The Life and Times of Selina, Countess of Huntingdon Vol. 1

“There is much life in Mr. Wesley’s society, and a great crowding to hear the word. And well for the nation it is so: since in the churches, at all the great towns we came to, there are no worshippers scarce of any sort to be found. Absolute profaneness begins visibly to reign. Formality and pharisaism is, and has been of late, so much besieged and battered down, that a crisis seems approaching. Real believers possessing the Holy Ghost, or open revilers of Christian faith, seem to be the two standards under which men will rank themselves. As to my own flock, I found them, at my return, well. The Lord is with us. Sinners are converted, souls are happy in Christ, and his pleasant odours diffuse their life-giving fragrance in the congregation.”

In the meanwhile the Rev. Howel Davies came to Bath, to supply her Ladyship’s chapel. He was one of her Ladyship’s oldest acquaintances in the principality; and, with the Rev. Daniel Rowlands, Rev. Peter Williams, Rev. William Williams, and other awakened clergymen, was eminently useful in the great revival of religion in Wales. He was educated by the apostolic Jones, rector of Llandowrer, in Carmarthenshire, who, when he received priest’s orders, gave notice to the whole congregation of it, and desired an interest in their prayers, that the Lord would bless him, and give him success in the ministry. The first church in which Mr. Davies was called to officiate was Llys-y-fran, in Pembrokeshire; but he was soon turned out, on account of his zeal and faithfulness in the cause of God and truth. He was a Boanerges, and mere formalists could not bear his faithful application of the truths of the Gospel to the heart and life. He was a burning and a shining light, and preached in four different places statedly, besides his daily labours in houses, barns, fields, commons, mountains, &c. He had upwards of two thousand communicants, and the church has been frequently emptied twice, to make room for the third congregation to partake of the Lord’s Supper! He would break through the form of words used upon these occasions, and would speak of Christ and his sufferings in a variety of Scripture expressions.[265]

It was about this period that the Rev. Dr. Haweis, rector of Aldwincle; the Rev. Cradock Glascott, afterwards vicar of Hatherleigh, in Devonshire; the Rev. William Jesse, perpetual curate and lecturer of West Bromwich, in Staffordshire; and the Rev. John Harmer, of Warrington, commenced preaching in the chapels of Lady Huntingdon, and wherever she required them to itinerate. In the early part of his ministry Mr. Jesse was an occasional preacher at Tottenham-court Chapel, and was held in good estimation by Mr. Whitefield and Lady Huntingdon. In 1771 this exemplary minister was situated in Lincolnshire. Mr. Venn, in a letter to Mrs. Ryland, says, “Mr. Jesse met me at Malton, and accompanied me as far as Hull: he is a very excellent man, and seems appointed to evangelize the Wolds, the inhabitants of which are dark almost as the Indians.” How highly Lady Huntingdon thought of him, her own words will best tell—“Dear, honest-hearted Jesse has my best wishes. He is a humble, devoted soul, and much in earnest in his Master’s work. Having ever found him faithful, I can in truth recommend him to your Lordship’s kind notice and patronage.” This was addressed to Lord Dartmouth, through whose interest he became curate and lecturer of West Bromwich. He also became rector of Dowles and Riblesford, in the county of Worcester, and chaplain to the Earl of Glasgow. Mr. Harmer was sent by her Ladyship to Brighton and Oathall; he also preached occasionally at Bath, but he was not a popular speaker. After some time, however, he thought proper to withdraw from all connexion with her Ladyship, and declined preaching in her chapels, without assigning any cause for such a step. This was the source of much vexation and disappointment to her Ladyship; and to this Mr. Fletcher alludes in the following letter, dated Morley, December 9, 1766:—

“I stayed in London just to receive your Ladyship’s letter, but not to see Mr. Glascott or Mr. Harmer. For some days the latter had kept out of my way, nor did I know the reason. He told Jesse his design to decline serving the chapels of your Ladyship, but hid it from me. I had it from Jesse the day before I set out. So far as I could gather, he was fixed in his resolution; and whether his reasons were solid or only pretended ones, to his own Master he stands or falls, and by Him they will be tried. In the Gospel I had rather have nobody than an unwilling servant and a slave. Providence, I hope, designs you a son. Sarah waited long for Isaac. She saw the ingratitude of Hagar, and the pertness of Ishmael, before the true seed was given her. The believer does not make haste. It is a blessing that the cause is the Lord’s, and that the disposal of all affairs and all hearts is in his hands. If a sparrow falleth not to the ground without his leave, much less can a minister fall from an agreement without it. He will never suffer a disappointment to befall us, but to prevent a greater one, or to bring in a superior blessing. This we shall see in the end. In the meantime, I repeat it, we walk by faith.”

Mr. Harmer joined Mr. Wesley, and in the year 1780 was situated at Warrington; of his subsequent history little is known. The Rev. W. Buckingham, who held a curacy in Cornwall, preached for Lady Huntingdon on Mr. Harmer’s secession. Soon after he too joined Mr. Wesley, but in two years withdrew from the Methodists. “He had no sooner done this (says Mr. Wesley), than the Bishop rewarded him by turning him out of his curacy, which, had he continued to walk in Christian simplicity, he would probably have had to this day.” In 1781 he was residing in London, assisting Mr. Wesley as a curate, with Mr. Richardson; but at what period he terminated his course we have not been able to learn.