John Wesley

: For entries on other people named John Wesley, see John Wesley (disambiguation).

Persecutions; lay preaching

From 1739 onward Wesley and the Methodists were persecuted by clergymen and magistrates; attacked in sermons and in print, mobbed, often in

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controversy, yet always at work among the neglected and needy, and ever increasing. They were denounced as promulgators of strange doctrines, fomenters of religious disturbances; as blind fanatics, leading people astray, claiming miraculous gifts, attacking the clergy of the Church of England, and trying to reestablish Catholicism. Wesley and his followers were often physically attacked. Feeling, however, that the church failed in its duty to call sinners to repentance, that its clergymen were corrupt and that souls were perishing in their sins, he regarded himself as commissioned by God to warn men; and no opposition, or persecution, or obstacles could prevail against the divine urgency and authority of this commission. The prejudices of his High-church training, his strict notions of the methods and proprieties of public worship, his views of the apostolic succession and the prerogatives of the priest, even his most cherished convictions, were not allowed to stand in the way.

Related Topics:
Church of England - Catholic

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Unwilling that men should perish in their sins and unable to reach them from church pulpits, he began field-preaching. Seeing that he and the few clergymen cooperating with him could not do the work that needed to be done, he was led, as early as 1739, to approve of lay preaching; and men who were not episcopally ordained were permitted to preach and do pastoral work. Thus one of the great features of Methodism, to which it has largely owed its success, was adopted by Wesley in answer to a necessity.

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