The Paternoster Ch11rch History, Vol. VII General Editor: PROFESSOR F. F. BRUCE, M.A., D.D. THE INEXTINGUISHABLE BLAZE In the Same Series: Vol. I. THE SPREADING FLAME The Rise and Progress of Christianity l!J Professor F. F. Bruce, M.A., D.D. Vol. II. THE GROWING STORM SketrhesofChurchHistoryfromA.D. 6ootoA.D. IJJO i!J G. S. M. Walker, M.A., B.D., Ph.D. Vol. III. THE MORNING STAR Wycliffe and the Dawn of the Reformation l!J G. H. W. Parker, M.A., M.Litt. Vol. VI. LIGHT IN THE NORTH The Story of the Scottish Covenanters l!J J. D. Douglas, M.A., B.D., S.T.M., Ph.D. Vol. VIII. THE LIGHT OF THE NATIONS Evangelical Renewal and Advance in the Nineteenth Century l!JJ. Edwin Orr, Ph.D., D. Phil. (Oxon), F.R.Hist.S. In Preparation: Vol. IV. THE GREAT LIGHT Luther and the Reformation l!J James Atkinson, M.A., M.Litt., D.Th. Vol. V. THE REFINING FIRE The Puritan Era l!J James Packer, M.A., D.Phil. THE INEXTINGUISHABLE BLAZE SpiritlltlJ Renewal and Advance in the Eighteenth Century by A. SKEVINGTON WOOD B.A., Ph.D., F.R.Hist.S. Then let it for Thy glory h11r11 With inextingllishahle bla:<.e,· And trembling to its source return, In humble prayer and fervent praise. Charles Wesley PATERNOSTER • THE PATERNOSTER PRESS C Copyright 1900 The Patm,oster Press Second impru.rion Mar,h 1967 AUSTRALIA: Emu Book Agmriu Pty., Ltd., pr, Kent Streit, Sydney, N.S.W. CANADA: Hom, E11angel Books Ltd., 2.5, Hobson A11enue, Toronto, 16 SOUTH AFRICA: Oxford University Prus, P.O.Box u41, Thibault Ho11.re, Thibault Square, Cape Town NEW ZEALAND: G. W. Moor,, Ltd., P.O.Box 2.9012., Grem'JIIOod' s Corner, 2.4 Empire Road, Alt&kland Mad, and Printed in Gr,at Britain for The Palm,osler Press Patm,osler Ho11.r1 3 Mo1111t Radford Crescent Exeter DIIIOn by Laliflltr Trend & Co Ltd P/ytJ1011tb CONTENTS Chapter pag, INTRODUCTION: THE ENIGMATIC CENTURY 7 PRELUDE I. THE CONDITION OF THE CHURCH II. THE ANTECEDENTS OF THE REVIVAL THE YEARS OF VISITATION: 1711-1742. m. THE DAwN IN WALEs IV. THE AMERICAN AwAKENING V. THE MORAVIAN CONTRIBUTION VI. THE TRUMPET VOICE • VII. THE CONVERSION OF THE WESLEY$ vm. THE REvivAL IN scoTLAND • THE YEARS OF EVANGELIZATION: 1742.-1800 IX. THE RISE OF ANGLICAN EVANGELICALISM 12.9 X. THE MORAVIAN MISSION 148 XI. THE SPREAD OF METHODISM 162. XII. THE CALVINISTIC WING 176 xm. THE couNTEss AND HER CoNNExION 189 XIV. THE EXPANSION OF EVANGELICALISM 2.05 POSTLUDE xv. THE MESSAGE OF THE REVIVAL XVI. THE INFLUENCE OF THE REVIVAL INTRODUCTION THE ENIGMATIC CENTURY ROBABLY NO SINGLE ERA IN THE WHOLE RANGE OF ENGLISH history has been more extensively scrutinized than the Peighteenth century. There is an abundance of literature on the subject, and only very recently has historical interest begun to veer towards the following century. It is still, however, extra­ ordinarily difficult to obtain a clear and unprejudiced picture of the period. The very profusion of bibliography proves an em­ barrassment. So many apparently contradictory accounts have appeared that the novice despairs of ever acquiring a firm grasp of this enigmatic century. Adjectives tumble over one another when historians seek to describe it. John Stuart Mill called it "inno­ vative, infidel, abstract, metaphysical, and prosaic,"1 and a similar spate of epithets flows from other and more recent pens than his. The eighteenth century has been variously denominated as the age of reason, enlightenment, serenity, benevolence, tolerance, common sense, respectability, artistry, classicism, formalism, deism, materialism, doubt, decadence, scandal, to select only a few. It is quite evident that no epoch can be reduced satisfactorily to a single compendious formula. The eighteenth century cer­ tainly cannot be thus epitomized. It is so spacious, so complex and so fluid that any one of the descriptions quoted above is, in a measure, accurate in relation to some aspect of the period, yet none of them is comprehensive enough to characterize the whole. Any attempt, then, at a facile simplification must be firmly for­ sworn. W. H. Fitchett dubbed this "the Cinderella of the centuries."2 He complained that nobody had a good word to say for it. That was largely true when he wrote in 1906. And even since that date too many studies in black-and-white have appeared. But the trend of the best historical scholarship in recent years has been to present 1 Cf. B. Willey, Thi Eighteenth Century BaGkgrolllUI, pp. 209, 212. 1 W. H. Fitchett,, Wu~ and His Century, p. 2. 7 8 THE INEXTINGUISHABLE BLAZE a broader and more balanced view of the century. The extremes of eulogy and disparagement have been avoided, and a saner and more impartial picture is emerging. The sweeping generalizations of the past have been subjected to factual tests and, more often than not, have been proved to be misleading, if not actually erroneous. It has also been rightly emphasized that the eighteenth century is too often set in a false perspective. We tend to compare it with the present instead of with the past. It is quite unjust, how­ ever, to judge the eighteenth century by modern standards. It must be assessed as the eighteenth century and not as the twentieth. Only the experts have any real right to pass sentence on this era. A merely superficial acquaintance does not bestow the right to a categorical judgment. The recommendation of Professor A. S. Turberville should be weighed and acted upon: "Just as it is an impertinence to criticize a foreign country where one possesses as yet only a tourist's knowledge of it, before one has learned to know its people, to speak their language, or to become at home in their surroundings; so, we must in imagination become the friends and neighbours of our forefathers before we are entitled to dogmatize about them.''1 Holding this admonition in view, we shall beware of com­ mitting ourselves to any pontifical pronouncement. It will be possible in this Introduction only to touch and glance upon the condition of England in this enigmatic century before proceeding in the Prelude to consider the state of the Church and the ante­ cedents of the Revival. But these factors need nevertheless to be borne in mind throughout our survey. If the eighteenth century had hardly opened "with all the promise of a summer dawn"2 that Canon Elliott-Binns suggests, both for Church and people, at least it enjoyed a generous share. In I 702. Queen Anne ascended the throne to commence what, particularly to the conservative mind in both politics and religion, appeared to be one of the most auspicious reigns in the annals of England. In her first speech to Parliament she declared her "heart to be entirely English,"3 and throughout her sovereignty she earnestly sought the allegiance of her subjects. The strongest motive in her policy was devotion to the Church. She displayed a genuine, if partisan, interest in ecclesiastical affairs and determined 1 Johnron' r England, ed. A. S. Turberville, Vol. I, p. vi. ~ L. E. Elliott-Binns, Thi Evangeli&al Movement in th, Englirh Ch11r,h, p. 3 (italics nune). 1 Earl Stanhope, A Hirtory of England rompriring th, Reign ofQl#en Anne, p. 39; cf. N. Sykes, Ch11r,h and Stat, in England in the Eight,enth Century, pp. 37-9. THE ENIGMATIC CENTURY 9 to exercise her personal prerogatives in the appointment of dig­ nitaries. Yet even before her death in 1714 this Tory and High Church paradise had begun to lose its lustre. The inauguration of the Hanoverian dynasty in the accession of George I heralded a significant change of royal attitude. After the expediential alliance between Edmund Gibson, Bishop of London (the virtual Primate), and Sir Robert Walpole (the actual Prime Minister) had been con­ summated, the King permitted the care of the Church to pass out of his hands. Henceforward, Walpole's principle of quieta non movere was to dominate both Church and State. Peace at any price was the motto of this leader of the Whig oligarchy; and peace, indeed, was secured, accompanied by a ,considerable outward prosperity. As so often before in history, this increasing national obesity had serious repercussions in the realm of morals. A plague of insidious materialism swept over the country. It would be easy to exaggerate its extent, for no disease, whether physical or spiritual, is so deadly as to infect an entire population. There must have been many "sweet Auburns" untouched by this blight: many scenes of domestic contentment such as those de­ picted by Francis Wheatley; many a pure and upright character, unsullied by the spirit of the age. But that moral degeneracy found its victims in every stratum of society and that an uninhibited hedonism was the prevailing philosophy of the times can hardly be denied. Walpole himself led the way by his openly immoral life. Houghton, his country seat, was the scene of scandalous debauchery. Virtue was the constant butt of his mordant wit. Court life under the first two Georges was as replete with vices as in the days of Charles II, without the accompanying virtues of spark.ling repartee and nonchalance. It is not surprising that this degrading example in high places influenced the nation as a whole in the direction of moral laxity. Not only was the sanctity of marriage widely ignored: other symptoms of decadence began to appear. Drunkenness held the nation in its grip, from the gentry to the poorest of the poor.