The Works of John Wesley

John Wesley

Abingdon Press, 1984 - Biography & Autobiography - 760 pages

This is the fourth in an eagerly awaited series of four volumes of John Wesley's sermons. This volume contains 18 sermons that were published in the Arminian Magazine from 1789 to 1792. It also contains 19 sermons that were taken from Wesley's manuscripts. Of all the genres in Wesley's prodigious output, his sermons most clearly focus and expound his understanding of Christian existence. Outler's introduction in the first volume concentrates two decades of painstaking research and thought on Wesley. From this he ably sets the stage for a fuller understanding and appreciation of a major Christian heritage, a heritage which can at last be seen as a whole against the background of its sources. The four volumes contain 151 sermons, including a number recovered from Wesley's manuscripts. These constitute the core of Wesley's doctrinal teachings upon which his own evangelical movement was founded. Following Wesley's own ordering, Dr. Outler begins with the familiar Sermons on Several Occasions, which present Wesley's basic teachings on salvation and form the bulk of the first two volumes in the series. Outler masterfully demonstrates the significance of all the subsequent sermons since they exhibit Wesley's entire approach to the Christian life. Each volume is rich with footnotes that include the identification of quotations, elucidation of references, the tracing of key themes, and vital background information on each sermon. Representing the culmination of twenty years of exhaustive research, it is the purpose of these conclusive volumes to keep alive the growing interest in Wesleyan studies for the entire Christian church. All Works of John Wesley volumes are designed to keep the pages clean and in place for years to come., with casebound non-cloth hardcover, dust jacket, and secure adhesive binding.

Contents

• An Editorial Comment: 1
• Dives and Lazarus: 2
• What is Man?: 19

About the author

John Wesley, 1703 - 1791 English theologian John Wesley was born the 15th child, in the rectory at Epworth, Lincolnshire on June 17, 1703, to clergyman Samuel Wesley. He was also an evangelist and the founder of Methodism. He was educated at Charter House School and Christ Church, University of Oxford. He was ordained deacon in 1725 and admitted to the priesthood of the Church of England in 1728. In 1729, he went into residency at Oxford as a fellow of Lincoln College. While at Lincoln College, Wesley joined a group called the Holy Club, which included his brother Charles and George Whitefield, who later founded Calvinistic Methodism. It was a group of students that adhered strictly and methodically to religious precepts and practices by visiting prisons and comforting the sick, and their schoolmates called them "Methodists." In 1735, he went to Georgia as an Anglican missionary and met some German Moravians on the ship. He associated with them while in Savannah, Georgia and translated some of their hymns into English. While attending one of the Moravian's meetings on the return trip to England, he experienced a religious awakening. In 1739, Wesley joined George Whitefield in his evangelical endeavors. He preached an open-air sermon outside the church and received an enthusiastic reaction, which convinced him that this form of preaching was the most effective way to reach the masses. The Anglican Church frowned on revivalism. He attracted immense crowds because of his assurance that each person was accepted as a child of God, which was something the Anglican Church was unable to offer. On May 1, 1739, Wesley and a group of his followers formed the first Methodist society. Two similar societies were established in Bristol, and in late 1739, the London society began meeting in a building called the Foundry, which served as the headquarters of Methodism for many years. In 1740, Wesley parted with the Moravians and Whitefield because of doctrinal disagreements and the Calvinist doctrine of predestination. He also discarded many of the tenets of the Church of England, which made separation inevitable. In an effort for tighter organization of a growing Methodist movement, the societies were divided into classes, in 1742, with a leader for each class. Wesley called the first conference of the Methodist leaders in 1744 and the conferences were held annually thereafter. In 1751, he married Mary Vazeille who was a widow with four children. Their marriage eventually failed. In 1784, he issued the deed of declaration, which provided rules and regulations for the guidance of the Methodist societies, and appointed his aide Thomas Coke, an Anglican clergyman, superintendent of the Methodist organization in the United States. This empowered him to administer the sacraments with other ordinations following. The ordination was the largest step in breaking with the Anglican Church, but separation did not happen until after Wesley's death. Wesley compiled 23 collections of hymns, edited a monthly magazine, and translated Greek, Latin, and Hebrew works. He edited, under the title "The Christian Pattern," the medieval devotional work "De Imitatione Christi," generally ascribed to Thomas a` Kempis. In the latter part of Wesley's life, the hostility between the Anglican Church and Methodism had all but disappeared, and he was greatly admired. On March 2, 1791, Wesley died and was buried in the graveyard of City Road Chapel, London. In Westminster Abbey is a memorial plaque inscribed with his name.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Works of John Wesley; The Bicentennial edition of the works of John Wesley; Volume 4 of The Works of John Wesley Volume 4; Works, John Wesley
• Author: John Wesley
• Editors: Albert Cook Outler, Frank Baker, Richard P. Heitzenrater, Randy L. Maddox
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Abingdon Press, 1984
• ISBN: 0687462134, 9780687462131
• Length: 760 pages
• Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Religious; Religion / Christian Rituals & Practice / General; Religion / Christianity / Methodist; Religion / Sermons / Christian