They gave to the poor, and visited
the sick and the imprisoned. Wesley preached in the open air where
all who wanted to attend could and also could wear whatever
clothes they had. Though large crowds of poor people were feared
because of their mob potential, their meetings were stormed as has
been Quaker meetings, with the shouts of "the church in danger".
The Methodists' homes were invaded and their belongings destroyed
or taken or their persons beaten with tacit permission of
authorities. Some Justices of the Peace drafted preachers into the
army or navy as vagabonds. Eventually, however, the Methodist
revival imbued energy and piety into the lethargic clergy of the
established church. A new moral enthusiasm and philanthropic
energy grabbed the nation. Prisons were reformed, penal laws made
more wise, slave trade abolished, and popular education given
momentum. In the established church, charity gained precedence
over theology and comfort over self-examination and guilt.
Evangelist George Whitfield preached Calvinism and it split off
from Methodism. Calvinism went into full decline. Presbyterianism
collapsed into unitarianism and there was a general tendency
towards deism.
Church sanctuary was abolished for those accused of civil
offenses.
There was much travel by scheduled coaches, which usually carried
several passengers and were drawn by four horses. Regular service
of public vehicles to and from London went four miles an hour; it
took two days to go from London to Oxford.
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