SOURCE: Edwards, Maldwyn. “The Nature of His Influence.” In John Wesley and the Eighteenth Century: A Study of His Social and Political Influence, pp. 180-91. 1933. Revised. London: Epworth Press, 1955.

In the following essay, Edwards discusses Wesley's political and economic philosophy in terms of his religious beliefs.

No century was more contented with its lot than the eighteenth. Critics so widely diverse in position as Blackstone, Paley, Burke, and Goldsmith, united to sound with unqualified praise the glories of the English Constitution. In such a feeling Wesley fully shared. The great note of his political pamphlets was liberty, and this he felt to be assured so long as Government continued in its non-interference with the freedom of the individual. Wesley would, in any case, have opposed Governmental interference, because he believed profoundly in individual effort. The great emphasis of his spiritual message was personal. “Ye must be born again...