John
Wesley’s Experience With
Divine
Retribution Against His Enemies
Daniel
R. Jennings
*This article was
originally published, in a slightly modified form, in FATE Magazine,
July 2007*
One of the oft overlooked heroes of
church history is John Wesley, founder of the Methodist Church. An iconoclastic
figure, Wesley was a scientist, author, theologian and leading figure in the
first Great Awakening. His diary has been read by countless theology students
as a source of information and inspiration. It is within the pages of this
diary that one finds numerous instances of supernatural phenomena, often only
explainable by belief in an outside and invisible spiritual world. Of the many
different types of phenomena recorded by Wesley one example is that of the
unusual fates that befell many of his enemies. In all cases, one could only
assume that it was a divine retribution against those who sought to hinder the
work of this 18th century minister.
Ironically,
most of Wesley’s enemies were not anti-Christian secularists who lived outside
the walls of the church but his fellow ministers who felt that his preaching
and evangelistic methods were conducive to emotionalism and hype.
Consider Wesley’s diary entry for June 9, 1752, in which he
describes his experience in the town of Todmorden where the local minister “was slowly recovering from a violent
fit of a palsy (paralysis), with which he was struck immediately after he had
been preaching a virulent sermon against the Methodists.” On June 15, 1744,
Wesley recorded the case of another individual who “while he was speaking
against my brother and me to the society at Kingswood, was in a moment struck
raving mad.” And his entry for October 23, 1740 describes “A poor wretch, who
was here last week, cursing and blaspheming, and laboring with all his might to
hinder the word of God [from being preached], had afterwards boasted to many,
that he would come again on Sunday, and no man should stop his mouth then. But
on Friday God laid his hand upon him, and on Sunday he was buried.”
Wesley’s
enemies went to great lengths to stop the work that he was doing, even paying
people to disturb his church services. In April of 1740, just such a riot was
attempted. A flood of people poured into the streets shouting, cursing and
swearing, filled with rage over what Wesley was doing. About two weeks
afterwards Wesley records that one of the leaders of the disturbance committed
suicide; another of them was struck with such strong pains in his body that he
sent numerous requests to Wesley asking for prayer. When a third confessed to
Wesley that he had been paid to take part in the riot he explained how that
when he had come to the door of the church, he lost the ability to speak. (See
Wesley’s diary entries for April 1-12, 1740).
In June
of 1769 Wesley experienced yet another mob breaking into houses and beating
members of Methodist Bible study groups. A local minister supporting the riots
preached a sermon from 2Timothy 3:6-7 where it talks about false prophets
taking advantage of people and applied it to the Methodists. Running out of
time he intended to finish his sermon the next Sunday but the following morning
he was struck with an overwhelming fear claiming that all around him he could
see “hobgoblins”, one of whom held a written record of his sins. He died
shortly afterwards. (See Wesley’s diary entry for June 15, 1769).
On
November 14, 1748 Wesley wrote about his experiences in Wandsworth, where
people would throw dirt and rocks at those who met to study the Bible. A
complaint was filed with the local Magistrate but an individual was able to
influence the Magistrate so that all charges were dropped against the rioters.
A few days after, the individual was walking and suddenly dropped down dead.
On July
3, 1748 Wesley attended a service where one of his enemies was preaching.
Though, this time there was a marked distinction between what Wesley had
remembered as being this man’s speaking ability. “That soft, smooth, tuneful
voice, which he so often employed to blaspheme the work of God,” Wesley said
“was lost, without hope of recovery: All means had been tried [to help him but
none could]…He now spoke in a manner shocking to hear, and impossible to be
heard distinctly by one quarter of the congregation.”
In 1739
John Haydon, a weaver who had witnessed some of the unusual phenomena
associated with Wesley’s meetings, had started a personal crusade against the
Methodists claiming that the people were deluded and influenced by emotionalism
and the devil. On the 2 of May he was at his home reading a sermon on salvation
by faith when he suddenly “changed color, fell off his chair, and began
screaming terribly”. When Wesley heard news of this he immediately went to the
house, upon which arriving at, Haydon cried out “this is he, who I said was a deceiver of the people.
But God has overtaken me. I said, it was all a delusion; but this is no
delusion.” He then beat himself against the ground, his chest heaving and all
the while great drops of sweat trickled down his face. After prayer his
emotional and physical trauma stopped.
Perhaps
the most interesting case of divine retribution that Wesley records is that
involving a minister by the name of Weston who had preached a hard-hitting
sermon against Wesley and the Methodists. On August 24, 1743 Wesley made an
investigation into the incident and here is what he discovered. Rev. Weston had
preached a sermon several times stating that Wesley and his followers were “the
men whom St. Paul foretold, who have the form, the outward show of holiness,
but not the power; for they are ravening wolves, full of hypocrisy within.” He
then went on to list many horrible things that they had been alleged to have
done, warning the congregation to stay away from them. Shortly after this he
was scheduled to preach at another church where, after beginning, he “was
suddenly seized with a rattling in his throat, attended with an hideous
groaning. He fell backward against the door of the pulpit, burst it open, and
would have fallen down the stairs, but that some people caught him, and carried
him away, as it seemed, dead, into the vestry. In two or three days he
recovered his senses, and the Sunday following died!”
All in
all, it seems safe to say that Wesley’s work was definitely protected by an
unseen Hand. His enemies have long been gone but the legacy of Wesley has
continued up until the present being embraced by some 170 million people
worldwide who continue the work that he started.