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Wesley appeared to be upon nearly a common ground with the clergy. "I was with two persons who I doubt are properly enthusiasts. For first, they think to attain the end without the means; which is enthusiasm so called. Again, they think themselves inspired of God and are not. But false imaginary inspiration is enthusiasm."27 In preaching, he declared that there was a real spirit of God, and an imaginary one, which enthusiasts failed to distinguish and therefore were deceived. 28 In addition to this, he said that some expected to attain their ends by the supernatural intervention of God's power. This was not the case: "If we have the means, if we can do the given task ourself, it is our duty to do so. God will not miraculously do for us what we should do for ourselves."29 He declared that thinking men meant by enthusiasm a sort of religious madness; a false imagination of being inspired of God; a fancying of one's self to be under the influence of the Holy Ghost when in fact one is not.30

Many Methodists shared in the distrust of "enthusiasm"; as one of them writes, he had seen enthusiasm and error creep into his church, obliging him to rebuke the leaders because they were not more vigorous in combating it.31 They should have, he remarks, restrained and not fostered the unprofitable emotions of "screaming, hallowing, and jumping, and the stepping and singing of merry senseless airs. These have often prejudiced true and vital religion."32 A Life of Wesley denies that Methodism was responsible for these excesses, though the author blamed Wesley for not being on his guard better against them.33

To enable the reader to decide what was the cause of this "enthusiasm," we cannot do better than draw instances of it as evidence. These cases, which would now be ascribed to insanity, were by Wesley assigned to the direct operation of God or of Satan.

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In October, 1739, he was called in to see a woman taken ill the evening before. She was in a fury, gnashed her teeth and raved, but after two days was calm.34 A certain Alice Miller, a girl fifteen years old, fell into a trance, but here there was no raving. 35

In such instances the only remedy was prayer. Again, Sally Jones, of Kingswood, who was very ignorant, was under a spell. "The thousand distortions of her whole body showed how the dogs of hell were gnawing at her heart." She declared she belonged to the devil, and prayed to him to come and take her. Wesley began to sing a hymn, then prayed, and this quieted her.36 A Mrs. Crompton, though enraged at Wesley's preaching, fell also in one of these spells, but Wesley prayed with her and she declared her sins forgiven.37 Dr. James Munroe, chief physician of Bethlehem Hospital, once sent a case of madness to Wesley, and Wesley said the patient would recover if she only would trust God.38 Yet in no case would he admit that such manifestations were the results of disordered minds. He maintained that these persons were in perfect health, and that the spell had come upon them suddenly. It was Satan tearing them. Nor would he have agreed with Southey's explanation that Wesley, "like Mesmer and his disciples, had produced a new disease, and he accounted for it by a theological theory instead of a physical one."39

One is not, however, surprised to hear Wesley ask in the Conference of 1778: "Why do so many of our preachers fall into nervous disorders?" and simply suggesting that it was the strain of zeal and emotion reached in the meetings, which was more than Methodist preachers could endure.

Modern biographers of Wesley, like Overton, consider that exhibitions of this enthusiasm can be accounted for by distraught emotion in excited crowds; and that Wesley was often imposed

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Ibid., vol. ii, p. 147.

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upon by them.40 Cadman's theory is that John Wesley so controlled his own powerful emotion, that the people who listened could not stand the strain and were obliged to give vent to their feelings and fell down overcome by them.41

Modern psychology explains these actions, in part, by attributing them to fresh sensory elements that often play a part in conversion. Dr. Coe reminds us that the tone of the preacher's voice; the rhythm, volume, and melody of the revival songs; organic sensations, such as thrills, tingles, shudders; very possibly now and then sexual sensations not recognized as such—all of these must be reckoned with in connection with conversion.42 He says: "It is clear, for example, that a bold, commanding tone and manner on the part of some preachers produce an effect over and above what they say." 43 Wesley, by his commanding tone and manner and the ideas he suggested, aroused the excitability of his uneducated hearers and caused manifestations of enthusiasm which would not have occupied people of better disciplined minds.

But for many Methodists these experiences were essential. Their conversion would not have been complete without some exceptional manifestation. And the average convert would testify thus: "In this violent agony I continued four hours

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I, who had nothing but devils to drag me down to hell, now found I had angels to guide me to my reconciled father." 44 Rightly or wrongly, the average Methodist valued such an experience as a necessary assurance of salvation.

Having seen what enthusiasm was, we must inquire how it appeared in the eyes of the outside world.

SECTION II. THE CHURCH VIEW OF ENTHUSIASM

Religious controversy had been going on in England ever since the days of Henry VIII; and at the opening of the eight

40

Overton: Life of Wesley, p. 113.

42

Cadman: Three Religious Leaders of Oxford, section on Wesley.

Psychology of Religion, p. 157.

43 Ibid., p. 158.

"Jour., vol. i, p. 110.

eenth century it was hoped that it had been allayed by the revolution settlement. People dreaded its renewal, and were prejudiced against any who seemed likely to revive it by their preaching. Josiah Tucker expressed the popular view, “The last century furnishes us with a melancholy proof in our own country. Whosoever will be at the trouble of comparing the first rise of those troubles which at last overturned the constitution and ruined the nation, will see too great a similitude between them and the present risings of enthusiastic rant not to apprehend the danger that, unless proper precautions be taken in time, the remote consequences may be fatal." The whole nation was open to new ideas; enthusiasm was advancing rapidly.45 In other words, the new enthusiasm seemed likely to cause trouble as it had done in the past. Churchmen, disgusted by the excesses of Quakers, Moravians, and French Prophets, included the Methodists among other disturbers of the political peace.46 They were further provoked by Dissenting publications defending schism. Neal's four volumes entitled, The History of the Puritans, and Calamy's works nettled the Churchmen.47

In addition to the trials of controversy, the Church, in its controversy with rationalism, had in a measure fallen under its influence. This being the case, one need not be surprised to hear that "religion is a wise, a still, a silent thing, that consists not in freaks of fancy, and whirlwinds of passions; but in a divine temper of mind, and a universal resignation of our wills to God; and this not only in intermittent fits of passion, but in the midst of cool thoughts and calm deliberations."48 Could anything be farther from the Methodist "enthusiasm" than this cool rationalistic frame of mind?

Thus many Churchmen were conscientiously opposed to "enthusiasm" and those who practiced it, as contrary to the spirit of what they conceived to be religion, and as subversive of the discipline of the Church. 49 Methodism was called a

45 Tucker: Conduct of Whitefield, p. 11.
Evans: History of Enthusiasm, passim.
47 Ibid., pref., p. xvii.

48 Scott: Fine Picture of Methodism, p. 14.

species of enthusiasm which drew attention so strongly to some particular doctrines and duties of revealed religion, and fixed it upon these doctrines so intently as to exclude the other parts of religion, and even morality itself.50

The opponents of Methodism demanded, not unreasonably, evidence in support of their claims. Samuel Wesley, the older brother of John Wesley, voiced this demand when he said to his brother: "Your followers fall into agonies. I confess it. They are freed from it after you have prayed over them. Granted. They say it is the Lord's doing. I own they say so. Dear brother, where is your ocular demonstration? Where, indeed, the rational proof?"51 Samuel Wesley here felt the lack of evidence. The Churchmen felt that God did not manifest himself by extraordinary acts of his power; but in his regular Providence should men be the more apt to find him?52 To deny this was likely to lead to a rejection of the plain and practical precepts of Christianity; to follow after vain delusions which encouraged fanatical conceit.53

John Green stated the point clearly when he objected to the Methodist claims: "You have received some extraordinary manifestation of God's favor and discoveries of his will, and you require us to believe them; give us then some reasonable and satisfactory proof, on which our belief may be properly grounded; otherwise you are much too arbitrary and assuming in what you require. put us not off with flights, raptures, and assertions."54 This seems to be a just demand by a serious, reasoning Churchman.

The Methodists gave great offense by their pretension to intimate acquaintance with God and heavenly things.55 To many no illusion could be more diabolical than that a man should hearken to the suggestions which he miscalled conscience and the spirit of God within him, in preference to the plain revelation of God's will in the Scripture. The law of nature; right rea

50

Essay on Character of Methodism, p. II.

51 Letter quoted in Moore's Life of Wesley, vol. i, p. 372.

52

Principles and Practices of Methodism, p. 13.

53 H. Smith: Methodist Conceit, p. 22ff.

54

55

Principles and Practices of Methodism, p. 20.
Kirby: p. 3.

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