The Life and Times of John Wesley - Tynerman Page XX

Dr JAMES HAMILTON

At this period, Dr. James Hamilton was a young man of about two-and-thirty, and was practising medicine in his native town of Dunbar, where he also had joined the Methodists. Afterwards he removed to Leeds, and then to London, where he was elected physician to the London Dispensary, and rose to eminence in the medical profession. He died in Finsbury Square, April 21, 1827, at the age of eighty-seven, having been a Methodist upwards of sixty years, and nearly as long a highly acceptable and useful local preacher.

Dr. Alexander Monro was a few years older. Such was his ability, that, at the age of twenty-two, he was appointed professor of anatomy and surgery to the University of Edinburgh; and is said, by the excellence of his lectures, to have materially assisted in raising it to the highest celebrity as a school of medicine.

Dr. James Gregory was now a young man in his twentieth year; but, two years later, was appointed professor of the theory of physic, and rose to such eminence in his profession as to draw pupils from all parts of the world.

These were the three physicians who attended Wesley. He writes: "May 18 - Dr. Hamilton brought with him Dr. Monro and Dr. Gregory. They satisfied me what my disorder was; and told me there was but one method of cure. Perhaps but one natural one; but I think God has more than one method of healing either the soul or the body."

Wesley's disease was hydrocele. A few months later, he writes: "I am almost a disabled soldier. I am forbid to ride, and am obliged to travel mostly in a carriage."

The Life and Times of John Wesley - Tynerman Page XX

Wesley's great difficulty in Scotland was the objection to itinerancy. "I have written," says he, in a letter dated October 16, 1774, "to Dr. Hamilton, that Edinburgh and Dunbar must be supplied by one preacher. While I live, itinerant preachers shall be itinerants: I mean, if they choose to remain in connection with me. The society at Greenock are entirely at their own disposal: they may either have a preacher between them and Glasgow, or none at all. But more than one between them they cannot have. I have too much regard both for the bodies and souls of our preachers, to let them be confined to one place any more. I have weighed the matter, and will serve the Scots as we do the English, or leave them."[2]

The Life and Times of John Wesley - Tynerman Page XX

What may be called the conference sermon was preached by a local preacher, perhaps the only instance of the kind in Methodism's history. James Hamilton, M.D., was the preacher; his text, "Trust ye not in lying words, saying, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, are these." His sermon was printed, and was sold "at the Rev. Mr. Wesley's preaching houses in town and country," with the following title: "A Sermon preached at Leeds, July 29, 1789, before the Methodist Preachers, assembled in Conference, and a large body of the people in connection with them; and now published at the request of many of the Hearers."

This also was a sermon for the times, and evidently had Wesley's approbation. Its gist may be gathered from a few brief extracts.

After dwelling on the functions of the priests and scribes of the Jewish church, the preacher said:

"But as all external religion is of no use, any farther than as it advances the spiritual kingdom of Christ in the soul; and as the Jews too often lost sight of this, resting in their types and ceremonies, God called a race of men, named prophets, who had nothing to do with the priesthood; men full of the Holy Ghost; and sent them to declare that all external religion is nothing worth, when it fails to produce purity of heart. The prophets were, (with two or three exceptions,) what we call laymen,-taken from the common occupations in Judaea, chiefly farmers and shepherds,-holy men, men of strong faith, their hearts overflowing with zeal for the honour of God,-men of invincible courage, practising the strictest temperance, and clothed in the plainest manner."

Dr. Hamilton then proceeded to argue, that Methodist preachers bore some analogy to these special messengers of God in ancient times; and after an affectionate allusion to the two Wesleys, and to Whitefield, continued:

"And here mark the Divine wisdom. Although their brother priests in the Church thrust them from them, and although their names were cast out as evil above the names of all men, they ever retained a strong and affectionate attachment to the men who had thus abused them, and to the Church of which they were members; and this has been, in the overruling hand of God, the great means of carrying on that glorious spiritual work which we now behold. Had it not been for this attachment, the Methodists would have, long ere this, become a distinct body, separate from the Church and all others; and, I fear, in consequence thereof, would have sunk into the dead formality of the numerous sects, with which the world is harassed and divided."

Then proceeding to address the assembled conference, the preacher added:

"Will ye bear with me, ye spiritual messengers of the Lord, while I presume to say a few words to you? See with what a holy calling ye are called; for what a glorious and important end God has raised you up! Even to set spiritual religion before the eyes of all men; to cry to men of all opinions, sects, and parties, 'Trust not unto lying words, saying, The temple of the Lord are these'; to bring them, from resting in external duties, to the possession of internal holiness; from an opinion in the head, to the love of God in the heart. Let then the dead bury their dead! Let the formalist and the pharisee, the church bigot and the sectary, contend for ways of thinking, gestures in worship, and modes of church government; but may ye never forget, that ye are sent for a nobler end; that your commission is the same as Paul's, not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. Although I am neither a prophet, nor the son of a prophet; yet forgive me when I express my fears, that, if ever the Methodists leave their several churches; if ever ye set up as a separate people by external distinctions and creeds; if ye substitute a silken gown and sash for rough garments and a leathern girdle, and call one another, Rabbi! Rabbi! then the glory will depart from you, and God will raise up another people. He will call other lay preachers, no matter by what name; and He will send them to call you from opinions and forms, and to sound in your ears, 'Trust not unto lying words, saying, The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these.'"

Hamilton's sermon, to say the least, was ingenious; and referring as it does to the great topic of the day, separation from the Church, these extracts will not be regarded as out of place.