For a period of time George Bell was a preacher in John Wesley’s “connexion.” As Bell was accused of “enthusiasm”, Wesley was initially hesitant to disassociate himself from Bell. The breaking point for Wesley came when Bell prophesied the end of the world on February 28, 1763. Here is what Wesley wrote in his published Journal when the day Bell prophesied the world would end arrived:

Preaching in the evening at Spitalfields on ‘Prepare to meet thy God,’ I largely showed the utter absurdity of the supposition that the world was to end that night. But notwithstanding all I could say, many were afraid to go to bed, and some wandered about in the fields, being persuaded that if the world did not end, at least London would be swallowed up by an earthquake. I went to bed at my usual time and was fast asleep about ten o’clock. (John Wesley, Journal, February 28, 1763, Works of John Wesley, Bicentennial Edition, vol. 21: 407.)