Digging Out the Embedded Church - The Maranatha Community

The aim of the conference was to bring into being united societies of „awakened‟ believers.
Rowland was concerned, as a Church minister, not to be seen to approve of Dissent and
separation (which was less of a problem for Harris), and the conference came to nothing.
Evans suggests several reasons for its failure. One was Harris‟s overbearing manner, a
personality issue. Another reason was the differences of church order. Were the Dissenters
going to have to abandon their separateness and Independent church principles? What about
the divisive issue of the place of assurance in the Christian life? The „methodist‟ position
accepted by several of the Revival‟s leaders was that a Christian ought to know full assurance
of faith, a clear mark of the new birth – Rowland and his friends were not so sure about this.
The Dissenters were also concerned about the emotionalism apparent in the stress of the
„methodists‟ on „opening the heart in conversion‟. Evans writes:
„At Defynnog in October 1740 two spiritual life-styles, one old and the other new, were
in tension around the same Gospel message. In the outcome, the two went their own
separate ways as the “Dissenting Way” and “the Methodist Way”. Once again the new
wine could not be contained in the old bottles.‟ 76 (65)
By the summer of 1740 John Wesley had become at odds with the Moravians, in whose
meeting place in Fetter Lane he had become assured of free salvation in Christ, on several
issues. In July, Wesley left the Fetter Lane Society, which he had been instrumental in
founding, for the Foundry meeting place, near Moorfields, opened just a little while before.
Wesley‟s leaving Fetter Lane to concentrate on his work at the Foundry was due to his
disquiet at a teaching which had taken hold on the Society there. A young Moravian, Philip
Moulther, taught that until a person seeking God had received the divine gift of assurance,
he or she should not do any religious acts or devotions nor attend any of the „means of
grace‟, 77 but simply be „still‟ – sit still before God.
Wesley took several friends with him on leaving Fetter Lane and the wound of parting from
the Moravians was never healed. The „stillness‟ teaching was soon to be repudiated by the
Moravian leaders.
One may judge that Wesley was right to see Moulther‟s teaching as bizarre and pastorally
defective, but was he right to secede to the Foundry? James Hutton gave the Moravian view
of the secession when he wrote:
„John Wesley, displeased at not being thought of as formerly, and offended with the
easy way of salvation as taught by the Brethren, publicly spoke against our doctrines in
his sermons.‟ 78
76 Evans, Eifion, Daniel Rowland and the Great Evangelical Awakening in Wales, The Banner of
Truth Trust, 1985, p 115.
77 According to John Wesley, the „means of grace‟ included „Works of Piety‟, such as „Prayer‟,
„Fasting‟, „Bible Study‟, „Holy Living‟, „Sharing in the Sacraments‟, „Fellowship‟ and „Works of
Mercy‟.
78 Benham, Daniel, Memoirs of James Hutton, London, 1856, p 54.
Page 84