The Oxford Methodists: Memoirs of the Rev. Messrs. Clayton, Ingham, Gambold, Hervey, and Broughton, with Biographical Notices of Others

The present book is intended to serve as a companion volume to “The Life and Times of Wesley;” and to assist in showing the wide and gracious results of a revival of religion.

In compiling the work just mentioned, I was compelled, by want of space, to lay aside a large amount of biographical material, some portions of which are embodied in the work now submitted to the reader; and other portions of which may be published at a future time.

Memoirs of the two Wesleys and of Whitefield have been designedly omitted, on the ground, that, their Memoirs, in extenso, are already in existence. Still, those illustrious men are often noticed in the following pages; and, I hope, the facts concerning them will be both interesting and instructive. Of the other Oxford Methodists, no biographies have been previously written, with the exception of Hervey; and it is not censorious to say, that the two principal ones of him,—Ryland’s and Brown’s—are far from satisfactory.

The information concerning some of the Oxford Brotherhood is meagre. I have used all the diligence I could in obtaining materials; but brief notices, and scraps, and a few letters are all that I have to give. Fragmentary, however, though they are, I trust, they will not be regarded as useless and irrelevant. The biographical sketches of Clayton, Ingham, Gambold, Hervey, and Broughton, are more extended. It would have been a satisfaction to have left Westley Hall in the shades of oblivion; but, in telling the story of the Oxford Methodists, it was impossible not to notice him.

A marvellous work was accomplished by the Wesley brothers and by Whitefield; but it is a great mistake, and not a just acknowledgment of the grace of God, to regard the results of the revival of religion in the Oxford University, as confined to Methodism. Contemporaneous Reformers, raised up by Providence, are seldom all employed in the same kind of work. At the beginning of the Christian era, God “gave some, apostles, and some, prophets, and some, evangelists, and some, pastors, and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ” (Ephesians iv. 11, 12). Luther, Zuinglius, Melancthon, Œcolampadius, Erasmus, Calvin, Knox, Ridley, Latimer, and Cranmer were all engaged, at the same time, in the same great and glorious reformation; but the services they rendered were as various as the dispositions and talents of the men themselves. So in regard to the movement in the Oxford University. Among the Oxford Methodists, the Wesleys and Whitefield will always be pre-eminent; but a great work was also done by their associates. Clayton’s High-Churchism was objectionable; but it is not unreasonable to indulge the hope, that, his earnest piety exercised a useful influence upon the clergy among whom he lived, and especially upon the young gentlemen who were favoured with the instructions of his school. Ingham, as an evangelist, was exceedingly successful among the masses in the North. The Moravian Church owes a debt of incalculable gratitude to Gambold, for checking and correcting its early religious follies. Broughton was efficiently employed in promoting the translation of the Bible, in the work of Home and Foreign Missions, in the distribution of religious tracts, and in the education of the children of the poor, at a period when the present principal societies for such objects did not exist. Hutchins, though retaining, at least, a few of his High-Church doctrines, was a spiritually-minded, earnest Christian; and, in the important office which, for so many years, he held in Lincoln College, could hardly fail in moulding the minds and hearts of some of the young students there. And Hervey was one of the first clergymen of the Church of England, in the last century, who turned the attention of the upper classes of society to religious matters. These were not trifling services. Do they not deserve to be recorded?

The Oxford revival of religion was pregnant with the most momentous issues. And so are most revivals. How often in the history of Methodism, though on a smaller scale, have its revivals of the work of God resulted in consequences bearing some analogy to those of the Oxford movement of a hundred and forty years ago? Who will not pray, that such “Divine visitations” may be continued and multiplied, not only in Methodism, but, in all the Churches of the Great Redeemer?