WESLEY, John (1703-1791). Autograph letter signed ('John Wesley') to [the Reverend Joseph Townsend], Edinburgh, 2 August 1767, four pages, 4to , bifolium, docketed by recipient, a later note pasted at end of letter identifying the recipient and signed 'J.H.M.' (split at folds with occasional slight loss of legibility, minor discolouration, professionally conserved and mounted between perspex sheets).
WESLEY, John (1703-1791). Autograph letter signed ('John Wesley') to [the Reverend Joseph Townsend], Edinburgh, 2 August 1767, four pages, 4to , bifolium, docketed by recipient, a later note pasted at end of letter identifying the recipient and signed 'J.H.M.' (split at folds with occasional slight loss of legibility, minor discolouration, professionally conserved and mounted between perspex sheets). A STERN LETTER ON A PREACHING DISPUTE. Wesley opens by recalling his cordial former meeting with Townsend in Edinburgh -- 'When I saw you here some years since, I cou'd not but admire you: such was your simplicity & Godly sincerity. You knew the poor little Flock, tho a Proverb of Reproach, were a living People of GOD'; but on Townsend's recent return to Edinburgh, his behaviour was different: 'you did not know the Methodists ... You had no Fellowship with them ... You stood aloof from them as tho they wou'd have infected you. Nay, you preached just by them, at the very hour of their Preaching. You lessened their Congregations ... You exceedingly grieved the spirit of the Preachers, & caused their hands to hang down. / Was this well done? ... Did it do any real Good ... ? Was it a Proof of Love to me ? ... Alas, my Brother! I know you wou'd do well. But surely herein you have mistaken your way'. Wesley goes on to refute Townsend's several accusations, that the Methodists are a 'fallen People' and that they differ from the Calvinists on a number of key doctrines, notably that of predestination, and exhorts him to amend his conduct in future visits to Edinburgh, concluding 'I have now told you all that lay upon my mind: And I have done it exceedingly plainly. If you can receive it, I shall rejoice, for Your sake, & for the People's. For many years I have been labouring for Peace, tho I have had little thanks for my pains. However my record is above, & my reward with the most High'. Published, with omissions, in the Letters , ed. John Telford (1931). Telford notes that the recipient, a fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, and Rector of Pewsey, Wilts (where Wesley had preached in 1764) 'visited Scotland in 1767 on a mission from Lady Huntingdon, and spent two months in Edinburgh, where he preached at five in the morning to crowded congregations': such was the appeal and efficacy of his preaching that it contributed to the reduction in numbers of the Edinburgh methodists over the next three years from 160 to fifty.
WESLEY, John (1703-1791). Autograph letter signed ('John Wesley') to [the Reverend Joseph Townsend], Edinburgh, 2 August 1767, four pages, 4to , bifolium, docketed by recipient, a later note pasted at end of letter identifying the recipient and signed 'J.H.M.' (split at folds with occasional slight loss of legibility, minor discolouration, professionally conserved and mounted between perspex sheets).
WESLEY, John (1703-1791). Autograph letter signed ('John Wesley') to [the Reverend Joseph Townsend], Edinburgh, 2 August 1767, four pages, 4to , bifolium, docketed by recipient, a later note pasted at end of letter identifying the recipient and signed 'J.H.M.' (split at folds with occasional slight loss of legibility, minor discolouration, professionally conserved and mounted between perspex sheets). A STERN LETTER ON A PREACHING DISPUTE. Wesley opens by recalling his cordial former meeting with Townsend in Edinburgh -- 'When I saw you here some years since, I cou'd not but admire you: such was your simplicity & Godly sincerity. You knew the poor little Flock, tho a Proverb of Reproach, were a living People of GOD'; but on Townsend's recent return to Edinburgh, his behaviour was different: 'you did not know the Methodists ... You had no Fellowship with them ... You stood aloof from them as tho they wou'd have infected you. Nay, you preached just by them, at the very hour of their Preaching. You lessened their Congregations ... You exceedingly grieved the spirit of the Preachers, & caused their hands to hang down. / Was this well done? ... Did it do any real Good ... ? Was it a Proof of Love to me ? ... Alas, my Brother! I know you wou'd do well. But surely herein you have mistaken your way'. Wesley goes on to refute Townsend's several accusations, that the Methodists are a 'fallen People' and that they differ from the Calvinists on a number of key doctrines, notably that of predestination, and exhorts him to amend his conduct in future visits to Edinburgh, concluding 'I have now told you all that lay upon my mind: And I have done it exceedingly plainly. If you can receive it, I shall rejoice, for Your sake, & for the People's. For many years I have been labouring for Peace, tho I have had little thanks for my pains. However my record is above, & my reward with the most High'. Published, with omissions, in the Letters , ed. John Telford (1931). Telford notes that the recipient, a fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, and Rector of Pewsey, Wilts (where Wesley had preached in 1764) 'visited Scotland in 1767 on a mission from Lady Huntingdon, and spent two months in Edinburgh, where he preached at five in the morning to crowded congregations': such was the appeal and efficacy of his preaching that it contributed to the reduction in numbers of the Edinburgh methodists over the next three years from 160 to fifty.
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
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