Fetter Lane Society - John Wesley

John Wesley

John Wesley had a radical conversion experience at a meeting house at Aldersgate Street on May 24, 1738 after hearing a reading of Martin Luther’s preface to the book of Romans. Wesley, however, would come to disagree with the London Moravian insistence that justification had to be accompanied by instantaneous full assurance and that the means of grace had to be withheld from those who did not have that full assurance.

Regarding this issue, he collided with Philip Henry Molther and other Moravians at the Fetter Lane Society in 1739-1740. Molther told participants they had to abstain from doing good works and partaking in communion until they had full assurance. Molther insisted the way to acquire faith was to wait upon God and not employ any means of grace, such as worship, prayer, partaking communion or even good works because the fruits of the Spirit could not be bestowed upon those who did not have it.

After challenging these assertions in two messages in June 1740, Wesley was no longer welcome at the Fetter Lane Society. Along with about 50 others, he formed the Foundery Society, in the old cannon foundery at Moorfields whose lease he had purchased in November 1739. The Fetter Lane Society, however, had helped serve as an inspirational model to future societies that would help establish the Methodist Church.