This is a reproduction of a library book that was digitized by Google as part of an ongoing effort to preserve the information in books and make it universally accessible. https://books.google.com John Wesley and George Whitefield in Scotland "the best of all is, god is with us." "i look upon all the world as my parish." "god buries his workmen, but carries on his work." — Wesley. "ASTRA PETAMUS." — Motto on IVhiteJield's seal, .with device of wings out spread for Jlight. j John Wesley and George Whitefield in Scotland or, The Influence of the Oxford Methodists on Scottish Religion BY THE REV. D. BUTLER, M.A. ABERNETHY NEW YORK FUNK AND WAGNALLS COMPANY 30 LAFAYETTE PLACE 1899 All Rights reserved 6 rf?. <r 3 PREFACE. In the following pages an endeavour has heen made to write a short history of the visits made to Scotland last century by two of the most outstanding men of the period — the Eev. John Wesley and the Eev. George Whitefield. Although the visits were but a very small fraction of their vast work, they are of great interest to the historical student, and to every one that takes an interest in a most remark able revival of religion, the results of which are still felt in the life and work of the modem Church. Wesley and Whitefield influenced Scottish Eeligion most profoundly, and the movement of which they were the outstanding leaders became to a consider able extent a religious movement within the Scottish Church, moulding both life and work ever since. The outstanding feature of the great Methodist Eevival is that its indirect influence was as im vi PREFACE. portant as its direct influence. The literature it created, the hymns it inspired, the work it called forth, the spiritual atmosphere it created by the organisation of a great religious communion, acted upon all the Churches, and left no Church after wards the same. Spiritual force cannot be limited in its area of direct action, and the great Methodist Eevival of Eeligion, while it is visibly embodied in the Scottish Churches that still bear Wesley's honoured name, cannot be measured in extent by them. The general movement has assimilated itself into the life and work of all sections of the Scottish Church, and has acted as an expansive force on re ligion and on religious work. Whitefield brought it by his preaching, which affected the Scottish towns as Savonarola's did Florence of old : Hervey expressed it in the religious literature which was widely read in Scotland : Charles Wesley has sung it into the Scottish devotional life by his hymns : John Wesley brought it by his literature, his hymns, his apostolic labours ; by the direct and indirect in fluence of organised Methodism, and the religious life it has inspired. The literature connected with the general move ment is vast, but the interest connected with the Scottish work is distinctive, and an endeavour has PREFACE. vii been made to give it a treatment which, while narrating the particular facts, yet connects it with the general movement. The letters and journals of Wesley and Whitefield are the original sources from which the information has been acquired, but other literature relating to the period has also been helpful. The letters and journals (especially Wesley's) are not only valuable as a record of the movement, but are also of historical value in cast ing light upon Scottish Church life in last century — an interest, too, which will increase with the years. It is to be observed that the movement was also indebted to Scotland, for a Scottish book — Scougal's 'Life of God in the Soul of Man' — had an epoch-making influence over Whitefield's religious development (pp. 5 to 11), and was well known to both Charles and John Wesley (p. 7 and pp. 67, 68). D. BUTLER. The Manse, Abernethy, Perthshire, November 18, 1898. CONTENTS. PAOE object and influence of methodism . 1 whitefield's life, work, influence, and scot tish visits . .4 wesley's life, work, influence, and Scottish visits . 07 Wesley's narrative of his Scottish visits . 229 INDEX 313 WESLEY AND WHITEFIELD IN SCOTLAND. Wesley [says Mr Leslie Stephen] founded a body which eighty years after his death could boast of twelve million adherents : and its reaction upon other bodies was perhaps as important as its direct influence.1 The Methodists themselves [says the late Mr Green] were the least result of the Methodist revival. A yet nobler result was the steady attempt, which has never ceased from that day to this, to remedy the guilt, the ignorance, the physical suffering, the social degra dation of the profligate and the poor. It was not till the Wesleyan impulse had done its work that this phil anthropic impulse began.2 Although the career of the elder Pitt [says Mr Lecky] and the splendid victories by land and sea that were won during his Ministry form unquestionably the most dazzling episodes in the reign of George II., they must yield, I think, in real importance to that religious 1 History of English Thought in the Eighteenth Century, vol. ii. p. 409. 5 A Short History of the English People, vol. iv. pp. 1618, 1619. A 2 WESLEY AND WHITEFIELD IN SCOTLAND. revolution which shortly before had been begun in England by the preaching of the Wesleys and of Whitefield. The creation of a large, powerful, and active sect, extending over both hemispheres, and numbering many millions of souls, was but one of its consequences. It also exercised a profound and lasting influence upon the spirit of the Established Church, upon the amount and distribution of the moral forces of the nation, and even upon the course of its political history.1 Such are the opinions of three modern historians regarding this remarkable and unique religious revival, and Mr Tyerman holds the bold statement to be strictly true — that " Methodism is the greatest fact in the history of the Church of Christ." 2 The present study deals with the historical facts regard ing the introduction of Methodism into Scotland ; with the influence it wielded, the opposition it had to contend with, and the spiritual force it brought within the Church itself. The area for inquiry is circumscribed, yet the movement within Scotland was real and pervasive, and what it lost in extent it gained in intensive power. Methodism was in Scot land, as in England, a purely religious movement, as spiritual as anything on this side of time can be ; it had as its marching-order and inspiring force a great object, fraught with good to the Churches of the country — viz., religion " not as the bare saying over 1 History of England in the Eighteenth Century, vol. ii. p. 521. ! The Life and TimeB of John Wesley, vol. i. p. 12. OBJECT OF METHODISM. 3 so many prayers, morning and evening, in public or in private ; not anything superadded now and then to a careless or worldly life ; but a constant ruling habit of the soul ; a renewal of our minds in the image of God ; a recovery of the divine likeness ; a still increasing conformity of heart and life to the pattern of our most holy Eedeemer."1 These words of John Wesley, written in 1734, embody and express the aim of the great revival of last century, and it cannot but be of interest to trace its development in Scotland. The Scottish movement chiefly centres around the names of John Wesley and George Whitefield, who both visited the country; and in order to understand John Wesley's work, it will be neces sary to begin with George Whitefield, as he was the pioneer of Methodism in Scotland, and influ enced the Church of Scotland most profoundly. 1 Tyeriuan's Oxford Methodists, p. 19. 4 THE REV. GEORGE WHITEFIELD. George Whitefifld was born in the Bell Inn, Gloucester, on 16th December 1714. When eighteen years of age he entered as servitor Pem broke College, Oxford, where he spent four years, from 1732 to 1736. Twelve years before, John Wesley had been admitted to Christ Church College, and during the interval had been elected Fellow of Lincoln College, had taken his degree, and been ordained deacon and priest. Charles Wesley had been six years at Christ Church, and had taken the Bachelor of Arts degree, and had become a college tutor. William Morgan, one of the first of the Oxford Methodists, died a few weeks before Whitefield entered Pembroke College. For three years past Clayton had been at Brasenose. Ingham had already spent two years at Queen's. In 1726 Gambold had been ad mitted as servitor in Christ Church, and in 1733 was ordained by Bishop Potter. Hervey, born in the same year as Whitefield, had in 1731 become undergraduate in Lincoln College, where Wesley was tutor. Broughton was in Exeter College. Kinchin was a Fellow of Corpus OXFOED "HOLY CLUB." 5 Christi. For twelve years Hutohina had been Fellow of Lincoln, where also for some time past Whitelamb and Westley Hall had been studying, to the content of Wesley.1 At Oxford Whitefield was brought into contact with the earnest company of students known as the Methodists, and was profoundly helped and in fluenced by them. The " Holy Club " before long perceived the earnestness of the Pembroke servitor, and admitted him into their fellowship. It is in teresting to record that a religious book, written by a Scottish professor, was one extensively used by all of them, and had no small influence in shaping their religious development. It is a book now much forgotten, but one that ought to be better known — ' The Life of God in the Soul of Man.' A subjoined footnote gives a narrative of the life of its author, Henry Scougal (1650-1678), and an an alysis of his religious teaching.2 Those acquainted 1 Tyerman's Life of George Whitefield, vol.