Friendship with John Wesley
Wilberforce and Wesley
John Newton wasn't Wilberforce's only source of spiritual comfort. He had a group of people around him who were encouragers, most notably John Wesley - the founder of Methodism and the greatest preacher of his day.
The Wesley brothers deeply influenced Wilberforce's political activities as well as his spiritual development.
In fact the very last letter that John Wesley wrote was to William Wilberforce, telling him to carry on with his appointed task.
Dear Sir:
Unless the divine power has raised you up to be as Athanasius contra mundum, I see not how you can go through your glorious enterprise in opposing that execrable villainy which is the scandal of religion, of England, and of human nature. Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils. But if God be for you, who can be against you? Are all of them together stronger than God? O be not weary of well doing! Go on, in the name of God and in the power of his might, till even American slavery (the vilest that ever saw the sun) shall vanish away before it.
Reading this morning a tract wrote by a poor African, I was particularly struck by that circumstance that a man who has a black skin, being wronged or outraged by a white man, can have no redress; it being a "law" in our colonies that the oath of a black against a white goes for nothing. What villainy is this?
That he who has guided you from youth up may continue to strengthen you in this and all things, is the prayer of, dear sir,
Your affectionate servant,
John Wesley
The phrase Athanasius contra mundum means "Athanasius against the world" and is a reference to Athanasius of Alexandria (c. 296-373 AD), a Christian theologian and bishop who fought heresy in the early church and was repeatedly exiled.