No wonder that Wesley chose such a man for his book steward.
William Briggs, for a time, was one of Wesley’s preachers, or, at least, one whom he employed in visiting his societies,[203] and was present at the conference of 1748. On January 28, 1749, he was married, by Charles Wesley,[204] to Miss Perronet, daughter of the vicar of Shoreham.[205] Mr. Briggs, like Mr. Butts, was a man of uncompromising integrity; and who, while loving, honouring, and reverencing Wesley in a high degree, had honesty enough to tell him of what he conceived to be his faults. In a letter, written about the same time as Thomas Butts’, after eulogizing Wesley for his many excellencies, he continues—
“But I think your experience is buried in your extensive knowledge. I think you feel not, abidingly, a deep sense of your own spiritual weakness, the nearness of Christ to save, nor a sweet communion with God by the Holy Ghost. You have the appearance of all Christian graces, but they do not, I think, spring from a deep experience. A good nature, with great abilities, will mimic grace; but grace is more than outward; it brings the soul to a deep union with God, and its fellow Christians; but there is a want of sympathy in your discourses and conversation;” etc.[206]
This was bold language to employ, and was unauthorised by facts; but it was the language of an honest, though mistaken, friend; and, three years afterwards, that friend was one of Wesley’s book stewards.
The only tract of any consequence, published against the Methodists, in 1753, was “A serious Address to the Rev. Mr. John Wesley, in relation to the principal doctrine advanced and maintained by him and his assistants. By John Parkhurst, M.A.” 8vo, 31 pages. The doctrine referred to was the witness of the Spirit. The writer was the celebrated author of the well known Hebrew and Greek lexicons which bear his name. Parkhurst was a Rugby scholar, a fellow of Cambridge university, and the possessor of large estates. His “serious address” to Wesley, written in the twenty-fifth year of his age, was his first publication. He professes to examine the texts adduced by Wesley in support of the doctrine of the Spirit’s witness, and, in a friendly spirit, endeavours to refute Wesley’s interpretation of them.
Perhaps we ought to mention another pamphlet, upon whose friendliness, or hostility, it would be difficult to pronounce an opinion. Its title was, “The Principles and Preaching of the Methodists considered. In a letter to the Rev. Mr. ——” 8vo, 44 pages. In one page the author abuses the Methodists; in another he praises them. He tells his readers, that the masses, among whom the Methodists were labouring, were “honest souls, happily destitute of a taste for those modern embellishments, which enervate the word of God, and render it of no effect. In the simplicity of their hearts, they wanted no kickshaws to recommend a gospel entertainment; and found nourishment from the sincere milk of the word without its being converted into whipped syllabub.”
Wesley’s publications, in 1753, were the following.
1. Fourteen volumes of the “Christian Library,” namely, Vol. XX. to Vol. XXXIII. inclusive, and making altogether more than four thousand and three hundred printed 12mo pages. This was no trifle to be undertaken and accomplished by a clergyman without money, and who was always traveling; but Wesley did more than this. Hence the additional publications belonging to this period, one of which had an enormous circulation, and was of great service to the Methodists, in their public and private meetings.
2. “Hymns and Spiritual Songs, intended for the use of real Christians of all Denominations.” 12mo, 124 pages. For many years, this was the hymn-book of the Methodist meeting-houses. In thirty-three years, twenty-four editions were issued. The first edition, now before us, has no author’s name, but that the work was Wesley’s there can be no mistake. Besides the evidence arising from its being “printed by William Strahan; and sold at the Foundery in Upper Moorfields, and in the Horsefair, Bristol,” we have Wesley’s own statement, made in 1779, that he himself made the compilation “several years ago from a variety of hymn-books.”[207] The hymns are eighty-four in number, but some are divided into as many as half-a-dozen parts. The first is the well known paraphrase on Isaiah lv., beginning with the line—
“Ho! every one that thirsts, draw nigh.”