
[23] Ibidem, p. 358-359.
[24] Ibidem, p. 360-361.
[25] Ibidem, p. 316. In a letter from Ann Granville on Sept. 29, 1731 a case of young lady is described: “One reason for my writing now is to ask your opinion in regard to a young lady for whom I have a great value, and am much concerned, because she is in a very melancholy way. Nobody’s arguments are so plain and strong as yours, therefore your advice would be of service to her. She has conversed with many people without being satisfied. Her case is this. She has always been remarkable for being religious, but is never contented with herself, not thinking she does what is right, being troubled with wandering and (what she terms) wicked thoughts whenever she goes to her private devotions or to church, especially at the sacrament. This she has been afraid of, and in perfect agonies at the time of receiving, for fear she was not well prepared. She says she does not find that pleasure in acts of religion and reading good things which she believes a good Christian ought, but that she does her duty with heaviness, nay sometimes reluctance; therefore she fears ’tis not acceptable. She thought fasting so necessary that she has destroyed her health by it. She has even believed going to sleep was a sin. What pity ’tis, a person with such good inclinations, who desires so earnestly to do what is right, should have so much unhappiness! She is very generous and charitable, has an easy fortune and many friends, who love and value her. But this unfortunate way of thinking corrodes and embitters everything. She has some time ago been very much perplexed about the sin of the Holy Ghost. Be so good as to explain what that sin is, and what method she can take to do her duty with cheerfulness. I believe your way of writing will sooner convince her where she is mistaken, and ease her doubts and scruples, than any casuist she has met with.”
[26] There are outstanding exceptions whose lives are worth studying. John Wesley is one of them.
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