Wesley Corpus

Last updated: Feb. 20, 2008. "Person Bearing Testimony" (1747)1 cf. Baker list, 137 Editorial Introduction: Edmund Gibson (1669-1748) was Bishop of London from 1720 till his death. He was the bishop that ordained Charles Wesley to the priesthood in 1735. There had been several friendly contacts between Gibson and the Wesley brothers both before and following the beginnings of the Methodist revival. But Gibson became increasingly concerned by some of the reports he was hearing of the Methodists particularly about George Whitefield and about the supposed connections of the Methodists with the Moravians. He issued a Pastoral Letter in 1739 raising a few of these concerns. This in 1744 he was almost certainly the one behind an anonymous critical pamphlet titled Observations upon the conduct and Behaviour of ... Methodists. He was also the explicit author of The Charge of ... Edmund, Lord Bishop of London, at the visitation of his Diocese in the years 1746-47. This latter work highlighted six "pernicious doctrines" that Gibson ascribed to the Methodists, including such charges as antinomianism, relying upon sudden inward impulses to guide their decisions, and sinless perfection. In response to Gibson's final publication, John Wesley published A Letter to the Right Reverend, the Lord Bishop of London in June 1747. In this letter John politely disputed the charges, and stressed that the Wesleyan branch of the Methodist movement affirmed the central theological convictions of the Church of England. John appended an anonymous, untitled poem to this letter which summarized the teachings of a Methodist preacher. In the 1748 reprint of John's Letter the poem was given the title "For a Person Called Forth to Bear His Testimony." This was changed in the 2nd edn. (1749) of the Letter to "For a Preacher of the Gospel." Charles Wesley made clear that he was the author of this poem by including it in his collected HSP (1749), 1:330-32. He retained the title "For a Person Called Forth to Bear His Testimony." Editions: Charles Wesley. "For a Person Called Forth to Bear His Testimony." In John Wesley's A Letter to the Right Reverend, the Lord Bishop of London, 30-32. London: Strahan, 1747. Dublin: Powell, 1748 2nd Bristol: Farley, 1749 Also appended to John Wesley's Earnest Appeal to Men of Reason and Religion. 3rd edn. Bristol: Farley, 1749. titled "For a Person Called Forth to Bear His Testimony"