John Wesley, 1703 - 1791
Oil on canvas by George Romney (1789)
Born: 28 June [O.S. 17 June] 1703, Epworth, Lincolnshire, England
Died: 2 March 1791, London, England, UK
Wesley's father Samuel was the rector at Epworth, a position of more substance than the word means today. The parish rectory burned in 1709, his rescue was seen as a sign and he prepared for the ministry. Taught first by his mother, he attended London's Charterhouse School for six years and then went to Christ Church, Oxford. There he was one of a group that maintained a "methodical" schedule of religious study and activity, they were called the Holy Club. He was ordained a deacon in 1725 and a priest the next year. Samuel died in 1735, the next year John and his brother Charles set sail as missionaries to the Georgia colony. He was impressed by the behavior of the Moravians on board the ship, when a storm snapped the mast of their ship the English panicked while the Moravians prayed and sang hymns. In Georgia he broke off a relationship with a woman who had sailed on the same ship, she accused him of breaking his commitment to marry her, she married another man, Wesley refused to give her communion, and the couple sued; Wesley had to actually escape the colony.
Back at London he began to worship and study with Moravians there, from them he learned of Martin Luther's work, notably the concept of justification by faith based on the book of Romans. Many of the "Methodists" began to preach outdoors, often to large and receptive crowds, some without ordination and all without license. They were attacked (sometimes physically) as being a threat to social institutions. The group began to ordain ministers outside the Church of England, Wesley having decided in 1746 that the apostolic succession was a "fable". His Holy Club had regularly visited prisoners, he later became an advocate of prison reform and was a vocal abolitionist. Although he never left the Anglican church, he had provided the theology and the organization for Methodism. He kept a journal, wrote several books and many articles, and a large number of his sermons were preserved despite his statement that he burned all of them every seven years because he felt he could do better. He preached up to a week before his death, which apparently was simply from old age.
Biography from Wikipedia and NNDB
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John Wesley quotes:
Quotes found : 61 — (15 per page, this is page 1 of 5) 1 2 3 4 5 Next
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- A constant attention to the work which God entrusts us with is a mark of solid piety. permalink
John Wesley - As long as you feel your own weakness and helplessness, you will find help from above. permalink
John Wesley - As the most dangerous winds may enter at little openings, so the devil never enters more dangerously than by little unobserved incidents, which seem to be nothing, yet insensibly open the heart to great temptations. permalink
John Wesley - As to matters of dress, I would recommend one never to be first in the fashion nor the last out of it. permalink
John Wesley - Best of it all is, God is with us. permalink
John Wesley - Last words - Beware you are not a fiery, persecuting enthusiast. Do not imagine that God has called you (just contrary to the spirit of Him you style your Master) to destroy men's lives, and not to save them. Never dream of forcing men into the ways of God. Think yourself, and let think. Use no constraint in matters of religion. Even those who are farthest out of the way, never compel to come in by any other means than reason, truth, and love. permalink
John Wesley - "The Nature of Enthusiasm" Sermons on Several Occasions (1771) - Beware, lastly, of imagining you shall obtain the end without using the means conducive to it. God can give the end without any means at all; but you have no reason to think He will. Therefore constantly and carefully use all those means which He has appointed to be the ordinary channels of His grace. permalink
John Wesley - "The Nature of Enthusiasm" Sermons on Several Occasions (1771) - But beware you be not swallowed up in books! An ounce of love is worth a pound of knowledge. permalink
John Wesley - Letter to Joseph Benson (7 November 1768) - Catch on fire with enthusiasm and people will come for miles to watch you burn. permalink
John Wesley - Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can. permalink
John Wesley - Not his words, but a paraphrase he would have agreed with - Every one, though born of God in an instant, yet undoubtedly grows by slow degrees. permalink
John Wesley - Letter (27 June 1760) - Give me one hundred men who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God, and I care not a straw whether they be clergyman or laymen, they alone will shake the gates of Hell and set up the kingdom of Heaven upon the earth. permalink
John Wesley - God does not love men that are inconstant, nor good works that are intermitted. Nothing is pleasing to him, but what has a resemblance of his own immutability. permalink
John Wesley - God frequently conceals the part which his children have in the conversion of other souls. Yet one may boldly say, that person who long groans before him for the conversion of another, whenever that soul is converted to God, is one of the chief causes of it. permalink
John Wesley - God is so great that He communicates greatness to the least thing that is done for His service. permalink
John Wesley
Quotes found : 61 — (15 per page, this is page 1 of 5) 1 2 3 4 5 Next
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