Up for auction a RARE! "John Wesley" Some Brick From His House Encapsulated. This item is certified authentic by Todd
Mueller Autographs and comes with their Certificate of Authenticity.
ES-5094E
John Wesley (/ˈwɛsli/; 28 June [O.S. 17
June] 1703 – 2 March 1791) was an English cleric, theologian and evangelist who was a leader of a revival movement within the Church of England known as Methodism. The societies he founded became the dominant form
of the independent Methodist movement that continues to this day. Educated
at Charterhouse and Christ Church, Oxford,
Wesley was elected a fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford,
in 1726 and ordained as an Anglican priest two years later. He led the "Holy Club", a society formed for the purpose of the study
and the pursuit of a devout Christian life; it had been founded by his
brother, Charles, and counted George Whitefield among its members. After an
unsuccessful ministry of two years at Savannah, serving at Christ Church,
in the Georgia Colony, Wesley
returned to London and joined a religious society led by Moravian Christians. On 24 May 1738, he experienced what has
come to be called his evangelical conversion, when he felt his "heart
strangely warmed". He subsequently left the Moravians, beginning his own
ministry. A key step in the development of Wesley's ministry was, like Whitefield,
to travel and preach outdoors. In
contrast to Whitefield's Calvinism, Wesley embraced Arminian doctrines. Moving across Great Britain and Ireland,
he helped form and organize small Christian groups that developed intensive and
personal accountability, discipleship and religious instruction. He
appointed itinerant, unordained
evangelists to care for these groups of people. Under Wesley's direction,
Methodists became leaders in many social issues of the day, including prison reform and the abolition of slavery.
Although he was not a systematic theologian,
Wesley argued for the notion of Christian perfection and
against Calvinism—and, in particular, against its doctrine of predestination. His evangelicalism, firmly grounded in sacramental theology, maintained that means of grace sometimes had a role in sanctification of the believer; however, he taught that
it was by faith a believer was
transformed into the likeness of Christ. He held that, in this life, Christians
could achieve a state where the love of God "reigned
supreme in their hearts", giving them not only outward but inward holiness. Wesley's teachings,
collectively known as Wesleyan theology, continue to inform the doctrine of the
Methodist churches. Throughout his life, Wesley remained within the established Church of
England, insisting that the Methodist movement lay well within its tradition. In his early ministry, Wesley was barred from
preaching in many parish churches and the Methodists were persecuted; he later
became widely respected and, by the end of his life, had been described as
"the best-loved man in England".