Wesley Corpus

Last updated: December 15, 2009. Epistle to John Wesley (1755)1 Baker list, 210 Editorial Introduction: The early 1750s were a period of growing tension between John and Charles Wesley over the nature and goals of the Methodist movement. A key point of divergence concerned the use of lay preachers. While open to this in principle, Charles was convinced that John was encouraging far too many who had neither the gifts nor the grace to take up the calling. For more on this dimension of the tensions, see Richard P. Heitzenrater, "Purging the Preachers: the Wesleys and Quality Control," in Charles Wesley: Life, Literature Legacy, edited by Kenneth Newport Ted Campbell (Peterborough: Epworth, 2007), 486-514. Even if they were persons of deep spiritual character and clear gifts for preaching, there was another dimension to the challenge of the lay preachers many of them chafed at the restriction from administering the sacraments. When one of their assistants had sufficient training and could find a willing bishop, the Wesleys supported them seeking ordination. But few were thus qualified. Things came to a head in October 1754 when two lay preachers, Charles Perronet of London and Thomas Walsh in Reading, administered the sacrament of Holy Communion. Charles Wesley suspected that John was ready to bow to the desires of such preachers, in order to provide for sufficient sacramental ministry among the Methodist faithful. This would have amounted to a clear separation from the Church of England and Charles strongly resisted it. He began to muster support prior to the scheduled Conference at Leeds in early May 1775. As part of this preparation he wrote the poetic epistle with follows and began to share it with some of his sympathetic colleagues (cf. his letter to Samuel Lloyd, 29 April 1755). The epistle stresses Charles's appreciation for Methodism as a movement, while insisting that it is not the church, and it pleads with John to restrain any act that would turn Methodism into a dissenting church. While John did read a paper at the Leeds Conference rejecting separation from the Church of England, Charles worked to reenforce the point by publishing this Epistle and reading it aloud in several of the Methodist societies (cf. his letter to his wife Sarah, 31 May 1755). The effort was generally successful at the time, and the Epistle was allowed to go dormant.