185

CIRCULAR OF MR. SHIRLEY.

Superior. Sir, I am so taken up that I have not time, or I could say a great deal upon it.

Mr. Hill. Your doctrine is nearer that of the Protestants?

Superior. O, Sir, a great deal; that is Pelagianism.

As soon as Mr. Hill returned to England, which was after the Conference at Bristol of 1771, he printed this conversation, which had led him to conclude that the principles of the extract from the minutes of the former Conference, were "too rotten for even a Papist to rest upon," and that " Popery was about the midway between Protestantism and Mr. J. Wesley." While, however, Mr. Hill was preparing his observations for the press, he had become acquainted with a "manifesto" of Wesley, issued from Bristol, in which he complained of misrepresentation, and explained the objectionable phraseology that had raised such a tumult. The cause of this declaration was a circular letter from the Hon. and Rev. Walter Shirley, brother and chaplain of Lady Huntingdon, to the serious clergy and others, calling on them to go in a body to the Bristol Conference, and "insist upon a formal recantation of the said minutes, and in case of a refusal, to sign and publish their protest against them." Wesley notices the circumstance with great brevity in his Journal of 1771. All he says Tuesday 6, we had more preachers than usual at the Conference, in consequence of Mr. Shirley's circular letter. At ten on Thursday morning he came, with nine or ten of his friends: we conversed freely for about two hours, and I believe they were satisfied that we were not such "dreadful heretics" as they imagined, but were tolerably sound in the faith." At first Wesley felt indignant at the circular, feeling that before it was

is,

66

186

MR. SHIRLEY AT THE CONFERENCE OF 1771.

published, he ought to have been applied to by its author to declare what he really meant by the opinions he had expressed in the offensive minutes. Moreover, he was disposed to let Mr. Shirley and his brethren know, that they had not proved their right to come to the Conference in the way designed, and that there was some probability of a refusal to have any intercourse with them if they came with hostile demonstrations. Upon this Lady Huntingdon and her brother acknowledged their too great haste, and disclaimed all intention to approach the Conference, except with fraternal feelings and a friendly wish to obtain a right understanding. Mr. Shirley and his friends were immediately invited to attend without any further application on their parts, as the letters of submission written by Lady Huntingdon and him were deemed satisfactory. Accordingly they appeared on the third day of the Conference. When they entered, Mr. Wesley opened with prayer. This ended, Mr. Shirley asked him if Lady Huntingdon's letter and his had been read to the Conference. He was told they had not, and requested permission to read them, which was granted. "I hope," he said, "the submission thus made is satisfactory to the gentlemen present." To this they replied in the affirmative, but urged that as the circular had been printed and made public, so ought the apology. To this Mr. Shirley consented in a most Christian spirit, and afterwards fulfilled his promise. Wesley then stood up and made a long speech, in which he gave a sketch of his ministerial career, and declared that he had ever been strenuous in advocating justification by faith, maintaining at the same time that there was nothing in the minutes that ought to have been construed into any thing else. He then added what he might as well have left out,—that

REMONSTRANCE OF MR. SHIRLEY.

187

he had been treated with ingratitude, and that he firmly believed the present opposition to be in a great measure personal. In reply, Mr. Shirley positively denied this assertion, and with great gentleness of manner, solemnly assured all present, that with respect to himself, his opposition was solely to the doctrines promulgated, and not to Mr. Wesley or any other individual. To this the persons present signified that they gave credit; after which Mr. Shirley proceeded to speak to the point. "I informed them," he says, " of the great and general offence the minutes had given; that I had numerous protests and testimonies against them sent me from Scotland, and from various parts of these kingdoms; that it must seem very extraordinary indeed, if so many men of sense and learning should be mistaken, and there was nothing really offensive in the plain natural import of the minutes; that I believed they themselves, whatever meaning they might have intended, would allow that the more obvious meaning was reprehensible; and therefore I recommended to them, nay I begged and intreated them for the Lord's sake, that they would go as far as they could with a good conscience, in giving the world satisfaction." He then proposed a declaration he had drawn up, assuring them he meant to give no offence. Leave was given him to read it; and when Wesley had made a few trifling alterations in the wording, he consented, with fifty-three of his preachers, to sign it. One or two only were against it; and amongst them Thomas Olivers, the Welchman, who was converted under Mr. Whitfield's preaching, and used to follow him in the streets with such veneration, that he could "scarce refrain from kissing the very prints of his feet." For some reason, however, he met with a rebuff when he wished to join the society; but

188

OLIVERS. HIS VIOLENCE AT BRISTOL.

he was at length admitted into that of the Wesleyans at Bradford. As soon as he had obtained entrance there, he professed to have seen at the bottom of the hill coming into the town, a ray of light like the shining of a star, which broke through an opening in the heavens and gleamed upon him. Then all his burdens fell off, and he felt so light that he could almost literally have fled up to the skies. There were some good points about Olivers; but at Bristol he was very violent. He stirred up a strong debate in opposition to the declaration, and at last refused to sign it, after talking the most arrant nonsense. But this was one of the penalties Wesley paid for his want of firmness in 1755 and 1756,' about his Lay Preachers, which gave liberty to "Thomas Olivers the cobler," and others, thus to get out of their places. This man maintained before the whole Conference, that the Christian's second justification at the day of judgment is by works; and therefore he could not declare, as the majority did, that " he had no trust or confidence but in the alone merits of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, for justification or salvation, either in life, death, or the day of judgment." Wesley and his fifty-three preachers, however, rightly thought otherwise; and it is clear that Olivers and his associates ought to have been dismissed from the society. The declaration signed was as follows:

Bristol, Aug. 9, 1771.

Whereas the doctrinal points in the minutes of a Conference held in London, August 7, 1770, have been

1 See the History of these Conferences and the curious correspondence relating to them, in my Life of Walker of Truro. Second Edition, 1838. Seeleys.

DECLARATION OF THE CONFERENCE.

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understood to favor" Justification by Works," now the Rev. John Wesley and others assembled in Conference, do declare that we had no such meaning, and that we abhor the doctrine of "Justification by Works," as a most perilous and abominable doctrine. And as the said minutes are not sufficiently guarded in the way they are expressed, we hereby solemnly declare in the sight of God, that we have no trust or confidence, but in the alone merits of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ for justification or salvation, either in life, death, or the day of judgment. And though no one is a real Christian believer, and consequently cannot be saved, who doeth not good works where there is time and opportunity; yet our works have no part in meriting or purchasing our justification from first to last, either in whole or part.'

When this declaration was agreed to, it was said to Mr. Shirley," Now, sir, you must make some public acknowledgment that you have mistaken the meaning of the minutes." He hesitated a little; for though he desired to "do every thing he could consistently with truth and a good conscience, for the establishment of peace and Christian fellowship," yet he was afraid to sign any paper wherein he might seem to countenance the minutes in their obvious sense. And certainly the question was, not what Mr. Wesley meant by the wording of them, but what was the sense in which any unbiassed person, like, for instance, the superior in the French convent, would be sure to take them? One of the preachers, however, rather nettled by Mr. Shirley's hesitation, asked him, "Sir, do you not believe Mr. Wesley to be an honest man ?" He was distressed at the question, and declared his "confidence in Mr. Wesley's integrity," and promised to give the best satisfac