Aldersgate or Fetter Lane

man returned with a fresh prime for the gun and proceeded to end his own life. 73 Was
21
Wesley awakened by God in order to pray for the man or even to save him from suicide?
This is an unanswerable question.
On December 5, Wesley writes about a young woman he encountered who was
“raving mad, screaming and tormenting herself continually.” Wesley went to speak with
her and records, “The moment I began she was still. The tears ran down her cheeks all the
time I was telling her, ‘Jesus of Nazareth is able and willing to deliver you.’” That
Wesley believed this was a demonic attack is revealed as he reflects, “O where is faith
upon earth? Why are these poor wretches left under the open bondage of Satan? Jesus,
master! Give thou medicine to heal their sickness and deliver those who are now also
vexed with unclean spirits!” 74 Although she was calmed, Wesley’s statement leaves the
reader wondering if she was in reality delivered from bondage.
During this timeframe after Aldersgate Wesley was greatly awakened to the work
of the Holy Spirit through a Jonathan Edwards tract. On October 9, 1738, Wesley
recorded that he “read the truly surprising narrative of the conversions lately wrought in
and about the town of Northampton in New England. Surely ‘this is the Lord’s doing and
it is marvelous in our eyes’!” 75 Wesley was referring to the famous revival tract, A
Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God in the Conversion of Many Hundred
Souls in Northhampton. This tract was edited by Isaac Watts and published in 1737. 76
73
Wesley, “November 20, 1738,” Works, vol. 19, 21.
74
Wesley, “December 5, 1738,” Works, vol. 19, 23.
75
Wesley, “October 8, 1738,” Works, vol. 19, 16.
76
See footnote 50 in Wesley, Works, vol. 19, 16.