Berridge, John

Berridge, John one of the Methodist reformers of the Church of England, was born at Kingston 1716, and entered at Clare Hall 1734, and in 1755 became vicar of Everton. In 1758 he invited Wesley to visit his parish, and a wide-spread reformation broke out, attended by some irregularities and excesses. Berridge soon began to itinerate, and Everton was for some years the center of a wide sphere of evangelical labors. He preached ten or twelve sermons a week, often in the open air. His theological opinions allied him with Whitefield, and he became a notable champion of Calvinistic Methodism. He was rich, but liberal to excess, and rented preaching- houses, supported lay preachers, and aided poor societies with an unsparing hand. He was a laborious student, and nearly as familiar with the classical languages as with his native tongue. Like most good men whose temperament renders them zealous, he had a rich vein of humor, and his ready wit played freely but harmlessly through both his public and private discourse. He died Jan. 22, 1793. His Christian World Unmasked, with his

Life, Letters, etc., was reprinted in 1824 (Lond. 8vo). — Stevens, History of Methodism, 1, 382; Wesley, Works, 4, 25.