Chapter XIII
Mr. Venn begins to attract notice--Revival of Religion in the Established Church and among the Methodists--By whom first commenced--Mr. Venn’s Acquaintance with Mr. Broughton--Mr. Broughton one of the original Methodists--Dr. Haweis--Mr. Law--Illness of Mr. Venn--Accompanies Mr. Whitefield to Bristol--Remains with Lady Huntingdon at Clifton--Letter from Mr. Whitefield--Letter to Mr. Venn from Lady Huntingdon--Mr. Whitefield’s Letter to Mr. Venn--Oxford Students--Dr. Haweis--Mr. Whitefield’s Letter to Dr. Haweis--Convicts--Preaching to the Nobility at Lady Huntingdon’s--Handel--Giardini--Musical Composers.
That faithful and able servant of our Lord, the Rev. Henry Venn, had now commenced his useful ministry as curate of Clapham, and served three lectureships in the city. At Clapham he became intimately acquainted with the late excellent and benevolent John Thornton, Esq., then a young man of deep piety, and rising rapidly into notice. At his house Mr. Venn had many opportunities of meeting Lady Huntingdon and Mr. Whitefield, whose ardent and disinterested zeal, so successfully employed in the service of their great Master, conduced to lead him to clearer views of divine truth. Mr. Whitefield frequently expounded at Mr. Thornton’s to overflowing assemblies, and on such occasions Mr. Venn was always present. To Miss Gideon, the friend and correspondent of Mr. Venn, Mr. Whitefield writes:--“At both ends of the town the word runs and is glorified. The champions in the Church go on like sons of Thunder. I am to be at Clapham this evening: Mr. Venn will gladly embrace the first opportunity. May it be a Bethel!”
The venerable names of Romaine, Venn, Adams, Walker (of Truro), and others, will long be remembered as among the early and honoured instruments employed by Almighty God to rouse a slumbering Church from its lethargy, and to revive the cause of vital religion at a period when the doctrines of the Reformation were almost forgotten, and Christianity had become little better than a name.
The unquestionable excellence of their character, and the extent of their usefulness, add greatly to the importance of their history; and the more we venerate and admire their devotedness to God, the more desirous we become to learn something of the commencement and progress of the work of divine grace upon their minds, and the special dealings of Providence in leading them to spheres of usefulness.
God sends by whom he will send; but it has been the infirmity even of good men, and I fear it has not ceased to be so, to resemble the people whose cry was, “The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are we!” For, while all cordially unite in ascribing the glory of all good to God, there is no small contention among the different sections of the Christian Church for the honour of the instruments employed in the work. It ought, however, to be regarded as a subject of very inferior consideration, who, amongst those whom the great Head of the Church was pleased to employ and crown with success, were first in the field, or most honoured by their great Master.
Thus in the lives of Walker and Venn, as well as in other publications, it is attempted to be shown that the revival of vital religion in the Established Church within the last century is not to be attributed to the instrumentality of the great Methodist leaders, and the eminently devoted men who laboured with them; but it is to be regarded as a distinct and separate dispensation of divine grace.
The biographers of Venn, Walker, and other eminent ministers, appear to feel for the honour of the Church, and are anxious to free her from the reproach of Methodism; but these departed worthies were faithful ministers of the Church of England, yet by their labours a great measure of what is called Methodism was diffused and maintained within the pale of the Church. That the effects of the labours of Mr. Whitefield, the Wesleys, and their coadjutors, were “confined to their own followers,” and only “manifested in the extension of Methodism,” is assuredly a great mistake, and proves the writer to be but very imperfectly acquainted with the genius and history of Methodism.
It is well known that those men of God were sincere as well as avowed members and ministers of the Church of England. They were educated within her pale, and were zealously devoted to her service; and it was not until insuperable difficulties were opposed to their labours in the Establishment that they were constrained to go forth into the highways and hedges to call sinners to repentance. The effects of their ministry soon attested its divine authority, and furnished irresistible evidence that they had not mistaken the call of God. The mere forms of ecclesiastical authority must not be pleaded against the great object and design of the Christian ministry itself; and, with all respect for the Establishment, it is to be regarded only as in the order of means, and must be estimated according to its adaptation to accomplish its great end--the salvation of men.
At the period referred to, as it is justly observed by Dr. Haweis, “the nation was sunk down into corruption, and the Church erected a feeble barrier against the fashionable pursuits. The life and power of godliness fell to a very low standard, and only here and there an individual cleaved to the faith once delivered to the saints, and dared to be singular.” Speaking of the first instruments of the revival of vital Christianity among us, the Doctor adds--“By the labours of these indefatigable men, a flood of Gospel light broke upon the nation. At first they were wholly confined to the Church of England, as their attachment to it by education was strong; and had they been fixed in any settled station, they had not improbably lived and died good men, useful men, but unnoticed and unknown. A series of providences had designed them for far greater and more extensive usefulness.”[130]
To this unexceptionable testimony we may add that of the late Mr. Hall:--
“Such was the situation of things when Whitefield and Wesley made their appearance, who, whatever failings the severest criticism can discover in their character, will be hailed by posterity as the second Reformers of England. Nothing was farther from the views of these excellent men than to innovate on the established religion of their country; their sole aim was to recall the people to the good old way, and to imprint the doctrine of the Articles and Homilies on the spirits of men. But this doctrine had been so long a dead letter, and so completely obliterated from the mind by contrary instruction, that the attempt to revive it met with all the opposition that innovation is sure to encounter, in addition to what naturally results from the nature of the doctrine itself, which has to contend with the whole force of human corruption. The revival of the old appeared like the introduction of a new religion; and the hostility it excited was less sanguinary, but scarcely less virulent, than that which signalized the first publication of Christianity. The Gospel of Christ, or that system of truth which was laid at the foundation of the Reformation, has since made rapid advances, and in every step of its progress has sustained the most furious assaults.”
If, in its commencement, Methodism meant anything definite, it meant neither more nor less than Christianity in its life and power. The term, from the beginning, was applied not so much to a peculiar system, as to a class of character. It was invariably employed to designate all that was sincere and spiritual in religion. It thus became the badge of serious piety and Christian zeal wherever they appeared. Mr. Whitefield and the Wesleys, by their incessant itinerancy, obtained a sort of ubiquity in the land, and the fruit of their labours was almost everywhere visible. He must, therefore, be a bold man who will maintain that their instrumentality contributed little or nothing to the revival of religion in the Church. Many of the more pious of the clergy lived among the disciples of Methodism, and some of them belonged to Methodist families, and were the personal friends of the great leaders of both Connexions.
If what God has wrought be but duly acknowledged, we are not at all anxious to determine the respective claims of the first instruments; nor would we wish to deprive the respected clergy of the Establishment of what they seem to value so highly--the privilege of being perfectly independent of the instrumentality of Methodism. Whether there were, as is affirmed, “two kindred, but separate and independent, streams of light,” proceeding from the same source, but “flowing in two distinct channels,” one descending on the Methodists, and the other upon the Church; or whether the heavenly influence is to be regarded as forming one general intervention of divine mercy for the revival and spread of vital religion throughout the land, we leave to the judgment of the reader. Whatever interest may be attached to the distinction by sectarian prejudice, we cannot persuade ourselves that its importance is recognized either by the Head of the Church, or by those great and good men whom He so signally honoured. They have long since cast their crowns at the feet of Him to whom they were indebted for the whole of their success, and who alone caused them to “triumph in Christ,” in making “manifest the savour of his knowledge by them in every place.”
One thing, however, is too well known to admit, of dispute--that previous to the appearance of the Messrs. Wesley and Whitefield, and the extraordinary effects produced by their ministry, the public attention had in no degree been called to any description of ministers in the Establishment who inculcated the evangelical doctrines and excited observation by the fruit of their labours. It was not until several years after the former had become extensively known, both by their preaching and writings, that a few individuals of the clergy were recognized as having embraced similar sentiments, and as being zealously and successfully employed in calling sinners to repentance.
How far it may please God to communicate the light of his truth, or the influence of his grace, by particular means or instruments, cannot be determined by man. We venture to believe that the water of life retains its virtue by whatever channel it may be communicated.
In the darkest times that the Church of England has known, when the light of evangelical truth seemed nearly extinguished, the Bible exhibited the same divine truths as at present: the Articles, the Liturgy, and the Homilies contained the same spiritual doctrines, and all that beauty and excellence which have been since found in them; and yet the land continued to be overspread with the shadow of death, until it pleased God to raise up living witnesses, clothed with his own power, and to send them forth to proclaim to sinners the Gospel of salvation, He himself giving “testimony to the word of his grace.”
Mr. Venn, when he ceased to reside in College, accepted the curacy of a Mr. Langley, who held the livings of St. Matthew, Friday-street, London, and West Horsley, near Guildford, in Surrey. His duty was to serve the Church in London during part of the summer, and to reside the remainder of the year at Horsley. His duties in London brought him in contact with the Rev. Bryan Broughton, Secretary to the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, and this was probably one of the most important events of his life; for Mr. Broughton was one of the original band of Methodists at Oxford, and the correspondent, associate, and fellow-labourer of Mr. Whitefield and the Wesleys: and it is extremely probable that he was one of the first, if not the very first, who directed the attention of Mr. Venn to the important concerns of eternity. About the same time Mr. Law’s “Serious Call” made a deep and lasting impression on his mind. He read and read again this pleasing and most unanswerable advocate for the reasonableness and dignity of a life of holiness; and set himself diligently to conform to his prescriptions of rigid weekly fastings and prayer, and keeping a daily journal of his thoughts, words, and deeds. Thus impressed with Mr. Law’s “Call,” we need not say with what eagerness he seized on his “Spirit of Prayer” as soon as it appeared; but his disappointment was equal to his ardour, when he found the atonement of Christ, of which he had now begun to feel his need, was degraded into annihilation, and a something crucified within represented as the only satisfaction due for sin.
At this critical period a friend from Oxford, the late venerable Dr. Haweis, whom he had pressed to spend some time with him at Clapham, visited him, and commenced a friendship and correspondence that ceased only with life. As the Doctor was a convert of that revered man, Mr. Walker, of Truro, he was firmly established in the principles of free grace, now generally termed Calvinistic. Hence naturally arose much candid investigation of the subject: both were conscious they sincerely meant the glory of God and the salvation of men’s souls; both were active labourers in the vineyard, and both esteemed the religion of the heart as only fundamental; yet both being well informed, their friendly disputes entered deeply into the consideration of the Scriptures on the subject, without any immediate considerable change of sentiment. “Allow me, my dear Haweis (said Mr. Venn), to be something more than a stone.” The manner in which he canvassed the subject in debate manifested no aversion to receive the divine truth as far as he discovered it. He searched the Scriptures daily if those things were so, and every day grew more disposed to acknowledge the impotence and guilt of man, and the sovereignty of the grace of God. He set himself vigorously to preach what he believed, which he did four or five times a week at his cure and lectureships, besides his private exhortations among his friends. His ministry was much attended and greatly blessed, many calling him FATHER, as being begotten by him in the Gospel. Though he generally preached written sermons, yet he first perhaps, of any of the Church ministers of that day, broke through the bondage of reading, and commenced a free address to the conscience. In this he preceded Mr. Romaine, whose name and ministry about the same time attracted more general notice.
Mr. Venn had not been long at Clapham before he was attacked by a severe illness, which incapacitated him for duty for several months. This, however, was a most useful season to him. He had time to reflect upon his principles and conduct; and he used to observe, that after that period he was no longer able to preach the sermons which he had previously composed. His views of eternal things had now become clearer--his meditations on the attributes of God more profound--his views of the greatness of the salvation of Christ more distinct; and the whole of his religion had received that tincture of more elevated devotion which rendered his conversation and his preaching doubly instructive. Just at this period Mr. Whitefield induced Mr. Venn to accompany him and Mr. Madan on a preaching excursion into Gloucestershire. At Bristol immense crowds attended whenever they proclaimed the glad tidings of salvation. “Seven Gospel ministers (says Mr. Whitefield) were together at Bristol when the Counsellor (Mr. Madan) preached.” During Mr. Venn’s stay in Gloucestershire he was hospitably entertained at Lady Huntingdon’s residence at Clifton. Mr. Madan and Mr. Howel Davies, then supplying the Tabernacle at Bristol, were likewise at her Ladyship’s house. The conversation of Lady Huntingdon, and those devoted men by whom she was surrounded, was attended with the happiest results to Mr. Venn. The light of divine truth burst through the darkness in which his mind had been involved, and he now strenuously laboured to extend, by every means in his power, the knowledge which had been imparted to him. The salvation of souls excited his watchfulness, his prayers, and his zeal; and in his whole life he was an “epistle of Christ, known and read of all men.” Governed by a disinterested concern for the everlasting welfare of the souls committed to his charge, he was “instant in season, and out of season; reproving, rebuking, and exhorting, with all long-suffering and gentleness”--
“And, as a bird each fond endearment tries To tempt its new-fledged offspring to the skies, He tried each art, reproved each dull delay, Allured to brighter worlds, and led the way.”
In a letter to Lady Huntingdon, written at this time, Mr. Whitefield says:--
“The worthy Venn is valiant for the truth--a son of Thunder. He labours abundantly, and his ministry has been owned of the Lord in the conversion of sinners. Thanks be to God for such an instrument as this to strengthen our hands! I know the intelligence will rejoice your Ladyship. Your exertions in bringing him to a clearer knowledge of the everlasting Gospel have indeed been blessed. He owes your Ladyship much, under God, and I believe his whole soul is gratitude to the Divine Author of his mercies, and to you, the honoured instrument in leading him to the fountain of truth.”
That the noble Countess was the instrument of much good to Mr. Venn is obvious from Mr. Whitefield’s letter; and is, moreover, confirmed by an extract from one addressed by her Ladyship to Mr. Venn, soon after his return to his charge at Clapham. After remonstrating with him on the tenor of some of his discourses, her Ladyship adds:--
“O, my friend! we can make no atonement to a violated law--we have no inward holiness of our own--the Lord Jesus Christ is the Lord our Righteousness. Cling not to such beggarly elements--such filthy rags--mere cobwebs of Pharisiacal pride--but look to Him who hath wrought out a perfect righteousness for his people. You find it a hard task to come naked and miserable to Christ--to come divested of every recommendation but that of abject wretchedness and misery, and receive from the outstretched hand of our Divine Emmanuel the riches, the superabounding riches of redeeming grace. But if you come at all, you must come thus; and, like the dying thief, the cry of your heart must be, ‘Lord, remember me.’ There must be no conditions--Christ, and Christ alone, must be the only Mediator between God and sinful men--no miserable performances can be placed between the sinner and the Saviour. Let the eye of faith ever be directed to the Lord Jesus Christ; and I beseech him to bring every thought of your heart into captivity to the obedience of our great High Priest.
“And now, my dear friend, no longer let false doctrine disgrace your pulpit. Preach Christ crucified as the only foundation of the sinner’s hope. Preach him as the Author and Finisher, as well as the sole object of faith--that faith which is the gift of God. Exhort Christless, impenitent sinners to fly to this city of refuge--to look to him who is exalted as a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance and the remission of sins. Go on thus, and may your bow abide in strength! Be bold--be firm--be decisive. Let Christ be the Alpha and Omega of all you advance in your addresses to your fellow-men. Leave the consequences with your Divine Master. He will be with his faithful ministers to the end of time. May his gracious benediction rest upon your labours, and may you be blessed to the conversion of very many, who shall be your joy and crown of rejoicing in the great day when the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall appear.”
About this period considerable attention was paid to the subject of religion by many students in the University of Oxford. Lady Huntingdon, in a letter to Mr. Stillingfleet, mentions prayer meetings as very common among the students. “I am really rejoiced (said her Ladyship) that so many at the Universities are determined to be on the Lord’s side. May they be kept faithful and steady!” Mr. Whitefield likewise takes notice of the awakening at Oxford in particular: “Many (says he) in Oxford are awakened to the knowledge of the truth;” and again, “Many students at Oxford are earnestly learning Christ.”
Amongst the number of those who stood forth in the midst of abounding reproach and hostility, and bore a fearless and faithful testimony to the grace and atonement of the Redeemer, was the late venerable Dr. Haweis, who had entered the University as a student and gentleman commoner of Christ Church, but afterwards removed to Magdalene Hall. Early in life he was awakened under the powerful ministry of that good man, Mr. Walker, of Truro. Mr. Whitefield, hearing of the zeal and the success attending his labours at Oxford, and accidentally seeing a letter of his to a correspondent at Bristol, determined to write to him, and endeavour to strengthen his hands in the great cause.
The following letter contains some useful hints to young ministers and candidates for the ministry; and is peculiarly valuable as having been addressed to one who, for considerably more than half a century after, was destined by the Great Head of the Church to bear a fearless and faithful testimony to the atonement and grace of the Redeemer, before a proud, self-righteous, and gainsaying world:--
“To the Rev. Mr. Haweis, ”Bristol, May 20, 1756.
“My very dear Sir--For so I must address myself, having had you in a peculiar manner upon my heart ever since I saw and read a letter that came from you some months ago. It bespoke the language of a heart devoted to the ever-living, ever-lovely Jesus. Mrs. Bevan confirmed me in this opinion yesterday, and withal told me she believed you would be glad of a line from me, who am indeed less than the least of all saints, but willing, if I know anything of my own heart, to spend and be spent for the good of souls. They are redeemed by the blood of Jesus, whose cross, blessed be his name, hath been made delightful to me for some years. I thank God that I am cast out for my Master’s sake. Indeed, my very dear Sir, it is preferable to all other preferment whatsoever; it is the way to the crown. Glory be to God that there are some young champions coming forth; methinks I could now sing my nunc dimittis with triumph and joy. Though I decrease, may you, my very dear Sir, increase! O that you may be kept from conferring with flesh and blood! O that you may be owned and blessed of God! I believe you will, and never more so than when you are reviled and despised by man. It is a fatal mistake to think we must keep our characters in order to be good; this is called prudence--in most, I fear, it is trimming. Honesty I find always to be the best policy. Them who honour Jesus, he will honour. Even in this world, if we confess him, his truth, and his people, we shall receive a hundred-fold. To lose all in this respect is to find all. But whither am I going? Excuse, my very dear Sir, the overflowings of a heart that loves you dearly for the glorious Redeemer’s sake. I am here preaching his cross, and expect to stay over Sunday. Next week I have thoughts of being at Bath and Westbury. I lead a pilgrim life--you will pray that I may have a pilgrim heart. Ere long I hope my heavenly Father will take me home. I am ambitious; I want to sit upon a throne. Jesus hath purchased and provided a throne in heaven for me. That you may have an exalted place at his right hand is and shall be the earnest prayer of, reverend and very dear Sir, yours most affectionately in our common Lord,
“G. WHITEFIELD.”
Lady Huntingdon had interested herself about this time in the case of an unhappy youth, belonging to an honourable family, who had been guilty of some serious breach of the law, and had obtained his Majesty’s pardon, through the benevolent exertions of her Ladyship. This young man appears to have been benefitted by the mercy which had been extended to him, and the advice which her Ladyship had kindly given him. “As I thought it would give your Ladyship satisfaction (says Mr. Whitefield), I herein enclose the copies of two letters sent from the condemned youth in whose behalf your Ladyship hath interposed.” Her liberality was likewise extended to some convicts, whom Mr. Whitefield felt much interested about. On the 2nd of March, 1757, we find him writing thus to her Ladyship:--
“Ever-honoured Madam--A few days ago I received the kind benefaction for the unhappy convicts. Not doubting of success, I had advanced some guineas, which, with what hath been procured from other hands, hath bought both their liberties, and they are provided for on the other side of the water; just now, I believe, they are under sail. O that he, who I suppose will now receive a pardon, was alike favoured! But not many mighty, not many noble, are called. I hope this will not find your Ladyship ill of the gout. May the Lord Jesus bear all your sickness, and heal all your infirmities, both of body and soul! I am sensibly touched when anything affects your Ladyship; gratitude constrains to this. What shall I render unto the Lord for all his mercies? I would preach for him, if I could, a hundred times a day. Surely such a worthless worm was never honoured to speak for the Redeemer before. Your Ladyship will excuse me, I must away, and give a little vent to the heart of, ever-honoured Madam, your Ladyship’s most dutiful, obliged, and ready servant, for Christ’s sake,
“G. WHITEFIELD.”
Lady Huntingdon now arrived in London with her family, and soon opened her house, twice every week, for the preaching of the Gospel. Messrs. Romaine, Madan, and Venn principally officiated at her Ladyship’s at that time. “I rejoice (says Mr. Whitefield) in the increase of your Ladyship’s spiritual routs. I can guess at the consolation such uncommon scenes must afford to your Ladyship’s new-born soul. No wonder you are distressed from other quarters. Indeed, my most noble and ever-honoured patroness, thus it must be. Christ’s witnesses must be purged at home. Inward domestic trials fit for outward public work. Nature recoils, when constrained to take the cross, and it may be from a near and dear relation’s hand; but infinite wisdom knows what is best.”
Amongst the great and fashionable who attended at Lady Huntingdon’s house during the season we find the names of many who made some figure in the circles of the great; as the Duchess of Bedford, Duchess of Grafton, Lady Jane Scott, Lord and Lady Dacre, Mr. and Lady Anne Connolly, Lady Elizabeth Keppel, Lady Betty Waldegrave, Lady Coventry, Lord Weymouth, Lord Tavistock, Lady Charlotte Edwin, Duchess of Hamilton, Duchess of Richmond, Lady Ailesbury, Lord and Lady Hertford, Lady Townshend, Lord Trafford, Lord Northampton, Lady Hervey, Lady Pembroke, Lady Northumberland, Lady Rebecca Paulet, Lord Edgecumbe, Lord Lyttleton, Mrs. Shirley, mother of the unfortunate Lord Ferrers, &c. &c. &c. Lady Essex and Mrs. Charles Yorke, both of whom had frequently attended at her Ladyship’s house, died rather suddenly, at this time, of sore throats. The circumstance caused considerable sensation amongst a numerous circle, and the awful providence was improved by Mr. Whitefield on his arrival in London. Lady Thanet’s decease had preceded that of Lady Essex and Mrs. Yorke. When Lady Huntingdon heard of her illness, she sent to offer her to come and prepare her for the last solemn hour: but Lady Thanet sent her word it was in vain, for she could neither be prepared to live or die. Her great care upon her death-bed was the fear of being buried alive; to prevent which she ordered herself not to be taken out of her bed for twelve days.
The acquaintance which Lady Huntingdon had formed in early life with the celebrated Handel, after being suspended for some considerable number of years, was renewed about this time. Handel now found himself fast declining, and considered his recovery as hopeless. The loss of his sight and the prospect of his approaching dissolution made a great change in his temper and general behaviour. He became a man of blameless morals, and throughout his after-life manifested a deep sense of religion. In conversation he would frequently speak of the pleasure he had experienced in setting the Scriptures to music, and how much some of the sublime passages of the Psalms had contributed to his comfort and satisfaction. And now, when he found himself drawing near to the close of his mortal state, those sentiments were improved into solid and rational piety, attended by a calm and undisturbed mind. The course of his life was regular and uniform. For some years after his arrival in England his time was divided between study and practice--that is to say, betwixt composing pieces of music, and conducting concerts at the Duke of Rutland’s, the Earl of Burlington’s, the Earl of Huntingdon’s, and the houses of others of the nobility who were patrons of music and his friends. His little foibles, of which his biographers have made much, appear to have been the incidental errors of his time and nation.[131]
Not long before his death Lady Huntingdon saw him, at his particular request. “I have had a most pleasing interview (says her Ladyship) with Handel--an interview which I shall not soon forget. He is now old, and at the close of his long career; yet he is not dismayed at the prospect before him. Blessed be God for the comforts and consolations which the Gospel affords in every situation, and in every time of our need! Mr. Madan has been with him often, and he seems much attached to him.” Handel died in April, 1759. Over the place of his interment, in Westminster Abbey, was erected a monument, designed and executed by Roubilliac, representing him at full length, in an erect posture, having a scroll in his hand, inscribed--“I know that my Redeemer liveth,” with the notes to which these words are set in “The Messiah.”
With most of the eminent musicians of her time Lady Huntingdon was well acquainted. Giardini, whose great taste, hand, and style in playing on the violin, procured him universal admiration, was a great favourite of her Ladyship’s. Lady Gertrude Hotham, and Lady Chesterfield, who was esteemed one of the first private musicians of her day, gave occasional concerts of sacred music at their residences; and there Giardini’s performance on the violin, in which, at that time, he excelled every other master in Europe, was heard with the most rapturous applause, and equally astonished and delighted all his auditors. At Lady Huntingdon’s request he composed a few tunes to some of the hymns used in her chapels; and this circumstance, becoming public, led Horace Walpole to say--“It will be a great acquisition to the Methodist sect to have their hymns set by Giardini.” Some time after, he was recommended by Lady Huntingdon to the protection and patronage of Sir William Hamilton, whom he accompanied to Naples. About the same period there was another Italian musical composer and writer, with a name very similar, Tomaso Giordani, with whom Lady Huntingdon was also acquainted, and who resided so many years in London, that he was almost as well acquainted with the English language and English style of music as any individual of his time. He likewise composed some hymn tunes, and particularly the well-known air called “Cambridge,” adapted to the words--“Father, how wide thy glory shines!” &c., in Lady Huntingdon’s collection. Mr. Kent, of Winchester, was also well known to Lady Huntingdon, Mr. Whitefield, and the Wesleys. As a composer of sacred music, he followed closely the style of Dr. Croft; and few persons have succeeded better than he in that due intermixture of harmony and melody which renders this species of music interesting both to the learned and unlearned auditors. He composed some popular anthems and hymn tunes, which have long been in use amongst the Methodists: few anthems have obtained more celebrity than--“O Lord, our Governor,” “My song shall be of mercy,” and “Hear my prayer.”
Two of the sons of Mr. Charles Wesley afforded a very early indication of musical genius. Lady Huntingdon was so well pleased with the eldest, Charles, that she kindly offered her interest with Dr. Boyce to get him admitted among the King’s boys. He was introduced by her Ladyship to two eminent musicians of that day, Mr. Stanley and Dr. Morgan, both of whom were extremely kind to him, particularly the latter, who frequently entertained him by playing on the harpsichord. Several years after, Charles Wesley published a set of six hymn tunes, one of which, adapted to the words, “In Christ my treasure’s all contained,” was composed at the request of Lady Huntingdon. This little publication also included the well-known hymn by his father on the death of Mr. Whitefield, set to music by Dr. Boyce, composer to his Majesty George III.
Chapter XIV
Lady Huntingdon and Mr. Fletcher--Introduced to Lady Huntingdon by Mr. Wesley--Bishop of London--Letter to Mr. Charles Wesley--Mr. Fletcher preaches and celebrates the Communion at Lady Huntingdon’s--Letter to Mr. Charles Wesley--Letter to Lady Huntingdon--Mr. Fletcher appointed Vicar of Madely--Writes to Lady Huntingdon and Mr. Charles Wesley--Visits Mr. Berridge--Letters to Lady Huntingdon--Induction to Madely--Success of his Ministry--Letters to Lady Huntingdon.
In the spring of the year 1758, Lady Huntingdon first became acquainted with that singularly holy and zealous minister, the late Mr. Fletcher, vicar of Madely, near Bridgnorth, in Shropshire. In the family of Thomas Hill, Esq,, of Tern-hall, near Shrewsbury, he had spent some years in the capacity of tutor, but having been ordained the preceding year by Dr. Egerton, then Bishop of Bangor, in the Chapel Royal of St. James’s, he was at that time very popular in London and other places, preaching in Mr. Wesley’s chapels, and wherever the providence of God opened a door to proclaim the “unsearchable riches of Christ.”
“I have seen Mr. Fletcher (says Lady Huntingdon, in a letter dated March 19th, 1758), and was both pleased and refreshed by the interview. He was accompanied by Mr. Wesley, who had frequently mentioned him in terms of high commendation, as had Mr. Whitefield, Mr. Charles Wesley, and others; so that I was anxious to become acquainted with one so devoted, and who appears to glory in nothing save in the cross of our Divine Lord and Master. Hearing that he preached in French, his native language, I mentioned the case of the French prisoners at Tunbridge. May the Lord of the harvest bless his word, and send forth many such faithful ambassadors.”
At Lady Huntingdon’s request Mr. Fletcher did preach to the French prisoners on their parole at Tunbridge. They appeared deeply affected, and earnestly requested him to preach to them on every Lord’s-day, and they presented a petition to the Bishop of London for his leave. The Bishop, however, peremptorily rejected their petition! A few months afterwards he died of a cancer in his mouth.
“Perhaps (says Mr. Wesley) some may think this was a just retribution for silencing such a prophet on such an occasion! I am not ashamed to acknowledge this is my own sentiment; and I do not think it any breach of charity to suppose that an action so unworthy of a Christian Bishop had its punishment in this world.”
On this opinion of Mr. Wesley, the reader will form his own judgment.
The estimation in which the humble and devoted Fletcher held the Countess of Huntingdon, with whom, in the following spring, he had many interviews, may be gathered from the following short extract from one of his letters to Mr. Charles Wesley, dated March 22, 1759:--
“I was this morning with Lady Huntingdon, who salutes you, and unites with me in saying, that we have need of you to make one in our threefold cord, and to beg you will hasten your return, when Providence permits. Our conversation was deep, and full of the energy of faith on the part of the Countess; as to me, I sat like Paul at the feet of Gamaliel.”
When (in the November of that year) the Countess recommenced the religious assemblies in her own house, Mr. Fletcher was one of the clergymen whom she requested to preach and administer the sacrament to the elegant and pious persons whom she gathered around her. Of this invitation we find Mr. Fletcher giving the following account in another letter to Mr. Charles Wesley:--
“Your letter (he says) was not put into my hands till eight days after my arrival in London. I carried the enclosed agreeably to its address, and passed three hours with a modern prodigy--a pious and humble Countess! I went with trembling, and in obedience to your orders; but I soon perceived a little of what the disciples felt, when Christ said to them, ‘It is I, be not afraid.’ She proposed to me something of what you hinted to me in your garden; namely, to celebrate the communion sometimes at her house in a morning, and to preach when occasion offered; in such a manner, however, as not to restrain my liberty, or prevent my assisting you, or preaching to the French refugees; and that only till Providence should clearly point out the path in which I should go. Charity, politeness, and reason accompanied her offer; and I confess, in spite of the resolution which I had almost absolutely formed, to fly the houses of the great, without even the exception of the Countess’s, I found myself so greatly changed that I should have accepted, on the spot, a proposal which I should have declined from any other mouth, but my engagement with you withheld me; and, thanking the Countess, I told her, when I had reflected on her obliging offer, I would do myself the honour of waiting upon her again.
“Nevertheless, two difficulties stand in my way. Will it be consistent with that poverty of spirit which I seek? Can I accept an office for which I have such small talents? And shall I not dishonour the cause of God, by stammering out the mysteries of the Gospel in a place where the most approved ministers of the Lord have preached with so much power and so much success? I suspect that my own vanity gives more weight to this second objection than it ought to have; what think you?”
Mr. Wesley’s answer was no doubt encouraging, and the invitation of the Countess was accepted.
Neither exalted by the grace he had received, nor elated with his previous success in the ministry, he opened his commission amongst the great and honourable in the drawing-rooms of the Countess, in the lowly manner of the apostle--“Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach the unsearchable riches of Christ.” On this, as on many subsequent occasions, the affectionate and fervent manner in which he addressed his hearers, and the earnestness and zeal with which he delivered his message, were affecting proofs of the interest he took in their spiritual concerns; and there is much reason to believe that his labours in this way were not “in vain in the Lord.”
During the winter Lady Huntingdon continued to be useful in every possible way, endeavouring, with the most ardent zeal and unwearied diligence, to advance the honour and interest of her Divine Master. At home and abroad, in company and alone, in public and in private, she ceased not to keep in view and prosecute, with the most intense application, her great and important design; suffering no talent to remain unoccupied, nor any moment to pass unimproved. In Mr. Fletcher she found a powerful auxiliary, and one every way calculated to fan the inextinguishable flame of holy zeal which burned upon the altar of her heart.
He continued in London during four months, assisting the Messrs. Wesley, and preaching alternately with them and others at the houses of Lady Huntingdon, Lady Gertrude Hotham, and Lady Frances Shirley, generally once, and frequently twice in every week.
In 1760 he employed himself in working in the field of usefulness he found at Brighton, after which he returned to London: but Mr. Venn, who had been with him at Brighton, having accompanied the Countess of Huntingdon to Aberford, in Yorkshire, Mr. Fletcher went down to Tern-hall, where he had few opportunities of preaching, partly owing to the shyness of the neighbouring clergy, and partly to the fears which Mr. Hill entertained, lest his interest at Shrewsbury should be lessened at the approaching election, if Mr. Fletcher delivered his sentiments with unrestrained freedom. He speaks of this in a letter written about this period to Lady Huntingdon, dated Tern, September 6, 1760, and addressed to her Ladyship “At Lady Margaret Ingham’s, at Aberford, near Tadcaster, in Yorkshire.” We make a short extract from this letter:--
“I am greatly indebted to your Ladyship for what light I have into the nature of the foundation of Christianity; and, although I have great reason to be ashamed of the little use I have made of it, I hope it will work its way, by the power of Christ’s Spirit, through the thick darkness of my self-righteous, unbelieving heart, and then to be a closer follower of you, as you are of Christ.
“The fear Mr. Hill has lest I should lessen his interest at Shrewsbury against the next election, the shyness of the neighbouring clergy, and the want I feel of an ordination from the great Shepherd and Bishop of my soul, will probably prevent my preaching at all in the country. O may the Spirit of God preach in the meantime the Gospel to my heart!
“Generous as you are, Madam, I believe you would have saved me the shame of receiving the present you made me at Paddington, had you foreseen what uneasy thoughts it raised in my heart. ‘Is not this making godliness a gain? Can I in conscience receive what is devoted to the poor, and when I am not in actual want?’ I am not ashamed of living upon charity, but to receive it without being an immediate object is what gives me more uneasiness than want could possibly do. And now I am deprived of many months of the unspeakable advantage of living upon Providence, and must live upon a stock, as well as the rich of this world! Is not this a lesson? And does not your generosity, Madam, bid me look to Jesus for poverty of spirit, without which all outward acts are nothing but pride, sin, misery, and lies?
“J. FLETCHER.”
While living at Tern-hall,[132] Mr. Fletcher was often requested to do duty for Mr. Chambers, vicar of Madely, which being ten miles distant, a groom was ordered to get a horse ready for him every Sunday morning; but so great was his aversion to giving trouble, that if the groom did not wake at the time, he seldom suffered him to be called, but prepared the horse himself.
On the 26th of September, Mr. Fletcher wrote again to Lady Huntingdon, giving an account of his call to Madely, to the following effect:--
“The light I expected from our friend at Bristol is come, though from a different quarter. A fortnight ago the minister of the parish, with whom I have had no connexion for these two years, sent me word (I know not why) that his pulpit should be at my service at any time, and seems now very friendly. Some days after, I ventured, without design, a visit of civility to the vicar of a neighbouring parish, who fell out with me three years ago for preaching faith in his church: he received me with the greatest kindness, and said often he should have me take care of souls somewhere or other. Last Sunday the vicar of Madely, to whom I was formerly curate, coming to pay a visit here, expressed great regard for me, seemed to be quite reconciled, and assured me that he would do all that was in his power to serve me; of which he yesterday gave me a proof, by sending me a testimonial unasked. He was no sooner gone than news was brought that the old clergyman I mentioned to your Ladyship died suddenly the day before; and that same day, before I heard it, Mr. Hill, meeting at the races his nephew, who is patron of Madely, told him, that if he would present me to that cure, he would give the vicar of that parish the living vacated by the old clergyman’s death. This was immediately agreed to, as Mr. Hill himself informed me in the evening, wishing me joy.[133] This new promise, the manner in which Mr. Hill forced me from London to be here at this time, and the kindness of the three ministers I mentioned, whose hearts seemed to be turned at this juncture to sign my testimonials for institution, are so many orders to be still, and wait till the door is quite open or shut. I beg, therefore, your Ladyship would present my respects and thanks to Lady Margaret and Mr. Ingham, and acquaint them with the necessity which these circumstances lay me under to follow the leadings of Providence.”
To Mr. Charles Wesley he says:--
“My heart revolts at the idea of being here alone, opposed by my superiors, hated by my neighbours, and despised by all the world. Without piety, without talents, without resolution, how shall I repel the assaults and surmount the obstacles which I foresee, if I discharge my duty at Madely with fidelity? On the other hand, to reject this presentation, to burn the certificate, and to leave in the desert the sheep whom the Lord has evidently brought me into the world to feed, appears to me nothing but obstinacy and refined self-love. I will hold a middle course between these extremes: I will be wholly passive, in the steps I must take, and active in praying the Lord to deliver me from the evil one, and to conduct me in the way he would have me go.
“If you can see anything better, inform me of it speedily; and, at the same time, remember me in all your prayers, that, if this matter be not of the Lord, the enmity of the Bishop of Lichfield, who must countersign my testimonials; the threats of the chaplain of the Bishop of Hereford, who was a witness to my preaching at West-street; the objections drawn from my not being naturalized, or some other obstacle, may prevent the kind intentions of Mr. Hill.”
Having occasion, about this period, to accompany his pupils to London,[134] he determined to avail himself of that opportunity to call upon Mr. Berridge, vicar of Everton. He accordingly introduced himself as a raw convert, who had taken the liberty to wait upon him for the benefit of his instruction and advice. From his accent and manners, Mr. Berridge perceived that he was a foreigner, and enquired what countryman he was. “A Swiss, from the canton of Berne,” was the reply. “From Berne! then, probably, you can give me some account of a young countryman of yours, one John Fletcher, who has lately preached a few times for the Messrs. Wesley, and of whose talents, learning, and piety, they both speak in terms of high eulogy. Do you know him?” “Yes, sir, I know him intimately; and, did those gentlemen know him as well, they would not speak of him in such terms, for which he is more obliged to their partial friendship than to his own merits.” “You surprise me (said Mr. Berridge) in speaking so coldly of a countryman in whose praise they are so warm.” “I have the best reason (he rejoined) for speaking of him as I do--I am John Fletcher!” “If you be John Fletcher (replied his host) you must do me the favour to take my pulpit to-morrow; and when we are better acquainted, without implicitly receiving your statement, or that of your friends, I shall be able to judge for myself.” Thus commenced an intimacy with Mr. Berridge, which controversy could not interrupt.
On the 3rd of October, Mr. Fletcher, in a letter to the Countess of Huntingdon, thus refers to his induction at Madely:--
“Were I to have my choice, I would prefer waiting at the pool under your roof, or that of those who think like you, to any other way of life; and I will own to your Ladyship, that the thought of giving this up is one of the chief difficulties I have now to encounter. But I seem to be the prisoner of Providence, who is going, in all probability, to cast my lot among the colliers and forgemen of Madely; the two thousand souls of that parish, for whom I was called into the ministry, are many sheep in the wilderness, which, after all, I cannot sacrifice to my own private choice. When I was suffered to attend them for a few days, some began to return to the Shepherd of their souls, and I found it then in my heart to spend and be spent for them; when I was sent away from them, that zeal, it is true, cooled to such a degree, that I have wished a thousand times they might never be committed to my care; but the impression of the tears of those who, when I left them, ran after me, crying, ‘Who shall now show us the way to heaven’? never wore quite off from the bottom of my heart, and, upon second thoughts, I always concluded that if the Lord made my way plain to their church, I could not run away from it without disobeying the order of Providence. That time is come--the church is vacated--the presentation to it brought, unasked for, into my hands--the difficulty of getting proper testimonials, which I looked upon as insurmountable, vanishes at once--the three clergymen that had opposed me with most bitterness signed them--and the Bishop of Lichfield countersigns them without the least objection--the lord of the manor, my great opposer, leaves the parish--and the very man (the vicar) who told me I should never preach in that church, now recommends me to it, and tells me he will induct me himself. Are not these intimations of the will of God? It seems so to me. What does your Ladyship think of it? I long to go and consult you in Yorkshire, but cannot do it now, without giving up the point on which I want your advice.”
Again, on the 28th of October, 1760, he thus addresses the Countess:--
“Since I had the honour to write last to your Ladyship, all the little circumstances of my institution and induction have taken such an easy turn, that I question whether any clergyman noted for good fellowship ever got over them with less trouble. I preached last Sunday for the first time in my church, and shall continue to do so, though I propose staying with Mr. Hill till he leaves the country, which will be, I suppose, in a fortnight, partly to comply with him to the last, partly to avoid falling out with my predecessor, who is still at Madely, but who will remove about the same time.
“Among many little providences I have seen the finger of God in lately, I shall mention one to your Ladyship. The Bishop having unexpectedly sent me word to go to him for institution without delay, if I would not be at the trouble of following him to London, I set out in haste for Hereford, where I arrived the day before his Lordship’s departure. As I went along, I thought that if my going to Madely was from the Lord, it was providential that I should be thus called to be instituted in the country, for were it to be in London, Sir Peter Rivers, the Bishop’s chaplain, who examined me for orders, and last summer made so much noise in West-street Chapel, where he found me preaching, would infallibly defeat the end of my journey, according to his threatenings. Thus did worldly wisdom work in my heart; but no divination can stand against the God of Jacob, who is a jealous God, and does not give his glory to another. A clergyman, named Sir Dutton Colt, came to see the Bishop just as I entered the palace, and the secretary coming to him, said, in my hearing, ‘Sir Peter is just come from London to take possession of a prebend, which the Bishop has given him; he is now in the palace--how do you rank with him?’--My surprise was great for a moment, and my first thought was to ride away without institution: but having gone too far to retreat, I had an instant strength from on high to be still and see the salvation of the Lord. My second thought was to thank God for sending this man from London in that point of time to defeat Mr. Hill’s design; and easily throwing up Madely, I cried for strength to make a good confession before the High-priest and the Scribe; and I felt I had it, but was not called to use it, for the Bishop was alone, the ceremony was over in ten minutes, and Sir Peter did not come in till after. I met him at the door of the Bishop’s room, and a wig I had on that day prevented his recollecting who I was. Your Ladyship cannot conceive how thankful I was for this little incident, not because I was disappointed of a living, but because I saw and felt that, had I been disappointed, it would have been no manner of disappointment to me.
“If I know anything of myself, I shall be much more ready to resign my benefice, when I have had a fair trial of my unprofitableness to the people committed to my care, than I was to accept it. Mr. John Wesley bids me do it without a trial. He will have me ‘see the devil’s snare, and fly from it at the peril of my soul.’ I answer, I cannot see it in that light. He adds, ‘others may do well in a living--you can not, it is not your calling.’ I tell him I readily own that I am not fit to plant or water any part of the Lord’s vineyard, but that if I am called at all, I am called to preach at Madely, where I was first sent into the ministry, and where a chain of providences I could not break has again fastened me; and that though I should be as unsuccessful as Noah, yet I am determined to try to be there a preacher of Christ’s righteousness; and that, notwithstanding my universal inability, I am not quite without hopes that he who reproved a prophet’s madness by the mouth of an ass, may reprove a collier’s profaneness even by my mouth. I reserve for another letter an account of my own soul, and what begins to be as dear to me as my own soul--my parish. In the mean time, I earnestly recommend both to your Ladyship’s prayers.”
His next letter to the Countess is dated Tern, Nov. 19th, 1760; it is written in a somewhat desponding tone, as the following extract shows:--
“I have hitherto wrote my sermons, but am carried so far beyond my notes, when in the pulpit, that I propose preaching with only my sermon-case in my hand next Friday, when I shall venture on an evening lecture for the first time. I question whether I shall have above half-a-dozen hearers, as the God of a busy world is doubly the God of this part of the world; but I am resolved to try. The weather and the roads are so bad, that the way to the church is almost impracticable; nevertheless, all the seats were full last Sunday. Some begin to come from the adjacent parishes, and some more (as they say) threaten to come when the season permits it. I cannot yet discern any deep work, or indeed anything but what will always attend the crying down man’s righteousness, and insisting upon Christ’s--I mean a general liking among the poor, and offence, ridicule, and opposition among the ‘reputable’ and ‘wise’ people. Should the Lord vouchsafe to plant the Gospel in this country, my parish seems to be the best spot for a centre of a work, as it lies just among the most populous, profane, and ignorant. But it is well if, after all, there is any work in my parish. I despair even of this when I look at myself, and fall in quite with Mr. John Wesley’s opinion about me; though sometimes, too, I hope the Lord hath not sent me here for nothing; and I beg for strength to stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. Nevertheless, I am still fully determined to resign my living after a while, if the Lord does not think me worthy to be his instrument. If your Ladyship could at any time spare a minute, I should be glad to know whether you do not think that I shall then be at full liberty to do it before God. I abhor the title of a living for a living’s sake--it is death to me.
“There are three meetings in my parish--a Papist, Quaker, and Baptist--and they begin to call the fourth the Methodist one--I mean the church. But the bulk of the inhabitants are stupid heathens, who seem past all curiosity, as well as all sense of godliness. I am ready to run after them into their pits and forges, and I only wait for Providence to show me the way. I am often reduced to great perplexity, but the end of it is sweet. I am driven to the Lord, and he comforts, encourages, and teaches me. I sometimes feel that zeal which forced Paul to wish to be accursed for his brethren’s sake; but I want to feel it without interruption. The devil, my friends, and my heart, have pushed at me to make me fall into worldly cares and creature snares--first, by the thoughts of marrying, then by the offers of several boarders, one of whom offered me sixty pounds a year (and he is a Christian youth), but I have been enabled to cry, ‘Nothing but Jesus, and the service of his people,’ and I trust the Lord will keep me in the same mind.
“Wherever this finds your Ladyship, may the angel of the Lord’s presence prevent, accompany, and follow all your steps, which is and will always be the prayer of your Ladyship’s unworthy servant,
“J. FLETCHER.”
Again, in a letter of the 6th January, 1761, he says:--
“I had a secret expectation to be the instrument of a work in this part of our Church, and I did not despair of being soon a little Berridge; and thus warmed with sparks of my own kindling, I looked out to see the rocks broke in pieces, and the waters flowing out; but, to the great disappointment of my hopes, I am now forced to look within, and see the need I have of being broken, and of relenting myself. If my being stationed in this howling wilderness is to answer no public end as to the Gospel of Christ, I will not give up the hopes that it may answer a private end as to myself, in humbling me under a sense of universal unprofitableness. If I preach the Gospel ten years here (suppose I live so long), and see no fruits of my labours, in either case I promise to praise God, if I can but say from my heart, ‘I am nothing--I have nothing--I can do nothing.’ * * * I complained secretly a month ago of my want of concern, and my stupidity, at my solemn times of waiting upon God; and the Lord, in answer to my prayers, I believe, let loose upon me, for some moments every evening, the enemy of my soul. I might call him the dog of the good Shepherd; for a straying loitering sheep that hears a bull-dog barking, and sees him ready to devour, cannot fly into the sheepfold with more speed than those odd visits made me betake myself to the stronghold of my soul. But to my shame, the pressure was no sooner removed but I returned to my stupid state. Where I am, and what the Lord will do with me, or by me, I know not. If I can but once truly hold him, I shall not care, for then I shall follow him, though blindfold, whithersoever he goeth.
“As to my parish, all that I see hitherto in it is nothing but what one may expect from speaking plainly and with some degree of earnestness: a crying out--‘He is a Methodist--a downright Methodist.’ While some of the poorer sort say, ‘Nay, but he speaketh the truth!’ Some of the best farmers and most respectable tradesmen talk often, among themselves (as I am told), about turning me out of my living, as a Methodist, or a Baptist; and spread about such stories as your Ladyship may guess at, without my writing them. My Friday lecture took better than I expected, and I propose to continue it till the congregation desert me. The number of hearers at that time is generally larger than that which my predecessor had on Sunday. The number of communicants is increased from thirty to above a hundred; and a few seem to seek grace in the means. May they do it in sincerity! * * I thank your Ladyship for mentioning Mr. Jones as a curate. There is little probability of my ever wanting one. My oath obliges me to residence, and when I am here I can easily manage all the business, and only wait for some opportunities of bearing oftener witness to the truth.”
One more extract from this interesting correspondence shall conclude this chapter. The letter we are about to quote is dated Madely, April 27, 1761:--
“Conscious that few people can sympathize with me in so feeling a manner as your Ladyship, I shall make no apology for pouring out my complaints before you in this letter.
“I learn, by slow experience, that in me dwelleth no good thing. This, I find, cannot be learned of man, nor by man--it is a lesson that grace alone teaches effectually in the furnace of affliction; I am still at the first line, but I think I read it and understand it in a manner quite different from what I did before. Surely the Saviour speaks as no man ever spake, and he teaches with authority, not as the scribes; his words are riveted in the heart--those of man only graze the surface of the understanding. I have met with several trials since Providence has cast me (I shall not say in this part of the Lord’s vineyard, but) into this part of our spiritual Sodom; nevertheless, they did not work upon me as they ought to have done: I stood out against them in a kind of self-resolution, supported by human fortitude, rather than divine humility, and so they did not bring down the strength of nature, but rather increased it; for the old man, if he cannot have his own food, will live quietly and comfortably on spiritual food too. Yea, he is often pampered by what the natural mind supposes will poison him. But of late I have met a trial that, by God’s infinite mercy, has found its way to my heart. O may the wound be deep enough to let in the mind of Jesus!
“A young woman, daughter of one of my most substantial parishioners, giving place to Satan, by pride and impatience, is driven, in her conviction, into a kind of madness. I could bear patiently enough before the reports that went about that I drove people mad; but the fear of having this laid to my charge, backed with so glaring an instance, has thrown me into some agonies of soul, in which, through very great storms, I got into a very great calm; and the Lord, in compassion to my infirmity, perhaps also for the honour of his cause, seems to hear me in that which I feared, and I believe there is some hope that the snare will be broken.
“Why God permits these offences to arise has not a little staggered me. Once I was for taking to my heels, and, hireling-like, for flying at the first approach of the wolf. But, thanks be to the divine grace, I now try to commit to the Lord the keeping of his own ark, and cry for a blind faith in him who calls light out of darkness. Had not this trial staggered me, I should have great hopes that a few living stones may be gathered here for the temple of the Lord. There is a considerable stir about religion in the neighbourhood; and though most people rise up against it, yet some begin to enquire in earnest what they must do to be saved, and some get a sight of the way. My church is full, notwithstanding the oaths that some of my parishioners have sworn never to hear me again. I am insensibly led into exhorting sometimes in my house, and elsewhere. I preach Sunday morning and Friday evening; and Sunday evening, after catechizing or preaching to the children, I read one of the homilies, or a sermon of Archbishop Usher’s, insisting on all that confirms what I advanced in the morning, which greatly stops the mouths of the gainsayers, till God shall turn their hearts.
“I beg your Ladyship (when the blessed Spirit blows) would remember my poor flock and their poor shepherd at the throne of grace. I propose writing soon to Mr. Charles Hotham and Mrs. Carteret; nevertheless, should take it kindly if, Madam, you would, in the meantime, present my respects, without forgetting Lady Gertrude, Mrs. Cavendish, and Mrs. Leighton.
“I am, my Lady, with the truest regard and gratitude,
Your Ladyship’s unworthy servant,
“J. FLETCHER.”
Chapter XV
Rise of Methodism in Yorkshire--Mr. Ingham--Count Zinzendorff--M. Delamotte--Mr. Okeley--Mr. Rogers--Letters from Mr. Whitefield--United Brethren--Mr. Batty--Lady Betty Hastings--Ledstone-hall--Mr. Ingham’s marriage with Lady Margaret Hastings--Count Zinzendorff visits Yorkshire--Moravian settlement at Fulneck--John Nelson--Mr. Whitefield’s Letter to Mr. Ingham--Mr. Grimshaw--Lord and Lady Huntingdon visit Ledstone-hall--Mr. Charles Wesley--Mr. Graves--Lady Huntingdon encourages John Nelson--Persecution--Provincial Magistrates--John Nelson taken to prison--Liberated by the influence of Lady Huntingdon--Lord Sunderland--Letter from Lady Huntingdon to Mr. Ingham--The Vicar of Colne--Mr. Grimshaw’s Opinions--Moravian Nobles--John Cennick--Mr. Ingham leaves the Moravians--John Allen.
More than one hundred years have elapsed since the rise of Methodism in Yorkshire. The chief instrument in the revival of religion in that county was the Rev. Benjamin Ingham, brother-in-law to the Countess of Huntingdon, and one of the original band of Methodists at Oxford. This amiable and exemplary man was born at Osset, in the parish of Dewsbury, in the county of York, June the 11th, 1712. Being intended for the Church, he received a liberal education at Batley School, from whence he removed to Queen’s College, Oxford, where he soon attracted the notice and acquired the respect of his superiors. Two years after his residence at the University, he began to associate with the Messrs. Wesley and others, who were at this time noted for a variety of particular observances and devotional exercises, which gained them the name of Methodists. Soon after, Mr. Whitefield, then a youth about 19, joined himself to the society, of which he was destined to be the great Apollos. At that time they were fourteen or fifteen in number, all collegians, of one heart and mind. From these very small beginnings what a great increase has been given!
On the 1st of July, 1734, Mr. Ingham returned from Oxford to Osset, and began to keep religious meetings at his mother’s house; in a little time several of the neighbours attended, and within the space of six months a considerable number of persons assembled, many of whom were brought under a concern for their souls. This was the commencement of the awakening in Yorkshire.
Mr. Ingham was admitted into holy orders, June, 1735, in Christ Church, by Dr. John Potter, then Bishop of Oxford; and on that very day commenced his public ministry, by preaching his first sermon to the prisoners in Oxford Castle. On the 4th of the same month he left the University for London, and was accompanied thither by Mr. Gambold. He read prayers and preached for the first time in Christ Church, and afterwards in St. Sepulchre’s, where his labours were attended with the happiest effects. His zeal and diligence advanced with the extension of his sphere: far beyond the precincts of London he published the Gospel, preaching in many of the surrounding villages with singular success, so that great numbers in these places carried with them into eternity the grateful recollection of his ministry.
In consequence of a pressing request for his assistance in preaching from Mr. Wesley, he embarked for Georgia, in America, on the 14th of October, 1735, accompanied by Mr. Charles Wesley and Mr. Delamotte, the son of a merchant in London.[135] During the voyage they employed their time, with scrupulous exactness and laborious diligence, in acts of devotion, in the study of the Scriptures, and in the instruction of those who were willing to learn. There were on board the vessel several Germans, who were missionaries from the Church of the United Brethren, under the direction of David Nitchman, a Moravian bishop, for whom Mr. Ingham conceived a great regard during the voyage. The first attempt made by the Brethren was for the establishment of a school-house for Indian children of the Greek nation living in their neighbourhood, about five miles from the town of Savannah. Many Indians residing there in one place, gave the missionaries an opportunity to preach the glad tidings, that unto them also was born a Saviour, who had redeemed them, and purchased for them freedom from sin and eternal salvation. In Mr. Ingham the Brethren found an able assistant. He went and lived among the Indians for some time, and proved very serviceable in regulating and promoting the aim of the schools. Having succeeded in his attempt to learn the language, he composed an Indian grammar for the use of the colony; but he was soon called away to England, where he arrived the latter end of the year 1736.
With a view to profit by the example and advice of the Moravian Brethren, he determined to visit Germany, where, at Hernhuth in particular, he expected to meet with many who had long trodden the paths of holiness, and who would rejoice to be the helpers of his joy. Accordingly, he embarked at Gravesend in the month of June, 1738, and landed at Rotterdam. On his journey through Holland and Germany, he found many followers of the Lord Jesus, who treated him with the greatest hospitality. At Marienbourn he met with Count Zinzendorff,[136] Count de Solmes, and several other eminent Moravians, who all encouraged him to proceed without wavering in the glorious cause in which he was engaged. At Hernhuth, where he stayed a fortnight, he was exceedingly strengthened and comforted by the Christian conversation of the Brethren. Towards the end of the year he returned to England, when he found the work of Methodism had been making rapid advances all over the kingdom.
On Mr. Ingham’s return to Osset, his native place, he renewed his labours, and preached in all the churches and chapels about Wakefield, Leeds, and Halifax; and the Lord was pleased marvellously to display the unsearchable riches and adorable sovereignty of divine grace in the assemblies of his people. Such awful reverence, such glorious concern of mind, and such solemnity under the word, was seldom before witnessed in that part of the vineyard.
Private religious meetings greatly multiplied, and many, very many, had an inflamed desire to live to Him who died for them and rose again. Of such a season as this it may be well said, “I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
Such proceedings soon roused the envy and enmity of the clergy; and by an order made at the Visitation, held at Wakefield, June 6th, 1739, Mr. Ingham was prohibited from preaching in any of the churches in the diocese of York. He immediately began to preach in the fields, barns, dwellings, and houses; and such was the power attending his ministrations, that there were societies formed in FORTY different places.
Whilst the knowledge of the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was thus winning its way in Yorkshire, the same glorious cause was spreading with astonishing rapidity in Bedfordshire, through the instrumentality of Mr. Francis Okeley and the Rev. Jacob Rogers, a clergyman of the Church of England who had been preaching the long-exploded doctrines of the Reformation with great zeal and success. Thither Mr. Ingham immediately repaired, and found among the awakened, persons not much concerned about hearing the word, but truly in earnest to experience the power of it in their hearts. During his stay he preached and expounded several times, in St. Paul’s church, to vast multitudes, who heard him with an extraordinary degree of attention.
The number of converts daily increasing, they were formed into societies, and, by the advice of Mr. Ingham, placed under the care of the Moravian ministers, who were about this time invited into Bedfordshire by Mr. Rogers. This led the way for the settlement of the United Brethren at Bedford, which was formed in the year 1745. A chapel was built for the preaching of the Gospel, and consecrated in the year 1751. The ministers residing at Bedford preached also at several places in the neighbourhood, particularly at Risely, where a chapel was erected, which proved a signal blessing to many.
Concerning Mr. Rogers, Mr. Whitefield writes thus:--
“Mr. Rogers, like me, has lately been thrust out of the synagogues for speaking of justification by faith and the new birth; and has commenced as field preacher. Once he was shut up in prison for a short time; but thousands flocked to hear him, and God blessed him more and more. I believe we are the first professed ministers of the Church of England that were so soon, without cause, excluded every pulpit. Whether our reverend brethren can justify such conduct, the last day will determine.”
Hearing of the amazing success attending his ministry, and the continued determined opposition of the High Church clergy, Mr. Whitefield, before he left America, wrote to Mr. Rogers the following letter:--
“Philadelphia, Nov. 10, 1739.
“My dear brother Rogers--Before I left England I heard of your progress in Leicestershire and Nottingham. I then rejoiced, yea, and I do now rejoice, that God hath sent you into his vineyard. I wish you all imaginable success, with my whole heart. The next news I hear from England I suppose will inform me of your suffering as well as preaching for Christ. But I am persuaded a prospect of suffering does not damp, but excite, the zeal of my dear fellow-labourer. He lives in a place where honest John Bunyan was a prisoner of the Lord for twelve years. And oh! what sweet communion did he enjoy in Bedford gaol! I really believe a minister will learn more by one month’s confinement than by a year’s study. Press on then, my dear brother, press on, and faint not; speak till you can speak no more. Wait upon the Lord and you shall renew your strength. Though sometimes faint, yet still pursue. Up and be doing, and the Lord be with you. See how the fields are white, everywhere ready to harvest. See how our Lord’s sheep are scattered abroad, having few, too few true shepherds. I beseech you go on, and point out to them the Redeemer’s good pastures. Say not, Wherewithal shall I feed them? The great Shepherd shall furnish you with food enough and to spare. Give of your loaves, and ye shall take up of the fragments that remain. To him that hath shall be given. Satan, no doubt, will resist you; he will bid you, out of a false humility, to hold your peace; but let my friend speak out boldly as he ought to speak. The Holy Spirit will give him utterance, and apply the word to the hearers. If prayers may water the good seed, you may depend on mine. Remember the dear Bedford people. O let them not forget your poor weak brother in Christ,
“GEORGE WHITEFIELD.”
Mr. Rogers returned with Mr. Ingham to Yorkshire, and afterwards they visited Nottingham, where their ministry was greatly owned. The benediction of the Spirit of God seemed to rest in a peculiar manner on the labours of those apostolic witnesses wherever they itinerated, preaching the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ; and very many on those occasions have been called, by their ministrations, to the knowledge of his grace and faith.
After some time Mr. Ingham entered into close communion with the Church of the United Brethren. In the month of November, 1739, he was visited by Mr. Wm. Delamotte and the Rev. John Toeltschig, a Moravian minister, who had been in Georgia with Mr. Ingham and Mr. Wesley, and afterwards accompanied them to Germany. This was the first entrance of the Moravians into Yorkshire. Others of the Brethren were soon invited, who laboured for Mr. Ingham with considerable success: and in a little time the number of lay preachers considerably increased.
Amongst the most eminent were three brothers, Mr. William Batty, Mr. Christopher Batty, and Mr. Lawrence Batty, of Catherine Hall, Cambridge, sons of Mr. Giles Batty, a man of considerable respectability, who resided at Newby Cote, near Settle, in Craven. Some notice of each of these brothers will be found in the note below.[137]
They were active labourers in the vineyard, and they had the satisfaction of witnessing the happy progress of the Gospel through the circle in which they moved, and the rapid increase of those who attended their ministry. They were instrumental in changing many of the outcasts of society into useful members; civilizing even savages, and filling those lips with prayer and praise that had been accustomed only to oaths and imprecations. Societies were formed in SIXTY different places, and were visited every month. Thus the seed sown sprang up and flourished, bearing the rich fruits of every grace and virtue.
We must now speak of Mr. Ingham’s marriage, and first of his wife’s family.
The Lady Betty Hastings was a woman of singular excellence. Her maternal grandfather was Sir John Lewis, of Ledstone, in the county of York, Bart., one moiety and more of whose very large estate came to her by inheritance; and her father was Theophilus, seventh Earl of Huntingdon. Her countenance united in it something great and something condescending; an ingenuous temper, a quickness of understanding, a benevolent spirit, a flexibility of nature, a devout frame, and a solemn sense of sacred things, were observable in her infancy, and her footsteps slipped not in the dangerous ascent of life; so that she was not only free from every stain of vice in her early days, but superior to the world and its vain and trifling amusements. Though the splendour of her birth was great, it was eclipsed by her shining qualities: she was agreeable in her person, polite and amiable in her manners, and charming in conversation. Her singular accomplishments in early life were celebrated by one of the ingenious authors of “The Tatler,” under the name of “Aspasia.”[138]
Lady Betty’s active life commenced soon after the death of her brother, George,[139] Earl of Huntingdon, when her excellent virtues shone out, by what has been the eclipse of virtue in others, the accession of a large fortune. Her Ladyship spent the greater part of her life at Ledstone House, where almost every eye beheld her with wonder. Such was the superiority of her understanding, that in matters of high moment hundreds would ask counsel of her, who were themselves well qualified to give it to others: for she was blessed with a rectitude of judgment, and could readily penetrate through perplexities, unravel them, and mark out the wisest and safest conduct, having ever for her ground the interests of truth, fidelity, honour, and religion. Her aim was the glory of God, and the good of all men; keeping all her capacities, all her powers, and all her fortune continually upon the stretch for the benefit of her fellow-creatures; weeping with them that weep, rejoicing with them that rejoice; given to hospitality, distributing to the necessities of the saints, and to others that were less so; and having joy at the conversion of a sinner.
Lady Anne, Lady Frances, Lady Catherine, and Lady Margaret Hastings, were the daughters of the same noble Earl, by his second wife, Frances, daughter and sole heiress to Francis Leveson Fowler, of Harnage-Grange, in the county of Salop, Esq., by Anne his wife, second daughter to Peter Venables, Baron of Kinderton, in Cheshire, and widow of Thomas Needham, Viscount Kilmorey, in Ireland. At this period, when Mr. Ingham commenced his public ministry in Yorkshire, the Ladies Hastings were on a visit to Ledstone Hall, and from motives of curiosity were first induced to hear him preach in a neighbouring parish. He was then invited to preach in Ledstone Church, and from that period became a constant visitor at the hall.
Under the ministry of Mr. Ingham, the Lord met these exalted females with all the blessings of his grace. They heard him with pleasure, and drank in, like thirsty travellers, the refreshing streams of consolation; they made an open profession of the faith, and exhibited a bright example of female excellence to the world. The higher ranks of mankind were, by their acquaintance, some of them charmed into the love of virtue; while others found their virtues heightened and improved. As to the lower sort, they were guided by their wisdom; and, if they wanted it, were cherished by their boundless generosity. If in one grace more than another they resembled their Divine Master, it was in meekness and humility. Here they were a pattern to all, especially to those of their own rank and station. They were amiably condescending to all their inferiors, even to the poorest, and more especially to the pious poor, and would enter the meanest cottage, with pleasure, to converse and join in religious exercises with the people of God. With these excellent women Mr. Ingham soon became a great favourite. On the death of Lady Betty Hastings, December the 22nd, 1739, her noble sisters removed to Donnington Park, in Leicestershire, as Ledstone Hall then became the property of her Ladyship’s brother, the Earl of Huntingdon. Lady Betty was interred with great funeral solemnity in the family vault at Ledstone, near her grandfather, Sir John Lewis. She was a pattern to succeeding ages of all that is good and all that is great. In short, scarce any age has afforded a greater blessing to many, or a brighter example to all. Her Ladyship was in the 57th year of her age.[140]
Lady Margaret had nearly attained her forty-second year, and was twelve years older than Mr. Ingham. She had many accomplishments, which recommended her to all who had the happiness of knowing her; but the greatest glory that shone in her was that of religion, in which she was not only sincere, but excelled. To this lady Mr. Ingham was united, November 12, 1741, at the residence of her brother, the Earl of Huntingdon, in London: and he continued to the last moments of his life to express the highest veneration and regard for her, and showed a particular regard and esteem for her noble relatives, several of whom honoured him with a most intimate friendship.
About this period Nicholas Lewis, Count of Zinzendorff, again visited England, and, travelling through Yorkshire, remained some time with Mr. Ingham. At this time there were several thousand persons in the different societies which he had established; and by his advice they committed themselves to the care of those ministers whom the Count had sent to assist Mr. Ingham, promising withal still to continue in communion with the Church of England. The ministers who had the care of these societies lived then at Smith House, and preached in many parts of the country with much zeal and success. Not long after, however, many persons having requested to be received into the congregation of United Brethren, which could not well be refused to such as did not belong to the Established Church, or had before separated from it, the Count advised them to take a place near Pudsey, where the Brethren from Germany, with such of the English as were desirous of living with them, might build a particular congregation-place.
Accordingly, the ministers to whom Mr. Ingham had committed the care of his extensive societies, soon after removed to Pudsey, where they erected several houses and a chapel on a piece of land which Mr. Ingham had bought, and generously presented to them for that purpose. This settlement was called Grace Hill. Mr. Ingham was expected at Pudsey on the 10th of May, 1746, to lay the foundation-stone of the chapel and other buildings, but being unexpectedly detained in Lancashire, where he had been preaching, this office was performed by Mr. Toeltschig. By degrees several persons came to reside with the United Brethren, and a congregation-place was erected near the chapel, which was called, at first, Lamb’s Hill, and now Fulneck. It was consecrated by the Moravians, May the 22nd, 1748.
The societies in Yorkshire and Bedfordshire, chiefly collected by the labours of Mr. Ingham and Mr. Rogers, which were placed under the care of the United Brethren, were still considered in communion with the Church of England, and only in union with the Moravian Church. But being greatly disturbed by frequent mobs, they were compelled to license their chapels, and call themselves the Protestant Church of the United Brethren, or Unitas Fratrum. The Count sent a protest against this, which was deposited in the archives of the Archbishop at Lambeth; but little notice being taken of it, he was unable to do anything more in the affair.
A very singular character was raised up about this time, whose labours tended, in a wonderful degree, to enlarge the pale of Methodism in Yorkshire. John Nelson, a native of Birstal, near Leeds, whose business led him to reside some years in London, being employed in the building of Somerset House, was amongst the number of those who frequently heard Mr. Whitefield and Mr. Wesley preach in the open air in Moorfields, Kennington-common, and other places. In the memoirs of his life, written by himself, he gives an account of his hearing Mr. Wesley the first time, which was out of doors, in Moorfields. He says--
“As soon as he got upon his stand, he stroked back his hair, and turned his face towards where I stood, and I thought fixed his eyes upon me. His countenance struck such an awful dread upon me, before I heard him speak, that it made my heart beat like the pendulum of a clock; and when he did speak, I thought his whole discourse was aimed at me.”
After he had been made partaker of the grace of God in truth, it was impressed upon his mind that he must return to his native place: he longed to impart to his friends and relations the grace of which he had been made the blessed recipient: and thus he was brought, unawares, to quote, explain, compare, and enforce several parts of Scripture. This he did, at first, sitting in his house, till the company increased so as the house could not contain them. He then stood at the door, which he was commonly obliged to do in the evening, as soon as he came from work. This may give the reader an idea of the way and manner in which many of the first race of Methodist preachers were called to the work of preaching the Gospel. For some time Mr. Nelson’s friends and his nearest relations opposed him and were ashamed of him; but he was steadfast and immovable, and abounded in the work of the Lord.
These proceedings coming to the ears of Mr. Ingham, he came to Birstal, enquired into the facts, and talked with Nelson himself, in the closest manner, concerning his knowledge and spiritual experience. Several persons being present, Mr. Ingham said, “Before you all, I give John leave to exhort in all my societies.” Then, taking him by the hand, added, “John, God hath given you great honour, in that he hath made use of you to call sinners to repentance; and I desire you to exhort in all my societies as often as you can.”
A mightier instrument was raised up in the person of the Rev. William Grimshaw, rector of Haworth, near Bradford, who about this time commenced his apostolic ministry, the influence of which soon extended beyond the bounds of his parish, and was felt all over Yorkshire and some of the surrounding counties. Haworth is one of those obscure places which, like the fishing towns of Galilee favoured with our Lord’s presence, owe all their celebrity to the Gospel. The name of Haworth would scarcely be known at a distance, were it not connected with the name of Grimshaw. The bleak and barren face of the adjacent country was no improper emblem of the state of the inhabitants, who, in general, had little more sense of religion than their cattle, and were wild and uncultivated, like the rocks and mountains which surrounded them. But, by the blessing of God upon Mr. Grimshaw’s ministry, this desert soon became a fruitful field--a garden of the Lord, producing many trees of righteousness planted by the Lord himself, and the barren wilderness rejoiced and blossomed like the rose.
The tenor and energy of Mr. Grimshaw’s preaching could not fail of being talked of, and bringing, out of curiosity, many hundreds to Haworth church, where the Lord met them with the blessings of his grace; so that when the rage for novelty had subsided, the church still continued crowded, many of the congregation coming from a great distance, and this for twenty years together. Indeed, nothing but the faithful preaching of the Gospel of the grace of God will draw souls heartily together, or, according to the prophet’s language, “as doves to their windows.” His heart was engaged, he was pressed in spirit, he spoke with earnestness and authority, as one who was well assured of the truth and importance of his message. Nor did he long speak in vain. A power from on high applied to the heart what he could only declare to the ear. An impression, similar to what he himself felt, began to be felt by some, and in a short space by many of his hearers. The effects were soon visible. An effectual door was now opened, and adversaries were not wanting. But a growing number who approved and prized his ministry were soon distinguished, not only by a change in their views and sentiments, but in their tempers and conduct. Sin was, in many instances, forsaken and discountenanced, the drunkard became sober, the idle industrious, profaneness gave place to prayer, and riot to decorum.
There are four hamlets in the parish of Haworth, and as in them there were persons whom age, sickness, distance, or prejudice prevented from attending at church, he considered them all as belonging to his charge, and was unwilling that any of them should perish in ignorance. He therefore went to those who could not, or would not, come to him, teaching and exhorting them from house to house, and preaching in a more public way in the houses where he was invited.
Without intermitting his stated services at home, he went much abroad. In course of time he established two circuits, which, with some occasional variation, he usually traced every week, alternately. One of these he often pleasantly called his idle week, because he seldom preached more than twelve or fourteen times. His sermons, in his working or busy week, often exceeded the number of twenty-four, and sometimes amounted to thirty![141]
About eight months after Mr. Grimshaw had commenced his successful ministry at Haworth, he became acquainted, and soon afterwards closely connected, with Mr. Ingham, and laboured unweariedly to diffuse the glad tidings of the Gospel amongst his societies. Once, and sometimes twice, a-year, he preached through the circuit appointed by Mr. Ingham.[142] It is not easy to ascribe such unwearied diligence, and all amongst the poor, or at least very obscure people, to any motive but the real one. Whilst he saw multitudes perishing without hope, and no one breaking to them the bread of life, he was constrained by love to pity them, and this notwithstanding the selfish reluctance he felt within to give up his name to still greater reproach, as well as his time and strength, to proceed in the work of the ministry. What a reflection does this afford to that laziness of heart, to call it by no worse name, which thinks the service of God, after calling it in prayer before him a perfect freedom, to be a hard burden, and which courts easy duty and large fees, only for an indulgence to the flesh, and to hold up a sort of foolish and unmeaning respect in the world!
During this interval the Earl and Countess of Huntingdon, with the Ladies Hastings, arrived at Ledstone Hall, which had not been visited by any of the family since the decease of Lady Betty Hastings. In a few days they were joined by Mr. and Lady Margaret Ingham, and soon after the apostolic Grimshaw became a guest at the Hall. Much about the same period Mr. Charles Wesley and Mr. Charles Graves commenced preaching in Yorkshire with great success. They were accompanied by Mr. Bennet and Mr. David Taylor, both of whom were preachers for some time in Mr. Ingham’s Connexion. On visiting Leeds, Mr. Charles Wesley and Mr. Graves were invited to Ledstone, where there was preaching twice a day for several successive days. Great crowds attended, and people flocked from a vast distance to hear the word. The congregation usually consisted of many thousands, so that the service was repeatedly performed without the walls, and a succession of sermons, with some intervals, were preached in the course of the day to the people in the open air. Those who object to the irregularity of this course should remember that there was at that time a great dearth of Gospel knowledge; the people were hungering for the bread of life: they met together for the Lord’s sake and in his name, and He who dwelleth not in temples made with hands was pleased to afford them tokens of his presence and blessing, as if to prove that the souls of men are not to be sacrificed to formal notions of “regularity” and order.
While Messrs. Ingham and Grimshaw were thus triumphing gloriously in Yorkshire, their fellow-labourer, Mr. Whitefield, was succeeding in like manner in London. He often wrote to congratulate Mr. Ingham and Mr. David Taylor on the opening of new doors for the ministry. “The ram’s-horns (he says) are sounding about Jericho; surely the towering walls will at length fall.” These letters are dated in the year 1743.
Lady Huntingdon having heard much of John Nelson, and the surprising success attending his exhortations, expressed a desire to see and converse with him. Accompanied by Mr. Ingham and Mr. Graves, her Ladyship went to Birstal. As Mr. Ingham was expected to preach, they found a congregation of some thousands assembled, impatiently waiting their arrival. After a few moments’ repose, Mr. Ingham addressed the multitude from that passage--“Seek the Lord while he may be found--call upon him while he is near.” When he had concluded, John Nelson spoke for about half an hour. The Countess was delighted, and at parting told him, with her characteristic energy, that God had called him to put his hand to the plough, and great would be his punishment if he dared to look back for a moment; adding, with much emphasis, “He that called you is mighty to save--fear not--press forward--He will bless your testimony.”
Thus encouraged, John Nelson soon began to extend his circuit, and preach in different parts of the country. The growing stigma of Methodism exposed him to much suffering and reproach; the clergy were his bitterest enemies. In some instances, advantage was taken of the popular cry against the Methodists to break open their doors and plunder their houses; but greater personal barbarities were exercised in other places. Some of the preachers received serious injury; others were held under water till they were nearly dead; and of the women who attended them, some were so treated by the cowardly and brutal populace that they never thoroughly recovered. In some places they daubed the preacher all over with paint; in others, they pelted the people in the meetings with egg-shells, which they had filled with blood and stopped with pitch. The progress of Methodism was rather furthered than impeded by this kind of persecution, for it often rendered the Methodists objects of curiosity and compassion; and in every instance the preachers displayed that fearlessness which confidence in God is sure to inspire, and which, when the madness of the moment was over, made even their enemies respect them.
These things were sufficiently disgraceful to the nation; but the conduct of many of the provincial magistrates was far more so, for they suffered themselves to be so far influenced by passion and popular feeling, as to commit acts of abominable oppression under the colour of the law. The vicar of Birstal, which was John Nelson’s home and head-quarters, thought it justifiable to rid the parish, by any means, of a man who preached with more zeal and more effect than himself; and he readily consented to a proposal from the alehouse-keepers that Nelson should be pressed for a soldier--a custom then too horribly prevalent, as the pressing of sailors was at a much later period; for as fast as he made converts, they lost customers. He was pressed accordingly, and taken before the commissioners at Halifax, where the vicar was one of the bench; and though persons enough attended to speak to his character, the commissioners said they had heard enough of him from the minister of his parish, and could hear nothing more. “So, gentlemen (said Nelson), I see there is neither law nor justice for a man that is called a Methodist;” and addressing the vicar by his name he said, “What do you know of me that is evil? Whom have I defrauded, or where have I contracted a debt that I cannot pay?” “You have no visible means of getting your living,” was the reply. He answered, “I am as able to get my living with my hands as any man of my trade in England is, and you know it.” But all remonstrances were in vain; he was marched off to Bradford, and there, by order of the commissioners, put in the dungeon, where there was not even a stone to sit on.
John Nelson had as high a spirit and as brave a heart as ever Englishman was blessed with, and he was encouraged by the good offices of many zealous friends, and the sympathy of some to whom he was a stranger. A soldier had offered security for him, and an inhabitant of Bradford, though an enemy to the Methodists, had, from mere feelings of humanity, offered to give security for him if he might be allowed to lie in a bed. His friends brought him candles and meat and water, which they put through a hole in the door, and they sang hymns till a late hour in the night--they without and he within. A poor fellow was with him in this miserable place, who might have been starved, if Nelson’s friends had not brought food for him also. At four in the morning his wife, who had profited by her husband’s lessons, came to the prison-door, and, instead of bewailing for him and herself, said to him through the keyhole:--
“Fear not: the cause is God’s for which you are here, and he will plead it himself: therefore be not concerned about me and the children, for he that feeds the young ravens will be mindful of us. He will give you strength for your day, and after we have suffered awhile he will perfect that which is lacking in our souls, and then bring us where the wicked cease from troubling and where the weary are at rest.”
Early in the morning he was marched under a guard to Leeds; the other pressed men were ordered to the alehouse, but he was sent to prison, and there he thought of the poor pilgrims who were arrested in their progress; for the people came in crowds and looked at him through the iron grate; some pitied and others reviled him. The gaoler admitted his friends to see him, and a bed was sent to him by some compassionate person, when he must otherwise have slept upon damp straw.
On the following day he was marched to York:--
“We were guarded through the city (he says), but it was as if hell were removed from beneath to meet at my coming. The streets and windows were filled with people, who shouted and huzzaed as if I had been one that had laid waste the nation. But the Lord made my brow like brass, so that I could look upon them as grasshoppers, and pass through the city as if there had been none in it but God and myself.”
Lots were cast for him at the guard-house, and when it was thus determined which captain should have him, he was offered money, which he refused to take, and for this they bade the serjeant handcuff him and send him to prison. The handcuffs were not put on, but he was kept three days in prison, where he preached to the poor reprobates among whom he was thrown; and, wretches as they were, ignorant of all that was good, and abandoned to all that was evil, the intrepidity of the man who reproved them for their blasphemies, and the sound reason which appeared amidst all the enthusiasm of his discourse, were not without effect. Strangers brought him food; his wife also followed him here, and encouraged him to go on and suffer everything bravely for conscience sake. On the third day a court-martial was held, and he was guarded to it by a file of musketeers, with their bayonets fixed. When the court asked “What is this man’s crime?” the answer was, “This is the Methodist preacher, and he refuses to take money.” Upon which they turned to him and said, “Sir, you need not find fault with us, for we must obey our orders, which are to make you act as a soldier; you are delivered to us, and if you have not justice done you we cannot help it.” When Nelson plainly told them he would not fight, because it was against his way of thinking, and when he again refused the money, which by their bidding was offered to him, they told him that if he ran away he would be just as liable to suffer as if he had taken it. He replied, “If I cannot be discharged lawfully, I shall not run away; if I do, punish me as you please.” He was then sent to his quarters, where his arms and accoutrements were brought to him and put on. “Why do you gird me (said he) with these warlike habiliments? I am a man averse to war, and shall not fight but under the Prince of Peace, the Captain of my salvation; the weapons he gives me are not carnal like these.” He must bear these, they told him, till he could get his discharge. To this he made answer, that he would bear them as a cross, and use them as far as he could without defiling his conscience, which he would not do for any man on earth.
There was a spirit in all this which, when it had ceased to excite ridicule from his comrades, obtained respect. He had as good opportunities of exhorting and preaching as he could desire; he distributed also the little books which Mr. Wesley had printed to explain and vindicate the tenets of the Methodists, and was as actively employed in the cause to which he had devoted himself as if he had been his own master. At last the ensign of his company sent for him, and, accosting him with an execration, swore he would have no preaching and praying in the regiment. “Then, sir (said John), you ought to have no swearing nor cursing either, for surely I have as much right to pray and preach as you have to curse and swear.” Upon this the brutal ensign swore that he should be flogged for what he had done. “Let God look to that (was the resolute man’s reply); the cause is his; but if you do not leave off cursing and swearing, it will be worse with you than with me.” The ensign then bade the corporal put that fellow into prison directly; and when the corporal said he must not carry a man to prison unless he gave in his crime with him, he told him it was for disobeying orders.[143] To prison, therefore, Nelson was taken, to his heart’s content, and after eight-and-forty hours’ confinement, was brought before the major, who asked him what he had been put in confinement for. “For warning people to flee from the wrath to come (he replied); and if that be a crime I shall commit it again, unless you cut my tongue out; for it is better to die than to disobey God.” The major told him, if that were all, it was no crime; when he had done his duty he might preach as much as he liked, but he must make no mobs. And then, wishing that all men were like him, he dismissed him to his quarters.
Lady Huntingdon exerted all her influence to obtain his discharge. By means of her acquaintance with Judith, Dowager Countess of Sunderland,[144] she obtained an interview with her step-son, Charles, fourth Earl of Sunderland, afterwards Duke of Marlborough, who had a short time before been promoted to the rank of brigadier-general of his Majesty’s forces. On a faithful representation of the case, his Lordship assured Lady Huntingdon that those for whom she had interested herself should be set at liberty in a few days. This intelligence was communicated to Nelson by Mr. Charles Wesley, while her Ladyship wrote to inform Mr. Ingham, who had taken an active part in procuring his enlargement, of the success of her application.
On the 28th of July, John Nelson was set at liberty, and the day after his release from captivity he preached at Newcastle. His companion, Thomas Beard, who had been pressed for the same reason, would probably have been discharged also, but the consequences of his cruel and illegal impressment had cost him his life. He was seized with a fever, the effect of fatigue and agitation of mind; after venesection ill-performed, the lancet wound in his arm festered and mortified--the limb was amputated, and he died soon after the amputation.
For a few years during Lord Huntingdon’s life, Ledstone Hall was visited every summer, and on these occasions there was always frequent preaching at the church. Mr. Ingham’s societies increased rapidly, and spread not only through all parts of Yorkshire, but also into Lancashire, Lincolnshire, and Cheshire. General meetings of the preachers and exhorters in the Connexion were held frequently, and plans were formed for the better regulation of the societies, and a more general diffusion of divine truth in places that had not been visited before. Lady Huntingdon and Lady Margaret Ingham attended several of these meetings. The assemblies were exceedingly numerous, and there was always preaching in the open air. Mr. Grimshaw invariably attended these meetings, and always preached, never troubling himself to ask the consent of the minister of the parish, or caring whether he liked it not. The providence of God favoured him in these attempts; for though unsupported by great patronage, and unsolicitous to obtain it, and though he went far beyond all his contemporaries in this novel, and, to some, offensive method, by which envy, jealousy, and displeasure were excited against him; yet he was not restrained, nor have we heard that he met with any serious or determined marks of disapprobation from his superiors in the Church. It is most probable they imagined him so determined, intrepid, and undaunted, that it would be a vain task to attempt to restrain or oppose him in his career. But he sometimes met with opposition from those who hated to be reformed. He was once disturbed by a set of rioters, when preaching at Colne, in Lancashire, to which place he was accompanied by Mr. Ingham and Mr. Batty, both of whom had been there several times, and had been successful in establishing a small society.
After they had commenced the meeting with singing a hymn, the Rev. George White, the vicar of Colne and Marsden, rushed furiously into the house with a staff in his hand, attended by the constable and a mob collected from the lowest and most depraved people of the town. Mr. White sprang towards Mr. Batty, with intent to strike him, which Mr. Ingham perceiving, pulled him on one side, and retired into an adjoining room. The vicar and constable threatened the master of the house with the stocks, and attempted to take him away by force; but upon his demanding of the constable his authority for acting in this manner, they desisted, but succeeded in driving the people away. They then insisted that Mr. Ingham and Mr. Grimshaw should sign a paper, promising not to preach in Colne parish during one whole year, under the penalty of fifty pounds. The refusing to comply with so unreasonable a demand, and remonstrating against such scandalous and disgraceful proceedings on the part of a clergyman, the mob was ordered by the vicar, whom they styled “Captain-General,” to lead their prisoners towards Colne, and on the way they beat and abused every friend who attempted to speak to them. Several times the mob proposed that Mr. Grimshaw and Mr. Ingham should sign the paper not to preach for six months, then two, and lastly, if they would promise upon their word and honour, they should be set at liberty. But when it was understood that Mr. Grimshaw, Mr. Ingham, and Mr. Batty refused to comply with any terms, they were violently dragged along the road, the mob flourishing their clubs over their heads, menacing and annoying. They were pelted with mud and dirt, and Mr. Ingham’s coat was torn, and hanging on the ground; thus they were conducted to the Swan Inn, to remain there till dismissed at Mr. White’s pleasure.
On another occasion Mr. Wesley accompanied Mr. Grimshaw to Roughlee, where they were joined by Mr. Batty and Mr. Colbeck, two of Mr. Ingham’s preachers. Mr. Wesley preached, but before he had got half through his discourse a great mob from Colne came pouring down the hill like a torrent. After exchanging a few words with their captain, who, stated that he was a deputy-constable, to prevent any contest, Mr. Wesley, Mr. Grimshaw, Mr. Batty, and Mr. Colbeck, went with him to Barrowford, about two miles distant, as he required. They were escorted there by a drunken rabble, armed with clubs and staves, who behaved in a very troublesome and riotous manner, and uttered oaths and imprecations the entire time. On being brought before the magistrate, he demanded a promise from Mr. Wesley and his friends that they would preach no more at Roughlee, but this Mr. Wesley stoutly refused. When Mr. Wesley attempted to leave the house the mob immediately followed and beat him to the ground. Mr. Grimshaw, in attempting to make his escape, was tossed to and fro with the utmost violence, and covered with dirt and mire of every sort. Those who accompanied them were not allowed to depart without the most savage treatment: they were made to run for their lives, amidst showers of stones and dirt, without any regard to age or sex. Some were trampled in the mire, others dragged by the hair along the road, and many beaten with clubs without mercy. One man was forced to leap from a rock ten or twelve feet high into the river, and when he crawled out, wet and bruised, they threw him in again, so that he scarcely escaped with his life, but died soon after from the effects of such ill-treatment.
Whenever the vicar of Colne heard of the arrival of any of the Methodists in his neighbourhood, it was his usual practice to call the people together by beat of drum, issue a proclamation at the market cross, and enlist a mob for the defence of the Church against the incursions of the Methodists. The following proclamation, a curiosity of its sort, is transcribed from the voluminous private journals of Mr. Ingham and Mr. Batty, in their handwriting--journals which contain a mass of information relative to the spread of religion in the north of England, of the deepest interest:--
“Notice is hereby given, that if any man be mindful to enlist in his Majesty’s service, under the command of the Rev. Mr. George White, Commander-in-Chief, and John Bannister, Lieut.-General, of his Majesty’s forces for the defence of the Church of England, and the support of the manufactory in and about Colne, both which are now in danger, let him repair to the drum-head at the Cross, where each man shall receive a pint of ale in advance, and all other proper encouragements.”
Such was the conduct of the then vicar of Colne.[145]
Several new societies were formed in Yorkshire, and some changes were made in their discipline. On the admission of a member into their societies he received a ticket, which gave him admission to their meetings, which were very numerous, consisting of general meetings, love-feasts, choir-meetings of men, and choir-meetings of women, &c. &c. Stewards were also appointed, and the societies were constantly visited by the itinerant preachers, who were a kind of general rulers or elders. Yorkshire, Westmoreland, Cumberland, and Lancashire, with parts of Cheshire, Derbyshire, and Lincolnshire, were included in their circuit.
Count Zinzendorff assisted in these regulations, as did his son-in-law, Joannes de Watteville,[146] a bishop of the Moravian Church. This good man had been married the preceding year to Henrietta-Benigna-Justina, eldest daughter of Count Zinzendorff, and after a short visit to the congregations of the Brethren in England, was to proceed to America. Lady Margaret Ingham was particularly pleased with the missionary spirit displayed by the Bishop’s consort, who had accompanied her father to America in 1741, and was now again about to visit that continent, full of zeal for the cause of God.
Count Zinzendorff had come to England to watch the cause of the Moravians in Parliament, and to arrange the affairs of his Church, by appointing Dr. Wilson, Bishop of Sodor and Man, to succeed Dr. Cochins, Dean of the King of Prussia’s Chapel, in its administration. On a subsequent visit the Count was accompanied by the Countess of Zinzendorff, Count Reuss, and Agnes-Sophia, Countess of Promnitz. On their way to Yorkshire they had spent a few days with Lady Huntingdon, at Donnington Park, and were delighted and edified by the piety and zeal of the Countess and the Ladies Hastings. The Countess Zinzendorff, whose maiden name was Erdmurth-Dorothea, Countess Reuss, was a woman eminently devoted to God, and much esteemed by Lady Huntingdon and Lady Margaret Ingham. Whilst they remained with Mr. Ingham, the negotiation between him and the Count, concerning the premises on which the congregation place is built, was concluded. Mr. Ingham accompanied them in their visits to the congregations at Pudsey, Gomersal, Mirfield, Wyke, and Dukenfield, in Cheshire, and preached very frequently to large congregations in the Brethren’s chapels. On their return to London, a Provincial Synod was held at Lindsey House, Chelsea, at which the Rev. John Gambold, rector of Stanton Harcourt, Oxfordshire, a man greatly esteemed for his piety and learning, and Mr. Ingham’s contemporary and companion at Oxford, was consecrated a Bishop of the Church of the Brethren.
Much about the same time, the Rev. John Cennick arrived in Yorkshire, to assist Mr. Ingham in the great work in which he was engaged. This good man, whose grandfather had been a Bohemian refugee, had been preaching for Mr. Whitefield in and about Bristol, especially to the colliers of Kingswood, and also in Wiltshire, with much blessing, and endured much persecution in many places, especially at Exeter. After preaching a considerable time amongst Mr. Ingham’s societies, and those formed by the united Brethren in Yorkshire and Bedfordshire, he went over to Germany for a short time, and after his return received a pressing invitation to visit Ireland, and try to diffuse in that benighted country the light of the Sun of Righteousness.
No name of professing Protestants in our day has displayed more fervent zeal for the characteristic principles of Christianity than the Moravian Brethren. With peculiarities, perhaps, in some respects exceptionable, yet admitting no such impure ideas as imputed to them by a Warburton, a Lavington, and the translator of Mosheim, the more the principles of the Brethren are truly known, and the more intimately their lives are scrutinized, the more will they be acknowledged among the few faithful who follow the Lamb in the regeneration. On their first introduction into England they were led into many rhapsodies and startling singularities of sentiment and ceremony. Time, happily, has so pruned the wild luxuriance and the worldly policy of Moravianism, that it is almost impossible to believe now that Molther ever taught the doctrines, or Nitschman ever sung the hymns, or Zinzendorff ever sanctioned the practices in London which Whitefield and Wesley exposed. Their conduct in many instances did them no credit. They first alarmed, and then alienated both Watts and Doddridge, as well as Whitefield and Wesley. Lady Huntingdon seems to have kept herself more aloof from any connexion with them, and to have early discovered some of their perilous errors. Charles Wesley was saved by her means, when she induced him to withdraw from the society in Fetter-lane; and Mr. Ingham was eventually rescued by the influence she had over him.
Chapter XVI
Mr. Whitefield returns to England--Writes to Mr. Ingham--Visits Yorkshire--Lady Huntingdon in Yorkshire--Extraordinary occurrence--Mr. Graves--Mr. Milner--Mr. Grimshaw--Conference at Leeds--Mr. Ingham chosen General Overseer--Mr. Charles Wesley--Mr. Whitefield at Haworth--Inghamite Churches--Church Discipline--Inghamite Preachers--Mr. Newton visits Yorkshire--His Letter to Mr. Wesley--Anecdote of his preaching at Leeds--Mr. Romaine--His Opinion of the Inghamite Churches--Lady Huntingdon at Aberford--Mr. Romaine preaches in Mr. Ingham’s Chapels--Mr. George Burder--Mr. Romaine at Haworth--Mr. Grimshaw--Sandeman’s Letters--Church Government.
Early in the month of July, 1748, Mr. Whitefield arrived in England, after an absence of nearly four years. Lady Huntingdon had apprized Lady Margaret Ingham of his return, and the joy that pervaded vast numbers of persons in the metropolis at seeing him once more among them. Mr. Ingham wrote to his old and endeared friend, and soon after received an affectionate reply from the great and good man, who was now actively engaged in preaching publicly and “privately to those that were of reputation,” at Lady Huntingdon’s house. From this letter we make an extract:--
“As for me, I am a poor, worthless pilgrim, and thought long ere now to be with Him who has loved and given himself for me. But it seems I am not yet to die, but live. O that it may be to declare the work of the Lord! I think this is the thirteenth province I have been in within this twelvemonth; in each of these our Lord has been pleased to set his seal to my unworthy ministry. I came from Bermudas last, where I left many souls seeking after Jesus of Nazareth. In London, Bristol, Gloucester, and Wales, the glorious Immanuel, since my arrival, has appeared to his people. In about a fortnight I purpose leaving town again, in order to go a circuit of about five hundred miles. I need not tell you how glad I shall be, whenever opportunity offers, to see you face to face. In the meanwhile let us correspond by letter. May Jesus bless it to us both! I return cordial respects to Lady Margaret. I pray the Lord to bless her and her little nursery. For the present, Adieu.”
The year following Mr. Whitefield visited Yorkshire. Mr. Ingham and Mr. Batty accompanied him through the country, and occasionally preached with him. At Leeds, Mr. Charles Wesley announced him from the pulpit, and afterwards introduced him to the pulpit at Newcastle. Having preached about thirty times in Yorkshire, he accompanied Mr. Ingham into Cheshire and Lancashire, where he was attended by amazing multitudes. At Manchester they were gratified by meeting Mrs. Colonel Galatin.
“I conversed (he says) for about two hours with the Captain and some other officers upon the nature and necessity of the new birth. He was affected, and I hope it was blessed. Since I left them I have preached to many thousands in Rosindale, Aywood, and Halifax, at Birstal, Pudsey, and Armley, and have had three precious seasons here. Congregations are exceedingly large indeed, and both the Established and Dissenting clergy are very angry. They thundered, I hear, yesterday heartily. But truth is great and will prevail, though preached in the fields and streets.”
On some of these visits in Yorkshire he was accompanied by Lady Huntingdon, who delighted in such scenes as she frequently witnessed, both in this county and in Gloucestershire. “This (said her Ladyship) the world calls enthusiasm, but I call it the work of God.”[147]
At one of these assemblies, when Mr. Whitefield mounted the temporary scaffold to address the thousands spread before him, he was observed to engage in secret prayer for a few seconds. Then casting a look over the multitude, elevated his hands, and in an energetic manner implored the divine blessing and presence. With a solemnity peculiarly his own, he announced his text--“It is appointed unto men once to die, and after death the judgment.” After a short pause, as he was about to proceed, a wild, terrifying shriek issued from the centre of the congregation. A momentary alarm and confusion ensued. Mr. Whitefield waited to ascertain the cause, and besought the people to remain still. Mr. Grimshaw hurried to the spot, and in a few minutes was seen pressing through the crowd towards the place where Mr. Whitefield stood. “Brother Whitefield (said he, with that energy which manifested in the strongest manner the intensity of his feelings, and the ardour of his concern for the salvation of sinners), you stand amongst the dead and the dying--an immortal soul has been called into eternity--the destroying angel is passing over the congregation; cry aloud and spare not!” The awful occurrence was speedily announced to the people. After the lapse of a few moments, Mr. Whitefield again announced his text. Again a loud and piercing shriek proceeded from the spot where Lady Huntingdon and Lady Margaret Ingham were standing. A shrill of horror seemed to spread itself over the multitude when it was understood that a second person had fallen a victim to the king of terrors. When the consternation had somewhat subsided, Mr. Whitefield gave indications of his intention of proceeding with the service. The excited feelings of many were wound up to their highest point. All was hushed--not a sound was to be heard--and a stillness, like the awful stillness of death, spread itself over the assembly, as he proceeded in a strain of tremendous eloquence to warn the careless, Christless sinner, to flee from the wrath to come.
In allusion to this journey, Mr. Charles Wesley bears a very singular and striking testimony to the candour and liberality of Mr. Whitefield. He had struggled hard to reconcile Mr. Bennett to the Wesleys, and at Chinley and Bolton tried all the gentle arts of the peace-maker, showing how easy it was for those who had a great and common end to agree to differ on minor points.
“At Manchester (says Mr. C. Wesley) I rejoice to see the great good Mr. Whitefield has done in our societies. He preached as universally as my brother. He warned them everywhere against apostasy, and insisted on the necessity of holiness after justification. He beat down the separating spirit--highly commending the prayers and services of our Church--charged our people to meet their bands and classes constantly, and never to leave the Methodists, or God would leave them. In a word, he did his utmost to strengthen our hands, and he deserves the thanks of all the Church for his abundant love.”
After itinerating through Lancashire, Mr. Whitefield, Mr. Grimshaw, Mr. Ingham, and Mr. Milner proceeded to Manchester, Stockport, and Chinley, where one of the separations above alluded to had taken place, and where, as at Bolton, Mr. Whitefield endeavoured to heal the breach. His heavenly frame of mind in this journey is no less remarkable than his physical strength, which must have been renewed like that of the eagle; and the list of places and dates at which he preached would lead us to imagine that he must have possessed also the eagle’s wings. He would stop at Rotherham, however, because the insults he had formerly received there had tempted him to return no more. Then he thought no good was done. Now he found the chief family of his “bitter persecutors” (the Thorpes)[148] converted to God, and ready to welcome him under their roof. Mr. Charles Wesley, who was then in Yorkshire, met Mr. Grimshaw at Seacroft, and they proceeded together to Leeds, where, he says, “I found my brother Whitefield, and was much refreshed by the account of his abundant labours. I waited on him to our room, and gladly sat under his word.” From Leeds he went to Birstal, “where my congregation (says he) was a thousand or two less, through George Whitefield’s preaching to-day at Haworth. Between four and five thousand were left to receive my warning from Luke xxi. 34. After church service we met again; every soul seemed to hang on the word. Two such precious opportunities I have not enjoyed this many a day. It was the old time revived. A weighty spirit rested on the congregation, and they stood like men prepared to meet the Lord.”
At Leeds, Mr. Whitefield addressed an assembly of at least twenty thousand. Even York could not withstand the fascination of his field-preaching; there the Methodists thinned out the minister and overawed the mob. At Bradford, no place of worship being large enough to contain the crowd of hearers, he preached in a large open space near the water-side.[149]
At Birstal a platform was erected at the foot of a hill adjoining the town, whence Mr. Whitefield addressed a concourse of not fewer than twenty thousand, who were ranged before him on the declivity of a hill, in the form of an amphitheatre. At Haworth a temporary booth was erected in a field, near the house of Mr. Grimshaw’s son, for Mr. Whitefield and the other ministers. Not only the field, but the woodland above it, were covered with crowds collected from different parts. An unusual solemnity pervaded this vast multitude, and at the close of the service the 100th psalm was sung, and concluded with Mr. Grimshaw’s favourite doxology--
“Praise God, from whom all blessings flow,” &c.
The volume of sound produced by the united voices of thousands, while it re-echoed through the vale below, is said to have had such an effect as no language can describe.
In May 1755, Mr. Ingham summoned several of his preachers[150] to meet him at Leeds, in order to attend the Methodist Conference, which was then sitting. Mr. Wesley admitted Mr. Ingham, but Mr. Batty, Mr. Allen, and the other preachers were excluded--
“The point (says Mr. Wesley) on which we desired all the preachers to speak their minds at large was, whether we ought to separate from the Church? Whatever was advanced on the one side or the other was seriously and calmly considered; and on the third day we were all fully agreed in that general conclusion, that, whether it was lawful or not, it was no ways expedient.”
Some time after the Conference at Leeds, Mr. Ingham went to Derbyshire and Lincolnshire, and from thence to Ashby, on a visit to Lady Huntingdon.[151] During his stay he preached frequently at her Ladyship’s and in the neighbourhood, to very numerous congregations. On his return to Yorkshire he was accompanied by her Ladyship, who remained some time, and visited most of the societies in the neighbourhood. Whilst she was in Yorkshire a general meeting was held at Winewall. At this Conference it was agreed among the preachers--first, that justification consists in the forgiveness of sins, and an imputation of Christ’s righteousness, and that the instrumental cause of this is faith in Christ; secondly, that sanctification consists not in holy actions, but in the divine life, new heart and spirit, which are given by Jesus Christ at our justification; and love, joy, and peace, and all the graces or fruits of the Spirit; and lastly, that all good works spring from this, as fruit from a tree. At this meeting several matters relating to Church government were discussed. And it being also agreed that there should be a general overseer chosen and appointed by the preachers and with consent of the societies, Mr. Ingham was set apart to the office; who then proceeded to the dedication of Mr. Batty and Mr. Allen as his fellow-helpers. They severally gave an account to the congregation of their conversion and call to the ministry, and being examined respecting the doctrines they had preached and intended to preach in future, were solemnly ordained by the laying on of hands and prayer of the general overseer.
From this period, Lady Huntingdon used to call Mr. Ingham a Bishop. She was, however, far from approving many of the rules and regulations which had been adopted by the Conference on the subject of Church government and discipline; and, whilst she was at Aberford, conferred with Mr. Ingham for effecting a more perfect union, by accommodating matters with Mr. Wesley. At this juncture Mr. Whitefield again visited Yorkshire, and accompanied Mr. Ingham to Mr. Grimshaw’s, where the subject of attempting a reconciliation with the Methodists was renewed. Mr. Whitefield thereupon proceeded to Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where he met Messrs. John and Charles Wesley, and was commissioned by Mr. Ingham to offer them his house at Aberford, for the purpose of discussing the subject; to which proposal Mr. Charles Wesley readily assented, but his brother as decidedly objected. Mr. Ingham’s views at that time were very different from Mr. Wesley’s, and, becoming gradually more clear and scriptural, the line of separation became still more marked and more distinct; so that, from that time forth, no further steps were taken to effect a union with the Methodist body.
Most of the preachers who were raised up to assist Mr. Ingham, like their predecessors, the first ministers of the Gospel, were plain men, called of God from their different secular vocations to take upon them this office and ministry. Edmonson, Hunter, and Brogden had passed the early part of their lives in the army: having been brought to a knowledge of the Gospel through the instrumentality of Mr. Ingham and those who laboured with him, they soon became active, zealous, and intrepid soldiers of the cross, and, under the great Captain of Salvation, wielded the sword of the Spirit with extraordinary decision against the prince of the powers of darkness. Hunter was the instrument of laying the foundation of a congregation at Kirby Lonsdale, to which place he invited Mr. Ingham, Mr. Batty, and Mr. Allen, all of whom preached there under much persecution and opposition from Mr. Croft, minister of the parish, and Mr. Cock, minister of Tunstal. Brogden was pressed for a soldier, having obtained his discharge from the army many years before, while preaching in a licensed house at Kirby Stephen, in Westmoreland. After remaining in prison for some days, he was removed to Newcastle, where he was confined four months, at the expiration of which time he was discharged, through the interest of Lady Huntingdon. It was not very long since he died, having attained the age of one hundred years.
The Messrs. Allen, Batty, Edwards of Leeds, and Bennet of Chinley, had received a liberal education. Others succeeded them: the Rev. James Hartley and the Rev. Richard Smith, both of whom had been awakened under Mr. Grimshaw’s preaching, became pastors of Baptist congregations in Yorkshire; the Rev. James Crossley, also one of the fruits of Mr. Grimshaw’s labours, minister of an Independent Church at Bradford; with Mr. Molesworth, of Thornhill, and Mr. Fleetwood Churchill, gentlemen descended from noble families, and moving in the upper walks of life--all these laboured with Mr. Ingham, and most of them suffered great persecution for the word of God and the testimony which they held; but they were enabled to be faithful, and they “endured as seeing Him who is invisible.”
The late Mr. Newton, also, occasionally laboured amongst Mr. Ingham’s societies, preached in his chapels, and attended several of the general meetings. He was a good deal in Yorkshire prior to his obtaining ordination in the Established Church, and always preached for Mr. Grimshaw and Mr. Ingham. In a letter to Mr. Wesley, dated November 14, 1760, Mr. Newton says:--
“I forgot to tell you in my last that I had the honour to appear as a Methodist preacher. I was at Haworth---Mr. Grimshaw was pressing, and prevailed. I spoke in his house to about one hundred and fifty persons--a difficult auditory, in my circumstances, about half Methodists and half Baptists. I was afraid of displeasing both sides; but my text (John i. 29) led me to dwell upon a point in which we were all agreed, and before I had leisure to meddle with doctrines, as they are called, the hour was expired. In short, it was a comfortable opportunity.
“Methinks, here again, you are ready to say, Very well; why not go on in the same way? What more encouragement can you ask, than to be assisted and accepted? But, however it may do for a time or so, I have not strength of body or mind sufficient for an itinerant preacher; my constitution has been broken for some years. To ride a horse in the rain, or more than above thirty miles in a day, usually discomposes and unfits me for anything; then you must allow me to pay some regard to flesh and blood, though I would not consult them. I have a maintenance now in my hands, the gift of a kind Providence, and I do not see that I have a call to involve myself, and a person who has entrusted all her concerns to me (and must share in whatever I feel), in want and difficulties. I have likewise an orphan sister, for whom it is my duty to provide; consequently it cannot be my duty to disable myself from fulfilling what I owe her. And still the weightiest difficulty remains; too many of the preachers are very different from Mr. Grimshaw; and who would wish to live in the fire? So that, though I love the people called Methodists, and vindicate them from unjust aspersions upon all occasions, and suffer the reproach of the world for being one myself, yet it seems not practicable for me to join them further than I do. For the present I must remain as I am, and endeavour to be as useful as I can in private life, till I can see further. I shall always be obliged to you for your free sentiments on my case.”[152]
About this period Mr. Romaine began to make frequent excursions to the north of England. His father was a refugee, one of the victims of the edict of Nantes. He settled in Hartlepool, in the county of Durham, as a merchant, and became a member of the corporation, which is a very ancient one. After his death, in 1757, his surviving widow and one unmarried daughter continued the business, much respected and beloved. One of his sisters married a Mr. Callendar, of Newcastle; the other, a clergyman of the name of Heslup; and after they became serious characters his visits to the north were more frequent than they had previously been. Speaking of his family he used to say, “Mr. Whitefield often put me in mind how singularly favoured I was. He had none of his family converted; and my father and mother, and three sisters, were like those blessed people--and Jesus loved Martha and her sister, and Lazarus; and as they loved him again, so do we.” In a letter to his sister, dated the year after his father’s decease, he says--“In a little time I hope to be able to get all my churches provided for, and then I shall inform you when I shall set out for the north. I have had sad troubles with the new Vicar of St. Dunstan’s. He will let none preach for me without a license, which puts me to great inconvenience; but all is governed by One who knows what is best, for his own glory and his people’s good.”
On the occasion of each of these visits to Yorkshire, Mr. Romaine, as chaplain to Lady Huntingdon, was received by Mr. Ingham and Lady Margaret with every mark of respect and polite attention. Mr. Romaine was nearly of the same age and standing as Mr. Ingham; but, though contemporaries at Oxford, they had been by no means companions; for, while there, he had studiously avoided all connection with Mr. Whitefield, Mr. Ingham, the Wesleys, Mr. Hervey, and others, the great revivers of serious and heartfelt religion, who then began to associate together, and to be noted for a variety of particular observances and devotional exercises, which gained them the name of Methodists. Engrossed with the eager pursuits of literature, united with a set of scholars who began to be called Hutchinsonians, and having imbibed with them all their high-church principles, he felt no relish for men of a spirituality of temper which he had not yet learned to cultivate, and from whose reproach, as Methodists, he naturally kept aloof.
During the vacations, when St. Dunstan’s was shut against him, he constantly travelled about for Lady Huntingdon, preaching everywhere the doctrine of the kingdom. Nowhere was he more warmly received than at Aberford. We cannot refrain from noting the cordial remembrance and regard he bears to his “dear brother Ingham,” whose chapels he constantly attended, whose friendship he cultivated, and whose ministry he so highly esteemed. Lady Margaret was a woman of superior attainments, and he was attached to her in the best of bonds. At a period when his poor stipend was wholly inadequate to provide subsistence for his family, his necessities were often liberally supplied by her bounty. Mr. Ingham sometimes accompanied him in his preaching excursions into several parts of the county of Durham; Mr. Romaine preaching wherever he obtained a church, and Mr. Ingham in the Methodist chapels and private houses. During these visits to Yorkshire, Mr. Romaine had many opportunities of conversing with Mr. Batty and Mr. Allen, and other preachers amongst the Inghamites; occasionally preached in some of the chapels, and attended several of their meetings for the regulation of the order and discipline of the churches. That he entertained a very high opinion of the work carried on by Mr. Ingham and those who laboured with him is evident from the following circumstance:--The late respected Mr. Burder was in company with Mr. Romaine, about the year 1780, at the house of the late D. Parker, Esq., in the King’s Mews, when the conversation turned upon the congregations and societies in Yorkshire and Lancashire raised by the labours of Mr. Ingham and his faithful associates, and among the scattered remnants of which Mr. Burder occasionally preached while he resided at Lancaster. Mr. Romaine took up the subject with warmth, and, referring to that period in which the Gospel gloriously prevailed in Mr. Ingham’s Connexion (this, by the way, was also the period in which Mr. Romaine experienced such hostility in London), he said: “If ever there was a Church of Christ upon earth, that was one. I paid them a visit, and had a great mind to join them. There was a blessed work of God among that people, till that horrid blast from the north came upon them and destroyed all!”
In September, 1760, Lady Huntingdon and Mr. Romaine arrived at Aberford, on a visit to Mr. Ingham and Lady Margaret, and were present at the general meeting of the ministers and members of the societies, held at Wheatley, on the 27th of that month, when the choice of Church officers was determined by lot.[153]
At the conclusion of this meeting, Mr. Ingham, Lady Margaret, Lady Huntingdon, and Mr. Romaine visited several of the societies in Yorkshire and Lancashire, Messrs. Ingham and Romaine preaching alternately, almost every day, in some of the chapels. At Thinoaks, where they remained several days, there was a large assemblage of people, and two elders were ordained. It was agreed by Mr. Ingham and the preachers, at this meeting, to recommend to the different societies in the Connexion to make collections every Sabbath-day; and the following circular notice was sent to all the Churches:--
“Dear Brethren--Being mindful of the words of the Apostle Paul, we have determined to recommend to our societies to have voluntary collections on the first day of the week, to defray all expenses relative to the preachers, meetings, &c. &c. &c. Farewell!”
On the return of Mr. Ingham and his party to Aberford they were joined by Mr. Grimshaw. Mr. Romaine engaged to preach at Haworth, and there was a very numerous assemblage. The prayers were read in the church by Mr. Grimshaw, who then announced to the congregation that “his brother Romaine would preach the glorious Gospel from brother Whitefield’s pulpit in the churchyard.” Mr. Romaine, who was averse to open air preaching, complied in this instance, and preached most powerfully.
In the year 1759, Mr. Ingham first read a part of “Sandeman’s Letters on Theron and Aspasio,” and Glas’s “Testimony of the King of Martyrs,” and at his request Mr. Batty and Mr. Allen undertook a journey into Scotland privately, for the purpose of acquiring more distinct information. At Edinburgh they were introduced to Mr. Sandeman; at Dundee they met Mr. Glas, and returned with the Sandemanian principles and practice, when several warm debates took place amongst the members of Mr. Ingham’s societies respecting the nature of a true Church, of which we have not a more liberal and genuine definition than is given in one of the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England. The Church is “a society of faithful people, where the word of God is truly preached, and the sacraments duly administered.” Let bigots dispute about modes and forms. If we belong to the best aggregate society originally, into which corruption of principle and practice has entered so as to infect the teacher, our duty is to quit such a teacher and the society which maintains communion with him, and to seek the fundamentals of a true Church wherever they may be found, and to join with that in which, according to the best of our knowledge, the word of God is preached in the greatest purity, and adorned in the practice of the bishop, presbyter, or pastor, with his congregation, in the greatest spirituality.
The societies in connexion with Mr. Ingham might be considered Baxterians in sentiment, and liberal in their connexion with all good men, until these fiery disciplinarians taught them to believe the congregation plan unscriptural, and to laugh at their former views of experience. Mr. Allen made the first breach. He expressed his dissatisfaction with the use of the lot, objected to the choice of elders, and became jealous of the authority which Mr. Ingham exercised over the people. But Mr. Ingham, being determined to proceed with the validity of his commission as general overseer, and the authority of the lot, wished the dissatisfied to withdraw. Frequent attempts were made towards a reconciliation between the two parties: Lady Huntingdon wrote, Mr. Romaine visited Yorkshire, Mr. Whitefield prayed and wept--but all proved ineffectual. This was a severe trial to Mr. Ingham, which he never after recovered. Disputes without end arose, excommunication upon excommunication followed, they condemned one another for hair-breadth differences, and were thus split, like a wrecked ship, into a thousand pieces. Out of upwards of eighty flourishing Churches only thirteen remained!
He who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks has seen fit to withdraw his light from those Churches, who were contending so earnestly, not for the faith, but for forms, and ceremonies, and matters non-essential. The true Church is Catholic, or universal: not monopolized by any one body of professing Christians, but essentially a spiritual Church. The Scriptures everywhere afford abundant proof of how little importance the outward forms and administrations in the Church are, compared with holding the Head, Christ, and believing the glory of his person and sacrifice.
The claims of mutual forbearance are infinitely stronger than the pretensions of any exclusive Church; the outward administration of Church order must be a much less important concern than all the various denominations have supposed, and the inward blessings enjoyed in the conscience constitute the essence, and fill the volume of the sacred records. Every believer in Jesus, who is a partaker of the grace of God in truth, is a member of the true Church, to whatever particular denomination of Christians he may belong: and popes, bishops, presbyters, pastors, or deacons, without this, are but the limbs of Antichrist, of the synagogue of Satan, and can belong to no Church acknowledged by the Great Shepherd and Bishop of Souls.
Chapter XVII
Mr. Venn removed to Huddersfield--Mr. Burnett--Lord Dartmouth--Dr. Conyers--Visitation Sermon--Mr. Thornton--Lady Huntingdon visits Yorkshire--Mr. Romaine--Mr. Wesley--Mr. Madan--Letters from Dr. Conyers to Lady Huntingdon--Letter from Mr. Venn--Mr. Titus Knight--Letter from Mr. Grimshaw--Death of Mr. Grimshaw--Letter from Mr. Venn--Letter from Dr. Conyers--Letter from Mr. Fletcher--Lady Huntingdon, with Messrs. Townsend and Fletcher, visits Huddersfield--Illness of Lady Huntingdon--Mr. Whitefield in Yorkshire--William Shent--Mr. Venn’s irregularities--Mrs. Hannah More--Defence of Mr. Venn--Letter from Mr. Fletcher--Mrs. Deane--Lady Irvine--Mr. Occum, the Indian Preacher--Captain Scott--The London Shunamite--Mr. Wilson.
In 1759, Mr. Venn left the scene of his labours, to the great grief of his pious friend, Dr. Haweis, and, urged by the necessities of his family, accepted from Sir John Ramsden, at the solicitation of the Earl of Dartmouth, the large and valuable living of Huddersfield. He found his parish in worse than Egyptian darkness; but he prophesied over the dry bones, and a wonderful rising followed. He was the means of introducing many valuable clergymen into his parish and neighbourhood, among whom may be mentioned the late Mr. Burnett,[154] Mr. Powly, Mr. Wilson, and Mr. Ryland, who were successively curates in his parish, though most of them afterwards removed to other important situations.
Mr. Venn might be called the Apostle of the district. On the Sunday he would often address the congregation from the desk, briefly explaining and enforcing the Psalms and the Lessons. He would frequently begin the service with a solemn and most impressive address, exhorting them to consider themselves as in the presence of the Great God of Heaven, whose eye was in a particular manner upon them, whilst they drew nigh to Him in His own house. His whole soul was engaged in preaching; and as at this time he only used short notes in the pulpit, ample room was left to indulge the feelings of compassion, of tenderness, and love with which his heart overflowed towards his people. In the week he statedly visited the different hamlets in his extensive parish, and collecting some of the inhabitants at a private house, he addressed them with a kindness and earnestness that moved every heart.
Lord Dartmouth, writing to Mr. Rawlings, says--
“I have delightful accounts from Huddersfield of the wonderful manner in which the ministry of their faithful and laborious vicar is blessed to that people; and, by my last letters from thence, have the satisfaction to learn that his health was never better than at present. Mr. Venn laments exceedingly the loss of Mr. Burnett, whose infirm state has, I find, at last obliged him to seek the benefit of change of air. In his last letter to me are these words concerning him--‘My faithful helper in the Lord’s work, after many repeated efforts to continue in the exercise of his duty, is obliged to desist; his behaviour, under these afflicting circumstances, glorifies his Saviour and recommends his faith.’ Invincible patience and the deepest humiliation, justifying God and accepting the strokes of his rod as a punishment for iniquity, joined to steadfast confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ, are the abiding tempers of his heart. It is my prayer that he may be restored to help me: for I may really say of Mr. Burnett as Paul of Timothy, I know few like-minded who preach the hatred and mortification of sin, whilst they exalt the free grace and righteousness of our God and Saviour--who teach men to live in the denial of every evil temper and in the exercise of every heavenly grace, and, at the same time, sensible of their vileness, to cry--God be merciful to me a sinner!’”
Mr. Venn, like the apostolic Grimshaw, was eminently distinguished by a Catholic spirit with respect to other denominations of professing Christians. When he visited Mr. Ingham, he could not witness with indifference the fatal effects of that dreadful division which had marred the work of God, and scattered so many flourishing Churches in that part of the vineyard. Great numbers of young persons were among the fruits of his ministry, and of these at least thirteen became useful, and some of them very eminent ministers, chiefly in the Independent connexion.
About the same period that Mr. Venn removed to Huddersfield, the late Dr. Conyers commenced his evangelical ministry at Helmsley, in the North Riding of Yorkshire. For many years before his eyes were open to see the truth as it is in Jesus, he was a most amiable and exemplary clergyman, in a moral point of view. Having much to do and much to learn, he entered upon the weighty duties of his office with a zeal, though not with a knowledge, proportioned to its magnitude. Accordingly he left no part of his large parish neglected, but regularly visited and familiarly conversed with the most indigent and illiterate, and attempted, not only by frequent public ministrations, catechetical exercises, and private conferences, but also by personal example, to excite to a general propriety of conduct. He was accustomed to assemble at his own house companies of young men for the purpose of religious improvement, and, in conjunction with them, appointed that at a certain hour, at the striking of the church clock, each should retire to his habitation, and be present in spirit together before God in the exercise of prayer.
He was respected and commended as an eminent saint and an exemplary and able minister; but, alas! he was yet unpossessed of vital godliness, and ignorant of the true nature of the Gospel, relying solely on his own righteousness for acceptance. Nay, he imperfectly imbibed the gross and pernicious errors of a Socinian writer, and actually wrote him a letter of thanks for his productions, but was prevented from sending it by the following circumstance. On reading Luke vi. 26, “Woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets,” a flash of conviction darted into his soul. He was honoured by general approbation; the rancorous fury of calumny had not interrupted his repose, nor had he to contend with the virulence of persecuting opposition. He was, therefore, apparently, included in the tremendous denunciation. Yet hoping, by additional punctuality in the discharge of his duties, to calm his mental perturbation, he conducted himself with great propriety, fasted more frequently, and used sometimes, at the altar in the church, to sign with his own blood, in a most solemn manner, his resolutions to devote the remains of his life to the service of his God, and to render himself acceptable to heaven by peculiar sanctity.
While reading the lesson for the day in the public service at the church, the expression of St. Paul (Eph. iii. 8), “The unsearchable riches of Christ,” made a deep impression upon his mind. On this Scripture he was involuntarily led to reflect--“The unsearchable riches of Christ!”--“I never found, I never knew, that there were unsearchable riches in Him.” Accustomed to consider the Gospel as extremely simple and intelligible, he was surprised that the Apostle should assert that the riches of Christ were unsearchable; immediately he concluded that his sentiments and experience must be entirely dissimilar to those of the Apostle. Deep convictions accompanied these reflections, and his trouble was not a little increased by considering, that if he himself was wrong in the fundamental articles of religion, he must also, by his mode of preaching, have misguided his flock, to the great prejudice of their souls.
At length the sorrowful sighing of the prisoner was attended with success, and on the 25th of December, 1758, while walking in his room, in a pensive frame, he was led to contemplate those two passages of Scripture, Heb. ix. 22--“Without shedding of blood there is no remission,” and John i. 7--“The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” The mists of ignorance were instantaneously dissipated, and finding that he could centre his hopes in the atoning blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ, he became the immediate partaker of real and ineffable joy.
“I went upstairs and down again (said he), backwards and forwards in my room, clapping my hands for joy, and crying out, ‘I have found him--I have found him--I have found him, whom my soul loveth,’ and for a little time, as the Apostle said, whether in the body or out of it I could hardly tell.”
The first time that his friends were assembled at his house he embraced the opportunity of informing them, with truly evangelical simplicity, that they had been by him unintentionally deceived. He related his former distresses, and made them acquainted with his present joyful sensations, and concluded by attempting to convince them from Scripture, that the blood of Christ could only expiate their innumerable transgressions and produce real peace of mind, and that his righteousness only could entitle them to the enjoyment of eternal life.
At the parish church, before a numerous auditory, on the ensuing Sabbath-day, he began to preach without a pre-composed sermon, spoke to them freely of the way of salvation by the Lord Jesus alone, acknowledged that his principles had been erroneous, that he had been ignorant of the holy Scriptures, and that the doctrine which he had inculcated and laboured to establish among them was not the Gospel.
He now found that all men did not speak well of him, and he was soon called upon to suffer the reproach of the cross. Many of his former friends began to treat him with negligence and contempt; but none of these things moving him, he determined, by divine assistance, unremittingly to persevere. Uncommon success attended his after labours. As the number of converts considerably increased, he divided them into distinct classes, men by themselves and women by themselves, and then into married and unmarried. His extensive parish contained several small villages, and being divided into hamlets, these select societies assembled in such places as best suited their convenience. At appointed times he met them for the purpose of spiritual conversation, and every day, at eleven o’clock, preached in some part of the parish. These services were continued by him or his curates from the time of his removal from Helmsley.
After his character, as a man of evangelical principles, became generally known, he was called to preach a sermon before the clergy at a visitation of his diocesan, the Archbishop of York. This became the topic of general conversation among the neighbouring clergy and their parishioners, who declared “if he should dare to preach his Methodism in the presence of his Grace, his gown would soon be stripped over his ears.”
During his discourse, the beclouded countenances of his clerical hearers indicated that the important doctrine which he proved and enforced was extremely offensive, and when the service was concluded, as he was in the street in conversation with several farmers, Dr. Drummond, Archbishop of York, advanced, and accosted him as follows:--“Well, Conyers, you have given us a fine sermon!”--“I am glad (said the Doctor) it meets the approbation of your Grace.”--“Approbation! approbation! (replied the Archbishop); if you go on preaching such stuff you will drive all your parish mad. Were you to inculcate the morality of Socrates, it would do more good than canting about the new birth.” His Grace immediately walked off without waiting for a reply.[155]
With a view to promote the cause of Christ, which, of all other causes, lay nearest to her heart, Lady Huntingdon made excursions from time to time, not only into the towns and villages in the neighbourhood of Brighton, Tunbridge Wells, Bath, and other places, where she occasionally resided, but to more distant parts of the kingdom. From the first moment that she was enabled to give herself, her time, her property, and her talents, wholly to the Lord, she ever preferred the path of duty before the lap of repose, and was ready, had it been possible, to visit the uttermost parts of the earth, and convey with her the blessing of the everlasting Gospel; counting neither ease nor interest, reputation, nor even life itself, as dear to her, if by their sacrifice she could in any way be instrumental in bringing before others the grace of which she had been made the happy recipient.
Her Ladyship’s journey to Yorkshire, in 1760, was chiefly owing to the confusion which was then prevailing amongst Mr. Ingham’s societies, from the repeated discussions on Church government and discipline. She was accompanied by Messrs. Romaine and Venn, the latter of whom was then returning to Huddersfield, after labouring at Brighton for some weeks with great zeal and success. Her Ladyship was joined by Mr. Whitefield at Aberford, but their united efforts to restore peace and prevent confusion, as we have already seen, proved ineffectual.
The succeeding summer Mr. Wesley was in Yorkshire, and preached at Knaresborough, Tadcaster, and several places in the immediate vicinity of Aberford. There had been much conversation about the doctrine of Perfection, which had been introduced into Yorkshire by the Wesleyan preachers, and Mr. Wesley laboured hard to defend and explain it to Messrs. Grimshaw and Venn. His sermon at Haworth was in the manner of waiting for perfect love, and when he visited Huddersfield he came to what he calls “a full explanation with that good man, Mr. Venn,” and he adds, “Lord, if I must dispute, let it be with the children of the devil: let me be at peace with thy children.” A few days after, Mr. Wesley went to Kippax; Mr. Venn came a little time after they were gone into the church; Mr. Romaine read prayers, and Mr. Wesley preached on Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness. “O why (says he) should they who agree in this great point fall out about smaller things?”
In the summer of 1762, Lady Huntingdon paid another visit to Yorkshire, and on the 9th of August she attended the nineteenth Conference held at Leeds, when Messrs. Romaine, Madan, Venn, Whitefield, John and Charles Wesley were also present. After which Mr. Whitefield proceeded to Scotland, and Lady Huntingdon to Knaresborough, where she remained some time, and had frequent meetings of all the Gospel clergymen in Yorkshire, with a view to stimulate them to more active exertions in diffusing the light of divine truth. Dr. Conyers, being unable to wait upon her Ladyship, sent the following letter to Knaresborough:--
“Madam--The many kind messages and invitations which I have received from your Ladyship, and especially by the Rev. Roger Bentley, who had the honour and happiness of your company at Knaresborough, have filled my heart with the most grateful affections. I have been long in hopes that it would please God to open a way for me to wait upon your Ladyship, but it seems not to be his pleasure. I hope I shall meet you in heaven: we shall ail nothing there--nothing can keep us asunder there. O thou adorable Lord Jesus, hasten thy kingdom--my heart just pants after that blessed time when all the elect of God shall be gathered together--when I shall see Him whom my soul loves eye to eye. I humbly beg your Ladyship’s prayers that I may be strengthened through grace, and, happily triumphant over every evil, may gain an admission into my heavenly Father’s kingdom. I love to pray for your Ladyship, I feel a sweetness upon my soul when I do--it raises in me earnest desires to imitate your example, that I may be with you for ever. I dare hardly take the freedom to beg a line from your Ladyship, but I know you love to do good, and that, through God’s blessing, would do good to me. I am your Ladyship’s most obedient and most affectionate servant in Christ Jesus,
“RICHARD CONYERS.
“Helmsley, September 14th, 1762.”
From Knaresborough Lady Huntingdon removed to Harrogate, where Mr. Romaine preached several times; and from thence to Kippax and Aberford, where she remained several weeks actively engaged in promoting the kingdom of her Lord and Master. On leaving Yorkshire, her Ladyship proceeded to Brighton; whilst there she received the following letter from Mr. Venn:--
“Huddersfield, December 10th, 1762.
“Your Ladyship’s letter rejoiced the hearts of many in these parts. Blessed be God for the refreshment and vigour which your visit to Yorkshire hath diffused in my own dead soul, and for that light and life which our dear Immanuel hath made you the honoured instrument of conveying to the hearts of so many of your fellow-sinners. I cannot but adore the goodness of the Lord in raising up such a monument of his mercy, and inflaming you with such a fervent zeal for his blessed name. I trust the Lord will, in mercy, spare me to see you again in the flesh; perhaps in March or April I may be able to visit you and give you some little assistance; in order to do this, may the Spirit of God open the eyes of my understanding more and more to see my need of a Saviour, and to behold the suitableness, the freeness, and fulness of the redemption which was wrought out by the Lord of life and glory. O help me with your prayers, for truly I need them. I thank you ten thousand times for all your repeated marks of love and generosity to me and my family. Continue to pray for me, and the Lord will return it to you sevenfold.”
After some allusion to his preaching with Mr. Ingham at Aberford, and with Dr. Conyers at Kippax and Huddersfield, he says--
“My congregations are daily increasing. Besides my stated labours on the Lord’s-day, I generally preach eight or ten sermons in the week in the distant parts of the parish, where many come to hear who will not come to the church. I find my out-door preaching much owned of the Lord.
“My wife begs her kindest regards to your Ladyship. That the Father of lights may pour the choicest of his blessings on your soul, and fill you with his love, is the repeated wish of your Lordship’s unworthy friend and servant in Christ,
“H. VENN.”
Whilst Lady Huntingdon was at Aberford she enjoyed frequent opportunities of seeing and conversing with the late Rev. Titus Knight, who was a constant visitor at Mr. Ingham’s. His first labours, it is well known, were among the Methodists, in Mr. Wesley’s societies; and having opportunities of preaching in various parts of the country, he became signally and extensively useful. From repeated interviews and conversations with Lady Huntingdon and Mr. Ingham, it pleased God to give him such consistent views of divine truth, that he could no longer publicly insist upon certain points of doctrine maintained in Mr. Wesley’s Connexion. Christian perfection was much insisted upon at this time by Mr. Wesley, and Lady Huntingdon felt herself bound to combat this error, which Mr. Knight had adopted, with those clear views of revealed truth which she had embraced, and which she explained in a manner so easy and forcible to the minds of others, that many acknowledged themselves indebted to her Ladyship’s instrumentality for a deeper insight into the great doctrines of the Gospel. Lady Huntingdon offered to use her interest in procuring him Episcopal ordination, as he had attained a considerable knowledge of the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin languages, and a copious acquaintance with classical history. This offer, after some consideration, he declined. A few faithful friends, to whom he had been useful, still adhered to him: and to them he continued to preach as opportunity permitted. These being soon increased by the addition of others, a scheme was suggested for erecting a house in which they might more regularly assemble together, but the parties had no resources, and Mr. Grimshaw undertook to beg for it. He was no bigot; he made no distinction of sect or party the measure of his love towards Christians. He used to say, “I love Christians, true Christians, of all parties; I do love them, I will love them, and none shall make me do otherwise.” His first application was to Lady Huntingdon:--
“Madam--Your last letter has remained a long time unanswered; but I know you will excuse what may appear neglect, when informed that I have been about my Master’s business. Indeed, I have the pleasure of assuring you that the Lord’s work prospers amazingly among us. My exhortations are visibly blessed, and I bless God daily and hourly for it. The societies are everywhere in a good state. The Lord is adding to them many seekers of the blessed Jesus--many lively souls who have come to a sense of the pardoning love of God, and are eagerly hungering and thirsting after your inestimable REDEEMER and mine.
“I have had two visits from Mr. Knight. He professed great love and respect for your Ladyship, and acknowledges his deep obligations for the light and knowledge you were instrumental in communicating to him. He is actively labouring to rescue sin-slaved souls from the kingdom of darkness, and the Lord has put honour on his testimony, by giving him seals to his ministry. The people amongst whom he is sowing the seed of the kingdom are poor, their means are very limited, yet the Lord has put it into their hearts to build a house for the preaching of his word. Now I have come to the point--can your Ladyship spare a mite to aid these worthy souls? The demands on your generosity I know to be great, and on that account I feel a repugnance at asking, because I am persuaded you would give, even to the gown on your back, if the case required it. Blessed be God, who has furnished you with means, and with a heart inclined to dispense the unrighteous mammon for the good of others. But you are the Lord’s, all you have is his, and bless and praise him night and day for employing you in his service. May he bless you, sanctify you, and make you abundantly useful in your day and generation! He has raised you up for the accomplishment of a mighty work in the land; I may not live to witness it, but I shall assuredly see some of the triumphs of the cross, the blood-bought slaves, the ransomed captives, rescued from the tyranny and slavery of the great enemy of souls, in the chapels of your Ladyship, all arrayed in robes of dazzling white, and washed from every defilement in the fountain open for sin and uncleanness, praising and blessing Him who hath made them kings and priests unto God and the Lamb for ever. Yes, when I am before the throne--then I shall see, and hear, and know what you have been made the instrument of accomplishing upon earth; and at last we shall meet as two poor worthless sinners, stripped of every fancied good, to bless and praise him through eternity!
“I hope ere long to see my dear brother Whitefield in his own pulpit again. When will your Ladyship revive us with another visit? What blessings did the Lord shower upon us the last time you were here! and how did our hearts burn within us to proclaim his love and grace to perishing sinners! Come and animate us afresh--aid us by your counsels and your prayers--communicate a spark of your glowing zeal, and stir us up to renewed activity in the cause of God. All the dear apostles go on well--all pray for your dear Ladyship--and all long for your coming amongst us again. I have been a long round since you were here, and have seen brothers Ingham, Venn, Conyers, and Bentley, all alive, and preaching Christ crucified with wonderful success, and inexpressible benefit to the souls of many.
“Excuse this long, incoherent scribble, and assure yourself I am your Ladyship’s very unworthy and unprofitable friend and brother,
“WILLIAM GRIMSHAW.
“Haworth, November 20th, 1762.”
To this appeal Lady Huntingdon responded with her accustomed liberality; and in a little time such liberal contributions were obtained as enabled Mr. Knight and his friends to accomplish their design. A house was erected, a church formed, and he was ordained pastor in the summer of 1763. Soon after, his acquaintance with Mr. Whitefield commenced, which, under God, was the means of extending his usefulness very considerably; for being invited by Mr. Whitefield to his pulpit, and his preaching being approved, he afterwards became one of the assistant preachers, and spent two months every year in preaching at the Tabernacle, Tottenham-court Chapel, Greenwich, Woolwich, and other places in the same Connexion.[156]
In the spring of 1763, Lady Huntingdon had the misfortune to lose her very valuable and faithful friend, the laborious and truly apostolic Grimshaw. Haworth, in the early part of the year, was afflicted with a putrid fever, of which many persons died. Mr. Grimshaw had a strong presage upon his mind that some one of his own family would be added to the number, and he repeatedly exhorted them all to be ready, as he knew not which it might be. As for himself, it was not for a man of his views and spirit to decline the calls of his duty and affection through apprehension of danger. The fever was highly infectious, and, in visiting the sick parishioners, he soon caught it. From the first attack of the disease he expected and welcomed the approach of death. He knew in whom he believed, and felt His support in the trying hour. While death pointed his javelin to his heart, he beheld the face of the King of Terrors as if it were the face of an angel. He said, “Never had I such a visit from God since I knew him.”
Mr. Ingham, in a letter to Lady Huntingdon, gives the following account of his interviews with Mr. Grimshaw:--
“From the moment he was seized with the fever he felt the sentence of death in himself. When I first saw him he said, ‘My last enemy is come! the signs of death are upon me, but I am not afraid--no! no! blessed be God, my hope is sure, and I am in his hands.’ When I was pouring out my soul in prayer to the Lord, I mentioned the further prolongation of his life, that he might have more opportunities of being useful; and when I had concluded he said, ‘My dear brother Ingham, if the Lord should raise me up, I think I could do more for his glory than I have hitherto done. Alas! what have my wretched services been? and I have now need to cry, at the close of my unprofitable course--God be merciful to me a sinner!’ On my next visit I found him much worse, and evidently sinking. I mentioned having received a letter from your Ladyship, and delivered your message. He seemed much affected, but after a few moments revived a little. When I had prayed with him, he said, ‘I harbour no desire of life--my time is come, and I am entirely resigned to God.’ Then lifting up his hands and eyes to heaven, added, ‘Thy will be done! Tell her Ladyship, that dear elect woman, that I thank her from the bottom of my heart for all her kindnesses to me during the years that I have known her. With my dying breath I implore every blessing, temporal and spiritual, to rest upon her. May the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, bless her--bless her in body, soul, and spirit. I can never repay the spiritual good I have reaped at her hands. O that she may be eminently useful in her day and generation!’ At another time he said, laying his hand upon his breast, ‘I am quite exhausted, but I shall soon be at home for ever with the Lord--a poor miserable sinner redeemed by his blood.’ Mr. Venn having arrived, I shortly after took my leave, but never after saw my dear brother Grimshaw alive.“[157]
He died on 7th of April, 1763, in the fifty-fifth year of his age, and in the twenty-first from his settlement at Haworth, the scene of his eminent usefulness in the Church of God.[158]
Mr. Grimshaw was twice married, and survived his second wife; by the former, he had a daughter, who died young, and a son, who survived him about two years: he married a worthy woman, but drinking was his besetment. He often addressed the horse his venerable father rode with these words--“Once thou carriedst a saint--now thou carriest a devil.” The many prayers offered up for him were not in vain. The Lord gave him repentance, and just before he died he exclaimed--“What will my Father say when he sees me in heaven?” The widow of Mr. Grimshaw’s son afterwards became the wife of the late Rev. John Cross, vicar of Bradford. The successors of Mr. Grimshaw, the late Rev. John Richardson and the Rev. John James Charnock, trod in his steps, to the great good of Haworth. The blessed effects resulting from Lady Huntingdon’s former visits to Yorkshire induced many of the ministers of Christ in that part of the kingdom to solicit her to honour them with her presence from time to time; and as soon as her Ladyship had determined on taking a journey into Yorkshire, she wrote to several ministers, explaining the object she had in view, and soliciting the aid of such as could with convenience accompany her thither. Mr. Townsend and Mr. Fletcher, it appears, were early engaged for this labour of love. As early as the month of February we find the latter writing thus to Mr. Ireland:--
“If I can leave my parish, I believe it will be to accompany Lady Huntingdon to the Goshen of our land, Yorkshire, to learn the love of Christ at the feet of my brethren and fathers there.”
Lady Anne Erskine, who was then residing with her father, Lord Buchan, at Bath, consented to accompany Lady Huntingdon in her tour into Yorkshire, and her Ladyship was earnestly entreated to gratify the anxious wishes of the people of God in Scotland. Lady Huntingdon readily yielded to the desires of the people of Edinburgh, and as soon as she had resolved on visiting Scotland, wrote to Mr. Venn and Mr. Townsend, inviting them to accompany her thither. A few days before she set out on her tour she received the following reply from Mr. Venn:--
“Your Ladyship’s letter has rejoiced our hearts, and many more. Your coming into Yorkshire, attended by two such faithful labourers, will, I doubt not, be blessed exceedingly to the souls of the people, as your parlour-preaching will be to our own souls. If I can, I shall do myself the pleasure of meeting you at Bretby; if not, on the 9th of next month we shall receive you and your blessed company with that exalted joy which the Holy Ghost inspires. I must take the liberty of begging your Ladyship will present our most respectful compliments to Lady Anne and Miss Orton, and express our sense of the favour they will confer on us on coming to my vicarage. We were in hopes you could have contrived to have spent a Sabbath with us, rather than at Kippax. Three thousand hearers would be present to receive the word of life here, whereas at the village there would be very few. Love to my flock and desire for their good prompts me to mention this.
“To make one of your tour to Scotland would delight me much indeed, but my complaint in my breast is returned, and I am not able to lift up my voice. On Easter Tuesday I perceived the hurt very sensibly. I was pleading for the Lord’s honour and glory as the only Saviour--and how could I help speaking on such a truth with all energy? But the body will not bear it. However, I had yesterday a poor profligate came to me, to tell me that, under that sermon, she, who doubted before the very being of a God, was pricked to the heart, and is now indeed crying out night and day--‘What shall I do to be saved?’ Preaching Christ was never so greatly delightful to me as it is now; and yet that highest pleasure I am now incapable of enjoying more than once a week.
“Praying heartily that your going in and out from place to place may be under the powerful influence and rich blessings of the great Leader and Commander of the people, that as one of his chosen troops you may do valiantly, putting to flight the army of the aliens, I conclude myself your Ladyship’s servant in the Gospel, and friend,
“H. VENN.”
Dr. Conyers also, to whom her Ladyship had announced her intention of visiting Yorkshire, felt highly gratified at the prospect of seeing her, and wrote very much to the purport of the above, under date of Helmsley, April 21, 1767.
Early in the month of May, Lady Huntingdon, Lady Anne Erskine, Miss Orton, and Mr. Howel Harris, left Bath, accompanied by Mr. Whitefield, on a preaching excursion through a part of Gloucestershire.
“We have had good seasons at Rodborough (says he); I was regaled with the company of some simple-hearted, first-rate old Methodists, of nearly thirty years’ standing. God willing, I am to preach to-morrow morning, and to have a general sacrament on Friday evening. I have been out twice in the fields. On Sunday I hope to take to Rodborough-wood again. Good Lady Huntingdon, &c., were wonderfully delighted. She and her company lay at Rodborough-house. They honoured dear Mr. Adams with their presence: he is but poorly, and wants a nurse; perhaps before next Sunday he may be married to a simple-hearted, plain, good creature that hath waited upon him and the preachers near twenty years. She hath no fortune, but is one who, I think, will take care of and be obedient to him, for Christ’s sake.”
From Rodborough they proceeded to Gloucester, “where (says Mr. W.) we had a most blessed season yesterday. Thousands and thousands, I trust, heard, saw, and felt.”
Mr. Whitefield going into Wales, Lady Huntingdon and her party proceeded to Hawkestone, the celebrated seat of Sir Rowland Hill, Bart., and from thence to Trevecca, where they were joined by Mr. Fletcher, who conducted them to Madely, where they spent a few days, on their way to Derbyshire. The account of her Ladyship’s progress is contained in a letter from Mr. Fletcher to Mr. Whitefield, dated Madely, May 18, 1767:--
“Reverend and dear Sir--Your mentioning my poor ministrations among your congregation opens again a wound of shame that was but half healed. I feel the need of asking God, you, and your hearers, pardon, for weakening the glorious matter of the Gospel by my wretched broken manner, and spoiling the heavenly power of it by the uncleanness of my heart and lips. I should be glad to go and be your curate some time this year; but I see no opening, nor the least prospect of any. What between the dead and the living, a parish ties one down more than a wife. If I could go anywhere this year it should be to Yorkshire, to accompany Lady Huntingdon, according to a design that I had half formed last year; but I fear that I shall be debarred even from this. I set out, God willing, to-morrow morning for Trevecca, to meet her Ladyship there, and to show her the way to Madely, where she proposes to stay three or four days, on her way to Derbyshire. What chaplain she will have there I know not: God will provide. I rejoice that, though you are sure of heaven, you have still a desire to inherit the earth, by being a peace-maker. Somehow, you will enjoy the blessings that others may possibly refuse.
“Last Sunday seven-night Captain Scott preached to my congregation in a sermon which was more blessed, though preached only upon my horse-block, than a hundred of those I preach in the pulpit. I invited him to come and treat her Ladyship next Sunday with another, now the place is consecrated. If you should ever favour Shropshire with your presence, you shall have the captain’s or the parson’s pulpit at your option. Many ask me whether you will not come to have some fruit here also: what must I answer them? I, and many more, complain of a stagnation in the work: what must we do? Everything buds and blossoms around us, yet our winter is not over. I thought Mr. Newton, who hath been three weeks in Shropshire, would have brought the turtle-dove along with him; but I could not prevail upon him to come to this poor Capernaum. I think I hardly ever met his fellow for a judicious spirit. Still, what hath God done in him and in me? I am out of hell, and mine eyes have seen something of his salvation: though I must and do gladly yield to him and all my brethren, yet I must and will contend, that my being in the way to heaven makes me as rich a monument of mercy as he, or any of them. O that I may feel the wonderful effect of the patience that is manifested towards me! Lord, break me, and make me a vessel capable of bearing thy name, and the sweet savour of it, to my fellow-sinners!
* * * * *
“I am, reverend and dear Sir, with, blessed be God, a measure of sincere affection and respect, your willing, though halting and unworthy servant,
“J. FLETCHER.”
Lady Huntingdon and her interesting companions continued a few days at Madely, where they enjoyed the pleasure of Captain Scott’s company, who, at Mr. Fletcher’s urgent request, preached to very large congregations upon his horse-block twice on the Lord’s-day, and on Monday in Madely-wood, to an immense concourse of people, many of whom were drawn thither from motives of curiosity to see her Ladyship and the preaching Captain. From Madely her Ladyship proceeded to Bretby, where she remained until joined by Mr. Venn and Mr. Townsend, both of whom preached in her Ladyship’s chapel there, which was at that time supplied by Mr. Jesse and Mr. Maxfield. As there were now five clergymen with Lady Huntingdon, there was preaching twice a day whilst she remained, and many on these occasions were called to the happy experience of the salvation of Jesus by their labours in that place. On the 9th of June her Ladyship, attended by Messrs. Venn, Townsend, and Fletcher, arrived at Huddersfield, where they were kindly and hospitably received by Mrs. Venn, at the Vicarage-house. Lady Huntingdon did not proceed to Kippax immediately, according to her previous engagement, but complied with the earnest wishes of Mr. Venn, by remaining at Huddersfield the following Sabbath, when Mr. Fletcher preached twice to very large and deeply attentive congregations, many of whom received the word with visible demonstrations of joy.
After leaving Huddersfield, Lady Huntingdon spent some time at Aberford with Mr. and Lady Margaret Ingham. Whilst there, her Ladyship made an excursion to Haworth, and as it was understood that Mr. Fletcher and Mr. Townsend would preach, an immense assemblage of people collected from all parts. Application was made for the use of “Mr. Whitefield’s pulpit,” but the incumbent, though a good man, was averse to out-of-door preaching. Lady Huntingdon remonstrated--the multitude could not be sent away empty--and as she was attended by two clergymen, both of whom were willing to undertake the service, the congregation was addressed in the churchyard, by Mr. Fletcher first, and afterwards by Mr. Townsend.
Not long after her arrival at Kippax, on a visit to her niece, Mrs. Medhurst, Lady Huntingdon became so alarmingly indisposed as to preclude the possibility of her proceeding to Scotland, at least for the present. Mr. Townsend, however, was sent forward; and the particulars of his mission in that kingdom will be found detailed in another place. Her Ladyship suffered much at this time from bodily indisposition, which necessarily prevented her from exerting herself in the execution of those benevolent plans she had devised for the more general diffusion of divine truth in Yorkshire and the neighbouring counties. Those who were privileged to attend her at this season witnessed her growing zeal for the glory of God, and her evident desire to live more to him than ever. Her heart burned with love to his name, and breathed the most fervent wishes to bring others to the knowledge and love of the Saviour. The beginning of July Mr. Madan arrived at Kippax, and, with Mr. Fletcher, Mr. Venn, and others, was fully occupied in preaching almost every day in the adjacent counties for some weeks. Dr. Conyers, rector of Helmsley, Mr. Burnet, vicar of Elland, Mr. Ryland, curate of Huddersfield, Mr. Bentley, of Kippax, and Mr. Powley, vicar of Dewsbury, occasionally assisted, and made frequent excursions, not only in the neighbourhood, but to the more distant parts of the county, affectionately inviting the multitudes, who attended them wherever they itinerated, to “the fountain of living waters,” and “warning every man, and teaching every man, in all wisdom, that they might present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.”
Early in the month of September, Mr. Whitefield arrived in Yorkshire, where he had what he calls “a blessed Methodist field-street-preaching plan before him.” Having preached at Leeds and a few other places, he went on to Newcastle, Sunderland, and Hartlepool, where he preached at the door of Mr. Romaine’s mother’s house, and then returned to Leeds. Whilst there, he lodged at the house of one William Shent, whom he designates “a peruke maker,” a man well-known during the early struggles of Methodism in Yorkshire.[159]
Mr. Whitefield preached at Helmsley, then visited Dr. Conyers and Mr. Venn, who never failed to join Mr. Whitefield in the church, the chapel, the cottage, the street, or the fields. This conduct has, to our surprise, been thought to require an apology.
In the account of his life, drawn up by his son, the late Rev. John Venn, of Clapham, and lately published by his grandson, the Rev. Henry Venn, curate of St. John’s, Holloway, Islington, we find the following observation on his having preached frequently for Mr. Hill, at Surrey Chapel:--“Induced by the hope of doing good, my father, in certain instances, preached in unconsecrated places. But having acknowledged this, it becomes my pleasing duty to state that he was no advocate for irregularity in others; that when he afterwards considered it in its different bearings and connections, he lamented that he had given way to it, and restrained several other persons from such acts by the most cogent arguments!”
At what precise time Mr. Venn ceased to be guilty of these very objectionable irregularities, over which his son was so solicitous to draw the veil, we are at a loss to conjecture. During a period of considerably more than thirty years, he continued in the same undeviating line in which he had commenced as curate of Clapham, in 1755, when his eyes first opened to the truth. From that time to his acceptance of the living of Huddersfield, in 1759, he was frequent in preaching and administering the sacrament at Lady Huntingdon’s houses in London, Clifton, and other places. While at Huddersfield and Yelling, he continued his faithful ministrations in her Ladyship’s chapels, in private houses, and occasionally in the open air, till some unpleasant litigations, about the year 1782, obliged him and other beneficed clergymen reluctantly to withdraw their services from her Ladyship. But he still continued the irregular practice of preaching in barns, and other unconsecrated places, in the vicinity of Yelling, and at Surrey and Orange-street Chapels, in London, up to the year 1790, and within a very short time of his death, when inability, and not disinclination, obliged him to cease from labour.
This view of Mr. Venn’s conduct being considered as offensive, his descendants have put forth their own representations of these matters. Both accounts cannot possibly be true. To what, then, can such contradictions tend? The fact is, the descendants of the worthy Venn dread the charge of irregularity, and are studious to wipe him clean of the “odour” of Methodism, which had aspersed him from the commencement to the close of his ministerial labours. We have no particular attachment to the term Methodist; but think it would be the height of folly to suppose that those who have experimentally felt the truth, and tasted indeed that the Lord is gracious, should ever expect to steer clear of the odium connected with the avowal of true piety. Every reviver of Evangelical truth, though labouring within the strict pale of regularity--every faithful witness who proclaims the righteousness of our God and Saviour, is sure to sustain the brand of Methodism, and to be most liberally abused by a proud, self-righteous world. Nothing is gained for the Gospel by timidity: pious clergymen would best subserve the cause they love by a bold recognition of brotherhood with all who love and preach our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Had more intercourse of a religious character, as far as the present system of national restrictions allow, been practised by serious Churchmen, it would have convinced the world that there are subjects of paramount importance, in which all the good have a common interest: their own minds would have reaped advantage, the interchange of good offices would have promoted reciprocal good feeling, and much would have been done to prevent that hostility against the Church of England which has discovered itself in some of the best of the Dissenters.
Like many excellent persons, the late Mrs. Hannah More piqued herself on the regularity of her attachment to the Established Church; and, for various reasons, good no doubt in her own judgment, though not so in that of others equally pious, she scrupulously abstained from attending divine worship where there was no Episcopal sanction, and did not hesitate to make so pitiable an apology as this, and that to a bishop too of no remarkable excellence:--“As to connection with conventicles of any kind, I never had any. Had I been irregular, should I not have gone sometimes, during my winter residence at Bath, to Lady Huntingdon’s chapel, a place of great occasional resort? Should I never have gone to some of Whitefield’s or Wesley’s tabernacles, in London, where I have spent a long spring for nearly thirty years? Should I not have strayed now and then into some Methodist meeting in the country? Yet not one of these things have I ever done.”[160]
Was it necessary for Mrs. Hannah More, in order to prove her own sincere attachment to the Church, thus to stand in complete separation from all who were not of her own communion? But she dreaded the name of Methodist, and from this part of the reproach of the cross she turned away. She evidently loved (as Mr. Roberts acknowledges) the praises of her friends and of the public generally. She was flattered by the attention paid her by persons of rank, in Church and State, and she was unwilling to endanger it by any, the least, connexion with those whom it was the fashion to brand as sectaries, enthusiasts, and fanatics. This was her fault, and it brought its own punishment with it. She has been indelibly stamped a Methodist, and all the waters of the Atlantic will not wash her clean from the “foul blot.” How often has she struggled to throw off the vile imputation? This is the weakness of her character. When she found it necessary to appeal to the bishop of the diocese, we find her employing the language of careful apology; assuring and re-assuring his lordship that she was, and always had been, entirely free from any connexion with conventiclers. To the rank and office of the Bishop of Bath and Wells respect was due; but to religion and truth much more. Higher ground ought to have been taken by such a character as HANNAH MORE; and posterity would not have blamed her had she shown that, much as she loved the Church, she loved souls yet better.
Mr. Venn not only wished Lady Huntingdon “good luck in the name of the Lord,” but supported her in what some of his more timid brethren might reckon very objectionable irregularities. Inestimable woman! thou art gone to thy rest, and whether thy Great Master will blame or praise thee for doing good to the souls of men, regularly or irregularly, is now no longer dubious. Hypocrisy itself must be ashamed of the supposition, that Mr. Venn ever disapproved or discountenanced the immensely blessed and successful efforts of the Countess of Huntingdon to spread the knowledge of the doctrine of her crucified Lord.
Nor was his friendship less for the apostolic Whitefield. How highly he thought of him, his own account, in the funeral sermon which he preached in Lady Huntingdon’s Chapel at Bath, will best tell. Such unequivocal and decided testimonies leave no room for doubt or dispute on the subject. They are not the friends of Mr. Venn, or the truths he so ably defended, who would cast a veil over those he most honoured, and fear to have him associated with those apostolic witnesses. It is singular that in his memoirs, lately published by his grandson, scarcely any allusion is made to Mr. Whitefield or the Messrs. Wesley, or Mr. Venn’s connexion and correspondence with those great men. They were his first associates when he came to know the grace of God, in Bath, and continued his intimates to the last. His acquaintance with Lady Huntingdon extended through a period of more than thirty years, during which time a very intimate and close correspondence took place between them, yet not one single letter has appeared in the work! Need we mention Mr. Whitefield, Mr. Wesley, Mr. Fletcher, the well-known Howel Harris, and Captain Scott? Some of Mr. Venn’s letters to those apostolic men have appeared in various publications: he loved them, he venerated them, and did not disdain to labour in the same vineyard with them. They are all gone to their glorious rest, to meet in the better temple together, as they have often worshipped in concert below, and to go out no more.
Mr. Fletcher, being obliged to attend the duties of his parish, could not prolong his stay in Yorkshire, and therefore left Kippax, after Mr. Whitefield’s arrival there. On his return to Madely, he wrote thus to Lady Huntingdon:--
“My very dear and honoured Lady--The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who tried Israel, and led them through many a wandering to the good land, that he might do them more good in their latter end--this faithful God hath met with you; a rod is in his hand, but that hand bears so deep a print of love, that the design of his visitation cannot be mistaken. Nor does he come without the supporting staff: he kills to make alive--he wounds to heal--he afflicts to comfort, and to do it more deeply and effectually. My hearty prayer for your Ladyship is, that you may drink the cup the Lord holds out to you as a new token of his unchangeable love. I call it unchangeable, because it is really so in its nature, though the appearances of it greatly vary, for the trial of faith. ‘I am God (says he)--I change not, therefore Israel is not consumed,’ and Shadrac is kept in the burning fiery furnace. When I think of your Ladyship’s illness, the words of Paschal often occur to my mind, and are a little relief to me. ‘Sickness (said that devoted soul)--sickness is the natural condition of Christians: they are then, as they should always be, deprived of all the good things that belong to prosperity, and surrounded with the evils of adversity: their senses and passions are mortified, their eyes are fixed upon death, and their hearts on the Prince of Life. What a blessing (added he) to be placed by the kind hand of Providence in that very state which we should choose, were we allowed our choice!’
“I have often heard your Ladyship speaking admirably upon knowing Christ, and the power of his resurrection, together with the fellowship of his sufferings. The Lord will have you improve in that heavenly knowledge, therefore he gives you so long a lesson at this time. The lesson is hard, I grant, but the Master is so loving, the science so noble, and the scholar so used to severe exercises, that it is no wonder you are placed in this highest form. No cross, no crown! The heavier the cross, the brighter the crown. I often wish I could bear your Ladyship’s burden, but check this impotent wish, by rejoicing that one who feels not only touches of sympathy, but love everlasting and almighty as Himself, bears it for you, and bears you with it. On the bosom of this dear heavenly Physician I desire to place you. There I want you to enjoy all the birth-sweets of sickness, and when patience hath had its perfect work there, I beg you may live and love till I have received my dismission; and when yours is sealed, may I be allowed to come and meet your departing soul among those whom you have made your friends with the mammon of unrighteousness and with the blessings of Gospel righteousness, and who will long to welcome you into everlasting habitations.
“Till I received Lady Anne’s letter, I often wanted to persuade myself that your Ladyship had got quite well soon after I had left Kippax, and that you were gone to London, about the death of the person I heard you speak of. I rejoice that the Lord laid the embargo upon your Ladyship among so many good nurses as I left you with I pray God reward them for their labours of love to your Ladyship, and make their bed for them when they are visited in their turn. I beg my best respects and warmest thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Medhurst, Miss Medhurst, and the dear company of your Ladyship. Their kindness and patience towards me while at Kippax have laid me under a heavy burden of obligations, which I desire gratefully to acknowledge.
“Through a mistake of our good friend Ireland,[161] dear Mr. Glascott came here the day after I arrived from Yorkshire. He stayed only one day. This stripling will throw down Goliath. I blessed that cross and accident which brought me acquainted with a young soldier that made me so ashamed of myself. Mr. Hill[162] is gone to Brighthelmstone, where I hope he will be as useful as he is in Shropshire. Captain Scott set out last Monday for York, after making a great stir for good in Shrewsbury: he hath been a prophet to several in his own country.
“I am loth to trouble Lady Anne with the request of a line, to know how your Ladyship does, yet I know not well how to give up the hope she will once more steal two minutes for it. I am, with peculiar thanks to Lady Anne for her letter, and to your Ladyship for numberless favours, my Lady, your most indebted and obliged servant,
“J. FLETCHER.”
Lady Huntingdon being sufficiently recovered from her late indisposition, proceeded to Leeds for a short time, and was accompanied thither by Mr. Whitefield. The late Mrs. Deane, who resided at that time at Whitkirk, near Leeds, was considered as ranking among the higher circles. She had occasionally heard Mr. Ingham and Mr. Edwards, who had withdrawn himself from Mr. Wesley, and had built himself a place of worship, known by the name of “White Chapel,” at Leeds, where he continued to dispense the word of life for more than thirty years. Mr. Edwards mentioned Mrs. Deane to Lady Huntingdon, who, observing the marks of a penitent in her, invited her to her house, and there she became acquainted with those bright stars that then shone in England, and now shine in heaven, Messrs. Whitefield, the Wesleys, Venn, Ingham, Romaine, and other clergymen, who found a welcome in that honourable house. She had frequent opportunities of conversing with Lady Huntingdon, and of enjoying those spiritual pleasures which would naturally result from communication with one so well qualified as that excellent lady, to direct and comfort the Christian in his road to glory.
Mrs. Deane was a woman of rank, of superior education and accomplishments, and her letters and meditations afford strong proofs, that if there be any happiness separate from union and communion with God by faith in Jesus Christ, she had powers capable of discerning and enjoying it. Her writings clearly show that she did not seek satisfaction in those shadowy scenes of refined iniquity which too fatally ensnare the majority of those trifling immortals who are ranked among the rich and great. She used to say--
“People in general are seeking happiness where it can never be found--in the world and its pleasures, or else in some created being--in all which they will surely meet with disappointment. Reason and religion both teach us that to be happy we must be holy; and the experience of mind bred up in and influenced by such principles most attest the truth and importance of them. But yet, notwithstanding all his knowledge and experience concerning the reasonableness, the fitness, and the beauty of holiness, let no man trust in or think to find innate goodness in himself. Let him divest himself of all self-confidence, and entirely rely on his Saviour in every spiritual conflict; and let him be assured he will then find a strong tower of defence against every evil, and will be ready to say--
‘For all the good that is in me, All glory to the Eternal Three, Now and to all eternity:’
to which I humbly subscribe in heart and name.”
Mrs. Deane was nearly allied to the noble family of Charles, Viscount Irvine, of Temple Newson, on the river Aire, two miles below Leeds. His Lordship, who had succeeded to the title in 1763, had married Miss Shepherd, a lady possessed of a very great fortune. Mrs. Deane’s attachment to and affection for Lady Irvine, and every member of that honourable family, were remarkable, and always appeared so vigorous that they were constantly breaking forth in the most ardent prayers for their eternal welfare. She soon brought her Ladyship acquainted with Lady Huntingdon, and never failed to invite Lord and Lady Irvine to her house whenever the Countess was at Leeds, or at Ledstone Hall. After a sermon had been delivered with which she had been particularly edified, her love for their eternal interests naturally made her exclaim, “O that Lady Irvine and family had heard this.” She sometimes hoped well of them, and thought that Lady Huntingdon’s conversation had been blessed to Lady Irvine. In one of her letters to her Ladyship, she says--
“You will rejoice to hear that my dear Lady Irvine accompanied me to hear Mr. Charles Wesley. There was a very crowded congregation, and he preached as for eternity, and could look his hearers in the face, and say with humble confidence--‘I take you to record this day that I am pure from the blood of all men.’ The worship and service of the day altogether appeared to my dear friend most sacred, solemn, and delightful. The impressions which were made on her mind during your Ladyship’s last conversation with her have continued ever since; and I earnestly pray and hope may not pass away like the morning cloud, or like the early dew. Her judgment and understanding are enlightened, though her conscience may yet be unawakened; and though she thinks differently on some points on which your Ladyship spoke so ably, she admits the doctrine of man’s total depravity by nature, the atonement, justification by faith, the agency of the Spirit in the work of regeneration, and holiness of heart and life in order to final salvation. May the Spirit of God impress those solemn truths on her conscience and apply them to her heart with power! We often speak of your Ladyship; and my dear Lady Irvine acknowledges her obligations to you for the light and comfort which she now enjoys. Lord Irvine always mentions you in terms of great respect, and admiration of your talents and your zeal.”[163]
To return to our narrative. The Rev. Samson Occum, the Indian preacher, and Mr. Whitaker, minister of Norwich, in New England, who had arrived in this country the preceding year, to promote the interests of the Indian Charity Schools at Lebanon, had been making a tour in Scotland and collecting money for the object of their mission. At Newcastle a very considerable sum was collected, after a sermon by Mr. Wesley, who preached at the particular request of Mr. Whitaker. They visited several places in Yorkshire, and met with great success; Mr. Romaine, Mr. Venn, and Mr. Powley also advocating their cause at Leeds, Huddersfield, and Kippax. Mr. Whitefield preached at Sheffield the day after Mr. Occum and Mr. Whitaker had left it. “The Americans were gone (says he) the day before I arrived at Sheffield; I missed them by coming through Chesterfield, instead of Mansfield.” At Leeds, Mr. Whitefield and Lady Huntingdon were joined by Captain Scott, who preached to amazing crowds. His popularity was very great at this period. Many of the rich, worldly wise, and honourable could not endure such preaching; but the common people heard him gladly, and blessed God for the preaching, which they could fully understand, and were as much disposed as ever to say, “How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!”
Mr. Whitefield proceeded to Huddersfield, and passed some weeks with Mr. Venn, but was compelled to decline Mr. Fletcher’s invitation to Madely, as stated in a letter to one of his prime favourites, Mrs. Herritage, whom he calls the “London Shunamite.”
“Leeds, Oct. 3, 1767.
“My good Shunamite--Just as your letter came I was taking pen in hand to send you a few lines. What a mercy when good news comes from town and country! And what news so good as that of the word of the Lord Jesus running and being glorified? This hath been the case with the willing, but worthless pilgrim. Everywhere the sound of his Master’s feet hath been heard behind him. Field and street preaching hath rather bettered than hurt his bodily health. But as the weather begins to break, he must look towards winter quarters. This makes it impracticable for him to go to Madely. It is too far distant. May Jesus support the suffering martyr. He will! He will!
‘He knows what sore temptations mean, For he hath felt the same.’
I know this will find you a living martyr, a witness of the truths and life of Jesus, the only preparative for dying a martyr. That whether you live, you may live unto the Lord; or whether you die, you may die unto the Lord, is the earnest prayer of, dear Mrs. Herritage,
“Yours, &c., in our common Lord,
“GEORGE WHITEFIELD.”
This was Mr. Whitefield’s last visit to Yorkshire; and it is worthy of remark that the last sermon preached by that apostolic witness in that county was delivered in the pulpit of Huddersfield church.
The ministry of the Rev. Thomas Wilson, about this period, began to attract much attention in Yorkshire. Possessed of strong faith in the divine word, a fervent love of God and Christ, and a living sense of the vast worth of men’s souls, he became a most diligent preacher, uncommonly zealous in his manner, and remarkably plain and pointed in his addresses to men’s consciences. His praise, not as a scholar indeed, but as a good minister of Jesus Christ, will long continue to be heard through a large and populous district. His simplicity and godly sincerity were admitted and admired by great numbers, who could not be prevailed upon by his tears and entreaties to forsake their sinful courses; nevertheless, he has left behind him many seals of his ministry; and many, it is believed, converted by his means, died before him in faith, and most joyfully received his spirit into the heavenly habitations. He lived down prejudice and slander in a very uncommon degree: his rule and his practice were, to overcome evil by doing good. He was eminently a man of peace--he loved it in his heart--he sought it earnestly: but this divine and amiable disposition did not damp his zeal for the cause of God, and his concern to save men’s souls. He boldly rebuked sin; he showed his abhorrence particularly to that destructive vice of drunkenness, so prevalent in manufacturing places, which robs so many of the lower orders not only of their comforts, but of the necessaries of life. He kept a watchful eye over public-houses: he felt and frequently expressed the deepest sorrow (and his regrets were not always unavailing) at the irregularities and excesses which occurred in those places, and especially on Sunday evenings. Many nights of broken rest did he pass, occupied with reflections on the depravity, blindness, and madness of sinners, who were treasuring up to themselves wrath against the day of wrath, while they despised or neglected all his warnings--his warm, vehement, affectionate appeals to their consciences.
Mr. Wilson was somewhat advanced in life when he first turned his thoughts towards the ministry; and he had not had the advantage of a regular classical education. A clergyman of Leeds, of a kindred spirit, beheld in his fervent piety the dawning of singular usefulness, and put him in the way of obtaining holy orders. He applied himself to the study of the languages, and was ordained to a curacy near Wetherby, Yorkshire. There his ardent spirit laboured diligently; and much concern about religion appeared in many of his congregation. Whilst there he received a visit from Lady Huntingdon, in one of her numerous rambles through Yorkshire, and her advice and conversation were of great benefit in exciting him to greater diligence and zeal in the discharge of the duties of his function. Some things there were, however, disagreeable to him in that situation; and on the removal of Mr. Powley to Dewsbury, Mr. Wilson, through his means, became perpetual curate of Slaighwaite.
Chapter XVIII
Melancholy State of Mr. Ingham--Lady Huntingdon and Mr. Venn--Illness and Death of Lady Margaret Ingham--Letter from Mr. Ingham--Letter from Mr. Romaine--Mr. Ingham’s Treatise on the Faith and Hope of the Gospel--Mr. Riddell--Lady Huntingdon sends Students to Yorkshire--Letter from Mr. Riddell--Mr. Joseph Milner, of Hull--Attends Lady Huntingdon’s Preachers--Begins to preach the Gospel--Mr. Tyler--Letter from Lady Huntingdon to Mr. Romaine--Mr. Tyler’s Labours at Hull--Letter from Lady Huntingdon to Mr. Milner--York--Mr. Wren--Letter from Lady Huntingdon--Letter from Mr. Wren--Mr. Glascott--Mr. Wells--Mr. Powley--Lady Huntingdon’s Chapel at York.
The almost total dispersion of the Yorkshire Churches, caused by the introduction of the Sandemanian principles, had a sad effect on Mr. Ingham’s mind. He was liable to sudden transitions from the highest flow of spirits to the utmost depression, and the peculiar character of his temperament was an extreme accessibility to sudden attacks of melancholy. It was his belief that calamity was connected with the conviction of sin and the desert of punishment. “We are verily guilty concerning our brother, therefore is this distress come upon us.” “The thing” which, like Job, he had “greatly feared,” was come upon him--he was deserted by his spiritual children, and the thought reduced him to a most distressing state of mind. “‘He is lost! He is lost!’--this (writes Mr. Venn) is his despairing cry.” Lady Huntingdon wrote to her afflicted relative, and her words were blessed to his most sorrowful and anguished spirit. “A thousand and thousand times (he tells her after his recovery) do I bless and praise my God for the words of comfort and consolation which your Ladyship’s letters conveyed to my mournful heart, dismayed and overwhelmed as it was by the pressure of my calamities. “Righteous art thou, O Lord, and just are thy judgments.”
He was soon tried still further, for the health and strength of Lady Margaret Ingham now sensibly and visibly declined; to the last she continued to exercise those Christian graces--faith, patience, and resignation to the will of her Heavenly Father--for which she had been long distinguished. Of herself and her efforts her view was ever humble, and any reference to her usefulness she met with grateful acknowledgments of the sovereignty of that grace that made her the instrument of good to others. Her end, though painful, was triumphant. She welcomed the hour--she longed to receive the prize of her high calling. Mrs. Medhurst and Miss Wheeler repaired to Aberford, and witnessed her release from the flesh: to both she exclaimed, with all her wonted energy, “Thanks be to God! thanks be to God! the moment’s come, the day is dawning!” and thus in holy extasy she winged her way to glory. Miss Wheeler announced her death to the Countess, who wrote a letter of consolation to Mr. Ingham; from the reply to which we quote, as a further illustration of her Ladyship’s happiness in the hour of trial:--
“When she had no longer strength to speak to me (writes Mr. Ingham), she looked most sweetly at me and smiled. On the Tuesday before she died, when she had opened her heart to me, and declared the ground of her hope, her eyes sparkled with divine joy, her countenance shone, her cheeks were ruddy; I never saw her look so sweet and lovely in my life. All about her were affected; no one could refrain from tears, and yet it was a delight to be with her.”
Lady Margaret died on the 30th of April, 1768, in her 68th year; she was borne to the grave by devout men, and wept by the tears of the Church.
Mr. Romaine, in a letter to Mrs. Medhurst, says--
“I got a good advancement by the death of Lady Margaret, and was led into a sweet path of meditation, in which I went on contemplating till my heart burned within me.... Many a time my spirit has been refreshed with hearing her relate simply and feelingly how Jesus was her life.”
Her marriage with Mr. Ingham had increased his means, but before that event his benevolence was no less remarkable than his liberality afterwards. His purse supplied the expenses of almost all his preachers. He survived her Ladyship only four years. In person he is said to have been extremely handsome--“too handsome for a man,” and the habitual expression of his countenance was most prepossessing. He was a gentleman; temperate, and irreproachable in his morals; as a public speaker, animated and agreeable, rather than eloquent; studious of the good conversation of his people, and delicately fearful of reproach to the cause of Christ. His son Ignatius, by his wavering faith, caused some uneasiness and regret to the friends of his distinguished parents.
Soon after the establishment, by Lady Huntingdon, of a College in Wales, Mr. Edward Riddell, a pious Dissenter, who, having made a casual visit to Hull, was, by a series of providential events, induced to remain there, wrote to her Ladyship to request her to send down to him some of the students; for he and others had separated from the Church with which they had been connected, and a new place of worship was much wanted in Hull. Her Ladyship complied in this, as in all cases, where the means of spreading the holy Gospel were within her reach. The names of the first students at Trevecca who went down to Hull are irrecoverably lost, but their doctrine is known to have created a deep feeling in that town. Rich and poor thronged the chapel to hear of human depravity, of atonement for sin by the sacrifice of Christ, of justification freely given by grace, of imputed righteousness, and of the Spirit’s work in regeneration, sanctification, and comfort. Among the converts Mr. Riddell mentions in a letter to Lady Huntingdon, full of gratitude for the generous aid she had lent his “infant society,” a Mr. Milner, head master of the grammar-school, and lecturer of the principal church in Hull. “He is constant in his attendance on the ministry of your Ladyship’s students, of whom he has made particular enquiries concerning your Ladyship’s College in Wales, the teaching of its president and tutors, and also concerning the chapels at Bath, Brighton, &c.” Mr. Riddell requests her Ladyship will write to Mr. Milner, and also urges a visit from one of her Ladyship’s chaplains, and, after due acknowledgment for all Lady Huntingdon’s efforts in the cause of the Gospel, says, “The land is still before you, in which the seed has never yet been sown.” The Mr. Milner here alluded to was a native of Leeds, born of parents who, if not great or noble, were the ornaments of the sphere in which they moved. Joseph, their son, owed much of his deep religious feeling to his mother, a constant hearer of the Rev. John Edwards. He was introduced by his parent to the Rev. Christopher Atkinson, of Thorp Arch, near Tadcaster, one of the first Methodists when at Oxford, and a correspondent of Whitefield, the Wesleys, Ingham, Hervey, &c., and to his son, the Rev. Myles Atkinson, afterwards vicar of Kippax, and minister of St. Paul’s, at Leeds. He became assistant in the school of Mr. Atkinson, and also in the care of his church; but Mr. Milner has himself declared that he did not then feel the true faith, but preached himself, rather than Jesus. His great ambition was literary fame and the applause of his hearers. His first sermon at Hull was much applauded, but years afterwards he took that very discourse into the pulpit, dwelt upon its errors, exposed its fallacies, and contrasted its doctrines with those he then avowed. Even the early Methodists themselves were similarly misled; for they had then scarcely got beyond the natural, though erroneous hope, of saving themselves by a rigid observance of the law--by a superstitious excess in abstinence, nay, fasting, instead of simply looking to the Lord Jesus for righteousness and strength, and making his merits the sole ground of their justification before God. Mr. Milner, who was a favourite with his patrons, the Mayor and Aldermen, had happily secured his election to the school and lectureship before any outward manifestation had been given of his inward change. Had it been otherwise his aged mother might have died for want, his niece and nephew have remained destitute orphans, his brother[164] have laboured with his hands through life, at the manufactures in Yorkshire--nay, the town of Hull might have continued without the sound of the Gospel from the pulpits of the Established Church, ere one vote would have been given to him for either school or lectureship.
His moral character was without spot; he was regular, temperate, and decorous, orthodox and loyal, admired for his preaching as well as for his learning, and eagerly entrusted with the education of the children of the chief inhabitants of Hull, with whom he was extremely popular. It was then that the students of Lady Huntingdon’s College at Trevecca, by their preaching in Hull, opened the eyes of his mind to its darkness, and impressed him with the truth of that saying, “that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, even the chief of sinners.” They proved to him that he was in the condition of the unregenerate; and as the light shone on his mind, he poured it out upon his people, discovering error by the gradual revelation of the truth as it is in Jesus. It was clear to all that he was in earnest, and that because he had believed, therefore had he spoken; yet conviction of his truth did not persuade others. The man who had become intolerable in the pulpit soon became an unwelcome guest at table, and the “Methodist” Milner fell out of favour with the men of the world. Except once a year, when he preached officially as chaplain to the Mayor, few of the superior rank ever attended his ministry, but the common people heard him gladly, and his large church was crowded. The “enthusiast” Milner became the subject of scandal and foul-faced reproach, and the victim of intolerable though petty persecution. Now he was described as an oily hypocrite, courting, by an affected sanctity, the patronage of the Earl of Dartmouth, Chief Baron Smythe, the Countess of Huntingdon, “and other notorious enthusiasts;” at another time he was said to be spurred on by the love of popular applause; and at another the cry was, that “Milner was a madman!”
At this moment, Mr. Harris, minister of Dagger-lane Chapel, had occasion to leave Hull for a period, and at his request Lady Huntingdon sent down the Rev. William Tyler to supply his place. Mr. Tyler was about the same age as Milner, and the latter attended his ministry as one might be expected to do who had been called at the same time and by the same means, and they found mutual support and improvement in their communications, which led to an enduring friendship. Lady Huntingdon soon commenced a correspondence with Mr. Milner, who had thus been converted by the ministry of her students. In a letter to Mr. Romaine, her Ladyship says, “I have some students at Hull whose ministry has been remarkably owned. Dear Mr. Milner writes me word that he has reason to bless God for putting it into my head to send ministers to Hull, as the plain preaching of the Gospel of Jesus, not with words and reasoning which man’s wisdom teacheth, but as the Holy Ghost teacheth, God has been pleased to honour and bless, in convincing him of the great necessity he was under of securing an interest in Christ.”[165]
Mr. Tyler was, like Mr. Milner, descended from honest but poor progenitors; his father, a pious and industrious man, had him instructed in the ordinary branches of education, and at fourteen years of age he was bound apprentice to a watchmaker in London; but his master dying in the first year of his service, young Tyler returned to his father’s house, which he quitted no more until, in his twenty-fourth year, he was called to preach the Gospel. The habits of virtue he had acquired beneath the parental roof had been shaken in London, where evil company, especially some of the singers and dancers at Sadler’s Wells, led him into some excesses. With such a party he had joined, to create a riot at the Tabernacle; but no sooner was the text uttered, than feelings of home and heaven rushed upon his heart at the same instant, and he resolved at once to leave for ever the associates who had misled him. This resolution he had strength of mind to keep, and his return home occurred in happy time to prevent any backsliding or yielding of the spirit. He eagerly accepted the offer of the good Lady Huntingdon, to whose notice he had been recommended, to go to her Ladyship’s College, at Trevecca. Here he would fain have acquired that knowledge from which the scantiness of his early instruction had excluded him, especially the original languages of the holy Scriptures; but no sooner had he arrived in Wales than his hand was put to the plough, and his time was devoted to preaching in different parts of the country. He was continually travelling, and his sermons were, for the most part, studied on horseback.
He had not been a long time resident in Hull before Mr. Milner proposed to him to go to Cambridge; and as he had been a Dissenter less by choice than circumstances, to extend his usefulness by obtaining Episcopal ordination. Mr. Milner devoted himself to the task of instructing his friend in the necessary preparatory knowledge, and recommended him to a benevolent society, at whose expense he was sent to Magdalene College, Cambridge, in November 1778. He took a Bachelor’s degree, and was ordained deacon in the Temple Church, by the Bishop of London, on Trinity Sunday, in the year 1782. His title was to the churches of Partney and Dulby, in Lincolnshire; and by the patronage of Lord Monson he became perpetual curate of the latter. The rector of Partney, after three years’ service, dismissed him from his curacy for holding prayer-meetings in his own and other houses; but in 1786 he was presented by the Lord Chancellor to the living of Braytoft, where he laboured for twenty years, serving three churches, and riding sixteen miles every Sunday, in rain and snow, as well as in sunshine, through the worst roads in England. In 1806, Dr. Fowler gave him the living of Ashby, near Spilsby, where he continued till July 14, 1808, when the Lord dismissed him from this world of sin and sorrow, in the sixtieth year of his age, leaving a widow and one daughter to lament his loss.
It will be asked, doubtless, what part Lady Huntingdon took when Mr. Tyler, at Mr. Milner’s suggestion, left Trevecca, and her Ladyship’s religious Connexion, to go to the University and to seek ordination? The following letter to Mr. Milner will answer the question:--
“It is no consolation, my dear Sir, that you have so honestly and so heartily embarked in the cause of good men, of angels, and of God. Recollect, ‘it is good to be zealously affected always in a good cause.’ Blessed be God that you have put your lip to the Gospel trumpet and sounded salvation to the guilty. Be not deterred by the shafts of ridicule, or the opposition of the profane. Remember, the God whom you serve ‘rides on the whirlwind and directs the storm.’ Your progress may be retarded, but your triumph is secure. Though earth and hell combine their force against you, yet you shall do the work the Great Head of the Church has marked out for you. Labour earnestly, for you shall not labour in vain. Up and be doing, in the name and for the sake of Christ! slumber not at your post. Be thankful, highly thankful, that the Lord will condescend to let you do anything for him and the furtherance of his kingdom among men. Go on, my good Sir, go on with your blessed work, for it will not cover you with confusion in the last great day. By and by you will reap the fruits of your faith and labour of love, and hear your great Master say unto you--‘Well done, good and faithful servant.’
“Universal good to all is my only object upon earth; and I only look for further light to promote more extensively the honour of Christ and the best interests of the multitude everywhere perishing for lack of knowledge. From your most just and forcible representation, I feel it expedient to relinquish my claims on the services of Mr. Tyler. Of his abilities you are capable of judging; and I can supply you with every honourable and satisfactory testimonial in favour of his piety, temper, and conduct. With exemplary devotedness and zeal he has laboured in my plan, and his ministry has everywhere been accompanied with the converting power of divine grace. His steadfast faith, his ardent and exalted zeal and singleness of heart, and his superior merits and talents, qualify him for occupying a distinguished place amongst the preachers of the Gospel. Actuated, I trust, by the noblest motives by which the human mind can be swayed, he has devoted himself to the work of the ministry; and with the enjoyment of the approbation of his Great Master, which will ever be his best and highest reward, may he see also the accomplishment of his heart’s desire--the conversion of souls to God and Christ.
“With respect to the work amongst us, of which you seem anxious to be informed, I have the pleasure to tell you it is very generally on the increase; and very many in the large towns where I have chapels have felt the saving efficacy of redeeming love and the quickening grace of the Holy Ghost. The Sun of Righteousness has risen, in many villages and country places, with healing on its wings. There is a trembling and shaking among the dry bones--sinners are enquiring the way to Zion with their faces thitherwards--multitudes are a living comment upon the truths which they believe--and a great success which hath attended the labours of the ministers and students loudly proclaims that the ‘fields are white already to the harvest;’ and the Spirit of the Lord whispers in our ears--‘The time to favour Zion, yea, the set time is come.’
“It affords me the most cordial satisfaction to see a goodly number of godly young men offering themselves to the service of our adorable Saviour, of whose talents and piety I judge most favourably. The school of the prophets at my beloved Trevecca affords great advantages to young men, as preparatory to the work, and so easy of access; but the labourers are still few and the harvest plenteous. In private and in public, my dear Sir, unite with the Israel of God in imploring the Lord of the harvest more copiously to pour out his Spirit on the assemblies of his saints, powerfully constraining a host of willing labourers to come to the help of the Lord against the mighty.
“It is my ardent wish and prayer to God that you may be enabled to press forward with increasing ardour in the glorious cause. You are a living witness that Jesus Christ has power to forgive and to subdue sin. Glory to God! Take heed unto yourself and unto your doctrines; continue in them, for in doing this, through the divine blessing, you shall both save yourself, and them that hear you Sabbath after Sabbath; and from day to day rehearse to your people, and to all you can collect together, the joyful tidings which the Gospel proclaims. Persuaded that you are connected with many wrestling souls, I cannot conclude without proffering to them and you an earnest request for my unworthy self and those devoted souls who serve God in the Gospel of his Son--‘Pray for us.’ That you may be wise to win souls, and may have many who shall be your joy and crown when the Chief Shepherd of the sheep shall appear, is the earnest and affectionate prayer of, my dear Sir, your sincere friend and well-wisher in Christ,
“S. HUNTINGDON.”
During Lady Huntingdon’s visit to York (with Mr. Whitefield, Mr. Madan, Mr. Venn, Captain Scott, &c.), before alluded to, a site for a chapel was selected. It was in College-street, so called from the religious brotherhood of the Collegiate Church of St. Wilfred. This chapel was regularly supplied by the students of Trevecca until 1779, when the Rev. W. Wren was invited from Lincolnshire, by Lady Huntingdon, to fill the place of the student then on the spot, who happened to be ill. He preached his first sermon from Peter’s question to Cornelius--“I ask, therefore, for what intent you have sent for me?” His services were most acceptable; and such was his contempt of labour, and zeal for the calling of perishing sinners to Christ, that while filling this cure of souls, he contrived to raise and maintain a congregation at Barrow, first in a barn, and afterwards in a chapel built for that purpose.[166] The following letter from Lady Huntingdon exhibits her Ladyship’s estimate of the devotedness of Mr. Wren in his new sphere of duty:--
“I have a letter from Mr. Hubback[167] that has occasioned my heart to rejoice, that our gracious Lord appears for our labours in York. Go on, my good young man, as one faithfully devoted to his blessed service, and fear neither men nor devils. I have experienced his continued mercies for more than forty years, in the midst of contempt, malice, persecution without the Church; and false brethren, treachery, ingratitude, and greater evils than in the world, within the professing Church; yet no weapon formed against me has prospered. I can, therefore, in the confidence of a faithful friend to you, speak good of our King of kings and Lord of Lords. And for ever blessed be his glorious name, the Gospel is flourishing and spreading from east to west, from north to south, under our poor unworthy labours; and thus while we are testifying that Jesus is exalted as a Prince and a Saviour, to grant repentance and remission of sins. Mercy is our only joy that will ever last. Its praises will be sounded in the courts of heaven by the redeemed to all eternity; and in this exercise I would fain be foremost to glorify that mercy which could save such a poor, lost, sinful soul as mine. While the Lord seems to bless you, I hope you will not think of stirring. Let me know when you think your message is over at York, that I may have time to appoint a suitable student in your place. I have a letter from the people you mention at Barrow. I have many heart-aching prayers, occasioned by the calls I have, from the fields being white unto the harvest, and the labourers so few. Alas! some past days make me ready to weep, to find that any poor thirsty souls want the waters of life, and that there should be no ministration of them, through the want of a poor earthen vessel to convey them by. Pray, pray in private, pray in public, that our gracious Lord of the harvest would thrust out labourers. We find none willing but such as he makes so for his work. There are many willing for their own work, who say, ‘Lord! Lord!’ but he knows them not. I have reason to praise him for his tender mercies; the deaths of many, in various parts of our Connexion, would revive the most drooping hearts. And now I faithfully commend you to the love, protection, and guidance of Him who is able to make you wise in all that is good, and to preserve you blameless to the day of his appearing. In these prayers for you, I, as ever, remain, your never-ceasing friend, for the Lord Christ’s sake,
“S. HUNTINGDON.”
“Spa-fields, January 4, 1780.”
The chapel at York continued to be served by students from Trevecca, in rotation. In the summer of 1781, the Rev. Cradock Glascott, on his tour through the north of England, visited York, and preached twice in her Ladyship’s chapel there. At Leeds, at Kirkburton, at Almondbury, at Rotherham, and at other places, he also preached to the people assembled at funerals, &c., as well as in the churches, with great effect: his introduction everywhere being the name of Lady Huntingdon. In the summer of 1785, Mr. Wills visited York. At Bradford, Mr. Cross offered him the church of which he was vicar, but Mr. Wills, fearing to involve him in any difficulty with his diocesan, declined the offer. At Leeds, he preached in the White Chapel, formerly belonging to the Rev. Mr. Edwards, and lately supplied by one of Lady Huntingdon’s senior students, the Rev. Edward Parsons. At Heckmondwick, he preached in the rain to several hundred people, including his old college friend, Mr. Rowley, and seven or eight other ministers of the Establishment, and of other creeds. At Wakefield, he preached in Mr. Bruce’s academy, one day; on another, on Hunslet Common. At York, he preached, one evening in the chapel, and the next at the Market-cross; several of the better sort listened from their windows to his testimony, and though the bells of a neighbouring church were kept ringing, the multitude held on and profited. In 1794, Mr. Wydown visited York. He was of Lady Huntingdon’s Connexion, and worshipped for some time in College-street, but on the 28th Dec, 1796, his increased congregation built him a separate chapel, which was opened by the Rev. E. Parsons, of Leeds, and the Rev. H. Howell, of Knaresborough, The congregation soon formed itself into an Independent Church, and on the 18th April, 1797, Mr. Wydown was ordained pastor.
We have thus brought to a close the history of Lady Huntingdon’s exertions in Yorkshire, and may conclude the present chapter by recording the names of her ministers who remained in that county. Mr. Parsons settled at Leeds; Mr. Povah, Mr. Bryan, Mr. Parish, and Mr. Dawson, at Sheffield; Mr. Barnard, Mr. Arbor, and Mr. Morley, at Hull; Mr. Mather, at Beverley; and Mr. Beard, at Scarborough.