Digging Out the Embedded Church - The Maranatha Community

and also,
„If God still loveth us, we ought also to love one another. We ought, without this
endless jangling about opinions, to provoke one another to love and good works. Let
the points whereon we differ stand aside: here are enough wherein we agree, enough to
be the ground of every Christian temper and of every Christian action. O brethren, let
us not still fall out by the way. I hope to see you in heaven. And if I practise the religion
above described, you dare not say I shall go to hell.‟ 74
All the great Evangelical Revival leaders spoke against bigotry, and at the Foundry Society,
the Wesleys‟ centre in London, laymen and clergy who, sadly, were soon to become bitterly
divided spent almost heavenly times of united praise and worship together during the first
five years of the Revival. After a near-Pentecostal meeting on New Year‟s Day 1739, in the
Fetter Lane Society off Fleet Street, Whitefield wrote in his journal four days later:
„January 5, 1739. Held a conference at Islington, concerning several things of very
great importance, with seven true ministers of Jesus Christ, despised methodists, whom
God has brought together from the East and the West, the North and the South. What
we were in doubt about, after prayer, we determined by lot, and everything else was
carried on with great love, meekness and devotion. We continued in fasting and prayer
till three o‟clock, and then parted with a full conviction that God was going to do great
things among us.‟ 75
Why evangelical believers who had so much in common during the early days of the Revival
came to be at odds with each other is hinted at very strongly in Efion Evans‟ biography of
Daniel Rowland. He shows how the Revival brought Dissenters and Church people together
on the basis of a shared experience of the new birth; a love for the Bible as the only source of
knowledge about God; a keenness for evangelism, especially among their fellow church or
congregation members; and their orthodox faith and commitment to living a godly life.
On 1-2 October 1740 a conference was convened at the village of Defynnog near Brecon,
when Dissenters and Churchmen came together. Howel Harris of Trefeca, an Anglican
layman whose dramatic conversion in 1735 had led him to a life of preaching in Wales and
England, was the leader of what could be called the Church methodists. Daniel Rowland was
present, a minister of the established Church who like Harris took his message of salvation by
faith in Christ beyond his parish boundaries, and, like Harris, saw a great number of people
respond to his message, often with deep emotion. Dissenting ministers were also present from
Baptist and Congregational meetings.
74 Ed Hurley, Michael, SJ, Letter to a Roman Catholic, published in 1749, Geoffrey Chapman, 1968,
pp 53-54.
75 George Whitefield‟s Journals, Banner of Truth Trust, 1960, p 196. For John Wesley‟s account of
those days see Curnock, Nehemiah, ed, The Journal of John Wesley, AM, Standard Edition, Charles
Kelly, London, pp 121-122. Fetter Lane Society: founded on 1 May 1738 in a meeting room off Fleet
Street, London, as a Church of England Religious Society for the promotion of holiness and faith. It
was supported by Moravians who were living in London and the Wesleys themselves were members.
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