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Untitled Article
Under the influence of the feelings and convictions now mentioned , it is no wonder that he assumed extraordinary power , and that his assumptions were nursed instead of being withstood . He seems to have thought himself , and to have been deemed by others , if not an apostle , an apostolic man . All his associates , even Whitfield , and his brother Samuel Wesley , he treated as his inferiors and servants , expecting them , as " sons in the gospel , " to use his own figure , to be docile to him their spiritual father .
John Wesley was also a man of extraordinary confidence in his own judgment . He hardly knew what doubt and diffidence meant . He never distrusted his own conclusions . This self-confidence , which was in reality a blemish in his character , he interpreted into the witness of God with his spirit . From this feature of his character arose one of the peculiar doctrines of Methodism , viz . that of assurance ; and from this arose also , in part , the
extraordinary influence which he exerted over all with whom he acted . In full self-confidence he impressed his opinions on all within the sphere of his influence . He became positive , dictatorial , and intolerant of all diversity of sentiment . Those who would submit their wills to his , he chose as associates ; others he rejected in their advances , or cut off when in alliance with him , as rotten branches . Sitting in the Conference , he might with literal truth say ,
I am monarch of all I survey , My right there is none to dispute ; and throughout the whole of the connexion , whether priest or people , he spread the principles , the observances , the opinions , and the institutions which seemed good to him . One mind formed , arranged , and animated the mass . Wesley was not made to endure a second or a rival . The preachers who were united with him were not his brothers , but his " assistants , " bound , on pain of being cut off , to administer his laws according to his will .
We have also to observe , that John Wesley was a high Churchman . His attachment to the form of church government established in this kingdom was unusually great . He loved the principles on which it was built ; he loved the power which they put into the hands of the few to the exclusion of the many ; he loved it so much , that when he found he could not have it in the legitimate way , he set up business on his own account , outstripped Bishops and Archbishops , and made himself Pope . We are not supposing
that he had not a strong desire to benefit his fellow-creatures . We know lie had , but we are speaking of the principles in connexion with which this desire acted , and by which it was modified . Wesley was a high Churchman , and so he acted through life . He was attached even to the form in which church principles are vested , but he was attached more to the principles themselves . He therefore left the form in order to possess the power which the principles promised to give him , but he left it no more in any case than was
essential to establish his own dominion . His lofty notions as a Churchman indisposed him to the employment of lay preachers . He endeavoured to gain " assistants" in the church . Failing in this , he at length , and by degrees and with difficulty , brought himself to authorize uneducated and unordained men to teach the gospel ; I say authorise , for so it was . They received their commission of him , went as far as he allowed , and no farther , and were only by piecemeal admitted to exercise the various functions ol the Christian ministry . In these facts another source of power may be seen .
Untitled Article
294 Character of John JVesiey .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1830, page 294, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2584/page/6/
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