John Wesley — "The Methodists are a people who profess to pursue a Christian life by Scriptural…"
The Methodists are a people who profess to pursue a Christian life by Scriptural rules and methods.
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More from John Wesley
"I have often wished, that all the books in the world were burnt, except the Bible."
"What is the secret of your strength? I answer, the power of prayer."
"God grant that I may never live to be useless!"
"Beware of judging men by their outward appearance, but judge them by their fruits."
"I am not an enemy to pleasure; but I am an enemy to sin."
About John Wesley (1703-1791)
English Anglican cleric and founder of Methodism, whose open-air preaching and class-meeting structure created the largest 18th-century evangelical revival. Closely associated with Charles Wesley (his hymn-writing brother) and George Whitefield (early co-revivalist, later doctrinal opponent). For an intellectual contrast, see George Whitefield, Calvinist evangelical revivalist — Whitefield's predestinarian Calvinism vs Wesley's free-grace Arminian theology split the early Methodist movement permanently in the 1739-41 break. The founding evangelical Calvinist-Arminian schism — the two parallel evangelical traditions American Christianity descends from.
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Understanding this quote
What it means
Wesley is defining Methodists as people who don't just claim Christianity but actively structure their lives around specific biblical practices and disciplines. The emphasis falls on pursuit and method — Christianity as something you do systematically, not merely believe abstractly. It's a declaration that spiritual growth requires intentional, rule-guided effort rather than passive faith or inherited church membership.
Relevance to John Wesley
Wesley founded Methodism precisely because he believed the Church of England had grown lax and nominal. He organized his followers into 'classes' and 'bands' with strict accountability structures, regular meeting schedules, fasting regimens, and service requirements. The word 'method' was originally mocking slang his Oxford peers coined — Wesley embraced and redefined it as a badge of disciplined, structured devotion.
The era
18th-century England saw widespread nominal Christianity where church attendance was social obligation rather than sincere practice. The Industrial Revolution was displacing rural populations into chaotic urban poverty. Enlightenment rationalism challenged faith's foundations. Wesley's insistence on scriptural method and structured piety was a direct counter-movement, offering working-class people a disciplined spiritual framework amid social upheaval and religious indifference.
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