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B 454371
Tappan Presbutertan Association i
IaIBRARY.
(presented by HON. D. BETHUNE DUFFIELD. i
From Library of Rev. Geo. Duffield, D.D.
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THE
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THE
AKD THC
RISE AND PROGRESS
Of
wsrmmisisat^.
BY ROBERT SOUTHEY, Esii,
POET LAURJSJTK,
HBJtSSI or THK lOTAL IPASISH ACADBMT, OP TIK KOTAL •PAHI8B ACADEMY Of ■HTOir, AHO or Tn KOTAL IMBTITUTB op TIX HSTBV1LAVD8, Icc.
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NEW-mRK:
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1820.
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I HAVE had no private sources of information in composing the present work. The materials are de- riyed chieflj from the following books : —
Life of the Rev* John Weslkt, A* M. including an Account of the Great Revival of Religion in Europe and America, of which he was the first and chief Instrument. By Dr. CoK£ and Mr. Moore. 8vo. London, 1792.
Life of the Rev. John Wesley, M. A. collected from his private Papers and printed Works, and written at the re- quest of his Executors. To which is prefixed, some Ac- count of his Ancestors and Relations ; with the Life of the Rev. Charles Wesley, M. A. collected from his private Journal^ and never before published. The whole forming a History of Methodism, in which the Principles and Eco- nomy of Methodists are unfolded. Copied chiefly from a London edition published by John Whitehead, M. D. 2 vols. 8vo. Dublin, 1805.
Memoirs of the late Rev. John Wesley, A. M. with a Re- view of his Life and Writings ; and a History of Methodism, from its commencement in 1729, to the present time. By John Hampson, A. B. 3 vols. 12mo. Sunderland, 1791.
Original Letters, by the Rev. John Wesley and his Friends, illustrative of his early History, with other curio^Q Papers.
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VI riUSFACE.
Communicated by the late Rev. S. Badcotk ; to which ii prefixed, an Address to the Methodists. Bj Josepii Priestley, L. L. D. F. R. S. &c. Birmin^m, 1791* 8vo.
The Worics of the Rev. John Weslbv. 16 vols. 8vo. London, 1809.
Sermons hy the late Rev. Charles Wesley, A, M. Stadent of Christ Church, Oxford. With a Memoir of the Author, by the Editor. Crown 8vo. London, 1816.
Minutes of the Methodist Conference, from the First held in London by the late Rev. John Wesley, A. M. in the year 1744. 3 vols. 8vo. London, 1812.
Arminian Magazine, (now called the Methodist Magazine) from its commencement. *
A Chronologiiial History of the People called Methodists, of the Connexion of the late Rev. John Wesley, from their Rise in the year 1729 to their last conference in the year 1802. By William Myles. 13moi London, 1803.
A Portratiture of Methodism ; or, the History of the Wesleyan Methodists, showing their Rise, Progress, and present State ; Biographical Sketches of some of their most emi- nent Ministers ; the Doctrines the Methodists believe and teach, fully and explicitly stated ; with the whole Plan of their Discipline, including their Original Rules and Subse- quent Regulations. Also a Defence of Methddism. By Jonathan Crowther, who has been upwards of thirty rears a travelling Preacher among them. 8vo. London^ 1815.
A Portraiture of Methodism: being an impartial View of the Rise, Progress, Doctrines, Discipline, and Manners of the Wesleyan Methodists. In a Series of Letters, addressed to a Lady. By Joseph Nightingale. 8vo. London, 1807*
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FREFACB. Vll
Ifemoin of the Life ai^d Character of the late Rev. Georgb Whitsfisi^d, a. ]M* of Pembroke College, Oxford, and Chaplain to the Right Hon. the Countess Dowager ofHunthig- don ; faithfully selected from his Original Papers, Journals, and Letters ; illustrated by a variety of interestii^ Anec- dotes from the best authorities. By the late Rev* J. Gillies, D. D. Minister of the College Church of Glasgow. Se- cond edition, with laige additions and improvements* 8vo. London, 1813.
The Worics of the Rev. George Whitefield, M* A. &c. Containing all his Sermons and Tracts which have been al- ready published ; with a select Collection of Letters, writ- ten to his most intimate Friends and Persons of Distinction in England, Scotland, Ireland, and America, from the Year 1734 to 1770, including the whole Period of his Ministry. Also, some other Pieces on important Subjects, never be- fore printed, prepared by himself for the Press. 6 vols. Bvo. London, 1771.
The Two First Parts of his Life, with his Journals. Revis- ed, corrected, and abridged by George Whitefisld, A.B. Chaplain to the Right Hon. the Countess of Huntingdon. 1 2mo. London, 1 756.
Memoirs of the Life and Character of the late Rev. Corne- ^ LI9S WufTER; compiled and composed by William Jay.. r2mo. London, 1809. (This volume contains a much more interesting account of Whitefield than is to be found in any Life of him that has yet been published.
The Ancient and Modern History of the Brethren, or a Suc- cinct Narrative of the Protestant Church of the United Brethren, or Unitcu Fratrum^ in the remoter Ages, and pfir- ticularly in the present Century. Written in German, by David Cranz, Author of the History of Greenland ; no^ translated into English, with Emendations, and published with some additional Notes, by Benjamin Latrobe. 8vo. London, 1780.
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VIU PREFACE.
A candid NftrratiVe of the Rise and Progress of the Henn- fanten'/commlmty' Called Moravians, or Unitas Fratrumy with a short Acconnt of their Doctrines, drawn from their own Writingis.' To which are added, Observations on their Politics in General, and'|)articularly on their Conduct whilst in the Ccfunty of Biidingen, in the Circle of fhe Upper Rhine in GernKlriy. By HiiNRY Rt'inu8,'Aulic Counsellor to his late Majesty the King of Prussia, and Author of the Memoirs of the House of Brunswick* The Second Edi- tion, in which the Latin Appendix in the first edition is ren- dered into English* 8vo. London, 1753*
A True and Authentic Accouiit of Andrew Frey : containing thd Occasion of bis coming among the Hermhaters or Mo- ravians ^ his Observations on their Conferences, Casting Lots, Marriages, Festivals, Merriments, Celebrations of Birth Days, Impious Dofcirines and Fantastical Practices, Abuse of Charitable Contributions, Linen Images, Ostenta* tious Profuseness and Rancour against any who in the least differ from them ; and the Reasons for which he left them ; together with the Motive for Publishing this Account* Faithfully translated from the German.] 8vo* London, 1753*
A Solemn Call on Count Zinzendorf, the Author and Advo- cate of the Sect of Hermhuters, commonly called Moravi- ans, to answer all and every Chai^ brought against them in th^ Candid Narrative, &c. ; with some further Observa- tions on the Spirit of that Sect* By Henry Rimius* 8vo* London, 1754*
The Moravians Compared and Detected* By the Author of the Enthusiasm of the Methodists and Papists compared. 8vo* London, 1755*
An Extract from the Journal of Mr* John Nelson, Preacher of the Gospel* Containing an Account of God's dealings with him from his Youth to the 42d Year of bis Age. Writ* ten by himself* 24mo* London, 1813*
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^ PREFACE. JX
The Life and Deatf of Mr Thomas Walsh, Miaister of the Gospel ; composed ia great part from his own Accooats. Bj James Morgan, ]3mo. Londoa, 1811.
The Life and Writings of the late Rev. William QaiMSHAw, A.B. Minister of Haworth, in the West Riding of the Coun- ty of York. By William Mr lbs. 1 2mo. 1813.
The Life of the Rev. Thomas Coke, L. L. D* : including in detail, his various Travels and extraordinary Missionary Exertions in England, Ireland, America, and the West In- dies ; with an Account of his Death, on the 3d of May, 1814, while on a Missionary Voyage to the Island of Ceylon, in the East Indies ; interspersed with numerous Reflections, and concluding with an abstract of his Writings and Cha- racter. By Samuel Deew, of St. Austell, Cornwall. 8vo. London, 1817.
Extracts of the Journals of the Rev. Dr. Coke's Five Visits to America. ]2mo. 1793.
A History of the West Indies ; containing the Natural, Civil, and Ecclesiastical History of each Island : with an Account of the Missions instituted in those Islands, from the com- mencement of their Civilization : but more especially of the Missions which have been established in that Archipelago, by the Society late in Connexion with the Rev. John Wes- ley. By Thomas Coke, L. L. D. of the University of Ox- ford. 8vo. 3 vols. Vol. 1. Liverpool, 1808 ; Vol. 2. Lon- don, 1810; Vol. 3. London, 1^11.
The Experience and Gospel labours of the Rev. JBenjajun Abbott \ to which is annexed, a Narrative of hia Life and Death ; also. Extracts from the Journal of the Rev. John Wesley. By John Ffirth* 12mo. Philadelphia. Li- verpool (reprinted,) 1809.
The Life of the Rev. John William de la Flxchkre, com- piled from the Narrative of the Rev. Mr. Wesley \ the Bio- VOL. I. 2
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It l*REFAC£.
graphical Not^s of the Rev. Mr. Gilpin ; from his own Letters ; and other Authentic Documents. By Joseph BENSON. 8vo. London, IBl?*
The Woiks ofthe Rev* John FlUtcher. In 10 vols. 8vo. London, 181 5«
The Works of AuoustCs TopladV, A. B. late Vicar of Broad Hembuiy, Devon. In6vols« 8vo. London, 1794.
The Enthusiasm of Methodists and Papists compared. In Three Parts. 2 vols. 12mo* London, 1754«
The Doctrine of Grace ; or, the Office and Operations ofthe Holy Spirit vindicated from the Insults of IniSdelity and the Abuses of Fanaticism ; with some Thoughts (humbly ofTer- ed to the Consideration of the Established Clergy) regard-* tng the right method of defending Religion against the at- tacks of either party. In Three Books. In the Fourth Volume of Bishop Warburton's Works*
Various Volumes of the Gospel Magazine.
1 am not conscous of having left any thing undone for rendering the present work as little incomplete as it was in my power to make it ; and I have repre- sented facts as I found them, with scrupulous fidelitj, neither extenuating nor exaggerating any thing. Of the opinions ofthe writer, the reader will judge ac- cording to his own ; but whatever his judgment may be upon that point, he will acknowledge that, in a book of this kind, the opinions of an author are of less consequence than his industry, his accuracy, and his sense of duty.
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CONTENTS^
VOL I.
CHAPTER I.
Bartholomew Wesley, great grandfather of John, an eject- ed minister, 36
John, son of Bartholomew, ejected and imprisoned. He dies
early, 37
Samuel, son of John, leaves the Dissenters, and enters at
Exeter College, Oxford 38
Marries Susannah Anneslej , 39
Preaches s^nst Popery under James 11 41
Holds the livings of Epworth and Wroote 42
John Wesley horn at Epworth , 42
Providentially preserved from fire 43
Birth of his brother Charles ; 44
Mrs. Wesley holds religious meetings on Sunday evenings,
during her husband's absence 1.. 44
Correspondence with her husband upon this subject — . 45 Her particular care to breed up John in religious prin-
ples • 47
Samuel, the elder brother, an usher at Westminster 48
Charles educated at Westminster 49
John at the Charter-house 49
Preternatural noises in the parsonage at Epworth 49
Wesley's spare diet and regular exercise while a school-boy 54
His annual visit to the Charter-house 54
CHAP. 11.
Wesley is entered at Christ Church, Oxford 66
His skill in logic ....j; ^
He hesitates abouttaking orders..-** 56
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Xll CONTENTS.
Pag'
Effect produced upon him by the treatise De Imitatiane
Christi 67
and by Bishop Taylor's Holy Living and Dying 69
His opinions of Christian humility 60
Of Predestination 61
He is ordained in 1726 62
Elected Fellow of LincoUi 62
Greek Lecturer, and Moderator of the Classes — • 63
Distribution of his studies — 64
He longs for retirement 66
Officiates at Wroote as his father's curate 6€
Charles Wesley refuses to go to Ireland with one who would
have adopted him for his name's sake 67
Charles takes a religious turn at Oxford 68
He and his associates are called Methodists 69
Morgan, one of these first Methodists 70
Birth and boyhood of Whitefield 70
Officiates as drawer at his mother's inn ^... 71
Goes as a Servitor to Pembroke College, Oxford 72
Becomes one of the Methodists >. 73
Their mode of life and self-examination. 74
Wesley, the father, encourages them • 76
John becomes acquainted with William Law 76
The two brothers travel on foot, and converse in Latin 78
Wesley doubts the lawfulness of worldly studies 78
Defends himself against the charge of singularity 79
Wears his hair loose and unpowdered ^ 80
Reduces himself to a dangerous state of weakness ....... 81
Samuel accepts the mastership of Tiverton school 82
John is urged to apply for the succession to his father's living 84
His reasons for choosing to continue at Oxfoi'd 86
CHAP. HI.
Death of Samuel Wesley, thefather 88
Wesley consents to go out to the new colony in Georgia 89
He thinks it easy to convert the Savages 90
Charles takes orders, and accompanies him 90
Delamotteand Ingham their companions 91
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cohtekts. nu
Moravians oa board the ship 91
Wesley advises his brother Samoel to discard the classics
from his school 92
Theirrule of life on board 93
Equanimity of the Moravians — '. 94
Establishment of the British colony in Georgia 94
Situation of Savannah 95
Speech of Tomo-Chichi 96
Creek Indians in England 97
Laws of the colony 99
Wesley^s interview with the Moravian pastor, Spangenberg. . 101
His interview with Tomo-Chichi 103
He preaches against vanity ia dress 105
Insists npon a rigid observance of the Rubric 106
Charles becomes obnoxious to the people at Frederica . . . « 107
Oglethorpe treats him unkindly 108
Falls ill, and sends for his brother 110
Is reconciled to Oglethorpe Ill
Returns to England 113
Wesley in love with Sophia Causton 113
The Moravians forbid him to marry her 116
She marries Mr* Williamson 117
Wesley rebukes her 119
He repels her from the Communion 120
Williamson prosecutes him for this 120
He leaves Savannah 126
Is lost in the woods ■ 126
Embarks for England 127
His state of mind on the voyage 128
He lands at Deal, and describes his own imperfect state
offaith : 135
Advantages which he derived from his mission to Geor- gia 134
CHAP. IV.
Wesley exhorts Whitefield not to pursue his voyage, in con- sequence of a lot which he had cast '. 136
Whitefield's excess of devotion at Oxford .- 138
He experiences the new birth 139
Is ordained at Gloucester 140
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XkV CONTENTS.
Wbitefield officiates in London with success 142
Officiates in a Tillage in Hampshire — 142
Resolves to go to Georgia 144
Preaches at Bristol 145
Becomes exceedingly popular in that city 146
His qualifications as an orator .« «.... 146
Followed hy crowds in London 147
Excites jealousy concerning his doctrine 148
Wesley arrives in London as soon as Whitefield leaves it 149
Wesleymeets Peter Boehler .,. « 150
Boehler convinces himofunbelief '. 151
Wesley begins to exhort people as he travels 151
He resolves not to confine himself to a form of prayer.. 152 Is persuaded by Boehler, that conversion must be an in- stantaneous work 153
The Methodists in London are formed into bands 154
Tbeirrules 154
Wesley writes to Mr. Law, reproaching him for not having
taught him the necessity of a saving faith ,^« 155
Law's answer 157.
Charles Wesley is conv«r<«c{ 159
Wesley's conversion , 160
His conduct at Mr. Hutton's 161
Mrs. Hutton complains to Samuel 162
Samuel's remarks upon the conduct of his two brothers 1 62
Wesleysets outforHerrnhut , 165
CHAP, V.
The Bohemian Church 166
Effect of WickUffe's writings 167
Religious wars 167
Expulsion of the Protestants 16II
Comenius writes the history of his Church 169
Christian David incites the Protestants to emigrate 171
He obtains permission for them to settle on ZinzendorPs
estates 171
Count Zinzendorf 172
They name this settlement Hermhut 173
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CONTENTS* XV
Page.
Debate Whether they fthall join the Lutheran Church, decide*
edbylot ^ 176
2inzendorf banished a«. 176
He enter into orders 177
Wesley visits him at Marienbom 178
His opinions concerning Justification 179
Wesley proceeds to Herrnhut 182
Discipline ofthe Moravians 182
Their scandalous language atone time 188
Wesley hears Christian David preach 189
He returns to England 191
CHAP. VI.
Wesley addresses an epistle to the Church of Herrnhut .... i d2
He objects to the Count's authority 1 193
His opinion of his own spiritual state 194
Delamotte censures him 197
He accompanies some criminab to Tyburn 198
Interview with Bishop Gibson ....*.- 199
Charles Wesfey's second interview 200
Raptures of the co nverts ---*.* 20 1
Whitefield returns from Geoigia to raise contributions for
building an orphan-house there 204
IfOve-feasts in Fetter-lane -. 206
Whitefield thinks of preaching without-doors, because the
church was not large enough for his hearers .... 207
He goes to Bristol 207
Preaches out of doors to the colliers in Kingswood .... 208 He resohres to preach in defiance of ecclesiastical autho- rity 209
He longs for persecution 211
He invites Wesley to take his place at Bristol 214
Wesley consults the Bible upon the subject 215
CHAP. VII.
Wesley at Bristol 217
Whitefield lays the first stone of a school for the colliers'
children at Kingswood 218
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XVI COHTENTS.
Wesley comineBces field-preaching sifter Whitefield's exam- ple 220
Paroxysms of Methodism • • • • • 22 1
Case of John Haydon ••• , ,«. 221
Correspondence with his brother Samuel •••«•••••• 223
Conversion of Thomas Maxfield ••••• ••••••••••••. j231
Exaltation of Wesley at the effect which he produces 232
Bands formed ••••••••••••••••••••. 232
First Meeting-house built. • •••• 233
Wesley is called to London ••••••••••• 233
CHAP. VIII.
Lay preaching contended for •• • *. 235
Opposed by Charles Wesley • 236
Whitefield in Moorfields 237
Wesley at Blackheath ...*. 238
Fits in London • • 239
Origin of the French Prophets ^ • 240
They produce disputes among the Methodists 246
Whitefield produces the same paroxysms as Wesley •••••• 247
Samuel argues against these extravagancies • • • 248
Wesley accused of being a Papist .«. 252
Character of Charles Wesley's preaching 252
Ceremonies at an evening meeting ••• •••« 253
Wesley's mother becomes a convert 255
Letter from Samuel on that occasion 255
Death of Samuel Wesley 257
Wesley's view of the difference between himself and the
clei^ • 258
Cases of supposed possession • ••••• 259
Charles less credulous than his brother. ••••• • 26^
CHAP. IX.
View of the history of Christianity in England 265
Christianity long confined to cities • 266
Imperfect conversion of the people «• 267
Paganism recruited in this island by the Saxons and Danes . • . « 266
Advantagesof the Papacy •••••••••••••••#••«••» 270
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CONTENTS. XVII
Pag*'
Corruption of the Romish ChuDch 270
Reformation 271
Number of Clergy injuriously diminished 272
Clergy impoverished 274
Conforming Clergy at the Reformation 274
The sequestered Clergy 276
State of the Church at the Restoration 278
Evil produced by conforming Puritans, and by the ejectment
of sincerer Men 278
Conduct of the Clergy 279
Misapplication of the Fines - 280
Decay of discipline 280
Want of zeal 28i
In part owing to the constitution of the Church 281
Its want of auxiliaries 282
Growth of towns 283
Growth of Infidelity 284
Exertions against Popery *. 284
Advantages of the Reformation 285
Ignorance of the lower orders 287
Measures required for completing the Reformation 287
Wesley's immediate object 288
His hopes and indefinite prospects 288
CHAP. X.
Difference with the Moravians 290
Molther opposes certain errors of Wesley 290
He advances others in opposition to them 291
Wesley repairs to London in consequence 292
The difference becomes greater 293
He prepares for a separation, and provides a place of meet- ing at the Foundry 294
Extravagant language of the Moravians 296
Wesley withdraws from them 296
He addresses an epistle to the Moravian Church 297
Many of his friends adhere to the Brethren 298
Peter Boehler arrives in England 299
Wesley confers with him and Spangenberg 306
Re-union ineffectually proposed 301
Conference between Wesley and 2^ozendorf 302
VOL. I. 3
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XVIU. CONTENTS.
Page.
Wesley proclaims the breach to the world ^ 303
Dedicates the Journal in which this is done to the Moravian
Church 303
Changes his tone, and censures the Moravians 305
Accredits^he calumnies against them 306
Whitefield writes against them 307
CHAP. XL
Whitefield differs from Wesley concerning predestination,
and wishes to avoid the dispute 308
Writes from America to express his difference of opinion . . 309
Acourt brings the question forward in London 310
Wesley publishes his sermon against predestinatioi^. 312
Whitefield assumes a tone of superiority 312
Extravagance of Whitefield's language 313
He still affects to look for persecution 313
Reproves Wesley for his notions of perfection^ and for not
owning election 314
Exhorts him to be humble 316
Writes against him 316
Copies of his letters distributed at the Foundry 318
Cennick employed at Kingswood 318
Writes to Whitefield, complaining that the Wesleys preached
false doctrines : 319
Wesley charges him with this 321
Excludes Cennick and his party 322
Whitefield sails for England 323
Finds his popularity diminished 324
Is under pecuniary embarrassments 325
Correspondence with Wesley 326
Breach between them 327
CHAP. XIL
Charles Wesley inclined to the Moravians 328
Wesley's feelings of discontent in youth 329
Steps towards schism 330
Class-money 33 1
Class'leaders - 332
Itinerancy 334
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CONTENTf. SIX
Field-preachiog ^ 335
Lay-preachers ^. 337
Resisted at Brst by the Wesleys - 337
Necessity of assistants 338
Thomas Maxfield 339
Wesley hears him preach, and assents to the practice 340
JohnNelsoa '. 340
Wesley visits him at Birstall 348
Wesley goes to Newcastle 349
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
Physic practised 1^ the Clergy in former times — : 357
Dr. Owen -. 369
Mrs. Wesley's method of teaching her children to read 359
Wesley not educated at Westminster .. .< 360
Fires 360
Sacheverel's Defence 361
Original Accounts of the Disturbances, by Jeffry, at Ep-
worth 361
Thomas a Kempis ^ 379
Methodists, not a new name 380
Expenses of the University a 380
Wesley's scheme of self-examination 38 1
Behmenists in England ' 383
William Law ^ 383
Baptism by Immersion 1 384
Members of the colony in Georgia 384
Coincidence of opinion between Wesley and South 386
Philip Henry's opinion concerning the exact time of con- version 386
Comenius 386
Moravian Marriages 387
Fanatical language of the Moravians 387
Zinjsendorf 's notion that all souls are female 390
Doctrine of Assurance 391
Thomas Haliburton 391
Ravings of the persecuted Hugonots 392
Late continuance of the Druidical superstitions 393
Preaching at a Crosa 393
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.XX CONTENTS.
Fage^
Htfbbes's parallel between the Romish Clergy and the Fai- ries 398
Plunder of the Church at the Reformation 394
Miserable state of the inferior clergy in the first age after the
Reformation 395
Means for assisting poor scholars diminished 398
"Conforming clergy at the Reformation 398
Ignorance of the country clergy 399
Clergy of Charles the First's age 399
The sequestered clergy 399
Conforming Puritans 400
Effect of religion in changing the heart 401
Dialogue between Wesley and Zinzendorf. 401
Charges against the Moravians 403
Puritanical language 403
Extravagancies at Kingswood 403
System of itinerancy proposed by the fanatics of Cromwell's
time, as a substitute for the Establishment 404
First lay-preachers 406
VOL., n,
CHAPTER XIII.
State of Methodism - 3
Death of Mrs. Wesley - 4
Wesley's sisters 6
Conduct of his brother-in-law, Hall 6
His sister Wright ' 12
His brother-in-law, Whitelamb 14
Wesley preaches upon his father's grave 16
Letter from Whitelamb 16
Converts at Epworth 17
The curate at Epworth refuses to administer the sacrament
toWesley 18
CHAP. XIV.
Offence taken at the extravagance of the Methodists 19
Wesley relates miracles r 20
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CONTENTS. XXI
V
Pttfe.
Reports concerning bim ••... 20
Charles Wesley taken up for a Jacobite 21
John Wesley and Beau Nash 23
Riots atBristol 23
Outrages at Wednesbury 24
John Nelson pressed for a soldier 29
Gross misconduct of the magistrates »• 29
Nelson's enthusiasm and courage 31
The Countess of Huntingdon obtains his discharge • • 34
Maxfield pressed in Cornwall 35
Wesley attacked by the mob in Cornwall 36
Charles Wesley in danger at Devizes.. ....•••^ 37
Wesley's appeal concerning field-preaching 38
CHAP. XV.
Scenes of itinerancy • ••... 39
Wesley and John Nelson in Cornwall 41
Chance-converts 42
Effects of field preaching • . . • • • ^7
Wesley's love of the poor 50
His opinion of the higher classes 51
Dislike of the farmers 51
Instability of his converts • 53
CHAP. XVI.
Wesley's lay-coadjutors • • • 55
He justifies himself for admitting them 57
Advises them to read • .....••• 58
But not to affect the praise of learning .., • 59
Defends tbem from the charge of being ignorant 60
His management of tbem 01
Their ready obedience instanced in the case of John Jane. 62
Some of the first preachers withdraw 62
Conversion of John furz • • • 63
Of John Thorpe 64
CHAP. XVII.
John Oliver..'. 05
Severity of his father 60
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XXll CONTEKT9.
Fag*.
Falls into despair, and throws himself into the river 67
Attempts suicide a secoad time • • • • • 67
Rubs away Irom borne ••••••••• 68
Is permitted to follow his own course, and becomes a
preacher «••••••• •••• 68
John Pawson • 69
Opposed by his father. .*•••• • 71
His yiudication of himself • . • • 71
The father is eonverted • 72
PawsoD becomes mehmcholy 73
He receives the assurance • ••.. 74
Becomes a preacher 74
Alexander Mather ••••.• ••• 75
Joins the Rebels in 1745 •••.•• 7&
Is delivered to justice by his father 75
Goes to London, and marries there t 75
Objects to working^ at bis business as a baker on Sundays 76
Is admitted by Wesley to preach • 77
Excessive exertions at this time • 79
Cruelly used by a mob 79
Account of the change wrought in bim hy religion «... SO
Thomas Olivers 80
A reprobate boy and young man 81
Affected by hearing Whitefield 82
Rejected by one of WbiteBeld's preachers .83
Attends the Methodists 83
His exertions as a preacher 84
Suffers dreadfully from the small- pox 85
Pays all his debts 85
Attacked by the mob at Yarmouth 87
His deliberation concerning marriage .... , 88
CHAP. XVIII.
John Haime * 90
His first stage of doubt and despair 90
In the act of committing blasphemy, he is frightened bj a
bastard 92
Enlists as a-eoldier 92
Is driven to despair hy one of Whitefield^s preachers ... 93 Charles Wesley comforts him , 93
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CONTENTS. JUCUI
P<v«. Goes to the continent 94
Forms a society in the army of Flanders 94
Brings one of his comrades to a court-martial for blas- phemy 95
Is in thebattleofFontenoy 96
His second state of despair 96
He continues to preach, notmthstanding 98
Admitted as a trayelling preacher 99
The disease leaves him when an old man - - - - 100 He dies in the fulness of hope 100
Sampsoit Staniforth 100
His profligate life in the army 101
Converted through the means of a comrade .... 103 Describes a vision in which he is persuaded that his sins
are forgiven 106
Marries, and leaves the army 104
Settles as a preacher 106
His happy old age - 106
George Storv 107
His miscellaneous reading 106
His search after happiness - - 108
Becomes an unbeliever -109
Uneasiness of his mind 110
Reasons with the Methodists ---112
Joins them from the workings of his own mind - - - 1 12 Never becomes an enthusiast 113
CHAP. XIX.
Provision for the lay-preachers 113
Allowance for their wives 114
Wesley establishes a school at Kingswood 116
System of education there 117
Lady Maxwell 118
111 management of the school -120
Conferenceof the preachers -- 121
CHAP. XX.
Wesley's doctrines and opinions 122
The 4Aoral or Adamic law 122
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ILXIV CONTENTS.
Spiritual death, or the death of the soul a consequence of the
Fall 123
Hence the necessity of a new birth - - - - -- - -125
Justification --------..- -.«. 126
Saoctification ----------.... 127
Instantaneous deliverance from sin - -- - - - - -127
Sddvation by faith ----------«-.- 128
What is faith ? ----•-----«. --.1 29
Revelation, a perpetual thing .-.---...130 The inward evidence of Christianity ----_- - 131
Faith, the free gift of God -- 131
Witness of the Spirit ----------.-132
Assurance reasonably explained -----.---133
Perfection ---------•«-.-. 134
Chain of beings -------------- 136
Diabolical agency -.--------.-. 137
Day of judgment -----------. .133
The Millennium -------------138
Opinions concerning the brute creation --..-. 133 Wesley's perfect charity -----.-....141
CHAP. XXI.
Discipline of the Methodists ---....•-.144
Wesley's supremacy ------------ 145
Circuits ---------------- 147
Helpers, in what manner admitted --------147
The twelve rules of a Helper ----.---.148
Forbidden to engage in trade -----..-.150
Advice respecting their diet ------- -.-I5]
Frequent change of preachers ---------162
Early preaching .----.-.-.-.. 153
Local preachers ------------ -i 54
Leaders ---------.-.-... 154
Bands .------. I55
Select bands ---.-.-.-..... 156
Watch-nights -------------.157
Love-feasts ---------.. ---. 159
Settlement of the chapels ----- -..-. 16O
Their structure and plan .-.---..-..]61 Psalmody ---------.---.« 162
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CHAP. XXII.
JiflljQdism in Wales l^
OrigiDof the Jumpers 1&5
IfetbQtiism in Scotland .-». 16(
WWtefield iavited thither 16f
Conduct of the Associate Preshytery.of the ^eceders towards
him 16f
4ttacked from the pulpit at Aberdeen 16^
){is success in Scotland ]6p
Finds access to people of rank 170
Whitefield's tsdents not to be estimatnd by his printed works 11%
Bis manner of preaching 171
Scene at Cambuslang ^ \1^
Opposition of theSeceders 17^
Their enmity to Wesley 17f
Wesley complains of the indi^ereoce of the Scotch 180
ilis opinion of John Knox 18^
Rested at Edinburgh 186
TlioD^as Taylor's adventures at Glasgow IB^
CHAP. XXIII.
If ethodism in Ireland 1$9
Ferocious superstition mingled with Christianity 187
Attachment of the Irish to popery ^ 188
The Reformation injurious to Ireland 188
Berkeley's hints for converting the people 190
Wesley's iayourahle opinion of the Irisb »• IH
The Methodists are nick -named Swaddlers 192
Kiots against them at Cork 198
Whitefield nearly murdered at PuUin 198
Animosity of the Catholics 190
Thomas Walsh 190
He renounces the Romish Church 201
Becomes a Methodist £08
Preaches in Irish , 209
Saoctily of his character. •« 809
Wesley becomes popuhir in Ireland 2t0
.Cases of Methodism 211
The plunder pf a wreck restored 213
VOL. I. 4
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tXVi CONTENTS.
CHAP. XXIV.
Wesley in middle age '215
Charles Wesley marries 216
John takes counsel concerning marriage 216
Marries Mrs. Vizelle • 21T
Her jealousy and insufferable Conduct 218
Their separation 221
Tendency of Methodism to schism 222
Wesley fayours the arguments of the separatists 224
But opposes the separation... 226
James Wheatley 227
James Relly 229
Scheme of the Rellyan Universalists 229
Antin'omianism «. 290
Excesses at fiverton 232
Wesley suspects their real character 242
Controversy with Bishop Larington ^.^ 244
With Warburton 244
OeorgeBeU - 246
Maxfield separates from Wesley ..••• 260
Prophecy of the end of the world 260
Wesley's Primitive Physic 261
He recovers from a consumption 2fi£
Hssepitaphy written by himself 263
CHAP. XXV.
Progress of Calviobtic Methodism JtBS
Whitefield's courtship 264
His marriage 266
He preaches in Moorfields during the Whitsun-holydays .. 266
First Methodist Tabemade built 269
Lady Huntingdon • 260
Whitefield invited to preach Ht her house 260
She becomes the patroness of the Calvimstic Methodists. ... 262
Founds a seminary for them at Trevecca 263
Death of Whitefield 264
Minutes of Conference in 1771 - 266
Lady Huntingdon offended at these Minutes 266
Jir. Fletcher ^^ 267
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CONTENTBk XXVU
Hr. Shirley's Circular Letter Goncerning the Mmute» 269
Meeting at the Conference, and apparent reconciliation .... 270
Controversy 271
Mr. Toplady 27i
Fletcher's controversial writings ^.-.. 275
Abuse of Wesley 278
Wesley's sermon upon Free Grace 279
CHAPTER XXVL
Wesley attempts to form an union of clergymen 286
Rev. William Grimshaw 287
Dr. Coke 291
Tendency to schism 293
Erasmus the Greek Bishop 294
Baptism by immersion 29j5
Wesley's manner of dealing with crazy peo{4e 296
Cases of infidelity 296
His own stage of doubt «.. 299
He encourages a certain kind of insanity 298
Is easily duped 299
His excessive credulity 300
He publishes the Arminian Magazine 301
CHAP. XXVII.
Methodism in America 302
Society formed at New- York by Philip Embury and Captain
Webb 308
Mr. Wesley sends preachers 304
Thdr progress interrupted by the war • * 306
Wesley's *«Cahn Address" 306
Attacked by Caleb Evans 308
Defended by Mr. Fletcher 309
Wesley's Observations on Liberty, in reply to Dr. Price .. 312 He instjructs his preachers in America to refrain from politics 314
The English preachers obliged to fly 315
The sectarian clergy refuse to administer the ordinances to the
Methodists 316.
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taifioMibiliiy b( obtaiiiiDg epiBCopd «tdkMion ill
*' rica SIB
The American Methodists ordain lor themselves *-"' 317
JUbury sets this aside, and refers the afiair to Mr. Welley .. 817 Wesley resolves to ordain priests for America, and cbnsechites
Dr. Coke as a bishop 31S
tKs letters of ordination 319
Dr. Coke sails for New- York 3tl
Meets Asbary 32«
Conference at Baltimore '-.-- 323
Scheme of the Methodist Church in America 323
Their address to Washington 3ft
Foundation of Cokesbury College 325
Discipline of the College 326
Popularity of Dr. Coke .' 32(6
He makes himself obnoxious by preaching against slaviei^ .. 3^
Forest-preaching 325
Biotous devotion at their meetings 3^1
Benjamin Abbott 332
Kule respecting spiritous liquors • ^336
Odd places in which Dr. Coke preached 936
He complains of the localitm of the preachers 33^
Rapid increase of the Methodists ^^
CHAP. XXVIII.
Methodism in the West-Indies 339
Mr. Gilbert forms a society in Antigua 339
JohnBaxter 340
History of an Irish family 34^
Y7oke is driven to the West-Indies 342
He is well received at Antigua 343
V^isits the neighbouring islands 344
His second voyage to the West-Indies 346
X.ands in Barbadoes 345
Methodism proscribed in St. Eustatius 346
Rash conduct of Dr. Coke 348
He is hospitably entertained in Jamaica 349
Begs money for the West-Indian Missions 360
'ttethodists become unpopular in the islands 351
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iUfecli of eathusiatm •••••.••••*••« ;.••.;«.«••; Mi
BmU V OM
IhunbeisatUietiaieof Wflrieylitllaih u..«4.» MK
CHAP. XXIX*
flKtiemeDt of the Confereoce •••••;.»«**f^«.. 8IB
Meoce given by the Deed of D^cMrafion w.**.« 8W
Sasy terms of admisaioQ • Mi
Dress.. 3G1
Amusemeats •• • • ••••• 306
Laughter ••• •.» dOT
Kiogswood School 369
^Yearly coTeoant •• 371
Iklarmiiig sermoBS. •••• • ••••• • 378
jBtfectsof Aethodism upon the educated classes iHi
kicbes ^i9
Little real reformation in the greiat body ••• • 3^
Moral ifiracles 38t
^nsons • 386
[Effect of Methodism upon the Clergy • 3^
PoliiicaTefiecU p • Z^
Wesley ordidns'^preachers for Scollaud •.••»••• 3^
Injudicious coilduet of some magiftrates In Lincolnshire. • • . 3^ ^^Btey*S fetter 10 the bislSop \Sdb
CHAP. XXX.
Wesley tnddage ; Ml
bis excellent health and tfpirl ts « H^
^red of a Vdrotele tlOi
ft^moves from the Foundry to the Ciiy-HOid 082
i'Sy-'preadrers jealous of Ofaaries • -SM
ffrs. Wright •••••. ••«••••••••••••••• •••«•.•••••••• 3S6
MusiodlafcuUof CbartcrtfSOfis..; flfl5
One of them becomera Papist ••••••• 306
Wiley's letter upon this subject • • • « 806
Bis eontroTorsy with the Roman Catholics dif7
Account of his health in his72d yehr 367
1I# outlines «11 his first disciples ...« ^..899
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JXt CONTENTS.
Death of Mr. Fletcher .4d0
Wesley's extraordioaiy health in old age -•..«. 404 He begins to feel decay in hia 84th year *..-.. 405
Death of Charles Wesley 406
Wesley closes bis cash-accoonts -..-..*.- 407 His last letters to America .-•...--.. 40S
Hisdeath 408
Lies in state in the Chapel -i--.--*--- 408 State of the Connexion at his death - . • - ... 409 Condasion ----..-.-.-.---.- 410
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
The Pretender - 413
Lay-preachers ---- ---------413
Thomas Olivers .-.-------.-. 413
Anecdotes of the bustard -----------414
Toplady's illustration of the renewal of the image of God in
the heart of man --- ----- -414
The new Birth 416
Instantaneous conversion -----------417
Salvation not to be sought by works ------ - 417
Assurance -.--------.----• 417
Perfection --------------- 417
Ministry of Angels -------------418
Agency of evil spirits ------------ 419
Immortality of animals ---.-----•»- 420
Itinerancy ---^----------- 420
The select bands --------421
Psalmody 421
Service of the Methodists - - 423-
Strong feelings expressed with levi^ ..---- ^ 428
Methodism in Scotland ------------ 423
Irelvid neglected at the Reformation -------424
Wesley offers to raise men for government during the Ameri-
canwar ...--------- 42o
Wesley's separation from his wTfe 426
The Bumham Society -- 426
Device upon Whitefield*8 seal ---------426
WhitefieW'sbody ..-..--. 426
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eonnztrtfi. iixi
Conference with Mr. Shirley • ••••••*•»••• 426
Berridge • • « ••• 427
The Serpent and the Fex 427
Cdvinism • •••• • 428
Mr. Fletcher's Illustrations of CalTinism • 429
Arminianism described by the Calvinists • • 431
Tonng Grimahaw • 432
Wesley's doctrine concerning riches ••••«••• • 432
The yearly coTcnant 432
The value of agood conscience • • • 433
Mr. Wesley's epitaphs . . •• 433
J. CoDefs forgeries 434
ApDiTioiiAt Notes concerning Mr. Wesley's family .... 435
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THE
msiwm mt ifffisa^x^^
X HE sect, or Society, as they would call themselves, of Methodists, has existed for the greater part of a century ; they have their seminaries and their hie- rarchy, their own regulations, their own manners, their own literature : in England they form a distinct people, an imperiym in imperio : they are extending widely in America ; and in both countries they num- ber their annual increase by thousands. The histo- ry of their founder is little known in his native land beyond the limits of those who are termed the reli- gious public ; and on the continent it is scarcely known at all. In some of his biographers the heart has b^en wanting to understand his worth, or the will to do it justice ; others have not possessed free- dom or strength of intellect to perceive wherein he was erroneous.
It has been remarked with much complacency, by the Jesuits, that in the year of Luther's birth Loyola was born also : Providence, they say, having wisely appointed, that when so large a portion of Christen- dom was to be separated from the Catholic Church by means of the great German heresiarch, the great Spanish saint should establish an order by which the Catholic faith would be strenuously supported in Europe, and disseminated widely in the other pa,rts
VOL. I. 5
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34 THE LIFE OF WE8LET.
of the world. Voltaire and Wesley were not indeed in like manner, children of the same year, but they were contemporaries through a longer course of lime ; and the influences which they exercised upon their age and upon posterity, have been not less re- markably opposed. While the one was scattering, with pestilent activity, the seeds of immorality and unbelief, the other, with ecjually unweariable zeal, laboured in the cause of religious enthusiasm. The works of Voltaire have found their way wherever the French language is read ; the disciples of Wes- lev wherever the English is spoken. The principles ot the arch-infidel were more rapid in their operation ; he who aimed at no such evil as that which he con- tributed so greatly to bring about, was himself startled at their progress : in bis Tatter days he trembled at the consequences which he then foresaw ; and in- deed bis remains had scarcely mouldered in the grave, before those consequences brought down the whole fabric of government in France, overturned her altars, subverted her throne, carried guilt, de- vastation, and misery into every part of his own coun- try, and shook the rest of Europe like an Earthquake. Wesley's doctrines, meantime, were slowly and gra- dually winning their way ; but they advanced every succeeding year with accelerated force, and their ef- fect tnust ultimately be more extensive, more power- ful, and more permanent, for he has set mightier prin- ciples at work. Let it not, however, be supposed that 1 would represent these eminent men, like agents of the good and evil principles, in all things contrast- ed : the one was not all darkness, neither was the other all light.
I The history of men who have been prime agents in those great moral and intellectual revolutions, which from time to time take place among mankind, is not less important than that of statesmen and con* Querors. If it has not to treat of actions wherewith tne world has rung from side to side, it appeals to the higher part of our nature, and may perhaps excite
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THE LIFE OF WESLEY. 35
more salutary feelings, a worthier interest, and wiser meditations. The Emperor Charles V., and his ri- val of France, appear at this day infinitely insignifi- cant, if we compare them with Luther and Loyola ; and there may come a time when the name of Wesley will be more generally known, and in remoter re- gions of the globe, than tbatof Frederick or of Cath- arine. For the works of such men survive them, and continue to operate, when nothing remains of world- ly ambition but the memory of its vanity and its guilt.
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CHAPTER L
fAMat OF THE WE8LETS.-«-WESLET'8 CHILDHOOD AND EDUCATION.
The founder of the MethodistB was emphaticallj of a good familj, in the sense wherein he himself would have used the term. Bartholomew Wesley, his great-grandfather, studied physic* as well as di- vinity at me university, a practice not unusual at that time : he was ejected, hy the act of uniformity, from the living of AUington, in Dorsetshire ; and the medi- cal knowledge which he had acquired from motives of charity, became then the means of his support. John, bis son was educated at New-Inn Hall, Oxford, in tbe time of the Commonwealth ; he was distin- guished not only for his piety and diligence, but for bis progress in the oriental tongues, by which he at- tracted the particular notice and esteem of the then vice-chancellor, John Owen, ar man whom the Cal- vinistic dissenters still regard as the greatestf of their
* **Let me/' says the humble moderator, (Bishop Croft) " speak a word to those of the iitTerior clenqr who take upon them to study and practise physic for hire : this must needs be sinful, as taking them off from their spiritual employment. Had they studied physic before they entered holy orders, and would dler make use of their skill among their poor neighbours out of charity, they were commendable : but ^ing entered on a spiritu- al and pastoral charge, which requires the whole man, and more, to spend their time in this, or any other study not spiritual, is con- trary to their vocation, and consequently sinful ; and to do it for gain is sordid, and unworthy their high and holy calling. But neceBsitcu cogit ad turpia : the maintenance of many ministers is 80 small, as it forces them even for food and raiment, to seek it by other employment, which may in some measure excuse them, but mightily condemns those who should provide better for them.'* t '* The name of Owen,*' say Messrs. Bogue and Bennet, the joint historians of the Dissenters, ** has been raised to imperial dignity in the theological world by Dr. John Owen." — '* A young minister," they say, *' who wishes to attain eminence in his profes-
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FAMILY OP THE WESLEY S. 37
divines. If the government had continued in the Cromwell family, this patronage would have raised him to distinction. He obtained the living of Bland- ford in his own county, and was ejected from it for non-conformity ; being thus adrift, he thought of emi-
f grating to Maryland, or to Surinam, where the Eng- ish were then intending to settle a colony, but re- flection and advice determined him to take his lot in his native land. There, by continuing to preach, he became obnoxious to the laws, and was four times imprisoned : his spirits were broken by the loss of those whom he loved best, and by the evil days ; he died at the early age of three or mur and thirty ; and such was the spirit of the times, that the Vicar of Preston, in which village he died, would not allow his body to be buried io the church. Bartholomew was then living, but the loss of this, his only son, brought his gray hairs with sorrow to the grave.
This John Wesley married a woman of good stock, the niece of Thomas Fuller, the church historian, a man not more remarkable for wit and quaintness, than for the felicity with which he clothed fine thoughts in beautiful language. He left two sons, of whom Samuel, the younger, was only eight or nine years old at the time of his father^s death. The circum- stances of the father^s life and sufte rings, which have given him a place among the confessors of the non- conformists, were likely to influence the opinions of the son ; but happening to fall in with bigotted and ferocious men, he saw the worst part of the dissenting character. Their defence of the execution of King
sion, if he has not the works of John Howe, and can procure them in no other way, should sell his coat and huy them ; and if that will Aot suffice, let him sell his hed too and lie on the floor ; and if he spend his days in reading them, he will not complain that he lies luurd atBi^."«A-«>But " if the theological student should part with his coat or his bed, to procure the works of Howe, he that would not seU his shirt to procure.lhose of John Owen, and especially his Exposition, of which every ^ntence is precious, shows too much regard for hit body, and too littl^ for his immortal mind." HiUoryafthe Diutaters, vol. ii. pp. 223. 236.
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38 FAMILY OF THE WE8LET8.
Charles oflended hitn^ and he was at once shocked and disgusted bj their* cairs head club ; so much so, that he separated irom them, and, because of their intolerance, joined the church which had persecuted his father. This conduct, which was the result of feeling, was approved bj his ripe judgment, and Samuel Wesley continued through life a zealous churchman. The feeling which urged him to this step must have been very powerful, and no common spirit was required to bear htm through the difficul- ties which he brought upon himself; for, by with- drawing from the academy at which be had been placed, he so far offended his friends, that they lent nim no further support, and in the latter years of Charles II. there was little disposition to encourage proselytes who joined a church which the reigning family was labouring to subvert. But Samuel Wes- ley was made of good mould ; he knew and could de- pend upon himself; he walked to Oxford, entered himself at Exeter College as a poor scholarf, and be-
* So Samuel Wesley the son states, id a note to Itia elegr upon his father. According to him, if his words are to be literally un- derstood, the separation took place when Mr. Wesley was but a boy. There is, however, reason for supposing that he was of age at the time, as will be shown in the note next ensuing.
t In Dr. Whitehead's lives of the Wesleys, and in the life which is prefixed to the collected edition of Mr. Wesley's works, it is said that Wesley the father was about sixteen when he enter- ed himself at Exeter College. But as he was bom '* about the year 1662, or perhaps a little earlier,'* he must have been not less than two-and-twenty at that time, as the following extracts from the registers of Exeter College will prove :
Return of caution money.
Deposit of caution money.
Sept. 26. 1684. Mro. Hutchins pro
Samuele Westley, paup. scboL de Dorchester, £3.
Ric. Hutchins. Guil. Crabb. Feb. 9.
1686. Mro. Paynter pro Sam. Westley, p. schol. olim admisso, j^.
Guil. Paynter. Ric. Huuhins.
Dec.M.
1686. SamaaU WesUey pro seipso, £3.
Ric. Hotchins. Samuel Westley.
Jan. 10.
1687. BliM tpsi pro impensis. CelLdebiticadiiMt. Wat. 87. £3.
Jo. Harris.
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FAMILY OF THE WE8LST8. 39
gan his studies there with no larger a fund than two pounds sixteen shillings, and no prospect of any fu^ ture supply. From that time, till he graduated, a single crown was all the assistance he received from his friends^ He composed exercises for those who ' had more money than learning ; and he gave instruc- tion to those who wished to profit by his lessons; and thus by great industry, and great frugality, he not only supported himself but had accumulated the sum of ten pounds fifteen shillings, when he went to Lon- don to be ordained. Having served a curacy there one year, and as chaplain during another on board a king^s ship, he settled upon a curacy in the metropo- lis, and married Susannah,.daughterof Dr. Annesley, one of the ejected ministers.
No man was ever more suitably mated than the elder Wesley. The wife whom he chose, was, like himself, the child of a man eminent among the non- conformists, and, like himself, in early youth she bad
^ To these extracts, for which I am obliged to a fellow of Exeter CoU^e, through the means of a common friend, these explanato- ry obseryations are annexed. '* In the entries of deposits the name first signed is that of the bursar, as R. Hutchins, G. Paynter: the name which follows is that of the depositor sometimes, but more usually that of his tutor or friend. Crabb was dean of the college when WesUey entered.
*' The Pauper Schohris was the lowest of the four conditions of members not on the foundation, as the annexed table, copied from one prefixed to the caution book, shows :
f1. ComiMiiBaUum'^ 1. Sociorum .... £6.
I 2. Propriam .... £s.
Sunun«
tradenda
Bursafio ]»ro
ratione
dWertaroBi
condftionmn
admistorufo ad V J2
2. Bauallariorium £4.
•cire. (^3. Paupcrum Scholarium £3.
" I understand that some of these poor scholars were servitors, but not all.
•* There seems reason to suspect that Dec. 22, 1686, in the first entry of return, should be 1685 ; for otherwise Samuel Westley will, appear to have had two cautions in at once ; and from the state of his finances this is peculiarly improbable."
The name is spelled Westley with a t, in these entries, and in his own signature.
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40 VAMILT OP THE WE8LETS.
chosen bar own path ; she had examined the* con- trorersy between the Dissenters and the Church of England with conscientious diligence, and satisfied herself that the schismatics were in the wrong. The dispute, it must be rememt>ered, related wholly to discipline ; but her inquiries had not stopt there, and she had reasoned herself into Socinianism, from which she was reclaimed by her husband. She was an admirable woman, of highly improved mind, and of a strong and mascnline understanding, an obedient wife, an exemplary mother, a fervent Christian. The marriage was blest in all its circumstances : it was contracted in the prime of their youth : it was fruit- ful ; and death did not divide them till they were both full of days. They had no less than nineteen children ; but only three sons and three daughters seem to have grown up ; and it is probably to the losa of the others that the father refers in one of his letters, where he says, that he had suffered things more grievous than death. The manner in which these children were taught to read is remarkable:
* " There is nothing I now deaire to Kve for (says Mrs. Wes- ley in a letter to her son Samuel, dated Oct. 11, 1709,) but to do some small service to my children ; that, as 1 have brought them into the world, I may, if it please Ood, be an instrument of doing good to their sonls. I had been sevenil years collecting from my little reading, but chiefly from my own observation and experi- ence, some things which I hoped might be useful to you all. I had begun to correct and form all into a little manual, wherein I designed you should have seen what were the particular reasons which prevailed on me to believe the being of a Ood, and the grounds of natural religion, together with the motives that in- duced me to embrace the faith of Jesus Christ ; under which was comprehended my own private reasons for the truth of revealed religion ; and because I was educated among the Dissenters, and there was something remarkable in my leaving them at so early an age, not being full thirteen, I had drawn up an account of the whole transaction, under which I had included the main of the controversy between them and the established church, as far as it bad come to my knowledge, and then followed the reasons which had determined my judgment to the preference of the Church of England. I had fairly transcribed a great part of it, but before I could finish my design, the flames consumed both this and all my other writings."
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tibe mother never began with them till they were five years old, and then she made them learn the alpha- bet perfectly in one day: on the next they were put to spell and to read one line, and then a verse, never leaying it till they were perfect in the lesson.
Mr. Wesley soon attracted notice b^ his ability and his erudition. Talents found their way int# public less readily in that age than in the present; and therefore, when they appeared, they obtained attention the sooner. He was thought capable of forwardii^ the plans of James 11. with regard to religion ; and preferment was promised him if he would preach m behalf of the king's measures. But ifistead of reading the king's declaration as he was required, and although surrounded with courtiers, soldiers, and informers, he preached boldly against the designs of the court, taking for his text the pointed knguage of the prophet Daniel, ^^ If it be so^ our God whom we serve is able to deliver Us from the burn- ing fiery fiirnace, and he will deliver us out of thy hand, O king ! But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will npt serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.^ When the Revolution was effected, Mr. Weslev was the first who wrote in its defence: he dedicated the work to Queen Mary, and was rewarded for it with the living of Epworth, in Lincolnshire. It is said that if the queen had lived longer he would have obtained more preferment. His wife differed from him in opinion concerning the Revolution, but as she understood the duty and the wisdom of obedience, she did not express her dissent ; and he discovered it a year only before King William died, by observing that she did not say Amen to the prayers for him. Instead of imitating her forbearance, he questioned her upon the subject, and when she told him she did not believe the Prince of Orange was king, he vowed never again to cohabit with her till she did. In pur- suance of this unwarrantable vow he immediately took horse and rode a^ay ; nor did she bear of him again, till the death of the king, about twelve months
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42 FAMII.T OF THE WeSLBTS.
afterwards, released him from his rash and criminal engagement. John was their first child after this separation.
In the reign of Queen Anne Mr. Weslej's pros- pects appeared to brighten. A poem which he published upon the* battle of Blenheim pleased the duke of Marlborough, and the author was rewarded with the chaplainship of a regiment. A further and better reward was held out to his expectations ; and he was invited to London by a noMeman who promised to procure him a prebend* This the Dis- senters, with whom he was engaged in controversy, were at that time powerful enough to prevent No enmity is so envenomed as that of religious faction. The Dissenters hated Mr. Wesley cordially, because they looked upon him as one who, having been born in their service, had cast off* his allegiance. They intercepted his preferment : ^^ they worked him out of his chaplainship, and brought several other very severe sufferings upon him and his family.'^ ^ During the subsequent reign, the small livitig of Wroote was given him, in the same county, with £pworth.
John, his second son, the founder of the Methodists, was born at Epworth on the 1 7th of June, 1703. Epworth is a market-town in the Lindsay division of Lmcolnshire, irregularly built, and containing at that time in its parish about two thousand persons. I'he inhabitants are chiefly employed in the culture and preparation of hemp and flax, in spinning these arti- cles, and in the manufactory of sacking and bagging. Mr. Wesley found his parishioners in a profligate state ; and the zeal with which he discharged his duty in admonishing them of their sins, excited a spirit of diabolical hatred in those whom it failed to reclaim. Some of these wretches twice attempted to set bis house on fire, without success : they suc- ceeded in a third attempt At midnight some pieces of burning wood fell from the roof upon the bed in which one of the children lay, and burnt her feet. Before she could give the alarm, Mr. Wesley was roused by a cry of fire from the street : little ima-
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Slning (bat it was in bis own house, he opened the oor^ and found it full of smoke, and that the roof was already burnt through. His wife being ill at tbe time, slept apart from him, and in a separate room. Bidding her and the two eldest girls rise and shift for their lives, he burst open the nursery door, where the maid was sleeping with five children. She snatched up the youngest, and bade tbe others follow her; tbe three elder did so, but John, who was then six years old, was not awakened by all this, and in the alarm and confusion he was forgotten. By the time they reached the hall, the flames had spread every where around them, and Mr. Wesley then found that the keys of the house-door were above stairs. He ran and recovered them, a minute befi>re tbe stair-case took fire. When the door was opened^ a strong north-east wind drove in the flames with such violence from the side of the house, that it was impossible to stand against them. Some of the children got through the windows, and others through a little door into the garden. Mrs. Wesley could not reach the garden door, and was not in a condition to climb to the windows : after three times attempt- ing to &ce the flames, and shrinking as often from Uieir force, she besought Christ to|)reserve her, if it was.hts will, from tnat dreadful death : she then, to use her own expression, waded through the fire, and escaped into the street naked as she was, with some slight scorching of the hands and face. At this time John, who had not been remembered till that moment, was heard crying in the nursery. The father ran to the stairs, but they were so nearly con- sumed, that they could not bear his weight, and being utterly in despair, he fell upon his knees in tbe hall, and in agony commended the soul of the child to God. John had been awakened by the light, and thinking it was day, called to the maid to take him up ; but as no one answered, he opened the curtains, and saw streaks of fire upon the top of the room. He ran to the door, and finding it impos- sible to escape that way, climbed upon a chest which
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stood near the window, and he was then Bten from the jard. There was no time for procuring a ladder, but it was happily a low house : one man was hoist- ed upon the shoulders of another, and could then reach the window, so as to take him out : a moment later and it would have been too late : the whole roof fell in, and had it not fallen inward, they must all have been crushed together. When tlie child was carried out to the house where his parents were, the father cried out, «^ Come, neighbours, let us kneel down : let us give thanks to God ! he has given me all my eight children : let the house go, I am rich enough/' John Wesley remembered this providen- tial deliverance through life with the deepest grati- tude. In reference to it he had a house in flames engraved as an emblem under one of his portraits, with these words for the motto, *^ Is not this a brand plucked out of the burning ?''
The third son, Charles, the zealous and able asso- ciate of his brother in his future labours, was at this time scarcely two months old. The circumstances of his birth are remarkable. His mother was deli- vered of him before the due time, and the child ap- peared dead rather than alive, neither crying nor opening its eyes : in this state it was kept, wrapt up in soft wool, till the time when he should have been born according to the usual course of nature, and then, it is said, he opened his eyes and made him« self heard.
Mr. Wesley usually attended the sittings of con- vocation : such attendance, according to his princi- ples, was a part of his duty, and he performed it at an expense of money which he could ill spare from the necessities of so large a family, and at a cost of time which was injurious to his parish. During these absences, as there was no afternoon service at Epworth, Mrs. Wesley prayed with her own family on Sunday evenings, read a sermon, and engaged afterwards in religious conversation. Some of the parishioners who came in accidentally were not ex- cluded ; and she did not think it proper that their
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presence should interrupt the duty of the hour. In- duced by the report which these persons made, others requested pennission to attend ; and in this manner from thirty to forty persons usually assem- bled. After this had c^outinued some time, she hap- pened to find an account of the Danish missionaries in her husband^s study, and was much impressed by the perusal. The book strengthened her desire of doing good : she chose ^^ the best and most awaken- ing sermons,'^ and spake with more freedom, more warmth, more affection to the neighbours who at- tended at her evening prayers ; their numbers in- creased in consequence, for she did not think it right to deny any who asked admittance. More persons came at length than the apartment could hold ; and the thing was represented to her husband in such a manner that he wrote to her, objecting to her con- duct, because, he said, " it looked particular,'' be- cause of her sex, and because he was at that time in a public station and character, which rendered it the more necessary that she should do nothing to attract censure; and he recommended that some other per- son should read for her. She began her reply by heartily thanking him for dealing so plainly and faith- fiilly with her in a matter of no common concern. ^ As to its looking particulars^ she said, " I grant it does ; and so does almost every thing that is serious, or that may any way advance the glory of God, or the salvation of souls, if it be performed out of a pulpit or in the way of common conversation ; be- cause in our corrupt age the utmost care and dili- gence has beep used to Danish all discourse of God, or spiritual concerns, out of society, as if religion were never to appear out of the closet, and we were to be ashamed of nothing so much as of confessing ourselves to be Christians." To the objection on account of her sex she answered, that as she was a woman, so was she also mistress of a large family ; and though the superior charge lay upon him as their head and minister, yet in his absence she could not but look upon every soul which he had left under
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her care, as a talent committed to her under a trust bj the great Lord of all the families of heaven and earth. " If/' she added, ** I am unfaithful to Him or to you^ in neglecting to improve these talents, ho^ shall I answer unto Him, when he shall command me to render an account of my stewardship ?" The ob- jections which arose from his own station and charac- ter she left entirely to his own judgment. Why any person should reflect upon him, because his wife en- deavoured to draw people to church, and restrain them, by reading and other persuasions, from pro- faning the sabbath, she could not conceive; and if any were mad enougli to do so, she hoped he would not regard it. " For my own part," she says, «I value no censure on this account: I have long since shook hands with the world ; and I heartily vrish I had ne- ver given them more reason to speak against me." As to the proposal of letting some other person read for her, she thought her husband had not considered what a people they were ; not a man among them could read a sermon without spelling a good part of it, and how would that edify the rest.^ And none of her own family had voices strong enough to be heard by so many.
While Mrs. Wesley thus vindicated herself in a manner which she thought must prove convincing to her husband, as well as to her own calm judgment, the curate of Epworth (a man who seems to have been entitled to very little respect) wrote to Mr. Wesley in a very different strain, complaining that a conventicle was held in his house. The name was well chosen to alarm so high a churchman; and his second letter declared a decided disapprobation of these meetings, to which he had made no serious ob- jections before. She did not reply to this till some days had elapsed, for she deemed it necessary that both should take some time to consider before her husband finally determined in a matter which she felt to be of great importance. She expressed her astonishment that any effect upon his opinions, much more any change in them, should be produced by
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the seoBeless clamour of two or three of the worst ill his parish ; and she represented to him the good which nad been done by inducing a much more fre- quent and regular attendance at church, and reform- ing the general habits of the people ; and the evil which would result from discontinuing such meet* ifigs^ especially by the prejudices which it would ex- cite against the curate, in those persons who were sensible that they derived benefit from the religious opportunities, which would thus be taken away through his interference. After stating these things clearly and judiciously, she concluded thus, in refe- rence to her own duty as a wife : *^ If you do, after all^ think fit to dissolve this assembly, do not tell me that you d$sire me to do it, for that will not satisfy mj conscience ; but send me your positive command^ in such full and express terms as may absolve me from guilt and punishment for neglecting this oppor- tunity of doing good, when you and I shall appear before the great and awful tribunal of our Lord Je* BUS Christ.*'
Mr. Wesley made no further objections ; and tho- Foughly respecting, as he did, the principles and the understanding of bis wife, he was perhaps ashamed that the representations of meaner minds should have prejudiced him against her conduct. John and Charles were at this time under their mother's care: she devoted such a proportion of time as she could afibrd to discourse with each child by itself on one night of the week, upon the duties and the hopes of , Christianity : and it may well be believed that these circumstances of their childhood had no inconside- rable influence upon their proceedings when they became the founders and directors of a new commu- nity of Christians. John's providential deliverance from the fire had profoundly impressed his mother, as it did himself, throughout the whole of his after life. Among the private meditations which were found among her papers, was one written out long after that event, in which she expressed in prayer her intention to be more particularly careful of the
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soul of this child, which God bad so mercilbUy pro- vided for, that she might instil into him the princi* pies of true religion and virtue; — ^^Lord,'' she said, ^^ give wie grace to do it sincerely and prudently, and bless my attempts with good success/^ The pecu** liar care which was thus taken of his religious edu- cation, the habitual and fervent piety of both his pa- rents, and his own surprising preservation, at an age when he was perfectly capable of remembering all the circumstances, combined to foster in the child that disposition, which afterwards developed itself with such force, and produced such important ef- fects.
Talents of no ordinary kind, as well as a devotional temper, were hereditary in this remarkable family. Samuel, the elder brother, who was eleven years * older than John, could not speak at all till he was more than four years old, and consequently was thought to be deficient in his faculties : but it seems as if the child had been laying up stores in secret till that time, for one day when some question was pro- posed to another person concerning him, he answer- ed it himself in a manner which astonished all who heard him, and from that hour he continued to speak without difficulty. He distinguished himself first at Westminster, and afterwards at Christ Church, Ox- ford, by his classical attainments. From Christ Church he returned to Westminster as an usher, and then took orders, under the patronage of Atterbury, But he regarded Atterbury more as a friend than a patron, and holding the same * political opinions, he
* The sons appear to have imbibed their mother's political opinions. Samuel was one of those wits who did themselves no honour, and their country no service, by assailing Sir Robert Walpoie's administration. There is a passage in one of Charles Wesley's letters which shows that John was of the same political school. Writing to Samuel from Oxford in the year 1734, he says, '* My brother has been much mauled, and threatened more, for his Jacobite sermon on the 11th June. But he was wise enough to get the vice-chancellor to read and approve it before he preached it, and may therefore bid Wadham, Merton, Exeter, and Christ Church do their worst.'' Wesley has asserted, and his biographers have repeated it after him, that Dr. Sacheverel's
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attracted the resentment of the ministers, by assail- ing them with epigrams and satires. On this ac- count, when the situation of under-master became vacant, and he was proposed as a man eminently qualified to fill it, by experience, ability, and charac- ter, the appointment was refiised, upon the irrele- vant objection that he was a married man. Charles was placed under him at Westminster, and going through the college in like manner, was also elected to Christ Church. John was educated at the Char- ter-house.
While John was at school, certain disturbances occurred in his father's house, so unaccountable that every person by whom they were witnessed believed them to be supernatural. At the latter end of the year 1715, the maid-servant was terrified by hearing At the dining-room door several dismal groans, as of a person at the point of death. The family gave lit- tle heed to her story, and endeavoured to laugh her out of her fears ; but a few nights afterward they be- gan to hear strange knockings, usually three or four at a time, in different parts of the house : every per- son heard these noises except Mr. Wesley himself^ and as, according to vulgar opinion, such sounds were not audible by the individual to whom they fore- boded evil, they refrained from telling him, lest he should suppose that it betokened his own death, as they indeed all apprehended. At length, however, the disturbance became so great and so frequent, that few or none of the family durst be alone, and Mrs. Wesley thought it better to inform her husband ; for it Was not possible that the matter could long be concealed from him ; and moreover, as she says, she was minded he should speak to it. The noises were now various as well as strange, loud rumblings above stairs or below, a clatter among a number ofbottles,
defence was composed by his father. It has been usually as- cribed to Atterbury, and very possibly he may have employed his young friend in the task, — a task by no means consonant with the father^s principles.
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as if they had all at once been dashed to pieces, foot-* steps as of a man going up and down stairs at all hours of the night, sounds like that of dancing in an empty room, the door of which was locked, gobbling like a turkey cock, but most frequently a knocking about the beds at night, and in different parts of the house. Mrs. Wesley would at first have persuaded Uie children and servants that it was occasioned by rats within doors, and mischievous persons without, and her husband had recourse to the same ready solution ; or some of his daughters, he supposed, sate up late and made a noise ; and a hint that their lovers might have something to do with the mystery, made the young ladies heartily hope he might soon be convinced that there was more in the matter than he was disposed to believe. In this they were not disappointed, for on the next night, a little after mid- night, he was awakened by nine loud and distinct knocks, which seemed to be in the next room, with a pause at every third stroke. He rose and went to see if he could discover the cause, but could per- ceive nothing ; still he thought it might be some per- son out of doors, and relied upon a stout mastijQT to rid them of this nuisance. But the dog, which upon the first disturbance had barked violently, was ever af- terwards cowed by it, and seeming more terrified than any of the children, came whining himself to his master and mistress, as if to seek protection in a hu- man presence. And when the man-servant, Robin Brown, took the mastiflTat night into his room, to be at once a ^uard and companion, as soon as the latch began to jar as usual, the dog crept into bed, and barked and howled so as to alarm the house.
The fears of the family for Mr. Wesley's life being removed as soon as he had heard the mysterious noises, they began to apprehend that one of the sons had met with a violent death, and more particularly Samuel the eldest. The father, therefore, one night after several deep groans had been heard, adjured it to speak if it had power, and tell him why it trou- bled the house ; and upon this three distinct knock-
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ings were made. He then questioned it if it were Samuel his son, bidding it, if it were, and could not speak, to knock again; but to their great comfort there was no farther knocking that night; and when they heard that Samuel and the two boys were safe^ and well, the visitations of the goblin became rather a matter of curiosity and amusement than of alarm. Emilia gave it the name of old Jefier}', and by this name he was now known as a harmless, though by no means an agreeable inmate of the parsonage. Jefib'^ ry was not a malicious goblin, but he was easily of- fended. Before Mrs. Wesley was satisfied that there was Bontething supernatural in the noises, she recol- lected that one ot her neighbours had frightened the rals from his dwelling by blowing a horn there ; the liorn, therefore, was borrowed, and blown stoutly about the house for half a day, greatly against the judgment of one of the sisters, who maintained that if it was any thing supernatural it would certainly be very angry and more troublesome. Her opinion was verified by the event ; Jeffery had never till then be- gun his operations during the day ; from that time he came by day as well as by night, and was louder than before. And he never entered Mr. Wesley's stu- dy till the owner one day rebuked him sharply, call* ed him a deaf and dumb devil, and bade him cease to disturb the innocent children, and come to him in his study, if he had any thing to say. This was a sort of defiance, and Jeflfery therefore took him at his word. No other person in the family ever felt the goblin, but Mr. Wesley was thrice pushed by it with considerable force.
So he himself relates, and his evidence is clear and distinct. He says also, that once or twice when he spoke to it, he heard two or three feeble squeaks, a little louder than the chirping of a bird, but not like the noise of rats. What is said of an actual appear- ance is not so well confirmed. Mrs. Wesley thought she saw something run from under the bed, and thought it most like a badger, but she could not well say of what shape ; and the man saw something like a
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white rabl>it, which came from behind the oven, with its ears flat upon the neck, and its little scut standing straight up. A shadow may possibly explain the first of these appearances ; the other may be impo** ted to that proneness which ignorant persons so com- monly evince to exaggerate in all uncommon cases. These circumstances, therefore, though apparently silly in themselves, in no degree invalidate the other parts of the story, which rest upon the concurrent testimony of many intelligent witnesses. The door was once violently pushed against Emilia, when there was no person on the outside ; the latches were fre*- Quently lifted up ; the windows clattered always be- fore Jeffery entered a room, and whatever iron or brass was there, rung and jarred exceedingly. It was observed also, that the wind commonly rose after any of his noises, and increased with it, and whistled loudly around the house. Mr. Wesley's trencher (for it was before our potteries had pushed their ware into every village throughout the kingdom) danced one day upon the table, to his no small amazement ; and the hand of Robin's hand-mill, at another time, was turned round with great swiftness; unluckily Robin had judt done grinding; nothing vexed him, he said, but that the mill was empty; if there had beencorninit, Jeffery might have ground his heart out before he would have disturbed him. It was plainly a Jacobite goblin, and seldom suffered Mr. Wesley to pray for the King and the Prince of Wales without disturbing the famny prayers. Mr. Wesley was sore upon this subject, and became angry, and therefore repeated the prayer. But when Samuel was informed of this, his remark was, ^^ As to the de- vil's being an enemy to king George, were 1 the king myself, 1 should rather Old Nick should be my enemy than my friend." The children were the only persons who were distressed by those visitations ; the man- ner in which they were affected is remarkable : when the noises began they appeared to be frightened in their sleep, a sweat came over them, and they pant- ed and trembled till the disturbance was so loud as
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to awakeD them. Before it ceased, the familv had become quite accustomed to it, and were tired with hearing or speaking of it ^^ Send me some news,** said one of the sisters to her brother Samuel. " for we are secluded from the sight or hearing of any ver-^ sal thing, exept Jeflfery."
An author who in this age relates such a story, and treats it as not utterly incredible and absurd, must expect to be ridiculed; but the testimony upon\ which it rests is far too strong to be set aside be- / cause of the strangeness of the relation. The letters which passed at me time between Samuel Wesley and the family at Epworth, the journal which Mr. Wesley kept of these remai^able transactions, and the evidence concerning them which John after- wards collected, fell into the hands of Dr. Priestley, and were * published by him as being " perhaps the best authenticated and best told story of the kind that is any where extant.** He observes in favour of the story, ^^ that all the parties seem to have been sufficiently void of fear, and also free from credulity, except the general belief that such things were su- pernatural.'* But he argues, that where no good end was to be answered, we may safely condude that no miracle was wrought ; and he supposes, as the most probable solution, that it was a trick of the servants, assisted by some of the neighbours, for the sake of amusing themselves and puzzling the fa- mily. In reply to this it may be safely asserted, that many of the circumstances cannot be explained by any such supposition, nor by any legerdemain, nor by ventriloquism, nor by any secret of acoustics. The former argument would be valid, if the term miracle were applicable to the case ; but by mira- cle Dr. Priestley evidently intends a manifestation of Divine power, and in the present instance no such manifestation is supposed, any more than in the ap- pearance of a departed spirit Such things may be
* These papers are inserted among the Notes and Illustrations at the end of Uie Volume, that the reader may have before him the original documents relating to tfai^ remarkable affair.
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preternatural and yet not miraculoas : they mftj be not in the ordinary course of nature, and yet imply no alteration of its laws. And with regard to the good end which they may be supposed to answer, it would be end sufficient if sometimes one of those un- happy persons who, looking through the dim glass of infidelity, see nothing beyond this life, and the narrow sphere of mortal existence, should, from the well-established truth of one such story, (jtriflingand objectless as it might otherwise appear,) oe led to a conclusion that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in their philosophy.
John suffered at the Charter-house under the ty- ranny which the elder boys were permitted to exer- cise. This evil at one time existed very generally in English schools, through the culpable negligence of the masters ; and perhaps may still continue to exist, though if a system were designed for cultivat- ing the worst dispositions of human nature, it could not more effectually answer the purpose. The boys of the higher forms of the Charter-house were then in the practice of taking their portion of meat from the younger ones, by the law of the strongest; and during great part of the time that Wesley remained there, a small daily portion of bread was his only food. Those theoretical physicians who recommend spare diet for the human animal, might appeal with triumph to the length of days which he attained, and the elastic constitution which he enjoyed. He him- self imputed this blessing, in great measure, to the strict obedience with which he performed an injunc- tion of his father^s, that he should run round the Charter-house garden three times every morning. Here, for his quietness, regularity, and application, he became a favourite with the master. Dr. Walker; and through life he retained so great a predilection for the place, that on his annual visit to London he made it a custom to walk through the scene* of his
* Good old Izaak Walton has preeerred a beaatifal speech of that excellent man, Sir Henry Wotton, when, in his old age, he was returning from a visit to Winchester^ where he had been
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boyhood. To most men every year would render a pilgrimage of this kind more painful than the last ; but Weslej seems never to have looked back with melancholy upon the days that were gone ; earthly regrets of this kind could find no room in one who was continually pressing onward to the goal.
At the age of seventeen he was removed from the C|iarter*house to Christ Church, Oxford.
educated. ** How useful," he said to a friend, his cpmpanion in that journey, " how useful was that advice of a holy monk, who persuaded his friend to perform his customary devotions in a con- stant place, hecause in that place we usually meet with those very tbon^ts which poseessed us at our last heing there. And I find it thus far experimentally true, that my now heing in that school, and seeing that very place where I sate when I was a boy, occa- sioned me to remember those very thoughts of my youth which then possessed me ; sweet thoughts, indeed, that promised my growing years numerous pleasures, without mixtures of cares ; and those to be ^^joyed when time (which I therefore thought slow-paced) had changed my youth into manhood : but age and experience have taught me, that those were but empty hopes : for I have always found it true, as my Saviour did foretell, * suf- ficient for Uie day is the evil thereof.' Nevertheless, I saw there a succession of boys using the same recreations, and questionless possessed with the same thoughts that then possessed me. Thus one generation succeeds another, both in their lives, recreations, hopes, fears, and death/'
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CHAPTER II.
WESLEY AT OXFORD.
Before Wesley went to the university, he had ac- quired some knowledge of Hebrew under his brother SamuePs tuition. At college he continued his stu- dies with all diligence, and was noticed there for his attainments, and especially for his skill in logic, by which he frequently put to silence those who con- tended with him in after life. No man, indeed, was ever more dexterous in the art of reasoning. A charge was once brought against him that he delighted to perplex his opponents by his expertness in sophistry ; he repelled it with indignation ; ^ It has been my first care,'^ said he, ^^ to see that my cause was good, and never, either in jest or earnest, to defend the wrong side of a question ; and shame on me if I can- not defend the right after so much practice, and af- ter having been so early accustomed to separate truth from falsehood, how artfully soever they are twisted together.'^ Like his father, and both his bro- thers, he was no inexpert versifier in his youth ; this, however, was a talent which he forebore to use, when ascetic opinions began to influence him, — and the honour of being the sweet singer of Methodism was reserved for his brother Charles.
When he was an under-graduate, his manners' were free and cheerful ; and that activity of disposition which bore him afterward through such uninterrupt- ed labour, displaved itself in wit and vivacity. Bui when the time of life arrived at which he might have taken orders, he, who was not a man to act lightly upon any occasion, ahd least of all upon so solemn a one, began to reflect seriously upon the importance of the priestly office, and to feel some scruples concerning the motives by which the person ou^ht to be influenc* ed who determines to tdke upon himself so awful a
r
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chaise. These scruples he communicated to his fa* ther, who answered them sensibly ; but agreed with him in not liking ^ a callow clergyman;'^ and hinting that he thought it too soon for him to be ordained, exhorted him to work while he could. The letter was written with a trembling pen ; ^^ You see,^^ said the old man, ^^ Time has shaken me by the hand, and Death is but a little way behind him. My eyes and heart are now almost all I have left, and I bless God for them.'' The mother, however, was of opinion, that the sooner he entered into deacon's orders the better, because it might be an inducement to greater application in the study of practical divinity. ^^ And now," said she, ^\in good earnest resolve to make re- ligion the business of your life : for, afler all, that is the one thing that, strictly speaking, is necessary ; all things beside are comparatively little to the pur- poses of life. I heartily wish you would now enter upon a strict examination of yourself, that you may know whether you have a reasonable hope of salva- tion by Jesus Christ If you have, the satisfaction of knowing it will abundantly reward your pains ; if you have not, you will find a more reasonable occa- sion for tears than can be met with in a tragedy.".
In conformity to this advice he applied himself closely to theological studies ; his devotional feelings thus fostered, soon acquired the predominance in a frame of mind like bis, and he now became desirous of entering upon his ministerial career. The father understanding this, judged it advisable that be should be ordained in the ensuing summer; ^^|>ut, inthe first place," said he, ** if you love yourself or h^, pra^ heartily." Two books which he read in the course of this preparation laid strong hold upon him. The j first was the famous treatise De Imitatione Chri»ii^ com-} monly ascribed upon insufficient and disputed evi-| dence to Thomas a Kempis. The view which is ta- ken in that work of human life and of Christian duties revolted him at first. Upon this, as upon all other subjects, he consulted his parents as his natural and best counsellors, and represented it wi*h h^uulWv ^-
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a misfortune that he differed from the writer in some main points. ^^ I cannot think,'^ said he, ^ that when God sent us into the world, he had irreversibly de- creed that we should be perpetually miserable in it If our taking up the Cross imply our bidding adieu to all joy and satisfaction, how is it reconcileable with what Solomon expressly affirms of religion, that her ways are ways of pleasantness^ and all her paths are peace f^ Another o| his tenets is, that mirth or pleasure is use- less, if not sinful ; and that nothing is an affliction to a good man, — that he ought to thank God even for sending him misery. This, in my opinion, says Wes- ley, is contrary to God^s design in afflicting us^ for though he chasteneth those whom he loveth, yet it is in order to humble them. His mother agreed with him that the author of this treatise had more zeal than knowledge, and was one of those men who would un- necessarily strew the way of life with thorns. '*Would you judge of the lawfulness or unlawfulness of plea- sure,^^ she said, ^ take this rule: — whatever weakens yourreason,impairsthetendernessof your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes off the relish of spiritual things ; — ^in short, whatever increases the strength and authority of your body over your mind, that thing is sin to you, however innocent it may be in itself.^* Well might Wesley consult upon such questions a mother who was capable of reasoning and writing thus. His &ther expressed a different opinion ; " All men,'' he said, " were apt to verge to- wards extremes, but mortification was still an indis- pensible Christian duty. If the young man will re- joice in his youths let him take care that his joys be in- nocent ; and in order to this, remember, that /or all these things God will bring him into judgment" The book had been his «^ great and old companion," and he thought that ^^msdcing some grains of allowance, it might be read to great advantage, — nay, that it was almost impossible to peruse it seriously without ad- miring, and in some measure imitating, its heroic strains of humility, piety, and devotion." But he re- ferred him to his mother, saying, that ^' she hsA lei-
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sure to boult the matter to the bran." This refer* ^ ence to the judgment of a woman upon such a subject will appear less extraordinary, if it be remembered that the practice of giving ^irls a learned education, which began in England with the Reformation, had not been Mid aside in Mrs. Wesley^s youth — that she understood Greek and Latin, and that her early studies had been directed to theology. Her attain- ments, however, had not made her pedantic ; neither had her talents, and the deference which was paid to them by her husband and her children, rendered her in any degree presumptuous. She speaks of herself in this correspondence as being infirm and slow of understanding; but expressess the delight which it gare her to correspond with her son upon such subjects.
The treatise Dt Inutatione appears to have ofiend-- ed Wesley's reason, as well as the instincts of hilarity and youth. But the impression which this writer (whoever he be) failed to make, was produced by the work of a &ir more powerful intellect, and an imagination infinitely more fervent — ^Jeremy Taylor's Rules of Holy Living and Dying. He had been trained up in religious habits ; and when his reli- gious feelings were once called into action, they soon became pre-eminent above all others. That part in particular of this splendid work which relates to purity of intention, afiected him exceedingly. ^^ In- stantly,'' he says, ^^ I resolved to dedicate aU my life to God, — all my thoughts and words, and actions, being thorougUy convinced there was no medium ; but that every part of my life (not some only) must ^ either be a sacrifice to God, or myself, — that is in effect to the Devil." The Imitation, which he had found repulsive at first, appeared so no longer now : Bishop Taylor had prepared the way for the ascetic author, and he began to find in the perusal sensible comfort, such as he was an utter stranger to before. His father, who had once thought him wanting in theopathy, and probably for that reason had advised him to delay his ordination, perceived the change
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with joy. " God fit you for your great work !" he 6aid to him ; ^^ Fast, watch, and pray ; believe, love, endure, and be happy, towards wnich you shall never want the most ardent prayers of your ^ectionate father/^ He removed some scruples which his son expressed concerning the damnatory clauses of the Athanasian creed, — that creed of which Tillotson wished the church of England were *' well rid." «« Their point,^' he said, ^^ was levelled only against obstinate heretics ; and a distinction was undoubt- edly to be made between what is wilful and what is in some measure involuntary. God certainly will make a difference, and to him it must be left ; our business is to keep to the rule which he has given us: As to the main of the cause," he continues, ^ the best way to deal with our adversaries is to turn the war and their own vaunted arms against them. From balancing the schemes it will appear, that there are many irreconcileable absurdities and con- tradictions in theirs, but none such (though indeed some difficulties) in ours. They can never prove a contradiction in our Three and One, unless we affirm them to be so in the same respect, which every child knows we do not. But we can prove there is one in a, creature's being a creator, which they assert of our Lord."
It is curious to observe the opinions of the young theologian at this time upon some of those topics, whereon he enlarged so copiously, and acted so de- cisively in after-life. Jeremy Taylor had remarked that we ought, ** in some sense or other, to think ourselves the worst in every company where we come." The duty of absolute humility Wesley at once acknowledged ; but he denied that this compa- rative humility, as he called it, was in our power ; it could not be reasonable, or sincere, and therefore it could not be a virtue. The bishop had affirmed, that we know not whether God has forgiven us. Wesley could not assent to this position. ^ If," said he, ** we dwell in Christ and Christ in us, which he will not do unless we are regenerate, certainly we
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must he Bensible of it If we can never Imve any certainty of our being in a state of sakation, good reascHi it is that every moment should be spent, not in joy, but in fear and trembling; and then undoubt- edly in this life we are of all men most miserable. God deliver us from such a fearful expectation ! Humility is undoubtedly necessary to salvation, and if all these things are essential to humility, who can be humble ? who can be saved ? That we can never be so certain of the pardon of our sins, as to be as- sured they will never rise up against us, I firmly believe. We know that they will infallibly do so if we apostatize ; and I am not satisfied what evidence there can be of our final perseverance, till we have finished our coarse. But I am persuaded we may know if we are now in a state of salvation, since that is expressly promised in the Holy Scriptures to our sincere endeavours, and we are surely able to judge of our own sincerity.'' He was startled at that part of our articles which bears a Calvinistic appearance. «^ As I understand faith,'' said he, ^^ to be an assent to any truth upon rational grounds, I do not think it possible^ without perjury, to swear I believe any thing, unless I have reasonable grounds for my per- suasion. Now, that which contradicts reason cannot be said to stand upon reasonable grounds, and such, undoubtedly, is every proposition which .is incom- patible with the divine justice or mercy. What then shall I say of predestination ? If it was inevitably decreed from eternity that a determinate part of mankind should be saved, and none beside them, a vast majority of the world were only born to eternal death, without so much as a possibility of avoiding it. How is this consistent with either the divine justice or mercy? Is it merciful to ordain a creature to everlasting misery.^ Is it just to punish man for crimes which he could not but commit ? That God should be the author of sin and injustice, which ' must, I think, be the consequence of maintaining this opinion, is a contradiction to the clearest ideas we have of the divine nature and perfections." His
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mother, to whom these feelings were imparted, agreed with him that the Calvinistic doctrine of pre- destination was shocking, and ought utterly to be abhorred. The church doctrine, she argued, if it were properly understood, in no wise derogatedfrom God's free grace, nor impaired the liberty of man ; for there could be no more reason to suppose that the prescience of God is the cause why so many finally perish, than that our knowing the sun will rise to-morrow is the cause of its rising. But she won- dered why men would amuse themselves with search* ing into the decrees of God, which no human art could fathom, and not rather employ their time and powers in making their own election sure. ^^ Such studies,'^ she said, ^^ tended more to confound than to inform the understanding : but as he had entered upon it, if her thoughts did not satisfy him, he had better consult his father, who was surely much better qualified for a casuist than herself.'^
The course of these studies, aided also by bis meeting, for the first time, with a religious friend^ produced a great change in Wesley's frame of mind. He began to alter the whole form of his conversa- tion, and to set in earnest upon a new life. He com- municated every week, and began to pray for that inward holiness, of the necessity of which Bishop Taylor had convinced him, and to aim at it with his utmost endeavours. Thus prepared in heart as well as in knowledge, be was ordained in the autumn of the year 1725 by Dr. Potter, then bishop of Oxford, and afterwards primate. In the ensuing spring he offered himself for a fellowship at Lincoln College. Even in college elections there is play enough for evil passions, and too much license allowed them. Though Wesley was not yet eccentric in his habits of life, the strictness of his religious principles was sufficiently remarkable to afford subject for satire; and his opponents hoped to prevent his success by making him ridiculous. Upon this occasion his fa- ther told him it was a callow virtue that could not bear being laughed at. His mother encouraged him
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in a diflferent maimer. ^^ If,'' said she, ^ it be a weak virtae that cannot bear being laughed it, I am sure it is a strong and well-confirmed virtue that can stand the test of a brisk bufibonery. Many people, though well inclined, have yet made shipwreck of faith and "a good conscience, merely because they could not bear raillery. I would therefore advise those who are in the beginning of a Christian course, to shun the company of profane wits, as they would the plague or poverty : and never to contract an inti- macy with any but such as have a good dense of reli^on.'' Notwithstanding this kind of opposition, he attained the object in view, and was elected fel- low in March, 1726, having been much indebt- ed to his brother Samuel's influence, and to the good will of the rector of the college. Dr. Morley. This was" a great joy to his father, who was now far advanced in the vale of years. In writing to con- gratulate him he says, ^ What will be my own fate before the summer be over, God knows: sedpassi
C^otnora.^— Wherever I am, my Jack is Fellow of incoln.''
This removal enabled him to rid himself of all unsympathizing acquaintance, in a manner which he related, sixty years afterwards, in his sermon on leaving the world, ^* When if pleased God," he says, ^« to give me a settled resolution to be not a nominal, but a real Christian, (being then about twenty-two years of age,) my acquaintance were as ignorant of God as myself. But there was this dif- ference: I knew my own ignorance; tjiey did not know theirs. I faintly endeavoured to help them, but in vain. Meantime I found, by sad experience, that even their harmless conversation, so called, damped all my good resolutions. But how to get rid of them was the question which I revolved in my mind again and again. I saw no possible way, un- less it should please God to remove me to another College. He did so, in a manner utterly contrary to all human probability. 1 was elected fellow of a colleire, where I knew not one person. I foresaw
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abundance of people would come to see me, either out of friendship, civilitj, or curioBtty, and that 1 should have offers of acquaintance new and old ; but I had now fixed my plan. Entering now, as it were, into a new world, I resolved to have no acquaintance by chance, but by choice, and to choose such only as I had reason to believe would help me on my way to heaven. In consequence of this, I narrowly observed the temper and behaviour of all that visit- ed me. I saw no reason to think that the greater part of these truly loved or feared God. Such ac- quaintance, therefore, I did not choose : I could not expect they would do me any good. Therefore, when any of these came, I behaved as courteously as I could : but to the question, * When will you come to see me ?^ I returned no answer. When they bad come a few times, and found I still declined return* iilg the visit, I saw them no more. And I bless God," he adds, ^^ this has been my invariable rule for about threescore years. I knew many reflections would follow ; but that did not move me, as I knew full well it was my calling to go through evil rqH>rt and good report!*^
From this time Wesley began to keep a diary, ac- cording to a practice which at one time was very general among persons religiously disposed. To this
Eractice the world owes some valuable materials for istory as well as individual biography; but perhaps no person has, in this manner, conveyed so lively a picture of himself as Wesley. During a most rest- less life of incessant occupation, he found time to register not only his proceedings, but his thoughts, his studies, and his occasional remarks upon men and books, and not unfrequently upon miscellaneous subjects, with a vivacity which characterised him to the last. Eight months after his election to a fellow- ship, he was appointed Greek lecturer and moderator of the classes. At that time disputations were held six times a week at Lincoln College ; and however the students may have profited by them, thej were of singular use to the moderator. ^^ I could not
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avoid,^ he sajs, ^^ acquiring hereby some degree of expertness in ai^uing ; and especially in discerning and pointing oat well-covered and plausible fallacies. I have since found abundant reason to praise G^ for
EVing me this honest art. By this, when men have ^ged me in by what they called demonstrations, 1 have been many times able to dash them in pieces : in spite of all its covers, to touch the very point where the fallacy lay, and it flew open in a momenf^ He now fonned for himself a scheme of studies, re- solving not to vary from it for some years at least-^ Mondays and Tuesdays were allotted for the classics; Wednesdays to logic and ethics ; Thursdays to He- brew and Arabic; Fridays to metaphysics and natu- ral philosophy ; Saturdays to oratory and poetry, but chiefly to composition in those arts ; and the Sabbath to divinity. It appears by his diary, also,, that he gave great attention to mathematics. But he had come to that conclusion, at which, sooner or later, every studious man must arrive, — that life is not long enough for the attainment of general knowledge, and that there are many things of which the most learned must content themselves to be ignorant He says to his mother, ** I am perfectly come over to your opi- nion, that there are many truths it is not worth while to know. Curiosity, indeed, might be a sufficient
£>lea for our laying out some time upon them, if we ad half a dozen centuries of lives to come ; but me- thinkfl it is great ill husbandry to spend a considera- ble part of the small pittance now allowed us, in what makes us neither a quick nor a sure return.'' Full of business as he now was, he found time for writing, by rising an hour earlier in the morning, and going into company an hour later in the evening.
As his religious feelings grew upon him, that state of mind came on which led the enthusiasts of early ages into the wilderness. He began to think that such society as that wherein he was placed, hinder- ed his progress in spiritual things. He thought it ^ the settled temper of his soul,'' that he should, for some time at least, prefer such a retirement as might
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iseclude him from all the world, where he miriit con*' firm in himself those habits which he thought beetf befoi*e the flexibility of youth should be over. A school was proposed to him, with a good salary an* tiexed to it, in one of the Yorkshire dales. Some persons, who knew the plaee, gave him what they thought a frightful description of it, according to the fashion of an age in which the sense of picturesque beauty seems hardly to have existed. They told him that it was a little vale, so pent up J>etween two hills,* that it was scarcely accessible on any side ; little company was to be expected from without, and there was none within. " 1 should therefore," says he^ " be entirely at liberty to converse with company of my own choosing, whom, for that reason, I would bring with me; and company equally agreeable^ wherever 1 fixed, could not put me to less expense.
" The sun that walks his airy way, To cheer the world and hring the day : The moon tliat shines with borrowed light, The stars that gild the gloomy night ; All of these, and all I see. Should be sung, and sung by me : These praise their Maker as they can, But want and ask the tongue of man/'
The option of this retirement, to which he seeiM at this time to have been so well inclined, was not given him, and his mother was not sorry that the school was otherwise disposed of: **That way of life,'' she said, ^^ would not agree with your constitu* lion, and I hope God has better work for you to do ;" words which, perhaps, in after years, carried with them a prophetic import and impulse to his imagina* tion. The elder Wesley was now, from age and in- firmity, become unequal to the duty of both his liv- ings, especially as the road between them was bad^ and sometimes dangerous in the winter. John there* fore, at his desire, went to reside at Wroote, and offi* Oiated there as his curate. Though a native^ of the cMUtity, he did not escape the ague, which was then
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it8 endemic malady; and perhaps it was fortunate for him, after two years, to be summoned to his coU lege, apon a regulation that the junior fellows, who might be chosen moderators, should attend in person the duties of their office. It was while he held this euracy, that he obtained priest's orders from the same
E relate who had ordained him deacon three years efore.
In consequence of this summons, he once more- took up his abode at Lincoln College, became a tix^ tor there, and presided as moderator at the disputa- tions which were held six times a week in the hall ; an office which exercised and sharpened his habits of logical discrimination. Some time before his re- turn to the University, he had travelled many miles to see what is called ^^ a serious man.*' This person said to him, ^ Sir, you wish to serve God and go to heaven. Remember, you cannot serve him alone i you must either find companions or make them ; the Bible knows nothing of solitary religion." Wesley never forgot these words ; and it happened that while he was residing upon his curacy, such a society was prepared for him at Oxford as he and his serious ad- viser would have wished.
While Charles Wesley was at Westminster under his brother, a. gentleman of large fortune in Ireland, and of the same family name, wrote to the father, and inquired of him if he had a son named Charles; for if SO9 he would make him his heir. Accordingly his school bills, during several years, were discharged by his unseen namesake. At length a gentleman, who is supposed to have been this Mr. Wesley, called up- on him, and after much conversation, asked if he was willing to accompany him to Ireland : the yoiith de- sired to write to his father before he could make an- swer; the father left it to his own decision, and he, who was satisfied with the fair prospects whichChrist Church opened to him, cliosc to stay in England. John Wesley, in his account of his brother, calls this a fair escape ; the fact was more remarkable than he was aware of; for the person who inherited the pro-
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petty intended for Charles WeBley, and who took the name of Wesley, or Wellesley, in consequence, wa» the first Earl of M ornington, grandfather of Marquk Wellesley and the Duke of Wellington. Had Charles made a different choice, there might have been no Methodists, the British Empire in India might still have been menaced from Seringapatam, and the un^ disputed tjrant of Europe might at this time have in-: suited and endangered us on our own shores.
Charles, then pursuing contentedly his scholastic course, had been elected from Westminster to Christ Church, just after his brother John obtained his fel- lowship. He was diligent in study, and regular in his conduct ; but when John sought to press upon him the importance of austerer habits, and a nM>re active devotion, he protested against becoming a, saint all at once, and turned a deaf ear to his admo-. nitions. While John, however, resided at Wroote^ the process which he had vainly sought to accelerate in his brother, was going on. His disposition^ his early education, the example of his parents, and of both his brethren, were in unison; not knowing how or when he woke out of his lethargy, he imputed the change to the efficacy of another^s prayers, — most likely, he said, his mother^s ; and meeting with two or three undei^raduates, whose inclinations and principles resembled his own, they associated to* gether for the purpose of religious improvement, lived by rule and received the sacrament weekly. Such conduct would at any time have attracted observa* tion in an English university ; it was peculiarly no^ ticeable at that time, when a laxity of opinions as well as morals obtained, and infidelity, a plague which Jiad lately found its way into the country, was be- coming so preralent, that the vice-chancellor had, in a programma^ exhorted the tutors to discharge their duty by double diligence, and had forbidden the undergraduates to read such books as might tend to the weakening of their faith. The greatest prudence would not have sufficed to save men from ridicule, who at such an age, and in such a scene, professed to
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make rdi^on the great basiness of their lites ; and prudence is rarely united with enthusiasm. They were flailed in deridion the Sacramentarians, Bible- bigots, Bible-moths, the Holy or the Godly Club. One person, with less irreverence and more learning, observed, in reference to their methodical manner of Ufe, that a new sect of Methodists was sprung up, aU lading to the ancient school of physicians known by that name. Appellations, even of opprobrious origin, have often been adopted by the parties to which they were applied, as well as by the public, conveni- ence legitimating the inventions of malice. In this instance there was neither maliciousness nor wit, but there was some fitness in the name; it obtained* vogue ; and though long, and even still sometimes, in- discriminately applied to all enthusiasts, and even to all who observe the forms of religion more strictly than their neighbours, it has become the appropriate designation of the sect of which Wesley i^ the founder.
It was to Charles Wesley and his few associates that the name was first given. When John returned to Oxford, they gladly placed themselves under his direction; their meetings acquired more form and regularity, and obtained an accession of numbers. His standing and character in the university g^ve him a degree of credit ; and his erudition, his keen logic, and ready speech, commanded respect wherev- er he was known. But no talents, and, it may be added, no virtues, can protect the possessor from the ridicule of fools and profligates. ^^ 1 hear,^^ says Mr. Wesley, " my son Jonn has the honour of being styled the Father of the Holy Club ; if it be so, I am su re 1 must be the grandfather of it; and I need not say, that I had ratner any of my sons should be so digni* fied and distinguished, than to have the title of His Holiness.^
• The Rer. J. Chapman says, in a letter to Wesley, " The name of Methodist is not a new name, never before given to any religions people. Dr. Calaray, in one of bis volumes of the Eject- ed Ministers, observes, they called those who stood up for God, ^ Methodists/'
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One of the earliest members of this little society, Mr. Morgan, seems to have been morbidly constitut- ed both in body and mind ; and by the practice of ri- gorous fasting, he injured a constitution which requir- ed a very dimreftt treatment. But if his religion, in this point erroneous, led him to impose improper pri* vations tupon himself, it made him indefatigable in acts of real charity toward others ; his heart and his purse were open to the poor and needy ; he instruct- ed little children, he visited the sick, and he prayed with the prisoners. In these things he led the way ; and the Wesleys who were not backward in follow- ing, hav6 commemorated his virtues as they deserve. Morgan died young, after a long illness, in which the misery of a gloomy and mistaken religion aggravated the sufferings of disease. Wesley was accused of having been the cause of his death, by leading him in^ to those austerities which undoubtedly had accele- rated it ; but in these practices Wesley had been the imitator, not the example ; and the father, who had at first expressed great indignation at the extrava- gances of his son^s associates, was so well convinced of this at last, that, he placed one of his children un- der his care. Two others of the party were men who afterwards acquired celebrity. James Hervey was one, author of the Meditations, a book which has been translated into most of the European languages^ and for the shallowness of its matter, its superficial sentimentality, and its tinsel style, as much as for its devotional spirit, has become singulc^ly popular. Whitefield was the other, a man so eminently con- nected with the rise and progress of Methodism, that his history cannot be separated from that of Wesley.
George Whitefield was bom at the Bell Inn, in the city of Gloucester, at the close of the year 1714. He describes himself as froward from his mother^s womb; so brutish as to hate instruction ; stealing from his mother's pocket, and frequently appropri- ating to his own use the money that he took in the house. " If I ti*ace myself," he says, " frooi my cra- dle to my manhood, I can see nothing in me but a
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fitness to be damned ; and if the Almighty had not pre- vented me by his grace, Ihad now either been sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death, or condemned^ as the due reward of my crimes, to be for ever liftr ing up my eyes in torments/^ Yet Whitefield could recollect early movings of the heart, which satisfied him in after life, that '^ God loved him with an ever- lasting love, and had separated him even from his mother^s womb, for the work to which he afterwards was pleased to call him.'' He had a devout disposition^ and a tender heart When he was about ten years old, his mother made a second marriage : it proved an unhappy one. During the affliction to which this led, his brother used to read aloud Bishop Ken's Manual for Winchester Scholars. This book'affect- ed Geoi^e Whitefield greatly ; and when the corpo- ration, at their annual visitation of St Mary de Crypt's school, where he was educated, gave him, accordinff to custom, money for the speeches which be was chosen to deliver, he purchased the book, and foudd it, he says, of great benefit to his soul.
Whitefield's talents for elocution, which made him afterwards so great a performer in the pulpit, were at this time in some danger of receiving a theatrical direction. The boys at the grammar-school were fond of acting plays : the master ^^ seeing how their vein ran," encouraged it, and composed a dramatic piece himself, which they represented before the corporation, and in which Whitefield enacted a wo- man's part, and appeared in ^rl's clothes. The re- membrance of this, he says, had often covered him with confusion of face, and he hoped it would do so even to the end of his life ! Before he was fifteen* he persuaded his mother to take him from school, saying, that she could not place him at the universi- ty, and more learning would only spoil him for a tradesman. Her own circumstances, indeed, were by this time so much on the decline, that his menial services were required : he began occasionally to assist her in the public house, till at length he ^' put
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on hi^ blue apron and his snaffSrs*, washed i&ops, cleaned rooms, and became a professed and com- mon drawer/' In the little leisure which such em- ployments allowed, this strange boy composed two or three sermons; and the romances, which had been his heart's delight, gave place for awhile to Thomas el Kempis.
When be had been about a year in thk senrile occupation, .the inn was made over to a married brother, and George, being accustomed to the house, continued there as an assistant ; but he could not agree with his sister-in-law, and after much uneast* ness gave up the situation. His mother, though her means were scanty, permitted him to have a bed up on the ground in her house, and live with her, Hil Providence shoOM point out a place for him. The way was soon indicated. A servitor of Pembroke College caUed upon his mother, and in the course of conversation told her, that after all his college ex- penses for that quarter were discharged, he had re- ceived a penny. She immediately cried out, this will do for my son ; and turning to him said, Will you go^o Oxford, George ? Happening to have the same friends as this young man, she waited /On them without delay ; they promised their interest to obtain a servitor's place in the same college, and in reiii* ance upon this George returned to the grammar- school. Here he applied closely to his books^ and shaking oflT, by the strong eflfort of a religious mind, all evil and idle courses^ produced, by the influence of his talents and example, some reformation among his school-fellows. He attended public service con- stantly, received the sacrament monthly, fasted often, and prayed often more than twice a day in private. At the age of eighteen he was removed to Oxford ; the recommendation of his friends was successful ; another friend borrowed for him ten pounds, to de-
* So the word is printed in his own accovmt of bis life ; it seens to mean the sleeres which are worn by cleanly men in dirty em- ployments, and may possibly be a misprint for scoggers^ as such sleeves are called in some parts of England.
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frajr the expense of enteriog; and with a good for^ tune beyond bk hopes, he was admitted servitor tfDmediately*
Senritorships are more in the spirit of a Roman Catholic than of an English establishment Among the Catholics religions poverty is made respectable^ because it is accounted a virtue : and humiliation is an essential part of monastic discipline. But in oiif state of thin» it .cannot be wise to brand men with the mark of inferiority; the line is ab^eady broad eaoogk Oxford would do well if, in this respect, it iotttated Cambridge, abolished an invidious oistine- tion of dress, and dispensed with services which, even when they are not mortifying to th<^e who per^ form them, are painful to those to whrnn they are performed Whitefield found the advantage of hav« mg been used to a public house ; many who could choose their servitor preferred him, because of bis diligent and alert attendance ; and thus, by help of the profits of the place, and some little presents made him by a kind-hearted tutor, he was enabled to live without being beholden to his relations for more than fourand^twenty pounds in the .course of three years. Little as this is, it shows, when com* pared with the wavs and means of the elder Wesley at college, that half a century had greatly enhanced the expenses of Oxford. At first he was rendered uneomfortable by the society into which he was thrown ; be had several chamber fellows, who would fain have made him join them in their riotous mode c^ life ; and as he could only escape from their per* secutions by sitting alone in bis study, he was some^ times benumbed with cold ; but when they perceiv* ed the strength as well as the singularity of his cha- racter, they suffered biip to take his own way in peace.
Before Whitefield went to Oxford, be had heard of the young men there who ^^ lived by rule and me- thod,^ and were therefore called Methodists. They were now much talked of, and generally despised. He, however, was drawn toward them by kindred
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feelings, defended them strenuously when he heard them reviled, and when he saw them go through a ridiculing crowd to receive the sacrament at St. Ma* Tf% was strongly inclincfd to follow their example. For more than a year he yearned to be ac<}uainted with them; and it seems that the sense of his inferi- or condition kept him back. At length the great ob- ject of his desires was effected. A pauper had at* tempted suicide, and Whitefield sent a poor woman to inform Charles Wesley tliat he might visit the peiv son, and administer spiritual medicine ; the messenr ger was charged not to say who sent her ; contrary to these orders, she told his name, and Charles Wes- ley, who had seen him frequently walking by himself, and heard something of his character, invited him to breakfast the next morning. An introduction to thi^ little fellowship soon followed ; and he also, like them, ^ began to live by rule, and to pick up the very fragments of his time, that not a moment of it might be lost''
They were now about fifteen in number; when first they began to meet, they read diviiyty on Sun* day evenings onlv^ and pursued their classical stu- dies on other nights; but religion* soon became the sole business of their meetings : they now regularly visited the prisoners and the sick, communicated once a week, and fiisted on Wednesdays and Fridays, ^ the stationary days of the Ancient Church, which were thus set apart, because on those days our Sa- viour had been betrayed and crucified. They also di^ew up a scheme of self-examination, to assist them- s^ves, by means of prayer and meditation, in attain- ing the simplicity and love of God. Except that it speaks of obeying the laws of the Church of England, it might fitly be appended to the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola. Its obvious faults were, that self-examination would leave little time for any thing else ; that the habits of life which it requires and pre-supposes would be as burthensome as the rules of the monastic orders ; and that the proposed sim- plicity would generally end in producing the wordt
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of artificial characters ; for where it made one out of a thousand a saint, it would make the rest inevita- bly formalists and hypocrites. Religion is defined in ^ this scheme to be a recovery of the image of God. It cannot be doubted that they who framed it were fill- ed with devotion the most fervent, and charity the most unbounded, however injudicious in many res- pects the means were whereby they thou^t to pro- mote and strengthen such dispositions within them- selves. But Wesley, when he had advanced in his career, looked back upon himself as having been at tills time in a state of great spiritual ignorance ; and the two leading ministers, who drew up for the use of the Methodists, and under the sanction of the col- lected preachers, the life of their founder, remark, that in tiiis scheme the great sincerity and earnest- ness of Wesley and his friends are discemable, but that «^ the darkness of their minds to gospel truths is very evident to those who are favoured with true evangelical views.*'
To the younger members of the University their conduct, which now rather afiected singularity than avoided it, was matter of general ridieule ; and there were older and wiser heads who disapproved their course, as leading fast toward enthusiasm and extra- vagance. Wesley had not yet that confidence in his own judgment by which he was afterwards so strong- )y characterized, and he wrote to his father for ad- vice. The principles upon which he proceeded were unexceptionable, the motives excellent ; and the cir- cumstances which gave offence, and excited just ap- prehension, would not only be unintentionally sof- tened in his own representation, but would lose much of their weight when reported from a distance, and through this channel, to one who was prepossessed by natural affection. The father says in reoly, ** As to your designs and employments, what can 1 say less of tbem than valdeprobo : and that I have the highest reason to bless God for giving me two sons together at Oxford, to whom he has given grace and courage to turn the war against the World and Ae Devil,
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mhieh is the best way to conquer them.^' He advise ed them to obtain the approbation of the Bishop for Yisitibg the prisoners ; and encouraged them by say* ing, that when he was an under-graduate he had performed this work of charity, aim reflected on it with great comfort now in his latter days. ^ You have reason,^^ he says, *^ to bless God, aa 1 do, that TOO have so fast a friend as Mn Morgan, who I see, m the most difficult service, is ready to break the ice for you. I think I must adopt him to be my son together with you and your brother Charles; and when I have such a Temion to prosecute that war, wherein I am now miles emeritus^ I shall not be ashamed when they speak with their enemies in the gate. If it be possible, I should- be glad to see you all three here in the 6ne end of the summer. but if I cannot have that satisfaction, I am sure I can reach* you every day, though you were beyond the Indies.^^ He exhortied them to ifaUi: prudently, though not fearfully ; and prayed that God would keep them humble. ^^ Be not high minded,^' said be; ^ preserve an equal temper of mind under what^ erer treatment you meet with from, a not very juat or well-natured world. Bear no more sail than is necessary, but steer steady. The less you value yourselves for these unfashionable duties, (as there 19 no such thing as works of supererogation,) the more all good and wise men will value you, if they see your actions are of a piece ; and what is in6nitely more. He by whom actions and intentions are weigh- ed will both accept and reward you.''
Thus encouraged and thus advised, Wesley con- suHed the Bishop, who sanctioned and approved their visiting the prisons. This was no doubtfol matter ; the parts of their conduct which he might have regarded with disapprobation, were precisely those upon which it would not be thou^t necessary to consult him* About this time Wesley became personally acquainted with William Law, a man vrhose writings completed what Jeremy Taylor, and the treatise De Imitatione Chmtij had begun. Wl^en
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first be wuited him^ he was prepared to object to his views c^ Christian dotj as too elevated to be attain- able; but Law silenced and satisfied him by reply- ing, ^ We shall do well to aim at the highest degrees of perfection, if we may thereby at least attain to nediecrity/' Law is a powerful writer : it is said that fisw bodss have ever made so many religious enthusiasts as his Christian Perfection and his Seri- ^ OU8 Call : indeed the youth who should read them without being perilously aflfected, must have either a light mind or an unusually strong one. But Law himself^ who has shaken so many intellects, sacrificed hb own at last to the reveries and rhapsodies of Jacob Behmen. Perhaps the art of engraving was sever applied to a more extraordinary purpose, nor in a more extraordinary manner, than when the non- sense of the German shoemaker was elucidated in a series of prints after Law's designs, representing the anatomy of the spiritual man. His own happi- ness, however, was certainly not diminished by the change : the system of the ascetic is dark and cheer- less ; but mysticism lives in a sunshine of its own, and dreams of the light of heaven, while the visions of the ascetic are such as the fear of the devil pro- duces, rather than the love of God. It was in his happier state of mind that Law was found by Wes- ley, and in this spirit he said to him, ^^ You would have a philosophical religion, but there can be no such thing. Reli^n is the most plain, simple thing in ^e world. It is only, tee love Him because He first v hved us.'*'' Wesley on one occasion confessed to him that he felt greatly dejected, because he saw so little fruit from his labours. ^^ My dear friend,^' replied Law, « you reverse matters from their proper order. You are to follow the Divine Light, wherever it leads you, in all your conduct. It is God alone that gives the blessing. I pray you always mind your own work, and go on with cheerfulness ; and God, you may depend upon it, will take care of his. Besides, Sir, I perceive you would fain convert the world ! but you must wait God's own time. Nay, if after all
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he 16 pleased to use you only as a hewer of wood or a drawer of water, you should submit, — ^yea, you should be thankful to him that he has honoured you so far."
These visits to Law, who at that time resided near London, were performed on foot, the Wesleys tra* veiling in this manner that they might fliltve the more money for the poor. It was so little the custom in that age for men in their rank of life to walk any dis-» tance, as to make them think it ia discovery that four or five*and4wenty miles are an easy and safe day's journey. They discovered also, with equal surprise, that it is easy to read while walkin^r, and that it nei- ther made them faint, nor produced any other symp* tom of weariness. Some years, afterwards, when John carried his economy af time to the utmost, he used to read on horseback, till some severe falls^ which he met with in consequence, convinced him that this practice might proh^bly cost him his life. The brothers also accustomed themselves to con« verse together in Latin, whenever they were alone : when they had subsequently much intercouse with the Moravians, they found the great advantage of having«acquired this power. It is indeed a notorious defect in modem education, that the habit of speak- ing a language, which is every where understood by all educated men, should no where be taught in schools as a regular part of the course of instruction. Yet Wesley's mind was now in that perturbed and restless state, that he began to doubt the utility, and even the lawfulness, of carnal studies. In a letter to his mother, written under evident disquietude, he says, " To all who give signs of their not being stran- gers to it, I propose this question,-^-and why not to you rather than any? — shall I quite break ^stflT my pursuit of all learning, but what immediately tends to practice ? I once desired to make a fair show in languages and philosophy ; but it is past : there is a more excellent way, and if I cannot attain to any progress in the one, without throwing up all thoughts of the other, why, fare it well ! Yet a little white,
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and we^fthaH all be equal in knowledge if me are in virtue/' In the same letter he says, ^« I am to re- nounce the world, — to draw off my affections from Uus world, and fix them on a better : but how? ^hat ia the surest and the shortest way ? Is it not to be hnmble ? surely this is a large atep in the way. But the question occurs, how am I to do this ? To own the necessity of it is not to be humble. In many things you have interceded for me and prevailed: who knows but in this too you may be successful ? — If you can spare me only that little part of Thursday .evening which you formerly bestowed upcHi me in another manner, I doubt not but it would be as use- ful now ibr correcting my heart, as it was -then for forming my judgment. — When I observe how fast life flies away, and how slow improvement comes, 1 think one can never be too much afraid of dying before one has learned to live.''
The good intentions of Wesley and his associates could not be questioned; but they were now run- ning fast into fanaticism ; and a meeting was held at Christ Church, by the Seniors of the Cculege, to con- sult in what manner the evil might be checked. The report in Oxford was, that the IDean and the Censors were going to blow up the Godly Club. When Sa- muel Wesley heard of this, he called it an execrable consultation, in order to stop the progress of religion, by giving it a false name. He did not like, he said, that they should be ^^ called a club, for that name was really calculated to do mischief: but the charge of enthusiasm could weigh with none but such as drink away their senses, or never had any ; for surely activity in social duties, and a strict attendance on the ordained means of grace, are the strongest guards imaginable against it.'' However, it was not long before Samuel, who was of riper judgment than his brother, and of a less ardent disposition, began to perceive that John was carrying his principles to excess, and that he excited injurious prejudices against himself, by a£fectiitg singularity in things which were of no importance. Wesley, in defend-
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ing himMl^ observed, that the most anpopalar of his habits were those of early rising aBd keeping little company, in the propriety of .which there could be no Jifference of opinion between them. ^^ Is it not hard,'^ be says, ^^ that even those who are with us should be against us :-^that a man^s enemies, in some degree, should be those of the same hoasehoM of feith ? Yet so it is. From the time that a man sets himself to this business, very many even of those who travel the same road, — many of those who are before as well as behind him, — will lay stumbling blocks in his way. One blames him for not going mBi enough, another for having made no further progress, another for going too far, which, perhaps, strange as it is, is the more common charge of th^ two : for this comes from all people of all sorts ; not only infidels, not only half Chnstians, but some of the best of men are very apt to make this reflection : ^ he lays unnecessary burdens upon himself; he is too precise; he does what God has no where required to be done.' TroCt all men are not required to use all means, but every man is required to use those which he finds most use* ful to himself. It will be said,'' he pursued, ^ I am whimstcaL If by whimsical be meant simply singu^ lar^ 1 own it; if singular without any reason, I deny it with both my hands, and am ready to give a reason, to any that asks me, of every custom wherein I diflfer from the world. As to my being formal, if by that be meant that I am not easy and unaffected enough in my carriage, it is very true ; but how shall I help it .^ If by formal be meant that I am serious,, this, too, is very true; but why should I help it.^**
Wesley would not be at the expense of having his hair dressed, in order that the money which would otherwise have been employed in this vile fashion might be given to the poor : he wore it remarkably long, and flowing loose upon his shoulders. "^ As to my hair," he said, «« I am much more sure that what this enables me to do is accorditig to the Scripture, than I am that the length of it is contrary to it" His mother fismcied that wis fashion injured his health.
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for he was often indisposed ; and therefore she urmd him to have it taken off To this he objected, be- cause it would cause an additional expense, which would lessen his means of relieving the needy. — Samuel proposed the middle course of cutting it riiorter, by which means the singularity of his appear- ance would be lessened, without intrenching upon his meritorious economy. This was the only instance in which he condescended, in any degree, to the opi- nion of others. Soon afterwards Samuel went to Oxford, that he might form a better opinion of his brethren's demeanour upon the spot, than could be formed from the contradictory accounts which reach- ed him. Their general conduct, and all their prin- ciples, received his unqualified approbation : but he E?rceived that Morgan was far gone in his fatal ma- dy, was diseased in mind as well as body, and had &lien into that wretched state of weakness in which religion, instead of food and support, was, by a de- plorable perversion of its nature, converted into Eoison. He perceived also that John was pursuing abits of austerity in such disregard of health, as if he were eager for death, and was an enemy to his own frail carcass. Morgan did not live long; and it appeared probable that Wesley would soon follow him to that world, the preparation for which they seemed to consider not merely as the most important, but as the sole business of this. Hard study, exer- cise carried sometimes in his journeys beyond his strength, the exertion of frequent preaching and earnest discourse, fasting upon all the appointed days of the Ancient Church, and a most abstemious diet at all times, had reduced him to an alarming condition. Frequent spitting of blood indicated the consequences which might be apprehended; at length he was awakened at midnight oy the breaking of a blood-vessel ; and be has recorded in his private diary, that thinking himself at that moment on the brink of eternity, he cried to God, **Oh prepare me for thy coming, and come when thou wilt !" This attack compelled him to put himself under the direc^
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tion of medical men, and after awhile he thoroughly recovered.
About this time Samuel finding that promotion at Westminster was hopeless, on account of his con- nexion with a party who were deservedly obnoxious to government, accepted the mastership of Tiverton school. Before he removed so far westward, he went to visit his parents at £pworth, and there his two brothers met him, that the whole family might, for the last time in this world, be gathered together. — Among the many solemn circumstances of human life, few can be more solemn than such a meeting. — For some years their father had been declining ; and he was very solicitous that the cure in which he had laboured faithfully during so long a course of years should be obtained for his son John, if possible, from an anxious desire that the good which he had effect- ed might not be lost through the carelessness of a lukewarm successor; and that his wife and daugh- ters might not be dispossessed of the home wherein the one had lived so long, and the others had been born and bred. Wesley, who had not before thought of such a proposal, gave no opinion upon it now ; but in the ensuing year his father pressed him to apply for the next presentation, and Samuel urge^ him to the same effect. At first he seems to have hesitated how to decide. " I know," says he, writing from Ox- ford upon the subject, ^^ if I could stand my ground here, and approve myself a faithful minister of our blessed Jesus, by honour and dishonour, through evil report and good report, then there would not be a place under heaven like this for improvement in every good work.'' An absence of some little time from Oxford had shown how soon the effects of all bis exertions might be counteracted. One of his pupils confessed that he was becoming more and more afraid of singularity ; another had studied some of Mr: Locke's writings, which had convinced him of the mischief of regarding authority; a third had been converted from fasting by a fever and a physi- cian. The little body of his associates had diminish-
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ed in number from seven-and-twenty to five. These things made him reflect closely : the ill ^nsequen* ces of his singularity were diminution of fortune, loss of friends and of reputation. " As to my fortune,^' said he, " I well know, though perhaps others do not, that i could not have borne a larger than I have. — For friends, they were either trifling or serious : if triflers, fare them well, a noble escape; if serious, those who are more serious are left. And as for re- putation, though it be a glorious instrument of ad- vancing our Master's service, yet there is a better than that, a clean heart, a single eye, and a soul full of God. A fair exchange, if, by the loss of reputa- tion, we can purchase the lowest degree of purity of heart.''
These considerations led to the conclusion, that there was little prospect of doing any lasting good in his present situation; and when the fitness of settling at Epworth, if the succession could be ob- tained, was pressed upon him, he considered it not so much with reference to his utility, as to his oMn well-being in spiritual things. The question, as it appeared to him, was not whether he could do more good to others there or at Oxford, but whether he could do more good to himself, seeing that wherever he could be most holy himself, there he could most promote holiness in others; but he could improve himself more at Oxford than at any other place, and at Oxford therefore he determined to remain. This reasoning was well answered by his father ; who told him, that even at Oxford he might have promoted ho- liness much more than he had done, if he had taken the right method, " for there is a particular turn of ^ mind for these matters, great prudence as well as great fervour. I cannot," he said, " allow austerity or fasting, considered by themselves, to be proper acts of holiness, nor am I for a solitary life. God made us for a social life. We are to let our light shine before men, and that not barely through the chinks of a bushel for fear the wind should blow it out : the design of lightihg it was, that it might give
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light to all who went into the house of God. And to this acadeidical studies are only preparatory.'^ He concluded, with singular force and eloquent earnest- ness, in these words : '^ We are not to fix our view on one single point of duty, but to take in the com- plicated view of all the circumstances in every state of life that offers. Thus is the case before us : put all the circumstances tc^ether: if you are not indif- ferent whether the labours of an aged father, for above forty years in God's vineyard, be lost, and the fences of it trodden down and destroyed ; — if you consider that Mr. M. must in all probability succeed me if you do not, and that the prospect of that mighty Nimrod's coming hither shocks my soul, and is m a fair way of bringing down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave ; — if you have any care for our family, which must be dismally shattered as soon as I am dropt; — ^if you reflect on the dear love and longing which this poor people has for you, whereby you will be enabled to do God the more service, and the plen- teousness of the harvest, consisting of near two thousand souls, whereas you have not many more souls in the University, — you may perhaps alter your . mind, and bend your will to His, who has promised if in all our ways we acknowledge Him, He will di- rect our paths.''
Samuel, when he heard that his brother had declar- ed himself unalterably resolved not to accept the living if he could get it, knew him, as he said, well enough to believe that no one could move his mind^ except He who made it. Without, therefore, draw- ing the saw of controversy, as he called it, he set before him his own example. ^^ I left Oxford," said he, ** with all its opportunity of good, on a worldly account, at my father's desire. I left my last settle- ment by the same determination, and should have thought I sinned both times, if I had not followed it" And he j^ressed upon John the simple proposition, that having taken orders, he was solemnly engaged to undertake the cure of souls before God, and iiis High Priest, and his Church. Wesley replied both
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to his father and his brother in a manner more cha- racteristic of the man than creditable to hie judg- ment. He argued as if his own salvation would be rendered impossible at Epworth : he could not, he said^ stand his ground there for a month, asainst in- temperance in sleeping, eating, and drinking; his spirit would thus be dissolved ; the cares and de- sires of the world would roll back with a full tide upon him, and while he preached to others, he should be a cast-away himself. Uninterrupted freedom from trifling acquaintance was necessary for him: he dreaded, as the bane of piety, the company of good sort of men, lukewarm Christians, persons that have a great concern for religion, but no sense of it ^ They undermine insensibly,*' says he, " all my re- solutions, and quite steal from me the little fervour I have. I never come from among these saints of the world Tas John Yaldesso calls them) faint, dissipat- ed, ana shorn of all my strength, but I say, God de-^ liver ^me from a half Christian !'' Jgttur de vit& et sanguine Tumi : the point was, wheuier he should serve Christ or Belial. He stood in need of persons nearly of his own judgment, and engaged in the same studies ; persons who were awakened into a full and lively conviction that they had only one work to do upon earth ; who had absolutely devoted themselves to God ; who took up their cross daily ; who would constantly watch over his soul, and, according to the occasion, administer reproof, advice, or exhortation with all plainness and all gentleness. But this was a blessing which he could enjoy no where but at Oxford. There also he knew none of (he cares of the world ; he heard of such things, and read of them, but he knew them not: whatever he wanted was provided for him there, without any expense of tbouffht. There^ too« he endured that contempt which is a part of the cross, that every roan who would follow his Saviour must bear Every true Christian, he said, is contemned by all who are not so, and who know him to be such: until he be thus contemiied no man is in a state of salvation; for
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though a man may be despised without being saved^ yet Tie cannot be saved without being despised. More good also, he averred, was to be done to others by his continuance at Oxford ; the schools of the prophets were there; was it not a more extensive benefit to sweeten the fountain, than to purify a par- ticular stream ? And for the argument, that Epworth was a wider sphere of action, where he would have the charge of two thousand souls, he exclaimed, ^^ Two thousand souls ! I see not how any man living can take care of an hundred." If any stress be laid upon the love of the people at Epworth, — " I ask how long will it last ? Only till I come to tell them plain- ly that their deeds are evil, and to make a particular application of that general sentence, to say to each, Thou art the man ! Alas, Sir, do I not know what love they had for you at first ? And how have they used you since ? Why, just as every one will be used whose business it is to bring light to them that love to sit in darkness !" To the concluding part of his father's letter he replied thus : " As for the flock committed to your care, whom for many years you have diligently fed with the sincere milk of the word, I trust in God your labour shall not be in vain, either to yourself or them. Many of them the Great Shep- herd has, by your hand, delivered from the hand of the destroyer, some of whom are already entered in- to peace, and some remain unto this day. For your- self, I doubt not, but when your warfare is accom^ plished, when you are made perfect through suflfer- mgs, you shall come to your grave, not with sorrow, but as a ripe shock of corn, full of years and victo- ries. And He that took care of the poor sheep be- fore you were born, will not forget them when you are dead."
This letter convinced Samuel how unavailing it must needs be to reason further with one who was
Possessed by such notions. Nevertheless, as John ad requested to know his further thoughts, he ask- ed him if all his labours were come to this, that more was absolutely necessary for the very being of his
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Christian life, than for the salvation of all the parish priests in England, " What you say of contempt," .said he, " is nothing to the purpose: for if you will go to Epworth, I will answer for it you shall, in a competent time, be despised as much as your heart can wish/' But he maintained that there was not in Euclid a proposition more certain than this, that a man must be esteemed in order to be useful ; and he rested the case upon his former argument, that a general resolution against undertaking the cure of sojols, was contrary to his engagement at ordination : "The order of the Church," said he, "stakes you down, and the more you struggle will hold the faster. You must, when opportunity offers, either perform that promise or repent it: utrum mavis? which do you prefer?" Wesley admitted the force of his or- dination oath, but denied that it had this meaning. But acknowledging the established principle, that the mode and extent of the obligation which an oath imposes are not to be determined by him who takes, but by him who requires it, he wrote to the Bishop who ordained him, proposing this single question, whether, at ordination, he had engaged himself to undertake the cure of a parish or not? The Bishop's answer was in these words, " It doth not seem to me that, at your ordination, you engaged yourself to undertake the cure of any parish, pro- vided you can, as a clergyman, better serve God and his Church in your present or some other station." Wesley believed he had all rieasonable evidence that this was the case, and here the discussion end- ed. He had made it an affair of religious casuistry, and therefore the interest of his mother and sisters in the decision, nearly as this point lay at the father's heart, seems to have been totally disregarded by him as unworthy of any consideration.
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WesLet the father died in the ensuing April, at a good old age, and ripe for immortality. John and Uharles were with him during the last stage of his illness. A few days before his departure, he said to them, " The weaker I am in body, the stronger and more sensible support I feel from God. There is but a step between me and death. To*morrowI would see you all with* me round this table, that we may once more drink the Cup of Blessing, before we drink it new in the kingdom of God. With desire have I desired to eat this passover with you before I die." On the morrow he was so exceeding weak and full of pain, that he could not receive the elements without difficulty, and often repeated, ^^ Thou shakest me, thou shakest me !" He had no fear of death, and the peace of God which he enjoyed appeared sometimes to suspend his bodily suffenngs, and when they recurred, to sustain his mind above them. When, as nature seemed spent, and his speech was failing, his son John asked him whether he was not near hea- ven, he answered, " Yes, I am,'' distinctly, and with a voice of hope and joy. After John had used the commendatory prayer, he said, ** Now you have done all !" these were his last words, and he passed away 60 peacefuUv and insensibly, that his children con- tinued over him a considerable time, in doubt whe- ther or not the spirit wa^ departed. Mrs. Wesley, who for several days, whenever she entered his cham- ber, had been carried out of it in a fit, recovered her fortitude now, and said her prayers were heard, for God had granted him an easy death, and had strength- ened her to bear it.
The mother and daughter were left with little or no provision; and a brutal woman, of whom Mr. Wes-
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ley rented a few fields, seized the live stock on the very day of his funeral, for a debt of fifteen pounds. Samoel was now their support ; ^^ If you take London in your way," said Charles to him, '* my mother de- sires you would remember she is a clergyman^s wi- dow. Let the Society give her what they please, she must be still, in some degree, burthensome to you, as she calls it. How do I envy you that glorious bur- then, and wish I could share in it ! You must put me into some way of getting a little money, that I may do something in this shipwreck of the family."
The latest human desires of this good man were, that he might complete his work upon the book of Job, pay his debts, and see his eldest son once more. The first of these desires seems to have been nearly, if not wholly accomplished ; and John was charged to present the volume to Queen Caroline. Going to London, on this commission, he found that the trus- tees of the new colony of Georgia were in search of persons who would preach the gospel th.ere to the settlers and the Indians, and that they had "fixed their eyes upon him and his associates, as men who ap- peared to possess the habits and qualities required for such a service. Dr. Burton, of Corpus Christi College, was one of the trustees ; he was well ac-
3uainted with Wesley, and being at this time in Lon- on, introduced him to Mr. Oglethorpe, the founder of the colony. At first wben it was proposed to him to go upon this mission, he peremptorily refused. Arguments were adduced which made him less reso- lute in his refusal ; objections which he started were obviated ; and when he spake of the grief which it inust give his mother if he were to accept the propo- sal, saying he was the stafi*of her age, her chief sup- Sort and comfort, it was evident that he was shaken. [e was asked, in reply, whether he would go if his iBother's approbation could be obtained? this he thought impossible, but he consented that the trial should be maide, and secretly determined, that, if she were willing, he would receive her assent as the call of God. Her answer was, " Had I twenty sons, I
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should rejoice that they were all so employed, though I should never see them more."
He did not, however, resolve finally upon this mea- sure without consulting those persons whose opi- nions had most weight with him, among whom were William Law, and J ohn Byrom the poet. Their ap- probation confirmed him in his intention, though their dissent might not have shaken his purpose. His brother Samuel also was content that he should go; perhaps he thought it well that he should engage in a service wherein so much zeal was required, that the excess, which now led him into extravagancies, might find full employment It was, indeed, his growing attachment to ascetic principles ' and habits which made him desirous of removing from the temptations of the world. He looked for- ward to the conversion of the Indians . as compara- tively an easy task; there he said, he should have the advantage of preaching to people not yetbeeuil- ed by philosophy and vain deceit ; and might enforce to them the plain truth of God, without its being softened and rendered useless by the comments of men. Little had he read of missionary labours, and less could he have reflected upon them when he reasoned thus ! But to an unbeliever, who said to hipi, ^^ What is this, Sir ; are you one of the knights errant ? How, I pray, got Quixotism into your head ? You want nothing; you have a good provision for life, and are in a way of preferment : and must you leave all to fight windmills, — to convert savages in America !" he answered feelingly and calmly, " Sir, if the Bible be not true, I am as very a fool and mad- man as you can conceive; but if it be of God, I am sober minded. For he has declared, ^ There is no man that hath left house, or friends, or brethren, for the kingdom of God's sake, who shall not receive manifold more in the present time, and in the world to come everlasting life.' "
It had been Charles Wesley's intention to spend all his days at Oxford as a tutor, for he dreaded ex- ceedingly to enter into orders: now, however, he
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determined to accompany his brother. This was strongly opposed by Samuel, but in vain : he was more docile towards John, whom he always regarded as bis guide, and in deference to his judgment con- sented to be ordained ; but he went out in the capa- city of secretary to Mr. Oglethorpe. Their com- panions were Charles Delamotte, the son of a Lon- don merchant, and Benjamin Ingham, who was one of the little community at Oxford. ^' Our end," says Wesley, ^* in leaving our native country, was not to avoid want, (God having given us plenty of tempo- ral blessines,) nor to gain the dung and dross of riches and honour ; but singly this, to save our souls ; to, live wholly to the glory of God.'' They embark- ed at Gravesend on the 14th of October, 1735, and from that day the series of his printed journals com- mences. Oh that all men who have produced great effects in the world had left such memoirs of them- selves !*
On board the same vessel there were six-and- twenty Moravians, going to join a party of their > brethren from Herrnhut, who had gone out the pre- ceding year under the sanction of the British govern- ment, and with the approbation of the English church; some of our bishops, indeed, having, of their own accord, offered to ordain their pastors. The conductor of this second detachment was David Nitschmann, one of a family distinguished for their sufferings and their zeal : he was afterwards the first bishop of the revived Church of the Brethren, the appellation by which the Moravians designate them- selves. The rise and institutions of this remarkable people^ with whom Wesley was for some time inti- mately connected, and from whom much of the ceconomy of the Methodists has been derived, will be described hereafter. Wesley was exceedingly impressed with the piety, the simplicity, and the
* A short time before he left England he scorns to have pub- lished a corrected version of Thomas A Kempis, and to have translated a Preface which had not appeared before in any English edition.
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equanimity of these his shipmates : he applied him- self to the German language, that he mignt converse with them the more freely, and Nitschmann and the; others began to learn English.
While he resided at Oxford he had always hitherto been restrained, perhaps unconsciously, by some re- gard to appearances ; that restraint was no longer felt, and he and his companions began to put their ascetic principles in full practice. Believing, he says, the denying ourselves, even in the smallest instances, might, by the blessing of God, be helpful to us, we wholly left off the use of flesh and wine^ and confined ourselves to vegetable food, chiefly rice or biscuit. After a while they persuaded themselves that nature did not require such frequent supplies as they had been accustomed to, — so they agi-eed to leave oflf supper : and Wesley having slept on the floor one night, because his bed had been wetted in a storm, thought he should not find it needful to sleep in a bed any more. His next experiment was, whe- ther life might not as well be sustained by one sort of food as by variety : he and Delamotte accordingly tried with bread, as being the staff of life in Europe, and they found themselves never more vigorous and hearty. Upon this he exclaims, ^^ Blessed are the pure in heart ; to them all things are pure : every creature is good to them, and nothing to be rejected. But let them who are not thus pure use every help and remove every hinderance, always remembering, that he that despiseth little things shall fall by little and little.'^ ^^ At this time,^' his official biographers say, ^^ he had only attained to the spirit of bondage unto fear, and he found that all his senses were ready to betray him into sin, upon every exercise of them." In a spirit akin to this, and derived from the same source, he wrote from on board to his brother Sa- muel, beseeching him, by the mercies of God, to banish all such poison from his school as the classics which were usually read there, and introduce Chris- tian authors in their place ; for it was his duty to instruct his scholars^ ^^ not only in the beggarly ele-
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mente of Greek and LatiD, but much more' in the Gospel.'' Fanaticism always comes to this in its progress: first it depreciates learning, then it would destroy it There have been Christians, as they believed themselves, who would have burnt the Alexandrian library upon the same logic as the Caliph Omar, with no other difleremse than that of calling their book by a Greek name instead of an Arabic one.
The course of life which they adopted on board was as regular aa the circumstances of a voyage would allow, and as severe as the rule of a monastic order. FrcHki four in the morning till five they used private prayer : from fitye till seven they read the feible tc^ther, carefully comparing it with the writ- ings of t£e earliest ages, that they might not lean to their own understandings. At seven they breakfast- ed, and they had public prayers at eight From nine till twelve John Wesley was employed in learning German, . Delamotte pursued his Greek studies, Charles wrote sermons, and Ingham instructed the children : and at twelve they met to give an account to one another of what they had done since their last meeting, and of what they intended to do before their next. They dined about one, and from dinner till four the time was spent in reading to those of whom each had taken especial charge, or in exhort- ing them severally, as the case might require. There were evening prayers at four, when the second lesson was explained, or the children were catechised and instructed before the congregation. From six to seven each read in his cabin to a few of the passengers. At seven Wesley joined with the Germans in their public service, and Ingham read between the decks to as many as desired to bear. At eight they met again to instruct and exhort. By ^ this time they were pretty well wearied with exhor^- tations and instruction ; and between nine and ten they went to bed, where, as Wesley says, neither the waving of the sea, nor the motion of the ship, could take away tlic refreshing sleep which God gave them.
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It was a rough season, their pi^sage was tempest* uous ; and, during the storm, Wesley felt that he was unfit, because he was unwilling to die* Ashamed of this unwillingness, he reproached himself as if he had no faith, and he admired the impassible tranquillity to which the Moravians had attained. They had evinced that they were delivered from pride, anger, and revenge ; those servile offices, which none of the English would perform for the other passengers, they offered themselves to undertake, and wouM receive no recompense ; saying, it was good for their proud hearts, and their Saviour had done more for them. No injury could move their meekness ; if they were struck or thrown down, they made no complaint, nor suffered the slightest indication of resentment to ap- pear. Wesley was curious to see whether they were equally delivered from the spirit of fear, and this he had an opportunity of ascertaining. In the midst of the psalm with which they began their service, the sea broke over, split the - main-sail, covered the ship^ and poured in between the decks, as if, he says, the
treat deep had already swallowed us up. A dread- il screaming was heard among the English colonists : the Moravians calmly sung on. Wesley afterwards asked one of them, if he was not afraid at that time. He replied, ^* I thank God, no." He was then asked if the women and children were not afraid. His an- swer was, ^^ No ; our women and children are not afraid to die." In the intervals of fine weather which they enjoyed, Wesley said he could conceive no difference comparable to that between a smooth and a rougb sea, except that which is between a mind calmed by the love of God, and one torn up by the storms of earthly passions. On the 5th of Feb* ruary they anchored in the Savannah river.
The colony in Georgia, the last which the English established in North America, had been only three years founded at this time. The British government bad encouraged it, with wbe political views, as a de- fence for the southeirn provinces against the Span- iards, and for the purpose of occupying a critical po-
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sition, which otherwise, there was reason to believe, would have been occupied bj the French, to the great danger and detriment of the British settlements ; but it had been projected by men of enlarged be- nevolence, as a means of providing for the employ- ment and well-being of those who were poor and dis* tressed at home. Twenty-one persous were incor- porated as trustees for twenty-one years, with power during that time to appoint all the officers, and re- gulate all the concerns of the colony; and they were authorized to collect subscriptions for fitting out the colonists and supporting them, till they could clear the lands. The trustees contributed money npt less liberally than time and labour; the bank subscribed largely, and parliament voted £10,006 for the ad- vancement of a design which was every way condu- cive to the interest of the common weal. The first ' expedition consisted of an hundred and sixteen set- tlers. James Oglethorpe, one of the trustees, em- barked with them ; an active, enterprising, and zeal- ous man. He is said to have taken with him Sir Walter Raleigh's original Journals, and to have been guided by them in the choice of a situation for his settlement ; and this is confirmed by the trad ition of the Indians ; their forefathers, they said, had held a con- ference with a warrior who came over the great wa- ters, and they pointed out a funeral barrow, under which the chief who had conferred with him, was bu- ried, by his own desire, in the spot where the confer- ence had been held.
The site of the new settlement was on the banks of the river Savannah, which bends like a sickle in that part ; the banks are about forty feet high, and on the top is what in the language of the colonies is called a bluffy — plain hi^ ground, extending about half a mile along the rirer, and some five or six miles up the country. Ships drawing twelve feet water may ride within ten yanis of the shore. In the centre of the plain the town was marked out, opposite an island of rish pasturage. From the key there was a fine prospect of the coast in one direction, and an island
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called T^bee, in the mouth of the river ; on the oth* er the wide stream, bordered with high woods on both sides, glittered in the distance as far as the eye could reach. The country belonged to the Creek Indians ; they were computed at this time to amount to about 25,000 souls ; war and disease, and the vices of savage life, having greatly reduced their numbers. An Indian woman who had married a trader from Carolina, lacted as interpreter between the English and her countrymen ; her services were at first pur- chased with presents, and liberally rewarded after- wards by an annuity of an hundred pounds. Fifty chieftains and elders, from the eight tribes who com- posed the confederacy of the Creeks, were deputed to confer with Oglethorpe, and treat of an alliance. Ill the name of these, confederated tribes Weeca- chumpa, the Long Chi^f, informed the British ad- venturers what was the extent of country which they claimed as their inheritance ; he acknowledged the superiority of the white men to the red ; he said that they were persuaded that the Great Power, who dwelt in heaven and all around, (and he threw his hands abroad, and prolon&^ed his articulation as he spake,) had sent the English thither for their good, and therefore they were welcome to all the land which the Creeks did not use themselves.
Tomo-chichi, to whose tribe this part of the coun- try belonged, then presented him with a buffalo skin, adorned on the inside with the head and feathers of an eagle. The eagle, he said, signified speed, and the buffalo strength. • The English were swift as the eagle, and strong as the buffalo. Like the eagle^ they flew over the great waters to the uttermost parts of the earth; and like the buffalo, they were so strong that nothing could withstand them. The feathers of the eagle, he said were soft, and signifi- ed love ; the skin of the buffalo was warm, and signi- fied protection; therefore he hoped the English would love and protect the little family of the Creeks. The alliance was soon concluded, a stipulation be- ing made, that wherever a town was laid out, a cer-
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tun portion of land should be allotted to the natives* Oglethorpe then presented each of their Micoes, or Kings, with a shirt, a laced coat, and a laced hat ; each of the warriors with a gun, and each of their at- tendants with a duffle cloak, and a few trifles.
Oglethorpe returned to England the following year, and took with him Tomo-chichi, Sonawki his wife, and Tooanahowi his son, with seven other In- dians. They were presented to George II. at Ken- sington, where the Micoe offered a calumet to the king, and addressed him in a characteristic and not ineloQuent oration. ^' This day I see the majesty of your race, the greatness of your house, and the num- ber of your people. I am come in my old days, though I cannot expect to see any advantage to my- self; I am come for the good of the children of all the nations of the Lower and Upper Creeks, that they may be instructed in the knowledge of the Eng- lish. These are feathers of the eagle, which is the swiftest of birds, and which flyeth around our nations. These feathers in bur land are a sign of peace, and have been carried from town to town there. We have brought them over to leave them with you, O
freat King, as a token of everlasting peace. O great ling, whatever words you shall say unto me, I will faithfully tell them to all the Kings of the Creek na- tions." The orator addressed the Queen also in these words : " 1 am glad to see this day, and to have the opportunity of seeing the mother of this great people. As our people are joined with your majes- ty's, we humbly hope to find you the common mother and protectress of us and all our children." Tomo- chichi and his companions had no reason to be dis- satisfied with their reception in England. They were objects not only of curiosity, but of kindness. A weekly allowande was assigned them of twenty
Sounds, during their stay of four months: they lived uring most of the time at the tables of persons of distinction, liberal presents were made them, and when they embarkecf for their own country, they VOL. I. 1.'^
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were carried in one of the kin^^s carriages to Graves- end. A number of protestant Saltzburghers*, ex-
"^ The expulsion of these Ssjtzburghers was the last wholesale act of intolerance committed by a Roman Catholic goyemment Of all acts of the kind, however, it was executed with the least in- humanity, and the most cause. The archbishop was a humane and conscientious man, and endeavoured by all means of gentle- ness and persuasion to maintain that conformity of lE^eliof in his do- minions, which, both as prince and prelate, according to the laws and the faith which he professed, it was his duty to preserve. But the spirit of reformation which had arisen was not to be suppress- ed by the preaching of Franciscan friars ; and in a country where the greater part of the inhabitants were passionately attached to the religion of their fathers, with all its forms and tables, and the rest were possessed with an uncompromising and enthusiastic de- termination of worshipping God in their own way, the only means of preventing a civil war, sooner or later, was to make the minor- ity depart in peace, and this was not done till they had threatened to call upon a foreign power for support. About 25,000 persons, a tenth part of the population, migrated on this occasion. Their property was sold for them under the King of Prussia's protection; some injustice and considerable loss must needs have been suffer- ed by such a sale, and the chancellor, by whom this strong mea- sure was carried into effect, is accused of having enriched himself by the transaction. Seventeen thousand of the emigrants settled in the Prussian states. Their march will long be remembered ia Germany. The Catholic magistrates at Augsburg shut the gates against them, but the Protestants in the city prevailed, and lodged them in their houses. The Count of Stolberg Wamegerode gave a dinner to about 900 in his palace : they were also tiberally en- tertained and relieved by the Duke of Brunswick. At Leipsic the clergy met them at the gates, and entered with them in procession, singing one of Luther's hymns ; the magistrates quartered them upon the inhabitants, and a collection was made for them in the church, several merchants subscribing ^1,000 each. The Uni- versity of Wittenberg went out to meet them, with the Rector at their head, and collections were made from house to house. '* We thought it an honour," says one of the Professors, " to, receive our poor guests in that city where Luther first preached the doc- trines for which they were obliged to abandon their native homes." These demonstrations of the popular feeling render it more thaii probable that, if a religious war had been allowed to begin in Saltzburg, it would have spread throughout Germany.
Thirty-three thousand pounds were raised in London for the relief of the Saltzburghers ; many of them settled in Georgia, — colonists of the best description. They called their settlement Ebenezer. Whitefield, in 1738, was wonderfully pleased with their order and industry. '* Their lands," he says, *' are im- proved'surprisingly for ^e time they have been there, and I be-
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pelled hy their own government on account of reli- gion, went over with theoL A large party of High- landers followed in the year ensuing, and the pros- pects of the colony were so promising, that parlia- ment granted a supply of £26,000. And when Mr. (^letborpe returned bringing with him the Wesleys, he took out about three hundred passengers in two ships.
Such was the history of the settlement to which Wesley went out as Chaplain and Missionary ; and such had been its progress when he arrived there. INo colony was ever established upon principles more honourable to its projectors. The device up- on their seal was the genius of the colony seated be- tween the two rivers which were its boundaries, with the cap of liberty on his head, a spear in one hand, and a cornucopia in the other : on the reverse were some silk worms at their work, with the words JVon sibi sedaUis for the motto. The conduct of the trus- tees did not discredit their professions ; they lodced fop no emolument to themselves or their representa- tives after them; and the first principle which they laid down in their laws was, no slave should be em- ployed. This was regarded at the time as their great and fundamental error ; it was afterwards repealed ; and it is worthy of remark, that this colony, being the only one in America which prohibited slavery in its foundation, was the last which gave its reluctant assent to the abohtion of the slave-trade. But there were solid political reasons for the prohibition, even if the everlasting principles of humanity and justice had not been regarded ; for the Spaniards, who have been little scrupulous as to tlie means of carrying on
lieve they have far the best crop of any in the colony. They are blest widi two such pious ministers as I have not often seen. They hafve no courts of judicature, but all little differences are immediately and implicitly decided by their ministers, whom they look upon and love as their fathers. T*hey have likewise an or- phan house, in which are seventeen children and one widow, and I was much delighted to see the regularity wherewith it is man-* aged."
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war in the new world, had formed a regiment of re- fugee negroes from Carolina, who were paid and clothed like the Spanish troops, and officered from among themselves; thej bad proclaimed freedom for all who would join them, and had emissaries ac- tively employed in encouraging them to escape from slavery. Some other regulatiotas, although equally well designed, were not equally wise. INfone of the colonists were to be permitted to trade with the In- dians, except such as should obtain a special license for that pm-pose : — this was placing the settlers in a worse condition than any other colonists, the law therefore was sure to render them discontented, and to be disobeyed. The lands were granted upon a feudal principle, the possessors being bound to take the field whenever the public service might require ; but as if the evils of a feudal aristocracy could possi- bly arise in a commercial colony, estates were to be granted only in tail male, lest large tracks, by descents and intermarriages, should fall into one hand ;^>— thus^ from the apprehension of remote and imaginary dan- ger, the odious injustice of a Salic law in private pos- sessions was introduced. And the importation of rum was prohibited : it is said that this spirit, when properly diluted, is proved by experience to be the wholesomest and most refreshing drink, as well as the cheapest, for workmen in that fog^y and burning climate ; and it is certain that to forbid the use of a thing good in itself, because it is liable to be abused, is subjecting the worthy part of the community to a privation for the sake of the worthless.
The ship in which Wesley was embarked cast an- chor near Tybee island, " where the groves of pines, running along the shore, made,^^ he says, ^^ an agree- able prospect, showing, as it were, the bloom of spring ui the depth of vnnter.^^ On the following mommg they landed on a small uninhabited island, where Mr. Oglethorpe led them to a rising ground, and they all knelt and returned thanks to God for having arrived in safety. Mn Oglethorpe went that day to Savannah, and returned the next, bringing
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with him Augustus Gottlieb Spangenberg, one of the pastors of the Moravians. Weslej perceiving in hioi the same character which in his fellow-passengers had impressed him so strongly^ asked his advice con- cerning his own conduct in a situation which was new to him ; the German replied, ** My brother, I must first ask jou one or two questions. Have you the witness within yourself? Does the Spirit of God bear witness with your spirit that you are a child of God?" Wesley had hitherto been accus- tomed to be himself the teacher \ it was the first time that he had been treated as a novice or a child in spiritual things: he was surprised, and knew not what to answer: the German perceived this, and said, " Do you know Jesus Christ ?" After a pause he replied, "1 know he is the Saviour of the world." " True," rejoined Spangenberg, " but do you know ^ he has saved youf^ Wesley answered, " I hope he has died to save me " The Moravian only added, ** Do you know yourself?" and Wesley, who was evi- dently awed by this catechism, confesses, that in an- swering " I do," he feared he was but uttering vain words. The account which Spangenberg gave of himself strengthened the impression which this con- versation had made. He bad spent some years at the university of Jena, he said, in learning languages and the vain, philosophy, which he had now long been labouring to forget. It had pleased God to overturn his heart by means of some who preached the word with power, and he then immediately threw aside all learning, except what tended to salvation. He then began teaching poor children, and having been invited to Halle, was banished from thence, be- cause many faults were found both with his beha- viour and his preaching: he had removed accord- ingly to Hermhut^ and had been sent from thence to Greorgia, to regulate the Moravian establishment. — Wesley inquired whither he was to go next ; his an- swer was, " I have thoughts of going to Pennsylvania : but what God will do with me I know not. i am
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blind. I am a child. My Father knows, and 1 am ready to go whererer he calls."
The brothers now separated. Charles went with Ingham to Frederica, a settlement on the west side of the Island of St. Simons, in the mouth of the Ala- tamaha.* John and Delamotte took ap their lodging with the Germans at Savannah, till the house which was intended for them should be erected. ^ We had DOW," says Wesley, " an opportunity, day by day, of observing their whole behaviour ; for we were in one room with them from morning to night, unless for the little time spent in walking. They were always em- ployed, always cheerful themselves, and in good hu- mour with one another. They had put away all an- ger, and strife, and wrath, and bitterness, and cla- mour, and evil speaking. They walked worthy of the vocation wherewith they were called, and adorn- ed the gospel of our Lord in all things." And having been present at a consultation concerning the afl&ire of their church, in which, after several hours spent in conference and prayer, they proceeded to the elec- tion and ordination of a bishop, he says, that ^^ the great simplicity, as well as solemnity of the whole, almost made him forget the seventeen hundred years between, and imagine himself in one of those assem- blies where form and state were not, but Paul the tent-maker, or Peter the fisherman presided, — ^yet with the demonstration of the Spirit and of power." Among the things of which he was chiefly afraid upon leaving England, one had been, that he should never again nave so many faithful friends as he left there. He now exclaimed, ** But who knoweth the mercy and power of God ! From ten friends I am awhile se\;luded, and he hath opened me a door into the whole Moravian church."
When Dr. Burton proposed Wesley as a proper person for the mission to Georgia, he was influenced
* The Duke de la Rochefoucault Liancourt says, that the three branches of the river Alatamaha, with the island of St. Simons, which li^s facing them, form the best, deepest, and safest harbour on the American coast, below the Chesapeake.
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by an opinion, that the more men were inured to a contempt of the contreniences and comforts of life, to serious thoughts and bodily austerities, the fitter they were for such an undertaking. He told him that the apostolical manner of preaching from house to house might be effectual, and turn many to righte- ousness. He reminded him (as if seeing upon what rock he was most likely to be wrecked) of how great importance it was to distinguish with prudence, ^^ be- tween what is essential and what is merely circum- stantial to Christianity; between what is indispen- sable and what is variable ; between what is of di- vine and what is of human authority ;^ and he warn- ed him, that the people among whom he was going were ^^ babes in the progress of their Christian life, to be fed with milk instead of strong meat^^ In one point Dr. Burton judged rightly; no man was more desirous of courting discomfort, or more able to en- dure privations and fatigue ; in all other points ner ver was man more thoroughly unfit for the service which he had undertaken. It seems at first to have been supposed that he would be engaged more as a missionary than as a chaplain, and he thought him- self called to the conversion of the heathen. But when Tomochicha came to welcome the governor on his arrival, and was introduced to the intended teach- er, it appeared that unforeseen obstacles had arisen. ^' I am glad you are come/^ said the chief, speaking through the female interpreter to Wesley ; *^ when 1 was in £ngland, I desired that some would speak the Great Word to me : and my nation then desired to hear it But now we are all in confusion. Yet I am glad you are come. I will go up and speak to the wise men of our nation, and I hope they will bear. But we would not be made Christians as the Span- iards make Christians : we would be taught before we are baptized.'' Wesley made answer, '* There is but One, He that sitteth in Heaven, who is able to teach man wisdom. Though we are come so far, we know not whether He will please to teach you by us, or no. If He teaches you, you will learn wisdom ;
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but we can do nothing.'^ Had he been master of their language^ like those excellent men Eliot and Roger Williams, the manner of his speech indicates that he would have addressed them successfully in their own style: but he never seems to have at- tempted the arduous task of acquiring it ; and when an opportunity offered of going among the Choc- taws, and Mr. Oglethorpe objected to it, because there was danger of being intercepted or killed by the French ; and still more because of the inexpe- diency of leaving Savannah without a minister, the two brethren discussed these objections with the Moravians, and acceded to their opinion, that they ought not yet to £o. In Georgia, indeed, as the Je- suits had found it m South America, the vicinity of a white settlement would have proved the most formi- dable obstacle to the conversion of the Indians. When Tomo-chichi was urged to listen to the doc- trines of Christianity, he keenly replied, " Why, these are Christians at Savannah ! these are Christians at Frederica !" Nor was it without good apparent rea- son^'that the poor savage exclaimed, '*' Christian much drunk ! Christian beat men ! Christian tell lies ! De- vil Christian ! Me no Christian !"
Wesley, however, was well pleased at first with his situation : the place, he said, was pleasant be- yond imagination : he was even persuaded that it was exceeding healthful, and he wrote to his mother, saying, he should be heartilv glad if any poor and religious men or women of ffpworth or Wroote could come over to him ; inviting them with a promise of land enough, and of provisions till they could live upon its produce. He was satisfied also with his reception, and the effect which he produced. The people crowded to hear him ; and when he beheld the deep attention with which they received the word, and the seriousness that afterwards sate upon all their faces, he could scarce refrain from antici- pating a continuance of the impression, '^ in spite,^' he says, " of experience, and reason, and Scripture altogether/' One of the ladies to whom he was in-
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troduced on his iSrst landing, assured him that he would see as well-drest a congregation on Sunday, as most which he had seen in London. ^^I did so,'' he says, ^ and soon after took occasion to expound those Scriptures which relate to dress, and to press them freely upon my audience, in a plain and close application. All the time that I afterwards minister- ed at Savannah, I saw neither gold in the Church, nor costly apparel; but the congregation in general was almost constantly clothed m plain clean linen or woollen. All,'' he said, ^^ was smooth, and fair, and promising : many seemed to be awakened : all were full of respect and commendation." He taught one school and Delambtte another : some of Delamotte's boys, who wore shoes and stockings, thought them- selves superior to the poor fellows who went bare- foot ; and Wesley proposed to change schools for a while, that he might endeavour to cure an evil which his friend found himself unable to remedy. To ef- fect this, he went into the school without shoes and stockings himself. The boys stared at him and at each other; he, of course, took no notice, but kept them to their work : it was soon evident that the un- shod party felt the comfort of being thus countenan- ced, and before the week was over, prtde stood no longer in the way of discipline or of economy, and many of the others came to school bare-legged also. This was not the onlv instance in which he gained a signal victory over the vanities of the world : one of the better order of colonists gave a ball ; the pub- lic prayers began about the same time ; the church was full, and the ball-room so empty, that the enter- tainment could not go forward. He perceived that this made many persons angry, and he did not per- ceive that it would have been prudent as well as ea- sy not to have excited such feelings on such an oc* casion. All might have continued well, could he but have remembered the advice of Dr. Burton, to consi- der his parishioners as babes in their progress, and therefore to feed them with milk. Instead of this, he drenched them with the physic of an intolerant dis-
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cipline. Following the rabric in opposition to the practice of the English church, he insisted upon baptizing children by immersion, and refused to bap- tize them if the parents would not consent to this rude and perilous method. Some persons he would not receive as sponsors, because they were not com- municants ; and when one of the most pious men in the colony earnestly desired to be admitted to the coQuminion, because he was a dissenter he refused to administer it to him, unless he would submit to be re-baptized ; and ho would not read the burial-ser- vice over another for the same reason, or for some one founded upon the same principle. He was ac- cused of making his sermons so many satires upon particular persons, and for this cause his auditors fell off; for though one might have been very well pleased to hear the others preached at, no person liked the cliance of being made the mark himself. All the quarreb which had occurred since his arri- val, were occasioned, it was affirmed, by his inter- meddling conduct. " Besides," said a plain speaker io him, ** the people say they arc Protestants, but as for you they cannot tell what religion you are of; they never heard of such a religion before, and they do not know what to make of it."
It was not merely by his aixstere opinions and as- cetic habits that Wesley gave occasion to this no- tion. With all his rigid adherence to the letter of the rubric, his disposition for departing from the practices of the church, and establishing a discipline of his own, was now beginning to declare itself. He divided the public prayers, following, in this respect^ the original appointment of the church, which, he said, was still observed in a few places in England : so he performed the morning service at five, and re^ served the communion office, with the sermon, for a separate service at eleven : the evening service was at three. He visited his parishioners from house to house in order, . setting apart for this purpose the hours between twelve and three, when they could not work because of the heat And he agreed vvith
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his companions to form, if they could, the more seri** CHS parishioners into a little society, who should as- semble once or twice a week for the purpose of im- proving, instructing, and exhorting each other : from these again a smaller number was to be selected for a more intimate intercommunion, which might be forwarded partly by the minister's conversing singly with eacht and partly by inviting them altogether to the minister's house on Sunday afternoons. Mr. Oglethorpe so far accorded with his views of reform- ation, as to give orders that no person should profane the Sabbath by fishing or fowling upon that day ; but the governor, who had cares enough to disquiet him, arising from the precarious state of the colony, was teazed and soured by the complaints which were now perpetually brought against the two brothers, and soon began to wish that he had brought out with him men of more practicable tempers.
The best people are not to be looked for in new colonies; — ^formed as such establishments hitherto have been in modern times, they usually consist of adventurers, who have either no fortune to lose, or no character, — the most daring, or the most despe- rate members of society, Charles Wesley attempted the doubly difficult task of reforming some of the lady colonists, and reconciling their petty jealousies and hatreds of each other; in which he succeeded no farther than just to make them cordially agree in hating him, and caballing to get rid of him in any way. He had not been six days at Frederica be- fore he was involved in so many disputes and dis- agreeable circumstances, that he declared he would not spend six days more in the same manner for all Georgia, — but it was neither in his power to change his situation so soon, nor to improve it. As he was at prayers in a myrtle grove, a gun was fired from the other side of the bushes, and the ball passed close by him ; he believed it was aimed at him, yet if there had really been a design against his life, they who made the attempt would not so easily have given up their purpose. Oglethorpe was at this time gone
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inland with the Indians, to see the limits which they elaioied. Durine his absence the doctor chose to shoot during service-time on the Sunday, in the midst of the sermon, and so near the church, that the con- stable thought it his duty to go out and deliver him to the commanding officer, who put him under arrest in the guard-room. This was of course imputed to the chaplain ; the doctor^s wife poured out a torrent of execrations against him in the street^ and to heighten the indignation which was excited, the doctor himself refused to go out to any patient, thdugh his services were wanted by a woman at the time. When Oglethorpe returned, he found Frede- rica in an uproar, and he was informed that a plan was concerted among the settlers for abandoning the colony, and that Charles Wesley was the prime mover of the mischief. The accusation came m too authentic a manner to be disregarded, for it was made by the spokesman of the discontented, who in their name demanded leave to depart. Oglethorpe accordingly sent for him, and charged him with mu- tiny and sedition, yet treated him with some remains of kindness, and said, that he should not scruple shooting hali-a-dozen of those fellows at once, bat that from regard to him he had spoken to him first. A cross-examination, skilfully managed, made the accuser himself admit that uharles Wesley bad no otherwise excited the mutineers to this resolution than by forcing them to prayers. Still an uncom- fortable feeling remained in Oglethorpe's breast, which no explanation could remove : — he had ex- pected that men of such talents, such learning, such piety, and such zeal as the Wesleys, would have contributed essentially to the good order of the colo- ny: and he complained that instead of love, meek- ness, and true religion among the people, there was nothing but mere formal prayers : but of the form, he was soon convinced, there was as little as of the reality, seldom more than half-a-dozen attending at the public service. Still he thought Charles bad raised these disorders, — as in truth he had been the
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occasion of them by his injudicious zeal : Charles asked whether it was his wish that he should alto-
5ether forbear from conversing with the parishioners. !*o this the governor would give no answer; but he spoke of the difficulties of his own situation ; ^^ Every thing was in confusion,'^ he said : ^^ it was much easier to govern a thousand persons than threescore ; and he durst not leave them before thej were set- Ued."
This interview left neither party in an enviable state of mind* Charles wrote to his brother, the let** ter was intercepted, and the scoundrel who opened it proclaimed its contents : instead of writing again, he resolved to send Ingham to him. There was one person of better character among these profligate settlers, who burst into tears when he took leave of Ingham, BSid said, ^ One good man is leaving us al- ready ; I foresee nothiilg but desolation. Must my poor children be brought up like these savages?'^ And Charles himself, feeling the utter loneliness in which he was left, though but by a temporary sepa- ration, exclaims in his journal, ^^O happy, happy friend ! abiit^ erupit^ evasit; but wo is me that I am still constrained to dwell in Meshech ! I lan^uished,^' he says, ^to bear him company, followed him with my eye till out of sight, and then sunk into deeper dejection of spirit than I had known before.^' Mr. Oglethorpe now began to manifest his displeasure in a manner not more distressing to its object than dis* honourable to himself Charles Wesley, expecting to live with him as his secretary, bad taken out with him from England no furniture of any kind : he was now informed that Mr. Oglethorpe had given orders that no one should use his things ; and upon observ- ing that he supposed the order did not extend to him, was told by the servant that he was particularly in- cluded by name. " Thanks be to God," said he, " it is not yet made capital to give me a morsel of bread. I begin now," he says in his journal, " to be abused and slighted into an opinion of my own eonsiderable- ness. I could not be more trampled upon were I
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] 10 WEStET IN AMERICA. [1736.
a fallen minister of state. The people have found out that I am in disgrace ; my few well*wishers are afraid to speak to me : some have turned out of the way to avoid me ; others have desired that I would not take it ill if they seemed not to know me when we should meet The servant that used to wash my linen sent it back unwashed. It was great cause of triumph that I was forbidden the use of Mr. Ogle- thorpe's things, which in effect debarred me of most of the conveniences, if not the necessaries of life. I sometimes pitied them, and sometimes diverted my- self with the odd expressions of their contempt ; but I found the benefit of having undergone a much lower degree of obloquy at Oxford.''
Hitherto he had lain on the ground iii the corner of a hut : some boards were now to be distributed from the public stores, and he applied for some to^ use as a bedstead, but they were given to every per- son except himself. Outward hardships and inward conflicts, above all, the bitterness of reproach from Mr. Oglethorpe, who was the only man he wished ta please, wore him out at last, and he was farced to lie down by what he called a friendly fever. " My sick- ness," he says, " 1 knew could not be of long continu- ance, as 1 was in want of every help and conven- ience : it must either soon leave' me, or release me from further sufferings." Some charitable persona^ brought him gruel, which produced a salutary per- spiration, and being a little relieved, the next day he was able to bury a poor man, who had been killed by the bursting of a cannon, but in a state of such weakness, that he was led out to perform the funeral service, and envied the man his quiet grave. On the first day of his illness he got the old bedstead to lie upon, on which the woun^ied man had expired ; he possessed it only one night ; Oglethorpe was brutal enough to give it away from under him, and refused to spare one of the carpenters to mend him up an- other.
John, meantime, being relieved by Ingham, at Sa- vannah, embarked in a sort of flat-bottomed barge
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called a pettiagaw, for Frederica. At night he wrapt himself from head to foot in a large cloak to keep ofT the sand flies (for they were anchored near an island), and lay down on the quarter-deck. About midnight he was greatly astonished by finding himself under water, he had rolled overboard, and in so sound a sleep that he did not wake while falling; his pre* sence of mind which never forsook him, served him here in good stead, and swimming round to the other side of the vessel where there was a boat tied, he climbed up by the rope. Contrary winds delayed him six days on the passa£e. Charles began to re- cover from the moment oi his brother^s arrival. In his natural indignation at the treatment which he re- ceived, he had resolved rather to perish for want of necessaries, than submit to ask for them ; by John's advice, however, he departed from this resolution, and the way to reconciliation was thus opened. — Wesley remained about a week at Frederica. A few days after his departure, Mr. Oglethorpe sent for Charles, and a remarkable scene ensued. The go- vernor began by saying he had taken some pains to satisfy his brother, but in vain. " It matters not,'' said he. ^^ I am now going to death : you will see me no more. Take this ring, and carry it to Mr. V. : if there be a friend to be depended on, he is one. — His interest is next to Sir Robert's : whatever you ask within his power, he will do for you, your brother and family. 1 have expected death for some days. These letters show that the Spaniards have long been seducing our allies, and intend to cut us off at a blow. I fall by my friends on whom I depended to send their promised succours. But death is nothing to me : he will pursue all my designs, and to him I recommend them and you." He then gave him a diamond ring. Charles Wesley, who had little ex- pected such an address, took it, and replied, ^^ If I am speaking to you for the last time, hear what you will quickly know to be a truth, as soon as you are entered on a separate state. This ring I shall never make use offer myself. I have no worldly hopes : I
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have renounced the world : life is bitterness to me : I came hither to lay it down. You have been deceiv- ed as well as I. I protest my innocence of the crimes I am charged with, and think myself now at liberty to tell you what I thought never to have uttered/'— The explanation into which he then entered, so sa- tisfied Oglethorpe, that his feelings were entirety changed: all his old love and confidence returned; and he embraced Charles and kissed him with the most cordial affection. They went together to the boat, where he waited some minutes for his sword : a mourning sword was twice brought him, which he twice refused to take ; at last they brought his own : it had been his father's. ** With this sword,** said he, " 1 was never yet unsuccessful.** When the boat pushed off*, Charles Wesley ran along the shore to see his last of him. Oglethorpe seeing him and two other persons run after him, stopt the Doat, and asked if they wanted any thing. One of them, the officer, whom he had left with the command, desired his last orders: Charles then said, ^^God is with you : go forth Christo duce et auspice Chrisio,^^ Ogle- thorpe replied, ** You have some verses of mine : you there see my thoughts of success.*' The boat then moved off! and Charles remained praying that God would save him from death, and wash away all his sins.
On the fifth day, Oglethorpe returned in safety. An enemy's squadron of three large ships, and four smaller, had been for three weeks endeavouring to make a descent, but the wind continued against them, till they could wait no longer. Charles returned him the ring. " When I gave it you,** said the go- vernor, " I never expected to see you again, but I thought it would be of service to your brother and vou. I had many omens of my death, but God has been pleased to preserve a life which was never va- luable to me, and yet in the continuance 6f it, 1 tfiank God, I can rejoice." He then talked of the strange- ness of his deliverance, when betrayed as it appear- ed, on all sides, and without human support ; and he
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condemned himself for his late conduct, imputing it, however, to want of time for consideration, and the state of his mind. ^ 1 longed, Sir,^^ said Charles, ^« to see joa once more, that I might tell jou some things before we finally parted ; but then I considered, that / if you died, you would know them all in a moment Oglethorpe replied, ^^ I know not whether separate spirits regard our little concerns; if they do, it is « as men regard the follies of their childhood, or I my late passionateness.^* About three months after- wards, Mr. Oglethorpe sent him to England with dis- patches, and followed him thither in the autumn of the same year.
At the beginning of the ensuing year, it was deter- mined that Ingham should go to England also, and en- deavour to bnuK over some of their friends to assist them. When Wesley had been twelve months in Georgia, he sent to the trusteed an account of the ex- penses for that time, for himself and Delamotte, which, deducting building and journeys, amounted to only £44. 4s. 4d. A salary of £50 was allowed for bis maintenance, which he bad resolved not to ac- cept, thinking his fellowship sufficient for him ; but his brother Samuel expostulated with him upon the injustice of such conduct, both to himself and to those who should come after him. These arguments were too reasonable to be resisted, especially when Wesley looked to an event which would have de- prived him of his income from college.
Sophia Causton, the niece of the chief magistrate at Savannah, had fixed her eyes upon Wesley; and it is said that Mr. Oglethorpe wished to brin^ about a marriage between them, thinking it the likeliest means of reclaiming him from those eccentricities %vhich stood in the way of his usefulness. She was a woman of fine person, polished manners, and cultivat- ed mind, and was easily led to bear her part in a de- sign which was to cure an excellent man of his extra- vagancies, and give her a good husband. Accord- ingly the WAS introduced to nim as one suffering un- der a wounded spirit, and inquiring after the way of
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eternal life. Nor was it enough to place herself thus in a more particular manner under his spiritual guidance ; she became his pupil also, like another Heloisa. She dressed always in white, and with the utmost simplicity to please his taste; and when in consequence of his having taken meat and wine, one day at the GeneraPs express desire, as a proof that he did not think the use of these things unlawful, he was seized with fever, and confined to his bed, she at- tended him night and day with incessant and sincere solicitude. Wesley^s manner of life had hitherto es- tranged liim from women^ and he felt these attentions as it was designed he should feel them. But she had a difficult part to act, and might well doubt whether with all his virtues it was likely (hat such a husband would make her happy. While she was at Frederic ca, he wrote to his brother Charles, concerning her in language which strongly marks his anxiety ; the let^ ter was partly written in Greek, that it might not be exposed to impertinent curiosity. It was to this pur- port : — "I conjure you spare no time, no address or pains to learn the true cause of my friend's former grief. I much doubt you are in the right. God for- bid that she should again err thus. Watch over, £uard lier as much as you possibly can. Write to me^ how it behooves me to write to her.'' Here not being under Wesley's eye, her life was not regulated with the same reference to his opinion ; and when he . Mrent to Frederica, some weeks after his brother's de-
Sarture, " he found her," he says, " scarce the sha- ow of what she was, when he had left her." He endeavoured to convince, her of this; the kind ofre- tnonstrance excited some pain and some pride ; and in her resentment she told him she would return to England immediately. ^^ 1 was at first litte surpri^- ' ed," says he, " but I soon recollected my spirits, and remembered my calling*.
— — non me, qui cdetera vincet Iitopetns ; at rapido coptrarius evehar orbi.*'
* It was perhaps tn this occasion, that he composed these lines ^
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He had recourse to prayer, however, and to the ex- hortations of Ephrem Syrus, whom he thought at this time the most awakening writer of all the ancients ; ^ and after several fruitlesd attempts, he at length suc- ceeded in dissuading her from what he called the fa- tal resolution of going to England. She went back* with him to Savannah, and in a short time he believ- ed she had recovered the ground which she had lost. This was the close of October. '^ In the beginning of December," he writes, "I advised Miss Sophy to fiup earlier, and not immediately before she went to bed. She did so, and on this little circumstance, what an inconceivable train of consequences depend ! not only all the colour of remaining life for her, but perhaps my happiness too."
Notwithstanding this docility, Delamotte suspect- ed that both her obedience and her devotion were merely assumed for the occasion; he therefore told Wesley what he thought of her artfulness and his ftimpiicity, and plainly asked him if it was his inten* tion to marry her. That h6 had formed this inten- tion in his heart is beyond a doubt, but he had not declared it ; the question embarrassed him, and he made no decisive answer ; but being staggered by what Delamotte h^d said, he called upon the Mo- ravian Bishop. The Bishop replied thus r — " Mar- riage is not unlawful. Whether it is expedient for you at thia time, and whether this lady is a proper wife for you,, ought to be maturely considered." The more he considered the more he was perplexed, • so he propounded the matter to the elders of the Mo- ravian Church. When he went to learn their deter- mination, he found Delamotte sitting with the elders in full conclave assembled ; and upon his proposing the question, the Bishop replied : " We have consi-
which, as he tells us in his " Plain Account of Christian Perfoc- •tion," were written at Savannah in the year 1736 : is there a thing beneath the sun ^
That strives with thee my heart to share ? Ah tear it thence, and reign alone, The Lord of every motion thore !
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dered your case ; will you abide by our dectdioD ?" He made answer that he would. Then, said the Bishop, we advise you to proceed no further in this business. Upon this Wesley replied, *^ The will of the Lord be done,^' and from that time in perfect 6bedience to their decision, it is affirmed that he carefully avoided the lady^s company, though he
Eerceived what pain tliis change in his conduct gave er. Had the lady herself known that a consulta- tion of Moravian elders had been held upon her case^ whatever pain and whatever love she might have felt, would soon have given place to resentment
Docile, however, as he had shown himself to his spiritual directors, his private diary shows what pain he felt in their decision, and that even when he thought it best for his salvation that the match should be broken off^ he had not resolution to break it off himself, so that the point on his part was still unde- cided, when she put an end to his struggles by taking another husband. Passs^es in his private journal make this beyond a doubt: ^^ Feb. 5. 1737. One of the most remarkable dispensations of Providence towards me which I have yet known began to show itself this day. For many days after I could not at all judge which way the sciUe would turn : nor was it fully determined till March 4, on which God com- manded me to pull out my right e^e ; and by his grace I determined so to do ; but being slack in the execution, on Saturday, March 12, God being very merciful to me, my friend performed what I could not. I have often thought one of the most difficult com- mands that ever was given, was that given to Ezekicl concerning his wife. But the difficulty of obeying such a direction appeared to me now more than ever before, when considering the character I bore, I could not but perceive that the word of the Lord was come to me likewise, saving, ^ Son of man, be- hold I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroke, yet neither shalt thou mourn nor weep, neither shall thy tears run down.' " The fourth of March appears to have been the day on which the
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consultaiioD w&s held : ^^ From the direction 1 re- ceived from God this day,^' he says, «^ touching an affair of the last importance, I cannot but observe, as I have done many times before, the entire mistake of many good men, who assert that God will not answer your prayer unless your heart be wholly re- signed to his will. My heart was not wholly resigned to his will ; therefore, I durst not depend on my own judgment; and for this very reason I cried to him the more earnestly to supply what was wanting in me. And I know, and am assured, that he heard my voice, and did send forth his light and his truth.^ The twelfth of March was the day on which Sophia married Mr. Williamson^ ^^ heing,'^ says Wesley, ^« the day which completed the year from my first speaking to her. What thou doest, O God, I know not now, but I shall know hereafter."*
* Upon this part of Wesley's private history Dr. Whitehead says, '* Mr. Wesley has obseired a silence in his printed journal on some circumstances of this affiiir, which has induced many per- sons to suspect the propriety of his conduct in this business. He has, haiveTer, been more open in bis private journal, which was written at the time as the circumstances arose. And as this pri- vate journal, and his other papers, lay open to the inspection of his friends for several years, I cannot help thinking that it would have been mere to the reputation of themselves and Mr. Wesley to have openly avowed the fict, that he did intend to marry Mis» Causton, smd was not a little pained when she broke off the cou" nexion with him. From a careful perusal of his private journal this appears to me to have been the case. But, whatever may be said of his weakness, (and who is not weak in something or othiar ?) or of his prudence in this affair, nothiixg can be laid to his charge in point of criminality." Wesley would naturally say as little as possible upon this subject in his printed journal ; and in private, whether he remembered the lady with any degree of tenderness or not, he must have been conscious of much eccen- tricity during the course of the attachment, and great indiscretion aAer it was broken off. But it is remarkable that his private journal should only hint at the consultation of Moravians, and so remotely, that unless the fact had elsewhere been mentioned, it could never have been inferred. Dr. Coke and Mr. Moore say, '* There is a silence observed in Mr. Wesley's journal in respect to some parts of this event, which it is possible has caused even friendly readers to hesitate concerning the propriety of his con- duct, or at least concerning that propriety which they might be led to expect from so great a character. But what has hitherto been
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His first consolation was derived from reflecting upon the part which he believed himself called to
defective, we are happy in being able to supply. The actors in this scene, are now, we may hope, in a better world ; the last of them died but « few years since. We are not, therefore, bound, as Mr. Wesley thought himself when he published the account, to let a veil be thrown over this transaction : rather we are bound to let his innocency appear as the light , and his just dealing as the noon- day.^^ They add some circumstances which, to say the least, are not very probable. A young lady who had married after her ar- rival in Georgia, was troubled in conscience, and told Wesley, under a promise of secresy, the plot which General Oglethorpe . had laid to cure him of his enthusiasm, adding these words : " Sir» I had no rest till I resolved to tell you the whole affair. I have myself been urged to that behaviour towards you, which I am now ashamed to mention. Both Miss %phia and myself were ordered, if we could bilt succeed, even to deny you nothing.^* These bio- graphers say further, '' when Genersd Oglethorpe perceived by Wesley's altered manner, and some incautious expressions, that his scheme had been discovered, he gave him a hint that there were Indians who would shoot any man in the colony for a bottle of rum,, and actually sent an Indian to intimidate if not to murder him.
Surely it cannot be supposed that Wesley would have persisted in his wish, if not in his purpose, of marrying Sophia Causton, after he was fully assured that she had designed to entrap him by such means. Yet it is certain that he persevered in that mind three' months after Mr. Oglethorpe's departure, and that the connexion was not broken off by him at last. Dr. Whitehead, who has printed from the private journal Wesley's own remarks, written as the events occurred, censures with great justice the official biographers, saying, '' I cannot help thinking it would have been more to the reputation of themselves and Mr. Wesley, to have /openly avowed the fact that he did intend to marry Miss Causton, and was not a little pained when she broke off the connexion with him." With regard to the young lady's curious confession, Mr, Wesley seems not to have asked himself the questioa whether it were more likely that General Oglethorpe would give such in- structions to two young women under his protection, or that one of those women should have invented the story for purposes of mischief, at a time when it was wished to drive the obnoxious minister out of the colony. Mr. Moore believes that Mr. Wes- ley qever related these circumstances to any person but himself; Pr. Coke was wholly ignorant of them ; and he supposes that Mr. Wesley forbore to publish the whole account, chiefly through ten- derness to General Oglethorpe. There was indeed sufficient reason for not bringing forward a charge at once so vague and so atrocious as that respecting the Indian ; for though Messrs. Coke and M.oore* incline to think the man was sent only to intimidate, the story is not related so as to leave that impression upon the reader.
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perform. Walking to one of the newly settled lots, he sajs, ^ I plainly felt that had God given tne such a retirement with the companion 1 desired^ i should have forgotten the work for which 1 was bom, and have set up mj rest* in this world.^^ It was not long, however, before he began to find cause for consolation from the lady^s character, which took its natural course, when she no longer acted with the view of pleasing him. " God," he says, "has shown me yet more of the greatness of my deliverance, by opening to me a new and unexpected scene of Miss Sophy's dissimulation.—^ O never give me over to my own hearth desires, nor let me follow my own imaginations !'' Some time afterwards, immediately after the communion, he mentioned to her some things in her conduct which he thought reprehensible ; no man but Wesley would have done so, after what had passed between therof but at this time his austere notions led him wrong in every thing. The reproof irritated her, as it was likely to do, and she replied angrily, that she did not expect such usage from him, and turned abruptly away. At this time he was still upon friendly terms with her uncle, Mr. Causton, the chief magistrate in the colony, and one who had hitherto been among his best friends : he had attended him lately during a slow illness, with a kindness of which that gentle-' man appeared fully sensible, and Mrs. Causton upon hearing what had now passed with her niece, endea- voured to excuse her to Wesley, expressed her sor- row for the affair, and desired him to tell her in wri'* ting what it was which he disapproved. The matter might easily have been ended here, if Wesley had so chosen ; but his notions of clerical duty during this part of his fife, would have qualified him in oth^r ages to have played the part of Becket or of Hilde«> brand. What he wrote to the lady has never been made. public; the temper in which it was written may be estimated by the letter which he previously sent to her uncle. " To this hour you have shown yourself my friend ; I ever have •and ever shall ac-
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knowledge it: and it is my earaefit desire that he who hath heretofore given oie this blessing would continue it still. But this cannot he unless you will allow me one request, which is not so easy a one as it appears,~ie/mV condemn me for doing in the execution of my office what I think it my duty to do. If you can pre- yail upon yourself to allow me this, even when I act without respect of persons, I am persuaded there wiU never be, at least not long, any misunderstanding be- tween us. For even those who seek it, shall, I trust, find no occasion against me, except it be concerning the law of my God." This curious note brought Mr, Causton to his house, to ask how he could possibly think he should condemn him (or executing any part of his office. Wesley replied, «^ Sir, what if I should think it the duty of my office to repel one of your fa- mily from the Holy Communion .^" " If you repel me or my wife," answered Causton, ^ I shall require a legal reason, but I shall trouble myself about ntme else ; let them look to themselves."
These circumstances must needs have thrown the lady into considerable agitation ; •she miscarried: but though her aunt was now so incensed against Mr. Wesley as to impute this to his reproof and the let- ter which he had afterwards written, she herself was generous or just enough to declare that it was occa- sioned by anxiety during her hushand^s illness. — Causton forbore from taking any part in the aflair, and continued his usual friendly conduct towards the untractable chaplain : he, however, on the first Sun- day tn the ensuing month persisted in his purpose, and repelled her from the communion. The next day a warrant was issued against him for defaming Sophia Williamson, and refusing to administer to her the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper in a public con- gregation without cause; for which injury the hus* oand laid his damages at one thousand pounds. Upon this warrant he was carried before the Recorder and one of the Bailifis : there he maintained that the giv- ing or refusing die Lord's Supper was a matter purely ecclesiastical ; and, therefore, he wouJd not acknow-
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ledge their power to interrogate him concerning it. The Bailiff^ nevertheless, said he must appear at the next Court holden for Savannah; and Williamson desired that he might be required to give bail for his appearance; but the Bailin replied, that Mr. Wes- ley ^s word was sufficient. Mr. Causton, still profess* ing a regard to the friendship which had hitherto subsisted between them, required him to give the reasons for his conduct in the Court-house, which Wesley refused, saying, he apprehended many ill consequences might arise from so doing ; ^^ Let the cause," he said, " be laid before the trustees." The uncle now broke ofT all terms, and entered with great animosity into the business as a family quar- rel, declaring he had drawn the sword, and would never sheath it till he had obtained satisfaction : and . he called upon Wesley to give the reasons of his re- pelling her before the whole congregation. This he did accordingly, in writing, to the lady herself, and in these words : " Tlie rules whereby 1 proceed are these : so many as intend to be partakers of the Holy Communion, shall signify their names to the Curate, at least some time the day before. This you did not do. And if any of these have done any wrong to his neighbour by word or deed, so that the congregation be thereby offended, the Curate shall advertise him that in any wise he presume not to come to the Lord's Table, until he hath openly de- clared himself to have truly repented. If you offer yourself at the Lord's Table on Sunday,! will adver- tise you (as I have done niore than once), wherein you have done wrong. And when you have openly de- clared yourself to have truly repented, I will admi- nister to you the mysteries of God." ^ This affair was now the whole business of Savan* nab. Causton was so far forgetful of what is due from man to man in civilized life, as to read Wesley's let- ters to the lady during the whole course of their in-, tiqiacy, before all who chose to hear them, omitting such passages as did not exactly suit his purpose, and helping out others by a running comment. Wes-
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ley on his part, at the request of several of the com- inunicants, drew up a statement of the case, and read it after the evening prayers in the open congrega* tion ; a conduct not less extraordinary, though less reprehensible, than that of his adversary. An affida- vit was made by the lady, asserting that Mr. Wesley Bad many times proposed marriage to her, all whidb piropb6als she had rejected, and insinuating much more than it asserted. He desired a copy of it, and Ivas toM by Causton that he might have one from any of the newspapers in America ; for they were bent upon the double object of blackening bis character knd driving him from the colony. A grand jury was dumoboned, consisting of fifty persons, no triffing pro* portion of the adult male population of Savannah : lour and forty met; and Wesley complains that of these one was a Frenchman, who did not understand English, one a Papist, one a professed infidel, some twenty were dissenters, (all of course unfit persons to decide upon a question relating to church disci- pline,) and several others, persons who had personal quarrels with him, and had openly threatened to be revenged. Causton addressed them in an earnest speech, exhorting them to beware of spiritual tyran- ny, and to oppose the new and illegal authority which was usurped over their consciences : he then delivered in a list of grievances, which with some im- material alterations was returned as a true bill, charg* ing John Wesley with having " broken the laws of the realm, contrary to the peace of our Sovereign Lord the King, his crown and dignity.'^ The indict- ment contained ten counts, of which the first was for speaking and writing to Mrs. Williamson against her husband's consent; the others related to his repel- ling her from the communion, his division of the ser- vice, and his conduct respecting baptisms and buri- als. He appeared before the court, and declared, that as nine of these counts related to ecclesiastical matters, they were not within the cognizance of that tribunal; 1>ut that which concerned speaking and writing to Mrs. Williamson was of a secular nature,.
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he said, and therefore he desired that it mi^t he tried apon the spot where the facts complained of had occurred, but it was in vain that he repeated- ly demanded a hearing on this charge ; and in this manner more than three months elapsed. During that time a donation of ten pounds from the Vice- Provost of Eton reached him, designed for his pri- vate use and for works of charity : when it arrived he had been several months without a shilling in the house, but not, he says, without peace, heiuth and contentment.
Indeed he had still zealous friends in the colony. £ven among the jurors, though every means was taken to select men who were likely to favour his accusers, and no means for prepossessing them against him were spared, twelve persons were foun49 who in a paper addressed to the trustees, protested against the mdictment as a scheme for gratifying personal malice by blackening Mr. Wesley^ charac- ter. The indictment was found toward the end of August, and it sjeems that its first effect was to make him think of leaving Savannah: hot on the tenth of September he says in his private journal, '' I laid aside the thoughts of going to England; thinking it more suitable to my calling, still to comqnend my cause to God, and not to be in haste to justify my- self When however another month ha4 elapse^? and the business appeared no nearer its decision, he consulted his friends, ^^ whether God did not call him to return to England ?'' The reason, he said, for which he had left hjs country ha,d now no force; there was as yet no possibility of instructing the In- dians*', neither had he found or heard of any Indians
* Ingham had lived amoog the Creek-Indians for a few months, and had begun to compose a grammar in their language. Wes- ley has recorded a curious ^alogue b^ween himself and some Chickasaws, which I 4o not insjert in this {dace because it is print- ed among the notes to Madoc. On his part it consisted of well di- rected questions. Whitefield was not so likely to have led these Indians into the ri^t way, if we may judge by his conference with poor TpmOrCbichi when that qhi^f was at the point of death. I desired his nephew Tooanoowee, who could talk EngUsh, he says*
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on the Continent of America, who had the least de* sire of being instructed. — But it is not for their de* sire, that missionaries whose hearts have been in- tently set upon this good work have waited ; and though the North American tribes have been found far less docile than those in the other part of the new continent, still sufficient proof had been given both in Canada and New England, that the labour of love was not lost upon them, when it was perseveringly pursued. Wesley could not find what he did not seek ; other and greater labours were reserved for him : he was not to be a missionary himself, but a founder of missions, in which men more suitable for the work would find their proper and most meritori- ous employment. It will not be deemed supersti- tious thus to notice as remarkable the manner in "which Wesley fi;ave up the object for which he went to Georgia, without one serious effort for its accom- plishment, and apparently without being conscious of any want of eflfort, or any change in himself.
As to Savannah, he said, he had never engaged himself either by word or letter, to remain there a day longer shan he should judge convenient ; nor had he taken charge of the people any otherwise than as in his passage to the heathen ; he therefore looked upon himself to be fully discharged from that cure by the vacating of his primary design ; and be- sides, there was a probability of his doing more ser- vice to that unhappy people in England, than he could do in Georgia, by representing the real state of the colony to the trustees, without fear or favour.
to inquire of hi? uncle ♦* whether he thought he should die ;" he answered •* he could not tell.'* 1 then asked '* where he thought he should go after death ?" He replied, " To Heaven.'* But, alas, how can a drunkard enter there ! I then exhorted Tooanod- Wee, who is a tall proper youth, not to get drunk, telling him be understood English, and therefore would be punished the more if he did not live better. I then asked him whether he believed a Heaven ? He answered, " Yes." 1 then asked, whether he be- lieved a Hell ? and described it by pwnting to the fire : be re- pliedi " No.'*
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His friends, of whom the Moravians were probably the greater number, listened attentively to this rea- soning; and after considering it well, were of opi- nion uiat he ought to go, but not yet. So for the pre- sent he laid aside the thought, being persuaded that when the time was come, God would make the way plain before his face. Another six weeks elapsed, during which he appeared at two more courts, to no ether purpose than to hear himself reviled in calum-^ nious affidavits by Mr. Causton. Weary of this, he laid the case again before his friends, and they agreed with him now that it was proper he should depart. Accordingly he called upon Causton to give him notice of his intention, and obtain money for the expenses of his voyage ; and he posted up a paper in the ffreat square with these words, — ' Whereas John Wesley designs shortly to set out for England, this is to desire those who'have borrowed any books of him to return them as soon as they conveniently can.' He fixed his departure for the 2d of Decem- ber, when he proposed to set out for Carolina about noon, the tide then serving: at 10 o'clock on that morning the magistrates sent for him, to say that he must not quit the province, because he had not an- swered the allegations brought ajgainst him. He re- plied, " that he had appeared at six or seven courts successively in order to answer them, and had not been suffered so to do, when he desired it time af- ter time." They insisted nevertheless that he should not go unless he would give security to answer those allegations in their court. He asked what securi- ty ; and after they had consulted together some two hours, the recorder produced a bond engaging him under a penalty of fifty pounds, to appear in their court when he should be required ; and he added that Mr. Williamson also required bail, that he should answer his action. Upon this he replied resolutely, that he would neither give bond nor bail, saying, " You know your business, and I know mine."
It is very certain that the ma^strates desired no- thing more than to make him withdraw ; but in or-
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der to keep up appearances, and stigmatize his de-
{)artur^as if it were a flight from justice, they pub- ished an order that afternoon, requiring all the ofli- cers and sentinels to prevent him from leaving the colony, and forbidding any person to assist him so to do. This order was not meant to be obeyed. **Be- ing now,'' he says, " only a prisoner at large in a place where 1 knew by experience every day would cive fresh opportunity to procure evidence of word9 I never said, and actions 1 never did, I saw clearly, the hour was come for leaving this place ; and soon as evening prayers were over, about eight o'clock, the tide then serving, I shook off the dust of my feet, and left Georgia, after having preached the gospel there (not as I ought, but as I was able,) one year and nearly nine months." He had three companions, one of whom meant to go with him to England, the other two to settle at Carolina. They landed at Purrysburg early in the morning, and not being able to procure a guide for Port Royal, set out an hour before sun-rise to walk there without one- ' After two or three hours they met an old man, who led tliem to a line of trees which had been marked by having part of the bark cut off; trees so marked are said to be blazed^ and the path thus indicated is called a blaze ; hy following that line the old man said . they might easily reach Port Royal in five or six hours. It led them to a swamp, which in America means a low watery ground overgrown with trees or canes ; here they wandered about three hours before they disco- vered another blaze, which they followed till it divid- ed into two branches ; they pursued the one through an almost impassable thicket till it ended ; then they returned and took the other with no better success. By this time it was near sun-set, and with a strange im- providence they had set out with no other provision than a cake of gingerbread which Wesley had in his pocket. A third of this they had divided at noon, and another third served them for supper, for it was ne- cessary to reserve some portion for the morrow. They were in want of drink; so thrusting a stick in-
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to the ^ound atid finding the end moist, they dug with their bands, till at about three feet depth they found watery «« Wte thanked God,^' he says, ^^ drank, and were refreshed/* It was a sharp night ; he how- ever had inured Imnself to privations and physical hardships ; they prayed, tay down close to each oth- er, and slept till near si^ in the morning. Then they steered du^east for Port Royal, till mding neither path nor btazfe, a6d perceiving that the woods grew thicker and thicker, Ifaey thought it advisable to find their Way back if they could, for this was not easy in such a Wildert^fesB. By ^od hap, ibr it was done withotrt atiy lapprehensioQ that it might be servicea*- ble, Wesley on the preceding day had followed the Indian custom of breaking down some young trees in Ae thickest part of the woods; by these landmarks they were guided When there was no Other indication of the way, and in the afternoon they reached the house of the old man, whose directions they had fol- lowed so iTnduccessfuUy. The next day they obtain- ed a guide to Port Royal, and thence they took boat forChartesToWn.
Having remained there ten days, and then taking leave of America, but -hoping that it was not for ever, he embarked for England. He had abated some- what of his rigorous mode of life ; now he returned to what he calls bis old simplicity of diet, and imput- ed to the chismge a reKef from sea-sickness, which might more I'eaidonably have been ascribed to con- tinuance at sea. Wesley wfiis never busier in the work of self-examinatibn than during this homeward voyage. Peeling an apprehension of danger from no- apparent cause, while the sea .was smooth and the wind light, he wrote in his journal, " Let us observe hereon ; 1. That not one of these hours ought to pass out of my remembrance till I attain another manner of spirit, a Spirit equally willing to glorify God by life or by death. 2. That whoever is uneasy on any ac- count, (bodily pain alone excepted,) carries in him- ^ self, his own convidtion that he is so far an unbeliever. Is he uneasy at the apprehension of death ? Then he
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belie veth not that to die is gain. At any of (he events of life ? Then he hath not a firm belief that all things work together for his good. And if he bring the mat- ter more close, he will always find, besides the gen- eral want of faith, every particular uneasiness is evi- dently owing to the want of some particular Chris- tian temper.'^ He felt himself sorrowful and heavy without knowing why ; though what had passed, and the state of excitement in which he had so long been kept, might well have explained to him the obvious cause of his depression. In this state, he began to doubt whether his unwillingness to discourse ear- nestly with the crew was not the cause of his uncom- fortable feelings, and went, therefore, several times among the sailors with an intent of speaking to them, but could not " I mean,^' he . says, " I was quite averse from speaking ; I could not see how to make an occasion, and it seemed quite absurd to speak without. Is this a sufficient cause of silence, or no ? Is it a prohibition from the good Spirit ? or a tempt- ation from nature or the evil one ?" The state of tne pulse or the stomach would have afibrded a safer so* iution.
At this time, in the fulness of his heart, he thus ac- cused hiiQself, and prayed for deliverance : " By the most infallible of proofs^ — inward feeling, I am con- vinced, 1. Of unbelief, having no such faith in Christ as will prevent my heart from being troubled ; which it could not be if I believed in God, and rightly believ- ed also in Him : 2. Of pride, throughout my life past, inasmuch as I thought 1 had, what I find I have not^ 3. Of gross irrecoUection, inasmuch as in a storm I cry to God every mqment, in a calm, not ; 4. Of levi- ty and luxuriancy of spirit, recurring whenever the pressure is taken off, and appearing by my speaking words not tending to edify ; but most by the manner of speaking of my enemies. Lord save, or I perish ! Save me, 1. By such a faith as implies peace in life, and in death : 2. By such humility as may fill my heart from this hour for ever, with a piercing uninter* rupted sense, J\'*ihil est quod hacfenus feciy having evi-
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dentlj built without a foundation : 3. By such a re- collection as may cry to thee every moment, espe- cially when all is calm ; give me faith, or I die ! give me a lowly spirit ! otherwise mtht non sit suave vivere : 4- By steadiness, seriousness, ffiiju^rn^^ sobriety of spirit, avoiding as fire every word that tendeth not to edifying, and never speaking of any who oppose me, or sin against God, without all my own sins set in ar- ray before my face.'* In this state he roused himself and exhorted his fellow-travellers with all his might ; but the seriousness with which be impressed them soon disappeared when he left them to themselves. A severe storm came on ; at first he was afraid, but having found comfort in prayer, lay down at night with composure, and fell asleep. " About midnight,** he says, " we were awakened by a confuted noise of seas and wind and men's voices, the like to which I had never heard before. Tlie sound of the sea breaking over and against the srdes of the ship, I could compare it to nothing;^ bVt large cannon, or American thunder. The rebounding, starting, quiv- ering motion of the ship much resembled what is said of earthquakes. The captain was upon deck in* an instant, but his men could not hoar what he said. It blew a proper hurricane, which beginning at south- west, then wettt west, northwest, north, and in a quarter of an hour round by the east to the souths west point again. At the same time the sea running, as they term it, mountains high, and that from many different points at once, the ship would not obey the helm ; nor indeed could the steersman, through the violent rain, see the compass; so he was forced to let her run before the wind ; and in half an hour the stress of the storm was over. About noon the next day it ceased."
While it continued Wesley made a resolution to apply his spiritual labours not only to the whole crew collectively, but to every separate individual ; and in the performance of this resolution he reco- vered his former elasticity of spirit, feeling no more of that feaifulness and heaviness which had lately
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weighed him down. Upon this change he says^ « one who thinks the being in Orcoj as they phrase it, an in- dispensable preparative for being a Christian, would say I had better have continued in that state ; and that this unseasonable relief was a curse, not a bless- ing. Nay, but who' art thou, O man, who in favour of a wretched hypothesis, thus blasphemest the good gift of God ? Hath not he himself said, ^ This also is the gift of God, if a man have power to rejoice in his labour ?^ Yea, God setteth his own seal to his weak endeavours, while he thus ^answereth him in the joy of his heart.'''
The state of*his mind at this time is peculiarly in- teresting, while it was thus agitated and impelled to- ward some vague object, as yet he knew not what^ by the sense of duty and of power, and while those visitations of doubt were frequent, which darken the soul when they pass over it « I went to America," he says, «« to convert the Indians ; but oh ! who shall convert me ? Who, what is he that will deliver me from this evil heart of unbelief.'^ I have a fair sum- mer religion, I can talk well, nay, and'believe myself^ while no danger is near: but let death look me ia the face, and my spirit is troubled ; nor can I say to die is gain. I think verily if the Gospel be true, I am safe : for I not only have given and do give all my goods to feed the poor; I not only give my body to be burnt, drowned, or whatever else God shall ap- point for me, but I follow after charity (though not as I ought, yet as I can,) if haply I may attain it I now believe the Gospel is true. I show my faith 6y mff worksj by staking my all upon it I would do so a^ain and again a thousand times, if the choice were still to make. Whoever sees me, sees I would be a Christian. Therefore, are my ways not like other men^s ways : therefore, I have been, I am, I am content to be, a by-wordj a proverb of rq>roach. But in a storm I think, what if tne Gospel be not true ? then thou art of all men most foolish. For what hast thou given thy goods, thy ease, thy friends, thy reputation, thy country, thy life? For what art thou wandering
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over the face of the earth ? a dream ? a cunningly dev^ised fid^te ? Oh, who will deliver me from this fear of death! What shall I do ? Where shall I fly from it ? Should 1 fight against it by thinbtng, or by nt)t thinking ofit? A wise manadvisedmesometimesince, ^Be still, «md go on.' Perhaps this is best : to look upon it as my cross ; when it comes, to let it huoible me, and quick- en all my good resolutions, especially that of pray- ing without ceasing; and other times to take no thought about it, but quietly to go on in the work of the Lord." It is beautifully said by Sir Thomas Brown, " There is, as in philosophy, so in divinity, sturdy doubts and boisterous objections, wherewith the un- happiness of our knowledge too nearly acquainteth us : more of these no man hath known than myself, which I confess I conquered, not in a martial pos- ture, but on my knees." What is remarkable in Wesley's case is, that these misgivings of faith should have been felt by him chiefly in times of danger, which is directly contrary to general experience.
And now he reviewed the progress of his own re- ligious life. *' For many years I have been tossed about by various winds of doctrine. I asked long ago * What must I do to be saved }'* The Scripture answered, Keep the commandments, believe, hope, love. — ^I was early warned against laving, as the Pa- pists do, too much stress on outward works, or on a faith without works, which as it does not include, so it will never lead to true hope or charity. Nor am f sensible that to this hour I have laid too much stress on either. But I fell among some Lutheran and Cal- vinist authors, who magnified faith to such an amaz- ' ingsize, that it hid all the rest of the commandments. I did not then see that this was the natural effect of their overgrown fear of popery, being so terrified with the cry of merit and good works, that they plung- ed at once into the other extreme ; in this labyrinth I was utterly lost, not being able to find out what the eiTor was, nor yet to reconcile this uncouth hy- pothesis, either with Scripture or common sense. The English writers, such as Bishop Beveridge.
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Bishop Taylor, and Mr. Nelson, a little relieved me from these well-meaning wrong-headed Germans. Only when they interpreted Scripture in differ- ent ways, I was oftea much at a loss. And there was one thing much insisted on in Scripture, — the unity of the church, which none of them, I thought, clearly explained. ^But it was not long before Pro- vidence brought me to those who showed me a sure rule of interpreting Scripture, consensus veierum : Quod ab omnibus^ quod ubique^ mod semper crediium ; at the same time they sufficiently insisted upon a due re- gard to the one church at all times and in all places. Nor was it long before I bent the bow too tar the other way : by ^making antiquity a co-ordinate rather J than sub-ordinatc rule with Scripture ; by admitting several doubtful writings ; by extending antiquity too far; by believing more practices to have been uni- versal in the ancient church than ever were so ; by not considering that the decrees of a provincial sy- nod could bind only that province, and the decrees of a general synod only those provinces whose repre- sentatives met therein ; that most of those decrees were adapted to particular times and occasions, and consequently when those occasions ceased^ must cease to bind even those provinces. These consi- derations insensibly stole upon me as 1 grew ac- j quainted with the mystic writers, whose noble de- 1 scriptions of union with God and internal religion, I made every thing else appear mean, flat, and insipid. But in truth they made good works appear so too : yea, and faith Itself, and what not.^ They gave me • an entire new view of religion, nothing like any I had before. But alas ! it was nothing like that religion which Christ and his apostles loved and taught. I had a plenary dispensation from all the commands of God; the form was thus : Love is all; all the com- mands beside are only means of love: you must choose those which y#u feel are means to you, and use them as long as they are so. Thus were all the bands burst at once ; and though I could never fully
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come into this, nor contentedly omit what God en- joined, yet, I know not how, I fluctuated between obedience and disobedience. I had no heart, no vi- gour, no zeal in obeying, continually doubting whe- ther I was right or wrong, and never out of perplex- ities and entanglements. Nor can I at this hour give a distinct account, how or when I came a little back toward the right way; only my present sense is this, all the other enemies of Christianity are triflers,. the mystics are the most dangerous ; they stab it in the ' vitals, and its most serious professors are most likely to fall by them."
Having landed at. Deal, the returning missionary recorded solemnly his own self-condemnation and sense of his <own imperfect faith. " It is now," he «aid, *^ two jears and almost four months since I left my native country, in order to teach the Georgian Indians the nature of Christianity. But what have I learnt myself meantime ? Why, — ^what I the least of all suspected, — ^that I, who went to America to con- vert others, was never myself converted to God. / am not mad^ though I thns speak, but / speak the words of truth and soberness ; if haply some of those who still ifream may awake, and see that as I am, so are they. Are they read in philosophy } So was L In ancient ior modern tongues ? So was I also. Are they versed in the science of divinity ? 1 too have studied it many years. Can they talk fluently upon spiritual things > The very same could I do. Are they plenteous in alms ? Behold, I gave all my goods to feed the poor. Do they give of their labour as well as their sub- stance ? 1 have laboured more abundantly than them all. Are they willing to suffer for their brethren ^ I have thrown up my friends, reputation, e&se, coun- ^ try. I have put my life in my hand wandering into fitrange lands ; I have given mv body to be devoured by the deep, parched up with neat, consumed by toil and weariness^ or whatsoever God shall please to bring upon me. But does all this (be it more or less, it matters not) make me acceptable to God } Does
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all I ever did, or can, know^ say ^ give, do^ or suffir, jus- tify me in his sight ? If the oracles of God are true, if we are still to abide by the Law and Testimom, all these things, though when ennobled by faith in CThrist they are holy, and just, and good, yet without it are dung and dross. Thus then have I learned, in the ends of the earth, that my whole heart is altogether corrupt and abominable, and consequently my whole life : — that my own works, my own sufl^rings, my own righteousness, are so far from reconciling me to an offended God, so far from making any atonement for the least of those sins, which are more in number than the hairs of my head, that the most specious of them need an atonement themselves : — that having the sentence of death in my heart, and nothing in or of myself to plead, I have no hope but that of being justified freely through the redemption thai is in Jesus, — but that if I seek I shall find Christ, and be found in him. If it be said, that I have faith, (for many such things have I heard from many miserable comforters,) I answer, so have the devils,^ — a sort of faith ; but still they are strangers to the covenant of promise. The faith I want is a sure trust and confidence in God, that through the merits of Christ my sins are forgiven, and I reconciled to the favour of God. I want that faith which none can have without knowing that h« hath it (though many imagine they have it, who have it not) ; for whosoever hath it is freed from sin ; the whole body of sin is destroyed in him : he is freed from fear, having peace with God through Christ, and rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God. And he is freed fi-oni doubt, havmg the love of God shed abroad in his heart, through the Holy Ghost which is given unto him, which Spirit itself beareth witness with his spi- rit, that he is a child of God."
Yet on reflecting upon the time which he had spent in Georgia, he saw many reasons to bless God for having carried him into that strange land. There he had been humbled and proved, — there he had learned to know what was in his heart : there the
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Eassage had been opened for him to the writings of oly men in theGerman, Spanish, and Italian tongues ; for he acquired the Spanish in order to converse with his Jewisn parishioners, and read prayers in Italian to a few Vaudois : and there he had been introduced to the church of Herrnhut, — an event of consider- able importance to his future life.
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CHAPTER IV.
PROGRESS OP. WHITEFIELD DURING WESLEY's ABSENCE.
WESLEY A PUPIL OP THE MORAVIANS.
Whitepield sailed from the Downs for Georgia a few hours, only before the vessel which brought Wesley back from thence cast anchor there. The ships passed in sight of each other, but neither of these remarkable men knew that so dear, a friend was on the deck at which he was gazing. But when Wesley landed he learned that his coadjutor was on board the vessel in the offing : it w&s still possible to communicate with him ; and Whitefield was not a little surprised at receiving a letter which contained these words : " When I saw God by the wind which was carrying you out brought me in, I asked couns^ of God. His answer you have inclosed.'' The ii>- closure was a slip of paper with this sentence, " Let him return to London.'' Wesley doubting, from his own experience, whether his friend could be so usC'^ fully employed in America as in England, had refer- red the (question to chance, in which at that time he trusted implicitly, and this was the lot* which he
* This remarkable instance of Wesley's predilection for the practice of sortile,^e, is not noticed by either of his biographers. Whitefield himself relates it, in a letter published at the time of their separation. *' We sailed immediately," he adds. '^ Some months after, 1 received a letter from you at Georgia, wherein you wrote words to this effect : * though ' God never before gave me a wrons lot, yet perhaps he suffered me to have such a lot at that time, to try what was in your heart.' *' I should never," says Whitefield, " have published this private transaction to the world, did not the glory of God call me to it. It is plain you had a wrong lot given you here, and justly, because you tempted God in drawing one." Whitefield afterwards, in his remarks upon Bishop Lavington's book, refers to this subject in a manner which does him honour. " My mentioning," he says, " Mr. Wesley's casting a lot on a private occasion, known only to God and our- selves, has put me to great pain.— It was wrong in me to publish
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had drawn. But Whitefield, who never seems to have fallen into this superstition, \vas persuaded that he was called to Geoi^ia ; and even if he had not felt that impression upon his mind, the inconsis- tency of returtiing to London in obedience to a lot, which had been drawn without his consent or know- ledge, and breaking the engagements which htf had formed, would have been glaring, and the inconven-^ ience not inconsiderable. He betook himself tr prajer : the story of the prophet in the book of King came forcibly to his recollection, how he turned back from bis appointed course, becyause another prophet told him It was the will of the Lord that he should do so, and for that reason a lion met him by the way. So be proceeded on his voyage. The previous ca- reer ot the disciple in England, during the master^s absence in America, must now be retraced.
Less clear, less logical, less formed for command and legislation than Wesley, Whitefield was of a more ardent nature, and arrived at the end of his spiritual course, before Wesley had obtained sight ofthegoaU It was soon after his introduction to the two brothers that he thus outran them. In read- ing a treatise, entitled " The Life of God in the Soul of Man," wherein he found it asserted], that true re- ligion is an union of the soul with God or Christ, formed within us, a ray of divine light, he says, in- stantaneously darted in upon him, and from that moment he knew that he must be a new creature. But in seeking to attain that religious state which brings with it the peace that passeth all understand- ing, the vehemence of his disposition led him into fi^reater excesses than any of his compeers at Oxford. He describes himself as having all sensible comforts
a private transaction to the world ; and very ill-juda;ed to tliink thfe glory of God could be promoted by unnecessarily exposing ray ^ friend. For thii^ 1 have asked both God and him pardon years ago. And though 1 believe both have forgiven me, yet 1 believe^Ishad never be able to forgive myself. As it wjip a public fault, I think it should be publicly acknowled;5ed ; and I thank a kind Provl dcnce for giving me this opportunity of doini; it." VOL. I. IH
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withdrawn from him, overwhelmed with a horrible fearfulness and dread, all power of meditation, or even thinking, taken away, his memory gone, his whole. soul barren and dry, and his sensations, as he imagined, like those of a man locked up in iron ar- mour. ** Whenever I knelt down," he says, ^ I felt, great pressures both on soul and body ; and have often prayed under the weight of them till the sweat came through me. God only knows how many nights I have lain upon my bed, groaning under what I felt. Whole days and weeks have I spent in lying pros- trate on the ground in silent or vocal prayer.'^ In this state he began to practise austerities, such as the Romish superstition encourages : he chose the worst food, and affected mean apparel ; he made himself remarkable by leaving off* powder in his hair, when every one else was powdered, because he thought it unbecoming a penitent; and he wore woollen gloves, a patched gown, and dirty shoes, as visible signs of humility. Such conduct drew upon him contempt, insult, and the more serious conse»^ auence, that part of that pay on which he depended for his support was taken from him by men who did not choose to be served by so slovenly a servitor. Other excesses injured his health : he would kneel under the trees in Christ Church walk, in silent
Erayer, shivering the while with cold, till the great ell summoned him to his college for the night : he exposed himself to cold in the morning till his haAds were quite black : he kept Lent so strictly, that, ex- cept on Saturdays and Sundays, his only food was coarse bread and sflge tea, without sugar. The end of this was, that before the termination of the forty days he had scarcely strength enough left to creep up stairs, and was under a physician ibr many weeks. At the close of the severe illness which he had thus brought on himself, a happy change of mi»d confirmed his returning health; — it may best be re- lated in his own words. He says, ^^ Notwithstandim my fit of sickness continued six or seven weeks, I trust I shall have reason to bless God for it through
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the endless ages of eternity. For, about the end of the seventh week, after having undergone innumera- ble bufietings of Satan, and many months inexpressi- ble trials, by night and day, under the spirit of bondage, God was pleased at length to remove the heavy load, to enable me to lay hold on his dear Son by a living faith, and, by giving me the spirit of adoption, to seal me, as I humbly hope, even to the day of everlasting redemption. But oh ! with what joy, joy unspeakable, even joy that was full of, and big with glory, was my soul filled, when the weight of sin wentoff^ and an abiding sense of the pardon- ing love of God, and a full assurance of faith, broke in upoQ my disconsolate soul ! Surely it was the day of my espousals, — a day to be had in everlasting ^ remembrance. At first my joys were like a spring tide, and, as it were, overflowed the banks. Go where I would I could not avoid singing of psalms almost aloud ; afterwards they became more settled, and, blessed be God, saving a few casual intervals, have abode and increased in my soul ever since."
The Wesleys at this time were in Georgia ; and some person, who feared lest the little society which they had formed at Oxford should be broken up and totally dissolved for want of a superintend- ent, had written to a certain Sir John Philips of London, who was ready to assist in religious works with his purse, and recommended Whitefield as a proper person to be encouraged and patronized more especially for this purpose. Sir John imme- diately gave him an annuity of £20, and promised to make it £30, if he would continue at Oxford ; — for if this place could be leavened with the vital spirit of religion, it would be like medicating the waters at their spring. His illness rendered it expedient for him to diange the air ; and he went accordingly to his pative city, where, laying aside all other books, he devoted himself to the study of the Scriptures, reading them upon his knees, and praying over every line and word. " Thus,'' as he expresses himself, «« be daily received fresh life, light.
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and power from above ; and found it profitable Sor reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteous- ness, every way sufficient to make the man of God perfect, thoroughly furnished unto every good word and work.^^ His general character, his demeanour at church, his visiting the poor, and praying with the prisoners, attracted the notice of Dr. Benson, the then bishop of Gloucester, who sent for him one day after the evening service, and having asked his age, which was little more than twenty-one, told him, that although he had resolved not to ordain any one un- der three-and-twenty, he should think it his duty to ordain him whenever he came for holy orders. Whitefield himself had felt a proper degree pf fear at undertaking so sacred an office ; his repugnance was now overruled by this encouragement, and by (he persuasion of bis friends ; aud as he preferred remaining at Oxford^, Sir John Philips^s allowance was held a sufficient title by the bishop, who would otherwise have provided him with a cure. White- field prepared himself by abstinence and prayer; and on the Saturday eve, retiring to a hill near the town, he there prayed fervently for about two hours, in behalf of.himself and those who were to enter in* to holy orders at the same time. On the following morning he was ordained. **1 trust," he says, "I answered to every question from the bottom of my heart; and heartily prayed that God might say Amen. And when the bishop laid his hands upon my head, if my vile heart doth not deceive me, 1 of- fered up .my whole spirit, soul and body, to the sei^ vice of God's sanctuary.^i — ".Let come what will, life or death, depth or heighth J shall henceforwards live like one who this day, in the presence of men and angels, took the holy sacrament, upon the profession of being inwardly move^ by the Holy Ghost to. take upon .me that ministration in the church. I can call heaven and earth to witness, that when the bishop laid his hand upon me> I gave ipyself up to be a mar- tyr for Him who hung upon the cross for me. Known unto him are all future events, and contingencies; I.
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have tbrown mjself blindfold, and I trust, wkhout re- serve, inta His Almighty hands. ^' Such were his feelings at the hour, and tbej were not belied by the whole tenour of his after Ufe. - *
B»hop Benson appears to have felt a sincere re- gard ibr the young man whom he had thus ordained, fittle aware of the course which he was designed to ran. Whhefield speaks at this time of having receiv- ed from the good prelate another present of five guineas; ^'^a great supply ,^^ he says, ^^ for one who had not a guinea in the world.'* He began with as small a stock of sermons as of wiu'ldly wealth ; it had been his intention to have prepared at least an hun- dred, wherewith to commence his ministry; — he found himself with only one ; it proved a fruitful one ; for having lent it to a neighbouring clergyman, to convince him how unfit he was, as he really be- lieved himself to be, for the work of preaching, the clergyman divided it into two, which he preached morning and evening to his congregation, and sent it back with a guinea for its use. With this sermon he first appeared in the pulpit, in the church of St. Mary de Crypt, where he had been baptized, and where he had first received the sacrament. Curiosity had brought together a large congregation ; and he now,' he says, f<^t the unspeakable advantage of hav- ing been accustomed to public speaking when a boy at school, and of exhorting and teaching the prison- ers and poor people at Oxford. More than this, he felt what he behoved to be a sense of the Divine presence, and kindling as he went on in this belief, spake, as he thought, with some degree of gospel authority. A few of his hearers mocked, but upon the greater number a strong impression was produc- ed, and complaint was made to the bishop that fifteen persons had been driven mad by the sermon. The good man replied, he wished the madness might not be forgotten before the next Sunday.
That same week be returned to Oxford, took his degree, and continued to visit the prisoners, and in- spect iwo or three charity schools which were Sup-
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ported by the Methodists. With this state of life he was more than contented, and thought of continuing in the University at least for some years, that he might complete his studies, and do what good he might among the gownsmen ; to convert one of them would be as much as converting a whole parish. - From thence, however, he was invited ere long to of- ficiate at the Towor chapel, in London, during the absence of the curate. It was a summons which he obeyed with fear and trembling; but he was soon made sensible of his power ; for' though the first time he entered a pulpit in the metropolis the congrega- , tion seemed disponed to sneer at him on account of his youth, they grew serious during his discourse^ shewed him great tokens of respect as he came down, and blessed him as he passed along, while inquiry was made on every side, from one to another, who he was. Two months he continued in Liondon, read- ing prayers every evening at Wapping chapel, and twice a week at the Tower, preaching and catechis- ' ing there once ; preaching every Tuesday at Lud- gate prison, and daily visiting the soldiers in the in- firmary and barracKS. The chapel was crowded when he preached, persons came from different parts of the town to hear nim, and proof enough was given that an earnest minister will make an attentive con- gregation.
Having returnc^d to Oxford, the Society grew un- der his care, and friends were not wanting to pro- vide for their temporal support Lady Betty Hast- ings allowed small exhibitions to some of his disciples; he himself received some marks of well-bestowed bounty, and was intrusted also with money for the poor. It happened after a while that Mr. Kinchin, the minister of Dummer^ in Hampshire, being likely to be chosen Dean of Corpus Christi College, invited him to officiate in his parish while he went to Oxford, till the election should be decided. Here Whitefield found himself among poor and illiterate people, and his proud heart, he says, could not at first brook the chaitge ; he would have given the world for cue of
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his Oxford friends, and " mourned for want of them like a dove." He found, however, in one of Mr. . Law's books, a fictitious character held up for imita- tion : this ideal being served him for a friend ; and he had soon full satisfaction, as well as full employ- ment, in pursuing the same round of duties as his pre- decessor. For the people had been taught by their pastor to attend public prayers twice a-day ; in the morning before they went to work, and in the even- ing after they returned from it : their zealous minis- ter had also been accustomed to catechise the chil- dren daily, and visit his parishioners from house to house. In pursuance of this plan, Whitefield allotted eight hours to these offices, eight for study and re- tirement, and eight for the necessities of nature : he soon learnt to love the people among whom he la- boured, and derived from their society a greater im- provement than books could have given him.
While he was in Loudon, some letters from Ingham and the Wesleys had made him long to follow them to Georgia : but when he opened these desires to his friends, they persuaded him that labourers were wanting at home ; that he had no visible call abroad ; and that it was his duty to wait and see what Provi- dence might point out for him, — not to do any thing rashly. He now learnt that Charles Wesley was come over to procure assistance ; and though Charles did not invite him to the undertaking, yet he wrote in terms which made it evident that he was in his thoughts, as a proper person. Soon afterwards came a letter from John: "Only Mr. Delamotte is with me,'* said he, " till God shall stir up the hearts of some of his servants, who, putting their lives in his hands, shall come over and help us, where the har- vest is so great, and the labourers so few. What if tboa art the man, Mr. Whitefield ?^^ In another let- ter^ it was said, '^Do you ask me what you shall have ? — Food to eat, and raiment to put on ; a house to lay your head in, such as your Lord had not ; and a crown of glory that fadeth not away.*' Upon read- ing this, his heart, he says, leaped within him, and,
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as it were, echoed to the call The desire thus form* ed soon ripened into a purpose, for which all circum- stances seemed favourable. Mr. Kinchin had been elected Dean, and must therefore reside at College; he would take upon him the charge of the prisoners : Harvey was ready to supply his place in the curacy ; there were many Indians in Georgia, — for their sake it was a matter of great importance that serious cler- gymen should be sent over : there he should find Wesley, his spiritual teacher and dear friend : a sea voyage, too, might not improbably be helpful to his weakened constitution. Thus he reasoned, finding in every circumstance something which flattered his purpose : and having strengthened it by prayer into a settled resolution, which he knew could never be. carried into effect if he " conferred with flesh and blood,'' he wrote to his. relations at Gloucester, tell- ing them his design, and saying, that if they wonld promise not to dissuade him, he would visit them to take his leave ; but otherwise he would embark with* out seeing them, for he knew his own Weakness.
Herein he acted wisely, but the promise which he extorted was not strictly observed : his aged mother wept sorely ; and others, who had no such cause to justify their interference, represented to him what " pretty preferment" he might have if he would stay at home. The Bishop approved his determination, received him like a father, as he always did, and doubted not but that God would bless him, and that he would do much good abroad. From Gloucester he went to bid his mends at Bristol farewell. Here he was held in high honour: the mayor appointed him to preach before the corporation ; Quakers, Bap* tists, Presbyterians, people of all denominations^ flocked to hear him; the churches were as full on week days as they used to be on Sundays ; and on Sundays crowds were obliged to go away for want of room. " The whole city," he said, " seemed to be alarmed." But though he says that " the Word was sharper than a two-edged sword, and that the doc- trine of the New Birth made its way like lightning
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into the hearers' consciences,^' the doctrine had not yet assumed a fanatic tone, and produced no extrara- gance in public.
He himself, however, was in a state of high enthu- siasm. Having been accepted by General Oglethorpe and the trustees, and presented to the Bishop of Lon- don and the Primate, and finding that it would be some months before the vessel in which he was to embark would be ready, he went for a while to serve the church of one of his friends at Stonehouse, in his native county ; and there he describes the habitual exaltation of his mind in glowing language. Uncom- mon manifestations, he says, were granted him from above. Early in the morning, at noon-day, evening, and midnight, — ^nay, all the day long, did the Re- deemer visit and refresh his heart. Could the trees of the wood speak, they would tell what sweet com- munion he and his Christian brethren had under their shade enjoyed with their God. ^ Sometimes as I have been walking,^' he continues, ^^ my soul would make such sallies, that I thought it would go out of the body. At other times I would be so overpower- ed with a sense of God's infinite majesty, that 1 would be constrained to throw myself prostrate on the ground^ and oftr my soul as a blank in his hands, to write on it what he pleased. One night was a time never to be forgotten. It happened to lighten ex- ceedingly. 1 had been expounding to many people, and some being afraid to go home, I thought it my duty to accompany them, and improve the occasion, to stir them up to prepare for the coming of the Son of Man. In my return to the parsonage, whilst others were rising from their beds, and frightened .almost to death to see the lightning run upon the ground, and shine from one part of the heaven unto the other, I and another, a poor but pious countryman, were in the field, praising, praying to, and exulting in our God, and longing for that time when Jesus shall be revealed from heaven in a flame of fire ! Oh that my soul may be in a like frame when he shall actually come to call me !^'
VOL. I. 19 .
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Proth hence he went again to Bristol, having re* teived many and pressing invitations. Multitudes came out on foot to meeet him, and some in coaches, a mile without the city ; and the people saluted and blest him as he passed along the street. He preach- ed about five times a week to such congregations, that it was with great difficulty he could make way along the crowded aisles to the reading-desk. " Some hung upon the rails of the organ-loft, others clioxbed upon the leads of the church, and all together made the church so hot with their breath, that the steam would fall from the pillars like drops ofrain*" When jie preached his farewell sermon, and said to the {)eople that perhaps they might see his face no more, high and low, young and old, burst into tears* Mul- titudes after the sermon followed him home weeping : the next day he was employed from seven in the mofning till midnight in talking and giving spiritual advice to awakened hearers ; and he left Bristol se- cretly in the middle of the night, to avoicl the cere- mony of being escorted by horsemen and coaches out of the town%
The man who produced this extraordinary effect had many natural advantages. He was something above the middle stature, well proportioned, though at that time slender, and remarkable for a native gracefulness of manner. His complexion was very fair, his features regular, his eyes small and lively, of a dark blue colour : in recovering from the meaales he had contracted a squint with one of them ; but this peculiarity r$ither rendered the expression of his countenance more rememberable, than in any degree lessened the effect of its uncommon sweetness. His Voice excelled both in melody ^and compass, and its fine modulations were happily accompanied by that grace of action which he possessed in an eminent degree^ and which has been said to be the chief re- quisite of an orator. An ignorant man described bis eloquence oddly but strikingly, when he said, that Mr» Whitefield preached like a lion. So strange a comparison conveyed no unapt a notion of the force
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and vehemence and passion of that oratory which awed the hearers, and made them tremble like Felix before the apostle. For believing himself to be the messenger of God, commissioned to call sinners to repentance, he bpoke as one conscious of his high credentials, with authority and power ; yet in alL his discourses there was a fervent and melting charity^ an earnestness of persuasion, an outpouring of re- dundant love, partaking the virtue of that faith from which it flowed, inasmuch as it seemed to enter the heart which it pierced, and to hefil it as with balm.
The same flood of popularity followed him in Lon- don. He was invited to preach at Cripplegate, St Anne^s, and Foster-Lane churches, at six on Sunday morning, and to assist in •administering the sacra* ment : so many attended, that they were obliged to consecrate fresh elements twice or thrice, and the stewards found it difficult to carry the offerings to the communion-table. Such an orator was soon ap-
Elied to by the managers of various charities ; and as is stay was to be so short, they obtained the use of the churches on week days. It was necessary to place constables at the doors within and without, such multitudes assembled ; and on Sunday mornings in the latter months of the year, long before day, you might see the streets filled wrth people going to hear him, with lanthorns in their hands. Above a thou- sand pounds were collected for the charity children by his preaching, — in those days a prodfgious sum, laiger collections being made than had ever before been known on like occasions. A paragraph was published in one of the newspapers, speaking of his success, and announcing where he was to preach next : he sent to the printer, requesting that nothing of this kind might be inserted again ; the fellow re« plied, that he was paid for doing it, and that he would not lose two shillings for any body. The nearer the time of his departure approached, the more eager were the people to hear him, and the more warmly they expressed their admiration and love for th^ preacher. They stopt Liin in- the aisles and em-
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braced him ; they waked upon him at hm lodgitiga to lajr ofMiii their senls ; tbey be^ed religioaB iK^oks of him, and entreated ixim to write their names with his own hand : and when he preached his farewell sermoii^ here, as at Bristol, the whole congregation wept and BchbeA aAoud. At Hkte end of the year he left London, and en^rked at Gvavesend forOeorgia. This oneiampled popularity exeited some jealousy in a part of the clei?gy, and in others a more reason- able inquiry concerning the means whereby it was obteioed. Compkiint& were made that the crowds who followed him left no^ room for the parishioners, and spoiled the pews; and be was compelled to
Srint the sermon on the Nature and Necessity of our ie^eneratioii^ or New Birth in Christ Jesus, through die importunity of friends, be says, and the aspersions of enemies: It was reported in London that the Bishop intended to silence him, upon the complaini of the clergy. In consequence of this report^ he waited upon the Bishop, and asked whether any such complaini had been lodged. Being satisfac- torily answered in the negative, be asked whether any objection could be made against his doctrine; the Bishop replied, no ; he knew a clergyman who had heard him preach a plain scriptural sermon. He then asked whether his Lordship would give him a licence ; and the Bishop avoided a direct reply, bv sajdng that he needed none, for he was going to Georgia. Evidently he thought this a happy desti- nation for one whose fervent spirit was likety to lead him into extravagances of doctrine as well as of life ; for sometimes he scarcely allowed himself an hour's sleep, and once he spent a whole night among his disciples in prayer and praise. His frequent inter- course with the more serious Dissenters gave cause of offence ; for the evils which Puritanism had brought upon this kingdom were at that time neither forgot- ten nor forgiven. He ^^ found thet^ conversation savoury,'^ and judged rightly, that the best way to bring them over was not by bigotry and railing, but by moderation, and love, and undissembled holiness
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of life. And an their part the j told him, that if the doctrine of the New fi&rth and Justification by Faitb were powerfidly praftched in the chorcb, there would be but few Dissenters in England. On the other band, the manner » which he dwelt upon this doc- trine alarmed some of the clergy, who apprehended the consequences ; and on tfara account be was iri- formed, that if be eontioued in that strain, they would not alk>w him to preach any more in their pulpits*
Doubtless those persons who felt and . reasoned thus, reioieed in Whitefield^s departure to a country where the wfaok force of bis entbasiasm might safely expend itself. But in all stirring seasons, when any great Ganges are to be operated, either in the sphere cS boman knowledge or of human actions, atfents enough are ready to appear ; and those men wno become for posterity the great landmarks of their age, receive their bias from the times in which tbey tivev and the ciremnstiances in which they are Iplacedy before they themselves ^ give the directing unpulse. It is apparent, that though the Wesleys should neveor have existed^ Wbitefield would haTe j
£' Fe* birtfa to Methodism :*-^and now when White- ' Id, having excited this powerful sensation in Lon« don, had departed for Georgia, to the joy of those who dreaded ^e excesses of his zeal, no sooner had he left the metropolis than Wesley arrived there, to deepen aifd widen the impression which Whitefield had made. Had their measures been concerted, they could not more entirely have accorded. The irat Bttm&m whieb Wesley preached was upon these
* " Ikave dffeii obfterved," ga^s Cowley, " (with allsubmis* rioQ and re8igiiilti#n ofdpirit to ther tnscrutable onrfstems of Eter- nal Providencey) that when the fuhiess and maturity of tkoe i» Gome, that produces the great confusions and changes in the world, it usually pleases God to make it appear by the manner ofthem, that they are not (lie effects of human force or policy, but of the diviae justice and predestination : and though we see r man, like that which we call Jack of the Clock House, striking, as it were> the hour of that fulness of time, yet our reason must needs be convinced, that the hand is moved by some secret, and to us from without, invisible direction."
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strong words : ^^ If any man be in Christ, be is a new creature;'^ and though he himself had not yet reach- ed the same stage in his progress as his more ardent coadjutor, the discourse was so high strained, that he was informed he was not to preach again in that pulpit.
This was on the second day after bis arrival in London. Two days afterwards he met, at the house of a Dutch merchant, three Moravian brethren, by name Wenceslaus Neisser, George Schulius, and Peter Boehler; all these were just arrived from Germany, and the two latter were on their way to Georgia. He marks the day in his journal as much to be remembered on account of this meeting. On the next Sunday he preached at St. Andrew's, Hoi- born, and there also was informed that he was to preach no more. In the course of the week he went to Oxford, whither Peter Boehler accompanied him, and where he found only one of the little Society which he had formed there ; the rest having been' called to their several stations in the world. Du- ring these days he conversed much with the Mora- vian, but says, that he understood him not ; and least of all when he said, Jtii frater, mi frater^ excoquenda est ista tua Philosopfua. Ere long, being with his mother at Salisbury, and preparing for a journey to his brother Samuel, at Tiverton, he was recalled to Oxford by a message that Charles was dyiVig there of a pleurisy : setting ofif immediately upon this mourn- ful summons, he found him recovering, and Peter Boehler with him. Boehler possessed one kind of philosophy in a higher degree than his friend : the singularity of their appearance and manner excited some mockery from the under-^raduates, and the German, who perceived that Wesley was annoyed by it .chiefly on his account, said, with a toiile, Mi frater^ non adfuerei vestibus^ — '* it does not even stick to our clothes." This man, a person of no ordinary powers of mind, became Wesley's teacher: it is no slight proof of his commanding intellect, that he was listened to as such ; and by him, ^^ in the hands of
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the great God,'' says Wesley, " I was clearly con- vinced of unbelief, — of the want of that faith tvhereby alone we arfe saved,'' A scruple immediately oc- curred to him, whether he ought not to leave off preaching, — for how could he preach to others who had not faith himself? Boehler was consulted whe- ther he should leave it ofl^ and answered, ^^ By no means." ^ But what can I preach ?" said Wesley. The Moravian replied, " Preach faith till you have it; and (hen, because you have it, you will preach "* faith/' Accordingly he begs^i to preach this doc- trine, though, he says, his soul started back from the worii.
He had a little befoi*e resolved, and written down the resolution as a covenant with himself, that he would use absolute openness and unreserve towards all whom he should converse with; that he would labour after continual seriousness, nat willingly indulging himself in any the least levity of behaviour, nor in laughter, no, not for a mo- , ment ; and that he would speak no word, and take no pleasure^ which did not tend to the glory of God. In this spirit he began to exhort the hostess or the servants at an inn, the chance company with whom* he was set at- meat, and the traveller with whom he fell in on the road: if a passing salu- tation were exchanged, a word of religious ex- hortatio^i was added. Mr. Kinchin, the good- mi- nister of Dummer, was one of his felloiv travel^ lers in a journey to and from Manchester; and because they neglected to instruct those who at- tended them while they dined at Birmingham, Wesley says they were reproved for their negli- gence by a severe ^ower of hail. No clamour having as yet gone forth against the Methodists, the natural effect of tUlr unusual conduct was not dis- turbed by any prejoBices or vulgar prepossession. Some were attentive, some were affected*, some were unconcerned; but all were astonished. A stranger hearing him a£K^ress the ostler, followed him into tlie house, and saioV « I believe you are a good man, and
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1 come to tell you a little of my life :^ the tears were iti his eyes all the while he spoke, and the trairellers had good hope that not a word of their advice Would be lost At another place they were served by a gay young woman, who listened to them with utter indi& ference; however, when they went away, ^* she fixed her eyes, and neither moved nor said one word,*but appeared as much astonished as if she had seen one risen from the dead/' A man who sat with his hat on while Mr. Wesley said grace, changed countenance at his discourse during dinner, stole it off his head, and laying it down behind him, said, all they were saying was true, but he had been a grievous sfnoer, and not considered it as he ought: now, with God's help, he would turn to him in earnest. A Quaker fell in with him, well skilled in controrersy, and ^^ tfa«|sefore sufficiently fond of it." After an hour's discourse, Wesley advised him to dispute as little as possible, but rather to follow after holiness, and walk humbly with bis God.
Having returned to Oxford, and being at a meet- ing of his religious friends, his heart was so full that he could not confine himself to the forms of prayer which they were accustomed to use at such times ; and from that time forth he resolved to pray indiffer- ently with or without form, as the occasion and the impulse might indicate. Here he met Peter Boehler again ; and was more and more amazed by the ac- count the Moravian gave of the fruits of living faith, and the holiness and happiness wherewith, he affirm- ed, it was attended. The next morning he began his Greek Testament, " resolving to abide by the law and the testimony, and being confident that God would thereby show him whether this doctrine was of God." Afte4' a few weeks they met once more in London, and Wesley assent^Mo what he said of faith, but was as yet unable t^omprehend how this /aith could be given instantaneously as Boehler main- tained; for hitherto he had had no conception of that perpetual and individual revelation which is now the doctrine of his sect. He coula not understand
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^^ How a man couM at once be thus turned from dark- ness to light, from sin and misery to righteousness and joj in the Holy Ghost.'^ B^^eeing Boehler in a happier state of mind thio) faflielf, m regarded him as having attained nearer to Christian perfection ; and the Moravians, from the hour that be became tequainted with them, had evidently obtained a strong ascendancy over him. He searched the Scrips tures again, touching the difference between them^ the point upon which he halted; and examining more particularly the Acts of the Apostles, he says, that he was utterly astonished at finding scarcely any instances there of other than instmtaneous conver- sions. « Scarce any other so slow as that of St. Paul, who was three days in the pangs of the New Birth.'' Is it possible that a man of Wesley's acuteness should have studied the Scriptures as he had studied them, till the age of five-and-thirty, without perceiving that the conversions which they record are instantaneous? and is it possible, that he should not now have per- ceived that they were necessarily instantaneous, be- cause they were produced by plain miracles ?
His last retreat was, that although the Almighty had wrought thus in the first ages of the church, the times were changed, and what reason was there for supposing that he wcfrked in the same manner now ? « But,'' he says^ *' 1 was beat out of this retreat too by the concurring evidence of several living wit- nesses, who testified God had thus wrought in them- selves ; giving them in a moment such a faith in the blood or his Son, as translated them out of darkness into light, out of sin and fear into holkiess and happi- ness. Here ended my disputing ; I could now only cry out, ** Lord, help thou my unbelief!" In after life, when Wesley looked back upon this part of his progress, he concluded that he had then the faith of a servant, though not of a son. At the time he be- lieved himself to be without faith, Charles was angry at the language which he held, for Charles had not kept pace with him in these latter changes of opi- ■ion, and told him he did not know what mischief he
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had dohc by talking thos. " And indeed," says Wes* lev, as if contemplating with exultation the career which he was to la^ ^^ it did please God to kindle a fire, which*f triisflpall pevcr be extinguished."
While he Was in this state of mind, between forty and fifty persons, for so many^ including the Mora- vians, were now collected in London, agreed to meet together weekly, and drew up the fundamental rules of their society, "in obedience to the command of God by St. James, and by the advice of Peter Boeh- ier ;" in such estimation did Wesley at this time hold his spiritual master. They were to be divided into several bands or little companies, none consisting of fewer than five, or more than ten persons ; in these bands every one in order engaged to speak as freely, plainly, and concisely as he could, the real state of his heart, with his several temptations and deliver- jances since the last meeting. On Wednesday even- ings, at eight o'clock, all the bands were to have a conference, beginning and ending with hymns and prayer. Any person who desired admission into this society was to be asked, what Were his motives, whe- ther he would be entirely open, using no kind df re- serve, and whether he objected to any of the rules. When he should be proposed, every one present who felt any objection to his admission, should state it fairly and fully: they who were received on trial were to be formed into distinct bands, and some ex- perienced person chosen to assist them ; and if no objection appeared to them ^er tWo months, they might then be admitted into the society.' Every fourth Saturday was to be observed as a day of ge- neral intercession ; and on the Sunday sevennight following, a general love-feast should be held, from seven tifi ten in the evening. The last article pro- vided that no member should be allowed to act in any thing contrary to any order of the society, and that any person who did not conform to those orders after being thrice admonished, should no longer be esteemed a member*
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These rules were in the spirit of the Moravian in* stitutions, for Wesley was now united with the Breth- ren in doctrine, as far as he understood their doc- trine, and well disposed to many parts of their disci- pline. Charles also now yielded to Peter Boehler's commanding abilities, and was by him persuaded of the necessity of a faith diflering from any thing which he had yet felt or imagined. The day after he had won this victory, Boehier left London to embark for Georgia. ** O what a work," says Wesley, " has God begun since his coming into England ! Such a one as shall never come to an end, till Heaven apd earth pass away !" — so fully was he possessed with a sen^e of the important part which he was to act, and of the extensive influence Which his Jife and labours would . produce upon mankind, that these aspiring presages were recorded even now, whilst he was in the darkr est and most unsatisfactory state of his progress. In preaching, however, he was enabled to speak strong words, and his ^ heart was so enlarged to declare the love of God,'' that it did not surprise him to be informedhe was not to preach again in.those churches where he had given this free utterance to the fulness of his feelings.
At this time he addressed a remarkable letter to William Law, the extraordinary man whom he once regarded as his spiritual instructor. The letter be- gan in these words : ^'It is in obedience to what I think to be the call of God, that I, who have the sen- tence of death in my own soul, take upon me to write to you, of whom I have often desired to learn the first elements of the Gospel of Christ. If you are born of God, you will approve the design, though it may be but weakly executed; if not, I shall grieve for you, not for myself. For as 1 seek not the praise of men, so neither regard I the contempt either qf you or any other." With this exordium he introduced a severe lec- ture to his discarded master. For two years he said he had been preaching after the model of Mr. Law's two practical treatises, and all who heard had allowed that the law was great, wonderful, and holy ; but
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when they attempted to fulfil it, they foand that it was too high for man, and that by doing the works of th^ law should no flesh living be justified. He had then exhorted to pray earnestly for grace, and use all those other means of obtaining it which God hath appointed. Still he and his hearers were more and more convinced, that by this law man cannot live-; and under this heavy yoke he might have groaned till death, had not a holy man, to whom God had lately directed him, answered his complaining al once, by saying, ^^ Believe, and thou shalt be saved. Believe in the Liord Jesus Christ with all thy heart, and nothing shall be impossible to thee. Strip thy-^ self naked of thy own works and thy own righteous* ness, and flee to him.^'. " Now, Sir," continued Wes* ley, ^^ suffer me to ask, how will you answer it to our common Lord that you never gave me this advice ? Why did I scarcely ever hear you name .the name of Christ ; never so as to ground any thing upon faith in his blood ? If you say, you advised other things as pre- paratory to this, what is this but lading a foundation below the foundation? is not Chnst then the First as well as the Last ? If you say you advised them, be- cause you knew that I had faith already, verily you knew nothing of me ; you discerned > not my spirit at all." . Law had given good proof of his discern- ment when he said to the aspirant, ^^ Sir, I perceive you would fain Convert the world !"
^^ I know that I had not faith," he continues ; ^* un- less the faith of a devil, the faith of Judas, that spe- culative, notional, airy shadow, which lives in the head, not in the heart. But what is this to the living, justifying faith, the faith that cleanses from sin ? — I beseech'you. Sir, b^ the mercies of God, to consider deeply and impartially, whether the true reason of your never pressing this upon me, was not this, that you had it not yourself?" He then warned him, on the authority of Peter Boehler, whom he called a ' man of God, and whom he knew, he said, to have the Spirit of God, that his state was a very dangei^ ous one ; and asked him whether his extreme rough- <^
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11698, and merave and soar behariour, eould posstbljr be the iruk of a livuig fakb in Christ ?
To tbi^ extraordinary letter, Law returned a tem- perate answer. ^ Ab you hare written,^' said he, ^ in obedience to a divine call, and in conjunction with another extraordinarjr good young man, whom you know to have the Spirit of God, so 1 assure you, that considering your letter in that view, I neither desire, nor dare to make the smallest defence of my<- self. I have not the least inclination to question your mission, nor the smallest repugnance to own, receive, reverence, and submit myself to you both, in the exalted character to which you ky claim. But upon supposition that you had here only acted by that ordinary light, which is common to good and so* ber minds, I should remark jupon your letter as fol- Iow9 : How you may have been two years preaching the doctrine of the two Practical Discourses, or how ' you may have tired yourself and your hearers to no purpose, is what I cannot say much to. A holy man, you say, tangbt you thus : Believe and thou shalt bt saved. Beli$ve in the Lord Jesus with all thy hearty and nothing shall be impossible to thee. Strip thyself naked of tky Qum works ana- thy own righteousness^ and flee to him. i am to suppose that till you met with this holy man you had not been taught this doctrine. Did you not above two years ago, give a new translation of Tho« mas k Kempis ? Will you call Thomas to account, and to answer it to God. as you do me, for notteach- ing you that doctrine ? Or will you say that you took upon you to restore the true sense of that divine writer, and to instruct others how they might best |>rofit by reading him, before you had so much as a literal knowledge of the mostpJain, open, and repeat- ed doctrine in bis book ? You cannot but remember what value I always expressed for Kempis, and how much I recommended it to your meditations. You have had a great many conversations with me, and I dare say that you never was with me for half an hour without my being large upon that very doctrine, which you make me totally silent and ignorant ot
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How far I may have discerned your spirit, or the spirit of others that have conversed with me, inay, perhaps, be more a secret to you than you imagine, but granting you to be right in the account of your own faith, how am I chargeable with it ?*
^^ I am to suppose that after you had been medi- tating upon an author that, of all others, leads us the most directly to a real, living faith in Jesus Christ, after you had judged yours^f such a master of his sentiments and doctrines, as to be able to publish them to the world, with directions and instructions concerning such experimental divinity; that years after you had done this, you had only the faith of a devil or Judas, an empty notion only in your head ; and that you was in this state through ignorance that there was any better to be sought after; and that you was in this ignorance, because I never directed or called you to this tlrue faith. But Sir, as Kcmpis and I have both of us had your acquaintance and conversation, so pray let the fault be divided betwixt us ; and I shall be content to have it said that I left you in as much ignorance of this faith, as he did, or * that you learnt no more of it by conversing with- me than with him. If you had only this faith till some weeks ago, let me advise you not to be too hasty in believing, that because you have changed your Ian*!* guage or expressions,you have changed your faith. The head can as easily amuse itself with a Uving and justify^ ing faith in the blood ofJe$m^ as with any oUier notion ; and the heart, which you suppose to be a place . of security, as being the seat of self-love, is more de- ceitful than the head. Your last paragraph con- cerning my sour rough behaviotir, I leave in its full force ; whatever you can say of me of that kind, with- out hurting yourself, will be always well received by me.*'
Many years afterwards Wesley printed, and in so doing sanctioned, an observation of one of his correspondents, which explains the difference that now appeared to him so frightful between his own doctrine and that of William Law. " Perhaps," said
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this writer, ^^ what the best heathens called Reason, and Solomon Wisdom, St. Paul Grace in general, and St. John Righteousness or Love, Luther Faith, and Fenelon Virtue, may be only different expres- sions for one and the selfsame blessing, the light of Christ shining in different degrees under different dispensations. Why then so many words and«6o lit* tie charity exercised among Christians, about the particular term of a blessing^experienced more or less by all righteous men !^^ There are sufficient in- dications that in the latter part of his life Wesley re* posed in this feeling of Catholic charity, to which his Leart always inclined, him.
His brother, who had been longer in acknowledg-* ing the want of efficient faith,, attained it first. ^' 1 received," says Wesley, " the' surprising news that he had found rest to his soul. His bodily strength (though it was just after a second return of pleurisy) retumfsd also from that hour. Who is so great a God as our God V^ He continued himself the three following days under a continual sense of sorrow and heaviness : — this was his language ; — " Oh, why is it that so great, so wise, so holy a God will use 8ucb an instrument as me ! Lord, let the dead bury their dead ! But wilt thou send the dead to raise the dead ? Yea, thou sendest whom thou wilt send, and fibowest mercy by whom thou wilt show mercy, Amen! Be it then according to thy will! If thou speak the word, Judas shall cast out devils." And again he thus expressed himself ^^ I feel that I am sold under sin. I know that I deserve nothing but wrath, being full of all abominations. All my works, my righteousness, my prayers, need an atonement for themselves. A have nothing to plead. — God is holy, I am unholy. — God is a consuming fire, I am altogether a sinner, meet to be consumed.— Yet I hear a voice, — Believe, and thou shalt be saved. He that believeth is passed from death unto life. — Oh, let no one deceive us by vain words as if we had already attained this faith ! By its fruits we shall know. — Saviour of men, save us from trusting in any
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thing but Tbee! Draw U8 after tbeef — Let us be emptied of ourselves, and Cbeof fill m with all peace and joy^ in believing, and let nothing separate'Xis from thy love in time or eternity.^' This was his state till Wednesday, May 24th, a remarkable day in the his- tory of Methodism, for* upoo that day he dates his conversion, — a point, say bis official biographers, of the utmost magnitude, not only with respect to him-» self, but to others.
On the evening of that day he went very unwilling* ly to a Society in Aldersgate-street, wfeJere one of the assembly was reading Luther^s preface to the Epistle to the Romans. — What followed is consider- ed by his disciples as beiu^ of deep importance ; it may therefore best be given in his own words; *^ About a quarter before nine, while he was describe ing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed ; I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation : and an assurance was given me, that He had taken away my sins, even mine^ and saved nus from the law of sin and death. I began to pray with all my might for those who had in a more special manner despite* fully used me and persecuted me. I then testified openly to all there what I now first felt in my heart But it was not long before the enemy suggested, This cannot be *aith, for where is thy joy ?"— How many a thought arising from that instinctive logic whicb is grounded on common sense, has been fathered up- on the personified principle of evil ! Here was a plam contradiction in terms, — ^an assurance which had not assured him.^ He returned home, and was bulSfetted with temptations; he cried out^ and they fied away; they returned again and again. ^« I as*often lifted up my eyes," he says, *^ an^ He sent me help from his holy place. And herein I found the difference be- tween this and my former state chiefly consisted. I . was striving, yea, fighting with all my might under the law, as well as under grace : but then I was sometimes, if not oflen conquered ; now I was al- ways conqueror.''
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Before Sanrael Wesley reitaored to. Tiverton, hi9 house in Deaa^s Yard had been a home for John an4 Charles whenever they ^ent to London. After bit removal, a family of the name of Hutton, who were much atta42bed to him, desired that his brothers would make the same use of their house, and aocord*^ ingly Charles went there on his return from Geor^r gia, and John also* When, however, thpy were pro« ceeding fast toward the delirious stage of enthusi* asm, Charles chose to take up his quarters with a poor brazier in Little Britain, that the braaier mig^t help him forward io his conversion. A few days afr ter John also had been converted, as he termed it, when Mr. Huttoa had 6nished a« sermon, which be was reading on a Sunday evening to his lamily and his guests, John stood up, and to their utter astonish^ ment assured them thajt be had never been a Chris* tian till within the last ^ve days ; that he was per* fectly certain of this, and that the only way for them to become Christians was to bplieve and confess thai they were not so now- Hutton, who was exceedingly surprised at such a speech, only replied, ^^ Have a care, Mr. Wesley, bow you despise the benefits re- ceived by the two sacfaments !'' — But when he re- peated the assertion at supper, in Mrs. Hutton^s pre- aenpe, she made answer wtth female readiness, ^ If you were not a Christian ever since I ki>«w you, you was a great hypocrite, for you made us all believe you were one.^ He replied, h that when we had re- nounced every thing but faith, and then got into Christ, then and not till then had we any reason to believe we were Christians.'' Mr. Hutton asked him, f^ If &ith only was necessary to save us, why did our Saviour give us his divine sermon on the mount ?"-?- But Wesley answered, ^^ that was the ktier that ktU^ ethy ^' Hold,'' said his antagonist, ^^ you seem not. ' to know what you say : are our Lord's words the let- ter that killeth .^"
But it would have been as easy to cure a fever by ^ A^asoning with the patient, as to hiive made Wesley at this time doubt tqe soundness pf his oew opinions.
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He had just been abridging the life of Mr. Halibur- ton : '^ My son,'' says Mrs, Htitton in a letter to Sa- muel Wesley, ^^ designed to print it, to show the ex- E^rience of that holy man ot in-dwelling, &c. Mr. utton and I have forbidden him to be concerned iti handing such books into the world ; but if your bro- ther John or Charles think it will tend to promote God's glory, they will soon convince my son that God's glory is to be preferred to his parents' com* mands. It was a very great affliction to them," she said, ^^ to see their two children drawn into these wild notions by their great opinion of Mr. John's sanc- tity and judgment;" she supposed that Mr. John was about to visit his brother at Tiverton ; and if his bro- ther could then either confine or convert him, it would be a great charity to many other honesty weU« meaning, simple souls, as well as to her children.—^ When he knew his behaviour, he certainly would not think him ^^ a quite right man ;" and unless some stop could be put to his extravagance in exhorting people to disregard all teaching but by such a spirit as came in dreams to some, and in visions to others, the mischief which he would do wherever he went among ignorant but well-mteaning Christians, would be very great. She described her son as good-hu- moured, tery undesigning, and sincerely honest : but of weak judgment, and so fitted for any delusion. He had been ill of a fever, and so many of these fancied saints gathered about him, that she expected his weak brain would have been quite turned.
To this letter, which represented a real and by no means a light affliction, Samuel Wesley returned such an answer as might have been expected from a stood and religious man of sound judgment ^^ Fall* mg into enthusiasm," said he, ^^ is being lost with a witness ; and if you are troubled for two of your chil- dren, you may be sure I am so, for two whom I may in some sense call mine*^ who if once turned that way
* Mrs. HuttoD says in one of her letters, " your brothers^afp much more obligated to you than many children are to their pa- rents ; yoQ doing for them as a most kind and judicious parent
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will do a world of mischief, much more than even otherwise they would have done good, since men are much easier to be led into evil than from it. — What Jack means by his not being a Christian till last month, I understand not Had he never been in co- venant with God ? — * then,' as Mr. Hutton observed, ^baptism was nothing.' Had he totally apostatized from it ? — I dare say not : and yet he must either be unbaptized, or an apostate, to make his words true. Perhaps it might come into his crown, that he was in a state of mortal sin unrepented of, and had long lived in such a course. This I do not believe ; how- ever he must answer for himself. But where is the sense of requiring every body else to confess that of themselves, in order to commence Christians ? Must they confess it whether it be so or no ? Besides, a sinfiil course is not an abolition of the covenant; for that very reason because it is a breach of it. If it were not, it would not be broken.
" Renouncing every thing but faith, may i^e every evil, as the world, the flesh, and the devil : this is a very orthodox sense, but no great discovery. It may mean rejecting all merit of our own good works. — What Protestant does not do so } Even Bellarmine on his death-bed is said to have renounced all merits but those of Christ. If this renouncing regards good works in any other sense, as being unnecessary, or the like, it is wretchedly wicked ; and to call our Sa- viour's word the letter that kiUeth, is no less than blas- phemy against the Son of Man. It is mere Quaker- ism, makmg the outward Christ an enemy to the Christ within."
Having then noticed some ravings which Mrs. Hut- ton had repeated to him, and which, he said, looked like downright madness, he says, ^^ I do not hold it at all unlikely, that perpetual intenseness of thought, and want of sleep, may have disordered my brother. I have been told that the Quakers' introversion of
when you had not the same obligation." — It seems probable that both John and Charles were beholden to him for the mean? of their education.
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tbotight hfts ended in tnadness : it ib a studious dto{»«» ping of every thought as fast as it arises^ in order to Mceive the Spirit I wish the canting fellows had tiey^r had any followers among us, ^ao talk of in^ dwellings^ experiences, getting into Christ, &c. &c. f tts I remember assurances Used to make a great noise^ which were carried to su<ih a length, that (as far as tionsense can be lindei-stood) they rose to fruition ; in titter defiance of Christian hope, since the ques* tion is unanswerable. What a man bath« why does he yet hope for ? But I will believe none, without a mi- racle, who shall pretend to be wrapped up into the third heaven* I hope your son,'^ he condnues, ^^ does not think it as plainly revealed that he shall print an enthusiastic book, as it is that he shall obey his fa* thet and his mothei^. Suppose it were never so ex- eellcint, can that supersede your authority ? God de- liver us from visions that shall make the law of God tain ! I pleased myself with the expectation of see-* tng Jack ; but now that is over, and I am afraid of it^ I know not where to direct to him, or l*here he is.— I heartily pray God to stop the progress of this l\k*
Before this lettef was written, John had left Eng^ land. After his new birth, he had continued about a fortnight in heaviness, because of manifold tempta-> tidns, — in peace, but not in joy. A letter which he received perplexed him, because it maintained, that ^ tio doubting could consist with the least degree of tt^e faith ; that whoever at any time felt any doubt oi^ fear, was not weak in faith, but had no faith at all ; Md that none had Any faith till the law of the i^jpint of life had made him wholly free from the law or sin atid death. ^' Begging God to direct him, he opened hk Testament, and his eye fell upon that passage where St Paul speaks of" babes in Christ, who were bet able to bear strong meat, yet he says to them^ *^ Ye are God's building, ye are the temple of God.'* Surely then, he reasoned^ these men had some de- gi*e& of faith, though it is plain their faith was but weak. His tnind, howerer, could not bear to be thus
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sawn asunder, as he calls it ; and he determined to visit the Moravians at Herrnhut, in the hope that ^ conversing with those holy men, who were them- selves living witnesses of the full power of faith, and yet able to bear with those that are weak, would be a means of so establishing his soul, that he might go on from faith to faith, and from strength to strength.^'
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CHAPTER V.
THE MORAVIANS. ^WESLEY IN GERMANY^
Ffw religious communities may look back tfpon their history with so much satisfaction as the United Brethren. In the ninth century Christianity was introduced into Bohemia, from Greece. When Bo- hemia was united to the empire by Otho I. the people were brought under the yoke of Rome, and compelled to receive a liturgy which they did not understand. Their first king, Wratislas, remon- strated against this, and entreated the Pope that the church service might continue to be performed in the language* of the country. The Pope replied, ^^ Dear son, know that we can by no means ^rant your request ; for having frequently searched the Holy Scriptures, we have there discovered, that it has pleased, and still pleases Almighty God, to direct his worship to be conducted in hidden language, that not every Dne, especially the simple, might un- derstand it For if it were performed in a manned altogether intellidble, it mi^ht easily *be exposed to Contempt ; or if imperfectly understood by half- learned persons, it might happen that by hearing and contemplating the word too frequently, errors
* The Bohemians pleaded a miracle in support of the privilege which th^y claimed of having divine service performed in their own tongue. They had requested permission from Pope Nicho- las, through the first preachers of Christianity in that country^ Methodius and Cyrillus, who undertook the commission without the slightest hope of succeeding in it, — indeed in the expectation that they should suhject themselves to the scorn of the Sacred College* But when the matter was propounded in that College, a voice was heard, saying, '* Omhii ^ritus laudet Dofninum^ 4" omnis lingua confiUatur etim." And the Pope, says the legend, in Qhedience to the text which was thtts divinely quoted, acceded to the petition of the Bohemians.
Dubraviuty p» 26*
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mi^t be engendered in the hearts of Ihe people, which would not be easily eradicated. Therotore what your people ignorantly require, can in no wise be conceded to them ; and we now ibrbid it by the
Power of God and his holy Apostle Peter.'^ The apacy prevailed, because it was supported by the secular power ; but many still retained the custom of their fathers ; and when some of the Waldenses sought refuge from persecution * in Bohemia, they found people who, if not in fellowship with them, were disposed to receive their doctrines. The ground was thus ready for the seed when Wicklifie's writings were introduced : those writings produced a more immediate effect''^ there than they did in England ; and Bohemia gave to reformed religion, in Huss the first, and in Jerome the most illustrious of its martyrs.
The story of the religious war which ensued ought to be written in a popular form, and read in all coun- tries : no portion of history exemplifies more striking- ly the impolicy of persecution, the madness of fana- ticism, and the crimes and the consequences of anar- chy. And these awful lessons would be rendered more impressive, by the heroic circumstances with which they are connected ; for greater intrepidity was never displayed than by those peasants, who encountered armed enemies with no better weapons than their flails ; and the modern science of fortifi- cation may be traced to that general who, after he had lost bis only eye in battle, continued to lead his devoted troops to victory; and who, with his dying
* Their knowledge of the Scripture was one of tte causes which their enemies assigned for their heresy. Tertia causa est^ quia Novum Testainentvm et Fetus vulgariter transtul^^f^^y ^^ sic docent et discunt. Vidi et audivi rusticum idiotam, qui lob recitajjit de verbo ad verbumy et plures alios qui Novum Testamentum totum sciverunt perfectt. But, according to this writer's account, they made some extraordinary blunders in their translation. In the first chapter of St. John, for instance, he says, sui^ id est porci, eum non receperunt ; sui dicentes, id est sues. This is not credible upon such testimony.
De Waldensibus, apud Seriptores rerum Bokifniearum, p. 22^.
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168 THE UiMAVWXB.
breath, ordercNl that a dram should be made of his skin: ^^ the sound of it,'^ be said, ^^ would put the Germans to flight.'' This struggle for relbrmaiion was made too soon ; that iindertne Elector Palatine too late. His feeble attempt at maintaining the king* dom to which he was elected, ended in U|e loss of his hereditary dominions: his paternal palace, which (or beauty of structure and situation has rarely been equalled, was destroyed, and at this dajr it is, per^ haps, the most impressive of all modern ruins : his family became wanderers, but his grandson succeed- ed to the British throne, and that succession secui'ed the civil and religious liberties of Britain. Bohemia paid dearly for this final struggle ; her best blood was shed by the executioner, and her freedom was extinguished. The persecution that followed was deliberately
Clanned and effected. The Protestant clei^ were anished, first from Prague, and what till now had been the free cities, — soon from the whole kingdom. After a short interval, the nobles of the same per- suasion were subjected to the same sentence, and their estates confiscated. The common people were forbidden to follow, for the law regarded them as belonging to the soil. Among the exiled preachers was John Amos Gomenius, once well known in schools by his Janua Linguarum reserataj notorious in his day for accrediting the dreams of certain crazy enthusiasts, but most to be remembered for the part which he bore in the history of the Moravian church. He being harboured by a noble, continued to visit his congregation at Fulnek*, till the nobles were banished ; then taking with liim a part of his flock, he emigrated through Silesia into Poland. When they reached the mountains on the confines, he
* The iahabitaats of this little town stiil speak of him as the last minuter of the Picards, and as a wise and learned .man. A hospital has been erected on the scite of the house in which he used to preach, bnt it is still called Zbor^ the Assembly, or the Meeting-Hoase.
Cramr'f Hi^Utry ofihe Br9lihr§t^t trwMla4ed by La$rohe^ p. 93.
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looked back upon his country, which he waq about to leave for ever; and falling on his knees, his coiQ- panioQs kneeling and weeping with hinij he prayed that God would not utterly remove his gospel from Bohemia, but still reserve to himself a seed. A hun- dred years afterwards thatprayer was inscribed with- in the ball of the Bohemian church-steeple, at Berlin, when it was regarded as a prophecy that had been accomplished.
At a synod held at Lissa, in 1632, Comenius was consecrated Bishop of the dispersed Brethren from Bohemia and Moravia. During the thirty years' war ha lived in a state of high excitement and turbulent hope, till disappointment and age brought with them more wisdom, and a more contented reliance upon Providence. He then found a melancholy consola- tion in recording the history and discipline of a church, which he believed would die with him ; and he dedicated this book as his last will and testament, and as a precious legacy to the Church of England, to use it according to their own pleasure, and pre- serve it as a deposit for t^e posterity of the Brethren. " You," said he, " have just cause indeed to love her, even when dead, who, whilst yet living, went before you in her good examples of faith and patience. God himself, when he took away and laid waste his peo- ple's land, city, temple, because of their unthankful- ness for his blessings, He would still have the ba^is of the altar to be left in its place, upon which, after ages, when they should be returned to themselves and to God, they misht build again. If, then, by die grace of God, there nave been found in us (as wise men and godly have sometimes thought) any thing true, any thing honourable, any thing ju^ any thin^ pure, any thing to be loved, and of good report, and if any virtue and any praise, care must be Haken that it «iay not die with us when we die ; and at least th^t the very founds^cms be not buried in the rubbish of pre- sent ruins, so that the generations to come should not be able to tell where to find theA And indeed ibk
you u 22
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110 fifE MORAViAN^*
eaf d b taken, and provision is made on this behalf^ by this our trdst inti'usted in your hands."
Comenius comforted himself by thinking that, in ednsequende of the events which he had lived to witness, the gospel Would pass away from Christen- dom to other nations, ^^ that so, as it was long ago, tW stumbling might be the enriching of the world, and our diminishing the riches of the Gentiles- The Consideration," said he, " of this so much-to-be-ad- tnired eternal Providence, doth gently allay the gricjf which I have taken by reason of the ruin of the church of my native country, of the government of Which (so long as she kept her station) the laws ar^ here described and set forth in view ; even myself^ alas! being the very last superintendent of all, am fain, before your eyes^ O Churches ! to shut the door after me."
He WAS, hdW^vet-, induced, by the only other soi^ tiving Bishop of the Brethren, to assist in consecrat- ing two successors, that the episcopal succession ^mong them might not be broken : one of these was his son-in-laW, Peter Figglus Jablonsky, who was consecrated for the Bohemian Branch, in spent contrU ^pem^ in hope against all expectation, that that branch might be restored:
Before his bslnlshment, Comenius had been minis^ tef of the little town of Fulnek, in the margravate of Moravia ; there he was long remembered with vene* Nation, and there^ and in the surrounding village, the doctrines which he had so sedulously inculcated ivdrC cherished in secret. The Brethfen, though CCttlp^lled to An Outward conformity with the Ro- taish establishment, met together privately, preserv- ed a kind of domestic discipline, and when the rins- ing of the cup, which for a while had been allowed th^m, was withheld^ they administered the Commu- tiibri atfiong themselves : the magistrates knew these thingsi» and sometimes interfered, and punished such infractions of the law as were complained of with fine fthd -imprisdnmentf btit the government had learnt Wisddm And moderation from experience, and Wai
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THE MORAVIANS. }7}
ftverse from any violent persecution, relying upon length of time and worldly conveniences for produc-^ inga perfect conformity to the dominant church. Prom time to time such- of the Brethren as could find means of removal fled from Bohemia and Moravia into the Protestant parts of Germany, and in this way a silent but considerable emigration took place, dur- ing the latter half of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th century. One of these emigrants, by name Christian David, and by trade a carpenter, becom-^ ing zealous for the faith of his fathers, and the in^ crease of true . religion, endeavoured to procure a safe establishment for sucli of his brethren as might be desirous of following his example, and shaking the dust of their intolerant country from their feet, to settle in a land where they might enjoy their own form of worship. By his means application was made, through two reformed clergymen, to Nikl^as Ludwig, Count of Zinzendorf.
Count Zinzendorf, then in the twenty-first year of his age, was a Saxon nobleman of great ardour and eccentricity. His mind had received a strong reli* gious bias, from early education under his grandmo- ther, and being then placed under the care of Pro- fessor Franke, the Pietist, at Halle, that good man inoculated with enthusiasm a more fiery disposition than his own. Already- when a boy he had formed religious societies ; already he had bound himself by a vow to labour for the conversion of the heathen, not in his own person, but by enabling others who should be well qualified thus to devote themselves. If his relations would have allowed him, he wopld have entered into holy orders at this early age } and when prevented from this design, he purchased the lordship of Bertholdsdorf, in Lusatia, meaning there to pass his life in retirement. He was, however, in- duced by his grandmother to accept an office in the Saxon Government. To this personage Christian David's application was made known ; he replied, that the emigrants might come when they. pleased, he would endeavour to provide for them a place where
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172 THB nORATlANB*
they should not be molested, tod meantime woold receive them at Bertholdsddrf. Accordingly ten persons from the village of Sehlen, in Moravia, setoff for this asylum under Christian David^s guidance. On their arrival it Vras thought better that they should settle in some spot by themselves than in the village, and the Count^s major-domo, a man who took k religious interest in their behalf, led th^m to a place where it was intended they should build. It was a piece of ground near a hill called the Hutbei^, or Watch-Hill, oh the high road to Zittau : the scite had little to recommend it ; it was ovei^rown with bi^akes and brambles ; it was boggy, so that wagons freqiiehtly stuck fast there ; and there was a wdnt of water. Heitz, the major-domo, had gone there twice before sunrise, to observe the rising of the vapours, and infer from thence in what part a well might be dug with most likelihood of success ; and on these occasions he had prayed fervently, that these mea- sures for the benefit of these poor fugitives might be Successful, and had resolved that he would build the first house in the name of the Lord. When they came to the ground, one of the women objected to it, and asked where they were to get water in that wil- derness ; — they would rather have settled in the vil- lage : Christian David, however, saw what conve- niences there were for building on the spot, and striking his axe into one of the trees, exclaimed, ^^Here hath the sparrow found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts V^ So they began their work without assist- ance, b«t cheerfully ai^ full of hope.
The Count^s grand-mother. Lady Gersdorf, who resided near at Uennersdorf, sent them a cow, that the children might not want milk. The first tree was felled on the 17th of June 1722, and on the 7^ of October they entered their first house. " May God bless the work,^^ — shid the major-domo, in the report which he transmitted to his master, — *' ac- cording to bis loving kindness, and grant that Your Excellency may build a city on the Watch Hill, (Hut^
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1722*] THB MORAVIAM. 173
harg^) iiriiicli tEOLj not only stand under the Lord^a gaardianship^ but where all the inhabitantB may stand upon the watch of the Lord P' (Herm Hut) In allusion also to the name of the grouno^ he preach** ed at the dedication of the house upon this text from Isaiah : ^^ I will set utratchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem! ivhich shall never hold their peace day nor ni^ht : ye that make mention of the Lord keep not dilence, and give him no rest till he esta^ blisb, and till he tnake Jerusalem a praise in the eardi/' Frotn these circumstances the settlement wtuch ivas thus formed obtained the well known name of Herrnhut^ the watch of the Lord. ^
Zinaendorf meantime took little thought of these transactions, for he was engaged in wooing and wedding the Countess Erdmuth Dorothea Reuss. At the close of the year, as he was taking his lady to Hennerddorf^ he saw from the road equally to his surprise and satisfaction a house in ^the wood, upon which be stopt, went in to bid the Moravians welcome, and fell on his knees with them and prayed. Short- ly afterwards he took possession of the mansion which had been built for him at Bertholdsdorf. Here he collected round him a knot of religious friends, among others Baron Frederic de Watteville, his fellow-dtudent under Professor Franke, and who like himself had imbibed the spirit of Pietism from their tutor. The lady Joanna de Zetzschwitz also came tfae^e, whom the Baron afterwards married : — she brought some girls to be educated under her care, and thus laid the foundation of what was sub- sequently called the £cooomy of Girls at Herruhut. Tire kitisitoen of the Moravian emigrants were ques- tioned by their lords the Jesuits of Olmutz concern- ing the flight of their relations, and having under- gone some imprisonment on that account, and being Uirtotened with the inquisition because, aAer their release, they had requestetl leave to emigrate also, they thought it best to abandon their jpossessions, and fly to the same place of refuge. The settlers at Herrnhtit found themselves so comfortably e^«
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174 THE MORAVIAN* [1726«
blished that some of them went back to bring away their friends and relations ; this gave occasion to se-. Ferities on the part of the government ; and the Count at length thought it advisable to go into Mo- ravia himself and explain to the Cardinal Bishop of Olmutz that his intention had only been to grant an asylum on his estates to a few protestant families. He endeavoured to procure some indulgence for them in their own country : this he was told could not be done : it was added that they should not be prevented from emigrating* quietly, but that such as returned to instigate others to remove must take the consequence. This was a wise and humane policy scarcely to have been expected from an Austriaq government at that time,
AH emigrants, however, were not indiscriminately received : they were examined. respecting the man* ner in which they had left their own country, and their answers were carefully minuted that legal evi- dence might be given if it were required concerning their reception ; and if after awhile it appeared that any person had removed for any other than a reli- gious motive, he was furnished with money for his journey, and sent back. The first discussions con- cerning discipline were occasioned by five young and ardent men, who fled from Moravia, before the connivance of the government jvas understood, and
* ** Those," says Cranz, ^^ who sought pothii^ but the salva- tion of their souls, and oq that account forsQok their possessions, parents or children, friends and relations, were favoured with such success, that they were often able to free themselves from their chains in a wonderful manner,*to leap from an high prison without hurt, to pass through the guards undiscovered in the open day, or to run away and hide themselves from them. Were they stopped on the road, the upright representation of the true end of their emigrating, and the piteous cries of their children, had such an effect, that they were suffered to pass. But those who secret- ly disposed of their property, and took tha money with them, or wanted to go off with loaded wagons, were frequently either be- trayed, or when they had got halfway op their journey, stopped, and brought back again, or plundered of their effects." P. 108. In a certain stage of enthusiasm, men are equally prone to expect miracles and to believe them.
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set out singing the same hjmn which their predeces^ 8ors had sung when they abandoned their country in a like manner, and for a like cause, an hundred years before them. One of them was that David Nitschmann whom Wesley afterwards found at Sa- vannah. These brethren insisted that the economy of their fathers should be restored, and when the Count and the ministers at Herrnhut did not at once accede to their proposal^ they were about more than once to take up their staves and depart. Disputes Concerning doctrine as well as discipline soon sprang up, and the evil passions by which dissention, schism, and the mutual hatred of religious factions are pro- duced, seemed at one time likely to destroy the new settlement. Perhaps this is the only instance in ec- clesiastical history wherein such disputes have been * completely adjusted ; and this must be ascribed to the mfluence which Count Zinzendorf possessed as the patron and protector of the emigrants, at least as much as to his great talents and undoubted piety. The day upon which they all agreed to a constitu- tion, ecclesiastical and civil, he ever afterwards call- ed the critical day, because it was then decided, ** whether Hemnhut should prove a nest of sects, J or a living congregation of Christ." It was, however, subsequently taken into consideration more than- t>nce, whether they shotild lay aside their peculiar discipline for the sake of avoidmg evil reports ; Count Zinzendorf himself inclined %t one time to this con- cession, and thought it better that they should be en*- tirely embodied in the Lutheran church, with which • they professed a perfect conformity in doctrine : the • brethren, who were then between.5 and 600 in num»- ber, regarded the discipline as the precious inheri- tance which had been left them by their fathers, but the V consented to let the question be decided by lot^ in full confidence that the decision would be direct- ed by immediate Providence. Two verses therefore from St. Paul were written on separate papers. The first was in support of Count Zinzendorrs motion : ** To them that are without law^ be ye as without
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law, (bein^ not without law to God, but under the law in ChnsO that ye may gain them that are with- out law "* The text of the second lot was this, ** Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the tra- ditions which ye have been taughf t The triad was preceded by fervent prayer : a child of four years old drew the second lot ; and they " entered from that day (in their own words) into a covenant with each other, to remain upon this footing, and in this constitution to carry on the work of the Lord, and to preach his gospel in all the world, and among all nations whithersoever he should be pleased to send and scatter them abroad.^'
By this time the establishment at Hermbut had excited much curiosity in Germany. In one day above fifty letters were received soliciting inform^* tion concerning it, and many visitors, among whom were persons of high rank, came to see things wkb their own eyes. The new community was attacked also from various quarters. A Jesuit began the war, and there were Lutheran divines who entere'l into it upon the same side. Count Zinzendorf was too wise to engage in controversy himself. ^^ The world hates me,'' said he; that is but natural: some of my mo- ther's children are angry with me ; this is grievous* The former is not of sufficient importance to me that I should lose my time with it, and the others are toa important to me, to put them to shame by an answer.^' But although his own. conduct was more unifonuly discreet than that of any other founder of a Christian community, (it would be wronging the Moravian brethren to designate them as a sect,) he was ui- volved in difficulties by the indiscretion of others, and the jealousy of the government under which he lived. He was therefore ordered to sell his estates, and afterwards banished. Against the first of these mandates he had provided by conveying his states to his wife ; and though he was soon permitted to return to his own country, yet as the brethren were
* 1 Cor. ix. 21. t 2 Tkess. M. 15.
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onlycbntinuipgjn $£^xopy uppn sufieraace, it was judged ^^y^^^^l^ ^ enlarge themselves by^s^ab)ishr uig colonies in countries, where tfcie ;lP^gi?tiitef 'would not interferi^ with them, and no foreign^princ:^ would interfere with theit protectors. \yheiK th)^ Count resigned his estates, he devoted himseyf.froi:^ that tin^e wholly to tfie service of tl^ Lo^di andmore /especially among that cofnjgtegation of fsxile^ ^jbioh trod had comipitted to his care, and which h^;,re-
farde^ as a parish destined to him from eternity^ tavin^ now resolved to enter into holy orders, ii^ wished at once to obtain a rank in ,th^, reformp4 church, which might not, according to common opinion, appear derogatory to the rqyal ;Ofder of Danebrog, wherewith the King of Denmark, h^d ipr vested him. '^'here was in the duchy of Wqrt^mbfjrg a convent of St. George, in the Black Forest, nea^r the Brigach, which is one of the sources of the Da- nube: at the Reformation this convent had. been made a bishopric, but having been de^rpy/e^ by fir^ in 1634, it had not been rebuilt, and t^e prelacy hs^d ceased. Count Zinzendorf proposed to, tlie Duke if he would renew it in his favour, to restpre the convent at his own expense, and found a theological seminary there as a prelate of the Wurtemberg church. But the Duke, who was a Roman Catholic^ though the sovereign of a Protestant country, would do nothing which could give umbrage to those of his own persuasion. , .■
It is seldom that a German of high birth enteirs into holy orders. Hitherto, perhaps, the Count had re-* tained something of the pride of birth. Upon this repulse the last remains were subdued. Under thet name of De Freydek, which, though it was one of his titles, sufficiently disguised him, he went as pri^ vate tutor into a merchant's family at Stralsund, that he might pass through the regular examination of the clergy in that character, as a candidate in divinity ; and having preached and been approved in thzf city, he was ordained at Tubingen, resigning his Danish order, because he was not permitted to wear VOL, I. '23
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it in the pulpit Miss(ionarie8 were now sent abroad from Hermhut, and colonies established in various parts of the Continent* N itschmann was consecrated at Berlin by Jablonsky and his colleague, to be a bishop or senior of the Moravian Brethren, and in the ensuing year he and fablonsky, in the same city, consecrated the Count He had previously been in England to consult with Archbishop Potter whether or no there would be any objection on the part of the Church of England, to employing the Brethren as their missionaries in Georgia. The reply of that learned and liberal prelate was, that the Moravian Brethren were an Apostolical and Episcopal Church, not sustaining any doctrines repugnant to the Church of England ; that they, therefore, could not with pro- priety, nor ought to be hindered from preaching the Gospel to the heathen. And after the Count had been consecrated, the Archbishop addressed to him a letter.
The Count was still a banished man from Saxony, when Wesley with his old fellow-traveller Ingham, and six other companions of the same spirit (three of whom were Germans), left England to visit the Moravian Brethren at Hermhut ; in expectation that by communion with them his faith would be esta- blished. They landed at Rotterdam cmd proceeded to Ysselstein; by desire of the Princess Dowager of Orange, a colony had been established here on her barony, as a convenient station where they who were about to embark for foreign missions might prepare for the voyage. Baron de WatteviUe was residing here, and here Wesley found some of his English acquaintance domesticated, and passed a day with the community in religious exercises, and in " hearing from them,'' he says, " the wonderful work which God was beginning to work over all the earth.'' They travelled on foot to Cologne, went up the Rhine to Mentz, and were received at Frankfort by Peter Boehler's father. The next day they reach- ed Marienborn, where Zinzendorf had a family of disciples, consisting of about fifty persons, gathered
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oat of many nations. " And here^" says Wesley, *' I continually met with what I sought for, — living proofs of the power of faith ; persons Saved from in- ward as well as outward sin, by the love of God shed abroad in their hearts ; and from all doubt and fear, by the abiding witness of the Holy Ghost given unto them."
Here he collected the opinions of the Count upon those peculiar points of doctrine in which he was most interested : they were fully delivered in a con- ference for strangers ; and in reply to the question, Can a man be justified and not know it ? and they were to this effect : 1. Justification is the forgiveness of sins. 2. The moment a man flies to Christ, he is justified ; 3. and has peace with God, but not always joy : 4. nor perhaps may he know he is justified till v lon^ after; 5. for the assurance of it is distinct from justification itself 6. But others may know he is iustified, by his power over sin, by his seriousness, his love of the brethren, and his hunger and thirst after righteousness, which alone proves the spiritual life to be begun. 7. To be justified is the same thing as to be born of God : — here Wesley remarks, no ; this is a mistake. Lastly, 8. When a man is awakened he is begotten of God, and his fear and sorrow, and sense of the wrath of God, are the pangs of the new birtb." These were not the tenets which Wesley had learnt from Peter Boehler, who seems more than any other man to have possessed, at one time, a commanding influence over the English as-
!>irant. He taught thus : 1. When a man has a living aith in Christ, then he is justified ; 2. this living faith is always given in a moment; 3- and in that momenta he has peace with God ; 4. which he cannot have without knowing that he has it ; S. and being bom of God he sinneth'not ; 6. and he cannot have this de- liverance from sin without knowing that he has it . Both statements Wesley noted in his journal, ex-
Eressing no opinion upon either, though undoubtedly e agreed with Boehler. Of the Count he says little : Zinzendorf and Wesley had admired and loved each
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other at a distance, but their friendship was not likely to be improved by nearer intertoiirse. The Count &tood in the double relation of Prophet slnd Patron to the Moravians. He was still the German Bieiron ; and in a country where feudal pride had abated nothing of its pretensions, his rank and power unavoidably, though perhaps unwittingly, increased and confirmed his authority over a people who stood in need of his protection, and had been bred up, many of them, in vassalage, and all in conscious in- feriority. Watteville, the only member of the Mo- ravian church who was bis equal in rank, acknow- ledged the ascendancy of his talents, and he lived in a spiritual empire within which his discourses and writings were received as oracles, and his influence was supreme. Wesley came to visit him with im-
Eresslons altogether favourable; he had submitted ifm^elf almost a^ a disciple to Boehler, and had still the feelings of a disciple rather than a teacher when he reached Marienborn. Yet, though in this state of mind he would be little disposed to provoke contro- versy, and certainly had no desire to detect errors among a people whom he hoped to find as perfect as he had fancied them to be, Zinzendorf must some- times have felt the edge of his keen logic. No man in the character of a religious inquirer, had ever before approached him upon a footing of fair equali- ty; and from the mere novelty of this circumstance, if not from instinctive jealousy, or natural penetra- tion, he was likely soon to perceive that Wesley was not a man who would be contented with holding a secondary plac^. They certainly parted with a less favourable* opinion of each other, than each had entertained before the meeting.
* Mr. Hampson, in his }ife of Wesley, relates, that the Coant whc'reigarded him as a pupil, ordered. him one day to di^ in the garden. ** When Mr. Wesley had been there some time, working in>hia shirt, and in a high perspiration, he called upon him to get into a cas-riage (hat was* in waiting, to pay a visit to a German • Count ; nor would he sufier him either to vrash his hands, or to put on his coat. * You must be simple, my brother 1' was a full
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But the community appeared to Wesley, such as his ardent imagination had prefigured them, and. under this impression he wrote of them from Ma- rienborn to his brother SamueK " Gqd," said he, '* has gii^en me, at lengt^, the desire of my heart, 1 am with a; church whose conversation i^ in Heaven, in whom is th^ mind that was in Christy and who so walk.as he, walked. As they have all one Lord and one faith, so they are all partakers of one spirit, the spirit oir meekness and . love, which uniformly and continually animates all their, conversation. Oh! how high and holy a thing Christianity is ! and how widely distant from th^t, i know not what, which is so called, though it neither purifies the heart, nor renews the life, after the image of our blessed Rer. deemer. I grieve to think haw that holy name by which we are called, must be "blasphemed amon^ the heathen, while they see discpntepted ^ Chrisitians, passionate Christians, resentful Christian?, earthly- minded Christians. Yea, to come to what we are apt to count small things, while they see, Christians judging one another, ridiculing ope another, speak- ing evil of one another, increasing instead pf bearing one another's burdens. How titlerly would Julian have applied to these, ' See how these Christians love one another!' I know I my^^lf, I doubt you sometimes, and my sister often, h?ive been under this condemnation.''
He had intended to rest at MjE^rienborn only for a day or two, but he remained a fortnight As the travellers advanced in Germany they were grievously annoyed by municipal and military examinations, which were conducted with the most phlegmatic inhospitality. These senseless interruptions pro- answer to all bis remonstrances ; and away he went like a crazed man in staiu ^vo/^ Mr. Hampson adds, that he h^ n6 doubt of the authenticity of this anecdote : but it is not likely, that Zinzen- dorf, who hdd b^en in England should have exacted this proof of, docility from an English clergyman, nor that Wesley should have submitted to It. Similary but more extravagant tales, are common in monastic history;
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yoked Weslej, who had been accustomed to English liberty in his motions, and who was impatient of nothing so much as of loss of time. ^^ I greatly wonder,^ said he, ^^ that common sense and common humanity (for these, doubtless,' subsist in Germany as well as England,) do not put an end to this sense- less, inhuman usage of strangers, which we met with at almost every German city. I know nothing that can reasonably be said in its defence in a time of full peace, being a breach of all the common, even heatnen laws of hospitality. If it be a custom, so much the worse, the more is the pity, and the more the shame.^' They were sometimes carried about from one magistrate to another for more than two hours, before they were suffered to go to their inn. A(t^f a journey of eleven days from Marienborn they reached Herrnhut
This place, the first and still the chief settlement of the Moravian Brethren, consisted at that time of about an hundred houses, built upon the great road from Zittau to Lobau. The Brethren had cho-^ sen to build by the road-side, because they expect* ed to find occasion for offering instruction to tra- vellers as they might be passing by. The visitors were lodged in the house appointed for strangers. And here Wesley found one of his friends from Georgjia, and had opportunities of observing and inquiring fully into the economy of this reman^able people, who without the restriction of a vow had submitted to a rule of life, as formal as that of a monastic order, and though in some respects less bmrthensome, in others not less fantastic. The se^ces were divided each into five classes, the three first consisting of children according to their growth, the two others of the young, and « of the married. The single men, and single women and widows dwelt in separate bouses, but each in com- munity. Two women kept a nightly watch in the women^s apartment, and two men in the street— They were expected to pray for those who slept, and to sing hymns which might excite feelings oi devo-
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tion in those who were awake. There was an Eld- est over each sex, and two inferior eldests, over the joung men and the bovs, and orer the unmarried women and the girls. Besides this classification ac- cording to sex, age, and condition, each household was considered as a separate class, and had its helper or deacon, its censor, its monitor, its almoner, and its servant or helper of the lowest order ; in the female classes these offices were filled by women. The deacon or helper was to instruct them in their pri- vate assemblies; to take care that outward things were done decently and in order, and to see that every member grew in grace, and walked suitably to his holy calling. The censors were to observe the 9maUest things and report them either to the helpers or monitors, and the monitors might freely admonish even the rulers of the Church. And as if this sys- tem of continual inspection were not sufficient, there were secret monitors, besides those who were known to hold that office^ They were sub-divided into bands, the members of which met together twice or thrice a week to confess their faults one to another, and pray for one another. Every band had its leader chosen as being a person of the most experience, and all these leaders met the superior £ldest every week, for the purpose of " laying open to him and to the Lord whatsoever hindered or furthered the work of God in the souls c;ommitted to their charge.'^
There were four pastors or teachers as they were called, at Hermhut, and these persons were regu- larly ordained. They were overseers of the whole flock, and were the only men except the eldest, and one or two of the helpers, who were allowed to con- verse with the women. The elders, and teachers, and helpers, held one weekly conference concerning the state of the souls under their care, another con- cerning the youth, and a dajly one relating to the outward aifairs of the church. The censors, moni- tors, almoners, attendants on the sick, servants, schoolmasters, youn^ men, and even the children, had also their weekly conferences relating to their
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seveV&l oflSces arid duties, iatod oDce a w^ek l^ere was a cbriftfrence at ^hicti kny 'person might be presepjt, arid propose any question or doiil^t. Public service Wis ^erlbrkhed every morning and eVening ^t eigKt b'clock : it cbiisisfea of sinking, arid exppundiiig the IScripturie's, ivitli a short prayier, which in £he evening ^as tftfUally mental ; and this iktter service cqnciud- Ifed ^ilh the kiss of peace. On l^undav, in additipp to the dally service, and the rejgular chqrch service ai Bertholds'dorir, the superior eldest gave separatee exhoHatioris to all the members of the ^ommuhitj, who werfe divided fdr that purpose into fourteen clddses, spending about a quarier of aii hour witp fekch class. After thie evening eight o^clock service, the yoling men went Ground the town Ringing hymns. Ori the first Saturday in thie mbhth the sacrament was administei-ed, sirid they vvashed each oiherV feet, the men and women apart; the second was a solemp
|}i*ayer day for the children ; the third was set apart or aL general intercession and thanksgiving; this fourth Was the monthly conference of all the superiors of the church. And a round of perpetual prayer through every hour of the day and nighl was tept up by married men arid women, maids, bachelors^ boys and girls, twenty-four of each, who volunteered to relieve each other in this endless service.
The children were prepared by their education for a life of such continual pupillage. They rose be- tween five and six, prayed awhile in private, and worked till seven ; an hour's schooling followed, and then the hour of public service. From nine till ele- ven they were at school, they were then indulge^ with an hour's walk : at twelve they dined all together, and worked till one : from one till three writing or working were the order of the day, arithmetic at three, history at four : work again at five, supper at six, arid more work till seven: a little prayer at se- ven, and a little walking till eight, when the younger children went to bed, and the larger to public ser- vice, and when this was done they were set again to work till bed-lime, which was at ten. Latin, Greek.
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Hebrew, French, and English, were taught. There were no holy-days or relafxation of any kind, except the little time allowed for walking.
It is somewhat remarkable, that Wesley should have said nothing of their customs respecting matri- mony. He took the account which they presented to the Theological Faculty at Wittemberg, and ap- pears not to have inquired further. In this the Mo- ravians say, **We highly reverence marriage, as grealtiy conducive to the Kingdom of Christ : but nei- ther our young men nor women enter into it till they assuredly know they are married to Christ. When any know it is the will of God, that they should change their state, both the man and woman are placed u>t a time with some married persons, who instruct them how to behave, so that their married li£& may be pleasing to God. Then their design is laid before the whole church, and after about fourteen days, they are solemnly joined, though not otherwise habited than they are at other times. If they make any en- tertainment, they invite only a few intimate friends, by whose faithful admonitions they may be the better prepared to bear their cross, and fight the good fight of faith." This passage Wesley inserted in the se- cond part of his journal, without any comment or fur^- ther explanation. The presumptuousness of a com* munity which could thus expect that its individual members would certainly be informed, whether it was the will of God that they should marry, or re- main in singleness, and the fanatical spirit in which this wild opinion is expressed, were too congruous to his own state of mind at that time to excite in him either surprise or disapprobation. There were, however, other circumstances connected with the subject, which it may seem extraordinary that he should not have noticed* The very account which he published, imperfect as it is, exhibits in a manner sufficiently glaring one inconvenience arising from the unnatural separation* of different sexes, ages, and
* This is carried so far, that in their hurial-places there are ** distinct squares for married men and unmarried, for married VOL. I. 24
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186 THE MORAVIikNS. [1738.
conditions : men and women of marriageable yearB, were presumed to be so ignorant of the manners and duties of the married life, that they were ^^to be placed for a time with some married persons'^ for the purpose of instruction. This would be ludicrous if it were not pitiable. The system indeed of taking children from their parents, breaking up domestic society, and sorting human beings, like cabbage plants* according to their growth, is not more conso- nant to nature than the Egyptian method of hatching eggs in ovens : a great proportion of the chickens are said to be produced with some deformity, and hens thus hatched bear a less price than those which have been reared in the natural way, because it often happens that they will not sit upon their eggs, — the course of instinct having been disturbed.
and unmarried women, lor male and female children, and for wi- dows." (Wesley's second Journal.) The same separation was observed in the burial-grounds of the Guarani Missions, and there also, as with the Moravians, '^ the church- yard was what a Chris- tian place of burial should be, a sacred garden of the dead.'' I transcribe from the Periodical Accounts of the Moravian Missions, (Vol. iii. p. 35.) the description of that at Bavkns Kloof, in the Cape-Colony. ** As our burying-ground was nothing but a wild and rough looking field, divided from our garden by a small path, brother Rose undertook to make it look more decent. Having measured a square of an hundred and eighty feet, he divided it into nine compartments, with paths between them. As we have no stones here fit for grave stones, each grave is marked with a short post, upon which a board is fixed, with a number painted upon it, referring to a ground-plan which exhibits a catalogue of the deceased. A broad path leads in a straig|ht line through our garden, into and through the burying-ground, — this path is inclos- ed by rows of trees, and the burying-ground is surrounded with a hedge of roses. All pur Hottentots assisted with great willingness in completing this work, and are highly pleased with' the regular and decent appearance of their future resting-place."
It is from what he has seen among the Moravians, that Montgo* mery has imagined his beautiful burying-place of the Patriarchs.
A scene sequestered from the haunts of men, The loveliest nook of all that lovely glen. Where weary pilgrims found their last repose. The little heaps were ranged in comely rows With walks between, by friends and kindred trod, Who dress'd with duteous hands each hallowed sod.
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From this preposterous education, it followed ne-* cesearily that there could he httle predilection be- tween parties who had never seen each other in do- mestic life, and to whom indeed no opportunities of intercourse seem to have been aflbrded. In conse- quence therefore of this discipline, persons who were disposed to marry usually left the choice to the el- ders*, and even the rare cases where there happen-
No sculptured monument was taught to breathe
His praises whom the worm devoured beneath ;
(The high, the low, the mighty and the fair,
Equal in death, were undistinguished there.
Yet not a hillock mouldered near that spot,
By one dishonoured, or by all forgot ;
To some warm heart the poorest dust was dear,
From some kind eye the meanest claim'il a tear.
And oft the livmg by affection led
Were wont to w^lk in spirit with their dead,
Where no dark cypress cast a doleful gloom.
No blighting yew shed poison o'er the tomb ;
But white and red w^ intermingling flowers
The graves looked beahtiful in sun ^pd showers.
Green myrtles fenced il| and beyond their bound
Ran the clear rill w4th ever-murmuring sound.
'Twas not a scene for grief to nourish care,
It breathed of hope, and moved the heart to prayer.
World before the Flood. Canto 5.
* Wesley had submitted to this part of their discipline in Geor- gia. The origin, or if Cranz be accurate in so affirming, the revi- val of this preposterous practice, is ascribed to a sister who after- wards, made a considerable figure in London as General Elderess. '* Among the sisters," says their historian, (p. 126.) *' out of whom elderesses of the congregation had been chosen since 1728, after the example of the ancient brethren's church, the choice fell this time (1730^ by lot, upon Anna Nitschmann, whose youth was supplied by a nch measure of grace imparted to her, to be co-el- deress of the congregation. She soon after, on the 4th of May, entered into a covenant with seventeen single women who were of the same mind with her,ito devote themselves entirely to the Lord ; and among other things, to give no attention to any thoughts or overtures of marriage, unless they were brought to them in the way of the ancient brethren's order, by the elders of the congre- gation. This covenant gave afterwards occasion to the single sis- ters celebrating, since 1745, every year, the 4th of May, as a me- morial day 9 for a solemn renewal of their covenant."
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188 TH£ MORAVIANS. [1738.
ed to be a previous preference, the approbation of the elders was necessary, and frequently the parties were mated by lot. It is said that unhappy mar- riages were seldom known among them, and this might be expected ; not from any wisdom in the ar- rangement, still less from any such interposition of Providence as that whereon it presumes, but from the rule under which they lived, and the continual inspection to which they were subjected ; for, except the power of withdrawing from the community, there was as little personal liberty at Herrnhut as in a con- vent, and less than in a Jesuit Reduction.
To this part of their discipline, and not to any de« pravity of manners, that fanatical language of the Mo- ravians may be distinctly traced, which exposed them at one time to much obloquy, and which in any other age would most certainly have drawn upon them a fiery persecution, with every appearance of justice. Love in its ideal sense could have no more existence among such a people than among the Chinese, where a husband never sees the wife for whom he has bargained till she is sent home to him in a box. But when Count Sinzendorf and the found- ers of his Moravian Church had slript away the beau- tiful imaginative garment, they found it expedient to provide fig-leaves for naked nature ; and madness never gave birth to combinations of more monstrous and blasphemous obscenity, than they did in their fantastic allegories and spiritualizations. Iq such freaks of perverted fancy, the abominations of the Phallus and the Lingam have unquestionably origi- nated; and in some such * abominat^ions Moravian- ism might have ended, had it been instituted among the Mingrelian or Malabar Christians, where there was no antiseptic influence of surrounding circum- stances to preserve it from putrescence. Fortunate-
* The fea<]erwho may have perused Ritnius's Narrative of th« Rise and Progress of the Herrnhuters, and the Responsoria] Let- ters of the Theological Faculty of Tubingen, annexed to it, will not think this language too strong.
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1738.] WESLEY IN GERMANY. 189
\y for themselves and for that part of the heathen \vorld, amon^ whom they have laboured, and still are labouring with exemplary devotion, the Moravians were taught by their assailants to correct this peri- lous error in time. They were an innocent people, and could therefore with serenity oppose the testi- mony of their lives to the tremendous charges which upon the authority of their own writings were brought against them. And then first seeing the ofiensive- ness, if not the danger of the loathsome and impious extravagances into which they had been betrayed, they corrected their books and their language ; and from that time they have continued not merely to live without reproach, but to enjoy in a greater de- gree than any other sect, the general good opinion of every other religious community.
This beneficial change was not effected till several years after Wesley's visit to Hermhut. He was not sufficiently conversant with the German language to discover the offence, and perhaps for the same rea- son remained ignorant of certain whimsical opinions, which might entitle Count Zinzendorf to a conspicu- ous place in the history of heresy. During his stay there, Christian David arrived. Wesley had heard much of this extraordinary man, and was prepared to expect great benefit from his conversation. When he mentions his arrival in the jounial, he adds, '^ Oh may God make him a messenger of glad tidings !" " Four times," he says, " I enjoyed the blessing of hearing him preach, and ^very time he chose the very subject which I should have desired had I spo- ken to him before." This was his doctrine concern- ing the ground of faith. " You must be humbled be- fore God^ you must have a broken, and contrite heart. But observe, this is not the foundation ! It is not this by which you are justified. This is not the righteousness, it is no part of the righteousness by which you are reconciled unto God. This is no- thing to your justification. The remission of your sins is not owing to this cause, either in whole or in part. Nay, it may hinder justification if you build
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190 THE BfORAVIAHS. [1738.
any tbiog upon it To think jou mast be more con- trite, more humble, more griered, more sensible of the weight of sin before you can be justified, is to lay your contrition, your grief, your humilia- tion for the foundation of your being Justified, at least for a part of it. Therefore it hinders your justification, and a hindrance it is which must be removed. The right foundation is not your contri- tion, (though that is not your emm,) not your righteous- ness, nothing of your own : nothing that is wrought in you by the Holy Ghost; but it is something tot/A- aut yo!i,— the righteousness and the blood of Christ. For this is the word, * to him that believeth on God^ that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.' This then do if you would lay a right foundation. Go straight to Christ with all your un- godliness ; tell him, thou whose eyes arc as a flame of fire searching my heart, seest that I am ungodly i I plead nothing else. I do not say I am humble •r contrite; but lam ungodly, therefore bring me to him that justifieth the ungodly ! Let thy blood be the propitiation for me ! — Here is a mystery, here the wise men of the world are lost : it is foolishness unto them. Sin is the only thing which divides men from God, sin (let him that heareth understand) is the only thing which unites them to God, — for it is the only thing which moves the Lamb of God to have compassion upon them, and by his blood to give them access to the Father. This is the word of reconciliation which we' preach : this is the founda- tion which never can be moved."
Wesley, who wrote down the substance of this discourse, did not perhaps immediately perceive how easily this doctrine might be most mischievously aUused ; but he saw at once with what forcible effect it might be preached, and it will be seen how well . he profited by the lesson. He heard also from Chnstian David and from other of the Brethren, accourvts of what is called their experience, — the state of feeling and conflicts of thought through which they had passed before they attained a settled
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religious peace. This full assurance, or plerophory of faithi^ it is termed by Wesley, was defined to him by Arvid Gradin, a Swede. " I had,'' said the Swede, '^ from our Lord what I asked of him, the TAi}(o<popi« m^uK, the fulness of faith, which is repose* in the blood of Christ : a firm confidence in God and persuasion of his &vour, with a deliverance from every fleshly desire, and a cessation of all, even inward sins. In a word, my heart which before was agitated like a troubled sea, was in perfect quietness like the sea. when it is serene and calm." ^^ This," says Wesley, ^^ was the first account I ever heard from any living man, of what I had before learned myself from the oracles of God, and had been pray- ing for, with the little company of my friends, and expecting for several years."
" I woijld gladly," he says, " have spent my life here : but my master calling me to labour in another part of his vineyard, I was constrained to take my leave of this happy place." After a fortnight's tar- riance, therefore, be departed on foot as be came, and returned to England.
* " Requtes in sanguine Christi ; firma Jiducia in Deum^ et per^ swino de gratid divind ; tranqxUllitas mentis sumnuiy cUque $erenitas tt pax ; cum ahsentid omnis desiderii camalis^ et cessatione pecca- torum eiiam intemotum. Vtrho^ cor quod aniea instar maris turhuUfUi apiahatur^ in $pmmd fitii reqvie, instar maris sereni et tranquilli,'*
V
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CHAPTER VI.
WESLEY IN LONDON. WHITEFIELD RETURNS TO ENGLAND.
WHITEFIELD AT BRISTOL.
Charles Wesley had not known his brother's intention of visiting Herrnhut till he had set out for Germany. He was not sufficiently recovered to have accompanied him, but he kept up, during bis absence; the impression which had been produced, and John found, upon his return, that the society which now met together consisted of thirty-two per- sons. His presence, however, was required ; " for
, though," says he, " a great door had been opened, the adversaries had laid so many stumbling blocks before it, that the weak were daily turned out of the way. Numberless misunderstandings had arisen, by means of which the way of truth was much blas- phemed; and thence had sprung anger, clamour, bitterness, evil-speaking, envyings, strifes, railings, evil surmises, whereby the enemy had gained such an advantage over the little flock, that of the rest durst no. man join himself to them." Nor was this all, — ^a dispute arose concerning predestination, the
J most mischievous question by which human presump- tion has ever been led astray. This matter was laid to rest for the present, and a few weeks after his return, Wesley had eight bands of men and two of women under his spiritual direction.
He informed his German friends of the state of things in an epistle with the superscription, " To the Church of God which is in Herrnhut, John Wesley, an unworthy Presbyter of the Church of God which is in England, wisheth all grace and peace in our Lord Jesus Christ.'' The style of this epistle corresponded to the introduction. It began thus : « Glory be to God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for his unspeakable gift! for
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giving me to be an eje witness of your faith and love, and holy conversation in Christ Jesus. . I have borne testimony thereof, with all plainness of speech, in many part^ of Germany, and thanks have been given to God, by many, on your behaUl < We are endeavouring here also, by the grace whicb \^ is given us, to be followers of you, as ye are o£ Christ." He wrote also to Count ZinzendorC ^ May our gracious Lord, who counteth whatso- ever is done to the least of his brethren as done to himself, return seven-fold to you and the Countess, and to all the brethren, the kindness yon did to us. It would have been great satisfaction to me, if i could have spent more time with the Christians who love one another. But that could not be now^ my Master having called me to work in another
gart of his vineyard. I hope,'' he added, ** if od permit, to see them at least once more, were it only to give them the fruit of my love, the speaking freely on a few things which I did not approve, per- haps1>ecause I did not understand them.''
Count Zinzendorf would not have been very well pleased if he had known that one of the things which Wesley disapproved, was the supremacy which be exercised over the Moravians. For Wesley, imme- diately upon his return, had begun a letter to the Moravian Church, in a very different strain from the epistle which he afterwards substituted for it. In- stead of a grave and solemn superscription^ il began with, ^^ My dear Brethren ;" and after saying that he greatly approved of their conferences and bandsy their method of instructing children^ and their great care of the souls committed to their charge, he pro^ ceeded to propose, ^^ in love and meekness," doubts concerning certain parts of (heir conduct, which be wished them to answer plainly^ and to consider well. *' Do you not," he pursued^^ " wholly neglect joint fasting.^ Is not the Count all in all? Are not the rest mere shadows, calling him Rabbi ; almost impli- citly both believing and obeying him ? Is there not something of Jevity in your behaviour? Are you in
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general serious enough ? Arc you zealous and watch- nii to redeem time ? Do you not sometimes fall in^ to trifling conversation ? Do you not magnify your own church too much ? ©o you believe any who are not of it to be in gospel liberty ? Are you not straitened in your love? Do you love your enemies and wicked men as yourselves ? Do you not mix human wisdom with divine, joining worldly prudence with heavenly? Do you not use cunning, guile, or dissimulation in many cases ? Are you not of a close, dark, reserved temper and behaviour ? Is not the spirit of secrecy the spirit of your communion ? Have you that child-like openness, frankness, and plain- ness of speech, so manifest to all in the Apostles and first Christians?"
Some of these queries savour of supererogatory jighteousness, and as they contain no allusion either to the wild heretical fancies which are deducible from Count Zinzendorfs writings, nor to his execrable language, it is evident that Wesley must have been Ignorant of both. He saw much to disapprove in the Moravians, but he says, that being fearful of trusting his own judgment, he determined to wait yet a little longer. Indeed he thought that whatever might be the errors of the United Brethren, the good greatly preponderated ; and therein he judged of them more truly, as well as more charitably, that when he af- terwards separated from them.
How he judge'd of himself at this time appears by the result of a curious self-examination, in which he tried himself by the test of St. Paul : " If any man be in Christy he is a new creature. Old things are past away. Behold all things are become new^ " First," says Wes- ley, " his judgments are new ; his judgment of him- self, of hapi ifiess, of holiness. He judges himself to be altogether fallen short of the glorious image of God ; to have no good thing abiding in him, but all that is corrupt and abominable; in a word, to be wholly earthly, sensual, and devilish, a motley mix- ture of beast and devil. Thus, by the grace of God in Christ, I judge of myself. Therefore I am in this respect a new creature.
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^^ Again, hia judgment concerning happiness is new. He would as soon expect to dig it out of the earth, as to find it in riches, honour, pleasure, (so called,) or indeed in the enjoyment of any creature. 'He knows there can be no happiness on earth, but in the enjoy- ment of God, and in the. foretaste of those rivers of Pleasure which flow at bis ri^ht hand for evermore, 'hus by the grace of God in Christ I judge of happi- ness. Therefore I am in this respect a new crea- ture.
^^ Yet again, his judgment concerning holiness is new. He no longer judges it to be an outward thing ; to consist either in doing no harm, in doing good, or in using the ordinances of God. He sees it is the life of God in the soul; the image of God fresh stamped on the heart; an entire renewal of the mind in every temper and thought, after the likeness of Him that created it. Thus, by the grace of God in Christ, I judge of holiness. Therefore 1 am in this respect a new creature.
^^ Secondly, his designs are new. It is the design of his life, not to heap up treasures upon earth, not to gain the praise of men, not to indulge the desires of the flesh, the desire of the eye, or the pride of life : but to regain the image of God, to have the life of God again planted in his souU and to be renewed af- ter his likeness in righteousness and all true holi- ness. This, by the grace of God in Christ, is the design of my life. Therefore I am in this respect a new creature.
*' Thirdly, his desires are new, and indeed the whole train of his passions and inclinations ; they are no longer fixed on earthly things ; they are now set on the things of Heaven. His love and joy and hope, his sorrow and fear, have all respect to things above : they all point heavenward. Where his trea- sure is, there is his heart also. — I dare not say I am a new creature in this respect, for other desires often arise in my heart : but they do not reign, I put them all under my feet through Christ which streogtheneth
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me ; therefore, I believe that He is creatiog me anew ia this also, and that He has begun, though not finish- ed his work.
*♦ FburtHy, his conversation is new. It is always seasoned with sali^ and fit to minister grace to the hearers. So is mine, by the grace of God in Christ; therefore, I am in this respect a new creature.
" Fiflhly, his actions are new. The tenor of his life singly points at the glory of God ; ail his sub- stance and time are devoted thereto : whether he eats 0r drinks, or whatever he does, it either springs from, or leads to the love of God and man. Such, by the grace of God in Christ, is the tenor of my life ; there- tore, in this respect, I am a new creature.
" But St. Paul tells us elsewhere, that the fruit of the Spirit is love, peace, joy, hng-suffering, gentleness^ me^ness, temperance. Now although, by the grace of God in Christ, I find a measure of some of these in myself, viz. of peace, long-suffering, gentleness, meek- ness, temperance; yet others I find not: I cannot find in myself the love of God or of Christ; hence, my deadness and wanderings in public prayer; hence it is that even in the holy communion, I have rarely any more than a cold attention ; hence, when I hear of the highest instance of God's love, my heart is still senseless and unaffected ; yea, at this moment I feel no more love to Him than to one I had never heard of Again, I have not that joy in the Holy Ghost, no settled, lasting joy ; nor have I such a peace as ex- cludes the possibility either of fear or doubt. When holy men have told me I had no faith, I have often doubted whether I had or no ; and those doubts have made me very uneasy, till I was relieved by prayer and the Holy Scriptures. Yet upon the whole, al- though I have not yet that joy in the Holy Ghost, nor that love of God shed abroad in my heart, nor the fiiil assurance of faith, nor the (proper) witness of the Spirit with my spirit that I am a child of God, much less am I, in the full and proper sense of the words, in Christ a new creature ; I nevertheless trust that I have a measure of faith, and am accepted in the Be-
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lored : I trust the handwriting that was against me is blotted out, and that I am reconciled to God through his Son."
This representation of his own slate is evidentlj &ithful; bis Moravian friends did not, however, judge of it so favourably. Delamotte, whose less active and less ambitious spirit rested contentedljr after he had joined the brethren, said to him, ** You are better than you was at Savannah. You know that you was then quite wrong ; but you are not right yet You know that you was then blind ; but you do not see now. I doubt not but God will bring you to the right foundation; but I have no hope for you while you are on the present foundation, it is as different from the true, as the right hand from the left. You have all to begin anew. I have observed all your words and actions, and I see you are of the same spirit still : you have a simplicity, but it is a simpli- city of your own ; it is not the simpKcity of Christ. You think you do not trust in your own works ; but you do trust in your own works. . You do not believe in Christ. You have a present freedom from sin ; but it is only a temporary suspension of it, not a de- liverance from it ; and you have a peace, but it is not a true peace : if death were to approach, you would find all your fears return ; but I am forbid to say any more; my heart sinks in me like a stone."
This censure lost nothing of its oracular solemnity by the manner in which it was concluded. Wesky was troubled by it, and had recourse to bibliomancy, which was then his favourite practice for comfort.-*- He begged of God, he says, an answer of peace, and opened on these words : *^ As many as walk according to this ruk^ peace be on them^ and mercy upon the Israel of GodP A second trial gave him for a text. My hour is not yet come. The opinion of ordinary men he de- spised: he triumphed over obloquy, and he was im- penetrable to all reasoning which opposed his favour- ite tenets, or censured any part of his conduct ; but when one who entered into his feelings with kindred feeling, and agreed with him entirely in opinion, ae-
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sumed towards him the language of reproof and com- tniseralion, then he was disturbed, and those doubts came upon him again, which might have led him to distrust his enthusiastic doctrine of assurance. This disquietude, which chance texts of Scripture might as easily have aggravated as allayed, was removed by the stimulants of action and opposition, and more especially by sympathy and success ; for though he mi^ht easily err concerning the cause of the effects which he produced, it was impossible to doubt their reality, and in many cases their utility was as evident as their existence.
During his absence in Germany, Charles had pray- ed with some condemned* criminals in Newgate, and accompanied them, with two other clergymen, to Tyburn. In consequence of this, another party of poor creatures in the same dreadful situation implor- ed the same assistance, and the two brothers wrought them into a state of mind not less happy than that of Socrates when he drank the hemlock. ^^ It was the most glorious instance," says Wesley, " I ever saw, of faith triumphing over sin and death." One of the suffe^rers was asked how he felt a few minutes only before the point of death, and he calmly answered, " I feel a peace which I could not have believed to be possible; and I know it is the peace of God, which passe th all understanding." Well might he be en- couraged in his career by such proofs of his own power! Even frenzy was rebuked before him: in one of the workhouses which he visited, was a young woman raving mad, screaming and tormenting her- self continually. His countenance, and manner, and
• * The Ordinary, on these occasions, made hut a sorry figdre. '* Hq would read prayers," Charles Wesley says, '* and he preach- ed most miserahly." When this poor man, who seems willing enough to have done his duty if he had known how, would have got upon the cart with the prisoners at the place of execution, they hegged that he would not, and the moh kept him down. — What kind of machine a NeWgate Ordinary was in those days, may be seen in Fielding : the one who edifies Jonathan Wild with a sermon before the punch comes in, seems to have been drawn from the life.
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voice, always impressive, and doubly sa to one who had been little accustomed to looks of kindness and words of consolation, acted upon her as oil upon the waves: the moment that he began she was stiil, and while he encouraged her to seek relief in prayer, saying, '* Jesus of Nazareth is able and willing to deliver you,'* the tears ran down her cheeks. " O where is f^^ith upon earth ?" he exclaims, when he relates this Ipinecdote ; " why are these poor wretches left under the open bondage of Satan ? Jesus ! Mas- ter ! give thou medicine to heal their sickness ; and deliver those who are noi<^ also vexed with unclean spirits 1" Wesley always maintained that madness was frequently occasioned by demoniacal possession, and in this opinion he found many to encourage him. At this time his prayers were desired for a child who was "lunatic, and sore vexed day and night, that our Lord might be pleased to heal him, as he did those in the days of his flesh." While the apostoli* cal character which he assumed was thus acknow- ledged, and every day's experience made him more conscious df his own strength, opposition of any kind served only to make him hurry on in his career, as water when it is poured into a raging conflagration, augments the violence of the fire.
Gibson was at that time Bishop of London : he was of a mild and conciliating temper ; a distinguish- ed antiquary, a sound scholar, equally frugal and be- neficent, perfectly tolerant as becomes a Christian, and conscientiously attached as becomes a Bishop to the doctrines and discipline of the Church in which he held so high and conspicuous a station. The two brothers waited upon him to justify their conduct ; this seems to have been a voluntary measure on their part, and the conversation which took place, as far as it has been made public, reflects more credit up- on the Bishop than upon them. With regard to that particular tenet which now notoriously characterized their preaching, thfe prelate said, " If by assurance you mean an inward persuasion, whereby a man is conscious in himself, after examining his life by the
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law of God and weighing his own sincefity, that he is in a state of salvation, and acceptable to God, I do not see how any good Christian can be wiibout such an assurance." They made answer that they con* tended for this, and complained that they bad been charged with Antinomianism because they preached justification by faith alone. But this was not the as* surance for which they contended ; they contended against it ; and in the place of that calm and settled reliance upon the goodness of Almighty God, which results from reason and revelation, and is the reward of a well spent life, they required an enthusiastic con* fidence as excessive as the outrageous self-condem- nation by which it was to be preceded, and in which it was to have its root.
They spoke also upon the propriety of rebaptizing Dissenters : Wesley s^id that if any person dissatisfi- ed with lay-baptism should desire episcopal, he should think it his duty to administer it : the Bishop said he was against it himself; and the interview ended with his telling them that they might have free access to him at all times. In the course of a few weeks Charles availed himself of this per* mission, and informed him that a woman had desired him to baptize her, not being satisfied with her bap* tism by a Dissenter; she said sure and unsure were not the same. The Bishop replied, that he wholly disapproved of it; and Charles Wesley made aiiswer that he did not expect his approbation, but only came in obedience to give him notice of his intention. « It is irregular," said the Bishop, " I never receive any such information, but from the minister." — " My Lord, the Rubric does not so much as require the minister to give you notice, but any discreet person : I have the minister's leave." — " Who gave you authority to baptize ?" — " Your Lordship," repli- ed Charles, (for he had been ordained priest by him,) " and I shall exercise it in any part of the known world." — " Are you a licensed curate ?" said the Bishop, who began to feel justly offended at the - tenor of this conversation; and Charles Wesley, who then perceived that he could no longer appeal to
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the letter of the law, replied he bad the leave of the proper minister. — "But do you not know that no man can exercise parochial duty in London without my leave ? It is only sub silentio.^^ — ** But you know many do take that permission for authority, and you yourself allow it." — ^**It is one thing to connive," said the Bishop^ " and another to approve : I have power to inhibit you." — " Does your Lordship exact that power .^ Do you now inhibit me.'^" The answer was, ** Oh, why will you push matters to an extreme !" and the Bishop put an end to this irritating inter- view by saying, " Well, Sir, you knew my judgment before, and you know it now." Charles Wesley would not reflect with much satisfaction upon this dialogue when he and his brother altered their opi- nions respecting the point in dispute. They had in- deed, great reason to admire the temper and the wisdom of this excellent Prelate, and of the Prinlate also upon whom they waited to justify themselves, soon afterwards, without a summons. " He showed as," says Charles, " great affection, and cautioned us to give no more umbrage than was necessary for our own defence, to forbear exceptionable phrases, and to keep to the doctrines of the Church." We told him we expected persecution would abide by the Church till her articles and homilies were repeal- ed. He assured us he knew of no design in the governors of the Church to innovate ; neither should there be any innovation while he lived. It was pro- bably at this time that this " great and good man," asWesley deservedly calls Archbishop Potter, gave him an advice for which he acknowledged, many years afterwards, that he had ever since had occa<- sion to bless God. ^^ If you desire to be extensively useful, do not spend your time and strength in con- tending for or against such things as are of a disputa* bie nature; but in testifying against open, notorious vice, and in promoting real, essential holiness."
But whatever benefit Wesley might have derived from this wise counsel in his cooler years, he was in no state to profit by it when it was given. At
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that time he exclaimed, ^^ God deliver me and all that seek him in sincerity, from what the world calls Chrtstim prudence P^ He was in the high fever of enthusiasm, and they among whom he conversed were continually administering cordials which kept the passion at its height* One of them thus describes the manner in which he was ^^ bom of God : it was an instantaneous act : my whole heart was filled with a divine power, drawing all the faculties of my soul after Christ, which continued three or four nights and days. It was as a mighty rushing wind coming into the soul, enabling me n'om that moment to be more than conqueror over those corruptions which before I was always a slave to. Since that time the whole bent of my will hath been towards him day and night, even in my dreams. I know that I dwell in Christ and Christ in me ; I am bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh.^^ This looks like Moravian language: but the most extraordinary effusion of enthusiastic raptures which has, perhaps, ever been produced in a rrotestant country, was addressed to Wesley at this time by one of his disciples, a young woman, in her twentieth year, who calls him her most dear and honoured father in Christ Her eyes, she said, had been opened, and though her life bad been what the world calls irreproachable, she had found that her sins were great, and that God kept an account of them. Her very tears were sin ; she doubted, feared, and sometimes despaired ; her heart became hard as a stone, even the joy which she received at the sacrament went out like a lamp for want of oil, and she fell into her old state, a state of damnation. A violent pain in the head seized her whenever she began to pray earnestly, or cry out aloud to Christ. When she was in this state, her sister, who had just received the atonement, came to see her, and related her own happy regeneration. ** That night," she continues, ** I went into the gar- den, and considering M'hat she had told me, t saw Him by faith, whose eyes are as a flame of fire. Him who justifieth the ungodly. I told Him I was ungod-
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\y^ and it was for me that He died : His blood did I plead with great faith, to blot out the hand-writing that was against me. I told my Saviour that He had promised to gire rest to all that were heavj laden ; this promise I claimed, and I saw Him by faith stand condemned before God in my stead, f saw the fountain opened in His side. As I hungered He fed me ; as I thirsted He gave me out of that fountain to drink. And so strong was my faith, that if I had all the sins of the whole world laid upon me, I knew and was sure one drop of His blood was suf- ficient to atone for all. Well, I clave unto him, and He did wash me in His blood ; He hath clothed me with His righteousness, and has presented me to His Father, to His God and my God, a pure spotless virgin, as if I had never committed any sin. — Think what a transport of joy I was then in, when I that was lost and undone, dropping into hell, felt a Re- deemer come who is mighty to save^ to sme to the utter- most ! Yet I did not receive the witness of the Spirit at that time ; but in about half an hour the devil came with great power to tempt me; however, I minded him not, but went in and lay down pretty much composed in my mind. My sins were forgiven, but I knew I was not yet born of God. In the morn- ing I found the work of the Spirit was very powerful upon me ; as my mother bore me with great pain, so did I feel great pain in mvsoul in being born of God. Indeed I thought the pams of death were upon me, and that my soul was then taking leave of the body ; I thought I was going to Him whom I saw with strong faith, standing ready to receive me. In this violent agony I continued about four hours, and then I be- gan to feel the Spirit of God beariTig witness with mv spirit that I was bom of God. — Oh, mighty, powerful, happy change ! — ^The love of God was shed abroad in my heart, and a flame kindled there with pains so violent, yet so very ravishing, that my body was al- most torn asunder. I loved ; the Spirit cried strong in my heart ; 1 sweated ; I trembled ; I fainted ; I sung ; I joined my voice with those that excel in
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strength ; my soul was got up into the holy Mount ; I had no thoughts of coming down again into the body ; I who not long before had called to the rocks to fall on me, and the mountains to cover me, could now call for nothing else, but Covne, Lord Jestts ! Come quickly ! — Oh, I thought my head was a fountain of water! 1 was dissolved in love: My beloved is mine^ and I am his ; He has all charms ; He has ravished my heart ; He is my comforter, my friend, my ali. He is now in his garden, feeding among the lilies ! OKi I am sick of hve ; He is altogether lovely, the ehiefest among ten thousand! Oh, how Jesus fills, Jesus extends, Jesus overwhelms the soul in which he dwells !'' That a Franciscan or Dominican confessor should encourage ravings and raptures like these in an enthusiastic girU with a view to some gainful im- posture, or to fouler purposes, would be nothing extraordinary ; for such things have sometimes pass- ed current, and sometimes been detected. In Wes- ley^s case it is perfectly certain that no ill motive existed, and that when he sanctioned the rhapsody by making it public, he was himself in as high a stat^ of excitement as his spiritual daughter: but it is re- markable that when the fermentation of his zeal was over, when time and experience had matured his mind, and Methodism had assumed a sober charac- ter as well as a consistent form, he should have con- tinued to send it abroad without one qualifying sen- tence, or one word of caution to those numerous readers, who, without such caution, would undoubt- edly suppose that it was intended for edification and example.
' In the latter end of the year Whitefield returned from Georgia: during a residence of three months there, he had experienced none of those vexatious which had embittered Wesley's life among the colo- nists ; for though he discharged his^ duty with equal
* " My ordinary way," he says, ** of dividing my ministerial labours has been ae follows : On Sunday morning, at five o'clock, 1 publicly 'expound the lesson for the morning or evening service, as 1 see most suited to the people's edification ; at ten 1 preach
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fervour and equal plainness, he never attempted to revive obsolete forms, nor insisted uponjunnecessary scruples. It is to the credit of the people of Savan- nah, that though they knew his intimacy with Wes- ley, they received him at first without any appear- ance of ill-will, and soon became so attached to him, that, as he says, he was really happy in his little foreign cure, and could have cheerfully remain- ed among them. Two objects, however, rendered it necessary for him to return to England ; first, that he might receive priest's orders ; and secondly, that he might raise contributions for founding and supporting an orphan-house in the colony. To thib design his attention had previously been called by Charles Wesley and General Oglethorpe ; and be was en- couraged by the signal success of Professor Franck, in establishing a similar institution at Halle. Ac- cordingly he sailed for Europe, and after a miserable voyage of nine weeks and three days, when they had been long upon short allowance, had exhausted their last cask of water, and knew not where they were, they came safe into Limerick harbour.
As soon as he arrived in London, he waited on the Bishop and on the Primate : they received him fa- vourably, and no doubt were in hopes that the great object which he now had in view would fix him in Georgia^ where there was no danger that bis enthu- siasm should take a mischievous direction. The trustees highly approved his conduct ; at the request
and read prayers ; at three in the afternoon I do the same, and at seven expound part of the Church Catechism, at which great numbers are usually present. I visit from house to house, read public prayers, and catechize (unless something extraordinary happens) and visit the sick ^very day ; and read to as many of the parishioners as will come to the parsonage-house thrice a week." (Journals, p. 90.) And in one of his lettet-s he says, '* I visit from house to house, catechize, read prayers twice, and expound the two second lessons every day ; read to a house -full of people three times a week ; expound the two lessons at five in the morn- ing, read prayers and preach twice, and expound the catechism to servants, &c. at seven in the evening every Sunday.'^ (Let- ter 4b.)
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of the magistrates and settlers thej presented hitn with the living of Savannah, and he was ordained priest bj his venerable friend the Bishop of Glouces- ter. "God be praised," sajshe; **I was praying night and day whilst on shipboard, if it mi^ht be the divine will, that good Bishop Benson, who laid hands 6n me as a deacon, might now make me a priest ; and now my prayer is answered." There remained the business of raising money for the orphan-house, and this detained him in England Ions enough to take those decisive measures which, in their inevita- ble consequences, led step by step to the separation of the Methodists from the Church, and their organi- zation as a sect
Many societies had by this time been formed in London, but the central place of meeting was a large room in Fetter-lane. Here they had their love- feasts, at which they ate bread and water in the in- tervals of singing and^ praying, and where they en- couraged each other in excesses, of devotion, which, if they found the mind sane, were not likely long to leave it so. ''On the first night of the new year," says Wesley, "Mr. Hall, Kinchin, Ingham, Whitefieid^ Hutchins, and my brother Charles, were present at our love-feast, with about sixty of our brethren. About three in the morning, as we were continuing instant in prayer, the power of God came mightily upon us, insomuch, that many cried out for exceeding joy, and many fell to the ground. As soon as we were recovered a little from that awe and amaze- ment at the presence of his majesty, we broke out with one voice. We praise thee^ O God; we acknowledge thee to be the Lord,^^ " It was a Pentecost season in- deed," says Whitefield : "sometimes whole nights were spent in prayer. Often have we been filled as with new wine ; and often have I seen them over- whelmed with the Divine Presence, and cry out, ' Will God indeed dwell with men upon earth } How dreadful is this place ! This is no other than the house of God and the gate of Heaven !' "
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night, and even through the night, were what neither tiie Wesleys nor Whitefield approved in their cooler age. They gave ju$t oflfence to the better part of the clergy ; and men who were neither deficient in piety nor in zeal, properly refused to lend their pul- pits to preachers who seemed to pride themselves upon setting prudence at defiance. But if this had not driven them to field-preaching, they would have taken to that course, from a necessity of a different nature. One Sunday, when Whitefield was preach- ing at Bermondsey church, as he tells us, ^^ with great fireedom in his heart, and clearness in his voice,^' to a crowded congregation, near a thousand people stood in the church-yard during the service, hun- dreds went away who could not find room, and he had a strong inclination to go out and preach to them from one of the tomb-stones. « This," he says, ^ ^^ put me first upon thinking of preaching without doors. I mentioned it to some fnends, who looked upon it as a mad notion. However we knelt down and prayed that nothing may be done rashly. Hear/ and answer, O Lord, for thy name's sake !"
About a fortnight afterwards he went to Bristol. Near that city is a tract of country called Kings- wood ; formerly, as its name implies, it had been a royal chase, containing between three and four thou- sand acres, but it had been gradually appropriated by the several lords whose estates lay round about its borders ; and their title, which for a long time was no better than what possession gave them, had been legalized. The deer had long smce disappear- ed., and the greater part of the wood also ; and coal mines having been discovered there, from which Bris- tol derives its chief supply of fuel, it was now inha- bited by a race of people as lawless as the foresters their forefathers, but far more brutal, and differing as much from the people of the surrounding country in dialect as in appearance. They had at that time no place of worship, for Kingswood then belonging to the out-parish of St. Philip and Jacob ; and if the col- liers bad been disposed to come from a distance oi'
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three and four miled, thej would hare found no room in the parish church of a populous suburb. When upon his last visit to Bristdl, before his embarkation, White- field spoke of converting the savages, manj of his friends said to him, ** What need of going abroad for this ? Have we not Indians enough at home ? If you have a mind to convert Indians, there are colliers enough in Kingswood."
Toward these colliers Whitefield, as he says, had long felt his bowels yearn, for they were very numer- ous, and yet as sheep having no shepherd. In truth, it was a matter of duty and of sound policy, (which i» always duty,) that these people should not be left in a state of bestial ignorance ; heathens, or worse than heathens, in the midst of a Christian country, and bru- tal as savages, in the close vicinity of a city which was then in extent, wealth, population, and commer- cial importance, the second city in England. On the afternoon, therefore, of Saturday, Feb. 17, 1739, he stood upon a mount, in a place called Rose Green, his ^^ first field pulpit,'^ and preached to as many as came to hear, attracted by the novelty of such an address. " I thought,'' says he, " it might be doing the service of my Creator, who bad a mountain for his pulpit, and the heavens for a sounding-board ; and who, when his gospel was refused by the Jews, sent his servants into the highways and hedges.'' Not above two hundred persons gathered round him, for there had been no previous notice of his intention ; and these perhaps being no way prepared for his exhortations, were more astonished than impressed by what they heard. But the first step was taken, and Whitefield was fully aware of its importance. ^^ Blessed be God," he says in his journal, ** that the ice is now broke, and I have now taken the field. Some may censure me ; but is there not a cause ? Pulpits are denied, and the poor colliers ready to perish for lack of knowledge." It was not, however, because pul- pits were denied him that he had preached upon the mount at Rose Green ; but in the course wherein he
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was proceeding, that which at first was choice, soon became necessity.
When Whitefield arrived at Bristol, the Chancel- lor of that diocese had told him that he would not prohibit any minister from lending him a church; but in the course of the week he sent for him, and told him he intended to stop his proceedings. He then asked him by what authority he preached in the diocese of Bristol without a license. Whitefield re- plied, ^' I thought that custom was grown obsolete.—- And why, pray, Sir, did not you ask the clergyman this question who preached for you last Thursday .^" This reply he relates without the slightest sense of its impropriety or its irrelevance. The Chancellor then read to him those canons which forbade any minister from preaching in a private house. White- field answered, he apprehended they did not apply to professed ministers of the Church of England. — Wnen he was informed of his mistake, he said, " There is also a canon. Sir, forbidding all clergy- men to frequent taverns and play at cards ; why is not that put in execution ?^^ and he added, that not- withstanding those canons, he could not but speak the things which he knew, and .that he was resolved to proceed as usual. The answer was written down, and the Chancellor then said, '^ I am resolved. Sir, if you preach or expound any where in this diocese till you have a license, I will first suspend, and then ex- communicate you.'' With this declaration of war they parted : but the advantage was wholly on the side of Whitefield, for the day of ecclesiastical discipline was gone by : laws which have long slept may some- times be awakened to an ill purpose, rarely to a ^ood one; and where discipline is obsolete, and the Taws are feeble, enthusiasm, like Drawcansir in the Re- hearsal, can do whatever it dares.
Whitefield had none of that ambition which form- ed so prominent a part of Weslfey's character : but he had a great longing to be persecuted. Upon re- cording hisanterview with the Chancellor in his jour- nal, he says, "This day my Master honoured me
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more than ever he did yet;^^ and his letters are fidl of aspirations for martyrdom, and prophetic hopes which, in a persecuting age, would infallibly have wrought their own accomplishment ^ O dear Mr. H.," he says to one of his correspondents, "my heart is drawn towards London most strangely. Perhaps you may hear of your friend^s imprisonment ; I ex- pect no other preferment. God grant I may behave so, that when I suffer it may be not for my own im- prudencies, but for righteousness sake, and then 1 am sure the spirit of Christ and of glory will rest upon my soul.^ Soon afterwards he says, ** The hour of my imprisonment is not yet come ; I am not fit as yet to be so highly honoured.'' Then again his hopes are exalted : " I am only beginntng to begin to be a Christian. I must suffer also as well as do for my dear Master. Perhaps a storm is gathering, f believe God will permit it to fall on my head first. This comes then, honoured Sir, to desire your prayers that none of those things may move me ; and that I may not count even my life dear unto me ; so that I may finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus. Though I die for him, yet I beseech you, honoured Sir, to pray that I may not in any way deny him." And again, « The hour of suffering is not yet come. God prepare us all for it ! I expect to suffer for my bless- ed Master's name-sake. But wherefore do I fear? my Master will pray for me : if the gospel continues to run and have such free course, I must suffer as well as preach for my dear Lord Jesus. Oh lift up your hands, dear Sir, in the congregation of the faith- ful, that I may willingly, if need be, resist unto blood ; but not with carnal weapons. Taking the sword out of the hand of God's spirit, I fear, lias more than once stopped the progress of the Gospel. The Qua- kers, though wrong in their principles, yet I think have left us an example of patient suffering, and did more by their bold, unanimous, and persevering tes- timonies, than if they had taken up all the arms in the kingdom. In this respect I hope I shall follow them
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as thejr did Christ; and though I die for him, yet take up no carnal weapon in defence of him in any wise." — **If the work goes on, a trying time will come. I pray God the same spirit may be found in all that profess the Lord Jesus, as was in the primi- tive saints, confessors, and martyr^. As for my own part I expect nothing but afflictions and bonds. The spirit, as well as the doctrines of popery, prevails much in many protestants^ hearts; they already breathe out threatenings ; what wonder if, when in their power, they should breathe out slaughters also ? This is my comfort, the doctrines I have taught are the doctrmes of Scripture, the doctrines of our own and of other reformed churches. If I suffer for preach- ing them, so be it ! Thou shalt answer for me, O Lord my God! I rejoice in the prospect of it, and beseech thee, my dear Redeemer, to strengthen me in a suf- fering hour." Such fears, or rather such hopes, were suited to the days of Queen Mary, Bishop Uardiner, and Bishop Bonner ; — they are ridiculous or disgust- ing#in the time of George the Second, Archbishop Potter, and Bishop Gibson. It might be suspected that Whitefield had grown deranged by the perpetual reading of Fox's Martyrs, like Don Quixote over his books of chivalry, and Loyola over the Lives of the Saints. But it was neither by much reading, nor much learning, that Whitefield was affected. His heart was full of benevolence and piety, — his feelings were strong and ardent, his knowledge little, and his judgment weak« — and, by gazing intensely and con- tinuously upon one bright and blazing truth, he had blinded himself to all things else.
Having once taken the field, he was soon encou- raged to persevere in so promising a course. All the churches being now shut, and, as he says, if open, not able to contain half that came to hear, he went again to Kin^wood : his second audience consisted of some two thousand persons, his third from four to five thousand, and they went on increasing to ten, fourteen, twenty thousand. '* The sun shone very bright," he says, " and the people standing in such
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an awful manner round the mount, in the profound- est silence, filled me with a holy admiration. Bless- ed be God for such a plentiful harvest. Lord, do thou send forth more labourers into thy harvest !'' On another occasion he says, ** The trees and hedges were full. All was hush when I began i the sun shone bright, and God enabled me to preach for an liour with great power, and so loud, that all, 1 was
told, could hear me. Blessed be God Mr. spoke
right ; the fire is kindled in the cmmtry r — " To behold such crowds standing together in such an awful si- lence, and to hear the echo of their singing run from one end of them to the other, was very solemn and striking. How infinitely more solemn and strik- ing will the general assembly of the spirits of just men made perfect be, when they join in singing the song of Moses and the Lamb in Heaven !" Yet he says, ^^ As the sene was new, and I had just began to be an extempore preacher, it often occasioned many inward conflicts. Sometimes, when twenty thousand people were before me, I had not, in my own ap])re- nension, a word to say either to God or them. But I never was totally deserted ; and frequently (for to deny it would be lying against God) so assisted, that I knew by happy experience what our Lord meant by saying, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living wa^ ters,^^ The deep silence of his rude auditors was the first proof that he had impressed them ; and it may well be imagined how greatly the consciousness and confidence of his own powers must have been increased, when, as he says, he saw the white gutters made by the tears which plentifully fell down their black cheeks, — black as they came out of their coal- pits. "The open firmament above me,'' says he, " the prospect of the adjacent fields, with the sight of thousands and thousands, some in coaches, some on horseback, and some in the trees, and at times all affected and drenched in tears together ; to which sometimes was added the solemnity of the ap- proaching evening, was almost too much for, and quite overcame me.'*
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While WhiteBeld thas with such signal success was renewing a practice which had not been seen in England since the dissolution of the monastic or- ders, Methodism in London had reached its highest point of extravagance, and produced upon suscepti- ble subjects a bodily disease, peculiar and infec- tious ; which both by those who excited and those who experienced it, was believed to be part of the process of regeneration, and, therefore, the work of God. The first patients having no example to en- courage them, naturally restrained themselves as much as they could ; they fell however into convul- sive motions, and could not refrain from uttering cries; and these things' gave offence at first, and oc- casioned disputes in the society. Charles Wesley thought them *' no sign of grace." The first violent case which occurred, was that of a middle aged wo- man in the middle rank of life, who for three years had been ^ under strong convictions of sin, and in such a terror of mind, that she had no comfort in any thing, nor any rest day or night." The minister of her parish, whom she had consulted, assured her husband that she was stark mad, and advised him to send immediately for a pbjsician ; and the physician being of the same opinion, she was bled, blistered, and drenched accordingly. One evening in a meet- ing where Wesley was expounding to five or six hundred persons, she suddenly cried out as if in the agonies of death, and appeared to some of those about her almost to be in that state ; others, however, who began to have some experience .in such cases, understood that it was the crisis of her spiritual strug- gles. **We prayed," says Wesley in a letter to Whitefield, " that God who had brought her to the birth would give her strength to bring forth, and that he would work speedily that all might see it, and fear, and put their trust in the Lord." — ^ Five days she travailed and groaned being in bondage ; then," he continues, "our Lord got himself the victory," and from that time the woman was full of joy and
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love, and thanksgivings were rendered on her ac« count.
Another woman was affected under more remark* able circumstances : Wesley visited her because she was ^^ above measure enraged at the new way^ and zealous in opposing it.'^ He ai^ued with her till he perceived that argument had its usual effect of in- flaming more and more a mind that was already fe* verish. He then broke offtfae dispute, and entreated that she would join with him in prayer, and she so far consented as to kneel down : this was, in fact, submitting herself. ^^ In a few minutes she fell into an extreme agony both of body and soul, and soon ajf- ter cried out with the utmost earnestness, ^ Now I know I am forgiven for Christ's sake V Many other words she uttered to the same effect, witnessing a hope full of immortality. And from that hour God set her face as a flint to declare the faith which be- fore she persecuted." This Wesley calls one of the most surprising instances of divine power that he ever remembered to have seen. The sincerity of the subject he never questioned, and perhaps there was no cause for questioning it ; like Mesmer and his disciples, he had produced a new disease, and be accounted for it by a theological theory instead of a physical one. As men are intoxicated by strong drink affecting the mind through the body, so are they by strong passions influencing the body through the mind. Here there was nothing but what would naturally follow when persons, in a state of spiritual drunkenness, abandoned themselves to their sensa- tions, and such sensations spread rapidly, both by vo- luntary and involuntary imitation.
Whitefield was at this time urging Wesley that he would come to Bristol without delay, and keep up the sensation which had been produced there, for he himself must prepare for his return to Georgia. — These solicitations were enforced by Mr. Sewajrd of Evesham, a young man of education and fortune, one of the most enthusiastic and attached of Whitefleld's converts. It might have been thought that Wesley,
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to whom all places were alike^ would have hastened at the call, bat he and his brother, instead of taking the matter into calm and rational consideration, had consttlted the Bible upon the business, and stumbled upon uncomfortable texts. The first was, ^^ And some, of them would have taken him ; but no man laid hands on himi^ to which they added, ^^ not till the time was come,'' that its import might correspond with the subsequent lots. Another was, ^^ Get thee up into this mountain^ and die in the Mounts whither thou goest wp^ and be gathered unto thy peopk^ The next trial confirmed the impression wnich these had made : *^ Jind the chil- dren of Israel wept for Moses in the plains ofMoab thirty days. These verses were sufficiently ominous, but worse remained behind : ^^ / will show him how great things he must suffer for my name^s sahe^^ and pushing the trial still further, they opened upon the burial of St Stephen the proto-martyr. " Whether," says Wes- ley in his journal, ^ this was permitted only for the tnal of our faith, God knoweth, and the event will show.'' These unpropitious texts rendered him by no means desirous of undertsiking the journey, and when it was proposed at the society in Fetterlane, Charles would scarcely bear it to be mentioned.— Yet, like a losing gamester, who, the worse he finds his fortune, is the more eagerly bent upon tempting it, he appealed again to the oracles oi God, whicS were never designed thus to be consulted in the spi- rit of heathen superstition. " He received," says the journal, ^ these words, as spoken to himself, and an- swered not again," " Son of man^ behold I take from thee the desire ^ thine eyes with a stroke^ and yet shalt thou not mourn or we^j neither shall thy tears run down.^^ — However disposed the brothers might have been that he should have declined the journey without further consultation, the members of the society"*^ continued
♦ '* It wag a rule of the Society,** says Dr. Whitehead, " that any person who desired or designed to taJce a journey, should first, if it were possible, have the approbation of the bands ; so entire- ly at this time were the ministers under the direction of the peo- ple.** But as there were no settled ministers, and no settled place at this time, it ie evident that thiij rule had nothiog to do with church discipline.
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to dispute upon it, till, seeing no probability of com- ing to an agreement by any other means, they had recourse to sortilege ; and the lot decided that Wes- ley should go. This being determined, they opened the Bible '^ concerning the issue,*' and the auguries were no better than before : " When wicked mm have slain a righteous person in hds own house upon his bed^ shall I not now require his blood at your hands^ and take you away from the earth ?" This was one ; the final one was, ^^ Ahaz slept with his fathers'^ and they buried him in the city^ even in Jerusalem.^'* There are n^t so many points of similitude between Bristol and Jerusalem^ as between Monmouth and Macedon, and Henry the Fifth was more like Alexander than John Wesley would have acknowledged himself to resemble Ahas; but it was clear language for an oracle. " We dis- suaded my brother," says Charles, « from going to Bristol, from an unaccountable fear that it would prove fatal to him. He offered himself willingly to whatever the Lord should appoint The next day he set out, recommended by us to the grace of God* He left a blessing behind him. I desired to die with him." "Let me not be accounted superstitious," says Wesley, "if I recite the remarkable Scriptures which ofiered as often as we inquired touching the consequences of this removal." It will not be thought superfluous here to have repeated them.
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CHAPTER Vn.
WESLEY AT BRISTOL.
At Bristol the modem practice of field-preaching had begun ; and the foundations of Methodism as a substantive and organized sect, existii^ independent- ly of the Church, were now to be laid at Bristol. — These are remarkable events in the history of that city, one of the most ancient, most beautiful, and most interesting in England.
Wesley had never been at Bristol before : Whit*- field received him there, and introduced him to per- sons who were prepared to listen to him with eager and intense belief: " Help him. Lord Jesus,'' says Whitefield, « to water what thy own right hand hath planted, for thy mercy's sake !" Having thus provid- ed so powerlul a successor, he departed. Wherever he took his leave, at tlieir places of meeting, there was loud weeping : '* Oh," he exclaims, " these part- ings !" When he forced himself away^ crowds were waiting at the door to give him a last farewell, and near twenty friends accompanied him on horseback. "Blessed be God," says he, "for the marvellous great kindness he hath shown me in this city ! Many sinners, I believe, have been eiiectually converted ; numbers of God's children greatly comforted; seve- ral thousands of little books have been dispersed among the people ; about two hundred pounds col- lected for the orphan house ; and many poor families relieved by the bounty of my friend, Mr. Seward.— Shall not these things be noted in my book ? God forbid they should not be written on the tables of my heart Even so. Lord Jesus !"
His journey Jay through Kingswood ; and there the colliers, without his knowledge, had prepared an entertainment for him. Having been informed that they were willing to subscribe towards building a Charity School for their children, he had preached to them upon the subject, and he «ays it was sur-
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prising to see with what cheerfulness they parted with their money on this occasion ; all seemed will- ing to assist, either hy their money or their labour ; and now at this farewell visit they earnestly entreat^ ed that he would lay the first stone. The request was somewhat premature, for it ivas not yet certain whether the site which they desired would be grant* ed them ; a person, however, was present who de- clared he would give a piece of ground in case the lord of the manor should refuse, and Whitefield then laid a stone ; afler which he knelt, and prayed God that the gates of hell might not prevail against their design ; the colliers saying a hearty Amen.
On the day before his departure he set Wesley an example of field-preaching. ^ I could scarce recon- cile myself," says Wesley, " at first to this strange way, having been all toy life, till very lately, so tenacious of every point relating to decency and order, that I should have thought the saving of souls almost a sin, if it had not been done in a church." The next day he observed that our Lord's Sermon oil the Mount, was *^ one pretty remarkable prece- dent of field-preaching; and," he adds, ^< I suppose there were churches at that time also ;" a remark which first indicates a hostile feeling toward the Establishment, for it has no other meaning. ^^ On the morrow, at four in the afternoon," he says, " I submitted to be more vile, and proclaimed in the highways the glad tidings of salvation, speaking from a little eminence in a ground adjoining to the city to about three thousand people. The Scripture on which I spoke was this, (is it possible any one should be ignorant that it is fulfilled in every true minister of Christ ?) The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to heed the broken-heartea ; to preach deUver- once to the captives^ and recovery of sight to the blind; to set at Ubertv them that are bruised; to proclaim the accept-^ able year of the Lord^ There is much of the language of humility here, and little of the spirit; but it was scarcely possible that any man should not have been
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inflated upon discovering that he possessed a power over the minds of his fellow creatures so strong, so strange, and at that time so little understood.
The paroxysms of the disease which Methodism excited, had not appeared at Bristol under White* field^'s preaching, thev became frequent after Wes- ley's arrival there. One day, after Wesley had ex- pounded the fourth chapter of Acts, the persons present ^^ called upon God to confirm his word.'^ " Immediately,'' he adds, " one that stood by, to our no small surprise, cried out aloud, with the ut- most vehemence, even as in the agonies of death : but we continued in prayer, till a new sang was put in her monik, a thanksgiving unto our God. Soon after, two other persons (well known in this place, as la- bouring to live in sdl good conscience towards «U men) were seized with strong pain, and constrained to roar for the disquietness of their heart. But it was not long before they likewise burst forth into praise to God their Saviour. The last who called upon God as out of the belly of hell, was a stranger in Bristol ; and in a short space he also was overwhelm- ed with joy and love, knowing that God had healed his backslidings. So many living witnesses hath God given, that his hand is still stretched out to heal^ and that signs and wonders are even now torought by his holy child Jesus.'*^ At another place, ^^ a young man was suddenly seized with a violent trembling all over, and in a few minutes, the sorrows of his heart being enlarged^ sunk down to the ground ; but we ceased not calling upon God, till he raised him up full of peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.^ Preaching at New- gate, Wesley was led insensibly, he says, wd without any previous design, to declare strongly and explicit- ly that God witleth oilmen to be saved, and to pray that if this were not the truth of God, he would not suffer the blind to go out of the way ; but if it were, that he would bear witness to his word. ^^ Immediately one, and another, and another, sunk to the earth ; they dropt on every side as thunderstruck." ** In the evemng I was again prest in spirit to declare
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that Christ gave himself a ransom for all. And almost before we called upon him to set to his seal, he an- swered. One was so wounded by the sword of the spirit, that you would have imagined she could not live a moment But immediately his abundant kind-* ness was showed, and she loudly sang of his right*- eousness.^^
When these things became public, they gave just offence ; but they were ascribed to a wrong cause. A physician, who suspected fraud, was led by curi- osity to be a spectator of these extraordinary exhi- bitions, and a person whom he had known many years, was thrown into the fit while he was present , She cried aloud, and wept violently. He who could hardly believe the evidence of his senses, ^ went and stood close to her, and observed every symptom, till great drops of sweat ran down her face, and all her bones shook. He then," says Wesley, " knew not what to think, being clearly convinced it was not fraud, nor yet any natural disorder. But when both her soul and body were healed in a moment, he acknowledged the finger of God." Whatever this witnesses merit may have been as a practitioner, he , was but a sorry physiologist. A powerful doctrine j preached with passionate sincerity, with fervid zeal, ! and with vehement eloquence, produced a powerful I effect upon weak minds, ardent feelings, and disor- I dered fancies. There are passions which are as / infectious as the plaeue, and fear itself is not more ^ so than fanaticism. When once these bodily afifec- tions were declared to be the work of grace, the process of regeneration^ the throes of the new birth, a free licence was proclaimed for every kind of ex- travagance. And when the preacher, instead of exhorting his auditors to commune with their own hearts, and in their chambers, and be still, encou- raged them to throw off* all restraint, and abandon themselves before the congregation to these mixed sensations of mind and body, the consequences were what might be anticipated. Sometimes he scarcely began to speak, before some of his believers, over-
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wrought with expectation, fell into the crisis, for so it may be called in Methodism, as properly as in U Animal Magnetism. Sometimes his voice could scarcely be Heard amid the groans and cries of these suffering and raving enthusiasts. It was not long before men, women, anfd children, began to act the demoniac as well as the convert. Wesley had seen many hysterical fits, and many fits of epilepsy, but none that were like these, and he confirmed the pa- tients in their belief that they were torn of Satan. One or two indeed perplexed him a little, for they were " tormented in such an unaccountable manner, ithat they seemed to be lunatic,^' he says, «« as well as sore-vexed. '' But suspicions of this kind, made little impression upon his intoxicated understanding; the fanaticism which he had excited in others was now re-^acting upon himself. How should it have been otherwise? A Quaker who was present at one meeting, and inveighed against what he called the dissimulation of these creatures, caught the con«- tagious emotion himself, and even while he was biting his lips and knitting his brows, dropt down as if he had been struck by lightning. " The agony he was in," says Wesley, " was even terrible to behold ; we besought God not to lay folly to his charge, and ' he soon lifted up his head and cried aloud, ^ Now I know thou art a prophet of the Lord.' ^
There was a certain weaver, by name John Hay- don, who being informed that people fell into strange fits at these societies, went to see and judge for him- self Wesley describes him as a man of regular life and conversation ; who constantly attended the pub- lic prayers and sacraments, and was zealous for the church, and against dissenters of every denomina- tion. What he saw satisfied him so little, that he went about to see his acquaintance one after ano«> ther, till one in the morning, labouring to convince them that it was all a delusion of the devil. This might induce a reasonable doubt of his sanity at the time ; nor is the suspicion lessened by the circum- stance, that when he had sat down to dinner the
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next day, he chose, before he besan to eat, to finish a sermon which he had borrowed upon Salvation by Faith. In reading the last page he chanced colour, fell off his chair, beat himself against the ground, and screamed so terribly that the neighbours were alarmed, and ran into the house. Wesley was pre* sently informed that the man was fallen raving mad. ^ I found him,^^ he says, «^ on the floor, the room being full of people, whom his wife would have kept with- out, but he cried out aloud, ^ No, let them all come, let all the world see the just judgment of God !' Two or three men were holding him as well as they could. He immediately fixed his eyes upon me, and stretching out his hand, cried, ^ Aye, this is he who I said was a deceiver of the people ! But God has overtaken me. I said it was all a delusion ; but this is no delusion !' He then roared out, * O thou devil, thou cursed devil, yea, thou legion of devils ! thou canst not stay ! Christ will cast thee out ! I know his work is begun ! Tear me to pieces if thou wilt; but thou canst not hurt me !^ He then beat himself against the ground again, his breast heaving at the same time' as in the pangs of death, and great drops of sweat trickling down his face. We all betook ourselves to prayer. His pangs ceased, and both his body and soul were set at liberty." The next day Wesley found him with his voice gone, and his body weak as an infantas, «^ but his soul was in peace, full of love, and reioicing in hope of the glory ofGod.^^ In later years W esley neither expected paroxysms of this kind, nor encouraged them ; nor are his fol- lowers in England forward to excite or boast of them. They maintain, however, that these early cases were the operation of grace, and attempt to prove it by the reality of the symptoms, and the perma- nence of the religious impressions which were pro- duced. ** Perhaps," says Wesley, " ^t might be because of the hardness of our hearts, unready to receive any thing, unless we see it with our eyes and hear it with our ears, that God in tender con^- descension to our weakness suffered so many out^
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ward Bigns at the veij time when he wroaght the *^ inward change^ to be continually seen and heard among us. ^but although they saw signs and won- ders, for so I must term them, yet many would not believe/' These things, however, occasioned a dis- cussion with his brother Samuel : and Wesley per- haps remembered towards the latter end of his life^ and felt the force of the arguments which had no weight with him while he was in this state of exalta- tion.
When Wesley wrote to his eldest brother from Marienbom, he accused him and his wife of evil- speaking. Mrs. Wesley had once interrupted Charles when he offered to read to them a chapter in Law's Serious Call : it was intended as an indirect lecture, and she told him, with no unbecoming temper, that neither she nor his brother wanted it. Wesley ob- served in his letter, that he was much concerned at this. " Yes, my sister," he says, " 1 must tell you, in the spirit of love, and before God who searcheth the heart, you do want it ; you want it exceedingly, I know no one soul that wants to read and consider deeply so much the chapter of universal love and that of intercession. The character of Susurrus there, is your own. I should be false to God and you, did I not tell you so. Oh, may it be so no longer; but may you love your neighbour as your- self both in word and tongue, and in deed and truth." The abundant sincerity of this letter might atone for its lack of courtesy. Wesley did justice to his brother, in believing that he would always receive kindly what was so intended ; and after bis return to England, he resumed the attack. ^^ I again," he fiays, " recommend the character of Susurrus both to you and my sister, as f whether real or feigned) striking at the root of a fault, of which both she and you were, I think, more guilty than any other two
Eersons I have known in my life. O may God de- ver both you and me from all bitterness and evil speaking, as well as from all false doctrine, heresy, and schism." He then entered upon a vindicatioii
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of his own conduct, and the doctrine which he had newly espoused, in reply to some remarks which Mrs. Hutton^s letter had drawn from his brother.
"With regard to my own character," he says,
" and my doctrine likewise, I shall answer you very
plainly. By a Christian, I mean one who so believes
\ m Christ, as that sin hath no more dominion over him ;
/and in tliis obvious sense of the word, I was not a Christian till May the 24th last past. For till then sin had the dominion over me, although I fought with it continually ; but surely then, from that time to this, it hath not; such is the free grace of God in Christ What sin^ they were which till then reigned over me» and from which by the grace of God I am now free, I am ready to declare on the house-top, if it may be for the glory of God. If you ask by what means I am made free (though not perfect, neither infallibly sure of my perseverance), i answer, by faith in Christ ; by such a sort or degree of faith as I had not till that day. — The flrAjf{o^opw& m^nt^, the seal of the spirit^ the lot€ of God shed abroad in my hearty and producing joy in the Holy Ghost, joy which no man taketh away^ joy tm^ speakahle and full of glory ; this witness of the spirit I have not, but I patiently wait for it I know many who have already received it, more than one or two in the very hour we were praying for it And having seen and spoken with a cloud of witnesses abroad, as well as in my own country, I cannot doubt but that believers who wait and pray for it, will find these scriptures fulfilled in themselves. My hope is that they will be fulfilled in me. I build on Christ, the rock of ages ; on his sure mercies described in his word, and on his promises, all which I know are yea and amen. Those who have not yet received joy in the Holy Ghost, the love of God, and the plercnnvory of faith, (any, or all of which, I take to be the witness of the spirit with our spirit, that we are the sons of God,) I believe to be Christians in that imperfect sense wherein I call myself such. O brother, would to God you would leave disputing concerning the things which you know not (if indeed you know them
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not), and beg of God to fill up what is yet wanting in you ! Why should not you also seek till you receive that peace of God which passeth all understanding? Who shall hinder you^ notwithstanding the TnanifMtemp^ tations^ from rejoicing with joy unspeakable by reason of glory ? Amen f Lord Jesus ! May you, and all who are near of kin to you (if you have it not already), feel his love shed abroad in your hearts, by his spi- rit which dwelleth in you, and be sealed with the holy spirit of promise which is the earnest of your in- heritance.'* with regard to some stories to which Samuel had alluded of visions, and of a ball of fire falling upon a female convert, and inflaming her soul, be observed, that if all which had been said upon visions, and dreams, and balls of fire, were fairly pro- posed in syllogisms, it would not prove a jot more on one, than on the other side of the question. He built nothing on such tales.
To this Samuel replied, *' You build nothing on tales, but I do. I see what is manifestly built upon them. If you disclaim it, and warn poor shallow pates of their folly and danger, so much the better. They are counted signs or tokens, means or conveyances, proof or evidences of the sensible information, &c. calculated to turn fools into madmen, and put them without a jest into the condition of Oliver's porter. — When I hear visions, &c. reproved, discouraged, and ceased among the new brotherhood, I shall then say no more of them; but till then I will use my utmost strength that God shall give me, to expose these bad branches of a bad root. I am not out of my way, though encountering of wind-mills." In a subsequent letter he says, ** I mi^ht as well let writing alone at present, for any effect it will have, further than show- ing you I neither despise you on the one hand, nor am angry with you on the other. Charles has told me, he believes no more in dreams and visions than I do. Had you said so, I believe I should hardly have spent any time upon them, though I find others credit them, whatever you may do."
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" You make two degrees or kinds of assurance,^^ he continues : " that neither of them are necessary to a state of salvation, I prove thus: 1st. Because multitudes are saved without either. These are of three sorts, all infants baptized, who die before ac- tual sin; all persons of a melancholy and gloomy constitution, who without a miracle cannot be chang- ed ; all penitents who live a good life after their re* covery, and yet never attain to their first state. 2dly. The lowest assurance is an impression from God, who is infallible, that heaven shall be actually en- joyed by the person to whom it is made. How is this consistent with fears of miscarriage, with deep eorrow, and going on the way weeping ? How can any doubt aUer such certificate ? If they can, then here is an assurance whereby the person who has it is not sure. 3dly. If this be essential to a state of salvation, it is utterly impossible any should fall from that state finally; since, how can any thing be more fixed than what Truth and Power has said he will
Ferform ? Unless you will say of the matter here as observed of the person, that there may be assurance wherein the thing itself is not certain."
Wesley replied, " To this hour you have pursued an ignoratio elenchi. Your assurance and mine are as different as light and darkness. 1 mean an assurance that I am now in a state of salvation: you an assur- ance that I shsll persevere therein. — No kind of assur- ance rthat I know\ or of faith, or repentance, is es- sential to their salvation who die infants^ I believe God is ready to give all true penitents, who fly to his free grace in Christ, a fuller sense of pardon than they had before they fell. I know this to be true of several ; whether there are exempt cases I know not Persons of a melancholy and gloomy constitution, even to some degree of madness, I have known in a moment brought (let it be called a miracle, I quarrel not) into a state of firm, lasting peace and joy."
It was from Bristol that Wesley wrote this letter, when he was in the full career of triumphant entbu- siasm^ producing effects which he verily believed
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to be miraculous. " My dear brother,'' he says, " the whole question turns on matter of fact You deny that God does now work these effects; at least that he works them in such a manner. I affirm both, because I have heard those facts with my ears, and seen them with my eyes. I have seen (as far as it can be seen) many persons changed in a moment from the spirit of horror, fear, and despair, to the spirit of hope, joy, peace ; and from sinful desires, till then reigning over them, to a pure desire of doing the will of God. These are matters of fact, whereof I have been, and almost daily am, eye or ear witness. Upon the same evidence (as to the suddenness and reality of the change,) I believe, or know this, touch- ing visions and dreams : I know several persons in whom this great change from the power ot Satan un- to God, was wrought either in sleep, or during a strong representation to the eye of their minds of Christ, either on the cross, or in glory. This is the fact : let any judge of it as they please. But that such a change was then wrought appears, not from their shedding tears only, or sighing, or singing psalms, but the whole tenour of their life, till then many ways from wicked, from that time holy, just, and good. I will show you him that was a lion till then, and is now a lamb ; he that was a drunkard, but now exemplarily sober ; the whoremonger that was, who now abhors the very lusts of the flesh. These are my living ar- guments for what I assert, that God now, as afore- time, gives remission of sins, and the gift of the Holy Ghost, which may be called visions. If it be not so, I am found a false witness ; but, however, I do and will testify the things I have both seen and heard/'
Samuel had said to him, with a feeling of natural * resentment, « I am persuaded you will hardly see me
* In a subsequent letter, he thus strongly expresses his disap- pointment in not seeing his brother : ** 1 heartily pray to God that we may meet each other with joy in the next life ; and beg hin^ ■to forgive cither of us, a« far as jruilty, for our not meeting in this.
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face to face in this world, though somewhat nearer th^n Count Zinzendorf." In his reply, Wesley says, ^^ 1 do not expect to see your face in the flesh. Not that I believe God will discharge you yet, but I be- lieve I have nearly finished my coursie ;^' and he add- ed, that he expected to stay at Bristol some time^ Serhaps as long as he was in the body. This eVi- ently alludes to the impression which his unlucky Sartes BibUccB had left upon his mind ; but it alarmed his brother, who entreated him to explain what rea- son he had for thinking he should not live long. And showing at the same time his love for John, and his admiration of the great qualities which he possessedt he adds, ** I should be very angry with you, if you car- ed for it, should you have broken your iron constitution already ; as I was with the glorious Pascal for losing his health, and living almost twenty years in pain/'
" L argue against assurance,'' he says, ^' in your or s^ny sense, as part of the gospel covenant, because many are saved without it. You own you cannot de- ny exempt cases, which is giving up the dispute. Your assurance^ being a clear impression of God upon the soul, I say, must be perpetual, must be irreversi- ble, else it is not assurance from God, infallible and omnipotent. Your seeing persons reformed is no- thing to this. Dear brother, .do you dream I deny the grace of God ? but to suppose the means where- by they are so in this sense, is, in my opinion, as very a petitio principii as ever was. You quarrel not at the word miracle, nor is there any reason you should, since you are so well acquainted with the thing. You say the cross is strongly represented to the eye of the mind. Do these words signify in plain English, the fancy ? Inward eyes, ears, and feelings, are nothing to other people. I am heartily sorry such alloy should be found among so much
I acknowledge his justice in making my friends stand afar off, and hiding my acquaintance out of my sight.'* Wesley must have re- flected upon this with some pain, when, a few months only after it was writen, he lost his excellent brother. -
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1739.] WESLEY AT BRISTOL. 229
piety. My mother tells me she fears a formal schism 18 already begun among you,4hough you and Charles are ignorant of it For God's sake take care of that, and banish extemporary expositions and extempora- " ry prayers* I have got your abrid^ent of Hafibur- ton ; if it please God to allow me life and strength, I shall demonstrate that the Scot as little deserves
E reference to all Christians but our Saviour, as the ook to all writings * but those you mention. There are two flagrant falsehoods in the very first chapter. But your eyes are so fixed upon one point, that you overlook every thing else; — ^yoa overshoot, but Whitefield raves/'
In his reply to this letter, John recurred to his own notion of assurance. " The Gospel," he says, " pro- mises to you and me, and our children, and all that are afar off^ even as many of those whom the Lord our God shall call, as are not disobedient unto the heavenly vision, the witness of God* s Spirit with their spirit^ that they are the children of God; that they are now^ at this hour, all accepted in the beloved : but it witnesses not that they always shall be. It is an as- surance oS present salvation only ; therefore not ne- cessarily perpetual, neither irreversible." The doc- trine is unexceptionable, the error lay in the in- discreet use of a term, which in strict logic, and in common acceptation, m^ans more than this, and cer- tauily would be understood in its largest import. He reverted also to the same facts concerning the man- ner in which this assurance was conveyed. » I am one of many witnesses of this matter of fact, that God does now make good this his promise daily, very fre- quently during a representation (how made I know not, but not to the outward eye) of Christ, either hanging on the cross, or standing on the right hand of God. And this I know to be of God, because from
* Wesley bad aaid, in his Preface to the " Extract of the Life and Death of Mr. Thomas Haliburton," — " I cannot hut value it, ^ next to the Holy Scriptures, above any other human composition, •Kcepting only the Christian Pattern, and the smaD remains of Clemens Romanus Polycarp, and Ignatius.''
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that hour the person so affected is a new creature, both as to his inward tempers and outward life. Old things are past away, and all things become new." His brother's argument respecting such re- presentations is here lefl unanswered, because it was unanswerable. But the state of his own judg- ment at this time i§ ascertained, (if such proof were necessary,) by his continuing in a belief that the Scriptures had communicated to him a knowledge of his early death. In reply to his brother's affection- ate inquiry upon this subject, he says, ^^1 am now in as good health (thanks be to God) as I ever was since I remember, and 1 believe shall be so as long as I live, for I do not expect to have a lingering death. The reasons that mduce me to think I shall not live long, are such as you would not apprehend to be of any weight I am under no concern on this head ; let my Master see to it." »
The case of John Haydon was triumphantly stated in this letter. Wesley was firmly convinced that such cases were signs and wonders ; and he was soon enabled to answer, as he believed, victoriously,those persons who maintained that they were purely natu* ral effects, and that people fainted away only because of the heat and closeness of the rooms ; or who affirm- ed that it was all imposture ; that the patients might avoid such agitations if they would ; else why were these things done only in their private societies? why were they not done in the face of the sun ? " To-day," says Wesley in his journal, " our Lord an- swered for himself. For while I was enforcing these words. Be stilly and know that I am God^ he began to make bare his arm ; not in a close room, neither in private, but in the open air, and before more than two thousand witnesses. One, and another, and another, were struck to the earth, trembling exceedingly at the presence of his power. Others cried with a loud and bitter cry, ' n hat must we do to be saved ?' and in less than an hour seven persons, wholly un- l^nQWU to me till that time, were rejoicing and sing-
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1739.] Wesley at Bristol. 231
ing, and with all their might giving thanks to theQod of their salvation.^' In the evening of that same daj« at their meeting in Nicholas-street, he wa^ inter-* rupted almost as soon as he had begun to speak, (so strongly were his auditors now pre-disposed for the influence,) by the cries of one " who was pricked to the heart,^' and groaned vehemently for pardon and peace. Presently another dropped down; and it was not long before (a poor little boy caught the af- fection, and fell also in one of those frightful fits. The next was a young man, by name Thomas Max- field, a stranger in Bristol, who had come to this meeting from a mere motive of curiosity, and there received an impression which decided the course of his future life. He fixed his eyes on the boy, and sunk down himself as one dead, but presently began to roar and beat himself against the ground, so that six men could scarcely hold him. <^ Except John Haydon," says Wesley, " I never saw one so torn of the Evil One. Meanwhile many others began to cry out to the Saviour of all, that he would come and help them ; insomuch, that all the house, and indeed all the street, for some space, was in an uproar. But we continued in prayer ; and before ten, the greater
Eart found rest to their souls." The day's work, owever, was not yet concluded. *'I was called from supper," he says, " to one who, feeling in her- self such a conviction as she had never known be- fore, had run out of the society in all haste, that she might not expose herself. But the hand of God fol- lowed her still, so that afler going a few steps, she Was forced to be carried home, and when she wa$ there, grew worse and worse. She was in a violent agony when we came. We called upon God, and her soul found rest. About twelve, i was greatly importuned to go and visit one person more. She had only one struggle afler I came, and was then fill- ed with peace and joy. I think twenty-nine in all had their heaviness turned into joy this day." A room, in which they assembled at this time, was
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232 WESLEY AT BRISTOL. [l739.
propped from beneath for security; but, with the weight of the people, the floor gave way, and the prop fell with a great noise. The floor sunk no fur- ther ; but, alarming bb this was^ after a little sur- prise at first, they quietly attended to the preacher as if nothing had happened, so entirely were they possessed by him. When he held forth in the open air, rain, and thunder, and lightning did not disperse the multitudes who gathered round him. He himself could not but be conscious, of his own power. Preaching at Clifton Church, and seeing many of the rich there, he says, " My heart was much pained for them, and I was earnestly desirous that some, even of them, might enter into the kingdom of heaven. But full as I was, I knew not where to begin in warn- ing them to flee from the wrath to come, till my Tes- tament opened on these words, / came not to call the righteous^ bui sinners to repentance ; in applying which my soul was so enlarged, that metbought l could have cried out in anotner sense than poor vain Ar- chimedes, Give me where to stand, and I will shake the earth."
On his first arrival in Bristol, that part of the Me- thodist discipline was introduced which he had adopted from the Moravians, and male and female bands were formed, as in London, that the members might meet together weekly, to confess their faults one to another, and pray one for another. " How dare any man," says Wesley, '* deny this to be, as to the substance of it, a means of grace ordained by God } unless he will afiirm with Luther, in the fury of his solifidianism, that St. James^ epistle is an epis- tle of straw. A more important measure was the foundation of the first Methodist preaching house ; and this, like the other steps which led inevitably to a separation from the Church, was taken without any such design, or any perception of its consequences. The rooms in which the Societies at Bristol had hi- therto met in Nicholas-street, Baldwin-street, and the Back-lane, were small, incommodious, and not
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entirely safe. They determined, therefore, to build a room large enough for all the members, and for as many of their acquaintances as might be expected to attend : a piece of ground was obtained in the Horse-Fair, near St. James' church-yard, and there, on the 12th of May 1739, "the first stone was laid with the voice of praise and thanksgiving.'' Wesley himself had no intention of being personally engaged either in the direction or expense of the work ; for the property had been settled upon eleven feoffees, and upon them he had suprposed the whole responsi- bility would rest. But it soon appeared that the work would be at a stand if he did not take upon himself the payment of all the workmen ; and h^ found himself presently incumbered with a debt of more than an hundred and fifty pounds, which he was to discharge how he could, for the subscription of the Bristol societies did not amount to a fourth part of the sum. In another, and more important point, his friends in London, and Whitefield more especially, had been further-sighted than himself; they represented to him that the feoffees would al- ways have it in their power to turn him out of the room after he had built it, if he did not preach to their liking; and they declared that they would have nothing to do with the building, nor contribute any thing towards it, unless he instantly discharged all feoflfees, and * did every thing in his own name. Though Wesley had not foreseen this consequence, he immediately perceived the wisdom of his friends' advice : no man was more alive to the evils of con- gregational tyranny ; he called together the feoffees, cancelled the writings without any opposition on their part, and took the whole trust, as well as the whole management, into his own hands. " Money," he says, ** it is true, I had not, nor any human prospect or pro- bability of procuring it; but I knew the earth is the Lord*s^ mid the fu^ess thereof; and in bis name set out, nothing doubting."
After he had been about three months in Bristol,
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234 WE8LET AT BRISTOL. [1739.
there came pressing letters from London, urging him to return thither as soon as possible, because the brethren in Fetter-lane were m great confusion, for want of his presence and advice. For awhile, there- fore, he took leave of his growing congregation, say- ing, that he had not found sucn love, ^^tio, not in Engiand^^^ nor so child-like, artless, teachable a tern* per, as God had given to these Bristolians.
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CHAPTER VIII.
WHITEPIELD IN LONDON. — FRENCH PROPHETS,— EXTRA- VAGAlfCIES OF THE METHODISTS.
During his abode at Bristol, Wesley had had many thoughts concerning the unusual manner of his ministering. He who had lately attempted with in-: tolerant austerity, to enforce the discipline of the Church, and revive practices which had properly been suffered to &U into disuse, had now broken through the forms of that Church, and was acting in defiance of her authority. This irregularity he j usti- fied, by a determination to allow no other rule of faith, or practice, than the Scriptures ; not, perhaps, reflecting that in this position he joined issue with the wildest religfous anarchists. ^^God in Scrip- ture,'' he reasoned, ^^ commands me according to my power, to instruct the ignorant, reform the wicked, confirm the virtuous ; man forbids me to do this in an- other's parish, that is, in eflCect, to do it at all, seeing I have now no parish of my own, nor probably ever shall ; whom then shall I bear, God or man ? If it be just to obey man rather than CML, judge you ; a dispensa- tion of the Gospel is committed to me^ and wo is me if I preach not this Gospel. But where shall I preach it upon what are called Catholic principles ? — Why not in any of the Christian parts of the habitable earth, for all these are, after a sort, divided into pa- rishes ?^ This reasoning led him to look upon all the world as his parish. ^^ In whatever part of it I am,'' he says, ^^ I judge it meet, right, and my boiAden duty, to declare unto all that are willing to hear, the glad tidings of salvation. This is the work which I know God has called me to do, and sure I am that His blessing attends it : His servant I am, and as such am employed (glory be to Him) day and night in His ser- vice; 1 am employed according to the plain direc-
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236 WHITEFIELD IN LONDON. [1739.
tion of His word^ as I have opportunity of doing good unto all men. And His Providence clearly concurs with His word, which has disengaged me from all things else, that I might sinfgly attend on this very thing, and go aboxU doing g-oorf."
Some of the disciples in Liondon meantime, had pursued their master^s fundamental principle further than he had any intention of following it A layman, whose Ddime was Sbaw, insisted that a priesthood was an unnecessary and unscriptural institution,, and that he himself bad as good a right to preach, bap- tize, and administer the sacraments, as any other man. Such & teacher found ready believers; the propriety of lay-preaching was contended for at the society in Fetter-Lane, and Charles Wesley strenu- ously opposed what l^e called these pestilent errors* In spite of his opposition, a certain Mr. Bowers set the first example. Two or three more ardent inno- vators declared that they would no longer be mem- bers of the Church of England. " Now," says Charles, in his journal, ^^ am I clear of them ; by renouncing the Church, they have dischai^ed me." Bowers, who was not obstinate in his purpose, acknowledged that he had erred, and was reconciled to Charles Wesley : but owing to these circumstances, and to some confusion which the French Prophets, as they were called, were exciting among the Methodists, it was judged expedient to summon John with all speed from Bristol.
Charles had been powerfully supported in these disputes by Whitefield and his friend Howel Harris, y a young and ardent Welshman, who was the first great promoter of Methodism in his own country. — The former had now taken the field here also : the Vic* of Islington had lent him his pulpit, but the Churchwarden forbade him to preach tnere unless he could produce a license; and Whitefield gladly in- terpreted this to be a manifestation of the divine pleasure, that he should preach in the church-yard, which, he says, his Master by his providence and spirit compelled him to do. «^ To-morrow I am to
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repeat thai mad (riek, and on Sunday to go otrt into MoOrfieId& The word of the Lord runs and is glo- rifiied ; peopIe^s hearts seem quite broken ; God stret^hens me exceedingly;. I preach till I sweat through and through.^ Puhtic notice was gi^en of his intention, and on the appointed day a great multi- tttde assembled in MoOrfields. This tract of land, which is already so altered that Whitefield would na longer recognise the scene of his triumph, and which will soon be entirely covered with streets and squares, was originally, as its name implies, a marsh, passable during the greater part of the year only by a cause-' way^ and of so little value that the whole was let for a yearly rent of four marks. It was gradually drain- ed ; the first bricks which are known to have been used in London were made there ; and in process of time the greater part of the ground was converted into gardens. These were destroyed, t^t the City Archers might exercise themselves there. The bow and arrow fell into disuse ; Bedlam was built there ; part of the area was laid out in gravel walks, and planted with elms, and these convenient and frequent- ed walks obtained the name of ihe City Mall. But from the situation of the ground, and the laxity of the police, it had now become a royalty of the rabble, a place for wrestlers and boxers, mountebanks and merry-andrews ; where fairs were held during the holydays, and where at all times the idle, the disso* lute and the reprobate resorted ; they who were the pests of society,, and they who were training up to succeed them in the ways of profligacy and wretch- edness.
Preaching in Moorfields was what Whitefield call^- ed attacking Satan in one of his strong holds ; and many pecsons told him, that if he attempted it he would never come away from the place alive. They knew not the power of empassioned eloquence upon a topic in which every hearer was vitally concerned ; and they wronged the mob, who seldom or never are £uilty of atrocities till they are deluded and misled. No popular prejudice had yet gone forth against the
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Methodists ; to those among the multitude by whom he was known, he was an object of devout admira* tion, and all the others regarded him with curiosity or with wonder, not with any hostile or suspicious feeling. The table which had been placed tor him was broken in pieces by the crowd ; he took his stand, therefore, upon a wall which divided the up- per and lower Moorfields, and preached without in« terruption. There was great prudence in beginning the attack upon Satan on a Sunday : it was taking him at disadvantage, the most brutal of his black guard were not upon the ground, or not engaged in their customary sports of brutality ; and the preacher derived some protection from the respect which was paid to the Sabbath-day : Whitefield did not ven- ture as yet to encounter them when they were in full force. His favourite ground upon week-days was Kenningto|^ommon, and there prodigious multitudes gathered together to hear him; he had some- times fourscore carriages, (in those days no incon- siderable number for London to send forth on such an occasion,) very many horsemen, and from 30 to 40,000 persons on foot : and both there, and on his Sunday preachings in Moorfields, when he collected for the orphan-house, so many* half-pence were given him by his poor auditors, that he was wearied in receiving them, and they were more than one man could carry home.
While he was engaged in this triumphant career, Wesley arrived, and on the day after his arrival accompanied him to Blackheath, expecting to hear him preach : but when they were upon the ground, where about 12 or 14,000 persons were assembled, Whitefield desired him to preach in his stead. Wesley was a little surprised at this, and somewhat reluctant, for he says nature recoiled ; he did not however refuse, and being greatly moved with com- passion for the rich that were present, he addressed his discourse particularly to them : ^^ Some of them
* At Kennin^on, 47/. were collected ooeeveniDg, of which 16f. were in hsJf- pence. At Moorfields, 52/. 19«. 6(f., of which more than twenty pounds were in half-pence.
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seemed to attend, while others drove away with their coaches from so uncouth a preacher.^' Whitefieid notices this circumstance in his journal with great satis&ction: "I had the pleasure,'' he says, " of in- troducing my honoured and reverend friend, Mr. John Wesley, to preach at Blackheath. The Lord give him ten thousand times more success than he has given me ! I went to bed rejoicing that another fresh inroad was made into Satan's territories, by Mr. Wesley's following me in field-preaching in London as well as in Bristol."
It deserves particular notice that no fits or convul- sions had as yet been produced under W.hitefield's preaching, though he preached the same doctrine as the Wesleys, and addressed himself with equal or greater vehemence to the passions, and with more theatrical effect. But when Wesley, on the second day after his arrival, was preaching to a society in Wapping, the symptoms re-appeared with their usu- al violence, and were more than usually contagious. He had begun the service, he says, weary in body and weak in spirit^ and felt himself unable to open his mouth upon the teit which he had premeditated. His mind was full of some place, he knew not where, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, and begging God to direct him, he opened the Testament on these words, ^'Having therefore^ brethren^ boldness to enter into the Ho- liest by me blood of Jesus^ by a new and living way which he ham consecrated for us^ that is to say^ his fleshy — let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faiths hamng our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience^ and our bodies washed with pure water.^^ If such a prologue to the scene which ensues should excite a suspicion of Wesley's sincerity he would be wronged thereby ; suspicious as it appears, it is the natural representa- tion of one who under a strong delusion of mind, re- traced his own feelings after the event, and explained them by the prepossession which fully occupied his mind. " While," he says, " I was earnesjly fnviting all men to enter into the Holiest by this new and Uving tcay, many of those that heard began to call upon
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God with strong dies and tears ; some sunk down, and there remained no strength in them ; others ex^ ceedingly trembled and quaked ; some were torn With a kind of convulsive motion in every part of their bodies, and that so violently, that often four or five persons could not hold one of them. I have seen many hysterical and epileptic fits, but none of them were like these in many respects. I immediately prayed that God would not suffer those who were weak to be offended ; but one woman was greatly, being sure they might help it if they would, no one should persuade her to the contrary ; and she was got three or four yards, when she also dropt down in as violent an agony as the rest Twenty-six of those who had been thus affected (most of whom, during the prayers which were made for them, were in a dkk ment filled with peace and joy,^ promised to call up- on me the next day ; but only ei^teen came, by talk- ing closely with whom I found reason to believe that some of them had gone home to their houses justified; the rest seemed to be patiently waiting for it.''
A difference of opinion concerning these outward signs, as they were called, was one of the sub- jects which had distracted the London Methodists, and rendered Wesley's presence among them neces- sary. The French prophets also had obtained con- siderable influence over some of the society ; these prophets had now for about half a century acted as frantic and as knavish a part for the disgrace of a good cause, as the enemies of that cause could have desired. Louis XIV. at the commencement of his reign, laid down for himself a wise system of conduct towards his Protestant subjects: he per- ceived that to employ persecution as a remedy for erroneous opinions, implies an ignorance of the nature of the disease, and he acknowledged that the reformers had originally much reason on their side; but as a Roman Catholic, he regarded the doctrines of the Huguenots as damnable, and as a statesman he knew that any men who desire the destruction of their national church, can be but half-
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hearted toward the govemment which upholds that church, and rests with it upon the same foundation. He determined therefore not to impose any restrict tioDs upon them, and strictly to obsen^e their exist* iag privileges ; but to grant them no new ones ; to fihow them no favour ; to prevent them from spread-^ ing their doctrine, or exercising their mode oi* wor- ship, in places where they were not privileged ; to hold out every encouragement for converting them, and ^specially to fill the Catholic sees with persons of such learning, piety, and exemplary live^, that their example might tend powerfully to heal the schism which the ignorance and corruption of their predecessors had* occasioned. But Louis learnt ta be as little scrupulous in his schemes of conver- sion as of conquest ; success, vanity, evil counsellors, with the possession and the pride of absolute power, hardened his heart ; by means of paltry donations he had bought over to the Catholic Church, many of those persons who disparage whatever church they may belong to, and it is said that because of the fa- cility with which such converts were made, he ex- pected to find in the whole body of the French rrc^estants an easy submission to his will. By one wicked edict he revoked their privileges ; and by another of the same day prohibited their public worship, banished their ministers, and decreed that their children should be educated by Roman Catho- lic priests in the Roman Catholic faith ; the better to ensure obedience, he quartered dragoons upon them, and left them to the mercy of his military missionaries. The Dragonades as they were called were a fit after-piece to the tragedy of St. Bartholo- mew's day. The number of persons who emigrated in consequence of this execrable persecution, has been variously computed from fifty to five hundred thousand; more meritorious men were never driven from their native country, and every country which aftbrded them refuge was amply rewarded by their
* CBuvres de Loub XiV. Mtooires Hi^oriques, t. i. p. 84 — 89. VOL. 1. 31
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talents, their arts, arid their industr}\ Prussia re- ceived a large and most beneficial increase of usefal subjects ; they multiplied the looms of England, and gave new activity to the trade of Holland. Some of these refugees converted rocks into vineyards on the shores of the Leman Lake, and British Africa is indebted to others for wines, which will one day rival those of the Rhine and the Garonne. Happy were they who thus shook the dust of their nativp land from their feet ; and more would undoubtedly have followed this course, if the most rigorous mea- sures had not been used to prevent emigration. This was consummating the impolicy, and the wick- edness* of the measure. The number of forced converts in Languedoc^ was little short of t200,000. But in the wilder parts of that province, among the mountains of the Cevennes and the Vivarez, the people took arms, confiding in the strength of the country, and the justice of their cause. M. de Bro- glie first, then Marshal Villars, and lastly, the Duke of Berwick, were sent against them; roads were opened through the couhtry in every direction, making it every where accessible for artillery ; an adequate force .was perseveringly employed, little mercy was shown in the field, and such of the leaders as were taken prisoners, were racked and broken on the wheef, or burnt alive. In the history of human
* This manifestation of thfe real spirit of the Romish Church, contrihuted greatly to alarm the English people, when James II. attempted to hring them again under its yoke. And it appears ^ from Evelin's Diary that James apprehended this consequence. *' One thing was much taken notice of, that the Gazettes, which were still constantly printed twice a week, informing us what was done all over Europe, never spake of this wonderful proceeding in France, nor was iny relation of it published by any, save what private letters, and«the persecuted fugitives brought. Whence this silence I list not to conjecture ; but it appeared very extra- ordinary in a Protestant country, that we should know nothing of what Protestants suffered, whilst great collections were made for them in foreign places, more hospitable and Christian to appear- ance/' Vol. i. p. 680.
t M^moires de M, de Basville, p. 78.
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crimes, the religious wars of France must ever stand pre-eminent for the ferocity with which both parties were possessed, and this termination was worthy of the spirit with which the persecution was begun and carried through.
More than twenty years elapsed before such of the Protestants as exercised the right of resistance could be rooted out. During that time, these injured people were in a state resembling that of the Cove- nanters and Cameronians in Scotland, under the tyranny of Lauderdale. Persecuted like them, till they were driven to madness by persecution, the more they were goaded, the more fiercely they turn- ed upon their oppressors, and the greater the cruelty which they endured from man, the more confidently they looked for the interference of Heaven. Thus they grew ^t once fanatical and ferocious. Without rest either for body or mind, living in continual agita- tion and constant danger, their dreams became vivid as realities, when all realities were frightful as the wildest dreams ; delirium was mistaken for inspira- tion ; and the ravings of those who had lost their senses through grief and bodily excitement,, were received as prophecies by their fellow sufferers. The Catholic writers of that age, availed themselves of this to bring a scandal upon the Protestant cause ; and to account for what so certainly was the conse- <]uence of persecution, they propagated one of the most impudent calumnies that ever was produced, even in religious controversy. They asserted that the refugee ministers with Jurieu at their head, held a council at Geneva, in which they Agreed to support their cause by means of impious imposture; that th^ey set up a school of prophets, and trained up youngs persons of both sexes, to repeat the Psalms and other parts of Scripture by heart, and practise contortions and convulsions for public exhibition, in the name of the Spirit of God ! How little did these calumniators understand the character of Jurieu, fanatic as he was ; and how utterly incapable were they even of conceiving such disinterested and de-
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voted inteffrity, as that of the ministers Mfhom they slandered!
Such oC the wilder fanatics as escaped both the bayonet and the executioner, and found an asylum in Protestant countries, carried with them the disease both of mind and body which their long sufferings had produced. It is well known that persons who have once been thrown into fits by any sudden and violent emotion, are liable to a recurrence upon much slighter causes. In the case of these fugitives, the recurrence was more likely to be encouraged than controlled. The display of convulsive movements, and contortions of the body, was found a gainful ex- hibition ; it became voluntary. Though the profes- sors imposed for awhile upon others, as well as upon themselves, it soon degenerated into mere histrion- ism ; and in Holland, m Germany, and iu England, the French prophets as they were called, were the scandal of their own church, while they excited the wonder of the ignorant, and preyed upon the credu» lity of their admirers. They sent deputies to Count Zinzendorf, expressing a desire to unite themselves with the Moravian brethren; he objected to their neglect of the sacrament, to their separating them- selves from other congregations, and more especially to the hideous circumstances attending their pretend- ed inspirations. Those who had taken up their abode in England"^ formed a sect here, and as soon as the Methodists began to attract notice, naturally sought to make converts among a people whom they supposed to be prepared for them. The first of these extravagants with whom Charles Wesley was ac- quainted, was an English proselyte, residing at Wick* ham, to whom he was introduced on his way to Ox-* ford, and with whom it seems he was not only to take up his lodging, but to sleep. This gentleman ifisist*
* Dr. Btukeley says, that a group of tumali in Wiltshire, was ealled hy the country people the prophets* harrows, '* hecause the French prophets, thirty years ago (1710), set up astandard on the largest, und preached to the multitude," Sir R. Hoare's Ancient Wiltshire, p, 210,
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ed that the French prophets were equal, if not supe* rior to the prophets of the Old Testament Charles, however, was not aware that his host and chum was himself a gifted personage, till they retired to bed, when as they wer^ undressing, he fell into violent agitations, and gobbled like a turkey-cock. ^' I was frightened," he says, '^and began exorcising him with ^Thou deaf and dumb devil P He soon reco- vered from his fit of inspiration. I prayed, and went to bed, not half liking my bed-fellow, nor did I sleep very sound with Satan so near me."
When Wesley soon afterwards met with some of these persons, he was inclined to pronounce them ^ properly enthusiasts," — " for first," he says, " they think to attiain the end without the means, which is ^ enthusiasm properly so called. Again, they think themselves inspired by God, and are not. But falsQ imaginary inspiration is enthusiasm. That their^s is only imaginary inspiration appears hence, it contra- dicts the law and the' testimony." After much im- portunity, he went with four or five of his friends, to a house where a prophetess was entertained : she was about four or five and twenty, and of an agreea- ble speech and behaviour. When she asked why these visiters came, Wesley replied, " To- try the spirits, whether they be of God." Presently she leant back in her chair, and had strong workings in her breast, and uttered deep siglis. H6r head, and her hands, and by turns every part of her body, were affected with convulsive motions. This continued about ten minutes ; then she began to speak with a clear strong voice, but so interrupted with the work- ings, sighings, and contortions of her body, that she seldom brought forth half a sentence together. What she said was chiefly in scriptural words, and all as in the person of God, as if it were the language of im- mediate inspiration. And she exhorted them not to be in haste in judging her spirit, to be or not to be of God ; but to wait upon God, and he would teach them, if they conferred not with flesh and blood : and she observed with particular earnestness, that
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they must watch and pray, and take up their cross, and be still before God. Some of the cotinpany were much impressed, and believed that she spake by the Spirit; "but this," says Wesley, "was in no wise clear to me. The emotion might be either hysteri- cal or artificial. And the same words any person of a good understanding, and well versed in the Scrip- tures, might have spoken. But 1 let the matter alone ; knowing this, that if it be not of God, it will come to nought."
These people raised warm debates among the Methodists; so that Charles, during his brother^s ab- sence, found it prudent to break off a disputation, by exclaiming, " Who is on God's side ? Who for the old prophets •rather than the new ? Let them follow me!" and immediately he led the way into the preaching room. They had been chiefly successful amon^ the women; when Wesley arrived in Lon- don, therefore, he warned the female disciples not to believe every spirit^ but to try the ^rits whether they were of God : and during the short time of his stay he said, it pleased God to remove many misunderstandings and offences, that had crept in among them, and to restore in good measure the spirit of love and of a sound mind."
But on his return to Bristol, the French prophets had been there also, and he says it is scarce credible what an advantage Satan had gained, during his ab- sence of only eight days. tVo unto the propksts^ satth the Lord^ who prophesy in my name^ and I nave not sent them! Who were the teachers against whom this denunciation is levelled, he endeavoured to point out ; and exhorted his followers, " to avoid as fire all who do not speak according to the law and the testimony." He told them, " they were not to judge of the spirit whereby any one spake, either by ap- pearances, by common report, or by their own in- ward feelings. No, nor by any dreams, visions, or revelations, supposed to be made to their souls, any more than by their tears, or any involuntary effects Wrought upon their bodies." He warned them.
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«^ that all these were in themselves of a doubtful dis- putable nature ; they might be from God, and they might not : and therefore they were not simply to be relied on (any more than simply to be condemned), but to be tried by a further rule, to be brought to the only certain test, the law and the testimony." While he was speaking one of his hearers dropt down, and in the course of half an hour, seven others in violent agonies, " the pains ag of hell,''' he says, '* came about them /' but notwithstanding his own reasoning, nei- ther he nor his auditors cs^ed in question the divine origin of these emotions, and they went away re- joicing and praising God. Whenever he now preach- ed, the same effects were produced ; some of the people were always " cut to the heart ;^ they were " seized with strong pangs," they " terribly felt the wrath of God abiding on them," they were ** con- strained to roar aloud, while the sword of the Spirit was dividing asunder their souls^ and spirits^ and joints j and marrow?^ These effects had never as yet been produced under Whitefield's preaching, though they now followed Wesley wherever he went ; and it ap- pears that Whitefield, who came once more to Bris- tol at this time, considered them as doubtful indica- tions, at least, and by no means to be encouraged. — But no sooner had he begun to preach before a con- • gregation, among whom these «^ outward signs" had previously taken place^ and who therefore were pre- pared for the affection by their state of mind, as fear in times of pestilence, predisposes the body for re- ceiving the contagion, than four persons were seized almost at the same moment, and sunk down close by him. This was a great triumph to Wesley. " From this time," he says, " I trust, we shall all suffer God ^to carry on his own work in the way that pleaseth him." Whitefield, however, seems rather to have been perplexed by the occurrence than satisfied; for he makes no mention of it if) his journal, which assuredly he would have done, had he been convin* ced with Wesley, that these fits wore the immediate work of God.
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Another of his coadjutors, who bad seen none of these outward signs, thought that examples of similar afiectioos were found in Scripture ; but the cases of those who struggled as in the agonies of death, and of a woman who was so convulsed as that four or five strong men could hardly restrain her from hurting her* self or otherfi, appeared to him inexplicable, unless it resembled the case of the child of whom the Evan-
gelists say, that the devil threw him down and tare im. " What influence,^' says the writer, " sudden and sharp awakenings may have upon the body, I pretend not to explain. But I make no question^ Satan, so far as he gets power, may exert him»rif on such occasions, partly to hinder the good work in the persons who are thus touched with the sharp arrows of conviction, and partly to disparage the w^rk of God, as if it tended to lead people to distraction. However the merciful issue of these coiiBicts, in the conversion of the persons thus affected, is the mam thinff.''
This latter point was placed in its true light by Samuel Wesley. "You, yourself,'* he says to his brother John, " doubted at first, and inquired and examined about the extacies; the matter is not therefore* so plain as motion to a man walkii^. But I have my own reasqn, as well as your own authority 5 against the exceeding clearness of divine interposi* tion there. Your followers fall into agonies.* I con- fess it. — They are freed from them after you have prayed over them. Granted. — They say it is God's doing. I own they say so.-^Dear Brother f wherein your ocular demonstration ? Where indeed is the rational proof? Their living well afterward^ may be a probable and sulSkient argument that they be* lieve themselves ; but it goes no further.''
" I must ask," he continues, " a few more qnes-^ tions.. Did these agitations ever be^n during the use of any collects of the Church? Or during the preaching of any sermon, that . had before beerr preached within consecrated walls without that ef-* feet ? Or during the inculcating any other doctrine^
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besides that of your New Birth ? Are the main body of these agents or patients, good sort of people bc- fore-h«qd, or loose and immoral?" While the dder brother reasoned thus sanely against the extravagan- cies which Wesley encouraged, he cordially rejoiced with him in the real good which was done. " I wish you could build not only a school," he says, " but a church too for the colliers, if there is not any place at present where they can meet ; and I should re- joice heartily to have it endowed, though Mr. White- field were to be the minister of it, provided the Bi- shop fully joined." But he saw to what this course was leading. " Your distinction," he says, " between the disciphne and doctrine of the church, is, I think, not quite pertinent ; for surely episcopacy is matter of doctrine too: but granting it otherwise, you know there is no fear of being cast out of our synagogue for any tenets whatever. Did not Clarke die pre- ferred.'^ Were not Collins and Coward free from anathema.'^ Are not Chubb and Gordon now ca- ressed ? My knowledge of this makes me suspect Whitefield as if he designed to provoke persecution by his bodings of it. He has already personally dis- obliged the Bishops of Gloucester ana London, and doubtless will do as much by all the rest, if they fall not down before his whimsies, and should offer to stand in his way. Now, if he by his madness should lay himself open to the small remains of discipline amongst us, (as by marrying without license, or any other way) and get excommunicated for his pains, I am very apprehensive you would still stick to him as your dear brother ; and so though the church would no1;-excommunicate you, you would excommunicate the church."
But Wesley had already set the discipline of the church at defiance. Harvey, his pupil formerly, and one of his first disciples at Oxford, expostu- lated with him on the irregularity of his conduct, and advised him either to settle in College, or to accept a cure of souls. He replied, that he had no business in College, havii^ no office there and
VOL. I. 32
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no pupils; and that it would be time enough to consider whether it were expedient to accept a cure; when one should be offered to him. " In the mean time," he says, " you think I ought to be still, because otherwise I should invade another^s office ; you accordingly ask how is it that I assem- ble Christians who are none of my charge, to sing psalms and pray, and hear the Scriptures ex- pounded : and you think it hard to justify doing thia in other men^s parishes upon Catholic principles. Permit me to speak plainly ; if by Catholic prmci- pies, you mean any other than i^criptural, they weigh nothing with me ; I allow no other rule, whether of faith or practice, than the Holy Scriptures." Har^ vey had objected to him, that by this conduct he brought a reproach upon himself which diminished his power of doing good. To this Wesley replied exultingly, '' I will put- you in mind, (though you once knew this, yea and much established me in that
freat truth,) the more evil men say of me for my iord's sake, the more good He will do by me. That it is for His sake I know, and He knoweth, and the event agreeth thereto ; for He mightily confirms the words I speak by the Holy Ghost given unto those that hear them. O my friend, my beart is moved toward you ! I fear you have herein made shipwreck of the faith ! I fear Satan, transformed into an angel of light, hath assaulted you, and prevailed also ! I fear that ofispring of hell, worldly or mystic prudence, has drawn you away from the simplicity of the Gos- pel ! How else could you ever conceive, that the being reviled and hettedofall men should make us less fit for our Master's service? How else could you ever think of savi^ig yourself and them thai hear you. without being the jilth and offscouring of the world? To this hour is this Scripture true ; and I therein rejoice, yea, and will rejoice. Blessed be God, I enjoy the reproach of Christ! Oh, may you also be vile, exceeding vile for His sak^ ! God forbid that you should ever be other than generally scandalous, I had almost said universally. If any man tell yau
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there is a new way of following Christ, he is a Uar^ and the truth is not in him,'^^
It was a natural consequence of this temper of mind that he should disregard any ecclesiastical authority which attempted to interfere with his course of conduct. The Bishop of Bristol, after a conversation in which Wesley had confirmed to him the fact that people were thrown into fits at his meetings, and that he prayed over them, and his prayer was often heard, desired him to quit his. diocese, where he was not commissioned to preach, and consequently had no business. Wesley replied, *< My business on earth is to do what good I can : wherever, therefore, I think I can do most good, there must I stay so long as I think so ; at present I think I can do most good here, therefore here I stay : being ordained as Fellow of a College, I was not limited to any particular cure, but have an indeter* minate commission to preach the word of God in any part of the Church of England. I do not, therefore, conceive that in preaching here by this commission, I break any human law. When I am convinced I do, then it will be time to ask ^ shall I obey God or man?^ But if I should be convinced in the mean while, that I could advance the glory of God and the salvation of souls in any other place more than in Bristol, in that hour, by God's hfelp, I will go hence ; which till then I may not do.'^
Y^t while he thus set at nought the authority of the Bishop, he would have revived a practice which had fallen into disuse throughout all the reformed Churches, as being little congenial to the spirit of the Reformation. The society at Bristol passed a resolution that all the members should obey the fchurch to which they belonged, by observing all Fridays in the year, as days of fasting or abstinence; and they agreed that as many as had opportunity should meet on that day and spend an hour together in prayer. This probably gave currency, if it did not occasion, a report which now prevailed that h« was a Papist, if not a Jesuit. This report, he affirms,
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252 EXTRAVAGANCIES OP THE METHODISTS. [1739-
was b^gun by persons who were either bigotted Dissenters, or Clergymen ; and they spoke eiwer in gross ignorance, not understanding what the princi- ples of ropery were, or in wilful falsehood, thinking to serve their own cause. " Now take this to your- selves," he says, " whosoever ye are, high or low. Dissenters or Churchmen, clergy or laity, who have advanced this shameless charge, and digest it how you can !" " O ye fools," he exclaims, '^ when will ye understand that the preaching justification by faith alone, the allowing no meritorious cause of justification, but the death and the righteousness of Christ, and no conditional or instrumental cause but faith, is overturning Popery from the foundation? When will ye understand that the most destructive of all those errors which Rome, the mother of abo* minations, hath brought forth (compared to which transubstantiation and a hundred more, are trifles light as air,) is, that we are justified by works, or (to express the same thing a little more decently) by faith and works. Now, do I preach this ? i did for ten years : I was fundamentally a Papist and knew it not. But 1 do now testify to all (and it is the very point for asserting which I have to this day been called in question,) that no good works can be done before justification, none which have not in them the nature of sin.^ This doctrine, however, was not preached in all the naked absurdity of its consequences.
Charles Wesley, who was now pursuing the course of itinerant preaching which Whitefield had begun, joined his brother at Bristol about this time ; and it so happens that the manner of his preaching and the method which was obser\ ed in their meetings are described by one whom curiosity and a religious temper led to bear him in a field near the city. ^' I found him,^^ says this person, ^^ standing on a table board in an erect posture, with his hands and eyes lifted up to heaven in prayer: be prayed witb un- common fervour, fluency, and variety of proper ex- pressions. He then preached about an hour in such h nianner as I scarce ever heard any man preach :
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thoagb I have heard many a finer sermon, accord- ing to the common taste or acceptation of sermons, I D<ever heard any man discover such evident signs of a vehement desire, or labour so earnestly to convince his hearers that they were all by nature in a sinful, lost, undone state. He showed how great a change a faith in Christ would produce in the whole man, afid that every man who is in Christ, that is, who believes in him unto salvation, is a new creature. Nor did he fail to press how ineffectual their faith would be to justify them unless it wrought by love, purified their hearts, and was productive of good works. With uncommon fer- vour he acquitted himself as an ambassador of Christ, beseeching them in his name, and praying them in his stead to be reconciled to God. And al- though he used no notea, nor had any thing in his hand but a Bible, yet he delivered his thoughts in a rich, copious variety of expression, and with so much pro- priety, that I could not observe any thing incoherent or inanimate through the whole performance.'^
This person, whose name was Joseph * Williams, was a dissenter of Kidderminster ; and having been accustomed to a dry and formal manner of preaching, he was the more impressed by the eloquence of one whose mind was enriched by cultivation as well as heated with devotion. His account of the meeting in the evening is more curious. The room was thronged ; but in the middle there was a convenient place provided for the minister to stand or sit on. They sung a hymn before he came, but broke it off on hie appearing; and he expounded part of a chap- ter of St. John w what Mr. Williams calls a most sweet, savoury, spiritual manner. This was followed by another hymn, that by qciore expounding, and that again by more singing : Wesley then prayed over a great number of bills which were put up by the soci- ^ ety, about twenty of which respected spiritual cases,
* Charles Wesley says of this Mr. Williams ia his jotirnal, " I know not of what denomination he is, nor is it material ; for he has the mind which was in Christ."
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254 EXTRATAGANCIES OF THE BIETH0DIST8. [1739.
and he concluded with a blessing. The whole ser- vice took up nearly two hours. " Bat never sure," says Williams, " did I hear such praying; never did i see or hear such evident marks of fervency in the service of God. At the close of every petition a se- rious Amen, like a gentle rushing sound of waters, ran through the whole audience, with such a solemn air as quite distinguished it from whatever of that nature I have heard attending the responses in the Church service. If there be such a thing as heavenly music upon earth I heard it there. If there be such an en- joyment, such an attainment as Heaven upon earth,' numbers in that society seemed to possess it As for my own part, 1 do not remember my heart to have been so elevated in divine love and praise as it was there and then for many years past, if ever ; and an afiecting sense and savour thereof abode in my mind many weeks after."
This good man would not have thus spoken with unqualified approbation, had he been present at any more violent exhibition. But the "outward signs'* about this time were for a while suspended; the more susceptible subjects had gone through the dis- ease, and the symptoms which it assumed in others were such as would awaken horror in the beholders^ lather than excite in them any desire of going through the same initiation. " Many," says Wesley, " were deeply convinced, but none were delivered from that painful conviction. TAc ckildfen came to the birih^ bui there was not strength to bring forth. I fear we have grieved the Spirit of the jealous God by questioning his work, and that, therefore, he is withdrawn from us for a season." He now returned to London, and preached triumphantly at Whitefield's favourite sta- tions— Moorfields and K^nnington Common. But bis greatest trhimph was in finding that his mother at length acquiesced in the whole of his proceedings. She told him that till lately she had scarce heard of a present forgiveness of sins, or of God's Spirit bear- ing witness with our spirit ; much less had she ima- gined that it was the common privilege of all true be?
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lievers, and therefore she had never dared ask it for herself. But recently when her son-in-law, Hall, in delivering the cop to her, pronounced these words, the btood of our Ljord Jesus Christ which was given for thee, the words struck through her heart, and she then knew that for Christ's sake God had forgiven her all her «ins. Wesley asked whether his father had not the same faith, and whether he had not preached it to others* She replied^ he had it him- self, and declared, a little before his death, he had no darkness, no fear, no doubt of his salvation ; but that she did not remember to have heard him preach upon it explicitly ; and therefore supjposed that he regarded it as the peculiar blessing of a few, not as v promised to all the people of God. Mrs. Wesley was then seventy years of age ; and this account may induce a reasonable suspicion that her powers of mind must have been impaired : she would not else have supposed that any other faith or degree of faith was necessary, than that in which her husband had lived and died. It is wisely, as well as eloquently said by Fuller the Worthy, in one of his sermons, «( Of such as deny that formerly we had in our church- es all truth necessary to salvation, I ask Joseph's question to his brethren. Is your father well? the obi man — is he yet aUve f So, how fare the souls of their sires, and the ghosts of their grandfathers ? are they yet alive? do they still survive in bliss, in happi- ness ? Oh no ! they are dead ; dead in s6ul, dead in body, dead temporally, dead eternally, dead and damned, if so be we had not all truth necessary to salvation before their time.''
This was a great affliction to her son Samuel. He wrote to her, ^ It was with exceeding concern and grief I heard you had countenanced a spread- ing delusion, so far as to be one of Jack's congre- gation. Is it not enough that I am bereft of both my brothers, but must my mother follow too ? I earnestly beseech tht Aknighty to preserve you from joining a schism at the close of your life, as you Were unfortunately engagetl in one at the
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'beginning of it They boast of you already as a disciple. Charles has told John Bentham that I do not differ much, if we understand one another. I am afraid I must be forced to advertise, such is their apprehension, or their charity. But they de- sign separation. Things will take their natural course, without an especial interposition of Pro- vidence. They are already forbid all the pulpits in London, and to preach in that diocese is actual schism. In all likelihood it will come to the same all over England, if the Bishops have courage enough. They leave off* the liturgy in the fields: though Mr. Whitefield expresses his value for it, he never once read it to his tatterdemalions on a common. Their societies are sufficient to dissolve all other societies but their own ; will any man of Common sense or spi- rit suffer any domestic to be in a bond engaged to re- late every thing without reserve to five or ten people, that concerns the person's conscience, how much soever it may concern the family ? Ought any marri- ed persons to be there, unless husband and wife be there together.'^ This is literally putting asunder whom God hath joined together. As I told Jack, I am not afraid the church should excommunicate him^, discipline is at too low an ebb ; but that he should excommunicate the church. It is pretty near it Holiness and good works are not so much as cwdi^ tions of our acceptance with God. Love-feasts are introduced, and extemporary prayers and expositions of Scripture, which last are enough to bring in all confusion ; nor is it likely they will want any mira- cles to support them. He only can stop them from being a formed sect, in a very little time, who ruleth the madness of the people. Ecclesiastical censures have lost their terrors, thank fanaticism on |he one hand and atheism on the other. To talk of persecu- tion, therefore, from thence is mere insult Poor Brown, who gave name and rise to the first separa^ tists, though ne repented every vein of his hearty co^ld never uudo the mischief he had done.''
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Samuel Wesley * died within three weeks after the date of this letter; and John says in his journal, •* We could not but rejoice at hearing from one who had attended my brother in all his weakness, that several days before he went hence, God had given him a calm and full assurance of his interest in Christ. Oh ! may every one who opposes it be thus t con- vinced that this doctrine is of God !'' Wesley can- not be suspected of intentional deceit ; yet who is there who upon reading this passage would suppose that Samuel had died after an illness of four hours ? — well might he protest against the apprehension or the charity of those who were so eager to hold him up to the world as their convert. The state of mind which this good man enjoyed had nothing in common with the extravagant doctrine of assurance which his bro- thers were preaching with such vehemence during the ebullition of their enthusiasm ; it was the sure and certain hope of a sincere and humble Christian, who trusted in the merits of his Saviour and the mer- cy of his God. He died as he had lived, in that es- sential faith which ha&been common to all Christians in all ages ; — ^that faith wherein he had been trained up, which had been rooted in him by a sound edu- cation, and confirmed by diligent study, and by his own ripe judgment. And to that faith Wesley him- self imperceptibly returned as time and experience
* In the History of Dissenters by David Bogue and James Ben- nett, (vol. iii. p. 9.) Samuel Wesley is called ** a worldly priest, who hated all pretence to more religion than our neighbours, as an infallible mark of a dissenter ! I" The amiable spirit which is displayed' in this sentence, its liberality, its charity, and its regard to truth, require no comment.
t This passage may probably have been the cause of the breach between John Wesley and his brother's family, and to that breach the preservation of Samuel's letters is owing. Wesley was very desirous of getting the whole correspondence into his possession, *^ but the (kughter and grand-daughter of Samuel being offended ^ at his conduct, would never deliver them to him. It was taken for granted that^e would have suppressed them. They gave them to Mr. Badcock with a view to their publication after Wes- ley?s death, and Badcock dying before then, gave them to Dr. Priestley with the same intent."
"ToL. I. 33
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taught him to correct hiB aberiratioQS. In his old aee
he said to Mr. Melville Home these memorable
words : " When fifty years ago my brother Charles
i and I, in simplicity of our hearts, told the good peo*
Ele of England, that unless they X:ieeu^ their sins were ^rgiven, they were under the wrath and curse of God, I marvel, Melville, they did not stone us ! The Me- '^ thodists, I hope, know better now ; we preach assu- rance as we always did, as a common privilege of \ the children of God ; but we do not enforce it, under the pain of damnation, denounced on all who enjoy it net"
At this time Wesley believed that he differed in no point from the Church of England, but piTeached hef fundamental doctrines, as^ they were clearly laid down, both in her prayers, articles^ and homilies. But from those clergy who in reality dissented from the church, though they owned it not, he differed, he said, in these points ; they spoke of justification either as the same thing with sanctlfication, or as something consequent upon it; he believed justification to be wholly distinct from sanctlfication, and necessarily Untecedent to it. The diflference would have been of little consequence had it consisted only in this lo- gomachy: how many thousand and ten thousand Christians have taken, and will take, the right course to heaven, without understanding, thinking, or perhaps hearing of these terms, but satisfied with the hope, and sare in the promise of their salva- tion ! They spake of our own holiness and good works, he said, as the cause of our justification ; he believed that the death and righteousness of Christ were the whole and sole cause. They Spake of good Works as a condition of justification, ' necessarily previous to it : he believed no good work Could be previous to it, and consequently could not be a condition of it ; ^ but that we are justified (be- in^ till that hour ungodly, and therefore incapable of doing any good work) by faith alone — faith without works — ^faith including no good work, though it pro- duces all.^^ They spake of sanctlfication as if it
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* were an outward thing, which consisted in doing no
* liarin, and in doing what is called good : he believed that it was theUfeof God in the sod of man ; a partici^ potion of the divme nature ; the mind thai was in Christ ; the renewal of our heart crfier the image of him that cre^ atedus. They spake of the new birth as an outward thing ; as if it were no more than baptism, or at most a change from a vicious to what is called a virtuous life: he believed that it was an entire change of our inmost nature, from the image of the devil, wherein we are born, to the image of God. ^ There is, there- fore,'^ he says, ^^a wide, essential, fundamental, irre* concileable difference between us ; so that if they speak the truth as it is in Jesus, I am found a false witness before God ; but if I teach the way of God in truth, ihey are blind leaders of the blind.^^ But where learot he this exa^erated and monstrous no* tion of the innate depravity of man ? and who taueht him that man, who was created in the image of his Maker, was depraved into an image of the devil at birth? assuredly not He who said, Suffer little chil- dren to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.
True old Christianity, he tells us, was now every where spoken against, under the new name of Metho* dism. in reality, the good which Methodism might produce was doubtful, for there had been no time as yet to prove the stability of its converts; and it was, moreover, from its very nature, private, while the ex- cesses and extravagancies of the sect were public and notorious. Samuel Wesley, when he said that mira* cles would not be wanting to support them, foresaw as clearly what would be the natural progress of these things, as he did their certain tendency and inevita- ble end. Wesley was fully 6atis6ed that the parox-* ysms which he caused in his hearers by his preach** ing, were velieved by his prayers ; it was easy after this to persuade himself that he^ and such of his dis* ciples as had £aith like him, could heal diseases and cast oat devils. Accordingly he relates the case of a fluid woman, as a fresh proof that whatsoever ye shall
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260 EXTRAVAGANCIES OP THE METHODISTS. [1739.
Qsh^ believing^ ye shall receive. This person had been so decidedly frantic, that it was necessary to fasteif her down in her bed ; " but upon prayer made for her, she was instantly relieved and restored to a sound mind." The manner in which some persons were tormented perplexed Wesley for a while, and gave him some concern: — he suspected craziness, where imposture might have better explained the symptoms; but having recourse to bibliomancy to know what would be the issue of these things, he was satisfied by lighting upon a text, which certainly was never more unworthily applied — Glory be to God m the highest^ and on earth peace^ good will towards men.-^ Thus deluding himself, when he was sent for to one of these M'omen, (for the persons who acted the part of demoniacs, or who mistook hysterical feelings for possession, were generally females,) he prayed God to bruise Satan under his feet, and the patient imme- diately cried out vehemently. He is gone — he is gone ! More violent instances occurred in Bristol and Kings- wood ; and disgusting though they are, they are of too much importance in the nistory of Wesley and of Methodism, to be passed over in silence, or slightly to be Hoticed. Returning from Kings wood one even- ing, he was exceedingly pressed to go back to a young woman. " The fact," he says, " I nakedly relate, and leave every man to his own judgment of it I went She was nineteen or twenty years old, but coqld not write or read. I found her on the bed, two or three persons holding her. It was a terrible sight An- guish, horror, and despair above all description, ap- peared in her pale face. The thousand distortions of her whole body showed how the dogs of hell were gnawing at her heart The shrieks intermixed were scarce to be endured ; but her stony eyes could not weep. She screamed out, as words could find their way, ^I am damned, damned; lost for ever! Six days ago you might have helped me — ^but it is past — I am the Devil's now— I have given myself to him — his 1 am — him I must serve — ^with him I must go to hell — I will be his — ^I will serve him — Lwill go with
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1739.] EXTRAVAGANCIES OP THE METHODISTS. 261
him to hell — ^I cannot be saved — I will not be saved — ^I miot, I will, I will be damned !^ She then began praying to the devil : we began, ' Ann of the Lord, awake, awake T She immediately sunk down as asleep ; but as soon as we left off^ broke out again with inexpressible vehemence. * Stony hearts, break ! I am a warning to you. Break, break, poor stony hearts! Will you not break? What can be done more for stony hearts ? 1 am damned that you may be saved ! Now break, now break, poor stony hearts ! You need not be damned, though I must' She then fixed her eyes on the comer of the ceiling, and said, * There he is ! aye, there he is ! Come, good devil, come ! Take me away ! You said you would dash my brains out : come, do it quickly ! I am your's — ^I will be your's ! take me away !' We interrupted her by calling again upon God : on which she sunk down as before, and another young woman began to roar as loud as she had done. My brother now came in, it being about nine o'clock. We continued in prayer till past eleven, when God, in a moment, spoke peace into the soul ; ficst, of the first-tormented, and then of the other; and they both joined in singing praise to Him who had stilled the enemy and the avenger.'' Ill these words Wesley describes this hideous sci^ne of frenzy and fanaticism, eager to proclaim it as a manifestation of his power, instead of seeking to prevent the repetition of such ravings. The fits and convulsions which had lately been so frequent, were now suspended, and this new description of outward signs took its course, — a more suspicious description, as well as more scandalous and more shocking. On the second day after the case in Kingswood, Wesley was called to a woman whom he found lying on the ground, sometimes gnashing her teeth, sometimes roaring and struggling with such force, especially when the name of Jesus was named, that three or four persons could scarcely hold her. She had been in this condition during the whole night. After they had prayed over her, the violence of her symptoms was abated : he left her, but was again summoned
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262 BXTftAVAGANCIBB OF THE METHODISTS* [1739*
in the course of the evening. ^* I was unwilling,'^ he says, ^^ indeed afraid to go, thinking it would not avail, unless some who were strong in faith were to wrestle with God for her. I opened mj Testament on those words, / was afraidf and went and hid thy ta* lent in the earth. I stood reproved) and went imme^ diately. She began screaming before I came into the room; then broke ont into a horrid laughter, mixed witli blasphemy, grievous to hefir. One who, from many circumstances, apprehended a preterna- tural agent to be concerned in this, askings ^ How didst thou dare to enter into a Christian ?' was an- swered, ^ She is not a Christian ; she is mine.' ^ Dost thou not tremble at the name of Jesus ?^ he asked. No words followed ; but she shrunk back, and trem* bled exceedingly. ^ Art thou not increasing thy own damnation?' It was faintly answered, ^ Aye, aye P which was followed by fresh cursing and blasphem* ing. My brother coming in, she cried out, ^ Preacher ! Field-preacher ! I do not love field-preaching.' This was repeated two hours together, with spittmg, and all the expressions of strong aversion. We left her at twelve, but called again about noon the next day : and now it was that God showed he heareth prayer. All her pangs ceased in a moment ^ She was filled with peace, and knew that the son of wickedness was departed from her."
If Wesley himself were the questioner in this dia- logue with the supposed devil, the woman acted her part readily : if she were interrogated by any other person, the scene bears strong marks of having been prepared ; for that some of his followers were now beginning to get up exhibitions of this kind, is made probable by the next cases which he has re- corded. Being called in to another female demoniac at Kingswood, he set out on horseback. It rained heavily, and the woman, when he was three miles off, cried out, «^ Yonder comes Wesley, galloping as fast as he can !" a circumstance which it cerCamly required no aid from the devil to foresee. The ordinary symptoms appeared; and one who waa
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eleariy bonvin<ied that tlus was no ilatui'al disorder^ gaid, ^ 1 think Satan is let loose ; I fear he will not atop here !^' and added, ^^ I command thee, in the name of the Lord JesQO, to tell if thoo hast commis** sidn to torment any other soul ?'^ It was immediately answered, '' I haire i*^ and two women were named, who were at some distance, and in perfect health. If this was repeated to the women, which probably it wottld be, it might easily frighten them into a fit,
{prepared as they already were by Methodism. Wes- ey called the next evening at a house where he kmtA them both, a^ presently both were in agonies. The violent convulsions all over their bodies are said by Wesley to be such as ^^ words cannot de- scribe^ and their cries and groans too horrid to be borne^ tiU one of them, in a tone not to be ej^^ressed^ said, ^ Whene is your faith now ? Come, go to prayers ! I will pray with you. Our Father which art in heaven !' We took the advice, from tohomso^ ever it cdme^ aAd poured out our souls before God, till L""" y C— -— r's agonies so increased, that it aeemed she was in the pangs of death. But in a moment Grod spoke ; she knew his voice, and both her body and soul were healed. We continued in prayer till near one, when S— y J— — s's voice was also changed, and she began strongly to call upon God. TUs she did for the greatest part of the night In the morning we renewed our prayers, whilst she was crying continually, ^' I burn ! I burn ! Oh, what shall I do! I have a fire within me — ^1 cannot bear it. Lord Jesus, help !''
Charles was not so credulous in such cases as bis brother. That the body would sometimes partake of the violent emotions of the soul, and sink under the passion which the preacher had raised he could not doubt, because it often occurred under his own eyes to persons whose sincerity could not be im- peached ; but he saw that this was not always in- voluntary, he frequently attempted to check it with success, and he sometimes detected imposition. A woman at Kingswood was distorting herself, and
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264 EXTRAVAGANCIES OF THE METHOmSTS. [1739.
crying out loudly while he preached ; she became quite calm when he assured her that he did not think the better of her for it. A girl at Bristol being questioned judiciously concerning her frequeht fita and trances, confessed that what she did was for the purpose of making Mr. Wesley take notice of her.
*^ To-day,'' he says in his journal, " one came who was pleased to fall into a fit for my entertain- ment. He beat himself heartily : I thought it a pity to hinder him ; so instead of sin^ng over him as had often been done, we lefl him to recover at his leisure. A girl as she began her cry, I ordered to be carried out: her convulsions were so violent as to take away the use of her limbs till they laid her without at the door, and left her; then she immediately found her legs, and walked ofil Some very unstill listers, who always took care to stand tiear me, and tried who could cry loudest, since I have had them removed out of my sight, have been as quiet as lambs. The first night I preached here, half my words were lost through the noise of their outcries ; last night before I began, I gave public notice that whosoever cried so as to drown my voice, should without any man's hurting or judging them, be gently carried to the furthest corner of the room: but my porters had no employment the whole night."
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CHAPTElt IX.
Wesley's views.— state op religion in England,
Wesley had now proposed to himself a clear and determinate object. What had from time to time been effected in the monastic families of the Romish establishment, when the laws of those institutions were relaxed and the spirit had evaporated, he wished to do upon a wider theatre and with a nobler purpose. He hoped to give a new impulse to the Church of England, to awaken its dormant zeal, infuse life into a bodj where nothing but life was wanting, and lead the v/a.y to the performance of duties which the State had blindly overlooked, and the Church had scandalously neglected : thus would he become the author of a second Reformation, whereby all that had been left undone in the former would be completed. And here it will be convenient to look back upon the causes and circumstances which prepared the way for him, and made it desira-^ ble, even according to human perceptions, that such an agent in the moral world should be raised up. This will be rendered more intelligible by a brief retrospect of the religious history of England.
Christianity at its beginning was preached to the poor, and during the first centuries gradually made Its way up; yet even then it was the religion of towns and cities, so that after its triutnph was esta- blished, the same M'ortl came at length to signify a villager and a heathen. When the Roman empire was broken up, the work of conversion, especially in these northern countries, was to begin again; the missionaries then looked for proselytes in courts, they converted queens and kings, who had good po- litical reasons for accepting their instructions, and Christianity made its way down. Intellect was never more beneficially employed, and never obtain-
VOL. I. 3 1
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266 STATE OF RELIGION IN ENGLAND.
ed a' more signal triumpli. Bloody idolatries were overthrown ; all that remained of literature and of science was rescued from destruction ; and the com- forts, arts and elegancies of social and re6ned life were introduced among the humanized barbarians. Miracles have been largely invented to exaggerate the wonder of a change which not improbably was sometimes promoted by fraud ; still it is a beautiful
Eart of the annals of mankind. The great actors ave been magnified into demi-gods by their own church, but they have been, not less unduly, con- signed to neglect and foi^etfulness in ours ; for if ever men were entitled to the lasting gratitude and admiration of those for whom they lived and labNoured, these are they.
The conversion of Britain had not been completed when the island ceased to be a part of the Koman empire. There can be little doubt that the Ronmn idolatry was still subsisting : the Picts were appa* rently an unconverted tribe of indigenous savages, still tattooed and woaded ; and it is certain that the Druidical superstitions were cherished in a later age. After the Saxons had become a Christian people, a fresh flood of heathenism came in with the Danes; and from the time of Alfred there exist- ed a heathen party in the country, which continued sometimes in strength and always in hope, till the Conquest: after that time it received no recruits from Scandinavia, and therefore it disappeared ; but it may rather be said to have died away for want of support, than to have been eradicated by the care of the government, or the exertions of the clergy.
During the first centuries of the Saxon church (here were no parochial divisions. The clergy re- sided in episcopal monasteries under the superinten- dence of the bishop, as they had been brought up : they were sent from thence to instruct the country people, and administer the offices of religion in the few churches which existed, or where there was no church, at a cross in the open air ; when they had ex- ecuted their commission they returned, and others
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went oat to perform the same course of duty. The means of instruction were few and 'precarious under such a system, and those lords who were desirous of having spiritual aid always at hand for themselves^ or who saw the advantage of having their vassals trained in a faith which inculcated obedience, indus- try, patience and contentment, built churches and endowed them for the maintenance of a resident priest. The bishops promoted such establishments : parishes were thus formed which were usually co-ex- tensive with the domain of the patron, and as these became general, the system of itinerancy fell into dis- use. The alteration was well intended, and has produced great good ; yet it may' have contributed in no slight degree to that decay of knowledge and dissoluteness of life which are known after this time to have ensued among the Saxon clergy. They were removed from the eye of authority, from the opportunities of learning, and from the society of their equals.
The Norman conquest produced more good than evil by bringing our Church into a closer connexion with Home, for the light of the world was there, — dim indeed and offuscated, untrimmed and wavering < in the socket, but living and burning still. A fairer ideal of Utopian policy can scarcely be contemplated I than the papal scheme, if it could be regarded apart f from the abuses, the frauds, and the crimes to which it has given birth. An empire was to be erected, not of force but of intellect, which should bind toge- ther all nations in the unity of faith, and in the bond of peace. Its members were to direct the councils of princes and the consciences of all men; for this purpose they were chosen from the rest of mankind in early youth, and trained accordingly, or they vo- lunteered in maturer life, when weaned from the world and weary of its vanities. They were reliev* ed by a liberal provision from any care for their own support; the obligation of celibacy precluded those prudential anxieties which might otherwise have em* ployed too large a portion of their time and of their
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ft6d STATE OF RELIGION IN ENGLANI),
thotighte^ 6T have interfered in any way with that Bervice to which tbey were devoted ; and they wer^ exempted from the se<2ular power, that they might discharge their reUgious duty freely and without fear. By the wil»e and admirable institution of tythes^ a tenth part of all property ^as rescued from the or- dinary course of descent in which it would else have .been absorbed, and formed into an ample estabhsh- iiient for the members of this intellectual aristocra- cy, in their different d^rees. He who entered the church, possessing the requisite knowledge, ability^ and discretion, however humble his birth, might as- pire to Wealth) rank, and honours which wotild make the haughtiest barons acknowledge him for theif peer, and to authority before which kings trembled, and against which emperors struggled in vain. .,
Let us confess that human ambition never propos- ed to itself a grander aim, and that all other schemes of empire for which mankind have bled, appear mean and contemptible, when compared to this tnagnificent tOAception^ And much was accomplished for which feiil succeeding ages have reason to be grateful. For by their union with Rome (and that union could only be preserved by their dependence) the distant Churches were saved from sinking into a state of ut'* ter ignorance and degradation, like that of the Abys^ feinians or Armenians; Christendom, because of this Union, was more than a name ; and therefore, not- Ivithstanding its internal divisions and dissention6,oii the great occasion when its vital interests were at stake, felt that it had one heart, one life, and acted tiith one impulse. Had it not been for the crusadeS) Mahommedanism would have barbd.ri2ed the worlds And bad it not been for the elevation of the clerical tharacter, Christendom itself would have continued in a slate of barbarism^ and even retrograded further t for birth would have been the only distinction^ and (arms the only honourable pursuit.
The Church could not have efie^t^d all this good^ if it had not employed means which have been too indiscriminately condemned^ A religion of rites and
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STATB OF RELIGION IK ENOLARt). 269
tieremonies was as necessary for the rude and fero- cious nations, wliich overthrew the Roman empire, fis for the Israelites when thej were brought out of Egypt. Pomp, and wealth, and authority were es- sential for its success. Through these it triumphed, but by these it was corrupted ; for they brought it into too close an union with the world. These temptations drew into its ranks men who disgraced by their vices the high offices which they obtained by their birth. The celibacy of the clergy was another cause of corruption. When the persecution under the heathen emperors was to be braved, or the preachers of the gospel were to expose themselves to the caprice and cruelty of barbarous idolaters, it was desirable that they should hold their lives loose, and, as far as possible, keep themselves disengaged from earth. But the imposition of celibacy upon all the ministers of the Church, was unauthorized by the letter of Scripture, and contrary to its spirit, and in its general consequences beyond all doubt detrimen- tal to public morals. By a system of confession, fa^ vourable indeed to its ambitious views, but still more injurious to* morality, the Church intruded upon the sacredness' of private life. It disguised the sublime and salutary truths of revelation beneath a mass of fables more gross and monstrous than the very Hea- thens had feigned ; ahd arrogating to itself the pow- er of forgiving sins, it substituted, in the place of Christian duties, a routine of practices borrowed from the Manichdeans, Pagans of every kind, and even the Mahommedans ; and established it as af
* La wUute avoitposi deux barriires, pour maitUentr In cha$Ut€ chez lesfemmes^ la pttJetir, et Us remords : le priire hs anianiit let ioutes les deuxy par td confesnon et Vabs»lutton. (Mar;anda, Ta- bleau da PiemoDt.) St. Evremond observes, that th^ Protestant reKgion is as favourable to husbands, as the Cdthoiic is to what he calls lovers.
t "Learn," says Bishop Bui'net^ "to vievr Popery in 'a true light, as a conspiracy to exalt the power of the clergy, even by subjecting the most sacred truths of religion to contrivances for raising their authority^ and by offering to the world another me- thod of being saved, besides that presented in the Gospel. Po-
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principle, that by these worthless works a man might not only secure salTation for himself but accoraulate a stock of surplus merits, which were disposable by gift or sale. Men were easily persuaded, that as the merit of good works might be bought, bo might the account for evil ones be settled by pecuniary pay- ment, and the rich be their own redeemers. Every thing on earth had long been venal, and the scheme of corruption was completed, by putting the kingdom of heaven at a price. Yet was this whole system well adapted to the ignorance upon which it rested, and which it tended to perpetuate. Its symbols were every where before the eyes of the people, and its practices dexterously interwoven with the daily business of life. While-it lulled the conscience, it possessed the imagination and the heart. The Church was like a garden, in which things rank and gross in nature were running to seed ; but they did not possess it wholly; it still produced beautifiil flowers, and wholesome herbs and fruit.
When the abuses were most flagrant, and a spirit of inquiry had arisen with the restoration of letters, wise men would have weeded the garden, but rash ones were for going to work with the plough and the harrow. What was to be expected from the spirit which had gone abroad had been shown by the con« duct of the Lollards in England, and more manifestly in Bohemia, by the bloody drama of the Hussite war. The most sagacious and even-minded men of the a^e, I such as Erasmus and Sir Thomas More, in their fear ) of religious revolution, and the inevitable evils which it would draw on, opposed the reform, which, but for that foresight, they would have desired and pro- moted. In this country the best people and the worst combined in bringing about the Reformation,
peiy is amass of impostures, supported by men who manage them with great advantages, and impose them with inexpressible seven- ties on those who dare eaH any thing in question that they dictate to them."
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and in its progress it bore evident marks of both. The business of demolition was successfully carried on by zsealots, who lent their ignorant hands to ag^^ grandize and enrich the rapacious and the * unprinci- pled ; but the fathers of the English Church were not permitted to complete the edifice which they would have raised from the ruins.
The lay impropriations, which are perhaps the best bulwarks of the Church in our distempered age, were, for a long time after the Reformation, a sore and scandatlous evil. Where the monasteries had appropriated a benefice, they could always provide a fit preacher; and though they have been -charged with giving scanty stipends to ignorant incumbents, and thus contributing greatly to the decay of learning, the Hstic e oi the accusation may be questioned. For though their object in obtaining these impropriations was that they might indulge in larger expenses, all those expenses were not unworthy ones, and it would be easy to show that literattire must have gained more than it jcould possibly have lost by the trans- fer. But when, at the dissolution of the monasteries, their poverty was distributed among those who pos- sessed favour or interest at court, and, as was. pro-^ verbially said. Popish lands made Protestant land-* lords, the conseauences of that abominable robbery were soon perceived. Men who had enriched them-^ selves by sacrilege supported the new establishment,
* " The untimely end of that good prince, King Edward,*' saya Burnet in the supplementary volume to his history, Tp. 216.) was looked upon by all people as a just judgment of Goa upon those who pretended to love and promote a reformatioo, but whose im- pious and flagitious lives were a reproach to it. The open lewd- ness in which many lived, without shame or remorse, gave great occasion to their adversaries to say they were in the right to assert justification by faith without works, since they were, as to every good woflc, reprobate. Their gross and insatiable scrambling af- ter the goods and wealth that had been dedicated with good designs, though to superstitious uses, without applying any part of it to the promoting the gospel, the instructing the youth, and reliev- ing the poor, made all people conclude, that it tvas for robbery, and not for reformation, that their zeal made thorn so active."
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because it warranted their ill-gotten estates : their conduct evinced that thej were not influenced by any better motives. In many places the churches were suffered to fall to decay ; and cures so impover- ished, as no longer to afford the minister a decent subsistence, were given to any persons who coal4 be found miserable enough to accept them. That opinion, which had accustomed the people to look upon religious * poverty with respect, was removed at the very time when the great body of the paro- chial clergy were thus reduced to abject poverty ; and at the same time the clergy were permitted to marry, which rendered their poverty more conspicu- ous and less endurable.
The Reformation, like other great political revo- lutions, was produced by the zeal and boldness of an active minority. The great mass of the people throughout England were attached to the Catholic superstition, and most strongly so to those parts of it which were most superstitious. They were brought
* Archbishop Leighton (a man who ought never to he named without some expression of respect for his wisdom and his holiness) used to say, *' The corruptions and cruelties of Popery were such gross and odious things, that nothing could have maintained that Church under those just and visible prejudices, but the several or- ders among them, which had an appearance of mortification and con- tempt of the world, and,with all the trash that was among them, main- tained a face of piety and devotion. He also thought the great and fatal error of the Reformation was, that more of those houses, and of that course of life, free from the entanglements of vows and other DtMXtures, was not preserved ; so that the Protestant churches had neither places of education, nor retreat for men of mortified tempers."
Burnet's Hist, of his Own Time, vol. i. p.*175. (edition 1816.)
Burnet himself, also saw the good which the Romish Church derived from these orders^ notwithstanding the villainous impos- tures and loathsome trash with which they were polluted. " The whole body of Protestants,'' he says, <* if united, might be an equal match to the Church of Rome : it is much superior to»thcm in wealth and in force, if it were animated with the zeal which th^ monastic orders, but chiefly the.- Jesuits, spread through their whole communion : whereas the reformed are cold and uncon- cerned, as well as disjointed in matters that relate to religion."
See also, upon this subject, what is said in the Q,uarterly Re- view, vol. xix. p. 89.
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over from it just as Julian intended to bring over the ChristiaDB from Christianity, by prohibiting their an- cient practices, and depriving them of their former course of instruction, rather than by the zeal and ^ability of new teachers. Under the papal system, more had latterly been done by the regular than by the secular clergy; but by the suppression of the re-
Sulars, the number of relisious instructers was re« uced to less than half the former establishment, and they who remained were left to labour with diminish- . ed ardour in a wider field. For a twofold evil was produced by the violence of the struggle and its long continuance. Those members of me priesthood who had entered with most feeling upon their holy office, who were most conscious of its duties, or who had applied themselves with most vigour to theolo-
g'ical studies, took their part either for or against the eformation ; and on the one side or the other a large proportion of them suffered martyrdom or exile, bom parties being too sincere not to understand and avow, that, upon their view of the question, it was as much a religious duty to inflict, as to suffer persecu- tion. But the ignorant, the lukewarm, the time-serv- ers, and many whom a pardonable weakness, or a humble dijstrust of their own frail judgment, withheld from taking a decided part, kept their station,t and
Serformed the old service or the new with equal obe- ience; many indeed with equal indifference: but there is reason to believe that many were attached in secret to the old system, not merelybecause while it existed they had been more respected and better paid, but because they had grown up in it, and an
* Bishop Jewel said, in one of his letters, that ** if they had more hands matters would go well : but it was hard to make a cart go without horses." « .
t The number of the secular clergy was about 9400, and of these scarcely 200 were deprived by the esfeblishment of the Church under Elizabeth ; the rest conformed as they had done under Queen Mary, and as many of them would again have done if the country had been cursed (according to their hopes) with a second of the name. It does not appear that any of the inferior clergy were deprived.
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acquiescence in its exploded tenets had become the rooted habits of their minds. They lived in hope of another change, which was always expecte<l while the presumptive heiress of the crown was a Roman- ist; they dared not openly inculcate the old faith, but assuredly they used no efforts for establishing the people in scriptural truths contrary to the errors with which they themselves were possessed ; and if the reformed service appeared dry and meagre in their churches, and their ministry was as ineffectual as it was insincere and heartless, this was what they desired.
This further evil ensued; the worldly motives which had induced parents to educate their childrea ' for the clerical profession, were withdrawn. The means for assisting poor scholars were lamentably diminished. The church no longer offered power to the aspiring, dignity to the proud, ease and comfort to easy men, and opportunities of learning SLod lei- sure to those of a higher nature ; but it held forth a prospect of the most imminent and appalling danger «^fear, insecurity, the prison, and the stake. For* merly the monasteries as well as the churches had been filled ; but for this reason few persons were to be found who were qualified for orders, at a time*
* The vacancies happened also to be far more numerous than usual. In the tirst year of Elizabeth's reign, '* the realm had been extremely visited with a dangerous and contagious sickness, which took away almost half the bishops, and occasioned such mortality amongst the rest of the clergy, that a great part of the parochial clergy were without incumbents.'' (Heylyn's Hist, of the Presbyterians, p. 246.) The chroniclers make no mention of any pestilence in 1558, and perhaps that of 1562-3 may be meant.
In the parliament of 1563, the Speaker complained that owing to ^e prevalent fashion of expenditure, and the rapiKity which was its consequence, '* many of the schools and benefices were seized, the education of youth disappointed, and the succours for knowledge cut oiF. For 1 dare aver," said he, •' the schools in England are fewer than formerly by an hundred, and those which remain are many of them but slenderly stocked ; and this is one reason the number of learned men is so remarkably diminished. The universities are decayed, and great market towns without dither school or preacher ; for the poor vicar is turned off with twenty pounds, and the bulk of the Church's patriinony k impro*
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when they were most wanted, and the few who had been regularly bred, would not accept of benefices upon which they could not subsist with respectabil- ity. The greatest part of the country clergy were so Ignorant that they could do little more than read; many of them were carpenters and tailors, having taken to these employments because they could not subsist upon their benefices, and some even kept ale-houses. During the first years of Elizabeth^s reign, the service in many of the London parishes was performed by the sextons : and in very many vi- carages, some of them in good provincial towns, the people were forced to provide themselves as they could. In many places they found needy men, who, though they were worthy of no higher station, envied and hated those who were more prosperous than them- selves, and these persons poisoned tbeir parishioners with puritanical doctrines and puritanic^ politics, which from the beginning were naturally allied. And because of the want of unexceptionable subjects, men of learning but of tainted opinions found admit* tance into the church, and their zeal was more per- nicious than the torpor of the papistical clergy.
Owing therefore to the indifference or incapacity of one part of the clergy, and to the temper of an- other, there was af the same time an increase of fana- ticism and a decay of general piety : in some places no care was taken to instruct the people, in others opinions the most hostile to estabhshed institutions were sedulously and perseveringly inculcated. And though from a sense of duty in the sovereign, as well as from motives of sound policy, the best and wisest men were selected for the hi^est offices of the church, even the transcendant talents called forth in its defence could not counteract the destructive prin*- ciples which were at work. Political circumstances
priated and diverted to foreign use. Thas the parish has no prear.her, and thus, for want of a fund for instruction, the people arc bred to ignorance and obstinacy.'* Collier'» Ecclesiaitical History, p. 480.
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brought those principles into fiiH plaj. Their teiH dency from the first had not been mistaken ; indeed it had scarcely been disguised* They produced in their progress rebellion and regicide; and if the schismatics who cordially co-operated for the over- throw of the altar and th^ throne, had not turned their malignant passions against each other as soon as the business of destruction was done, they would have established among us an ecclesiastical tyranny of the lowest and most loathsome kind, the only thing wanting to complete the punishment and the degra- dation of this guilty and miserable nation.
When these disturbances began, time had so far remedied the ill consequences attendant upon the Reformation, that though the evil resulting from the poverty of the inferior clergy and from their dimi- nished numbers had not been remedied, a genera* tion of clergymen had grown up, not inferior as a body to those of any age or country, in learning, in ability, or in worth. Their sincerity was put to the proo^ and it appears that full two-thirds of them were ejected for fidelity to their kin^ and their holy office. Revolutions call forth heroic virtue at the beginning, but their progress tends to destroy all virtue, for they dislocate the foundations of morality. Reformed religion had not yet taken root in the hearts of the people ; the lower classes were for the most part as ignorant of the essentials of religion as they had been in the days of popery, and they had none of that attachment to its forms, in which the strength of popery consists. Opinions were now perilously shaken and unsettled. During the anar- chy that ensued, new sects sprang up like weeds in a neglected garden. Many were driven mad by fanaticism, a disease which always rages in disor- dered times. Others were shocked at beholding how religion was made a cloak for ambition ana villany of every kind, and being deprived of their old teachers and properly disgusted with the new, they fell into a state of doubt, and from doubt into unbelief. A generation grew up under a system
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iifhich had as far as possible deprived holiness of all its beauty ; the yoke was too heavy, too galling, too ignominious to be borne: and when the Restoration put an end to the dominion* of knaves and fanatics,
'* The conduct of the puritanical clergy during their reign, is thus admirably described in a fragment said to have been written by Milton, and bearing strong marks of his style : " If the state were in this plight, religion was not in much better ; to reform which, a certain number of divines were called, neither chosen by any rule or custom ecclesiastical, nor eminent for either piety or knowledge above others left out ; only as each member of par- tiament in his private fency thought fit> so elected one by one. The most part of them were such as had preached and cried down, with great show of zeal, the avarice of bishops, and plu- ralities ; that one cure of souls was a full employment for one spiritual pastor, how able soever, if not a charge rather above human strength. Yet these conscientious men (before any part of the work was done for which they came togetner, and that on the public salary) wanted not boldness, to the ignominy and scan- dal of their pastor-like profession, and especially of their boasted reformation, to seize into their hands, or not unwilhngly to accept (besides one, sometimes two or more of the best livings) collegi- ate masterships in the universities, rich lectures in the city, setr ting sai) to all winds that might bloyr gain into their covetous bosoms : by which means these gr^at rebukers of nourresidence, 9mongst so many distant cures, were not ashamed to be seen so quickly pluralists and non-residents themselves, to a fearful con- demnation, doubtless by their own mouths. And yet the main^ doctrine for which they took such pay, and insisted upon with more vehemence than gospel, was but to tell us in effect, that their doctrine was worth nothing, and the spiritual power of their ministry less available than bodily compulsion ; persuading the magistrate to use it, as a stronger means to subdue and bring in conscience, than evangelical persuasion ; distrusting the virtue of their own spiritual weapons, which were given them, if they be rightly called, with full warrant of sufficiency to pull down all thoughts and imaginations that exalt themselves against God. Put, while they taught compulsion without convincement, which not long before they complained of, as executed unchristianly, against themselves, their intents are clear to have been no better than antl-christian ; setting up a spiritual tyranny by a secular power, to the advancing of their own authority above the magis- trate whom they would have made their executioner to punish church delinquencies, whereof civil laws have no cognizance.
*< And well did their disciples manifest themselves to be no better principled than their teachers, trusted with committeeships amd other gainful offices, ttpon their commendations for zealous (and as they sticked not to term them) godly men, but executing
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it was soon perceived that the eflfect of such Bystems is to render religion odious by making piety suspect- ed, and to prepare a people for licentiouraess and atheism*
The circumstances which attended the restoration . of the Church were in some respects similar to those which had existed at the time of its establishment under Elizabeth, and in some respects more unfa-' vourable. A generation had elapsed during which no men had been educated for the priesthood ex^ cept upon sectarian principles. The greater num- ber of the sequestered clergy had been cut off, many of them by the natural course of years ; many by ill-usage and confinement in prisons or in the hulks. These ministers had been content to suffer for con- science-sake ; but when those who had supplanted them were called upon to conform to the litui^ which they had proscribed, or to give up their ^ benefices, a *large majority preferred the easier
their places like children of the devil anfaithfully, unjustly, un- mercifully, and, where nolfcorruptly, stupidly ; so that, hetweeo them the teachers, and these the disciples, there hath not heen a more ignominious and mortal wound to faith, to piety, to the work of reformation ; nor more cause of blaspheming given to the ene- mies of God and truth, since the first preaching of reformation. The people, therefore, looking one while on the statists, whom they beheld without constancy or firmness, labouring doubtfully beneath the weight of their own too high undertakings, busiest in petty things, trifling in the main, deluded and quite alienated, expressed divers ways their disaffection, some despising whom before they honoured, some deserting, some inveighing, some conspiring against them. Then looking on the churchmen, whom they saw under subtile hypocrisy, to have preached their owa follies most of them, not the gospel ; time-servers, covetous, illiterate, persecutors, not lovers of the truth ; like in most things whereof they accused their predecessors : looking on all this, the people, which had been kept warm a-while with the counterfeit zeal of their pulpits, afler a false heat, became more cold and ob- durate than before, some turning to lewdness, some to fiat atheism^ put beside their old religion, and foully scandalized in what they expected should be new." Harleian Miscellany, 8vo. edition, vol. V. p. 39.
* The number of non-conformists A^ho were expelled in con- sequence of the act of uniformity is stated at two thousand : that
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alternative. In so doing, manj bejond all doubt did well in the sight of God and man, and chose conscientiouslj the better part ; but there must cer- tainly ha?e been many who sacrificed their scruples to their convenience, and more who had no scruples to sacrifice, because they had brought with them to their holy office little intellect and less feeling. Some of the ejected ministers were men of unquestionable piety and signal talents : all had given proof of their sincerity. Wherever therefore the priest was eject- ed, part at least of his flock regretted him, and a dis- position by no means favourable to his successor must have existed ; and where men of-little ability and little principle retained their benefices, they must have been despised. Thus the influence of the clergy, which had been wofully shaken during the ^ long struggle, received another shock. The clergy themselves did not manifest in their prosperity the same equal mind with which they had endured their adverse fortune. They were more desirous of reta- liating upon their old persecutors, than of conciliating them. Foipveness of injuries indeed is the last les- i son which men learn in the school of suffering : but he must know little of the history and the spirit of those times who should imagine that any conciliato- ry measures on the part of the Church, could have produced uniformity in a land where old opinions had been torn up by the roots, and the seeds of schism had been scattered every where.
It is easier to justify the heads of the restored cler- gy upon this point, than to excuse them for appropri- ating to themselves the wealth which in consequence of the long protracted calamities of the nation was
of the sequestered clergy was between six and seren thousand, as stated by Dr. Gauden in his Petitionary Remonstrance to the Pro- tector : so- incorrect are the assertions of Messrs. Bogue and Ren- net in their History of the Dissenters, that ** the episcopal clergy very generally conformed to the new establishment ;" (vol. i. p. 87.) and that *' ecclesiastical history furnishes no such instance of a noble* anuy. of confessors at one time,'' (ditto, p. 99.) as that of the two thousand non-conforming ministers.
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}>Iaced at their disposal. The leases of the church ands had almost all fallen in ; there had been no re- newal for twenty years, and the fines which were now raised amounted to about a million and a half Some of this money was expended in repairing as far as was reparable that havoc in churches^ and cathe- drals which the fanatics had made during their abo- minable reign ; some also was disposed of in ransom- ing English slaves from the Barbary pirates : but the greater part went to enrich individuals and build up Utmilies^ instead of being employed as it ought to have been in improving the condition of the inferior clergy. Queen Anne applied the tenths and*" first fruits to this most desirable object ; but the effect of her augmentation was slow and imperceptible ; they continued in a state of degrading poverty, and that poverty was another cause of the declining influence of the Church, and the increasing irreligion of the people.
A further cause is to be found in the relaxation^ or rather the total decay of ecclesiastical discipline. In the Romish days it had been grossly abused ; and latterly also it had been brought into general abhor- rence and contempt, by the tyi*annical measures off Laud on one side, and the absurd rigour of Puritan- ism on the other. The clergy had lost that authority which may always command at least the appearance of respect ; and they had lost that respect also by which the place of authority may sometimes so much
* Charles II. disposed of these funds chiefly among his mistress- es and his natural children. Queen Mary intended to apply them (as was afterwards done by her sister) to the augmentation of small livings : Burnet after her death represented this to William, and the measure was strongly approved by Somers and Halifax, but Sunderland obtained on assigrtment of 20001. a-year upon two dioceses for two hves, ^' so nothing was to be hoped for after that!"
t Something is said in the Quarterly Review (vol. xv'u pp. 518, 519.) of the temper with which it behooves us to regard this part of our history. But there are writers at this day who seem to think, in the" words of the prose Hudibras, that " Pillories are more cruel than scaffolds, or perhaps Prynne's eai^ were larger than my Lord of Canterbury's head."
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more worthily be supplied. For the loss^of power they were not^enaurable ; bnt if they possessed lit- tle of that influence which the minister who diligent- ly and conscientiously discharges his duty will cer- tainty acquire, it is manifest, that, as a body, they must have been culpably remiss. From the Resto- ration to the accession c^ the house of Ilanoirar, the English church could boast of some of its brighest or- naments and ablest defenders ; men who have nei- ther been surpassed in piety, nor in erudition, nor in industry, nor in eloquence, nor in strength and subtlety of ound : and when the design for re-establishing popery in these kingdoms was sys- tematically pursued, to them we are indebted for that calip and steady resistance, by which our liber- ties, civil as well as religious, were preserved. But in. the great majority of the clergy zeal was wanting. The excellent Leighton spoke of the Church as a fair carcass without a spirit : in doctrine, in vi^orship, and in the main part of its government, he thought it the best constituted in the world, but one of the most corrupt in its administration. And Burnet observes, that in his time our clergy had less authority, and were under more contempt, than those of any other church in Europe; for they were much the most re- miss in their labours, and the least severe in their lives. It was not that their lives were scandalous; he entirely acquitted them of any such imputation ; but they were not exemplary as it became them to be ; and in the sincerity and grief of a pious and re- flecting mind, he pronounced that they would never regain the influence which they had lost, till they liv- ed better and laboured more.
Unfavourable as this faithful representation is, the constitution of our church tended naturally to pro- duce such ministers. Under the Reformed, as well as under the Romish establishment, the clerical pr<^ fession offered an easy and honourable provision for the younger sons of the gentry; but the Church of Rome had provided stations for them, where, if they were not qualified for active service, their sins of
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omission would be of a very venial kind. The mo- nasteries had always a large proportion of such per- sons : they went through the ceremonies of their re- spective rules, which, in spite of repeated reforma- tions, (as they were called,) always in no long time relaxea into a comfortable sort of collegiate system : their lack of ability or learning brought no disgrace to themselves, for they were not in a situation where either was required ; and their inefficiency was not injurious to the great establishment, of which, though an inert, they were in no wise an inconvenient part. But when such persons, instead of entering the con- vents which their ancestors had endowed, were set- tled upon family livings as parochial clergy, then in- deed serious evil was done to the character of the Church, and to the religious feelings of the nation : their want of aptitude or inclination for the important office into which they had been thrust then became a fearful tbing for themselves, and a miserable cala- mity, for the people committed to their charge.
Even when the motives for entering the Church were not thus palpably gross, the choice was far more frequently made from motives of convenience and worldly circumstances, than from a deliberate and conscientious determination of the will and the judg- ment. Where there was influence in an endowed school, or a fair prospect of promotion at college, boys were destined for holy orders with little refer- ence to their talents or their disposition ; sometimes, indeed, notoriously because they were thought unfit for any thing else. And when no unfitness existed, the destination was usually regarded with ominous indifference, as if it might be entered upon with as little forethought and feeling as a secular profession or a branch of trade ; as if all the heart, and all the soul, and all the strength of man were not required for the due performance of its duties, and a minister of the gospel were responsible for nothing more than what the Rubric enjoins.
The inevitable lack of zeal in a church thus con- stituted was not supplied, as in Catholic countries, by
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the frequent introduction of men* in mature or de- clining life, in whom, disappointment, wrongs, suffer- ings and bereavements, the visitation of God and the grace of God, have produced the most beneficial of ail changes. Bj such men the influence of Rome has been upheld in Europe, and its doctrines extend- ed among savage tribes and in idolatrous kingdoms, from Paraguay to Japan ; but the English establish- ment had provided no room for them, and it admit- ted of no supernumeraries. While there was so lit- tle zeal in the great body of the clergy, many causes combined to render the want of zeal more and more injurious. The population had doubled since the settlement of the Church under Elizabeth ; yet no provision had been made for increasing proportion- ately the means of moral and religious instruction, which at the beginning had been insufficient. The growth of trade drew men together into towns and cities ; a change in society which, however necessary in the progress of the human race, however essential to the advancement of manufactures and know- ledge, national wealth and national power, the arts, and the comforts, and the refinements of life, is assur- edly, in its immediate effects, injurious to general morals. As soon as the frenzy fever of faction had spent itself, the nation had revolted against the tyrannical spirit of Puritanism, and the t unmer^
* Upon this subject, see the Quarterly Review, vol. xv. pp . 228, 229.
t " I remember," says Burnet, '* in one fast day there were six sermons preached without intermission. I was there mjrself, and not a little weary of so tedious a service." This, indeed, was ia Scotland, but the service was not less tremendous in England. Philip Henry used, on such occasions, to l>egin at nine o'clock, and never stir out .of the pulpit till about four in the afternoon, ** spending aU that time in praying and expounding, and singing, and preaching, to the admiration of all that heard him, who were generally more on such davs than usual." John Howe's method of conducting these public lusts, which were frequent in those mis- erable days, was as follows : He began at nine o'clock with a pray- er of a quarter of an hour, read and expounded Scripture for about three quarters of an hour, prayed an hour, preached another hour, then prayed half an hour : the people then sung lor about a quar-
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ciful forms. Unhappily, while it was in this temper, a fashion of speculative impiety was imported from France, where it had originated in a corrupt church, and in a literature more infamously licentious than that of any other country. England was in but too apt a state to receive the poison. Some of the lead- ing CommonM'ealths-men had been infidels, and hated the clergy of every denominatioh with a bitterness which, if the age bad been ripe for it, would have produced an Anti-christian persecution; for infideli- ty has shown itself ii\ a triumph to be not less intol- erant than superstition. It was in this school, that some of the leading statesmen, in Charles the Se- cond's reign, had been trained ; and the progress of the evil was accelerated, unintentionally if^deed, but not less effectually, by a * philpsopliy of home-growth, the shallowest that ever imposed upon the human un- derstanding. The schools of dissent also soon be- came schools of unbelief: this disposition is the na- tural consequence of those systems which call upon every man to form his'own judgment upon points of faith, without respect to the authority of other ages or of wiser minds, without reference to his own igno- rance or his own incapacity ; which, leave humility dut of the essentials of the Christian character, and when they pretend to erect their superstructure of rational belief, build upon the shifting sands of vanity and self-conceit.
A great proportion of the Protestants in France, following too faithfully the disgraceful example of Henry the Fourth, had passed through unbelief to topery, the easy course which infidels will always take when it may suit their interest. Our Church
ter of an hour, during which he retired and took a little refresh- ment ; he then went into the pulpit again, prayed an hour more, preached another hour, and then, with a prayer of half an hour, coikchided the service.
* Seethe Lay Sermons of Mr. Coleridge, and particularly the hst note to the Statesman's Manuel, where this subject is treated with consummate knowledge and consummate ability.
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was shaken to the foundation by the same cause : it was boitt upon a rock ; but had the fabric fallen, the constitution would not long have remained standing. A sense of the danger from which we had escaped, and of the necessity of guarding against its recur- rence, animated our clergy against the Romanists, and they exerted themselves to expose the errors and the evils of the Romish superstition. This they victoriously effected ; but another, and not less es- sential duty, was as much neglected as ever, the du- ty of imbuing the people, from their youth up, with the principles of that pure faith which had been ob- tained for them at such cost, and preserved for them, through such afflictions, with such difficulty, and from such peril. In reality, though the temporal ad- vantages of Christianity extended to all classes, the great majority of the populace knew nothing more of religion than its forms. They had been Papists for- merly, and now they were Protestants, but they had never been Christians. The Reformation had taken away the ceremonies to which they were attached, and substituted nothing in their stead. There was the Bible, indeed, but to the great body of the la- bouring people the Bible was, even in the letter, a sealed book. For that system of general education which the fathers of the English church desired, and which saintly King Edward designed, had never been provided.
Nevertheless, the Reformation, though thus inju- rious in some respects, and imperfect in others, had proved, in its general consequences, the greatest of all national blessings. It had set the intellect of the nation free. It had delivered us from spiritual bond- age. It rid the land of the gross idolatry and abo- minable impostures of the Romish Church, and of those practices by which natural piety is debased, and national morals are degraded. It saved us from that infamous casuistry of the confessional, the end of which was to corrupt the conscience, and destroy the broad distinction between right and wrong. All that was- false, all that was burdensome, all that was
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STATE OF RELIGION IN ENGLAND.
absurd, had been swept away, like cbaflT before tlie wind. Whatever was retained would bear the light, for it was that pure faith which elevates the under- standing and purifies the heart; which strengthens the weakness of our nature ; which, instead of pre- scribing a system of selAormenting, like that of the Indian i oguees, heightens all our enjoyments, and is itself the source of the highest enjoyment to which we can attain in this imperfect state, while it prepares us for our progress in eternity.
The full effects of this blessed Reformation were felt in those ranks where its full advantages were en- joyed. The Church of England, since its separation from Rome, had never been without servants who were burning and shining lights ; not for their own generations only^ but for ages which are yet to come i the wisest and the most learned may derive instruct tion from their admirable works, and find in them a satisfaction and a delight by which they may esti* mate their own progress in wisdom. Among the laity also, the innate sense of piety, wherever it nad been fostered by those happy circumstances which are fa- vourable to its developement and growth, received a right direction. No idols and phantoms were in- terposed between man and his Redeemer ; no prac- tices were enjoined as substitutes for good works or compensations for evil ; no assent was demanded to propositions which contradict the senses and insult the understanding. Herein we differ from the Ro- manists. Nor are the advantages inconsiderable which we enjoy over our Protestant brethren who walk in the by-pather of sectarianism. It has been in the error of attributing an undue importance to some particular point, that sects have generally ori- ginated : they contemplated a part instead of the whole : they split the rays of truth, and see only one of the prismatic colours, while the members of the national church live in the light.
The evil was, that, among the educated classes^ too little care was taken to imbue them early with this better faith; and too little exertion used for
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awakening tbem from the pursuits and vanities of this world, to a salutary and hopeful contemplation of that which is to come. And there was the heavier evil^ that the greater part of the nation were totally un- educated ;— Christians no further than the mere ce- remony of baptism could make them, being for the most part in a state of heathen, or worse than hea- then, ignorance. In truth, they had never been con- verted ; for at first one idolatry had been substituted for another: in this they had followed the fashion of their lords ; and when the Romish idolatry was exr pelted, the change on their part was still a matter of necessary submission ; — they were left as ignorant of real Christianity as they were found. The world has never yet seen a nation of Christians.
The ancient legislators understood the power of legislation. But no modern government seems to have perceived, that men are as clay in the potter's hands. There are, and always will be, innate and unalterable differences of individual character ; but national character is formed by national institutions and circumstances, and is whatever those circum- stances may make it — ^Japanese or Tupinamban, Al- gerine or English. Till governments avail themselves of this principle in its tuH extent, and give it its best (direction* the science of policy will be incomplete.
Three measures then were required for completing the Reformation in England: that the condition of the inferior clergy should be improved; that the number of religious instructers should be greatly in- creased ; and that a system of parochial education should be established and vigilantly upheld. These measures could only be effected by the legislature. A fourth thing was needful, — that the clergy should be awakened to an active discharge of their duty; and this was not within the power of legislation. — The former objects never for a moment occupied Wesley's consideration. He began life with ascetic habits and opinions; with a restless spirit, and a fiery heart. Ease and comfort were neither conge- nial to his disposition nor his principles : wealth was
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not necessary (or his calling, and it wsb beneath his thoughts : he could command not merely respecta- bility without it, but importance. Nor was he long before he discovered what St. Francis and his follow- ers and imitators had demonstrated long before, that they who profess poverty for conscience-sake, and trust for daily bread to the religious sympathy which ' they excite, wiU find it as surely as Elijah in the wil- derness, and without a miracle. As little did the subject of national education engage his mind : his aim was direct, immediate, palpable utility. Nor could he have effected any thing upon either of these great legislative points : the most urgent representar tions, th^ most convincing arguments, would have been disregarded in that age, for the time was not come. The great struggle between the destructive and conservative principles, — between good a^nd evil, — had not yet commenced ; and it was not then foreseen that the very foundations of civil society would be shaken, because governments had neglect- ed their most awful and most important duty. But the present consequences of this neglect were ob- vious and glaring ; the rudeness of the peasantry, the brutality of the town populace, the prevalence of drunkenness, the growfli of impiety, the general deadness to religion. These might be combated by individual exertions, and Wesley felt in himself the power and the will both in such plenitude, that they appeared to him.a manifestation, not to be doubted, of the will of Heaven. Every trial tended to confirm him in this persuasion ; and the effects which he pn> duced, both upon body and mind, appeared equally to himself and to his followers miraculous. Diseases were arrested or subdued by the faith which he in- spired, madness was appeased, and, in the sound and «ane, paroxysms were excited which were new to pathology, and which he believed to be supernatural interpositions, vouchsafed in furtherance of his efforts by the Spirit of God, or worked in opposition to them by the exasperated Principle of Evil. Drunkards were reclaimed ; sinners were converted ; the peni-
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tent who came io despair was sent away with the full assurance of joy ; the dead sleep of indifference was broken ; and oftentimes his eloquence reached the hard brute heart, and opening it, like the rock of Horeb, made way for the living spring of piety which had been pent within. These efiects he saw, — they were public and undeniable ; and looking for- ward in exultant faith, he hoped that the leaven would not cease to work till it had leavened the whole mass ; that the impulse which he had given would surely, though slowly, operate a national re* formation, and bring about, in fulness of time, the fulfilment of those prophecies which promise us that the kingdom of our Father shall come, and his will Ve done in earth as it is in he&ven.
With all this there was intermingled a large por^- tton of enthusiasm, and no small one of superstition ; much that was erroneous, much that was mischiev* ous, much that was dangerous. But had he been less enthusiastic, of a humbler spirit, or a quieter heart, or a maturer judgment, he would never have commenced his undertaking. Sensible only of the good which he was producing, and which he saw produced, he went on courageously and indefatiga* bly in his career. Whither it was to lead he knew not, nor what form and consistence the societies which he was collecting would assume ; nor where he was to find labourers as he enlarged the field of his operations ; nor how the scheme was to d^ve its temporal support But these considerations nei-^ Uier troubled him, nor made him for a moment fore^ slack his course. God, he believed, had appointed St, and Ood would alway provide means for accom<> plishing his own ends.
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WESLEY SEPARATES FROM THE MORAVIANS.
But the house which Wesley had raised was di- vided: in itself. He and the Moravians had not clearly understood each other when they coalesced* Count Zinssendorf moreover looked upon the soqjety which had been formed in London, as a colony be- longing to iiis spiritual empire ; and if he was incapa- ble of bearing witH an equal, Wesley could as little brook a superior. A student of Jena, by nam^ Philip Henry Molther, having been detained by va- rious causes in London on his way to Pennsylvania, took upon himSelf the care of the brethren. The Moravians had their extravagancies, and of a worse kind than any into which Methodism had &llen; but these extravagancies had not been transplanted into England : their system tended to produce a se- date, subdued habit of mind, and nothing could 'be more contrary to this than the paroxysms which were exhibited under Wesley's preaching, and the ravings to which he appealed exultingly as proofs of the work of grace. Molther maintained that there was delusion in these things; that the joy and love which were testified in such glowing language were the effect of animal spirits and imagination, not jov in the Holy Ghost, and the real love of God shed abroad in their hearts. They who, whether owing to their strength of mind or of body, had not experi- enced such emotions, were disposed to listen to his opinion, and congratulate themselves that they had escaped a dangerous delusion ; and it was yet more willingly embraced by those who had become languid and spiritless in consequence of over-excitement, felt in themselves an abatement of zeal, had relaxed in any degree from the rule of life which they bad begun, or returned to any of those practices which
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were really sinful or which they ha^ been taught to think SO. " I observed,'' says Wesley, " every day more and more the advantages Satan had gained over us. Many of those who once knew in whom they bad believed were thrown into idle reasonings, and thereby filled wrth doubts and fears from which they now found no way to escape. Many wer^ induced to deny the gift of God, and affirm they never had any faith at all, especially those who had fallen again into sin, and, of consequence, into darkness.''
That which has so often happened in theological disputes, and sometimes with such lamentable efitects, occurred in this. In opposing Wesley's error, the Moravian advanced opinions equally erroneous ; he maintained that there are no degrees of faith ; that no man has any degree of it before he has the full assurance ; that there is no justifying faith short of this ; that the way to attain it is to wait for Christ and be still, but not to use the means of grace, by frequenting church, or communicating, or fasting, or ^i^g|^gi'% much in private prayer, or reading the Scriptures, or doing temporal good, or attempting to do spiritual good, because, he argued, no fruit of the Spirit can be given by those wlio have it not, and th^ who have not faith themselves, are utterly un- able to guide others. These positions were strenu- ously opposed by Wesley ; and when Molther main- tained that since his arrival in England he had done much good by unsettling many, from a false founda- tion and bringing them mto " true stillness," Wesley insisted, on the contrary, that much harm had been done by unsettling those who were beginning to build good works upon the right foundation of mith, and bewildering them in vain reasonings and doubtifiil disputations.
Molther however produced a great effect, while he had the field to himself; and Wesley was inform- ed that the brethren in London had neither wisdom enough to guide, nor prudence enough to let it alone ; that the Moravians seemed to consult aboi^ things as if they were the whole body, that they made a
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m^re jeet of going to church or to the sacrament, and that many of the sisters were shaken, and grievouslj" torn by reasonings, and that there seemed to he a design of dividing the society. Accordingly he re- paired to London with a heavy heart. '* Here,'* says he, " I found every day the dreadful effects of our brethren's reasoning and disputing with each other. Scarce one in ten retained his first love, and most of the rest were in the utmost confusion, biting and devouring one another. I pray God ye be not consumed one of another! — One came to me by whom I used to profit much, but her conversation was now too high for me. It was far above, out of my sight My soul is siok of this eubUme divinity ! Let me think and speak as a little child ! Let jny religion be plain, artless, simple ! Meekness, tern* perance, patience, faith and love, be these mv high- est gifts ; and let the highest words wherein I teach them be those I learn from the Book of God.'^ He had a long and patient conference with Moltber, by which the only advantage gained was that they dis« tinctly understood each other; and he earnestly besought the brethren to ^^ stand in the old paths, and no longer to subvert one another's souls by idle controversies and strife of words." They seemed to be all convinced, but it w&s rather by the effect of his presence than of his reasoning ; and he fancied that in answer to their prayers a spirit of peace was sent among them to which they had for many months been strangers.
This was of short continuance. Complaints were made to Wesley that those brethren who adhered to the Moravian opinions and had left off* the ordi* iiances, were continually troubling the others and forcing them to dispute. This occasioned an expos- tulation on his part : he entreated them not to per- plex their brethren any more, but at least to escuse those who still Waited for God in the ways of his ap- pointment Toleration of this kind is little compati* ble with hearty zeal, and if Wesley on this occasion aupplkated for a truce, it was because his people
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Were the weaker partj* He left London, however, for Brietol, whither this disunion had not extended. Charles arrived from a circuit during his absence, and supported the same cause with equal ardour. But the difference became more marked, and the reciprocal feeling more acrimonious, and he per- ceived that a separation must be the natural result. ^ Their practice,'^ said he, ^^ is agreeable to their principles; lazy and proud themselves, bitter and censorious toward others, they trample upon the ordinances and despise the commands of Christ. I see no middle point wherein we can meef . Some of his opponents imagined that John was less hostile to their opinions, or more tolerant of them than his brother; and for this reason they summoned him from Bristol that he might interfere once more, and put an end to their jarrings. He arrived in no cheer- ful mood, and in no charitable one ; for Molther hap- Eened to be taken ill, and he affirmed that it was the and of God that was upon *him! ^^ Our society met,^^ he says, ^^but cold, weary, heartless, dead. I found nothing of brotherly love among them now, but a harsh, dry, heavy, stupid spirit For two hours they looked one at another, when they looked up at all, as if one half of them was afraid of the other.'^ The Moravian opinion upon the matter in dispute had the great advantage of being convenient; it exempted sdl persons from the o^inances, — those who were without faith because they ought not to use them, those who had faith because they were not required to do it. It prevailed with many, and it staggered more. Wherever Wesley went he was
* In Wealej's Answer to Mr. Charcfa's Remarks, this circum- stance is thus noticed : '' You describe heaven (quoting from Mr. Church) as executing judgments, immediate punishments, on those who oppose you. You say * Mr. Molther was taken ill this day. I believe it Was Uie hand of God that was upon him.' I do. But I do not say as ^judgment from God for opposing me. That you say for me." This is very discreditable to Wesley. If he did not expressly say this, it is plain that he implied it, that his fol- lowers would understand it so, and that he intended it so to be un- dirttood.
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besieged by those who, having once been ^* full of peace and love, were now again plunged into doubts and fears* and driven even to their wit's ends." He was utterly at a loss what course to take ; these vain janglings, as he calls them, pursued him everywhere. He endeavoured, by explaining in public those texts which had been perverted, and by private conver- sation, to reclaim those who had been led astray/ and confirm those who were wavering ; and after a few days of this unsatisfactory and ungratefiil work, he again left London, having, he says, delivered his own soul.
That expression implies a full persuasion on his part that a separation must ensue. Indeed, he had already contemplated such an event. In one of their conferences, Mollher had maintained the Jesuitical opinion that pious frauds might lawfully be used. This he had resolutely opposed ; but when others of the Moravian persuasion to whom he was more ami- cably inclined, pleaded for a certain ^ reservedness and closeness of conversation,^' though it neither ac- corded with his judgment nor his temper, nor with his interpretation of St. Paul's direction, he felt some hesitation upon the subject, considering that they had the practice of the Moravian church on their side : and recurring, according to his custom, to the Testament for a chance text, he opened upon these words. What is that to thee ? Folhm thou me. Four months before this bibliomancy came in aid of his meditated purpose, he had taken a large building in Moorfields which had been the foundry for cannon during the civil wars, and for some time after the Res- toration ; he felt himself in a minority in Fetter-lane which had Hitherto been their chief place of meeting; und foreseeing that it would ere long be neces8,ary for him to secede, unless he waited to be expelled, he thus provided for the alternative in time.
After a short stay at Bristol, therefore, he return- ed to London, fully prepared for the decisive step. The first measure was to muster his own adherents, by new modelling the bands, and thus relieving them
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firom that perpetual disputation by which they were wavered if not weakened. In this the Wesleys were assisted by Ingham. ",We gathered up our wreck,'' , say Charles, ^^ rart nantes in gurgite vasto^ floating here and there on the vast abyss ; for nine out of ten were swallowed up in the dead sea of stillness. Oh why was not this done six months ago ! How fatal was our delay and false moderation P' Molther was too ill for any more conferences, if any amicable result could have been expected from such measures, al- ways more likely to widen differences than to adjust them. But though Molther was thus disabled from bearing a part, Wesley could make no impression upon the " poor, confused, shattered society," when he plainly told them wherein they had erred from the faith«\ "It was as I feared," says he. "They Qpuld not receive my sayingt However I am clear from the blood of these men :" and " finding there was no time to delay without utterly destroying the cause of God, I began to execute what I had long designed, to strike at the root of the grand delu-^ sion*" Accordingly, every day for a week in succes- sion he preached m the strongest language against the tenets by which the majority of his former fol- lowers were now weaned from him. But easy as he had found it to subdue the hearts and imaginations of men, he found them invincible when they were attacked in the strong-hold of their self-conceit. ^ They told him that he was preaching up the works of the law, which as believers they were no more bound to obey than the subjects of the King of England were bound to obey the laws of the King of France.
One of the spurious treatises ajscribed to Dionysi- us the Areopagite was a favourite book among the Moraviani2;ed members. Some extracts were an- nexed to it in a style of what Wesley calls the same super-essential darkness. .Wesley took the volume to Fetter-lane, and read thesfe words before the jar- ring society, " The Scriptures are good ; prayer is good ; communicating is good ; relieving (sur nejgh-
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bours is good : bat to one who is not born <^ God none of these are good, but all ver j evil. For him to read the Scriptures, or to pray, or to communicate, or to do anj outward work, is deadly poison. First let him be bom of God. Till then let him not da any of these things. For if he dees, he destroys himself.^' Haring twice read these words, distinct- ly, that all might hear and understand, he asked, ♦* My brethren, is this right, or is it wrong ?" One of them replied, «« It is right : it is all right. It is the truth; it is the very truth; it is the inward truth. And to this we must all come, or we never can come to Christ'^ Another said, ^^ I used the ordinances twenty years, yet I found not Christ. But I left them off only for a few weeks and I found Him then : and : I am now as close united to Him as my arm is to my 1 body," Many voices were now raised against Wes- ley ; it was asked whether they would any l<M)ger suffej? him to preach at Fetter-lane ; and after a short debate it was answered, ^ No, this place is taken for the Germans." But Wesley knew how important it was that the separation should appear to De an act of his own authority and will ; and going to their love-feast on the Sunday following, at the close of the meeting he stood up, and read from a written paper a brief statement of the doctrines which he condemned. It concluded with these words : <^ You have often affirmed that to search the Scriptures, to pray, or to communicate before we have Faith, is to seek salvation by works, and that till these works are laid aside no man can have Faith. I believe these assertions to be flatly contrary to the Word of God. I have warned you hereof again and again, and besought you to turn back to tne Law and the Testimony. I have borne with you long, hoping you would turn. But as I find you more and more con- firmed in the error of your ways, nothing now re- mains but that I should give you up to God. You ^ that are of the same judgment, follow me !"
A few persons, and but a few, withdrew with him. When they met at the Foundry for the first time af«
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ter the separation, the seceders were found to be about twentj-five men ; but of the fifty women that were in bands, almost all adhered to Wesley. Just at this time a curious letter was received from one of the German brethren ; he advised the Wesleys no longer to take upon themselves to teach and in- struct poor souls, but to deliver them up to the care of the Moravians who alone were able to instruct them. " You,'' said he, " only instruct them in such errors that they will be damned at last. St. Paul justly describes you who have eyes full of adultery 'mft cannot cease from sin^ and take upon you to guide un- stable souls and lead them in the \vay of damnation.'^ This letter seems to have produced another epistle from *' John Wesley, a presbyter of the Church of God in England, to the Church of God at Herrnhiit' in Upper Lusatia.'' Wesley never returned railing for railing; he had his temper entirely under com- mand, and therefore he was always calm and deco- rous in controversy. His own feelings had not been of the most charitable kind : he had ascribed the ill^ ness of his chief antagonist to the arm of the Lord ; in arguing with the Moravians against their error!^ he had expressed hiuiself as delivering his own soul, as being clear from the blood of those men; and w^hen he withdrew from them he gave them up to God; phrases these which are of no equivocal indication. But the coarseness of his German monitor taught him now to avoid an error, which when applied to himself he saw in all its absurdity and all its* grossness, and he began his Epistle in a bettter and a wiser spirit. ^ It may seem strange that such a one as I am should take upon me to write to you. Y'ou, I believe to be dear children of God, through faith which is in Jesus. Me you believe, as some of you have declared, to be a child of the deviU a servant of corruption. Yet what* soever i am, or whatsoever you are, I beseech you to weigh the following words : if haply God, who send- elh hy whom He will send ^ may give you light thereby, although the mist of darkness, as one of you alfirm, should be reserved for me for ever."
VOL. I. 3«
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298 WE8LEV SEPARATES FROM THE MORAVIAKS.
He proceeded to state temperatelj what were the things which he disapproved in their tenets and in their conduct, and gave some instances of the indis- cretion of the English brethren, to whom he more particularly alluded. One of them had said, when
Eublicly expounding Scripture, that as manj went to ell by praying as by thieving. Another had said, " You have lost your first joy : therefore you pray : that is the devil. You read the Bible: that is the devil. You communicate: that is the devil.^^ For th^se extravagancies he justly blamed the commu- nity in which they were uttered, and by which they were suffered, if not sanctioned. ^^ Let not any of you, my brethren, say, fVe are not chargeable with what they speak. Indeed you are. For you can hi»- der it if you wilL Therefore, if you do not, it must be charged upon you. If you do not use the power which is in your hands, and thereby prevent their speakine thus, you do in effect speak thus yourselves. You make their words your otm, and are accordingly chargeable with every ill consequence which may flow therefrom.*'
Thoagh^ VV esley had been compelled to separate from the Moravians, there were many circumstances which, after the separation had taken place, tended greatly to modify the feelings that had produced it. Among the German brethren there were some whom he could not but regard with affection and respect ; and in England many persons adhered to them with whom he had been long and intimately connected, and whose integrity he knew. Ingham and Delamotte were of this number, and Hutton, whom Wesley found as little obedient to his spiritual Father as he had taught him to be to his natural parents; and Gam- bold, a humble and heavenly-minded man, who had been one of the first Methodists at Oxford. They made Wesley perceive that all errors of opinion were not necessarily injurious to the individual by whom thev were entertained ; but that men who went by different ways might meet in heaven. They showed him also that opinions which appeared gross and
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monstrous when advanced by rash or ignorant advo- cates, might have their specious side. A few months after the breach, he says in his lournal, "Our old friends, Mr. Gambold and Mr. Hall, came to see my brother and me. The conversation turned wholly on silent prayer^ and quiei waiting for God, which they saidv was the only possible way to attain living, saving faith.
Sirenum cantus et Circes pocula nosti ?
Was there ever so pleasing a scheme } But where is it written? Not in any of those books which I ac- count the Oracles of God. I allow if there is a bet- ter way to God than the Scriptural way, this is it: but. the prejudice of education so hangs upon me, that I cannot think there is. I must, therefore, still wait in the Bible way, from which this differs as light from darkness.^
Perhaps the separation of the Methodists from the Moravians would not have occurred so soon if Peter Boehler had at that time been in England. No other individual, during any part of his life, possessed so great an ascendancy over the mind of Wesley as this . remarkable man. And nbw when he returned to this country after the breach, Wesley's feelings upon the first interview were strongly excited ; *' I marvel," he says, " how I refrain from joining these men. I scarce ever see any of them but my heart burns within me. I long to be with them. And yet I am kept from them." He went to a love-feast at which Boehler presided, and left it with the impression that the time would surely return when there should be again among them " union of mind as in them all one soul." But there were many obstacles in the way of this re- union ; those on the opposite part he thus strongly stated in a letter to his brother : " As yet I dare in no wise join with the Moravians ; because their ge- neral scheme is mystical, not scriptural^ refined in every point above what is written, immeasurably beyond the plain Gospel; because there is darkness and
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closeness in all their behaviour, and guile in almost all their words; because they not only do not prac* tjde, but utterly despise and decry self-denial and the daily cross; because they conform to the world, in wearing gold and gny or costly apparel; because they extend Christian liberty in many other respects also; they are by no means zealous of good works, or at least only to their own people. For these rea- sons chiefly, 1 will rather, God being my Helper, stand quite alone than join with them ; I mean, till I have full assurance that they are better acquainted with the truth as it is in Jesus.^^
Yet these obstacles would not have been jnsuper* able, if there had not existed others, which Wesley perhaps did not acknowledge even to himself and in his inmost heart. John Wesley could never have been more than a member of the Moravian church : the first place was occupied, and he was not born to bold a secondary one. His doctrine of perfection also was at least as objectionable to the Moravians, as their mysticism to him, and assuredly it was more dangerous. Upon this point he held a conference with Boehler, and his first friend Spangenberg, who thus stated their belief upon this point : '* The mo- ment we ar^ justified, a new creature is put into us. But, notwithstanding, the old creature, or the old man, remains in us, till the day of our death ; and in this old man there remains an old heart, corrupt and filbominable : for inward corruption remains in the souK as long as the soul remains in the body. But the b^art wiich is in the new man is clean. And the lliew man is stronger than the old; so that though corruption continueilly strives, yet, while we look to Christ, it cannot prevail.'' Wesley asked him if there was an old man in him : ^* Yes,'* he replied, " and will be as long as I liv^." " Is there then corruption in your heart.'*" said Wesley. Spangenberg made answer, " In the heart of my old man there is, but not in the heart of my new man ;'* and (his, he said, wa3 confirmed, not by his own experience only, but by that of all th^ Moravian church. Some of Wes-
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ley^s disciples, women as well as men, who were pre- sent at this conference, bore testimony to the possi- bilitj of attaining that Christian perfection which was at this time Wesley ^s favourite tenet, and which was so flattering to the pride pf his followers. But Span* genberg answered this with great truth, as well as great emotion, and the old man's hand trembled as he spake : " You all deceive your own souls ! There is no higher state than that I have described. You are in a very dangerous error. You know not your own hearts. You fancy your corruptions are taken away, whereas they are only covered. Inward cor- ruption never can be taken away, till our bodies are in the dust.'' The same opinion was afterwards ex- pressed to Wesley, in familiar conversation, by Boeh- ler, but with characteristic vigour: ^^Sin will and must always remain in the soul. ' The old man will remain till death. The old nature is like an old tooth: you may break off one bit, and another, and another ; but you can never get it all away. The stump will staj as long as you live, and sometimes will ache too."
The scheme of a re-union, however had been so much brought forward, that the Methodists in Lon- don set apart a day for prayer and humbling their souls before God, if haply He might show them His will concerning it. All the men and women bands met accordingly, and they were satisfied, from the conviction which this meeting produced, that the time was not yet come, ^^ because the Moravians had not given up their most essentially erroneous doc- trines ;" and because, it was said, so much guile had been found in their words, that it was difficult to know what they really held and what they did not." Wesley did not perceive that there was a beam in his own eye; but knowing many of the Moravians as he knew them, after long and intimate intercourse, he ought to have known that their ambiguity should have been imputed to any cause rather than guile. On their part the separation was not desired : upon the first intelligence of the diflerence, Count Zinzendorf
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sent over Spangenberg to act as mediator; and Spangenberg having pronounced that the Moravians had been blameable, and had injured Wesley, the Count gave ordei-s that they should ask * his forgive- ness ; and when he found that Wesley had rejected the proffered reconcileation, he came to England himself. The meeting between these personages was arranged by Hulton, and took place in GrayV Inn Walks. They conversed in Latin ; and Zinzen- dorf, who assumed throughout the scene that superi- ority to which his birth and rank had habituated him, began by demanding of Wesley wherefore he had changed his religion : " You have affirmed," said he, " in your epistle, that they who are true Christians are not miserable sinners ; and this is most false ; for the best of men are most miserable sinners, even till death. They who teach otherwise are either abso- lute impostors, or they are under a diabolical delu- sion. You have opposed our brethren, who taught better things ; and when they offered peace, you de- nied it. 1 loved you greatly," said Zinzendorf, ** when you wrote to me from Georgia: then I knew that you were simple at heart. You wrote again ; I knew that you were simple at heart, but that your ideas were disturbed. You came to us, and then your ideas were more and more confused.*' And he reproached him for having refused to be reconciled with the brethren, when, in obedience to Spangen- berg, they had entreated bis forgiveness. Wesley re- plied, it was true that they had treated him wrong- fully, and afterwards asked his forgiveness. He had made answer, that forgiveness was unnecessary, be- cause he had never been offended ; but that he fear- ed lest they taught erroneously, and lived incorrectly;
* It is not to the credit of Wesley that these circumstances are not stated in his Joarnal, and no otherwise recorded than in the conversation with Count Zinzendorf, which, he says, he dared not conceal. But, as he printed it in the original Latin, and did not think proper to annex a translation, it was effectually conceal- ed from the great majority of his followers. Neither are they noticed by any of the biographers of Wesley.
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and this was the matter in dispute : they erred in their opinions concerning Christian perfection, and concerning the means of grace. To this Zinzendorf vehemently repliedi **I acknowledge no inherent perfection in this life. This is the error of errors. I persecute it through all the world with fire and sword. I trample upon it, I destroy it Christ is our only perfection. All Christian perfection is faith in the blood, of Christ. It is imputed, not inherent. We are perfect in Christ ; we are never perfect in our- selves.^ Wesley protested, that this was merely a dispute concerning words, and attempted to prove it so by a series of interrogations, by which the Count was led to this assertion, ^^ We r^ect all 8elf*denial ; we trample on it. In faith we do whatever we de- sire, and nothing more. We laugh at all mortifica- tion ; no purification precedes perfect love.'^ If this meant all that it expresses, it would indeed be a pe- rilous doctrine. But it often happens, that language eqOally indiscreet is innocently intended, and less evil is produced by it than might reasonably be ap- prehended, because the intention is understood.
Wesley put an <end to this curious conversation, by promising that, with God's help, he would per- pend what the Count had said. But his part was already taken: no further attempt at reconcili- ation was made; and after three years had elaps- ed, he published the breach to the world, in the fourth part of his Journal, which he dedicated to the Mora* vian Church, and more especially to that part of it then or lately residing in England. ^ I am-constrain- ed at length,'^ he said, ^^ to speak my present senti- ments concerning you. I have delayed thus long, be- cause I loved you, and was therefore unwilling to grieve you in any thing: and likewise because 1 was afraid of creating another obstacle to that union which, if I know my own heart in any degree,! desire above all things under heaven. But I dare no longer delay, lest my silence should be a snare to any oth- ers of the children of God ; and lest you yourselves should be more confirmed in what I cannot reconcile
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to the law and the testimony. This would strength* en the bar which I long to remove. And were that once taken out of the way, I should rejoice to be a door-keeper in the house of God, a hewer of wood,- or a drawer of water among you. Sorely I would follow you to the ends of the earth, or remain with you in the uttermost parts of the sea.^' He praised them for laying the true foundation in their doctrine ; for brotherly love of each other; for their sober, in- nocent, and industrious lives. ^^ I love and esteem you,^^ he said, ^^ for your excellent discipline, 'scarce inferior to that of the apostolic age : for your due subordination of officers, every one knowing and keeping his proper rank ; for your exact division of the people under your charge, so that each may be fed with food convenient for them ; for your carer that all who are employed in the service of the Church, should frequently and freely confer togeth- er; »and, in consequence thereof, your exact and sea- sonable knowledge of the state of every member, and your ready distribution eitiier of spiritual or tempo- ral relief, as every man hath need.'^ In relating what he found himself enforced by a sense of duty to lay before the public, he endeavoured, he said, to do it with a tender hand ; ^^ relating no more than 1 be- lieved absolutely needful, carefully avoiding all tart and unkind expressions, all that I could foresee would be disobliging to you, or any further ofiensive than was implied in the very nature of the thing; labour- ing every where to speak consistently with that deep sense which is settled in my heart, that you are (though I cannot call you Rabbi, infallible) yet far, far better and wiser than me.'^ He added, that if any of the Moravian Brethren would show him where- in he had erred in this relation, either in matter or manner, he would confess it before angels and men, in whatever way they should require ; and he en- treated that they would not cease to pray for him as their weak but still affectionate brother.
After the breach had been thus formally announc- ed. Count Zinzendorf published an advertir^emeut.
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declaring that he and his people had no connexion with John and Charles Wesley. The Moravians forbore from all controversy upon the subject, but Wesley did not continue the tone of charity and can- dour ifi which he had addressed them upon the separation. Speaking of a short narrative which Zinzendorf had written of his own life, he says, " Was there ever such a Proteus under the sun as this Lord Fraydeck, Domine de Thurstain, &c. &c. for he has almost as manyYiames as he has faces or shapes. Oh, when will he learn (with all his learn- ing) simplicity and godly sincerity.'^ When will he be an upright follower of the Lamb, so that no guile may be fonnd in his mouth ?'' He still for a while professed that he loved the Moravians ; but he gave such reasons for not continuing to admire them as he had formerly done, that it was manifest the love also was on the wane, and would soon be siicceeded by open enmity. He censured them for calling them- selves the Brethren, and condemned them with as- perity for arrogating to themselves the title of the Aforavian Church, which he called a palpable cheat. He blamed them for conforming to the world by use- less trifling conversation ; for levity in their general behaviour; for joining in diversions in ord.er to do good, and for not reproving sin even when it was gross and open. He said that much cunning might be observed in them, much evasion and disguise: that they treated their opponents with a settled dis- dain, which was neither consistent with love nor humility: that they confined their beneficence to the narrow bounds of their own society. Their •preaching, he said, destroyed the love of God and the love of our neighbour. " If a man," said he, ** was before a zealous member of our church, groan- ing for the prosperity of our Zion, it is past ; all that zeal is at an end : he regards the Church of England no more than the Church of Rome ; his tears no longer fall, his prayers no longer ascend, that God may shine upon her desolation. The friends that were once as his own soul, are now no more to him VOL. I. 39
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than other men. All the bands of that formerly en- deared afTection are as threads of tow that have touched the fire. Even the ties of filial tenderness are dissolved. The child regards not his own pa* rent : he no longer regards the womb that bare, nor the paps that gave him suck. Recent instances are not wanting. I will particularize, if required. Yea, the son leaves his aged father, the daughter her mo- ther, in want of the necessaries of life. I know the persons. I have myself relieved them more than once : for that was corban whereby they should have been profited?^ — He should have asked himself whether Methodism did not sometimes produce the same effects. The fifth commandment is but a weak ob- stacle in the way of enthusiasm.
Wesley soon went further than this, and throwing aside all appearance of any remaining attachment to the Moravians, charged them with being cruel and deceitful men. He published in bis journals accusations against them of the foulest kind, made by persons who had forsaken their society; thus giving the whole weight of his judgment to their abominable* charges. And he affirmed that it was clear to a demonstration^ that the Moravian elders assumed a more absolute authority over the con- science than the Pope himself: that to gain and secure this, they used a continued train of guile, fraud, and falsehood of every kind ; and that they scraped their votaries to the bone as to their worldly substance. Yet, he added, they were still so infatu- ated as to believe that theirs was the only true Church upon earth. They could not possibly have believed so, if they had been guilty of the crimes
* " Mr. Rimius has said nothing to what might have been said concerning their marriage economy, t know a hundred times more than he has written ; but the particulars are too shocking to relate. I believe no such things were ever practised before ; no, not among the most barbarous heathens.'' Journal 9, p. 179. (vol. 3. of Wesley's Works. 1810.) In another part of the same Journal (p. 107.) they are charged, upon the testimony of another witness, with the vilest abominations.
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with which they were charged; and that Wesley should have repeated, and thereby sanctioned those charges, nrnsl be considered as the most disingenu- ous act of his life. For however much, he di&red from the Moravians, and however exceptionable he might have deemed their doctrine, he well knew that there was nothing in that doctrine which could lead either to such practices, or be pleaded in palli- ation of them : and had he been called upon to give evidence concerning them in a court of justice, his testimony must have been wholly in their favour.
Whitefield also entered the lists against, them. They had committed some fooleries, and, like the religious communities of the Romish church, it ap- pears, that if a believer were disposed to give or bequeath money to the brotherhood, they were not scrupulous concerning the injury which he might do to himself or his family. The heavier charges have been efiectually disproved by time.
CHAPTER XL
WESLEY SEPARATES FROM WHITEFIELD.
In separating from Count Zinzendorf and the Mo- ravians, there had been little sacrifice of feeling on Wesley ^s part ; but he was involved at the same time in a difference with Whitefield, which aflfected him deeply, and led to consequences of. greater impor- tance.
At the commencement of his career, Wesley was of a pugnacious spirit, the effect of his sincerity, his ardour, and his confidence. He wished to obtain ^ Whitefield's acquiescencein his favourite doctrine of perfection, the ^^ free, full, and present salvation from all the guilt, all the power, and all the in-being of sin;'^ a doctrine as untenable as it was acceptable
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to weak minds and inflated imaginations. He knew also that Whitefield held the Calviniatic tenets '^of election and irreversible decrees ; tenets which, if true, would make God unjust, and the whole Gospel a mere mockery. Upon both these subjects he wrote to his old friend and disciple, who at this time, though he could yield to him upon neither, wished earnestly to avoid all dispute. " My honoured friend and brother," said he in his reply, " for once hearken to a child who is willing to wash your feet I be- seech you, by the mercies of God in Christ Jesus our Lord, if you would have ray love confirmed to^- wards you, write no more to me about misrepresen-* tations wherein we differ. To the best of my know* ledge, at present no sin has domiiiion over me, yet 1 feel the stragglings of in-dwelling sin day by day. The doctrine of election, and the final perseverance of those who are in Christ, I am ten thousand times more convinced of,^ if possible, than when I saw you last. You think otherwise. Why then should we dispute, when there is no probability of convincing.^ Will it not, in the end, destroy brotherly love, and insensibly take from us that cordial union and sweets ness of soul, which I pray God may always subsist between us ? How glad would the enemies of the Lord be to see us divided ! How many would re- joice, should I join and make a party against you ! And, in one word, how would the cause of our com- mon Master every way suffer^ by our raising disputes about particular points of doctrine ! Honoured Sir, let us offer* salvation freely to all by the blood of Jesus; and" whatever light God has communicated to us, let us freqly commutiichte to others. I have lately read the life of Luther, and think it in no wise to his honour, that the last part of his life was so much taken up in- disputing with Zwinglius and others, who in all probability equally loved the Lord Jefens, though they might differ from him in other points. Let this, dear Sir, be a caution to us ; I hope It will to me; for, by the blessing of God, provoke me to it as much as you please, I do not think ever
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to enter the lists of controversy with yoa on the points wherein we differ. Only! pray to God, that the more you judge me, the more I may love you, and learn to desire no one^s approbation, but that of my Lord and Master Jesus Christ/'
These feelings are creditable to Whitefield, but he was not consistent in pursuing the course of conduct which he thus advised. Two months only after this letter was written, he followed it with an* other in a different strain. " Honoured Sir," it be- gan,* ^^ I cannot entertain prejudices against your conduct and principles any longer without informing you. The more I examine the writings of the most experienced men, and * the experiences of the most established Christians, the more I differ from your notion about not committing sin, and your denying the doctrines of election and the final perseverance of the saints. I dread coming to England, unless you are resolved to oppose these truths with less warmth than when I was there last I dread your coming over to America,- because the work of God is carried on here, and that in a most glorious man- ner, by doctrines quite opposite to those you hold. — God direct me what to do ! Sometimes I think it best to stay here, where we all think and speak the same thing: the work goes on without divisions, and with more success, because all employed in it are of one mind. I write not this, honoured Sir, from heat of spirit, but out of love. . At present I think you are entirely inconsistent with yourself, and therefore do Hot blame me if I do not approve of all that you say. God himself, I find, teaches ray friends the doctrine of election. Sister H. hath lately been convinced of it ; and, if I mistake not, dear and honoured Mr. WeS" ley hereafter will be convinced also. — Perhaps I may never see you again till we meet in judgment; then, if not before, you will know, that sovereign, distin- guishing, irresistible grace brought you to Heaven/' Wesley received this letter in a kindly spirit, and thanked him for it. " The case is quite plain," he said in reply. " There are bigots both for predesti-
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nation and against it. God is sending a message to those on either side, but neither will receive it un- less from one who is of their own opinion. There- fore, for a time you are suffered to be of one opinion, and I of another. But when His time is come, God will do what men cannot, namely, make us both of one mind#" — Soon afterwards Whitefield writes to one of his friends in England, ^^ for Chrises sake de- sire dear brother Wesley to avoid disputing with me. I think I had rather die than see a division between us ; and yet how can we walk together, if we opppse each othpr ?'" And again to Wesley himself, he says^ «^for Christ^s sake, if possible, dear Sir, never speak against election in your sermons : no one can say that I ever mentioned it in public discourses,"* whatever my private sentiments may be. For Christ's sake, let us not be divided amongst ourselves: nothing will so much prevent a division as your being silent on that head.''
While Whitefield from America was thus exhort- ing to forbearance fr6m controversy, the Calvinistic Methodists in England were forcing on the separation which he deprecated, while he foresaw. .One of the leading members in London, by name Acourt, had disturbed the society by introducing his disputed te- nets, till Charles Wesley gave orders that be should no longer be admitted. John was present when next
* Yet it appears by Whitefield's JoatDal, that on his last voyage to America he had been confirmed in his Calvinistic opinions, and had resolved in consequence upon preaching them. '' This aflter- noon was exceedingly strengthened by perusing some paragraphs out of a book called The Preacher^ written by Dr. Edwards, of Cambridge, and extracted by Mr. Jonathan Warn, in his books en- titled Tke Oiurch'0f-England»inan turned Dissenter, and Arminian- ism the Back'door to Popery, There are such noble testimonies given before that University of Justification by Faith only in the imputed Righteousness of Christ, our having no Free Will, kc,^ that they deserve to be written in letters of gold. I see more and more the benefit of leaving written testimonies behind as con- cerning these important points. They not only profit the present, but will also much edify the future ages. Lord, open thou mtf mou^ that I may henceforward speak more boldly and explicitly as I Bught to speak,^*
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he presented himself, and demanded whether they refused admittii^ a person only because he differed from them in opinion. Wesley answered no, but ask- ed what opinion he meant. He replied, ^Mhat of election. I hold that a certain number are elected from eternity, and these must and shall.be saved, and the rest of mankind must and shall be damned.''-*- And he affirmed that many of the society held the same ; upon which Wesley observed that he never asked whether they did or not ; ^ only let them not trouble others by disputing about it." Acourt repli- ed, " Nay, but I will dispute about it." — ^'^ Why then," said Wesley, ^^ would you come among us, who you know are of another mind." — •* Because you are all wrong, and I am resolved to set you all right." — ^^ I fear," said Wesley, "your coming with this view would neither profit you nor us." — " Then," rejoined Acourt, ^^ I will go and tell all the world that you and your brother are false prophets. And I tell you in one fortnight you will all be in confusion."
Some time before, Wesley had received a letter in which he was reproached for not preaching the Gos- pel because he did not preach the doctrine of elec- tion. According to his usual presumptuous practice at that time, instead of consulting with his friends, or even advising with himself upon the prudence of en- gaging in controversy, he drew a lot for his direction, and the lot was " preach and print." So lie preach- ed a sermon against this deplorable doctrine, and printed it. Whitefield was then in England, and at his desire the publication was for a while suppress- ed ; but it was sent into the world soon after his de- parture for America. The rising sect was thus dis- turbed hy a question which had so often carried dis- cord into the schools of theology, which had unhap- pily divided the Protestant world, and which when it had risen in the bosom of the Catholic church, nei- ther the Popes with their bulls, nor the Kings of France with their power, nor the Jesuits with all the wisdom of the serpent, could either determine or lay to rest. Wesley had begun the discussion^ but White*
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field persevered in it, when he would fain have press- ed it no further ; and be assumed a tone of superi- ority which Wesley, who was as much his superior in intellect as in learning, was little likely to brook. (^ Give me leave,^' said he, ^^ with all humility to ex- hort you not to be strenuous in opposing the doctrines of election and final perseverance, when by your own confession you have not the witness of the spirit within yourself, and consequently are not a proper judge. — I am assured God has now for some years given me this living witness in my soul. I can say I have been on the borders of Canaan, and do every day, nay almost every moment, long for the appear- ing of our Lord Jesus Christ, not to evade sufferings, but with a single desire to see his blessed face. 1 feel his blessed spirit daily filling my soul and body^ as plain as I feel the air which I breathe, or the food which I eat. Perhaps the doctrine of election and of final perseverance hath been abused, (and what doc- trine has not ?) but notwithstanding, it is children's bread, and ought not in my opinion to be withheld from them, supposing it is always mentioned with pro- per cautions against the abuse. Dear and honoured Sir, I write not this to enter into disputation. I hope at this time I feel something of the meekness and gentleness of Christ. I cannot bear the thoughts of opposing you : but bow can I avoid it if you go about, as your brother Charles once said, to drive John Calvin out of Bristol } Alas, I never read any thing that Calvin wrote : my doctrines I had from Christ and his Apostles ; I was taught them of God ; and as God was pleased to send me out first, and to enlighten me first, so I think he still continues to do it — ^1 wish I knew your principles fully; did you write oftener and more frankly, it might have a better effect than silence and reserve."
Whitefield indeed was frequently indulging some- times in such exaggerated expressions of humility, and at others in such ebullitions of spiritual pride, that it is no wonder the suspicion of hypocrisy should have attached to him, till time and death had placed
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his sincerity beyond all dispute. " I have now," he says, ** such large incomes from above, and such pre- cious communications from our dear Lord Jesus, that my body sometimes can scarcely sustain them." — ^^^ I have a garden near at hand, where I go particularly to meet and talk with my God, at the cool of every day. I often sit in silence, offering my soul as so much clay, to be stamped just as my heavenly potter pleases ; and whilst I am musing, I am often filled, as it were with the fullness of God. I am frequently at Calvary, and frequently on Mount Tabor, but always assured of my Lord's everlasting love." — "Our dear Lord sweetly fills me with his presence. My heaven is begun indeed. I feast on the fatted calf. The ^ Lord strengthens me mightily in tbe inner man." At other times he " abhors" himself ** in dust and ashes." He is " a worm and no man." He " deserves to be the outcast of the people." — " Why do so many of my Lord's servants take notice of such a dead dog as I am ?" Then again he would pamper his imagi- nation with the hopes of persecution and martyrdom. " Dear brother," he says to one of his American coad- jutors. " both you and I must suffer, and that, great things before we enter into glory. My work is scarce 'begun ; my trials are yet to come. What is a little scourge of the tongue ? What is a thrusting out of the synagogues ? The time of temptation will be when we are thrust into an inner prison, and feel the iron entering even into our souls. Then perhaps even God's people may be permitted to forsake us for a while, and none but the Lord Jesus to stand by us. But if thou, O dearest Redeemer, wilt strength- en me in the inner man, let enemies plurjgemeinto a fiery furnace, or throw me into a den of lions !" And he writes as if he really believed, or affected to be- lieve that persecuting rulers were again about to em- ploy lions' dens and burning fiery furnaces ! " I am now looking," he says, " for some strong attacks from Sa- tan."— " Let us suffer for Jesus with a cheerful heart ! His love will sweeten every cup, though never so bit- ter. Let us pledge him h illinj2:ly, and continue faith- voL. I. 40
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fill even to death ! A scene of sufleriogs lies before us. Who knows but we may wade to our Saviour through a sea of blood ? I expect TOh pray that I may be strengthened if called to it !) to die for hia great name's sake. 'Twill be sweet to wear a mar- tyr's crown." — *^ Suffer we must, 1 believe, and that, great thin^. Our Lord by his providence begins to show it. Ere long perhaps we may sing in a prison^ and have our feet set fast in the stocks. But faith in Jesus turns a prison into a palace, and makes a bed offlaroe^ become a bed of down."
This was safe boasting: and yet if Whitefield had lived in an age of persecution his metal would have borne to be tried in the flames. The temper from which it arose ma^e him as ready now to stand up in opposition to Wesley, as he had formerly been to follow him. ^^ I am sorry," he says to him, ^^ honoured Sir, to hear by many letters, that you seem to own a sinless perfection in this life attainable. I think I can- not answer you better than a venerable old minister in these parts answered a Quaker, ^ bring me a man that hath really arrived to this, and I will pay his ex- penses let him come from whence he will.' Besides, dear Sir, what a fond conceit is it to cry up perfec- tion, and yet cry down the doctrine of final perseve- rance ? But this and many other absurdities you will run into, because you will not own election; and you will not own election because you cannot own it without believing the doctrine of reprobation. What then is there in reprobation so horrid ?" 1 bat question might easily have been answered. The doctrine implies that an Almighty and All-^i^e Cre- ator has called into existence the greater part of the human race to the end that after a short sinful, and miserable life, they should pass into an eternity of in- conceivable torments, it being the pleasure of their Creator that they should not be able to obey his com- mands, and yet incur the penalty of everlasting dam- nation for disobedience. In the words of Mr. Wes- ley, who has stated the case with equal force and truth, ^^ the sum of all is this ; one in twenty (sup-
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posfte) of mankind, are elected; nineteen in twenty are r^robaied ! The elect shall be saved, do what they wiU; the reprobate shall be damned, do what iheu '' can.^ This is the doctrine of Calvinism, for whicn * Diabolism would be a better name ; and in the worst and bloodiest idolatry that ever defiled the * earth, there is nothing so horrid, so monstrous, so im* pious as this.
Whitefield continued, " Oh that you would be more cautious in casting lots ! Oh that you would not be too rash and precipitant ! If you go on thus, honoured Sir, how can I concur with you ? It is im- possible. I must speak what I know. Thus I write out of the fulness of my heart. I feel myself to be a vile sinner. I look to Christ. I mourn because I have piefced him. Honoured Sir, pray for me. The Lord be with your dear soul.'' The same week pro- duced a letter in a higher style of assumed superi- ority : " Dear brother Wesley, what mean you by disputing in all your letters ? May God give you to know yourself, and then you will not plead for abso- lute perfection, or call the doctrine of election a doctrine of devils. My dear brother, take heed ! See that you are in Christ a new creature ! Beware of a false peace : strive to enter in at the strait gate ; and give all diligence to make your calling and elec- tion sure : remember you are but a babe in Christ, if so much ! Be humble, talk little, think and pray much. Let God teach you, and he wilt lead you into all truth. If you must dispute, stay till you are master of the subject; otherwise you will hurt the cause you would defend." And in a subsequent let- ter he eays, " O dear Sir, many of God's children are grieved at your principles ! Oh that God may give you a sight of his free, sovereign, and electing love ! But no more of this. Why will you compel me to write thus ? Why will you dispute ? I am willing to go with you to prison and to death ; but I am not willing to oppose you." And again, ** Oh that there may be harmony and very intimate union between us, yet it cannot be, since you hold universal redemp-
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tion. The Devil rages in London. He begins now to triumph indeed. The children of God are disuni- ted among themselves. My dear brother, for Christ^s sake avoid all disputation! Do not oblige me to preach against you : 1 had rather die."
He soon, however, began to fear that he had been sinfully silent. The children of God, he thought, were in danger of felling into error: many who had been worked upon by his ministry had been misled, and more were calling loudly upon him to show his opinion also. " I must then show," said he, *•* that I know no man after the flesh, and that I have no re- spect to persons any further than is consistent with my duty to my Lord and Master." And therefore be took pen in hand to write against Wesley, protesting that Jonah could not go with more reluctance against Nineveh. " Was nature to speak," said he, •* I had rather die than do it ; and yet I am faithful to God, and to my own and other's souls, I must not stand neuter any longer." In this letter Whitefield related how Wesley had preached and printed his obnox- ious sermon, in consequence of drawing a lot. "I have often questioned," said he, " whether in so do- ing you did not tempt the Lord. A due exercise pf religious prudence without a lot, would have direct- ed you in that mnttor. Besides 1 never heard that you inquired of God, whether or not election was a gospel doctrine. But I fear taking it for granted it was not, jjou only inquired whether you should be si- lent, or preach and print against it. I am apt (o think one reason why God should so suffer you to be de- ceived was, that hereby a special obligation might be laid upon me faithfully to declare the Scripture doctrine of election, that thus the Lord might give me a fresh opportunity of seeing what was in my heart, and whether I would be true to his cause or not. Perhaps God has laid this difficult task upon me, even to see whether I am willing to forsake all for him or not." Thus while he reprehended Wes- ley for a most reprehensible and presumptuous prac- tice, did he manifest a spirit little less presumptuous
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himself. In further proof of the folly of Wesley's practice, he related also the fact of his drawing lots to discover whether Whitefield should proceed to Georgia, or leave the ship which was then under sail and return to London, upon which occasion he re- minded him of his subsequent confession that God had given him a wrong lot, "I should never,'' says he, ^^ have published this private transaction to the world, did not the glory of God call me to it." .
This was the only important part of the letter, and Whitefield afterwards felt and feelingly acknowledge ed the great impropriety which he had committed in thus revealing the weakness of his friend. The ar- gumentative part had nothing worthy of notice either in manner or matter, for powerful preacher as he was, he had neither strength nor acuteness of intel- lect, and his written compositions are nearly worth- less. But the conclusion is remarkable for the ho- nest confidence and the warmth of affection which it breathes. "Dear, dear Sir, Oh be not offended! For Christ's sake be not rash ! Give yourself to read- ing. Study the covenant of grace. Down with your carnal reasoning ! Be a little child ; and then, instead of pawning your salvation, as you have done in a late hymn-book, if the doctrine of universal redemption be not true ; instead of talking of sinless perfection, as you have done in the preface to that hymn-book, and making man's salvation to depend on his own free will, as you have done in this sermon, you will compose a hymn in praise of sovereign distinguishing love. You will caution believers against striving to work a perfection out of their own hearts, and print another sermon the reverse of this, and entitle it Free Grace indeed ; free, because not free to all ; but free, because God may withhold or give it to whom, and when he pleases. Till you do this, I must doubt whe- ther or not you know yourself. God knows my heart, nothing but a single regard to the honour of Christ has forced this letter from me. I love and honour you for his sake ; and when I come to judgment will thank you before men and angels for what ypu have.
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under God, done for mj soul. There I am persuad- ed I shall see dear Mr. Wesley convinced of election and everlasting love. And it often fills me with plea- sure to think how I shall behold you casting your crown down at the feet of the Lamb, and as it were filled with a holy blushing for opposing the divine so- vereignty in the manner you have done; • But I hope the Lord will show you this before you go hence. Oh how do I long for that day !"
That this letter was intended for publication is certain ; but theve seems to have been a hope in Whitefield's mind that the effect which its perusal would produce might render publication needless. His friends in London, however, thought proper to print it, without either his permission or Wesley's, and copies were distributed at the door of the Foundery, i^nd in the meeting itself Weslejr hold-* ing one in his hand stated to the congregation the fact of its surreptitious publication, and then saying, " I will do just what I believe Mr. Whitefield would were he here himself,'' he tore it in pieces. Every person present followed his example; and Wesley, in reference to the person by whose means these un- lucky copies had been circulated, exclaims in his journal, ^ Ah poor Ahitophel ! Ibi omnis effusus la- borr
The person who seems to have been most active in enforcing Calvinism in opposition to Wesley at this ^/ V time was a certain John Ceimick, whom he employed at Kingswood in tKe^cTiooT which Whitefield had designed for the children of the colliers. Whitefield had collected some money for this good work, and had performed the ceremony of laying the founda- tion ; but further than this ceremony it had not pro- ceeded when he embarked the second time for Ame- rica, and left it to be carried forward by Wesley, There was the great difficulty of want of money in the way ; but this was a diflSculty which faith would remove, and in faith Wesley began building without having a quarter of the sum necessary for finishing it. But he found pei«ons who were willing to advance
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money if be would become responsible for the debt ; the responsibilitj and the property thus devolved up- on him, and he immediately made his will, bequeath* ing it to his brother Charles and Whitefield. Two masters were provided as soon as the house was fit to receive them, and Cennick was one. He was not in holy orders, but the practice of lay-preaching which had at first been vehemently opposed by the Wesleys, had now become inevitably a part of their system, and Cennick, who had great talents for po- pular speaking, laboured also as one of these helpers, as they were called. This person in his horror against the doctrines of the Wesleys wrote urgently to White- field, calling upon him to hasten from America that * he might stay the plague. " I sit,'' said he, " solitary like Eli, waiting what will become of the ark ; and while I wail and fear the carrying of it away from among my people, my trouble increases daily. How glorious did the Gospel seem once to flourish in Kingswood ! I spake of the everlasting love of Christ with sweet power. But now brother Charles is suf- fered to open his mouth against this truth, while the frighted sheep gaze and fl^, as if no shepherd was among them. It is just as if Satan was now making war with the saints in a more than common way. Oh ! pray for the distressed lambs yet left in this place, that they faint jiot! Surely they would if preaching would do it, for they have nothing where- on to rest, who now attend on the sermons, but their own faithfulness. With universal redemption bro- ther Charles pleases the world. Brother John fol- lows him in every thing. I believe no Atheist can more preach against predestination than they ; and all who believe election are counted enemies to God, and called so. Fly dear brother ! I am as alone, — I am in the midst of the plague ! If God give thee leave, make haste !"
A copy of this letter came into Wesley's hands, and it stung him, because he said the writer was *' one I had sent for to assist me, a friend that was
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as my own soul, that even while he opposed me lay in my bosom." Charles in consequence addressed a letter to him which forcibly expresses the feeling of the two brothers upon having one of their disciples thus rise against them. " You came to Kingswood,'* says he, " upon my brother's sending for you. You served under him in the Gospel as a son, I need not say how well he loved you. You used the authority he gave you to overthrow his doctrine. You every where contradicted it, (whether true or false is not the question). But you ought first to have fairly told him, ' 1 preach contrary to you : are you willing, notwithstanding, that 1 should continue in your house^ gainsaying you r If you are not, I have no place in these regions. You have a right to this open deal- ing. I now give you fair warning. Shall I stay here opposing you, or shall I depart ?^ My brother, have you dealt thus honestly jnd openly with him.^ No. But you have stolen away the people's heart from him. And when some of them basely treated llieir best friend^ God only excepted, how patiently did you take it ! When did you ever vindicate us as we have you ? Why did you not plainly tell them, you are eternally indebted to these men ? * Think not that I will stay among you to head a party against my dearest friend and brother, as he suffers me to call him, having humbled himself for my sake, and
given me, no bishop, priest, or deacon, the right and of fellowship. If I hear that one word more is spoken against him, I will leave you that moment.' This had been just and honest, and not more than we have deserved at your hands. '^
This was put into John Wesley's hands that he might deliver it to Cennick if he thought proper. But matters had proceeded so far that Cennick was forming a separate society, and Wesley deemed it better to speak to him and his adherents publicly, and reprove them for inveighing against him behind his back. One of them replied, that they had said no more of him behind his back than they would Bay to his face, which was that he preached false
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doctrine ; — ^he preached that there is righteousnesd in man. " So," said Wesley, " there is, after the righteousness of Christ is imputed to him through faith. But who told yoo that what we preached was false doctrine ? Whom would you have believed this from, butMr. Cennick.'^'^ Cennick then boldly an- swered, ^^ You do preach righteousness in man. 1 did say this, and I say it still. However, we are will- ing to join with you ; but we will also meet apart from you ; for we meet to confirm one another in those truths which you speak against" Wesley re- plied, ^ You should have told me this before, and not have supplanted me in my own house, stealing the hearts of the people, and by private accusations separating very friends." Upon this, Cennick denied that be had ever privately accused him. ^^My brethren," said Wesley, "judge !" and he produced Cennick^s letter to Whitefield. Cennick avowed the letter, and said that he neither retracted any thing in it, nor blamed himself for having sent it. Some beat upon this began to manifest itself in the meet*- ing, and W.esley with his characteristic prudence, preserved his superiority, by desiring that they might meet again on that day week, and that the matter might rest till then.
Cennick and#liis friends would hardly have con- sented to 6uch%n'adjournment if they ^ad suspected Wesley's purpose. At the appointed time, he sur- prised them by reading the following paper, in which they were treated not as persons who differed from faim in opinion, but as culprits : ^^ By many witnesses it aopears that several members of tne Band Society in Kingswood have made it their common practice, to scoff at the preaching of Mr. John and Charles Wesley ; that they have censured and spoken evil of them behind their backs, at the very time they pro- fessed love and esteem to their faces ; that they have studiously endeavoured to prejudice other members of that society against them, ami in order thereto, have belied and slandered them in divers instances; therefore, not for their opinions, nor for any of them,
VOL. t. 41
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(whether thej be right or wrong) but for the causes above mentioned, viz. for their scoffing at the word and ministers of God, for their tale-bearing, back- biting, and evil speaking, for their dissembling, ly- ing, and slandering ; I, John Wesley, by the consent and approbation of the Band Society in Kingswood, do declare the persons above mentioned to be no longer members thereof. Neither will they be so accounted until they shall openly confess their fault, and thereby do what in them lies to remove the scandal they have given.''
No founder of a sect or order, no legislator, ever understood the art of preserving his authority more perfectly than Wesley. They came prepared for a discussion of their opinions and conduct, and they were astonished at hearing themselves thus excom?- municated. As soon as they recovered from their surprise they affirmed that they had heard both him and his brother preach popery many times. How- ever, they were still willing to join with them, but they would not own that they had done anv thing amiss. Wesley desired them to consider of it yet again, but finding after another week had elapeed that they still refused to acknowledge that they bad been in the wrong, he once more assembled the bands, and told them that every one miyt now take his chance and quit one society or the^ther. One of the Calvinistic leaders observed, that the true reason of his separating from them was because they held the doctrine of election. Wesley made answer, " You know in your own conscience it is not. There are several predestinarians in our societies both at London and Bristol; nor did I ever yet put any one out of either, because he held that opinion.'' They then offered to break up their society, provided be would receive and employ Cennick as he had done before. To this Wesley replied, " My brother has wronged me much : but he doth not say I repenf^ Cennick made answer, ^^ Unless in not speaking in your defence I do not know that I have wronged you at all." — "It seems then," said Wesley, "nothing
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remains but for each to choose which society he pleases.'' Upon this they prayed for a short time, in a state of mind, as it should seem, but little fit for prayer, after which Cennick withdrew, and about half the meeting followed him.
At this time Whitefield was on the way from America. While upon (he passage he wrote to Charles Wesley, expostulating with him atid his bro- ther, in strong but affectionate terms. " My dear, dear brethren," said he, " why did you throw out the bone of contention ? Why did you print that sermon against predestination ? Why did you in particular, my dear brother Charles, affix your hymn, and join in putting out ypur late hymn book ? How can you say you will not dispute with me about election, and yet print such hymns, and your brother send his sermon against election over to America ? Do not you think, my dear brethren, 1 must be as much con* cerned for truth, or what I think truth, as you ? God is my judge, I always was, and hope I always shall be, desirous that you may be preferred before me. But I must preach the gospel of Christ, and that I cannot mno do without speaking of election." He then in- formed (Charles, that one copy of his answer to the sermon was printing at Charlestown ; that another had been sent to Boston for the same purpose ; and that he was bringing a copy to be printed in London. ** If," said he, '* it occasion a strangeness between us, it shall not be my fault. There is nothing in my answer exciting to it that I know of. O my dear brethren, my heart almost bleeds within me ! Me- thinks I could be willing to tarry here on the waters for ever, rather than come to England to oppose you," But although, when he was thus addressing the Wesleys, the feelings of old friendship returned upon him, his other letters, written during the voy- age, evince that he looked on to a separation as the certain consequence of this difference in opinion. " Great perils," he says, '^ await me ; but Jesus Christ will send his angel, and roll away every stone
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of difficulty," ** My Lord's command now, I believe^ is, ' Take the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines, for our vines have tender grapes.' Help me by your prayers; it is an ease thus to unbosom ray- self to a friend. 1 have sought the Lord by prayer and fasting, and he assures me that he will be with me ; whom then should I fear .^" — " The Lord- is girding me for the battle, and strengthening me mightily inthe inner man."
in this state of mind he reached London. Charles Wesley was there, and their meeting was affectionate. « It would have melted any heart," says Whitefield, " to have heard us weeping after prayer, that, if possiE^o? the breach might be pre- vented." Old feelings of respect and love revived with such strength in his heart, that he promised never to preach against the Wesleys, whatever his private opinion might be. But many things com- bined to sour him at this time. He had written against Archbishop Tillotson's works, and the Whole Duty of Man, a book in those days of un- rivalled popularity, in a manner which he himself /then acknowledged to be intemperate and injudi- cious ; and this had offended persons, who were otherwise favourably disposed towards him. His celebrity also seemed to have passed away ; the twenty thousands who used to assemble at his preaching had dwindled down to two or three hundred ; and in one exhibition at Kennington Common, the former scene of his triumphs, scarcely a hundred were gathered together to hear him. Worldly anxieties, too, were fretting him, and those of a kind which made the loss of his ce- lebrity a serious evil. The Orphan House in Georgia was to be maintained : he had now nearly a hundred persons in that establishment, who were to be supported by his exertions : there were not the slightest funds provided, and Geoma was the dearest part of the British dominions. He was above a thousand pounds in debt upon that score,
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and be himself not worth twenty. Seward,"* the wealthiest and most attached of his disciples, was. dead, and had made no provision for him, nor for the paypient of a bill for 350/. on the Orphan House account, which he had drawn, and for which Whitefield was now responsible, and threatened with an arrest If his celebrity were gone, the Bank of Faith, upon which he had hitherto drawn with such confidence and such success, would be closed against him. He called it truly a trying time : " Many, very many of my spiritual children," says he, *^ who, at my last departure from England, would have plucked out their own eyes to have given me, are so prejudiced by the dear Messrs. Wesleys dress- ing up the doctrine of election in such horrible co- lours, that they will neither hear, see, nor give me the least assistance ; yea, some of them send threat- ening letters that God will speedily destroy me." — This folly on the part of Wesley's hot adherents irri^* tated him, and tnat irritation was fomented by his own. He began naturally to regard his former friends as heretics and enemies ; and when Wesley, who had
♦ A letter from Charles Wesley to Whitefield makes it evident that this zealous maa was bestowing his property as well as his time in the service of Methodism. Writing from London in 1739, he says, *' I cannot preach out on the week-days for the expense of coach-hire, nor can I accept of dear Mr. Seward's offer, to which I should be less backward would he follow my advice, but while he is so lavish of his Lord's goods I cannot consent that his ruin should in any degree seem to be under my hands. '* These goods were his family's also, as well as his Lord's ; and therefore it is not surprising that when Mr. Seward was lying ill of a fever at his house at Bengeworth, and Charles Wesley came there in one of his rounds, the wife, the brother, and the apothecary should have taken especial care to keep all Methodists from him ; and when they could not prevail upon Wesley to give up his in- tention of preaching near the house, which the apothecary de- clared would throw his patient back, that they should have endea- vonred to drive him out of the town by force. Seward's early loss is thus noticed by John Wesley :- *' Monday, Oct. 27, (1740.) The surprising news of poor Mr. Seward's death was confirmed. Surely God will maintain his own cause ! Righteoys art thou, O Lord." His journal was published, and is often quoted in Bishop Lavington's curious work.
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been summoned by his brother Charles to London on this occasion, went to him, to see if the breach might yet be closed, Whitefield honestly told him, that they preached two different gospels, and there- fore he not only would not loin with him, or ^ve him the right hand of fellowship, but would pubhcly preach against him wheresoever he preached at alt. He was reminded of the promise which he had but a few days before made, that whatever his opinion might be he would not do this : but he replied, that promise was only an effect of human weakness, and he was now of another mind.
This temper disposed him to listen to the repre- sentations, of paltry minds; and he wrote to Wesley upon the points which he thought had been impro- perly managed during his absence in America. Wes- ley replied, " Would you have me deal plainly with you, my brother ! 1 believe you would : then by the grace of God I will. Of many things I find you are not rightly informed ; of others you speak what yoti have not well weighed. The Society room at Bris- tol you say is adorned. How ? Why, with a piece of green cloth tiailed to the desk; two sconces for eight candles each in the middle ; and — nay, I know no more. Now, which of these can be spared I know not ; nor would I desire either nibre adorning or less^ But lodgings are made for me Or my brother. That is, in plain English, there is a little room by the school, where I speak to the persons who come to me ; and a garret in which a bed is placed for me. — And do you grudge me this ? Is this the voice of my brother, my son Whitefield ?'' Another and a heavier charge was, that he had perverted Whitefield^s de- sign for the poor colliers ; and this was answered by a plain statement of the matter, which must have made Whitefield blush for the hasty and ungenerous accusation. " But it is a poor case," said Wesley, ^' that you and 1 should be talking thus ! Indeed these things ought not to be. It lay in your power to have prevented all, and yet to have borne testi- mony to what you call the truth. If you had disliked
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my sermon, you might have printed another on the same text, and have answered my proofs without mentioning my name. This had been fair or friendly. You rank all the maintainers of Universal Redemp- tion with Socinians themselves. Alas ! my brother, do you not know even this, that the Socinians allow no redemption at all ? that Socinus himself speaks thus, Tota redemptio nostra per ChrisUim metaphora; ^ and says expressly, Christ did not die as a ransom for any, but only as an example for all mankind ? — How easy were it for me to hit many other palpable blots in that which you call an answer to my sermon ! And how above measure contemptibler would you then appear to all impartial men, either of sense or learning ! But I spare you ! mine hand shall not be upon you : the Lord be judge between thee and me. The general tenor both of my public and private ex- hortations, when 1 touch thereon at all, as even my enemies know, if they would testily, is, ^ Spare the young man, even Absalom, for my sake !' *'
Wesley, however, felt more resentment than he here thought proper to express ; and thinking that it became him to speak his sentiments freely, he observ- ed to him in private, that the publication of his letter had put weapons into the hands of their common enemies ; that viewing it in the light of an answer, it was a mere burlesque, for he had left half the argu- ments of the sermon untouched, and handled the other half so gently, as if he was afraid of burning his fingers wit|i them ; but that he had said enough of what was wholly foreign to the question to make an open, and, probably, an irreparable breach between them, seeing that /or a treacho'ous tvound^ and for ike he- trat/ing of secrets^ every friend will depart.
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CHAPTER XII.
METHODISM SYSTEMATI8RD.— FUNDS.— CLASSES,— ITIPTE- RANCV. — LAY PREACHING.
Wesley had at this time some cause for apprehend- ing a disunion, which would have grieved him far more than his bres^h with White6eld. His brother Charles, who had assisted him so cordially in oppo- sing the errors of M^lther, was inclined to side with the Moravians, after those errors had been disown- ed ; and he proceeded so far as to declare, thiat it was his intention not to preach any more at the Foun- dery. " 7%« PhiUsHnes are upon thee^ Samson^^ says Wesley in his Journal on this occasion ; ^^ but the Lord is not departed from thee. He shall strengthen thee yet again, and thou shalt be averted of them for the loss of thy eyesJ^^ Writing to Charles upon this subject, he says, « O my brother, my soul is grieved for you I the poison is in you ; fair words have stolen away your heart No English man or woman is like the Moravians ! So the matter is come to a fair is- sue. Five of us did still stand together a few months since, but two are gone to the right hand, (Hutdrins and Cennick,) and two more to the left (Mr. Hall and you.) Lord, if it be thy gospel which I preach, arise and maintain thine own cause !''
Charles, however, soon yielded to the opinions of a brother whom he so entirely respected and loved. A breach between them indeed would have afforded a malignant pleasure to their enemies, which would in no slight degree have aggravated the pain arising from such a disunion ; ana they had too long been linked together for good and for evil, for honour and dishonour, to be separated by any light differ- ence. Wesley was fully sensible of the value of such a coadjutor, who had one heart, one object with himself^ whom he knew so thoroughly, and up-
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on whom he could perfectly rely ; and whose life, conversation, talents, and acquirements be Could hold up to the world as confidently as his own, defying calumny, and courting investigation. A breach here, though it certainly would not have disheartened, would, for a time, have seriously weakened as well as distressed him, and have lefl behind it a perpetual regret when the injury should have been overcome; whereas the separation from the Moravians and from Whitefield freed him from all shackles, andt made him the sole head and single mover of the sect which, however much he had once abhorred the - thoughts of schism, he had i\ow begun to form and organize. His restless spirit had now found its proper sphere, where it might move uncontrolled, and enjoy a prospect boundless as his desire of do- ing good, the ambition which possessed him. ^^ I distinctly remember,'^ he says in one of his sermons, " that even in my childhood*, even when I was at school, I have often said, ^ They say the life of a schooNboy is the happiest in the world ; but I am sure I am not happy, for I am not content, and so cannot be happy." When I had lived a few years longer, being in the vigour of youth, a stranger to pain and sickness, and particularly to lowness of spi- rits, f which I do not remember to have felt one quar- ter 01 an hour ever since I was born,) having plenty of all things, in the midst of sensible and amiable friends, who loved me, and I loved them, and being in the way of life which of all others suited my inclinations, still I was not happy. I wondered why I was not, and could not imagine what the reason was. Upon the coolest reflection, 1 knew not one week which I would have thought it worth while to have lived over again, taking it with every inward and outward sensation, without any variation at all. The reason," he adds, " certainly was, that I did not know God^ the source of present as well as eternal happiness." Another reason was, that powers like his produce an inward restlessness, and a perpetual uneasy sense of discontent, till they find or force their way into ac- vor.. T. 42
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tion : but now when those powers were fully deve- loped, and in full activity, at once excited and exert- ed to the utmost in the service of that God, whom he sprely loved with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his strength, the world did not contain a happier man than Wesley, nor, in his own eyes, a more important one.
Schism, according to Wesley, has almost always been wrongly defined a separation from a church, instead of a. separation in* a church. Upon his own definition he himself was more peculiarly guiltj^ of the offence ; and however much he contended against those of his followers, who were for separating from the Establishment, it is scarcely possible that he should not have foreseen the separation, to which all his measures tended. Those measures were ta- ken in good faith, and with good intent, most of them indeed arising, unavoidably, from the circumstances in which he found himself but this was their direct, obvious, inevitable tendency. One step drew on an- other. Because he preached an enthusiastic and dangerous doctrine, which threw his hearers into convulsions, he was properly, by most clergymen, re- fused the use of their pulpits ; tnis drove him to field- preaching. But field -preaching is not for all wea- thers in a climate like ours ; prayer-meetings also were a part of his plan ; and thus it became expedient to build meejting-houses. Meeting-houses required funds : they required ministers, too, while he was iti- nerating. Few clergvmen' could be found to co-ope- rate with him ; and though, at first, he abhorred the thought of admitting uneducated laymen to the mi- nistry, lay preachers were soon forced upon him, by their own zeal, which was too strong to be restrain- ed, and by the plain necessity of the case.
The organization of Methodism, which, at this time, may vie with that of any society that has ever been instituted, for the admirable adaptation of the means to the end proposed, was slowly developed,
* See his Sermon on Schism, in the 9th vol. of his collected works, p. 386| edition ISill.
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and assisted in its , progress by accidental circum- stances. When the meeting-house was built at Bris- tol, Wesley had made himself responsible for the ex- penses of the building : subscriptions and public col- ^ctions had , been made at the time, but they fell short As the building, however, was for their pub- lic use, the Methodists at Bristol properly regarded the debt as public also ; and Wesley was consulting with them concerning measures for discharging it, when one of the members proposed that every per- son in the society should contribute a penny a week, till the whole was paid. It was observed that many of them were poor, and could not afford ii. " Then," said the proposer, "put eleven of the poorest with me, and if they can give any thing, well ; I will call on them weekly, and if they can give nothing, I will give for them as well as for myself. And each of you call upon eleven of your neighbours weekly, re- ceive what they give, and make up what is wanting." The contribution of class money thus began, and the same accident led to a perfect system of inspection. In the course of their weekly calls, the persons who had undertaken for a class, as these divisions were called, discovered some irregularities among those for whose contributions they were responsible, and reported it to Wesley. Immediately he saw the whole advantage that might be derived from such an arrangement This was the very thing which he had long wanted to effect He called together the lead- ers, and desired that each would make a particular inquiry into the behaviour of those under his care. " They did so," he says : " many disorderly walkers were detected ; some turned from the evil of their ways; some were put away from us; many saw it with fear, and rejoiced unto God with reverence." A few weeks afterwards, as soon as Wesley arrived in London, he called together some of his leading disciples, and explained to them the great difficulty under which he had hitherto laboured, of properly knowing the people who desired to be under his care.
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They agreed that there could be no belter waj to come at a sure and thorough knowledge of every in- dividual, than by dividing them into classes, under the direction of those who could be trusted, as had been done at Bristol. Thenceforth, whenever a so- ciety of Methodists was formed, this arrangement was followed : a scheme for which Wesley says he could never sufficiently praise God, its unspeakable usefulness having ever since been more and more . manifest.
The business of the leaders was to see every per- son in his class at least once a week, in order to ip- quire how their souls prospered ; to advise, reprove, comfort or exhort, as occasion might require ; and to receive what they were willing to give toward the expenses of tbe society, and the relief of the poor. They were also to meet the minister and the stewards of the society, that they might inform the minister of any that were sick, and of any that were disorderly, and would not be reproved, and pay to the stewards what they had collected from their several classes in the week preceding. At first they visited each per- son at his own house, but this was soon found, on many accounts to be inexpedient, and even impracti- cable. It required more time than the leaders could spare; many persons lived with masters, mistresses, or relations, who would not sutler them to be thus visited ; and when this frequent and natural objec- tion did not exist, it often happened that no opportu- nity could be had of speaking to them, except in the presence of persons who did not belong to the socie- ty, so that the purpose of the visit was rendered use- less. Differences, also, and misunderstandings be- tween members of the same class could not be clear- ed up, unless the parties were brought face to face. For these reasons it was soon determined that every class should assemble weekly. Advice or reproof was then given, as need required ; quarrels were made up, misunderstandings were removed ; and af- ter an hour or two had thus been passed, the meet-
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ing concluded with prayer and singing*'. <^ It can scarcely be conceived " says Wesley, " what advan- tages have been reaped from this little prudential re- gulation. Many now happily experienced that' Christian fellowship, of which they had not so much as an idea before. They began to bear one another^s burdens, and naturally to care for each other. As they had daily a more intimate acquaintance with, so they had a more endeared affection for each other. Evil men were detected and reproved : they were borne with for a season ; if they forsook their sins we received them gladly ; if they obstinately persisted therein, it was openly declared that they were not of OS. . The rest mourned and prayed for them, and yet rejoiced, that as far as in us lay the scandal was rolled away from the society."
Accident had led to this essential part of the Me- thodist discipline. The practice of itinerancy also was taken up, not from foriethought, but as the natu- ral consequence of the course in which the Wesleys found themselves engaged. John, ifideed has affirm- ed, that at their return from America, they were " re- solved to retire out of the world at once, being sated with noise, hurry, and fatigue, and seeking nothing but to be at rest. * Indeed,*' says he, *' for a long sea- son, the greatest pleasure I had desired, on this side eternity, was
taciium sylvas inter reptare salubres^
Qu(Breni€m quicquid dignum sapiente h<moque ;
and we had attained our desire.' We wanted no-
* The leader bas a class paper, upon which be marks, oppo- site to the name of each member, upon every day of meeting, whether the person has attended or not ; and if absent, whether the absence was owing to distance of abode, business, sickness, or neglect. And every member had a printed class ticket, with a text' of scripture upon it, and a letter. These tickets must be re- newed every quarter, the text being changed, and the letter also, till all the sdphabet has been gone through, and then it begins again. One shilling is paid by every member upon receiving a new ticket ; and no person, without a proper ticket, is considered amember of the society. These were later regulations , but the main system of finance and inspection, for which the class meetings provide, was established at this time, in consequence of the debt incurred for the first meeting-house.
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thing, We looked for nothing more in this world, when ' we were dragged out again, by earnest importunity^ to preach at one place and another ; and so carried on, we knew not how, without any design but the general one of saving souls, into a situation which, had it been named to us at first, would have appear- ed far worse than death." Whitefield, on his first re- turn from America, earnestly advised Charles Wes- ley to accept a college living, thinking that the best service which he could perform would be thus to get possession of a pulpit ; and his brother and all the first leaders of the Methodists urged him after this to settle at Oxford. But soon, before thev were aware of it, they were engaged in a course of ituierancy. This was no new practice in England. The Saxon bishops used to travel through their dioceses^ and where there were no churches, preach in the open air. It is part of the system of the Mendicant orders ; and the Romish church has been as much benefited by their •exertions in this way as it has been disgraced by their fooleries and thetr fables. At the beginning of our Re- formation, preachers were sent to itinerate in those counties where they were most needed, for thus it was thought they would be more extensively useful, than if they were fixed upon particular cures. Four of Ed- ward the Sixth^s chaplains were thus employed, of whom John Knox was one ; and in the course of his rounds he frequently preached every day in the week. At that time it was designed that there should be in every diocese some persons who should take their circuit and preach* like Evangelists, as some of the favourers of the Reformation called them. Unhappy circumstances frustrated this among other good inten- tions of the fathers of our church, but it was practis-
* Something was done in this way hj individuals who deemed their own strong sense of duty a sufficient qualification. In \S51^ Geoi^e Eagle, a tailor, who was called Trudge-over for his acti« vity as an itinerant preacher, was executed as a traitor, ** for gathering the Queen's subjects together, though he never stirr^ them up to rebellion ;** and zeal for genuine Christianity was his only offence.
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ed with great efficacy in a part of England, where it was greatly wanted, by Bernard Gilpin, one of the most apostolical men that later ages have produced. During the civil wars the practice revived, but it was in hostility to the Establishment: Quakerism was propagated by itinerant preachers of both sexes; and the fierce Calvinistic fanatics, by their harangues from tubs as well as pulpits, and in barns and streets as well as churches^ fomented the spirit which they raised, and which for a whole generation made this country miserable. And when they had won the vic- tory, they attempted not merely to get rid of any church establishment, but even of all settled minis- ters, and to substitute a system of itinerancy. When this was proposed for England, it was lost only by a minority of two voices in CromwelPs parliament; and it was partly carried into effect in Wales under the direction of Hugh Peters and Vavasor Powell. But when the Methodists began their career, the prac- .tice had been discontinued for more than seventy years, and therefore it had all the effect of novelty when it was revived. It- existed, indeed, among the Quakers, but the desire of making proselytes had ceased in that society ; they had by that time ac-
Suired that quiet and orderly character, by which [ley have Jong been distinguished, and the move- ments of their preachers were rarely or never ob- served out of their own circle.
By becoming an itinerant, Wesley acquired gene- ral notoriety, which gratified his ambition, and by ex- citing curiosity concerning him, induced persons to hear him who would not have been brought within the influence of his zeal by any other motive. This alone would have filled the churches if he had been permitted to preach in them : field-preaching was a greater novelty ; it attracted greater multitudes, and brought him more immediately among the lower and ruder classes of society, whom he might otherwise in vain have wished to address. He has forcibly shown in one of his Appeals, the usefulness and ne- cessity of the practice: ** What need is there.'' he
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says, speaking for his antagonists, «< of this preaching in fields and streets ? Are there not churches enough to preach in ? — Np, my friend, there are not, not for us to preach in. You forget : we are not suffered to preach there; else we should prefer them to any place whatever. Well, there are ministers enougn without you! Ministers enough, and churches enough, for what ? To reclaim all the sinners wiAin the four seas ? If there were they would all bfe re- claimed : but they are not reclaimed. Therefore it is evident there are not churches enough. And one plain reason why, notwithstanding all these churches, they are no nearer being reclaimed, is this: they ne- ver come into a church; perhaps not once in a twelvemonth, perhaps not lor many years together. Will you say (as I have known some tender-hearted Christians), ^^ then it is their own fault ; let them die and be damned.^' I grant it is their own fault. And so it was my fault and yours when we went astray, like sheep that were lost ; yet the Saviour of souls sought after us, and went after us into the wilder- ness. And oughtest not thou to have compassion on thy fellow servants, as he had pity on thee ? Ought not we also to seek as far as in us lies, and to save that which is lost?" The utility of the practice, while so many persons lived in habitual disregard of all religious ordinances, and while so large a part of the people were suffered to grow up in brutal igno- rance, could not indeed be questioned by any rea- sonable man. Its irregularity he confessed, but he Protested that those persons who compelled him to e thus irregular, had no right to censure the irregu- larity. " Will they throw a man into the dirt," said he, ^^ and beat him because he is dirty ? Of all men living those clergymen ought not to complain who believe 1 preach the gospel. If they do not ask me to preach in their churches, they are accountable for my preaching in the fields."
Wesley had the less repugnance to commence preaching in the open air in England, because it was what he had often done in Georgia, and did not there-
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fore at first appear so strange to bimself as to his con-f gregatioo. feut neither he nor his brother at .that time perceived that it must soon become a necessary part of their plan to admit th^ co-operation of lay- men. Their first co-adjutors were all clergymen: except Whitefield, none of thein had devoted them- iBelves body and soul to the work ; they had not en- tered upon it with the same passion or the same am- bition ; their habits, their feelings, or their circum- stances, would have rendered an itinerant life impos- sible or intolerable ; they were settled upon cures, or staked down by family duties, or disqualified for in* cessant- fatigue and public exhibitions by their state of health and constitutional difiidenoe. But among the lay-converts there were many who were not trou- bled with this last disqualification, — ^young men in the heat and vigour of youth, free to choose their course, and with the world before them. And the doctrine which Wesley preached was above all others able to excite confidence while it kindled en- thusiasm. His proselytes by the act of conversion were regenerate men ; they were in a state of Chris- tian perfection; they had attained the grace of our Lord — the fellowship of the Holy Spirit; they had received the seal and stamp of God. So he taugl^t and they believed ; and men who believed this re- quired no other qualification to set up as teachers themselves than a good stock of animal spirits, and a ready flow of words, the talent which of all others has the least connexion with sound intellect They were acted upon by sympathy at their meetings, as some persons are stage-struck by frequenting the theatres, and others are made apostles of anarch|r and atheism at debating clubs. «
The first example of lay preaching appears to have l>een set by a Mr. Bowers, who is not otherwise named in the history of Methodism. One Saturday, after Whitefield had finished a sermon in Islington Church-yard, Bowers got up to address the people j Charles Wesiey entreated him to desist, but finding that his entreaties M'ere disregarded^ ho withdrew.
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and drew with him raanj of the persons {^resent. Bowers afterwards con£^sed that he htd done wrong, but the inclination which he mistodL for the spirit soon returned upon him ; he chose to preach in the streets at Oxford, and was laid hold of bj the beadle. Charles Wesley just at that time came to Oxford, Bowers was brought to him, and promising after a reproof to do so no more, was set at liberty. The fitness of this innovation naturally excited much discussion in the society, and the Wesleys strongly opposed it ; but a sort of compromise seems to have been made, for the laymen were permitted to ex- pound the Scriptures, which, as Law justly observed to Charles, was the .very worst thing both for them- selves and others.
Wesley had raised a spirit which he could not suppress^ but it was possible to give it a useful di- rection. He has been said at first to have entertain- ed a hope, that the ministers of those parishes in which he had laboured with success, would watch over those whom he had " turned from the error of their ways." But in the very commencement of his career, Methodism was decidedly and properly dis- couraged by the ecclesiastical authorities, because of the enthusiastic doctrines which were preached, and the extravagances which were encouraged. That hope, therefore, could not long have been maintained ; and Wesley soon found that if his con- verts were left to themselves, they speedily relapsed into their former habits« When he returned to these places, great part of his work was to begin again, and with greater difficulty, for the second impression was neither so strong, nor so readily made as the ficit. " What," says he, "was to be done in a case of so extreme necessity, where so many souls lay at stake ? No clergyman would assist at all. The ex- pedient that remained was to find some one among themselves, who was upright of heart, and of sound judgment in the things of God, and to desire him to meet the rest as often as he could, in order to con- firm them as he was able in the ways of God, either
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THOMAS MAXFIELD. 339
by reading to them, or by prayer, or by exhortation.*' In* this capacity he had appointed Cennick to reside at Kingswood, and left Maxfield in charge of the society in London. Both these persons were men of great natural powers, and though ultimately both separated from him, they did honour to his discern- ment, and never disgraced his choice.
From expounding to preaching was an easy step. The official biographers say that the youn? man Maxfield, ^^ being fervent in spirit, and mighty in the Scriptures, greatly profitea the people. They crowded to hear him; and by the increase of their number, as well as by their earnest and deep atten-. tion, they insensibly led him to go further than he had at first designed. He began to preach ; and the Lord so blessed the word, that many were not only deeply awakened and brought to repentance, but were also made happy in a consciousness of j)ardon. The Scripture marks of true conversion, inward peace, and power to walk in all holiness, evinced the work to be of God.'' But however successful his preaching, it was represented to Wesley as an irregularity, which it required his presence to put a stop to, and he hastened to London for that purpose. His mother lived at that time in his house adjoining the Foundery, and she perceiving marks of displea* sure in his countenance when he arrived, inquired . the cause. He replied, ^^ Thomas Maxfield has turn* ed preacher, I find." Mrs. Wesley looked at him seriously, and said, " John, you know what my sen- timents have been ; you cannot suspect me of favour- ing readily any thing of this kind ; but take care what you do with respect to that young man, for he is as surely called of God to preach as you are. Examine what have been the fruits of his preaching, and hear him also yourself." Wesley, like Loyola, was always ready to correct any part of his conduct, ^ or system, as soon as he discovered that it was in- convenient or erroneous. He was too wise a man to be obstinate, and too sincere in all his actions to feel any reluctance 9t acknowledging that he had been
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340 JOHN KELSON.
tbistaken. He heard Maxfield preach, and expresK^ ed at once his satisfaction and Lis sanction, by say* ing, // is the Lord ; lei Him do what seemeth Him modi He saw that it was impossible to prevent his follow- ers from preaching, and with admirable readiness resolved to lead the sti'eam which it was beyond bis power to turn. From that time, therefore, he admit- ted volunteers whom he thought Qualified to serve him, as ** sons in the Gospel;"* but always upon thcf condition that they should labour wherci he appoint- ed, because otherwise they would have stood in each other's way.
If this detcirmination had not been occasioned bj Maxfield's conduct, it would hate been brought about by the service of another labourer, who in likcf manner anticipated the system about the same time^ This person was a Yorkshire mason, by nanie John Nelson, one of those men who found in Methodism their proper sphere of action. He grew up under a pious father, who read the Scriptures in his family, and died with a settled reliance upon the mercy of God, and in full trust that Providence would provide for his widow and children. He married early and happily ; his labour amply supported him, and he and his wife lived, he says, ^^ in a good way, as the world calls it ; that is, in peace and plenty, and love to each other.'' But his first religious impressions had been of a frightful character : he formed reso- lutions which he was unable to keep ; Uneasiness of* mind produced a restless desire of changing place ; wherever he was he felt the same disquietude ; and though be had experienced neither sorrow nor mis- fortune of any kind, being in all respects fortunate beyond most men of his condition, still he thought that rather than live thirty years morls like the thirty which he had passed, he would choose to be stran* gled. The fear of judgment made him wish that hd never had been born^ and yet there was a living hope in his soul. " Siii'ely," said he, '* God never made man to be such a riddle to himself, and to leavd him so t There must be something in religion thai
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1 am iinacquainted with, to satisfy the empty mind of man, or he is in a worse state than the beasts that ' perish." Under such feeUngs he wandered up and down the fields after his day^s work was done, think- ing what he should do to be saved, and he went from church to churchy but found no ease, for what he heard exas]3erated the distemper of his mind instead of allajriug it. When he heard a dlei^man expa-* tiate upon the comfort which good men derive in death trom the retrospect of a well-spent life, it led him to reflect that he had'never spent a single day wherein he had not left undone something which he ought to have done, and done something which he ought not to have done. " Oh," says he^ " what a stab was that sermon to my wounded soul ! It made me wish that my mother's womb had been my grave." And when at another church he heard it affirmed, that man had no right to expect any interest in the merits of Christ, if he had not fulfilled his part, and done all that lay in his power, he thought that if that were true, none but little children could be saved, for he did not believe' that any who had lived to years of maturity had done all the good they could, and avoided all the evil they might. " Oh," he ex- tlaims, ^ what deadly physic was that sort of doc- trine to my poot sin-sick soul !"
He went to hear dissenters of divers denomina- tiolns, but to no purpose. He tried the Roman Ca- tholics, but was soon surfeited with their way of worship, which of all ways was the least likely to satisfy a spirit like his. He attended the Quakers' meeting with no better success. For names he cared nothing, nor for what he might be called upon to suffer, so that he might find peace for his soul. ** I had now," he sajrs, '* tried all but the Jews, and 1 thought it was to no purpbse to go to them ;" so he determined to keep to the thurch, and read and |>ray, whether he perished or not. A judicious minister, who shdUld have known the man, might have given him the comfort which he sought ; but the sort of intercourse between the pastor and his
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342 iOHN NELSON.
people which this would implj, hardly exists any where in England, and cannot possibly exist in the metropolis, where Nelson was then residing. At this time Whitefield began his campaign in Moor« fields, and there it might have been thought that he would have found the right physician, bat Whitefield did not touch the string to which his heart accorded. '* He was to me,'' says John Nelson, «' as a man that could play well on an instrument, for his preaching was pleasant to me, and I loved the man ; so that if any one offered to disturb him, I was ready to fight for him ; but 1 did not understand him ; yet I got some hope of mercy, so that I was encouraged to pray on, and spend my leisure hours in reading the Scriptures." While Nelson was in this state, he seldom slept four hours in the night, — sometimes he started from his sleep ^ as if he were falling into a horrible pit; sometimes dreamed that he was fighting with Satan, and awoke exhausted and bathed in sweat from the imaginary conflict.
Thus he continued, till Wesley preached for the first time in Moorfields. " Oh !" says he, "that was a blessed morning for my soul ! As soon as he got upon the stand, he stroked back his hair and turned his face towards where I stood, and I thought he fix- ed his eyes on me. His countenance struck such an awful dread upon me before I heard him speak, that it made my heart beat like the pendulum of a clock; and when he did speak, I thought his whole discourse was aimed at me." Nelson might well think thus, for it was a peculiar characteristic of Wesley in his discourses, that in winding up his sennons, — ^in point- ing his exhortations and driving them home, — he spoke as if be were addressing himself to an indivi- dual, so that every one to whom the condition which he described was applicable, felt as if he were sing- led out ; and the pl-eacher's words were then like the eyes of a portrait which seem to look at every beholder. " Who," said the preacher, « Who art thou, that now seest and feelest both thine inward
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and outward angodliness ? Thou art the man ! I want thee for my Lord, I challenge tiue for a child of God bj faith. The Lord hath need of thte. Thou who feelest thou ^rt just fit for hell, art just fit to advance his glorj,' — ^the glory of his free grace, justifying the^ ungodly and him that worketh not. O come quick-* ly ! Believe in the Lord Jesus : and thou^ even thouy art reconciled to God." And again, — ^ Thou ungod* ly one, who hearest or readest these words, thou vile, helpless, miserable sinner^ I charge thee before God, (he Judge of all, go strait unto Him, with all thy ungodliness ! Take heed thou destroy not thine own 9om by pleading thy righteousness more or less. Go as altogether ungodly, guiHy, lost, destroyed, deserv- ing, and dropping into hell ; and thou sbalt then find favour in His si^t, and know that He justifieth the ungodly. As such thou shalt be brought unto the blood of sprinkling, as an undone, helpless, damned sinner. Thus look unto Jesus ! There is the Lamb of God, who taketh away thy sins ! Plead thou no works, no righteousness of thine own ! No humility, no contrition, sincerity ! In no wise ! That were in very deed, to deny the Lord that bought thee. No. Plead thou singly, the blood of the covenant, the ran- som paid for thy proud, stubborn, sinful soul."
This was the emphatic manner in which Wesley used to address his hearers, knowing as he did, that there would always be some among them to whom it would be predsely adapted. By such an address the course of John Nelson's after life was determin- i5d ;— the string vibrated now which Whitefield had failed to touch; and. when the sermon was ended, he «aid within himself, ^ This man can tell the secrets of my heart. He hath not left me there, for he hath showed the remedy, even the blood of Jesus." He did not, however, at once tnake bis case known to llie preacher, and solicit his particular attention: during all bis inward conflicts, there was in his out- ward actions a coolness and steadiness of conduct, which is the proper virtue of an Englishman. His acquaintances, however, were apprehensive that he
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344 JOHN NELSON.
was going too far in religion, and would thus bring poverty and distress upon his familj bj becomii^ unfit for business, and they wished be had never heard Mr. Wesley, for they were afraid it would be his ruin. His reply was net likely to remove these apprehensions. ^« I- told them,^' says he, ^^ I had rea- son to bless God that ever he was bom, for by hear- ing him I was made sensible that my business in this world is to get well out of it; and as for my trade, health, wisdom, and all things in this world, they are no blessings tb me any further than as so many instru^ ments to help me by the grace of God, to work out my salvation.^' .Upon this, his friends, with a feeling of indignation arising from the warmth of their good will, replied, " they were very sorry for him, and should be glad to knock Mr. Wesley^s brains out, for he would be the ruin of many families, if he were allowed to live and go on as he did.^' Poor Neison at this time narrowly escaped being turned out of doors by the persons with whom he lodged, lest some mischief, they said, should come upon them with so much praying and fuss as he made about religion. But they were good simple people; and a doubt came upon them, that if John should be right and they wrong, it would be a sad thing to turn him out ; and John had soon the satisfaction of taking them to hear Mr. Wesley. He risked his employment too by refusing to work at the Exchequer on a Sunday when his master's foreman told him that the King's business required haste, and that it was common to work on the Sunday for His Majesty when any thing was upon the finish. But John stoutly averred, i^ that he would not work upon the Sabbath for any man in England, except it were to quench fire, or something that required the same immediate help.** — ^^ Religion,'' said the foreman, ^^ has made you i( rebel against the King." — " No, sir," he replied ^ it has made me a better subject than ever I was. The
greatest enemies the King has, are the Sabbath- reakers, swearers, drunkards and whoremongers, for these pull down God's judgments both upon King
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JOHN NELSON. 34.0
and country.'' He was told that be should lose hifi employment if he would not obey his orders ; his answer was, '^ he would rather want for bread than wilfully oflfend God." The foreman swore that he would be as mad as Whitefieid if he went on. *' What hast thou done,'' said he, <^ that thou .needest make so much ado about salvation ? 1 always took thee to be as honest a man as an? I have^in the work, and could have trusted thee with five hundred pounds." ^^ So you might," answered Nelson, ^' and not have lost one penny by me." " 1 have a worse opinion of 'thee now," said the foreman, ^f Master," he replied, ^ I have the odds of you ; for I have a much worse opinion of myself than you can have." But the end was that the work was not pursued on the Sunday, and that John Nelson rose in the good opinion of^his employer for having shown a sense of his duty as a Christian.
He now fasted the whole of every Friday, giving away to the poor, the food which be would other- wise have eaten. He spent his leisure hours in prayer, and in reading the Bible ; and his desire for the salvation of souls was such, that he actually hired one of his fellow-workmen to go and hear Mr. Wes- ley preach. The experiment answered, for the workman afterwards told him it was the best thing both for him and his wife that ever man had done for them. When he dreamed of the devil now, it was no longer a dream of horrors; he was a match for hko, and seeing him let loose among the people in . the shape of a red bull, he took him by the horns . and twisted him upon his back, and set his right foot upon hts neck. A letter came from his wife in the country, with the tidings of the death of one darling child, and the desperate illness of another ; he re- ceived it with a compd^ure which made the by-stand- ers accuse him of hardness of heart : but he was in a high slate of exaltation : '* his soul," he says, " seem- ed to breathe its life in God, as naturally as his body v breathed life in the common air." This was at the time when the Methodists separated from the Mo-
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346 JOHN IIEL801».
ravians first, and immediately afterwards from the Calvinists. Both Moravians and Calvinists fell upon John Nelson. The former assured him that Mr. Wesley, poor dear man, was wandering in the dark, a blind leader of the blind ; that indeed he was only a John the Baptist, to go before and prepare the way of the brethren ; the brethren in FetterJane were the men who were to lead people into true stillness ; most of his followers had forsaken him, add were be- come happy sinners, — and he must do the same, Otherwise Mr. Wesley would still keep him under the law, and bring him into bondage. On the other hand, the Calvinists affirmed that Mr. Wesley denied the faith of the Gospel, which was predestination and election. He happened to reprove one of these comfortable believers for swearing, and the man re- plied that he was predestinated to it, and did not trouble himself about it at all, for if he were one of the elect he should* be saved, but if he were not, all he could do would not alter God's decree. Nelson blessed God that he had not heard such things in the time of his distress, for he thought they would in that case have been the destruction of his j[>ody and soul. . He was now able to make his part good against such reasoners ; and when they told him that their eyes were opened, that they saw now into the electing love of God, and that, do what they would, they could not finally fall, he said to them : ^^ You have gone out of the highway of holiness, and have got in- to the devil's pinfold. You are not seeking to per- fect holiness in the fear of God, but are renting in opinions that give you liberty to -live after the flesh. Satan,'' he said, ^^ had preached that doctrine to him before they did, and God had armed him both against him and them." Soon afterwards he had, for the first time, an opportunity of speaking to Mr. Wesley. They walked together some way ; and he says it was a blessed conference to him. When they parted, Wesley took him b^ the hand, and looking him in the face, bade him take care that he did not quench the spirit
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Y
Dreams and impresions, according to bis own ac- count, rather than the desire of rejoining his family, induced him now to return to Birstall, his native pjace, where they resided, and where indeed he had always carefully provided for them, whether he w^as at home or abroad. Some little discomfort at first attended his return. John was perfectly satisfied that he had received the assurance, and knew his sins were forgiven. His wife and mother entreated him not to say this to any one, for no one would believe him. But he said he should not be ashamed to tell what God had done for his soul, if he could speak loud enough for all the men in the world to hear him at ORce. His mother said to him, '^ Your head is turn- ed ;^ and he replied, " Yes, and my heart too, I thank the Lord.'' The wife besought him that he would cither leave off abusing his neighbours, or go back to London ; but he declared that it was his determi- nation to reprove any who sinned in his presence ; she began to weep, and said he did not love her so well as he used to do, and that her happiness was over, if he believed her to be a child of the devil, and himself a child of God. But Nelson told her he pray- ed and believed God would make her a blessed com- panion for him in the way of heaven; and she, who was a good wife, and knew that she bad a good hus- band, soon fell in with his wishes, listened to his teaching, and became as zealous in the cause as himself.
He now began to exhort his neighbours as well as to reprove them,, and by defending his doctrines when they were disputed, wasted unawares to quote texts of Scripture, expound, and enforce them^ in a manner which at length differed from preaching only in the name. This he did in his own house at first, where he had the good fortune to convert most of his rela- tions ; and when his auditors became so numerous that the house could not hold them, he then stood at the door and harangued there. Ingham was settled in this neighbourhood with a Moravian society, and he, at Peter Boehler's desire, gave John Nelson leave
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348 JOHN ffCLSOlf.
to exhort them; this permission was withdrawn, when the ill temper which the division in London had excited, extended itself here also, and Ingham would then have silenced him, but John said he had not begun by the order of man, and would not leave oflT by it. Hitherto Nelson had not ven- tured upon preaching, for preaching it was now be- come, without strong inward convicts of reluctance, arising from the natural sobriety of his character, and perhaps from a diffidence of himself; he says he would rather have been hanged on a tree than go to preach ; and once when a great congregation was gathered together begging him to preach, he acted the part of Jonah, and fled into the fields. But opposition stimulated him now ; he ^ desired to die rather than live to see the children devoured by these boars out of the German wood." " Gody ' he says, "opened his word more and more;'' in other words, zeal and indignation made him eloquent He now wrote to Mr. Wesley, telling him what he was doing, and requesting him, " as his father in the Gospel, to write and give him some instructions how to proceed in the work which God had begun by such an unpo- lished tool as himself." Wesley replied, that he would see him in the ensuing* week. He came ac-
* Nelson says, in his Journal, ** He sate down by my fire-side, in the very posture 1 had dreamed about four months before, and spoke the same words I dreamed he spoke." There is no reason either to credit this to the letter, or to discredit the general vera- city of this remarkable man, because he is fond of relating his dreams. The universal attention which has been paid to dreams in all ages, proves that the superstition is natural ; and I have heard too many well-attested facts f facts to which belief could not be refused upon any known laws ot evidence) not to believe that impressions are sometimes made in this manner, ami forewarnings communicated which cannot be explained by material philosophy, or mere metaphysics, i do not mean to apply this to such stories as are found in John Nelson's Journal, or in books of a similar kind ; most of them are the effects of a distempered imagination. But the particular instance which has occasioned this note, may I be explained by a state of mind which many persons will recognise I in their own experience, — r state when we seem to feel that the ; same thing which is then happening to us has happened to us for- \ merly, though there be no remembrance of it other than this dim recognition.
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cordingly to Birstall, and found there a preacher and a large congregation raised up without his interfer- ence. Had he been still doubtful whether the ad- mission of laj-preachers should make a part of his plan, this must have decided him : " Therefore," in the words of his official biographers, ^ he now fully acquiesced in the order of God, and rejoiced that the thoughts of God were not as his confused thoughts."
This was Wesley's first expedition to the north of £nglaad. He proceeded to Newcastle, being in- duced to try that scene of action because of the suc- cess which he had found among the colliers in Kings- wood. Upon entering the town at evening and on foot, the profligacy of the populace surprised as well as shocked him. ^^ So much drunkenness," he says, ^^ cursing and swearing, (even from the mouths of little children,) do I never remember to have seen and heard before, in so small a compass of time.^- Surely this place is ripe for Him who came to call sinners to repentance." At seven on a Sunday morn- ing he walked with his companion to Sandgate, the poorest and most contemptible part of the town, and there he began to sing the hundreth psalm. This soon brought a crowd about him, which continued to increase till he had done preaching. When he had finished, the people still stood staring at him with the most profound astonishment. Upon which he said, "If you desire to know who I am, my name is John Wesley. At five in the evening, with God's help, I design to preach here again." At that hour the hill upon which* he intended to preach was co- vered from top to bottom. " I never," he says, " saw so large a number of people together, either in Moor- fields or at Kennington Common. I knew it was not possible for the one half to hear, although my voice was then strong and clear, and I stood so as to have them all in view as they were ranged on the side of the hill. The word of God which I set before them was, / tviU heed their backsliding ; I mil love them freely. After preaching, the poor people were ready to tread
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me under foot, out of pure love and kindness." Wes- ley could not then remain with them, but his brother soon came and organized them, and in a few months he returned, and began to build a room for what he called the wild, staring, loving society. '^ I could not but observe," he says, " the different manner wherein God is pleased to work in different places. The
Srace of God flows here with a wider stream than it id at first, either at Bristol or Kingswood : but it does not sink so deep as it did there. Few are tho- roughly convinced of sin, and scarce any can wit- ness that the Lamb of God has taken away their sine." But the usual symptoms were ere long produced. — One woman had her sight and strength taken away at once, and at the same time, she said, the love of God so overflowed her soul that she could neither speak nor move. A man also lost his sight for a time, and subjects began to cry out, and sink down in the meeting. " And I could not but observe," says Wes- ley, '^ that here the very best people^ so called, were as deeply convinced as open sinners. Several of these w^re now constrained to roar aloud for the disquietness of their hearts, and these generally not young, (as in most other places,) but either middle aged, or well stricken in years. I never saw a work of God in any other place, so evenly and gradually carried on. It continually rises step by step. Not so much seems to be done at any one time, as hath frequently l)een at Bristol or London, but something at every time. It is the same with particular souls. I saw none in that triumph of faith, which has been so common in other places. But the believers go on calm and steady. Let God do as seemeth him good !" Calm and steady, however, as Wesley conceived these believers to be, there soon occurred what he himself pronounced a genuine instance of enthusi- asm. He had preached at Tanfield Leigh, a few miles from Newcastle, to a people whom he had left, in appearance, " very well satisfied with the preacher and themselves ;" the first part of this predicament might be as be desired, but the second was out of
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time, before they had passed through the grievous process of conviction and regeneration. '* So dead, senseless, unaffected a congregation,'^ said he, ^^I have scarce seen. Whether gospel or law, or En- glish or Greek, seemed all one to them.'' It was therefore the more grateful to him when he learnt that even there the seed which he had sown was not quite lost ; for on the fourth morning after his preach- ing, a certain John Brown, who had been one of the insensible congregation, ^^ was waked out of sleep by the voice that raiseth the dead, and ever since," says Wcz^ley, " he has been full of love, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." He had judged too hastily of his patient, for only two days after his new birth, the said John Brown came riding through New- . castle, '^ hollowing and shouting, and driving all the people before him, telling them God had told him he should b*e a king, and should tread all his enemies under his feet." It was a clear case that this man had been made crazy by his enthusiasm. Wesley took the right method of curing him; he sent him home immediately to his work, and advised him to cry day and night to God that he might be lowly in heart, test Satan should again get an advantage over him.
There was some difficulty in obtaining a place at Newcastle whereon to build his meeting-house. ** We can get no ground," he says, " for love or money. I like this welh It is a good sign. If the Devil can hinder us he shall." The *purchase at length was made, and the foundation was laid of a meeting and orphan-house upon a scale, for the completion of
* In consequence of some demur in obtaining possession, Wes- ley wrote this characteristic note to the seller : " Sir, I am sur- prised. You give it under your hand, that you will put me in possession of a piece of ground specified in an article between us in fifteen days' time. Three months are passed, and that article is not fulfilled. And now, you say, you can't conceive what I mean by troubling you. I mean to have that article fulfilled. 1 think my meaning is very plain.
I am. Sir, your humble Servant,
John Wesley/"
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which it was computed that 700iL would be required. ** Many," says Wesley, " were positive it would never be finished at all, others that I should not live to see it covered. I was of another mind, nothing doubt- ing, but as it was begun for God's sak^e, he would provide what was needful for the finishing if Con- tributions did not come in so fast as the work re-* quired, and the building would more than once have been at a stop, if he had not postessed credit for being very rich. He had now meeting-houses in Bristol, London, Kingswood and Newcastle, and societies were being rapidlv . formed in other places by means of itinerancy, which was now become a regular system, and by the co-operation of lay- preachers, who sprung up daily among his followers. At this time he judged it expedient to draw up a set of general rules, and this was done with the advice and assistance of his brother. The United Society as they now denominated it, was defined to be ^ no other than a company of men having the form and seeking the power of godliness; united in older to pray together, to receive the word of exhortation, and to watch over one another in love, that they may help each other to work out their salvation.^' The class rules were then laid down, as a means for more easily discerning whether the members were indeed thus employed. The only condition previously re- auired of those who applied for admission was ^ a oesire to flee from the wrath to come, and be saved from their sins." But it was expected that all who continued in the society should <^ continue to evi- dence their desire of salvation ; first, by doing no harm, by avoiding evil in every kind, especially that which is most generally practised ; such as, taking the name of God in vain ; profaning the Sabbath, either by doing ordinary work thereon, or by buying or selling ; drunkenness ; buying or selling spiritous liquors, or drinking them, unless in cases of extreme necessity; fighting, quarrelling, brawling; brother going to law with brother; returning evil for evil, or railing for railing : using many words in buying or
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selling; buying or selling uncustomed goods; giving or taking things on usury ; uncharitable or unprofit- able conversation; particularly speaking evil of mar gistrates or of ministers ; doing to others as we would not they should do unto us; and doing what we know is not for the glory of God, as, the putting on of gold, or costly apparel ; the taking such diversions as cannot be used in the name of the Lord Jesus; the singing those songs or reading those books that do not tend to the knowledge or love of God ; soft- ness and needless self-indulgence ; laying up treasure on earth ; borrowing without a probability of paying, or taking up goods without a probability of paying for them. These were the inhibitions which the members of the Society were expected to observe.
They were expected to evidence their desire of salvation, ^^ secondly, by doing good, by being in every kind merciful after their power, as they had opportunity; doing good of every possible sort, and as far as possible to all men ; to their bodies, of the ability that God giveth, by giving food to the hungry, by clothing the naked, by visiting or helping them that are sick or in prison ; to their souls, by instruct- ing, reproving or exhortibg all they had any inter- course with ; trampling under foot that enthusiastic doctrine of devils, that we are not to do good unless our hearts be free to it; by doing good, especially to them that are of the household of faith, or groan- ing so to be; employing them preferably to others; buying one of another; helping each other in busi- ness; and so much the more, because the world will love its own and them only; by all possible diligence and frugality that the Gospel might not be blamed ; by running with patience the race that was set before them, denying themselves and taking up their cross daily ; submitting to bear the reproach of Christ, — to be as the filth and offiscouring of the world, and looking that men should say all manner of evil of them falsely for the Lord's sake. They were expected also to at- tend on all the ordinances of God, such as public worship, the ministry of the word, either read or ex-
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pounded; the Lord^s Bapper; fiimily and private prayer ; searching the Scnptares, and fiusting or ab- stinence.''—** These " said the two brothers, ** are the general roles of our societies ; all which we are tao^t of God to obsenre, eren in his writt^i word, the only rule, and the sufficient rule, both of ourfiuth and practice. And all these we know his Spirit writes on every truly awakened heart If there be any among us who observe them not, who habitually break any of them, let it be made known unto them who watch over that soul, as thev must give an ac- count We will admonish him of the error of hb ways : we will bear with him for a season. But then if he repent not, he hath no more place among us. We have delivered our own souls.''
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NOTES
AND
ILLUSTRATIONS.
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NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
NOTE L Page 36. Bartholomew WttiUy supporU himadf by fhepfactxce of physic.
This should seem to have been the old resource of ejected minister?.
*^ At the beginning of the happy raigne of our late good Queen Eliza- beth, divers commissioners of great place, being authorized to enquire of and to displace all such of the ctergie as would not conforme to the reformed churchy one amongst others was consented before them, who being asked whether he would subscribe or no, he denied it, and so con- sequently was adjudged to lose his benefice, and be deprived of his func- tion ; whereupon, in his impatience, he said, That if they, meaning the commissioners, held this course, it would cost many a man's life. For which the commissioners called him back againe, and charged him that he had spoke treasonable -and seditious wor<k, tending to the raysing of a rebellion or some tumult in the land, for which he should receive the reward of a traitor. And being asked whether he spake those words or no, he acknowledged it, and took upon him the justification thereof; ** for, said he, ye have taken from me my livinc and profession of the ministrie. Scholarship is all my portion; and I have no other memoes now left for my maintenance but to turn physitian, and before I shall be absolute master of that mystery* God he knowes how many men's lives it will cost For few physitians use to try experiments upon th«'Jr own bodies.
*< With us it is a profession can maintaine but a few ; and divers of those more indebted to opinion than learning, and (for the most part) bet- ter qualified in discoursing of their travailes than in discerning their pa- tients maladies. For it is growne to be a very huswives trade, where fortune prevailes more than skill. Their best benefactor, the Neapolitan, their grand signieur ; the Sorpego, their gonfollinire ; the Sciatica, their great marshal!, that calles the muster-rolle of them all together at every spring and fall, are all as familiar to her as the cuckow at Cankwood in May. And the cure of them is the skill of every good old ladies cast gentlewoman ; when she gives over painting she falls to plastering, and .shall have as goodpractice as the best of them for those kinde of dis- eaaes.''->-jiK of Thriving^ fry Thomas Powd, Scott's Somers' Tracts, 7. 200.
By the ancient laws of Spain, no monk was permitted to study physic or law ; because when under pretence of studying for the advantage of their brethren they had acquired either of these professions, the devil used to tempt them to quit their monasteries, and go wandering about the world.—Porfuto 1. TU. 7. Lt^, 28.
Baxter, after he was fixed at Kidderminster, assisted the people for some time with his.advice in physic, and was very successful ; but find- ing it took up so much time as to be burdensome, he at length fixed amoo^ them a diligent skilful physician, and bound himself to him by pronuse) that he would practise no more in common cases.
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3d8 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
The excellent Geoi^ Herbert also writes thus, in the chapter whkh
he entitles,
« The Parson's CompUteness.**
^ The countrj parson desires to be all to his parish, and not ondy a pastour, but a lawyer also, and a phyritian. Therefore bee endures not that any of his flock should go to law ; but in any controyersy that Ihej should resort to him as thear judge. To this end, he hath gotten to him- self some insisht in things ordinarily inddent and eontroTerted, by ex- perience ; and by reading some initiatory treatises in the law, vnth Dal- ton's Justice of Peace, and the Abridgements of the Statutes, as also by discourses with men of that profession, whom he hath ever some cases to ask, when he meets with tnem ; holding that rule, that to put men to discourse of that wherein they are most eminent, is the most gainfuD way oi' conversation. Yet whenever any controversie is brought to him, he never decides it alone, but sends for three or four of the ablest of the parish to hear the cause with him, whom he makes to deliver their opi- nion first ; out of which' he gathers, if he be ignorant himself, what to hold, and so the thing passeth with more authority and lesse envy. In judging, he followes that which is altogether right; so that If the poor- est man of the parish detain but a pin unjustly irom the richest, he ab- solutely restores it as a judge ; but when he hath so done, then he as- sumes the parson, and exhorts to charity. Neverthelesse, there may happen sometimes some cases wherem he chooseth to permit his paiidi- ioners rather to make use of the law than himself; as m cases of an ob- scure and dark nature, not easily determinable by lawjrers themselves ; or in cases of high consequence, as establishing of inheritances ; or lastly, when the persons in difference are of a contentious dispodtiOD, and cannot be gamed, hut that they still fall from all compronuses that have been made. But then he shews them how to go to law, even as brethren, and not as enemies, neither avoiding thenfore one another^s company, much lesse defaming one another.
Now as the parson is in law, so is he in sickness also : if there be any of his flock sick, hee is their physician, or at least his wife, of whom, instead of the qualities of the world, he asks no other but to have the skill of healing a wound, or helping the sick. But if neither himselfe nor his wife have the skill, and his means serve, hee keeps some young practitioner in his house for the benefit of his parish, whom jet he ever exhorts not to exceed his bounds, but in tickle cases to call m help. If all fail, then^he keeps eood correspondence with some neighbour phy- ^ sician, and entertaines him for the cure of his parish.
Yet is it easy for any scholar to attain to such a measure of phisick as may be of much use to him, both for himself and others. • This is done by seeing one anatomy, reading one book of phisick, having one herball by him. And let Femelius be the phisick author, for he writes briefly, neatly, and judiciously ; especially let his Method of Piiirick be diligently penised, as being the pracdcalf part, and of most use. Now both the reading of him, and the knowing of herbs, may be done at such times as they may be an help and a recreation to more divine studies, Nature serving Orace both in comfort of diversion, and the benefit of application when need requires; as also by way of illustration, even as our Saviour made plants and seeds to teach the people; for he was the true householder, who bringeth out of his treasure things new and old ; the old things of Philosophy, and the new of Grace, and maketh the one serve the other. And, I conceive, our Sariour did this for three reasons: first, that by £uniliar things hee might make his doctrines slip the more easily into the hearts even of the meanest. Secomlly, that labouring people, whom be chiefly considered might have every where
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moininieBtB of lus doctripe, remembering m gafdens his mustard seed and lillTes ; in the fleld^ his seed-corn and tares ; and so not be drowned altogether in the works of their vocation, but sometimes lift up their minds to better things, even in the midst of their pains. Thirdly, that he might set a copy for Parsons. In the knowledge of simples, wherein the manifold wisaome of God is wonderfully to be Seen, one thing-would be carefully obsenred, which is to know what herbes may be used in- stead of drugs of the same nature, and to make the garden the shop ; for home-bred medicines are both more easie for the Parson's purse, and more familiar for all men's bodies. So where the Apothecary uaeth either for loosing, rhubarb; or for binding, bolearmena; the Parson liseth damask or white roses for the one, and plaintain, shepherd's purse, knot-graase for the other, and that with better successe. As for spices, he doth not only prefer home-bred things before them, but condemns them for Tanities, and so shuts them out of his family, esteeming that there is no spice comparable for herbs, to rosemary, time, savoury, mints ; and tor seeds, to fennell and carroway seeds. Accordingly, for salves his wife seeks not the city, but prefers her gardens and fields be- fore all outlandish gums. And surel^r nyssope, valerian, mercury, ad- der's tongue^ yerrow, melilot, and Saint John wort, made into a salve ; and elder, camomile, mallow^ comphrey, and smallage, made into a poultice, have done great and rare cures. In curihg of any, tiie Parson and his &mily use to premise prayers, for this is to cure like a Parson, and this raiseth the action from the shop to the church. But thou^ the Parson sets forward all charitable deeds, yet he looks not in tms point of curing beyond his own parish, except the person bee so poor that he is not able to reWard the phyndan, for as bee is charitable, s6 bee is just also. Now it b a iustice and debt to the commonwealth he lives m, not to incroach on others professions, but to live on hu own . And justice is the ground of charity."
NOTE II. Page 86.
John Owen.
Cotton Mathbk has preserved a choice specimen of invective ^ " ' * luakers, who
t Dr. O^n, by one of the primitive Quakers, whose name was fisher. It was, indeed, a species of rhetoric in which they indulged freely, and exceeded all other sectarians. Fisher addressed him thus : ** Thou fiery fighter and ereen-headed trumpeter ; thou hedgehog and grinningadog ; Uiou bastard, that tumbled out of the mouth of the Ba- bylonish bawd ; thou mole ; thou tinker ; thou lizard ; thou bell of no metal, but the tone of a kettle; thou wheelbarrow; thou whirlpool ; thou whiriigig : O thdu firebrand ; thou adder and scorpion ; thou louse ; thou cow-dung; thou moon-calf; thou ragged tatteraemallion ; thou Judas : thou livest in philosophy and lofpc, which are of the Devil."
NOTE in. Page 40.
Manner in whUk the ekiidnn wen taught to read,
Mr9. WesIiCT thus describes her peculiar method in a letter to her son John : '< None of them were taught to read till f^ve years old, ex- cept Kescv, in whose case I was overruled ; and she was more years in teaming than any of tbe rest had been months. The way of teaching tras this : the dav before a child began to learn, the house was set ul Older, every one^l work appointed tiiem, and a charge given, that none should come into the room from nine till twelve, or from two tlH five,, which were oiir school hours. One day was allowed the child, wfaereln to learn its letters, and each of them did in ttiat time know all its letters.
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creat and snuiir, except Molly and Nancy, who were a day and a lialf before they knew them perfectly, for which I then tliought them very dull ; but the reason why I tnought them so, was bemuse the rest learned them so readily, and your brother Samuel, who was the 'first child I ever taught, learnt the alnhabet in a few hours. He was fire years old the tenth of February ; tne next day he began to learn, and as soon as he knew the letters, began at the first chapter of (Genesis. He was taught to spell the fii^t verse ; then to read it over and over tilJ be could read it off. hand without any hesitation ; so on to the second, &c. till he took ten verses for a lesson, which he quickly did. Easter fell low that year, and by Whitsuntide he could read a chapter very well ; for he read continually, and had such a prodigious memory, that I can- not remember ever to have told him the same word twice. What wa& yet stranger, any word he had learnt in his lesson, he knew wherever he saw it, either in his Bible, or any other book ; by which means he learnt very soon to read an English author well.
^ The same method was observed with them all. As soon as they knew the letters they were first put to spell and read one line ; then a verse ; never leaving till perfect in their lesson, were it shorter or longer. So one or other continued reading at school-time, without any inter- mission ; and before we left school, each child read what he had learned that morning ; and ere we parted in the afternoon, what he had learned that day,"
NOTE IV. Page 4«. John JfeHey, — horn at EptDorlh.
** I HAVE heard him say," says Mr. Crowther, in his Portraiture of Methodism, (p. 20.) ** that ho was baptized by the name of John Benja- min ; that his mother had buried two sons, one called John, and Uia other Benjamin, and that she united their names in him. But he never made use of the second name."
Mr. Crowther also says, that, in 1719, Wesley went from the Char- ter-house to Westminster school, ** where he made a more rapid pro- gress in Hebrew aifd Greek." 1 have so much admiration of Wesley, and so much Westminster feeling, that I should be gla<f to believe this. But Dr. Coke and Mr. Moore have distinctly stated that he went from the Charter-house to Oxford ; and Mr. Crowther has probably been misled by what Samuel says in a letter to bis father: — '^ Jack is with me, and a brave boy, learning Hebrew as fast as he can." He «raa pro- bably in his brother's house, during the interval between his leaviof^ school and ^ing to college. But, that he was never at Westminster ia certain : a list of all entrances there has been kept from a timeeariier than his .boyhood; and my friend, Mr. Knox, has ascertained ror me, that the name of John Wesley is not m that list
NOTE V. Page 44. I am rich enougL
Thr day after the fire, as Mr. Wesley was walkmg in the garden, and surveyingthe ruins of the house, he picked up part of a leaf of his Polyglot Bible, on which (says his sbn John), just these words were legible : Vadty vende omnia qua habes, <f aUolU crueemj et seqwre me. — Go, sell all that thou hast, and take up thy cross, and follow me.
How Mr. Wesley surmounted this loss, with his large family and limited means,, does not appear. Mr. Bowyer*s bouse and printing- office were burnt about the same time, and he obtained, by means of a brief, the dear sum of 1&14I. ISs. 4|d. Fires were in those days far
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lem fr^qmaat than they are now, ootwithst^nding so much more timber was used in the construction of bouses. The increase is more attributa- ble to increased roguery, than to decreased care^ though something, no doubt, to the latter cause. But it is only since insurance offices have been established that houses have been set on fire for purposes of fraud : and that in many or most cases in the metropolis this is the fact, is proved hj the proportion of fires being so much greater there than in any other city. Where one fire takes place in Manchester or Bristol, there are at least fifty in London. *
NOTE VI. Page 48-
SaehevereTs Defence,
BvRNET saTs of it, " It had a great effect on the weaker Sort; while it possessed those who knew the man and his ordinary discourses with horror, when they heard him affirm so many falsehoods, with such so- lemn appeals to God. It was very plain the speech was made for him by others ; for the style was correct, and far dinerent from his own."
NOTE VII. Page 53.
LETTERS coneeming wme Supernatural Dufurbanew, at 9nf FcOha^f HouK^ at Epworthf in lAncolnikire,*
LsTTSR I.— To Mr. Samuel fFttky, from his Mather. Dear Sam, January 1«, 1716-7.
This evening we were agreeably surprised with your pacquet, which brought the welcome news of your being alive, after we had been in the greatest panic imaginable, almost a month, thinking either you Was dcad^ or one of your brothers by some misfortune been killed.
The reason of our fears is as follows. On the first of December, our maid heard, at the door of the dining-room, several dismal groans, like a person in extremes, at the point of death. We gave little need to her relation, and endeavoured to laugh her out of her fears. Some nights (two or three) after, several of the family beard a strange knocking in divers places, usually three or four knocks at a time, and then stayed a little. This continued every night for a fortnight ; sometimes it was in the garret, but most commonly in the nursery, or green chamber. We all heard it but your father, and I was not willing he should be informed of it, lest he should fancy it was against his own death, which, indeed, we all apprehended. But when it began to be so troublesome, both day and night, that few or none of the family durst be alone, I resolved to tell him of it, being minded he should speak to it. At first he would not believe buJUomebody did it to alarm us; but the night after, as soon as he was ir oed, it knocked loudly nine times, just by his bedside. He rose, and went to see if he could find out what it was, but could see nothing. Afterwards he heard it as the rest.
One night it made such a noise in Uie room over our heads, as if seve- ral people Were walking, then run up and down stairs, and was so out- rageous that we thought the children Would be frighted, sd your father and I rose, and went down in the dark to lieht a candle. Just as we eame to the bottom of the broad stairs, having hold of each other, on my side there seemed as if somebody had emptied a bag of money at my feet ; and on his, as if all the bottles under the stairs (which were many) had been dashed in a thousand pieces. We passed through the
* rk& MS. is in lh« bsodwritiog of Mr. F. Wesley. The edUor ba» nnly added tb«tltlw tf tbt letters, denotioe the writtn , and the p«noiM to whom tfewy wtr^ wftUM.
VOL. f. 46
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bail into the kitcheD, and got a candle, and went to see the chtldrei^ whona we found asleep.
The next night you/ father would get Mr. Hoole to lie at our house, and we all sat together till one or two o'clock in the morning, and heard the kn'ockine as usual. Sometimes it would make a noise luke the wind- ing up of a jack, at other times, as that night Mr. Hoole was with us, Uke a carpenter planing deals ; but most commonly it knocked thrice and ptopped, ana theo thrice again, and so many hours together. We persuaded your father to speak, and try if any voice would be heard. — One night aiiout six o'cIock he went into the nursery in the dark, and at first heard several deep eroans, then knocking. He adjured it to speak if it had power, and tell aim why it troubled ms house, but no voice was heard, but it knocked thrice aloud. Then he questioned it if it were Sammy, and bid it, if it were, and could not speak, knock again, but it knocked no more that night, which made us hope it was not against your death.
Thus it continued till the S8th of December, when it loudly knocked (as your father used to do at the gate) in the nursery, and departed. — We have various conjectures what this may mean. For my own part, I fear nothing now you are safe at London hitherto, and I hope God will still preserve you. Though sometimes I am inclined to think niy brother is dead. Let me know your thoughts on it. S. W.
Letter II. — To my FiUher.
Honoured Sir, January SO. Saturday.
Mt mother tells me a very strange stonr of disturbances in your house. I wish I could have some more particulars from you. I would thank Mr. Hoole, if he would favour me with a letter concerning it. Net that I want to be confirmed myself in the belief of it, but for any other per- son's satisfaction. My mother sends to me to know mv thoughts of it, and I cannot think at all of any interpretation. Wit, I fancy, might find many, but wisdom none,
Tour'dutiful and loving Son,
S. WESI.KT.
Letter UL— Fnmi 3&. S. Wesley to his Mather.
Dear Mother, Those who are so wise as not to believe anv supernatural occurren- ces, though ever so well attested, could find a hundred questions to ask about those strange noises, you wrote me ah account of; but for my part, I know not what Question to pot, whica, if answered, would eon- firm me more in th^ belief of what yoi) tell me. Two or three I have beard from others. Was there never a new maid, or man, in the bouse,
i roomi <
place, at the same time ? Could not cats, or rats, or dogs, be the sprights ? Was the whole family asleep, when my father and you went down stairs ? Such doubts as these being replied to, though they could not, as God himself assures us, convince them who believe not Moses and the pro- phets, yet would strengthen such as do believe. As to my particular opinion, concerning the events foreboded by these noises, I cannot, I must confess, form any-—! think since it was not permitted to speak, all guesses must be vain. The end of spirits' actions is yet more hidden Sian that of men, and even this latter puzzles the most subtle politicians. Th&t we may be struck so as to prepare seriously for any ill, may, it is
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DOflsible, be one design of Providence. It is surely our duty and wis- dom to do so. • ^^ '^ '
Dear Mother,
I bee your blessioff, on your dutiful and affectionate Son,
J«. 19, 1716-7. eat««l.y. S. WkSLET.
0eaD*s Yvd, Westmiaater.
I ex|>ect a |»rticular account from every oDe»
Letteb IV.— JFVtwi MrB. Weaky toherSo^ Samud.
Dear Sam, Jan. £5, or «7, 1716-74
Thovoh I am not one of those that will believe nothing supernatural, but am rather inclined to think there would be frequent intercourse be- tween good spirits and us, did not our deep lapse into sensuality prevent it ; yet I was a great while ere I could credit any thing of what tne chil- dren and servants reported, concerning the noises they heard in several parts of our house. Nay, after I had heard them myself, I was willing to persuade myself and them, that it was only rats or weasels that dis- turbed us ; and having been formerly troubled with rats, which were frighted away by sounding a horn, I caused a horn to be procured, and made them blow it all over the house. But from that nieht they began to blow, the noises were more loud, and distinct, both day and night, than before, and that night we rose, and went down, I was entirely oo» ▼ineed, that it was beyond the power of any human creature to make such strange and various noises.
As to your questions, I will answer them particularly, but withal, I de- sire my answers may satisfy none but yourself; for I would not have the matter imparted to any. We had both man and maid new this last Afartinmas, yet I do not believe either of them occasioned the distilrb- ance, both for the reason above-mentioned, and because they were more affrighted than any body else. Besides, we have often heard the noises when they were in the room by us ; and the maid particularly was in such a panic, that she was almost incapable of all business, nor durst ever go from one room to another, or stay by herself a minute after it began to be dark.
The man, Robert Brown, whom you well know, was most visited by it lying in the garret, and has been often frighted down bare-foot, and almost naked, not darinc to stay alone to put on his clothes, nor do I think, if he had power, be would be guilty of such villany. When tlie walking was heard in the garret, Robert was in bed in the next room, in a sleep so sound, tbat he never heard your father and we walk up, and down, thoush we walked not softly, I am sure. All the family has heard it together, m the same room, at the same time, particularly at family prayers. It always seemed to all present in the same place at the sam6 time, though often before any could say it is here, it would remove to another place.
All the family as well as Robin, were asleep when your father and I went down stairs, nor did they wake in the nursery when we held the candle close by them, only we observed that Hetty trembled exceedingly in her sleep, as she always did, before the noise awaked her. It com«> monly was nearer her than the rest, which she took notice of, and was much frightened, because she thought it had a particolar spite at her : I could multiply particular instances, but I forbear. I believe your father will write to you about it shortly. Whatever may be the design of Pro- vidence in permitting these thmgs, I cannot aay. Stent ffangs hdong
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to God ; but I entirely agree with you, that it is our wisdom and doty to
-prepare Beriously for all event*.
^ ^ S. Wesley,
lilSTTEE V. — From Miss Susannah ffesl^ io her Brother Samud,
Dear Brother, Epworth, Jan. £4.
About the first of December, a most terrible and astonishing noise was heard by a m^d servant, as at the dining room door, which caused the up-starting of her hair, and made her ears prick forth at an unusual rate. She said, it was lilce the groans of on« expiring. These so frighted her, that for a great while she durst not go out of one room into ano- ther, after it began to be dark, without bompany. But to lay aside jesting, which should not be done in serious matters, I assure you that from the first to the last of a lunar month, the groai|s, squeaks, tinglingSy and khockings, were frightful enough.
Though it is needless for me to send you any account of what we all heard, my father himself having a larger account of the matter than I am able to eive, which he designs to sendyou ; yet, in compliance with your desire, I will tell ^ou as briefiy as I can, what I heard of it The first pieht 1 ever heard it, my sister Nancy and I were set in the dining room. tVe heard something rush on the outside of the doors that opened into the garden, then three loud knocks, immediately after other three, and in half a minute the same number over our heads. We inquired whe- Oier un V body had* be€*n in the garden, or in the room above us, but there was nobody. Soon after my sister Molly and I were up after all 4he family were abed, except my sister Nancy, about some business. We heard, three bouncing thumps under our feet, which soon made us throw away our work, and tumble into bed. Afterwards the tingling of the latch and warming pan, and so it took its leave that night.
Soon after the above mentioned, we heard a noise as if a great piece of sounding metal was thrown down on the outside of our chamber. We, lying in the quietest part of the house, heard less than the rest for ^ pretty while, but the latter end of the night that Mr. Hoole sat up on, ( lay in the nursery, where it was violent. I then heard freouent knocks over and under the room where I lay, and at the children's bed-headt which w^s made of boards. It seemed to rap against it very hard and loud, so that the bed shook under them. 1 neard something walk by my bed-side, like a man in a long night gown. The knocks were so loud, that Mr. Hoole came out of their chamber to us. It still continued. My father spoke, but nothing answered. It ended that night, with my father*s particular knock, very fierce.
It is now pretty quiet, only at our repeating the pravers for the king and prince, when it usually beeins, especially when my cather says, <* Our most gracious Sovereign Lord," kfC, This ftiy father is angry at, and designs to say three instead of two for the royal family. We all beard the same noise, and at the same time, and as coming from the same place. To conclude this, it now makes its personal appearance ; but of this more hereafter. Do not say one word of this to our folks, nor give the legist bint I am,
Your siOcere friend and afl^tiouate Sister,
SusAVNAH Wesley.
Letter Vl.-^JIfr. SL Wesley in ^nsiter. Dear Sister Sukey, Dean's Yard* Feb. 9, 1716-7.
Vouii telling me the spirit has made its personal appearance, without raying how, or to whom, or when, ttr how long, has excited my curiosity
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very niu^* t kmg ikiklitlly for a f urUier aGcount of every cireumatance by your next letter. Do not keep roe any longer in the dark. Why need you write the less, because my father is to send me the whole story. Has the disturbance continued since the 28th of December ? I under- stand my father did not hear it all, but a fortnight after the rest. What did he say remarkable to any pf you when he did hear it ? As to the DeriFs being an enemy to King George, were I the king myself, I should rather Old Nick should be my enemy, than my friend. I do not like the noise of the night gown sweeping alon^ the ground, nor its knocking like my father. Write when you receive this, though nobody else should to your loving brother, S. W«
Lettee YIL— JI&. S. Waleytokis Mother. Dear Mother, You say you could multiply particular instances of the spirit's noises, but I want to know whether nothing was ever seen by any. For though it is hard to conceive, nay, morally impossible, that the hearing of so many people could be deceived, yet the Xruth will be still more manifest and undeniable, if it is grounded on the testimony of two senses. Has it never at all disturbed you since the £8th of December ? Did no circum- stance give any light into the design of the whole ?
Your obedient and loving Son, Feb. !«. S. Weslet.
Have you dug in the place where the money seemed poured at your feet?
Lettbh Vilh'-Mr. 5. JTetky to his Father. Honoured Sir, f HAVE not yet received any answer to the letter I wrote some time ago, and my mother in her last seems to say, that as yet I know but a very small part of the whole story of strange noises in our house. I shal) be exceedingly glad to have tne entire account from you. What- ever may be the main design of such wonders, I cannot think they were ever meant to be kept secret. If they bode any thing remarkable to our family, I am sure I am a party concerned.
Your dutiful Son, Feb. 12. 8. Weslet.
Letter IX.— -FVom JIfr, 8. Wedey to his Sister EmUy. Dear Sister Emily, I WISH you would let meliave a letter from you about the spirit, a» mdeed from every one of my sisters. I cannot think any of you very superstitious, unless you are much changed sfnce I saw you. My sister Hetty, I ftnd, was more particularly troubled. Let me know all. Did any thing appear to her f I am,
Your affectionate Brother, Feb. 1£. S. Weslet.
Letter X,— From old Mr, Wtdey to his Son Samuel.
Dear Sam, Feb. 11, 1716-7.
As for the noises, he. in our family, I thank God we are now all quiet
There were some surprising circumstances in that affair. Your mother
Itte not written you a third part of it When I see you here, you shall
les tbci whole account, which I wrote down. It would make a glorious
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peony book for Jack Dunton ; but while I live I am w>t mmbitious for akif thing of that nature. I think that's all, but blessings, irom
Your loving FaSier,
Sam. Wxsiat.
The follbwing Letter I received at the same time, though it has
no date.
Letter XI. — Fnm AKss Emily Wesley to her BrMer Samuel. Dear Brother,
I THANK you for your last, and shall give you what satisfaction is in mf power, concerning what has happened in our family. I am so far from oeing superstitious, that I was too much inclined to infidelity, so that I heartily rejoice at having such an opportunity of convincing myself past doubt or scruple, of the existence of some beings besides those we see. A whble month was sufficient to convince any body of the reality of the things and to try all ways of discovering any trick, had it been'possible for any such to have been used. I shall only tell you what 1 mysetf heard, and leave the rest to others.
My sisters in the paper chamber bad heard noises, and told me of them, but 1 did not much believe, tilt one night, about a week after the first groans were heard, which was the beginning, just after the clock had struck ten, I went down stairs to lock the dOors, which I always do. Scarce had I got up the best stairs, when 1 heard a noise, lik^ k person throwing down rvast coal in the middle of the fofe kitchen, and all the the splinters seemed to fly about from it 1 Was not much frighted, but went to my sister Suky, and we together went all over the low rooms^ but there was nothing out of order.
Our dog was fast asleep, and our only cat in the other end of the housei No sooner was I got up stairs, and undressing for bed, but I heard a noise among many botUes that stand under the best stairs, just like tbrowing of a great stone among them, which had broke them all to pieces. This made me hasten to bed ; but my sister Hetty^ 1»^'ho sits always to wait on my father going to bed, was still sitting on the lowest step on the
S arret stairs, die door being shut at her back, when soon after there came own the stairs behind her) something like a man, in a loose night- gown trailing after him, which made bet fly rather than run to me in the nursery.
All this time we never told our father of it, but soon after we did. He smiled, and gave no answer, but was more careful than usual, from that time, to see us in bed, imagining it to be some of us youn^ women, that sat up late, and made a noise. His incredulity, and especially hi^ imput- ing it to us, or our lovers, made me, I own, desirous of its continuance mi he wa8*convinCed. As for my mother, she firmly believed it to be rats, and sent for a horn to blow them away. I laughed to think how wisely they were employed, who were striving half aday to fright away ileffrey, for that name I gave it, with a horn.
But whatever it was, 1 perceived it could be made angry. For from that tinde it was so outrageous, thet'e was no qiuet for us after ten at night I hea^d freduently between ten and eleven, something like the quick winding up ot a jack, at the comer of the room by my bed's head^ just like the running of the wheels and the creaking of the iron work* This was the common signal of its coming. Then it would knock on the floor three times, then at my sister's bed's head in the same room* Almost always three together, and then stay. The sound Was hollow^ and loud, so as none of us could ever imitate.
It would answer to my mother, if she stamped on the floor, and bid it It would knock when I was putting the children to bed, just under tu$
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where I flat One tone little iCesy, pretending to scare Patty, as I was undressing them, stamped with her foot on the floor, and immediately it answered with three knocks, just in the same place. It was more loud and fierce if any one said it was rats, or any thine natural
I could tell you abundance more of it, biit the rest will write, and ^erefore it would be needless. I was not much frighted at first, and very little at last ; but it was never near me, except two or three times, and never followed me, as it did my sister Hetty. I have been with her when it has knocked under her, and when she has removed has followed, and still kept just under her feet, which was enough to terrify a stouter person.
If you would know my oi>inion of the reason of this, 1 shall briefly tell you. I believe it to be witchcraft, for these reasons. About a year since, there was a disturbance at a town near us, that was un4oubtedly witches ; and if so near, why nnuiy they not reach us ? Then my father had for several Sundays before its (pming preached warmly against con- sulting those that are called cunning men, which our people are given to ; and it had a particular spite at my father.
Besides, something was thrice seen. The first time by my mother, under my sister's bed, like a badger, only without any heaa that was discernible. The same creature was sat by the dining room fire one evening ; when our man went into the room, it run by him, through the hall under the stairs. He followed with a candle, and searched, but it was depart^. The last time he saw it in the kitchen, like a white rabbit, which seems likely to be some wjtch ; and I do so really believe it to l:ke one, that I would venture to flre a pistol at it, if I saw it long enough. It has been heard by me and others since December. I have filled up a)l my room, and have only time to tell you, I am,
Your loving Sister,
Emilia Weslet.
Ls^TTER XII. — Miss Susannah Wesfey to her Brother Samud. Dear Brother Wesley, March £7.
I SHOULD further satisfy you concerning the disturbances, but it is needless, because my sisters Kmilia and Hetty write so particularly about it. One thing I beheve you do not know, that is, last Sunday, to my father's no small amazement, his trencher danced upon the table a pretty while, without any body's stirring the table. When lo ! an adventurous wretch took it up, and spoiled the sport, for it remained still ever after. How glad should I be to talk with you about it. Send me some news, for we are secluded from the sight, or hearing, .of any versal thing except Jeffrey,
Susannah Weslet.
JSt Passage in a lifter from my Mother to me, dated March 37, 1717.
I CANNOT imagine how you should be so curious about our unwelcomtt guest. For my part, I am quite tired with hearing or speaking of it ; but if you come among us, you will find enough to satisfy all your scru- ples, and perhaps may hear or see it yourself.
S|. Wesley.
A Passage in a Letter from my Sister Emily to Mr. JV*. Berry ^ dated April 1.
Tell m^ brother the sprite was with us last night, and heard by many of our family, especially by our maid and myself, h'he sat up with drink and it came just at one o'clock, and opened the dining room door. Aftv^r
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some time it shut again. She saw as well as beard it botii diui aadt open ; then it began to knodc as usual. But i dare write no longer, lest I abodld bear it.
Jify Fa^itr*8 Journal^ or Diary ^ franscribed by my Brother Jack, Augud 27, 1726, and from him by me, FSirukry 7, 1730-1.
An Account of Noises and disturbances in my House, at Epworth^ Lincolosbire, in December and January, 1716.
From tbe first of December, my cbildren and servants heard many strange noises, groansy knockings, Sate, in eyenr story, and most of the rooms of my house. But I hearing nothing of it myself, tb^ would not tell me for some lime, because, according to the vulgar opinion, if if boded any ill to me, I could not hear it. When it increased, and the family could not easily conceal it, they told me of it.
My daughters Susannah and Ann, were below stairs in the dining room, and heard first at the doors, then over their heads, and the night after a knocking under their feet, though nobody was in the chambers or below them. The like they and my servants heard in both the kitchens, at the door against the partition ^ and over them. The maid servant heard groans as of a dying man. My daughter Emilia coming down stairs to draw up the clock, and lock the doors at ten at night, as usual, heard under the stair-case a sound among some bottles there, as if they had been all dashed to pieces ; but when she looked, all was safe. •
Something, like the steps of a man, was heard going up and down stairs, at all hours of the night, and vast rumhlings below stahrs, and in the garrets. My man, who lay in the garret, heard some one come Blaring through the garret to bis chamber, rattling by his side, as if against his shoes, though he had none there ; at other times walking np and down stairs, when all the house were in bed, and gobbUng tike a turkey cock. Noises were heard in the nursery, and all the ether chambers ; knocking first at the feet of the bed and behind it ; and a sound like that of dancing in a matted chamber, next the nursery, when the door was locked, and nobody in it.
My wife would have persuaded them it was rats within doors, and some unlucky people knocking without ; till at last we heard several loud knocks in our own chamber, on my side of the bed ; but till, I think, the 21st at night I heard nothing of it. That night I was waked a little be- fore one) by nine distinct very loud knocks, which seemed to be in the next room to ours, with a sort of a pause at every third stroke. I thought it might be somebody widiout the house, and having got a stout mastiff^ hoped he would soon rid me of it
The next night I heard six knocks, but not so loud as the former. I know not whetner it was in the jnoming after Stinday the SSd, when about seven my daughter Emily called her mother into the nursery, and told her she might now hear the noises there. She went in, and heard it at the bedsteads, then under the bed, then at the head of it She knock- ed, and it answered her. She looked under the bed, and thought some- thing ran from thence, but could not tell of what shape, but thought if most like a badger.
The next night but one, we were awaked about one, by the noises, which were so violent, it was in vain to think of sleep while they con- tinued. I rose, and my wife would rise with me. We went into every chamber, and down stairs ; and generally as we went into one room, we heard it in that behind us, though all the family had been in bed several hours. When we were gobg down stairs, and at the bottom of thesrir
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nn heardf as EidUt had doine before, a dashing amotfg the bottles, tisif they had beeo broke aN to pieces, and another sound distinct from it, as if a peck of money had been thrown down before us. The same, three of my daughters heard at another time.
We went through the the hall into the kitchen^ when our mastiff came whining to us, as he did always after the first night of its coming ; for then he barked violently at it, but was silent afterwards, and seemed more afraid than any of the children. We still heard it rattle and thun* dcr in every room above oi'behind us, locked as well as open, except my study, where as yet it never came. After two, we went to bed, ana were pretty quiet the rest of the night.
Wednesday nisht, December 26,^ after, or a little before, ten, my daughter Emilia heard the signal of its beginning to play, with which she was perfectiy acquainted ; it was like the strong winding up of a jack. She called us, and I went into the nursery, where it used to be most vio- lent. The rest of the children were asleep. It began with knocking in the kitchen underneath, then seemed to be at the bed's feet, then undei" the bed, at last at the head of it. I went doWn stairs, and knocked with my stick azainst the ioists of the kitchen. It answered me as often and as loud as I knocked ; but then I knocked as I usually do at my doori 1 — ft 5 4 5 a*— 7, but this puzzled it, and it did not answer, or not in the flame method ; though the children heard it do the same exactly twice or thrice after.
I went up stairs, and found it still knocking hard, though with some recite, sometimes under the bed, sometimes at the bed's head. I ob- served my children that they were frighted in their sleep, and trembled Tery much till it waked them. I stayed Uiere alone, bid them go to sleep, and sat at the bed's feet by them, when the noise began again. . I asked it what it was, and why it disturbed innocent children, and did not come to me in my study, if it had any thing to swj^ to me. Soon after it gave one knock on the outside of the house. All the rest were within, and knocked off for that night.
I went out of doors, sometimes alone, at others with company, and walked round the house, but eould see or hear nothing. Several nights the latch of our lodging chamber would be lifted up very often, when all were in bed. One night, when the noise was great in the kitchen, and on a deal partition, and the door in the yard, the latch whereof was often lifted up, ray daughter Emilia went and held it fast on the inside, but it was still lifted up, and the door pushed violently against her, though nothing was to be seen on the outside.
When we were at prayers, and came to the prayers for King George, and the Prince, it would make a great noise over our heads constantly, whence soneie of the family called it a Jacobite. I liave been thrice pushed by an invisible power, once against the corner of my desk in the study, a second time asainst the door of the matted chamber, a third time against the right side of tlie fi-ame of my study door, as I was go- ing in.
I followed the noise into almost every room in the house, both by day and by night, with lights and without, and have sat alone for some time, and when I heard the noise, spoke to it to tell me what it was, but never heard any articulate voice, and only once or twice two or three feeble squeaks, a little louder than the chirping of a bird, but not like the noise of rats, which I have often heard.
1 had designed on Friday, December the SSth, to make a visit to a friend, Mr. Downs, at Normandy, and stay some days with him, but the noises were so boisterous on Thursday ni«;ht, that I did not cam to leave my family. So I went to Mr. Hoole, of llnxsoy, nttd desired his com- pany on Friday night. He came j and it began after ten, a httlu later
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timn ordinarr. The younger children were gone to bed» the rest of the family and Mr. Hoole were together in the matted chamber. I sent &e servants down to fetch in some fuel, went with them, and staid in the kitchea till they came in. When they were gone^ I heard loud noises against the doors and partition, and at length the usual signal, though somewhat after the time. I had never heard it before, but knew it by the description my daughter had given me. It was much like the tam- ing about of a windmill when the wind changes. When the servants re- turned, I went up to the company, who had heard the other noises be- low, but not the signal. We heard all the knocking as usual, from one chamber to another, but at its going off^ like the rubbmg of a beast against the wall ; but from that time till January the ^4th, we were quiet.
Having received a letter from Samuel the day before relating to it, I read what I had written of it to my family; and this day at morning prayer, the faaaily heard the usual knocks at the prayer for the Kin|^. — At niriit they were more distinct, both in the praTer for the King, and that for the Prince; and one very loud knock at the amen was heard by my wife, and most of my children, at the inside of my bed. I heard nothing myself. After nine, Robert Brown sitting alone by (he fire in the back kitchen, something came out of the copper hole uke a rabbit, but less, and turned round five times very swiftly. ' Its ears lajr flat upon its neck, and its HttU scut stood straight up. He ran alter it with the tongs in his hands, but when he could find nothing, he was frighted, and went to the maid in the parlour.
On Friday, the 2dth, having prajrers at church, I shortened, as usual. ^ those in the family at morning, omitting the confession, absolution, and prayers for the King and Prince. I observed, when this is done, there IS no knocking. I therefore used them one morning for a trial ; at &e name of King George, it began to knock, and did the same when I pray- ed for the Prince. Two knocks I heard, but took no notice after pray- ers, till after all who were in the room, ten persons besides me, spoKe of it, and said they heard it No noise at all the rest of the prayers.
Sunday, January 27. Two soft strokes at the momit^ prayers for King Georgej above stairs.
Mdenda to and from my Father's Dtary.
Friday, December 21. Knocking I heard first, I think, this night ; to which disturbances, I hope, God will in his good time put an end.
Sunday, December 2d. Not much disturbed with the noises that arr. now grown customary to me.
Wednesday, December 26. Sat up to hear noises. Strange ! spoke to it, knocked offl
Friday, 28. The noises very boisterous and disturbing this night.
Saturday, 29. Not frighted, with the continued dbturbance of my family.
Tuesday, January 1, 1TI7. My family have had no disturbance suice I went
Memorandum of Jockos.
The first time my mother ever heard any unusual noise at Epworth, was long before the disturbance of old Jeffery. M^ brother, lately come from London, had one evening a sharp quarrel with my sister Suky, at which time, my mother happening to be above in her own chamber, the door and windows rung and jarred very loud, and presently several dis- tinct strokes, three by three, were struck. From that night it never
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failed to give notice in much the same manner, against way «gn«l misfor* ttme, or iUness of any belonging to the family.
Of ihi general Circunuiances which foUaw, most, if not aU, the Family were frequent WOnesses*
I. pRESCNTLT after any noise was heard, the wind commonly rose, and whistled very loud round the house, and increased with it.
fe. The signal was gi^en, which my father likens to the turning round of a wind-mill when the wind changes ; Mr. Hoole (Rector of Haxey) to the planing of deal boards ; my sister to the swift winding up of a jack. It conunonly began at the comer of the top of the nursery.
3. Before it came into any room, the latches were frequently lifted «p, the windows clattered, and whatever iron or brass was about the chamber, rung and Jarred exceedingly.
4. When it was in any room, let them make what noise they would, as they sometimes did on purpose, its dead hollow note would be clearly heard above them all.
5. It constantly knocked while the prayers for the King and Prince were repeating, aud was plainly heard by all in the room, but my father, and sometimes by nim, as were also the thundering knocks at the amen.
6. The, sound very often seemed in the air in the middle of a room, nor could they ever make any such themselves, by any contrivance.
7. Though it seemed to rattle down the pewter, to clap the doors, draw the curtains, kick the man's shoes up and down, S&c. ^et it never moved any thing except the latches, otherwise than making it tremble ; unless once, when it threw open the nursery door.
8. The mastiff, though be barked violent!]^ at it the first day he came, yet whenever it came after that, nay, sometimes before the Umily per- ceived it, he ran whining, or quite saent, to shelter himself behind some of the company.
9. It never came by day, till my mother ordered the horn to be blown.
10. After that time, scarce any one could go from one room into ano- ther, but the latch of the room they went to was lifted up before they touched it
II. It never came once into my father's study, till he talked to it sharply, called it deaf and dumb devils and bid it cease to disturb the innocent children, and come to him in his study, if it had any thing to say to him.
12. From the time of my mother's desiring it not to disturb her from hvti to six, it was never heard in her chamber from five till she came down stairs, nor at any other time, when she was employed in devotion.
13. Whether our clock went right or wrong, it always came, as near as could be guessed, when by the night it wanted a quarter of ten.
My Mmther^s Jkamnt to Jacki
Aug. £7, 17S6. About ten days after Nanny Marshall had heard unusual groans at the dining room door, Emily came and told me that the servants -and 4^ldren had been several times frighted with strange groans and knock- kigs about the house. I answered, that the rats John Auw had frightened from his house, by blowing a horn there, were come into ours, and ordered that one should be sent for. Molly was much displeased at It, aad saidi if it was any thing soperpatural, it certuniy would be very
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angry, and more troublesome. However, the horn was blown in tlie garrets ; and theefToct was, tliat whereas before the noises were always in the night, from this time t^ey were hfard at all hours, dav and night.
Soon after, about seven in the morning, Emily came ana desired m« to go into the nursery, where I should btj convinced they were not star- tled at notliing. On my coming thither, I heard a knocking at the feet, and qaickly after at the head of tlie bed. I desired if it was a spirit it would answer me, and knocking several timee with my foot on the ground, with several pauses, it repeated under the sole of my feet exactly the same number of strokes, witn the very same intervals. Kezzy, then six or seven years old, Kiid, let it answer me too. if it can, and stamp- ing, the same sounds were returned that slic made, many times, suc- cessively.
Upon my looking under the bed, something ran out pretty much like a badger, and seemed to run directly Mnder Emily's petticoats, who sat
Xositc to me on the other side. I went out, and one or two nights r, when we were iust got to bed, I heard *nine strokes, three by three, on the other side the bed, as if one had stnick violently on a chest with a large stick. Mr. Wesley leapt up, called Hetty, who alone was up in the house, and sftarched every room in the bouse, but to no purpose. It continued from this time to knock and |roan freauently at all hours, day and night ; only t earnestly desu'ed it might not aisturb me between &ve and six in the evening, ana there never was any noise in my room after during that time.
At other times, I have often heard it over my mantle tree, and once, coming up after dinner, a cradle seemed to be strongly rocked in ray chamber. When I went in, the sound seemed to be in the nurserv. When I was in the nursery, it seemed in my chamber again. One night Mr» W. and I were waked by some one running down the garret stairs, then down the broad stairs, then up (he narrow ones, then up the garret Stairit, then down again, and so the i^ame round. The rooms trembled an it passed along, and the doors shook exceedingly, so that the clattering of the MchpH was very loud.
Mr. W. proposing to rise, I rose with him, and went down the broad stairs, hand in hand, to liglk a candle. Near the foot of them a large pot of money seemed to be poured out at my waist, and to run jingling down my night-gown to my feet. Presently after we beard the noise as of a vast stone thrown among several dozen of bottles, which lay uqder the stairs : but upon our looking no hurt was done. In the hall the mastiff met us, crying and striving to get bet^veen us. We returned up into the. nursery, where the noise was very great The children wero all asleep, but panting, trembling, and sweating extremely.
Shortly after, on Mr. Wesley's invitation, Mr. Hoole staid a night with us. As we were all sitting rdund the fire in the matted chamber, he asked whether that gentle knocking was tt ? I told hiinyes, and it con* tinned the sound, which was much lower than usual. This was observ- able that while we were talking loud in the same room, the noise, seem- ingly lower than any of our voices, was distinctly heard above them aU, These were the most remarkable passages I remember, except such as Hvere common to all the famiiy.
My Sirttr Emily's AccowU to Jack,
About a fortnight after the time when, as I was told, the noises were heard > I went from my mother's room, who was just gone to bed, to the best chamber, to fetch my sister Suky's candle. When I was there, the windows and doors be^n to jar, and ring exceedingly, and presently »fter I beard a sound m the kitcb^, as. if a vast atone coal had beeo
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llirowii down, and muhed to pieces. I went down thither with my candle, and found nothing more than usual ; but as I was going by the screen, something began knocking on the other side, just even with my head. When I looked on the inside, the knocking was on the outstcfe of it ; but as soon as I.could get round, it was at tbe inside again. I fol- lowed to and fro several times, till at last, finding it to no purpose, and turning about to go away before I was out of the room, the latch of the back kitchen door was lifted up many times. I opened the door and looked out, but could see nobody. I tried to shut the door, but it was thrust against me, and I could feel the latch, which I held in my hand, moving upwards at the same time. I looked out again, but finding it was labour lost, clapped the door to, and locked it Immediately the latch was moved strongly up and down, but I left it^ and went up the worst stairs, from whence I heard, as if a great stone had been thrown among the bottles,, which lay under the best stairs. However I went to bed.
From this time, I heard it every night, for two or thiee weeks. It con- tinued a month in its full majesty, night and day. Then it intermitted a fortnight or more, and when it began again, it knocked only on nights, and grew less and less troublesome, till at last it went quite away. To- wards the latter end it use^ to knock on the outside of the house, and seemed further and further off, till it ceased to be Heard at all.
My Sister J^fotty^s Account to Jack.
Aug. £7. I HAVE always thought it was November, the rest of our family think it was the 1st of December, 1716, when Nanny Marshall, who had a bowl of butter in her hand, ran to me, and two or three more of my sisters, in the dining room, and told us she had heard several groans in the hall, as of a dying man. We thought it was Mr. Turpine, who had the stone, and used sometimes to come and see us. About a fortnight after, when my sister Sukv and I were going to bed, she told me how she was frightened in the dining mom, the day before, by a noise, first at the folding door, and then over head. I was reading at the table, and had scarce told her I believed nothing of it, when several knocks were given jiftt under my feet. We both made haste into bed, and just as we laid down, the warming pan by the bedside jarred and rung, as did the latch of the dtK)r, which was lifted swiftly up and down ; presently a great chain seemed to fall on the outside of the door (we were in the best chamber), the do^r, latch, hinges, the warming pan, and windows jarred, and the house shooV from top to bottom.
A few days aftcK, between five and six In the evening, I was by myself in the dining room. The door seemed to open, though it was still shut, and somebody walkea m a night-gown trailing upon the ground (nothing appearing), and seemed^o go leisurely round me. I starte<t up, and ran up stairs to my mother's 4\amber> and told the story to her and my sis- ter Emily. A few nights Vft^r, my father ordered me to light him to his study. Just as he haa unlocVed it, the latch was lifted up for him. The same (after we h^w i\v\ horn) was often done to me, as well by day as by night. Of indny o>her things all the family as well as me were witnesses.
My father went into the nursery from th^ matted chamber, where we were, by himself in the dark. It knr>cked vbi^ ]oud on the press-bed head. He adiured it to tell.him why 'it came,\ut it seemed to take no notice; at which he was very angry, sp*ke shar)4y, called it deaf and dumb devUy and repeated his adjuratioi^ My alters were terribly afrud it would speak. When he bad doie, it kicked bis knodk
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on the bed's head, so exceeding violently, as if it would break if to shivers, and from that time we heard nothing till near a month after.
Mj Sister Suktfs Account to J^ck,
I BEtiEVKD nothing of it till about a fortnight after the first noises then one night I sat up on purpose to hear it. While I was woiidng in the best chamber, ana earnestly desiring to hear it, a knocking began just under my feet. As I knew the room below was locked, I was frightened, and leapt into bed with all my clothes on. I afterwards heard as it were a creat chain fall, and after some time, the usual noises at all hours of the a«y and night One night hearing it was most yioleot in the nursery, I resolved to Tie there.. Late at night, several strong knocks were given to the two lowest steps of the garret stairs, which were close to the narsery door. The latch of the door then jarred, and seemed to be swiftly moved to and fro, and prestetly began knocking about a yard within the room on the floor, it then came gradually to sister Hetty's bed, who trembled strongly in her sleep. It beat very loud three strokes at a time, on the bed's head. My father came, and adjured it to speak, but it knocked on for soQie time, and then removed to the room over, vrhere it knocked mv father's knock on the groondf as if it would beat the house down. I had no mind to sta^r longer, but
fot up, and went to sister Em and taj mother, who were in her room, 'rom thence we heard the noises agam from Uie nursery^ I proposed playing a game at cards, but we had scarce be^un, when a Knocking began under our feet. We left off playing, and it removed back agaii into the nursery, where it continued till towards morning.
Sider JSTancy^s Account to Jack,
Sept. 10.
The first noise my sister Nancy heard, was in the best chamber, with my sister Molly and my sister Suky ; soon after my father bad ordered her to blow a horn in the garrets, where it was knocking violently^ She was terribly afraid, being obliged to go in the dark, and kneeling down on the stairs, desired that, as she acted not to please herself, ft mi^ht liave no power over her. As soon as she came into the room, the noise ceased, nor did it begin again till near ten ; but then, ai>d for a good while, it made much greater and more frequent noises than it bad done before. When she afterwards came into the chamber in the day time, it commonly walked after her from room to room. It followed her from one side of the bed to the other, and back again, a» often as she went back ; and whatever she did which made any s(?rt of noise, the same thing seemed just to be done behind her.
When Avi'^or six were set in the nursery toge^^e^j a cradle would seem to be strongly rocked in the room over, thou/A no cradle had ever been there. One night she was sitting on the pre*8-bed, playing at cards With some of my sisters, when my slsttr Molly £tty, Patty, and Kezzy, were in the room, and Kobert Brown. The b^d on which my sister Nancy sat, was lifted up with her on it. She Iv^t down and said, " surelr old Jeffery would not run away Wlb her" However, they persuaded her to sit down again, whidi ^^^ ^^i scarce done, when it was again lifted up several times successively, a considerable height, upon which she left her seat, and ^^ould no^ be prevailed upon to sit there any more.
Whenever they Wg^n to nation Mr. S^ it presently beean to knocks and continued to d* so till tb^y changed the discourse. All the time mf
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lister Silky was writing her last IcKer to him, it inad« a very great noise all round the room, and the ni^t after she set out for London, it knocked till morning with scarce any ijitermisfion. *
Mr. Hoole read prayMV once, but it knocked as usual at the prayers for the King «w Prince. The knockings at those prajers were only towBrda the beginning of the disturbances, for a weefc or thereabouts.
The Rev. Mr. Hooie^ AceounL
Sept. 16.
As soon as I came to Epworth, Mr. Wesley telling me, he sent for me to conjura, I knew not what he meant, till some of your sisters told me what had happened, and tliat I was sent for to sit up. I expected every hour, it being then about nooni to hear something extraorainary, but to no purpose. At supper too, and at prayers, all was silent, con- trary to custom, but soon after one of the maids, who went up to sheet a bed, brought the alarm, that Jeffery was come above stairs. We all went up, and as we were standing round the fire in the east chamber, something began knocking just on the other side of the wall, on the chimney-mece, as with a key. Presently the knocking was under our feet, Mr. Wesley and I went down, he with a great deal of hope, and I with fear. As soon as wc were in the kitchen, the sound was above us, in the room we had left. We returned up the narrow stairs, and heard at the broad stairs head, some one slaring with their feet (all the family being now in bed beside us) and then trailing, as it were, and rustling with a silk night-gown* Quickly it was in the nursery, at the bed's head, knocking as it had done at first, three by three. Mr. Wesley spoke to it, and said he believed it was the devil, and soon after it knocked at the window, and changed its sound into one like the planing of boards. From thence it went on the outward south side of the house, sounding fainter and fainter, till it was heard no more.
I was at no other time than this during the noises at Epworth, and do not BOW remember any more circumstances than these.
Epworth, Sept 1.
^ My sister Kezzy says she remembers nothing else, but that it knocked my father's knock, ready to beat the house down in the nursery one night
RMn Brwon?9 AeeouiU to Jack,
The first time Robin Brown, my father's man, heard it, was when he was fetching down some corn from the garrets. Somewhat knocked on a door just by him, which made him run away down stairs. From that time it used frequently to visit him in bed, walking up the garret stairs, and in the garrets, like a man in jack-boots, with a night-gown trailing after him, then lifting up his latch and making It jar, and making pre- sently a noise in his room like the gobbling of a turkey-cock, then stum- Mng over his shoes or boots by the bed side. He was resolved once to be too hard for it, and so took a large mastiff we had just got to bed with him, and left His shoes and boots below stairs ; but he might as well have spared his labour, for it was exactly the same thing, whether any were there or no. The same sound was heard as if there had been forty pairs. The dog indeed was a great comfort to him, for as soon as the latch began to jar, he crept into bed, made such an howling and barking
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together, io spite of all the man coolddOf tiiat he alarased moat of ttmf family.
Soon after, being grinding corn in the garrets, and happemng to stop a little, the handle of the mill was turned roond with great swiftness. He said nothing vexed him, but that the mill Wsn empty. If com had* been in it, old Jeflfery might have ground his heart out for him ; he woukt never have disturbed him.
One night being ill, he was leaning his head upon the back kitchen chimney (the jam he called it) with the tongs in his hands, when from behind the oven-stop, which lay by the fire> somewhat came out like a white rabbit It turned round before him several times, and then ran to the same place again. He was frighted, started up, and ran with the tongs into tlie parlour (dining room.)
D. R. Epworth, Aug. 31. Betty Masst one day came to me in the parlour, and asked me if I had heard old Jeffery, for she said she thought there was no such thing. When we had talked a little about it, I knocked three times with a reel I had in my hand, against the dining room ceiling, and ^e same were presently repeated. She desired me to knock so again, which I did, but they were answered with three more so violently as shook the house, though no one was in the chamber over us. She prayed me to knock no more for fear it should come in to us.
Epworth, Aug. 31, 172ft, John and Kitty Maw, who lived over against us, listened several nights in the time of the disturbance but could never hear any thing.
JMRRATIVE dravon up hy John JVesUy^ and pMished by him in &e Arminian Magazine,
When I was very young, I heard several letters read, wrote to my elder brother by my father, giving an account of strange disturbaqees, which were in his house at Epworth, iu Lincolnshire.
When I went down thither, in the year 1720, 1 carefully inquired into the particulars. I spoke to each of the persons who were then in the house, and took down what each could testify of his or her own know- ledge. The sum of which was this.
On Dec. S^, 1716, while Robert Brown, my father's servant, was sitting with one of the maids a little before ten at night, in the dining room which opened into the garden, they both heard one knocking at the door. Robert rose and opened it, but could see nobody. Quickly it knocked again and groaned. '^ It is Mr. Turpine," said Robert : " he has the stone and uses to groan so.'' He opened the door again twice or thrice, the knocking being twice or thrice repeated. But still seeing nothing, and beinr a little startled, they rose and went up to bed. When Robert came to the top of the garret stairs, he saw a hand mill, which was at a little distance, whirled about very smftly. When he related this he said, ^ Nought vexed me, but that it was empty. I thought, if it had but been full of malt he might have ground his heart out for me.'* When he was in bed, he heard as it were the gobbling of a turkey-cock, close to the bed side : and soon after, the sound of one stumbling over his shoes and boots, but there were none there : he h&d left them below. The next day, he and the maid related these things to the other maid, who laughed heartily, and said, "What a couple of fools are you ! I defy any thing to fright mc." After churning in the evening, she put the butter in a tray, and had no sooner carried it into the dairy, than she
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heard a knocking on the shelf where several puncheons of milk stood, first above the shelf, then below ; she took the candle and searched both above and below ; but being able to find nothing, threw down butter, tray and all, and ran away lor life. The next evening between ^re and six o'clock my sister MoIIt, then about twenty years of age, sitting in the dining room, reading, heard as if it were the door that led into the hall open, and a person walking in, that seemed to have on a silk night- gown, rustling and trailing along. It seemed to walk round her, men to the door, then round again : but she could see nothing. She thought, **it signifies nothing to run away : for whatever it Is, it can run faster than me." So she rose, put her book under her arm, and walked slowly away. After supper, she was sitting wi^ my sister Suky, (about a year older than her,] iu one of the chambers, and telling her what had hap- pened, she quite made light of it ; telling her, ^ I wonder you are so easily frighted ; I would fain see what would fright me." presently a knocking began under the table. She took the candle and looked, but could find nothing. Then the iron casement began to clatter, and the lid of a warming pan. Next the latch of the door moved up and down without ceasing. She started up, leaped into the bed without undressing, pulled the bed clothes over her head, and never ventured to look up till next morning. A night or two after, my sister Hetty, a year younger than my sister Molly, was waiting as usual, between nine and ten, to take away my father's candle, when she heard one coming down the garret stairs, walking slowly by her, then going down the best stairs, then up the back stairs, and up the garret stairs. And at every step, it seemed the house shook from top to bottom. Just then mn father knocked. She went in, topk bis candle, and eot to bed as fast as possi- 4>le. In the morning she told this to my eldest sister, who told her, "* You know, I believe none of these things. Pray let me take away the candle to night and I will find out the trioc." She accordingly took my aister Hetty s place, and had no sooner taken away the candle, than she heard a noise below. She hastened down stairs, to the hall, where the noise was. But it was then in the kitchen. She ran into the kitchen, where it was drumming on the inside of the screen. When she went round it was drumming on the outside, and so always on the side oppo- site to her. Then she beard a knocking at the back kitchen door. She ran to it, unlocked it softly, and when the knocking was repeated, sud- denly opened it : but nothinj^ was to be seen. As soon as she had shut it, the knocking began again; she opened it again, but could see nothine : when she went to shut the door, it was violently thrust against her ; she let it fly open, but nothing appeared. She went again to shut it, and it was again thrust against her : but she set her knee and her shoulder to the door, forced it to, and turned the key. Then the knock- ing began again : but she let it go on, and went up to bed. However, from &at time she was thoroughly convinced that there was no impos- ture in the affair.
The next morning, my sister telling my mother what had happened, she said, '* If I hear any thing myself, I shall know how to judge.'' Soon after, she begged her to come into the nursery. She did, and heard in the corner of one room, as it were the violent rocking of a cradle ; but DO cradle had been there for some years. She was convinced it was preternatural, and earnestly prayed it might not disturb her in her own chamber at the hours of retirement : and it never did. She now thought it was proper to tell my father. But he was extremely angry, and said* ^ Suky, I am ashamed of you-: these boys and girls iright one another ( but you are a woman of sense, and should know better. Let me hear of it no more." At six in the evening, he had family prayers as usual, When he began the prayer (or the King, a knocking began aU round the TOL. L 48
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n)om ; and a thundering knock attended the Amen. The same was heard from this thne every morning and evening, while the prayer for the King was repeated. -As both my father and mother are now at rest, and incapable of being pained thereby, I think it my duty to furnish the serious reader with a key to this circumstance.
Tlie year before King William died, my father observed my mother did not say, Ame^B, to the prayer for the King. She said she could not ; for she did not believe the Prince of Orange was King. He rowed he never would cohabit with her till she did. He then took his horse and rode away, nor did she hear any thing of him for a twolvcmonth. He then came back, and lived with her as before. But I fear his vow was not forgotten before God.
Being informed that Mr. Hoole, the vicar of Haxey f an eminently pious and sensible man,) could give me some further information, I walked over to him. He said, " Robert Brown came over to me, ami told me, your father desired my company. When I came, he gave me in account of all that had happened ; particularly the knocking during family prayer- But that evening (to my great satisfaction) we had no knocking at all. But between nine and ten, a servant came in and said, ' Old Jeffery is coming,' (that was the name of one that died in )he house,) ' for I hear the signal.' This they informed me was heard every night about a quarter before ten. It was toward the top of the house' on the outside, at the north-east corner, resembling the loud creaking of a saw: or ratlier that of a wind-mill, when the body of it is turned about, in order to shift the sails to the wind. We then heard a knocking over our heads, 4lnd Mr. Wesley catching up a candle, said,' Gome, Sir, now you shall hear for yourself.' We went up stairs ; he with much hope, and I (to say the truth) with much fear. When we came into the nursery, It was knocking in the next room : whenwe were there, it was knock- ing in the nureery. And there It continued to knock* though we came in, particularly at the head of the bed (which was of wood) in which Miss Hetty and two of her younger sisters lay. Mr. Wesley observing that they were much affected though asleep, sweating, apd trembling exceedingly, was very angry, and pulling out a pistol, was going to fire at the place from whence the sound came. But I catehed him by the arm, and said, 'Sir, you are convinced this is something pre- ternatural. If so, you cannot hurt it : but you give it power to hurt you,* He then went close to the place aVid said sternly, < Thou deaf and dumb devil, why dost thou fright tliese children, that cannot answer for them- selves ? Come to me in iny study that am a man P' Instantly it knocked his knock (the particular knock which he always used at the gate) as if it would shiver the board in pieces, and we heard nothing more that night.'^ Till this time, my father had never heard the least disturbances in his study. But the next evening, as he attempted to go Into his study (of which none had any key but Lmiself ) when he opened the door, it was thrust back with such violence, as had like to have thro^K^n him down. However, he thrust the door open and went in. Presently there was knocking first on one side, then on the other : and after a time, in the next room, wherein my sister Nancy was. He wtnt into that room, and (the noise continuing) adjured it to speak ; but ift vain. He then said, * These spirits love darkness : put out the candle, and perhaps it will speak :' she did so ; and he repeated his adjuration ; but still there was only knocking, and no articulate sound. Upon this he said,^ Nancy, two Christians arp an overmatch for the devil. Go all of you down stairs ; it may be, when I am alone, he will have courase to speak.' — When she was gone a thought came in, and he said, " If thou art tfie spirit of mv so'n Samuel, I pray, knock three knocks and no more." Immediately all was silence ; and there was no more knocking at all
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that night. I asked my sister Nancy (then about fifteen yeart old) whether she was not afraid, when my father used that adjuration ? She answered, she was sadJy afraid it would speak, when she put out the candle ; but she was not at all afraid in the day-time, when it walked after her, as she swept the chambers, as it constantly did, and seemed to sweep after her. Only she thought he might have done it for her, and saved her the trouble. By this time all my sisters were so accus- tomed to these noises, that they gave them little disturbance. A gentle tapping- at their bed-head usually besan between nine and ten at night They then commonly said to each other, »* Jefiery is coming : it is time to go to sleep.*' And if they heard a noise in the day, and said to my youngest sinter, " Hark, Kezzy, Jeffery is knocking above,'' she would run up stairs, and pursue it from room to room, saying, she desired no better diversion.
A few nights after, my father and mother were just gone to bed, and the candle wad not taken away, when they heard three blows, and a second, and a third three, as it were with a large oaken staff, strack upon a chest which stood by the bed-aide. My father immediately arose, put on his night-gown, and hearing ereat noises below, took the candle and went down : my mother walked by his side. As they went down tlie broad stairs, they heard as if a ressel full of silver was poured upon my mother's breast, and ran jingling down to her feet. Quickly after there was a sound, as if a large iron ball was thrown among many bottles Under the stairs : but nothing was hurt. Soon after, our large mastiff* dog came and ran to shelter himself between them. While the dis- turbances continued, he used to bark and leap, and snap on one side and the other ; and that frequently before any person in the room heard any noise at all. But after two or three days, he used to tremble, and creep away before the noise began. And by this, the family knew it was at hand ; nor did the observation ever fail. A little before my father and mother came into the hall, it seemed as if a very large coal was violently thrown upon the floor and dashed all in pieces: but nothing was seen. My father then cried out, *' Suky, do you not hear ? All the pewter is thrown about the kitchen." But when they looked, all the pewter stood in its place. There then was a loud knocking at the back door. My father opened it, but saw nothing. It was then at the fore door. He opened that ; but it was still lost labour. After opening first the one, then the other several times, he turnetl and went up to bed. But the noises were so violent all over the house, that he could not sleep till four in the morning.
Severaf gentlemen and clergymen now earnestly advised my father to
?|uit the house. But he constantly answered^ " No ; let the devil flee rom me : I will never flee from the devil." But he wrote to my eldest brother at London to come down. He was preparing so to do, when another Jetter came, informing him the disturbances were over ; after they had continued (the latter part of tlie time day and night) from the second of December to the end of January.
NOTE Vnr. Page 67.
Thomas a Kempis.
Mr. BcTtFR (in whose biographical works the reader may find a well digested account of the life and writings of Thomas a Kempis) says that more than an hundred and fifty treatises concerning the author of The Imitation had been printed, before Du Pin wrote his dissertation upon the subieet The corjtrov«rsy has been renewed in the present CRnturv* Thcre is a DisBertazione Epistolan yntorno cdT A^Unre, dd Lihro Dt Imi'
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taiiotu Cftnstf annexed to a dissertation upon the birth place of Cohm- bus (Florence, 1808.] A treatise upon sixty French translations of Tlie Imitation was publisned at Paris, April 14, 1813, bj Ant. Alex. Barbier, BibltolhMaire dt m MajesU PEmpereur el Eoi, Mr. Butler says, •" the fear of the Cossacks suspended the controversy ; probably it will now be resumed."
^ A curious anecdote concerning this book occurs in Hutchinson's His- tory of Massachusetts, (toI. i. p. 2d6.) <* There had been a press for printing at Cambridge (m New England) for near twentjr years. The court appointed two persons in October, 1662, licensers of the press, and prohibited the publisfaing any books or papers which should not be su* peryised bT them ; and in 1668 the supenrisors having allowed of the printing Tnomas i Kempis' De Jmitaiume ChriHij the court interposed, * it being wrote by a popish minister, and containing some things less safe to be infused among the people ; and therefore they commended to the licensers a more full revisal, and ordered the press to stop in the mean time. In a constitution less popular, this would have been tiiought too great an abridgment of the subject's liberty.^'
NOTE IX. Page 69. Methodists not a new Abme.
^ It is not generally known,** says Mr« Crowther, '< that the name of Methodist had been given long before the days of Mr. Wesley to a reli- gious party in England, which was distinguished by some of those marks whidi are supposed to characterize the present Methodists. A person called John Spencer, who was librarian of Sion College, 1657, during the protectorate of Oliver Cromwell, in a book which he published, con- • fiisting of extracts from various authors, speaks of the eloquence and ele- gance of the Sacred Scriptures, and asks, 'where are now our Anabao- tists, and plain pack-staff Methodists, who esteem aU flowers of rhetone in sermons no better than stinking weeds ?"
" B^ the Anabaptists* we know that he means a denominatioD of Christians which is still in existence ; and though we have not at this time any particular account of Uie Methodists of that day, it seems veiT probable that one description of religionists, during that fertile period, was denominated Methodists. These it would seem distinguishea them- selves by plainness of speech, despising the ornaments of literature and the charms of eloquence in their public discourses. This might have been known to the Fellow of Merton College, who gave the Oxonian Pietists the name of Methodists, though it seems probable Mr. Wesley never cauxht the idea. Gale also, m his fourth Part of the Court of the Gentiles, mentions a religious sect, whom he calls ' The New Methodbts.' *"
History of (he Wuleyan Mdhodists^ p. 24.
NOTE X. Page 78.
Expenses of the University.
Upov this subject I transcribe a curious note from Dr. Wordworth^ most interesting collection of Ecclesiastical Biography.
•* We may learn what the fare of the Universities was f\rom a de* scription of the state of Cambridge, given at St Paul's Cross in the year 1550, by Thomas Lever, soon after made Master of St John's College.
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■' There be divers there at Cambridge which rise daily betwixt four and ^ve of the cloclc in the morning, and from five until six of t^e clock me common prayer, with an exhortation of God's word in a common ehapel ; and from six unto ten of the clock use ever either private study or common lectures. At ten of the clock they go to dinner ; whereas they be cbntent with a penny piece of beef amongst four, having a few pottage made of the broth of the 9ame beef with salt and oatmeal, and nothing else. After this slender dinner, they be either teaching or learn- ing until five of the clock in the evening, when as they have a supper not much better than their dinner. Immediately after which they go either to reasoning in problems or unto some other study, until it be nine or ten of the clock ; and then being without fire, are fain to walk or run up and down half an hour, to get a heat on their feet, when they go tobed.
*^ These be men not weary of their pains, but very sorry to leave their study ; and sure they be not able some of them to continue for lack of necessary exhibition and relief."
Sir Henry Wotton, writing from Vienna in 1590, says, <' I am now at two florins a week, chamber, stove, and table : lights he finds me ; wood I buy myself; in which respect I hold Your Honour right happy that you came in the summer, for we can hardly come by them here without two dollars the dofUr^ though we border upon Bohemia. Wine I have as much as it pleaseth me for m^ friend and self^ and not at a stint, as the students of Altorph. AH circumstances considered, I make my account that I spend more at this reckoning by five pounds four shillings yearly, than a good earefui scholar in the Umversities of England."
NOTE XI. Page 74.
Siihtme of Sdf-ExaminaHon,
This paper is too curious in itself, and in its style too characteristic of Wesley, to be omitted here. It is entitled,
Love of God and Simplicity ; means of which are Prayer and Meditation.
Have I been simple and recollected in every thing I said or did ? Have I, 1. Been simjOe in every thing, i. e. looked upon God as my good, my
Eattem, my one desire, my disposer, parent of good ; acted wholly for im ; bounded my views with the present action or hour ? 2. Recol" UcUdf i. e. Has this simple view been distinct and uninterrupted? Have I done any thing without a previous perception of its being the will of God? or without a perception of its being an exercise or a means of the virtue of the day ? Have I said any thing without it ?
ft. Have I prayed with fervour ? at going in and out of church ? in the church ? morning andjevening in private ? Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, with my friends ? at rising ? before lying down ? on Saturday noon? all the time I was engaged m exterior work ? in private ? before I went into the place of public or private prayer, for help therein ? Have I, wherever I was, gone to church morning and evening, unless for necessary mercy ? and spent from one hour to three in private ? Have I in private prayer frequently stopt short, and observed what fervour ? Have I repeated it over and over, till I adverted to every word,? Have I at the beeinning of every prayer or paragraph owned, I cannot pray ? Have I paused before I concluded in his name, and adverted to my Baviour now interceding for me at the right hand qf God and offering up these prayers ?
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9. Have I daily used ejaculations ? i. e. Ha^e I every hour prayed (of humility, faith, hope, love, and tlie particular virtue of the day ? Con- sidered with whomi was the last hour, tofuU I did, and how f With regard to recollection, love of man, humility, self-denial, resignation, and thankfulness ? Considered the next hour in the same respects, offered all I do to my Redeemer, begged his assistance in every particular, and commended my soul to his keeping ? Have I done this deliberatelyi (not in haste,) seriously, (not doing any thing else the whHe,)and fervently a» I could ?
4. Have I duly prayed for the virtue of the day ? i. e. HiLve f prayed for it at going out and coming in? Deliberately, seriously^ fervently ?
5. Have I used a collect at nine, twelve, and three ; and grace before and after eating ? Aloud at my own room, deliberately, seriously^ fervently ?
6. Have I duly meditated ? Every day, unless for necessary mercy ? 1. From six, &&c. to prayers ? S. From fom* to five, what was partieular in the providence of this day ? How oucht the virtue of the day to have been exerted upon it ? How did it ull short ? (Here faults.) 3. On Sunday, from six to seven with Kempis ? from three to four on redemption, or God^s attributes ? Wednesday and Friday from twelve to one on the Passion ? After ending a book, on what I had marked in it ?
Love of Man.
Ist Have I been zealous to do and active in doing good ? i. 6. 1. Have I embraced every probable opportunity of doing good, and preventing^ removing, or lessening evil ?
fi. Have I pursued it with my might ?
3. Have I thought any thing too dear to part with, to serve my neighbour ?
4. Have I spent an hour at least every day in speaking to some one or other ?
5. Have I given any one up till he expressly renounced me ?
6. Have I, before I spoke to any, learned, as far as I could, his tem- per, way of thinking, past life, and peculiar hindrances, internal and ex- ternal ? Fixed the pomt to be aimed at ? Then the means to it ?
7. Have I, in speaking, proposed the motives, then the ^fiicolties, then balanced them, tlien exhorted him to consider both calmly and deeply, and to pray earnestly for help ?
8. Have T, in speaking to a stranger, explained what religion is not, (not negative, not external,) and what it is ; (a recovery of the image of God ;) searched at what step in it he stops, and what makes him stop there ? Exhorted and directed him ?
9. Have I persuaded all I could to attend public prayers^ sermons, and sacraments ? And in general to obey the laws of the Church Univer- sal, the Church of England^ the State, the t[niversity, and their respec- tive Colleges ?
10. Have I, when taxed with anv act of obedience, aTowed it, and turned the attack with sweetness ana firmness ?
11. Have I disputed upon any practical point, unless it was to be prao- tised just then ?
IS. Have I, in disputing, (I. desired my opponent to define the terms of the question : to limit It : what he grants, what denies : (2.) delayed speaking my opinion ; let him explain and prove his : then insinuated and pressed objections ?
13. Have I, after every visit, asked him who went with me ? Did I say any thing wrong ?
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t4. Have I, when any one asked advice, directed and exhorted him with all my power ?
ad!y. Have I rejoiced with and tor my neighbour in virtue or plea- sure ?' Grieved with him in pain, for him in sin ?
ddly. Have I received his infirmities with pity, not anger ?
4thly. Have I thought or spoke unkindly of or to him ? Have I re- vealed any evil of any one, unless it was necessary to some particular g6od I had in view ? Have I then done it with all the tenderness of phrase and manner consistent with that end ? Hwe I any way appeared Co approve them that did otherwise ?
5th|y. Has good-will been, and appeared to be, the spring of all my actions towards others ?
6thty. Have I duly used intercession ? 1. Before — 3. after speaking to any ? S. For my friends on Sunday ? 4. For my pupils on Monday ? 6. For those who have particularly desired it, on Weanesday and Fri* day ? 6. For the family m which I am every day ?
NOTE XIL Page 77. Behmen.
Jacob Behmen's books made some proselytes in England during the great rebellion. *' Dr. Pordage and his family were of this sect, who lived together in community, and pretended to hold visible and sensible communion with angels, whom they sometimes saw and sometimes sjneH.^'--Calamy'8 Lift of Beater.
NOTE XIII. Page 76. WUliam Ldtjc.
I AH obliged to my old friend Charles Lloyd (the translater of Alfieri'i Tragedies) for the following note concerning W illiam Law.
The peculiar opinions which titis extraordinary man entertained in the latter part of his life were, these : — ^That all the attributes of the Almighty are only modifications of his love ; and that when in Scripture his wrath, vengeance, &u;. are spoken of, such expressions are only used in conde* scension to human weakness, by way of adapting the subject of the mysterious workings of God's providence to human capacities. He held therefore that God punishes no one. All evil, accordmg to his creed, originates either from matter, or from the free-will of man ; and if there lie silvering, it is not that God wHU it, but that he permits it,' (for the sake of a greater overbalance of good that could not otherwise possibly be produced,) as the necessary consequence of the existence of an inert instrument like matter, -and the imperfection of creatures less pure than himself. Upon his system, all beings will finally be happy. He utterly rejects the doctrine of the Atonement, and ridicules the supposition that the offended justice of the One Perfect Supreme Being requires anv satisfaction. His theory is tliat man, by witiidrawing himself from God, had lost the divine life in his soul, and that all communication between him and bis Maker was nearly lost. In order to remedy this, in order in ftome mysterious way to re-open an intercourse between the Deity and the soul <vf man ; and finally, in order to afford the soul a more near and, as it were, sensible perception of its Maker, the Second Person in the Trinity became man. Law alleges that St. Paul, when he speaks of Redemption says, God \9a» in Christ, reconciling the toorld to Himself, ^owv ^^ adds, had tlic Almighty required an atonement, the converse of
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this proposition wotAd have been the truthf and the phrase would har* been rtamcUing HimHlf to the vmid.
The narration of the Pali of Man he regards as an allegory. He be- lieves that the first human being was a creature combining both sexes hi its own perfect nature, and possessing an iniinite capacity of happiness : the Fall, he thinks, consisted, not in tasting of any forbidden miit, but in turning from God as the sole source of joy, and in a sensual desire for a second self. And in support of this notion he adduces the text, jSM God made num of Ae dtut of the earth — nude and female ereaUdht tkewt, a text which occurs before the formation of the woman is mentioned. Had it not been for this fault, Law supposes that the human race would have increased in number as much as it has done, by a tertaiii delegated power which would have enabled man to create others after hi» own image.
These whimsies, which Law derived from Jacob Behmen, are en- tirely confined to his two tracts entitled *' The Spirit of Love,'^ and *' The Spirit of Prayer, or The Soul rising out of Time into the Riches of Eternity." Whatever inference may be drawn from them with re- gard to his judgment, or his sanity, as a practical religious writer (in which character he exclusively appears in his '* Serious Call'' and bis ^ Christian Perfection,") there are few men whose writings breathe a more genuine spirit of gospel love, and whose sentiments and mode of inculcating them, at once simple and manly, appeal more forcibly to th^ heart.
NOTE XIV. Page 106. He ingisted upon Baptizing €7dldren by bmneniofu
Wesley would willingly have persuaded himself that this practice was salutary, as well as regular. His Journal contsins the following en- try at this time.
^ Mary Welch, aged eleven days, was baptized according to the cus- tom of the first Church and the rule of the Church of England, by im- mersion. The child was ill then, but recovered from that hour."
NOTE XV. Page 107. Members of the f^eiw Cohnif,
The following curious passages are extracted from that part of Wes- ley's Journal which relates to hi^ abode in Georgia.
*' I had a long conversation with John Reinier, the son of a gentleman, who being driven out of France on account of his religion, settled at Vevay in Switzerland, aod practised physic there. His father died while he was a child. Some years after he told his mother he was desvous to leave Switzerland, and to retire into some other country, where he might be free from the temptations which he could not avoid there. When her consent was at length obtained, he agreed with the master of a ves- sel, with whom he went to Holland by land ; thence to England, and from Enghind to Pennsylvania. He was provided with money, books, and drugs, intending to follow his father's profession. But no sooner was he come to Philadelphia, than the captain, who had borrowed his money before, instead of repaying it, demanded the full pay for his pas- sage, and under that pretence seized on all his effects. He then left nim in a strange country, where he could not speak to* be understood, with- out necessaries, money* or friends. In this condition he thought it best to sell himself for a servant, which he accordingly did, for seven years.
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When aboat fire were expired, he fell sick of a lingering illoess, whicli made him useless to his master, who after it had continued half a ▼ear, would not keep him any longer, but turned him out to shift for himself. He first tried to mend shoes, but soon joined himself to some French Protestants, and learned to make buttons. He then went and lived with an Anabaptist ; but soon after bearbg an account of the Mo^ raTiaos in Georgia, walked from Pennsylvania thither, where he fouod the rest which he had so long sought in vain.*'
''In 1738, David Jones, a saddler, a middle-aged man, who had for some' time before lived at Nottingham, being at Bristol, met a prrson there; who, after giving him some account of Georgia, asked whetner h» would go thither r adding, his trade (that of a saddlrr) was an exceeding good trade there, upon which he might live creditably *nd comfortably. He objected his want of money to pay his passage, and buy some tools which he should have need of. The gentleman told him, he would sup- ply him with that, and hire him a shop when he came to Georgia, wherein he might follow his business, and so repay him as it suited hn convenience. Accordingly to Georgia they went ; where, soon after his arrival, his master (as he now styled himself) sold him to Mr. Lacy, who set him to work with the rest of his servants in clearing land. He commonly appeared much more thoughtful than the rest, often stealing into the wooos alone. He was now sent to do some work on an island, three or four miles from Mr. Lacy^s great plantation. Thence he de- sired the other servants to return without him, saying, Ae tootdd ttay and klU a deer. This was on Saturday. On Monday they found him on the shore, with his gun by him, and the fore-part of his head shot to pieces. In his pocket was a paper book, all the leaves were fair, except one, on which ten or twelve verses were written : two of which were these, ^which I transcribed thence from his own handwriting.)
^ Death could not a more aad retinue find, Sidsness and Pain before, and Darkness all behind P *'
Among the remarkable persons in this young colony. Dr. Nitnes, a Jewish physician, ought to be remembered ; for he used to say with ereat earnestness, " That Paul of Tarsus was one of the finest writers I have ever read. I wish the thirteenth chapter of his first letter to the Corinthians were written in letters of gold : and I wish every Jew were to carry it with him wherever he went."—*' He judged," says Wesley, •'(and herein he certainly judged right,) that this single chapter contain- ed tlie whole of true religion. It contains * whatsoever tbtn|p are just, whatsoever thin<5s are pure, whatsoever things are loveljr: if there^be^ any virtue, if there be any praise,' it is all contained ia this."— Vol. X. p. 156.
The first journal contains a curious story, which Wesley relates not upon hearsay, but from his own knowledge. ** A servant of Mr. Brad- ley's sent to desire to speak with me. Goind; to him, I found a young man ill, but perfectly sensible. He desired the rest to go out, and then said, * Op Thursday night, about eleven o'clock, liein^ in bed, but broad awake, I heard one calling aloud, " Peter ! Peter Wnghtl" fiul.Ioiiking yoL. I. 49
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up, tbe room was as light as day, and I saw a man in very bright clotlws stand by the bed, who said, '* Prepare yourself; for Tour end is nidi ;" and then immediately all was as dark as before.' I told him, * the adnee was good, whencesoever it came.' In a few days he was recovered from his illness : his whole temper was changed as weU as his life ; and so continued to be, till after three or four weeks he relapsed and died in peace."
NOTE XVL Page 159.
The Light of Christ shining in different Degrees under different IKspen-
sations-4
Upon this point there is a curious coincidence of opinion between Wesley, and one who if they had any contemporaries would have been a far more formidable antagonist than any that ever grappled with him in controversy. •* I have often," says South, '* been induced to think that if we should but strip things of mere words and terms, and reduce no- tions to realities, there would be found but little difference (so far as it re- spects man^s understanding) between the inteUedus agens asserted by some philosophers, and the universal grace, or common assistances of fhe Spirit, asserted by some divines (and particularly by John Goodwin, calling it the Pagan's debt and dowry); and that the asserters of both of them seem to found their ^several assertions upon much the same ground ; namely, upon their apprehension of the natural impotence of the soul of man, immersed in timtter, to raise itself to such spiritual and aublinie operations, as we find it docs, without the assistance of some higher and divine principle."— Vol. IV. p. 362.
NOTE XVn. Page 160. Wesley dates his Conversion,
Philip Henry " would blame those who laid so much stress on peo- ple's knowing the exact time of their conversion, which he thought was with many not possible to do. Who can so soon be aware of the day- break, or of the springing up of the seed sown ? The work of grace is better known in its effects than in its causes.
He would sometimes illustrate this by that saying of the blind man to the Pharisees, who were so critical in examinmg tbe recovery of his sight : this and the other I know not concerning it, but " this one thing! know, that whereas I was blind, now I see."
NOTE XVUI. Page 168.
Comenius,
"Tliat brave old man Johannes Amos Comenius, the fame of whose worth hath been trumpeted as far as more than three languages (where- as every one is indebted to his Janua) could carry it, was agreed withal by our Mr. Winthropin his travels through the Low Countries, to conoc over into New-England and illuminate this College (Harvard) and coun- try in the quality of a President: but the solicitations of the Swedish ambassador diverting him another way, that incomparable Moravian be- c.ime not an American."— CoWon Mather^s •Magnaltaf B. IV. p. 1«8.
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.. NOTE XIX. Page 18&.
Moravian Marriages.
Mae&iaoe is enumerated in one of the Moravian Hymns among the services of danger for which tlie brethren are to hold themselves pre- pared : —
^ You as yet single and but little tied, Invited to the supper vrith the bride, That like the former warriors each may stand Beady for land, sea, marriage at command.'*
NOTE XX. Page 188.
FanaHeal Language of (he Moravians.
The circumstance which gave occasion to much^f their objectionable language is thus stated by Crantz,as having been <* evidently directed by Providence. The Count havine thrown some papers, which were of no further use, into the fire, tney were all consumed, excepting one small billet, on which was written the daily word for the 14tn of Feb- ruary;— *He chooses us to be his inheritance, the excellency of Jacob whom he loveth.' (Psal. xlvii. 4. according to Luther's version.) Un* der which the old Lutheran verse stood :
' O let us in thy nail-prints see Our pardon and election free.'
** All the brethren and sisters who saw this billet, the only one which remained unconsumed among the cinders, were filled with a child-like joy ; and it gave them an occasion to an heart-felt conversation with each other upon the wounds of Jesus, which was attended with such a blessed efiect, as to make a happy alteration in their way of thinking and type of doctrine. The Count composed upon this verse the incom- parable hymn,
' Jesu, our glorious Head and Chief, Sweet object of our heart's belief! O let us in thy nail-prints see Our pardon and election free,' " &lc.
Hisiary of the BreOaren, p. 180.
I can produce but one sample of their strains upon this favourite sub- ject, which would not be utterly offensive to every sane mind :
" How bright appeareth the Wounds-Star In Heaven's firmament from far ! And round the happy places Of the true Wounds-Church here below. In at each window thev shine so Directly on our faces.
Dear race of grace,
Sing thou hymns on
Four Holes crimson
And side pierced, Bundle this of all the Blessed."
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Many of the translations in the volume of their hymns have evideotljr been made by Germans : — this I believe to have been one, and suppose ' that tile German by help of his dictionary found out bundle and burden to mean the same tiung, and therefore happily talks of the hundie of a song.
The most characteristic parts of the Moravian hymns are too shock- ing to be inserted here : even in the humours and extravagancies of the Spanish religious poets, there is nothing which approaches to the mon- strous perversion of religious feeling in these astonishing productions. The Editor says, ** Our Brethren and Sisters who have made these Hymns are mostly simple and unlearned people, who have wrote them down at the itme when the matters therein expressed were lively to their hearts ; and therefore they are without art, or the niceties usually ex* pected in poetry : yet notwithstanding to every heart that knows, or de- sires to know Christ, we doubt not but they will afford some satisfaction and comfort of a much better kind." The book indeed is not a little curious as a literary, or ilUterary composition. The copy which I pos- sess is of the third edition, printed for James Hutton, 1746«
Of their silliness 1 subjoin only such a specimen as may be read with- out offence.
** What is now to children the deiaifest thing here ? — To be the lamb's lambkins and chickens most dear. Such lambkins are nourished with food ivfaich is best, Such chickens sit safely and warm in the nest."
" And when Satan at an hour
Comes our chickens to derourj
Let the children's angels say,
« These are Christ's chicks,— go thy way.' ^
The following py^bald composition is probably unique in its kind. It Ss intended for the Jews.
'* Israel to thy Husband turn again ; ^ He will deliver thee from curse and ban.
The Sqfher* Crisus he abolish'd hath, And wiil anew himself with thee betroth. The Lofrwcfcawo mercy shall receive^ Because the \Meliz spoke for her relief. He for Isr^l with Goei did intercede, And for us kiPoschim did for Whued plead. For our ^Cappore he did shea his blood. Which from the **Kodesk now streams like a flood. And washeth us quite clean from every sin ; We shall Raphue^ ScMema find therein. The tlTolah is indeed Maaekiack ^^Zuiftienu, Did he but come bitnhera Uh^amanu, In all our H%Zoro$ we'll to him appeal, He that hath wounded can us also heal. He will his folklsr^l cert^nly Out of tfie ***€Mus and from sito §et free.
• The letter of divorcement — t Hoeee, 1. 6. — t The Mediator '• — 8 fliniicri. — -jB 0«ce.
•^t Atofteaeent •• The Sanctutrf. ft A perfect recovery.— p-tt The ^«J»:Tr
\\ MeiuM oar rtthteouasea. — Qd Soon, in oor days. — Tf Need, dtstrea.*— ••• CepUTttl^.
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Then shall we to the Tolah, *Schevnck bring. And Boruch habho b^schem {Monai sing.
In transcribing this mi ngle-na angle of English and Hebrew, I perceire the roots of two English words, unrow in zoroa^ gaol in gUus, The first we derive from the Saxon and Gothic ; the second, in common with the French and Spaniards, from a Keltic origin : hut both appear to have their roots in tne^ Hebrew.
One of the strangest of these strange pieces is a kind of Litany. (No. 398, pp. 749—756.)
Tet even the Moravian Hymns are equalled by a poem of Manchester manufacture, in the Gospel Magazine for 1808, eoUtled the *' Believer's Marriage to Christ.**
** Ye villus so chaste,
Ye widows indeed. From bondage released,
Blch husbands that need ;
Hear how I was wedded,
And miscarried then ; Was afterwards widowed,
And married again.
** My first husband Sin,
Though of a fair face, Was ugly within,
PeceiUul and base.
** AlarmM at my state,
But lost what to do, 'A divorce to get.
To Moses I flew. My case when he knew It, -
He said with a curse. The Law could not do it.
It must have its course.**
The Old Man is crucified, — the Prince woos and wins her, —
** Then married we were
Without more delay. Friend Moses was there^
And gave me away.'*
This is bad enough i-^the more loathsome parts I leave in their own
An interesting account of James Hutton, who published the Moravian hymns, and is more than once mentioned in this volume, may be seen in the great collection of Literary Anecdotes by Mr. Nichols. (Vol. iii. p. 495.)
• rnisc.«-^t BiMnd li ht tktt «oatth la tbs ntnt of tfct Lord
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NOTE XXI. Page 189.
Certain tohxtMical Opinions which might entitle Count Zinzendarf to a conspicuous Place in the History of Heresy,
These opinions are expressed in one of their Hymns from the Ger- man.
" Here I on matters come indeed : O Ood assist me to proceed
My noble architect ! The holy marriage state to sin^, Among the chiefest points a thmg
Which thou th yself didst e'er project
" Oh yes! ye dear souls mark it well Who now within your bodies' cell
The name of husbands bear. Till we in worlds that ever last, Of Lamb's brides and of Lamb's wives eh aste
Alone the song and speech shall hear.
" The Saviour by eternal choice Is of the souls ere sex did rise,
The Lord and husband known ; They for this end were surely made» To sleep in his arms undismay'd ;
StricUy the aouls are his alone.
^* And in the Spirit's realm and land As all lies in one master *s hand,
One husband too's confest ; The souls be there as Queene doth see, And they as sisters mutually,
Far as of spirits can be traced.
'' Indeed the sovereign good and love Could not such solitude approve
For his weak bride, that she Alone till her high nuptial day Should tire and pine herself away,
And but in faith betrothed be.
** So he divided her in two,
The weaker forth detached must go;
While the superior mind And also greater strength and might For tastes of God's vicegerent fit
On the one aide remam'd behind.
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Yet even the weaker part was seen A Princess in her air and mien ;
And that she tike might be, She was permitted to possess, As her peculiar gift of grace,
Love and resign'd fidelity."
Hymn 28&.
Thus much may be quoted without offence to decency.
NOTE XXII. Page 226.
^^Issurance,
Baxter had none of this as99urance. Good man, as he was, he knew •himself far from perfecHon, and had his doubts and his fears. But " it much increased his peace,*' says Calamy, '' to find others in the like con- dition. He found his case had nothing singular, being called by the pro- vidence of God to the comforting of others who had the same com- plaints. While he answered their doubts, he answered his own, and the charity he was constrained to exercise towards them redounded to himself, and insensibly abated his disturbance. And yet after all he was glad of probability instead of undoubted certainty."
Xlie Franciscans have produced one of their revelations against this notion of assurance : it occurs in the life of the Beata Margarita dc €or- tona, written with Franciscan fidelity by her confessor F. Juncta de Be- vagna. The passage is part of a dialogue. ** Et Dominus ad earn ; Tu cndiaJirmUer^ etfatens, quod unu8 Deus in suhttatdia siif Pater et FiliuSy c( SpirUus Sanehis f Et Margarita respondit ; SiaU ego credo ie tmum in essentia et trinuni in personis, Ua donares mthi depromissis pUnam se- curitaUm. Et Dominus ad earn : FUia tu non es habitura dum vixeris, ^lampUnam, quam requiris cum lacrymis^ securitaiem^ quouaque locavero te in gloria regni mei. Et Margarita respondit ; Tenuistisne, Domine^ sanetas viros in his duliis, in quibus tenetis me9 Et Dominus ad earn; Sanctis meis in tarmentis dedi fortitudinem, securitatem vero plenam non habuerunt, nisi in patriaJ** — Acta Sanctorum. 22d Feb. p. 521.
NOTE XXHL Page 229.
Thomas Haliburlon.
Mr. Weslet was perhaps induced to pronounce so high and extra- vagant an eulogium upon the memoirs of this excellent man, by a descrip- tion of his '* deliverance from temptation,** which accorded perfectly with one of the leading doctrines of Methodism. '' After describing a state of extreme mental anguish, Mr. Haliburton says, *' I was quite overcome, neither able to fight nor flee, when the Lord passed by me, and made this tjime a time of love. I was, as I remember, at secret prayer when He discovered Himself to me ; when He let me see that there are " forgiveness with Him, and mercy, and plenteous redemp- tion."— Before this I knew the letter only, but now the words were spi- rit and life : a burning light by them shone into my mind, and gave me not merely some notional knowledge, but an experimental knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And vastly different this was from all the notions I had before had of the same truths. It shone from heaven : it was not a spark kindled by ray own endeavour^, but it
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shone suddenly about me: it eame by a heavenly mcana, the Word : it opened heaven and discovered heavenly things ; and Us whole tendency was heaven-ward. It was a true light, giving true manifestations of the one God, the one Mediator between God and man, and a true view of ray state with respect to God, not according to my foolish imaginations. It was a distinct and clear light, not only renresenting spiritual things, but manifesting them in their glory, and in their comely order. It set all things in their due line of subordination to God, and gave distinct views of their genuine tendency. It was a satisfying light : the soul absolutely rested upon the discovery it made ; it was assured of them ; it could not doubt if it saw, or if the things were so as it represented them. It was a quickening, refreshing, heano^ light: it arose with healing in its unngs. It was a powerful light s it dissipated that thick darkness which over- spread my mind, and made all those frightful temptations that before tormented me, instantly flee before it Lastly, it was a composing light : It did not, like a flash of lightning, fill the soul with fear and amasemeot, but it quieted my mind, and gave me the full and free use of all my fa- culties. I need not give a larger account of this light, for no words can give a notion of light to the blind : and he that has eyes(at ieaat while hft sees it) will need no words to describe it."
This is a high mystic strain. But in the account of his death there are passages of the truest and finest feeling. When a long illness had well nigh done its work, he said, '* I could not believe that I could have bone, and borne cheo.rfully, this roil so long. This is a miracle, pain wMiout pain ! Blessed be God that evc^r I was born. I have a father, a mmher, and ten brothers and sisters in Heaven, and I shall be the eleventh ! O blessed be the day that ever I was born !" — A few hours before he breathed his last, he said, ** I was jnst thinking on the pleasant spot of earth I shall
fet to lie in beside Mr. Rutherford, Mr. Forrester, and Mr. Andersoo. shall come in as the little one among them, and I shall get my pleasant George in ray hand, (a child who was gone before him,) axid oh! we shall be a knot of bonnv dust !'' I hope there are but few readers whose hearts are in so diseasea a state as not to feel and understand Uie beauty and the value of these extracts.
NOTE XXrV. Page 24S.
Ravings of the peraecuied Hugonots,
OxE of the Camtsards is said to have ** declared that €rod bad reveal cd to him that a temple of white marble, adorned with gold fillets, and the tables of the law written on it, would drop down from Heaven in the midst of the valley of St. Privet, for the e^mfort of the faithful inhabit- ants of tlie Upper Cevennes."— H«t of the CamaardBy 1709.
Burnet says (vol. iv. p. 15.) they had many among them who seemed qualified in a very singular manner to be teachers of the rest. They had a great mrafiure of zeal, without any learning ; they scarce had any edn- - cation at all. I spoke with the person who by the Queen's order sent one amon^ them to know the state of their aflairs. I read some of the letters which he brought from them, full of a sublime zeal and piety, expressing a courage and confidence that couW not he daunted. Cue instance of this was, that thejr all agreed that if any of them was so wounded in an engagement with the enemy that he could not be brought off, he should bo shot dead rather than be left alive to fall into the ene- my's hands.
He says also that a connivance at their own way of worship was offered them, but " they seemed resolved to accept of nothing less than Ihe re- storing their edicts to them.*'
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NOTE XXV.- Page '266. .
Tkt Druidical Superstition cherished in m later age.
The Druids are spoken of in Irish hagiology as possessing great influ- ence in Ireland in St. Patrick's time. Bad as this authority is, it may be trusted here : — but the reader may find proofs, as convincing as they are curious, of the long continuance of the superstition in Wales, in Mr. Da- vies'a Mythology of the Druids.
NOTE XXVI. Page 208.
Preadiing at a Cross.
i
— Mos est Saxonicct gentisr qwid in nonntdlis nohUium bonortanque ko^ ftdnum pradiist non eccUsiam sed sancta crucis signunh Domino dtcahLtn^ cum magna kmore almum, in aUo erectum, ad conunodam dUama orti- tumis sSivUtatem, solent hahere.
Hodoeporicon S. Willibaldi, apud Caifisiumut. 2. p. l67.
^ The ancient course of the clergy's officiating only pro tempore in pa- rochial churches, whilst they received maintenance from the cathedral ^luiKb, continued in England till about the year 700. For Bede plainly iSimates that at that time the Bishop and his clergy Kved together and had all things cottiiAon, as they had in the primitive church ip the days of the apostlea." Bingham, book 5.'cfa. 6. ^ 5.
NOTE XXVII. Page 269.
The Papal System.
Tbeec is a most fantastic passage upon this subject in Hobbe's Levia- than, one of the last books in which any thing so whimsical might be expected.
'* From the time that the Bishop of Rome had gotten to be acknow- ledged for Bishop Universal, by pretence of succession to St. Peter, their whole hierarchy, or kingdome of darkness, may be compared not unfitly to the kingdome of fairies; that ia, to the old wives* fables in EnglaniL concerning ghosts and s|)irit8, and the feats they play in the night ; and if a man consider the original! of this great ecclesiastical dominion, he will easily perceive, that the Papacy is no other than the ghost of the deceased Romane empire, sitting crowned upon the grave thereof; for so did the Papacy start up on a sudden out of the mines of that heathen power.
''The language, also, which they use, both in the churches, and in their pubtique acts, being Latine, which is not commonly used by any nation now in the world, what is it but the ghost of the old Romane lan- guage.'
'' The fairies, in what nation soever they converse^ have but one uni- versal king, which some poets of ours call King Obcron ; but the Scrip* ture calls Beelzebub, Prince of demons. The ecelesiastiques, likewise, in whose dominions soever they be found, acknowledge but one univer- sall king, the Pope.
'' The ecelesiastiques are spirituall men, and ghostly fathers. The furies are spirits and ghosts. Fairies and ghosts inhabite darkness, soii<r tudes, and ^ves. The eeclesiastiques waike in obscurity of doctrine, in monastenea, churches and churcn-yard$.
VOL. I. 50
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''The ecclesiasdques hare their cathedrall churches ; which, in what town Bocver they he erected, by virtue of holy water, and certain xharmes called exordsmes, have the power to make these townes and cities, that is to say, seats of empire. The fairies also have their en- chanted castles, and certain gigantique ghosts, that domineer over the regions round about Uiem.
'' The fairies are not to be seized on, and brought to answer for the hurt they do ; so also the ecclesiastiques vanish away from the tribunals of civill justice.
'* The ecclesiastiques take from young men, the use of reasoo, by cer- tain charmes compounded of metaphysiques, and miracles, and tradjfiQnSy and abused Scripture, whereby they are good for nothing else, but to execute what they command them. The fairies likewise are said to take young children out of their cradles, and to change them into natu- ral fools, which common people do therefore call elves, and are apt to mischief.
*' In what shop, or operatory, the fairies make their enchantment, the old wives have not determined. But the operatories of the clergy are well enough known to be the universities, that received their discipline from authority pontifical.
" When the fairies are displeased with any body, they are said to send their elves, to pinch them. The ecclesiastiques, .\rhen they are displeased with any civil state, make also their elves, that is^ superstitious, enchanted subjects, to pinch their princes, by preaching sedition : or one prince enchanted with promises, to pinch another.
*' The fairies marry not ; but there be amongst them incubi, that hare copulation with flesh and blood. The priests also marry not.
*' 1 he ecclesiastiques take the cream of the land, by donations of ig- norant men, that stand in awe of them, and by tythes: so also it is in the fable of fairies, that they enter into the dairies and feast upon the cream, which they skim from the milk.
'< What kind of money is currant in the kingdome of fairies, is not recorded in the story. But the ecclesiastiques in their receipts accept of the same money that we doe ; though when they are to make any payment, it is in canonizations, indulgencies, and masses.
*' To this, and such like resemblances between the Papacy and the kingdome of fairies, may be added this; that as the fairies have no exis- tence, but in the fancies of ignorant people, rising from the traditions of old wives or old poets, so the spiritual power of the Pope without the bounds of his own civil dominion, consisteth onely in the fear that seduced people stand in, of their excommunications upon hearing . of false miracles, false traditions, and false interpretations of the Scripture.
** It was not, therefore, a very difficult matter for Henry YIII. by his Exorcisme ; nor for Queen Elizabeth, by hers, to cast them out. But who knows that this spirit of Pome, now gone out, and walking by mis- sions through the dry places of Chma, Japan, and the Indies, that yeild him little fruit, may not return, or raUier an assembly of spirits worse than he enter, and inhabitc this clean swept house, and make the end thereof worse than the beginning ?*'
NOTE XXVin. Page £71. Plunder of iht Church at the Reformaiion.
"Mr Lords and Masters, (says Latimer, in one of his sermons,) I say that all such proceedings, as far as I can perceive, do intend plainly to make tlic yeomanry slavery^ and the clei^y shavery. We of the clergy
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had too much, bat tiiis is taken atray, and now we hare too little. But for mine own part I have no cause to complain, for I thank God and the King I have sufficient, and God b m v judge, I came not to crave of any man any thing ; but I know them that have too little. There lyeth a great matter by these appropriations, — ^great reformation is to be had in them. I know where is a great market town, with divers hamlets and inhabitants, where do rise yearly of their labours to the value of fifty pound ; and the vicar that serveth (being so great a. cure) liath but lii or 14 marks by year ; so that of this pension he is not able to buy him books, nor give his neighbours drink ; and all the great gain goeth ano- ther way." " There are three Pees in a line of relation, — Patrons, Priests, Peo-
gle. Two of these Pees are made lean to make one P fat Priests ave lean livings, People lean souls, to make Patrons have fat purses." Adams's Heavtn and Earth reconciled, p. 17.
Thomas Adams had as honest a love of quips, quirks, puns, pun- nets, and pundigrions, as Fuller the Worthy himself. As the old ballad says.
No mattei^ for that,—
I like him the better therefore : —
he resembles Fuller a'so in the felicity of his language, and the lively feeling with which he frequently starts, as it were, upon the reader. — Upon tliis subject he often gives vent to his indignation.
'*Ab for the ministers that have livings,'^he says, "they are scarce Ztoeons, or enough to keep themselves and their families livmg ; and for those that have none, they may make themselves merry with tiieir learning if they have no money, for they that bought the patronages must needs sell the presentations ; vtnderejure potest, emerat iUe prius : and then, if Balaam^s ass hath but an audible voice, and a soluble purse, he shall be
J referred before his master, were he ten prophets. If this weather hold, ulian need not send learning into exile, for no parent will be so irreU- eious as with great expenses to bring up his child at once to misery and sm. Oh think of this, if your impudence have left any blood of shame in your faces : cannot you spare out of all your riot some crumme of liberality to the poor needy and neglected gospel ? Shall the Papists so outbid us, and in the view of their prodigalitv laugh our miserableness to scorn ? Shall they twit us that our Our fa(Aer nath taken from the Church what their Pater Jstoster bestowed on it ? Shall they bid us bate of our faith, and better our charity ?^'
Adams's Heaven and Earlh reconciled^ p. £2. .
In another of his works he says, " They have raised church livings to four and five years* purchase ; and it is to be feared they will shortly rack up presentative livings to as high a rate as they did their impropria- tions, when they would sell them. For they say few will give aoovo sixteen years' purchase for an impropriate parsonage ; and I have heard some rate the donation of a benefice they must give at ten years : what with the present money they must have, and with reservation of tythes, and such unconscionable tricks ; as if there was no God in Heaven to see or punish it ! Perhaps some will not take so much : but most will take some : enough to impoverish the Church : to enrich their own purses, to damn their souls.
" One would think it was sacrilege enough to rob God of his main tjrthes ; must they also trimme away the shreds ? Must they needs shrink the old cloth (enough to apparel the Church) as the cheating
* Leavingi Lot Livingt, laya the mtrgiual note.
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396 KOTtS AND ILLOSPTRATIOM^.
faylor did to • a dozeti buttons ? Bavinx full gorged ffaennetves with
the parsonages, nauat they pick the bones pf the vicarages too ?— Well saith §t. Augustine, muUi in hoc vita mandticafU^ quod potUa {wud inferos digerunt : many devour that in this life, which they shall digest in Hell. .
*' These are the Church briars, which (let alone) will at last bring as famous a Church as any Christendom hath to beggary. Pofitic men begin apace already to withhold their childreh from schools and unirer' gities. Any profession else better likes them, as knowing they onay lire well in whatsoever calling save in the ministry. The time was that Christ threw the buyers and sellers oot of the Temple : but now the buyenand sellers have thrown him out of the Temple. Yea, they Will throw the Church out of the Church, if they be not stayed."
Adatns^s Divine HarhaUy p. 195.
" The Rob- Altar is a huge drinker. He loves, like Belshazzar, to drink only in the goblets of the Temple. Woe unto him ; he carouses the wine he never sweat for, and keeps the poor minister thirsty. 'Die tenth sheep is his diet : the tenth fleece (O 'tis a golden fleece, he thbks) Is his drink : but the wool shall choke him. Some drink down whok churches and steeples ; but the bells shall ring in theu- bellies."
Matns's Divine HetMl, p. ^7,
" What an unreasonable Devil is this !" says Latimer. ** He provides a great while before hand for the time that is to come ; he hath brought np now of late the most monstrous kind of covetousness that ever was heard of; he hath invented a fee-farming of benefices, and all to delav the offices of preaching ; insomuch that when any man hereafter shall' have a benefice, he may go where he will for an^ bouse he shall have to dwell upon, or any glebe land to keep hospitality wSthall ; but he must take up a chamber in an alehouse, and there sit and play at the tables sH day." — Latimer.
NOTE XXIX. Page 274.
Cures given to any Person toko could he found miserable enmgk to acupt them,
*'I will not speak now of them, thatbeinj; not content with lands and rents, do catch into their hands spiritual livings, as parsonages and £uch like, and that under the pretence to make provision for their houses. What hurt and damage this realm of England doth sustain by that de- vilish lAnd of provision for gentleraen*s houses, knights* and lords' houses, they can tell best, that do travel in the countries, and see with their eyes ereat parishes and market towns, with innumerable others, to be utterly destitute of God's word, • and that because that these greedy men have spoiled the livings, and gotten them into their hands : and mstead of a faithful and piinful teacher, they hire a Sir John, who hath better skill at playing at tables, or in keeping of a garden, than in God's word ; and he for a tnfle doth serve the cure, and so help to bring the people of God in danger of their souls. And all those serve to accomplbh the abo- minable pride of such K<^nt1emen, which consinue the goods of the people (which ought to have been bestowed upon a learned minister) In costly apparel, belly cheer, or in building of gorgeous houses."
•^ugiMfm Bemher's Epistle DedicaJtory^ prejixed to Latimer^s Sermons.
^ It is a great charge," says Latimer, << a great burthen before God to be a patron. For every patron, when he doth not diligently endeavour hiouelf to place a good and godly man in his benefice which is m his
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hands, but is slothful, and careth<liot what manner of man he taketh, or else is covetous atid will hare it himself, and hire a Sir John Lack-Latin, which shall say ^^rvice so that the people shall be nothing edified ; — no doubt that patroq shall make answer before God for not doing of his duty." — Latimer.
The poets, too, of that and the succeeding age, touched frequently upon this evil.
* Thepedant minister and serving clarke, The ten-pound, base, frize-jerkin hireling, The farmer's chaplain with his quarter- marke, The twenty-noMe curate, and the thing Caird elder ; all these gallants needs will bring All reverend titles into deadly hate, Their godly calling, and my high estate.*^
SUntr's Wolwy, p. 6».
Thus alio George Wither in his prosing strains :
" We rob ibfi church. — Men seek not to impropriate a part Unto themselves, but they can find in heart To engross up all ; which vile presumption Hath brought church livings to a strange consumption. And if this strong disease do not abate, Twill be the poorest member in the state.
** No marvel, though, instead of learned preachers, We have been pestered with such simple teachers. Such poor, mute, tongue-tied readers, as scarce know Whether that God made Adam first or no : Thence it proceeds, and there's the cause that place And office at this time incurs disgrace ; For men of judgments or good disj^ositions Scorn to be tied to any base conditions, Like to our hungry pedants, who'll engage Their souls for any curtailed vicarage. I say there's none of knowledge, wit or merit, But such as are of a most servile spirit. That will so wrong the Church as to presume Some poor half-demi-parsooage to assume « In name of all ; — no, thev had rather quite Be put beside the same than wrong God's right.
'* Well, they must entertain such pedants then, Fitter to feed swine than the souls of men ; Bat patrons think such best ; for there's no fear They will speak any thing thej loath to bear ; They may run foolishly to their damnation Witnout reproof or any disturbation ; To let them see their vice they maybe bold, And yet not stand in doubt to be controU'd. Those in their houses may keep private schools. And either serve for jesters or mr fools ; And will suppose that they are highly graced Be they but at their patron's table placed ; And there if they be eall'd but priests in sooff, Straightiy they duck down, and all their caps come oE"
WUher's Presumption.
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NOTE XXX. Page«74.
Means for assisting poor Scholars diminished*
" It would pity a nmn's heart to hear that I hear of the state of Cam- bridge ; what it is in Oxford I cannot tell. There be few that study divinity, but so many as of necessity must fomish the Colleges ; for their livings be so small, and victuals so dear, that they tarry not there, but go every where to seek livings, and so the^ go about Now there be a few gentlemen, and they study a little divinitv. Alas, what is that? It will come to pass that we shall have nothing but a little English di- vinity, that will bring the realm into a very barbarousness, and utter de- cay of learning. It is not that, I wis, that will keep out the supremacT of the Pope at Bome. There be none now but great men's sons in Col- leees, and their fathers look not to have them preachers ; so every way this office of preaching is pinched at.'* — Laiimer.
^'The Devil hath caused also, through this monstrous kind of covet- ousness, patrons to sell their benefices ; yea more, he gets him to the University, and causeth great men and esquires to send their sons thi« thcr, and put out poor scholars that should be divines ; for their parents intend not that the]^ should be preachers, but that they may have as^ow of learning." — Latimer,
NOTE XXXI. Page S7S.
Conforming CUrgy at the Refomuxtion.
^ Here were a eoodly place to speak against our clergymen which go 80 gallant now-a-days. I hear say that some of them ^ear velvet shoes and stippers ; such fellows are more meet to dance the morris-dance than to be admitted to preach. I prav God mend such worldly fellovrs ; for else they be not meet to be preachers." — Latimer,
Sir William Barlowe has a remarkable passage upon this subject in Ills " Dialoge describing the originall Ground of these Lutheran Fueeums and many q/* their Muses ,-" perhaps the most sensible treatise which was written oo that side of the question, and certainly one of the most curious.
*' Among a thousand freers none go better appareled then an other. But now unto the other syde, these that runne away from them unto these Lutherans, thejr go, I say, disguysed strangelye from that they were before, in gave jagged cotes, and cut and scotched hosen, verye syghtly forsothe. but yet not very semelye for such folke as thev were ana shoulde be : and thys apparell change they dayly, from fashion to fashion, every day worse then other, their new-fangled foly and theyr wanton pryde never content nor satisfyed. — I demauoded ones of a cer- tayn companion of these sectes which had bene of a strayt religion be- fore, why his garments were no we so sumptuouse, all to pounced ^yith gardes and iagges lyke a rutter of the launce knyghtes. He answered to me that he dyd it in contempt of hypocrisy. ' why,' quoth I, * doth not God hate pryde, the mother of hypocrisye, as well as nypocrysye it selfe ?* Wherto he made no dyrect answer agayne : but in excusy nge hjTS faut he sayde that God )>ryncy pally accepted the mekeness of the hsxU and inwara Christen maners, which I beleve were ao inward in hym that seldome he shewed any of them outwardly."
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NOTE XXXIL P. 275.
Ignorance of the Country Clergy.
'< Sad the times in the beginning of Queen EUizabeth^" says Funer, ** when the clergy were commanded to read the chapters over once or twice bj themsclYcs, that so they might be the better enabled to read them distinctly in the congregation." — FuUer^a Triple ReconcUer^p, 82.
NOTE XXXIIL P. 276. Clergy of Charles the FirsVe Age.
*' Let me say,'* (says Mossom, in his Apology on the Behalf of the Se- questered Clergy,) — '* and 'tis beyond any man's gainsaying — the learn- edst cterj^ that ever England had, was that sequestered ; their works do witness it to the whole world. And as for their godliness, if the tree may be known by its fruits, these here pleaded for have given testimo- ny beyond exception."
'* There were men of great piety and peat learning among the Puri- tan clergy also. But it is not less certain that in the necessary conse- quences of such a revolution, some of the men who rose into notice and power were such as are thus, with his wonted felicity, described by South:
** Amongst those of the late reforming age, all learning was utterly cried down. So that with them the best preachers were such as could not read, and the ablest divines such as could not write. In all their preachments they so highly pretended to the spirit, that they could hardly so much as spell the letter. To be blind was with them the pro- per qualification of a spiritual guide ; and to be book-learned, as they called it, and to be irreligious, were almost terms convertible. None were thought fit for the ministry but tradesmen and mechanics, because none else were allowed to have the spirit Those onl^r were accounted like St. Paul, who could work with their hands, and in a literal sense drke i^ nail Aome,and be able to make a pulpit before they preached in iV-^SouWs Sermons, Vol. iii. p. 449.
NOTE XXXIV. P. 276. The Sequestered Ckrgy.
" in these times,** says Lilly, *« man^ worthy ministers lost their liv- ings, or benefices, for not complying with the Directory. Had you seen (O noble Esquire) what pitiful idiots were preferred into sequestrated church benefices, you would have been grieved in your soul ; but when they came before the classes of divines, could those simpletons but only say they were converted by hearing such a sermon of that godly man Hugh Peters, Stephen Marshall, or any of that gang, he was presently admitted."— JHwiory of his own lAfe^ quoted in Mr. Gifford's notes to Ben Jonson.
"The rector of Flttleworth, in Sussex, was dispossessed of his living for Sabbath breaking ; — the fact which was proved against him being, that as he was stepping over a stile one Sunday, the button of his breeches came ofi*, and he got a tailor in the neighbourhood preaentiy to sew it on again."— fFaZ*er'* Sufferings of the Ckrgy, part ii. p. 275,
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NOTE XXXV. Page £78. Many who sacrificed ihtir serupUt to their Convenience.
'' Let me," says South, <' utter a great, but sad truth ; a truth not so fit to be spoke, as to be sighed out by every true sou and lover of the church, viz. that the wounds, which the church of England now bleeds by, she received in the house of her friends, (if they may be called so,] viz. her treacherous undermining friends, and that most of the noncontormity to her, and separation from her, together with a contempt of her exeellent constitutions, have proceeded from nothing more, than from the false, partial, half-conformity of too many of her ministers. The surplice sometimes worn, and oftener laid aside ; the liturgy so read, and mangled in the reading, asif they were ashamed of it; the divine service so cur- tailed, as if the people were to have but the tenths of it from the priest, for the tenths he had received from them. The clerical habit neglected by such in orders as frequently travel the road clothed like farmers or gra- ziers, to the unspeakable shame and scandal of their profession ; the holy sacrament indecently and slovenly administered ; the furniture of tlie altar abused and embezzelled ; and the Table of the Lord pro&ned. These, and the like vile passages, have made some scfaismaticks, and confirmed others ; and in a word, have made so many nonconformists to the church, by their conforming to their minister.
" It was an observation nnd saying of a judicious prelate, that of all the sorts of enemies which our church had, there was none so deadly, so
f pernicious, and likely to prove so fatal to it, as the conforming Puritan, t was a great truth, and not very many years after ratified by direful ex- perience. For if you would have the conforming Puritan described to you, as to what he is :
" He is one who lives by the altar, and turns his back upon it; one, who catches at the preferments of the church, but hates the discipline and orders of it ; one. who practices conformity, as Papists take oaths and tests, that is, with an inward abhorrence of what he does for the present, and a resolution to act quite contrary, when occasion serves; one who, during his conformity, will be sure to be known by such a dis- tinguishing badge, as shall point him out to, and secure bis credit with, the dissenting brotherhood ; one who still declines reading the church- service, himself, leaving that work to curates or readers, thereby to keep up a profitable interest with thriving seditious tradesmen, and groaning, ignorant, but rich widows ; one who, in the midst of his conformity, thinks of a turn of state, which may draw on one in the church too ; and accordingly is very careful to behave himself so as not to over-shoot his game, but to stand right and fair in case a wished for change should bring fanaticism again into fashion ; which it is more than possible that he secretly desires, and does the utmost he can to promote and bring about.
** These, and the like, are the principles which act and govern the conforming Puritan ; who in a word is nothing else but ambition, ava- rice, and hvpocrisy, serving all the re^l interests of schism and faction in tlie church's livery. And therefore if there be any one who has the front to own himself a minister of our church, to whom the foregoing charac- ter may be justly applied, (as I fear there are but too many,) howsoever such an one may for sometime sooth up and flatter himself in his detes- table dissimulation ; yet when he shall hear of such and such of bis neighbours, his parishioners, or acouaintance, gone over from the church to conventicles, of several turned Quakers, and of others fallen off to Popery; and lastjy when the noise of those naUonal dangers and dis- turbances, which are every day threatening us, shall ring about his ears,
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let him then lay his hand upon his false heart, and with all seriousness of remorse accusing himseir to God and his own conscience, say, I am the person, who by mjr conforming by halves, and by my treacherous prevaricating with the duty of my profession, so sacredly promised, and so solemnly sworn to, have brought a reproach upon the purest and best constituted church in the Christian world ; it is 1, who bv slightins and slumbering over holy service and sacraments, have scancLiIized and cast a stumbling-block before all the neighbourhood, to the great danger of their souls; I who have been the occasion of this man^s faction, that man's Quakerisncu and another's Popery ; and thereby, to the utmost of my power, oontrinuted to those dismal convulsions which have so terribly shook and weakened both church and state. Let such a mocker of God «nd man, I say, take his share of all this horrid guilt; for both heaven and earth will lay it at his door, as the general result of his actions ; it is all absolutely his own, and will stick faster and closer to^im, than to be thrown off and laid aside by him as easily as his surplice." — Vol. v. p. 486.
NOTE XXXVL Page £96.
These effects were pMic and undenicMe.
** O!" says f^ood old Thomas Adams, << how hard and obdurate is the heart of man, till the rain of the Gospel falls on it ! Is the heart covet- ous ? no tears from distressed eyes can melt a penny out of it Is it ma- licious ? no supplications can beg forbearance of the least wrong. Is it gif en to drunkenness ? you may melt his body into a dropsy, before his eart into sobriety. Is it ambitious ? you may as well treat with Luci- fer about humiliation. Is it factious ? a quire of angels cannot sing him into peace. No means on earth can soften the heart ; whether you anoint it with the supple balms of entreaties ; or thunder against it the boUs of menaces ; or beat it with the hammer of mortal blows. Behold God showers this rain of the Gospel from Heaven, and it is suddenly softened. One sermon may prick him to the heart. One drop of a Saviour's blood, distilled on it by the Spirit, in the preaching of the word, rnehs him like wax. The drunkard is made sober, the adulterer chaste; Zaccheus merciful, and raging Paul as tame as a lamb."
Adamses Ditfine Herball,p. 16.
NOTE XXXVII. Page S02. Dialogue heiween Wesley and Zinzendorf.
This curious dialogue must be given in the original.
Z. Cur religionein tuam mutlLstt ?
TV. Nescio me religionem ineara mutasse- Gur id sentis? Quis hoc tibi retulit ?
Z. Plane tu. Id ex epistoli tu^ ad nos video. Ibi, religione, quam apud nos professuB es, relicta, novaro profiteris.
W, Qui sic? NoninteUigo.
Z. tm5, istic dicis, verc Christianos non esse miseros peccatores. Falsissi- mum. Optimi hominutn ad mortem usque raiserabiiissimi sunt peccatores* Si- qui aliud dicunt, vel penitiis impostores sunt, vel diabolicd seducti. Nostros mtres meliora docentes impugnftsti. Et pacem volentibus, earn denegftsti.
W. Nonduro intelligo quid velisi
Z. Ego, cum ex Georgiik ad me scripsisti, te dilexi plurimam. Turn cords simpUcem, te agnovi. Iterum scripsisti. Agnovi eorde simplicem, sed turbatis ideii. Ad nos veniiti* Ides tu» turn magis turbatas erant et confuss. In An-
VOL. I. 51
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gliam rediiBti. Aliqandiu post, audiri fratres nostros tecum pugnare. Spat-* genbergimn misi ad pacem inter vos conciliandam. Scripsit roihi, fratres tibi io-' juriam intulisse. Rescripsi; ne (jergereot, eed et ▼eniam a tc peterent. Spaii- genberg scripsit iterum, eos patiisse : sed te, gloriari de iis, pacem nolle. Jam adveniens, idem audio.
W. Res in eo cardine miniine vertitur. Fratres tui (verum hoc) me male tractikrunt. Postea veniam petierunt. Respondit id supervacaneuro ; roe Dim- quam lis, succensuisse ; sed vereri, 1. Ne falsa docerent, 2. Ne prave viverent. Isia unica, est, et fuit, inter nos qaestio. Z. Aperiius loquaris.
}V. Veritus sum, ne falsa docerent, 1. De fine fidei no8Uoe*(in hie Titl) scil. Christian^ perfectione, 8. De Mediis gratis, sic ab Ecclesianostr& dictis.
Z, Nullam inherentem perfectionem in bic viti agnosco. Est bic errot errorum. Earn per totum otbem igne et gladio persequor, conculco, ad inter- necionem do. Cbristus est sola perfectto nostra. Qui perfectionem inhseren- tem sequitur, Christum denegat.
JV. Ego vefo credo, Splritum Chrlsti operari perfeqtionem in ver^ Chris- tianis.
Z. NuIIimodo. Omnis nostra perfectio est in Christo. Omnis Christiana perfectio est, fides in sanguine Cbristi. Est tota Christiana perfectio, imputata^ non inhaerens. Perfecti sumus in Christo, in nobismet nunqusm perfeeli. fV. Pugnamus, opi^or de verbis. IVonne omnis verd credens sanctus est ? Z. Mazim^. Sed sanctus in Cbristo, non in se* W» Sed, nonne sancte vivit.^ Z. Imo, sancte in omnibus vivit. IV. Nonne et cor sanctum habet? Z. Certissime.
W. Nonne ex consequent!, sanctus est in se ?
Z. Non, nou. In Cbristo tantfim. Non sanctus in se. NuUam omnina habet sanctitatero in se*
IV, Nonne habet in corde suo amorem Dei et proximi, quin et totam imagi' nem Dei ^
Z. Habet. Sed haec sunt sanclitas Jegalis, non evangelica. Sanctitas evan- gelica ert fides.
fV, Omntno lis est de verbis. Concedis, credentis cor totum esse sanctum et vitam totam; eUm amare Deum toto corde, eique servire totis viribas. Nihil ultra peto. Nil aliud volo per perfectio vel sanctitas Christiana.
Z. Sed h»c non est sanctitas ejus. Nan magis sanctus est, si magis amat, neque miniis sapctos, si minus amat.
fV. Quid f Nonne credens, dam crescit in amore, crescit pariter in saoc- titate .'
Z. Neauaquam. Ex momento mio justificaturj sancttficatur peniius. Exin, neque magis sanctus est, neque minus sanctusy ad mortem usque. fV, Nonne igitur pater in Christo sanctior est infante recens nato.' Z. Non. Sanctiflcatio totalis ac justificatio in epdum sunt instanti; et neutra recipit mag^s aut minus.
fV* Nonne verd credens crescit indies amore Dei. Num perfectus est amore simulaciustificatur ?
Z. Est. ^ Non unquam crescit ia amore Dei. Totaliter timat eo monientoi Sicut totaliter sanctificatur.
JV, Quid itaque vult Apostolus Paulus, per '* renovamur de die in dien.^ Z. Dicam. Plumbum si in aurum mutetur^ est aurum pritno die et secundo et tertio. Et sic renovatur de die in diem. Sed nu&quam est magis aunira> quam primo die. fV. Putavi, cresc^ndum esse in gratiA!
Z. Certe. Sed non in sanctitate. Stroulac justificatur quis. Pater, Filius et Spiritus sanctus habitant in ipsius corde. Ct cor ejus eo momento seque pu- rum est ac unquam erit. Infans in Christo tam punis corde est qoim pater in Cbristo. Nulla est discrepantia.
VV, Nonne justificati erant ApostoU ante Cbristi mortem? Z. Erant.
^. Nonne vero sanctibrtt erant post diem Pent ecostes, quslm ante Christi mortem? Z, Neutiquam.
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fV» Nonne eo die impUti sunt Spiritu Sancto?
Z. Sunt. Sed istud donum spiruCis, sanctitatem ipsorum non respexit. Full donum miraculorum taat&in.
W. Fortasse te noji capio. Nonne nos ipsos abnegantes, magls magisquo mundo morimur, ac Deo vivimua.^
Z. Abnegationem omnem respuimut, conculcaoiut. Facimus credentes omne quod Tolumus et nihil ultxi. Mortificationem omnem ridemus. Nulla purifi* catio praecedit perfectum amorem.
}V. Que dijiisti Deo adjuvaute perpendam.
NOTE XXXVIII. Page S06. Charges againat (he Moravians,
Upon this subject I transcribe a passage from Mr. Latrobe*8 late tra- vels in South Africa, in justice to this calumniated community.
^ Concessions are the best defence, where we are, or have formerly been, to blarney in expressions, or proceedings, founded on mistaken no* tions. Such concessions have been repeatealy made, but in general to little purpose ; and we must be satisfied to hear the old, wretched, and contradictory accusations, repeated in <' Accounts of all Religions," ^ Encyclopedias,'' *' Notes on Church History," and other compilations. Be it so, since it cannot be otherwise expected ; let us live them down, since we have not been ablejto wriie them down. To some, however, who wilfully continue to deal in that species of slander against the Brethren, or other religious communities, the answer of a friend of minct a nobleman in Saxony, to his brethren, the States of Upper Lusatia, assembled at the Diet at Bautzen, may be given, consistently with truth. With a view to irritate his feelinss, or, as the vulgar phrase is, to quiz him, they pretended to believe all the infamous stones, related by cer« tain authors concerning the practices of the Brethren at Hermhut, re-
E resenting them as a very profligate and licentious sect ; and challenged im to deny them. " Pray, gentiemen," he replied, ^ do not assert, that you believe these things, for I know you all so well, that if you really did believe, that all manner of licentiousness might be prac* tised at Hermhut with impunity, there is not one of you, who would not long ago have requested to be received as a member of such a community."
NOTE XXXIX. Page 513.
Suck large Incomes from above.
South appears to stinnatize Owen as the person who introduced language of tnis kind. He says, ^ As I shew before that the ort*9 and the <^«Ti's the Deus dixU and the Deus benedixitf could not be accounted wit ; so neither can the whimsical cant of Issues^ Products, Tendencies, BreaHdngSj bidweUings, RoUings, RMuwhendes, and Scriptures misap- plied, be accounted divinity." .A marginal note sajs, ^ Terms often and much used by one J. O. a great leader and oracle in those times."
NOTE XL. Page 318. Cennick employed at Kingswood.
This person has left on record a striking example of the extravagan- cies which were encouraged at Kingswoud at this time. It is related iii a letter to Mr. Wesley,
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<* Far be it from me, to attribute the conYictions of sin (the work of the Holy Ghost) to Beelzebub ! No ; neither do I say that those stroug wrestlings are of God only. I thought, you had understood my opinion better, touching this matter. I believe, that before a soul is converted to God, the spirit of rebellion is in every one^ that is born into the world ; and while Satan armed keepeth his hold, the man enjoys a kind of peace, mean time, the Holy Ghost is offering a better peace, according to that Scripture, ' Behold, I stand at the door, and knock,' iLc Now, after the word of the Most High has touched the heaM, J think the ser- pent is seeking to root it up, or choke the seed ; but as thc^Spirit of God has gained entrance, he rageth with all his might ; and as r^r as he hath power, troubleth the soul with the justice of God, with fear of having passed the day of grace, or having sinned too grpatly to be forgiven, in order to make them despair. — Hence ariseth a fierce combat in the in- ward parts, so that the weaker part of man, the body, is overcome, and those cries and convulsions follow.
" On Monday evening, I was preaching at the school oh the forgive- ness of sins, when two persons who, the night before, had laughed at others, cried out with a loud and bitter cry. So did many more, in a little time. Indeed, it seemed, that the Devil, and much of the powers of darkness, were come among us. My mouth was stopped, and my ears heard scarce any thing, but such terrifying cries, as would have made any one's knees tremble! Only judge. It was pitch dark; it rained much ; and the wind blew vehemently. Large flashes of light- ning, and loud claps of thunder, mixt with the screams of frightened parents and the exclamations of nine distressed souls ! The hurry and confusion caused herehj^ cannot be expressed. The whole place seemed to me to resemble nothing but the habitation of apostate spirits; many raving up and down, crying, * The Devil will have me ! I am his ser- vant; I am damned !' — * My sins can never be pardoned ! I am gone, gone for ever !' A young man (in such horrors, that seven or eight could not hold him) still roared^ like a dragon, * Ten thousand devils, millions, millions of devils are about me !' This continued three hours. One cried out, * That fearful thunder is raised by the Devil : in this storm he will bear me to bell '.' O what a power reJgned amongst us ! Some cried out with a hollow voice, * Mr. Cennick ! Bring Mr. Cennick !' 1 came to all that desired me. They then spurned with all their strength, grinding their teeth, and expressing all the fury that heart can conceive. Indeed, their staring eyes, and swelled faces, so amazed others, that they cried out almost as loud as they who were tormented. I have visited several since, who told me, their senses were taken away ; but when I drew near, they said, they felt fresh rage, longing to tear me to pieces ! I never saw the like, nor even the shadow of it before ! Yet, lean say, I was not in the least afraid, as I knew God was on our side."
NOTE XLI. Page 335.
SyaUrn of Itinerancy propoud as a SubstiiiUt for ike EstabliskmenL
During the Little Parliament, '* Harrison, being authorized thereto, had at once put down all the parish ministers of Wales, because that most of them were ignorant and scandalous, and had set up a few itine- rant preachers in their stead, who were for number incompetent for so Seat a charge, there being but one for many of those wide parishes ; so at the people, having a sermon but once in many weeks, and nothing else in the mean time, were ready to turn Papists, or any thing else. And this is the plight which the Anabaptists and other sectaries would
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have brought the whole land to. And all was, that the people might not be tempted to think the parish churches to be true churches, or infant baptism true baptism, or themselves true Christians ; but might be con- ▼inced, that they must be made Christians ant! churches in the Anabap- tists' and Separatists' way. Hereupon it was put to the vote in this par- liament, whether all the parish ministers in England should at once be put down or no ? and it was but accidentally carried in the negative by two voices." — Baxter's Life and Times, p. 70.
Hugh Peter's advice was, that **they must sequester all ministers without exception, and bring the revenues of the church into one public treasury ; out of which must be allowed a hundred a year to six itine- rant ministers to preach in every county." And this scheme was in great measure carried into effect. *' Whether these itinerants," says Walker, ** were confined to a certain district, and to a settied and stated order of appearing at each church so many times in a quarter, (for the number of cnurches in proportion to that of the itinerants in some of the counties would not permit them to preach so much as one sermon in a month,) I cannot tell : but I do not remember to have met with any thing that should incline me to think they were under any directions of this kind, besides that of their own roving humours ; or put under any con- finement more straight than that of a whole county ; nor always even that, (such was the greatness of their abilities and capacities,) for I find some of them in the same years in two several counties, and receiving their salaries in both of thrm." — Walker's Sufferings of the Clergy , pp. 147, 158.
This author affirms, that the amount of the church /evenue in Wales, *^8ome way or other in the possession of the Committees, or Propaga- tors, or those whom they appointed to possess or collect them, for the whole time of the usurpation, appears on the most modest computation to have been above £345,000, an immense heap of sacrilege and plunder. Almost all was torn from particular churchmen, who were in the legal possession of it ; and no small part converted to the private uses of Uie plunderers."
t NOTE XLIL PageS40.
Thmnas Maxfield.
At the Conference of 1766 Wesley speaks of Maxfield as the first layman who " desired to help him as a son in the Gospel ; soon after came a second, Thomas Richards ; and a third, Thomas Westall." But in his last journal he ban the following curious notice : — '* I read over the experience of Joseph Humphrys, the first lay preacher that assisted me in England in the year 1738. From his own mouth I learn that he was perfected in love, and so continued for at least a twelvemonth. Afterwards he turned Calvinist, and joined Mr. Whitefield, and published an invective asunst my brother and roe in the newspaper. In a while he renounced Mr. Whitefield, and was ordained a Presbyterian minister. At last he received Episcopal ordination. He then scoffed at inward religion, and when reminded of his own experience, replied, *that was one of the fool- ish things which I wrote in the time of my madness.' "
EltD or THE FIRST VOLUME.
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THE
^SO>X IDS' I?ffi89bffi7§
AND tUE
RIS£ AND PROGRESS
BY ROBERT SOUTHEY, Esq.
fOtT LAUREATE,
M^MBSa or THS KOTAL •PAlllIB ACADEMY, OP TIC AOVAL IPAVHH ACADSMT 0# ■UTOftV, ABD OP THE ftOTAL I1I8T1TUTB OP THB VBTBBBLAHDI, ftc.
Read oot to oontndfet and eonfute ; Bor to belie^-e and take fior gnnted ; nor to Aod talk i diacoune : but toweigb and cooslder. Lobd Bagov.
iY TWO VOLUMES. VOL. 11.
^ NEW-YORK:
FUBLrSHfiD BY WM. B. OILLBT, NO. 02 AllOADWAt.
J. SefoKMir, priMti
1820.
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o ».
THE
SUSriB (DIP ^IB8iy£7c
CHAPTER xm.
Death op Mrs, wcslet. — ^Wesley's sisters. — Wesley at epworth.
Methodism had now takcD root in the land. Meet* ing-houses had been erected in various parts of the kingdom, and settled, not upon trustees, (which would have destroyed the unity of Wesley's scheme, by making the preachers dependent upon the people, as among the Dissenters,) but upon himself, the ac- knowledged head and sole director of the society which he had raised and organized. Funds were provided by a financial regulation so well devised, that the revenues would increase in exact proportion to the increase of the members. Assistant preachers were ready, in any number that might be required, whose zeal and activity compensated, in no slight degree, for their want of learning; and whose in- fenority of rank and education disposed them to look up to Mr. Wesley with deference as well as re- spect, and fitted them for the privations which they were to endure, and the company with which they were to associate. A system of minute inspection had been established, which was at once so con-
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4 DEATB OF MRS. WBSLET. [1742.
trived as to gratify everj individual, by siting bun a sense of bis own importance, and to give the preacber the most perfect knowledge of those who were nnder bis charge. No confession of faith was required from any person who desired to become a member : in this Wesley displayed that consummate prudence which distinguished him whenever he was not led astray by some darling opinion. The door was thus left open to the orthodox of all descriptions, Church- men or Dissenters, Baptists or Paedobaptists, Pres- byterians or Independents, Calvinists or Arminians; no profession, no sacrifice of any kind was exacted. The person who joined the new society was not ex- pected to separate himself from the community to which he previously belonged. He was only called upon to renounce his vices, and follies which are near a-kin to them. Like the Free-mason, he ac- quired by his initiation new connexions'and imaginary consequence ; but, unlike the Free-mason, he derived a real and direct benefit from the change which in most instances was operated in the habits and moral nature of the proselytes.
To this stage Methodism had advanced when Wesley lost his mother, in a good old age, ready and willing to depart Arriving in London from one of his'circuits, he found her ^^ on the borders of eter- nity ; but she had no doubt or fear, nor any desire but, as sbon as God should call, to depart and to be with Christ" On the third day after bis arrival, he
Eerceived that her change was near. ** I sate down,'' e says, ^' on the bed-side. She was in her last conflict, unable to speak, but I believe quite sensible. Her look was calm and serene, and her eyes fixed upward, while we commended her soul to God. From three to four the silver cord was loosing, and the wheel breaking at the cistern ; and then, with- out any struggle, or sigh, or groan, the soul was set at liberty. We stood round the bed, and fulfilled her last request, uttered a little before she lost her speech : ^ Cnildren, as soon as I am released, sing a psalm of praise to God.' '' He performed the fune- ral service himself, and thus feelingly describes it :
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1742.] DEATH OF MRS« WESLEY. 3
«> Almofit'an innumerable company of people being gatheripd together, about five in the afternoon I com- mitted to the earth the body of my mother to sleep with her fathers. The portion of Scripture from which 1 afterwards spoke was, / saw a great white throne^ and Him that sat on it^ from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away^ and thpre was found no place for thenu^ .And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before Gm; and the books were opened, and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the boohs, ac* cording to their works. It was one of the most solemn assemblies I ever saw, or expect to see, on this side eternity."*
Mrs. Wesley had had her share of sorrow. During her husband's life she had struggled with narrow circumstances, and at his death she was left depend? ent upon her children. Of nineteen children she had wept over the early graves of far the greater
• The epitaph which her sons placed upon her tomb-stone, is remark- able. Instead of noticing the virtues of so extraordinary and exemplary a woman, they chose to record what they were pleased to call her con- ▼ersion, and to represent her as if she had lived in ignorance of real Christianity during the life of her excellent husband.
This is the inscription : —
Here lies the body of Mrs. Susannah Wesley, the youngest and last surviving daughter of Dr. Samuel Annesley .
In sure and steadfast hope to rise And claim her mansion in the skies, ' A Christian here her flesh laid down, The cross exchanging for a crown.
. True daughter of affliction she, Inured to pain and misery, Mourn'd a long night of griefs and fears, * A legal night of seventy years.
' The Father then reveal'd Kis Son,
Him in the broken bread made known, She knew and felt her sins forgiven. And found the earnest of her Heaven.
Meet for the fellowship abpve. She heard the call, " Arise, my Love f I come, her dying looks replied, And lamb-like as her Lord she died.
The third stanza alludes to her persuasion that she had received an assurance of the forgiveness of her sins at the moment when her son-in- law Hall was administerbg the sacrament of the Lord's Supper to her. — See vol. 1. p. 255.
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6 WfiSLEV'S 8]STEM«
number : she had survived her son Sumuei, and she had the keener anguish of seeing two of her daugh- ters unhappy, and perhaps of foreseeing the unhap- piness of the third ; an unhappiness the more to be deplored, because it was not altogether undeserved.
Among Wesley^s pupils at Lincoln was a young man, by name Hall, of good person, considerable talents, and manners which were in a high degree prepossessing, to those who did not see beneath the surface of such things. Wesley was much attached to him ; he thought him humble and teachable, and in all manner of conversation holy and unblameable. There were indeed parts of his conduct which might have led a wary man to suspect either his sanity or his sincerity ; but the tutor was too sincere himself, and too enthusiastic, to entertain the suspicion which some of his extravagancies might justly have excited. He considered them as ^^ starts of thought which were not of God, though they at first appeared to bef^ and was satisfied, because the young man ^^ was easily convinced, and his imaginations died away.*' Samuel formed a truer judgment. ^ I never liked the man,*' says he, <^ from the first time I saw him. His smoothness never suited my roughness. He appeared always to dread me as a wit and a jester : this with me is a sure sign of guilt and hypo- crisy. He never could meet my eye in full light Conscious that there was something foul at bottom, he was afraid I should see it, if I looked keenly into his eye.'' John, however, took him to his bosom. He became a visiter at Epworth, won the affections of the youngest sister Kezia, obtained her promise to marry him, fixed the day, and then, and not till then, communicated the matter to her brother and her parents, affirming vehemently that ^^ the thing was of God; that he was certain it was God's will; God had revealed to him that he must marry, and that Kezia was the very person." Enthusiastic as Wesley himself was, the declaration startled him, and the more so, because nothing could be more op- posite to some of Hall's former extravagancies. Writing to him many years afterwards, when he
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Wesley's sisters. 7
had thrown off all restraints of outward decency, he says, ^^ Hence I date your fall. Here were several faults in one. You leaned altogether to your own understanding, not consulting either me, who was then the guide of your soul, or the parents of your intended wife, till you had settled the whole ai&ir. And while you followed the voice of Nature, you said it was the voice of God."
In 9pite, however, of the ominous fanaticism or im- pudent hypocrisy which Mr. Hall had manifested, neither Wesley nor the parents attempted to oppose the match ; it was an advantageous one, and the girPs affections were too deeply engaged. But to the utter astonishment of all parlies, in the course of a few days, Mr. Hall changed his mind, and pretending, with blasphemous effrontery, that the Almighty had changed His, declared that a second revelation had countermanded the first, and instructed him to mar- ry not her, but her sister Martha. The family, and especially the brothers, opposed this infamous pro- posal with proper indignation ; and Charles address- ed a poem* to the new object of his choice, which
» TO MISS MARTHA WESLEY.
When want, and pain, and death, besiege our gate, And every solemn moment teems with fate, While clouds and darkness fill the space between. Perplex th' event, and shade the folded scene, In humble silence wait th' unuttered voice, Suspend thy will, and check thy forward choice ; Yet, wisely fearful, for th' event prepare. And learn the dictates of a brother's care. How fierce thy conflict, how severe thy fiieht ! When hell assails the foremost sons of light! When he, who long in virtue^ paths had trod. Deaf to the voice of conscience and of God, Drops the fair mask, proves traitor to his vow, And thou the temptress, and the tempted thou t Prepare thee then to meet th' infernal war. And dare beyond what woman knows to dare ; Guard each avenue to thy fiutt^n^ heart. And act the sister's and the Christian's part. Heav'n is the guard of virtue ; scorn to yield. When screen'd by Heav'n's impenetrable shield : Secure in this, defy tii' impending storm, Tho' Satan tempt tt^se in an angel's form. And oh ! I see tne fiery trial near : I see the amis in all ms forms, appear !
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8 Wesley's sisters.
ttusthave stttng-her like a scorpion trhenerer th^ recollection of its just severity recurred to her in after-life. But these remonsti^nces were of no avail, for Hall bad won her affections also. ^ This last error," says Wesley, " was far worse than the first. But you was now quite above conviction. Soi in spite of her poor astonished parent, of her bro- thers, of all your vows and promises, you jilted the younger and married the elder sister. The other, who had honoured you as an angel from heaven, and
By nature, by religion taught to please.
With conquest flushed, and obstinate to press.
He lists his virtues in the cause of hell,
Heav'n, with celestial arms, presumes t' assail.
To veil, with semblance fair, the fiend within,
And make his God subservient to his sin !
Trembling, I hear his horrid vows renew'd,
I see him come, by Delia's groans pursued ;
Poor injured Delia ! all her groans are vain !
Or he denies, or listening, mocks her pain,
What tho' her eyes with ceaseless tears oi'erflow,
Her bosom heave with agonizing wo !
What tho' the horror of lus falsehood near^
Tear up her faith, and plunge her in despair!
Yet, can he think (so bhnd to Heav'n's decree^
And the sure fate of cursed apostacy)
Soon as he tells the secret of his breast.
And puts the angel off, and stands confess'd ;
When love, and grief, and shame, and angubh meeti
To make his crimes and Delia's wrongs complete,
That then the injured maid will cease to grieve,
Behold him in a sister's arms — and live ?
Mistaken wretch ! by thy unkindness hurl'd
From ease, from love, from thee, and from the worlds
Soon must she land on that immortal shore.
Where falsehood never can torment her more ;
There' all her suff'rings, all her sorrows cease.
Nor saints turn devils there to vex her peace.
Tet hope not then, all specious as thou art,
To taint, with impious vows, her sister's heart ;
With proffer'd woHds her honest soul to move,
Or tempt her virtue to incestuous love.
No ! iVert thou as thou wast I did Heav'n's first ray^
Beam on thy soul, and all the godhead blaze !
Sooner, shall sweet oblivion set^s free
From friendship, love, thy perfidy and thee :
Sooner shall light in league with darkness join *
Virtue and vice, and heav'n and hell combine.
Than her pure soul consent to mix with thine ;
To share thv sin, adopt thy penury.
And damn nerself to be revengM on thee ;
To load her conscience with asister^s blood*
The guilt of inceal, and the curse of €k)d r
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weslet's sisters. 9
still loved you much loo well, (for you had stolen her heart from the God of her youth,) refused to be comforted: she fell into a lingering illness, which terminated in her death. And doth not her blood still cry unto God from the earth ? Surely it is upon your head."
Mr. Wesley died before the marriage : it is not to be believed that, under such circumstances, he would ever have consented to it ; and it is possible that his strong and solemn prohibition might have deterred his daughter from so criminal an union. Samuel ob- served bitterly of this fatal connexion : '' I am sure I may well say of^ that marriage, it will not, cannot come to good." And he proposed that Kezia should live with him, in the hope that it might save her frdra ^* discontent perhaps, or from a worse passion." But, like most of her family, this injured girl possess- ed a lofty spirit She subdued her resentment, and submitted with so much apparent resignation to the wrong which she had received, that she accompani- ed the foul hypocrite and his wife to his curacy. But it consumed her by the slow operation of a set- tled grief. Charles thus describes her welcome re- lease in a letter to John : ^' Yesterday morning sister Kezzy died in the Lord Jesus. He finished his work, and cut it short in mercy. Full of thankfulness, re- signation, and love, without pain or trouble, she com* mended her spirit into the hands of Jesus, and fell asleep."
Till this time John Wesley believed that Mr.. Hall was, ^^ without all question, filled with faith and the love of God, so that in all £ngland," he said, ^^he knew not his fellow." He thought him a pattern of lowliness^ meekness, seriousness, and continual ad- vertence to the presence of God, and, above all, of self-denial in every kind, and of suflTering all things with joyfulness. « But now," he says, " there Was a worm at the root of the gourd." For about two years after his marriage there was no apparent change in his conduct ; his wife then began to receive her
E roper punishment from the caprice and asperity of is temper. After a while he seemed to recover bif
. VOL. II. 2
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10 Wesley's sisters.
self-command, btit soon a^ain he betrayed a hasty and contemptaous disposition; from having been the humble and devoted disciple of the Wesleys, he con- tracted gradually a dislike towards them, and at length broke off all intercourse with them, public or private, because they would not, in conformity to his advice, renounce their connexion with the Church of England. He had now his owr> followers, whom he taught first to disregard the ordinances of religion, then to despise them, and speak of them with con- tempt. He began to teach that there was " no re- surrection of the body, no general judgment, no Hell, no worm that never dieth, no fire'that never shall be quenched." His conduct was now conformable to his principles, if indeed the principles had not grown out of a determined propensity for vice and profliga- cy, Wesley addressed an expostulatory letter to him, in which he recapitulated, step by step, his pro- gress in degradation. After stating to him certain facts, which proved the licentiousness of his life, he concluded thus : " And now you know not that you have done any thing amiss ! You can eat, and drink, and be merry ! You are eVery day engaged with va- riety of company, and frequent the coffee-houses! Alas, my brother, what is this ! How are you above measure hardened by the deceitfulness of sin ! Do you remember the story of Santon Barsisa ? 1 pray God your last end may not be like his ! Oh how have you grieved the Spirit of God! Return to him with weeping, fasting, and mourning ! You are in the very belly of Hell ; only the pit hath not yet shut its mouth upon you. Arise, thou sleeper, and call upon thy God ! Perhaps He may yet be found. Because He yet bears with me, I cannot despair for you. But you have not a moment to lose. Mfty God this in- stant strike you to the heart, that you may feel His wrath abiding on you, and have no rest in your boned by reason of your sin, till all your iniquities afe done away."
Soon after he had written this letter^ whi<rb was done more fpr the purpose of delivering his omi soul, as he says, than with any reasonable hope of impi^es*
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WESLEY ^S SISTER?. 11
ing a man so far gone in depravitjf Wesley, in the coarse of his travelling, came to Mr. HalPs house, at Salisbury, and was let in, though orders had been gi- ven that he should not be admitted. Hall left the room as soon as he entered, sent a message to him that he should quit the house, and presently turned his wife out of doors abo. Having now thrown off all restraint and all regard to decency, he publidy and privately recommended polygamy as conforma- ble to imture, preached in its defence, and practised as he preached. Soon he laid aside all pretensions to religion, professed himself an infid^, and led for many years the life of an adventurer ftnd a profligate, at home and abroad ; acting sometimes as a physi- cian, sometimes as a priest, and assuming any cha- racter according to the humour or the convenience of the day. Wesley thought that this unhappy man would never have thus wholly abandoned himself to these flagitious propensities, if the Moravians had not withdrawn him from his influence, and therefore he jndged them to be accountable for his perdition. He seems to have felt no ibisgiving that he himself might have been the cause ; that Hall might have continu- ed to W4flk uprightly if he bad kept the common path ; and that nothing could betnore dangerous to a vain and headstrong man of a heated fancy, than the no- tion that he had attained to Christian perfection, and felt in himself the manifestations of the Spirit. Wea- ry of this life at last, after many years, and awakened to a sense of its guilt as well as its vanity, he return- ed to England in his old age, resumed his clerical functions, and appears to have beea received by his wife. Wesley was satisfied that his contrition was real, and hastened to visit him upon his death-bed , but it was too late. "I came," he says, "just time enough not to see, but to bury poor Mr. Hall, my brother-in-law, who died, I trust, in peace, for God had given him deep repentance. Such another mo nument of divine mercy, considering how low he had fallen, and from what height of hoiiaess, I have not seen, no, not in seventy years ! I had designed to vi- sit him in the morning, but he did not stay for my
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12 WESLEY^S SISTERS.
coming. It is eiiough ii^ after all his wanderings, we meet again in Abrabam^s bosom.'' Mrs. Hall bore her fate with resignation, and with an inward con- sciousness that her punishment was not heavier than her fault : — that fault excepted, the course of her life was exemplary* and she lived to be the last survivor of a family whose years were protracted far beyond the ordinary age of man. '
Mehetabel, her sister, had a life of more unmingled affliction. In the spring freshness of youth and hope, her affections were engaged by one who, in point of abilities and* situation, might have been a suitable husband ; some circumstances, however, occasioned a disagreement with her father, the match was bro- ken oS^ and Hetty committed' a fatal error, which many women have committed in their just but blind resentment — she married the first person who offer- ed. This was a man in no desirable rank of life, of coarse mind and manners, inferior to herself in edu- cation and in intellect, and every way unworthy of a woman whose equal in all things it would have been difficult to find. For her person was more than com- monly pleasing, her disposition gentle and affection- ate, her principles those which arm the heart eitner for prosperous or adverse fortune, her talents re- markable, and her attainments beyond what are or- dinarily permitted to women, even those who are the most highly educated. Duty in her had produced 80 much affection toward the miserable creature whom she had made her husband, that the brutal profligacy of his conduct almost broke her heart. LFnder such feelings, and at a lime when she believ- ed and hoped that she should soon be at peace in the grave, she composed this Epitaph for herself: —
Destined while living to sustain An equal share of grief and pain, AH various ills of human race Within this breast had once a place. Without complaint she learn'd to bear A living death, a long despair ; Till hard oppressed by adverse fete. Overcharged, she smk beneath the weight,
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Wesley's sisters. 13
And to this peaceful tomb retired, So much esteemM, so long desired. The painful mortal conflict's o'er ; A broken heart can bleed no more.
From that illness, however, she recovered, so far as to linger on for many years, living to find in reli- gion the consolation which she needed, and which nothing else can bestow. The state of her mind is beautifully expressed in the first letter which she ever addressed to John upon the subject ** Some years ago," she says, " I told my brother Charles I could not be of his way of thinking then, but that if ever I was, I would as freely own it. After I was convinced of sin, and of your' opinion, as far as I had examined your principles, I still forebore declaring my senti- ments so openly as I had iriclination to do, fearing I should relapse into my former state. When I was delivered from this fear, and had a blessed hope that he who had begun would finish his work, 1 never con- fessed, so fully as I ought, how entirely I was of your mind ; because I was taxed with insincerity and hy<*
f)ocrisy whenever I opened my mouth in favour of re- igion, or owned how great things God had done for me. This discouraged me utterly, and prevented me from making my change as public as my folly and vanity had formerly been. But now my health is
f;one, 1 cannot be easy without declaring that I have ong desired to know but one thing, that is Jesus Christ, and him crucified ; and this desire prevails above all others. And though I am cut off from all human help or ministry, lam not without assistance; though I have no spiritual friend, nor ever had one yet, except perhaps once in a year or two, when I have seen one of my brothers, or some other religious person, by stealth ; yet, (no thanks to me,) I am en- abled to seek him still, and to be satisfied with no- thing less than God, in whose presence I affirm this truth. — I dare not desire health, only patience, resig- nation, and the spirit of an healthful mind. I have been so long weak, that I know not how long my trial may last ; but I have a firm persuasion, and blessed hope, (though no full assurance,) that in the country I
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14 WESLEY AT EPWORTH. [1742.
am going to, I ^hall not sing hallelujah, and holy, ho- ly, holy, without company, as I hare done in this. Dear brother, I am unused to speak or write od these things : I only speak my plain thoughts as they occur. Adieu ! If you have time from better bua- uess to send a line to Stanmore, so great a comlort would be as welcome as it is wanted."
She lived eight years after this letter was written, bearing her sufferings with patience and pioos hope. Charles was with her in her last illness. He says in his journal, "Prayed by my sister Wright, a gracious, tender, trembling soul; a bruised reed, which the Lord will not break.*' ** Thy sun shall no more go down, neither shall thy moon withdraw itself, for tne Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended." From these words he
E reached her funeral sermon, with a feeling which rought him into "sweet fellowship with the depart- ed ;" and he says, that all who were present seemed to partake both of his sorrow and his joy.
Another of the sisters married a clergyman by name Whitelamb, who had been John's pupil at Ox- ford, was beholden to the family* during his stay at college, and obtained the living of Wroote after his father-in-law's death. John, in the beginning of his regular itinerancy, on his way back from Newcastle, .after his first appearance in that town, came to Ep- worth. Many years had elapsed since he had been in his native place, and not knowing whether there were any persons left in it who would not be asham- 'cd of his acquaintance, he went to an inn, where, iliowever, he was soon found out by an old servant of iiis father's. The next day being Sunday, he called upon the curate, Mr. Romley, and offered to assist tiim either by preaching or reading prayers ; but his assistance was refused, and the use of the pulpit was denied him. A rumour, however, prevailed, that he
♦ Writing to his brother Samuel io 17S2, Wesley says, " John White- lamb wants a gown much : I am not rich enough to buy him one at present If you are willing, my twenty shillings (that were) should go towards that, I will add ten to them, and let it he till I have tried my ut> most with my friends to make up the price of a new one.**
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1742;] WESLEY AT EPWORTR 15
was to preach 4q the afternoon; the church was fill- ed in consequence, and a sermon was delivered upon the evils of enthusiasm, to which Weslej listened with bis characteristic composure. But when the sermon was over, his companion gave notice, as the l^eople were coming out, that Mr. Wesley, not being permitted to preach in the church, would preach in the church-yard at six o'clock. ^^ Accordingly ,'' says he, '' at six I came, and found such a congrega- tion as I believe Epworth never saw before, f stood near the east end of the church, upon my father's tomb-stone, and cried, ^ The kingdom of heaven is not meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost' "
Wesley has been accused harshly and hastily of want of feeling, because he preached upon his fa- ther's grave* But it was from feeling, as much as enthusiasm, that he acted, knowing that he should derive a deeper passion from the ground upon which ^ he stood ; like the Greek tragedian, who, when he performed Electra, brought into the theatre the urn containing the ashes of his own child. Nor was there any. danger that the act should be misconstrued by those who heard him : mad they might think him, but thev knew his domestic character, and were as- sured that he had not stood with a holier or more reverential feeling beside that grave when his father's body was consigned to it, earth to earth. Seven suc- cessive evenings he preached upon that tomb-stone, and in no place did he ever preach with greater ef- fect ** Lamentations," he says, " and great groan- ings, were heard, God bowing their hearts so, and on every side, as, with one accord, they lifted up their voices and wept aloud ; several dropped down as dead ; and, among the rest, such a cry was heard of sinners groaning for the righteousness of faith, as al- most drowned my voice. But many of these soon lifted up their heads with joy, and broke out into thanksgiving, being assured they now had the desire of their soul, the forgiveness of their sins." White- lamb was one of his auditors, and wrote to him after- wards in terms which, while they show a just sense of the rash doctrine that he preached, and the extra- Digitized by vjOOqIc
16 rreSLET at epworth. [1742,
vagance that he encouraged^ show alio the powerful ascendancy which Wesley had obtained over him by his talents and his virtues. ^^Dear brother," he says, " I saw you at Epworth on Tuesday evenings Fain would I have spoken to you, but that I am quite at a loss how to address or behave. Your way of thinking is so extraordinary, that your presence cre- ates an awe, as if you were an inhabitant of another world. God grant you and your followers may al- ways have entire liberty of conscience : will you not allow others the same? Indeed I cannot think as you do, any more than I can help honouring and lov- ing you. Dear Sir, will you credit me? I retain the highest veneration and affection for you. The sight of you moves me strangely. I feel, in a higher degree, all that tenderness and yearning of bowels with which I am affected toward every branch of Mr. Wesley^s family. I cannot refrain from tears, when I reflect, this is the man who at Ox- ford was more than a father to me ! this is he whom I have there heard expound or dispute publicly, or preach at St Mary's with such applause! and, oh that I should ever add, whom I have lately heard preach at Epworth! Dear Sir, is it in my power to serve or oblige you in any way ? Glad 1 should be that you would make use of me. God open all our eyes, and lead us into truth, whatever it be-"
Wesley has said that Whitelamb did not at this time believe in Christiatiity, nor for many years af- terwards. If it were so, the error was not improba- bly occasioned by a strong perception of the excesses into which the Methodists had been betrayed; just as monkery and Romish fables produce irreligiou in Catholic countries. But it is most likely a hasty, or a loose expression, for Whitelamb was a man of er- cellent character: no tendency to unbelief appears in such of his letters as have been published ; and the contrary inference may be drawn from what he says to Charles : " I cannot but look upon your doc- trines as of ill consequence; — consequence, I say; for, take them nakedly in themselves, and nothing seems more innocent ; nay, good and holy. Suppose we grant that in you and the rest of the leaaers^
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1742.] WESLfeT AT fiPWORTH. It
who are tnen of sense and discernment, what is ball- ed the seal and testimony of the Sjpirit is something real, yet Lhave great reason to think that, in the ge* nerality of your rollowers, it is merely the elSect of a heated fancy^'^ This is judicious languie^e, and cer* tainly betrays no mark of irreligion. He offered hii pulpit to Wesley, and incurred much censure for sd doing, from those who neither considered the rela- tion in Which he stood to him, nor did justice to hid principles and feelihgs.
Sdme remarkable circumstances attended W^s* ley's preaching in these parts. Some of his oppO^ nents, in the excess of their zeal against enthusiasm, took up a whole wa^on load of Methodists, and car- ried them before a justice. When they were asked what these persons had done, there was an awkward silence ; at last on6 of the accusers said, ^* Why, thef pretended to be better than other pec^le ; and, be^ sides, they prayed from morning till ni^hf The magistrate asked if they had done nothing else.-^ " Yes, Sir," said an old man, ** an'l please your wor- ship, they have conVarted my wife. Till dhe went amon^ thetn, she had such a tongue ! and now she is as quiet as a lamb !"i— .** Carry them back, carry them back," said the magistrate, ^^ and let them convert all the scolds in the town." Among the hearers in the cburch-yard* was a gentleman remarkable for, pro- fessing that he was of no religion : for more than thir- ty years he had not attended at public worship of any kind; and, perhaps, if Wesley had preacned from the pulpit instead of the tomb-stone, he might not have been induced to gratify his curiosity by hearing him. But when the sermon was ended, Wes- ley percdved that it had reached him, and that he stood like a statue ; so he asked him abruptly, *< Sity are you a sinner?" — ** Sinner enough," was the re- ply, which was uttered in a deep and broken voice ; and he continued staring upwards, till his wife and servants, who were all. in tears, put him into hi6 chaise and took him home. Ten years aflerv^f^ti^ Wesley says in his journal, ^^ I called 6n the gentle- man who told me he was ^ sinner ^nougfa,^ when I
vol*. II. 3
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18 WESLET Af EPWORTH* [1742.
preached first at Gpworth on my Other's tomb, and was agreeably surprised to find him strong in faiths though exceeding weak in body. Jf or some years, he told me, he had been rejoicing in God without either doubt or fear, and was now waiting for the welcome hour when he should depart and be with Christ"
There were indeed few places where his preachy ing was attended with greater or more permanent e&ct than at Epworth, upon this first visit ^ Oh," he exclaims, ^^ let none think his labour of love is lost, because the fruit does not immediately appear! Near forty years did my father labour here, but he saw little Qruit of all his labour. I took some pains amoi^ this people too ; and my strength also seemed spent in vain. But now the fruit appeared. There were scarce any in the town on whom either my father or I had taken any pains formerly, but the seed so long sown now sprung up bringing forth re- pentance and remission of sins." The intemperate and indecent conduct of the curate must undoubted- ly have provoked a feeling in favour of Wesley ; for this person, who was under the greatest obligations to the Wesley family, behaved toward him with the most ofTensive brutality. In a state of beastly intoxi* cation himself, he set upon him with abuse and vio- lence in the presence of a thousand people; and when some persons, who had come from the neigh- bouring towns to attend upon the new preacher, by his direction, waited upon Mr. Romley to inform him that they meant to commgnicate on the following Sunday, he said to them in reply, " Tell Mr! Wesley I shall not give him the sacrament, for he is not JU.^ This insult called forth from Wesley a strong expres- sion of feeling in big journal: "How wise a God," says he, " is our God ! There could not have been 6(>fit a place under Heaven where TTUs should befal me : first, as my fa.ther's house, the place of my nati- vity, and the very place where, according to the strictest sect of our relipony I had so long lived a Pharisee. It was also //, m the highest degree, that he who te^
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.1742.] OUTCRY AGAINST METHODISM. 19
pelled me from that very table, where I had myself so often distributed the bread of life, should be one who owed his all in this world to the tender love which my father had shown to his^ as well as person- ally to himself*'
CrtAPTER XIV.
^nJTCRy AGAINST METHODISM. VIOLENCE OP MOBS AND
MISCONDUCT OF MAGISTRATES.
Methodism had now assumed somie form and cort- Bistence. Meeting-houses had been built, societies formed and disciplined, funds raised, rules enacted, lay preachers admitted, and a regular system of itine- rancy begun. Its furious symptoms had subsided^ the affection had reached a calmer stage of its course, and there were no longer any of those out- rageous exhibitions which excited scandal and com* passion, as well as astonishment. But Wesley con- tinued, with his constitutional fervour, to preach th^ doctrines of instantanteous regeneration, assurance, and sinless perfection. These doctrines gave just offence, and became still more offensive when they were promulgated by unlettered men, with all the vehemence and self-sufficiency of fancied inspiration. Wesley himself added to the offence by the loftiness . of his pretensions. In the preface to his third jour^ nal he says, *^It is not the worii: of man which hath lately appeared ; all who calmly* observe it must say, * This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes.' The manner wherein God hath wrought is as strange as the work itself. These extraordina- ry circumstances seem to have been designed by God for the ftirther manifestation of his work, to cause his power to be known, and to awaken the attention of a drowsy world." He related cures wrought by his faith and his prayers, which he consider^ and
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CO QUTCRt AdAimt BIETHODIflf. [1742.
repre9eoted as positively miraculous* By thinking stroDgly on a text of Scripture, which promised tMt these signs should follow those that believe, and by calling on Christ to increase his faith and confirm the word of his grace^ he shook off instantaneously^ he says, a fever which' had hung upon him for some days, and was in a moment freed from all pain, and restored to his former strength. He visited a be- liever at night who was not expected to live till the morning : the man was speechless and senseless, and his pulse gone. ^^ A few of us,^' says Wesley, ^^ im- medmtely joined in prayers. I relate the naked fact. Before we had done, his senses and his speech re- turned. Now, he that will account for this by natu- ral causes has my free leave. But I choose to say, this is the power of God,'' So, too, when his own teeth ached, he prs^yed, and the pain left him. And this faith was so strong, that it sufficed sometimes to cure not only himself but bis horse also. ^^ My horse,'' he says, ^* was so exceedingly lame, that I was afraid I must have lain by. We could not discern what it was that was amiss, and yet he would scacce set his foot to the ground. By riding thus seven miles I was thoroughly tired; and my head ached more than it had done for some months. What 1 here aver is th? naked fact : let every man account for it as be sees good. 1 then thought ^ Cannot God heal either man or, beast, by any means, or without any?^ Immediately my weariness andbeadach ceased, and my horse's lameness in the same instant Nor did he halt any more either that day or the next. A very odd accident this also."
Even those persons who might have judged fa- vourably of Wesley's intentions, could not but consi- der representations like these as discreditable to his judgment* But those who were less charitable im- peached his veracity, and loudly accused him of hy- pocrisy and imposture. The strangest susj^icions and calumnies were circulated ; and men will be-» lieve any calumnies, however preposterously absurd,
S^aipst those of whom they are disposed to think ilK . e hftd banged hin)seii& and, been cat 4own jmt in
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1742.] ou7cn? Ac^AmsT mcthodism. 21
time ; — he had been fined for gelling gin ; — he was not the real John Wesley, for every body knew that Mr. Wesley was dead. Some said he was a Quaker, others an Anabaptist : a more sapient censor pro- nounced him a Presbyterian Papist It was com- monly reported that he was a Papist, if not a Jesuit ; that he kept Popish priests in his •house; — nay, it was beyond dispute that he received large remit- tances from Spain, in order to make a party among the poor, and when the Spaniards landed, he was to join them with 20,009 men. Sometimes it was re- ported that he was in prison upon a charge of high treason ; and there were people who confidently af- firmed that they had seen him with the Pretender in France. Reports to this effect were so prevalent, that when, in the beginning of the year 1744, a pro- clamation was issued requiring all Papists to leave LoQdon, he thought it prudent to remain a week there, that he might cut off all occasion of reproach; and this did not prevent the Surry magistrates from summoning him, and making him take the oath of al- legiance, and sign the declaration against Popery. Wesley was indiflferent to all other accusations, but the charge of disafiection, in such times, mi^t have drawn on serious inconveniences ; and he drew up a loyal address to the King, in the name of ^^ The Societies in derision called Methodists.'^ They thought it incumbent upon them to offer this address, the paper said, if they must stand as a distinct body from their brethren ; but they protested that they were a part, however mean, of the Protestant Church establisned in these kingdoms ; and that it was their principle to revere the Ugher powers as of God, and ' ta be subject for conscience sake. The address, however, wa9 not presented, probably because of an objection which Charles started, of its seeming to al- low that they were a body* distinct from the National Church, wb^eas they were only a sound part of that CSuurch. Charles himself was more serioudy incom- moded by the imputation of disloyaltj^ than his bro- ther. When he was itinerating in Yorkshire, an i^c- eusatioa was laid agaiost him of having spoken trea-
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22 OUTCRY AGAINST METHODIBM. [1742*
sonabte words, and witnesses were summoned beforcf the magistrates at Wakefield to depose against him. Fortunately for him, he learnt this in time to present himself, and confront the witnesses. He had prayed that the Lord would call home his banished ones ; and this the accusers construed, in good faith, to mean the Preteftder. The words would have had that meaning from the mouth of a Jacobite. But Charles Wesley, with perfect sincerity, disclaimed Uny such intention. " I had no thoughts," he said, ^•of praying for the Pretender, bat for those who confess themselves strangers and pilgrims upon earth, — who seek a country, knowing this is not their home. You, sir," he added, addressing himself to a clergyman upon the bench ; "you, sir, know that the Scriptures speak of us as captive exiles, who are ab- sent from the Lord while present in the bodv. W* are not at home till we are in Heaven." The ma- gistrates were men of sense : they perceived that he explained himself^ clearly — that his declarations were frank and unequivocal, and they declared themselves perfectly satisned.
Yet these aspersions tended to aggravate the in- creasing obloquy under which the Wesleys and their followers were now labouring. "Every Sunday," says Charles, " damnation is denounced against all who hear us, for we are Papists, Jesuits, seducers^ and bringers-in of the Pretender. The clergy mur- mur aloud at the number of communicants, and threaten to repel them." He was himself repelled at Bristol, with circumstances of indecent violence. " Wivesf and children," he says, " are beaten and turned out of doors, and the persecutors are the complainers : it is always the lamb that troubles the water!" A maid-servant was turned away by her master, " because," he said, " he would have none in his house who had received the Holy Ghost !"— She had been thrown itito the convulsions of Metho- dism, and continued in them fourteen hours. This happened at Bath, where, as Charles expresses him- self, " Satan took it ill to be attacked m his head- quarters." John had a curious interview there with Beau Nash, for it was in his reign^ While he was
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1742.] VIOLENCE OF MOBS, 23
preachings this remarkable personage entered the room, came close to the preacher, and demanded of hiQi hy what authority he was acting. Wesley made answer, " By that of Jesus Christ, conveyed to me by the present Archbishop qf Canterbury, when he laid his hands upon me and said, > Take thou authority to preach the GospeL' ^'-^Nash then affirmed that he was acting contrary to the laws : " Besides," said he, " your preaching frightens people out of their wits," " Sir," replied Wesley, " did you ever hear me preach ?" — " No," said the Master of the Ceremonies. " How then can you judge of what you never beard ?" Nash made answer, " By common report."—?*^ Sir," said Wesley, *' is not your name Nash ? I dare not judge of yoa by common report : I think it not enough to judge by." However accurate common report might have been, and however rightly Nash might have judged of the extravagance of Methodism, he was delivering opinions in the wrong place; and when he desired to know what the people came there for, one of the congregation cried out, ^^ Let an old woqian answer him: — ^you, Mr. Nash, take care of your body, we take care of our souls, and for the food of our souls we come here." He found him- self a very different person in the meeting-house from what he was in the pump-room or the assembly^ and thought it best to withdraw.
But Wesley bad soon to encounter more danger- ous opposition. Bristol was the first place where he received any serious disturbance from the rabble. — After several nights of prelusive uproar, the mob as- sembled in great strength. ^' Not only the courts and the alleys," he says, ^^ but all the street upwards and downwards, was filled with people, shouting, cursing ^nd swearing, and ready to swallow the
S round with fierceness and rage. They set the or- ers of the magistrates at nought, and grossly abused the chief constable, till a party of peace officers ar- rived and took the ringleaders into custody. When they were brought up before the mayor, Mr. Combe, they began to excuse themselves, by reviling Wes- ley j but the mayor properly cut them short by say-
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24 VIOLENCE OP MOBS* [1742.
ing, ^^ Wh&t Mr. Wesley is, is nothing to yoa/ I wiH keep the peace. I will hare no rioting in this citj.^ And such was the effect of this timely and det^fmin-' ed interposition of the civil power, that the Metho^ dists were never again disturbed by the rabble at Bristol. In London also the same ready protection was afforded. The chairman of the Middlesex jus^ tices, hearing of the disposition which the mob had shown, called upon Mr. Wesley, and telling him that such things were not to be suffered, added, ^ Sir, I and the other Middlesex magistrates have orders from above to do you justice whenever you apply to us.^' This assistance he applied for when the mob stoned him and his followers in the streets, and ai^ tem'pted to unroof the Foundry. At Chelsea they threw wildfire and crackers into the room Where he was preaching. At Long-Lane they broke in the roof with large stones, so that the people within were in danger of their lives. Wesley addressed the rab- ble without effect ; be then sent out three or four steady and resolute men to seiase one of the ringlead- ers : they brought him into the house, cursing and blaspheming, dispatched him under a good escort to the nearest justice, and bound him over to the next sessions at Guildford. A remarkable circumstance occurred during this scene. One of the stoutest cham- pions of the rioters was struck with sudden contri- tion, and came into the room with a woman who had been as ferocious as himself— both to fall upon their knees, and acknowledge the mercy of God.
These disturbances were soon suppressed in the metropolis and its vicinity, where the magistrates knew their duty, and were ready to perform it; hot in some parts of the country, the very persons whose office it was to preserve the peace, instigated their neighbours and dependents to bre^k it. Wesley bad preached at Wednesbury, in Staffordshire, both in the town-hall, and in the open air, without molesta- tion. The colliers in the neighbourhood had listen- ed to him peaceably ; and between three and four hundred persons formed themselves* into a^ society as Methodi&ts. Mr. Egginton, the minister of that town,
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1742.] MISCOHDUOT <af MAGISTfiATCS* ^d
was i^t first {deaaed with this ; but offence was gi?ea him by some great indiscFetion, and from that time t\? began to oppose the Methodists by the miost out- rageous means. Some of the neighbouring magis* trates were ignorant enough of their duty, both as magistrates and as men, to assist him in stirring up the rabble, and to refuse to act in behalf of the Me- thodists, when their persons and property were at- tacked* Mobs were collected by the sound of hori^ windows were ^^^^olishedf bouses broken opeq, goods destroyed/pr stolen, men, women^ and childrep beateoi pelted, and dragged in the kennels, and eveii pregnant women outraged, to the immiHent danger qf their liyes, and the disgrace of humanity. The mqji said they would make a law, and that all the Metho- dists should set their hand$ to it ; and they nearly murdered those who would not sign a paper of re- cantation. When they had had the law in their own hands for four or five months, (such in those days was the state of the police !) Wesley came to Birmingham on his way to Newcastle ; and hearing of the state of things at Wednesburyt went there, like a man whose maxim it was always to look danger in the face. He preached in mid-day, and in the middle of the town, to a large assembly of people, without the slightest molestation either going or coming, or while he was on the ground. But in the evening the mob beset the house in which he was lodged : they were in great strength, and their cry was, ^^ Bring out the minister! we will have the minister!" Wesley, who never, on any occasion, lost his calmness or his self- possession, desired one of his friends to take the cap- tain of the mob by the hand, and lead him into the house. The fellow was either soothed or awed by Wesley's appearance and serenity. He was desired to bring in one or two of the most angry of his 0019- panions : they were appeased in the same manner, and made way for the man whom, five minutes be- fore, they would &io have pulled to pie,ces, that be might go out to the people. Wesley then called lor a chair, got upon it,, and demanded of the multitude what they wanted with him ? Soioe of them made VOL. 11. 4
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26 VIOLENCE OF MOBd. [1743.
answer, they wanted him to go with them to the jus- tice. He replied, with aH his heart ; and added a few sentences, which had such an effect, that a cry arose, '^ The gentleman is an honest gentleman, and we will spill our blood in his defence.^^ But when he asked whether they should go to the justice immedi- ately, or in the morning, (for it was in the month of October, and evening was closing in,) most of them cried, '* To-night, to-nicht !'' Accordingly they set out for the nearest magistrate's, Mr. Lane, of Bent- ley-Hall. His house was about two miles distant : night came on before they had walked half the way : it began to rain heavily : the greater part of the sense- less multitude dispersed, but two or three hundred still kept together; and as they approached the house, some of them ran forward to tell Mr. Lane they had brought Mr. Wesley before his worship. — « What have I to do with Mr. Wesley .^'' was the re- ply : « go and carry him back again.'' By this time the main body came up, and knocked at the dooa — They were told that Mr. Lane was not to be spoken with ; but the son of that gentleman came out, and inquired what was the matter. «^ Why, a'nt please you," said the spokesman, ^ they sing psalms all day ; nay, and make folks rise at five in the morning. And what would your worship advise us to do?" **To go home," said Mr. Lane, « and be quiet."
Upon this they were at a stand, till some one ad- vised that they should go to Justice Persebouse, at Walsal. To Walsal therefore they went: it was about seven when they arrived, and the magistrate sent out word that he was in bed, and could not be spoken with. Here they were at a stand again : at last they thought the wisest thing they could do would be to make the best of their way home ; and about fifty undertook to escort Mr. Wesley ; not as their prisoner, but for the purpose of protecting hire, so much had he won upon them by his commanding and yet conciliating manner. But the cry had arisen in Walsal that Wesley was there, and a fresh fierce rabble rushed out in pursuit of their victim. They presently came up with him. His escort stood man- Digitized by VjOOQ IC
1743.J VIOLENCE OF MOBB. 27
fully in bis defence ; and a woman, who was one of their leaders, knocked down three or four Walsal men, before she was knocked down herself, and very nearly murdered. His friends were presently over- powered, and he was left in the hands of a rabble too much infuriated to hear him speak. ^^ Indeed,'^ he says, ^^ it was in vain to attempt it, for the noise on every side was like the roaring of the sea." The entrance to the town was down a steep hill, and the path was slippery, because of the rain. Some of the ruffians endeavoured to throw him down, and, if they had accomplished their purpose, it was not likely that he would ever have risen again : but he kept his feet. Part of his clothes was torn off; blows were aimed at him with a bludgeon, which, had they taken effect, would have fractured his skull ; aixd one cowardly villain gave him a blow on the mouth which made the blood gush out. With such outrages they dragged him into the town. Seeing the door of a large liouse open, he attempted to go in, but was caught by the hair, and pulled back into the middle of the crowd. They hauled him toward the end of the main street, and there he made to- ward a shop-door, which was half open, and would have gone m, but the shopkeeper would not let him, saying, that, if he did, they would pull the house down to the ground«i He made a stand, however, at the door, and asked if they would hear him speak ? Many cried out, ^' No, n^! knock his brains out! down with him ! kill him at once !" A more atro- cious exclamation was uttered by one or two wretch- es. ** I almost tremble," says Wesley, " to relate it ! — ' Crucify the dog ! crucify him !' " Others insisted that he should be heard. Even in mobs that opinion will prevail which has the show of justice on its side, if it be supported boldly; He obtained a hearing, and began by asking, " What evil have 1 done ? which of you all have I wronged in word or deed .^" His powerful and persuasive voice, his ready utter- ance, and his peitect self-command, stood him on this perilous emei^ency in good stead. A cry was
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26 violbHcg or mM8» [1743.
raised, " Bring him away ! bring liim away !'* When ii. ceased, he then broke oat into prayer; and the. very man who had just before headed the rabble, turned and said, ^^ Sir, I will spend my Jife for you ! follow me, and not one soul here shall touch a hair of your head !'* This man had been a prize-fighter at a bear-garden ; his declaration, therefore, carried authority with it ; and when one man declares him- self on the right side, others will second him who might have wanted courage to take the lead. A feeling in Wesley's favour was now manifested, and the shopkeeper, who happened to be the mayor of the town, ventured to cry out, ^ For shame ! for shame ! let him go ;'' having, perhaps, some sense of humanity, and of shame for his own conduct. The m?in who took his part conducted him through the mqb, and brought him, about ten o'clock, back to Wedrtesbury in safety, with no other injury than some slight bruises. The populace seemed to have spent their fury in this explosion ; and when, on the following morning, he rode through the town on his departure, some kindness was expressed by all whom he met. A few days afterwards, the very magis- trates who had refused to see him when he was in the hands of the rabble, issued a curious warranty commanding diligent search to be made after certain " disorderly persons, styling themselves Methodist preachers, who Were going about raising roots and riots, to the great damage of His Majestv's li^e ipeople, aiid against the peace of our Sovereign Lord the King."
It was only at Wednesbury that advantfi^e was %aken of the popular cry against the Methodists to l>reak open their doors and plunder their bouses ; but greater personal barbarities were exercised in other places. Some of the preachers received se* rious injury ; others were held under water till tbey were nearly dead ; and of the women who attended ttrern, some were so treated by the ^o^wardly and b^ttta! populace, that they never thoroughly recover- ed. In «om6 piacea they, daubed the preacber aJl
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[1743. nOLEVGB OF HOBS. 29
over whh paint. In athersf they pelted the people in the meetinge with egg-shells, which they had filled with blood and Btopt with pitch. The progress of methodism was rather furthered than impeded by this kind of persecution, for it rendered the Metho- dists objects of curiosity and compassion ; and in every instance the preachers displayed that fear- lessness which enthusiasmt inspires, and which, wheft the madness of the moment was over, made even their enemies respect them.
These thinss were sufficiently disgraceful to the nation ; but the conduct of many of the provincial magistrates was far more so, for they suffered them- selves to be so far influenced by passion and popu- lar feeling, as to commit acts of aoominable oppres- sion under the colour of law. The vicar of Brists^l, which was John Nelson^s home and head-quarters, thought it justifiable to rid the parish by any means of a man who preached with more zeal and more ef- fect than himself; and he readily consented to a proposal from the alehouse-keepers' that John should be pressed for a soldier ; for, as fast as he made con- verts, they lost customers. He was pressed accord- ingly, and taken before the commissioners at Hali- fax, where the vicar was one of the bench, and though persons enough attended to speak to his character, the commissioners said they had heard enough of him from the minister of his parish, and could hear no- thing more. " So, gentlemen,'' said John, " I see there is nether law nor justice for a man that is call- .
* The most harmless mode of annoyance was practised at Bedford. Th« tneetiog-room was o?er a place where pigs were kept. An aider- roaji of the town was one of the society ; ana his dutiful nephew took care that the pigs should always he fed during the time of preaching, that the alderman might haire the full enioyment of their music &s well as their odour. W&^ey says, in one of his JoiimalB} '* the stench from the swine under the room was scarce supportable. Was ever a preach- ing place over-a-hng-stye before! Surely they love the gospel who come to hear it in mieh a place."
f When John Leach was pelted near Rochdale in those riotous days, and saw his brother wounded m the for(>head by a stone, he was mnd ^enough to 1^ the rabble ^at not one of them could hit him, if he were to stand preaching there till midnight. Just then the mob began to auarrei among themselves, and therefore If^ft off pelting. But the aoi^c- ^te luta been retotMl by 1^ bKethrca for his praise !
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ed a Methodist :^' and addressing the vicar by his name, he said, ^^ What do you know of me that is evil ? Whom have I defrauded ? or, where have I contracted a debt that I cannot pay ?'^— ^^ You have no visible way of getting your living," was the reply. He answered, ^ I am as able to get my living with my hands as any man of my trade in England is, and you know it." But all remonstrances were in vain, he was marched off to Bradford, and there, 'by order of the commissioners, put in the dungeon : the filth and blood from the shambles ran into the place, and the only accommodation afforded him there was some stinking straw, for there was not even a stone to sit on.
John Nelson had as high a spirit and as brave a heart as ever Englishman was blessed witb; and he was encouraged by the good offices of many zealous friends, and the sympathy of some to whom he was a stranger. A soldier had offered to be surety for him, and an inhabitant of Bradford, though an enemy to the Methodists, had, from mere feelings of huma- nity, offered to give security for him if he might be allowed to lie in a bed. His friends brought him candles, and meat and water, which they put through a hole in the door, and they sang hymns till a late hour in the night, they without and he within. A poor fellow was with him in this miserable place, who might have been starved if Nelson^s friends had not brought food for him also. When they lay down up- on their straw, this man asked him,. ^^ Pray, sir, are all these your kinsfolk, that they love you so well ? I think they are the most loying people that ever I saw in my life.'^ At four in the morning his wife came and spake to him thr^ough the hole in the.door ; and John, who wai$ now well read in his Bible, said ' that Jeremiah^s lot was fallen upon him. The wife had profited well by her husband^s lessons. Instead of bewailing for him and for herself, (though she was to be left with two cbildren, and big with another,) she .said to him, ^^Fear not; the cause is God^s for which you are here, and he will plead it himself: therefore be not concerned about me and the cbiU
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dren ; for he that feeds the young ravcms will be mindful of us. He will give you strength for your day ; and after we have suffered a while, he will per- fect that which is lacking in our souls, and then bring us where the wicked cease from troubling, and where the weary are at rest." Early in the morning he was marched, under a guard, to Leeds ; the other press- ed men were ordered to the alehouse, but he was sent to prison ; and there he thought of the poor pil- grims who were arrested in their progress ; for the people came in crowds, and looked at him through the iron grate. Some said it was a shame to send a man for a soldier for speaking the truth, when they who followed the Methodists, and till that time had been a& wicked as any in the town, were become like new creatures, and never an ill word was heard from their lips. Others wished that all the Methodists were hanged out of the way. " They make people go mad," said they ; *" and we cannot get drunk or swear, but every fool must correct us, as if we were to be taught by them. And this is one of the worst of them.'' Here, however, he met with some kind- ness. The jailer admitted his friends to see him, and a bed was sent him by some compassionate per- son, when he must otherwise have slept upon stinking straw.
On the following day he was marched to York, and taken before some officers. Instead of remonstrat- ing with them upon the illegal manner in which he had been seized, and claiming his discharge, he be- gan to reprove them for swearing ; and when they told him he was not to preach there, for he was de- livered to them as a soldier, and must not talk in that manner to his officers, he answered, that there was but one way to prevent him, which was by not swear- ing in his hearing. John Nelson's reputation was well known in York, and the popular prejudice against the Methodists was just at its height. ^^ We were guarded through the city," he says, " but it was as if hell were moved from beneath to meet me at my coming. The streets and windows were filled with people, who shouted and huzzaed, as if I hajd
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been one that had laid waste the nation. But the Lord made toy brow like brass, so that I could look on them as grasshoppers, and pass through the citj as if there had been none in it but God and myself.^ Lots were cast for him at the guard-bouse ; and iirheo it was thus determined which captain should have him, he was offered money, which he refused to take, and for this they bade the sergeant hand-cuff hiiiH and send him to prison. The hand-cuffi were not
})ut on : but he was kept three days in prison, where le preached to the poor reprobates among whom he was thrown, and, wretches .as they were, igno- rant of all that was good, and abandoned to all that was evil, the intrepidity of the man who reproved them for their blasphemies, and the sound reason which appeared amidst all the enttiusiasm of his dis- course, was not without effect Strangers brought him food ; his wife also followed him here, and en- couraged him to go on and suffer every thing bravely for conscience sake. On the third day a court-mar- tial was held, and he was guarded to it by a file of musqueteers, with their bayonets fixed. When the court asked, ^« What is this man^s crime ?** the an- swer was, ^^ This is the Methodist preacher, and he refuses to take money :'' upon which they turned to him, and said, ^^ sir, you need not find fault with us, for we must obey our orders, which are to make you act as a soldier : you are delivered to us ; and if you have not justice done you, we cannot help it^ John Nelson plainly told them he would not fight, because it was against his way of thinking: and when he again reuised the money, which by their bidding was offered him, they told him, that, if he ran away, he would be just as liable to suffer as if be had taken it. He replied, ^ If I cannot be dis- charged lawfully, I shall not run away. If I do, poa- isb me as you please.^* He was then sent to his quarters, where his arms and accoutrements were brought him and put on. " Why do you gird me*" said he, ^^ with these warlike habiliments.^ lam a man averse to war, and shall not fight, but under the Prince of Peace, the Captain of my solvation : the
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weapons he gives me are not carnal, like these." He must bear those, thej told him, till he could get his discharge. To this he made answer, that he would bear them then as a cross, and use them as far as he could without defiling his conscience, which he would not do for any man on earth.
There was a spirit in all this which, when it had ceased to excite ridicule from bis comrades, obtained respect He had as good opportunities of exhorting and preaching as he could desire : he distributed also the tittle books which Wesley had printed to explain and vindicate the tenets of the Methodists, and was as actively employed in the cause to which he had devoted himself, as if he had been his own master. — At last the ensign of his company sent for him, and accosting him with an execration, sWofe he would have no preaching nor praying in the regiment — " Then,'' said John, " Sir, you ought to have no swearing or cursing neither; for surely I have as much right to pray and preach, as you have .to curse and swear.'' Upon this the brutal ensign swore he should be damnably flogged for what he had done. «* Let God look to that," was the resolute man's an* swer. ^^The cause is His. But if you do not leave ofTyour cursing and swearing, it will be worse with you than with me." The ensign then bade the coi*- poral put that fellow into prison directly ; and when the corporal said he must not carry a man to prison unless he ^ave in his crime with him, he told him it was for disobeying orders. To prison, therefore, Nelson was taken, to his heart's content; and, after eight-and-fbrty hours' confinement, was brought be^* fore the major, who asked him what he had been put in confinement for. '^ For warning people to flee from the wrath to come," he replied ; ^^ and if that be a crime, I shall commit it agam, unless you cut my tongue out; for it is better to die than to disobey God." The major told him, if that was ail, it waa no crime : when he had done his duty, he might preach as much as he liked, but he must make no mobs. And then wishing that all iiien were like him, he dis- missed him to his quarters. But Nelson was not yet
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out of the power of the ensign. One Sunday, when they were at Darlington, hoping to find an occasion for making him feel it, he asked him why he had not been at church. Nelson replied, " I was, Sir, and if you had been there, you might have seen me ; for I never miss going when I have an opportunity." He then asked him if he had preached since they came there : and being told that he had not publicly, wish- ed, with an oath, that he would, that he might punish him severely. John Nelson did riot forbear, from telling him, that if he did not repent, and leave off his habit of swearing, he would suffer a worse punish- ment than it was in his power to inflict; and it was not without a great effort of self-restraint, that he subdued his < resentment at the insults which this petty tyrant ^poured upon him, and the threats which he uttered. ^' It caused a sore temptation to arise in me,'* he says, " to think that an ignorant wicked man should thus torment me, — and I able to tie his head and heels together ! I found an old mane's bone in me ; but the Lord lifted up a standard, when an- ger was coming on like a flood; else I should have wrung his neck to the ground, and set my foot upon him." The Wesleys, however, meantime, were exert- ing their influence to obtain his discharge, and suc- ceeded by means of the Countess of Huntingdon. — His companion, Thomas Beard, who had been press- ed for the same reason, would probably have been discharged also, but the consequence of his cruel and illegal impressment had cost him his life. He was seized with a fever, the effect of fatigue and agi- tation of mind : they let him blood, the arm festered, mortified, and was amputated; and he died soon after the operation !
Resort was had to the same abominable measure for putting a. stop to Methodism in various other places. A society had been formed at St. Ives, in Cornwall,. by Charles Wesley. There was, however, a strong spirit of opposition in that country ; and when news arrived that Admiral Matthews had beaten the Spaniards, the mob pulled down the preaching- house for joy. "Such," says Wesley, "is the Cor-
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nish method of thanksgiving! — I suppose if Admiral Lestock had fought too, they would have knocked all the Methodists on the head !" The vulgar sup- posed them to be disaffected persons, ready to join the Pretender as soon as he should land ; and men in a higher rank of life, and of more attainments, thought them "a parcel of crazy-headed fellows," and were so offended and disgusted with their extra- vagancies* as not only to overlook the good which they really wrought among those who were not re- claimable by any other means, but to connive at, and even encourage any excesses which the brutal mul- titude might choose to commik-against them. As the most expeditious mode of proceeding, pressing was resorted to ; and* some of the magistrates issued war- rants for apprehending sevei-al of these obnoxious people, as being ^^ able-bodied men, who had no law- ful calling or sufficient maintenance*;" — a pretext absolutely groundless. Matfield was seized by vir- tue of such a warrant, and offered to the captain of a king's ship then in Mount's Bay; but the officer re- fused to receive him, saying, " I have no authority to take such men as these, unless you 'would have me give him so much a-weck to preach and pray to my people." He was then thrown into prison at Pen- zance ; and when the mayor inclined to release him, Dr. Borlase, who, though a man of character and let- ters, was not ashamed to take an active part in pro- ceedings like these, read the articles of war, and de- livered him over as a soldier. A few days after- wards Mr. Ustick, a Cornish gentleman, came up to Wesley himself, as he was preaching in the open air, and said, " Sir, I have a warrant from Dr. Borlase, and you must go with me." it had been supposed that this was striking at the root ; and that if John Wesley himself were laid hold of, Cornwall would be rid of his followers. But, however plausible this may have seemed when the resolution was fotmed, Mr. Ustick found himself considerably embarrassed when he had taken into his custody one who, instead of being a wUd hare-brained fanatic, had all the manner and appearance of a respectable clergyman, and was
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perfectly courteous and s^lf-poqpessed. He was more desirous now of getting well out of the business than he had been of engaging in it ; and this he did with great civility, asking him if he was willing to go with him to the Doctor. Wesley said, immediately, if he pleased. Mr. Ustick replied, ^^ Sir, I must wait upon you to your inn, and in the morning, if you will be so good as to go with me, I will show you the way.'* They rode there accordingly in the morning : — the Doctor was not at home, and Mr. Ustick, saying that he had executed his commission, took his leave, and left Wesley at liberty.
The same evening, as Wesley was preaching at Gwenap, two gentlemen rode fiercely ' among the people, and cried out, ^^ Seize him ! sei^e him for His Majesty's service !" Finding that the order was not obeyed, one of them alighted, caught him by the cassock, and said, ^' I take you to serve His Majesty.^' Taking him then by the arm, he walked away with him, and talked till he was out of breath of the wick* edness of the fellows belonging to the society. Wes* ley at length took advantage of a break in bis dis-> course to say, ^ Sir, be they what they will, I appre«- hend^t will not justify you in seizing me in this man- ner, and violently carrying me away, as you said, to serve His Majesty .'' Rage by this time had spent it- self, and was succeeded by an instant apprehension of the consequence which might result from acting illegally towards one who appeared likely to under* stand the laws, and able to avail himself of them. — The colloquy ended in his escorting* Mr. Wesley back to the place from whence he had taken him. The next day brought with it a more serious adven- ture. The house in which he was visiting an invalid lady at Falmouth, was beset by a mob, who roared out, *♦ Bring out the Cmorum — where is the Cano-- rum r^ a nickname which the Cornish-men had given to the MethodistB"<*it is not known wherefore. The crews of some privateers headed the rabble, and presently broke ofien the outer door, and filled the passage. By this time the persons of the bouse bad all made their escape, ejicept Wesley ^nd a poor
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eervant girl, who, for it was now too late to retire, would have had him conceal bimself in the closet. He himself, from the imprecations of the rabhle, thought his life in the most imminent danger, but any attempt at concealment would have madfB the case more desperate ; and it was his maxim always to look a mob in the face. As soon, therefore, as the partition was broken down, he stepped forward into the midst of them : — '^ Here 1 am ! which of you has any thing to say to me ? To which of you have I done any wrong? To you? or you? or you?'' Thus he made his way bare-headed into the street, and continued speaking, till the captain swore that not a man should touch him : a clergyman and some of the better inhabitants came up and interfered, led him into a house, and sent him safely by water to Penryn.
Charles was in equal or greater danger at Devizet* The curate there took the lead against him, rung the bells backwards to call the rabble together; and two dissenters, of some consequence in the town, set them on, and encouraged them, supplying them with as much ale as they would drink, while they played an engine into the house, broke the windows, flooded the rooms, and spoiled the goods. The mayor^s wife conveyed a message to Charles, be- seeching that he would disguise himself in women's clothes, and try to make his escape. Her son, a poor profligate, had been turned from the evil ofhis ways by the Methodists, just when he was about to run away and go to sea, and this had inclined her heart towards those from whom she had received so great a benefit This, however, would have been too perilous an expedient. The only magistrate in the town refused to act when he was called upon : and the mob began to untile the house, that they might get in through the roof.
^ I remembered the Roman senators," says Charles Wesley, ^^ sitting in the Forum, when the Gauls broke in upon tbeoi, but thought there was a fitter posture for Christians, and told my companion they flhoold take as on our knees." He had, however,
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resolute and active friends, one of whom succeeded, at last, in making a sort of treaty with a hostile con- stable ; and the constable undertook to bring him safe out of town, if he would promise never to preach there again. Charles Wesiej replied, ** I shall pro- mise no such thing: setting aside my office, I will not give up my birth-right, as an Englishman, of visiting what place I please in His Majesty^s domi- nions," The point was compromised, by his declar- ing that it was not his present intention ; and he and his companion were escorted oiit of Devizes by one of the rioters, the whole multitude pursuing them with shouts and execrations.
Field preaching, indeed, was at this time a ser- vice of great danger; and Wesley dwelt upon this with great force, in one of his Appeals to Men of Reason and Religion. " Who is there among you, brethren," he says, " that is willing (examine your own hearts) even to save souls from death at this price ? Would not you let a thousand souls perish, rather than you would be the instrument of rescuing them thus ? I do not speak now with regard to con- science, but to the inconveniences that must accom- pany it. Can you sustain them if you would ? Can you bear the summer sun to beat upon your naked head ? Can you suffer the wintry rain or wind from whatever quarter it blows ? Are you able to stand in the open air, without any covering or defence, when God casteth abroad his snow like wool, or scattereth his hoar frost like ashes ? And yet these are some of the smallest inconveniences which ac- company field-preaching. For, beyond all these, are the contradiction of sinners, the scoffs both of the great vulgar and the small; contempt and re- proach of every kind — often more than verbal af- fronts— stupid, brutal violence, sometimes to the hazard of health, or limbs, or life. Brethren, do you envy us this honour ? What, I pray you, would buy you to be a field -preacher .^ Or what, think you, could induce any man of common sense to continue therein one year, unless he had a full conviction in himself, that it was the will of God concerning him ?
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Upon this conviction it is (were we to submit to these things on any other motive whatever, it would furnish you with a better proof of our distractiop than any that has yet been found) that we now do for the good of souls what you cannot, will not, dare not do. And we desire not. that you should : but this one thing we may reasonably desire of you — do not increase the difficulties, which are already so great, that, without the mighty power of God, we must sink under them. Do not assist in trampling down a little handful of men, who, for the present, stand in the gap between ten thousand poor wretches and destruction, till you find some others to take their places."
The wholesome prosecution of a few rioters, in different places, put an end to enormities which would never have been committed, if the local ma- gistrates had attempted to prevent them. The of- fenders were not rigorously pursued ; they generally submitted before the trial : and it sufficed to make them understand that the peace might not be broken with impunity, ^^ Such a mercy is it," says Wesley, *• to execute the penalty of the law on those who will not regard its precepts ! So many inconveniences to the innocent does it prevent, and so much sin iu the guilty "
CHAPTER XV.
SCENES OF ITLNERANCY.
When Wesley began his course of itinerancy, there were no turnpikes* in England, and no stage-
* Wesley probably paid more for turnpikes than any other man in En^nd, for no other person travelled so much ; and it rarely happened to him to go twice through the same gate in one day. Thus he lelt the impost heavily, and, being a horseman, was not e(|ually sensible of the benefit derived from it. This may account for his joining in what was
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eoach which went farther north than York. In mmj parts of the northern counties neither coach nor chaise had ever been seen. He travelled on horse- back, always with one of his preachers in company; and, that no time might be lost, he generally read as he rode. Some of his journeys were exceedingly dangerous, — through the fens of his native country, when the waters were out, and over the fells of Northumberland, when they were covered with snow. Speaking of one, the worst of such expeditions, which had lasted two days in tremendous weather, he says, ^^ Many a rough journey have I had before, but one like this I never had, between wind, and hail, and rain, and ice, and snow, and driving sleet, and pierc ing cold. But it is past. Those days will retam no more, and are therefore as though they had never been.
Paio, disappointment, sickoeaB, strife, Wbate'er molests or troubles fife, However grierous in its stay, It shakes me tenement of clay,— « When ^t as nothing we esteem. And pain, like pleasure, is a dream**'
For such exertions and bodily inconveniences he was overpaid by the stir which his presence every where excited, the power which he exercised, the effect which he produced, the delight with which be was received by his disciples, and, above all, by the approbation of his own heart, the certainty that he was employed in doing good to his fellow^creatures^ and the full persuasion that the Spirit of God was with him in his work.
At the commencement of his errantry, he bad sometimes to bear with an indifference and inseosi-
at one tinae the popular cry. Writing, in 1770, he says, ^ I was agreea* bly surprised to find the whole road from Tbirsk to Stokesley, which used to be extremely bad, better than most turnpikes. The gentlemen had exerted themselvee, and raised money enough to mend it effe^etuaUy. So they have done for several hundred miles in Scotland, and through- out /Jl Connaught in Ireland. And so undoubtedly they micht do throughout all England, without saddling the poor people vith tab vSe imposition of turnpikes for ever.**
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bility in his friends, which was more likely than any opposition to have abated his ardour. He and John Nelson rode from common to common, in Cornwall, preaching to a people who heard willingly, but sel- dom or never proffered them the slightest act of hos- pitality. Returning one day in autumn from one of these hungry excursions, Wesley stopt his horse at some brambles to pick the fruit. . ^^ Brother Nelson,'' said he, ^^ we ought to be thankful that there are plenty of blackberries, for this is the best country t ever saw for getting a stomach, but the worst that ever I saw for getting food.* Do the people think we can live by preaching ?'' They were detained some time at St. Ivest^ because of the illness of one of their companions ; and their lodging was little better than their fare, ^^ All that time,'' savs John, *^ Mr. WeSley and I lay on the floor : he had my great-coat for his pillow, and I had Burkett's Notes on the New Testament for mine. After being here near three weeks, one morning, about three o'clock, Mr. Wesley turned over, and finding me awake, clapped me on the side, saying, ^ Brother Nelson, let us be of ^ood cheer, I have one whole side yet; for the skin is off but on one side.' "
* Wesley has himself remarked the inhospitality of his Cornish disci- ples, upon an after-visit in 1748, but he has left a blank for the name of
the place. " About four," he says, *• I came to ; examined the
leaders of the dasses for two hours : preached to the largest congrega- tion I had seen in Cornwall : met the society, and earnestly charged them to hewart of eovetoutneu. All this time I was not asked to eat or drink. After the society, some bread and cheese were set before me.
I think, verily, will not be ruined by entertaining me once a
year." A litUe society in Lincolnshire, at this time, were charitable even to an excess. *^ I have not seen such another in all England,*' says Wesley. ^ In the class paper, which gives an account of the contribution for the poor, I observed one gave eight -pence, often ten -pence a week ; another thirteen, fifteen > or eighteen -pence ; another sometimes one, sometimes two shillings. I asked Micah Clmoor, tlie leader, (an Israelite, indeed, who . now rests fVom his labour,) how is this ? are yon the richest society in England ? He answered, ' I suppose not ; but all of us, who are single persons, have agreed together to give both our.<ielves, and all we have, to God ; and we do it gladly ; whereby we are able, from time to time, to entertain all the strangers that come to Tetney, who often have no food to eat, lior any friend to give them a lodging.' '*^
f In his last Journal, Wesley notices tlhj meeting-house of t!i<^ Metho- dists at this place being ** unlike any oth^w in England, both as to its form and materials. It is exactly roimd, and composed wliullj^ of bra- zen slags, which, I suppose, will la?tas long as the rarthj' VOL. II. 6
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It was only at the beginning of his career that he had to complain of inhospitality and indifference. As he became notorious to the world, and known among his own people, it was then considered a blessing and an honour to receive so distinguished a guest and so delightful a companion ; a man who, in rank and and acquirements, was superior to those by whom he was generally entertained ; whose man- ners were almost irresistibly winning, and whose cheerftilness was like a perpetual sunshine. He had established for himself a dominion in the hearts of his followers, — in that sphere he moved as in a king- dom of his own; and, wherever he went, received the homage of gratitude, implicit confidence, and re- verential affection. Few men have ever seen so many affecting instances of the immediate good whereof they were the instruments'. A iban nearly fourscore years of age, and notorious in his neigh- bourhood for cursing, swearing, and drunkenness, was one day among his chance hearers, and one of the company, perhaps with a feeling like that of the Pharisee in the parable, was offended at his pre- sence. But, when Wesley had concluded his dis- course, the old sinner came up to him,. and- catching him by the hands, said, " Whether thou art a good or a bad man I know not; but I know the words thou speakest are good ! I never beard the Uke in all my life. Oh that God would set them home up- on my poor soul !" And then he burst into tears, so that he could speak no more. A Cornish man said to him, " Twelve years ago, I was going over Gul- van Downs, and I saw many people together; and I asked what was the matter ? They told me, a man going to preach. And I said, to be sure it is some 'mazed man ! But when I saw you, I said, nay, this is no 'mazed man. And you preached on God's rais- ing the dry bones ; and from that time I could never rest till God was pleased to breathe on me, and raisie my dead soul!" A woman, overwhelmed with af- fliction, went out one night with a determination of throwing herself into the New River. As she was passing the Foundry, she heard the people suiging :
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she stopt, and went in ; listened, learnt where to look for consolation and support, and was thereby preserved from suicide.
Wesley had been disappointed of a room at Grims- by, and when the appointed hour for preaching came^ the rain prevented him from preaching at the Cross. In the perplexity which (his occasioned, a conre* nient place was offered him by a woman, ^^ which was a sinner." Of this, however, he was ignorant at the time, and the woman listened to him without any apparent emotion. But in the evening he preached eloquently, upon the sins and the faith of her who washed our Lord's feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head ; and that discourse, by which the whole congregation were affected, touch- ed her to the heart. She followed him to his lodging, crying out,* " O, Sir, what must^ do to be saved ?" Wesley, who now understooct that she had forsaken her husband, and was living in adultery, replied, " Escape for your life ! Return instantly to your hus- band !'' She said, she knew not how to go ; she had just heard from him, and he was at Newcastle, above an hundred miles off! Wesley made answer, that he was going for Newcastle himself the next mornin? ; she might go with him, and his companion should take her behind him. It was late in October : she performed the journey under this protection, and in a state of mind which beseemed her condition.— " During our whole journey," he says, " I scarce ob- served her to smile; nor did she complain of any thing, or appear moved in the least with those trying circumstances which many times occurred in our way. A steady seriousness, or sadness rather, ap- peared in her whole behaviour and conversation, as became one that felt the burthen of sin, and was groaning after salvation." — ^^ Glory be to the Friend of sinners }r he exclaims, when he i^lates the story. ^^ He hath plucked one more brand out of the fire ! Thou poor sinner, thou hast received a prophet in the name of a prophet, and thou art found of Him that sent him." The husband did not turn away the pe- nitent; and her reformation appeared to be sincere
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and permanent. After some time, the husband left Newcastle, and {wrote to her to follow him. ^^She set out,'' says Wesley, ^^inaship bound for Hull. — A storm met them by the way : the ship sprung a leak; but though it wasjnear the shore, on which many per* sons flocked together, yet the sea ran so exceeding- ly high, that it was impossible to make any help. — Mrs. S. was seen standing on the deck, as the ship gradually sunk ; and afterwards hanging by her hands on the ropes, till the masts likewise disappeared. Even then, for some moments, they could obserreher floating upon the waves, till her clothes, which buoy- ed her up, being thoroughly wet, she sunk — I trust, into the Ocean of God's mercy !"
Wesley once received an invitation from a clergy- man in the country, whom he describes as a hoary, rever€;nd, and religious man, whose very sight struck him with an awe. iLn^old man said, that, about nine years ago, his only son had gone to hear Mr. Wesley preach, a youth in the flower of his age, and remark- ble for piety, sense^ and learning above his years. He came home, ill of the small-pox; but he praised God for the comfort which he derived from the
{>reachiDg on that day, rejoiced in a full sense of his ove, and triumphed in that assurance over sickness, and pain, and death. The old man added, that from that time he had loved Mr. Wesley, and great- ly desired to see him ; and he now blessed God that this desire had been fulfilled before he followed his dear son into eternity !
One day a post-chaise was sent to carry him from Alnwick to Warkworth, where he had been entreat- ed to preach. ^^ I found in it," says he, ^^ one waiting for me, whom, in the bloom of youth, mere anguish of soul had brought to the gates of death. She told me the troubles which held her in on every side, from which she saw bo way to escape. I told her, " The way lies straight before you : what you want is the love of God. I believe God will give it you shortly. Perhaps it is his good pleasure to make youj a poor bruised reed, the first witness here of that great sal- vation. Look for it j^st as you are^ unfit, unworthy,
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i
unholj,— by simple faith,— every day, every hour.'' She did feel the next day something she could not comprehend, and knew not what to call it. In one of . the trials, which used to sink her to the earth, she was all calm, all peace and love ; enjoying so deep a cooimunication with God, as nothing external could interrupt. ^^ Ah, thou child of affliction, of sorrow, and pain, hath Jesus found out thee also ? And he is able to find and bring back thv husband — as &r as he is wandered out of the way I"
The profligates whom he reclaimed sometimes re- turned to their evil ways ; and the innocent, in whom he had excited the fever of enthusiasm, were some- times, when the pulse fell, left in a feebler state of faith than they were found ; but it was with the af- flicted in body or in mind that the good which he produced was deep and permanent. Of this he had repeated instances, but never a more memorable one than when be visited one of his female disciples, who was ill in bed, and after having buried seven of her family in six months, had just heard that the eighth, her husband, whom she dearly loved, had been cast away at sea. " I asked her," he says, " do you not fret at any of these things ?" She said, with a love- ly smile, ** Oh, no : how can I fret at any thing which is the will of God ? Let him take all beside. He has given me Himself I love, I praise Him every mo- ment!"— Let any," says Wesley, "that doubts of Christian perfection^ look on such a spectacle as this !" If it had not become a point of honour with him to vindicate hdw he c6uld, and whenever he could, s. doctrine which vras as obnoxious as it is exceptiona- ble and dangerous, he would not have spoken of Christian perfection here. He would have known that resignation, in severe sorrow, is an effort of na- ture as well as of religion, and therefore not to be estimated too highly as a proof of holiness. But ,of the healing effects of Christianity, the abiding cheer- iiilness, under unkindly circumstances, which it pro- duces, the strength which it imparts in weakness, and the consolation and support in time of need, *he had daily and aibundant proofe.
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It was said by an * old preacher, thai they who would go to Heaven roust do four sorts of services; hard service, costly service, derided service, and for- lorn service. Hard service Wesley performed all his life, with a willing heart ; so willing a one, that no service could appear costly to him. He can hard* ly be said to have been tried with derision, because, before he became the subject of satire and contume- ly, he had attained a reputation and notoriety which enabled him to disregard them. These very attacks, indeed, proved only that he was a conspicuous mark, and stood upon high ground. Neither was he ever called upon forlorn service: perhaps, if he had, his ardour might have failed him*. Marks of impatience sometimes appear when he speaks of careless hear- ers. " I preached at Pocklington,'' he says, " with an eye to the death of that lovely woman Mrs. Cross. A gay young gentleman, with a young lady, stepped in, staid five minutes, and went out again, with as ea- sy an unconcern as if they had been listening to a ballad singer. I mentioned to the congregation the deep folly and ignorance implied in such behaviour. These pretty fools never thought that, for this very opportunity, they are to give an account before men and angels.^^ Upon another occasion, when the whole congregation had appeared insensible, he says of them, " they hear^ but when will they feel f Oh, what can man do toward raising dead bodies or dead souls !"
But it was seldom that he preached to indifierent auditors, and still more seldom 'that any withdrew from him with marks of contempt. In general, be was heard with deep attention, for his believers lis- tened with devout reverence ; and they who were not persuaded listened, nevertheless, froni curiosity, and behaved respectfully from the influence of ex- ample. " I wonder at those," says he, " who talk of the indecency of field -preaching. . The highest ^iW^* cencfj is in St, Paul's church, where a considerable part of the congregation are asleep, or talking, or look- ing about, not minding a word the preacher says. On the other hand, there is the highest decency in a chur<;h-yard or field, where the whole congregation
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behave and look as if thej saw (he Judge of all, and heard Him speaking from Heaven.'' Sometimes when he had finished the discourse, and pronounced the blessing, not a person offered to move : — thf charm was upon them still ; and every man, woman*, and child remained where the; were, till he set the example of leaving the ground. One daj many of his hearers were seated upon a long wall, built, as is common in the northern counties, of loose stones. In the middle of the sermon it fell with them. ^^ I never saw, heard^ nor read of such a thing before," he says. "The whole wall, and the persons sitting upon it, sunk down together, none of them screaming out, and very few altering their posture, and not one was hurt at all; but they appeared sitting at the bot- tom, just as they sate at the top. Nor was there any interruption either of my speaking or of the atten- tion of the hearers."
The situations in which he preached sometimes contributed to the impression ; and he himself per- ceived, that natural influences operated upon the multitude, like the pomp and circumstance of Romish worship. Sometimes, in a hot and cloudless sum- mer day, he and his congregation were under cover of the sycamores, which afford so deep a shade to some of the old farm-houses in Westmoreland and Cumberland. In such a scene, near Brough, he ob- serves, that a bird perched on one of the trees, and sung without intermission from the beginning of the service till the end. No instrumental concert would have accorded with the place and feeling of the hour so well. Sometimes, when his discourse was not concluded till twilight, he saw that the calmness of the evening agreed with the seriousness of the peo- ple, and that "they seemed to drink in the word of God, as a thirsty land the refreshing showers." One of his preaching places in Cornwall was in what had once been the court-yard of a rich and honourable man. But he and all his family were in the dust, and bis memory had almost perished. " At Gwenap, in the same county," he says, '* I stood on the wall, in the calm still evening, with the setting sun behind me,
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and alcDost an innamerablct multitude before, bebiodt and on either hand. Many likewise sate on the lit- tie hills, at some distance from the bulk of the con- negation. But thej could all hear distinctly while I read, ^ Tlie disciple is not above his Master ^^ and the rest of those comfortable words which are day by day fulifiUed in our ears.'^ This amphitheatre was one of his favourite stations. He says of it in his old age, ^ I think this is one of the most magnificent spectacles which is to be seen on this side heaven. And no music is to be heard upon earth comparrfMe to the sound of many thousand voices, when they are all harmoniously joined together, singing praises to God and the Lamb.^^ At St. Ives, when a high wind prevented him standing where he had intended, he found a little enclosure near, one end of which was native rock, rising ten or twelve feet perpendicular, from which the ground fell with an easy descent ^ A jutting out of the rock, about four feet firom the the ground, gave me a very convenient pulpit. Here well nigh the whole town, high and low, rich and poor, assembled together. Nor was there a word to be heard, nor a smile seen, from one end of the congregation to the other. It was just the same the three allowing evenings. Indeed I was afraid, on Saturday, that the roaring of the sea, raised by the north wind, would have prevented their hearing. But God gave me so clear and strong a voice, that i believe scarce one word was lost." On the next day the storm had ceased, and the clear sky, the setting sun, and the smooth still ocean, all agreed with the state of the audience.
There is a beautiful garden at Exeter, under the ruins of the castle and of the old city wall, in what was formerly the moat : it was made under the di- rection of Jackson, the musician, a man of rare genius io his own art, and eminently gifted in many ways. Before the ground was thus happily appro- priated, Wesley preached there to a large assembly, and felt the impress! veness of the situation. He says, " It was an awful sight ! So vast a congregation in that solemn amphitheatre, and all silent and sfilU
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vbiie I exf^kined at large, and enforced thatglorioilB truth, ' Happj are they vf hose, iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.' '' In another place he sajs, ^ I rode to Blanchland, about twenty miles from Newcastle. The rough mountains round about were ^till white with snow. In the midst of them is a small winding valley, through which the Darweot runs. On the edge of this the little town stands, which is indeed little more than a heap of ruins. There ^eems to have been a large cathedral church, hj the vast walls which still remain. I stood in the church-yard, under one side of the building, upon a lai^e tomb-stone, round which, while I was at prayers, all the congregation kneeled down on the grass. They were gathered out of the lead mines, Irom all parts ; many from Allandale, six miles off A row of diildren sat under the opposite wall, aU quiet and still. The whole congregation drank in every word, with such earnestness in their looks, that { could not but hope that God will make this wilderness sing for joy.'' At Gawksham he preached ^ on the side of an enormous mountain. The con- eregation," he says, " stood and sate, row above row, in the sylvan theatre. I believe nothing in the post* diluvian earth can be more pleasant tnan the road from hence, between huge steep mountains, clothed with wood to the top, and watered at the bottom by a clear winding stream.'^ Heptenstall Bank, to which he went from hence, was one of his favourite field stations. ^^ The place in which I preached was an oval spot of ground, surrounded with spreading trees, scooped out, as it were, in the side of a hill, which rose round like a theatre." The congregation was as large as he could then collect at I^eds ; but he ' says, *^ Such serious and earnest attention ! I lifted np my hands, so that I preached as I scarce ever did in my life." Once he had the ground measured, and foand that he was heard distinctly at a distance of seven-score yards. In the seventieth year of his age, he preached at Gwenap, to the largest assembly that had ever collected to hear him : from Ihe ground which they covered, he computed them to
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be not fewer than two-and-thirtj thousand ; and it was found, upon inquiry, that all could hear, even to the skirts of the congregation.
This course of life led him into a lower sphere of society than piat wherein he would otherwise have moved; and he thought himself a gainer by the change. Writing to some Earl, who took a lively interest in the revival of religion which, through the impulse given, directly or indirectly, by Methodism, was taking place, he says, '^ To speak rough truth, I do not desire any intercourse with any persons of quality in England. I mean, for my own sake. They do me no good, and, I fear, I can do none to them." To another correspondent he says, '^ I have found some of the uneducated poor who have exquisite taste and sentiment; and many, very many of the rich, who have scarcely any at all." — " In most gen- teel religious people there is so strange a mixture, that I have seldom much confidence in them. But I love the poor ; in many of them I find pure genuine grace, unmixed with paint, folly, and affectation.^^ And again, ^^ How unspeakable is the advantage in point of common sense, which middling people have over the rich ! There is so much paint and affecta- tion, so many unmeaning words and senseless cus- toms among people of rank, as fully justify the re- mark made 1700 years ago, Sensus commwm in ilia fortuna rarus.^^ — " 'Tis well," he says, « a few of the rich and noble are called. Oh ! that God would in- crease their number. But I should rejoice, were it the will of God, if it were done by the ministry <rf others. If I might choose, I should &till, as I have done hitherto, preach the gospel to the poor.'^^ Preach- ing in Monk-town church, (one of the three belonging to Pembroke,) a lai^e old ruinous building, he says, ^^ I suppose it has scarce had such a congregation in it during this century. Many of them were gay gen- teel people ; so I spake on the first elements of the fospel : but I was still out of their depth. Oh, how ard it is to be shallow enough for a polite audience !*' Yet Wesley's correspondence with the few persons over whom he obtained any influence in higher life,
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though written with honest and conscientious free- dom, is altogether untainted with any of that alloy which too frequently appeared when he was address- ing those of a lower rank. Those favourite topics are not brought forward, by which enthusiastic dis- ciples were so easily heated and disordered ; and there appears an evident feeling in the writer, that he is addressing himself to persons more judicious than his ordinary disciples.
But though Wesley preferred the middling and lower classes. of society to the rich, the class which he liked least were the farmers. " In the little jour- neys which I have lately taken,'' he says, " I have thought much of the huge encomiums which have been for many ages bestowed on a country life. How have all the learned world cried out,
Ofortunati nimium, bona si stui norint, Agricohz :
But, after all, what a dat contradiction is this to universal experience! See the little house, under the wood, by the river side ! There is rural life in
}>erfection. How happy, then, is the farmer that ives there ! — Let us take a detail of his happiness. He rises with, or before the sun, calls his servants, looks to his swine and cows, then to his stable and barns. He sees to the ploughing and sowing his ground in winter or in spring. In summer and au- tumn he hurries and sweats among his mowers and reapers. And where is his happiness in the mean time ? Which of these employments do we envy ? Or do we envy the delicate repast which succeeds, which the poet so languishes tor ?
O quandofaba, Pythagoras cognata, simalque Uncta satis pingui ponentur oluscula lardo ?
Oh the happiness of eating beans well greased wUhfat bacon; nay, and cabbage too! Was Horace in his senses when he talked thus } or the servile herd of his imitators } Our eyes and ears may convince us there is not a less happy body of men in all England than the country farmers. In general their life is sa-
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premely dull ; and it is usually unhappy too ; for, of all people in the kingdom, they are the most discon- tented^ seldom satisfied either with God or man/'
Wesley was likely to judge thus unfavourably of the agricultural part of the people, because they were the least susceptible of Methodism. For Me- thodism could be kept alive only by associations and frequent meetings ; and it is difficult, or impossible, to arrange these among a scattered population* — Where converts were made, and the discipline could not be introduced among them, and the effect kept up by constant preaching and inspection, they soon fell off*. " From the terrible instances I met with,'' says Wesley, ^^ in all parts of England, I am more and more convinced that the devil himself desires nothing more than this, that the people of any place should be half awakened, and then left to themselves to fall asleep again. Therefore I determine, by the grace of God, not to strike one stroke in any place where 1 cannot follow the' blow." But this could only be done in populous places. Burnet has * ob- served, that more religious zeal is to be found in towns than in the country, and that that zeal is more likely to go astray. It is because men are powerfully
^ acted upon by sympathy, whether for evil or for good; because opinions are as infectious as diseases, and both the one and the other find subjects enough to seize on in large cities, and those subjects in a state which prepares them to receive the mental or bodily affection.
, * *^ As for the men of trade and business, tbej are, generally speaking, the best body in the nation — ^generous, sober, and charitable : so that, while the people in the country are so immersed in their affairs that the sense of religion cannot reach them, there is a better spirit stirring in our cities; more knowledge, more zeal, and more charity, with a great deal more of devotion. There may be too much of vanity, with too pompous an exterior, mixed ^ith these in the capital city ; but, upon the whole, they are the best we have. Want of exercise is a great prejudice to their health, and a corrupter of their minds, by raising vapours and itoelancholy, that fl)ts many with dark thoughts, rendering religion, which afifords the truest jfoy, a burden 16 them, and making them even a bur* den to themselves. This furnishes prejudices against religion to thosA who are but too much disposed to seek for them.
eifiiinikt9 CowmIimioH fa Ae m^iory if hi§ Own Tim$f
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But eren where Methodism was well established, and, on the whole, flourishing, there were great fluc- tuations, and Wesley soon found how little he eould depend upon the perseverance of his converts. Early in his career he took the trouble of inquiring into the motives of seventy-six persons, who, in the course of three months, bad withdrawn from one of his socie- ties in the north. The" result was curious. Fourteen of them said they left it because otherwise their mi- nisters would not give them the sacrament : — these, be it observed, were chiefly Dissenters. Nine, be- cause their husbands or wives were not willing they should stay in iL Twelve, because their parents were not willing. Five, because their master and mistress would not let them come. Seven, because their acquaintance persuaded them to leave it. Five, because people said such bad things of the Society. Nine, because they would not be laughed at. Three, because they would not lose the poors' allowance. Three more, because they could not spare time to come. Two, because it was too far off One, be- cause she was afraid of falling into fits : — her reason might have taught Wesley a useful lesson. One, be- cause -people were so rude in the street. Two, because Thomas JVaisbit was in the Society. One, because he would not turn bis back on his baptism. One, because the Methodists were inere Church-of- England-men. And one, because it was time enough to serve God yet. The character of the converts, and the wholesome discipline to which they were subject, is still further exhibited, by an account of those who, in the same time, had been expelled from the same Society : — they were, two for cursing and swearing, two for habitual Sabbath-breaking, seven- teen for drunkenness, two for retailir^ spiritous li- quors, three for quarrelling and brawling,* one for beating his wife, three for habitual wilful Ijing, four for railing and evil-speaking, one for idleness and la- ziness, and nine-and-twenty for lightness and care- lessneens-^t would be well for the community if some part of this discipline were in general use.
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When Weslej became accustomed to such flucta« ationS) he perceived that they must be, and reason-* ed upon them sensibly. In noticing a considerable increase M^hich had taken place in one of his socie- ties in a short time, he says, " Which of these will hold fast their profession ? The fowls of the aur will devour some, the sun will scorch more, and others will be choked by the thorns 'springing up. I won- der we should ever expect that half of those who hear the word with Joy, will bring forth /m/ untopeffec" tim.^'^ — " How is it,^ he asks himself, " that almost in every place, even where there is no lasting fruit, there is so great an impression made at first upon a considerable number of people ? The fact is this : every where the work of God rises higher and higher, till it comes to a point. Here it seems, for a short time, to be at a stay, and then it gradually sinks again. All this may easily be accounted for. At first curiosity brings many hearers ; at the same time God draws many, by his preventing grace, to hear his word, and comforts them in hearing : one then tells another ; by this means, on the one hand, curi- osity spreads and increases ; and, on the other, the drawings of God's Spirit touch more hearts, and many of them more powerfully than before. He now offers grace to all that hear, most of whom are in some measure affected, and more or less moved with approbation of what they hear— desire to please God, and good-will to his messenger. These prin- ciples, variously combined and increasing, raise the general work to its highest point. But it cannot stand here ; for, in the nature of things, curiosity must soon decline. Again, the drawings of God are not follow- ed, and thereby the Spirit of God is grieved : the consequence i«, He strives with this and this man no more, and so his drawings end. Thus both the na- tural and supernatural power declining, most of the hearers will be less and less affected. Add to this^ that, in the process of the work, 1/ must be, that offences will come. Some of the hearers, if not preachers also, will act contrary to their profession. Either their follies or faults will be told from one to another, and
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lose nothing in the telling. Men, once curious to hear, will now draw back : men once drawn, having stifled their good desires, will disapprove what they approved before, and feel dislike, instead of good- will, to the preacher. Others, who were more or less convinced, will be afraid or ashamed to acknow* ledge that conviction ; and all these will catch at ill stories (true or false) in order to justify their change. When, by this means, all who do not savingly believe, have quenched the Spirit of God, the little flock goes on from faith to faith ; the rest sleep on, and take their rest And thus the number of hearers in every place may be expected, first to increase, and then decrease."
CHAPTER XVI.
Wesley's lay-coadjutors.
When Wesley had once admitted the assistance of lay-preachers, volunteers in abundance offered their zealous services. If he had been disposed to be nice in the selection, it was not in his power. He had called up a spirit which he could not lay, but he was still able to contrc^ and direct it Men were flattered by being admitted to preach with his sanc- tion, and sent to itinerate where he was pleased to appoint, who, if he had not chosen to admit their co-operation, would not have been withheld from exercising the power which they felt in themselves, and indulging the strong desire, which they imputed to the impulse of the Spirit: but had they taken this course, it would have been destructive to the scheme which was now fairly developed before him.
Wesley had taken no step in his whole progress so reluctantly as this. The measure was forced upon him by circumstances. It had become inevi- table, in the position wherein he had placed himself:
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still he was too judicious a man, too well aoqiiaiotei with history and with human nature, not to feel a proper repugnance to the irregolaritj which he Baoctioned, and to apprehend the ill consequences which were likely to ensue. He says himself, that to touch tins point was at one time to touch the apple of his eye : and in his writings he carejblly stated, that the preachers were permitted by him, but not appointed. One of those clergymen, who would gladly, in their sphere, have co-operated with the VVesleys, had they not disliked the extravagan- cies of Methodism, and foreseen the schism to which it was leading, objected to this distinction. «^ I fear, Sir," said he, " that your saying you do not appoint, but only approve of the lay-preachers, from a per- suasion of their call and fitness, savours ofdisingenu- ity. Where is the difference ? Under whose sanction do they act ? Would they generally think their call a sufficient warrant for commencing preachers, or be received in that capacity by your people, without your approbation, tacit or express r And what is their preaching upon this call, but a manifest breach upon the order of the Church, and an inlet to conr fusion, which, in all probability, will follow upon your death ; and, if I mistake not, you are upoo the point of knowing by yotir own experience."
But Wesley had so often been called upon to de^ fend himself, that he perfectly understood th^ strength of his ground. Replying for his brother, and the few other clergymen who acted with him, as well as for himself, he made answer, " We have done nothing rashly, nothing without deep and long consideration, (hearing and weighing all objections,) and much prayer. Nor have we taken one deliberate step, rf which we, as yet, see reason to repent It is true, in some things we vary from the rules of our Church ; but no further than, we apprehend, is our bounden duty. It is from a full conviction of this that we preach abroad, use extemporary prayer, form those who appear to be awakened into societies, and per- mit laymen, whom we believe God has called, to preach. I say permit, because we ourselves have
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hitherto viewed it in no other light. This w« are clearly satiBfied that vre may do ; that we may do more^ we are not satisfied. It is not clear to us that Pres* fojters, so circumstanced as we are, may appmnt^ or 0rdain others ; but it is, that we may direct^ as well as euffer them to do, what we conceive they are movtd to by the Holy Ghost. It is true that, in" ofiinary cases, both an inward and an otUword call are requisite ; but, we apprehend, there is something fer from ordinary in the present case ; and, upon the calmest view of things, we think, that they who are only called of God, and not of man, have more right to preach than they who are only called of man and not of God. Now, that many of the clergy, though called of man, are not called of God to preach his gospel, is undeniable : first, because they themselves utterly disclaim, nay, and ridicule the inward call ; secondly, because they do not know what the gospdi is ; of consequence they do iiat^ and cannot preach it Dear Sir, coolly and impartially consider this, and you will see on which side the difficulty lies. I do assure you, this at present is my chiei embarrass* ment That I have not gone too far yet, I know ; but whether 1 have gone far enough; I am extremely doubtful. I see those running whom God hath not , sent; destroying their own souls, and those that hear them ; perverting the right ways of tlie Lord, and blaspheming the truth as it is in Jesus. I see the blind leading the blind, aiid both falling into the ditch. Unless I warn, in all ways I can, these pe- rishing souls of their danger, am f elear of the blood of these men ? Soul-damning clet^men lay me un- der more difficulties than soulnaaving laymen T'
He justified the measure, by showing how it had arisen: a plain account of the whole proceeding was, he thought, the best defence of it. " And I am bold to affirm,^^ says he, in one of his Appeals to Men of Reason and Religion, ^ that these unlettered . men have help from God for that great work, the saving souk from death ; seeing he hath enabled, and doth enable them still, to turn maaay to right- eousness. Thus hath he * destroyed the wisdom of
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58 Wesley's lay-coadjutors.
the wide, and brou|bt to nought the understanding of the prudent' When they imagined thej had effectually shut the door, and locked up every pas- sage, whereby any help could come to two or three preachers, weak in body as well as soul, who they might reasonably believe would, humanly speaking, wear themselfes out in a short time, — when they had gained their point, by securing (as they suppos* ed) aJl the men of learning in the nation. He that sitteih in heaven laughed them to scom^ and came upon them by a way they thought not of. Out of the stones he raised up those who should beget children to Abra- ham. We had no more foresight of this than you. Nay, we had the deepest prejudices against it, until we could not but own that God gave wisdom from above to these unlearned and ignorant men, so that the work of the Lord prospered in their hands, and sinners were daily converted to God."
Zeal was the only qualification which he required. If the aspirant possessed no other requisite for his work, and failed to produce an effect upon his hear- ers, his ardour was soon cooled, and he withdrew auietly from the field; but such cases were not very frequent. The gift of voluble utterance is the com- monest of vail gifts ; and when the audience are in sympathy with the speaker, they are easily affected :* the understanding makes no demand, provided the passions find their food. But, on the other hand, lichen enthusiasm was united with strength of talents and of character, Wesley was a skilful preceptor, who knew how to discipline the untutored mind, and to imbue it thoroughly with his system. He strongly impressed upon his preachers the necessity of read- ing to improve themselves. In reproving and ad- vising one who had neglected this necessary disci*
" ♦ Sewel relates, with aU simplicity and sincerity, in his History of th« Quakers, that his mother, a Dutch woman, preached in 'her native Ian- * gua^e to a congre^atfon of English Friends, and tliat though they did iK)t understand a single word, they were nevertheless edified by the dfe- Gourse.-— A man returned from attending one of Whitefield's sernaons, and said it was good for him to be there : the place, indeed, was. so crowded, that he had not been able to get near enough to hear him : «* but then," said he, «* I saw hit blessed wig!"
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Wesley's lay-coadjutors. 59
pline, he points out to him the ill consequences of that neglect. ^' Hence," he says, '^your talent in preaching does not increase : it is just the same as it was seven years ago. It is lively, but not deep : there is little variety ; there is no compass of thought. — Reading only can supply this, with daily meditation and daily prayer. You wrong yourself greatly by omitting this: you can never be a deep preacher without it, any more than a thorough Christian. Oh begin ! Fix some part of every day for private exer- cises. You may acquire the taste which you hare not: what is tedious at first, will afterwards be plea- sant. Whether you like it or not, read ^and pray daily. It is for your life! there is no other way; else you will be a trifler all your days, and a pretty superficial preacher. Do justice to your own soul : give it time and means to grow : do not starve your- self any longer."
But when the disciple was of a thoughtful and in- tjuiring mind, then Wesley's care was to direct his studies, well knowing how important it was that he should retain the whole and exclusive direction. — Thus, in a letter to Mr. Benson, then one of the most hopefiil, and since one of the most distinguished of his followers, he says, ^^ When I recommend to any one a method or scheme of study, I do not barely consider this or that book separately, but in conjunc- tion with the rest. And what I recommend, I know ; I know both the style and sentiments of each author, and how he will confirm or illustrate what goes be- fore, and prepare for what comes after. Therefore, I must insist upon it, the interposing other books be- tween these is not good husbandry : it is not making your time and pains go as far as they might go. If you want more books, let me recommend more, who best understand my own scheme. And do not ramble^ however learned the persons may be that advise you so to do."
To this disciple Wesley bad occasion to say, ^ Beware you be not swallowed up in books ! An ounce of love is worth a pound of knowledge." This kind of caution was not often wanted. Nor, although
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many of his early preachers applied themselves dili* gently to the study of the lans^uages^ did he particu- larly encourage them in their desire of becoming learned men; for he perceived that^ , provided the
Ereacher were thoroughly master of his system, and ad the language of Scripture at command^ the more, in other pomts of intellectual culture, he was upon a level with the persons among whom he was called to labour, the better would they comprehend him, and the more likely would he be to produce the de- sired effect. " Clearness,'' he says to one of his lay- assistants, *^4s necessary for you and me, because we are to instruct people of the lowest understanding; therefore we, above all, if we think with the wise, must yet speak with the vulgar. We should con- stantly use the most common, little, easy words (so they are pure and proper) which our language affords. When first I talked at Oxford to plain peo- ple in the castle or the town, I observed they gaped and stared. This quickly obliged me to alter my style, and adopt the language of those I spoke to; and yet there is a dignity in their simplicity, which is not disagreeable to those of the highest rank/' Many of his ablest and most successful assist- ants perceived the good sense of this reasoning, and acted upon it. ^^ I am but a brown-bread preacher,'' says Thomas Hanson, ^^ that seek to help all I can to Heaven, in the best manner I can/' Alexander Ma« ther had received a good Scotch education in his boyhood, and was sometimes tempted to recover his lost Latin, and learn Greek and Hebrew also, when he observed the progress made by others who had not the same advantage to begin with. . But this de- sire was set at rest, vrhen he considered .that these persons were not more instrumental than before, *^ either in awakening, converting, or buildii^ up souls," which he regarded as the *^only businesst and the peculiar glory of a Methodist preacher. In all these respects they had been useful," he said, ^ but not mom useful than when they were without their leartiins; and he doubted whether they had been so useftU as they might bave been, if they had
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employed the rame time, the same diligenee, and the same tntenseness of thought hi the several branches of that work for which they willingly gave up all.''
But although Wesley was not desirous that his preachers should labour to obtain a reputation for learning, he repelled the charge of ignorance. ^' In the one thing," he says, « which they profess to know, they are not ignorant men. I trust there is not one of them who is not able to go through such an ex- amination in substantial, practical, experimental di- vinity, as few of our candidates for holy orders, even in the University (I speak it with sorrow and shame, and in tender love,) are able to do. But oh ! what manner of examination do most of those candidates go through ? * and what proof are the testimonials commonly brought (as solemn as the form is wherein they run) either of their piety or knowledge, to whom are entrusted those sheep which God hath purchas- ed* with his own blood ?"
No founder of a monastic order ever more entire- ly possessed the respect, as well as the love and the admiration of his disciples ; nor better understood their individual characters, and. how to deal with each according to the measure of his capacity. Where strength of mind and steadiness were united with warmth of heart, he made the preacher his counsellor as well as his friend : when only simple zeal was to be found, he used it for his instrument as long as it lasted. An itinerant, who was troubled with doubts respecting his call, wrote to him in a fit of low spirits, requesting that he would send a preacher to supersede* him in his circuit, because he believed he was out of bis place. Wesley repli- plied in one short sentence, ^^ Dear brother, you are indeed out of your plac€ ; for you are reasonings when you ought to beprayingy And this was all. Thus tempering his authority, sometimes with playfulness, and always with kindness, he obtained from his ear- ly followers aui unhesitating, a cheerful, and a devot- ed obedience. One of them, whom he had summon- ed from Bristol to meet him at Holyhead, and ac- company him to Ireland, set out on foot, with only
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three shillings in his pocket. It is a proof how coil^ fidently such a man might calculate upon the kindli- ness of human nature^ that, during six nights out of seven, this innocent adventurer was hospitably enter- tained by utter strangers, and when he arrived he had one penny left. John Jane (such was his name)did not long survive this expedition : he brought on a fe- ver bywalking in exceeding hot weather; and Wesley, recording his death in his journal, concludes in this remarkable manner: — ^^AU his clothes, linen and woollen, stockings, hat, and wig, are not thought suf- ficient to answer his funeral expenses, which amount to 11. 17s. 3d. All the money he had was ls» 4d. — Enough for any unmarried preacher of the gospel to leave to his executors!^' St. Francis himself might have been satisfied with such a disciple.
Men were not deterred from entering upon this course of life by a knowledge of the fatigue, the pri^ vations, and the poverty to which they devoted them* selves ; still less by the serious danger they incur- red, before the people were made to understand that the .Methodists were under the protection of the law. There is a stage of enthusiasm in which these things operate as incitements ; but this efTect ceases as the spirit sinks to its natural level. Many of the first preachers withdrew from the career when their ar- dour was abated ; not because they were desirous of returning to the ways of the world, and emanci- pating themselves from the restraints of their new profession, but because the labour was. too great Some received regular orders, and became useful ministers of the Establishment; others obtained con- gregations among the Dissenters; others resumed the trades which they had forsaken, and, settling where the Methodists were numerous,officiated occa- sionally among them. The greatextent of ground over which they were called to itinerate, while the num- ber of preachers was comparatively small, occasioned them, if they were married men, or had any regard for their worldly welfare, thus to withdraw them- selves ; for the circuits were at that time so wide, that the itinerant- could only command two or three
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da J8 in as manj months, for enjoying the* society of his* family, and looking after his own concerns. Yet more persons than might have been expected perse- vered in their course, and genially had reason, even in a worldly point of view, to congratulate themselves upon the part which they had taken. From humble, or from lovf life, they were raised to a conspicuous station : they enjoyed respect and influence in their own sphere, which was the world to them; and, as moral and intellectual creatures, they may indeed be said to have been new-born, so great was the change which they had undergone.
Conversions have sometimes been produced by circumstances almost as dreadful as the miracle by which Saul the persecutor was smitten down. Such were the cases of S. Norbert, (omitting all wilder legends,) of ,8. Francisco de Borja, of the Abbe de Ranee, and, in our own days, of Vanderkemp, Sometimes the slightest causes have sufficed, and a chance word has determined the future character of the hearer's life. The cases in Methodism have generally besn of the latter kind. A preacher hap«- pened to say in a sermon, ^^ there are two witnesses, dead and buried in the dust, who will rise up in judgment against you !'' And holding up the Bible, he continued, ^^ these are the two witnesses that have been dead and buried in the dust upon your shelf; the Old Testament and the New !'' One man was present who felt what was said, as if his own guilt bad been recorded against him, and was thus mysteri- ously revealed. " I felt," says he, " what was spo- ken. I remembered that my Bible was covered with dust, and that I had written my name with the point of my finger upon the binding. I thought I had sign- ed my own damnation on the back of the witnesses.^ This brought on a fearful state of mind. He went home in great terror ; and seeing a dead toad in his path, he wished, be says, that be had been a toad al- so, for then he should have had no soul to lose. In the middle of the night, while labouring under such feelings, be sat up in bed, and said, ** Lord, how will it be with me in hell?" Just then a dog began to
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64 WESLET^S LAT-COADiUT0M.
howl ander his window, and reminded htm of the weeping and gnaahing of teeth. After a perHous struggle between Methodism and madness, the case came to a favourable termination, and John Fnn spent the remainder of his days as a preacher.
A partj of men were amusing themselTes one day at an alehouse in Rotherham, bj mimicking the Me- thodists. It was disputed who succeeded best, and this led to a wager. There were four performers, and the rest of the company was to decide, after a fair specimen from each. A Bible was produced, and three of the rivals, each in turn mounted the ta- ble, and held forth, in a style of irreverent boiibonery, wherein the Scriptures were not spared. John Thorpe, who was the last exhibiter, got upon the ta- ble in high spirits, exclaiming, I shall beat you all! He opened the book for a text, and his eyes rested upon these words, ' Except ye repent^ ye shaU ail Ukewise perish P These wx>rds, at such a moment, and in such a place, struck him to the heart. He became serious, he preached in earnest, and he affirmed af- terwards, that his own hair stood eretft at the feel- ings which then came upon him, and the awfiii de- nunciations which he uttered. Hie companions heard him with the deepest silence. When he came down, not a word was said concerning the wager; he left the room immediately, without speaking to any one, went home in a state^of great agitation, and resigned himself to the impulse which had thus strangely been produced. In consequence, he joinr ed the Methodists, and became an itinerant preacher: but he would often say, when he related tnis story^ that if ever he preached by^the assistance of the Spirit of God, it was at that time.
Many of Wesley's early coadjutors have left me- moirs of themselves, under the fovourite title of their ** Experience." A few sketches from these'authentic materials will illustrate the progress and nature of Methodism ; and while they exhibit the eccentrici- ties of the human mind, will lay open also some of its recesses.
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CHAPTER XVII.
JOHN OLIVER. ^JOHN PAWSON. — ALEXANDER MATHER.—
THOMAS OLIVERS.
John Oliver, the son of a tradesman, at Stockport, in Cheshire, received the rudiments of a liberal edu- cation at the grammar*school in that town ; but at the age of thirteen, in consequence of reduced circum- stances, was taken into his father's shop. When he was about fifteen, the Methodists came to Stockport ; he partook the general prejudice against them, and calling upon one with whom be chanced to be ac- quainted, took upon himself to convince him that he was of a bad religion, which was hostile to the church. The Methodist, in reply, easily convinced him that he had no religion at all. His pride was mortified at this defeat, and he went near his acquaintance no more ; but the boy was touched at heart also : he left off his idle and criminal diversions, (of which cock-fighting was one,) read, prayed, fasted, regular- ly attended church, and repeated the prayers and collects every day. This continued some months, without any apparent evil ; but having, at his father's instance, spent a Sabbath evening at an inn, with some young comrades from Manchester, and forgot- ten all his good resolutions while he was in their company, he came homef at night in an agony of mind/ He did not dare to pray : his conscience stared him in the face ; and he became melancholy. The cause of this distemper was more obvious than the cure; and when he was invited one evening to attend a meeting, the father declared he would knock his brains out if he went, though he should be hanged for it. John Oliver knew how little was meant by this threat, and stole away to the sermon. He " drank it in with all his heart;" and having afterwards been informed, by a female disciple, of the manner of her conversion, he was *^ all in a flame to know these
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things for himself/' So he hastened home, fell to
{jrayer, fancied twice that he heard a voice distinct- y sajing that his sins were forgiven him, and felt, in that instant, that all his load was gone, and that an inexpressible change had been wrought. "1 loved God,'' he says : '*' 1 loved all mankind. I could not tell whether I was in the body or out of it. Prayer was turned into wonder, love, and praise " In this state of exaltation he joined the society,
Mr. Oliver was a man of violent temper;, he loved bis son dearly ; and thinking that a boy of sixteen was not emancipated from the obligation of filial obedi- ence, his anger at the course which John persisted in pursuing was strong in proportion to the strength of his afiection. He sent to all the Methodists in the town, threatened what he would do if any of them dared receive him into tlieir houses. He tried seve- rity, by the advice of stupid men ; and broke not only sticks but chairs upon him, in his passion. Perceiv- ing that these brutal means were ineffectual, and perhaps inwardly ashamed of them, he reproached his undutiful child with breaking his father's heart, and bringing down his gray hairs with sorrow to the grave. The distress of the father, and the stubborn resolution of the son, were now matter of public talk in Stockport. Several clergymen endeavoured to convince the lad of his misconduct One. of them, who had been his schoolmaster, called him his child,
E rayed for him, wept over him, and conjured him, as e loved his own soul, not to go near those people any more. The father, in presence of this clergy- man, told his son, that he might attend the church* prayers every day, and should have every indul* gence which he could ask, provided he would come no more near those ^^ damned villains," as be called the objects of his violent bat not unreasonable pre- judice. John's reply was, that he would do everj thing in his power to satisfy him as a child to a parent, but that this was a matter of conscience which be could not give up.
Mn Oliver had good cause for apprehending the worst consequences from that spirit of fanaticism
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with which the boy ivas so thoroughly possessed. > The disease was advancing rapidly toward a crisis. At this time, his heart was ^^ kept in peace and lore all the day long ;^' and when his band-fellows spoke of the wickedness which they felt in them* selves, he w(Hidered at them, and could discover none in himself. It was not long before he made the discovery. " Having," he says, " given way to temptation, and grieved the Holy Spirit of God," all his comforts were withdrawn in a moment : ^ my soul was all over darkness : I could no longer see him that is invisible : I could not feel his influence on my heart : I sought him, but could not find him. I endeavoured to pray, but the heavens seemed like brass : at the same time such a weight came upon me, as if I was instantly to be pressed to death. I sunk into black despair: I found no gleam of light, no trace of hope, no- token of any kind for good. The Devil improved this hour of darkness, telling me I was sure to be damned, for I was forsaken of God. Sleep departed from me, and I scarce eat any thing, till I was reduced to a mere skeleton." One morning, being no longer able to endure this misery, and resolving to put an end to his wretched life, he rose very early, and • threw himself into the river, in deep water. How he was taken out, and conveyed to the house of a Methodist, he says, is what he never could tell; ^' unless God sent one of his ministering spirits to help in the time of need." A humbler Christian would have been satisfied with gratefully acknow* ledging the providence of God : he, however, flat* tered himself with the supposition of a miracle ; and Wesley, many years afterwards, published the ac-^ count without reprehension or comment That even*- iffg, there was preaching and praying in the house ; but, in the morning, ^^ Satan came upon him like thun-* der," telling him he was a self-murderer; and he at- tempted to strangle himself with a handkerchief. It was now thought proper to send for Mr. Oliver, who had been almost distracted all this while, fear* ing what might so prohat^l^r have happened to the
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68 JOHN OLIVEIU
poor bewildered boy. He took bim home, promising to use no severity ; for John was afraid to go. A physician was called in, whom Oliver calls an utter stranger to all religion. He bled him largely, phy- sicked him well, and blistered him on the head, back, and feet. It is very possible that the bodily disease required some active treatment : the leaven of the mind was not thus to be worked off. The first time that he was permitted to go out, one of his Methodist friends advised him to elope, seeing that he would not be permitted to serve God at home. He went to Manchester: his mother followed him, and found means to bring him back by force : the father then gave up the contest in despair, and John pursued his own course without further opposition. Now it was, he says, that his strength came again: his light, his life, his God. He began to exhort : soon afterward iic fancied himself called to some more public work ; and, having passed through the previous stages, was accepted by Wesley upon trial as a travelling preacher. At the year's end he would have gone home, from humility, not from any weariness ofhis vocation. Wesley's reply was, " You have set your hand to the gospel-plough, therefore never look back ! I would have you come up to Lon- don this winter. Here is every thing to make (be man of God perfect." He accepted the invitation ; and had been thirty years an active and successful preacher, when his life and portrait were exhibited in the Arminian Magazine.
Oliver describes himself as having always been of a fearful temper — a temper which is often con- nected with rashness. During part of his life, he wad afSicted with what he calls a scrofulous dis- order. A practitioner in Essex, to whom he applied for relief, and who began his practice by prayer, told him his whole mass of blood was corrupted, and advised him to a milk diet : he took daily a quart of milk, with white bread, and two table-spoonfuls of honey. In six months his whole habit of body was changed, and no symptom of the disorder ever ap- peared afterwards.
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JOHN PAWSON. 69
John Pawson was the son of a respectable farmer^ who cultivated his own estate, at Tborner, in York- shire. His parents were of the Church of England, and gave him a good education according to their means; and though, he says, they were strangers to the life and power of religion, brought him up in the fear of God. The father followed also the trade of a builder, and this son was bred to the same busi- ness. The youth knowing the Method ifets only by common report, supposed them to be a foolish and wicked people ; till happening to hear a person give an account of his wife, who was a Methodist, he conceived a better opinion of them, and felt a wish to hear theoi. Accordingly he went one evening to their place of meeting ; but, when he came to the door, he was ashamed to go in, and so walked round the house, and returned home. This was in his 1 8lh year. He was now employed at Harewood, and fell into profligate company, who, though they did not succeed in corrupting him, made him dislike Metho- dism more than ever.
Two sermons, which had been preached at the parish church in Leeds by a methodistical clergy- man, .were lent to his father when Pawson was about twenty. These fell into his hands, and convinced him that justification by faith was necessary to salva- tion. He went now to. Otley to hear a Methodist preach ; and from that hour his course of life was determined. The serious devout behaviour of the people, he says, struck him with a kind of religious awe: the singing greatly delighted him; and the sermon was, to use his own phraseology, ** much blest to hiQ soul." He was permitted to stay, and be present at the Society Meeting, and ** had cause to bless God for it."
There was nothing wavering in this man^s charac- ter: he had been morally and religiously brought up ; his disposition, from, the beginning, was good, and his devotional feelings strong. But his relations were exceedingly offended when he declared him- self a Methodist. An uncle, who had promised to be his friend, resolved that he would leave him no-
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70 JOHN PAWSON.
thing in his will, and kept the resolution. His pa* rents, and his brother and sisters, supposed him to be totally ruined. Sometioies his father threatened to turn him out of doors, and utterly disown him : but John was his eldest son : he dearly loved him; and this fault, bitterly as he regretted and resented it, was not of a nature to destroy his natural affection. He tried persuasion, as well as threats ; beseeching him not to run wilfully after his own ruin ; and his mother frequently wept much on his account The threat of disinheriting him gave him no trouble; but the danger which he believed their souls were in distressed him sorely. ^^ I did not regard what I suffered," says he, " so my parents might be brought out of their Egyptian darkness.'' He bought books, and laid them in his father's way, and it was a hope- ful symptom that the father read them, although it seemed to no good purpose. The seed, however, had struck root in the family : his brother and some of his sisters were ** awakened." The father be- came more severe with John, as the prime cause of all this mischief: then again he tried mildmean^, and told him to buy what books he pleased, but besought him not to go to the preachings : he might learn more by reading Mr. Wesley's writings, than by hearing the lay-preachers; and the MetM- dists, he said, were so universally hated, that it would ruin his character to go among them. It was «* hard work" to withstand the entreaties of a good father; and it was not less hard to refrain from what he verily believed essential to his salva- tion. There was preaching one Sunday near the house, and, in obedience, he kept away ; but when it was over, and he saw the people returning home, full of the consolation which they had received, his grief became too strong for him : he went into the garden, and wept bitterly; and, as his emo- tions became more powerful, retired into a solitary }>lace, and there, he says, bemoaned himself be- bre the Lord, in such anguish, that he was scarcely able to look up. In this situation his father found him, and took him into the fields to see the grass and
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JOHlff FAWSON* 71
corn ; but the cheerful images of nature produced no efiect upon a mind thus agitated ; and the father was grievously troubled, believing verily that his sop would run distracted. They returned home in time to attend the Church service ; and, in the evening, as was their custom, John read aloud from some re* ligiou&book, choosing one to his purpose. Seeing that his father approved of what he read, he ventured to speak to him m defence of his principles. The father grew angry, and spoke with bitterness. " I find,^' said the old man, ^^ thou art now entirely ruined. I have used every means I can think of, but all to no purpose. 1 rejoiced at tby birth, and I once thought thou wast as hopeful a young man as any in this town ; but now I shall have no more comfort ia thee so long as I live. Thy mother and I are grown old, and thou makest our lives quite miserable : thou wilt bring down our gray hairs with sorrow to the ffrave. Thou intendest to make my house a preach- ing house, when once my head is laid ; but it shall never be thine : no, I will leave all I have to the poor of the parish, before the Methodists shall have any thing to do with it.^' Pawson was exceedingly affect- ed ; and the father seeing this^ desired him to pro- mise that he would hear their preaching no more.— * He replied, when he could speak for weeping, that if he could see a sufficient reason he would make that promise ; but not till then. " Well,'' replied the old man, ^^ I see thou art quite stupid — I may as well say nothing: the Methodists are the most bewitching people that ever lived; for, when once a person hears them, it is impossible to persuade him to return back again.''
Pawson retired from this conversation in great trouble, and was tempted to think that he was guilty of disobeying his parents ; but he satisfied himself that he must obey God rather than man. It was a great comfort to him that his brother sympathized with him entirely: they both strove to oblige their parents as much as possible, and took especial care that no business should be neglected for the preach* ing. This conduct had its effect They used to pray
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72 JOHN PAWSON.
together in their chamber. The mother, after often listening on the stairs, desired at last to join them ; and the father became, in like manner, a listener at first, and afterwards a partaker in these devotions. — The minister of the parish now began to apprehend that he should lose ihe whole family : the way by which he attempted to retain them was neither wise nor charitable ; it was by reviling and calumniating the Methodists, and in this manner inflaming the fa- ther's wrath against the son. This was Pawson's last trial : perceiving the effect which was thus produced, he wrote a letter to his father, in which, after stating his feelings concerning his own soul, he came to plain arguments, which could not but have their due weight. ^'^ What worse am I, in any respect, since I heard the Methodists ? Am I disobedient to you or my mother in any oilier thing? Do I neglect any part of bosi- ness .'*" He asked him also why he condemned the preachers, whom he had never heard. " If you w ill hear them only three times," said he, " and then prove from the Scripture that they preach contrary thereunto, I will hear them no more." The old man accepted this proposal. The first sermon he liked tolerably well, the second not at all, and the third so much, that he went to hear a fourth, which pleased him better than all the rest. His own mind was now wholly unsettled : he retired one morning into the stable, where nobody might hear or see him, that he might pray without interruption to the Lord ; and here such a paroxysm came on, ^' that he roared for the very disquietness of his soul."—" This," says Pawson, " was a day of glad tidings to me. I now had liberty to cast in my lot with the people of God. My father invited the preachers to his house, and prevented my turning it into a preaching house, (as he had formerly said,) by doing it himself. From this time we had preachingfe in our own house, and all the family joined the Society."
It might have been thought that the proselyte had now obtained his souPs desire ; but he bad not attain- ed to tlie new birth : his prayer was, that the Lord would take away his heart of stone, and give him a
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JOHN PAWSON. 7.3
beart of flesh ; and, ere long^ as he was <^ hearing the word*^ in a neighbouring village, the crisis which be solicited cadie on. ^^ In the beginning of the Ser- vice," says he, " the power of God came mightily apon me and many others. All on a sudden my beart was like melting wax : I cried aloud with an exceed* ing bitter cry. The arrows of the Almighty stuck &st in my flesh, and the poison of them drank up my spirits ; yet, in the height of my distress, I could hless the Lord that he had granted me that which I had so long sought for.'^ It was well that his father had been converted before he reached this stage, or he might with some reason have believed that Metho- dism had made his son insane. He could take no delight in any thing; his business became a burden to him ; he was quite confused ; so that any one, he says, who looked on him, might see in his counte- nance the distress of his mind, for he was on the very brink of despair. One day he was utterly confound- ed by hearing that one of his acquaintance had re- ceived an assurance of salvation, when he had only heard three sermons; whereas he, who had long waited, was still without comfort. Public thanks were nven for this new birth; and Pawson went home from the meeting to give vent to his own grief. As he could not do this in his chamber without dis- turbing the family, he retired into the barn, where he might perform freely, and there began to pray, and weep, and roar aloud, for his distress was greater than he could well bear. Presently he found that hi&rbrother was in another part of the bam, in as much distress as himself. Their cries brought in the father and mother, the elder sister, and her husband, and all being in the same condition, they all lament- ed together. ^^ I suppose,'^ says Pawson, ^^ if some of the good Christians of the age had seen or heard us, they would have concluded we were all quite be* side ourselves. However, ^ though the children were brought to the birth, there was not strength to bring fiorth/' One Saturday evening, when ^^ there was a mighty shaking among the dry bones^ at the meet- ing, his father received the assurance, and the VOL. n. 10
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74 JbHN PATVSOK.
preacher gave thanks on his account; but Fawsoti was so far from being able to rejoice with him, that^ he says, " his soul sunk as into the belly of hell."— On the day following the preacher met the Society, " in order to wrestle with God in behalf of those who were in distress." Pawson went full of sorrow, " pant- ing after the Lord as the hart after the water-brooks." When the prayer for those in distress was made, he placed himself upon bis knees in the middle of the room, if possible, in greater anguish of spirit than ever before. Presently a person, whom he knew, ** cried for mercy, as if he would rend the very hea- ven."*— " Quickly after, in the twinkling of an eye," says Pawson, ^^ all my trouble was gone, my guilt and condemnation were removed, and I was filled with joy unspeakable. I was brought out of darkness into marvellous light; out of miserable bondage, into glo- rious liberty ; out of the most bitter distress, into un- speakable happiness. I had not the least doubt of my acceptance with God, but was fully assured that he was reconciled to me through the merits of his Son. I was fully satisfied that I was born of God : my justification was so clear to me, that I could nei- ther doubt nor fear."
The lot of the young man was now cast. He was shortly afterwards desired to meet a class : it was a sore trial to him ; but obedience was a duty, and he was " obliged to take up the cross." " From the first or second time I met it," he continues, ^' I continually walked in the li^ht of God's countenance : I served him with an undivided heart. I had no distressing temptations, but had constant power over all sin, so that I lived as upon the borders of heaven." Hence- forward his progress was regular. From reading the homilies, and explaining them as he went on, he be- gan to expound the Bible, in his poor manner. The people thrust him into the pulpit.* First he became a local preacher, then an itinerant, and, finally, a leading personage of the conference, in which he continued a steady and useful member till his death.
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Alexander Mather was a man of cooler tempera* ment and better disciplined mind than most of W es^ ley's coadjutors. He was the son of a baker, at Brer chin, in Scotland : his parents were reputable and religious people : they kept him carefully from evil company, and brought him up in the fear of God 3 but the father was a rigid and severe man ; and pro-* bably for this reason, while he was yet a mere boy, (according to his own account not thirteen,) he join- ed the rebels in 1745. Having escaped from Cullo- den and the pursuit, he found that his father's doors were closed against him on his return. By his mo- ther's help, however, he was secreted among their relations for several months, till he thought the dan* ger was over, and ventured a second time to present himself at home. The father, more, perhaps, from cunning, than actual want of feeling, not only again refused him admittance, but went himself and gave information against him to the commanding officer, and the boy would have been sent to prison, if a gen- tleman of the town had not interfered, and obtained leave for him to lodge in his father's house. The next morning he passed through the form of an ex- amination, and was discharged. - From this4ime he worked at his father's business, till, in the nineteenth y«ar of his age, he thought it adviseable to see the world, and therefore travelled southward. The next year he reached London, and there engaged himself as a journeyman baker. Because he was, as he says, a foreigner, his first master was summoned to Guild- ball, and compelled to dismiss him. This unjust law was not afterwards enforced against him, and he seems to have had no difficulty in obtaining employ- ment. Before he had been many months in London, a young woman, who had been bred up with him in his father's house, sought him out : they had not met for many years, and this renewal of an old intimacy*, in a strange land, soon ended in marriage.
Mather had made a resolution that he would live wholly to God whenever he should marry. For a while he was too happy to remember this resolu- tion : he remembered it when his wife was afflicted
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with illness t it then lay heavy <»i his mind that he had not performed his vow of praying with her, and yet some kind of false feeling prevented him from opening his heart to her. Day after day the sense of this secret sin increased upon him, till, after loss of appetite and of sleep, and tears by day and night, be ^ broke thrbugh,^^ as he expresses it, and began the practice ot praying with her, which horn Uiat time was never interrapted. Her education had been a reiiKious c»ie like his, and they did not de- part from the way in which they were trained up.
Though Mather bad no domestic obstacles to overcome, and never passed throngh those strc^gles of mind which, in many of his colleagiies, bordered so closely upon madness, he was by no means in a sane state of devotion at this time. It was not suffi- cient for him to pray by himself every morning and every afternoon with bis wife ; he sometimes knelt when he was going to bed, and continued in that position till two o'dock, when he was called to his work. The master whom he now served was an at- tendant at the Foundry, but, like all others of the same trade, he was in tbe practice of what was called ^ baking of pans*^ on a Sunday. Mather regarded this as a breach of the Sabbath : it troubled him so that he could find no peace ; and his flesh, he says, consumed away, till tne hones were ready to start through his skin. At length, unable to endore this state of mind, he gave his master warning. The master, inding'by what motives he was infloen- ced, and that he had not provided himself with another place, was struck by bis conscientious conduct: he went round to all the trade in the neighbourhood, and proposed that they should enter into an agreement not to bake on Sundays. The majority agreed. He advertised for a meeting of master bsJLers upon tbe subject; but nothing could be concluded. After all this, whidi Mather acknow- ledges was more than he could reasonably expect, be said to him, <^ I have done all I can, and now I hope you will be content.^' Mather sincerely thank- ed him for what he bad done, but declared ms inten<*
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tton of quitting him, as soon as his master could suit himself with another man. Bat the master, it seems, took advice at the Found rj, and on the following Sunday staid at home, to tell all his custo* mers that he could bake no more on the Sabbath day. From this time both he and his wife were par* ticularly kind to Mather. They introduced him to the Foundry, and he soon became a regular member of the Society.
It was not long before he had strong impressions upon his mind that *he was callAl to preach. After fitting and praying upon this point, he communica- ted it to his band, and they set apart some days for the same exercises. This mode of proceeding was not likely to abate bis desire ; and the band then advis- ed him to speak to Mr. Wesley. Wesley replied, ^^ This is a common temptation among young men^ Several have mentioned it to me ; but the next thing I hear of them is, that they are married, or upon the point of it.''—** Sir,'' said Mather, -** I am married al- ready." Weriey then bade him not care for the temptation, but seek God by fasting and prayer. He made answer, that be had done this ; and Wesley recommended patience and perseverance in this coarse ; adding,^ that be doubted not but God would soon make the way plain before him. Mather could not but understand this as an encouragement : he was the more encouraged, when Wesley shortly af- terwards appointed htm first to be the leader of a band, and in a Uttle time of a class. In both situa- tions be acquitted himself to the satisfaction of others; his confidence in himself was, of course, increased, and he went once more to Mr. Wesley to represent his ardent aspirations. ** To be a Methodist preacli- er," said Wesley, ** is not the way to ease, honour, pleasure, or profit, ft is a life of much labour and reproach. They often fare hard-~often are in want. They are liable to be stoned, beaten, and abused in various manners. Consider this before yon engage in so Oecomfortable a way of life." The other side of the picture would have been sufficiently tempting, if Mather had been influenced by worldly considera-
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tidns.: the danger was just enough to stimulate en- thusiasm : the reproach of strangers- would only heighten the estimation in which he would be held by- believers : no way of life could be more uncom- fortable than his own ; and what a preferment in the world for a journeyman baker ! The conyersation ended, by allowing him to make a trial on the follow^ ing morning. After a second essay, he received in- formation nearly at ten at night, that he was to preach the next morning at five o'clock at the Foundry. This was the critical trial. All the time he was mak* ing his dough he was engaged in meditation and prayer for assistance. The family were all in bed, and when he had done, he continued praying and reading the Bible to find a text till two o'clock, ft wae then time to call his fellow-servant, and they went to work together as usual till near four, preparing the bread for the oven. His comrade then retired to bed, and he to his prayers, till a quarter before five, when he went, in fear and trembling, to the meeting, still unprepared even with a text. He took up the hymn-book, and gave out the hymn, in a voice so faint, because of his timidity, that it could not be understood. The people, not hearing the verses- knew not what to sing: he was no singer himself, otherwise he might have recovered this mishap by leading them, — so they were- at a stand, and this in- creased his agitation so much, that his joints shook. Howevet, he recovered himself, and took the text upon which he opened. .The matter after this was left to Mr. Wesley, to employ him as his business would permit, just when ana where he pleased. When first he began to preach, there was a consider- ate, natural defect in his delivery; and he spoke with such extreme quickness, that very few could understand him : but he entirely overcame this.
The account of the exertions in which this zealous labourer was now engaged, may best be related in his own words. . He says, " In a little time I was more employed than my strength would well ^llow. I had no time for preaching but what I took from my sleep; so that I firequentiy had not eight hours sleep
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ih a week. This, with hard labour, constant ab- stemiousness, and frequent fasting, brought me so low, that, in a little more than two y^ars, 1 was hard* \j able to follow my business. My masterVas often afraid I should kill myself: and perhaps his fear was not groundless. I have frequently put oif my shirts as wet with sweat as if they had been dipt in water. After hastening to finish my business abroad, I have come home all in a sweat in the evening, changed my clothes, and ran to preach' at one or another chapel ; then walked or ran back, changed my clothes, and gone to work at ten, wrought hard all night, . and preached at five the next morning. I ran back to draw the bread at a quarter, or half an hour past six ; wrought hard in the bake4iouse till eight ; then hurried about with bread till the afternoon, and per^^ baps at night set oflTagain.'^
Had this mode of life continued long, Mather must have fallen a victim to his zeal. He was probably saved by being appointed a travelling preacher; yet, at the very commencement of his itinerancy, his course had been nearly cut short. A mob attacked him at Boston ; and when, with great difficulty and danger, he reached his inn, bruised, bleedings and covered with blood, the rabble beset the house, and the landlord attempted to turn him out, for fear they should pull it down. Mather, however, knew the laws, and was not wanting to himself " Sir," he said, ^^ I am in your house; but, while I use it as an inn, it is mine — turn me out at your peril." And he compelled him to apply to a magistrate for protec- tion. It was more than twelve months before he re- covered from the brutal treatment which he received on this occasion. The mob at Wolverhampton pull- ed down a preaching house : an attorney had led them on,* and made the first breach himself Mather gave him his choice of rebuilding it at his own ex- pense, or being tried for his life : of course the house was rebuilt, and there were no further riots at Wol- verhampton. He was of a hardy constitution and strong mind, cool and courageous, zealous and di3- interested, most tender-hearted and charitable, but
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possessing withal a large share of prudence^ which enabled him to conduct the temporal affiuirs of the Connexion with great ability. The account which, in his matured and sober mind, he gives of his ex- perience, touching what Wesley calls the great sal- vation, bears with it fewer marlLs of enthusiasm, and more of meditation, than is usually found in such cases. ^^ What 1 experienced in my own soul, he says, ^^ was an instantaneous deliverance from all those wrong tempers and affections which I had long and sensibly groaned under ; an entire disengage- ment from every creature, with an entire devotedness to God ; and from that moment I found an unspeak- able pleasure in doing the wiH of God in all things* I had also a power to do it, and the constant appro- bation both of my own conscience and of God. I had simplicity of heart, and a single eye to God at all times and in all places, with such a fervent 2eai for the glory of God and the good of souls, as swal- lowed up every other care and consideration. Above all, I had uninterrupted communion with God, whe- ther sleeping or waking.'' It is scarcely compatible with human weakness, that a state like this should be permanent ; and Mather, in describing it, after an interval of more than twenty years, exclaims, ^^ Oh that it were with me as when the candle of the Lord thus shone upon my head !'' Yet be had not failed in his course ; and, after much reflection, and the surer aid of prayer, had calmly satisfied his clear judgment, ^^ that deliverance from sin does not imply deliverance from human infirmities ; and that it is not inconsistent with temptations (^ various kinds.'^
Thomas Olivers was bom at Tregonan, a village in Montgomeryshire, in the year I72d. Being left an orphan in childhood, with some little property, he was placed under the care of the husband of his &- ther^ first cousin ; which remote relationshm comes under the comprehensive term of a Welsh uncle. Mr. Tudor, as this person was called, was an emi- nent farmer, and did his duty by the boy ; giving him not merely the common school education, but be^ow-
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Sng more than common pains in imparting religious acquirements. He was taught to sing psalms, as well as repeat his catechism and his prayers, and to attend church twice on the Sabbath day. But the parish happened to be in a state of shocking immo- rality : — there was one man, in particular, who stu- died the art of cursing, and would exemplify the richness of the Welsh language, by compounding twenty or thirty words into one long and horrid blas- phemy. As this was greatly admired among his pro- fligate companions, Olivers imitated it, and in -time ^rivalled what he calls his infernal instructed The other parts of his conduct were in the same spirit ; and he obtained the character of being the worst boy who had been known in that country for the last thirty years. When he was about three or four and twenty he left the country, not having half learned the business to which he had been apprenticed. The cause of his departure was the outcry raised against him for his conduct toward a farmer^s daugh- ter : he was the means, he says^ of driving her al'^ most to an untimely end. It was the sin which lay heaviest on his mind, both before and after his con- version ; and which, as long as he lived, he remem^ bered with peculiar shame and sorrow.
He removed to Shrewsbury, and there, or in itd Yieighbourhood, continued a profligate course of life, till poverty, as well as conscience, stared him in the face. He said within himself, that he Was living a most wretched life, and that the end must be damna- tion, unless be repented and forsook bis sins. But how should he acquire strength for this? For he had always gone to church, and he had often pray- ed and resolved against his evil practices, and yet his resolutions were weak as water. So he thought of ** trying what the sacrament would do ;" and borrow- ing, accordingly, the book called A Week's Prepa- fatioR, he went regularly through it, and read daily upon his knees the meditations and prayers for the day. On the Sunday he went to the Lord^s table, and spent the following week in going over the se- cond part of the bocrfE, as devoutly as he had done
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tbe first During this fortnight he "kept tolerably clear of sin ;'' but when the course of regimen was over, the effect ceased : he returned the book with many thanks, and fell again into his vicious courses. Ere long he was seized with a violent fever; and when his life was despaired of, was restored, as he believed, by the skill of a journeyman apothecary, who, being a Methodist, attended him for charity. His recovery brought with it a keen but transitory repentance. This was at Wrexham. Here he and one of his companions committed an act of arch-vil- lainy, and decamped in consequence ; Olivers leav- several debts behind him, and the other running away from his apprenticeship. They travelled as far. as Bristol ; and there Olivers, learning that Mr. Whitefield was to preach, resolved to so and hear what he had to say ; because he had often heard of Whitefield, and had sung songs about him. He went, and was too late. Determined to be soon enough on the following evening, he went three hours before the time. When the sermon began, he did little but look about him ; but seeing tears trickle down the cheeks of some who stood near, he became more at- tentive. The text was, " Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire 9'^'^
*' When the sermon began,^^ says this fiery-minded Welshman, " 1 was certainly a dreadful enemy to God, and to all that is good ; and one of the most profligate and abandoned young men living.^' Before it was ended, he became a new creature : a clear view of redemption was set before him, and his own conscience gave him clear conviction of its necessi- ty. The heart, he says, was broken ; nor could he express the strong desires which he felt for righte- ousness. They led him to effectual resolutions ; he broke off* all his evil practices, forsook all his wick- ed companions, and gave himself up with all his heart to God. He was now almost incessantly in tears : he was constant in attending worship, wher- ever it was going on ; and describes his feelings dur- ing a Te Deum at the cathedral, as if he had done with earth, and was praising God before his throne.
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He bought the Week's Preparation, and read it up- on his knees daj and night; and so constant was he in prayer, and in this position, that his knees became stiff*, and he was actually, for a time, lame in conse- quence. " So earnest was I," he says, " that I used, by the hour together, toVrestle with all the might of my body and soul, till I almost expected to die on the spot. What with bitter cries, (unheard by any but God and myself,) together with torrents of tears, which were almost continually trickling down my cheeks, my throat was often dried up, as David says, and my eyes literally failed, while I waited for God !'' He used to follow Whitefield in the streets, with such veneration that he could " scarce refrain from kissing the very prints of his feet."
Here he would fain have become a member of the Society ; but when, with much timidity, he made his wishes known to one of Mr. Whitefield's ministers, the preacher, for some unexplained reason, thought proper to discourage him. After a few months Oli- vers removed to Bradford, and there, for a long time, attended the preaching of the Methodists ; and when the public service was over, and he, with the unini- tiated, was shut out, he would go into the field at the back of the preaching house, and listen while they were singing, and weep bitterly at the thought that, while God's people were thus praising his name, he, a poor wretched fugitive, was not permitted to be amon^them. And, though he compared himself to one of the foolish virgins, when they came out he would walk behind them for the sake of catching a word of their religious conversation. This conduct, and his regular attendance, at last attracted notice : he was asked if it was his wish to join the Society, and receive a note of admission from the preacher. His rebufi^at Bristol had discouraged him from apply- ing for what might so easily have been obtained ; and the longing for the admission had produced a state of mind little different from insanity. Return- ing home, now that he possessed it^ and exhilarated, or even intoxicated with joy, he says, that as he came to the bottom of the hill, at the entrance of the town.
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a ray of light, resembling the shining of a star, de* scended through a small opening in the heaven, and instantaneously shone upon him. In that instant his burden fell off, and he was so elevated, that he felt as if he could literally fly away to heaven. A sboot-r iog star might easily produce this efieqt upon a mai\ so agitated : for trifles, light as air, will act as strongs ly upon enthusiasm as upon jealousy ; and never was any man in a state of higher enthusiasm than Olivers at this time. He says^ that in every thought, inten- tion or desire, his constant inquiry was, whether it was to the glory of God ; an4 that, if he could not answer in the affirmative, he dared not indulge it ; that he received his daily food nearly in the same manner as he did the sacrament : that he used men- tal prayer daily and hourly; and for a while his rule was, in this manner, to employ five minutes out of every quarter of an houn ** Upon the whole,'' he pursues, ^ I truly lived by faith. I saw God in every thing : the heavens, the earth, and all therein, show* ed me something of him ; yea, even from a drop of water, a blade of grass, or a grain of sand, I often re- ceived instruction.''
He soon became desirous of ^* telling the world what God had done for him ;" and having communi- cated this desire to his band-fellowS, they kept a day of solemn fasting on the occasion, and then advised him to make a trial. Many approved of bis gifts : others were of opinion that he ought to be more es? tablished, and was too earnest to hold it long. When he began to preach, his custom was, to get all his worldly business done, clean himself, and put out his Sunday's apparel on Saturday night, which sometimes was not accomplished before midnight : afterwards he sat up reading, praying, and examining himself, till one or two in the morning: he rose at four, or never later than five, and went two miles into the country, through all weather, to meet a few poor people, firom six till^seven. By eight he returned to Bradford, to hear the preaching ; then went seven miles on foot to preach at one; three or four further to hold forth at five; and, after all, had some five or
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six more to walk on his return. And as the preach* jng was more exhausting than the exercise, he was often so wearied, that be coqld scarcely get over a stile, or go up into his chamber when he got home.
When he had been a local preacher about twelve months, the smallpox broke out in Bradford, and spread like a pestilence : scarce a dingle person es- caped ; and six or seven died dailj. Olivers was seized with it the first week in October ; heating things were given him by an ignorant old woman ; and when some charitable person sent an experienc- ed physician to visit him, the physician declared that, in the course of fifty years' practice, he had never • seen so severe a case. He wa^ blind for five weeks. The room in which he lay was so offensive, that those who went out of it infected the streets as they past He was not able to rise that his bed might be made till New-year's day; yet, during the whole time, he nevisr uttered a groan or a single complaint : ^' thu^ evincing,'' as he says, ^^ that no suffering is too great for the grace of God to eqable us to bear with resig- nation and quietness.'^
This long illness increased the number of his debts, which were numerous enough before his conversion. As soon, therefore, aa he had gained sufficient strength for the journey, he set off^ tor Montgomeryshire, to receive his little property, which had hitherto re- mained in Mr. Tudor's hands. The thorough change which had been effected in so notorious a reprobate, astonished all who knew him : when they saw him riding far and near, in search of all persons to whom he was indebted, and faithfully making payment of what the creditors never expected to recover, they could not doubt the sincerity of his reformation, and they ascribed it to the grace of God. Tudor ex- plained the matter in a way more satisfactory to him- self, because he could comprehend it better : he said to Olivers, " Thou hast been so wicked that thou hast seen the Devil." Having paid his- debts in his own county, he returned by way of Bristol to Brad- ford, discharged, in like manner, his accounts in both
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these places, and being now clear of the world, and thereby delivered from a burden which had cost him, as he says, many prayers and tears, he set up busi- ness with the small remains of his money, and with a little credit ; but, before he was half settled, Wesley exhorted him to free himself from all such engage- ments, and make the work of the gospel his whole pursuit The advice of the master was a law to the obedient disciple. Olivers disposed of his effects^ wound up his affairs, and prepared to itinerate in the west of England. " But I was not able," he says, " to buy another horse ; and therefore, with my boots on my legs, my great-coat on my back, and my saddle- bags, with my books and linen, across tny shoulder^ I set out in October, 1753."
Wesley, when he was not the dupe of his own ima- gination, could read the characters of men with a discriminating eye. He was not deceived in Oli- vers: the daring disposition, the fiery temper, and the stubbornness of this Welshman, were now subdu- ed and disciplined into an intrepidity, an ardour, and a perseverance, which were the best requisites for his vocation. It was not long before one of his con* gregation at Tiverton presented him with the price of a horse, as well suited to him as Bucephalus to Alexander; for he was as tough and as indefatigable as his master. Indeed the beast, as if from sympathy,, made the first advances, by coming up to him in a field where he was walking with the owner, and lay- ing his nose upon his shoulder. Pleased with this la^ miliarity, OUvers stroked the colt, which was then about two years and a half old; and finding^ that the farmer would sell him for five pounds, struck the bar^ gain. ^^ I have kept him," he says in his memoirst «^ to this day, which is about twenty-five years, and on him I have travelled comfortably not less than an hundred thousand miles." On one occasion both he and his horse were exposed to a service of some danger at Yarmouth. The mob of that town had sworn, that if any Methodist came there, he should never return alive. Olivers, however, being then stationed at Norwich, was resolved to try the expert-
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tnent, and accordingly set out with a companion, who was in no encouraging state of mind, but every now and then exclaimed upon the road, ^^ 1 shall be mur^^ dered, and go to hell this day ; for I know not the Lord." With this unhappy volunteer for martyrdom, Olivers entered Yarmouth ; and having first attended service in the church, went into the market-place and gave out a hymn. The people collected, and listened with tolerable quietness while he sung and prayed ; but, as soon as he had taken his text, they began so rude a comment upon the sermon, that one of his friends prudently pulled him down from his perilous stand, and retreated with him into a house, in one of those remarkable streets which are peculiar to Yar*- mouth, and are called Rows ; and which are so nar- row, that two long-armed persons may almost shake hands across from the windows. Though Olivers had rashly thrust himself into this adventure, he was pru- dent enough now to withdraw from it, and accordingly he sent for his horse. The mob recognised the ani- mal, followed him, and filled the row. To wait till they dispersed might have been inconvenient ; and perhaps they might have attacked the house ; so he came forth, mounted resolutely, and making use of his faithful roadster as a charger on this emergence, forced the rabble before him through the row; but the women, on either side, stood in the door-ways, some with bowls of water, others with both hands full of dirt, to salute him as he passed. Having rode the gauntlet here, and got into the open street, a tre- mendous battery of stones, sticks, apples, turnips, po- tatoes, and other such varieties of mob ammunition, was opened upon him and his poor comrade: the latter clapped spurs to his horse, and gallopped out of town: Olivers proceeded more calmly, and watch- ing the sticks and stones which came near, so as to ward them off, and evade the blow, preserved, as he «ays, a regular retreat.
Olivers was more likely led into this danger by a point of honour, than by any natural rashness ; for, that he had acquired a considerable share of sound worldly prudence, appears from the curious account
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which he has given of his deliberation concerning marriage. Setting out, he says, with a conviction that in this important concern «M'oung people did not consult reason and the will of God, so much as their own foolish inclinations,'' he inquired of him<^ self, in the first place, whether he was called to marry at that time ; and having settled that question in the affirmative, the next inquiry was, what sort of a per- son ought he to marry ? The remainder is too extra- ordinary and too characteristic to be given in any tvords but his own : — f^^ To this I answered in gene- ral, such a one as Christ would Choose for me, sup- pose he was on earth, and was to undertake that bu- siness. I then asked, but what sort of a person have 1 reason to believe he would choose for me ? Here I fixed on the following properties, and ranged them in the following order : — The first waS grace : I was quite certain that no preacher of God's word ought^ on any consideration, to marry one who is not emi- nently gracious. Secondly, she ought to have toler-^ Itble good common sense : a Methodist preacher, in i>articular, who travels into all parts, and sees such a variety of company, ought not to take a fool with him^ Thirdly, as I knew the natural warmth of my own temper, I concluded that a wise and Gracious God Would not choose a companion for me who would throw oil, but rather water upon the fire. Fourthly^ i judged that, as I was connected with a poor people, the will of God was, that whoever I married should have a small competency, to prevent her being chargeable to any." He then proceeds to say, that, iipon the next step in the inquiry, who is the person in whom these properties are found ? he immediately turned his eyed on Miss Green, ^* A person of a good family, and noted for her extraordinary piety.'^ He opened his mind to her, consulted Mr. Wesley, mar* tied her ; and having, ^^ in this affair, consulted rea- son ^nd the will of God so impartially, had abundai^ reason to be thankfiil ever afterwards. '^
The small-pox had shaken his constitution: for eight years after that dreadful illness his health con* tinuaUy declined ; and he was thought to be far ad»
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vanced in consumption ivhen be was appointed to the York circuit, where he had to take care of sixty so- cieties, and ride about three hundred miles every six weeks. Few persons thought it possible that he t^ould perform the journey once ; but, he said, I am determined to go as far as I can, and when I can go no further, I will turn back. By the time he had got half round, the exercise, and perhaps the frequent change of air, restored, in some degree, his appetite, and improved his sleep ; and, before he reached the end, he had begun to recover flesh : but it was twelve years before he felt himself a hale man. The few fits of dejection with which he was troubled, seem to have originated more in bodily weakness than in the temper of his mind. One instance is curious, for the way in which it aflTected others. While he was din- ing one day about noon, a thought came over him that he was not called to preach ; the food, therefore, with which he was then served, did not belong to him, and he was a thief and a robber in eating it.— He burst into tears, and could eat no more ; and hav- ing to officiate at one o^clock, went to the preaching house, weeping all the way.. He went weeping into the pulpit, and wept sorely while he ^ave out the hymn, and while he prayed, and while he preached. A sympathetic etnotion spread through the congre^ gation, which mad^ them recaive the impression Tike melted wax : many of them ^ cried aloud for the dis- quietness of their souls ;'^ and Olivers, who, looking as usual for supernatural agency in every thing, had supposed the doubt of his own qualifications to be produced by the tempter, believed now that the Lord iiad brought much good out of that temptation.
Afler serving many years as a travelling preacher, he was fixed in London as the manager of Air. Wes- ley^s printing ; an occupation which did not interfere with his preaching, but made him stationary. He never laboured harder in his life, be says ; and find- in^ it good both for body and soul, he hoped to be fully employed as long as he lived. Well might this man, upon reviewing his own eventful history, bless
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God for the manifold mercies which he had experi- enced, and look upon the Methodists as the instru- ments of his deliverance from sin and death.
CHAPTER XVIIL
JOHN HAlME. — SAMPSON STANIFORTH.— GEORGE STORt^
Among the memoirs of his more eminent preachers^ which Wesley published in his magazine, as written by themselves for general edification, is " A short Account of God's Dealings with Mr. John Haime." Satan has so much to do in the narrative, that this is certainly a misnomer. It is accompanied by his por- trait, taken when be was seventy years of age. What organs a craniologist might have detected under his brown wig it is impossible to say, but Lavater him- self would never have discovered in those mean and common features, the turbulent mind, and passionate fancy, which belonged to them. Small inexpressive eyes, scanty eye-brows, and a short, broad, vulgar nose, in a face of ordinary proportions, seem to mark out a subject who would have been content to tra- vel a jog-trot along the high-road of mortality, and have looked for no greater delight than that of smok- ing and boozing in the chimney-corner. And yet John Haime passed his whole life in a continued spiritual ague.
He Wfas born at Shaftesbury in 1710, and bred up to his father's employment of gardening. Not liking this, he tried button-making; but no occupation pleased him : and indeed he appears, by his own ac« count, to have been in a state little diflfering from in- sanity ; or differing from it in this only, that he had sufficient command of himself not to communicate the miserable imaginations by which he was tor- mented. He describes himself as undutiful to his pa- rents, addicted to cursing, swearing, lying, and Sab-
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bath-breaking ; tempting with blasphemous thoughts, and perpetually in fear of the Devil, so that he could find no comfort in working, eating, drinking, or even in sleeping. " The Devil," he says, " broke in upon me with reasonings concerning the being of a God, till my senses were almost gone. He then so strong- ly tempted me to blaspheme, that I could not withstand. He then told me, ' Thou art inevitably damned ;' and I readily believed him. This made me sink into despair, as a stone into the mighty water. I now be- gan to wander about by the river side, and through woods and solitary places ; many times looking up to heaven with a heart ready to break,, thinking I had no part there. I thought every one happy but my- self, the Devil continually telling me there was no mercy for me. I cried for help, but found no relief; 60 1 said there is no hope, and gave the reins to my evil desires, not caring which end went foremost, but giving up myself to wicked company and all their evil ways. And I was hastening on, when the great tremendous God met me as a lion in the way, and his holy Spirit, whom I had been so long grieving, re- turned with greater force than ever. I had no rest day or night. I was afraid to go to bed, lest the De- vil should fetch me away before morning. I was afraid to shut my eyes, lest I should awake in hell. I was terrified when asleep ; sometimes dreaming that many devils were in the room ready to take me away; sometimes that the world was at an end. At other times I thought I saw the world on fire, and the wicked lefl to burn therein, with myself amongst them ; and when I awoke, my senses were almost gone. I was often on the point of destroying myself, and was stopped, I know not how. Then did I weep bitterly : I moaned like a dove, I chattered like a swallow."
He relates yet more violent paroxysms than these : how, having risen from his knees, upon a sudden im- pulse that he would not pray, nor be beholden to God for mercy, he passed the whole night as if his very body had been in a fire, and hell within him ; thoroughly persuaded that the Devil was in the
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rooin, and fully expecting every moment that be would be let loose upon him. He says, that in an excess of blasphemous frenzy, having a stick in his hand, he threw it towards heaven against God with the utmost enmity ; and, he says, that this act was followed by what he supposed to be a supernatural appearance : that immediately he saw, in the clear dky, a creature like a swan, but much larger, part black, part brown, which flew at him, went just over his head, and lighting on the ground, at about forty yards' distance, stood staring upon him. The reader must not suppose this to be mere fiction ; what he saw was certainly a bustard, whose nest was near; but Wesley publishes the story as Haime wrote it, without any qualifying word or observation, and doubtless believed it as it was written. Had this poor man been a Romanist, he would have found beads and holy water effectual amulets in such ca- ses : anodynes would have been the best palliatives in such a disease; and he might have been cured through the imagination, when no remedy could be applied to the understanding.
In this extraordinary state of mind he forsook bis wife and children, and enlisted in the Queen's regi- ment of dragoons. The life which John Bunyan wrote of himself, under the title of " Grace abound- ing to the Chief of Sinners,'' now fell into his bands. He read it with the deepest attention, finding that the case nearly resembled his own : he thought it the best book he had ever seen ; and it gave him some hope of mercy. "In every town where we staid," says he, " I went to church ; but I did not hear what I wanted : Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world ! Being come to Alnwick, Satan desired to have me, that he might sifl me as wheat. And the hand of the Lord came upon me with such weight, as made me roar for very anguish of spirit. Many times I stopt in the streett afraid to go one step further, lest I should step into hell. I now read and fasted, and went to church, and prayed seven times a day. One day, as I walk- ed by the Tweed side, I cried out aloud, being all
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adiirst for God, Oh that thon wouldst hear my pray- er, and let my cry come up before thee ! The Lord heard : he sent a gracious answer : he lifted me up out of the dungeon ; he took away all my sor- row and fear, and filled my soul with peace and joy. The stream glided sweetly along, and all nature seemed to rejoice with me.'' But left as he was, wholly to his own diseased imagination, the hot and cold fits succeeded each other with little interval of rest. Being sent to London with the camp-equi- page, he went to hear one of Whitefield's preachers, and ventured, as he was coming back from the meet- ing, to tell him the distress of his soul The preach- ^ er, whose charity seems to have been upon a par with his wisdom, made answer, " The work of the Devil is upon you," and rode' away. "It was of the tender mercies of God," says poor Haime, " that 1 did not put an end to my life."
" Yet," he says, " I thought if I must be damned myself, I will do what I can that others may be sav- ed ; so I began to reprove open sin wherever I saw or heard it, and to warn the ungodly that, if they did not repent, they would surely perish : but, if I found any that were weary and heavy laden, I told them to waU upon the Lord, and he would renew their strength ; yet I found no strength myself" He was, however, lucky enough to hear Charles Wesley, at Colchester, and to consult him when the service was over. Wiser than the Calvinistic preacher, Charles Wesley encouraged him, and bade him go on with- out fear, and not be dismayed at any temptation. These words sank deep, and were felt as a blessing to him for many years. His regiment was now or- dered to Flanders; and writing from thence to Wes- ley for comfort and counsel he was exhorted to per- severe in his calling. " It is but a little thing," said Wesley, " that man should be against you, while you know God is on your side. If he give you any com-
E anion in the ni^rrow way, it is well ; and it is well if e does not : but by all means miss no opportunity — speak and spare not ; declare what God has done for your soul : regard not worldly prudence. Be not
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ashamed of Christ, or of his word, or of his work, or of his servants. Speak the truth in love, even in the midst of a crooked generation." — " I did speak," he says, " and not spare*'' He was in the battle of Dettingen, and being then in a state of hope, be de- scribes himself as in the most exalted and enviable state of mind, while, during seven hours, he stood the fire of the enemy. He was in a new world, and his heart was filled with love, peace, and joy more than tongue could express. His faith, as well as his courage, was put to the trial, and both were found proof.
Returning into Flanders to take up their winter quarters, as they marched beside the Maine, they ^^ saw the dead men lie in the river, and on the banks, as dung for the earth : for many of the French, attempting to pass the river after the bridge had been broken, had been drowned, and cast ashore where there was none to bury them." During the winter, he found two soldiers who agreed to take a room with him, and meet every night to pray and read the Scriptures: others soon joined them: a society was formed ; and Methodism was organized in the army with great success. There were three hundred in the society, and six preachers beside Haime. As soon as they were settled in a camp, they built a tabernacle. He had generally a thou- sand hearers, officers as well as common soldiers; and he found means of hiring others to do his duty, that he might have more leisure for carrying on the spiritual war. He frequently walked between twen- ty and thirty miles a day, and preached five times a day for a week together. " l had three armies against me," he says : " the French army, the wicked flnglish army, and an army of Devils ; but I feared them not." It was not, indeed, likely that he should go on without some difficulties, his notions of duty not being always perfectly in accordance with the established rules of military discipline. An officer one day asked him what he preached ; and as Haime mentioned certain sins which he more particularly denounced, and which perhaps touched the inquirer
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a little too closely, the officer swore at him, and said, that, if it were in his power, he would have him flogged to death. ^' Sir," replied Haime, " you have a commission over men ; but I have a commission from God to tell you, you must either repent of your sins, or perish everlastingly/' His commanding officer asked him how he came to preach ; and being answered, that the Spirit of God constrained him to call his fellow-sinners to repentance, told him, that then he must restrain that spirit. Haime replied, he would die first It is to the honour of his officers that they mai^fested no serious displeasure at Ian-* guage like this. His conduct toward one of his com- rades might have drawn upon him much more un- pleasant consequences^. This was a reprobate fellow, who, finding a piece of money, after some search, which he thought he had lost, threw it on the table, and exclaimed, ^^ There is my ducat ; but no thanks to God, any more than to the Devil.'' Haime wrote down the words, and brought him to a court-martial. Being then asked what he had to say against him, he produced the. speech in writing; and the officer having read it, demanded if he was not ashamed to take account of such matters. " No, Sir," replied the enthusiast; ^^ if 1 had heard such words spoken against His Majesty King George, would not you have counted me a villain if I had concealed them?" The only corporal pain to which officers were sub- jected by our martial law, was for this offence. Till the reign of Queen Anne, they were liable to have their tonguei3 bored with a hot iron ; and, mitigated as the law now was, it might still have exposed the culprit to serious punishment, if the officer had not sought to end the matter as easily as he could ; and therefore, after telling the soldier that be was worthy ^ of death, by the laws of God and man, asked the prosecutor what he wished to have done ; giving him thus an opportunity of atoning, by a little discretion, for the excess of his zeal. Haime answered, that he only desired to be parted from him ; and thus it ter- minated. It was well for him that this man was not of a malicious temper, or he might easily have made
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the zealot be regarded by all his fellows in the odious light of a persecutor and an informer.
While he was quartered at Bruges, General Pon- sonby granted him the use of the English churchy and, by help of some good singing, they brought together a large congregation. In the ensuing spang the battle of Fonteuoy was fought The Methodist soldiers were at this time wrought up to a high pitch of fanaticism. One of them being fully prepossessed with a belief that he should fall in the action, danced for joy before he went into it ; exclaiming, that he was going to rest in the bosom of Jesus. Others, when mortally wounded, broke out into rapturous expressions of hope and assured triumph, at the near prospect of dissolution. Haime himself was under the not less comfortable persuasion that the French had no ball made which would kill him that day. His horse was killed under him. ^^ Where is your God now, Haime ?^* said an officer, seeing him fall. '* Sir, he is here with me,'' replied the soldier, " and he will bring me out of the battle.'' Before Haime could extricate himself from the horse, which was lying upon him, a cannon ball took off the officer's head. Three of his fellow-preachers were killed in this battle, a fourth went to the hospital, having both arms broken ; the other two began to preach the pleasant doctrine of Antinomianism, and professed that they were always happy; in which one of them, at least, was sincere, being frequently drunk twice a day. Many months had not passed before Haime himself relapsed into his old miserable state. ** I was off my watch," he says, " and fell by a grievous temptation. It came as quick as lightning.^ I knew not if I was in my senses ; but I fell, and the Spirit of God departed from me. Satan was let loose, and followed me by day and by night. The agony of my mind weighed down my body, and threw me into a bloody flux. I was carried to a hospital, just drop- ping into hell: but the Lord upheld me, with an unseen hand, quivering over the great gulf. Before my fall, my sight was so strong, that 1 could look steadfastly on the sun at noon-day ; but, after it, I
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could not look a man in the face, nor bear to be in any company. The roads, the hedges, the trees, every thing seemed cursed of God. Nature appear« ed void of God, and in the possession of the Devil, The fowls of the air, and the beasts of the field, all appeared in a league against me. I was one day drawn out into the woods, lamenting my forlorn state, and on a sudden I began to weep bitterly : from weeping I fell to howling, like a wild beast^ so that the woods resounded; yet could I say, notwith- standing'my bitter cry, my stroke is hlsavier than my groaning ; nevertheless, I coutd not say, * Lord have mercy upon me !' if I might have purchased heaven thereby. Very frequently Judas was represented to me as hanging just before me. So great was the dis- pleasure of God against me, that he, in great mea<* sure, took away the sight of my eyes ; I could not see the sun for more than eight months : even in the clearest summer day, it always appeared to me like a mass of blood. At the same time I lost the use of my knees. I could truly say, ^ Thou hast sent fire into my bones.' I was often gs hot as if I was burning to death : many times I looked to see if my clothes were not on fire. I have gone into a river to cool myself; but it was all the same; for what could quench the wrath of his indignation that was let loose upon me? At other times, in the midst of summer, I have been so cold, that I knew not how to bear it : all the clothes I could put on had no efiect ; but my flesh shivered, and my very bones quaked.^'
As a mere physical case, this would be very cu- rious ; but, as a psychological one, it is of the highest interest For seven years he continued in this mise- rable state, without one comfortable hope, ** angry at God, angry at himself, ' angry at the Devil," and fancying himself possessed with more devils than Mary Magdalene. Only while he was preaching to others (for he still continued to preach) his distress was a little abated. «^ Some may inquire,^' says he, « what could move me to preach while I was in such a forlorn condition.-^ They must ask of God, for I cannot tell. Ader some years
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I attempted again to pray. With tfaris Satan ivas not, well pleased-; for one day, as I was walk- ing alone, and faintly crying for mercy, suddenly such a hot blast of brimstone flashed in my face, as almost took away my breath ; and presently after an invisible power struck up my heels, and threw me violently upon my face. One Sunday, I went to church in Holland, when the Lord^s sup- per was to be administered. I had a great desire to partake of it; but the enemy came in like a flood to hinder me, pouring in temptations of every kind. I resisted him with my might, till, through the agony of my mind, the blood gushed out at my mouth and nose. However, I was enabled to conquer, and to partake of the blessed elements. I was much dis- tressed with dreams and visions of the night. 1 dreamt one night that I was in hell ; another, that I was on Mount Etna; that, on a sudden, it shook and trem- bled exceedingly ; and that at last, it split asunder in several places, and sunk into the burning lake, all but that little spot on whichi stood. Oh how thank- ful was I for my preservation ! — I thought that I was worse than Cain. In rough weather it was often sug- gested to me, ^ this is on your account ! See, the earth is cursed for your sake ; and it will be no bet- ter till you are in hfell !' often did I wish that 1 had never been converted : often, that I had never been born. Yet, I preached every day, and endeavoured to appear open and free to my brethren. I encbu- raged them that were tempted. I thundered out the terrors of the law against the ungodly. I was often violently tempted to curse and swear before and af- ter, and even while Iwas preaching. Sometimea, when I was in the midst of the congregation, 1 could hardly refrajn from laughing aloud; yea, from utter- ing all kind of ribaldry and filthy conversation. Fre- quently, as I was going to preach, the Devil has set upon me as a lion^ telling me h6 would have me just then, so that it has thrown me into a cold sweat. In this agony I have caught hold of the Bi- ble, and read*,' If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous !' I have
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said to the enemy, * This is the word of God, and thou canst not deny it !' Thereat he would be like a man that shrunk back from the thrust of a sword. But he would be at me again. I again met him in the same way; till at last, blessed be God! he fled from me. And even in the midst of his sharpest* as- saults, God gave me just strength enough to bear them. When he has strongly suggested, just as I was going to preach, * I will have thee at last,' I have an- swered, (sometimes with too much anger,) ' I will have another out of thy hand first !' And many, while I was myself in the deep, were truly convinced and converted to God."
Having returned to England, and obtained his dis- charge from the army, he was admitted by Mr. Wes- ley as a travelling preacher. This, however, did not deliver him from his miserable disease of mind : he could neither be satisfied with preaching nor with- out it ; wherever he went he was not able to remain, but was continually wanderihg to and fro, seekingrest, but finding none. *^I thought," he says, ''if David or Peter had been living, they would have pitied me.^' Wesley, after a while, took him as a compan- ion in one of his rounds, knowing his state of mind, and knowing how to bear with it, and to manage it. " It was good for him," he said, to be in the fiery fur- nace ; he should be purified therein, but not consum- ed." Year after year he continued in this extraor- dinary state, till, in the year 1766, he was persuaded by Mr. Wesley to go and dwell with a person at St Ives, in Cornwall, who wanted a worn-out preacher to live with him, take care of his family, and pray with him morning and evening. Here he was, if pos* sible, ten times worse than before ; and it seemed to him, that, unless he got some relief, he must die in despair '* One day," he says, "I retired into the hall, fell on my face,- and cri^d for mercy ; but got no answer. I got up, and walked up and down the room, wringing my hands, and crying like to break my heart ; begging of God for Christ's sake, if there Was any mercy for me to help me ; and blessed be / ; his name, all on a sudden, I found such a change
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tturough my soul and body, as is past description. I was afraid I sbould alarm the whole house v/itii the expressions of my joy. I had a full witness from the Spirit of God that 1 should not find that bondage any more. Glory be to God for all his mercy." Twenty years the disease had continued upon him ; and it now left him, by his own account, as instantaneously as it came : and his account is credible ; for he ac*- knowledges that he had not the same faith as in bis former state : the age of rapture was over, and tbe fierceness of his disposition was spent, though its restlessness was unabated. Though his chaplainship with Mr. Hdskins had every thing which could ren- der such a situation comfortable, tie could not be at ease till he was again in motion, and had resumed his itinerant labours. He lived till the great age of 8eventy*eight, and died of a fever, which was more than twelve months consuming him, and which wore him to the bone before he went to rest. But though his latter days were pain, they were not sorrow. — ^^ He preached as long as he was able to speak, and longer than he could stand without support." Some of his last words were, " O Lord, in thee have I trust* ed, and have not been confounded ;" and he expired in full confidence that a convoy of angels were ready to conduct his soul to the paradise of God.
Whatever may be thought of John Haime^s quali- fications for preaching the gospel, there was one man at least who had reason to bless him as bis greatest earthly benefactor: this was Sampson Staniforth, who served at the same time as a private in the army. He was the son of a cutler at Sheffield, and grew up without any moral or religious instruction, so that he bad ^^ no fear of God before his eyes, no thought of his providence, of his saving mercy, nor indeed of bis having any thing to do with the world." Why he was born into the world, what was his business in it, or where he was io go when this life was over, were considerations, he says, which never entered into hb mind ; and he grew up in a course of brutal vicesi being as utterly without God in the world, as the beasts that perish. He describes himself as not onljr
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&eree and passionate, but also sullen and malicioust without any feeling of humanity ; and disposed, in- stead of weeping with those who wept, to rejoice in their sufferings. This hopeful subject enlisted as a soldier at the age of nineteen, in spite of the tears and entreaties of his mother ; and, after some hair-breadth escapes from situations into which he was le^ by his own rashness and profligacy, he joined the army in Germany a few days after the battle of Dettingen.--** While they were encamped at Worms, orders were read at the head of every regiment, that no soldier should go above a mile from the camp on pain of death, which was to be executed immediately, with«> out the forms of a court*martial. This did not deter Staniforth from straggling; and he was drinking with some of his comrades in a small town to the left of the camp, when a captain, with a guard of horse, came to take them up, being . appointed to seize all he could find out of the lines, and hang up the first man without delay. The guard entered the town and shut the gates* He saw them in time, ran to a wicket in the great gate, which was only upon the latch, and before the gate itself could be opened to let the horsemen follow him, ^ot into the vineyards, and there concealed himselt by lying down. He bad a 3till narrower escape not long afterwards: — many complaints had been made of the marauders in the English army ; and it was proclaimed that the guard Would beH>ut every night, to hang up the first offend- ers who were taken. This fellow listened to the proclamation, and set out, as soon as the officer who read it had turned away, upon a plundering party, with two of his companions. They stole four bul* locks, and were met bv an officer driving them to the camp. Staniforth said they had bought them, and the excuse passed. On the next day the owners came to the camp to make their complaint; and three of the beasts, which had been sold, but not slaughtered, were identified. Orders were of course
Siven to arrest the thieves. That very morning taniforth had been sent to some distance on an out-
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party, and thus Providence again preserved him from a shameful death.
There was in the same company with him a native of Barnard-Castle, by name Mark Bond, a man of a melancholy but religious disposition, who had enlist-' ed in the hope of being killed. " His ways,"' says Staniforth, *^ were not hke those of other men : out of his Kttle pay he saved money to send to his friends. We could never get him to drink with us; but he was always full of sorrow : he read much, and was much in private prayer." The state of his mind arose from having uttered blasphemy when he was a little boy, and the thought of this kept him in a con- stant state of wretchedness and despair. A Roman- ist might here observe, that a distressing case like this could not have occurred in one of "his persua- sion ; and one who knows that the practice of con- fession brings with it evils tenfold greater than those which it palliates, may be allowed to regret that, in our church, there should be so little intercourse be- tween the pastor and the people. This poor man might have continued his whole life in misery, if John Haime had not taken to preaching in the army : he went to hear him, and found what he wanted ; his peace of mind was restored ; and wishing that others should partake in the happiness which he experi-* enced, he could think of no one who stood more in need of the same spiritual medicine than his comrade Staniforthi He, as might be expected, first wonder- ed at his c^onversation, and afterwards mocked at it. Bond, however, was not thus to be discouraged : he met him one day when he was in distress, having nei- ther food, money, nor credit, and asked him to go and hear the preaching. Staniforth made answer, . "•You had better give me something to eat and drink, for I am both hungry and dry.'' Bond did as he was requested ; took him to a sutler's, and treated him, and persdaded him afterwards, reluctant as he was, to accompany him to the preaching. Incoherent and rhapsodical as such preaching would be, it was bet- ter suited to such auditors than any thing more tem« perate would have been : it was level to their capa* ^
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cities; and the passionate sincerity with which it was delivered, found the readiest way to their feel- ings. Stanifortb, who went with great unwillingness, and who was apparently in no ways prepared for such an effect, was, by that one sermon, suddenly and effectually reclaimed from a state of habitual brutal- ity and vice. He returned to his tent full of sorrow, thoroughly convinced of his miserable state, and ^^seeing all his sins stand in battle-array against him.^^ The next day he went early to the place of meeting : some soldiers were reading there, some singing hymns, and others were at prayer. One came up to him, and after inquiring how long he had attended the preachers, said to him, " Let us go to prayer ;" and Stanifortb was obliged to confess that he could, not pray, for he had never prayed in his life, neither had he ever read in any devotional book. Bond had a piece of an old Bible, and gave it him, saying, ^^ I can do better without it than you." This was a true friend. He found that Stanifortb was in debt ; and telling him that it became Christians to be first just, and then charitable, said, ^^ We will put both our pays together, and live as hard as we can, and what we spare will pay the debt." Such practice must have come strongly in aid of the preaching.
From that time Stanifortb shook off* all his evil courses : though till then an habitual swearer, he ne- ver afterwards swore an \)ath : though addicted to drinking, he never was intoxicated again: though a gambler from bis youth up, he left off gaming; and having so often risked his neck for the sake of pluur der, he would not now gather an apple or a bunch of grapes. Methodism had wrought in him a great and salutary work; but it taught him to expect an- other change not less palpable to himself: he was in bitter distress under the weight of his sins, and he was taught to look for a full and entire sense of de- liveraqce from the burden. His own efforts were not wanting to bring on this spiritual crisis, and, af- ter some months, .he was successful. The account which he gives must be explained by supposing that strong passion made the impression, of what was ei-
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ther a sleeping or a waking dteam, strong as reali- ty ; — a far more probable solution than would be af- forded bj ascribing it to any wilful exaggeration or deliberate falsehood. "From twelve at night tilt two," he says, " it was my turn to stand sentinel at a dangerous post. I had a fellow-sentinel, but 1 desir- ed him to go away, which he willingly did. As soon as I was alone, I knelt down, and determined not to rise, but to continue crying and wrestling with God, till he had mercy on me. How long I was in that agony I cannot tell ; but, as 1 looked up to Heaven, I saw the clouds open exceeding bright, and I saw Jesus hanging on the cross. At the same moment these words were applied to my heart, * Thy sins are forgiven thee.' All guilt was gone, and my soul , was filled with unutterable peace : the fear of death and hell was vanished away. I was filled with won- der and astonishment. I closed my eyes, but the im- pression was still the same ; and, for about ten weeks, while I was awake, let me be where I would, the same appearance was still before my eyed, and the game impression upon my heart, ^ Thy sins are for- given thee.' ^ It may be believed that Staniforth felt what he describes, and imagined what he appeared to see ; but to publish such an account as Wesley did, without one qualifying remark, is obviously to encourage wild and dangerous enthusiasm.
Staniforth's mother had Wught him off once when he enlisted, and sent him from time to time money, and such things as he wanted and she could provide for him. He now wrote her a long letter, asking par- don of her and his father for all his disobedience; telling them that God, for Ghrist's sake, had forgiven him his sins, and desiring her not to send him any more supplies, which he knew must straiten her^ and which he no longer wanted, for he had learned to he contented with his pay. This* letter they could not very well understand ; it was handed about till it got into the hands of a dissenting minister, and of one of the leading Methodists at Sheffield : the latter sent Staniforth a " comfortable letter" and a hymn-book ; the former a letter also, and a Bible, which was more
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precious to bim than gold ; as was a prayer-book also, which his mother sent him. He» as well as Haime, came safe out of the battle of Fontenoy, where Bond was twice preserved in an extraordinary manner, one musket-ball having struck some money in one of his pockets, and another having been re- pelled by a knife. Soon afterwards he was drafted into the artillery, and ordered back to England on account of the rebellion in 1745. He was now quar- tered at Deptford, and from thence was able, twice a-week, to attend upon Wesley's preaching at the Foundry, or at West-street Chapel. At Deptford also there was a meeting, and there he found a wo- man who, being of the same society, was willing to take him for a husband if he were out of the army.— On his part, the match appears to have been a good one as to worldly matters: she was persuaded to marry him before his discharge was obtained : and, on his wedding-day, he was ordered to embark im- mediately for Holland.
The army which he joined in Holland was under the command of Prince Charles of Lorrain ; and as they soon came within sight of the enemy, Stani- forth had too much spirit to apply for his discharge, ^^ lest he should seem afraid to fight, and so bring a disgrace upon the Gospel." Near M aestricht, two English regiments, of which his was one, with some Hanoverians and Dutch, in all about 12,000 men, be- ing advanced in front of the army, had a sharp action. The Prince, according to this account, forgot to send them orders to retreat, ^^ being busy with bis cups and his ladies ;" and it appears, indeed, as he says, that many brave lives were vilely thrown away that day by his gross misconduct. Among them was poor Bond : a ball went through his leg, and he fell at Stan iforth's feet. " I and another," says he, "took him in our arms, and carried him out of the ranks, while he was exhorting me to stand fast in the Lord. We laid him down, took our leave of him, and fell into our ranks again." In their further retreat, Sta- niforth again met with him, when he had received another ball through his thigh, and the French
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pressed upon them at that time so closely, that he ^tvas compelled to leave him, thus mortally wounded, "but with his heart full of love, and his eyes full of Heaven." — ** There,'' says he, " fell a great Christian, a good soldier, and a faithful friend."
When the army went into winter-quarters, Stani- forth obtained his discharge for fifteen guineas, which his wife remitted him. He now settled at Deptford, became a leading man among the Methodists there, and finally a preacher in his own neighbourhood, and in and about London. And however little it was to be expected from the early part of his life, and the school in which he was trained, his life was honour- able to himself and beneficial to others. " I made it a rule," he says, " from the beginning, to bear my own expenses ; this cost me ten or twelve pounds a year ; and I bless God I can bear it. Beside visiting the class and band, and visiting the sick, 1 preach five or six times in the week. And the Lord gives me to rejoice in that I can still say, these hands have ministered to my necessities." His preaching was 60 well liked, that he was more than once invited to leave the Connexion, and take care of a separate congregation, with a salary of forty or fifty pounds a-year: but he was attached to Methodism : he saw' that it was much injured by such separation ; he was not weary of his labour ; and as to pecuniary consi- derations, they hud no weight with him. The course of his life, and the happy state of his mind, are thus described by himself: " I pray with my wife before I go out in the morning, and at breakfast-time with my family and all who are in the house. The for- mer part of 'the day I spend in my business ; my spare hours in reading and private exercise. Most even- ings I preach, so that I am seldom at home before nine o'clock; but, though I am so much out at nights, and generally alone, God keeps me both firom evil men and evil spirits : and many times I am as fresh when I come in at night, as 1 was when I went out in the morning. I conclude the day in reading the Scriptures, and in praying with my family. I am now in the sixty-third year of my age, and, glory be to
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God, I am not weary of well-doing. I find my de- sires after God stronger than ever; my understand- ing is more clear in the things of God ; and my heart is united more than ever both to God and his people. I know their religion and mine is the giil of God through Christ, and the work of God by his Spirit : it is revealed in Scripture, and is received and re- tained by faith, in the use of all gospel ordinances. It consists in an entire deadness to ^he world and to our own will ; and an entire devotedness of our souls, bodies, time, and substance, to God, through Christ Jesus. In other words, it is the loving the Lord our God with all our hearts, and all mankind for God's sake. This arises from a knowledge of his love to us : We love him^ because we know he first loved us; 2L sense of which is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost that is given to us. From the little hereof that 1 have experienced, I know, he that ex- periences this religion is a happy man/'
No man found his way into the Methodist connex- ion in a quieter manner, nor brought with him a finer and more reasonable mind than George Story, a native of Harthill, in the West Riding of Yorkshire. The circumstances of his boyhood were favourable to his disposition : his parents taught him early the fear of the Lord ; and though their instructions, he says, were tedious and irksome, yet the impression which they made was never lost, and often recurred when he was alone, or in places of temptation. The minister of the parish also was a pious and venera- ble man : the solemnity with wbic:h he performed his duty impressed the boy with an awful sense of the Divine presence ; and, when he listened to the bu- rial-service, he had a distant prospect of judgment and eternity. Thunder and lightning filled him with a solemn delight, >as a manifestation of the majesty and power of the Almighty. His heart, as well as his imagination, was open to all wholesome influences ; and having one day killed a young bird by throwing a stone at it, grief and remorse for the pain which he had inflicted, kept him waking during several nights;
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and tears and prayers to God for pardon were the only means wherein he could find relief. After a de- cent school education, be was placed with a countrj bookseller. Here, being surrounded with books, he read with insatiable and indiscriminate aviditj : histories, novels, plays, and romances, were perused by dozens. He studied short-hand, and improved the knowledge which he had learned at school of geometry and trigonometry ; picked up something of geography, astronomy, botany, anatomy, and other branches of physical science ; and tired himself with the Statutes at Large. The lives of the heathen phi- losophers delighted him so much, that at one time he resolved to take them for his models ; and Tho- mas Taylor or John Fransham would then have found him in a fit state to have received the myste- ries of Paganism. He frequently read till eleven at night, and began again at four or five in the morning ; and he always had a book before him while he was at his meals.
From the shop he entered the printing-olSice, and, applying himself sedulously to the business, learned to 4espatch it with much regularity, so that he had plenty of time both for study and recreation. One summer he was an angler, the next he was a florist, and cultivated auriculas and polyanthuses. These pursuits soon became insipid. He tried cards, and found them only implements for unprofitably consum- ing time ; and, when led into drinking, in the midst of that folly he saw its madness, and turned from it with abhorrence. He hoped that horse-racing might be found a more manly and rational amusement ; so he attended the races at Doncaster, with the most flat- tering expectations of the happiness he should find that week. " The first day," says he, " vanished away without any satisfaction : the second was still worse. As I passed through the company dejected and disappointed, it occurred to my mind, What is all this immense multitude assembled here for ? to see a few horses gallop two or three times round the course, as if the devil were both in them and their riders ! Certainly, we are all mad, we are fit for
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Bedlam, if we imagine that the Almighty made us for no other purpose but to seek happiness in such senseless amusements. 1 was ashamed and con- founded, and deternlined never to be seen there any more."
At this time he had risen to the management of the printing-office : he had to publish a weekly newspaper, select the paragraphs from other papers, prepare the advertisements, correct the press, and superintend the journeymen and apprentices ; an employment, he says, which flattered his vanity, in- creased his native pride, and consequently led him further from God. For now, in the course of his desultory reading, he fell in with some of those per- nicious writers who have employed themselves in sapping the foundations of human happiness. ^^ I read and reasoned," says he, " till the Bible grew not only dull, but, I thought, full of contradictions. I staggered first at the divinity of Christ, and at length gave up the Bible altogether, and sunk into Fatalism and Deism." In this state of mind, and at the age of twenty, he went to London, in full hope of there finding the happiness of which he was In search. But new things soon became old : they palled* upon him; and, instead of happiness, an unaccountable anguish of spirit followed whenever his mind sunk back upon itself. He would gladly have gone abroad, for the sake of continual change, but it was a time of war. He resolved to try if religion would afford him relief, and went to several places of worship; " but even this," says he, " was in vain ; there was some- thing dull and disagreeable wherever I turned my eyes, and I knew not that the malady was in myself. At length I found Mr. Whitefield's chapel, in Totten- ham-Court-Road, and was agreeably entertained with his manner of preaching: his discourses were so engaging, that, when I retired to my lodgings, I wrote down the substance of them in my journal, and frequently read them over with pleasure ; but still notning reached my case, nor had I any light into the state of my soul. Meantime, on the week nights, I went to the theatres, nor could I discern any
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difference between Mr. Whitefield's preaching, and seeing a good tragedy."
Weary of every thing, and all places being alike to him, he yielded to the persuasion of hi3 friends, returned into the country, and thinking himself too young and inexperienced to enter into business lor himself, as they would fain have had him do, under- took, once more, the management of a printing-oflk:e. He wanted for nothing, he had more money than he knew what to do with, yet, in his own words, he was as wretched as he could live, without knowing either the cause of this misery, or any way to escape from it For some years he had attempted to regulate his conduct according to reason ; but even at that bar he stood condemned. His temper was passionate; he struggled against this, having thus far profited by the lessons of the Stoics ; and greatly was he pleased when he obtained a victory over his own anger ; but^ upon sudden temptation, all his resolutions were ^^ as a thread of flax before the fire." He mixed with jovial company, and endeavoured to catch their spirit ; but, in the midst of levity, there was a weight and hollowness within him : experience taught him that this laughter was madness ; and when he return- ed to sober thoughts, he found into how deep a melan- choly a stimulated mirth subsides. He wandered to different places of worship, and found matter of dis- quiet at all ; at length he forsook them all, and shut himself up on Sundays, or went into the solitude of a neighbouring wood. " Here," says he, ** I con- sidered, with the closest attention I was able, the arguments for and against Deisnl. I would gladly have given credit to the Christian revelation, but could not. My reason leaned on the wrong side, and involved me in endless perplexities. I likewise endeavoured to fortify myself with stronger argu- ments and firmer resolutions against my evil tempers ; for, since I could not be a Christian, I wished, how- ever, to be a good moral Heathen. Internal anguish frequently compelled me to supplicate the Divine Being for mercy and truth. I seldom gave over till my heart was melted, and I felt something of God's
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presence ; but I retained those gracious impressions only for a short time.''
It so happened that he was employed to abridge and print the life of Eugene Aram, a remarkable man, who was executed for a case of murder, in a strange manner brought to light long after the com- mission of the crime. The account of this person's extraordinary attainments kindled Story with emu- lation, and he had determined to take as much pains himself in the acquirement of knowledge, when some thoughts fastened upon his mind, and broke in pieces all his schemes. ** The wisdom of this world," said he to himself, ^ is foolishness with God. What did this man's wisdom profit him ? It did not siave him from being a thief and a murderer ; — no, nor from attempting his own life. True wisdom is foolishness with men. He that will be wise, must first become a fool that he may be wise. I was like a man awa- kened out of sleep," he continues : " I was astonish- ed ; I felt myself wrong ; 1 was conscious I had been pursuing a vain shadow, and that God only could direct me into the right path. 1, therefore, applied to him with earnest importunity, entreating him to show me the true way to happiness, which I was de- termined to follow, however difficult or dangerous." Just at this time Methodism began to flourish in his native village : his mother joined the Society, and sent him a message, entreating him to converse with persons of this description. To gratify her, being an obedient son, he called accordingly at a Metho- dist's house, and the persons who were assembled there went to prayer with him, and for him, a con- siderable time. The result was, as might be expect- ed,— he looked upon them as well-meaning ignorant people, and thought no more about the matter. After a few days they desired he would come again ; and he, considering that it was hi& mother's request, went without hesitation, though perhaps not very desirous of being prayed for a second time. On this occasion, however, argument was tried ; and he dis- puted with them for some hours, till they were fairly wearied, without having produced the slightest im-
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112 GEORGE STORr.
pression upon him. To attack him on the side of his reason^ was not indeed the way by which such reasoners were likely to prevail ; such a proceeding would serve only to stimulate his vanity and provoke his pride ; and, accordingly, he was about to with- draw, not a little elevated with the triumph which he had obtained, when a woman of the company de- sired to ask him a few questions. The first was, " Are you happy ?" His countenance in9tantly fell, and he honestly answered, " No." — " Are you not • desirous of finding happiness ?" she pursued. He replied, that he was desirous of obtaining it on any terms, and had long sought for it in every way, but in vain. She then told him, that if he sought the Lord with all his heart, he would certainly find in him that peace and pleasure which the world could not bestow. The right string had now been touch- ed : every word sunk deep into his mind ; and he says, that from that moment he never lost his reso- lution of being truly devoted to God.
The books which had misled him he cast into the fire ; and willing as he now was to be led astray in a different direction by his new associates, his happy disposition preserved him. Not having the hornbk fears, and terrors, and agonies, which otners declared they had experienced in the new-birth, and of which exhibitions were frequently occurring, he endea- voured to bring himself into the same state, but never could succeed in inducing these throes of spiritual labour. Yet thinking it a necessary part of tiie pro- cess of regeneration, and not feeling that conscious- ness of sanctification which his fellows professed, doubts came upon him thick and thronging. Some- times he fell back toward his old skepticism : some- times inclined to the miserable notion of predestina- tion ; plunging, as he himself expresses it, into the blackness of darkness. He found at length the foUj of reasoning himself into despair, and the unreason- ableness of expecting a miraculous manifestation in his own bodily feelings ; and he learned, in the true path of Christian humility, to turn from all presump- tuous reasonings, and staying his mind upon God.
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to repose and trust in him with a child-like entire* ness of belief and love. This was at first mortifying to his proud reason and vain imagination; but it brought with it at length ^^ an ever-permanent peace, which kept his heart in the knowledge and love of God ;" not the overflowing joys which he expected, and had been taught to expect, by en* thusiastic men ; but that peace which God himself hath assured to all who seek him in humility and truth, and which passeth all understanding. There is not, in the whole hagiography of Methodism a more interesting or more remarkable case than this ; — living among the most enthusiastic Methodists^ enrolled among them, and acting and preaching with them for more than fifty years, George Story never became an enthusiast : his nature seems not to have been susceptible of the contagion*
CHAPTER XIX.
PROVISION FOR THE LAY-PREACHERS AND THEIR FAMl* LIES. — KINGSWOOD SCHOOL THE CONFERENCE^
At first there was no provision made for the lay- preachers. The enthusiasts who offered themselves to the work literally took no thought for the morrow what they should eat, nor what they should drink, nor yet for the body what they should put on. They trusted in Him who feedeth the fowls of the air, and who sent his ravens to Elijah in the wilderness* « He who had a staff," says one of these first intine- rants, ^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^"^ ' h^ ^'^^ had none might go urithout." They were lodged and fed by some of the Society wherever they went ; and when they wanted clothes, if they were not supplied by indivi*- dual friends, they represented their necessity to the stewards. St Francis and his followers did not com- mit themselves with more confidence to the care of
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114 PROVISION FOR THE LAY-PREACHERS, &C.
Providence, nor with a more entire disregard of all human means. But the Friars Minorite were mark- ed by their habit for privileged, as well as peculiar persons ; and as thej professed poverty, the poorer and the more miserable their appearance, the great- er was the respect which they obtained from the people. In England rags were no recommendation ; and it was found a great inconvenience that the po- pular itinerants should be clothed in the best appa- rel, while the usefulness of their fellows, who were equally devoted to the cause, was lessened by the shabbiness of their appearance. To remedy this evil it was at length agreed, that every circuit should allow its preacher three pounds per quarter to pro- vide himself with clothing and books. Not long af- ter this arrangement had been made, Mr. Wesley {proposed that Mather should go with him into Ire- and on one of his preaching expeditions, and pro- mised that his wife should be supported during his absence* Mather cheerfully consented; but when he came to talk with his friends upon the subject, they cautioned him to beware how he relied for his wife^s support upon a mere promise of this kind ; for, when Mr, Wesley was gone, the matter would rest with the stewards. Upon this Mather thought it ne- cessary to talk with the stewards himself: they ask- ed him how much would be sufficient for his wife ; and when he said four shillings a week, they thought it more than could be afforded, and Mather, there- fore, refused to undertake the journey. However, in the course of the ensuing year, the necessity of making some provision for the wives of the itinerants was clearly perceived, and the reasonableness of Ma- ther's demand was acknowledged. He was called upon to travel accordingly, and from that time the stated allowance was continued for very many years at the sum which he had fixed. A further aliowance was made of twenty shillings a quarter for every child ; and when a preacher was at home, the wife was entitled to eighteen*pence a day for his board ; the computation being four-pence for breakfast, six- pence for dinner, ana four-pence each for tea and
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Supper ; with the condition, that whenever he was invited out, a deduction was to be made for the meal.
But further relief was still necessary for those mar- ried pi'eachers who gave themselves up wholly to the service of Methodism. Their boys, when they grew too big to be under the mother's direction, were m a worse state than other children, and were ex- posed to a thousand temptations, having no father to control and instruct them. " Was it fit," said Wes- ley, ** that the children of those who leave wife, home, and all that is dear, to save souls from death, should want what is needful either for soul or body .^^ Ought not the Society to supply what the parent could not, because of his labours in the Gospel.^ — The preacher, eased of this weight, would go on the more cheerfully, and perhaps many of these children might, in time, fill up the place of those who should have rested from their labours." The obvious reme- dy was to found a school for the sons of the preach- ers ; and thinking that the wealthier members of the Society would rejoice if an opportunity were given them to separate their children from the contagion of the world, he seems to have hoped that the ex- penses of the eleemosynary part of the institution might in great measure be defrayed by their means.
Some tracts upon education had led him to consi- der the defects of English schools ; the mode of teaching, defective as that is, he did not regard; it was the moral discipline which fixed his attention ; and in founding a seminary for his own people, whose steady increase he now contemplated as no longer doubtful, he resolved to provide, as far as possible, against all the evils of the existing institutions. The first point was to find a situation not too far from a great town, which would be very inconvenient for so large a household as he was about to establish, nor yet too near, and much lees in it. For in towns, the boys whenever they went abroad, would have too many things to engage their thoughts, which ought, he said, to be diverted as little as possible from the objects of their learning; and they would have too
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116 KliSGSWOOD SCHOOL.
many olber children round about thenir some of whom they were liable to meet every day, whose ex- ample would neither forward them in learning nor in religion. He. chose a spot, three miles from Bristol, in the middle of Kingswood, on the side of a small hill, sloping to the west, sheltered from the east and north, and affording room for large gardens. At that time it was quite private and remote from all high- ways : now the turnpike road passes close beside it, and it is surrounded by a filthy population. He built the house of a size to contain fifty children, be- sides masters and servants, reserving one room and a little study for his own use.
In looking for masters he had the advantage of being acquainted with every part of the nation; and yet he found it no easy thing to procure such as he desired, — men of competent acquirements, " who were truly devoted to God, who sought nothing on earth, neither pleasure, nor ease, nor profit, nor the praise of men." The first rule respecting scho- lars .was, that no child should be admitted after he M'as twelve years old ; before that age, it was thought he could not well be rooted either in bad habits or ill principles; he resolved also, not to receive any that came to hand, but, if possible, ^^ only such as had some thoughts of God, and some desire of saving their souls ; and such, whose parents desired they should not be almost, but altogether Christians." The pro- posed object was, " to answer the design of Christian education, by framing their minds, through the help of God, to wisdom and holiness, by instilling the principles of true religion, speculative and practical, ami training them up in the ancient way, that they might be rational, scriptural Christians." Accord- ingly he proclaimed, that the children of tender pa- rents had no business there, and that no child should be received, unless his parents would agree that he should observe all the rules of the bouse, and that they would not take him from school, no, not for a day, till they took him for good and all. " The rea- sonableness of this uncommon rule," says Wesley, ^' is shown by constant experience; for children may
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unlearn as much in one week, as they have learned in several ; nay, and contract a prejudice to exact discipline which never can be removed." Had Wes- ley been a father, he would have perceived that such a rule is unreasonable, and felt that it is abominable : uncommon, unhappily it is not, for it makes a part of the Jesuit establishments, and was adopted also by Buonaparte as part of his plan for training up an ar- my of Mamelukes in Europe : no rule could better forward the purpose of those who desire to enslave mankind.
The children were to rise at four, winter and sum- mer: this, Wesley said, he knew by constant ob^ servation, and by long experience, to be of admira- ble use either for preserving a good, or improving a bad constitution ; and he aiffirmed, that it was of pe- culiar service in almost all nervous complaints, both in preventing and in removing them. They were to spend the time till five in private, partly in reading, partly in singing, partly in prayer, and in self-exami- nation and meditation, those that were capable of it Poor boys ! they had better have spent it in sleep. From five till seven they breakfasted and walked, or worked, the master being with them ; for the master was constantly to be present ; and there were no holidays, and no play on any day. Wesley liad learnt a sour German proverb, saying, " he that plays when he is a child, will play when he is a man ;" and he had forgotten an English one, proceeding from good nature and good sense, which tells us by what kind of discipline Jack mav be made a dull boy: "Why," he asks, "should he learn now what be must unlearn by and by?" Why? — for the same reason that he is fed with milk when a suckliHg, be- cause it is food convenient for him. They were to work in fair weather, according to their strength, in the garden: on rainy days, in the house, always in presence of a master; for they were never, day or night, to be alone. This part of his system Wesley adopted from the great school at Jena, in i^axony ; it is the practice of Catholic schools, and may, perhaps, upon a comparison of evils, be better than the oppo-
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118 KtNGSWOOD SCHOOL.
site extreme, which leaves the boys, during iht greater part of theit* time, wholly without superinten- dance. At a great expense of instinct and enjoy- ment, and of that freedom of character, without which the best character can only obtain from us a cold es- teem, it gets rid of much vice, much cruelty, and much unhappiness. The school hours were from seven to eleven, and from one to five : eight was the hour for going to bed ; they slept in one dormitory, each in a separate bed ; a master lay in the same room, and a lamp was kept burning there. Their food was as simple as possible, and two days in the week no meat was allowed.
The things to be taught there make a formidable catalogue in the founder's plan; reading, writing, arithmetic ; English, French, Latin, Greek, Hebrew ; history, geography, chronology, rhetoric, lo^ic, eth- ics; geometry, algebra; natural philosophy, and metaphysics. No Roman author was to be read who had lived later than the Augustan age, except certain selections from Juvenal, Persius, and Mar- tial. This was carrying classical puritanism to an extreme; and it indicates no very sound judgment that Wesley should have preferred a few of the mo- dem Latin writers to supply the place of those whom he rejected. The classics which were retained were to be carefully expurgated : there had been a time when he was for interdicting them altogether, as im- proper to be used in the education of Christian youths but this folly he had long outgrown.
He was enabled to establish the school by the bounty of Lady Maxwell, one of his few converts in high life. She was of the family of the Brisbanes, in Ayrshire ; was married to Sir Walter Maxwell at the age of 17; at 19 was left a widow; and, six weeks after the death of her husband, lost her son and only child. From that hour she was never known to mention either. Weaned from the world by these severe dispensations, she looked for com- fort to Him whogiveth and who taketh away; and what little of her diary has appeared, shows more of high enthusiastic devotion, unmingled and undebased, than is to be found in any other composition of the
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kind. She used to say, that, had it not been for the Methodists, she should never have had those enjoy- ments in religion to which she had attained ; because it is seldom or never that we go further than our in- structors teach us. It was, however, many years before she formally joined them, and she never for- sook the church of Scotland. She lived to be the oldest member of the Society. The school was founded long before she became a member; but Wesley had no sooner mentioned his design to her, than she presented him with bank notes to the amount of 500/. and told him to begin immediately. After some time she asked how the building was going on, and whether he stood in need of further assistance; and hearing that a debt of 300/. had been incurred, though he desired that she would not consider herself under any obligation in the business, j^he imiQediately gave him the whole sum.
The school was opeiied in 1 748 : in two or three months there were twenty-eight scholars, notwith- standing the strictness of the discipline ; and so little was economy in education understood in those days, that there was an establishment of six masters for them. " From the very beginning," says Wesley, ^^ I met with all sorts of discouragements. Cavillers, and prophets of evil, were on every side. An hun- dred objections were made, both to the whole design, and every particular branch of it, especially by those from whom I bad reason to expect better things. Notwithstanding which, through God^s help, I went on; wrote an English, a Latin, a Greek, a Hebrew, and a French grammar ; and printed Prodecttones Piteriles^ with many other books, for the use of the school." In making his grammars, Wesley rejected much of the rubbish with which such books are en- cumbered : they might have been simplified still further; but it was reserved for Dr. Bell, the friend of cliildren, to establish the principle in education, that every lesson should be made perfectly intelli- gible to the child.
Upon visiting the school a year after its establish- ment, he found that several rules had been habitually
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neglected ; and he judged it necessary to send away some of the children, and suffer none to remain who were not clearly satisfied with them, and determined to observe them all. By the second year the scho* lars had been reduced from twenty-eight to eighteen : it is marvellous indeed that any but the sons of the preachers should have remained ; that any parents should have suffered their children to be bred up in a manner which would inevitably, in ninety-nine cases out of an hundred, either disgust them with religion, or make them hypocrites. " I wonder," says he, " how I am withheld* from dropping the whole design, so many difficulties have continually attended it ; yet if this counsel is of God it shall stand, and all hinderances shall turn into blessings.^' The house was in a state of complete anarchy. One of the masters wasso rough and disobliging, that the children were little profited by him : a second, though honest and diligent, was rendered contemptible by his person and manner : the third had been useful, till the fourth set the boys against him ; and the two others were weighed down by the rest, who neither observed the rules in the school nor out of it. To crown all, the housekeeper neglected her duty, being taken up with thoughts of another kind; and the four maids were divided into two parties. This pitiful case he published for the information of the Society, and cut down the establishment to two mas* ters, a housekeeper, and a maid. Two of the elder boys were dismissed as incorrigible, out of four or five who were " very uncommonly wicked," (a Yery uncommon proportion of wicked boys out of eigh- teen,) and five more soon went away. Still it went on badly : four years afterwards he speaks of endea- vouring once more to bring it into order. " Surely,'' he says, ^^ the importance of thi» design is apparent, even from the difficulties that attend it. 1 spent more money, and time, and care on this than almost any design I ever had ; and still it exercises all the pa- tience I have. But it is worth all the labour.''
Provision had thus been made for themaintenance of the preachers' families, and the education of their eons. A Conference, to which Wesley, in the year
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1744, invited his brother Charles, four other clergy- men, who co-operated with him, and ibur of his lay preachers, was from that time held annually, and be* came the general assembly, in which the affairs of the Society were examined and determined. They began their first meeting by recording thrir desire, ^^ that all things might be considered as in the ini- mediate presence ofGod ; that they might meet with a single eye, and as little children who had every thing to learn ; that every point which was proposed might be examined to the foundation; that everjr person might speak freely whatever was in his heart ; and that every question which might arise should be thoroughly debated and settled.^' There was no reason, they said, to be afraid of doing this, lest they should overturn their first principles: for if they were false, the sooner they were overturned the bet- ter ; if they were true, they would bear the strictest examination. They determined, in the intermediate hours of this Conference, to visit none but the sick, and to spend all the time that remained in retire- ment ; giving themselves to prayer for one another, and for a blessing upon this their labour. With re- gard to the judgment of the majority, they agreed that, in speculative things, each could only submit so far as his judgment should be convinced ; and that, in every practical point, each would submit, so far ai^ he could, without wounding his conscience. Further than this, they maintained, a Christian could not sub- mit to any man or number of men upon earth ; either to council, bishop, or convocation. And this wad that grand principle of private judgment on which all the reformers proceeded. Every man must judge for himself; because every man must give an account for hinwelf to God.'' But this principle, if followed to its full extent, is as unsafe and as untenable as the opposite extreme of the Romanists. The design of this meeting was to consider what to teach, how to teach, ahd what to do ; in other words, how to re- gulate their doctrines, discipline, and practice. Here, therefore, it will be convenient to present a connected account of each.
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CHAPTER XX.
Wesley's doctrines and ofinioks.
Wesley never departed willingly or knowingly from the doctrines of the Church of England, in which he had been trained up, and with which he was conscientiously satisfied after full and free in- quiry. Upon points which have not been revealed, but are within the scope of reason, he formed opi- nions for himself, which were generally clear, con- sistent with the Christian system, and creditable, for the most part, both to his feelings and his judgment But belaid no stress upon them, and never proposed them for more than they were worth. In the follow- ing connected view of his scheme, care has been ta- ken to preserve his own words, as far as possible, for the sake of fidelity.
The moral, or, as he sometimes calls it, the Ada- mic law, be traced beyond the foundation of the world, to that period, unknown indeed to men, but doubtless enrolled in the annals of eternity, when the morning stars first sang together, being newly called into existence. It pleased the Creator to make these His first-born sons intelligent beings, that they might know Him who created them. For this end he en- dued them with understanding to discern truth from falsehood, good from evil ; and, as a necessary re- sult of this, with liberty, — a capacity of choosing the one and refusing the other. By this they were like- wise enabled to offer Him a free and willing service; a service rewardable in itself, as well as most ac- ceptable to their gracious. Master. The law which He gave them was a complete model of all truth, so far as was intelligible to a finite being ; and of all
food, so far as angelic natures were capable of em- racing it. And it was His design herein to make way for a continued increase of their happiness, see- ing every instance of obedience to that law would
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both add to the perfection of their nature, and entitle them to a higher reward, which the righteous Judge would give in its season. In like manner when God, in His appointed time, had created a new order of intelligent beings, when He had raised man from the dust of the earth, breathed into him the breath of life, and caused him to become a living soul. He gave to this free intelligent creature the same law as to his first-born children ; not written, indeed, upon ta- bles of stone, or any corruptible substance, but en- graven on his heart by the finger of God, written in the inmost spirit both of men and angels, to the in- tent it might never be afar off, never hard to be un- derstood, but always at hand, and always shining with clear light, even as the sun in the midst of hea- ven. Such was the original of the law of God. With regard to man, it was coeval with his nature; but with regard to the elder sons of God, it shone in its full splendour, ** or ever the mountains were brought forth, or the earth and the round world were made.'* Man was made holy, as he that created him is ho- ly : perfect as his Father in Heaven is perfect. As God is love, so man, dwelling in love, dwelt in God, and God in him. God made him to be an image of his own eternity. To man thus perfect, God gave a perfect law, to which He required a full and perfect obedience. He required full obedience iu every point. No allowance was made for any falling short : there was no need of any, man being altogether equal to the task assigned him. Man disobeyed this law, and from that moment he died. God had told him, « in the day that thou eatest of that fruit thou shalt surely die." Accordingly on that day he did die: he died to God, the most dreadful of all deaths. He lost the life of God : he was separated from Him in union with whom his spiritual life consisted. His soul died. The body dies when it is separated from the soul ; the soul when it is separated from God : but this separation Adam sustained in the day — the hour when he ate of the forbidden fruit. The threat can- not be understood of temporal death, without im- peaching the veracity of God. It must therefore be
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understood of spiritual death, the loss of the Kfe and image of God. His body likewise became corrupt!* ble and mortal ; and being already dead in the spi- rit, dead to God, dead in sin, he hastened on to death everlasting, to the destruction both of body qind soul, in the fire never to be quenched*
Why was this ? Why are there sin and misery in the world ? Because man was created in the image of God : because he is not mere matter, a clod of earth, a lump of clay, without sense or understand- ing, but a spirit like his Creator; a being endued not only with sense and understanding, but also with a will. Because, to crown the rest, he was endued with liberty, a power of directing his own affections and actions, a capacity of determining for himself,orof choosing good or evil. Had not man been endued with this, all the rest would have been of no use, — Had he not been a free, as well as an intelligent be- ing, his understanding would have been as incapable of holiness, or any kind of virtue, as a tree or a block of marble. And having this power of choosing good or evil, he chose evil. But in Adam all died, and this was the natural conseauence of his fall. He was more than the representative or federal head of the human race, — the seed and souls of all mankind were contained in him, and therefore partook of the cor- ruption of his nature. From that time every man who is born into the world bears the image of the devil, in pride and self-will, — the image of the beast, in sensual appetites and desires. All his posterity were, by his act and deed, entitled to error, guilt, sorrow, fear, pain, disease, and death, and these they have inherited for their portion. The cause has been revealed to us, and the effects are seen over the whole world, and felt in the heart of every individual. 3ut this is no ways inconsistent with the justice and goodness of God, because all may recover through the Second Adam, whatever they lost through the first. Not one child of man finally loses thereby, un- less by his own choice. A remedy has been pro- vided which is adeauate to the disease. Yea, more than this, mankind have gained by the fall a capa-
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city, first, of being more holy and happy on earth ; and, secondly, of being more happy in heaven than otherwise they could have been For if man had not fallen, there must have been a blank in our faith and In our love. There could have been no such thing as faith in God ^^ so loving the world, that he gave his only Son for us men and for our salvation;" no faith in the Son of God, as loving us a^d giving himself for us; no faith in the Spirit of God, as renew- ing the image of God in our hearts, or raising us from the death of sin unto the life of righteousness. And the same blank must likewise have been in our love. We could not have loved the Father under the near- est and dearest relation, as delivering up his Son for us : we could not have loved the Son, as hearing our sins in his own hody on the tree, and by that one ob- lation of himself once ofiered making a full oblation, sacrifice, and satisfaction ibr the sins of the whole world : we could not have loved the Holy Ghost, as revealing to us the Father and the Son, as opening the eyes of our understandings, bringing us out of darkness into his marvellous light, renewing the image of God in our soul, and sealing us unto the day of redemption. So that what is now in the sight of God pure religion and undefiled, would then have had no being.
The fall of man is the very foundation of revealed religion. If thi« be taken away, the Christian system is subverted, nor will it deserve so honourable an ap- pellation as that of a cunningly devised fable. It is a scriptural doctrine: many plain texts directly teach it It is a rational doctrine, thoroughly con- sistent with sound reason, though there may be some circumstances relating to it which human reason can- not fathom. It is a practical doctrine, having the closest connexion with the life, power, and practice of religion. It leads man to the foundation of all Christian practice, the knowledge of himself, and ^hereby to the knowledge of God, and of Christ cru- cified. It is an experimental doctrine. The sincere Christian carries the proof of it in his own bosom. — Thus Wesley reasoned ; and, from the corruption of
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12G Wesley's doctrines and opinions.
man^s nature, or in his own view of the doctrine, from the death of the soul, he inferred the necessity of a New Birth. He had made that expression ob- noxious in the season of his enthusiasm, and it was one of those things which embarrassed him in bis sober and maturer years ; but he had committed him- self too far to retract, and, therefore, when he saw, and in his own cool judgment disapproved, the ex- travagancies to which the abuse of the term had led, he still continued to use it, and even pursued the me- taphor through all its bearings, with a wantonness of ill-directed fancy, of which this is the only instance in all his writings. And in attempting to reconcile the opinion which he held with the doctrine of the Church, he entangled himself in contradictions, like a man catching at all arguments when defending a cause which he knows to be weak and untenable.
Connected with his doctrine of the New Birth was that of Justification, which he affirmed to be insepa- rable from it, yet easily to be distinguished, as being not the same, but of a widely different nature. In order of lime, neither of these is before the others in the moment we are justified by the grace of God, through the redemption that is in Jesus, we are also born of the Spirit ; but, in order pf thinking, as it is termed. Justification precedes the New Birth. We first conceive his wrath to be turned away, and then his Spirit to work in our hearts. Justification implies only a relative, the New Birth a real change. God, in justifying us, does something /or us ; in begetting as again. He does the work in us. The former changes our outward relation to God, so that of ene- mies we become children. By the latter oui* inmost souls are changed, so that of sinners we become saints. The one restores us to the favour, the other to the image of God. Justification is another word for pardon. It is the forgiveness of all our sins, and, what is necessarily implied therein, our acceptance with God. The immediate effects are the peace of God ; a peace that passeth all understanding, and a ♦* rejoicing in hope of the glory of God, with joy un- speakable and full of glory." And at the same time
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that we are justified, yea, in that very moment, sanc- tification begins. In that instant we are born again ; and when we are born again, then our sanctification begins, and thenceforward we are gradually to " grow up in* him who is our head." This expression, says Wesley, points out the exact analogy there is be- tween natural and spiritual things. A child is born of a woman in a moment, or, at least, in a very short time. Afterwards, he gradually and slowly grows, till he attains to the stature of a man. In like man- ner a person is born of God in a short time, if not in a moment ; but it is by slow degrees that he after- wards grows up to the measure of the full stature of Christ. The same relation, therefore, which there is between our natural birth and our growth, there is also between our New Birth and our Sanctification. And sanctification, though in some degree the imme- diate fruit of justification, is a disthict gift of God, and of a totally different nature. The one implies what God does for us through his Son ; the other \/ what he works in us by his Spirit Men are no more able of themselves to think one good thought, to speak one good word, or do one good work, after justifica- tion, than before they were justified. When the Lord speaks to our hearts the second time, " be ckan^^ then only the evil root, the carnal mind is destroyed, and sin subsists no more. A deep conviction that there is yet in us a carnal mind, shows, beyond all possibility of doubt, the absolute necessity of a further change. If there be no such second change, if there be no instantaneous deliverance after justification, if there be none but a gradual work of God, then we must be content, as well as we can, to remain full of sin till death ; and if so, we must remain guilty till death, continually deserving punishment. Thus Wes- ley explains a doctrine which, in his old age, he ad- mitted that he did not find a profitable subject for an unawakened congregation.
This deliverance, he acknowledged, might be gra^ dually wrought in some. I mean, he says, in this sense, they do not advert to the particular moment wherein sin ceases to be. But it is infinitely desira-
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ble, were it the will of God, that it should be done instantaneously ; that the Lord should destroy sin in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. And so he generally does. This, Wesley insisted, was a plain fact, of which there was evidence enough to (Satisfy any unprejudiced person. And why might it not be instantaneous? he argued. A moment is to Him the same as a thousand years. He cannot want more time to accomplish whatever is his will : and he cannot wait or stay for more toortfun^s or fitness in the persons he is pleased to honour. Whatever may be thought of the doctrine and of its evidence, it wad a powerful one in Wesley's hands. To the confr dence, he says, that God is both able and willing to sanctify us now^ there needs to be added one thing more, a divine evidence and conviction that he doth it. In that. hour it is done. " 7Aott, therefore, look for it every moment : you can be no worse, if you are no better for that expectation ; for were you to be disappointed of your hope, still you lose nothing. But you shall not be disappointed of your hope; it will come, it will not tarry. Look for it then every day, every hour, every moment. Why not.this hour ? this moment ."^ Certainly you may look for it now, if you believe it is by faith. And by this token you may surely know whether you seek it by faith or works. If by works, you want something to be done firsi. before you are sanctified. You think I must first 6e, or do thus or Jius. Then you are seeking it by works unto this day. If you seek it by faith, yoti may expect it as you are ; then expect it now. It is of importance to obseri'e, that there is an insepara- ble connexion between these three points— expect \{ by faiths expect it o^ you are^ and expect it now. To deny one of them is to deny them all: to allow one, is to allow them a)L# Do yow believe we are sanctified by faith } Be true then to your principle, and look for this blessing just as you are, neither better nor worse ; as a poor sinner^ that has nothing to pay, nothing to plead, but ^ CKrist dietV And tf you look for it as yon are, then expect it now. ' Stay for nothing ! Why should you ? Christ fe ready, and
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he is all you want. He is waiting for you ! he is at the door. Whosoever tfaoa art who desirest to be forgiven, first believe. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and then thou shalt do all things well. Say not, 1 cannot be accepted yet, because I am not good enough. Who is good enough, who ever was, to merit acceptance at God's hands ? Say not, ^ I am not contrite enough : I am not sensible enough of my sins.' I know it. I would to God thou wert more sensible of them, and more contrite a thousand fold than thou art ! But do not stay for this. It may be God will make thee so ; not before thou believest, but by believing. It may be thou wilt not weep much, till thou lovest much, because thou hast had much forgiven.*'
Upon these fundamental doctrines of the New Birth and Justification by Faith, he exhorted his dis- ciples to insist with all boldness, at all times, and in all places : in public, those who were called thereto ; and at atl opportunities in private. But what is faith .^ "Not an opinion,'^- said Wesley, "nor any number of opinions put together, be they ever so true. A string of opinions is no more Christian faith, than a string of beads is Christian holiness. It is not an assent to any opinion, or any number of opinions. A man may assent to three, or three-and- twenty creeds : he may assent to all the Old and New Testament, (at least as far as he understands them,) and yet have no Christian faith at all. The faith by which the promise is attained is represented by Christianity as a power wrought by the Almighty in an immortal spirit, inhabiting a house of clay, to see throug^h that veil into the world of spirits, into things .invisible and eternal : a power to discern those things which, with eyes of flesh and blood, no man hath seen, or can see ; either by reason of their nature, which (though they surround us on every side) is not perceivable by these gross senses ; or by reason of their distance, as being yet afar oflfin the bosom of eternity. It showeth what eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither oould it before enter into our heart to conceive ; and all this in the clear-
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est light, with the fullest certainty and evideodd^ For it does not leave us to receive our notice by mere reflection from the dull glass of sense, but re* solves a thousand enigmas of the highest concern^ by giving faculties suited to things invisible. It is the eye of the new born soul, whereby every true believer seeth Him who is invisible/^ It is the ear of the soul, whereby the sinner ** hears the voice of* the Son of God and lives ;^^ the palate of the soul, (if the expression may be allowed,) whereby a be«* liever ^^ tastes the good word and the powers of the ^orld to come ;'' the feeling of the soiil, whereby, *' through the power of the Highest overshadowing him,'' he perceives the presence of Him in whom he lives, and moves, and has his being, and feels the love of God shed abroad in his heart It is the in- ternal evidence of Christianity, a perpetual revela- tion^ equally strongs equally new, through all the centuries which have elapsed since the incarnation, and passing now, even as it has done from the be*-
finning, directly from God into the believing 80u]» >o you suppose time will ever dry up this stream? Oh no ! It shall never be cut off—*
Lahitnr et lahetur in onvne volubUts iBvitm* It flowsy and as it flows, for ever will flow od.
The historical evidence of revelation, strong and clear as it is, is cognizable by men of learning alone i but this is plain, simple, and level to the lowest ca^^ pacity. The sum is, " One thing I know : I was blind^ but now I see :^' an argument of which a pea«> s^nt, a woman, a child^ diay feel all the force. The traditional evidence gives an account of what was transacted far away and long ago. The inward evi^ dence is intimately present to all persons, at all times, and in all places. *^ It is nigh thee in tbj mouth and in thy heart, if thou believest in the Lord Jesus Christ." Thds^ then, is the ncord^ this is the evidence, emphatically so called, that God hath given unto us eternal life^ and tiiis life is in hds Son. Why, then, have not all men this faith ? ttecaose
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no man is able to work it in himself: it is a work of omnipotence. It requires no less power thus to quicken a dead soul, than to raise a body that lies in the grave. It is a new creation ; and none can create a soul aneW) but he who at first created the heavens and the earth. May not your own experience teach you this .J^ said Wesley;* Can you give yourself this, feiith ? Is it in your power to see, or hear, or tastef op feel God ? to raise in yourself any perception of God, or of an invisible world .^ to open an intercourse be- tween yourself and the world of spirits? to discern either them or Him that created them ? to burst the veil that is on your heart, and let in the light of eter- nity ? You know it is not. You not only do not, but cannot (by your own strength,) thus believe. The more you labour so to do, the more you will be con-> vinced it is the gift of God. It is the free gift of God*, which he bestows not on those who are worthy of his &vour, not on such as are previousfy hofy, and so fit to be Crowned with all the blessings of his goodness; but on the ungodly and unholy ; on those who, till that hour, were ^ only for everlasting destruction ; those in whom was no good thing, and whose only plea was, God be merciful to me a sinner ! No merit, no good* ness in man, precedes the forgiving love of God. His pardoning mercy supposes nothing in us but a sense of mere sin and misery ; and to all who see and feel, and own their wants, and their utter inabi- lity to remove them, God freely gives faith, for the sake of him " in whom he is always well pleased.** Whosoever thou art, O man, who hast the sentence of death in thyself, unto thee saith the Lord, not, ^^ Do this, perfectly obey all my commands, and live f^ but ^^ believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, Qnd thou shalt be saved.''
Without faith, a man cannot be justified, even though he should have every thing else; with faith, he cannot but be justified, though everything else should be wanting. This justifying faith implies not only the personal revelation, the inward evidence of Christianity, but likewise a sure and firm confidence in the individual believer that ChHst 4ie4 (or fuB sitHi
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loved him^ and gave hid life for Mm. And at what tipie soever a sinner thus believes, God josti6eth him. Repentance, indeed, must have been given him be* fore ; but that repentance was neither more nor less than a deep sense of the want of all good, and the presence of all evil; and whatever good he hath or doth from that hour when he first believes in God through Christ, faith does not Jlnd^ but bring. Both repentance, and fruits meet for repentance, are in some degree necessary to justification: but they are not necessary in the same sense with faith, nor in the »ame degree. Not in the same degree^ for these fimits are only necessary conditionally, if there be time and opportunity for them. Not in the same sense; for repentance and its fruits are only remotely neces* sary-^necessary in order to faith ; whereas faith is immediately and directly necessary to justification* In like manner, faith is the only condition of sanctifr- cation. Every one that believes is sanctified, what^ ever else he has, or has not. In other words, no msm can be sanctified till he believes ; crcry man when he believes is sanctified.
Here Wesley came upon perilous ground. — ^We must be holy in heart and life, before we can be conscious that we are so. But we must love God before we can be holy at all. We cannot, love Him till we know that He loves us; and this we cannot know till his Spirit witnesses it to our spirit The testimony of the Spirit of God must therefore, he ar- gued, in the very nature of things, be antecedent to the testimony of our own spirit. But he perceived that many had mistaken the voice of their own ima- gination for this witness of the Spirit, and presumed that they were children of God, while they were do- ing the works of the Devil. And he was not sur- prised that many sensible men, seeing the eflfects of this delusion, should lean toward another extreme, and question whether the. witness of the spirit whereof the apostle speaks, is the privilege of ordi- nary Christians, and not rather one of those extraor^- dinary gifts, which they suppose belonged only to the aposUe's age. Yet, when he asks, ^« How may on^,
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ivho has the real witness in himself, distinguish it from presumption ?'^ he evades the difficulty, and of- fers a declamatory reply, " How, I pray, do you dis- tinguish day from night ? How do you distinguish light from darkness? or the light ofastarorof a glimmering taper, from the light of the noon-day sun?" This is the ready answer of every one who has been crazed by enthusiasm. But Wesley re- garded the doctrine as one of the glories of his peo-^ ' >le, as one grand part of the testimony which God, le said, had given them tp bear to all mankind. It was by this peculiar blessing upon them, confirmed by the experience of his children, that this great evangelical truth, he averred; had been recovered, which had been for many years well nigh lost and foreotten.
These notions led to the doctrine of Assurance, Which he had defended so pertinapiously against his brother Samuel. But upon this point his fervour had abated, and he made a fairer retraction than was to be expected from the founder of a sect. " Some,'' said be, ^^ are fond of the expression ; I am not : I hardly ever use it. But I will simply declare (hav- ing neither leisure nor inclination to draw the sword of controversy concerning it) what are my present sentiments with regard to the thdng which is usually meant thereby. I believe a few, but very few Chris^ tians, have an assurance from God of everlasting sal- vation : and that is the thing which the apostle terms the plerophory, or full assurance of hope* I believe more have such an assurance of being noio in the fa- vour of God, as excludes all doubt and fear : and this, if I do not mistake, is what the apostle means by the plerophory, or full assurance of faith. I believe a , consciousness of being in the favour of God (which I do not term plerophory, or full assurance, since it is frequently weakened, nay, perhaps interrupted by returns of doubt or fear) is the common privilege of Christians, fearing God, and working righteousness. Yet I do not affirm there are no exceptions to this general rule. Possibly some may be in the favour of God? and yet go mourning all the day long. (But I
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134 WESLEY^S DOCTRINES AMD OPINIONS.
believe this is usually owing either to disorder of body, or ignorance of the gospel promises.) There- fore I have not, for many years, thought a conscious- ness of acceptance to be essential to justifying faith. And after I have thus explained myself once for all, I Ihink, without any evasion or ambigurty, I am sare without any self-contradiction, I hope all reasonable men will be satisfied : and whoever will still dispute with me on this head, must do it for disputing^s sake."
The doctrine of Perfection is not less perilous^ sure as the expression was to be tnistaken by the ignorant people to whom his discourses were ad- dressed. This, too, was a doctrine which he had preached with inconsiderate ardour at the com- mencement of his career ; and which, as he grew older, cooler, and. wiser, he modified and soflened down, so as almost to explain it away. He defined it to be a constant communion with God, which fills the heart with humble love ; and to this, he insisted, that every believer might attain. Yet^ he admitted, that it did not include a power never to think an use- less thought, nor speak an useless word. Such a perfection is inconsistent with a corruptible body, which makes it impossible always to think right : if^ therefore. Christian perfection implies this, he admit- ted that we must not expect it till afler death : — to one of his female disciples, who seems to have writ* ten to him under a desponding sense of her imper^ feet ion, he replied in these terms. " I want you,** he added, " to be off love. This is the perfection I be- lieve and teach; and this perfection is consistent with a thousand nervous disorders, which that high^ strained perfection is not Indeed my judgment is, that (in this case particularly) to overdo is to undo; and that to set perfection too high^ is the most effectual way of driving it out of tne world.*' In like manner he justified the word to Bishop Gibson, by explaining it to mean less than it expressed; so that the Bishop replied to him, ** Why, Mr. Wesley, if this is what you mean by per- fection, who can be against it .^** " Man,*' he says, ^ in
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his present state, can no more attain Adamic than angelic perfection. The perfection of which man is (capable^ while he dwells in a corruptible body^ is the complying with that kind command, ^ My son, giye me thy heart !^ It is the loving the Lord his God, with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his mind/^ But these occasional explanations did not render the general use of the word less mischiev- ous, or less reprehensible. Ignorant hearers took it for what it appeared to mean ; and what, from the mouths of ignorant instructors, it was intended to mean* It flattered their vanity and their spiritual pride^^nd became one of the most popular tenets of the Methodists, precisely because it is one of the most objectionable. Wesley himself repeatedly finds fault with his preachers if they neglected to enforce a doctrine so well adapted to gratify their hearers. In one place he says, ^^ the more I converse with the believers in Cornwall, the more am I convinced that they have sustained great loss for want of hearing the doctrine of Christian Perfection clearly and strongly enforc/ed. I see wherever this is not done, the believers grow dead and cold. Nor can this be prevented, but by keeping up in them an hourly expectation of being perfected in love. I Bay an hourly expectation; for to expect it at death, or son^e time hence, is much the same as not expecting it atall.^' And on another occasion he writes thus: " Here I found the plain reason why the work of God had gained no ground in this circuit all the year. The preachers had given up the Methodist testimo- ny. Either they did not speak of perfection at all, (the peculiar doctrine committed to our trust,) or they spoke of it only in general terms, without urg- ing the believers to go on to perfection, and to ex- pect it every moment: and wherever this is not earnestly done, the work of God does not prosper. Ajs to the word perfection,'' said he^ ** it is scrip- tural, therefore neither you nor I can, in conscience, object to it, unless we would send the Holy Ghost to school, and teach Him to speak who . made the tongue.'' Thus it was that he attempted to justify
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to others^ And to himself also, the use of langdagci, for persevering in which, after the intemperance c^ his enthusiasm had abated, there can be no excuse^ seeing that all he intended to convey by the obnox** ious term might have been expressed without ofiend- ing the judicious^ or deluding the ignorant and indis- creet.
Wesley wsis not blind to the tendency of these doctrines. **The true gospeV said he, ^touches the very ed^e both of Calvinism and-Antinomianism, so that nothing but the mighty power of God can pre- vent our sliding either into the one or the other.^^ Many of his associates and followers fell into both. He alwayd declared himself clearly and strongly against both; though at the expense of some iilcon- sistency. when he preachied of a sanctification which left the subject liable to sin, of an assurance which Was. not assured, and of an imperfect perfection. But his real opinion could not be mistaken; and few men have combated these pestilent errors with more earnestness or more success. He never willingly en- gaged in those subtle and unprofitable discussions which have oC^&sioned so much dissention in the Christian world ; bdt upon those points in which speculation is allowable, and erroi" harmless, he free- ly indulged his imagination.
It was his opinion that there is a chain of beings advancing by degrees from the lowest to the behest boint, — from an atom of unorganized matter, to the nighest of the archangels ; an opinion consonant to the philosophy of the bards, and confirmed by sci- ence, as far as our physiological knowledge extendsv He believed in the ministry both of good and evil angels ; but whether every man had a guardian an- gel to protect him, as the Romanists hold, and a ma- lignant demon continually watching to seduce bim into the ways of sin and death, this he considered as undetermined by revelation, and therefore doabtfiiL Evil thoughts he held to be infused into the minds of men by the evil principle ; and that ^^ as no good is done, or spoken, or thought by any man, without Ae assistance of God working together in and with those
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that believe in him; so there is no evil done, or •poken, or thought, without the assistance of the Devil, " who worketh with energy in the children of unbelief. And certainly,'^ said he, ^^ it is as easy fi3r a spirit to speak to our heart, as for a man to speak to our ears. But sometimes it is exceedingly difficult to distinguish the thoughts which he infuses from our own thoughts, those which he injects so exactly resembling those which naturally arise in our own minds. Sometimes, indeed, we may distin- guish one from the other by this circumstance: the thoughts which naturally arise in our minds are generally, if not always, occasioned by, or, at least, connected with some inward or outward circum- stance that went before ; but those that are preter- naturally suggested, have frequently no relation to, or connexion (at least none that we are able to dis^* cern) with, any thing which preceded. On the con- trary, they shoot in, as it were, across, and thereby show that they are of a different growth.^'
His notions of diabolical agency went fuKher than this : he imputed to it many of the accidents and discomforts of life,— disease, bodily hurts, storms and earthquakes, and nightmare : he believed that epi- lepsy was often, or always, the effect of possession, and that most madmen were demoniacs. A belief in witchcraft naturally followed from these premises ; but, after satisfying his understanding that super- natural acts and appearances are consistent with the order of the universe, sanctioned by Scripture, and proved by testimony too general and too strong to be resisted, he invalidated his own authority, by listen- ing to the most absurd tales with implicit credulity, and recording them as authenticated facts. He ad- hered to the old opinion, that the devils were the gods of the heathen; and he maintained, that the w6rd8 in the Lord's Prayer, which have been ren- dered evii^ mean, in the original, the wicked one^ «« em- phatically so called, the prince and god of this world, who works with mighty power in the children of disobedience^''
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One of bis most singular notions was concciming the day of judgment. Ee thought it probable that its duration would be several thousand jears^ that the place would be above the earth, and that the circumstanGes of every individuates life would then be brought forth in full view, together with all their tempers, and all the desires, thoughts, and intents of their hearts. This he thought absolutely neces- sary for the full display of the glory of God, for the clear and perfect manifestation of his wisdom, jus- tice, power, and mercy. " Then only," he argued, ^^ when God hath brought to light all the hidden things of darkness, will it be seen that wise and good were all his ways ; that he saw through the thick cloud, and governed all things by the wise counsel of his own will ; that nothing was left to chance or the caprice of men, but God disposed all strongly, and wrought all into one connected chain of justice^ mercy, and truth/' Whether the earth and the ma- terial heavens would be consumed by the general conflagration^ and pass away, or be transmuted by the fire into that sea of glass like unto crystal, which is described in the Apocalypse as extending before the throne, we could neither affirm nor deny, be said ; but we should know hereafter. He held the doctrine of the millennium to be scriptural ; but he never fell into those wild and extravagant fancies, in which speculations of this kind so frequently end. The Apocalypse is the favourite study of crazy re- ligionists ; but Wesley says of it, " Oh, how little do we know of this deep book ! at least, how little do / know ! 1 can barely conjecture, not affirm, any one
goint concerning that part of it which is yet unM- Ued.''
He entertained some interesting opinions concern- inj^ th^ brute creation, and derived whatever evils interior creatures endure, or inflict upon each other, from the Consequence of the Fall. In Paradise they existed in a state of happiness, enjoying will and liberty : their passions and affections were regular, and their choice always guided by their understand- ing, which was perfect in its kind. « What," says
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•f
he, ^^ is the barrier between men and brates-— the. line which they cannot pass ? It is not reason. Set aside that ambiguous term ; exchange it for the plain word understanding, and who can deny that brutes have this ? We may as well deny that they have sight or hearing. But it is this : man is capable of God ; the inferior creatures are not We have no ground to believe that they are in any degree capa^* ble of knowing, loving, or obeying God. This is the specific diffbrenoe between man and brute — the great gulf which they cannot pass ovep. And as a loving obedience to God was the perfection of man, so a loving obedience to man was th^ perfection of brutes." While this continued, they were happy after their kind, in the right state and the right use of all their faculties. Evil and pain had not entered into paradise ; and they were immortal ; for ^^ God made not death, neither bath he pleasure in the death df any living." How true, then, is that word, ^ God saw every thing that he had made, and behold it was very good."
But as all the blessings of God flowed through man to the inferior creatures, those blessings were cut off when man made himself incapable of trans- mitting them, and all creatures were then subjected to sorrow, and pain, and evil of every kind. It is probable that the meaner creatures sustained much loss, even in the lower faculties of their corporeal powers : they suffered more in their understanding, and still more in their liberty, their passions, and their will. The very foundations of their nature were turned upside down. As man is deprived of his perfection, his loving obedience to God, so brutes are deprived of their perfection, their loving obe- dience to man. The far greater part flee from his hated presence ; others set him at defiance, and de« stroy him when they can ; a few only retain more or less of their original disposition, and, through the mercy of God, still love him and obey him. And in consequence of the first transgression, death csfrpe upon the whole creation ; and not death alone, but all its train of preparatory evils, pain, and ten thou-
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sand sufierings ; nor these only, bat likewise those irregular passions, all those unlovely tempers, which in man are sins, and even in brutes are sources oi misery, passed upon all the inhabitants of the earth, and remain in all, except the children of God. In* fenor creatures torment, persecute, and devour each other, and all are tormented and persecuted by mtan. But, says Wesley, will the creature^ will even the brute creation always remain in this deplorable conditi<Mi ? God forbid that we should affirm this, yea, or even entertain such a thou^ht.-^Whiie the whole creation groaneth together, whether men attend or not, their groans are not dispersed in idle air, but enter into the ears of Him that made them. Away with vulgar prejudices, and let the plain word of God take place ! ^ God shall wipe away all tears : and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying. Neither shall there be any more pain ; for the former things are passed away.'' This blessing shall take place; not on men alone, (there is no such restriction in the text,) but on every creature according to its capacity. The whole brute creation will then undoubtedly be restored to all that they have lost, and with a large increase of faculties. They will be delivered from all unruly passions, from all evil, and all suflfering. — And what if it should then please the all-wise, the all-gracious Creator, to raise them higher in the scale of beings? What if it should please Him, when he makes us equal to angels, to make them what we are now, creatures capable of God, capable of knowing, and loving, and enjoying the author of their being P^"* Some teacher of materialism had asserted, that if man had an immaterial soul, so had the brutes ; as if this conclusion reduced that opinion to a manifest absurdity. " I will not quarrel,'* said Wesley, ^ with any that think they have. Nay, I wish he could prove it ; and surely 1 would rather allow them souls, than I would give up my own." He cherished this opinion, because it furnished a full answer to a pl&u« sible objection against the justice of God. That justice might seem to be impugned by the sufferings to which brute animab are subject; those, especially.
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who are under the tyrannj of bttital men. Bat the objection vanishes, if we consider that something better remains after death for these poor creatures also. This good end, he argued, was answered by thus speculating upon a subject which we so imper- fectly understand; and such speculations might soften and enlarge our hearts.
The kindness of Wesley^s nature is apparent in this opinion, and that ss^ne kindness produced in him a degree of charity, which has seldom been found in those who aspire to reform a churoh or to establish a sect. ** We may die," he says, " without the know- ledge of many truths, and yet be carried into Abra- ham's bosom ; but if we die without love, what will knowledge avail? Just as much as it avails the de- vil and his angels ! I will not quarrel with you about any opinion ; only see that your heart be right to- wards God, that you know and love the Lord Jesus Christ, that you love your neighbour, and walk as your Master walked, and I desire no more. I am sick of opinions : I am weary to bear them : my soul loathes this frothy food. Give me solid and substan- tial religion : give me an humble, gentle lover of God and man ; a man full of mercy and good faith, without partiality, and without hypocrisy ; a man laying him- self out in the work of faith, the patience of hope, the labour of love. Let my soul be with these Christians, wheresoever they are, and whatsoever opinion they are of * Whosoever' thus * doth the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.' This temper of mind led him to judge kindly of the^ Romanists, and of
* ** I read the deaths of some of the order of La Trappe. I am amazed at the allowance which Ood makes for invincible ignorance. — Notwithstanding the mixture of superstition which appears in every one of these, yet what a strong vein of piety runs through all ! What deep experience of the inward work of God, of righteousness, peace, and joy intheHolyGhoat"
^ In ridjog from Evesham to Bristol, I read over that surprising book, the Life of Ignatius Loyola ; surely one of the greatest men that ever was enijaged in the support of so bad a cause! I wonder any man should judge liim to be an enthusiast : — no ; but he knew the people with whom he had to do ; and setting out, Kke Count Zinzendorff. with a full persuasion that he might use guile to promote the glory of God, or
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* heretics of every description, wherever a Christiaa disposition and a virtuous life were found. He pub- lished the lives of several Catholics, and of one t So- cinian, for the edification of his followers. He believed not only that heathens, who did their duty according to their knowledge, were capable of eternal life ;• but even that a communioa with
S which he thought the same thing) the interest of his church, he acted n all things consistent with his principles."
* Of Pelagius he saysf ** by all I can pick up from ancient authors, I guess he was both a wise and a holy man ; that we know nothing hut h%» name, for his writings are all destroyed— Aot one line of them Im." Sow too, he says of some heretics of an earlier age ; ** by reflecting on an odd book which I bad read in this journey, * The General Delusion of Chris- tians with regard to Prophecyi' I was fully convinoed of what I had long suspected : 1st, that the Montanists, m the se^nd and third cen- turies, were real scriptural Christians ; and ed, that the grand reason why the mifmculous gifts were so soon withdrawn, was not only that faith and holiness were well nigh Iqst, but that 4l7« formal, oi^aMidox men began, even then, to ridicule whatever gifts they had i\o% themselves, and to decry them all, as either madness or impos&re.'* He Tindicated Bervetus also. " Being," he says, ^ In the Bodleian library, I light on Mr. Calvin's account of the case of Michael Senretust seven] of whose letters he occasionally inserts, wherein Servetus oft^n declares in terms, ^ I believe the Father is God, the 8on is God, and the Holy Ghost is God.' Mr. Calviq, however, paints him such a monster as never was : an Ariai^, ^ blasphemer, and what not; besides strewing over him his flowers of dog, devHf awifUj and so on, which are the usual appellations he gives to tiis opponents. But still be utterly denies his beii^ the cause of Ser- vetus's death. ^ No,** says he, ^ I only advis^ our magistrates, as hav- ing a right, to restrain heretics by the sword, to seize upon and try that arch-heretic ; but, after he was condemned, 1 said not one word about his execution.'*
He reverts to this subject in his Remarks upon a Tract by Dr. Erskine. ^' That Michael Bervetus was ' one of the wildest Anti-Trinitarians that ever apueared,* is by no means clear. I doubt of it, on the authori^ pf Calvin himself, who certainly was not prejudiced in his favour. For, If Calvin does not misquote his words, ne was no Anti-Trinitarian at afl. Calvin himself gives a quotation from one of his lefteia. In which he ex- pressly declares, ' I do believe the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God ; but I dare not use the word Trinity, or peraon.* I dare, and I think them very good words : bat I diould think it rery hard to be burnt alive for not using them, espedally with a stow Are, made of moist green wood. I believe Calvin was a ereat instrument of God ; and that he was a wise and pious man ; but I camiot but advise those who love his memory, to let Servetus alone."
t Thomas Firmin. Wesley prefaces the life of this good man in his magazine with these words: " I was exceedingly struck at reading the following lifC) having long settled it in my mind, that the eotertamiog wrong notions concerning the Trinity, was inconsistent with real piety. But I cannot argue against matter of fact I dare not deny ^at Mr. Fir- min was a pious man, although his notions of the Trinity were quite ^' roneous.'»
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the spiritual world had sometimes been vouchsafed them. Thus, he affirmed, that the demon of So- crates was a ministering an^el, and that Marcus Antoninus* received good inspirations, as he has as- serted of himself. And where there was no such in- dividual excellence, as in these signal instances, he refused to believe that any man could be precluded from salvation by the accident of h|S birth-place. Upon this point he vindicated divine justice, by con- sidering the different relation in which the Almighty stands to his <^reatures, as a creator and as a govern- or. As a creator, he acts in all things according to his own sov^ereign will : in that exercise of his power, justice can have no place ; for nothing is due to what has no being. According, therefore, to his own good pleasure, he allots the time, the place, the circum- stances for the birth of each individual, and gives them various degrees of understanding and of know- ledge, diversified in numberless ways. ^ It is hard to say how far this extends : what an amazing differ- ence there is between one born and bred up in a pious English family, and one born and bred among the Hottentots. Only we are sure the difference cannot be so great, as to necessitate one to be good, or the other to be evil ; to force one into everlasting glory, or the other into everlasting burnings.'' For, as a governor, the Almighty cannot possibly act ac- cording to his own mere sovereign will ; but, as he has expressly told us, according to the invariable rules both of justice and mercy. Whatsoever, there- fore, it hath pleased him to do of his sovereign plea- sure as Creator, he will judge the world in righteous- ness, and every man therein, according to the strict- est justice. He will punish no man for doing any thing which he could not possibly avoid ; neither
• «I read to-day, part of the meditations of MarcUs Antoninus. What k ttnnge emperor ! and what a strance heathen ! giving thanks to Ood for all the good things he enjoyed ! m particular for his good inspira- tions, and for twice revealing to him in dreams things whereby he was ^eured of, ottierwise incurable, distempers. I make no donbt hot this is one of those mamf voho $hM come from ihe East and (he Wesly and iU down wUh MnJum, baae, and Jacob, whik ike children of the kingdom^ aomiiial Chnatiaiia, are ehut out.
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for omitting any thing which he could not poftsiblj do.''
Wesley was sometimes led to profess a different doctrine, in consequence of discussing questions which serve rather to sharpen the disputatious facul- ties than to improve a Christian disposition. Thus, he has affirmed, in the Minutes of Conference, that a Heathen, a Papist, or a Church*of-England-man, if they die without being sanctified, according to his notions of sanctification, cannot see the Lord. And to the question. Can an unbeliever, whatever he be in other respects, challenge any thing of God's justice ? The answer is, "absolutely nothing but hell.'' But the humane/ opinion was more congenial to his tern* per, and in that better opinion he rested.
CHAPTER XXI.
DISCIPLINE OF THE METHODISTS.
It is less surprising that Wesley should have ob- tained so many followers, than that he should have organized them so skilfully, and preserved his power over them without diminution, to the end of his long life. Francis of Assissi, and Ignatius Loyola, would have produced little effect, marvellous enthusiasts as they were, unless their enthusiasm had been assisted and diVected by wiser heads. Wesley, who in so ma- ny other respects may be compared to these great agents in the Catholic world, stands far above them in this. He legislated for the sect which he raised, and exercised an absolute supremacy over his people. "The power I have," says he, "I never .sought: it was the undesired, unexpected result d" the woik God was pleased to work by me. 1 have a thousand times sought to devolve it on others; but as yet I cannot ; I therefore suffer it, till I can find any to ease me of my burden." That time never arrived. It
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was convenient for the society that he shoald be real- ly, as well as ostensibly their head ; and, however he may have deceived himself, the love of power was a ruling passion in his mind.
The question was asked, at one of the Confer- ences, what the power was which he exercised over all the Methodists in Great Britain and Ireland. It was evidently proposed, that he might have an op* portunity of defining and asserting it. He began his reply by premising, that Count Zinzendorf loved to keep all things closely, but that he loved to do all things openly, and would therefore tell them all he knew of the matter. A few persons, at the begin- ning, came to him in London, and desired him to ad- vise and pray with them : others did the same in va- rious parts of the kingdom, and they increased every where. " The desire," said he, " was on their part, not on mine : my desire was to live and die in re- tirement; but I did not see that I could refuse them my help, and be guiltless before God. Here com- menced my power; namely, a power to appoint when, where, and how they should meet ; and to re- move those whose life showed that they had no desire to flee from the wrath to come. And this power re- mained the same, whether the people meeting toge- ther were twelve, twelve hundred, or twelve thou- sand.'* In a short time some of these persons said they would not sit under him for nothing, but would subscribe quarterly. He made answer, that he would have nothing, because he wanted nothing; for his fellowship supplied him with all, and more than all he Wanted. But they represented that money was • wanted to pay for the lease of the Foundry, and for putting it in repair. Upon that ground he suf- fered them to subscribe. ^^ Then I asked,*' said he ^« who will take the trouble of receiving this money, and paying it where it is needful ? One said, I will do 4t, and keep the account for you : so here was the first steward. Afterwards I desired one or two more to help me as stewards ; and, in process of time, a greater number. Let it be remarked, it was I myself not the people, who chose the stewardft
VOL. II. 19
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and appointed to each the distinct work wherein he was to tielp me as long as 1 chose.^' The same pre- scription ne pleaded with regard to his aatbority over the lay-preachers. The first of these offered to serve him as sons, as he should think proper to direct " Observe," said he, " these likewise de- sired me, not I them. And here commenced my power to appoint each of these, when^ where, and how to labour; that is, while he chose to continue with me ; for each had a power to go away when be pleased, as I had also to go away from them, or an j of them, if I saw sufficient cause. The case conti- nued the same when the number of preachers in- creased. I had just the same power still to appoint when, and where, and how each should help me ; and to tell any, if I saw cause, * I do not desire your help any longer/ On these terms, and no other, we joined at first; on these we continue joined. They do me no favour in being directed by>me. It is true my reward is with the Lord ; but at present I have nothing from it but trouble and care, and often a burden I scarce know how to bear."
His power over the Conference he rested upon the same plea of prescription ; but it had originated with himself; not like his authority over the preach- ers and the laity, in a voluntary offer of obedience. He, of his own impulse, had invited several clergy- men, who acted with him, and all the lay-preachers who at that time served him as sons in the gospel, to meet and advise with him. ^^ They did not desire the meeting," said he, « but /did, knowing that, in a multitude of counsellors, there is safety. And when their number increased, so that it was neither need- ful nor convenient to invite them all, for several years, I wrote to those with whom I desired to con- fer, and these only met at the place appointed ; till at length I gave a general permission, that all who desired it might come. Observe: I myself sent for these, of my own free choice ; and I sent for them to advise, not govern me. Neither did I, at any of those times, divest myself of any part of that power which the providence of God had cast upon me^
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without an^ design or choice of mine. What is that
Sower? It IS a power of admitting into, and excluding om, the societies under my care : of choosing and removing stewards ; of receiving, or not receiving helpers ; of appointing them when, where, and how to help me ; and of desiring any of them to meet me, when 1 see good. And as it was merely in obe- dience to the providence of God, and for the good of the people, that I at first accepted this power, which I never sought; nay, a hundred times labour- ed to throw off; so it is on the same considerations^ not for profit^ honour, or pleasure, that I use it at this day-"
In reference to himself, as the person in whom the whole and sole authority was vested, Wesley called his preachers by the name of helpers ; and desig- nated as assistants those among them who, for the duties which they discharge, have since been deno- minated superintendents. It soon became expedient to divide the country into circuits. There were, in the year 1749, twenty in England, two in Wales, two in Scotland, and seven in Ireland. In 1791, the year of Mr. Wesley's death, they had increased to seventy- two in England, three in Wales, seven in Scotland, and twenty-eight in Ireland. Every circuit had a certain number of preachers appointed to it, more or less, according to its extent, under an assistant, whose office it was to admit or expel members, take lists of the societies at Easter, hold quarterly meet- ings, visit the classes quarterly, keep watch-nights and love-feasts, superintend the other preachers, and regulate the whole business of the circuit, spi- ritual and temporal.
The helpers were not admitted indiscriminately : gifts^ as well as grace for the work, were required. An aspirant was tirst examined concerning his theo- logical knowledge, that it might be seen whether his opinions were sound : he was then to exhibit his gift of utterance, by preaching before Mr, Wesley ; and afterwards to give, either orally or in writing, hid reasons for thinking that he was called of God to the ministry. The best proof of this was, that some
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persons should have been convinced of sin, and con' verted by his preaching. If a right belief and a ready utterance were found, and these fruits had followed, the concurrence of the three marks was deemed sufficient evidence of a divine call: he was admitted on probation; with a caution, that he was not to ramble up and down, but to go where the as- sistant should direct, and there only ; and, at the ensuing conference, he might be received into full connexion. After a while the time of probation was found too short, aiul was extended to four years.
The rules of a helper are strikingly characteristic of Wesley, both in their manner and their spirit.
^ 1. Be diligent. Never be unemployed a mo- ment : never be triflingly employed. Never while away time ; neither spend any more time at any place than 19 strictly necessary.
2. Be serious. Let your motto be, Jloliness to the Lord. Avoid all lightness, jesting, and foolish talking.
3. Converse sparingly and cautiously with women ; particularly with young women in private.
4. Take no step towards marriage without first ac- quainting U9 with your design.
5. Beneve evil of no one ; unless you see it done, take heed how you credit it Put the best construc- tion on every thing : you know the judge is always supposed to be on the prisoner's side*
6. Speak evil of no one ; else your word, especial- ly, would eat as doth a canker. Keep your thoughts within your own breast, till you come to the peiBon concerned.
7. Tell every one what you think wrong in him, and that plainly, and as soon as may be, else it will fester in your heart. Make all haste to cast the £re out of your bosom.
8. Do not affect the gentleman. You have no more to do with this character than with that of a dancing-master. A preacher of the gospel is the servant of all.
9. Be ashamed of nothing but sin; not of fetching
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wood (if lime permit) or of drawing water; not of cleaning your own* shoes, or your neighbours.
10. Be ponctuaL Do every thing exactly at the time : and, in general, do not mend our rules, but keq) them; not for wrath, but, for conscience sake.
11. You have nothing to do but to save souls. Therefore spend and be spent in this work. And go always, not only to those who want you, but to those who want you most.
12. Act in all things, not according to your own will, but as a son in the gospel. As such, it is your part to employ your time in the manner which we di- rect; partly in preaching and visiting the flock from house to house ; partly in reading, meditation, and prayer. Above all, if you labour with us in our Lord's vineyard, it is needful that you should do ihnt part of the work which we advise, at those times and places which we judge most for his glory 7'
Thus did Wesley, who had set so bad an exam- ple of obedience, exact it from his own followers as rigidly as the founder of a monastic order. Like those founders, also, he invited his disciples to enter upon a course of life which it required no small de- gree of enthusiasm and of resolution to embrace. The labour was hard, the provision scanty, and the prospect for those who were superannuated, or worn out in the service, was, on this side the grave, as cheerless as it well could be. When a preacher was admitted into full connexion, he paid one guinea, and from that time half a guinea annually, toward the preachers' fund. If he withdrew from the con-
* " Respecting these golden rules," says Mr. Crowther, '* it may be proper to ol»serve, ' affecting the gentleman^ was not designed to coun- tenance clownisbness, or any thing contrary to true Christian courtesy. And when it is said, a preacher of the Gospel is the servant of aU, it certainly was not meant to insinuate that a preafcher was to be set to do the lowest and most slavish drudgery which any person could /ind for him to do. I presume the servant of God is the servant of all in gospel labours, and in nothing else. And though he may not be asham^ ed of cleaning his own shoes, or the shoes of others, yet, I apprehend^ they ought to be * ashamed' who would expect or suffer him so to do, especially such as are instructed and profited by bis ministerial labours. And surely they ought to feel some shame also, who would suffer th<( preacher to go from place to place, day after day, with his shoes and boots uncleaned."
PariraUure of Methodim, p. 277.
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nexion, all that be had subscribed was returned to him ; but if he lived to be disabled, he received from the fund an annuitj, which should not be less than ten pounds; and his widow was entitled to a sum, according to the exigence of the case, but not ex* ceediog forty.
Some of the itinerant preachers, at one time, en« tered into trade ; the propriety of this was discussed in Conference : it was pronounced evil in itself^ and in its consequences, and they were advised to give up eVery business, except the ministry, to which they were pledged. There was another more easy and tempting wa^ of eking out their scanty stipends, by printing their own spiritual effusions, and availing themselves of the opportunities afforded, by the sys- tem of itinerancy, for selling them. But Mr. Wesley was himself a most voluminous author and compiler: the profits arising from his publications were applied in aid of the expenses of the society, which increased faster than their means: the Methodists, for the most part, had neither time to spare for reading, nor mo- ney for books; and the preachers, who consulted their own individual advantage, in this manner, injur- ed the general fund, in proportion as they were suc- cessful ; it was therefore determined, in Conference, that no preacher should print any thing without Mr. Wesley^s consent, nor till it had been corrected by him. The productions which some of them had set forth, both in verse and prose, were censured as hiaving brought a great reproach upon the society, and ^^ much hindered the spreading of more profitable books :^^ and a regulation was made, that the profits, even of those which might be approved and licensed by the founder, should go into the common stock. But with regard to those which he himself had pub- lished for the benefit of the society, and some of which, he said, ought to be in every house, Wesley charged the preachers to exert themselves in finding sale for them. ** Carry them with you," said he, ** through every round. Exert yourselves in this : be not ashamed ; be not weary ; leave no stone unturn- ed." Being cut off* from the resources of authorship,
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some of them began to quack^ for the body as well as the soul; and this led to a decision in Conference, that no preacher, who would not relinquish his trade of making and vending pills, drops, balsams, or me- dicines of any kind, should Imb considered as a travel- ling preacher any longer. If their wives sold these things at home, it was said to be well ; ^^ but it is not proper for any preacher to hawk them about. It has a bad appearance ; it does not well suit the dignity of his calling.^'
They were restricted also from many indulgencies. It was not in Wesley's power, because of the age and country in which he lived, to bind his preachers to a prescribed mode of living by an absolute rule; but be attempted to afiect it, as far as circumstances would allow; They were on no account to touch snufi^ nor to taste spiritous liquors on any pretence. . '^ Do you,'' said he, *'deny younselves every useless plea- sure of sense, imarinatidn, honour r^ Are you tem- perate in all things F To take one instance, — in food ? Do you use only that kind^ and that degree which is « best both for the body and soul ? Do you see the necessity of this ? Do you eat no flesh suppers ? no late suppers ? these naturally tend to destroy bodily health. Do you eat only three meals a-day ? if four, are you not an excellent pattern to the flock ? Do you take no more food than is necessary at each meal ? you may know if you do, by a load at your stomach; by drowsiness or heaviness ; and, in a while, by weak or bad nerves. Do you use only that kind and that degree of drink which is best both for your body and . soul ? Do you drink water ? Why not ? Did you ever ? \Vhy did you leave it offj if not for health ? When will you begin again ? to-day ? How often do you drink wioe or ale ? Every day ? Do you want^ or waste it ?" He declared his own purpose, of eat- ' ing only vegetables on Fridays, and taking only toast
* The Baptists used to tolerate such quackery in their mioisters. . Crosby « in bis history of that sect, contrived to inform the reader, that he continued to prepare and sell a certain wonderful tincture, and cer- tain sugar-plumbs for children, «* which have been found to bring from them many strange and monstrous worms."— Vol. tii. p. t47.
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and water in the morning; and he expected the preachers to observe the same kind of fast
The course of life jvhich was prescribed for the preachers, left them little opportunity for the enjoy- ment of domestic life. Home could scarcely be re- garded as a resting place by men who were never al- lowed to be at rest. Wesley insisted upon a frequent and regular change of preachers, because he well knew that the attention of the people was always ex- cited by a new performer in the pulpit ** I know," said he, " were I to preach one whole year in one place, I should preach both myself and my congre- gation asleep. Nor can I believe it was ever the will of the Lord tliat any congregation should have one teacher only. We have found, by long and con- stant experience, that a frequent change of teachers is best This preacher has one talent, that another. No one whom I ever yet knew has all the talents which are needful for beginning, continuing, and per- fecting the work of grace in a whole congregation.^ The institutions of the Jesuits allowed an itinerant father of the company to remain three months in a place, unless any other term were specified in his in- structions : but Wesley went further, and thought it injurious both to the preacher and people, if one of hb itinerants should stay six or eight weeks together in one place. ^^ Neither,'' said he, ^ can he find matter for preaching every morning and evening; nor will the people come to hear him. Hence he grows cold by lying in bed, and so do the people; whereas, if he never stays more than a fortnight to- gether in one (ilace, he may find matter eoou^, and the people will gladly hear him.'' These frequent changes were so gratifying to the people, that the trustees of a meeting-house once expressed an appre- hension lest the Conference should impose one preacher on them for many years; and, to guard ' against this, a provision Vas inserted in the deed, that " the same preacher should not be sent, ordinarily, above one, never above two years together." There may, perhaps, have been another motive in Wesley's mind: a preacher, who found himself comtbrlably
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eettled^ with a congregation to whom he had made himself agreeable, might be iodiiced to take root there, throw off hie dependence upon the connexiont and set up a meeting of his own. histances of such * defection* were not wanting, and the frequent change * of preachers was the likeliest means of preventing Ithem.
No preacher, according to a rule laid down by Conference, was tp preach oftener thai^ twiice on a week-day, or three times on the Sabbath. One of these sermons was always to be at five in the mornr ing, whenever twenty hearers could be brought tor gether. As the apostolic Eliot used to say to stu- dents, Look -to it that ye be morning birds ! so Wes* ley continually inculcated the duty of early rising, as equally good for body and soul. ^^It helps the nerves,^^ he said, ^^ better than a thousand medicines { and especially preserves the sight, and prevents low- ness of spirits. Early preaching,^' he said, ^^ is the glory of the Methodists. Whenever this is dropped, they will dwindle f away into nothing.'^ He advised his preachers to begin and end always precisely at the time appointed ; and always to conclude the ser-
* " The ptofU^'^ says Mr. Crowther, " ought to get great |(ood from the constant cnange of the preachers ; for, to the prenckergf it is pro- ductive of many iDCODveniences and painful exercises."
f The importanr« which he attached to this custom appears in his Journal. ^ I was surprised when I cam^e to Chester^ to find that there also morning preaching was quite left off; for t^iis worthy reason, be- cause the people will not come, or, at least, not in the winter : if so, the Methodists are a fallen people. Here is proof: they have loti (keirftrH love ; and they never will or cap recover it till they do (hejirsi works. — As soon as I set foot in Georgia, I began preaching at five in the room- ing; and every communicant, that is, everr serious person in the town, constantly attended throughout the year : I meani came every mornin| winter and suipmer, unless in the case of sickness. They did so till I left the proviqce. In the year 1738, when God began his great work in Englano, I began preaching at the same hour, winter and summer, and never wanted a congregation. If they will not attend now, they have lost their zeal, and then, it cannot be deni<?d, they are a fallen people ; and, in the mean time, we are labouring to secure the preaching-houses to the next generation ! In the name cS^od, let us, if possible, secure thf present generation from drawing back to perdition. Let all the preachers, that are still alive to God, ioin together as one man, fast and pray, lift up their voice as a trumpet^ be instHiit in season, and out of sea- son, to convince them they are fallen, and exhort them instantly to reptnl and do the first toorks: this in particular, rising in the morning, without which neither their souls nor bodies can long remain in huallb.'*
VOL. II. 20
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154 DISCIPLINE OP THE METHODISTS.
vice in about an hour : to suit their subject to the audience, to choose the plainest texts, and keep close to the text ; neither rambling from it, nor allegorizing, nor spiritualizing too much. More than once in his Journal he has recorded the death of men who were martyrs to long and loud preaching, and he frequentlj cautioned his followers against it. To one of them he says, in a curious letter of advice, which he de- sired might be taken as the surest mark of love. ^ Scream no more, at the peril of your soul. God now warns you by me, whom he has set over you. — Speak as earnestly as you can, but do not scream. Speak with all your heart, but with a moderate voice. It was said of our Lord, ^ He shall not cry :' the word properly means, ^ He shall not scream.'* Herein be a follower of me, as I am of Christ. I often speak loud, often vehemently ; but I never scream. I never strain myself: I dare not. I know it would be a sin against God and my own soul." They were instruct- ed also not to pray above eight or ten minutes at most, without intermission, unless for some pressing reason.
Before an aspirant was admitted upon trial as an itinerant, he was exercised as a local preacher ; and many persons remained contentedly in this humbler ofBce, which neither took them from their families, nor interfered with their worldly concerns. They carried on their business, whatever that might be, six days in the week, and preached on the seventh : but no person was admitted to this rank, unless he were thought competent by the preachers of the cir- cuit The places which tney were to visit were de- termined by the assistant, and their conduct under- went an inquiry every quarter. Without their aid, Methodism could not have been kept up over the whole country, widely as it was diffused; and all that they received from the society was a little re- freshment, at the cost* of the people to whom they preached, and perhaps the hire of a horse for the day.
A still more important part was performed by the leaders, who are to Methodism what the non-com-
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missioned officers are in an army. The leader was appointed by the assistant : it was bis business regu- larly to meet his class, question them, in order, as to their religious affections and practice^ and advise, caution, or reprove, as the case might require. If any members absented themselves from the class-meet- ing, he was to visit them, and inquire into the cause ; and he was to render an account to the officiating preacher of those whose conduct appearedsuspi- cious, or was in any way reprehensible. By this means, and by the class-paper for every week, which the leaders were required to keep, and regularly produce, the preachers obtained a knowledge of every individual member within their circuit; and, by the class-tickets, which were renewed every quar- ter, a regular census of the society was effected. — The leaders not only performed the office of drilling the young recruits, they acted also as the tax-gather- ers, and received the weekly contributions of their class, which they paid to the local stewards, and the local stewards to the steward of the circuit.
Thus far the discipline of the Methodists was well devised : if the system itself had been unexception- able, the spiritual police was perfect. But they were divided into bands as well as classes ; and this sub- division, while it answered no one end of possible utility, led to something worse than the worst prac- tice of the Romish church. The men and the women, and the married and the single, met separately in these bands, for the purpose of confessing to each other. They engaged to meet once a-week at least, and to speak, each in order, freely and plainly, the true state of their souls, with the faults they had com- mitted in thought, word, or deed, and the temptations they had felt during the week. They were to be ask- ed ^^ as many, and as searching questions as may be« concerning their state, sins, and temptations:''— These four, in particular, at every meeting : What known sin have you committed since our last meet- ing ? What temptations have you met with.'* How was you delivered ? What have you thought, said, or done, of which you doubt whether it be sin or
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1 56 blSCIPLINB OF tHE MEtHODIStS.
not ? And before any person entered into one of these bands, a promise of the most unreserved open^ ness was required. " Consider, do you desire we should tell you whatsoever tve think, whatsoever we fear, whatsoever w^ hear, concerning you ? Do you desircf that, in doing this, we should come as close as possible that we should cUt to the quick, and search yoilr heart to the bottom ? Is it your desire and design to be on this, and all other occasions, en- tirely open, so as to speak every thing that is in your heart without exception, without disguise, and with- out reserve ?" The nature!, and the inevitable ten- dency of this mdtual inquisition, must be obvious to. every reflecting mind ; sind it is marvellous, that any man should have permitted his v^ife* or his daughter to enter into these bands, wheref it is not possible for innocence to escape contaminationf.
The institution of the select society or band was not liable to the same objection, l^his was to consist of persons who were earnestly athirst for the full image of God, and of those who continually walked /, .f ^ ; in the light of God, having fellowship with the Fa- ther and the Son : in other words, of those wbo had Uttained to silcb a degree of spiritual pride, that they professed to be in this state, — the adepts of Metho- dism, who were not ashamed to take their degree as
* W^&Iey has himself recorded an instance of mischief afJsing froiii Ibese bands. " I searched to the bottoiii/' says he, *' a story I had beard in part> and found it another talc of real wo. Tw6 of our society bad hved together ih uncommon harmony, Irhcn one, who.met in band with E. F., to xvhot^ she had n^entioned that she h&d found a iempiaium to- ward Dr. F., went and told her husband she teas in lobt with him, and that she had it frpin her own mouth. The sptrit of jealousy seised htm in a moment, and utterly took atvay his reason. And some one telliog him his wife was at Dr/F.'s,on whom she had called that afternoon, he took a great stick; and ran away, ana meeting her in the street, called out Strumpet! stritmpcit! and sUruck her twice or thrice. He is noi^ thoroughly convinced of her innocence; but the water cannot be gather- "^ ed up figam. He sticks th^re — ' I do thoroughly forgive ybo, but I can
never love you more.' " After such an example, Wesley oufbt to have aboHshed this part of his institutions.
f In one of his letters Wesley says, '* I believe Miss F. thought she felt evil before she did. and, by that very thousht. gave occasion to its re-entrancc.*' And yet he did not perceive the aang^ of leading hhl people into temptation, by making them recur to every iaient thought of evil ; and compelling them to utter, with their lips, imaginations whkh might otherwise have been suppress^ witbm their beartd for trerl
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perfect " I saw," says Mr. Wesley, " it might be (iseful to give some advice to those who thus continu- ed in the light of God's countenance, which the rest (of their brethren did not want, and probably could not receive. My design was not only to direct them how to press after perfection, to exercise their every grace, and improve every talent they had reeeivedj and to incite them to love one another more, and to watch more carefully over each other ; but also to have a select company, to whom I might unbosom myself on all occasions, without reserve ; and whom I could propose, to all their brethren, as patterns of love, of holiness, and of all good works. They had no need of being encumbered with many rules, hav- ing the best rule of all in their hearts." Neverthe- less, the judicious injunction was given them, that no- thing which was spoken at their meetings should be spoken again. Wesley says, he often felt the ad- vantage of these meetings, and experienced there, that, in the multitude of counsellors there is safety. But they placed the untenable doctrine of perfection in so obtrusive and obnoxious a light, that he found it difficult to maintain them ; and they seem not to have become a regular part of the system.
The watch-night was another of Wesley's objec- tionable institutions. It originated with some re- claimed colliers of Kingswood, who, having been ap- customed to sit late on Saturday nights at the ale- house, transferred their weekly meeting, after their Gonversidn, to the school-house, and continued therd praying and singing hymns, far into the morning. Wesley was advised to put an end to this; but, " up- on Weighing the thing thoroughly, and comparing it vnth the practice of the ancient Christians " he could see no cause to forbid it ; because he overlooked the diference between their times and his own, and shut his eyes to the obvious impropriety of midnight meet- ings. So he appointed them to be held once a month, near the time of full moon. "Exceedingly great," says he, «* are the blessings we have found therein ; it has generally been an extremely solemn season. when the word of God sunk deep into the heatts even
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of those who till then knew him not. If it be said, this was only owing to the novelty of the thing, (the circumstance which still draws such multitudes to- gether at those seasons,) or perhaps to the awful stillness of the night, I am not careful to answer in this matter. Be it so : however, the impression then made on many souls has never since been effaced. Now, allowing that God did make use either of the novelty, or any other indifferent circumstance, in or- der to bring sinners to repentance, yet they arc brought, and herein let us rejoice together. Now, may I not put the case further yet ? If I can proba- bly conjecture, that either by the novelty of this an* cient custom, or by any other indifferent circum- stance, it is in my power to save a soul from death, and hide a multitude of sins, am I clear before God if I do not ? If I do not snatch that brand out of the burning ?''
The practice which Wesley thus revived had been discountenanced, even in the most superstitious Ca- tholic countries, for its inconvenience, and its mani- fest ill tendency ; and therefore it had long been dis- used. While the converts to his doctrine retained the freshness of their first impression, watch-nights served to keep up the feeling to the pitch at which he wished to maintain it ; and if any person, who was almost a Methodist, attended one of these meet^ ings, the circumstances were likely to complete his conversion. For the sake of these advantages, Wes- ley disregarded the scandal which this pari of his institutions was sure to occasion; and he seems not to have considered the effect among his own people, when their first fervour should have abated, and the vigils be attended as a mere formality. He also ap* pointed three love-feasts in a quarter: one for the men, a second for the women, and the third for both together ; " that we might together eat bread," he says, ^* as the ancient Christians did, with gladness and singleness of heart. At these love-feasts (so we termed them, retaining the name, as well as the thing, which was in use from the beginning,) our food is only a little plain cake and water ; but we seldom
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return from them without heing fed not only with the meat which perisheth, but with that which endureth to everlasting life.'' A travelling preacher presides at these meetings : any one who chooses may speak ; and the time is chiefly employed in relating what they call their Christian experience. In this point, also, Mr. Wesley disregarded the offence which he gave, by renewing a practice that had notoriously been abolished, because of the abuses to which it led.
It cannot be supposed that a man of his sagacity should have overlooked the objections to which such meetings as the watch-nights and the love-feasts were obnoxious : his temper led him to despise and to defy public opinion ; and he saw how well these practices accorded with the interests of Methodism as a separate society. It is not sufficient for such a society that its members should possess a calm, set- tled principle of religion to be their rule of life and their support in trial : religion must be made a thing of sensation and passion, craving perpetually for sympathy and stimulants, instead of bringing with it peace and contentment. The quiet regularity of domestic devotion must be exchanged for public performances ; the members are to be professors of religion ; they must have a part to act, which will at once gratify the sense of self-importance, and afford employment for the uneasy and restless spirit with which they are possessed. Wesley complained that family religion was the grand desideratum among the Methodists ; but, in reality, his institutions were such as to leave little time for it, and to take away the inclination, by making it appear flat and unprofitable after the excitement of class-meetings, band-meet- ings, love-feasts, and midnight assemblies.
Whenever a chapiel was built, care was taken that it should be settled on the Methodist plan ; that is, that the property should be vested, not in trustees, but in Mr. Wesley and the Conference. The usual form among the dissenters would have been fatal to the general scheme of Methodism ; ^^ because," said Wesley, " wherever the trustees exert the power of placing and displacing preachers, there itinerant
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preaching is no more. When they have fband a preacher thej like, the rotation is at an end; at least till they are tired of hini, and turn him oat While he stays, the bridle is in his mouth. He would not dare speak the full and the whole truth ; since, if he displeased the trustees, he would be liable to lose his bread ; nor would he dare expel a trustee, though ever so ungodly, from the society. The power of the trustees is greater ths^n that of any patron, or of the king himself, who pould put in a preacher, but could not put him outJ*^ Thus he ar- gued, when a chapel at birstall had been erroneous- ly settled upon trustees ; and the importance of the point was felt so strongly by the Conference, that it was determined, in case these persons would not allow the deed to be cancelled, and substitute one upon the Methodist plan, to make a collection throughout the society, for the purpose of purchasr ing ground, and building another chapel as near the one in question as possible.
Wesley never wished to have any chapel of burial- ground consecrated ; such ceremonies he thought relics of popery, and flatly superstitious. The im-
Eossibility of having them consecrated, led him, per- aps, to consider the ceremony in this light, at a time when he had not proceeded so far as to exercise any ecclesiastical function, for which he was not properly authorized. The buildings themselves were of the plainest kind : it was difficult to raise money* even for these ; but Mr. Wesley had the
* The history of one of these chapels, at Sheerness, is curious. " It is now finished,'' says Westey* in his Journal for 1786, ** but b^ means never heard of. The building was undertaken, a few months aiooe, by a little handful of men, without any probable means of finishing it : but God so moved the hearts of the people in the dock, that even those who did not pretend to any religion, carpenters, shipwrights, labouren, ran up at all their vacant hours, and worked with all their might, without any pay. By these means a large square house was soon elegantly finished, both within and without. And it is the neatest building, next to the new chapel in London, of any in the south of Eo^and."
A meeting-house at Haslinden, in Lancashire, was built for them on
speculation, by a person not connected with the society in any way. lie desired only three per cent, for what he laid out, (about 800(.) pro- ays Wesley, there is tif'
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vidcd the seats let for so much ; of which, says Wesley, there is Uttle doubt. This was in 17C3.
DISCIPLIKB OF THE METHODISTS. 161
happy art of representing that as a matter of princi- ple, which was a matter of ^necessity; and, in the tastelessness of their chapels, the Methodists were only upon a level with the dissenters of every de- scription. The *octagon, which, of all architectural forms, is the ugliest, he preferred to any other, and wished it to be used wherever the ground would per- mit : but it has not been generally followed. The directions were, that the windows should be sashes, opening downwards ; that there should be no tub- pulpits, and no backs to the seats ; and that the men and women should sit apart. A few years before his death, the committee in London proposed to him that families should sit together, and that private pews might be erected ; " thus," he exclaims, " overthrowing, at one blow, the discipline which I have been establishing for fifty years !" But, upon further consideration, they yielded to his opinion.
He prided himself upon the singing in his meet^ ing-houses : there was a talent in his family both for music and verse ; and he availed himself, with great judgment, of both. A collection of hymns was pub* lished for the Society, some few of which were se- lected from various authors ; some were his own composition ; but far the greater part were by his brother Charles. Perhaps no poems have ever been so devoutly committed to memory as these, nor quoted so often upon a death-bed. The manner in which they were sung tended to impress them strong-
* His predilection for this form seems to have arisen from a sight of the Unitarian meeting-house at Norwich, ^ perhaps," he says, "the most elegant one in Europe. It is eight-square, built of the finest brick, with sixteen sash windows below, as many above, and eight sky-lights in the dome, which, indeed, are purely ornamental. The inside is finished in the highest taste, and is as clean as any nobteman^s saloon. The communion-table is fine mahogany : the very latches of the pew doors are polished brass. How can it be thought that the old coarse Gospel should find admission here?" The sort of humility, which is impUed in this sneer, is well charactered by Landor, when he calls it
<< A tattered garb that pride wean when deformM."
It is no wonder that he was struck by the cleanness of the chapel. This curious item occurs in the minutes of Conference for 1776. *^ Q. 2d. Complaint is made that sluts spoil our houses. How obq wt prevent this ? A. Let no known slut live in any of them." VOL. IL 21
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Ij on the mind : the tune was made wholly subservient to the words, not the words to the tune.
The Romanists are indebted for their church-music to the Benedictines, an order to which all Europe is 60 deeply indebted for many things. Our fine cathe- dral service is derived from them ; may it continue for ever ! The psalmody of pur churches was a popu- lar innovation, during the first years of the Reforma- tion ; and the psalms of Sternhold and Hopkins were aUotoed* to be sung, not enjoined. The practice, however, obtained ; and having contributed, in no slight measure, to the religious revolution, when the passion wherein it originated was gone by, it became a mere interlude in the service, serving no other pur- pose than that of allowing a little breathing-time to the minister ; and the manner in which this interval is filled, where there is no organ to supply the want of singers, or cover their defects, is too often irreve- rent and disgraceful. Aware of the great advantage to be derived from psalmody, and with an ear, as well as an understanding, alive to its abuse, Wesley made it an essential part of the devotional service in his chapels ; and he triumphantly contrasted the prac- tice of his people, in this respect, with that of the churches. " Their solemn addresses to God," said he, ^^ are not interrupted either by the formal drawl of a parish-clerk, the screaming of boys, who bawl out what they neither feel nor understand, or the unsea- sonable and unmeaning impertinence of a voluntaryt on the organ. When it is seasonable to sing praise to God, they do it with the spirit and the understand- ing also ; not in the miserable, scandalous doggrel of Hopkins and Sternhold, but in psalms and hymns, which are both sense and poetry, such as would soon- er provoke a critic to turn Christian, than a Christian to turn critic. What they sing is therefore a proper
* " Those who hare searched into the matter with the utmost car* and curiosity,*' says Collier, (vol. ii. 326.) "could never discover any au- thority either from the crown or the convocation.**
t Yet Wesley has noticed, that he once found at church an uneommoa blessing, when be least of all expected it ; namely, " while the organist was playing a voluntary."
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continaation of the spiritual and reasonable service^ being selected for that end; not by a poor hum-drum wretch, who can scarcely read what he drones out with such an air of importance, but by one who knows what he is about, and how to connect the pre- ceding with the following part of the service. Nor does he take just ^ two staves,' but more or less, as may best raise the soul to God ; especially when sung in well-composed and well-adapted tunes ; not by a handful of wild unawakened striplings, but by a whole serious congregation ; and these not lolling at ease, or in the indecent posture of sitting, drawl* ing out one word after another, but all standing be- fore God, and praising him lustily, and with a good courage." He especially enjoined that the whole congregation should sing, that there should be no re- petition oi words, no dwelling upon disjointed sylla- bles, and. that they should not sing in parts, but with one heart and voice, in one simultaneous and uninter- rupted feeling.*
The preachers were forbidden to introduce any hymns of their own composing ; in other respects they had great latitude allowed them : they might use the liturgy, if they pleased, or an abridgment of it, which Mr. Wesley had set forth ; or they might discard it altogether, and substitute an extemporane- ous service, according to their own taste and that of the congregation. Like the Jesuits, in this respect, they were to adapt themselves to all men. The ser- vice was not long : Wesley generally concluded it within the hour.
* This feeling, however, must have been disturbed in a strange man- ner, if the preacher^ observed the directions of the first (conference, to guard against formality in singing, by often stopping short, and asking the people, ^ Now, do you know what you said last ? Did you spjeak no more than you felt ? Did you sing it as unto the Lord, with the spirit and with the understanding also ?"
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CHAPTER XXII.
METHODISM IN WALES AND IN SCOTLAND.
Upon Wesley's first journey into Wales, he thought that most of the inhabitants were indeed ripe for the Gospel. " I mean," says he, " if the expression ap- pear strange, they are earnestly desirous of being instructed in it ; and as utterly ignorant of it they are as any Creek or Cherokee Indian. I do not mean they are ignorant of the name of Christ : many of them can say both the Lord's Prayer and the Belief; nay^ and some all the Catechism ; but take them out of the road of what they have learned by rote, and they know no more (nine in ten of those with whom I conversed) either of Gospel salvation, or of that faith whereby alone we can be saved, than Chicali or Tomo Chachi/' This opinion was formed during a journey through the most civilized part of South Wales. He was not deceived in judging that the Welsh were a people highly susceptible of such im- pressions as he designed to make ; but he found him- self disabled in his progress, by his ignorance of their language. " Oh," he exclaims, " what a heavy curse was the confusion of tongues, and how grievous are the effects of it. All the birds of the air, all the beasts of the field, understand the language of their own species ; man only is a barbarian to man, unin- telligible to his own brethren !" This difficulty was insuperable. He found, however, a few Welsh cler-
ffmen, who entered into his views wllh honest ar- our, and an extravagance of a new kind grew up in their congregations. After the preaching was over, any one who pleased gave out a verse of a hymn ; and this they sung over and over again, with all their might and main, thirty or forty times, till some of them worked themselves into a sort of drunken- ness or madness : they were then violently agitated, and leaped up and down, in all manner of postures,
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frequf ntlj for hours together. " I think," says Wes- ley, there needs no great penetration to understand this. They are honest, upright men, who really feel the love of God in their hearts ; but they have little experience either of the ways of God or the devices of Satan ; so he serves himself by their simplicity, in order to wear them out, and to bring a discredit on the work of God." This was the beginning of the ^Jumpers.
Ralph and Ebenezer Erskine, the remarkable men who made the secession from the Scotch church, in- vited Whitcfield into Scotland, before his breach with Wesley. Accordingly, in the year 174 1, he ac- cepted the invitation ; and thinking it proper that they should have the first-fruits of his ministry in that kingdom, preached his first sermon in the seceding meeting-house belonging to Ralph Erskine, at Dum- ferline. The room was thronged ; and when he had named his text, the rustling which was made by the congregation opening their bibles all at once sur- prised him, who had never, till then, witnessed a si- milar practice. A few days afterwards he met I he Associate Presbytery of the Seceders by their own desire; a set of grave venerable men. They soon proposed to form themselves into a presbytery, and were proceeding to choose a moderator, when Mr. Whitefield asked them for what purpose this was to be done: they made answer, it was to discourse and set him right about the matter of church government, and the solemn league and covenant. Upon this Mr. Whitefield observed, they might save themselves the trouble, for he had no scruples about it ; and that settling church government, and preaching about the solemn league and covenant, was not his plan. And then he gave them some account of the history of his own mind, and the course of action in which he was engaged. This, however, was not satisfactory to the Associate Presbytery, though one of the synod
* ** At seven in the morning," aays Whitefield, "have I s^en, perhaps t^n thousand, from different parts, in the midst of a sermon, crying^ Ciogunnidnt htnilyUti, ready to leap for jojr.^' Had tliej been repre- hended at that time, this extravagant folfy might have been prevented.
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apologised for him, urging that, as he had been born and bred in England, and had never studied the point, he could not be supposed to be perfectly ac- quainted with the nature of their covenants, and therefore they ought to have patience vith hiniv This was of no avail : it was answered, that no indul- gence could be shown him ; for England had revolt- ed most with respect to church government, and that he could not but be acquainted with the matter in debate. It was a new thing for Whitefield, who had been accustomed to receive homage wherever he went, to be schooled in this manner ; but he bore this arrogant behaviour with great complacency, and replied, that indeed he never yet had studied the solemn league and covenant, because he had been too busy about things which, in his judgment, were of greater importance. Several of them then cried out, that every pin of the tabernacle was precious. Whitefield was ready in reply : he told them that, in every building, there were outside and inside workmen ; that Uie latter was at that time his pro- vince ; and that, if thev thought themselves called to the former, they might proceed in their own way, as he would do in his. The power of these per- sons, happily, was not so inquisitorial as their dispo- sition ; and when he seriously asked them what they wished him to do, they answered, that they did not desire him immediately to subscribe to the solemn league and covenant, but that he would preach for them exclusively till he had further light. *^ And why for them alone ?^^ he inquired. Ralph Erskine made answer, " They were the Lord's people.*^ "I then," says Whitefield, " asked, whether there were no other Lord's people but themselves ? and, sup- posing all others were the devil's people, they cer- tainly," I told them, "had more need to be preach- ed to, and therefore I was more and more determin- ed to 2;o out into the highways and hedges; and that
jany broke up; and one of these otherwise venerable men immeoi-
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ately went into the meeting-house, and preached up- on these words "Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night? The watchman said, the morning cometh, and also the night ; if ye will inquire, inquire ye ; return, come." f dlti^nded ; . but the good man so spent himself, in the former part of his sermon, in talking against prelacy, the common prayer book, the surplice, the rose m the hat, and such like externals, that, when he came to the latter part of his text, to invite poor sinners to Jesus Christ, his breath was so gone, that he could scarce be heard. What a pity that the last was not 6rst, and the first last ! The consequence of all this was an open breach. I retired, I wept, I prayed, and, after preaching in the fields, sate down and dined with them, and then took a finaP leave. At table, a gentlewoman said, she had heard that I had told some people that the Associate Presbytery were building a Babel. 1 said, " Madam, it is quite true ; and I believe the Babel will soon fall down
* In honour of Whitefidd, I annex here part of a letter upon this sub- ject, written a few days after this curious scene, and addressed to a son of one of the Erskines. '^The treatment I met with from the Associate Presbytery was not altogether such as I expected. It pieved me as much as it did you. I could scarce refrain from bursting; into a flood of tears. I wish all were like-minded with your honoured father and un- cle, matters then would not be carried on with so high a hand. I fear they are led too much. Supposing the scheme of government which and long-suffering is to be exercised towards such as may differ from them : and, I am verily persuaded, there is no such form of govcm- the Associate Presbytery contend for, to be scriptural, yet forbearance roent prescribed in the book of God, as excludes a toleration of all other forms whatsoever. Was the New Testament outward tabernacle to be . built as punctual as the Old, as punctual directions would have been giv- I en about the building it; whereas it is only deduced by inference; and thus we see Independents, Presbyterians, and Episcopalians brii^ the same text to support Uieir particular scheme : and I believe Jesus Christ thereby would teach us to exercise forbearance and long-suffering to each other. Was the Associate Presbytery scheme to take effect, out of conscience, if they acted consistently, they must restrain and grieve, if not persecute, many of God's children, who could not possibly come into their measures : and I doubt not but their present violent methods, together with the corruptions of that assembly, will cause many to turn Independents, and set up particular churches of their own. This was . the effect of Archbishop Xiaud's actinj; with so high a hand ; and whe- ther it be presbvtery or episcopacy, if managed in the same manner, it will be productive of the same effects. O, dear sir, I love and honour your pious father. Remember me in the kindest manner to the good old man. I prav God his last days may not be employed too much in the non-esstntiala of religion."
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about their ears. But enough of this. Lord, what is man — what the best of men — but men at the best!"
Coming as a stranger into Scotland, and being free from ^I prejudice and passion upon the subject, Whitefield saw the folly and the mischief of the schisms in which his new acquaintance were en- gaged. They spared no pains to win him over to their side. " I find," said he, ^ Satan now turns himself into an angel of light, and stirs up God's children to tempt me to come over to some particu- lar party." To one of his correspondents he replies, " I wish you would not trouble yourself or me in writing about the corruption of the Church of Eng- land. I believe there is no church perfect under heaven ; but as God, by his providence, is pleased to send me forth simply to preach the Gospel to all, I think there is r5o need of casting myself out." He was invited to Aberdeen by the minister of one of the kirks in that city; but the minister's co-pastor had prepossessed the magistrates against him, so that when he arrived they refused to let him preach in the kirk-yard. They had, however, sufficient curiosity to attend when he officiated in his friend'^s pulpit; the congregation was very large, and, in Wbitefield's own words, ^^ light and life fled all around." In the afternoon it was the other pastor's turn : he began his prayers as usual ; but, in the midst of them, he named Whitefield byname, whom he k[)ew to be then present, and entreated the Lord to forgive the dishonour that had been put upon him, when that man was suffered to preach in that pulpit. Not satisfied with this, he renewed the attack in his sermon, reminded his congregation that this person was a curate of the Church of England, and quoted some passages from his first printed discourses, which he said were grossly Arminian. '* Most of the congregation," says Whitefield, " seemed sur- prised and chagrined ; especially his good-natured colleague, who, immediately after sermon, without consulting me in the least, stood up, and gave no- tice that Mr. Whitefield would preach in ab^ut half
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an hour. The interval being so short, the magis- trates returned into the sessions-house, and the con- gregation patiently waited, big with expectation of hearing my resentment. At the time appointed* I went up, and took no other notice of the good man^s ill-timed zeal, than to observe, in some part of mj discourse, that if the good old gentleman had seen •ome of my later writings, wherein 1 had corrected several of my former mistakes, he would not have expressed himself in such strong terms. The people being thus diverted from controversy with man, were deeply impressed with what they heard from, the word of God. All was hushed, and more than so- lemn. And on the morrow the magistrates sent for me, expressed themselves quite concerned at the treatment I had met with, and begged I would ac- cept of the freedom of the city."
This triumph Whitefield obtained, as much by that perfect self-command which he always possessed in public, as by his surprising oratory. But wherever he could obtain a hearing, his oratory was trium- phant, and his success in Scotland was, in some re- spects, greater than it had yet been in England. " Glory be to God," he says, " he is doing great things here. I walk in the continual sunshine of his countenance. Congregations consist of many thou- sands. Never did 1 see so many bibles, nor people look into them, when I am expounding, with such at- tention. Plenty of tears flow from the hearers' eyes. I preach twice daily, and expound at private houses at night ; and am employed in speaking to souls under distress great part of the day. Every morning I have a constant levee of wounded souls, many of whom are quite slain by the law. At seven in the morning (this was at Edinburgh) we have a lecture in the fields, attended notonlv by the common people, but persons of great rank. I have reason to think seve- ral of the latter sort are coming to Jesus. I am only afraid lest people should idolize the instrument, and not look enough to the glorious Jesus, in whom alone I desire to glory. I walk continually in the comfort of the Holy Ghost The love of Christ quite strikes me
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ddriib. O grace, grace ! let that be my song.'' In Scot- land it was that he first found access to people of rank. *' Saints,'' says he^ " haVe been stirred up and edifi- ed ; and niany others, I believe, are translated from darkness to light, and from the kingdona of Satan to the kingdom of God. The good that has been done IS inexpressible. 1 am intimate with three noblemen, and several ladies of quality, who haVe a great liking for the things of God. I am now writing in an earPa house, surrounded w ith fine furniture ; but^ glory be to free grace, my soul is in love only with Jesus."
His exertions increased with his success. " Yes- terday,'^ he says, ** I preached three times, and lec- tured at night. This day Jesus has enabled me to preach seven times ; once in the church, twice at the girl's hospital, once in the park, once at the old people's hospital, and afterwards twice at a private house ; notwithstanding^ I am now as fresh as when 1 arose in the morning. ' They that wait upon the I^Drd shall renew their strength; they shall mount on Ivings like eagles.' It would delight your soul to see the eflects of the power of God. Both in the church and park the Lord was with us. The girls in the hos- pital were exceedingly affected, and so were the Btanders-by. One of the mistresses told me, she is now awakened in the morning by the voice of prayer and praise; and the master of the boys says, that they meet together every night to sing and pray ; and trhen he goes to their rooms at night, to see if all be safe, he generally disturbs them at their devotions. The presence of God at the old people's hospital was really very wonderful. The Holy Spirit seem- ed to come down like a mighty rushing wind. The tnourning of the people was like the weeping in the Valley of Hadad-Ilimmon. They appear more and more hungry. Every day I hear of some fresh good Wrought by the power of God. I scarce know how to leave Scotland."
The representation thus given by this retoarkable tnah, of the effect which his preaching produced upon all ranks and descriptions of people, is not exag- gerated. Dr. Franklin has justly observed^ that it
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would have been fortunate for his reputation if he had left no written works, his talents would then have been estimated bj the effect which they are knowa lo have produced; for, on this point, there is the evidence of witnesses whose credibility cannot be disputed. Whiteficld's writings, of every kind, are certainly below mediocrity. They afford the mea- sure of his knowledge and of his intellect, but not of his geniqs as a preacher. His printed sermons, instead of being, as is usual, the most elaborate and finished discourses of their author, have indeed the disadvantage of being precisely those upon which the least care bad been bestowed. This may be easily explained. .^^ " By hearing him often," says Franklin, " I came to distinguish easily between sermons newly com- posed, and those which he had often preached in the course of his travels. His delivery of the latter was so improved by frequent repetition, that every accent, every emphasis, every modulation of voice, was so perfectly well turned, and well placed, that, without being interested in the subject, one could not help being pleased with the discourse : a pleasure of much the same kind with that received from an excellent >iece of music. This is an advantage itinerant )reachers have over those who are stationary, as the atter cannot well improve their delivery of a sermon yy 60 many rehearsals." It was a great advantage, but it was not the only one, nor the greatest which he derived from repeating his discourses, and reciting instead of reading them. Had they been delivered from a written copy, one delivery would have been like the last; the-pfiper would have operated like a spell, from which he could not depart — invention sleeping, while the utterance followed the eye. But when he had nothing before him except the audience whom he was addressing, the judgment and the ima- gination, as well as the mempry, were called forth. Those parts were omitted which had been felt to come feebly from the tongue, and fall heavily upon the ear, and their place was supplied by matter pewly laid-in in the course of his studies, or fres^
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from the feeling of the moment. They who lived with him could trace him in his sermons to the book which he had last been reading, or the subject which had recently taken his attention. But the salient points of his oratory were not prepared passages, — they were bursts of passion, like jets from a Geysen when the spring is in full play.
The theatrical talent which he displayed in boy- hood, manifested itself strongly in his oratory. When he was about to preach, whether it was from a put- pit, or a table in the streets, or a rising ground, be appeared with a solemnity of manner, and an au»oas expression of countenance, that seemed to show how deeply he was possessed with a sense of the impor- tance of what he was about to say. His elocution was perfect. They who heard him most frequently could not remember that he ever stumbled at a word, or hesitated for want of one. He never faultered, unless when the feeling to which he had wrought himself overcame him, and then his speech was in- terrupted by a flow of tears. Sometimes he would appear to lose all self-command, and weep exceed- ingly, and stamp loudly and passionately ; and some- times the emotion of his mind exhausted him, and the beholders felt a momentary apprehension even for his life. And, indeed, it is said, that the eflfect of this vehemence upon his bodily frame was tre- mendous; that he usually vomited afler he had preached, and sometimes discharged, in this manner, a considerable quantity of blood. But this was when the effort was over, and nature was left at leisure to relieve herself. While he was on duty, he controlled all sense of infirmity or pain, an^ made his advantage of the passion to which he had given way. ** You blame me for weeping," he would say, " but bow can 1 help it, when you will not weep for yourselves, though your immortal souls are upon the verge of destruction, and, for aught 1 know, you are hearing your last sermon, and may never more have an op- portunity to have Christ offered to you !"
Sometimes he would set before his congregation the agony of our Saviour, as though the scene was
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actuallj before them. ^^Look yonder!'* he would say, stretching out his hand, and pointing while he spake, ^^ what is it that 1 see ? It is my agonizing Lord ! Hark, hark ! do you not hear ? — O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me ! neverthe- less, not my will, but thine be done !'* This he in- troduced frequently in his sermons; and one who lived with him says, the effect was not destroyed by repetition ; even to those who knew what was com- ing, it came as forcibly as if they had never heard it before. In this respect it was hke fine stage acting : and indeed Whitefield indulged in an histrionic man- ner of preaching, which would have been offensive if it had not been rendered admirable by his natural gracefulness and inimitable power. Sometimes, at the close of a sermon, he would personate a judge about to perform the last awful part of his office. — With his eyes full of tears, and an emotion that made his speech faulter, after a pause which kept the whole audience in breathless expectation of what was to come, he would say, " I am now going to put on my condemning cap. Sinner, I must do it : I must pronounce sentence upon you !" and then, in a tre- mendous strain of eloquence, describing the eternal punishment of the wicked, he recited the words of Christ, ^« Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." When he spoke of St. Peter, how, after the cock crew, he went out and wept bitterly, he had a fold of his gown . ready, in which he hid his face.
Perfect as it was, histrionism like this would have
Eroduced no lasting effect upon the mind, had it not een for the unaffected earnestness and the indubi^ table sincerity of the preacher, which equally cha- racterized his manner, whether he rose to the height of passion in his discourse, or won the attention of the motley crowd by the introduction of familiar sto- ries, and illustrations adapted to the meanest * ca-
* Wesley says of him, in his Jouraal, " how wise is God in giving different talents to different preachers! Even the little improprieties both of his language and manner, were a means of profiting many who would not have been touched by a more correct discourse, or a more
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pacity. To such digressions his disposition led him, which was naturally inclined to a comic playfulness. Minds of a certain power will sometimes express their strongest feelings with a levity at which formal- ists are shocked, and which dull men are wholly un- able to understand. But language which, when cold- ly repeated, might seem to border upon irreverence and burlesque, has its effect in popular preaching, when the intention of the speaker is perfectly under- stood : it is suited to the great mass of the people, it is felt by them when better things would have pro- duced no impression, and it is borne away when wiser arguments would have been forgotten. There was another and more uncommon way in which Whitefield*s peculiar talent sometimes was indulged: he could direct his discourse toward an individual so skilfully, that the congregation had no suspicion of any particular purport in that part of the sermon; while the person at whom it was aimed felt it, as it was directed, in its full force. There was sometimes a degree of sportiveness ^ almost akin to mischief in his humour.
Remarkable instances are related of the manner in which he impressed his hearers. A man at Exeter stood with stones in his pocket, and one in his hand, ready to throw at him ; but he dropped it before the
ealm and regular manner of speaking." St. Augustine somewhere sa]^ that is the best key which opens the door : quid enimfrodest elavis aurea si aperire quod volumus non potest ? avJt quod ohest ligntfiy si hocpoUsif quando nihil quarimus nisi paUre quod Musum est 9
* Mr. Winter relates a curious anecdote of his preaching at a maid- servant who had displeased him by some negligence in the morning.*- ^ In the evening," says the writer, ^ before tne family retired to rest, I found her under great dejection, the reason of which I did not appre* hend ; for it did not strike me that, in exemplifying a conduct inconsis- tent with the Christian's professed fidelity to nis Redeemer, he was draw- ing it from remissness of duty in a living character ; but she felt it so sen- sibly, as to bt greatly distressed by it, until he relieved her mind by his usually amiable deportment. The next day, being about to leave town, he called out to her ' farewell :' she did not make her appearance, which he remarked to a female friend at dinner, who replied, * Sir, you have exceedingly wounded poor Betty.' This excited in him a hearty laugh ; and when I shut the coach-door upon him, he said, *Be sure to remem- ber rae to Betty ; t«ll her the account is settled, and that I have nothing more against her.' "
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ig^riDOn was far advanced, and going up to him after the preaching was over, he said, " Sir, I came to hear you with an intention to break youf head ; but God, through your ministry, has given me a brokea heart." A ship-builder was once asked what he thought of him. " Think!" he replied, " I tell you, Sir, every Sunday that 1 go to my parish church, I can build a ship from stem to stern under the sermon ; but, were it to save my soul, under Mr. Whitefield, 1 could not lay a single plank." Hume"*^ pronounced him the most ingenious preacher he had ever heard ; and said, it was worth while to go twenty miles to hear him. But, perhaps, the greatest proof of his
f)ersuasive powers was, when he drew from Frank- in's pocket the money which that clear cool rea- soner had determined not to give : it was for the orphan-house at Savannah. "1 did not," says the American philosopher, " disapprove of the design ; but as Georgia was then destitute of materials and workmen, and it was proposed to send them from Philadelphia at a great expense, I thought it would have been better to have built the house at Phila- delphia, and brought the children to it. This I ad- vised ; but he was resolute in his first project, reject- ed my counsel, and 1 therefore refused to contribute. I happened, soon after, to attend one of his sermons, in the course of which I perceived he intended to finish with a collection, and I silently resolved he should get nothing from me. I had in my pocket a handful of copper money, three or four silver dollars, and five pistoles in gold. As he proceeded I began to soften, and concluded to give the copper ; another
* One of his (lights of oratory, not in the hest taste, is related on Hume's authority. « After a solemn pause, Mr. Whitefield thus ad- dressed his audience >— The attendant angel is just about to leave the threshold, and ascend to Heaven ; and shall he ascend and not bear with him the news of one sinner^ among all the multitude, reclaimed from the error of his ways ! To give the greater effect to this exclamation, he stamped with his foot, lifted up his hands and eyes to Heaven, and cried aloud. Stop, Gabriel ! stop, Gabriel ! stop, ere you enter the sacred por- tals, and yet carry with you the news of one sinner converted to God !*' Hume said this address wad accompanied with such animated, yet natu- ral action, that it surpassed any thing he ever saw or heard in any other preacher.
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stroke of bis oratory made me ashamed of that, and determined me to give the silver ; and he finished so admirably, that I emptied my pocket wholly into the collector's dish, gold* and all."
No wonder that such a preacher should be admir- ed and followed in a country where the habits of the eople were devotional. On his second visit to Scot- and, he was met on the shore at Leith by multitudes, weeping and blessing him, and they followed his coach to Edinburgh, pressing to welcome him when he alighted, and to hold him in their arms. Seats, with awnings, were erected in the park, in the form of an amphitheatre, for his preaching. Several youths left their parents and masters to follow him as his servants and children in the Gospel ; but he bad sense enough to show them their error, and send them back. The effect which he produced was maddening. At Cambuslang it exceeded any thing which he had ever witnessed in his career. ^ I preached at two," he says, " to a vast body of peo- ple, and at six in the evening, and again at nine. Such a commotion, surely, never was heard of, espe^ cially at eleven at night For about an hour and a half there was such weeping, so many falling into deep distress, and expressing it various ways, as is inexpressible. The people seem to be slain by scores. They are carried off, and come into the house, like soldiers wounded in and carried off* a field of bat- tle. Their cries and agonies are exceedingly affect- ing. Mr. M. preached, after I had ended, till past one in the morning, and then could scarce persuade them to depart. AH night, in the fields, might be heard the iroice of prayer and praise. Some young
* " At this sermon," continues Franklin, " there was also ooe of our club, who, being of my sentiments respecting the building in Georgia, and suspecting a collection might be intended, had, by precaution, emp- tied bis pockets before ha came from home : towards the conclusion oC the discourse, howerer, he felt a strong inclination to give, and u>ptied to a neighbour, who stood near him, to lend him some money for tiie purpose. The request was fortunat^y made to perhaps the only man m the company who had the firmness not to be afliectedDY the preacher. His answer was, * At any other time, friend Hopkinson, I would lend to thee freely, but not now : for thee seems to me to be oot of thy right senses.* "
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ladies were found by a gentlewoman praising God at break of day : she went and joined with them." — Soon afterwards he returned there to assist at the sacrament. " Scarce ever," he says, " was such a sight seen in Scotland. There were, undoubtedly, upwards of twenty thousand persons. Two tents were set up, and the holy sacrament was administer- ed in the fields. When I began to serve a table, the power of God was felt by numbers ; but the people crowded so upon me, that I was obliged to desist, and g% to preach at one of the tents, whilst the ministers served the rest of the tables. God was with them, and with his people. There was preaching all day ' by one or another; and in the evening, when the sa- crament was over, at the request of the ministers, I preached to the whole congregation. I preached about an hour and a half. Surely it was a time much to be remembered. On Monday morning I preached again to near as many; but such an universal stir I never saw before. The motion fled as swift as light- ning from one end of the auditory to another. You might have seen thousands bathed in tears : some at the same time wringing their hands, others almost swooning, and others crying out and mourning over a pierced Saviour."
The Erskines were astonislied at all this. One of the associate presbytery published a pamphlet against him, wherein, with the true virulence of bi- gotry, he ascribed these things to the influence of the devil ; and the heads of the seceders appointed a public fast, to humble themselves for his being in Scotland, whither they themselves had invited him, and for what they termed the delusion at Cambus- lang. They might have so called it, with more pro- priety, if they had not been under a delusion tbem»- selves; for Whitefield perfectly understood their feelings, when he said, ^^ all this, because! would not consent to preach only for them till I had light into, and could take the solemn league and covenant !" He made many other visits to Scotland ; and there, indeed, he seems to have obtained that introduction to persons of rank, which in its consequences led to VOL. II. 23
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the establishment of a college for Calviiiistic Metho- dism in England. But he aimed at nothing more than could be produced by his own preaching ; it was nei- ther congenial to his talents nor his views to organize a body of followers ; and, in the intervals between his visits, the seed which he had scattered was left to grow up, or to wither as it might.
Wesley had other views : his aim, wherever he went, was to form a society. It was not till ten years after his former colleague had first visited Scotland, that he resolved to go there. A reconciliation bad then taken place between them, — for enmity could not be lasting between two men who knew each other's sincerity and good intentions so well, — and Whitefield would have dissuaded him from going. " You have no business there," he said ; " for your principles are so well known, that, if you spoke like an angel, none would hear you; and if they did, you would have nothing to do but to dispute with one and another from morning to night.'' Wesley re- plied, ^^ If God sends me, people will hear. And I will give them no provocation to dispute; for I will studiously avoid controverted points, and keep to the fundamental truths of Christianity ; and if any still begin to dispute, they may, but I will not dispute with them." He was, however so aware of the bit- ter hostility with which Arminian principles would be received in Scotland, that, he says, when he went into that kingdom, he had no intention of preaching there ; nor did he imagine that any person would de- sire him so to do. He might have reckoned with more confidence upon the curiosity of the people. He was invited to preach at Musselborough ; the au- dience remained like statues from the beginning of the sermon till the end, and he flattered himself that "the prejudice which the devil had been several years planting, was torn up by the roots in one hour.'' From this time Scotland was made a part of his re- gular rounds. ** Surely," says he, " with God nothing is impossible ! Who would have believed, five-and- twenty years ago, either that the minister would have
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desired it, or that I should have consented to preach in a Scotch kirk !"
He flattered himself egregiously when he accept- ed these beginnings as omens of good success, and when he supposed that the prejudice against him was eradicated. An old Burgher minister at Dal- keith preached against him, affirming that, if he died in his present sentiments, he would be damned; and the fanatic declared that he would stake his own sal- vation upon it. It was well for him that these peo- ple were not armed with temporal authoritj. " The Seceders," says Wesley, *' who have fallen in my way, are more uncharitable than the Papists them- selves. I never yet met a Papist who avowed the principle of murdering heretics. But a Seceding ' minister being asked, * Would not you, if it was in /^ your power, cut the throats of all the Methodists ?^ /. replied directly, * Why, did not Samuel hew Agag in pieces before the Lord ?^ I have not yet met a Papist in this kingdbm who would tell me to my face, all but themselves must be damned ; but I have seen Seceders enough who make no scruple to affirm, none but themselves could be saved. And this is the natural consequence of their doctrine ; for, as they hold that we are saved by faith alone, and that faith is the holding such and such opinions, it follows, all who do not hold those opinions have no faith, and therefore cannot be saved." Even Whitefield, predestinarian as he was, was regarded as an abomi- nation by the Seceders : how, then, was it possible that they should tolerate Wesley, who taught that redemption was offered* to all mankind ? A Metho- dist one day comforted a poor woman, whose child appeared to be dying, by assuring her that, for an in- fant, death would only be the exchange of this mi- serable life for a happy eternity ; and the Seceder, to whose flock she belonged, was so shocked at this doctrine, that the deep-dyed Calvinist devoted the next Sabbath to the task of convincing his people, that the souls of all non-elect infants were doomed to certain and inevitable damnation.
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But it was Wesley^s fortune to meet with an obsta* cle in Scotland more fatal to Methodism than the fiercest opposition would have been. Had his fol- lowers been more generally opposed, they would have multiplied faster: opposition would have in- flamed their zeal ; it was neglected, and died away. From time to time he complains in his Journal of the cold insensibility of the people. " 0 what a difier- ence is there between the living stones," he says, speaking of the Northumbrians, " and the dead un- feeling multitudes in Scotland. At Dundee," he ob- serves^ *^ I admire the people ; so decent, so serious, and so perfectly unconcerned !" "At Glasgow I preached on the Old Green to a people, the greatest part of whom hear much, know every thing, and feel nothing." They had been startled by the thunder and lightning of Whitefield's oratory ; but they were as unmoved by the soft persuasive rhetoric of VVesIey, as by one of their own Scotch mists.
VVesley endeavoured to account for this mortifying failure, and to discover " what could be the reason why the hand of the Lord (who does nothing with- out a cause) was almost entirely stayed in Scotland." He imputed it to the unwillingness of those, who were otherwise favourably inclined, to admit the preaching of illiterate men ; and to the rude bitler- ness and oigotry of those who regarded an Arminian as an Infidel, and the church of England as bad as the church of Rome. The Scotch bigots, he said, were beyond all others. He answered, before a large congregation at Dundee, most of the objections which had been made to him. He was a member of the church of England, he said, but he loved good men of every church. He always used a short pri- vate prayer when he attended the public service of God : why did not they do the same ? was it not ac- cording to the bible ? He stood whenever be was sinking the praises of God in public : were there not plain precedents for this in Scripture ? He always knelt before the Lord when he prayed in public ; and generally, in public, he used the Lord^s Prayer, because Christ has taught us, when we pray, to say,
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Our Father, which art in heaven. But it was not by such frivolous objections as these that the success of Methodism in Scotland was impeded. The real cause of its failure was, that it was not wanted — that there was no place for it : the discipline of the kirk was not relaxedik the clergy possessed great influence over their parishioners, the children were piously brought up, the population had not outgrown the church-establishment, and the Scotch, above all other people, deserved the praise of being a frugal, industrious, and religious nation.
Obvious as this is, Wesley seems not to have per- ceived it ; and it is evident that he regarded both the forms and discipline of the church of Scotland, with a disposition rather to detect what was"*^ objec- tionable, than to acknowledge what was good, ^^ Lodging with a sensible man,'' he writes, ^^ 1 inquir- ed particularly into the present discipline of the Scotch parishes. In one parish, it seems, there are twelve ruling elders ; in another, there are fourteen. And what are these ? men of great sense and deep experience.'^ Neither one nor the other; but they are the richest men in the parish. And are the rich' estj of course, the best and the wisest men ? Does the bible teach this? I fear not. What manner of go- vernors, then, will these be.** Why, they are gene- rally just as capable of governing a parish, as of commanding an army.^' Had he been free from prejudice, instead of being led away by an abuse of words, he would have perceived how the fact stood, —that the elders were required to be respectable in their circumstances, as well as in character : and
* One of his charges against the Scotch clergy was, that *| with pride, bitterness, and bigotry, self-indulgence was joined ; self-denial was little taught and practised. It is well if sojiie of them did not despise or even condemn air self-denial in things indifferent, as in apparel or food, as nearly allied to popery." (Journal x. p. 20.) And in one of his ser- mons be says, " there is always a fast day in the week preceding the ad- ministration of the Lord's Supper (in Scotland.) But occasionally look- ing into a book of accounts, in one of their vestries, I observed so much set down for the dinners of the ministers on the fast day. And I am informed there is the same article in them all. And is there any doubt but that the people fast Just as their ministers do ? But what a farce is this ! what a miserable burlesque upon a plain Christian duty !" (Works, Tol.X.p.419.)
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that, without that respectability, they could not have obtained respect. That the forms of the kirk, or ra- ther, its want of forms, should offend him, is not sur- ' prizing. " O,'' he cries, * what a difference is there between the English and the Scotch mode of burial ! The English does honour to human nature, and even to the poor remains that were once a temple of the Holy Ghost : but when I see in Scotland a coffin put into the earth, and covered up without a word spo- ken, it reminds me of what was spoken concerning Jehoiakim, he shall be buried with the burial of an assP It was, indeed, no proof of judgment, or 6f feeling, to reject the finest and most affecting ritual that ever was composed — a service that finds its way to the heart, when the heart stands most in need of such conso* lation, and is open to receive it. Yet Wesley might have known, that the silent interment of the Scotch is not without solemnity ; and, in their lonely burial- grounds, and family burial-places, he might have seen something worthy of imitation in England.
Writing at Glasgow, he says, "My spirit was moved within me at the sermons 1 heard, both morning and afternoon. They contained much truth, but were no more likely to awaken one soul than an Italian ope- ra.^^ The truth was, that he did not understand the Scotch character, and therefore condemned the practice of those preachers who did. " I spoke as closely as I could,^^ he says of his own sermons, " and made a pointed application to the hearts of all that were present. I am convinced this is the only way whereby we can do any good in Scotland. This ve- ry day I heard many excellent truths delivered in the kirk ; but as there was no application, it was likely to do as much good as the singing of a lark. I wonder the pious ministers in Scotland are not sen- sible of this : they cannot but see that no sinners are convinced of sin, none converted to God by this way of preaching; how strange is it then, that neither reason nor experience teaches them to take a better way!" They aimed at no stich effect. The new birth of the Methodists, their instantaneous conver- sions, their assurance, their sanctification, and their
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perfection, were justly regarded as extravagancies by the Scotch as well as by the English clergy.
It was with more reason that Wesley groaned over the manner in which the deformation bad been ef- fected in Scotland; and, * when he stood amid the ruins of Aberbrothock, exclaimed, «^God, deliver us from reforming mobs !'' Nor would he admit of the apology that is offered for such havoc, and for the character of John Knox. " I know,'' he says, "it is commonly said, the work to be done neei/ei/ such a spirit Not so : the work of God does not, cannot need the work of the devil to forward it And a calm even spirit goes through rough work far better than a furious one. Although, therefore, God did use, at the time of the Reformation, sour, overbearing, pas- sionate men, yet he did not use them because they were such ; but nryiwithsiancUfig they were so. And there is no doubt he would have used them much more, had they been of an humbler and milder spi- rit" On the other hand, he bore testimony to the remarkable decorum with which public worship was conducted by the Episcopalians in Scotland : it ex- ceeded any thing which he had seen in England : and he admitted, that even his own congregations did not come up to it
He did, however, this justice to the Scotch, that he acknowledged they were never offended at plain v dealing; and that, in this respect, they were a pat- tero to all mankind Nor did he ever meet with the slightest molestation from mobs, or the slightest in- sult One day, however, a warrant was issued against him at Edinburgh, by the sheriff*, and he was carried to a house adjoining the TolboQth. A certain George Sutherland, who, to his own mishap, had at one time been a member of the society, bad deposed, that Hugh Sanderson, one of John Wesley's preachers, had taken from his wife one hundred pounds in mo- ney, and upwards of thirty pounds in goods ; and bad, besides that, terrified her into madness; so that, through the want of her help, and the loss of business, he was damaged five hundr/cd pounds. He had deposed also, that the said John Wesley and
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Hugh Sanderson, to evade his pursuit, were prepar- ing to fly the country ; and, upon these grounds, had obtained a warrant to search for, seize, and in- carcerate them in the Tolbooth, till they should find security for their appearance. The sherifl^ with great indiscretion, granted this warrant against Wes- ley, who could in no way be held lenity responsible for the conduct of any of his preachers ; but when the affair was tried, the accusation was proved (o be so false and calumnious, that the prosecutor was hea- vily fined.*
Looking for any cause of failure rather than the real one, Wesley imputed the wknt of success in Scotland to the disposition which his preachers ma- nifested to remain stationary there. " We are not called," he says, " to sit still in one place : it is nei- ther for the health of our souls nor bodies : we witl have travelling preachers in Scotland, or none. I will serve the Scotch as we do the English, or leave them. While I live, itinerant preachers shall be itine- rants, if they choose to remain in connexion with us. The ihdng is fixed : the manner of effecting it is to be considered." But here lay the difficulty; for the spiritual warfare of Methodism was carried on upon the principle of deriving means from its conquests ; and the errant-preacher, who failed of success in his expeditions, oftentimes fasted, when there was no vir- tue of self-denial in the compulsory abstinence.
A curious instance of this occurred in the case of Thomas Taylor, one of those preachers who temper- ed zeal with judgment, and who found means, during his itinerancy, by the strictest economy of time, to acquire both the Greek and Hebrew languages. This person was appointed to Glasgow. He had gone through hard service in Wales and in Ireland, in wild countries, and among wild men : but this po- pulous city presented a new scene, and offered some- thing more discouraging than either bodily fatigue or bodily danger. There were no Methodists here^ no place of entertainment, no place to preach in, no
* One thousand pounds, says Wesley in bis Jouraal ; and omits to add, that it was one thousands poud<£b Scotch) Anglice^ A thousand shillings.
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friend With whom to communicate : it was a hard winter, and he was in a strange land. Having, how- ever, taken a lodging, he gave out that he should preach on the green : a table was carried to the place, and going there at the appointed time, he found — two barber's boys and two old women wait- ing. " My very soul," he says, " sunk within me. I had travelled by land aod by water near six hundred miles to this place, and behold my congregation ! None but they who have experienced it can tell what a task it is to stand out in the open air to preach to nobody, especially in such a place as Glasgow !" Ne- vertheless, he mounted his table, and began to sing; the singing he had entirely to himself; but perseve- rance brought about him some two hundred poor peo- ple ; and continuing, day after day, he collected at last large audiences. One evening, the largest con- gregation that l\e had ever seen was assembled; his tabFe was too low ; and even when a chair was plac- ed upon it, the rostrum was still not suflSciently ele- vated for the multitudes who surrounded him ; so he mounted upon a high wall, and cried aloud, " The hour is comings and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live !" They were still as the dead ; and he con- ceived great hope from the profound attention with which they listened ; but when he had done, he says, " they made a lane for me to walk through the huge multitude, while they stood staring at me, but no one said, where dwellest thou ?"
This reception brought with it double mortifica- tion, to the body as well as the mind. An itinerant
always counted upon the hospitality of his flock, and stood, indeed, in need of it. Taylor had every thing to pay for : his room, fire, and attendance, cost him three shillings per week ; his fare was poor in pro- portion to his lodging; and to keep up his credit with his landlady, he often committed the pious fraud of dressing himself as if he were going out to din- ner, and, after a dry walk, returned home hungry. He never, in all the rest of hishfe, kept so many fast days. He sold his horse : this resource, however*,
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could not maintain him long ; and, in the midst of his distress, a demand was made upon him by one of his hearers, which was not likely to give him a favorau- ble opinion of the national character. This m^, perceiving that Taylor was a bad singer, and fre- quently embarrassed by being obliged to sing the Scotch version, (because the people knew nothmg of the Methodist hymns,) offered his services to act as precentor, and lead off the palms. This did excel- lently well, till he brought m a bill of thirteen and four pence for hii^ work, which was just fpur pence a time : the poor preacher paid the demand, and dis- missed him and the Scotch psalms together. Tay- lor's perseverance was not, however, wholly lost Some dissenters from the kirk were then building what is called in Glasgow a Kirk of Relief, for the
f)urpose of choosing their own minister. One of the eading men had become intimate with him, and of- fered to secure him a majority of the voters. This was no ordinary temptation : comfort, honour, and credit, with £140 a-year, in exchange for hunger and contempt : but there was honour also on the other side. The preacher, though he was alone in Glas- gow, belonged to a well-organized and increasing so- ciety, where he had all the encouragement of co-ope- ration, friendship, sympathy, and applause. He re- jected the offer ; and, before the spring, he formed ^ regular society of about forty persons, who procured a place to meet in, and furnished it with a pulpit and seats. When they had thus housed him, they began to inquire how he was maintained ; if he had an estate ; or what supplies from England. He then explained to them his own circumstances, and the manner in which the preachers were supported, by small contributions. This necessary part of the Methodist economy was cheerfully established among them ; and, when he departed, he left a certain pro- vision for his successor, and a flock of seventy souls. But, even in this populous city, Wesley, upon his last visit to Scotland, when his venerable age alone might have made him an object of curiosity and reasonable Wonder, attracted few hearers. ^ The congrega-
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tion," he says, " was miserably small, verifying what I had often heard before, that the Scotch dear- ly love the word of the Lord — on the Lord's day. If I live to come again, I will take care to spend only the Lord's day at Glasgow."
CHAPTER XXIIL
METHODISM IN IRELAND.
Melancholt and anomalous as the civil history of Ireland is. its religious history is equally mournful, and not less strange. Even at the time when it was called the Island of Saints, and men went forth from its monasteries to be the missionaries, not of mona- chism alone, but of literature and civilization, the mass of the people continued savage, and was some- thing worse than heathen. They accommodated their new religion to their own propensities, with a perverted ingenuity, at once humorous and detest- able, and altogether peculiar to themselves. Thus, when a child was immersed at baptism, it was cus- tomary not to dip the right arm, to the intent that he might strike a more deadly and ungracious blow therewith ; and under an opinion, no doubt, that the rest of the body would not be responsible at the re- surrection, for any thing which had been committed by the unbaptized hand. Thus, too, at the baptism, the father took the wolves for his gossips ; and thought that, by this profanation, he was forming an alliance, both for himself and the boy, with the fiercest beasts of the woods. The son of a chief was baptized in milk ; water was not thought good enough, and whiskey had not then been invented. They used to rob in the beginning of the year as a point of devotion, for the purpose of laying up a good stock of plunder against Easter ; and he whose spoils enabled him to furnish the best entertainment
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at that time, was looked upon as the best Christian, — so they robbed in emulation of each other; and reconciling their habits to their conscience, with a hardihood beyond that of the boldest casuists^ they persuaded themselves that, if robbery, murder, and rape had been sins, Providence would never put such temptations in their way ; nay, that the sin would be^ if they were so ungrateful as not to take advantage of a good opportunity when it was offered them.
These things would appear incredible, if they were not conformable to the spirit of Irish history^ fabulous and authentic. Yet were the Irish, beyond all otlier people, passionately attached to the religion wherein they were so miserably ill instructed. Whe- ther they were distinguished by this peculiar attach- ment to their church, when the supremacy of the Pope was acknowledged throughout Europe, cannot be known, and may, with much probability, be doubt- ed ; this is evident, that it must have acquired strength and inveteracy when it became a principle of opposition to their rulers, and was blended with their hatred of the English, who so little understood their duty and their policy as conquerors, that they neither made themselves loved, nor feared, nor re- spected.
Ireland is the only country in which the Reforma- tion produced nothing but evil. Protestant Europe has been richly repaid for the long calamities of that great revolution, by the permanent blessings which it left behind ; and even among those nations where the papal superstition maintained its dominion by fire and sword, an important change was effected in the lives and conduct of the Romish clerfiry. Ireland alone was so circumstanced as to be incapable of deriving any advantage, while it was exposed to all the evils of the change. The work of sacrilege and plunder went on there as it did in England and Scot- land ; but the language of the people, and their sa- vage state, precluded all possibility of religious improvement. It was not till nearly the middle of the seventeenth century, that the Bible was trans- lated into Irish, by means of Bishop Bedell, a man
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worthy to have Sir Henry Wotton for his patron, and Father Paolo Sarpi for his friend. The church pro- perty had been so scandalously plundered, that few ?ajrishes* could afibrd even a bare subsistence to a rotestant minister, and therefore few ministers were to be found. Meantime the Romish clergy were on the alert, and they were powerfully aided by a con- tinued supply of fellow-labourers from the seminaries established in the Spanish dominions ; men who, by their temper and education, were fitted for any work in which policy mi^ht think proper to employ fanati- cism. The Franciscans have made it their boast, that, at the time of the Irish massacre, there appear- ed among the rebels more than six hundred Friars Minorite, who had been instigating them to that accursed rebellion while living among them in dis- guise.
Charles 11. restored to the Irish church all the im- propriations and portions of tithes which bad been vested in the crown; removing, by this wise and me- ritorious measure, one cause of its inefficiency. — When, in the succeeding reign, the civil liberties of England were preserved by the Church of England, the burden of the Revolution again fell upon Ireland. That unhappy country became the seat of war, and, from that time, the Irish Catholics stood, as a politi- cal party, iix the same relation to the French as they had done during Elizabeth^s reign to the Spaniards* The history of Ireland is little else but a history of crimes and of misgovernment. A system of half per- secution was pursued, at once odious for its injustice, and contemptible for its inefficacy. Go<^d principles, and generous feelings, were thereby-|^rovoked into an alliance with superstition and priestcraft; and the priests, whom the law recognized only for the purpose of punishing them if they discharged the forms of their office, established a more absolute do- minion over the minds of the Irish people, than was possessed by the clergy in any other part of the world.
* The best Uving in Connaught was not worth more than forty shit^ lings a jear ; and some were as low as sixteen !
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Haifa century of peace and comparative tranquil* lity, during which great advances were made in trade, produced little or no melioration in the religious state of the country. Sectarians of every kind, de- script and non-descript, had been introduced in Crom- well's time ; and what proselytes they obtained were won from the Established Church, not from the Ca- tholics, whom both the Dissenters and the clergy seem to have considered as inconvertible. Id truth, the higher orders were armed against all conviction by family pride, and old resentment, and the sense of their wrongs ; while the great body of the native Irish were effectually secured by their language and their ignorance, even if the priests had been less vi- gilant in their duty, and the Protestants more active in theirs. Bishop Berkeley (one of the "best, wisest, and greatest men whom Ireland, with all its fertility of genius, has produced) saw the evil, and perceived what ought to be the remedy. In that admirable lit- tle book, the Querist, from which, even at this day, men of all ranks, from the manufacturer to the states- man, may derive instruction, it is asked by this saga- cious writer, "Whether there be an instance of a people's being converted, in a Christian sense, other- wise than by preaching to them, and instructing them in their own language ? Whether catechists, in the Irish tongue, may not easily be procured and subsist- ed ? and whether this would not be the most practi- cable means for converting the natives ? Whether it be not of great advantage to the Church of Rome, that she hath clergy suited to all ranks of men, in gra- dual subordination from cardinals down to mendi- cants ? Whether her numerous poor clergy arc. not very useful in missions, and of much influence with the people ? Whether, in defect of able missiona- ries, persons conversant in low life, and speaking the Irish tongue, if well instructed in the first principles of religion, and in the Popish controversy, though, for the rest, on a level with the parish-clerks, or the schoolmasters of charity-schools, may not be fit to mix with, and bring over our poor illiterate natives to the Established Church? Whether it is not to be wished
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that some parts'of our liturgy and homilies were pub- licly read in the Irish language? and whether, in these views, it may not be right to breed up some of the better sort of children in the charity-schools, and qualify them for missionaries, catechists, and read- ers?" What Berkeley desired to see, Methodism would exactly have supplied, could it have been ta- ken into the service of the church ; and this might have been done in Ireland, had it not been for the follies and extravagancies by which it had rendered itself obnoxious in England at its commencement
Twelve years after the publication of the Querist, John Wesley landed in Dublin, where one of his preachers, by name Williams, had formed a small so- ciety. The curate of St. Mary's lent him his pulpit, and his first essay was not very promising ; for he preached from it, he says, to as gay and senseless a congregation as he had ever seen. The clergyman who gave this proof of his good-will disapproved, however, of his enlJ)loying lay-preachers, and of his preaching any where but m a church ; and told him, that the Archbishop of Dublin was resolved to suffer no siich irregularities in his diocese. Wesley, there- foro) called on the archbishop, and says, that, in the course of a long conversation, he answered abun- dance of objections ; some, perhaps, he removed ; and, if he did not succeed in persuading the prelate of the utility of Methodism, he must certainly have satisfied him that he was not to be prevented from pursuing his own course.
Wesley's first impressions of the Irish were very favourable ; a people so generally civil he had never seen, either in Europe or America. Even when he failed to impress them, they listened respectfully. — '* Mockery," said he, " is not the custom here : all attend to what is spoken in the name of God. They do not understand the making sport with sacred things; so that whether they approve or not, they behave with seriousness." He even thought that, if he or his brother could have remained a few months at Dublin, they might have formed a larger society than in London, the people in general being of a >
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more teachable spirit than in most parts of England ; but, on that very account, he observed, they must be watched over with the more care, being equally sus- ceptible of good or ill impressions. " What a na- tion," he says, " is this ! every man, woman, and child, except a few of the great vulgar, not only pa- tiently, but gladly suffer the work of exhortation !" — And he called them an immeasurably loving people. There was, indeed, no cause to complain of insensi- bility in his hearers, as in Scotland. He excited as much curiosity and attention as he could desire ; but, if Methodism had been opposed by popular outcry, and by mobs in England, it was not to be expected that it could proceed without molestation in Ireland. In Wesley's own words, " The roaring lion began to shake himself here also."
The Romish priests were the first persons to take the alarm. One of them would sometimes come, when a Methodist was preaching, and drive away his hearers like a flock of sheep. A Catholic mob broke into their room at Dublin, and destroyed every thing : several of the rioters were apprehended, but the grand jury threw out t\}e bills against them ; for there were but too many of the Protestants who thought the Methodists fair game. It happened (hat Cennick, preaching on Christmas-day, took for his text these words from St. Luke's Gospel : " And this shall be a sign unto you : ye shall find the babe, wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger." — A Catholic who was present, and to whom the lan- guage of Scripture was a novelty, thought this so lu- dicrous, that he called the preacher a Swaddler, in derision ; and this unmeaning word became the nick- name of the Methodists, and had all the eflTect of the most opprobrious appellation. At length, when Charles Wesley was at Cork, a mob was raised against him and his followers in that city, under the guidance of one Nicholas Butler, who went about the streets dressed in a clergyman's gown and band, with a Bible in one band, and a bundle of ballads for sale in the other. Strange as it may appear, this blackguard relied upon the approbation and encou-
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ragement of the mayor ; and when that magistrate was asked whether he gave Butler leave to beset the houses of the Methodists with a mob, and was re- quired to put a stop to the riots, he replied, that he neither gave him leave nor hindered him : and when, with much importunity, a man, whose house was at* tacked, prevailed upon him to repair to the spot, and as he supposed, afford him some protection, the mayor said aloud, in the midst of the rabble, ^^ It is your own fault for entertaining these preachers. If you will turn them out of your house, I will engage there shall be no more harm done ; but if you will not turn them out, you must take what you will get.^' Upon this the mob set up a huzza, and threw stones faster than before. The poor man exclaimed, «« This is fine usage under a Protestant government ! If 1 had a priest saying mass in every room of it, my house would not be touched :^' to which the mayor made answer, that ^^ the priests were tolerated, •but he was not."
These riots continued many days. The mob pa- raded the streets, armed with swords, staves, and Eistols, crying out, " Five pounds for a Swaddler's ead !'' Many persons, women as well as men, were bruised and wounded, to the imminent danger of their lives. Depositions of these outrages were taken and laid before the grand jury; but they threw out all the bills, and, instead of affording relief or justice to the injured persons, preferred bills against Charles Wesley, and niqe of the Methodists, as persons of ill fame, vagabonds, and common disturbers of His Majesty's peace, praying that they might be trans- ported. Butler was now in high glory, and declared that he had full liberty to do whatever he would, even to murder, if he pleased. The prejudice against the Methodists must have been very general, as well as strong, before a Protestant magistrate, and a Protes- tant grand jury in Ireland, would thus abet a Catho- lic rabble in their excesses ; especially when the Romans, as they called themselves, designated the Methodists as often by the title of heretic dogs, as by any less comprehensive appellation. The cause
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mast be found partly in the doctrines of the Metbo* dists, and partly in their conduct. Their notions of perfection and assurance might well seem ianatical, m the highest degree, if brought for^vard, as they mostly were, by ignorant and ardent men, who were not, like the Wesleys, careful to explain and qualify the rash and indefensible expressions. The watch- tiiglits gave reasonable ground for scandal ; and the zeal of the preachers was not tempered with dis- cretion, or softened by humanity. One of them ask- ed a young woman, whether she had a mind to go to hell with ner father; and Mr. Wesley himself, in a letter upon the proceedings at Cork, justified this * brutality so far as to declare, that, unless he knew the circumstances of the case, he could not say whe- ther it was right or. wrong !
Several of the persons, whom the grand jury bad
g resented as vagabonds, appeared at the next assizes, utler was the first witness against them. Upon be- ing asked what his calling might be, he replied, " I
* This person, whose name was Jonathan Rceres, only acted upon a principle which had been established at the third Conference. The fol- lowing part of the minutes upon that subject is characteristic:
Q. 1. Can an unbeiiever (whatever he be in other respects) cbaHeoge any thing of God's justice ?
w9. Absolutely nothing but hell. And this is a point which wecanoot too much insist on.
Q. 2. Do we empty men of their own righteousness, as we did at first ? Do we sufficiently labour, when they begni to be convinced of sin. to take away all they lean upon ? Should we not (beu endeavour, with ail our might, to overturn their false foundations 1
A, This was at first one of our principal points ; and it ought to be so still ; {Qt^ till all other foundations are overturned they cannot build upon Christ*
Q. S. Did we not ihtn purposely throw them into convictions; into strong sorrow and fear ? Nay, did we not strive to make them' inconsola^ ble ; rofusing to be comfortod ?
A, We did ; and so n e should do still ; for, the stronger the convic- tion, the speedier is the deliverance : and none so soon receive the peace of God as those who steadily refuse all other comfort.
Q. 4. Let us consider a particular case. AVere you, Jonathan tleeves, before you received the peace of God, convinced that, not- withstanding all you did, or could do, you were in a state of dam* nation ?
/. R. I was convinced of it as fully as that I am now aJive.
Q. 5. Are 5^ou sure that conviction was from God ?
J. R, I can have no doubt but that it was.
^. 8. What do you mean by a state of damnation ?
J' Jt A sute wherein if a man dies be perisbeth for over*
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eing balladd.^' Upon which the juAg% lifted up his hands, and said, ^^ Here are six gentlemen indicted as vagabonds, and the first accuser is a vagabond by profession !" The next witness, in reply to the same question, replied, " I am an Anti-swaddler, my lord ;'• and the examination ended in his being ordered out of court for contempt. The judge delivered such an opinion as became him upon the encouragement which had been given to the rioters. In the ensuing year Wesley himself visited Cork, and preached in a place called Hammond's Marsh, to a numerous but quiet assembly. As there was a report that the mayor intended to prevent him from preaching at that place again, Wesley, with more deference to au- thority than he had shown in England, desired two of his friends to wait upon him, and say, that if his preaching there would be offensive, he would give up the intention. The mayor did not receive this concession graciously: he replied, in anger, that there were churches and meetings enough ; he would have no more mobs and riots — no more preaching; and if Mr. Wesley attempted to preach, he was pre- pared for him. Some person had said, in reply to one who observed that the Methodists were tolerated by the king, they should find that the mayor was king of Cork ; and Mr. Wesley now found, that there was more meaning in this than he had been disposed to allow. When next he began preaching in the Me- thodist room, the mayor sent the drummers to drum before the door. A great mob was by this means collected, and when Wesley came out of the house, they closed him in. He appealed to one of the ser* jeants to protect him ; but the man replied, he had no orders to do so; and the rabble began to pelt him: by pushing on, however, and looking them fairly in the face, with his wonted composure, he made way, and they opened to let him pass. But a cry was set up, Hey for the Romans ! the congrega- tion did not escape so well as the leader; many of them were roughly handled, and covered with mud; the house was presently j^utted, the floors %vere torn up, and, with the window-frames and doors, carried
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into the street and burnt : and the next day the mob made a grand procession, and burnt Mr. Wesley in effigy. The house was a second time attacked, and the boards demolished, which had been nailed against the windows ; and a fellow posted up a notice at the public exchange, with his name af- fixed, that he was ready to head any mob, in or- der to pull down any house that should harbour a Swaddler.
The press also was employed against the Metho- dists, but with little judgment and less honesty. — One writer accused Mr. Wesley of " robbing and plundering the poor, so as to leave them neither bread to eat, nor raiment to put on.'' He replied victoriously to this accusation 2 " A heavy charge," said he, ^^ but without all colour of truth ; yea, just the reverse is true. Abundance of those in Cork, Bandon, Limerick, and Dublin, as well ^ in all parts of England, who, a few years ago, either through sloth or profaneness, had not bread to eat, or raiment to put on, have now, by means of the preachers called Methodists, a sufficiency of both. Since, by hear- ing these, they have learned to fear God, they have learned also to work with their hands, as well as to cut ofTevery needless expense, and to be good stew- ards of the mammon of unrighteousness." He averred also, that the effect of his preaching had re- conciled disaffected persons to the government ; and that they who became Methodists were, at the same time, made loyal subjects. He reminded his anta- gonists, that when one of the English bishops had been asked what could be done to stop these new preachers, the prelate had replied, " If they preach contrary to Scripture, confute them by Scripture ; if contre^ry to reason, confute them by reason. But be- ware you use no other weapons than these, either in opposing error, or defending the truth." He com- plained that, instead of fair and honourable argu- ment, he had been assailed at Cork with gross false- hoods, mean abuse, and base scurrility. He chal- lenged any of his antagonists, or any who would eome forward, to meet him on even ground, writing
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as a gentleman to a gentleman, a scholar to a scho- lar, a clergyman to a clei^yman. " Let them,'' said he, ** thus show me wherein I have preached or writ- ten amiss, and I will stand reproved before all the world ; bat let them not continue to put persecution in the place of reason : either private persecution^ stir- ring up husbands to threaten or beat .their wives, parents their children, masters their servants ; gen- tlemen to ruin their tenants, labourers, or tradesmen, ^by turning them out of their favour or cottages ; em- ploying, or buying of them no more, because they worship God according to their own conscience : or open, bare-&ced, noon-day Cork persecution, break- ing open the houses of His Majesty's Protestant sub- jects, destroying their goods, spoiling or tearing the very clothes from their backs; striking, bruising, wounding, murdering them in the streets ; dragging them through the mire, without any regard to age or sex, not sparing even those of tender years ; no, nor women, though great with child ; but, with more than Pagan or Mahometan barbarity, destroying in- fants that were yet unborn/' He insisted, truly, that this was a common cause ; for, if the Methodists w^re not protected, what protection would any men have ? what security for their goods or lives, if a mob were to be both judge, jury, and executioner? ^^ I fear God, and honour the king,'' said he. ^^ I ear- nestly desire to be at peace with all men. I have not, willingly, given any offence, either to the magis- trates, the clergy, or any of the inhabitants of the city of Cork ; neither do I desire any thing of them, bttL to be treated (I will not say as a clergyman, a l^^leman, or a christian) with such justice and hu- manity as are due to a Jew, a Turk, or a Pagan."
Whitefield visited Ireland, fcir the first time, in the ensuing year, and found himself the safer for the late transactions. Such outrages had com- pelled the higher powers to interfere; and, when ne arrived at Cork, the populace was in a state of due subordination. He seems to have regarded the conduct of Wesley and his lay-preachers with no favourable eye : some dreadful oflfences, he said,
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had been given ; and he condemned all polities as below the children of God; alluding, apparently, to the decided manner in which Wesley always in- culcated obedience to government as one of the duties of a Christian ; making it his boast, that, who- ever became a Methodist, became at the same time a good subject Though his success was not so brilliant as in Scotland, it was still sufficient to en-* courage and cheer him. " Providence,'' says he, " has wonderfully prepared my way, and overruled every thing fj^r my greater acceptance. Every where there seems to be a stirring among the dry bones ; and the trembling lamps of God's people have been supplied with fresh oil. The word ran, and was glorified." Hundreds prayed for him when he left Cork ; and many of the Catholics said, that, if he would stay, they would leave their priests: but, on a second expedition to Ireland, Whitefield narrowly escaped with his life. He had been well received, and had preached once or twice, on week days, in Oxminton Green ; a place which he describes as the Moorfields of Dublin. The Ormond Boys, and the Liberty Boys, (these were the current denominations of the mob factions at that time,) generally assem- bled there every Sunday — to fight ; and Whitefield, mindful, no doubt, of his success in a former enter- prise, under like circumstances, determined to take the field on that day, relying upon the interference of the officers and soldiers, whose barracks were close by, if he should stand in need of protection. The singing, praying, and preaching went on without much interruption ; only now and then a few stca||, and a few clods of dirt, were thrown. . After the^P- mon, he prayed for success to the Prussian arms, it being in time of war. Whether this prayer oiiended the party-spirit of his hearers, or whether the mere fact of his being a heretic, who went about seeking to make proselytes, had excited, in the catholic part of the mob, a determined spirit of vengeance ; or whether, without any principle of hatred or personal dislike, they considered him as a bear, bull, or bad- ger, whom they had an opportunity of tormenting,
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the barrackB, through Mrblch he intended to return as he had come, were closed against him ; and when he endeavoured to make his way across the green, the rabble assailed him. ^^ Many attacks,^' says he, ^^ have I had from Satan's children, but now you would have thought he had been permitted to have given me an e^ctual parting blow.'' VoUies of stones came from all quarters, while he reeled to and fro under the blows, till he was almost breathless, and covered with blood. A strong beaver hat, which served him for a while as a skull-cap, was knocked off at last, and he then received many blows and wounds on the head, and one large one near the temple. ^' I thought of Stephen," says he, «^ and was in great hopes that, like him, I should be des- patched, and go off^ in this bloody triumph, to the immediate presence of my Master." The door of a minister's house was opened for him in time, and he staggered in, and was sheltered there, till a coach could be brought, and he was conveyed safely away.
The bitter spirit of the more ignorant Catholics was often exemplified. The itinerants were fre- quently told, that it would be doing both God and the Church service to burn all such as them in one fire ; and one of them, when he first went into the county of Kerry, was received with the threat that they would kill him, and make whistles of his bones. Another was nearly murdered by a ferocious mob, one of whom set his foot upon his face, swearing that he would tread the Holy Ghost out of him. At Kil- kenny, where the Catholics were not strong enough ^oiake a riot with much hope of success, they gnash- (V at Wesley with their teeth, after he had been preaching in an old bowling-green, near the Castle ; and one of them cried, " Och ! what is Kilkenny come to !" But it was from among the Irish Catholics that Wesley obtained one of the most interesting of his coadjutors, and one of the most efficient also during his short life.
Thomas Walsh, whom the Methodists justly reckon amons their most distinguished members, was the son of a carpenter at Bally Lynn, in the county of
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Limerick. His parents were strong Romanists ; they taught him the Lord's Prayer and the Ave Maria, in Irish, which was his mother tongue, and the hundred and thirtieth psalm in Latin : and he was taught al- so, that all who differ from the Church of Rome are in a state of damnation. At eight jears old he went to school to learn English : and was afterwards pla- ced, with one of his brothers, who was a schoohnas- ter, to learn Latin and mathematics. At nineteen he opened a school for himself The brother, by whom he was instructed, had been intended for the priest- hood : he was a man of tolerable learning, and of an inquiring mind, and, seeing the errors of the Romish church, he renounced it. This occasioned frequent disputes with Thomas Walsh, who was a strict Ca- tholic ; the one alleging the traditions and canons of the church, the other appealing to the law and to the testimony. '* My brother, why do you not read God's word .'*" the elder would say, " lay aside prejudice, and let us reason together.'^ After many struggles between the misgivings of his mind, and the attach- ment to the opinions in which he had been bred up, and the thought of his parents, and shame, and the fear of man, this state of suspense became intolerable, and he prayed to God in his trouble. ^ All things are known to Thee,^' he said, in his prayer, ^^ ami Thou seest that I want to worship Thee aright! Show me the way wherein 1 ought to go, nor suSOfer me to be deceived by men !"
He then went to his brother, determined either to convince him, or to be convinced. Some other per- sons of the Protestant persuasion were present : tl^ brought a Bible, and with it Nelson^s Festivals aB Fasts of the Church of England ; and, with these books before them, they discussed the subject till midnight. It ended in his fair and complete conver- sion. " I was constrained,^^ said he, ** to give place to the light of truth : it was so convincing, that 1 had nothing more to say; I was judged of all; and at length confessed the weakness of my former reason- ings, and the strength of those which were opposed f o me. About one o'clock in the morning I retired
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to mj lodging, and, according to my usual custom, went to prayer; but now only to the God of heaven. I no longer prayed to any angel or spirit ; for I was deeply persuaded, that ' there is but one God, and one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.' Therefore I resolved no longer to suffer any^ man to beguile me into a voluntary humility, in wor- shipping either saints or angels. These latter I con- sidered as ^ministering spirits, sent to minister to them who shall be heirs of salvation.' But with re- gard to any worship being paid them, one of them- selves said, *See thou do it not; worship God, God only.' All my sophisms on this head were entire- ly overthrown by a few hours candid reading the Holy Scriptures, which were become as a lanthorn to my feet, and a lamp to my paths, directing me in the way wherein 1 should go." Soon afterwards he publicly abjured the errors of the Church of Rome*
* His dispoaition would have made him a saint in that church, but his principles were truly catholic in the proper sense of that abused word. *'I bear them witness,^' says he, speaKing of the Romanists, ** that they have a zeal for Ood, though not according unto knowledge. Many of them love justice, mercy, and truth ; and may, notwithstanding many errors in sentiment, and therefore in practice (since, as is Gk>d's maj^- ty, so is his mercy 0 be dealt with accordingly. There have been, doubt- less, and still are among^ them, some burning and shining liehts ; per- sons who (whatever their particular sentiments may be) are devoted to the service of Jesus Christ, according as their light and opportunities ad- mij. And, in reality, whatever opinions people may bold, ihof are roost approved of God, whose temper and behaviour correspond with the mo- del of his holy word. This, however, can be no justiiication of general and public unscriptural tenets, such as are many of those of the Church of Rome. It may be asked, then, why did I leave their communion, since I thought so favourably of them ? I answer, because I was abun- dantly convinced that, as a church, they have erred from the right way, and adulterated the truth» of God- with the inventions and traditions of meqn ^which the Scriptures, and even celebrated writers of themselves, abundantly testify. God is my witness, that the sole motive which in- duced me to leave them, was an unfeigned desire to know the way of €fod more perfectly, in order to the salvation of my souL For, although I then felt, and do yet feel my heart to be, as the prophet speaks, deceit- ful and desperately wicked with regard to God ; yet I was sincere in my reformation, having, fVom the Holy Spirit, an earnest desire to save my soul. If it should still be asked. But could I not be saved ? I answer, if I had never known the truth of the Scriptures concerning the way of salvation, nor been convinced that their principles were antirscriptural, then I might possibly have been saved in her communion, the merciful God making allowance for my invincible ignorance. But I freely pn^ fess, that now, since God hath enlightened my mind, and given me to see the truth, as it is in Jesus, if I had stUl continued a member of the Church of Rome, I could not luive been saved. With regard to others VOL. II. 26
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This had been a sore struggle : a more painful part of his progress was yet to come. He read the Scriptures diligently, and the works of some of the most eminent rrotestant divines ; his conviction was <u>nfirmed by this course of study ; and, from per- ceiving clearly the fallacious nature and evil conse- quences of the doctrine of merits, as held by the Ro- manists, a dismal view of human nature opened upon him. His soul was not at rest : it was no longer ha- rassed by doubts, but the peace of God was wanting. In this state of mind, he happened one evening to be passing along the main street in Limerick, when he saw a great crowd on the parade, and turning aside to know for what they were assembled, found that Robert Swindells, one of the first itinerants in Ireland, was then delivering a sermon in the open air. The preacher was earnestly enforcing the words of our Kedeemer, — words which are worth more than aU the volumes of philosophy : '' Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest ! Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me ; for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls ! For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.'^ Walsh was precisely in that state which rendered him a fit recipient for the doctrines which he now first heard. He caught the fever of Methodism, and it went through its regular course with all the accustomed symptoms. Some weeks he remained in a miserable condition; he could find no rest, either by night or day. " When I prayed/
I say nothing ; I know that everv man must bear his own burdt*i% and |ive an account of himself to God. To our own Master both they and I must stand or fall for ever. But lore, however, and tender compas- sion for their souls, constrained me to pour out aprayer to God tn ueir behalf:-- All souls are Thine, O Lord God, and Thou wiliest all to come to the knowledge of the truth, and be saved. For this end Tboa didst give thy only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him might not perish, but have everlasting life. I beseech thee. O eternal God, show thy tender mercies upon those poor souls who have been long deluded by the god of this world, the Pope, and his clergy. Jesus, thou lover of souls and friend of sinners, send to them thy light and thy truth, that they may lead them. Oh let thy bowels yearn over them, and call those straying sheep, now perishing for the lack of knowledge, to the li^ht of thy word, which isable to make them wise to saivatioD, through faith which is la Thee."
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says he, ^^ I was troubled ; when I heard a sermon, I was pierced as with darts and arrows.'^ He cpuld neither sleep nor eat ; his body gave way under this mental suffering, and at length be took to his bed. After a while the re-action began ; fear and wretch- edness gradually gave place to the love of God, and the strong desire for salvation : and the crisis was brought on at a meeting, where, he says, «^ the power of the Lord came down in the midst of them; the windows of heaven were opened, and the skies pour- ed down righteousness, and his heart melted like wax before the fire." To the psychologist it may be interesting to knew, by what words this state of mind was induced. It was by the exclamation of the pro- phet, ^< Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah ; this that is glorious in his apparel, travellingin the greatness of his strength?*' a passage which, with that that follows, is in the high- est strain of lyric sublimity ; it might seem little like- ly to convey comfort to a spirit which had long been inconsolable ; but its effect was like that of a spark of fire upon materials which are ready to burst into combustion. He cried aloud in the* congregation : and, when the throe was past, declared that he had now found rest, and was filled with joy and peace in believing.
"And now," says he, "I felt of a truth, that faith is the substance, or subsistence, of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen. God, and the things of the invisible world, of which I had only heard before by the hearing of the ear, appeared riow, in their true light, as sub- stantial realities. Faith gave me to see a recon- ciled God, anc^. an all-sufficient Saviour. Thi kingdom of G^A was within me. I drew water out of the wells of salvation. I walked and talked with God ^A the day long : whatsoever I believed to be his wiU, I did with my whole heart. I could un- tbi^nedlj loV(^ them that hated me, and pray for them thaft despitefuliy used and persecuted me. Th6 com^ mahdments of God were my d^Hght : I not oh\f i^- joiced ^veriDQore, but prayed without ceasing, and ih
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every thing gave thanks : whether late cnr drank, or ivhatever f did, it was in the name of the Lord Jesus, and to the glory of God." This case is the more re- markable, because the subject was of a calm and thoughtful mind, a steady and well-regulated temper, and a melancholy temperament. He had now to un- dergo more obloquy and ill-will than had been . brought upon him by his renunciation of the errors of the Romish church. That change his relations thought was bad enough ; but, to become a Metho- dist, was worse, and they gave him up as undone for ever. And not his relations only, nor the Romanists : ^^ Acquaintances and neighbours," says he, ^^ rich and poor, old and young, clergy and laity, were all against me. Some said I was an hypocrite, others that I was mad ; others, judging more favourably, that I was de- ceived, Reformed and unreformed I found to be just alike; and that many, who spoke against the Pope and the Inquisition, were themselves, m reality, of the same disposition."
Convinced that it was his duty now to become a minister of that gospel which he had received, he offered his services to Mr. Wesley, as one who be- lieved, and that not hastily or lightly, but after ardent aspirations, and continued prayer and study of the Scriptures, that he was inwardly moved by the Holy Spirit to take upon himself that office. He had pre- pared himself, by diligent study of the Scriptures, which he read often upon his knees; and the prayer which he was accustomed to use at such times, may excite the admiration of those even in whom it shajl fail to find sympathy. ^ Lord Jesus, I lay my soul at thy feet, to be taught and governed by Thee. Take the veil from the mystery, and show me the truth as it is in Thyself Be Thou my sun and star, by day and by night !" Wesley told him it was hard to judge what God had called him to, till trial had been made. He encouraged him to make the trial* and desired him to preach in Irish. The command of that Ian* guage gave him a great advantage. It was long ago Baid in Ireland, " When you plead for your life, plead in Irish.'' Even the poor Catholics listened willii^y.
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when they were addressed in their mother tongue : his hearers frequently shed silent tears, and frequent- ly sobbed aloud, and cried for mercy ; and in coun- try towns the peasantry, who, going there upon mar- kets-day, had stopt to hear the preacher, from mere wonder and curiosity, were oftentimes melted into tears, and declared that they eould follow him all over the world. One, who had laid aside some mo- ney, which he intended to bequeath, for the good of bis soul, to some priest or friar, offered to bequeath it to him if he would accept it. In conversation, too, and upon all the occasions which occurred in daily life,-— at inns, and upon -the highway, and in the streets, — this remarkable man omitted no opportu- nity of giving religious exhortation to those who needed it ; taking care always not to shock the pre- judices of those whom he addressed, and to adapt his speech to their capacity. Points of dispute, whe- ther they regarded the di£terence of churches, or of doctrines, he wisely avoided; sin, and death, and judgment, and redemption, were his themes; and upon these themes he enforced so powerfully at such times, that the beggars, to whom he frequently ad- dressed himself in the streets, would fall on their knees, and beat their breasts, weeping, and crying for mercy.
Many calumnies were invented to counteract the effect which this zealous labourer produced wherever he went. It was spread abroad that he had been a servant boy to a Romish priest, and having stolen his master^s books, had learned, by that means, to preach. But it was not from the Catholics alone that ne met with opposition. He was once waylaid near the town of Rosgrea, by about fourscore men, armed with sticks, and bound by oath in a confederacy against him : they were so liberal a mob, that, provided they could reclaim him from Methodism, they appeared not to care what they made of him ; and they insist- ed uponbringii^ a Komish priest, and a minister of the Church of England, to talk with him. Walsh, with great calmness, explained to them, that he con- tended with no man concerning opinions, nor preach-
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ed against particular churches, but against sin and ivickedness in all. And he so far succeeded in miti- gating their disposition toward hini» that they offered to let him go, provided he would swear never again to come to Rosgrea. Walsh would rather have suf- fered martyrdom than have submitted to such an oath, and martyrdom was the alternative which they proposed ; for they carried him into the town, where the whole rabble surrounded him, and it was deter- mined that he should either swear, or be put into a well. The courage with which he refused to bind himself by any oath or promise, made him friends even among so strange an assembly : some cried out vehemently that he should go into the well ; others took his part : in the midst of the uproar, the parish minister came up, and, by his interference, Walsh was permitted to depart. At another country tows, about twenty miles from Cork, the magistrate, who was the rector of the place, declared he would com- mit him to prison, if he did not promise to preath no more in those parts. Walsh replied, by asking if there were no swearers, drunkards, Sabbath-break- ers, and the like, in those parts ; adding that, if, after he should have preached there a few limes, there appeared no reformation among them, be would ne- ver come there agrain. Not satisfied with such a pro- posal, the magistrate committed him to prison : but Walsh was popular in that town; the people mani- fested a great interest in his behalf; he preached to them from the prison-window, and it was soon thought adviseable to release hitn. He was more cruelly han- dled by the Presbyterians in the north of Ireland : the usage which he received from a mob of that per- suasion, and the exertions which he made to escape from them, threw him into a fever, which confined him for some time to his bed: and he professed that^ in ail his journeyings, and in his intercourse among people of many or most denominationSi. he had met with no such treatment ; ho^ not even from the most enraged of the Romanists themselves.
The life of Thomas Walsh might alone convince a Cathotic, that saints sre to be found in other cam-
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munions, as well as in the church of Rome. Theo- pathy was, in him, not merely the ruling, it was the only passion : his intellect was of no common order ; but this passion, in its excess, acted like a disease upon a mind that was, by constitution, melancholy. To whatever church he had belonged, the elements of his character would have been the same : the on- ly difference would have been in its manifestation. As a Romanist, he might have retired to a cell or an hermitage, contented with securing his own salvation, by perpetual austerity and prayer, and a course of continual self-tormenting, but he could not have been more dead to the world, nor more entirely pos- sessed by a devotional spirit. His friends described him as appearing like one who had returned from the other world ; and perhaps it was this unearthly man- ner which induced a Romish priest to assure his flock, that the Walsh, who had turned heretic, and went about preaching, was dead long since ; and that he who preached under that name, was the devil in his shape. It is said that he walked through the streets of London^with as little attention to all things around him, as if he had been in a wildeniess, unobservant of whatever would have attracted the sight of others, and as indiflferent to all sounds of excitement, up- roar, and exultation, as to the passing wind He showed the same insensibility to the influence of fine scenery and sunshine : the only natural object of which he spoke with feeling, was. the starry firma- ment,— for there he beheld infinity.
With all this, the zeal of this extraordinary man was such, that, as he truly said of himself, the sword was too sharp for the scabbard. At five-and-twenty he might have b^en taken for fortv years of age ; and he literally wore himself out before he attained the age of thirty, by the most unremitting and unmerci- ful labour, both of body and mind. His sermons were seldom less than an hour long, and they were loud as well as long. Mr. Wesley always wanied his preach- ers against both these errors, and considered Walsh as. in some degree, guilty of his own death, by the exeessive exertion whicjb he made atsnch thnea^nol^
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withstanding frequent advice, and frequent resolu- tions, to restrain the vehemence of his spirit. He was not less intemperate in study. Wesley acknow- ledged him to be the best biblical scholar whom he had ever known. If he were questioned concerning any Hebrew word in the Old, or any Greek one in the New Testament, he would tell, after a pause, how often it occurred in the Bible, and what it meant in every place. Hebrew was his favourite study : he regarded it as a language of divine origin, and there- fore perfect. "O trufy laudable and worthy stu- dy !" ne exclaims concerning it : ^ O industry above all praise ! whereby a man is enabled to converse with God, with holy angels, with patriarchs, and with prophets, and clearly to unfold to men the mind of God from the language of God l^ And he was per- suaded that he had not attained the full and familiar knowledge of it, which he believed that he possess- ed, without special assistance from Heaven. At this study he frequently sate up late ; and his general time of rising was at*four. When he was entreated to al- low himself more sleep, by one who saw that he was wasting away to death, his reply was, " Should a man rob God ?'' His friends related things of him which would have been good evidence in a suit for canoni- zation. Sometimes he was lost, they say, in glorious absence on his knees, with his face heavenward, and arms clasped round his breast, in such composure, that scarcely could he be perceived to breathe. His soul seemed absorbed in God ; and from the sereni- ty, and " something resembling splendour, which ap- peared on his countenance, and in all his gestures af- terwards, it midit easily be discovered what he bad been about.^' Even in sleep, the devotional habit still predominated, and ^^ his soul went out in groans, and sighs, and tears to God." They bear witness to his rapts and extasies, and record circumstances which they themselves believed to be proofe of his communion with the invisible world. With all this intense devotion, the melancholy of his disposition always predominated : and though he held the doc* trines of sanctification and assurance,, and doubted
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not but that his pardon was sealed by the blood of the covenant, no man was ever more 4istres3ed in mind, nor laboured under a greater dread of death. Even when he was enforcing the vital truths of reli- gion, with tlie whole force of his intellect, and with all his heart, and soul, and strength, thoughts would come across him which he considered as diabolical suggestions ; and he speaks with horror of the ago- ny which he endured in resisting them. Indeed, he was thoroughly persuaded that he was an especial object of hatred to the devil. This persuasion sup- plied a ready solution for the nervous affections to which he was subject, and, in all likelihood, fre- quently produced those abhorred thoughts, which were to him a confirmation of that miserable belief. Romish superstition affords a remedy for this disease ; for, if relics and images fail to avert the fit, the cilice and the scourge amuse the patient with the belief that he is adding to his stock of merits, and dis- tress of mind is commuted for the more tolerable sense of bodily ^ain.
For many years Mr. Wesley kept up an interchange of preachers between England and Ireland ; and when Walsh was in London, he preached in Irish at a place oalled Shores Garden, and in Moorfields. — Many of his poor countrymen were extracted by the desire of hearing their native tongue, and, as others also gathered round, wondering at the novelty, he ad- dressed them afterwards in {English. But, on such occasions, mere sound * and sympathy will some- times do the work, witbout the aid of intelligible words. It is related in Walshes life, that, once in
* The most extraordinarj convert that ever was made, was a certain William Heazley, in the county of Antrim, a man who was deaf and dumb from his birth. By mere imitation, and the desire of being like his neighbours, he was converted in the S5th year of his age, from a pro- fligate life ; for his delight had been in drinking, cock-fighting, and other brutal amusements. On the days when the leader of the Society was expected, he used to watch for him, and run from house to house to as- semble the people ; and he would appear exceedingly mortified if the leader did not address him as he dia the others. This man followed the occupation of weaTing linen, and occasionally shaving, which was chiefly a Sunday^s work ; but, after his conversion, he never would shave any person on the Sabbath.
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Dublin, when he was preaching in Irish, among those who were affected by the discourse, there was one man ^^ cut to the heart,^^ though . he did not under- stand the language. Whatever language he used, he was a powerful preacher ; and contributed, more than other man, to the diffusion of Methodism in Ire- land. All circumstances were as favourable for the progress of Methodism in that country as they were adverse to it in Scotland : the inefficiency of the Es- tablished Church, the total want, not of discipline alone, but of order, and the ardour of the Irish cha- racter, of all people the most quick ^and lively in their affections. And as his opposition to the Calvinism tic notions made Wesley unpopular among the Scotch, id Ireland he obtained a certain degree of favour for his decided opposition to the Romish church ; while he was too wise a man ever to provoke hostility, by Introducing any disputatious matter in his sermons. After a few years he speaks of himself as having, he knew hot how, become an honourable man there : •^ The scandal of the cross," says he> " is ceased, and all the kingdom, rich and poor, Papists and Protes- tants, behave with courtesy, nay, and seeming good \n\V^ Perhaps he was hardly sensible how much of this wa« owing to the change which had impercepti- bly been wrought in his own conduct^ by the sobering influence of time. The ferment of his spirit bad abated, and his language had become far less indis-^ creet ; nor^ indeed, had he ever, in Ireland^ provok- ed the indignation of good men, by the eitravagancies which gave such just offence in England at the be- ginning of his career. Some of the higher clergy, therefore, approved and countenanced his labours; and it would not have been difficult, in that country^ to haVe made the Methodists as subservient to the interests of the Established Churchy as the Regulars Rre to the Church of Rome* Amotii^ so susceptible a people, it ttiifht be ex-
Sected that curious effects would frequently be pro- UCed by the application of so strong a stimulant A lady wrote from Dublin to Mr. Wesley in the fol* bwing remarkable Words 1-^" Reverend Sir, the most
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miserable and guilty of all the human race, who knew you when she thought herself one of the hap- piest, may be ashamed to write, or speak to you, in her present condition ; but the desperate misery of my state makes me attempt any thing that may be a means of removing it My request is, that you, dear Sir, and such of your happy people who meet in Band, and ever heard the name of that miserable wretch P. T., would join in fasting and prayer on k Tuesday, the day on which I was born, that the Lord would have mercy on me, and deliver me from the power of the devil, from the most uncommon blafi^- phemies, and the expectation of hell, which 1 laboui* under, without power to pray, or hope for mercy.— May be the Lord may change my state, and have mercy on me, for the sake of his people^s prayer, indeed I cannot pray for myself; and, if I could, I have no hopes of being heard. Nevertheless, He, seeing his people afflicted for me, may, on that ac- count, deliver me from the power of the devil. Ob, what a hell have 1 upon earth ! I would not charge God foolishly, for he has been very merciful to me ; but I brought all this evil on myself by sin, and by not making a right use of his mercy. Pray continu- ally for me ; for the prayer of faith will shut and open heaven. It may be a means of my deliverance, which will be one of the greatest miracles of mercy ever known."
If Mr. Wesley received this letter in time, it cannot be doubted but that he would have con^plied with the request. The unhappy writer was in Swift^s Hos- pital, and, perhaps, in consequence of not receiving an answer to her letter, she got her mother to ad- dress a similar one to the preacher at Cork, and he appointed two Tuesdays to be observed, as she had requested, both in that city and at Limerick. There may be ground for reasonable suspicion that Metho- dism had caused the disease; the Cork preacher was apprised, by a brother at Dublin, of the manner in which it operated the cure. " I have to inform you of the mercy of God to Miss T. She was brought from Swift's Hospital on Sonday evening,
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and DO Tuesday night, about ten o'clock, she was in the utmost distress. She thought she saw Christ and Satan fighting for her ; and that she heard Christ say, ^ I will have her !' In a moment hope sprung up in her heart ; the promises of God flowed in upon her ; she cried out, I am taken from hell to heaven ! She now declares she could not tell whether she was in the hody or out of it She is much tempted, but in her rieht mind, enjoying a sense of the mercy of God. She remembers all that is past, and knows it was a punishment for her sins.'' As nearly twenty years elapsed before Wesley published these letters, it may be inferred that the cure was permanent.
" Are there any drunkards here ?" said ^ preacher one day in his sermon, applying his discourse in that manner which the Methodists have found so effec- tual. A poor Irishman looked up, and replied, ^ Yes, I am one !" And the impression which he then re- ceived, enabled him to throw off his evil habits, and become, from that day forward, a reclaimed man. The Methodists at Wexford met in a long barn, and used to fasten the doon because they were annoyed by a Catholic mob. Being thus excluded from the meeting, the mob became curious to know what was done there; and taking counsel togetlier, they agreed that a fellow should get in and secrete himself be- fore the congregation assembled, so that he might see all that was going on, and, at a proper time, let in his companions. The adventurer could find no better means of concealment than by getting into a sack which he found there, and lying -down in a situ- ation near the entrance. The people collected, se- cured the door as usual, and, as usual, be^an their service by singing. - The mob collected also, and,
flowing impatient, called repeatedly upon their riend Patrick to open the door; but Pat happened to have a taste for music, and he liked the singing so well, that he thought, as he afterwards said, it would be a thousand pities to disturb it. And when the hymn was done, and the itinerant began to pray, in spite of all the vociferation of his comrades, he
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thought that, as he had been so well pleased with the singing, he would see how he liked the prayer ; but, when the prayer proceeded, *'the power of God/' says the relater, ^' did so confound him, that he roared out with might and main ; and not haying power to get out of the sack, lay bawling and scream- ing, to the astonishment and dismay of the congre- gation, who probably supposed that Satan himself was in the barn. Somebody, at last, ventured to see what was in the sack ; and helping him out, brought him up, confessing his sins, and crying for mercy.*' This is the most comical case of instantaneous con- version that ever was recorded, and yet the man is said to have been thoroughly converted.
A memorable instance of the good eflfects pro- duced by Methodism was shown, in a case of ship- wreck upon the Isle of Cale, off the coast of the county of Down. There were several Methodist societies in that neighbourhood, and some of the members went wrecking with the rest of the people, and others bought, or received presents of the plun- dered goods. As soon as John Prickard, who was at that time travelling in the Lisburn circuit, heard of this, he hastened to inquire into it, and found that all the societies, except one, had, more or less, ^^ been partakers of the accursed thing.'' Upon this he preached repentance and restitution ; and, with an almost broken heart, read out sixty-three members on the following Sunday, in Downpatrick ; giving no- tice, that those who would make restitution should be restored, at a proper time, but that for those who would not, their names should be recorded in the general steward's book, with an account of their crime and obstinacy. This severity produced much of its desired effect, and removed the reproach which would otherwise have attached to the Metho- dists. Some persons, who did not belong to the So- ciety, but bad merely attended as hearers, were so much afiected by the exhortation and the example, that they desired to make restitution with them. The owners of the vessel empowered Prickard to allow salvage; but, with a proper degree of austerity, he
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refused to do this, because the people, in the first instance, bad been guilty of a crime. This affiur de- servedly raised the character of the Methodists in those parts ; and it was observed, bj the gentry in the neighbourhood, that if the ministers of every other persuasion had acted as John Prickard did, most of the goods might have been saved.
^^ Although I had many an aching head and pained breast,'^ says one of the itinerants, speaking of his campaigns in Ireland, ^^ yet it was delightful to see buna reds attending to my blundering preaching, with streaming eyes, and attention still as night ^' ^ The damp, dirty,"*" smoky cabins of Ulster,'^ says another,
* There h a letter of advice from Mi. Wesley to one of bis Iri^ preachers (written in 1769), which gives a curious picture of the people for whom such advice could be needful—** Dear brother,** be says, ** I shall now tell you the things whicU \iave been, more or less, upon my mind, ever since I was in the North of Ireland. If you forget them, you will be a sufferer, and so will the people ; if you observe them, it will be good for both. Be steadily serious. There is oo country upoQ earth where this is more necessary than Ireland, as you are generaBT encompassed with those who, with a little encouragement, would laugh or trifle from morning till night. In every town vint all you can, from house to house ; but on this, and every other occasion, avoid ail fami- liarity with women : this is deadly poison, both to tkem and to you. YoQ cannot be too wary in this respect. Be actire, be dfligent ; arM all laziness, sloth, indolence ; fly from every degree, every appearance of it, else you will never be more than half a Christian. Be cleanly : in this let the Methodists take pattern by the Quakers. Avoid all nastiness, dirt, slovenliness, both in your person, clotb«s, house, and all about^yoo. Do not stink above ground !
* Let thy mind's sweetness have its opefation
* Upon thy person, dothes, and habitation.'
HXRBBBT.
Whatever clothes you have, let them be whole : na rents, no tatters, so rags ; these are a scandal to either man or woman, being another fruit of vile laziness. Mend your clothes, or I shall n«ver expect to see you mend your lives. Let none ever see a ragged Methodist. Clean your- selves of lice : take pains in this. Do not cut off your hair ; but claan it, and keep it clean. Cure yourself and your family of the itch : a spoon- ful of brimstone will cure you. To let this run from year to year, proves both sloth and uncleanness : away with it at once ; let not the North be any longer a proverb of reproach to all the nation. Use no snuff, unless prescribed by a physician. I suppose no other nation in £nrope is ut such vile bondage to this silly, nasty, dirty custom, as the Irish are. Touch no dram : it is liquid ftre ; it is a sure, though slow, poison ; It saps the very springs of life. In Ireland, above aH eountnes in the workl, I would sacredly abstain from this, because the evil is so seoe- ral ; and to this, and snuff, and smoky cabins, I inopute the btindness which is so exceeding common throughout the nation. I particularly desire, wherever ^ou have preaching, that there may be a IrttUeHouse. Let this be got without delay. Wherever it is not, let none expect to
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«( were a good trial; but what makes a double amends for all these inconveniences, to anj preacher who loves the word of God, is, that our people here are in general the most zealous, lively, affectionate Christians we have in the kingdom.'^ Wesley him- selC while he shuddered at the ferocious character of Irish history, loved the people; and said, he had seen as real courtesy in their cabins, as could be found at St. Jameses or the Louvre. He found them more * liberal than the English Methodists, and he lived to see a larger society at Dublin than any in England, except that in the metropolis.
CHAPTER XXIV.
WESLEY IN MIDDLE AGE.
It is with the minds of men as with fermented liquors ; they are long in ripening, in proportion to ^ their strength. Both the Wesleys had much to work off, and the process, therefore, was of long continu- ance. In Charles it was perfected about middle life. His enthusiasm had spent itself, and his opinions were modified by time, as well as sobered by expe- rience. In the forty-first year of his age, he was married by his brother, at Garth, in Brecknock- shire, to Miss Sarah Gwynne. ^^ It was a solemn day«^^ says John, ^^ such as became the dignity of a Christian marriage.'^ For a while he continued to itinerate, as he had been wont ; but, after a few years, he became a settled man, and was contented to perform the duties and enjoy the comforts of do- mestic life.
f '* The meetifig-houae at Athlone was built and j^veo, with the ground on which it stood, by a single gentleman. In Cork, one person, Mr. Thomas Jonea, gave between three and ft>ur hundred pounds to- wards the preachiiw-DOuse. Towards thai in Dublin, Mr. LoneU gave four hundred pounds. I know no such benefaetcra among the Metho- dists ia EnglaDd.** Journal, xvj. p. Sd.
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John also began to think of marriage, after his brother^s example, though he had published " Thoughts on a single life," wherein he advised all unmarried persons, who were able to receive it, to follow the counsel of our Lord and of St. Paul, and ^^ remain single for the kingdom of heaven's sake." He did not, indeed, suppose that such a precept could have been intended for the many, and assented fully to the sentence of the apostle, who pronounced the *^ forbidding to marry to be a doc- trine of devils." Some notion, however, that the mar- riage state was incompatible with holiness, seems, in consequence, perhaps, of this treatise, to have obtain- fed ground among some of his followers at one time ; for it was asked, at the Conference of 1745, whether a sanctified believer could be capable of marriage. The answer was, ** Why should he not ?" and pro* bably the question was asked for the purpose of thad condemning a preposterous opinion. When he him- self resolved to marry, it appears that he made both his determination and his choice without the know- ledge of Charles ; and that Charles, when he disco- vered the affair, found means, for reasons which un- doubtedly he must have thought sufficient, to break off* the match. But John was offended, and, for a time, there was a breach of that union between them, which had never before been disturbed. It was not long before he made a second choice, and, unfortu- nately for himself, no one then interfered.
The treatise which he had written in recommen-^ dation of celibacy, placed him in an unfortunate situ- ation ; and, for the sake of appearances, he consult* ed certain religious friends, that they might advise him to follow his own inclination. His chief counsel- lor was iMr. Perronet, vicar of Shoreham. " Having received a full answer from Mr. PerJ-onet," he sars, " I was clearly convinced that I ought to marry. For many years I remained single, because I believed I could be more useful in a single than in a married state ; and I praised God who enabled me so to do. I now as fully believed, that, in my present circum- stances, I might be more useful in a married state ;
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V
into which, upon this clear conviction, and by the advice of my friends, I entered a few days after."-— He thought it expedient, too, to meet the single men of the Society in London, and show them ^^ on how many accounts it was good for those who had receiv- ed that gift from God, to remain single for the kingdom of heaven^s sake^ unless when a particular case m^ht be an exception to the general rule !" To those who properly respected Mr. Wesley, this must have been a painful scene : to his blind admirers, no doubt, co- mic as the situation was, it was an edifying one.
The lady whom he married was a widow, by name Vizelle, with four * children, and an independent for- tune ; but he took care that this should be settled upon herself, and refused to have any command over it. It was agreed also, before their marriage, that he should not preach one sermon, nor travel one mile the less on that account: ^^if I thought I should,^' said he, " as well as I love you, I would never see v your face more." And in his Journal at this time he says, ^^ I cannot understand how a Methodist preacher can answer it to God, to preach one sermon, or tra- vel one day less, in a married than in a single state. In this respect, surely, it remaineth, that they who have wives, be as though they had none." For a lit- tle while she travelled with him ; but that mode of life, and perhaps the sort of company to which, in the course of their journies, she was introduced, soon became intolerable-^as it must necessarily have been to any woman who did not enter wholly into his views, and partake of his enthusiasm. But, of all women, she is said to have been the most unsuited to
* One of them quitted the profession of surgery, because, he E^aid, ^it made him less sensible of human pain," Wesley says, when he re- lates this, *^ I do not Icnow (unless it unfits us for the duties df life) that we can have too great a sensibilitv of human pain. Methinks I should be afraid of losing any degree of this sensibility. And I have^ known exceeding few persons who have carried this tenderness of spirit to ex^ cess.** He appears tq have mentioned the conduct of his son-in-law as to his honour ; but he relates elsewhere the saying of another surgeon in a right manly spirit: — '<Mr- Wesley^ ^ou know I would not hurt a fly ; I would not give pain to any living; thing ; but,- if it were necessary, I would scrape all the fiesh off a man's bones, and never turn my hea4 aside."
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him. Faio would she have made him, like Mark An- tony, give up all for love ; and being disappointed in that hope, she tormented him in such a manner, bj her outrageous jealousy, and abominable temper, that she deserves to be classed in a triad with Xan* tippe and the wife of Job, as one of the three bad wives. Wesley, indeed, was neither so submissive as Socrates, nor so patient as the man of Uz. He knew that he was by nature the stronger vessel, of the more worthy gender, and lord and master by law; and that the words, honour and obty^ were in the bond. " Know me," said he, in one of his letters to her, ^^and know yourself. Suspect me no more, as- perse me no more, provoke me no more : do not any longer contend for mastery, for power, money, or praise ; be content to be a private insignificant per- son, known and loved by God and me. Attempt no more to abridge me of my liberty, which I claim by the laws of God and man : leave me to be governed by God and my own conscience ; then shall I govern you with gentle sway, even as Christ the church.*' — He reminded her that she had laid to his charge things that he knew not, robbed him, betrayed his confidence, revealed his secrets, given him a thou- sand treacherous wounds, and made it her business so to do, under the pretence of vindicating her own character; " whereas," said he, " of what importance is your character to mankind ? if you was buried just now, or, if you had never lived, what loss would it be to the cause of God ?" This was very true, but not very conciliating; and there are few stomachs which could bear to have humility administered in such doses.
«^God," said he, in this same letter, ^^has used many means to curb your stubborn will, and break the impetuosity of your temper. He has given you a dutiuil, but sickly, daughter. He has taken away one of your sons ; another has been a grievous cross, as the third probably will be. He has suffered you to be defrauded of much money : He has chastened you with strong pain ; and still He may say, how long liflest thou up thyself against me ? Are you more
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humble, more .gentle, more patient, more placable than you was ? I fear, auite the reverse : I iearjour natural tempers are ratner increased than diminish- ed. Under all these conflicts, it might be an unspeak- able blessing that you have a husband who knows your temper, and can bear with it; who is still will- ing to forgive you all, to overlook what is past, as if it had not been, and to receive you with open arms ; only not while you have a sword in your hand, with which you are continually striking at me, though you cannot hurt me. If, notwithstanding, you continue striking, what can I, what can all reasonable men think, but that either you are utterly out of your senses, or your eye is not single ; that you married me only for my money ; that, being disappointed, you was almost always out of humour : that this laid you open to a thousand suspicions, which, once awaken- ed, could sleep no more. My dear Molly, let the time past suffice. If you have not (to prevent my giving it to bad women) robbed me of my substance too ; if you do not blacken me, on purpose that, when this causes a breach between us, no one may believe it to be your fault ; stop, and consider what you do. As yet the breach may be repaired : you have wrong- ed me much, but not beyond forgiveness* I love you still, and am as clear from all other women as the day I was born."
Had Mrs. Wesley been capable of understanding her husband^s character, she could not possibly have been jealous ;• but the spirit of jealousy possessed her, and drove her to the most unwarrantable actions. It is said that she frequently travelled a hundred miles, for the purpose of watching, from a window, who was in the carriage with him when he entered a town. She searched his pockets, opened his ^ letters, put
* There is no allusion in Wesley's Journal to his domestic unhappi- ness, unless it be in Journal xi. n. 9^ where, after noticing some difficul- ties upon the road, he sars, ''Between nine and ten came to Bristol* Here I met with a trial of another kind ; but this also shall be for good." His letters throw some light upon this part of his history, which would not be worth elucidating, if it did not, at the same time, elucidate his charac- ter. Writing to Mrs. S. R. (Sarah Ryan, a most enthusiastic woman,) he says, " Last Friday, after many severe words^my wife left me, vow
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220 WESLEV IN MIDDLE AGE*
his letters and papers into the hands of his enemieSf in hopes that they might be made use of to blast his character ; and sometimes laid violent hands upon him, and tore bis hair. She frequently left his bousei and, upon his earnest entreaties, returned again ; till, after having thus disquieted twenty years of his liie^ as far as it was possible for any domestic vexations to disquiet a man whose life was passed in loco-mo^
Ing she would see me no more. As I had wrote to you the same morn- ing, I began to reason with mvself, till I almost doubted whether I had done well in writing, or whether I ought to write to you at alL After prayer, that doubt was taken away ; yet I was almost sorry that 1 had written that morning. In the evening, while I was preaching at the chapel, she came into the chamber where I had left my clothes, searched my pockets, and found the letter there which I had finished, but had not sealed. While she read it, Gnd broke her heart; and I afterwards found her in such a temper, as I have not seen her in for several years. Sh« has continued in the same ever since. So I think God has given a suffi- dent answer with regard to our writing to each other." But he says to the same person, eight years afterwards, ^ It has frequently been aud, and with some apoearance of truth, that you endeavour to vicnopelae the afi(*ctions of all that fall into your hands ; that you destroy the near- est and dearest connexion they had before^ and make them quite cool and indifferent to their most intimate friends. I do not at all speak on my own account ; I set myself out of the question ; but, if there be any thing of the kind with regard to other people, I should be sorry both fur th«*m and you.'*
There is an unction about his correspondence with this person, which must have appeared like strong confirmation to so jealous a woman as Mrs. Wesley. He says to her, " the conversing with you, either br Speaking or writing, is an unspeakable blessing to me. I cannot think of you without thinking of God. Otliers often lead me to him ; but it is, as it were, going round about : you bring me straight into his pre- sence. You have refreshed my bowels in the Lord : (Wesley is very seldom euiltv of this sort of canting and offensive language.) I not only excuse, but love your simplicity ; and whatever freedom you use, it will be welcome. I can hardly avoid trembling for you ! upon what a pin- nacle do you stand ! Perhaps, few persons in England nave been in so dangerous a situation as you are now. I know not whether any other was ever so regarded, both by my brother and me, at the same time." He questions her, not only about her thoughts, her imaginations, and her reasonings, but even about her drtama. ** Is there no vanity or folly in your dreams ? no temptation that almost overcomes you ? And arevoU then as sensible of the presence of God, and as full of prayer, as when you are waking ?'* She replies to this curious interrogation, ** As to my dreams, I seldom remember them ; but, when I do, I find in general they are harmless." This Sarah Ryan was at one time housekeeper at the school at Kingswood. Her account of herself, which is printed in the second volume of the Arminian Magazine, is highly entnusiastie, and shows her to have been a woman of heated fancy and strong natural ta- lents. It appears, however, incidentally, in Wesley's letter, that though she professed to have " a direct witness" of being saved from siii, she aA tserwards ** fell from that salvation." And, in another place, he notices her **litdeness of understaoding."
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tion, she seized on part of his Journals, and manj other papers, which were never restored, and de- parted, leaving word that she never intended to re*- turn. He simply states the fact in his Journal, say^ ing, that he knew not what the cause had been ; and he briefly adds, J^Ton earn reHqui^ rum dimisi^ non revocc^ bo ; I did not forsake her, I did not dismiss her, I will not recall her. Thus, summarily, was a most injudi- cious marriage dissolved. Mrs. Wesley lived ten years after the separation, and is described in her epitaph as a woman of exemplary piety, a tender pa- rent, and a sincere friend ; the tomb-stone says no- thing of her conjugal virtues.
But even if John Wesley's marriage had proved as happy in all other respects as Charles's, it would not have produced upon him the same sedative effect. Entirely as these two brothers agreed in opinions and principles, and cordially as they had acted to- gether during so many years, there was a radical dif- ference in their dispositions. Of Charles it has been said, by those who knew him best, that if ever there was a human being who disliked power, avoided pre-- eminence, and shrunk from praise, it was he : where- as no conqueror or poet was ever more ambitious than John Wesley. Charles could forgive an injury ; but never again trusted one whom he had found ^ treacherous. John could take men a second time to his confidence, after the greatest wrongs and the basest usage : perhaps, because he had not so keen an insight mto the characters of men as his brother ; perhaps^ because he regarded them as his instru- ments, and thought that all other considerations must give way to the interests of the spiritual dominion which he had acquired. It may be suspected that Charles, when he saw the mischief and the villany, as well as the follies, to which Methodism gave oc- casion ; and when he perceived its tendency to a separation from the Church, thought that he had gone too far, and looked with sorrow to the consequences which he foresaw. John's was an aspiring and a joy- ous spirit, free from all regret for the past, or appre- hension for the/uture : his anticipations were always
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hopeful ; and, if circumstances arose contrary to his wishes, which he was unable to cpntrol, he accom* modated himself to them, made what advantage of them he could, and insensibly learnt to expect, with complacency, as the inevitable end of his career, a schism which, at the commencement, he would have regarded with horror, as a dutiful and conscientious minister of the Church of England.
Ill the first Conference it was asked, " Do you not entail a schism on the Church ? Is it not probable that your hearers, after your death, will be scattered into all sects and parties ? or that they will form themselves into a distinct sect ?'' The answer was, " We are persuaded the body of our hearers will, even after death, remain in the Church, unless they be thrust out. We believe, notwithstanding, either that they will be thrust out, or that they will leaven the whole Church. We do, and will do, all we can to prevent those consequences which are supposed likely to happen after our death ; but we cannot, with a good conscience, neglect the present oppor- tunity of saving souls while we live, for fear of con- sequences which may possibly or probably happen after we are dead." Five years afterwards the as- sistants were charged to exhort all those who had been brought up in the church constantly to attend its service, to question them individually concerning this, to set the example themselves, and to alter eve- ry plan which interfered with it. " Is there not," it was said, ^^ a cause for this ? Are we not, unawares, by little and little, tending to a separation from the Church ? Oh, remove every tendency thereto with all diligence ! Let all our preachers go to church. Let all our people go constantly. Receive the sa- crament at every opportunity. Warn all against niceness in hearing, — a great and prevailing evil. — Warn them likewise against despising the prayers of the Church ; against calling our Society a Churchy or the Church ; against calling our preachers minisierSj our houses meeting-houses (call them plain preaching- houses.) Do not license them as such. The proper form of a petition to the judges is, < A. B. desires to
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have his hoase in C. licensed for public worship.^ Do not license yourself till you are constrained, and then not as a Dissenter, but a Methodist preacher. It is time enough when you are prosecuted to take the oaths ; thereby you are licensed.^'
The leaven of ill- will towards the Church was in- troduced among the Methodists by those dissenters who joined them. Wesley saw whence it proceeded, and was prepared to resist its effect by the feelings which he had imbibed from his * father, as well as by his sense of duty. But there were other causes which increased and strengthened the tendency that had thus been given. It is likely that, when the Nonjurors disappeared as a separate party, many of them would unite with the Methodists, being a mid- dle course between the Church and the dissenters, which required no sacrifice either of principle or of pride. Having joined them, their leaning would na- turally be toward a separation from the establish- ment. But the main cause is to be found in the tem- per of the lay-preachers, who, by an easy and obvi- ous process, were led to conclude, that they were as much authorized to exercise one part of the ministe- rial functions as another. They bad been taught to consider, and were accustomed to represent the cler- gy in the most unfavourable light Wesley some- times reprehended this in strong terms ; but, upon this point, he was not consistent : and whenever he had to justify the appointment of lay-preachers, he was apt, in self-detence, to commit the fault which, at other times, he condemned. ^^ I am far,^' says he, in one of his sermons, ^^ from desiring to aggravate the defects of my brethren, or to paint them in the strongest colours. Far be it from me to treat others as 1 have been treated myself; to return evil for evil, or railing for raiting. But, to speak the naked truth, not with anger or contempt, as too many have done,
* *' A thousaod times,^ says he, '< have I found tny father's words true. < You may have peace with the Dissenters, if you do not so hu- mour them as to dispute with them. But if you do, they will out-face and out4ung you ; and, at the end, you will on where you were at the bej^aning.' "
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I acknowledge that manj, if not most of those that were appointed to minister in holy things, with whom it has been my lot to converse, in almost every part of England or Ireland, for forty or fifty years last past, have not been eminent either for knowledge or piety. It has been loudly affirmed, that most of those per- sons now in connexion with me, who believe it their duty to call sinners to repentance, having been taken immediately from low tratles, tailors, shoemakers, and the like, are a set of poor, stupid, illiterate men, that scarcely know their right hand from their left ; yet I cannot but say, that I would sooner cut oflf my right hand than suffer one of them to speak a word in any of our chapels, if I had not reasonable proof that he had more knowledge in the Holy Scriptures, more knowledge of himself, more knowledge of God, and of the things of God, than nine in ten of the clergj'- men I have conversed with, either at the universities or elsewhere.''
The situation in which Wesley stood led him to make this comparison, and not to make it fairly. It induced him also to listen to those whoai^ued in fa- vour of a separation from the Church, and to sum up their reasonings, with a bias in their favour. " They who plead for it," said he, '^ have weighed the point long and deeply, and considered it with earnest and continued prayer. They admit, if it be lawful to abide therein, then it is not lawful to separate : but they aver it is not lawful to abide therein ; for, thou^ they^ allow the liturgy to be, in general, one of we most excellent of all human compositions, they yet think it both absurd and sinful to declare such an assent and consent as is required, to any merely hu-> man comp osition. Though they do not object to the use of forms, they dare not confine themselves to them ; and, in this form, there are several things which they apprehend to be contrary to Scripture, As to the laws of the Church, if they include the ca- nons and decretal, (both which are received as soch in our courts,) they think the latter are the very dregs of popery, and that many of the former (the canons of 1&03) are as grossly wicked as absurd ; that the
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spirit which thej breathe is, throughout, truly po- pish and anti-christian; that nothing can be more diabolical than the ipso facto excommunication so oilen denounced therein ; and that the Whole method of executing these canons, the process used in our spiritual courts, is too bad to be tolerated, not in a Christian, but in a Mahommedan or Paean nation. With regard to the ministers, they doubt whether there are not many of them whom God hath not sent, inasmuch as they neither hve the Gospel nor teach it; neither, indeed, can they, since they do not know it. They doubt the more, because these ministers themselves disclaim that inward call to the ministry, which is at least as necessary as the out- ward ; and they are not clear whether it be lawful to attend the ministrations of those whom God has not sent to minister. They think also, that the doc- trines actually taught, by a great majority of the church ministers, are not only wrong, but fundamen- tally so, and subversive of the whole Gospel ; there- fore, they doubt whether it be lawful to bid them God speed, or to have any fellowship with them. ^^ I will freely acknowledge,^^ he adds, ^^ that I cannot answer these arguments to my own satisfaction. As yet,'' he pursued, *^ we'have not taken one step fur- ther than we were convinced was our bounden duty. It is from a full conviction of this that we have preach- ed abroad, prayed extempore^ formed societies, and permitted preachers who were not episcopally or- dained. And were we pushed on this side, were there no alternative allowed, we should judge it our bounden duty, rather wholly to separate from the Church, than to give up any one of these points; therefore, if we cannot stop a separation without stopping lay-preachers, the case is clear, we cannot •tap it at all. But, if we permit them, should we not do more ? Should we not appoint them rather.^ since the bare permission puts the matter quite out of our hands, and deprives us of all our influence. In gi^at measure, it does ; therefore, to appoint them 18 mr more expedients if it be lawful : but is it lawful for presbyters, circumstanced as we are, to appoint ▼OL. II. * 29
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other ministers ? This is the very point wherein we desire advice, being afraid of leaning to our own ao' derstanding/^
An inclination to episcopize was evidently shown in this language ; but Wesley did not yet venture upon the act, iii deference^ perhaps, to his brother's determined and principled opposition. Many of his preachers, however, were discontented with the rank which they held in public opinion, thinking that they were est^^med inferior to the dissenting ministens^ because they did not assume so much ; Uiey, there- fore, urged him to take Upon himself the episcopal office and ordain thetn, that they might administer the ordinances; and, as he could not be. persuaded to this, they charged him with inconsistency, ibr tolerating lay-preaching, and not lay-administering. This charge he repelled : ^^ My principle,^' said he, ^ is this ; I submit to every ordinance of man, where* ver I do not conceive there is an absolute necessity for acting contrary to it. Consistently with this, I do tolerate lay-preaching, because I conceive there is an absolute necessity for it, inasmuch as, were it not^ thousands of souls would perish everlastingly. Yet I do not tolerate lay-administering; because 1 do not conceive there is any such necessity for it, seeing it does not appear that one soul will perish for want of it'' This was, of course, called persecution, by those whom his determination disappointed; and they accused him of injustice in denying them the liberty of acting according to their own conscience. They thought it quite right that they should admin- ister the Lord's Supper, and believed it would do mudh good : he thought it quite wrong, and believed it would do much hurt ^^ I have.no right over your consciences^" he said, ^^ nor you over mine ; there^ fore, both you and I must follow our own conscience. You believe it is a duty to administer : do so, and therein follow your own conscience. I verily believe it is a sin which, consequently, I dare not tolerate^ and herein 1 follow mine." And he argued, that it Was no persecution to separate from his society tboM
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nrho practised what he believed was contrary to the will and destructive of the word of God.
It does not appear that any of his preachers with* drew from him on this account ; the question was not one upon which, at that time, a discontented man could hope to divide the society ; and, if they did not assent to Mr. Wesley's arguments, they ac- quiesced in his will. Secessions, however, and ex- pulsions from other causes, not unfrequently took place : and once he found it necessary to institute an examination of his preachers, because of certain scandals which had arisen. The person with whom the offence began was one James Wheatley. At first he made himself remarkable, by introducing a lus<- cious manner of preaching, which, as it was new among the Methodists, and at once stimulant and flattering, soon became popular, and obtained imi- tators. They who adopted it assumed to themselves the appellation of Gospel preachers, and called their brethren, in contempt, legalists, legal wretches, and doctors in divinity. Wedey presently perceived the mischief that was done by these men, whose secret was, to speak much of the promises, and little of the commands. (^ They corrupt their hearers,'^ said he i >^ they feed them with sweetmeats, till the genuine wine of the kingdom seems quite insipid to them. They give them cordial upon cordial, which makes them all life and spirits for the present ; but, mean- time, their appetite is destroyed, so that they can neither retain nor digest the pure milk of the word. As soon as that flow of spirits goes off*, they are with- out life, without power, without any strength or vigour of soul ; and it is extremely difficult to re- cover them, because they still cry out cordials! cordials ! of which they have had too much al- ready, and have no taste for the food which is convenient for them. Nay, they have an utter aversion to it, and this confirmed by principle^ having been taught to call it husks, if not poison. How much more to those bitters, which are pre- viously needful to restore their decayed appetijte !"
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Wheatley was a qaack in physic as well as in di- vinity, and he was soon detected in fouler jpractices. ComplaiDt being at length made of bis inmmous li- centiousness, the two brothers inquired bto it, and obtained complete proof of his guilt Upon this |hey delivered into his hands a written sentence of suspension, in these terms : ^^ Because you have wrought folly in Israel, grieved the Holy Spirit of God, betrayed your own soul into temptation and sin, and the souls of many others, whom you oi^t, even at the peril of your own life, to have guarded against all sin ; because you have given occasion to the enemies of God, wherever they shall know these things, to blaspheme the ways and truth of God ; we can in no wise receive you as a fellow-labourer, till we see clear proofs of your real and deep repen- tance : the least and lowest proof of such repen- tance which we can receive is this, — that, till our next Conference, you abstain both from preaching and from practising physic. If you do not, we are clear : we cannot answer for the consequences.*^ They were not aware at the time of the extent of this hy- pocrite's criminality ; but enough was soon discover^ ed to make it necessary for them to disclaim him by public advertisements. The matter became so no- torious at Norwich, that the affidavits of the women whom he had endeavoured to corrupt, were printed and hawked about the streets. 1 he people were ready to tear him to pieces, as he deserved ; and the cry against the Methodists was such, in consequence, that Charles Wesley said Satan, or his apostles, could not have done more to shut the door against the Gos- pel in that place for ever.
This was a case of individual villany, and produc- ed no other injury to Methodism than immediate scandal, which was soon blown over. But it is the nature of mental, as well as of corporeal diseases, to propagate themselves, and schism is one of the most prolific of all errors. One separation had already taken place between the Methodists and the Mora^ vians, — the Calvinistic question had made a second. A minor schism was now made, by a certain James
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Rellj, wbOf having commenced his career under the patronage of Whitefield, ended in forming a heresj of his own, which had the merit, at least, of being a hamaner scheme than that of his master, however untenable in other respects. Shocked at the intole- rable notion of reprobation, and yet desirous of hold- ing the tenet of election, he fancied that sin was to be considered as a disease, for which the death of our Redeemer was the remedy ; and that, as evil had been introduced into human nature by the first Adam, who was of the earth, earthly, so must it be expelled by the second, who is from lieaven, and therefore heavenly. Pursuing this notion, he taught that Christ, as a Mediator, was united to mankincf, and, by his obedience and sufferings, had as fully restored the whole human race to the divine favour, as if all had obeyed or suflEered in their own persons. So he preached a finished salvation, which included the final restitution of all fallen intelligences. Sin being only * a disease, could not deserve punishment : it was in itself, and in its consequences, a sufficient evil ; for, while it existed, darkness and unbelief ac- companied it, and occasioned a privation of that hap- piness which the Almighty designed for all his crea- tures ; but, in the end, all would be delivered, and the elect were only chosen to be the first fruits, — the pledges and earnest of the general harvest. Relly bad for l^is co-adjutor one William Cud worth, of whom Wesley observed, after an interview with him, ^ that his opinions were all his own, quite new, and bis phrases as new as his opinions : that all these opinions, yea, and phrases too, he affirmed to be ne- cessary to salvation ; maintaining, that all who did not receive them worshipped another God ; and that he was as incapable as a brute beast of being con- vinced, even in the smallest point.'* X)n another oc- casion he remarks, that Cudworth, Relly, and their associates, abhorred him as much as they did the pope, and ten times more than they did the devil.— ^
* James Relly should have read an old treatise open tlie Sinfulaees of Sin« U'hJch, notwithstanding its odd title, is the work of a sound SAd powerful ioteUeet. If I remember rigktly, it is by Bishop Reynolds.
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The devil, indeed, was no object of abhorrence widi them : like Uncle Tobj, they were sorry for him ; and, like Origen, they expected his reformation. — r They formed a sect, which continaes to exist in Ame- rica, as well as in England, by the name of the Rel- lyan Universalists ; and it is said, that Washington's chaplain was a preacher of this denomination.
The tendency of these opinions was to an easy and quiet latitudinarianism. Antinomianism, with which they were connected, was far more mischiev- ous when combined with enthusiasm, — and this was the evil to which Methodism always perilously inclin- ed. There is in the Antinomian scheme, and, indeed, in all predestinarian Schemes, an audacity which is congenial to certain minds. They feel a pride in daring to profess doctrines which are so revolting to the common sense and feelings of mankind. Minds of a similar temper, but in a far worse state, main- tain the notion of the necessity * of human actions, but reject a first cause. It is from a like effrontery of spirit that this last and worst corruption proceeds ; and as the causes are alike, so also the practical consequences of antinomianism and atheism would be the same, if men were always as bad as their opin- ions ; for the professors of both have emancipated themselves from any other restraint than what may be imposed by the fear of human laws.
Wesley was mistaken in supposing the doctrine, that there is no sin in believers, was never heard d till the time of Count Zinzendorf. It is as old in England as the f Reformation, and might undoubt- edly be traced in many an early heresy. The Mo- ravians had the rare merit of sometimes acknowledg- ing their errors, and correcting them ; on this point, they n^odified their language till it became reasooa- . ble ; but the Methodists had caught the error, and
* ^rchbUbop Sancroft, says well of the fatatist : «< he uses qfoessity as the old philosophers did an occult quality, though for a different j^ur*, pose ; that was their reAige for ignorance ; this is his sanctuary for sm.**
t Burnet speaks of certain ^ corrupt Qospellers, who thought, if they magniAed Christ much, and depended on his merits and iotarcession. they could not perish, which way soever they led their lives. And spe- ci4l care was taken in the Homilies to rectify this error."
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did not so easily rid themselves of" it. <^ (Jdd throst us out,^^ says Wesley, speaking of himself and his brother, ^^ utterly against our will, to raise a holy peo^ ple. When Satan could no otherwise prevent this, he threw Calvinism in our way, and then * Antino- mianism, which struck at the I'oot both of inward and outward holiness.^' He acknowledged that they had, unawares^ leaned too much toward both ; and that the truth of the Gospel lies Ivithin a hair's breadth of them : ^ So,'' said he, ^^ that it is altoge- ther foolish and sinful, because we do not quite agree either with one or the other, to run from them as far as ever we can." The question, " Wherein may we come to the very edge of Calvinism .**" was proposed in the second Conference ; and the answer was, " In ascribing all good to the free-grace of God ; in denying all natural free-will, and all power ante- cedent to grace ; and in excluding all merit from man, even for what he has or does by the grace of God." This was endeavouring to split the hair. — " Wherein may we come to the edge of Antinomi- anism ?" was asked likewise ; and the answer was less objectionable, ^*^ In exalting the merits and love of Christ ; in rejoicing evermore."
In. endeavouring to approach the edge of this pe- rilous notion, Wesley went sometimes too near. But his general opinion could not be mistaken ; and when any of his followers fell into the error, he tontended against it zealously. It was a greater hindrance, he said, to the word of God, than any, or
* rThis pernicious doctrine was well explained in the first Conference i
O. What is Antinomianism ?
A, The doctrine Which makes void the W through faith.
O. What are the main pillar^ theiTeof ?
A. 1. That Christ abolished the moral law :
2. That thei^fore Christians are not obliged to observe it : S. That one branch of Christian Uberty is liberty from obeying the commandments of God :
4. That it is bondage to do. a thinly because it is commanded ; or
forbear it because it is forbidden :
5. Tbitt a believer is not obliged to use the ordinances of God, oi^
to do good works : S. T^t a preacher ought not to exhort to good woi^s ; not un* believers, befause it is hurtful ; not believers, because it b useless.*'
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all others pul together : and he sometimes complaiDS, that most of the seed which had been sown during so manj years, had been rooted up and destroyed bj ^ the wild boars, the fierce, unclean, brutish, blas- phemous* Antinomians/^ From this reproach, in- deed, which attaches to many of his Calvinistic op- ponents« he was entirely clear, and the great body of his society has continued so. But his disposition to believe in miraculous manifestations of divine fa^ vours, led him sometimes to encourage an enthusi- asm which impeached his own judgment, and brought a scandal upon Methodism.
Among the converts to Methodism at this time were Mr. Berridge,vicarofEverton, in Bedfordshire, and Mr. Hickes, vicar of Wrestlingworth, in the same neighbourhood. These persons, by their preaching,
Eroduced the same contagious convulsions in their earers, as had formerly prevailed at Bristol ; and though time had sobered Mr. Wesley^s feelings, and matured his judgment, he was so far deceiv^, that he recorded the things which occurred, not as psy- chological, but as religious cases. They were of the most frightful and extraordinary kind. An eye witr
* The annexed extract from Wesley's Journal will show that this Ian- guaee is not too strong : " I came to Wensbury. The Antioomian teach- ers had laboured hard to destroy this poor people. I talked an hour with the chief of them, Stephen Timmins. I was in doubt whether pride had not made him mad. An uncommon wildness and fieroenest in his air, his words, and the whole manner of his behaTioWy almost in- ducnd me to think God had, for a season, given him up into the bands of Satan. In the evening I preached at Birminriiam. tiers another of
th»*ir pillars, J W , came to me, and looking over bis shoiddert
said, * Don't think I want to be in your society; but if you are free to speak to me, you may.' I will set aown the conversation^ dread&il as it was, in the very manner wherein it passed, that every serious penoa may see the true picture of Antinoraianism full grown ; and may know what these in<^n mean by their favourite phrase of b^^ing perfect in Cbristi not in themselves. 'Do you believe you have nothing to do with the law of God ?' ' I have not I am not Under the law. I live by faith.' — ' Have you, as living by faith, a right to every thing in the world?' /I have. All is mine, since Christ is mine.' — * May you then take any thing Tou will, any where ? Suppose, out of a Bhop, without the consent or knowledge of the owner?' * I may, if I want it; for it is mine ; only I will not give offence.'^' Have you also a right to all the women in the world?* 'YeSjiftheyconsent^Mndlsnotthatasin?' « Yes, to Mm that thinks it a sin : but not to those whose hearts are free.' The same thing that wretch, Roger Ball, affirmed b Dublm. Surely these are the irst-bom children of Satan !"
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ness deacribed the church at Everton as crowded with persons from all the country round ; « the win- dows," he says, ** being filled, within and without, and even the outside of the pulpit, to the very top, so that Mr. Berridge seemed ahnost stifled with their breath ; yet," the relater continues, '^ feeble and sickly as he is, he was continually strengthened, and bis voice, for the most part, distinguishable in the midst of all the outcries. When the power of reli- gion begun to be spoke of, the presence of God real- ly filled the place ; and while poor sinners felt the sentence of deat^ in their souls, what sounds of dis^- tress did I hear ! The greatest number of them who ^ cried, or fell, were men! bu( some women and several children, felt the power of the same Almigh- ty Spirit, and seemed just sinking into hell. This occasioned a mixture of various sounds; some shriek- ing, some roaring aloud. The most general was a loud breathing, like that of people half-strangled, and gasping for life ; and, indeed, almost all the cries were like those of human creatures djing in bitter anguish. Great numbers wept without any noise ; others fell down as dead ; some sinking in silence, some with extreme noise and violent agitation. I stood on the pew seat, as did a young man in the op- posite pew, an able-bodied, fresh, healthy countryman; but, in a moment, while he seemed to think of nothing less, down he dropt, with a violence inconceivable. The adjoining pews seemed shook with his fall : I heard afterwards the stamping of his feet, ready to break the boards, as he lay in strong convulsions at
tiie bottom of the pew. When he fell, Mr. B 11
and I felt our souls thrilled with a momentary dread ; as, when one man is killed by a cannon-ball, another often feels the wind of it. Among the children who felt the arrows of the Almighty, f saw a sturdy boy, about eight years old, who roared above his fellows^ and seemed, in hia agony, to struggle with the strength of a grown man. His face was red as scarlet ; and almost all on whom God laid his hand, turned either very red, or almost black.^^ VOL. u. 30
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Thfe cdngregatton adjourned to Mr. Berridgfe^s liouse, whither those who were still in the fit were carried : the maddened people were eager for more stimulants, and th^ insane riear was as willing to ad- minister more, as they were to receive it " I stayed in the next room," says the telater, " and saw a girl, whom I had observed peculiarly distressed in the church, lying on the floor as one dead, but without any ghostlincss in hei" face. In a few minutes we were informed of a woman filled with peace and joy, who was crying out just before. She had come thir* teen miles, and is the same person who dreamed Mr. Berridge would come to his village on that very day whereon he did come, though without either knowing the place or the Way to it. She Was convinced at that time. Just as we heard of her deliverance, the giri on the floor began to stir. She was then set in a chair, and, after sighing a while, suddenly rose up, rejoicing in God. Her face was covered with the most beau- tiful smile I ever saw. She frequently fell on her knees, but was generally running to and fro, speak- ing these and the like words: "Oh, what can Jesus do for lost sinners ! He has forgiven all my sins I I am in Heaven! I am in Heaven! Oh, how he loves me, and how I love him !^' Meantime I saw a thin
}>ale girl, weeping with sorrow for herself, and joy or her companion. Quickly the smiles of Heaven came likewise on her, and her praises joined with those of the other. I also then laughed with extreme joy ; so did Mr. B— — ^11, who said it was more than he could bear; so did all who knew the Lord, and Bome of those who were waiting for salvation, till the cries of them who were struck with the arrows of €00** viction^ were almost lost in the sounds of joy. — Mr. Berridge about this time retired; we continued^ praising God with all our might, and his work went on. 1 had for some time observed a young woman all ill tears, but now her countenance changed t the im* gpeakable joy appeared in her face, whicb^ quick as lightning, was filled with sitiiles, and became li crim*" son colout^. ^ About the same time John Kedin& of l^otton^ fell into an agony ; but he grew calm in aboat
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a quarter of an hour, though without a clear e^nse of pardon. Immediately after, a stranger, well dressed, who stood facing me, fell backward to the wall, then forward on his knees, wringing his hands, and roar-, ing like a bull. His face at first turned quite red, then almost black. He rose and ran against the wall, till Mr. Keeling and another held him. He screamed out, ^ Oh, what shall I do ! what shall I do ! Oh, for one drop of the blood of Christ !' As he spoke, God' set his soul at liberty: he knew his sins were blotted out ; and the rapture he was in seemed too great for human nature to bear. He had come forty miles to hear Mr. Berridge.
^^ I observed, about the time that Mr. Coe (that was his name) began to rejoice, a girt eleven or twelve years old, exceedingly poorly dressed, who appeared to be as deeply wounded, and as desirous of salvation, as any. But I lost sight of her, till I heard the joyful sound of another born in Sion, and found, upon inquiry, it was her, the poor, disconso- late, gypsy-looking child. And now did I see such a sight as I do not expect again on this side eternity* The faces of the three justified children, and, I think, of all the believers present, did really shine ; and such a beauty, such a look of extreme happiness, and, at the same time, of divine lov$ and simplicity, did I never see in human faces till now. The newly justi- fied eagerly embraced one another, weeping on each other's necks for joy, and besought both men and wo- men to help them in praising God.^' The same fits were produced by Mr. Hickes's preaching at Wrest- lingworth, whither this relater proceeded ; and there also the poor creatures, who were under the parox- sm, were carried into the parsonage, where some ay as if they were dead, and others lay struggling. In both churches several pews and benches were broken by the violent struggling of the sufferers ; ^* yet," says the narrater, ** it is common for people to remain unaffected there, and afterward drop down in their way home. Some have been found lying as 4ead in the road ; others in Mr. Berridge's garden, not being able to walk from the church to his hpu^fii
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236 WESLEY IN MIDDLE A%flU
though it 18 not two hundred yards.*' The person who thus minutely described the progress of this pow- erful contagion, observes, that few old people expe- rienced any thing of what he called the woiIl of God, and scarce any of the rich ; and, with that uncbarita* ble spirit, which is one of the surest and worst efiects of such superstition, he remarks, that three farmers. In three several villages, who set themselves to op- pose it, all died within a month.
Such success made Berridge glorious in his own eyes, as well as in those of all the fanatics round about. He travelled about the country, making Everton still the centre of his excursions; and be confesses that, on one occasion, when he mounted a table upon a common near Cambridge, and saw near- ly ten thousand people assembled, and many gowns- men among them, he paused after he had given out his text, thinking of ^^ something pretty to ^ct off with ; but,'' says he, ^^ the Lord so confounded me, (as in- deed it was meet, for I was seeking not his glory, bat my own,) that I was in a perfect labyrinth, and Ibond that, if I did not begin immediately^ I must go down without speaking; so I broke out with the first word that occurred, not knowing whether I should be able to- add any more. Then the Lord opened my mouth, enabling me to speak, near an hour, without any kind of perplexity, and so loud, that every one might hear." For a season this man produced a more vio- lent influen2a of fanaticism, than had ever followed upon either Whitefield's or Wesley's preaching. The people flocked to hear him in such numbers, that his church could not contain them, and they adjourned into a field. " Some of them," says an eye-witness, " who were here pricked to the heart, were afi^ted in an astonishing manner. The first man 1 saw wounded would have dropped, but others, catching him in their arms, did indeed prop him up ; but were 80 far from keeping him still, that he caused all of them to totter and tremble. His own shaking ex- ceeded that of a cloth in the wind. It seemed as if the Lord came upon him like a giant, taking him by the neck, and shaking all his bonesin pieces. One
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woman tore up the groand with her hands, fiHing them with du6t, and with the hard-trodden grass, on which I saw her lie with her hands clinched, as one dead, when the multitude dispersed : another roared and screamed in a more dreadful agony than ever I heard before. I omit the rejoicing of believers, be- cause of their number, and the frequency thereof; though the manner was strange, some of them being quite overpowered with divine love, and only show- ing enough of natural life to let us know they were overwhelmed with joy and life eternal. Some conti- nued long as if they were dead, but with a calm ^ sweetness in their looks* I saw one who lay two or three hours in the open air, and being then carried into the house, continued insensible another hour, as if actually dead. The first sign of life sh^ showed was a rapture of praise, intermixed with a small joy- ous laughter.'' It may excite astonishment in other countries, and reasonable regret in this, that there should be no authority capable of restraining extra- vagancies and indecencies like these.
Berridge had been curate of Stapleford, near Cam- bridge, several years, and now, after what he called ' his conversion, his heart was set upon preaching a «& gospel-sermon^' there, which, he said, he had never done before. Some fifteen hundred persons assem- bled in a field to hear him. The contagion soon be- gan to show itself among those who were pre-dispos- ed for it : others, of a different temper, mocked and mimicked these poor creatures in their convulsions ; "and some persons, who were in a better state of mind than either, indignant at the extravagance and inde- cency of the scene, called aloud to have those wretches horsewhipped out of the field. ** Well (says the fanatical writer) may Satan be enraged at the cries of the people, and the prayers they make in the bitterness of their souls, seeing we know these are the chief times at which Satan is cast out'' — ^' I beard a dreadful noise, on the further side of the congrega- tion (says this writer), and turning thither, saw one Thomas Skinner coming forward, the most horrible human figure I ever saw. His large wig and hair
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238 WESLBT IN MIDDLE AGE.
were coal-blac^ ; his face distorted beyond all de- scriptioii. He roared incessantly, throwing and clap ping his hands together with his whole force. Seve- ral were terrified, and hastened out of his way. I was glad to hear him, after a while, pray aloud. Not a few of the triflers grew serious, while his kindred and acquaintance were very unwilling to believe even their own eyes and ears. They would fain have got him away ; but he fell to the earth, crying, * My burden ! my burden ! I cannot bear it!' Some of his brother scoffers were calling far horsewhips, till they saw him extenden on his back at full length : they then said be was dead ; and indeed the only sign of life was the working of his breast, and the distortions of his face, while the veins of his neck were swelled as if ready to burst. He was, just be- fore, the chief captain of Satan's forces : none was by nature more fitted for mockery ; none could swear more heroically to whip out of the close all who were affected by the preaching.'' — Berridge bade the peo- ple take warning by him, while he^ lay roaring and tormented on the ground. ^^ His agonies lasted some hours ; then his body and soul were eased."
It is to be regretted that, of the many persons who have gone through this disease, no one should have recorded his case who was capable of describing his sensations accurately, if not of analyzing them. Ber- ridge and Hickes are said to have "awakened^ about four thousand souls in the course of twelve months. Imposture in all degrees, from the first na- tural exaggeration to downright fraud, kept pace with enthusiasm. A child, seven years old, saw visions, and ^^ astonished the neighbours with her innocent, awful manner of relating them." A young man, whose mother affirmed that he had had fits, once a-* day at least, for the last two years, began to pray in those fits ; protesting afterwards, that he knew not a word of what he had spoken, but was as ignorant of the matter as if he had been dead all the while. — This impostor, when he was about to exhibit, stiffen- ed himself like a statue; ^^his very neck seemed made of iron." After he had finished, his body grew
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flexible by degrees, but seemed to be convulsed from bead to foot ; and when be thougbt proper to reco- ver, be said, '* be was quite resigned to tbe will of God, wbo gave bim sucb strength in tbe inner man, that he did not find it grievous, neither could ask to be delivered from it."-^" I discoursed,^' says the cre- dulous relater of .these things, ^^ with Anne Thorn, wbo told me of much heaviness following the visions with which she bad been favoured ; but said she was, at intervals, visited still with so much overpowering love and joy, especially at the Lord's suppeis that she often lay in a trance for many hours. She is twenty- one years old* We were soon after called into the garden, where Patty Jenkins, one of the same age^ was so overwhelmed with the love of God, that she sunk down, and appeared as one in a pleasant sleep, only with her eyes open. Yet she had often just strength to utter, with a low voice, ejaculations of joy and praise ; but no words coming up to what she felt, she frequently laughed while she saw bis glory. This is quite unintelligible to many, for a stranger intermeddleth not with our joy. So it was to Mr. M., wbo doubted whether God or tbe devil had filled her with love and praise. Oh, the depth of human wis- dom ! Mh R.i»^in the mean time, was filled with a so- lemn awe. I no sooner sate down by her, than the Spirit of God poured the same blessedness into my soul."
Whether this were folly or fraud, the consequences that were likely to result did not escape the appre- hension of persons wbo, though themselves affected strongly by tbe disease, still retained some command of reason. They began to doubt whether sucb trances were not the work of Satan ; with tbe majov rity, however, ihmj passed for effects of grace. Wes- ley, wbo believed and recoi^ded them as such, inquir- ed of tbe patients^ when he came to Everton, con- cerning their state of feeling in these trances. The persons, who appear to have been all young women and girls, agreed, ^^ that when they toent away^ as they termed it, it was always at the time they were fullest of the love of God : that it came upon them in a
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moment, without any previoas notice, bjrA took awaj all tbeir senses and strength : that there were some exceptions, but, generally, from that moment tJbey were in another world, knowing nothing of what was done or said by all that were round about tbem.^' He had now an opportunity of observing a cajse. — Some persons were singing hymns in Berridge^s house, about five in the auernoon, and presentlj Wesley was summoned by Berridge himself, with in- formation that one of them, a girl of fifteen, was &llen into a trance. ^^ I went down immediately,^^ says Mr. Wesley, " and found her sitting on a stocJ, and leaning against the wall, with her eyes open and fixed upward. I made a motion, as if going to strike ; but they continued immoveable. Her face showed an unspeakable mixture of reverence and love, while silent tears stole down her cheek. Her lips were a little open, and sometimes moved, but not enough to cause any sound. I do not know whether I ever saw a human face look so beautiful. Sometimes it was covered with a smile, as from joy mixing with love and reverence ; but the tears fell still, though not so fast- Her pulse was quite regular. In about half an hour I observed her countenance change into the form of fear, pity and distress. Then^she burst into a flood of tears, and cried out, ^ Dear Lord ! they toill be damned ! they will all be damned !* But, in about five minutes, her smiles returned, and only love and joy appeared in her face. About half an hour after six, 1 observed distress take place again, and soon after she wept bitterly, and cried, ^ Dear Lord, they tvill go to bell ! the world wUl go to hell I' Soon after she said, ^ Cry aloud ! spare not V and in a few moments her look was composed again, and spoke a mixture of reverence, joy,«and love. Then she said aloud, ' Give God the glory !' About seven, her senses returned. I asked, ^ Where hare yoo been.'^' — 'I have been with my Saviour.' — ^'Inhea^ ven, or on earth .'^'— ' I cannot tell ; butfl was in glo- ry V—.' Why, then, did you cry .?'— ' Not for myself but for the world ; for I saw they were on the brink of helL^ — ^ Whom did you desire to give the glory to
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God ?' — ' Ministers that cry aloud to th« wortd ; eUe they will be proud ; and then God will leave them^ and they will lose their own souls.' ''
With all his knowledge of the htiman hearty (and few persons have had such opportunities of extern sive and intimate observation,) Wesley had not dis** covered that, when occasion is afTorded for impos^ ture of this kind, the propensity to it is a vice to which children and young persons are especially ad-^ dieted. If there beany natural obliquity of the mind^ sufficient motives are found in the pride of deceiv- ing their elders, and the pleasure which they feel iii ^ exerci«)ing the monkey-like instinct of imitation. — This is abundantly proved by the recorded tales o{ witchcraft in this country, in New-England, and in Sweden ; and it is from subjects like this girl, whoscf acting Wesley beheld with reverential credulity, in- stead of reasonable suspicion, that the friars have made regular bred saints, such as Rosa of Peru, and Catharine of Sienna. With regard to the bodily effects that ensued, wheneter the spiritual influenza began, there could be nodoubt of their reality ; but it had so much the appearance of an influenza, ra-» ging for a while, affecting those within its sphere, and then dying away, that Wesley could not be so fully satisfied concerning the divine and supernatural ex- citing cause, as he had been when first the disease manifested itself at Bristol, and as he still desired to be. ** I have generally observed,'' said he, ** more or less of these outward symptoms to attend the be- ginning of a general work of God. So it was in New- England, Scotland, Holland, Ireland, and many parts of England ; but, after a time, they gradually de- crease, and the work goes on more quietly and si- lently. Those whom it pleases God to employ in his work, ought to be quite passive in this respect : they should choose nothing, but leave entirely to him all the circumstances of his own work.''
Returning to Everton, about four months after- wards, be found ^^ a remarkable difference as to the fnanner of the work. None now were in trances^ none cried out, none fell down, or were convulsed.
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Only some trembled exceedingly ; a low murmur was heard, and many were refreshed with the muUttmU of peacey The disease had spent itself, and the rcfleo tipns which he makes upon this change, show that others had begun to suspect its real nature, aod tbat he himself was endeavouring to quiet his own sus- picions. ^^ The danger was^'* says he, ^^ to regard extraordinary circumstances too much, — such as out- cries, convulsions, visions, trances, as if these were essential to the inward work, so that it could not go on without them. Perhaps the danger isj to regard them too little ; to comlemn them alt<^ether ; to imagine they had nothing of God in them, and were a hindrance to his work ; whereas the truth is, I. God suddenly and strongly convinced many that they were lost sinners, the natural consequences whereof were sudden outcries, and strong bodily convulsions. 2. To strengthen and encourage them that believed, and to make his work more apparent, he favoured several of them with divine dreams; others with trances and visions. 3. In some of these instances, after a time, nature mixed with grace. 4. Satan likewise mimicked this work of God, in order to dis- credit the whole work ; and yet it is not wise to give up this part^ any more than to give up the whole. At first it was, doubtless, wholly from God: it is partly so at this day ; and He will enable us to discern how far, in every case, the work is pure, and when it mixes or degenerates. Let us even suppose that, in some few cases, there was a mixture of dissimulation; that persons pretended to see or feel yi^hat they did not, and imitated the cries or convulsive motions of those who were really over- powered by the Spirit of God ; yet even this should not make us either deny or undervalue the real work of the Spirit The shadow is no dispa- ragement of the substance, nor the counterfeit of the real diamond.^'
His tone, perhaps, was thus moderated, because, by recording former extravagancies of this kind in full triumph, he had laid himself open to attacks which he had not been able to repel Warburton
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had censored these things with his strong sense and powers of indignant sarcasm ; and they had been exposed still more efiectually by Bishop Lavington^ of Exeter, in ^^ A Comparison between the Enthusi- asm of Methodists and of Papists/' Here Wesley, who was armed and proof at other points, was vulne<^ rable. He couid advance plau^ble arguments, even for the least defensible of his doctrines ; and for his irregularities, some that were valid and incontesta*" ble. On that score he was justified by the positive good 'which Methodism had done, and was doing; but here he stood convicted of a credulity discredi- table to himself, and dangerous in its consequences; the whole evil of scenes so disorderly, so scandalous, and so frightful, was distinctly seen by his opponents ; and perhaps they did not make a sufficient allow- ance for the phenomena of actual disease, and the manner in which, upon their first appearance, they were likely to affect a mind, heated as his had been at the commencement of his career. In all his other oontroversies, Wesley preserved that urbane and gentle tone, which arose from the genuine benignity of his disposition and manners ; but he replied to Bishop Lavington with asperity ; the attack had gall- ed him ; he could not but feel that his opponent stood upon the vantage ground, and, evading the main charge, he contented himself in his reply* with ex- plaining away certain passages, which were less ob- noxious than they had been made to appear, and disproving some personal chargest which the Bi- shop had repeated upon evidence that appeared, up* on inquiry, not worthy of the credit he had given to
* His Journal shows that he undertook the task with no alacrity. " I began writing a letter to the Comparer of die Papists and Methodists. Heavy work ; such as I should never choose ; but sometimes it must be done. Weil mi^ht the ancient say, '* God made practical divinity ,ne- ^ cessary ; the devil, controversial.** But it is necessary. We must resist the devil, or he will not flee from us.'*
i On this point it is proper to state, that he does justice to the Bishop in nis Journal. For when he notices that, calling upon the person who was named as the accuser, she told him readily and repeatedly, that she ^ never saw or knew any harm by hiAi,'* he adds, ^'yet I am not sure that she has not said just the contrary to others. If so, she, not I, must give account for it to God."
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it Bat Wesley's reeentments were never lasting : of this a passage in his Journal, written a few jears afterwards, affords a pleasing proof. Having attend- ed service at Exeter catliedrai, be says, ^^ I was well pleased to partake of the Lord's supper with my old opponent, Bishop Lavington. Oh, may we sit down ^ together in the kingdom of our Father !'' He under- stood the happiness of his temper in this respect, and says of it, ^^ 1 cannot but stand amazed at the goodness of God. Others are most assaulted on the weak side of their soul ; but with me it is quite other- wise. ^ If I have any strength at all, Tand 1 have none but what I received^) it is in forgiving injuries ; and on this very side am 1 assaulted more frequently than on any other. Yet leave me not here one hour to myself, or I shall betray myself and Thee !"
Warburton, though a more powerful opponent, as- sailed him with less effect. Wesley replied to him in a respectful tone, and met the attack fairly. He entered upon the question of Grace, maintained his own view of that subject, and repeated, in the most explicit terms, his full belief, that the course which he and his coadjutors had taken, was approved by miracles. ^^ I have seen with my eyes,'' said he, ^^and heard with my ears, several things which, to the best of my judgment, cannot be accounted for by the ordinary course of natural causes, and which, i therefore believe, ought to be ascribed to the extra* ordinary interposition of God. If any man choose to call these miracles, f reclaim not. I have weighed the preceding and following circumstances; I have strove to account for them in a natural way ; but could not, without doing violence to my reason.'* He instanced the case of John Haydon, and the manner in which he himself, by an effort of faith, had thrown off* a fever. The truth of these facts, he said, was supported by the testimony of competent witnesses, in as high a degree as any reasonable man could de^ pire : the witnesses were many in number, and could not be deceived themselves ; for they saw with their own eyes, and heard with their own ears. He dis- cli^imed for himself any part in these and the other
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cases, which might appear to redound to his praise : his will, or choice, or desire, he said, had no place in them : and this, he argued, had always been the case with true miracles ; for God interposed his miracu- lous powers always according to his own sovereign will ; not according to the will of man, neither of him by whom he wrought, nor of any other man whatso- ever. So many such interpositions, he affirmed, had taken place, as would soon leave no excuse either for denying or despising them. <^ We desire no /a- i;ottr," sai^ he, " but the justice^ that diligent inquir}^ may be made concerning them. We are ready to name the persons on whom the power was shown, which belon^th to none but God, (not one, or two, or ten or twelve only,) — to point out their places of abode ; and we engage they shall answer every per- tinent question fairly and directly ; and, if required, shall give all their answers upon oath, before any who are empowered to receive them. It is our par- ticular request, that the circumstances which went before, which accompanied, and which followed af- ter the facts under consideration, may be thoroughly examined, and punctually noted down. Let but this be done, (and is it not highly needful it should, at least by those who would form an exact judgment ?) and we have no (ear that any reasonable man should scruple to say, " this hath God wrought."
It had never entered into Wesley^s thoughts, when he thus appealed to what were called the outward signs, as certainly miraculous, that they were the manifestations of a violent and specific disease, pro- duced by excessive excitement of the mind, commu- nicable by sympathy, and highly contagigus. We are yet far from understanding the whole power of the mind over the body ; nor, perhaps, will it ever be fully understood. It was very little regarded in Wesley's time; these phenomena therefore were considered by the Methodists, and by those who be- held them, as wholly miraculous ; by all other per- sons, as mere exhibitions of imposture. Even Charles 'Wesley, when he discovered that much wafe volun- tary, had no suspicion that the rest might be natural;
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'i46 WESLET IN MIDDLE A«E.
and Jotin, in all cases where any thing saperaaturat was pretended, was, of all men, the most creduloas. In the excesses at Everton, he had, however reluc- tantly, perceived sooiethiiiff which savoured of fraud; and, a few year^ afterward, circumstances of much greater notoriety occurred, when, from the weakness of his mind, he encouraged at first a dangerous en- thusiasm, which soon hroke out into open madness. Among his lay-preachers, there was a certain Geoi*ge Bell, who had formerly been a life-guards- man. Mr. Wesley published, as plainly miraculous, an account of an instantaneous cure wrought by this man : it was a surgical* case, and must, therefore, either have been miracle or fraud. A judicious in- quiry would have shown that Bell, who was not in a sane mind, had been a dupe in this business; but Wesley contented himself with the patient's own ^^ lation, accredited it without scruple, and recorded it in atone of exultation. Bell was at that time cra- zy, and any doubt which he might have entertained of his own supernatural gifts, was removed by this apparent miracle, the truth of which was thus attest- ed. Others who listened to him became as crazj as himself; and Wesley was persuaded that, ** being
* « Dec. 46, 1760. I made a particuUr inquiry into the c«»Jjf ^^ Special, a young woman then m Tottenham-court Road. Sh«»M * Four years since, I found much pain in my breasts, and »"^"^ bard lumps. Four months ago my left breast broke, and Itept rvm^ continually. Growing worse and worse, after some time I was reco mended to St. George's Hospital. I was let blood many ]'^ i^, tSiiok hemlock thrice a day ; hut I was no better, the pain and ^'^. were the same, and both my breasts were quite hard, and **'*^***-3s a when, yesterday se'ennight, I went to Mr. Owen's, where there ^
mAAtiner for nravAr. Mr Roll aaor mo on<1 «&L-a^ tf»vp. VOU iwu}r ^
my hands on my breasts, and cri<^d out, L«rd, if thou wilt, ^^^^j^ itaake me whole ! It was gone ; and. frOm that hour, 1 "'^l^pc^ pun^ no soreness, no lumps or swelling, but both my *>'**^ 'w«fcy» fectly well, and I have been so ever since.' " Nowr says Mj[jJ^g ^ «* here are plain facts : 1. she was ill ; a. she %$ well ; 5. ** Tj)» It b a moment. Which of these can, with any modesty be ^^^^^^ is not a little remarkable, that, after Bell had become ^^Tyitoael! * recovered his wits, forsaken the Methodists, and P^^^ j is, gtorfi thorough unbeliever, Mr. Wesley shduld stUI have b«*>^^L[>nr and have persisted in asking the same question, without J"JPr ?th(h' deceit in either party. The fraud lay in the woman, Bell wm rough enthusiast at that tame.
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jftiUof love," they were actually '* favoured with ex- traordinary revelations and manifestations from God. But by this very thing,** says he, " Satan beguiled them from the simplicity that is in Christ By in- sensible degrees, they were led to value these ex- traordinary gifts, more than the ordinary grace of God ; and I could not convince them, that a grain of humble love was better than all these gifts put to- gether."
In the height of George BelFs extravagance, he attempted to restore a blind man to sight, touched his eyes with spittle, and pronounced the word. Ephphatha. The ecclesiastical authorities ought to liave a power of sending such persons to Bedlam, for the sake of religion and of decency, and for the general good ; but such madmen in England are suf- fered to go abroad, and bite whom they plSkse with impunity. The failure, of the blasphemous experi- ment neither undeceived him nor his believers ; and they accounted for it by saying, that the patient had not faith to be healed. Wesley had begun to suspect the sanity of these enthusiasts, because they had taken up a notion, from a text in the Revelations, that they should live for ever. As, however, one of the most enthusiastic happened to go raving mad, and die, he thought the delusion would be checked ; . as if a disease of the reason could be cured by the right exercise of the diseased faculty itself! More- over, with their enthusiasm personal feelings were mixed up, of dislike towards him and his brother, arising from an impatience of their superiority ; and this feeling induced Maxfield to stand forward as the leader of the innovators, though he was not the dupe/ of their delusions. Mr. Wesley desired the parties to meet him, that all misunderstandings might be re- moved. Maxfield alone refused to come. ^^ Is this," said Wesley, " the first step towards a separation ! Alas for the man, alas for the people !" It is said that no other event ever grieved him so deeply as the conduct of Maxfield; for it at once impeached bis jud^ent, and wounded him as an act of ingrati- tude. Maxfield was the first person whom he had
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24 d Wesley m middle age.
consented to bear as a lay-preacfaer, and the first whom be authorized to co-operate with bim in that character: and so highly did he value him, that he had obtained ordination for him from the Bishop of Londonderry. This prelate was one of the clergy who encouraged Mr. Wesley in Ireland ; and when he performed the ceremony, he said to Maxfield, « Sir, 1 ordain you to assist thalt good man, that he may not work himself to death J" But of all the lessons which he learnt from Wesley, it now appeared that that of insubordination was the one in which he was most perfect
The breach, however, was not immediate : some concessions were made by Maxfield, and Wesley, after a while, addressed a letter to him and his as- sociates, especially George Bell, telling them what he dislilced in their doctrines, spirit, and outward behaviour. He objected to their teaching that man might be as perfect as an angel ; that he can be ab- solutely perfect ; that he can be infallible, or above being tempted ; or, that the moment he is pure in heart, he cannot fall from it. To this, however, h^s own language had given occasion ; for the doctrine which he taught of " a free, full, and present salva- tion from all the guilt, all the power, and all the in- heing of sin," differs but a hair's breadth from the tenet which he now justly condemned. He objected to their saying, " that one saved from sin needs no* thing more than looking to Jesus,-^needs hot to hear or think of any thing else ; believe^ beUeve^ is Enough : that he needs no self-examination, no times of private prayer; needs not mind little or outward things; and that he cannot be taught by any person who is not in the same state." He disliked, he said, ^ some- thing that had the appearance of enthusiasm, over- valuing feelings and inward impressions ; mistaking the mere work of imagination for thd voice of the Spirit ; expecting the end without the means, and undervaluing reason, knowledge, and wisdom in general." He disliked " something that had the appearance of Antinomianism; not magnifying the law and making it honourable ; not enough valuing
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tenderness of conscience, and exact watchfulness in- order thereto, and using faith rather as contra-dis- tinguished from holiness, than as productive of if He blamed them for slighting anjr, the very least, rules of the Bands, or Society ; for the disorder and ex* travagancies which they introduced in their public meetings ; and, above all, for the bitter and unchari- table spirit which they manifested toward all who differed from them. And he bade them read this letter of mild reproof, calmly and impartially, before the Lord, in prayer; so, be said, should the evil cease, and the good remain, and they would then be more than ever united to him.
Wesley was not. then aware of Maxfield's intention to set up for himself, and hardly yet suspected the insanity of Bell, his colleague. Upon hearing the latter bold forth, he believed that part of what he said was from God, (so willing was Wesley to be de- ceived in such things !) and part from an heated ima- gination ; and seeing, he says, nothing dangerously wrong, he did not think it necessary to hinder him. The next trial, however, convinced him that Bell must not be suffered to pray at the Foundry: ^^ the reproach of Christ,^' said he, ^^ 1 am willing to bear, but not the reproach of enthusiasm, if I can help it.^' That nothing might be done hastily, he suffered him to speak twice more ; ** but," says he, ** it was worse and worse. He now spoke, as from God, what 1 knew God had not spoken ; I therefore desired that be would come thither no more." The excommuni- cation, indeed, could no longer be ^delayed, for
• Wesley was f»vidently conscious that he bad delayed it too long, and that he had lost credit, by being, or appearing to be, for a time de- ceived by this madman. The apology which he makes is any thing but ingenuous. ** Perhaps," he says, " reason (unenlightened) makes me simple. If I knew less of human nature, I should be more apt to stum^ ble at the weakness of it ; and if i had not too, h^ nature or by graco^ some clearness of apprehension. It is owing to this (under God) that I never staggered at all at the reveries of George Bell. I saw instantly from the beginoing, add at the beginning, what was right, and what waj wrong; but I saw, withal, ' I have many things to speak, but ye cannot bear Uiem now.' Hence many imagine I was imposed upon and iip- plauded themselres on their own greater perspicuity, as they do at thia day. But if you knew it, said his friend to Gregorio Lopez, why did you not tell me? I answer with him, * I do not speak, all I know, but what I judge needful.' ''
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George Bell had commenced prophet, and proclaiin- ed every where that the world was to be at an end on the 28th of February following. This, however, was the signal for separation: several hundreds of the Society in London threw up their tickets, and withdrew from their connexion with Wesley, sajing, ^^ Blind John is not capable of teaching us,— we will keep to Mr. Maxfield !^^ for Maxfield was the leader of (he separatists, and Bell, notwithstanding his pro-
{>hetic pretensions, appeared only as one of his fol- owers. He, indeed, was at this time a downright honest madman. The part which Maxfield acted was more suspicious ; he neither declared a belief or disbelief in the prediction, but he took advantage of the prophet's popularity, to collect a flock among his believers, and form an establishment for himself. Often as the end of the world has been prophesied by madmen, such a prediction has never failed to excite considerable agitation. Wesley exerted him- self to counteract the panic which had been raised ; and, on the day appointed, he exposed, in a sermon, the utter absurdity of the supposition that the world would be at an end that night. But he says that, notwithstanding all he could say, many were afraid to go to bed, and some wandered about the fields, being persuaded that, if the world did not end, at least London would be swallowed up by an earth- quake. He had the prudence, before the day ar- rived, to insert an advertisement in the provincial newspapers, disclaiming all connexion with the pro- phet or the prophecy ; a precaution which was of great service to poor George Story ; for^ in the course of itinerating, he arrived at Darlington on the day appointed. The people in that neighbourhood had been sorely frightened ; but fear baa given place to indignation, and, in their wrath, they threatened to pull down the Methodist preaching house, and bum the first preacher who should dare to show bis face among them. Little as Story was of an enthusiast, he told the mistress of the house, if she would ven- ture the house, he would venture himself; and, upon producing the advertisement in the Newcastle paper^
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and reading it to the people, they were satisfied, and made no further disturbance. George Bell re- covered his senses, to make a deplorable use of them ; passing from one extreme to another, the ig- norant enthasiast became an ignorant infidel ; turned fanatic in politics as he had done in religion ; and having gone through all the degrees of disaffec- tion and dislojaltj, died, at a great age, a radical re- former.
This affair, if it made Wesley more cautious for a while, did not lessen his habitual credulity. His disposition to believe whatever he was told, however improbable the fact, or insufficient the evidence, was BOt confined to preternatural tales. He listened to every old woman^s nostrum for ,a disease, and collect- ed so many of them, that he thought himself (juali- iied at last to commence practitioner in medicine. Accordingly he announced in London his intention of giving physic to the poor, and they came for many years in great numbers, till the expense of distribut- ing medicines to them was greater than the Society could support. At the same time, for the purpose of enabling people to cure themselves, he published his collection of receipts, under the title of Primitive Physic ; or, an easy and natural Method of curing most Diseases. In his preface he showed, that the art of healing was originally founded on experiments, and so became traditional : inquiring men, in process of time, began to reason upon the mcts which they knew, and formed theories of physic which, when thus made theoretical, was soon converted into a mystery and a craft. Some lovers of mankind, how- ever, bad still, from time to time, endeavoured to bring it back to its ancient footing, and make it, as it was at the beginning, a plain intelligible thing; pro- fessing to know nothing more, than that certain mala- dies might be removed by certain medicines ; and his mean hand, he said, had made a like attempt, in which he had only consulted experience, common sense, and the common interest of mankind.
The previous directions which he gave for pre- venting disease, were in general judicious* He ad*
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vised early hours, regular exercise, plain diet^ and temperance ; and he pointed out, not without efiect, the physical benefits which resulted from a moral and religious life. ^^ All violent and sodden passions,^ he said, ^* dispose to, or actually throw people into acute diseases. The slow and lasting passions, such ad grief, and hopeless love, bring on chronical dis- eases. Till the passion which caused the disease is calmed, medicine is applied in vain. The love of God, as it is the sovereign remedy of all miseries, so, in particular, it effectually prevents all the bodily disorders the passions introduce, by keeping the passions themselves within due bounds ; and, by the unspeakable joy, and perfect calm serenity and tran- quillity it gives the mind, it becomes the most power* ml of all the means of health and long life/' In hia directions to the sick, he recommends them to ^ add to the rest (for it is not labour lost) that old unfash- ionable medicine, prayer; and to nave faith in God, who ^ killeth and maketh alive, who bringeth down to tlie grave and bringeth up.' " The book itself must have done great mischief, and probably may still continue so to do ; for it has been most * exten- sively circulated, and it evinces throughout a lament- Able want of judgment, and a perilous rashness, ad- vising sometimes aieans of ridiculous inefficacy in the mo^ dangerous cases, and sometimes remedies so rude, that it would be marvellous if they did not destroy the patient He believed, however, that he had cured himself of what was pronounced to be a cofifirmed consumption, and had every symptom of it, by his favourite prescription for pleurisy, a plas- ter of brimstone and white <^ egg, spread upon
* The current edition, which is now before me, is the twentj-eigbtb. The cold-bath ia prescribed for ague; just before the cold fit ; for pre- Tenting apoplexy ; for weak infants, every day ; and for cancer. For Al'hSs in the Mffbt, the eyes IH» to be toncned with lunar eaostie every day ; or zibetkum oeddentaU. dried slowly, and finely pulveriied, is to be blown into them. For siphylxs^ an ounce of quicksilver every morn- ing ; and far the twisting of the intestines, Quicksilver, ounce by ounce, to the amount of one, two, or three pounds f Toasted cheese is recom- mended for a rut ; and, for a rupture in children, *' boil a spoonful of egg^shetl^, dried in an oven, and powdered, in a pmt of milk, and fted tbe child conatintly with bread boiled in this milk.**
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brown paper. Upon applying this, the pain in his side, he says, was removed in a few minutes, the fe- ver in half an hour, and, from that hour, he began to recover strength. His death had been so fully ex- pected, that Whitefield wrote him a farewell letter, m the most affectionate terms, and a consolatory one to his brother Charles. And he himself, not know- ing, he says, how it might please God to dispose of him, and to prevent vile panegyric, wrote his own epitaph, in these words :
HKBB LrBTB
THB BODY OF JOHN WESLEY,
A BRAND PLUCKED OUT OP THB BURNING :
WHO DIED OP A CONSUMPTION IN THB FIFTY-P1E8T YEAR
OP HIS AGE»
NOT LEAVING, AFTER HIS DEBTS ARE PAID, TEN POUNDS
BEHIND HIM ;
PRAYING
GOD BB MERCIFUL TO ME AN UNPROFITABLE SERVANT !
'' He ordered that this (if any) inscription should be placed on his tomb-stoDe."
CHAPTER XXV.
PROGRESS OP CALVINISTIC METHODISM. — DCATH OF
WHITEFIGLD. FINAL BREACH BETWEEN WESLEY AND
THE CALVINISTS:
Whitefield had not continued long at enmity with Weslej. He was sensible that he had given him great and just offence by publishing the story of the lots, and he acknowledged this, and asked his par- don. Wesley's was a heart in which resentment never could strike root : the difference between them, therefcure, as far as it was personal, was made up ; but, upon the doctrines in dispute, they remained as
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widely separate as ever, and their respectire follow-* era were less charitable than themselves.
Whitefield also had become a married man. He had determined upon this in America, and opened his intentions in a characteristic letter to the parents of the ladj whom he was disposed to choose. He told them, that he found a mistress was necessary for the miBtnagement of his increasing family at the Orphan-house, and it had therefore been much im* pressed upon his heart that he should marry, in or- der to have a help meet for him in the work where- unto he was called. ^ This,'^ he proceeded, ^^ comes (like Abraham^s servant to Rebekah's relations) to know whether you think your daughter, Miss E., is a proper person to engage in such an undertaking ? If so, whether you will be pleased to give me leave to propose marriage unto her ? You need not be afraid of sending me a refusal ; for, 1 bless God, if 1 know any thing of my own heart, I am free from that fool- ish passion which the world calls love. I write, only because I believe it is the will of God that I sbooid alter my state ; but your denial will fully convince me, that your daughter is not the person appointed by God for me. But 1 have sometimes thought Miss E. would be my help-male, for she has often been im- pressed upon my heart After strong crying and tears at the throne of grace for direction, and after unspeakable trouble with my own heart, I write this. Be pleased to spread the letter before the Lord ; and if you think this motion to be of Him, be pleased to deliver the enclosed to your daughter. If not, say nothing ; only let me know you disapprove of it^ and that shall satisfy your obliged friend and servant in Christ" The letter to the lady was written in the same temper. It invited her to partake of a way of life, which nothing but devotion and enthusiasm like his could render endurable. He told her be had great reason to believe it was the divine will that he should alter his condition, and had often thought she was the person appointed for him ; but he should still wait oh the Lord for direction, and heartily entreat him, that, if this motion were not of Him, it mi^t
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come to nought ^^ I much like,'' said he, ^' the man- ner of Isaac's marrying with Rebekah ; and think no marriage can succeed well, unless both parties con- cerned are like-minded with Tobias and his wife. I make no great profession to you, because I believe you think me sincere. The passionate expressions which carnal courtiers use, I think, ought to be avoided by those that would marry in the Lord. I can only proo^ise, by the help of God, to keep my matrimonial vow, and to do what I can towards help- ing you forward in the great work of your salvation. If you think marriage will be any way prejudicial to your better part, be so kind as to send me a denial." The Moravian arrangement for pairing their mem- bers would have been very convenient for a person of this temper.
The reply which he received informed him, that the lady was in a seeking state only, and surely, he said, that would not do : he must have one that was full of faith and the Holy Ghost. Such an one he thought he had found in a widow at Abergavenny, by name James, who was between thirty and forty, and, by his own account, neither rich nor beautiful, but hav- ing once been gay, was now " a despised follower of the Lamb." He spoke of his marriage in lan-
f;uage which would seem profane, unless large al- owances were made for the indiscreet and offensive phraseology of those who call themselves religious professors. The success of his preaching appears at this time to have intoxicated him ; he fancied that something like a gift of prophecy had been imparted to him ; and, when his wife became pregnant, he announced that the child would be a boy, and become a preacher of the gospel. It pro«ed a boy, and the father publicly baptized him in the Tabernacle^ and, in the presence of a crowded congregation, solemnly devoted him to the service of God. At the end of four months the child died, and Whitefield then ac- knowledged that he had been under a delusion : ^^ Satan," he said, ^^ had been permitted to give him some wrong impressions, whereby he had misappli- ed several texts of scripture." The lesson was se-
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vere, but not in vain, for it saved him from any Aitare extravagancies of that kind. His marriage was not* a happy one ; and the death of his wife is said, by one of his friends, to have ^^ set bis mind much at liber- ty.'' It is asserted that she did not behave in all re- spects as she ought ; but it is admitted, that their disagreement was increased by some persons who made pretensions to more holiness than Ibey possess- ed. Whitefield was irritable, and impatient of con- tradiction ; and, even if his temper had been as hap- pily constituted as Wesley's, his habits c^life must have made him, like Wesley, a most uncomfortable husband.
His popularity, however, was greatly on the in- crease. So great, indeed, was his confidence in his powers over the rudest of mankind, that he ventured upon preaching to the rabble in MoorfielJs during the Whitsun holydays, when, as he said, Satan's cbii- dren kept up their annual rendezvous there. Th^^ was a sort of pitched battle with Satan, and White- field displayed some generalship upon the occasion. He took the field betimes, with a large congregation of "praying people" to attend him, and began at six in the monnng, before the enemj had mustered m strength. Not above ten thousand persons were as- sembled waiting for the sports ; and, having nothing else to do, they, for mere pastime, presently flocked round his field-pulpit " Glad was I to fin^t'* ®^^! he, « that I had, for once, as it were, got the start ot the devil." Encouraged by the success ofhiBWorB- ing preaching, he ventured there again ^^^^.^"' when, in his own words, ** the fields, the whole neWs, seemed, in a bad n^nse of the word, all white, ready* not for the Redeeflier's, but Beelzebub's harvest iij' his agents were in full motion ; drummers, tnPP^/ ers, raerry-andrews, masters of puppet-shows?^* " biters of wild beasts, players, &c. &c. all busy in en- tertaining their respective auditories." He ^^^^ '
* It was not likely to he so, as may be judged from what !»« sap^^ one of hit married friends : ** I hope you are not muM ^'^P^ffuocenbo heed, my dear B., take heed ! Time is short. It remaiDS that ido»^^ .^ have wives, be as though they had none. Let notbine »«*^'J®" terrupt your communion with the bridegroom of the Cburco.
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ted the crowd to consist of from twenty to thirty thousand persons ; and thinking that, like St. Paul^ he should now, in a metaphorical sense, be called to fight with wild beasts, he took for his text,'* Great is Diana of the Ephesians.'' — ** You may easily guess,'* says he, ** that there was some noise among the crafts^ men, and that I was honoured ivith having a few stones, dirt, rotten eggs, and pieces of dead cattf thrown at me, while engaged in calling them from their favourite but lying vanities. My soul was, in- deed, among lions ; but far the greatest part of my congregation, which was very laree, seemed for a while to be turned into lambs." He then gave no- tice that he would preach again at six in the evening. " I came,'' he says, " I saw, — but what ? — thousands and thousands more than before, if possible, still more deeply engaged in their unhappy diversions, but some thousands amongst them waiting as ear- nestly to hear the Gospel. This Satan could not brooL One of his choicest servants was exhibiting, trumpeting on a large stage ; but, as soon as the peo- ple saw me in my black robes, and my pulpit, I tnink all, to a man, left him and ran to me. For a while [ was enabled to lift up my voice like a trumpet, and many heard the joyful soand. God's people kept praying, and the enemy's agents made a kind of roar- ing at some distance from our camp. At length they approached nearer, and the merry-andrew (attended by others, who complained that they )iad talten ma- ny pounds less that day, on account of my preaching) got upon a man's shoulders, and advancing near the pulpit, attempted to slash me with a long heavy whip several times, but always, with the violence of his motion, tumbled down." Soon afterwards, they got a recruiting sergeant, with bis drums, fifes, and f(d- lowers, to pass through the congregation. But Whitefield, by his tactics, baffled this manoeuvre : he ordered them to make way for the king's officers ; the ranks opened, and when the party had marched through., closed again. When the uproar became, as it sometimes did, such as to overpower his single voice« he called the voices of all his people to bis VOL. ir. 33
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258 l>ROGRRSS OF CALViMSTIC METHODISM*
aid, and began singing ; and thus, what with singingr praying, and preaching, he continued, by his own ac- count, three hours upon the ground, till the darkness made it time to break up. So great was the impres- sion which this wonderful man produced in this ex- traordinary scene, that more than a thousand notes were handed up to him, from persons who, as the phrase is, were brought under concern by his preaching that day, and three hundred and fifty persons joined his congregation.
On the Tuesday he removed to Mary-le-bone fields^ a place of similar resort. Here a Quaker had pre- pared a very high pulpit for him, but not having fix- ed the supports well in the ground, the preacher found himself in some jeopardy, especially when the mob endeavoured to push the circle of his friends against it, and so to throw it down. But he had a narrower escape after he had descended ; " for as I was passing," says he, " from the pulpit to the coach, I felt my wig and hat to be almost ofT: I turned about, and observed a sword just touching my temples. A young rake, as I afterwards found, was determined to stab me ; but a gentleman, seeing the sword thrusting near me, struck it up with his cane, and so the destined victim providentially escaped." The man who made this atrocious attempt, probably in a fit of drunken fury, was seized by the people, and would have been handled as severely as he deserved, if one of Wbitefield's friends had not sheltered him. The following day Whitefield returned to the attack in Moorfields ; and here he gave a striking example of that ready talent which turns every thing to its purpose. A merry-andrew, finding that no common acts of buffoonery were of any avail, got into a tree near the pulpit, and, as much, perhaps, in despite, as in insult, exposed his bare posteriors to the preacher, in the sight of all the people. The more brutal mob applauded him with loud laughter, while decent per- sons were abashed; and Whitefield himself was, for a moment, confounded; but instantly recovering himself, he appealed to all, since now they had such a spectacle before them, whether he had wronged
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htimati nature in saying, with Bishop Hall, that man, when left to himself, is half a fiend and half a brute ; or, in calling him, with William Law, a motley mix- ture of the beast and devil ! The appeal was not lost upon the crowd, whatever it might be upon the wretch by whom it was occasioned. A circumstance at these adventurous preachings is mentioned, which affected Whitefield himself, and must have produced considerable effect upon others : — several children, of both sexes, used to sit round him, on the pulpit, while he preached, for the purpose of handing to him the notes, which were delivered by persons upon whom his exhortations had acted as he desired. — These poor children were exposed to all the missiles with which he was assailed : however much they were terrified or hurt, they never shrunk, " but, on the contrary," says he, " every time I was struck, they turned up their little weeping eyes, and seemed to wish they could receive the blows for me."
Shortly after his separation from Wesley, some CalvinistiQ dissenters built a large shed for him, near the Foundry, upon a piece of ground which was lent for the purpose, till he should return to America.-* From the temporary nature of the structure, they called it a Tabernacle, in allusion to the moveable place of worship of the Israelites during their jour* iiey in the wilderness ; and the name being in puri- tanical taste, became the designation of all the cha- pels of the Calvinistip Methodists. In this place Whitefield was assisted by Cennick, and others, who sided with him at the division ; and he employed lay- preachers with less reluctance than Wesley had done, because the liking which he. had acquired in Ameri- ca for the old puritans had, in some degree, alienated his feelings from the church, and his predestinarian opinions brought him in contact with the dissenters. But Whitefield had neither the ambition of founding a separate community, nor the talent for it ; he would have contented hii^self with being the founder of the Orphan-house at Savannah, and with the effect which he produced as a roving preacher; and Calvinistic Methodism, perhaps, might Dever have been embo-
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died into a separate sect, if it bad not found a pa- ^ troness in Selina, Countess of Huntingdon*
This " noble and elect lady," as her followers have called her, was daughter of Washington Earl of Ferrers, and widow of Theophilus Earl of Hunt- ingdon. There was a decided insanity in her faoiilj* Her sisters-in-law. Lady Betty and Lady Margaret Hastings, were of a religious temper ; the former had been the patroness of the first Methodists at Oxford; the latter had become a disciple, and at length mar- ried Wesley's old pupil and fellow-missionary Ing- ham. Lady Margaret communicated her opinions to the Countess ; the Wesleys were called in to her, after a dangerous illness, which had been terminated by the new birth ; and her husband's tutor. Bishop Benson, who was sent for afterwards, in hopes that he might restore her to a saner sense of devotion, found all his arguments ineffectual : instead of re- ceiving instructions from him, she was disposed to be the teacher, quoted the homilies against him, insist- ed upon her own interpretation of the articles, and attacked him upon th^ awful responsibility of his station. All this is said to have irritated him ; the emotion which he must needs have felt, might have been more truly, as well as more charitably, inter- preted ; and when he left her, he lamented that he had ever laid his hands upon George White- field, " My lord," she replied, " mark my words ! when you come upon your dying bed, that will be one of the few ordinations you will reflect upon with complacence/'
During the EarPs life she restrained herself^ in deference to his wishes ; but, becoming mistress of herself, and of a liberal income, at bis death, she took a more decided and public part, and, had means permitted, would have done as much for Methodism aa the CountesS Matilda did for the Pa- pacy. Upon Whitefield's return from America^ in 1748^ h^ was invited to her housq at Chelsea as soon bs he landed. And after he hkd officiated there twice, she wrote to him, inviting him again, that some of the nobility flight hear hun. ^' Blessed be God,**
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lie says, in his reply, " that the rich and great begin to have an bearing ear: 1 think it is a good sign that our Lord intends to give, to some at least, an obedi- ent heart. How wonderfully does our Redeemer deal with souls ! If they will bear the Gospel only un- der a ceiled roof, ministers shall be sent to them there: if only in a church, or a field, they shall have it there. A word in the lesson, whan I was last with your ladyship, struck me, — Paul preached privately to those that were of reputation. This must be the way, I presume, of dealing with the nobility, who yet know ciot the Lord.'' This is characteristic ; and his an- swer to a second note, respecting the time, is still more so. '* Ever since the reading your ladyship's condescending letter, my soul has been overpowered with His presence, who is all in all. When your la- dyship styled me your friend^ I was amazed at your condescension; but when I thought that Jesus was my friend, it quite overcame me, and made me to lie prostrate before Him, crying. Why me.^ why me ? I just now rose from the ground, after praying the Lord of all lords to water your soul, honoured madam, every moment. As there seems to be a door opening for the nobility to hear the Gospel, I will defer my journey, and, God willing, preach at your ladyship's. Oh that God may be with me, and make me humble ! I am ashamed to think your ladyship will admit me under your roof; much more am i amazed that the Lord Jesus will make use of such a creature as I fiiD ;-^uite astonished at your ladyship's condescen* sion, and the unmerited superaboundmg grace and goodness of Him who has loved me, and given Him- * self for me." Wesley would not have written in thi^ strain, which, for its servile adulation, and its canting vanity, might well provoke disgust and indignation, were not the real genius and piety of the writer be- yond all doubt. Such, however, as the language is, it was natural in Whitefield, and not ill suited for the person to whom it was addressed.
Lord Chesterfield and Bolingbroke were among his auditors at Chelsea : the Countess had done well in kivitiBg those persons who stood most in need of
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repentance. The former complimented the preacher with his usual courtliness ; the latter is said to have been much moved at the discourse: he invited White- field to visit him^ and seems to have endeavoured to pass from infidelity to Calvinism, if he could. Ladjr Huntingdon, flattered, perhaps, bj the applause which was bestowed upon the performance, appoint- ed Whitefield one of her- chaplains. He, at this tkne, writing to Mr. Wesley, says, " What have you thought about an union ? I am afraid an external one is im- practicable. I find, by your sermons, that we diflfer in principles more than I thought, and I believe we are upon two different plans. My attachment to America will not permit me to abide very long ia England, consequently I should but weave a Pe- nelope's web if i formed societies ; and, if I should form them, I have not proper assistants to take care of them ; I intend, therefore, to go about preaching the Gospel to every creature." In saying that he had "^ no party to be at the head of," and that, through God's grace, he would have none, Whitefield only disclaimed the desire of placing himself in a situation which he was not competent to fill : at this very time he was sufficiently willing that a party should be formed, of which he might be the honorary head, while the management was in other hands. For he told the Elect Lady that ^ leader was wanting; and that that honour had been put on her ladyship by the great Head of the church, — an honour which bad been conferred on few, but whi^h was an e^amest of what she was to receive before men and angels wheQ time should be no more. That honour Lady Hunt^ ingdon accepted. She built chapels in various pla-' ces, which were call^ hers, and procured Calvin^- istic clergymen to officiate in them. After a time, a sufficient supply of ordained ministers could not be found, and some began to draw back, when they per- ceived that the course of action, in which they were engaged, tended manifestly to schism. This, how- ever, did not deter her ladyship from proceeding; she followed the example of Mr. Wesley, and em- ployed laymen without scruple ; ^nd as the chapeb
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were called Lady Huntingdon's chapels, the persons who officiated were called Lady Huntingdon's preachers. At length she set up a seminary for such preachers, at Trevecca, in South Wales ; and this was called Lady Huntingdon's College, and the Cal- vinistic Methodists went by the name of Lady Hunt- ingdon's Connexion. The terms of admission were, that the students should be truly converted to God, and resolved to dedicate themselves to his service. — During three years they were to be boarded and in- structed gratuitously, at her ladyship's cost, and sup- plied every year with a suit of clothes: at the end oi that time they were either to take orders, or enter the ministry among dissenters of any denomination.
Sincere devotee as the Countess was, she retained much of the pride of birth. For this reason White- field, who talked of her amazing condescension in patronizing him, would have been more acceptable to her than Wesley, even if he had not obtained a preference in her esteem, because of his Calvinism ; and perhaps this disposition inclined her, uncon- ^ sciously, to favour a doctrine which makes a privi- leged order of souls. Wesley, therefore, who nei- ther wanted, nor would have admitted, patron or pa- troness to be the temporal head of the societies which he had formed, and was as little likely to act a subordinate part under Lady Huntingdon as under Count Zinzendorf, seems never to have been cor- dially liked by her, and gradually grew into disfavour. The reconciliation with Whitefield was, perhaps, produced more by a regard to appearances on both sides, than by any feeling on either. Such a wound as had been made in their friendship always leaves a scar, however well it may have healed. They inter- changed letters, not very frequently; and they preached occasionally in each other's pulpits ; but there was no cordial intercourse, no hearty co-opera- tion. Whitefield saw, and disapproved in Wesley, that ambition of which the other was not conscious in himself, largely as it entered into the elements of his character; and Wesley, on the other hand, who felt his own superiority in intellect and knowledge, re-
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261 fROGRESS OF CALVINISTIC MGTIIODISM.
garded, probably, as a weakness, tbe homage which was paid by White6eld to persons in high life. Yet they did justice to each other^s intentions and vir- tues ; and old feelings sometimes rose again, as from the dead, like the blossoming of spring flowers in au- tumn, which remind us that the season of hope and of joyance is gone by. It is pleasant to observe, that this tenderness increased as they advanced toward the decline of life. When Whitefield returned from America to England for the last time, Wesley was struck with the change in his appearance : «^ he seem- ed,^^ says he in his Journal, «^ to be an old man, being fairly worn out in his Master^s service, though he has hardly seen fifty years; and vet it pleases God that I, who am now in my sixty-third year, find no disor- der, no weakness, no decay, no difference from what I was at five-and-twenty ; only that I have fewer teeth, and more gray hairs.''
Lady Huntingdon had collected about her a knot of Calvinistic clergy, some of them of high birtfi, and abounding as much with bigotry and intolerance as with zeal. Whitefield, however, at this time, to use Wesley's language, breathed nothing but peace and love. " Bigotry," said he, " cannot stand before him, but hides its head wherever he comes. My bro- ther and I conferred with him every day ; and, let the honourable men do what they please, we resolr- ed, by the grace of God, to go on hand in hand, through honour and dishonour." Accordingly Wes- ley preached in the Countess's chapel, where, be says, many were not a little surprised at seeing him, and where, it appears, that he did not expect to be often invited ; for he adds, that he was in no concern whether he preached there again or not. Whitefield and Howel Harris (a man whose genuine charity was no ways corrupted by his opinions) attended at the next Conference.
This union continued till Whitefield retamed to America, in 1769, and died there in the following year. A fear of outliving his usefulness had often depressed him : and one day, when giving way to an imtable temper, he brouglrt tears from one who had
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not deserved such treatment, he burst into tears him* self, and exclaimed, " 1 shall live to be a poor nee- y vish old man, and every body will be tired of me !"— , He wished for a sudden death, and that blessing was so far vouchsafed him, that the illness which proved fatal was only of a few hours' continuance. It was a fit of asthma : when it seized him first, one of his friends expressed a wish that he would not preach so often ; and his reply was, " I had rather tuear out than fii;^ out.'' He died at New bury port, in New*, England, and, according to his own desire, was bu- ried before the pulpit, in the Presbyterian church of that town. Every mark of respect was shown to his remains: all the bells in the town tolled, and the ships in the harbour fired mourning guns, and hung their flags half-mast high. In Georgia, all the black cloth in the stores was bought dp, and the church was hung with black : the governor and council met at the state-house in deep mourning, and went in pro- cession to hear a funeral sermon. Funeral honours also were performed throughout the tabernacles in England. He had been asked who should preach his funeral sermon, in case of his dying abroad : whe- ther it should be his old friend Mr. Wesley ; and had always replied, he is the man. Mr. Wesley, there- fore, by desire of the executors, preached at the ta- bernacle in Tottenham-court Road, (the high-church of the sect,) and in many other places did the same, wishing, he said, to show all possible respect to the memory of so great and good a man. Upon this oc- casion he expresses a hope in his Journal, that God had now given a blow to that bigotry which had pre- vailed for many years : but it broke out, ere long, with more virulence than ever.
Notwithstanding Mr. Wesley's endeavours to guard his followers against the Antinomian errors, the stream of Methodism had set in that way. It is a course which enthusiasm naturally takes, wherever, from a blind spirit of antipathy to the Romanists, solifidianism is preached. To correct this perilous tendency, (for, of all doctrinal errors, there is none of which the practical consequences are so pen)!*
VOL. i|. 34
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cious,) Wesley said, in the Conference of 1771, " Take heed to your doctrine ! we have leaned too much toward Calvinism. 1. With regard to mans faithfulness: our Lord himself taught us to use the expression, and we ought never to be ashamed of it
2. With regard to working for life : this also our Lord has expressly commanded us. Labour^ feg>«^c9-e, lite- rally, work for the meat thai endureth to everlasting life.
3. We have received it as a maxim, that a man is to do nothing in order ^o justification. Nothing can be
' more false. Whoever desires to find favour with God, should cease from evil, and learn to do welL Who- ever repents, should do works meet for repenianee. And if this is not in order to find favour, what does he do them for? Is not this salvation by works? Not by the merit of works, but by works as a canditum. What have we then been disputing about for these thirty years ? I am afraid about words. As to merit itself, of which we have been so dreadfully afraid* we are rewarded according to our works, yea, because of our works. How does this differ from for the sake of our works? And how differs this {rom secundam merita operum, as our works deserve ? Can you split this hair? I doubt I cannot. — Does not talking of a justified or sanctified state tend to mislead men? al- most naturally leading them to trust in what was done in one moment ; whereas we are every hoar, and every moment, pleasing or displeasing to God, according to our works ; according to the whole of our inward tempers, and our outward behaviour.''
This language, candid, frank, and reasonable as it is, — in every way honourable to Mr. Wesley, shocked the high-flying Calvinists. The alarm was taken at Trevecca; and, notwithstanding the spe- cious liberality which had been professed. Lady Huntingdon declared, that whoever did not fully dis- avow these minutes, must quit the college. The students and masters were called upon to deliver their sentiments in writing, without reserve. The superintendent, in so doing, explained, vindicated, and approved the doctrine of Mr. Wesley, though he considered the wording as unguarded, and not suf-
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licientlj explicit ; and he resigned his appointment accordingly, wishing that the Countess might find a minister to preside there less insufficient than him- self, and more willing to go certain lengths in party spirit.
Jean Guillaume de la Flechere, who thus with- drew from Trevecca, was a man of rare talents, and rarer virtue. No age or country has ever produced a man of more fervent piety, or more perfect charity ; no church has ever possessed a more apostolic mi- nister. He was born at Nyon, in the Pays de Vaud, of a respectable Bernese family, descended from a noble house in Savoy. Having been educated for the ministry at Geneva, he found himself unable to subscribe to the doctrine of predestination, and re- solved to seek preferment as a soldier of fortune. Accordingly he went to Lisbon, obtained a commis- sion in the Portuguese service, and was ordered to Brazil. A lucky accident, which confined him to his bed when the ship sailed, saved him from a situ- ation where his fine intellect would have been lost, and his philanthropic piety would have had no room to display itself. He left Portugal ibr the prospect of active service in the Low Countries, and that prospect also being disappointed by peace, he came over to England, improved himself in the lan- guage, and became tutor in the family of Mr. Hill, of Fern Hall, in Shropshire. The love of God and of man abounded in his heart ; and finding, among the Methodists, that sympathy which he desired, he joined them, and, for a time, took to ascetic courses, of which he afterwards acknowledged the error. He lived on vegetables, and, for some time, on milk and water, and bread ; he sat up two whole nights in every week, for the purpose of praying, and read- ing and meditating on religious things ; and, on the other nights, never allowed himself to sleep, as long as he could keep his attention to the book before him. At length, by the advice of his friends, Mr. Hill, and of Mr. Wesley, whom he consulted, he took orders in the English church. The ordination took place in the Chapel-Royal, St. James's, and, as soon
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26tt MR. rL&TCHER.
a0 it was over, he went to the Methodist chapel in West-street, where be assisted in admiiuslering the Lord 's Supper. Wesley had never received so sea- sonable an assistance. " How wonderful are the ways of God P' said be, in his Journal. When my bodily strength failed, and none ia England were able and willing to assist me. He sent me help from the mountains of Switzerland, and an help meet for me in every respect. Where could I havejound such another!" It proved a more efficient and im- portant help than Mr. Wesley could then have an- ticipated.
Mr. Fletcher ([for so he now called himself, being completely anglicised,) incurred some displeasure^ by the decided manner in which he connected him- self with the Methodists: neither his talents nor his virtues were yet understood beyond the circle of his friends. By Mr. Hill's means, however, he was [pre- sented to the vicarage of Madely, in Shropshire, about three years after his ordination. It is a popu- lous village, in which there were extensive coUienes and iron works ; and the character of the inhabi- tants was, in consequence, what, to the reproach and curse of England, it generally is, wherever mines or manufactures of any kind have J^rought together a crowded population. Mr. Fletcher had, at onetime, officiated there as curate ; he now entered upon his duty with zeal proportioned to the arduous nature ol the service which he had pledged himself to pw- form. That zeal made him equally disregard/ui ?^ appearances and of danger. The whole rents oifl»8 small patrimonial estate in the Pays de Vaud were set apart for charitable uses, and he drew so ^j"^?:' ly from his other funds for the same purpose, that nw furniture and wardrobe were not spared. Becaus some of his remoter parishioners excused ^^^^^^g for not attending the morning service, by P'^^gj^ that they did not wake early enough to g^^ ^ families ready, for some months he set out every day, at five o'clock, with a bell in his hand, and wen round the most distant parts of the parish, to cau^r the people. And wherever hearers could be cou
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ed in the surrounding country, within ten or fifteen miles, thither he went to preach to them on week days, though he seldom got home before one or two in the morning. At first, the rabble of his parishion* ers resented the manner in which he ventured to re- prove and exhort them in the midst of their lewd revels and riotous meetings ; for he would frequently burst in upon them, without any fear of the conse- quence to himself. The publicans and maltmen were his especial enemies. A mob of colliers, who were one day baiting a bull, determined to pull him off his horse as he went to preach, set the dogs upon him, and, in their own phrase, bait the parson ; but the bull broke loose, and dispersed them before he ar- rived. In spite, however, of the opposition which his eccentricities excited, not from the ignorant only, but from some of the neighbouring clergy and ma- gistrates, he won upon the people, rude and brutal as they were, by the invincible benevolence which was manifested in his whole manner of life ; till at length his church, which at first had been so scan- tily attended, that he was discouraged as well as mortified by the smallness of the congregation, be* gan to overflow.
Such was the person who, without any emolument, had undertaken the charge of supeilntending, in oc- casional visits, the college at Trevecca, and who withdrew from that charge when Lady Huntingdon called upon all persons in that seminary to disavow the doctrines of Mr. Wesley's minutes, or leave the place. He had at that time no intention or ap- prehension of taking any further part in the dispute. Shortly afterwards the Honourable Walter Shirley, one of her Ladyship^s chaplains, and of the Calvin- istic clergy who had formed a party under her pa- tronage, sent forth a circular letter, stating, that whereas Mr. Wesley's next Conference was to be held at Bristol, it was proposed by Lady Huntingdon, and many other Christian friends, to have a meeting in that city at the same time, of such principal persons, both clergy and laity, who disapproved of the ob- noxious minutes ; and, as the doctrines therein avow-
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ed were thought injurious to the very fundamental principles of Christianity, it was further proposed, that lliese persons should go in a body to the Con- ference, and insist upon a Ibrmal recantation of the said minutes, and, in case of a refusal, sign and pub- lish their protest against them.' "Your presence. Sir," the letter proceeded, ** is particularly request- ed ; but if it should not suit your convenience to be there, it is desired that you will transmit your senti- ments on the subject to such person as you think proper to produce them. It is submitted to you, whether it would not be right, in the opposition to be made to such a dreadful heresy, to recommend it to as many of your Christian friends, as well of tbe Dissenters as of the established Church, as you can prevail on, to be there, the cause being of so public a nature." Lodgings were to be provided for tbe persons who attended.
The proceedings were not so furious as might have been expected from a declaration of war like this. The heal of the Calvinistic party seemed to have spent itself in the first explosion. Mr. Wesley was truly a man of peace ; and when the Conference and the anti-council met, the result, unlike that of most other pitched disputations upon points of theology, was something like an accommodation. The meet- ing was managed with perfect temper on both sides, and with a conciliatory spirit on the part of Shirley himself; a man whose intentions were better than his judgment. Mr. Wesley and the Conference de- clared, that, in framing the obnoxious minutes, no such meaning was intended as was imputed to them. " We abhor," they said, " the doctrine of justifica- tion by works, as a most perilous and abominable doctrine ; and as the said minutes are not suflScient- ly guarded in the way they are expressed, we hereby solemnly declare, in the sight of God, that we have no trust or confidence but in the alone merits of our Lord Jesus Christ, for justification or salvation, either in life, death, or the day of judgment ; and though no one is a real Christian believer (and consequent- ly cannot be saved) who doth not good works, where
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there is time and opportunitj, yet our works have no part in meriting or purchasing our justification, either in whole or in part'' Mr. Shirley declared himself satisfied with this declaration, and the interview was concluded with prayer, and professions of peace and love.
These were but fallacious appearances : the old question had been mooted, and the * dispute broke out with greater violence than ever. On the part of the Arminians it was carried on by Walter Sellon, who was originally a baker, then one of Wesley's lay-preachers, and had afterwards, by means of lady Huntingdon's influence, obtained orders ; by Tho- mas Olivers, who, like a sturdy and honest Welsh- man as he was, refused, at the Conference, to sub- scribe the declaration ; and by Mr. Fletcher. On the part of the Calvinists, the most conspicuous wri- ters were the brothers Richard (afterwards Sir Rich- ard) and Rowland Hill, and Augustus Montague Toplady, vicar of Broad Hembury, in Devonshire. Never were any writings more thoroughly saturated with the essential acid of Calvinism, than those of the predestinarian champions. It would scarcely be credible, that three persons, of good birth and edu- cation, and of unquestionable goodness and piety, should have carried on controversy in so vile a man- ner, and with so detestable a spirit, — if the hatred of theologians had not, unhappily, become proverbial. Berridge, of Everton, also, who was buffoon as well as fanatic, engaged on their side : and even Har- vey^s nature was so far soured by his opinions, that he wrote in an acrimonious style against Mr. Wes- ley, whose real piety he knew, and whom he had once regarded as his spiritual father.
The ever-memorable Toplady, as his admirers call
* The sort of recantation which was made in this declaration gave oc- casion to the following rerses by one of the hostile party :
Whereas the religion, and fate of three nations,
Depend on the importance of our conversations;
Whereas some objections are thrown in our way,
An^ words have been construed to mean what they say ;
Be it known, from henceforth, to each friend and each brother.
Whene'er we say one thing, we mean quite another.
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him, and who, they say, ^^ stands paramount in the plenitude of dignity above most of his contempora- ries," was bred at Westminster, and, according to his own account, converted at the age of sixteen, by the sermon of an ignorant iay-preacher, in a baro in Ire- land. He was an injudicious man, hasty in forming conclusions, and intemperate in advancing them; but his intellect was quick and lively, and bis man- ner of writing, though coarse, was always vigorous, and sometimes fortunate. A little before that Con- ference which brought out the whole Calvinistic force against Wesley, Mr. Toplady published a Trea- tise upon absolute Predestination, chiefly translated from the Latin of Zanchius. Mr. Wesley set forth an analysis of this treatise, for the purpose of expos- ing its monstrous doctrine, and concluded in th<»e words : " The sum of all this : — one in twenty (sup- pose) of mankind are elected ; nineteen in twenty are reprobated. The elect shall be saved, do what they will ; the reprobate shall be damned, do what they can. Reader, believe this, or be damned.
Witness my hand, A T ." Toplady denied
the consequences, and accused Mr. Wesley of in- tending to palm the paragraph on the world as his. ^^ In almost any other case,^' said he, ^ a similar for- gery would transmit the criminal to Virginia or Ma- ryland, if not to Tyburn. The Satanic guilt of the person who could excogitate and publish to the world a position like that, baffles all power of de- scription, and is only to be exceeded (if exceedable) by the satanic shamelessness which dares to lay the black position at the door of other men.*'
Most certainly Mr. Wesley had no intention that this passage should pass for Mr. Toplady's writing. He gave it as the sum of his doctrine ; and, stripping that doctrine of all disguise, exposed it thus in its naked monstrosity. After vindicating himself by stating this, he left Olivers to carry on the contest with his incensed antagonist This provoked Top- lady the more. " Let Mr. Wesley," said he, ^ fight his own battles. I am as ready as ever to me€i'bim with the sling of reason and the stone of God's word
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in my hand. But let him not fight by proxy ; let hid cobblers keep to their stalls; let bis tinkers mend their brazen vessels ; let his barbers confine them- v selves to their blacks and basins ; let his black- smiths blow more suitable coals than those of nic« controversy : every man in his own order.'' And, because Olivers had been a shoemaker, he attacked him on that score with abusive ridicule, both in prose and in rhyme*. But when he spoke of Wesley him* self, and Wesley's doctrines, it was with a bittei^e^ temper. The very titles which he affixed to hii writings were in the manner of Martin Marpre- late,—" More Work for Mr. John Wesley;"— "Aa Old Fox tarred and feathered:" it seemed ad if he had imbibed the spirit of sectarian scurrility^ from the truculent libellers of the puritanical ag^, with whom he sympathized almost as much in ojh-
* He makes Wesley speak of him thus, in a doggrel dialogue :
IVe Thomas Oliver, the cobbler,
(No stall in England holds a nobler,) A wight of talents uniTersal, Whereof 1*11 ^ve a brief rehearsal : He wields, beyond most other men, His awl, his razor, and his pen ; My beard he shaves, repairs my shoe, ^nd writes mv panegyric too ; He, with one brandish of his quill, Can knock down Toplady and Bill ; With equal ease, whieae'er there's need, Can darn ray stockings and my creed j Can drive a nail, or ply the needle. Hem handkerchief and scrape the fiddle ; Chop logic as an ass chews thistle. More skilfully than you can whistle ; And then, when he philosophizes, No son of Crispin half so wise is. Of all my ragged regiment, This cobbler gives me most content ; • My forgeries and faith's dt'Tender, My barber, champion, and shoe-mender.
lo private, however, Toplady did justice to^ this antagonist After * chance interview with him, which, for its good humour, was creditable to both parties, he says, to a correspondent, ** To say the truth, I am glad I saw Mt. Olivers, for he appears to be a person of stronger mtfe, and better behaviour, than I imagined. Had his understanding been v cultivated by a liberal education, I believe he would have made some figure in life." I have never seen Olivers's pamphlel^ but be had the i4ghC side of the argument; and, if he had not maintained his cause with re- spectable ability, his treatise would not have been aanctioaed (on suefat. an occasion) by Wesley, and praised by Fletcher* VOL. n. 35
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nions as in temper. Blunders and blasphemies, he said, were two species of commodities in which Mr. Wesley had driven a larger trafiic, than any other blunder-merchant this country had produced. Con- sidered as a reasoner, he called him one of the most contemptible writers that ever set pen to paper— And, *^ abstracted from all warmth, and from all pre- judices," says he, '' I believe him to be the most ran- corous hater of the Gospel system that e?er appear- ed in this island." The same degree of coolness and impartiality appeared when he spoke of the doc- trines which he opposed. He insisted that Socmos and Arminius were the two necessary supporters of a free-willer's coat of arms ; " for," said he, in his ri- gorous manner, " Arminianism is the head, and So- cinianism the tail of one and the self-^ame serpent; and, when the head works itself in, it will soon draw the tail after it." A tract of Wesley's, in which the fatal doctrine of Necessity is controverted aad ex- posed, he calls '* the famous Moorfields powder, whose chief ingredients are an equal portion of gro?* Heathenism, Pelagianism, Mahoraetanisro, Pop^JJ' ManichsBism, Ranterism, and Antinomianism^cuUed, dried, and pulverized, and mingled with as mocn
Ealpable Atheism as you can scrape together. ^ e asserted, and attempted to prove, that Arm«n»^ ism and Atheism came to the same thin^. A "^^ unfair reasoner has seldom entered the hsts ol ' ological controversy, and yet he was not so "^^^^^^l / ble as his writings, nor by any means so bad as ^^ opinions might easily have made him. "^"^ jj. questioned whether an Arminian could go to be*^ ^^ and of course must have supposed that Wes^J' . the Arch-Arminian of the age, bore abo'^'""'°r Jjg stamp of reprobation. Nevertheless, in one or ^ letters, he says, "God is witness how «^^J{jjg wish it may consist with the Divine will, *^ *^"^ j j heart and open the eyes of that unhappy ^^^ „ hold it as much my duty to pray for bis c<>"!;%g as to expose the futulity of his railings ^fli/^ truths of the Gospel." And, upon a ^P^^^Lfioo ley's death, he would have stopped tbcpat>««*
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of one of his bitter diatribes, for the purpose of ex- punging whatever reflected with asperity upon the dead. There was no affectation in this ; the letters in which these redeeming feelings appear were not intended or expected to go abroad into the world. The wise and gentle Tillotson has observed, that we shall have two wonders in heaven; the one, how many come to be absent whom we expected to find ^ there ; the other, how many are there whom we had no hope of meeting.
Toplady said of Mr. Fletcher's works, that, in the very few pages which he had perused, the serious
{>as8ages'* were dulness double-condensed, and the ighter passages impudence double-distilled : " So hardened was'' his own ** front," to use one of his own expressions, " and so thoroughly was he drench- ed in the petrifying water of a party .'^ If ever true Christian charity was manifested in polemical writ- ing, it was by Fletcher of Madely. Even theologi- cal controversy never, in the slightest degree, irri- tated his heavenly temper. On sending the manu- script of his first Check to Antinomianism to a friend much younger than himself, he says, ^^ I beg, as upon my bended knees, you would revise and correct it, and take off mod anrius sonat in point of trorks^ re- proof, and st^U. I have followed my light, which is but that of smoking flax ; put yours to mine. 1 am charged hereabouts with scattering fire-brands, ar- rows, and death. Quench some of my brands ; blunt some of my arrows ; and take off all my deaths, except that which I design for Antinomianism.'' — »* For the sake of candour," he says, in one of his prefaces, »*of truth, of peace, — for the Reader's sake, and, above all, for the sake of Christ and the honour • of Christianity, whoever ye are that shall next enter the lists against us, do not wire-draw the controversy, by uncharitably attacking our persons^ and absurdly judging our spirits, instead of weighing bur arguments, and considering the scriptures which we produce ; nor pass over fifty solid reasons, and a hundred plain passages, to cavil about non-essentials, and to lay the stress of your answer upon mistakes,
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which do not aflect the strength of the cause, and which we are ready to correct as soon as Ibey sbail be pointed out. 1 take the Searcher of hearts, aod my judicious unprejudiced readers to witness, that through the whole of this controversy, far from con- cealing the most plausible objections, or aToiding the strongest arguments which are or may be advanced against our reconciling doctrine, I have carefullj searched them out, and endeavoured to encounter them as openly as David did Goliath. HadouroiK ponents followed this method. I doubt not bat the controversv would have ended long ago, in the des- truction of our preiudices, and in the rectifying of our mistakes. Oh I if we preferred the unspeakable pleasure of finding out the truth, to the pitiful honour of pleasing a party, or of vindicating our own mis- takes, how soon would the useful fan of scriptural logical, and brotherly controversy purge the floor of the Church! How soon would the light of truth, and the flame of love, burn the chaff of error, and the thorns of prejudice, with fire unquenchable!''
In such a temper did this saintly man address bun- self to the work of controversy ; and be carried it on with correspondent candour, and with distingaisk- ed ability. His manner is diffuse, and tbe &om parts, and the unction, betray their French or^n| but the reasoning is acute and clear ; the spirit of his writings is beautiful, and he was master of the subject in all its bearings. His great object was to conciliate the two parties, and to draw the J»n« between the Solifidian and Pelagian errors. For this purpose he composed a treatise, which be called an ** Equal Check to Pharisaism and Anti- nomianism ; or, Scripture Scales to weigh tbe gold of Gospel truth, and to balance a mulutude ol opposite scriptures." Herein he brought together, side by side, the opposite texts, and shoved "ow they qualified each other : the opinion which he i^, /erred seems to correspond more nearly with that oi fiaxter than of any other divine. He traced, histon- cally, the growtli of both the extremes ag;ain8twbic«i he contended^ Ltttber,;being an Augustiniao monfe
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broaght with him, from bis convent, the favourite opinions of Augustine, to which he became the more attached, because* of the value which the Romanists affixed to their superstitious works, and the fooleries and abominations which had sprung from this cause. Most of the reformers, and more especially Calvin, took the same ground. The Jesuits, seeing their error, inclined the Romish church to the opposite extreme ; and, after a while, Jansenius formed a Cal- vinistic party among the Catholics, while Arminius tempered the doctrine of the reformed churches. Antinomianism was the legitimate consequence on the one part, and Mr. Fletcher thought that the English clergy were tending toward Pelagianism on the other. His great object was to trim the balance, and, above all, to promote Christian charity and Christian union. ^^ My regard for unity,'' said he, ^ recovers my drooping spirits, and adds new strength to my wasted body (he was believed, at that time, to be in the last stage of a consumption) ; I stop at the brink of the grave, over which I bend, and, as the blood oozing from my decayed lungs does not
Eermit me vocally to address my contending brethren, y means of my pen I will ask them, if they can pro- perly receive the holy commtmion^ while they wilfully remain in disunion with their brethren, from whom controversy has needlessly parted them !'' He was then about to leave England, for what appeared to be a' forlorn hope of deriving benefit from his native air ; but, before his departure, he expressed a desire of seeing those persons with whom he had been en- gaged in this controversy, that, ^^ all doctrinal dif> ierences apart, he might testify his sincere regretjft>r having given them the least displeasure, and receive from them some condescending assurance of recon- \ciliatioh and good-will.'' All of them had not gene- rosity enough to accept the invitation ; they who did
* Thus the old author of Nconomianism unmasked, places "The Cdvioian Society in Gracious-street, at the sigu of the Geneva Arms, just opposite to the sinpa of Cardinal BeDarmine's Head, at the foot of the bridge that crosses Reformation River, that divides between the Protedtant and Popish cantons.'*
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were edified, as well as affected, bj the interview; and some of them, who had had no personal ac- quaintance with him before, ^ expressed the highest satisfaction,^^ says his biographer, ^< at being iotro- duced to the company of one whose air and coante- nance bespoke him fitted rather for the societj of angels than the conversation of men.'' Upon the score of controversial offences, few men have ever had so little need to ask forgiveness.
When Mr. Fletcher offended his antagonists, it was not by any personalities, or the slightest breath- ing of a malicious spirits but by the ironical manner in which he displayed the real nature of tbeir mon* strous doctrine. For his talents were of the quick fnercurial kind ; his fancy was always active, and he might have held no inconsiderable rank, both as a humorous and as an impassioned writer, if he had not confined himself wholly to devotional sub- jects. But his happy illustrations had the effect of provoking his opponents. Mr. Wesley also, by the unanswerable manner in which he treated the Cal- vinistic question, drew upon himself the fierce resent- ment of a host of enemies. They were confounded, but they would not be convinced ; and they assailed him with a degree of rancorous hatred, which, even in theological controversy, has never been exceeded. *' He was as weak as he was vicious,'* they said : ** he was like a monkey, an eel, or a squirrel, perpetually twisting and twining all manner of ways. There was little probity, or common honesty, discoverable in that man — that Arminian priest : — he was incapable of appreciating real merit; and his blasphemous productions were horror to the soul, and torture to the ear. And for his doctrine, — the cursed doctrine of free- will,— it was the most God*dishonouring and soul-distressing doctrine of the day ; it was one of the prominent features of the Beast ; it was the ene* my of God, and the ofi&pring of the wicked one; the insolent brat of hell. Arminianism was the spiritual pestilence which had given the Protestant charcbes the plague : like a mortal scorpion, it carries a stii^
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in fts taiK that afibcts with stupefaction, insensibility, and death, all whom it strikes.'^
The unforgivable ofience, which drew upon Wes- ley and his doctrine this sort of obloquy, with which volumes have been filled, was the sermon upon Free Grace, that had been the occasion of the breach with Whitefield. It is one of the most able and elo- quent of all his discourses ; a triumphant specimen of impassioned argument. ^ Call it by whatever name you please,'^ said he, attacking the Calvinistic doc- trine, ^^ Election, Pretention, rredestination, or Re« probation, it comes to the same thing. The sense is plainly this: by virtue of an eternal, unchangeable, irresistible decree of God, one part of mankind are infallibly saved, and the rest infallibly damned ; it being impossible that any of the former should be damned, or that any of the latter should be saved.'' He proceeded to show, that it made all preaching vain, as needless to the elect, and useless to the re- probate; and, therefore, that it could not be a doc- trine of Gpd, because it makes void his ordinance: that it tended to produce spiritual pride in some, absolute despair in others, and to destroy our zeal for good works : that it made revelation contradicto- ry and useless ; and that it was full of blasphemy, — ^^ of such blasphemy,'' said he, ^as I should dread to mention, but that the honour of our gracious God, and the cause of truth, will not suffer me to be silent. In the cause of God," he pursues, ^^ and from a sin- cere concern for the glory of his great name, I will mention a few of the horrible blasphemies contained in this horrible . doctrine. But first I must warn every one of you that hears, as ye will answer it at the great day, not to charge me, as some have done, with blaspheming, because I mention the blasphemy of others. And Uie more you are grieved with them that do thus blaspheme, see -that ye ^ confirm your love towards them' the more, and that your heart's desire, and continual prayer to God, be, ^ Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do !'
^^ This premised, let it be observed, that this doc- trine represents our blessed Lord, ^ Jesus Christ, the
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righteous, the only4iegotten son of the Father, full ot grace and truth,' as an hypocrite, a deceiver of the people, a man void of common sincerity. For it cannot be denied that he every where speaks as if he were willing that all men should be saved ; there- fore, to say he was not willing that all men should be saved, is to represent him as a mere hypocrite and dissembler. It cannot be denied, that the gracious words which came out of his mouth are full of invi* tations to all sinners ; to say, then. He did not inimd to save all sinners, is to represent him as a gross de- ceiver of the people. You cannot deny that he says, « Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy la- den !' If, then, you say He calls those that cannot come, those whom he knows to be unable to come, those whom he can make able to come, but will not, how is it possible to describe greater instncerily ? — You represent him as mocking his helpless creatures, by offering what he never intends to give. Yoo de- scribe him as saying one thing and meaning another; as pretending the love which he had not Him, in in whose mouth was no guile, you make full of deceit, void of common sincerity: then, especially when drawing nigh the city, he wept over it, and said, ^ 0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, and ye (ifO^^tf xai VIC ff^^orre). Now, if you say they woM^ but he would not^ you represent him (which wm eould hear!) as weeping crocodile tears over the prey which he had doomed to destruction !
«^ Such blasphemy this, as, one would think, might make the ears of a Christian to tingle ! But there is yet more behind ; for, just as it honours the Sen, so doth this doctrine honour the Father. It destroys all his attributes at once: it overturns both his I'os- tice, mercy, and truth.* Yes, it represents the Most Holy Gpd as worse than the devil ; as more false, more cruel,' and more unjust More false, because the devil, liar as he is, hath never said he willeth all mankind to be saved : more unjust, because the de- vil cannot, if he would, be gailtj of such injustice as
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you ascribe to God, when you 6ay, that God con* demned millions of souls to everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and bis angels, for continuing in sin^ which, for want q( that grace ke wiU not give them, they cannot avoid : and more cruel, because that un- happy spirit ' seeketh rest, and findeth none,' so that his own restless misery is a kind of temptation to him to tempt others. But God ^ resteth in his high and holy place ;' so that to suppose him out of his mere motion, of his pure will and pleasure, happy as he is, to doom his creatures, whether they will or not, to endless misery, is to impute such cruelty to him, as we cannot impute even to the great enemy of God and man. It is to represent the Most High God (he that hath ears to hear, let him hear!) as more cruel, false, and unjust than the devil !
^' This is the blasphemy clearly contained in the horrible decree of Predestination. And here I fix my foot. On this I join issue with every asserter of it You represent God as worse than the devil ; more false, more cruel, more unjust. But you say, you will prove it by scripture. Hold ! What will you prove by scripture ? that God is worse than the devil ? It cannot be. Whatever that scripture proves, it ne- ver proves this: whatever be its true meaning, it can- not mean this. Do you ask what is its true meaning then ? If I say, 1 know not, you have gained nothing; for there are many scriptures, the true sense whereof neither you nor 1 shall know, till death is swallowed up in victory. But this I know, better it were to say it had no sense at all, than to say it had such a sense as this. It cannot mean, whatever it mean beside, that the God of truth is a liar. Let it mean what it will, it cannot mean that the Judge of all the world is unjust. No scripture can mean that God is not love, or that his mercy is not over all his works : that is, whatever it prove beside, no scripture can prove Predestination.
^ This is the blasphemy for which I abhor the doc- trine of Predestination j a doctrine, upon the suppo- sition of which, if one could possibly suppose it for a momeat, call it etection, reprobation, or what you
VOL. II. 3b
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(ileas^, (for all comes to the same thing,) one mi^t say to our adversary the devil, ' Thou fool, why dosl thou roar about any longer? Thy lying in wait lor souls is as needless and useless a^ our preacbing.— Hearest thou not^ that God hath taken thj work out of thy hands, and that he doth it niore effectually ? Thou, with all thy principalities and powers, canst Only so assault that we may resist thee ; but he can irresistibly destroy both body and soul in bell ! Thoa canst only entice ; but his unchangeable decree to leave thousands of souls in death, compels them to Continue in sin^ till they drop into everlasting burn- ings. Thou temptest ; he forceth us to be damned, for we cannot resist his will. Thou fool ! why goest thou about any lons^er, seeking whom thou majest devour ? Hearest thou not that God is the devour- ing lion, the destroyer of souls, the naurderer ofmen.' Moloch caused only children to pass through tbe fire^ and that tire was soon quenched ; or, the cor- tuptible body being consumed, its torments were at ^n end ; but God, thou art told, by his eternal de- cree, fixed before they had done good or evil, causes tlot only children of a span )ong,^but the parents alsO) to pass through the -fire of hell ; that fire which ne* ver shall be quenched : and the body which is cast thereinto, being now incorruptible and immortal vi" be ever consuming and never consumed ; but the smoke of their torment, because it is God's good pleasure, ascendeth up for ever.'
♦* Oh, how would the enemy of God and man re- joice to hear these things were so ! How would o^ cry aloud, and spare not ! How would be lift op "^ voice, and say, To your tents, O Israel ! flee f^DJ the face of this God^ or ye shall utterly perish- B«^ Whither will ye flee ! Into heaven ? He is there- Down to hell ? He is there also. Ye cannot flee
from an omnipresent^ almighty tyrant. And whether ve flee or stay, I call heaven, hi? throne, and earth, his footstool, to witness against you : ye shall perish ye shall die eternally ! Sing, O hell^ and rejoicej^ that are under the earth ! for God, even the mm Oodt hath spoken^ and devoted to death tbouBao<<^
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of soqIs, from the risincr of the sun, unto the going down thereof Here, O death, is thy sting ! They shall not, cannot escape, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it Here, O grave, is thy victory ! Na- tions yet unborn, or ever they have done good or evil, are doomed never to see the light of life, but thou shalt gnaw upon them for ever and ever. Let all those morning stars sing together, who fell with Lucifer, sob of the morning ! Let aU the sons of hell shout for joy ; for the decree is past, and who shall annul it?
" Yes ! the decree is past ; and so it was before the foundation of the world. But what decree ? Even this : ^ I will set before the sons of men life and death, blessing and cursing ;' and ^ the soul that chooseth life shall live, as the soul that chooseth death die.^ This decree, whereby whom God ^ did foreknow, he* did predestinate,' was indeed from everlasting : this, whereby all who suffer Christ to make them alive, are ^ elect according to the fore- knowledge of God,' now stand eth fast, even as the moon, and the faithful witness in heaven; and when heaven and earth shall pass away^ yet this shall not pass away, for it is as unchangeable and eternal as the being of God that gave it. This decree yields the strongest encouragement to abound in all good works, and in all holiness ; and it is a well-spring of joy, of happiness also, to our great and endless comf fort. This is worthy of God. It is every way con- sistent with the perfection of his nature. It gives us the noblest view both of his justice, mercy, and truth. To this agrees the whole scope of the C^hrrs- tian Revelation, as well as all the parts thereof To this Moses and all the prophets bear witness; and our blessed Lord, and all his apostles. Thus Moses, in the name of the Lord, ^ I call heaven and earth to record against you this day, that I hav^et before you life and death, blessing and cursinj^herefore' choose life, that thou and thy seed may live.' Thus E^ekiel (to cite one prophet for all,) ' The soul that einneth, it shall die ; the son shall not bear (eternal ly) the iniquity of the father. The righteousness of
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the righteoas shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.' Thus our blessed Lord, ^ If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink !' Thus his great apostle St. Paul, ^ God com- mandeth all men, every where, to repent.' ^U men^ every where ; every man, in every place, without any exception, either of place or person. Thus St James, ^ If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him !' Thus St Peter, 'The Lord is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.' And thus St. John, ' If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father; and he is the propitiation for our sins ; and not for ours only, but tor the sins of the whole world.'
** O hear ye this, ye that forget God ! ye cannot charge your death upon him. ' Havie I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die ? saith the Lord God. Repent and turn from all your transgressions, so iniquity shall not be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have trans* grossed ; for why will ye die, O house of Israel ? For I have no pleasure in the death of him that di- eth, saith the Lord God. Wherefore, turn yourselves, and live ye.' — ^ As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways ; for why will ye die, O house of Israel ?' "
A history of Wesley's life would be imperfect, un- less it contained this m^tnorable passage, — the roost remarkable and the most powerful in all his works. It exasperated, beyond measure, those wbo^ in their own conceit, had taken out their patent of election, and considered themselves, in Mr. Toplady's lan- guage, (himself one of the number,) as ^^ lungs la- co^., travelling, disguised like pilgrims, to their do- minions ^ove." Even temperate Calvinists were shocked ,4ind have said, that Mr. Wesley's ^ horrid appeal to all the devils in hell gave a sort of infernal tone to the controversy." It is, indeed, in a tremen- dous strain of eloquence, and shows with what in- dignation the preacher, in his zeal for God, and in
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his love for his fellow-creatures, regarded a doctrine so injurious to both. In an evil hour did the restless mind of man devise for itself the perilous question of fetalisfh ; and, in a more unhappy one, was it in- ^ troduced into Christian theology. The fathers of our church pcrceiv<ed the danger on both sides, and en* deavoured to keep the golden mean. ^^ All men,^' said they, ^^ be to be monished, and chiefly preachers, that, in this high matter, they, looking on both sides, so attempter and moderate themselves, that neither they so preach the grace of God, that they take away thereby free-will, nor, on the other side, so extol free- will, that injury be done to the grace of God." And in the directions for preachers, which were set forth in the latter years of James I. it was enjoined, ^« that no preacher, of what title soever, under the degree of a bishop, or dean at the least, should, from thence- forth, presume to preach, in any popular auditory, deep points of predestination, election, reprobation, or of the universality, efficacy, resistibility, or irre- sistibility of God*s grace; but leave those themes rather to be handled by learned men, and that mo- derately and modestly, by way of use and applica- tion, rather than by way of positive doctrines, being fitter for the schools than for simple auditories." — The puritans exclaimed against this prohibition, whereby, they said, man made that the forbid- den fruit, which God appointed for the tree of life. But, upon this point, even the popes themselves, in the plenitude of their power, were not able to impose silence.
Wesley had once a whimsical proof of the horror with which the high-flying Calvinists regarded him. One afternoon, on the toad from Newport- Pagnel to Northampton, " I overtook," says he, « a serious man, with whom I immediately fell into conversation. He presently gave me to know what his opinions were ; therefore I said nothing to contradict them But that did not content him ; he was quite uneasy to know whether I held the doctrine of the decrees as he did : but I told him, over and over, we had better keep to practical things, lest we should be an-
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grj at one another. And so we did for two miles, till he caught me unawares, and dragged me into the dispute before 1 knew where I was. He then grew warmer and warmer, told me I was rotten at heart, and supposed I was one of John Weslej's foU lowers. I told him « no, I am John Wesley him* self!' Upon which,
Imprtmsum otipris velvti qvi $tnlihu$ oMiguem Pressity
he would gladly have run away outright ; but being the better mounted of the two, I kept close to bis side, and endeavoured to show him his heart, till we came into the street of Northampton."
CHAPTER XXVL
Wesley's clerical coadjutors.— —mr. grimshaw.—
DR. c LITY.
DR. COKE. — THE GRSEK BISHOP. — WCSLEY's CRBDC-
A FEW years before this final and irreparable breach with the Calvinists, Wesley had attempted to form an open and active union between all such cler- gymen as have more recently arrogated to themselFes the appellation of Evangelical, or Gospel ministers. With this hope he sent round a circular letter, to some fifty ministers of the Church of England, where- in he proposed that, leaving free the disputable points of predestination on one side, and perfection on the other ; laying no stress upon expressions, and binding themselves to no peculiar discipline, but some re- maining quite regular, others quite irregular; and others, again, partly the one and partly the other, they should think and speak kindly of each other, form, as it were, a defensive league, and each help the other on in his work, and enlarge his influence by
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&U rightfal means. If any thing more were meant by this than that each should occasionally accommodate the others with his pulpit, and that they should coun- tenance his itinerant lay-preachers, the meaning is not obvious. On this occasion, also, Mr. Wesley looked for an omen, and relates, with evident com^- placency, at the end of the letter, that, one of his friends having objected to him the impossibility of effecting such an union, he went up stairs, and, after H little prayer, opened Kempis on these words : Expecia Vomnum ; viriiiter age ; noli diffidere ; noH dis^ eedere ; sed corpus et tmimam expone constanter pro gloria Dei.
The greater part of the methodizing clergy ad«» hered to Lady Huntingdon's party in the dispute. Among those who remained attached to Mr. Wesley, Vincent Perronet, the vicar of Shoreham, was one, who was, either by birth or extraction, a Swiss, and who, in the Romish church, would have been beati- fied or canonized, for what, in mystical language, would be called his rapts^ as well as for the uniform piety of his life. William Grimshaw, who held the perpetual curacy of Haworth, in one of the wildest parts of the West Riding, was a more active asso- ciate. In his unconverted state, this person was certainly insane ; and, had he given utterance at that time to the monstrous and horrible imaginations, which he afterwards revealed to his spiritual friends, fae would deservedly have been sent to Bedlam. His change of mind, which was not till he had been ten years in holy orders, was preceded by what he sup- posed to be a miraculofls impression upon his senses, and which may possibly have been an electrical^ or galvanic effect: and, in the course of his ministry,
^ Mr. Joseph Williams, of Kidderminster, relates the fact from Orimshaw's own testimony. ** At last the time of his deliverance came. At the house of one of his frieods he lays his hand on a book, and opens it with his face towards a pewter shelf. Instantly his face is saluted with an uncommon flash of heat. He turns to the title-page, and finds it to be Dr. Owen on Justification. Immediately he is surprised with such another fiash. He borrows the book, studies it, is led into Gk)d^ method of justifying the ungodly, hath a new heart given him, and now» behold, he pr^yeth 1"
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he was favoured with a vision in a trance; that is to say, he mistook* delirium for reality. He became, however, a very zealous parish priest ; and his oddi- ties, which procured him the name of Mad Grint- shaw, did not prevent him from being very useful among a set of parishiofiers, who are said to have been as wild as the bleak barren country which they inhabited, and to have had little more sense of reli- gion than their cattle.
The parish contained four hamlets, in each o£ which he made it a rule to preach three times a month, partly for the sake of the old and in6rm, but chiefly for those who scarcely ever attended the church because of the distance. As he found that people were willing to hear him, he extended his preaching into his neighbour's parishes, without trou- bling himself to ask the consent of the minister, or caring whether he liked it or not. In this way he established two circuits of his own, which he went round every fortnight: in the more populous, he preached from four-and-twenty to thirty times in the week; and, in the other, about half as often, wbere^^ fore he called this his idle week. While he was at home, he had a morning meeting for prayer and ex^ hortation at his own house, at five o'clock in the summer, and at six in winter. At church he would stop in the midst of the prayers, if he saw any person inattentive, and rebuke the offender; and, while the psalms were singing before sermon, he would $to out to see if any persons were idling in the cbtir<^ yard, or in the street, or in the alehouses^ and drive as many as he could find inlcf the church before him. These were not the only means which he used for bringing his parishioners into order. Having taken up the dismal puritanical nolion, that it is sinful to walk in the fields for recreation on the Sabbath day, he would set out himself, in order to reprove such persons as he detected in the fact. This odd hu-
* Th« case seems to have been an apoplectic affection of Uic a&ig^itest kind: the detail may be seen in his life by Mr. Myles (p. 14.) aspraa by binaself to Mr. Williams, of Kidderminster. A more remarkable case of the same kind is noticed in the Quarterly Review, vol. x* pp. 117, IM.
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MR. GRIMSHAW. 289
mour led him also, like the Caliph Haroan Alraschid, in the Arabian Tales, to go out in disguise, and see in what manner his instructions were observed, and how far the people were, in reality, what they made themselves appear to him. Thus he went to the door of a great professor of charity, and begged a night's lodging, in the character of a poor t&aij, and was turned away with abuse. And he teased a purblind woman, by touching her repeated- ly with a stick, like a mischievous boy, till, taking him for' one, and finding threats insufficient, she gave her tongue the reins, and began to swear, r^ either of these were fair trials : but discretion was no part of his character. Such, however, was the i effect which he produced by his zeal, his vigilance, and his real worth, that a man who, being on his way for a midwife one Sunday, wanted his horse shod in the village, could not prevail upon the black- smith to do the job, till they had gone together to Mr. Grimshaw, and he had granted permission, being satisfied of the necessity of the case. And it was believed, long after his death, that he had put a stop to the races at Haworth by his prayers, because, when he had often and vainly attempted to dissuade the people fi-om subscribing and promoting these meetings, for the benefit of the publicans, he prayed at length that the Lord would be pleased to put a stop to the evil proceedings in his own way, a heavy rain during the whole three days spoiled the sport, and, after that time, the mischievous custom was not revived.
Grimshaw entered entirely into Mr. Wesley^s views, acted as assistant in the circuit wherein he resided, and attended the Conference every third year, when it was held at Leeds. When Whitefield or Wesley came to visit him, a scaffold was erected for them in the church-yard, the church not being large enough to hold the concourse that assembled. Prayers, therefore, were read in the church, the preaching was in the open air, and the sacrament was after- terwards administered to successive congregations, one church-full after another. Whitefield happened,
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in one of his sermons, to speak as if he believed bts hearers had profited much by the exertions of the faithful pastor who had so long laboured among them : but Grimshaw stood up, and interrupted him imme- diatelj, saying, with a loud voices *'* Oh, Sir, for God's sake do not speak so ! I pray you, do not flatter them : I fear the greater part of them are going to hell with their eyes open/' His admiration of the itinerants was very great; his house was their home, they preached in his kitchen, and he always gave notice at church when this was to be ; and, that ttmir flock might not be scattered after his death, when a more . regular and less zealous minister should succeed him, he built a chapel and dwelling>house at his own ex- pense, and settled it upon the Methodist plan. He not only received the preachers as his guests^ but a^ many visitors as his house would hold ; giving up his own bed, and sleeping, unknown to them, in the hay- loft. No office api)eared to him too humble on such occasions, — no mark of respect too great for a suc- cessful preacher of the Gospel. He was once found cleaning the boots of an itinerant : once hd etnbraced a preacher after his sermon, and said, ^^ the Lord bless thee, Ben, this is worth a hundred of my ser- mons!^' aud he fell down before another, saying, be Was not worthy to stand in his presence* The only son of this singular man was educated at Kingswood, and became a drunkard, ^^ notwithstanding he had been favoured with a religious education,^^ says his father's biographer, " and had been prayed for by some of the holiest men in the land." The severe and injudicious system under which he had suffered at school, and the eccentricities which he bad seen at home, may easily explain the vronder. The poor fellow^ however, had a sense of his own worthless- ness and degeneracy ; and when he was riding faome^ in a state of intoxication, would sometimes say to his horse, the one which Grimshaw had ridden upon his tircuits, ** Once ifiou carried a saint, but now thou car*^ riest a devil." Disease and strong pain, the bitted Consequences of his course of life, brought him to re* l^entance and to the grave; and some of his last
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DR. COKE. 291
words were, ^\ what will my father say, when he sees that I am got to heaven V^
Of the few clergymen who entered into Mr. Wes» ley's views, and heartily co-operated with him, Mp. Grimshaw was the most eccentric ; Mr. Fletcher the most remarkable for intellectual powers; the one who entered most entirely into the affairs of the So- ciety was Thomas Coke. This person, who held so distinguished a place among the Methodists, and by whose unwearied zeal, and inde&tigable exertions, that spirit, which Mr. Wesley hnd kindled in England, was extended to the remotest parts of the world, was born at Brecknock, in the year 1747, the only child of respectable and wealthy parents. The father died during his childhood, and the youth, in his se- venteenth year, was entered as a gentleman com-t moiier at Jesus' College, Oxford. He escaped from^ the university with ffewer vices than in those days were generally contracted there; but he brought away a taint of that philosophical infidelity which was then beginning to infect half-learned men. The works of Bishop Sherlock reclaimed him : he enterr ed into holy orders, and being in expectation of some considerable preferment, took out his degree of docr tpr of laws. The disappointment which he experi- enced from certain persons in power, to whom he bad looked as patrons, was of little consequence to him, being possessed of a fair patrimony. He accepts ed the curacy of South-Petherton, in Somersetshire, and entered upon the duties of his office with more (ban ordinary zeai* His preaching soon 6lled the church ; more room was wanting for the ootigrega- tion ; and, as the vestry would not be persuaded to erect a gallery, he built one at his own expense. This, and the style of his discourses, raised a suspicion that he was inclined to Methodism. The growing inclination was strengthened by conversation with Maxfield, who happened then to be residing in the neighbourhood, and confirmed by the perusal of *4ileine's Alarum to the Unconverted. He now
* " A book, which multitudes will hare caoae for ever to be thankful jtor,^' says Calamy. *' No book in the English toi^ue (the Bible except-
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292 WESLEY^B CLERICAL COADJUTORS.
Kreacbed extemporaneously, established evening ^ctures, and introduced hymns into the church; but, by thus going on faster than the parishioners were prepared to foUovr, he excited a strong spirit of opposition ; complaints against him were prefer- red to the bishop and to the rector : the former mere- ly admonished him; by the latter he was dismissed in a manner which seems to have been studiously disrespectful, before the people publicly, on the Sabbath day : and his enemies had the indecency to chime him out of the church. These insults roused bis Welsh blood, and he determined, with more spi- rit than prudence, to take his stand near the charch on the two following Sundays, and preach to the pecH pie when they came out, for the purpose of vindicat- ing himself, gratifying his adherents, and exhorting his opponents to repentance. These, who were pro- bably the more numerous, were so provoked at this^ that they collected stones^ for the purpose of peltii^ him, on his second exhibition ; and the Doctor would hardly have escaped, without some serious injury, if a young lady and her brother, whom the people knew and respected, had not placed themselves (Hie on each side of him. He now took the earliest op* portunity of being introduced to Wesley. The lat- ter soon came into Somersetshire in his rounds, and thus notices the meeting in his Journal : ^' Here I found a clergyman, Dr. Coke, late a gentleman com- moner of Jesus' College, in Oxford, who came twenty miles on purpose to meet me. I had much coover* sation \^itii him ; and an union then began, which, I trust, shall never end.''
This was in the year 1776. Dr. Coke immediate- ly became a member of the Methodist society, and was soon regarded as the. most efficient of all Mr. Wesley's fellow-labourers. Having wholly given
•d) can equal it for the number that hath been dispersed ; for there hare been 20,000 of them printed and sold under the title of the Call, or Alarum to the Unconv^erted, in 8vo. or I%mo.; and 50,000 of the same book have been sold under the title of the Sure Guide to Heaven, S0,00O of which were at one impression.'*-— Aeeount of the Ejected MinisiBrB, VOL ii. 677. ^
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TfiNDENCT TO SCHISM. 293
himself up to the Connexion, the second place in it was naturally assigned to him ; no other of its active members was possessed of equal fortune and rank in society; and all that he had, his fortune, to every shilling, and his life, to every minute that could be employed in active exertions, were devoted to its interests. He was now considered ad Mr. Wesley^s more immediate representative; and, instead of be- ing stationed, like the other preachers, in a circuit, he travelled, like Mr. Wesley, as a general inspec- tor, wherever his presence was thought needful. In Ireland, more particularly, he visited the Societies alternately with Mr. Wesley, so that an annual visi- tation was always made. Before Mr. Wesley be- came acquainted with Dr. Coke, Mr. Fletcher had been looked to as the fittest person to act as his co- adjutor, and succeed to as much of his authority as could be deputed to any successor. But Mr. Fletch- er shrunk from the invidious distinction, and from the difficulties of the task: he had found his place, and knew where he could be most usefully employ- ed for others, and most happily for himself.
The want of clerical assistants had been severely felt by Wesley. Notwithstanding his attachment to the (Jhurch of England, and his desire not only to continue in union with it himself, but to preserve his people from forming a schism, the tendency to sepa- ration became every year more apparent, from vari- ous causes, of which some were incidental, but others arose inevitably from the system which he had esta- blished. A hostile feeling toward the Church was retained by the dissenters who united themselves to the Methodists : these proselytes were not numerous, but they leavened the society. It is likely too, that, as Methodism began to assume consistency and im- portance, just at the time v\hen the Non-jurors were on the point of dissolution, a considerable proportion of that party would rather ally themselves with it, than with the sectarians or the Establishment ; and these persons hIso would bring with them an unfa- vourable disposition toward the church. But the main cause is obviously to be found in the growing
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294 THE GREBK BISHOP.
inflaence of the laj-preachers, their jealousy of the few clergymen who acted with them, their natural desire of placing themselves upon a level with the ministers of other denominations, and the disrespect with which the Establishment began to be reganded by most of those persons who preferred the preach- ing at the chapel to that in the church. And though Wesley often and . earnestly warned them against this, neither his language nor his conduct were at all tim^s consistent. In controversy, and in self-defence, he was sometimes led to speak of the unworthy mi- nisters of the Establishment in terms of indignation, not considering that his remarks would be generally applied by many of his followers.
The growing desire of the itinerants to raise them- selves in rank, and of the societies to have the sa^ crament administered by their own pceachers, indu- ced Wesley, who, in the continual bustle of his life, sometimes acted without due consideration, to take the strange means of obtaining orders for some of his lay-assistants from a Greek, who called himself Erasmus, and appeared in London with the title of Bishop of Arcadia. This measure was, in every point of view, injudicious. Charles was decidedly hostile to it, and would never allow the preachers who had been thus ordained to assist him at the com- munion table. Staniforth was one; and he foqnd it so invidious among his colleagues, that he never thought proper to exercise the ministerial functions. On the other hand, some, both of the local and itine- rant preachers, coveted the distinction, and prevail- ed upon the obliging bishop to lay hif^ hands upon them, without Mr. Wesley^s consent Displeased at this disregard of his authority, he acted with his wonted decision, and at once excluded from the Connexion those w^ho would not forego the powers with which they supposed themselves to be invested. It was doubtful whether this Erasmus* was what he
* Toplady saw a aertlAcate given by this vagrant, as he calb him, to the persons whom he pretended to ordain. It confirmed him in his opt- nion that the man was an impostor, because it was written, not in the «•©- dern Qreek, but in the ancieot, and of a very mean sort This it tfio
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tBE GREEK BISHOP. 235
jpt'etended to be ; and the whole transaction gave Wesley's enemies an oppprtunity of attacking nim, which they did not fail to use. They charged him with having violated the oath of supremacy, by thus inducing a foreign prelate to exercise acts of ecdle- Biastical jurisdiction within this realm ; and they alleged that he had even pressed the Greek to con- secrate him a bishop also, that he might then ordain what Ministers he pleased. Erasmus was said to have riefused, because, according to the canons of the Greek Church, tnore than one bishop must be present to assist at the consecration of a new one. Charles Wesley was even accused, in the Gospel Magazine, of having offered the Greek forty gui- neas, if he would perform the ceremony. This is palpably false ; nothing can be so incredible as that Charles Wesley wouLd have made such an offer, except that a bishop of Arcadia in London should have refused it. The charge of simony is beyond all doubt, purely calumnious, in the spirit of that slander which the Gospel Magazine breathed in all its numbers. But there seems reason to believe that Wesley was willing to have been episcopized upon this occasion.
Both brothers retained the fancy of baptising by immersion, after they had out-grown many other ec- centricities ; and Wesley followed this mode some-
translation : '* Our measure from the grace, gift, and power of the all* holy and life-giving Spirit, given by our Saviour Jesus Christ to his di- vine and holy apostfes, to ordain sub-deacons and deacons, and also Jo advance to the dignity of a priest ! Of this grace, which hath descend- ed to our humility, I have ordained sub-deacon and deacon, at Snow- fields Chapel, on the 19th day of Nov. 1764, and at West-street Chapel, on the 24th dav of the same month, priest, the Rev. Mr. W. C, accord- ing to the rules of the holy apostles and of our faith. Moreover, I have given to him power to minister and teach, in all the world, the gos- pel of Jesus Christ) no one forbidding him in tiie church of God. Where fore, for that very purpose, I have made this present letter of recom- mendation from our humility, and have given it to the ordained Mr. W. C. for his, certificate and security.
** Given add written at London, in Britain, Nov. 94, 1764.
'* ERASMts, Bishop of Arcadia.'*
Mr. Nightingale says, that in<iuiry concerning him was made of th€ patriarch of Smyrna, and that it appeared he really, was Bishop of Ar- cadia, in Crete.
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296 CRAZY ENTauSIASTS.
times in condescension to the whims of others, when he bad ceased lo attach any importance to it, and must have perceived the exceeding inconvenience of the practice. One of the charges which the Fira* lent Toplad)r brought against him was, thatof haviog immersed a certain Lydia Sheppard, in a bathing tub, in a cheesemonger's cellar m Spitalfields, and holding her so long under water, while he deliberate- ly pronounced the words of administration, t^at she was almost insensible when she was taken oat Tbe story was related on her own authority, which proba- biy was not the best in the world. But Wesley s icourse of life brought him into contact with persons under every disease of mind, and in all the interme- diate stages between madness and roguery. Crazj people, indeed, found their way to him as com- monly as they used to do to court, though with less mischievous intention. They generally went io a spirit of pure kindness, to enlighten him, and correct his errors.
Two ignorant dreamers, while the French pro- phets had a party in this country, called upon himat the Foundrv, saying, they were sent from God to in- form him, that very shortly he should be ior/iWagain; and they added, that they would stay in tbe house till it was done, unless he turned them out. Wesley knew how to deal with such prophets as these j be assured them that he would not turn them oat, showed them into the Society room, and left tbeai to themselves. " ft was tolerably cold," he says, " and they had neither meat nor drink." There, however, they sate from morning till evening, then quietly walked off, and troubled him with their com- pany no more.
A woman came to him one day, with a message from the Lord, she said, to tell him he was laying «P treasures on earth, taking his ease, and minding^" X eating and drinking. "I told her,'' savfl be, ^'^oj knew me better ; and, if he had sent ner, jJ.J'^j. have been with a more proper message." Tbei notion, that he was enriching himself, P^^^rf, among persons who might easily have known pe '
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INFIDELS— Wesley's state oi* doubt. 297
ter. He received a letter from the Board of Ex- cise, telling him the commissioners could not doubt but that he had plate, for which he had neglected to make an entry, and requiring him immediately to make a proper return. His answer was, " Sir, I have two silver tea-spoons* at London, and two at Bristol : this is all the plate which I have at present ; and I shall not buy any more, while so many round me want bread."
In the beginning of his career, Wesley perceived that there was more danger of the growth of infide- lity than of superstition ; and this opinion was con- firmed by his after-experience. He discovered, in the beautiful vale of Lorton, that Deism had found its way into the heart of the Cumbrian mountains; and near Manchester he found, what he had never heanjUof in England, a whole clan of infidel pea- sants, who had been scoffed and argued out of their belief, by the vulgar ribaldry and impudent igno- rance of an ale-house keeper. Of the persons whom he met with in this unhappy state of mind, some were contented to live without God in the world, and be as the beasts that perish, as if they had succeeded in annihilating their diviner part. But others con- fessed the misery of wandering in doubt and dark- ness. One who, having been a zealous Romanist, had cast off* Popery and Christianity together, said to him, ^^ I know there is a God, and I believe him to be the soul of all, the anima muncli ; if he be not ra- ther, as t sometimes think, the To n«v the whole rom- pc^es of body and spirit every where diffused. But further than this I know not ; all is dark ; my thought is lost. Whence I came, I know not ; nor what, nor why, 1 am ; nor whither I am going. But this I know, I am unhappy ; I am weary of life ; I wish it were at an end."
For men in this pitiable state Wesley was an ex- cellent physician, and he had not unfrequently the satisfaction of knowing, that his advice was not given in vain. He himself had gone through this stage of doubt in early life, and has described the perplexity of his mind with great force and feeling.
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298 Wesley's credulity.
« After carefully heaping up," he says, " the strong- est arguments which I could find either in ancient or modern authors, for the very being of a God, and (which is nearly connected with it) tlie existence of an invisihie world, I have wandered up and down musing with myself, what if all thet^e things which I see around me, this earth and lieaven, this uni- versal frame, have existed from eternity ? What if that melancholy supposition of the old poet be the real case ?
Oil} TTifi ^vKKtav y&ftti rotrii'i kou avi^an.
What if the generation of men be exactly parallel with the generation of leaves, if the earth drop its successive inhabitarits, just as the tree drops its leaves ? What if that saying of a great man be really true, Post mortem nihil est^ ei ipsa mors tiihiL — Death is nothing, and nothing is after death. How am I sure that this is not the case ? that I have not * followed cunningly-devised fables ?' And I have pursued the thought till there was no spirit in me, and I was ready to choose strangling rather than life."*
On the other hand, there could not be a more dan- gerous counsellor for persons with a certain tenden- cy to derangement, for he seems always to have de- lighted to believe, extraordinary thirjgs which he ought to have* doubted, and to have encouraged sallies of enthusiasm which he ought to have re- pressed. Thus, speaking of a lady who exhibited
* Wesley introduced a remarkable passage of this kind in one of liis sermons. " The devil," said he, ** once infused into my miod a tempta- tion that, perhaps, \ didnot believe what I was preaching. * ^VeH, (hen/ liaid I. * I will preacii it till I do.' But, the devil suggested, ' what if it should not be true ?' * Still,' I replied, * I will preach it, because, whe- ther true or not, it roust be pleasing to God, by preparing men better for another world.' * But what if there should 'be no other world?' re- join«'d the Enemy. ' I will go on preaching it,' said I, * because it is the way to make them better and ha))pier in this.' " This passage is not in Mr. Wesley's works, but I relate it, with perfect confidence, on the au- thority of the late Dr. Estlin, of Bristol, wno heard him preach the ser- mon, and whom I will ncU thus cursorily mention, without an expression of respectful remembrance.
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Wesley's credulity. 299
before him her gift of extenipore prayer, he say9, " such a prayer I never heard before ; it was per- fectly an original; odd and unconnected, made tfp of disjointed fragments, and yef like a flame of fire : every sentence went through my heart, and I believe the heart of every one present. For many months I have found nothifig like it. It was good for me to be here." Arid again, after a sepond performance, he reasons upon the case, "Is not this an instance of ten thousand, of God's choosing the foolish things of the world to confound the wise ? Here is one that has not only a weak natural understanding, but an impetuosity of temper, bordering upon madness* And hence both her sentiments are confused, and her expressions odd and indigested ; and yet, not* withstanding this, more of the real power of God attends these uncouth expressions, than the sensible discourses of even good men, who have twenty times her understamling." The wonder would have ceased, if he had reflected upon the slate of mind in the re- cipients.
Here he was the dupe of his own devout emotions, which, in a certain mood, might as well have been excited by the mnsic of an organ, or the warbling of a sky-lark. But he was sometimes imposed upon by relations which were worthy to have figured in the Acta Sanctorum. One of his preachers pretetided to go through the whole service of the meeting in his sleep, exhorting, singing, and preaching, and even discoursing with a clergyman, who came in and rea- soned with him during his exhibition, and affecting, in the morning, to know nothing of what he had done during the night. And Wesley could believe this, and ask seriously by what principle of philosophy it was to be explained ! He believed also that a young woman, having received a strong impulse to call sin- ners to repentance, was inwardly told, that if she Would not do it willingly, she should do it whether she would or not : that from that time she became subject to fits, in which she always imagined herself to be preaching ; and that having cried out at fast, Lord, I will obey thee, I will call sinners to repen-
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300 WESLEY^S CREDULITY.
tance, and begun to preach in Consequence, the fib left her. In the history of this remarkable man, no- thing is more remarl^able than his voracious credu- lity. He accredited and repeated stories of appa- ritions, and witchcraft, and possession, so silly, as well as monstrous, that they might have nauseated the coarsest appetite for wonder ; this, too, when the belief on his part was purely gratuitous, and no mo- tive can be assigned for it, except the pleasure of believing. The state of mind is more intelligible, which made him ascribe a supernatural importance to the incidents that befel him, whether merely acci- dental, or produced by any effort of his own. Strong fancy, and strong prepossession, may explain this, without ascribing too much to the sense of his own importance. If he escaped from storms at sea, it ap-
!)eared to him that the tempest abated, and the waves i*ll, because his prayers were heard. If he was en- dangered in travelling, he was persuaded that aogels, both evil and good, had a large share in the transac- tion. " The old murderer,'' he says, " is restrained from hurting me, but he has power over my horses.'^ A panic seized the people, in a crowded meeting, while he was preaching upon the slave trade: it could not be accounted for, he thought, without sup-
I)Osin^ some preternatural influence : ^ Satan fought, est his kingdom should be delivered up.'' If, in rid- ing over the mountains in Westmoreland, he sees rain behind him and before, and yet escapes between the showers, the natural circumstance appears to him to be an especial interference in his favour. Preach- ing in the open air, he is chilled, and the sun sud- denly comes forth to warm him : the heat becomes too powerful, and forthwith a cloud is interposed. — So, too, at Durham, when the sun shone with such force upon his head, that he was scarcely able to speak, ^' I paused a little," he says, «^ and desired God would provide me a covering, if it was for his glory. In a moment it was done ; a cloud covered the sun, which troubled me no more. Ought volun- tary humility to conceal this palpable proof, that God still heareth the prayer ?" At another time the son,
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Wesley's credulity. 301
while he was officiating, shone full in his face, hut it was no inconvenience ; nor were his ejes more daz- zled, than if it had been under the earth. Labour- ing under indisposition, when he was about to admi- nister the sacrament, the thought, he says, came into his mind, ^^ why should he not apply to God at the beginning, rather than the end of an illness ?'' He did so, and found immediate relief. By an effort of faith he could rid himself of the tooth-ach : and more than once, when his horse fell lame, and there was no other remedy, the same application was found effectual. ^* Some," he observes, ^ will esteem this a most notable instance of enthusiasm : be it so or not, I aver the plain fact."
This was Wesley's peculiar weakness, and he re- tained it to the last. Time and experience taught him to correct some of his opinions, and to moderate others, but this was rooted in his nature. In the year 1780, he began to publish the Arminian Magazine, for the double purpose of maintaining and defending those doctrines which were reviled with such abomi- nable scurrility by the Calvinists in their monthly * jounial, and of supplying his followers, who were not in the habit of reading much, with an entertaining
* In the preface to the first rolume he says, '* Amidst the multitude of magazioes which now swarm in the world, there was one^ a few years ago, termed the Christian Magazine, which was of great use to mankind, and did honour to the publishers ; but it was toon discontinued, to the regret of many serious and sensible persons. In the room of it started up a miscreated phantom, called The Spiritual Magazine ; and, not long after it, its twin sister, oddly called The Gospel Magazine. Both of these are intended to show, that God is not loving to every man ; that his mer- cy is nut over all his works; and, consequently, that Christ did not die for us all, but for one in ten, for the elect only.
'* This comfortable doctrine, the sum of which, proposed in plain English, is, God, before the foundation of the world, absolutely and irre- vocably decreed, that * some men shall be saved, do what they will, and the rest damned, do what they can,' has, by these tracts, been spread throughout the land with the utmost diligence. And these champions of it have, from the beKinning, proceeded in a manner worthy of their cause. They have paid no more regard to good nature, decency, or good manners, than to reason or truth : all these they set utterly at de-' fiance. Without any deviation from tlieir plan, they have defended their dear decrees, with arguments worthy of Bedlam, aod with language worthy of Billingsgate."
These were the first religious journals which were published in Eng- land. Since that time every denomination of dissenters, down to the most insignificant subdivisions of schism, has had its magazine. .
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302 METHODISM IN A»ffiRiCA*
and useful miscellany. Both purees were wett answered ; but having this means at his command, be indulged his indiscriminate credulity, and inserted, without scruple, and without reflection, any maryel- lous tale that came to bis hands.
CHAPTER XXVIL
METHODISM IN AMERICA. WESLfiY^S POLITICAL
CONDUCT.
A LITTLE modification might have rendered Me* thodism a most useful auxiliary to the English Church. But if some such auxiliary power was needed in this country, much more was it necessary in British America, where the scattered state of the population was as little favourable to the interests of religion as of government
In the New-England states, the Puritans had esta- blished a dismal tyranny of the priesthood ; time and circumstances had mitigated it ; and ecclesias^ tical discipline, in those provinces, seems nearly to have reached its desirable mean about the middle of the eighteenth century : the elders no longer exer- cised an impertinent and vexatious control over their countrymen ; they retained, however, a wholesome influence ; the means of religious instruction were carefully provided, and the people were well trained up in regular and pious habits. Too little attention had been paid to this point in other states ; indeed it may be said, that the mother country, in this re- spect, had grossly * neglected one of its first and
* Franklin gives a curious anecdote upon this subject io ooe of his letters. ** The reverend ciimmissary Blair, who projected the coUege in the province of Virginia, and was in England to solicit benefactions and a cnarter, relates that the queen (Mary,) in the king's absence, bav* ing ordered the Attorney Gj-neral (Seymour) to draw up the charter which was to be given, with £2000 in money, he opposed the grant, saying, that the nation was engaged in an expensive war, that the money
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most important duties toward its colonies. There were many parts in the southern states, of which the frightful picture given of them by Seeker, when bishop of Oxford, was not overcharged. " The first European inhabitants,^' said that prelate, '' too many of them, carried but little sense of Christianity abroad with them. A great part^ of the rest suftered it to wear out gradually, and their children grew, of course, to have yet less than they, till, in some coun- tries, there were scarce any footsteps of it left be- yond the mere name. No teacher was known, no religious assembly was held ; the sacrament of bap- tism not administered for near twenty years together, nor that of the Lord's Supper for near sixty, amongst many thousands of people, who did not deny the ob- ligation of these duties, but lived, nevertheless, in a stupid neglect of them." To remedy this, the So- ciety for the Propagation of the Gospel sent out mis- sionaries from time to time : but misdirecting their exertions, for want of pj^oper inquiry, or proper in- formation, they employed most of the few labourers whom they could find in the states where they were least wanted, and in places where they did little more than interfere with what was the established system.
Whitefield had contented himself with the imme- diate impression which he produced. The person who first began to organize Methodism in America was an Irishman, by name Philip Embury, who had been a local preacher in his own country. Having removed to New- York, he collected a few hearers, first in his own house, and, when their number in- creased, in a large room, which they rented for the Eurpose. Captain Webb happened at this time to e in America. This officer, who had lost an eye. in
was wanted for better purposes, and he did not see the )east occasiop for a college in Virginia. Blair represented to him, that its intention WAS to educate and qualify young men to he ministers of the Gospel, muoh wanted there ; and begged Mr. Attorney woiiU consider, that th« people of Virginia bad souls to be saved as well as the people of Eng- lana. Souls ! said he, damn your souls ! make tobacco /*'
Cerreapondence, toI. i. p. 19S-
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304 METHODISM IN AMERICA.
the battle of Quebec, had been converted, not long after that event, by Mr. Wesley's preaching at Bris- tol, and had tried his own talents as a preacher at Bath, when some accident prevented the itinerant from arriving, whom the congregation had assembled to hear. Webb hearing of Emburj's beginning, paid him a visit from Albany, where he then held the ap- pointment of barrack-master, preached in his uni- form, attracted auditors by the novelty of such an exhibition, and made proselytes by his zeal. A re- gular society was formed in the year 1768, and they resolved to build a preaching-house.
Wesley's attention had already been invited to America. He met with a Swedish chaplain, who had spent several years in Pennsylvania, and who entreated that he would send out preachers to help him, representing what multitudes in that country were as sheep without a shepherd. Soon afterwards Captain Webb and his associates wrote to Mr. Wes- ley, informing him that a beginning had been made, and requesting that he would, at the ensuing Confer- ence, appoint some persons to come over, and pro- secute the work which was so providentially begun. About the same time there came a letter from a cer* tain Thomas Bell, at Charlestown, saying, ^ Mr. Wesley says, the first message of the preachers is to the lost sheep of England. 'And are there none in America ? They have strayed from England into the wild woods here, and they are running wild after this world. They are drinking their wine in bowls, and are jumping and dancing, and serving the devil, in the groves and under the green trees. And are not these lost sheep? And will none of the preachers come here ? Where is Mr. Brownfield ? Where is John Pawson ? Where is Nicholas Manners ? are they living, and will they not come ?"
Pawson would not go ; because, he said, he did not see that it could be his duty to leave his parents, who were then on the brink of the grave. He follow- ed his heart in this, and was right. Pawson, indeed, was in his proper sphere ; the fire of enthusiasm in him had settled into a steady vital heat, and there
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were jounger men for the work. Richard Boardman and Joseph Pilimoor, volunteered at the next Con- ference for the service ; and, as the New- York Me- thodists had contracted a debt by their building, the Connexion sent them fifty pounds by these preachers, as a token of brotherly love. They landed at Phila- delphia, where Captain Webb had already formed a society of about a hundred members. Pilimoor pro- ceeded to Maryland and Virginia, Boardman to New- York: both sent home flattering accounts of their success, and of the prospect before them ; so that Wesley himself began to think of following them : *^ but," said he, " the way is not plain ; I wait till Providence shall speak more clearly on one side or the other." In 177 1 he says, " my call to America is not yet clear. I have no business there, as long as they can do without me : at present I am a debtor to the people of England and Ireland, and especially to them that believe. That year, therefore, he sent over Richard Wright and Francis Asbury, the latter of whom proved not inferior to himself in zeal, ac- tivity, and perseverance. Asbury perceived that his ministry was more needed in the villages and scattered plantations than in large towns, and he therefore devoted himself to c!ountry service. In 1773, Thomas Rankin and George Shadford were sent to assist their brethren : by this time they had raised a few recruits among the Americans, and, holding a Conference at Philadelphia, it appeared by their muster-rolls, that there were about a thou- sand members in the different societies.
These preachers produced a considerable effect ; and Methodism would have increased even more ra- pidly than in England, if its progress had not been interrupted by the rebellion. At the commencement of the disputes, which led to that unhappy and ill- managed contest, Mr. Wesley was disposed to doubt whether the measures of government were defensi- ble : but when the conduct of the revolutionists be- came more violent, and their intentions were unmask- ed, he saw good cause for altering his opinion, an^l
VOL. !!• 39
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3Q6 Wesley^s folitical conduct.
published ^ A Calm Address to the Americans/ ex* amining the question, nvhether the English parlia- ment had power to tax the colonies. In this little pamphlet he pursued the same chain of reasoning as Dr. Johnson bad done, and maintained, that the su- preme power in England had a legal right of lajing any tax upon them, for any end beneficial to the whole empire. The right of taxation, be argued, rested upon the same ground as the right of legisla- tion : and the popular argument, that every freeman consented to tne laws by which he was governed, was a mere fallacy. A very small part of the peo- ple were concerned in making laws ; that business could only be done by delegation ; those who were not electors had manifestly no part; and of those who were, when their votes were nearly equally di- vided, the minority were governed, not only without, but against their own consent. So much with regard to the laws which were enacted in their own times; and how could it be said that any man had consent- ed to those which were made before he was bom ? In fact, consent to the laws was purely passive, and no other kind of consent was allowed by the condi- tion of civil life. The Americans had not forfeited the rights of their forefathers, but they could no lon- ger exercise them. They were the descendants of men who either had no votes, or who had resigned them by emigration. They had, therefore, exactly what their ancestors lefl them ; n&t a vote in making laws, nor in choosing legislators, but the happiness of being protected by laws, and the duty of obeying them. During the last war, they had been attacked by enemies whom they were not able to resist; they had been largely assisted, and, by that means, wholly delivered : the mother-country, desiring to be reim- bursed for some part of the great expense she had incurred, laid on a small tax, and this reasonable and legal measure had set all America in a flame. How was it possible that such a cause should have pro- duced such an effect ?
** I will tell you," said Wesley. ^ I speak the more freely, because 1 am unbiassed. I have nothiDg to
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?. I gain nothing, either he Americans, and proba- e no prejudice to any man s my brethren and coun« Is : we have a few men in led enemies to monarchy, •sent Majesty on any other a king, 1 know not; but e, and have for some years ill diligence, in hopes of heir dear commonwealth, ley have let very few into ' forward it, without know- r) ; but they are steadily ther means, so, in particu- 8, which are industriously throughout the towns and hey have already wrought even to the pitch of mad- varied according to your kewise inflamed America. very men are the original ■^ch betweep England and 1 3 still pouring oil into the each against the other, ty of pretences, all mea-
sures ot accommuurtiiv.-J ^ . that although the Ameri- cans, in general, love the English, and the English, in general, love the Americans, (all, I mean, that are not yet cheated and exasperated by these artful men,) yet the rupture is growing wider every day, and none can tell where it can end. These good men hope it will end in the total defection of North America from Ji-ngland. If this were effected, they trust the English in general would be so irreconcileably disgusted, that they should be able, with or without foreign as- sistance, entirely to overturn the government/'
Mr. Wesley afterwards perceived, that the class of persons, whom be had here supposed to be the prime movers of this unhappy contest, were only aiders and abettors, and that the crisis had come on from natu- ral causes. " I aUow," said he, " that the Americanf
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303 WESLEY^S POLITICAL COliDUCT. ^
were strongly exhorted, by letters from England, * never to yield, or lay down their arms, till ihej had their own terms, which the government would be constrairnd to give them in a short time.' But those measures were concerted long before tlis,— long be- fore either the tea-act, or the stamp-act, eiisted, only they were not digested in form. Forty years ago, when my brother was in Boston, it was the ge- neral language there, ' we must shake off" the yoke; we never shall be a free people till we shake off the English yoke :' and the late acts of parliament were not the cause of what they have since done, but bare* ly the occasion they laid hold on.'' That the Ameri- can revolution must, in great part, be traced to the puritanical origin of the New-England states, is in- deed certain ; but colonies are naturally republican, and when they are far distant, and upon a large scale, they tend necessarily, as well as naturally* to separation. Colonies will be formed with a view (o this, when colonial policy shall be better understood. It will bemcknowledged, that, when proteclionis no longer needed, dependence ceases to be desirable; and that, when a people can maintain axid defend themselves, they are past their pupilage.
This address excited no little indignation among some of the English partisans of the Americans: and it produced a letter to Wesley from Mr. Caleb Evans, a Baptist minister at Bristol, of considerable reputation in his own community. Wesley, ^ho had neither leisure nor inclination for controversy. le& the field to Mr. Fletcher, who again, on this occa- sion, seconded his friend with great ability as well as zeal. " My reverence for God's word," said this good man, " my duty to the king, and regard for my friend; my love to injured truth, and the conscious- ness of the sweet liberty which I enjoy under lbeg(^ vernment, call for this little tribute of najp^"* ^ . 1 pay it so much the more cheerfully, as few menia \he kingdom have bad a better opportunity of trying which is most eligible, a republican govertnnent or the mild-tempered monarchy of England. I hv^d more than twenty years the subject of two of ^"*
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mildest republics of Europe : I have been, for above that number of years, the subject of your sovereign; and, from sweet experience, I can set my seal to this clause of the king^s speech, at the opening of this session of parliament, Mo be a subject of Great Bri- tain, with all its consequences, is to be the happiest subject of any civil government in the world/ "
Mr. Fletcher was no common controversialist: earnest sincerity, and devout ardour, were not more coTispicuous in his writings, than the benevolence ivhich appeared when he argued with most force and warmth, and the pure candour, and religious charity, which even his theological opponents felt and ac- knowledged. He, as well as Mr. Wesley, saw dis- tinctly in what the principles of the American con- test began, and in what they were likely to end, — " If once legislation,'^ he said, with Baxter, ** (the cliief act ot government) be denied to be any part of government at all, and affirmed to belong to the people a* 5tMr^ who are no governors, all government will thereby be overthrown. Give me," he truly said, " Dr. Price's political principles, and I will move all kings out of their thrones, and all subjection out of the world." He rested the question upon religious grounds, and, on those grounds, argued against civil, as he had formerly done against ecclesiastical, Abti- nomianism. The transition from one to the other, he said, was easy and obvious ; for, as he that reve- rences the law of God, will naturally reverence the just commands of the king, so he that thinks himself free from the law of the Lord, will hardly think him- self bound by the statutes of his sovereign. He traced the pestilent errors which were now again *
* " All our danger at present,** said he, ** is from King Mob ; and (pursuing Mr. MTesley's view of the subject) this danger is so much the greater, as iome dissenters among us, who were quiet in the late reign, and thought themselves happy under the protection of the toleration- actf grow restless, begin openly to countenance their dissatisfied breth- ren in America, and make it a point of conscience to foment divisions in the kingdom. Whether they do it merely from a brotherly regard to the colonists, who chiefly worship God according to the dissenting plan, or whether they hope that a revolution on the continent would he na- turally productive of a revolution in England ; that a revolution in the state here would draw after it a revolution in the church ; and that if
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beginning to prevail, after having, for more than ft centurjr, been subdued, to those seeds which had sprung up with the Lollards, and brought forth their full harvest at Munster. He prest upon his oppo- nent, as a Christian, those texts of Scripture wDJch enjoin the duty of submission to established aothori- ties ; and, as a Calvinist, the articles of CalviD^B con- fession of faith, wherein that duty is expressly recog- nized. *' We believe that God will have the world to be governed by laws and civil powers, that the lawless inclinations of men may be curbed ; and therefore he has established kingdoms and republics, and other sorts of governments, (some hereditary, and some otherwise,) together with whatsoever be- longs to judicature ; and He will be acknowledged the author of government. We ought, then, not only to bear, for his sake, that rulers should have dominioD over us, but it is also our bounden duty to hoooar them, and to esteem them worthy of all reverence, considering them as God^s lieutenants and officers, which He has commissioned to execute a lawful and holy commission. We maintain, therefore, that we are bound to obey their laws and statutes, to pay tri- bute, taxes, and other duties, and to bear the yoke of subjection freely and with good will ; and, there- fore, we detest the men who reject superiorities, in- troduce community and confusion of property, and overthrow the order of justice.— Sir," he continoed, applying the argumentum ad hominem to his opponent, "you are a Calvinist; you follow the French refor- mer, when he teaches the absolute reprobation, and unavoidable damnation, of myriads of poor creatures yet unborn. Oh, forsake him not when he follows Christ, and teaches that God (not the people) is to be
the Church of England were once shaken, the diseenting chiiitbtf>i^ us micht raise UiemseUes upon her ruins ;— whether In/i »^ ^ tomething of this under the cry of slavefv and robbery wbicfcyy"?J up, is a question (addressing himself to Mr. Caleb Evans) which, I saio^ in the preceding editions, you could determine far better tbsn I' "J"* now I recall it, because, though I may consider that part of thccoptro- ▼ersy in that unfavourable light, as affottefewm, yet, as a Ckn^^^* ' i»ught to think and hope the best''
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acknowledged the author of power and goTemment^ and that we are bound to bear cheerfullj, for his sake, the joke of scriptural subjection to our gover- nors ! Be entreated. Sir, to rectify your false notions of liberty. The liberty of Christians and Britons does not consist in bearing no yoke, but in bearing a yoke made easy by a gracious Saviour and a gracious sovereign. A John of Leyden may promise to make us first lawless, then legislators aud kings ; and, by his delusive promises, he may raise us to-^a fooFs paradise, if not to — the gallows. But a true deli- verer, and a good governor, says to our restless An- tinomian spirits. Come unto me^ and I mill give you rest ! For my yoke i$ easy^ and my burden is light. We can have no rest in the church but under Christ^s easy yoke ; no rest in the state, but under the easy yoke of our rightful sovrreign."
The political part which Wesley took at this time made him as many enemies as his decided opposition to Calvinism had done ; and even some of his adhe- rents and admirers, who, in all other things, have justified him through thick and thin, have censured him as if he had gone out of the line of his duty, acted unwisely in meddling with political disputes, and taken the wrong side. To the question, why he had written upon such subjects, he made answer. ** Not to get money : not to get preferment for myself or my brother's children : not to please any man living, high or low. I know mankind too well. 1 know they that love you for political service, love you less than their dinners ; and they who hate you, hate you worse than the devil.'' It was from the clear and strong sense of duty that he acted, and it is not the least of his merits, that he was one of the first persons to expose the fallacy, and foresee the consequences of those political principles which were then beginning to convulse the world. Their natural tendency, he said, was to unhinge all go- vernment, and to plunge every nation into total anarchy. In his Observations on Liberty, address- ed to Dr. Price, in answer to a pamphlet of the Doctor's, which did its share of mischief in its
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daj, he contradicted, upon his own sore * obser- Tation, the Doctor's absurd assertion, that the population of the country had greatly decreased ; he commented upon the encouragement which was held out to the Americans in that pamphlet, and upon the accusations which were there atdvanced^ that the British government had secured to the Ca- nadians the enjoyment of their own laws, and their own religion, for the purpose of bringing up from thence an army of French Papists,-r-for Dr. Price had not been ashamed to bring this charge agaiii8t his country ! In opposition to the Doctor's position, that liberty is more or less complete, according as the people have more or less share in the govern- ment, he contended, and appealed to history for the fact, that the greater share the people have in the
government, tjie less liberty, either civil or religious, oes the nation in general enjov. *' Accordingly." said he, ^^ there is most liberty oi all, civil and reli- gious, under a limited monarchy, there is usually less under an aristocracy, and least of all under a demo- cracy. The plain melancholy truth," said he, **is this ; there is a general infatuation, which spreads, like an overflowing stream, from one end of the land
* " I knew the contrary," said Wealey, " having an opportunity of see- ing ten times more of England every ^ear than most men in the nation. All our manufacturing towns, as Birmingham, Sheffield, Manchester, Li- verpool, increase daily. So do very many villages all over the kingdom, even in the mountains of Derbyshire ; and, in the mean time^ exceeding few, either towns or villages, decrease."
** Dr. Price," says Mr. Coleridge, in bis Friend, " almost succeeded in persuading the English nation^for it is a curious fact, that the fancv of our calamitous situation is a sort of necessary sauce, without which our real prosperity would become insipid to us)|—Dr. Price, I say, alarmed the country with pretended proots that the island was in a rapid state of depopulation ; that England at the Revolution bad been. Hea- ven knows how much more populous ; and that, in Queen Elizabeth'^ time, or about the Reformation (!!!), the number of inhabitants in Eng- land might have been greater than even at the Revolution. My old mathematical master, a roan of an uncommonly clear head, answered this blundering book of the worthy Doctor's, and left not a stone un- turned of the pompous cenotaph, in which the effigy of the still living and bustling English prosperity lay interred. And yet so much more •suitable was the Doctor^s book to the purposes of faction, and to the November mood of (what is called) the Public, that Mr. Wales's pam- phlet, though a master- piece of perspicacity as well as perspicuity, was scarcely heard ot" Vol. it. p. 7i,
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to the othier. The people of England have, for some years past, been continually fed with poison : dose after dose has been administered to them, for fear the first, or second, or tenth should not suffice, of a poison, whose natural effect is to drive men out of their senses. Is the Centaur not fabulous ? neither is Circe's cup. Papers and pamphlets, representing one of the best of princes as if he had been one of the worst, — and all aiming at the same point, to make the king appear odious, as well as contempti- ble, in the eyes of his subjects, are conveyed, week after week, through all London, and all the nation. Can any man wonder at the effect ? What can be expected, but that they who drink in these papers and letters, with all greediness, will be thoroughly embittered and inflamed thereby; will first despise, and then abhor the king? What can be expected but that, by the repeated doses of this poison, they will be perfectly intoxicated, and only wait for a convenient season to tear in pieces the royal mon- ster, as they think him, and all his adherents! Can any thing be done to open the eyes, to restore the senses of an infatuated nation ? Not unless the still renewed, still operating cause of that infatuation can be removed. 6ut how is it possible to be removed, • unless by restraining the licentiousness of the press ?" — " I am in great earnest,'^ he says, in another place : " so I have need to be ; for I am pleading the cause bf my king and country, yea, of every country under heaven where there is any regular government. I am pleading against those principles that naturally tencl to anarchy and confusion, that directly tend to unhinge all government, and overturn it from the found ation.'^
Forty thousand copies of the Calm Address were printed in three weeks ; it was written before the war had actually began, and excited so much anger among the English friends of the American cause, that, as he said, they would willingly have burnt him and it together. But though Wesley maintained that, when the principles of order and legitimate governitaent were seditiously attacked, it was the
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duty of every Christian minister to exert himself io opposing the evil spirit of the times, be saw how im- prudent it would be for his preachers in America to engage in political matters. *^ It is your part," said he, " to be peace- makers; to be loving and lender to all, but to addict yourselves to no party. In spite of all solicitations, of rough or smooth words, say not oue word against one or the other side ; keep yourselves pure ; do all you can to help and soften all ; but ' beware how you adopt another's jar.' " In the same spirit Charles Wesley wrote to them, saying, " As to the public affairs, I wish you to be like-minded with. me. I am of neither side, and jet of both : on the side of New England, and of Old. Private Christians are excused, exempted, privileged to take HO part in civil troubles, ff^e love all, and pray for all, with a sincere and impartial love. Faults there may be on both sides, but such as neither joa nor I can remedy ; therefore let us, and all our chil- dren, give ourselves unto prayer, and so standstill and see the salvation of God.'' It was scarcely possible for the preachers to follow this advice; it was scarcely possible that they could refram from expressing their opinions upon the one sub- ject by which all minds were possessed and in- flamed, excited, as they constantly were, by sym- pathy or provocation. Such, indeed, was the temper of the Americans, that a friend to the Me- thodists got possession of all the copies of the Calm Address which were sent to New-York, and destroy- ed them, foreseeing the imminent danger to winch the preachers would be exposed, if a pampW^^^^ unpopular in its doctrines should get abroad. Kut the part which Wesley had taken could not be kept secret ; the Methodists, in consequence, became ob- jects of suspicion, and the personal safety of toe preachers was oftentimes endangered. Tarring an<* feathering was not the only cruelty to which tbej were exposed in those days of brutal violence. 1"^ English missionaries were at length glad io escape as they could : Asbury alone Remained ; he was less obnoxious than his colleagues, because, having ch<^
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sen the less frequented parts of the country for the scene of his exertions, he had been less conspicuous, and less exposed to provocation and to danger. ' Yet even he found it necessary to withdraw from public view, and conceal himself in the house of a friend, till, after two years of this confinement, he obtained credentials from the governor of Pennsylvania, which eniabled him to appear abroad again with safety.
Methodism, meantime, had been kept alive by a few native preachers, of whom Freeborn Garretson, ♦ and Benjamin Abbot, a strange half-madman, were two of the most remarkable. It even increased, not- withstanding all difficulties, and something much more like persecution than it had ever undergone in England. In the year 1777, there were forty preach- ers, and about 7000 members, exclusive of negroes. The Society, however, as the war continued, was in danger of being broken up, by a curious species of intolerance, which could not have been foreseen. — The prevailing religion in the southern states had been that of the Church of England ; but the clergy were driven away during the troubles, the whole of the church property was confiscated ; and, when af- fairs were settled, none of it was restored, and no at- tempt made, either by the general or provincial go- vernments, to substitute any kind of religious instruc- tion, in place of the Establishment which had been destroyed ! The Methodists had hitherto been mem- bers of the English Church, but, upon the compul- sory emigration of the clergy, they found themselves deprived of the sacraments, and could obtain no baptism for their children ; for neither the Presbyte- rians, the Independents, or Baptists, would adminis- ter these ordinances to them, unless 4hey would re- nounce their connexion with Mr. Wesley, and join with their respective sects.
Before the dispute between the'* mother country and the colonies assumed a serious character, and before any apprehension of separation was entertain- ed on the one side, or any intention to that effect was avowed on the other, the heads of the Church in England had represented to government, how greatly
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it would conduce to the interest of reli&^on io Ameri- ca, if a bishop were appointed there. This judicious representation was unsuccessful; for the ministers, who were but too bold in trying experiments of an- other kind with the colonists, thought it better to let religious affairs remain as thej were, than to iotro* duce any innovation. If this had been done half a century earlier, as soon as the population of the country required it, it would have been highly bene- ficial to America; part of the hierarchy would have submitted to, or taken part in the revolutiou, and thus a religious establishment might have been pre- served in those parts of the United States, where the want of religious instruction is severely * felt. The ill consequences of an omission, which, whether mo- rally or politically considered, is equally to be con- demned, were now experienced. Two American youths, after the peace, came to England, for the purpose of obtaining episcopal ordination : but the Arcnbishop of Canterbury was of opinion, that no English bishop could ordain them, unless they took the oath of allegiance, which it was impossible for them to do. They then applied for advice and as- sistance to Dr. Franklin, who was at that time in France. Upon consulting a French clei^man, he found that they could not be ordained in Fran<:e, un- less they vowed obedience to the Archbishop of Pa- ris ; and the nuncio, whom he consulted also, inform- ed him that the Romish bishop in America could not lay hands on them unless they turned Catholics. — The advice, therefore, which they received from a man like Franklin, may easily be conjectured ; — it was, that the Episcopalian clergy in America should become Presbyterians ; or, if they would not consent to this, that they should elect a bishop for them- selves.
* I have somewhere seen it stated, that in the large town of Ricli> mend, there was no place of worship, till the theatre to^ fire, and some fourscore persons perished in the flames. Then the people took fright, and built a church upon the ruins. A lady, who publbhed an account, in verse, of her resiaence io the southern states, describes, with much feeling, her emotion at hearing a church clock when she returned to her own country : ** ▲ souodi" she says, ** I had not heard for years.^
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This latter course some of the American Metho- dists had already adopted. Finding themselves de- prived of communion, and their children of baptism, ihey applied to Asbury, whom th'ej regarded as their head, to adopt some means of providing for these or- dinances. Asbury knew not how to act, and advised them to wait till circumstances should prepare the way for what they wished. It Was not likely that they should follow this advice. Breaking off their connexion with him, and thereby with Mr. Wesley, they elected three of their elder brethren to ordain others by imposition of hands. Asbury, however, retained so much influence, that, at a subsequent conference, this ordination was declared to be un- scriptural. The schism was healed just as the peace was made; and, as soon as a communication was opened with England, he sent a representation of the case to Wesley. Mr. Wedey had been convinced, by the perusal of Lord King^s Account of the Primi- tive Church, that bishops and presbyters are the same order. Men are sometimes easily convinced of what they find it convenient or agreeable to believe. Regarding the apostolical succession as a iable, he thought, when this application from America arrived, that the best thing which he could do would be to secure the Wesleyan succession for the United States.
This step, however, was not taken without some de- mur, and a feeling that it required some justification to himself, as well as to the world. It appears that some of his friends advised an application to the bishops, requesting them to ordain preachers for America. Wesley was not aware of the legal im- pediment to this ; but he replied, that, on a former application to the Bishop of London, his request had been unsuccessful : that, if the bishops would con- sent, their proceedings were notoriously slow, and this matter admitted of no delay. *^ If they would ordain them now,'' he continued, ^^ they would ex- pect to govern them ; and how grievously would this entangle us ! As our American brethren are now totally disentangled, both from the state and the £ng-
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lish hierarchy, we dare not entangle them again, either with the one or the other. They are now at full hberty simply to follow the Scriptures and the primitive church ; and we judge it oest that (bej should stand fast in that liberty wherewith God has so strangely made them free.'* Having, therefore, determined how to act, he communicated his deter- mination to Dr. Coke, and proposed, in his charac- ter of presbyter, which, he said, was the same as bishop, to invest him with the same presbytero-epis- copnl powers, that, in that character, he might pro- ceed to America, and superintend the societies in the United States. The doubts which Dr. Coke enter- tained as to the validity of Mr. Wesley's authority, were removed by the same treatise which had con- vinced Mr. Wesley ; and it seems not to have oc- curred, to either the one or the other, that, if pres- byter and bishop were the same order, the proposed consecration was useless ; for, Dr. Coke having been regularly ordained, was as good a bishop as Mr. Wesley himself
Having, however, taken his part, he stated the reasons upon which be had acted with his wonted perspicuity. " By a very uncommon train of Provi- dences," he said, ** many of the provinces of North America are totally disjoined from the mother coun- try, and erected into independent states. The Eng- lish government has no authority over them, either civil or ecclesiastical, any more than over the States of Holland. A civil authority is exercised overthem, partly by the congress, partly by the provincial as- semblies; but no one either exercises or claims any ecclesiastical authority at all. In this peculiar situa- tion, some thousands of the inhabitants of these states desire my advice." Then asserting his opinion, that bishops and presbyters were the same order, and, consequently, had the same right to ordain, ne said that, for marjy years, he had been importuned, from time to time, to exercise this right, by ordaining part of the travelling preachers, and that he hadstiU refused, for peace-sake, and because he was ^^^^^' mined, as little as possible, to violate the established
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order of the national church to which he belonged. " But the case,'' he pursued, ** is widely different between England and North America* Here there are bishops who have a legal jurisdiction. In Ame- rica there are none, neither any parish ministers ; so that, for some hundreds of miles together, there is none either to baptize, or to administer the Lord's Supper. Here, therefore, my scruples are at an end ; and I conceive myself at full liberty, as 1 violate no order, and invade no man's right, by appointing and sending labourers into (he harvest."
Accordingly, he summoned Dr. Coke to Bristol, and Mr. Creighton with him, a clergyman who had become a regular member of the Methodist Con- nexion. With their assistance he ordained Richard Whatcoat and Thomas Vasey, presbyters for Ame- rica ; and afterwards he ordained Dr. Coke superin- tendent. Some reason -might have been expected why he thought this second ordination necessary, superintendent being but another word for bishop; and why he thus practically contradicted the very principle upon which he professed to act. Not stop- ping to discuss such niceties, he gave the Doctor let- ters of ordination, under his hand and seal, in these words : ^^ To all to whom these presents shall come, John Wesley, late Fellow of Lincohi College, in t)xford. Presbyter of the Church of England, send- eth greeting : Whereas many of the people in the southern provices of North America, who desire to continue under my care, and still adhere to the doc- trine and discipline of the Church of England, are greatly distressed for want of ministers to adminis- ter the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Sup- per, according to the usage of the same church; and whereas there does not appear to be any other way • of supplying them with ministers, — Know all men, that 1, John vVesley, think myself to be providentially called, at this time, to set apart some persons for the :work of the ministry in America. And therefore, under the protection of Almighty God, and with a single eye to his glory, I have this day set apart, as a Superintendent) by the imposition of my hands and
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320 METHODISM Iff AMERICA.
prayer, (being assisted by other ordained ministere,) Thomas Coke, Doctor of Civil Law, a Presbyter of the Church of England, and a man whom I jadge to be well qualified for that great work : and 1 do here- by recommend him, to all whom it may concern, as a fit person to preside orer the flock of Christ— In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my band and seal, this second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty- four. John Wesley.^
Wesley had long deceived himself respecting the
{)art which he was acting toward the Church of Eng- and. At the outset of his career he had no inten- tion of setting himself up in opposition to it; and when, in his progress towards schism, he disregard- ed its forms, and set its discipline at nought, he still repeatedly disclaimed all views of separation.— Nor did he ever avow the wish, or refer to it as a likely event, with complacency, even when he must have perceived that the course of his conduct, and the temper of his followers, rendered it inevitable. On this occasion his actions spoke for him ; by ar- rogating the episcopal authority, he took the onlj step which was wanting to form the Methodists into a distinct body of separatists from the Church. Nevertheless, this was not done without reluctance, arising from old and rooted feelings ; nor without some degree of shame, perhaps, for the inconsisten- cies in which he had involved himself From the part which he now took, and the manner in which be at- tempted to justify it, it may be presumed that the story of his applying to the Greek bishop for conse- cration is well founded, notwithstanding the fals^- hoods which his enemies had added to the simP'^ fact. Mr. Wesley's declared opinion respecting the identity of the episcopal and priestly orders, ^^ contradicted by his own conduct; and it may be sus- pected, that his opinion upon the apostolical succes- sion rested on no better ground than its convenience to his immediate purpose. ^ Undoubtedly^ ^ "^ says, it is not possible to prove the apostolical sac- cession; but^sbort of that absolute proof, whicb,iD tltf
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case^ cannot be obtained, and therefore ougbt not to be demanded, there is every reason for believing it. No person who fairly considers the question can doubt this, whatever value he may attach to it. But Wesley knew its value. He was neither so de- ficient in feeling, or in sagacity, as not to know, that the sentiment which connects us with other ages, and by which we are carried back, is scarcely less useful in its influences than the hopes by which we are car- ried forward. He would ratlier have been a link of the golden chain, than the ring from whence a new one of inferior metal was to proceed.
Charles Wesley disapproved his brotber^s conduct on this occasion, as an unwarrantable assumption of authority, and as inconsistent with his professed ad* herence to the Church of England. His approba- tion could never be indifferent to John, whose for- tunes he had, during so many years, faithfully shar* ed, for honour and for dishonour, for better, for worse. But Dr. Coke had now succeeded to the place in Methodism from which Charles had retired, and in him Mr. Wesley found that willing and irnpli*- cit obedience, which is the first qualification that the founders of a sect, an order, or a religion, require from their immediate disciples. The new superin- tendent, with his companions, sailed from Bristol for New- York. Among the books which he read on the voyage, was the Life of St. Francis Xavier. Through all the exaggerations and fables, with which that life is larded. Coke perceived the spirit of the man, and exclaimed with kindred feeling, ^'Oh for a soul like his ! But, glory be to God, there is nothing impossi- ble with Him. 1 seem to want the wings of an ea^ gle, and the voice of a trumpet, that 1 may proclaim the Gospel through the east and the west, and the north and the south.'^
Asbury was not at New- York when they arrived. Dr. Coke explained the plan which had been arrang- ed in England, to the travelling preachers who were stationed in that city, and had the satisfaction of hearing, not only that such a plan would be highly approved by all the preachers, but of being desired
VOL. II. 41
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322 METHOOinu in America.
to make it pablic at once, ^^ because Mr. Wesley had determined the point, and therefore it was not to be investigated, but complied witb/^ This, how- ever, was not done, because it would have been dis- respectful to Mr. Asbury, with whom he was instruct- ed to consult, and act in concert On bis way sooth- ward to meet bim, Dr. Coke found that Methodism was in good odour in America. He was introduced to the governor of Pennsylvania ; and, at an iniiin the state of Delaware, the landlady, though not a Methodist herself, entertained him and his compao* ion sumptuously, and would not receive their inoney; esteeming it an honour to have harboured such guests. When he had finished preaching one day, at a chapel in this state, in the midst of the woods, to a large congregation, a plain robust man came up to bim in the pulpit, and Kissed him, pronouncing, at the same time, a primitive salutation. This person, as he readily supposed, proved to be his colleague. Dr. Coke was prepared to esteem him, and a per- sonal acquaintance confirmed this opinion. ^ I ex- ceedingly reverence Mr. Asbury," he says, "he has so much wisdom and consideration, so much meek- ness and love, and, under all this, though hardly to be perceived, so much command and authority.^
Asbury, expecting to meet Dr. Coke in this part of the country, had collected as many preachers as be could to hold a council. They agreed to convoke a Conference of all the preachers at Baltimore, on Christmas eve, and Freeborn Garretson was sent off on this errand, ** like an arrow, from north to south, with directions to send messengers to the right and left. This was in the middle of November; and, that Coke might not be idle in the meantime, Asba- ry drew up for him a route of about a thousand miles, borrowed a good horse, and gave him* k^** * guide and assistant, his black, Harry, of whom the Doctor says, ** I really believe he is one of the best preachers in the world, there is such an aroaa- ing power attends bis preaching, though he cannot read ; and he is one of the humblest creatures I ever saw." Of eighty-one American preachers, sixty as-
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sembled at the Conference; and, at their meeting, theVbrm of church government, and the manner of worship for the Methodists in America, which Mr. Wesley bad arranged, was accepted and establish- ed. The name of Superintendent, and the notion that bishops and presbyters were the same order, were now laid aside ; they were mere pretexts, and had served the purpose for which they were intend- ed. Methodism was constituted in America as an Episcojpal Church. The clergy were to consist of three orders, bishops, elders, and deacons. The deacons were to be ordained by a bishop, after a probation similar to that of the travelling preachers in England. The elders were of two orders : the presiding elders were to be unanimously elected by the General Conference ; ihey were to be assistants to the bishops, to represent them in their absence, and to act under their direction. The travelling el- ders were to administer the ordinances, and to per- form the office of marrying ; they were to be elected by a majority of the annual Conference, and ordain- ed by a bishop and the elders present, by imposition of hands. A deacon might not be chosen elder, till he had officiated two years in his inferior degree. A bishop was to be elected by the General Confe- rence, and consecrated by two or three bishops: but in case the whole order should be extinct, the ceremony might then be performed by three elders. The business of the bishop was to preside in the Conferences, station the preachers, admit or suspend them during the interval of the Conferences, travel through the Connexion at large, and inspect the con- cerns, temporal and spiritual, of the societies. Be- sides the General Conference, in which the supreme authority was lodged, and which had power of sus- pending, judging, and expelling the bishops, as well as electing them, there were to be six yearly Confe- rences : — the extent of the country rendered this ne- cessary. The circuits, during the time of the Con- ference, were to be supplied by local preachers, en- gaged for the purpose, and paid in the same propor- tion and manner as the travelling preachers for
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324 METH(n>ISM IN AMBRICA.
ivhom they acted. A local preacher was not eligi- ble lo the oflSce of deacon, till after four years' pro- bation : nor might be preach, till he had obtained a certificate of approbation from his quarterly meeting. The discipline differed little from that of thefingiish Methodists; the ritual more. In condescension to the puritanic notions which might be expected among the old Americans, the sacrament might be administered to communicants sitting or standing, if they objected to kneel ; and baptism might be per- formed either by sprinkling, affusion, or immersioo, at the option of the parents; or, in adult cases, of the person.
At this Conference, in pursuance of Mr. Wesley's instructions, and by virtue of the authority derived from him, Dr. Coke consecrated Mr. Asbury bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America. la the name of that church, an address to General Washington was drawn up, congratulating biffl on his appointment to the ofSce of president, and pro- fessing the loyalty of the members, and their readi- ness, on all lawful occasions, to support the govern- ment then established. This was signed by Coke and Asbury, as heads of the Connexion : Ibe former, upon this occasion, in his capacity of American bi- shop, performing an act inconsistent with bis alle- giance as a British subject. He, who was alwajs more ready to act than to think, did not, perhaps, at the time, perceive the dilemma in which be was placed ; nor, if he had, would he have acted other- wise; for whenever a national and a sectarian duly come in competition with each other, the national one is that which goes to the wall. It exposed bim to some severe animadversion in England, and to a semblance of displeasure from Mr. Wesley.' ^'hich was merely intended to save appearances. General Washington returned a written reply, addressed to the T3ishops of the Methodist Episcopal C borch in the United States.—^* It should be his endeavour,' he ftaid, *«• to manifest the purity of his inclinations for promoting the happiness of mankind, as well bs the sincerity of his desires to contribute whatever
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might be in his power towards the civil and reli- gious liberties of the American people. It always afforded him satisfaction, when he found a concur- rence and practice between all conscientious men, in acknowledgments of homage to the Great Gover- nor of the Universe, and in professions of support to a just civil government. • He would always strive to prove a faithful and impartial patron of genuine vital religion ; and he assured them in particular, that he took in the kindest part their promise of presenting their prayers for him at the throne of heaven; and that he likewise implored the divine benediction on * them, and their religious community.^'
At their first interview, the two bishops agreed to use their joint endeavours for establishing a school, or college, on the plan of Kingswood, and, before they met at the Conference, they had got above a thousand pounds subscribed for it. Relying, there- fore, upon that bank of faith, which, when religious interests, real or imaginary, are concerned, may safely be drawn upon to a surprising amount, Dr. Coke gave orders to begin the work. Four acres of ground were purchased, at the price of sixty pounds sterling, eight-and-twenty miles from Baltimore : the spot commanded a view of the Chesapeake and of the Susquehanna dowing towards it, through a great ex- tent of country, the sight extending from twenty to fifty miles in different parts of the splendid pano- rama. The students were to rise at five, summer and winter; upon this rule the masters were to in- sist inflexibly, the founders being convinced, they said, by constant observation and experience, that it was of vast importance, both to body and mind; for it was of admirable use in preserving a good, or improving a bad constitution ; and by thus strength- ening the various organs of the body, it enabled the mind to put forth its utmost energies. At six they were to assemble to prayer, and the interval, till seven, was allowed for recreation ; the recreations being gardening, walking, riding, and bathing; and, within doors, the carpenters', joiners', cabinet- makers', and turners' business. Nothing which the
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326 METHODISM IN AMERICA.
world chM&play was to be permitted. Dr. Coke bad brought with him Wesley ^8 sour precept, that those who play when they are young, will play when tbej are old ; and he supported it by the authority of Locke and Rousseau, saying, ^^ that though the lat- ter was essentially mistaken in bis religiouh systeiD, yet his wisdom, in oth^r respects, was indisputably acknowledged !'' He judged well, however, in re- commending agriculture and architecture as studies especially useful in a new country^ and therefore to be preferred for the recreation of the students. The permission of bathing was restricted to a plunge into a cold bath : bathing in the river was forbidden; a
I>rohibition apparently so absurd, that some valid ocal reason for it must be presumed. The hoars of study were from eight till twelve, and from three till six ; breakfast at eight, dinner at one, supper at eix, prayers at seven, and bed at nine. The punishments were, private reproof for a first offence, public re- proof for a second, and, for the third, confinement in a room set apart for the purpose.
The establishment was named Cokesbury* Col- lege, after its two founders. An able president was found, a good master, and, in the course of a few
* In the year 179* the college waa set on fire, and burnt to the gpoupd, the whole of its apparatus and library being destroyed. Tiie state oner- ed a reward of one thousand dollars for the discovery of the ioceodiaryt but without effect. Dr. Coke was not deterred fVom a second attempti and seventeen of his friends, in the Baltimore Society, immediately sub- scribed among themselves- more than one thousand pounds toward uw establishment of another college. A large building in the city of Bait}- more, which had been intended for balls and assembliea was purcbajf<'j with all the premises b«>longing to it, for &ve thousand three hundred pounds. The Society subscribed sf^ven hundred of this, and cottectea six hundred more from house to house ; the seventeen original subscn- bers made themselves responsible for the rest. There was room 'or a church upon the ground, and a church accordingly was built ''^jl'f^'t lege was even more 8U.ccessful than Cokesbury while it lasted : out^ came to the same fate in 1797. Some boys made a *>**''fi'*^".*''*i joining house, and college, church, and several dwellings and ^^^'''^ f were consumed. By the two fires the Methodists sustained « "»« w ten thousand pounds. Dr. Coke then agreed with Asbury. ^Jj;^ I , the first catastrophe, waa convinced " that it was not the wiBof «oo wr them to undertake such expensive buildings, nor to attempt soch poP«" lar establishraenU." As these events did not occur till after the deatnoi Mr. Wesley, they are noticed here, rather than in the text
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years, the institution acquired so mttch repute, that young men, from the Southern States, came there to finish their education; and the founders were ap- prized, that the legislature was willing to grant them an act of incorporation, and enable them to confer degrees. The reputation of this college gratified the American Methodists, and disposed them to found others. The people in Kentucky requested to have one in their country, and offered to give three or four thousand acres of good land for its sup-
i)ort. The reply to this application was, that Con- erence would undertake to complete one within ten years, if the people would provide five thousand acres of fertile ground, and settle it on trustees un- der its direction. In Georgia, a few leading persons^ engaged to give two thousand acres ; and one con- gregation subscribed twelve thousand five hundred pounds weight of tobacco towards the building. In- stitutions of this kind are endowed at so small a cost in new countries, that, with a little foresight on the
{)art of government, provision might easily be made or the wants, and palliatives prepared for the evils, of advanced society.
Had the institution in Georgia been eflfected, it was to have been called Wesley Collesfe, in refer- ence to Mr. Wesley's early labours in that country. At this time he was so popular in America, that some hundreds of children were baptized by his name. This was in great measure owing to the choice which be had made of Dr. Coke, whose liberal manners, and rank of life, obtained him access among the higher classes upon equal terms, and flattered those in a lower station with whom he made himself fami- liar. The good opinion, however, which his repre- sentative had obtained among all ranks, was lessened, and, for a time, well nigh destroyed, by the indiscre- tion with which he exerted himself in behalf of a good cause.
Wesley had borne an early testimony against the
.system of negro slavery : on this point his conduct is
^ curiously contrasted with Whitefield's, wl^ exerted
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328 M£TH€N[>ISM IN ABI£R1GA.
himself in * obtaining a repeal of that part of the charter granted to the colon j in Georgia, where bj slavery was prohibited. Dr. Coke, feeling like Mr. Weslej, took up the subject with his usual ardcrar, preached upon it with great vehemence, and pre- pared a petition to Congress for the emancipation of the negroes. With this petition he and Asbury went to General Washington at Mount Vernon, and soli- cited him to sign it. Washington received them cour- teously and hospitably : he declined signing the pe- tition, that being inconsistent with the rank which be held ; but he assured them that he agreed with them, and that, if the Assembly should take their petition into consideration, he would signify his sentiments by a letter. They proceeded so far themselves, that they required the members of the society to set their slaves free ; and several persons were found who made this sacrifice from a sense of duty. One plan- ter in Virginia emaficipated twenty-two, who were^ at that time, worth from thirty to forty pounds each. His name was Kennon, and it deserves to be honour- ably recorded. But such uistances were rare ; and Dr. Coke, who had much of the national ardour in his character, proceeded in such an intolerant f spi-
* " As for the lawfulness of keeping; slaves,^ he says,, " Ihare no doubt, since I hear of some that were bought with Abraham's money, and some that were born in his house. And I cannot help thinking that some of those servants mentioned by the Apostles in their epistles, were, or had been slaves. It is plain that the GibeonitiPs were doomed to per- petual slavery ; and, though liberty is a sweet thing to such as are bom free, yet, to those who never knew the sweets of it, slavery perhaps may not be so irksome. However this be, it ts plain to a demonstratioo, that hot countries cannot be cultivated without negroes." So miserably could Whitefield reason ! He flattered, however, his better feelings, by supposing that the slaves who should be brought into Georgia would be placed in the way of conversion.
t These extracts from his journal will exemplify that spirit; **At night I lodged at the house of Captain Dillard a most hospitable man, and as kind to his negroes as if they were white servants. It was quite pleasing to see them so decently and comfortably clothed. And yet I could not beat into the head of that poor man the evil of keeping them in slavery, although he had read Mr. Wesley's Thoughts on SlaTcry (I think he said) thn^e times over- But his pond wife is strongly on our side."— ** I preached the late Colonel Bedford's funeral sermon. Hut I said nothing good of hina. for he was a violent friend of slavery ; and bis interest being great among the Methndists in these parts, he would have been a dreadful thorn in our sides, if the Lord had not in mercy taken iim away:' ! !
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lit of philanthropy, that he soon provoked a violent opposition, and incurred no small degree of personal danger. One of his sermons upon this topic in- censed some of his hearers so much, that tbej with- drew, for the purpose of way-laying him ; and a lady negro-owner promised them fifty pounds, if they would give ^^ that little Doctor^' an hundred lashes. But the better part of his congregation protected him, and that same sermon produced the emancipa* tion of twentyfour slaves. In one county the slave owners presented a bill against him, which was found by the ^rand jury, and no less than ninety persons set out in pursuit of him ; but he was got beyond dieir reach. A more ferocious enemy followed himt with an intention of shooting him : this the man him* self confessed, when, some time afterwards, he be- came a member of the Methodist Society. On his aecond visit to America, Coke was convinced that he had acted indiscreetly, and he consented to let the question of emancipation rest, rather than stir up an opposition which so greatly impeded the progress of Methodism.
If a course of itinerancy in England led the errant preacher into picturesque scenes and wild situations, much more might this be expected in America.-— Coke was delighted with the romantic way of life in which he found himself engaged ; preaching in the midst of ancient forests, ^ with scores, and sometimes hundreds of horses tied to the trees. ^^ Sometimes,^ he says, ^^ a most noble vista, of half a mile or a mile in length, would open between the lofty pines ; some- times the tender fawns and hinds would suddenly appear, and, on seeing or hearing us, would glance through the woods, or vanish away.^ The spiring scenery of these woods filled him with delight-^ " The oaks,'' saysjie, " have spread out their leaves, and the dogwood, whose bark is medicinal, and whose innumerable white flowers form one of the finest ornaments of the forests, is in full blossom. The deep green of the pines, the bright transparent green of the oaks, and the fine white of the doffwood flowers, with other trees and shrubs^ form sudi a complica«^
TOL. II. 42
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330 MBTHOmsM IH AMEHrCA.
tion of beaatie^ as is indescribable to those who hare Only lived in countries that are almost entirely culti' vated-"— '* It is one of my most delicate eotertaiu* ments, to embrace every opportunity of iogolphing myself^ (i( I may so express it,) in the woods : I seem then to oe detached from every thing bat the qoiet vegetable creation and my God.'* A person always went before him to make hds publications ; by which strange phrase is implied a notice to all the coantry round, in what place, and at what times, the itio^ rant was to be expected. Their mark for finding the way in these wide wildernesses was the ip&V AwA.— When a new circuit in the woods was formed, at every turning of the road or path, the preacher split two or three bushes beside the ri^ht way, ass direc- tion * for those who came after him. They bad no cause to repent of their labour in travelling; for numerous bearers were collected, insomuch thatDr. Cok^ was astonished at the pains which the people took to hear the GospeK Idleness and curiosity '% brought many, and many came for the pleasure oi
being in a crowd ; but numbers were undouhtedly drawn together by that desire of religious in»^^ tion which is the noblest characteristic oi man, and for which, by the greatest of all political errors, tW American government has neglected to protnde.--- ** I am daily filled with surprise," he says, '*»n®2 ing with such large congregations as 1 sm ^^^^^ with in the midst of vast wildernesses, and wonder from whence they come !'' It appears that ^^^^^^ of riotous devotion, which afterwards produced fenatical extravagancies of the carop-meetinp^ ' gan to manifest itself in the early days of Amen- ean Methodism, and that it was encouraged b/J^^ attperiors when it might have been repressed. Annapolis,'* says Dr. Coke, ** after my ja^ jjjj^ the congregation began to pray and praise al ^^ * most astonishing manner. At first I i<^^ ^ ^ reluctance to enter into the business; ^"^^/-nnj tears began to flow, and I think 1 have seldom io«
♦ ** In on« of the cireuits the wicked discbr ered Ike t^, bushes in wrong places, on purpose to deceive the preacbers*
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fk more eomfbrting or strengthening time. This pray* ing and praising aloud is a common thing throughout Virginia and Maryland. What shall we say ? Souls are awakened and converted by multitudes ; and the work 4s surely a genuine work, if there be a genuine work of God upon earth. Whether there t^ wild* fire in it or not, I do most ardently wish that there was such a work at this present time in England.'' At Baltimore, after the evening service was concluded, «^ the congregation began to pray and praise aloud, and continued so to do till two o'clock in the moni'* ing. Out of a congregation of two thousand people^ two or three hundred were engaged at the same time in praising God, praying for the conviction and con- version of sinners, or exhorting those around them with the utmost vehemence ; and hundreds more were engaged in wrestling prayer, either for their own con- version, or sanctificatian. The first noise of the |>eople soon brought a multitude to see what was go- ing on. One of our elders was the means that night of the conversion of seven poor penitents within his little circle in less than fifteen minutes. Such was the zeal of many, that a tolerable company attended the preaching at five the next morning, notwithstand- ing the late hour at which they parted." The next evening the same uproar was renewed, and the mad- dened congregation continued in their excesses as long and as loud as before. The practice became common in Baltimore, though that city had been one of the ^ calmest and most critical' upon the conti- nent— « Many of our elders," says Coke, " who were the softest, most connected, and most sedate of our preachers, have entered with all their hearts into this work. And gracious and wonderful has been the change, our greatest enemies themselves being the judges, that has been wrought on multitudes, on whom the work began at those wonderful seasons." Plainly as it had been shown amon^ the Metho- dists themselves, that emotions of this kind were like a fire o{ straw, soon kindled and soon spent, the dis- position, whenever it manifested itself, was encou- raged rather than checked ; so strong is the tefiiden-
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cj toward enthusiasm. But if Dr. Coke, witfi the advantag;e8 of education, rank in life, and of the les- sous which he derived from Mr. Wesley, when a^ and long experience had cooled hint, could be so led awaj by sympathy as to give his sanction to these proceedings, it might be expected that preachers^ who had grown up in a state of semi-civilizatioa, and Were in the first effervescence of their de\oi\onal feelings, would go beyond all bounds in their zeal. — They used their utmost endeavours (as had been ad- vised in the third Conference) ** to throw men into convictions, into strong sorrow, and fear, — to make them inconsolable, refusing to be comforted;^ be- lieving that the stronger was the conviction, the speedier was the deliveranqe. ^ The darkest time in the night,^' said one, ^ is just before the dawning of the day ; so it is with a soul groaning for redemp* tion ^' They used, therefore, to address the onawa- kened in the most alarming strain, teaching them that ^^ God out of Christ is a consuming fire l^ and to address the most enthusiastic language to those who were in what they called a seeking state, in order to keep them ^ on the full stretch for sanctification ^^— > Benjamin Abbott not only threw his hearers into fits^ but often fainted himself through the vehemence of his own prayers and preachments. He relates such exploits with great satisfaction,— how one^ person could neither eat nor drink for three days after one of his drastic sermons ; and how another was, for the same length of time, totally deprived of the use of her limbs. A youth who was standing on the hearth beside a blazing fire, in the room where Abbott was holding forth, overcome bv the contagious emotion which was excited, tottered and fell into the flames. He was instantly rescued, " providentially,*' says the preacher, ** or he would have been beyond the reach of mercy: his body would have been burned to death, and what would have become of his soul l^ — When they preached within the house, and with closed doors, the contaminated air may have contri- buted to these deleterious effects; for he himself no* tices one instance, where, from the exceeding close-
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iiess of ihe room, and the number of persons crowd* ed together there, the candles gradually went out— But the maddening spirit of the man excited his hearers almost to frenzy.
One day this itinerant went to a funeral, where many hundreds were collected. " The minister,^ he says, ^^ being of the Church form, went through the ceremonies, and then preached a short, easy, smooth, soft sermon, which amounted to almost nothing. By this time a gust was rising, and the fir- mament was covered with blackness; Two clouds appeared to come from different quarters, and to meet over the house, which caused the people to crowd inlo the house, up stairs and down, to screen themselves from the storm. When the minister had done, he asked me if I would say something to the people. I arose, and with some difficulty got on one of the benches, the house was so greatly crowded ; and almost as soon as I began, the Lord out of hea- ven began also. The tremendous claps of thunder exceeded any thing I ever had heard, and the streams of lightning flashed through the house in a most aw- ful manner. It shook the very foundation of the house : the windows shook with the violence thereof. I lost no time, but set before them the awful coming of Christ in all his splendour, with all the armies of heaven, to judge the world and to take vengeance on the ungodly. It may be, cried I, that he will descend in the next clap of thunder! The people screamed, screeched, and fell, all through the house. The light- ning, thunder, and rain, continued for about the space of one hour in the most awful manner ever known in that country ; during which time I continu- ed to set before them the coming of Christ to judge the world, warning and inviting sinners to flee to Christ." He declares that, fourteen years afterwards, when he rode that circuit, he conversed with twelve living witnesses, who told him they were all convert- ed at that sermon.
One day, when Abbott was exhorting a class to sanctification, and a young Quakeress was ^^ scream- ing and screeching and crying for purity of heart,"
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her fiither, hearing her outcries, came into the room, and with a mild reproof to this director of coDBGieo* ces, reminded him that the Lord is not in the earths quake, nor in the whirlwind, but in the still small voice. The passionate enthusiast readily replied, ^ Do you know what the earthquake means? It im the mighty thunder of God^s voice from Mount Sinai ; it is the divine law to drive us to Christ. And ibe whirlwind is the power of conviction, like the rashing of a mighty wind, tearing away every &lse hope, and stripping us of every plea, but — Give me Christ, or else 1 die !^ On another occasion, when a yoaog Quakeress was present at a meeting, and retained a proper command of herself while others were faint- ing and falling round about her, Abbott regarding this as a proof of insensibility to the state of her own soul, looked her full in the face, and began to praj for her as an infidel, and called upon all his hearers to do the same. The young woman was abashed^ and retired ; but as she made her way slowly tbroogfa the crowded room, ^ I cried to God,** says the fier^ fanatic, ^^ to pursue her by the energy of hb Spint through the streets ; to pursue her in the parlour, in the kitchen, and in the garden ; to pursue her in the silent watches of the ni^t, and to show her the stale of the damned in hell ; to give her no rest day nor night, until she found rest in the wounds of a blessed Redeemer/' He relates this himself, and adds, thai in consequence of this appeal she soon afterwards joined the Methodists, in opposition to the irill of her parents.
«^ Oh,'' said Wesley, in one of his sermons, ^ the depth both of the wisdom and knowledge of God \ causing a total disregard of all religion to pave the way for the revival of the only religion which waf worthy of God! The total indifference of the government in North America whether there be any religion or none, leaves room for the propaga- tion of the true scriptural religion, without the least let or hindrance." He overlooked another eon* sequence, which the extravagance of his own preachers might have taught him. Wherever
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the prime duty of providing religious instruc* tion for the people is neglected, the greater part become altogether careless of their eternal iii- terests, and the rest are ready to imbibe the rank- est ianatictsm, or embrace any superstition that may be promulgated among them. A field is open for impostors as well as fanatics ; some are duped and plundered, and others are driven mad. Benjamin Abbott seems to have been a sincere and well-mean- ing enthusiast, upon the very verge of madness him- self. From the preaching of such men an increase of insanity might well be expected : and accordingly it is asserted, that a fourth part of the cases of this malady in Philadelphia arise from enthusiastic devo- tion^ and that this and the abuse of ardent spirits are principal causes of the same disease in Virginia. But the fermentation of Methodism will cease in America^ as it has ceased in England ; and even du- ring its effervescence, the good which it produces is greater than tl^e evil. ^ For though there must be many such fierce fanatics as Abbott, there will be others of a gentler nature : as the general state of the country may improve, tfie preacher will partake of the improvement ; and, meantime, they contribute io that improvement in no slight degree, by correct- ing the brutal vices, and keeping up a sense of reli- gion in regions where it might otherwise be extinct. At their first general conference, the American preachers made a rule respecting spiritous liquors, the common use of which has greatly tended to bru- talize the people in that country. They decreed, that if any thing disorderly happened under the f oof of a member, who either sold ardent spirits, or gave them to his guests, ^ the preacher who had the over- sight of the circuit should proceed against him, as in the case of other immoralities," and he should be censured, suspended, or excluded, according to the circumstances. The zeal with which they made war against the pomps and vanities of society was less usefully directed. ^^ Such days and nights as those were!" says one of the early preachers. '' Tike fiae, the gay^ threw off their ruffles, their
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336 METHODISM IN AMERICA.
rings, their ear-rings, their powder, their featben. Opposition, indeed, there was; for the Devil would not be still. My life was threatened ; but my friends were abundantly more in number than mj enemies." In attacking these things, the preacher acted in en- tire conformity with the spirit of Wesley's instilu- tions : but in America, Wesley would perhaps have modified the rigour of his own rules ; for even Frank- lin, who long maintained opinions as rigorous upon this point as Wesley himself, at length discovered that vanities like these have their pse, in giving a spur to industry, and accelerating the progress of civilization.
There were parts of the country where the people must have remained altogether without the oitli- nances of religion, had it not been for the Metho- dists. Dr Coke observes, that in his first toar in America, he baptized more children and adults than he should have done in his whole life if stationed in an English parish. The people of Delaware bad scarcely ever heard preaching of any kind, when Freeborn Garretson entered that country in one of his circuits. Meeting a man there one day, he ask- ed him, in a methodistical manner, if he knew Jesos Christ ; and the man answered, that he did not knoir where he lived. Garretson repeated the question, supposing that it had not been distinctly heard; 9xA the reply then was, that he knew no such person. Before the Methodists had built chapels for them- selves, they officiated sometimes in cunous situations, either because there was no place of worshiPi or none to which they had access. The church-doors at Cambridge, in Maryland, were locked upon Dr. Coke, though there had been no service there for some years, and though it had often been leA open for dogs, and pigs, and cattle. At another place, toe church was in so filthy a condition, that, at tpe people's desire, he held forth in the court-house uh stead. At Raleigh, the seat of government for Nortli Carolina, he obtained the use of the house of com- mons : the members of both houses attended, an" the speaker's seat served ibr a pulpit. At AnnapoliA
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they lent him the theatre, " Pit, boxes, and gallery,'* says he, " were filled with people according to their ranks in life ; and I stood upon the stage, and preach- ed to them, though at first, I confess, 1 felt it a little awkward."
Itinerants in America were liable to discomforts and dangers which are unknown in England. There were perilous swamps to cross ; rivers to ford ; the risk of going astray* in the wilderness ; and the plague of ticks in the forests, which are so great a torment, that Dr. Coke was almost laid up by their bites. To these difficulties, and to the inconven- iences of sometimes sleeping on the floor, sometimes three in a bed, j|ind sometimes bivouacking in the woods, the native preachers were less sensible than those who came from Europe ; but a great proportion of the itinerants settled when they became fathers of families. " It is most lamentable," says Coke, " to see so many of our able married preachers (or ra- ther, I might say, almost all of them) become located merely for want of support for their families. I am conscious it is not the fault of the people : it is the fault of the preachers, who, through a false and most unfortunate delicacy, have not pressed the important subject as they ought, upon the consciences of the people. I am truly astonished that the work has risen to its present height on this continent, when so much of the spirit of prophecy, of the gifts of preach- ing, yea, of the most precious gifts wnich God be- stows on mortals, should thus miserably be thrown away. 1 could, methinks, enter into my closet, and weep tears of blood upon the occasion." At ano- Uier time he says, ^^ The location of so many scores
* Brother Ignatius Pigman was lost for sixteen days in the woods oA the way to Kentucky. This inhuman name reminds me of a contro- ▼ersialist, who advanced the notion of the pre-existence of the human v soul of Christ, and fiercely supported his notion, which he called Pre- existarianism, in the last series of the Gospel Magazine. His name being Newcomb, he signed himself Peigneneuvej to show his knowledge of the French tongue; and one of his adversaries, who, if peradventure less accomplished m languages, was not less witty than himself, ** wick- edly detorted" this wora, and called him Mr. Pig-enough.
VOL. IL 43
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of our most able and experienced preacherd tears my very heart in pieces. Methinks, almoet the whole continent would have fallen before the power of God, had it not been for this enormous evil." Dr. Coke himself had the true spirit of an errant preacher, and therefore did not consider bow natu- ral it is, that men should desire to settle quietly in domestic life, and how just and reasonable it is that they should be enabled and encouraged to* do so after a certain length of service. Mr. Wesley's original intention was, that the Methodist preachers should be auxiliaries to the Church of England, as the friars and the Jesuits are to the Church of Rome. In America, where there is no Church, it would be consistent with this intehtion, that the Me- thodists should have an order of settled pastors la place of the clergy.
But though the American itinerants withdrew from their labours earlier than their brethren in the mo- ther country, new adventurers were continually offer- ing themselves to supply their place, and the increase of Methodism was far more rapid than in England. In the year 1786, two-and-twenty chapels were built in a single circuit within the State of South Carolina, and the society in that same year had added to its numbers in the United States, more than 6600 mem- bers. In 1789 when the censiis of the Methodists in Great Britain, amounted to 70,305, that in America was 43,265. In less than twenty years afterwards, they doubled their numbers at home, but the Ameri- cans had then become the more numerous body, and their comparative increase was much greater than this statement would imply, because it was made upon a much smaller population.
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CHAPTER XXVIIL
METHODISM IN THE WEST-tNDIES.
Tn the year 1758, Wesley baptized some negroes at Wandsworth, who were in the service of Nathaniel Gilbert, Speaker of the House of Assembly in Anti- gua. Mr. Gilbert was a man of ardent piety, and being desirous of promoting religion in a part of the world where slavery had produced the greatest pos- sible degradation of the moral feeling, he invited Mr. Fletcher to return with him. Mr. Fletcher hesi- tated, and consulted Charles Wesley; '* I have weigh- ed the matter," said he ; " but, on one hand, I feel that I have neither sufficient zeal, nor grace, nor talents, to expose myself to the temptations and la- bours of a mission to the West-Indies ; and, on the other, I believe that if God call me thither the time is not yet come. I wish to be certain that I am con- verted myself, before I leave my converted brethren to convert heathens. Pray let me know what you think of this business. If you condemn me to put the sea between us, the command would be a hard one ; but I might possibly prevail on myself to give you that proof of the deference I pay to your judi- cious advice.'' That proof was not exacted. Fletcher remained in England, where he rendered more es- sential service to Methodism by his writings, than he could have done as a missionary, and Mr. Gilbert returned to Antigua without an} minister, or preacher in his company. Being, however, enthusiastic by constitution, as well as devout by principle, he pray- ed and preached in his own house to such persons as would assemble to hear him on Sundays ; and, en- couraged by the facility of which he found himself possessed, and the success with which these begin- nings were attended, he went forth and preached to the negroes. This conduct drew upon him contempt,
i
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or compassion, according as it was imputed to folly, or to insanity.* But he had his reward ; the poor negroes listened willingly to the consolations of Chris- tianity, and he lived to form some two hundred per- sons into a Methodist society, according to Mr. Wes- ley's rules.
After Mr. Gilbert's death, the black people were kept together by two negresses, who prayed to them when they assembled, and preserved among them the forms of the society as far as they could, and the spirit of devotion. In the year 1778, a shipwright, by name John Baxter, who was in the king's sen ice, removed from the royal docks at Chatham, to Eng- lish Harbour in Antigua, and, happily for himself and the poor negroes, he survived his removal to one of the most fatal places in all those islands. He had been for some years a leader among the Methodists, and upon his arrival, he took upon himself immedi- ately, as far as his occupation would allow, the ma- nagement of the society. His Sundays he devoted entirely to them ; and on the other days of the week, after his day's work was done, he rode about to tbe different plantations, to instruct and exhort the slaves, when they also were at rest from their labour. Some of them would come three or four miles to hear him. He found it hard to flesh and blood, he said, to work all day, and then ride ten miles at night to preach; but the motive supported him, and he was probably the happiest man upon the island. He married, and thereby established himself there. The contribu- tions of his hearers, though he was the only white man in the society, enabled him to build a chapel.
* A son of Mr. Gilbert published, in the Tear 1796, *«Thc Hurricane, a Theosophical and Western £c1ogue." and shortly afterwards placard* ed the walls in London with the lari^cst bills that had at that time been seen, announcing •'^ The Law of Fire.*' I knew him well, and look back with a melancholy pleasure to the hours which I have past io his society, when his mind was in ruins. His madness was of tbe most incom- presensibte' kind, as may be seen In the notes to the Hurricane ; but the poem contains passages of exquisite beauty. I have among my pa- pers some curious memorials of this interesting man. They who re- member him (as some of my readers will) will not be displeased at seeing him thus mentioned with the respect and regret which are due to the wreck of a noble mind.
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He wrote to Mr. Wesley from time to time, re- quested his directions, and expressed a hope that some one would come to his assistance. ^' The old standers,^' said he, ^^ desire me to inform you that you have many children in Antigua, whom you never saw."
Baxter was, after a while, assisted by an English woman, who having an annuity charged upon an estate in the island, had found it necessary to reside there. She opened her house for prayers every day, and set apart one evening every week for reading the Scriptures, to all who would hear. These meet- ings were much frequented ; ^^ for the English," says this lady, ^' can scarcely conceive the hunger and thirst expressed by a poor negro, when he has learn- ed that the soul is immortal, and is under the opera- tion of awakening influences." Further assistance arrived in a manner remarkable enough to deserve relation. An old man and his wife at Waterford, be- ing past their labour, were supported by two of their sons. They were Methodists ; the children had been religiously brought up, and in their old age the pa- rents found the benefit of having trained them in the way they should go. At the close of the American war, America was represented to the two sons as a land flowing with milk and honey, and they were ad- vised to emigrate. Go they would not, without the consent of their parents ; and the old people en- treated them to wait a little, till they should be in the grave : the youths, however, unwilling to wait, and incapable of forsaking their parents, proposed that they should go together, and succeeded in per- suading them. Having no means of paying for th^r passage, the poor lads indented themselves to the captain of a ship, who was collecting white slaves for the Virginia market ; and as the old people could be of no use as bond-servants, the boys were bound for a double term on their account. How the parents, incapable as they were of supporting themselves, were to be supported in a strange land, when their children were in bondage, was a question which ne- ver occurred to any one of the family. A married
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8on and his wife came on board to take leave, and they were persaaded by their relations and bj the crimping skipper to join the party upon the same terms. No sooner had they sailed than they were m^de to feel the bitterness of their condition: slaves they had made themselves, and like slaves they were treated by the white slavemonger who bad entrap- ped tliem. Happily for them, after a miserable voy- age, the ship was driven to the West-Indies, and pat into Antigua like a floating wreck, almost by miracle. The old Irishman, hearing that there were Metho- dists on the island, inquired for the preaching-house, and Methodism proved more advantageous to him than free-masonry would have done. It procured him real and active friends, who ransomed me whole family. Good situations were procured for the three sons : the old man acted under Baxter ; being well acquainted with the routine of the society, he was of great use ; and by the year 1786 the persons un^ der their spiritual care amounted to nearly two thou- sand, chiefly n^roes.
In that year Dr. Coke embarked upon his second voyage to America. The season was stormy, and the captain being one of those persons ^ho have a great deal of superstition, without the slightest piety, conceived that the continuance of bad weather was brought on by the praying and preaching of the Doc- tor and his companions. One day, therefore, in the force of the tempest, while these passengers Were fervently praying for the preservation of the ship and of the lives of all on board, the skipper paraded the deck in ^reat agitation, muttering to himself, but so as to be aistinctly heard, " We have a Jonah on board ! We have a Jonah on board !'^ till, having worked himself almost into a state of madness, he burst into Cokeys cabin, seized his books and writ- ings, and tossed them into the sea ; and, griping the Doctor himself, who was a man of diminutive stature, swore that if ever he made another prayer on board that ship he would throw him overboard, after his papers. At length the vessel, after imminent dan- ger, succeeded in reaching Antigua. It was on
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Christmas day. Dr. Coke went in search of Mr. Bax* t«r, aud met him on the way to officiate at the chapel. To the latter this event was as joyful as it was un- expected : the former performed the service for him^ and administered the sacrament. He was delighted with the appearance of the congregation, one of the cleanest, he said, that he had ever seen. The ne* presses were dressed in white linen gowns, petticoats, handkerchiefs, and caps; and their whole dress, which was beautifully clean, appeared the whiter from the contrast of their skins.
Dr. Cokeys arrival occasioned a considerable stir in the capital of this little island. He preached twice a day, and curiosity brought such numbers to hear him, that in the evenings the poor negroes, who by their savings had built the chapel, could find no room in it. The good effect of Methodism upon the slaves had been so apparent, that it was no longer necessary, as it formerly had been, to enforce mili- tary law during the holydays which were allowed them at Christmas. They were made better ser- vants, as they were instructed in their moral and re- ligious duties. Methodism, therefore, was in high favour there^ and Dr. Coke was informed, that if five hundred a year would detain him in Antigua, it should be forthcoming. ^^ God be praised,'^ he says, ^^ five hundred thousand a year would be to me a feather, when opposed to my usefulness in the church of Christ'^ He and his companions were hospita- bly entertained end treated, he says, rather like princes than subjects; and the company of merchants invited them to a dimier which was given to Prince William Henry.
Here Dr. Coke held what he calls an Infant Con- ference. Invitations for the preachers came from St. Vincents ; and recommendatory letters were given them to the islands of St. Eustatius and St. Kitts. — ^^ All is of God,^' said Coke,; '' I have no doubt, but it would bean open resistance to the clear provi- dences of the Almighty, to remove any one of the missionaries at present from this country.'' Of the ihree who had embarked with him firom England for
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America, it was determined that one should remain in Antigua ; and Baxter gave up the place which he held under government, and which was worth 40QII a year currency, that he might devote his whole strength and time to the spiritual service of bis feU low creatures. His wife, though a Creole, well bora, and delicately brought up, readily consented to this sacrifice, and cheerfully submitted to her part of the discomforts and privations inseparable from an itine- rant life ; for even among the islands itinerancy was considered as an essential part of the Methodist economy. Leaving, therefore, Mr. Warrenner in Antigua, Coke departed, with Baxter and the other two brothers, to reconnoitre the neighbouring islands. They were hospitably entertained at Dominica, at St. Vincents, Nevis, and St. Kitts ; and though the commanding officer would not give permission for preaching in the barracks at St. Vincents, where some religious soldiers would soon have formed a society. Dr. Coke thought the general prospect bo encouraging that he said the will of God, in respect to the appointment of a Missionary there, was as clear as if it had been written with a sunbeam. Mr. Clarke accordingly was stationed there, and Mr. Hammet at St. Kitts.
When they arrived at St. Eustatius, they founi that a slave, by name Harry, who had been a mem- ber of the Methodist Society in America, had taken to exhorting in that island, and had been silenced bf the governor, because the slaves were so affected at hearing him, that '^ many fell down as ifthejwerc dead, and some remained in a state of stupor da- ring several hours.'' Sixteen persons had been thrown into these fits in one night. This was a case in which the governor's interference was per- fectly justifiable and right. The day after jbis event. Coke and his companions landed, and waited upon the persons in autjiority. They soon foona that the degree of freedom which is evei7 "^"^J*^ enjoyed under the British government is not to be found in the dominions of any other European power. They were ordered to prepare their confession oi
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fmth and credentials, and to predent ik^m to the court, and to be private in their devotions, till the court had considered whether their religion should be tolerated or not. The council were satisfied with the confession, and Dr. Coke was desired to preach before them. But it was evident that the govern- ment would not permit the establishment of an Eng** lish mission upon that island, though the inhabitants were exceedinglj desirous of it. Dr. Coke, during a fortnight's stay, did what he could towards forming such as were willing into classes, and instructing them in the forms of Methodism, and was laden with
E resents of sea-stores and other refreshments, when e embarked from thence to pursue his voyage to America.
So fair a beginning was thus made, that from that time it became as regular a part of business for the Conference to provide for the West Indies, as for any part of Great Britain in which societies had been raised. In the autumn of 1788, the indefati* gable Coke (who may properly be called the Xavier of Methodism) sailed a third time for the western world, taking with him three missionaries intended for the Columbian Islands. They were embarked in that unfortuniate. ship, the Hankey, which has been accused of importing, in a subsequent voyage, the yellow fever from Bulama to the West Indies, as if that pestilence were not the growth of those countries. Every thing was favourable now, and the missionaries succeeded so well in conciliating the good will of the crew, that when they took leave of them at Barbadoes, many of the men were in tears, and the sailors bade them farewell with three hearty cheers as the boat dropped astern. Coke with his companions landed at Bridgetown, as ad- venturously as ever knight-errant set foot upon an island with his squire and his dwarf. None of the party supposed that they had a single acquaintance in Barbadoes. There were, however, soine soldiers there, who had been quartered at Kinsale in Ire- land, where Mr. Pearce, one of the missionaries, had preached ; he was presently recogiiized by a vojL. II. 44
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Berjeant^ who embraced him without ceremoDj ; and it appeared that this serjeaot and some of bis com- rades had kept up the forms of Methodism^ and were in the habit of exhorting the people, in a ware- house which a friendly merchant bad lent them for that purpose. Before Dr. Coke could wait upon this merchant, he received an invitation to break- fast with him : he proved to have been one of his hearers in America, where four of his n^roes had been baptized by the Doctor. The missionaries were immediately received into his house ; they were encouraged by the governor, and by the mer- chants and planters to whom they were introduced. Pearce was left upon the island ;' and Coke, having placed every thing in as favourable a train as could pe wished, proceeded to St. Vincent^s, whither the oiher two missionaries had preceded him, aiid where he was joined by Baxter. One of the partj was stationed there to assist the former preacher; and Baxter and his wife willingly consented to fake up their abode among the Caribs, and endeavour at the same time to civilize and to convert them.
Continuing his circuit, Dr. Coke formed a so- ciety at Dominica, and finding all prosperous at Antigua and St. Kitt% visited St. Eustatius. Here he found that the aspects were diflerenL The black Harry, after the Doctor^s departure from his former visit, interpreting the governor's prohi- bition according to the letter rather than the spirit, abstained indeed from preaching to his fellow-slares, but ventured to pray with them. For thb ofience he was publicly whipped and imprisoned, and then banished from the island. And an edict was issued, declaring, that if any white person should be found praying with others who were not of his family, be should be fined fifty pieces of eight for the first oflTence, a hundred for the second, and for the third oif^nce be should be whimBd, bis
Soods confiscated, and himself banishedme island. L free man of colour was to receive thirty-nine stripes for the first offence, and for the second to be flogged and banished ; and a slave was to
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be flogged every time he was found offending.^^ *'This, I think,*' says Dr. Coke, "is the first in- stance, known among mankind, of a persecution openly avowed against religion itself. The perse- cutions among the heathens were supported under the pretence that the Christians brougnt in strange gods ; those among the Roman Catholics were under the pretext of the Protestants introducing heresies into the church ; but this is openly and avowedly against prayer^ the great key to every blessing.'' Notwithstanding this edict, and the rigour with which it was enforced, so strong was the desire of the poor people on this, island for religious instruc* tion and religious sympathy, that Dr. Coke found above two hundred and fifty persons there classed as Methodists, and baptized a hundred and forty of them. He remained there only one night ; but the sloop which he had hired to carry him and his com- panions to St. Kitt's, having received much damage by striking against a ship, they were obliged to re- turn ; and Coke, who interpreted this accident as a plain declaration of Providence, whereby he was called on to bear a public testimony for Christ, im- mediately hired a large room for a month. What- ever danger might be incurred would fall upon him- self, he thought, by this proceeding ; whereas his friends would have been amenable to the laws if he had preached in their houses. The next day, there- fore, he boldly performed service, and gave notice that he intended to officiate again On the morrow. But Dutch governors are not persons who will suffer their authority to be set at nought with impunity; and on the ensuing morning the Doctor received a message from the governor, requiring him, and two of his companions, who were specified by name, to en- gage that they would not, publicly or privately, by day or by night, preach either to whites or blacks, during their stay m that island, on pain of prosecu- tion, arbitrary punishment, and banishment. ^ We withdrew to consult," says he; " and after consider- ing that we were favoured by Providence with an open door in other islands, for as many missionaries
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as we could spare, and that God was carrjiDg on hit blessed work even in this island by meails of secret class-meetings ; and that Divine Providence nmy in future redress these grievances bj a change of the governor, or by the interference of the superior powers in Holland in some other way, we gave for answer, that we would obey the government; and, having nothing more at present to do in that place of tyranny, oppression, and wrong, we returned to St. Kittys, blessing God for a British constitution and a British government^'
There was in Dr. Coke's company a third mis* sionary, by name Brazier, whom the governor had not heard of, and who therefore was not included in the mandate. He thought himself perfectly justi- fied in leaving this missionary upon the island. There were times in which such an experiment might have cost the contraband preacher his life ; and if the governor had been as eager to persecute as Coke supposed him to be. Brazier would certainly not have got off with a whole skin. The troth seems to be, that the governor's interference had in the first instance been necessary. Harry's preaching was of that kind which ought not to be tolerated, because it threw his hearers into fits. If Dr. Coke, on his first landing, had distinctly expressed his dis- approbation of such excesses, things might possibly have taken a different turn. But 1^ had learned to regard them as the outward signs and manifestations of inward grace ; and the governor, seeing that the black preacher tvas acknowledged by him as a fel- low-labourer, regarded him and his companions as troublesome fanatics, and treated them accordingly. And when he discovered that Brazier bad been clandestinely left behind, he behaved with more temper than might have been expected, in merely ordering him to leave the island. A man in power, who retained something of the religious part of the old Dutch character, removed tjie banished mission- ary to the little island of Saba, a dependency upon St. Eustatius^ containing about three thousand inha- bitants, of whom one4hird were whites. There was
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a respectable church there ; but the people had been seventeen jears without a minister. They re- ceived Brazier with the greatest joy, and governor, council, and people entreated him to take up his abode among thero^ offering him the church, the par- sonage, and a sufficient maintenance. Coke went there, and was delighted with the kindness and sim- plicity of the people. He informed them what the economy of the Methodists was, and particularly ex- plained to them what he called the ^ grand and in- dispensable custom of changing their ministers.'' They were willing to comply with every thing ; and though Brazier had been ordered by the Conference to Jamaica, Dr. Coke consented to leave him at Sa- ba. But when the governor of St. Eustatius knew where he was, he compelled the government to dis- miss him, though with sorrow and reluctance on their part.
Two missionaries had been appointed to Jamaica ; but Coke having thus disposed of the one, left the other to divide his labours between Tortola and Santa Cruz, (on which little island the Danish go- vernor promised him all the encouragement in his power,) and proceeded to Jamaica alone, merely to prepare the way. Some of the higher orders, being drunk at the time, insulted him while he was preaching at Kingston, and would have offered sooie personal indignities to him, if they had not been controlled by the great majority of the congregation ; but on the whole he was so well received and hospitably en- tertained, that he says, in honour of the island, he never visited any place, either in Europe or Ameri- ca, where Methodism had not taken root, in which he received so many civilities as in Jamaica. He went therefrom to America, and from thence return- ed to England, in full persuasion that the prosperfs of the society, both in Jamaica and the Leeward Islands, were as favourably as could be desired.
The cost of his spiritual colonization now became serious; for the resources of the Connexion did not keep pace with its progress, and it necessarily increased expenditure. The missions could aot
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be supported unless separate funds were* raised for the purpose ; and those funds could only be drawn from voluntary contributions. By the request of the Conference, Dr. Coke (never so happy as when he was most actively employed in such service) made a tour of sixteen months in the United Kingdoms, preaching in behalf of the negroes, for whom these missions were especially designed; and collecting money by these means, and by personal application to such as were likely to contribute; going himself from door to door.* The rebuffs which he frequently met with, did not deter him from the work which he had undertaken; and he obtained enough to dis-> charge the whole debt which had been contracted on this account, and to proceed with the missions upon an extended scale. In the autumn of 1790, he made a third voyage to the Columbian Islands. A chapel had been built at Barbadoes, during his ab- sence, capable of holding some seven hundred per- sons ; but the hopes of those, by whom this building had been directed, had been greater than their fore- sight. Though the curate at Bridgetown, Mr. Dent, was the only clergyman in all the islands who coun- tenanced the JVlethodists; and was heartily glad at re- ceiving from them the assistance which he wanted ; though the governor was not unfavourable to them, and they had begun under such favourable appear- ances, the preacher had become obnoxious : the nick- name of Hallelujahs had been fixed upon his follow- ers, and they had undergone that sort of oppositioDy which the^ dignify by the name of persecution. Per- secution, in the true sense of the word, they have since that time suffered in some of the islands ; bat in these instances the missionary seems to have been protected by the magistrates when he appealed for redress. At St. Vincent's, the attempt to civilize the
* A captain in the navy, from whom he obtained a subscr^rtion, call- ing upon an acquaintance of Coke's the same morning, said: ** Do yoa know any thing of a little fellow who calls himself Dr. Coke, and i^ho is goin slaves ? the cap of two guineas this morning. ''^Drew's Life of Dr. Coke, p. 398. roL 9.
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Caribs had altogether failed. This was owing to the French priests at Martinico. The French mission- aries have rendered themselves liable tp the heavy accusation of sacrificing the interests of Christianity to the political views of their country. Of this their conduct in Canada affords scandalous proofs ; and on the present occasion they acted in the same manner. They persuaded the Caribs, who went to Martinico on one of their trading visits, that the Methodists were spies, whom the king of £ngland had sent to explore their land ; and as soon as they had finished their errand, they would retire, and an army would be sent to conquer the country. The Caribs had regarded Baxter as their father, till they were de- ceived by this villainous artifice. They then behav- ed so sullenly towards him, that he thought it advise- able to hasten with his wife out of their power. — When Mrs. Baxter took leave of these poor savages, to whose instruction she had vainly devoted herself, she wept bitterly, and prayed that they might have another call, and might not reject it as they had done this. But among the other casts upon the island the preachers were well received. The negroes, who, in Barbadoes, were remarkably indifferent to reli- gious instruction, here were exceedingly desirous of it ; and even the Catholic families showed favour to the missionaries, and sent for Baxter to baptize their children. The prospect was still more favourable at Grenada. Mr. Dent had recently been presented to the living of St. George's in that island ; and the go- vernor, General Matthews, requested Dr. Coke to send missionaries there, saying it was his wish that the negroes should be fully instructed, and there would be work enough for their preachers and for the clergy of the island too.
The Methodists were increasing in Antigua; but here a symptom appeared of that enthusiasm of which it is so difficult for Methodism to clear itself, sanc- tioned as it has been by Wesley. At the baptism of some adults, one of them was so overcome by her feelings that she fell iuto^a swoon ; and Dr. Coke, in- stead of regarding this as a disorder, and impressing
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Upon his disciples the duty of controllii^ their emo* tions, spoke of it as a memorable thing, and with evi- dent satisfaction related that, as she lay entranced with an enraptured countenance, all she said lor some time was. Heaven! Heaven! Come! Come! It requires more charity and more discrimination than the majority of men possess, not to suspect ei- ther the sincerity or the sanity of persons who aim at producing effects like this by their ministry, or ex- ult in them when they are produced. • Not deterred by his former ill success at St. Eustatius, Coke, with the perseverance that characterized him in all his undertakings, made a third visit tliere, and waited upon the new governor, who had recently arrived from Holland. The Dutchman, he says, received him with very great rudeness indeed ; but he ought to have considered it as an act of courtesy that be was not immediately sent off* the island. The Metho- dists there were in the habit of regularly holding their class-meetings; and notwithstanding the edict, there were no fewer than eight exhorten among them. One of these persons called upon the Doctor, request- ed him to correspond with them, and promised, in the name of his fellows, punctually to obey all the di- rections which should be given them concerning the management of the society. He told him also that many of the free blacks, of both sexes, intended go* ing to St. Kittys to receive the sacrament, at Christ* mas, from one of the missionaries. Here Dr Coke . met with another instance, which, if he had been ca-
Eable of learninff that lesson, might have taught him ow dangerous it is to excite an enthusiastic spirit of religion. The person, who, on his former visits, had entertained him with true hospitality, was in the very depth of despair. ^^ The only reason he gave for his deplorable situation was, that the Lord had very powerfully called him, time aAer time, to preach, and he had as often resisted the call, till at last he entirely lost a sense of the favour of God. He seem- ed to have no hope left We endeavoured,^' the Doc- tor adds, ^^to raise his drooping head, but all in vain." If this case were known to tlie persons in
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'office, as in all likelihood it must have been, it would satisfy them that thej had done wisely in proscribing a system which produced effects like this. The per* son in question conceived himself to be in a state of reprobation, because he had not broken the laws of the place wherein he lived.
By this time the alloy of Methodism had shown itself in the islands. Dr. Coke commanded respect there by his manners, his education, and his station in life. The missionaries who followed him had none of these advantages ; their poverty and their peculiarities provoked contempt in those who had no respect for their zeal, and who perceived all that was offensive in their conduct, and all that was in* discreet, but were insensible of the good which these instruments were producing. Indispensable as reli- gion is to the well-being of every society, its salutary influences are more especially required in countries where the system of slavery is established. If the planters understood their own interest, they would see that the missionaries might be made their best friends ; that by their means the evils of slavery might be mitigated; and that, in proportion as the slave was made a religious being, he became resigned to bis lot and contented. But one sure effect of that abominable system is, that it demoralizes the mas* ters as much as it brutalizes the slaves. Men whose lives are evil, willingly disbelieve the Gospel if they can ; and, with the greater part of mankind, belief and disbelief depend upon volition far more than is generally understood. But if they cannot succeed in tnis, they naturally hate those who preach zealously against their habitual vices. Among the causes, therefore, which soon made the Methodists unpopu* lar in all or most of the Columbian islands, the first place must be assigned to that hateful licentiousness, which prevails wherever slavery exists : something is to be allowed to a contempt for the preachers ; something to the objectionable practices of Metho* dism, and to a just dislike of what was offensive in its language ; and perhaps not a little to the merito- rious zeal which the society had shown in England
vojL. II. 45
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354 fUETilODXSM 15 THE WMT-lIIXlli;^.
Jn favour of the abolition of the Slave Trade, when that great question was first agitated with such ar- dept benevolence on one side, and such fierce re- pugnance on the other.
While Pr. Coke was in Antigua, Baxter >ras assauhed at the door of his chapel by some drunken persons of the higher order, who threat- ened to murder him. His wife andi the negroes believed them to be in earnest ; the crj which they raised was mistaken fi^r a crj of fire, and the whole town was presently in an uproar. Baxter was in- formed by the magistrates that the ofifenders should be punished as they deserved, if he would lodge an information against them. But it was thought best to acknowledge a grateful sense of their pro- tection, and to decline the prosecution. Shortly afterwards, the chapel at St. Vincent's was broken open by night, not by robbers, but by mischievous ^nd probably drunken persons, who did whatmiV chief they could, and, carrying away the Bible, sus- pended it from the gallowjs; a Hagitious act, which caused the magistrates to offer a large reward for (discovering the perpetrators. This growing ill-^jU was more openly displayed at Jamaica^ where a mis- sionary had been appointed, and a chapel erected in Kingston. The preacher's life had been frequently endangered here by an outrageous rabble; and a
Eerson who was considered to be the chief of the lethodists narrowly escaped being stoned to death, and was once obliged to disguise himself in regi* Rentals. Attempts were made to pull down the C:h?\pel ; and when some of the rioters were prose- cuted, they were acquitted, Coke says, against the clearest evidence. The most abominable reports Vefo i;aised against Hammet, the preacher ; aod as for Dr. Coke, he, they said, had been tried io ^"?* land for horse-stealingi and had fled the country iQ order (,o escape from justice.
Such was the temper of the Jamaica people* v'^"* tjhe Doctor, with another missionary in luscompa"^ landrd at Montego Bay, id the b^ginniog of 1'^* 4 rccomipend^tpry letter Xq a gentleffl^ ^ *^
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neighbourhood procured them ari excellent dinnei*J but no help in their main desigin ; and th^y talked the streets, " peepiiig and inquiring for a place' Wherein to preach, in vain;" to preach out of doors rn that climate while the sun is up, is almost impraC- t^cablie ; and at evening, the only time wHeii the slaves can attend, the* heavy dews render it impru* dent and dangi^roufe. Dining, however, at an ordi-' nary the next day, and stating his sort-ow that he* Was prevented from preaching for want of a place, orte of the company advised him to apply for a large' room, which had originally been the church, served now for assemblies, and Was frequently us6d as a* theatre. Here he preached every evening during' a short stay, and though a few bdck^ clapped and^ encored him, he was on the whole well satisfied with the attention of the congregation,* and the re- spect with which he was treated. But at Spanish Town and at Kingston he was grossly insulted by a set of profligate young men : their conduct roused in him an emotion which he had never felt in the same degree before, and which, he says, he believed was d spark of the proper spirit of martyrdom; and, ad- dressing himself to tfiese rioters in terms of just re- proof, he told them that he was willing^ — ^yea. desi- rous to suffer martyrdom, if the kingdom of Christ might be promoted thereby. The effect which he! says this produced, was undoubtedly assisted by' his station in life, which enabled him to appear' upon equal terms with the proudest of his assailants. On another occasion, when he had ended his ser- mon, he told these persons that he and his brethren' were determined to proceed, and to apply to the legal authorities for justice, if such insults and ouf-
* •* On the Sunday morning," says Dr. Coke, (Journal, page 130)/ *' we went to church ; but a little rain falKng, the congregation consisted orI^ of half a dozen or thereabouts at the exact time of beginnhig ; on) which the minister walked out: if he had condescended to have waited ten mitiutes longer, we should have been, I believe, about twenty. The ' Sooday before, also^ there had been no service. In some of the pa**', rishes of this inland there is no church, nor any divine service performed, except the burial of the dead and christenings and weddings in private houses, though the liviogs are very lucrative. But I TmXk writ« po more ' 00 this subject, lest I should grow indignant"
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rages were eontioaed ; and if justice were not to be found in Jamaica^ they were sure, he said, of obtain- ing it at home.
The affairs of Methodism in the West Indies were in this state at the time of Mn Wesley's deatlt Fourteen preachers were stationed there, of whom two came from the American branch. The oomber of persons enrolled in the connexion then amounted to about six thousand, of whom two-thirds were qe- groes, and the number of white persons did not exceed two hundred A more determined spirit of opposition was arising than they had ever experienc- ed in Europe, but they were sure of prolecUoo from the home-government, and knew that by perBere^ ranee they should make their cause good.
CHAPTER XXIX.
SETTLEMENT OF THE CONFERENCE.— MANNERS ANP EFFECTS OF METHODISM.
The year 1784 has been called the grand climac- terical year of Methodism, because Wesley then first arrogated to himself an episcopal power; sod be- cause in that year the legal settlement of the Confer- ence was efiected. whereby provision was made for the government of the society after his deaths as long as it should continue.
The Methodist chapels, with the preachers' bouses annexed to them, had all been conveyed to trastew for the use of such persons as should be appointed from tinae to time by John or Charles Wesley, doring their lives ; by the survivor, and after the destb of both, by the yearly Conference of the people called Methodists, in London, Bristol, or Leeds. A legal opinion was taken, whether the law would recoffwsc the Conference, unless the precise meaning of the word were defined ; the lawyers were ofofiommK
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it woaM now and therefore at the next meeting of that body, Mr. Wesley was unanimouslj desired to draw up a deed which should give a legal specifica-^ tion <^ the term; the mode of doing it being left en* tipely to his discretion. The necessity for this was obvious. ^ Without some authentic deed fixing the meaning of the term, the moment I died," says he, ^ the Conference had been nothing : therefore any of the proprietors of land on which our preaching houses bad been built might have seized them for their own use, and there would have been none to hinder them ; for the Conference would have been nobody — a mere . empty name."
His first thought was to name some ten or twelve
Eersons. On further consideration he appointed one undred, believing, he says, ^^ there would be more safety in a greater number of counsellors, and judg* ing these were as many as could meet without too great an expense, and without leaving any circuit de- prived of preachers while the Conference was as- sembled. The hundred persons thus nominated ^^ being preachers and expounders of God's holy Word, under the care of, and in connexion with, the said John Wesley," were declared to constitute the Conference, according to the true intent and mean- ing of the various deeds in which that term was used ; and provision w^s now made for continuing the suc- cession and identity of this body, wherein the admi- nistration of the Methodist Connexion was to be vested after the founder's death. They were to as- semble yearly at London, Bristol, or Leeds, or any other place which they might think proper to appoint; and their first act was to be to fill up all vacancies oc^casioned by death or other circumstances. No act was to be valid unless forty members were pre- sent, provided the whole body had not been reduced below that number by death, or other causes. The duration of the assembly should not be less than five days, nor miore than three weeks, hut any time be- tween those limits at their discretion. They were to elect a president and secretary from their own number^ and the president should have a double
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rote, Ajuf aiaiiiber absenting himaelf wMMMil^latve fi^om two soceMsive eonfeKncee, and not a!ppearing CO the first day <»f the thirds fiMifeited hi»9eat bj diat ajMetice. They had power to adnit preieicbem anj cixpounders.upon tiiaU toi^cei^e tbem inl»: Ml eon- nexioni.and to expel any petsou for sufficient iMse; but no pecdon might be elected a member of theif body, tiU he had been twelve months in fail conoeiioa asa preacher* They mii^ht not appoint) any* one ta
E reach in any of their chapels who was not a mem- er of the Connexion, nor^ might they appoint anj pceacher for more than three years to one place, except ordained ministers of the Church of< England; They might delegate any member or memb^ of their own body to aot with full power in Ireland^ or a/iy other parts out of the kingdom of Great Britain; Whenever the Conference should be reduced beloir the number of forty members, and continue to re- duced for three years, or wheneTorit'sbould negtect to meet for three successive years, in eitherof rach cases the Conference should be extinguished ; and the chapels and other premises should vest in the trustees for the tiaie being4 in trust- tliat they siKmld appoint persons to preach therein. The deed'con^ eluded with a provision that notbtng-which it con- tained should be construed so as to extingQisbi lesMO,' or abridge the life estate of Job» and Charles Wee* le^ in any of the chapels and premises^
At the time when this settlement was made, tbere were one hundred and ninety-one preachers in feH connexion ; they who were omitted in the list of tke Hundred were offended as well as disappointed; aixl they imputed their exclusion to Dr. Coke, wlJ<w* many of them regarded with jealousy becaaseoftb^ place which he deservedly held in Mr. We«ley% oP'" nion^ and the conspicuous rank which he filled in (he society. He was grievously wronged by this 8«»J»* cion ; for he has declared, and there can be nopos; sible grounds for doubting his veracity, that hisopi- nion at the time was, that every preacher in full coo* nexion should be a member of the Conference:— Wesley acted upon his own judgment; and tfte^***
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Mfts ivbtcb he assigned fi>r determining the nnmbef wene wtiefiiclory. Five of the exdoded preachers^ who tboughi tfoemselvee most aggrieved, sent circu«> lar letters to thoee who were in the same case with themaelves, inviting thetn to canvass the business in the ensuing Conference, and, in fact, to form a regii« iar opposition to Mr. Wesley. They had reason to eipect that they should be powerfully supported ; but when the assembly met, Wesley explained his motives in a manner that carried conviction with it, reproved the persons who tmd issued the circular letters with great severity, and called upon all those who agreed with him in opinion to stand up ; upon which the whole Conference rose, with the exception ^ the five malcontents. Mr. Fletcher interfered in their behalf, and by his means they were induced to acknowledge that they bad sinned; and a verbal promise, according to their own account, was given them, that Mr. Wesley would take measures for put- ting them on a footing with the rest. He could only mean that they would be appointed members of the Conference as vacancies occurred ; and it appears by their own statement also, that they had not pa- tience to wait for this, but, in the course of the yean withdrew from the Connexion, complaining of their wrongs, talking of their indisputable rights, and appealing to an original compact which had no existence. On the contrary, Wesley had always taken especial care to assert, as well as to exercise, bis authority over the society which he had raised, and the preachers, whom he received as hisass^tants, not bis equals; still less as persona who might op- pose and control htm.
Wesley prided himself upon the economy of hrs society, and opon his management of it. It was the peculiar talent, he said, which God had given him. Ue possessed that talent beyond all doubts in a re- mavkaUe degree. The constitution of Methodism, like most fevms of government, bad arisen out. of accidents and circumstances : but Wesley had avail- ed himself of these with great skiU, and made them suhstrvMoft to his views and purposes as they arose :
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whatever pow^r of mind was displayed io ^bt fi>^ mation of Methodism was his own. In this respect he differs from those monastic patriarchs^ with whom he may most obvioasly be compared. St Benedict compiled his rule from eider statutes, modifying tbem, and adapting them to his own time and country. St Francis seems to have become the tool of his artful and ambitious discipleb; &nd Loyola was nolthe architect of the admirable structure which be fonnd- ed. But the system of Methodism was Wesley's owd work. The task of directing it was not so difficult as might at first appear. His rank, his attaimneDts, his abilities, and his reputation, secured for bim so decided a superiority, that no person in his owneem- munity couU, with the slightest prospect of success, dispute it ; and in the latter years of his life, that superiority was still hirther increased by his venera- ble age, and the respect which he had then obtaioed even among strangers. Those who were wearf of acf iiig under his direction as preachers, er of ob- sehring his rules as members, either wi^drew,srwere easily dismissed. This is the great advantage whidi all sects enjoy. They get rid of troublesome sfwrits and bad subjects ; and general society is tea^ to re^ ceive the outcasts.
The quarterly renewal of the baBd and dass tickets afforded a ready means of ejecting vnw^J and disobedient members. The terms ofadoiiBsion) therefore, might well be made comprehensive; while these means of cutting short all discordanec were ifl the preacher^s hands. Upon this facility of adois^ sion Wesley prided himaelf. *♦ One circoftstaoce, says he, "is quite peculiar to the Methodists: the terms upon which any person may be admitted into their society. They do not impose, in CMPder to ttor admission, any opinions whatever. Let thesi Wp particular or general redemption, absdole or cow»- tional decrees ; let them be Churchmen orWwcfr ters, Presbyterians or Independents, it isnoaWacw. Let them choose one mode of worship or another h is no bar to their admission. The Presbyteriaftm«7 be a Presbyterian still ; the Indepeodestw Aaatap
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list use his own mode of worship ; so may the Qaa- ker, and none will contend with him about it Tbejr think, and let think. One condition, and one only, is required, — a real desire to save their souls. Where this is, it is enough ; they desire no more. They lay stress upon nothing else. They ask only, Is thy heart herein as my heart ? If it be, ffive me thy hand. Is there any other sooi 3ty in Great Britain or Ireland that is so remote from bigotry ? that is so truly of a Catho- lic spirit ? so ready to admit all serious persons with- out distinction ? Where, then, is there such another society? in Europe? in the habitable world? I know none. Let any man show it me that can. Till then, let no one talk of the bigotry of the Methodists.^' The propriety of thus admitting persons of opposite per- suasions, and of bearing witb the opposition which they might raise was once debated in Conference. Mr Wesley listened patiently to the discussion, and concluded it by saying, ^^ 1 have no more right to ob- ject to a man for holding a different opinion from me, than I have to differ with a man because he wears a wig and 1 wear my own hair ; but if he takes his wig off^ and begins to shake the powder about my eyes, Ishall consider it my duty to get quit of him as soon as possible.^'
Wesley, indeed, well understood the importance of unanimity in his connexion ; and even before he had taken those decided steps which prepared the way for a separation from the Church, aimed, in many of his r^ulations, at making the Methodists a pecu- liar people. For this reason, he reouired them, like the Quakers, to intermarry among themselves. This point was determined in the first Conference, th^ want of such a regulation having been experienced. ** Many of our members,^' it was said, *^ have lately married with unbelievers, even with such as were wtioUy unwakened ; and this has been attended with fatai consequences. Few of these have gained the unbelieving wife or husband. Generally, they hav^ themselves either had a heavy cross for life, or en- tirely fallen back into the wortd.^' In order to pre- vent such marriages, it was decreed that every
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preacher should enforce the apostolic caution^ ^^Be ye not unequally yoked with unbelievers ;" that who- ever acted contrary to it should be expelled the so- ciety; and that all persons should be exhorted ^to take no step in so weighty a matter without consolt- ing the most serious of their brethren.'* The rule was well designed for the preservation and increase of Methodism; but the language savours strongly of that spiritual pride which sectarism of every kind tends to excite and foster.
This was not the only point in which Wesley imi- tated the Quakers. He has himself said, that, ha^ ing remarked among them several parts of Christian practice, he had willingfy adopted, with some re- strictions, plainness of speech and plainness of drm In their barbarisms of language, and their supersti- tious rejection of common forms of speech, he was too well educated and too sensible to foDow them; neither did he recommend his followers to imitate them in those little particularities of dress which could answer no end but that of distinguishing them from other people. ** To be singular,** he said, " merely for singularity's sake, is not the part of « Christian. I do not, therefore, advise you to wear a hat of such dimensions, or a coat of a particalar form. Rather, in things that are absolutely indiftrent, humility and courtesy require you to conform to the customs of your country ; but I advise you to imitate them in the neatness and in the plainness of their apparel. In this are implied two things : that joor apparel be cheap, far cheaper than others in yow circumstances wear, or than you would wear if y<>^ knew not God; that it.be grave, not gay, ^^\.^l showy — not in the point of the fashion.*'^*' Sbafi^ be more particular ?** he pursues. ** Then / «^^ all those who desire me to tralch over (heir sotds^ w«r ^ gold, no pearls or precious stones ; use no c^™^. hair or costly apparel, how grave soever. '^'*' those who are able to receive this sayings boy vto ▼«"^^ ' no silks, no fine linen, no superfluities, no mere orna- ments, though ever so much in fashion. ^ ^^^P thing, though you have it already, whicli la^^ff^^'
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lAf colour, or which is in any kind gay, glntering, or showy; nothing made in the very vheight of the fashion ; nothing apt to attract the eyes of the by- st€uider8. I do not advise women to wear rings, ear- rings, necklaces, laces (of whatever kind or colour), or ruffles, which, by little and little, may shoot easily from one to twelve inches deep. Neither do I ad- vise men to wear coloured waistcoats, shining stock- ings, glittering or costly buckles or buttons, either on their coats or in their sleeves, any more than gay, fashionables or expensive perukes. It is true, these are little, very little things, which are not worth de- fending; therefore give them up, let them drop: throw them away, without another word/'
It was one of the band-rules that rings, ear-rings, necklaces, lace, and ruffles, were not to be worn ; and this rule was ordered by the first Conference to be enforced, particularly with regard to ruffles : band* tickets were not to be given to any persons who had not left them off; and no exempt case was to .be al lowed, not even of a married woman : ^^ Better one suffer than many," was Mr. Wesley's language at that time. This uij unction was afterwards wiuidrawn; because it was found impracticable, as interfering in a manner not to be borne with domestic affairs. He admitted, therefore, that ^^ women under the yoke of unbelieving parents or husbands (as well as men in office) might be constrained to put on gold or costly apparel; and in cases of this kind,'' says he, ^^ plain experience shows, that the baneful influence is sus- pended ; so that, wherever it is not our choice, but our cross, it may consist with godliness, with a meek and quiet spirit, with lowliness of heart, with Chris- tian seriousness." Women, therefore, who were con- strained by *^ self-willed, unreasonable husbands or parents," to do in this respect what otherwise they would npt, were held blameless, provided they used ^^ all possible means, arguments, and entreaties to be excused," and complied just ** so far as they were constrained, and no further." Even in this conces- sion, the intolerant spirit of a reformer is betrayed ; and no scruple was made at introducing discord into
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private familieB, for the sake of an idle faocj which \V sley had taken up in the days of his enthmasm. He maintained, that curling the hair, and wearing gold, precious stones, and costly apparel, were ex* pressly forbidden in Scripture ; and that whoever said tnere is no harm in these things, might as well saj there is no harm in stealing or adultery; a mode of reasoning, which would produce no effect so sare* ly as that of confounding all notions of right and wrong.
In spite, however, of his exhortations, those of bis own people, who could afford it, ^ the very people that sate under the pulpit, or by the side of it," were as fashionably adorned as others of their own raoL '*This," said Wesley, "is a melancholy truth: I am ashamed of it, but I know not how to help it I call heaven and earth to witness this day, that it is not my fault. The trumpet has not given an uncertain sound, for near tifty years last past O God, tboa knowest 1 have borne a clear and a fiiithfal testimo- ny. In print, in preaching, in meeting thesociety^ I have not shunned to declare the whole cosBBel of God ; I am therefore clear of the blood of those that will not hear: it lies upon their own heads. I con- jure you all who have anv regard for me, show me* before I go hence, that I have not laboured, even in this respect, in vain, for near half a century. Let me see, before I die, a Methodist congregation* foH as plain dressed as a Quaker congregation. OfAj^ more consistent with yourselves: let your dress be ckeap as well as plain, otherwise you do but trifle with Goa, and me, and your own souls. I pray, let there be no cobtly silks among you, how grave soever they may be ; let there be no Quaker linen, proverbiallj so called for its exquisite fineness ; no Brussels lace; no elephantine hats or bonnets,— -those scandals of female modesty. Be all of a piece^ dressed tfon head to foot as persons professing godliness; p^ fePHing to do every thing, small and great, with toe single view of pleasing God.^
Whitefield, in the early part of his course, M fallen into an error of this kind ; and, ibr about s
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jeWf he says, thought that ^^ Christianity required him to go oasty.^' But Wesley was always scrupu- lously neat in his person, and enforced upon his fol* lowers the necessity of personal neatness. 1 oward the end of his iiie, he publicly declared his regret that he had not made the Methodists distinguish themselves by a peculiar costume. ^ I might hare been. as firm,^' he says, ^^ (and 1 now see it would have been &r better) as either the people called Quakers, or the Moravian brethren : I might have said, ^ this is our manner of dress, which we know is both scriptural and rational. If you join with us, you are to dress as we do ; but you need not join us unless you please.^ But, alas ! the time is now past.^ Perhaps, if he had attempted this early in bis career, be might have succeeded, as well as George Fox ; but it, like George Fox, he had taken for his stand- ard the common dress of grave persons, in the mid- die rank* of life, he would have perpetuated a fashion more graceless than that of Quakerism in its rigour. The Quakers are not desirous of increasing their numbers by proselytes; if they were, they would find an inconvenience in their costume : instead of mak- ing the entrance easy and imperceptible, so that he who enters scarcely knows when he has passed the line« it places a Rubicon in the way. It has the further inconvenience, and this they feel and lament, that the desire of getting rid of bo peculiar a garb, is one in- ducement for young members to withdraw from the sect. The latter objection Wesley might have avoid- ed, by choosing a habit at once graceful and conve- nient: but the lormer would have greatly impeded his success ; and he himself, who compassed sea and land to gain proselytes, would soon have been impatient of such an impediment. Upon his wealthier follow- ers, bis exhortations upon this subject produced little or no effect; but, in the middle and lower classes, of which the great majority consisted, the women took to a mode of dress less formal than that of the Quakers, but almost as plain, and by which they were easily distinguished.* With the men he
* In one of his Magazines, Wesley published an extract from a tract caUedthe JEUfined Courtier ^ and the foUowing passage was loudly com-
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was less successful : it was asked^ in the Confcreoee of 1782, if it were well for tbe preadiers to powder their hair, and to wear artificial, curls? and the ao-* swer merelj said, that ^ to abstain froni both is the more excellent way." A <lirect prohtbitioo was not thought advisable, because it would not have been willingly obeyed.
Cards^ dancing, and the theatres were, of course^ forbidden to his disciples. Not contented with sih^ reasons as are valid or plausible for the prohibition, they have collected superstitious aneolotes upon these subjects $ and, in a spirit as presomptooua as it is uncharitable, have recorded tales of sudden death, as instances of God's judgment upon card- players and dancing-masters! Innocent was a word which Wesley would never saflfer to be appiied to any kind of pastime ; for he had set hb fece againat all diversions of any kind, and would not even allow the children at school to play. ^ Those thii^ we have falsely called innoceni^'^^ says one of his corre»* pendents, ^ are the right eye to be plucked out If you were besieging strong enemies, and had no hope of conquering but by starving them, would it be miio« cent now and men to throw them a little bread ?'^ Wes* ley was in nothing more erroneous than in judging of others by himself and requiring from them a con* stant attention to spiritual things, and that unremit'- ting stretch of the faculties, which, to him, was be* come habitual. If he never flagged% it was becsause he was blessed, above all men, with a continual elasticity of spirits ; because the strm^ motive of
plained of« as incoosistent with tbe opiDions upoo tliis subject wbicb be had repeatedly proft'ssed : " Let every one, when he appears in public, be decently clothtni, according to his age. and the custom of the place iprhere he lives : he that does otherwise, seems to affect singularity. Nor is it sufficient that our garment be made of good cloth; but we should constrain ourselves to follow tbe garb where we reside, seeing custom is the law and standard of decency in ail things of this Mtute." He par mpbrases this in a subsequent number, in order to vindicate it; says uiat the author is speaking of people of rank ; and, that he may get rid of the accusation with a jest, exhorts all lords of the bed-chamber^ and maids of honour, to follow the advice. ** The whole,'* says be, " nmf bear a sound construction, nor does it contradict any thing which I have Sfiid or written."
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iarirition wa» always acting opon him ; bccaase per- petual change of place kept hit mind and body for ever on the alert ; and becauae, wherever he went, his preeence excited a stir among strangers, and made a festival among his friends. Daily change of scene and of society, with a life of activity and exer- tion, kept him in hilarity as well as health. But it was unreasonable to expect that his followers should bave the same happy temperament
Bishop Hackef s happy motto was, «^ Serve God^ and be cheerfof -^^Be serious,^' was one of Wesley's fiivourite injunctions. ^ Be serious ;'' it was said in the first Conference. ^^ Let your motto be, ^ Holiness to tbe Lord.' Avoid all lightness, as you would avoid hell-fire; and Iriding, as you would cursing and swearing. Touch no woman : be as loving as you will, but the custom of the country is nothing to as*.*' When the two brothers, John and Charles, were in the first stage of their etithusiasm, they used to spend part of the Sabbath in walking in the fields, and singing psalms. One Sunday, when they were beginning to set tbe stave, a sense of the ridiculous situation came upon Charles, and he burst into a loud laughter. ^ I asked him^'' says John, ^ if he was distracted, and began to be very angry, and pre- sently after to laugh as loud as he. Nor could we possibly refrain, though- we were ready to tear our- selves in pieces, but were forced to go home, without singing another lifie.'' Hysterical laughter, and that laughter which is as contagious as the act of yawn- ing, when tbe company are in tune for it, Wesley l^elieved to be the work of tbe devil,— ^ne of the many points in which the parallel holds good be- tween the enthusiasm of the Methodists and of the Papistsf.
* This passai^ will not be found in the minutes of the Conference. It is given by Mr. Myles, in his Chronologieal History of the Methodists, (p. 81. 8d edition,) as a minute relative to practice. This authority will not be questioned, Mr. Myles being a travelling preacher himself, and a dislinguished member of the Ci>nf(»rt»iice.
t Iriere is a grand diatribe of 8r. Pachomitis against laughing. The beatified Jordan, second general of the Dominicans, treated an h3^teri- cal affection of this Icind with a di'?r(*e of prudence and practical wis- dom, not often to be found in tbe life of a Romish saint. ^ Chtm idem
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He adTised his preachers not to conTene iritk any persou more than an hour at a time ; in general to fis the end of everj converBatioii before tfaej bei;an ; to plan it before hand ; to pray before mA after it^ and to watch and pray aunng the time. In the eame spirit of a monastic legislator abo, bat to a more practicable and useful end, he exhorted them to watch against what he called ike ki^ fmihmg; to mortify which, he and his companions at Oxford, he said, frequently broke off* writing in the middle of a sentence, if not in the middle of a word, especially the moment they heard the efaapel bell ring. «^ If' nature,'' said be, ^re- claimed, we remembered the word of the heathen—- ejieienda est htse mo/hiies ammu^^ Could bis rales nave been enforced like those of his kindred spirits in the days of papal dominion, he also would have bad his followers regular as dock-work, and as obedient, as uniform, and as artificial as they coold have been made by the institutions of the Chinese
magitter ducent stcum mulioa naviHos, quo$ rtc^Kirai »n ^twite belt «k non erai converUtis ; accidU quod in miadam Haspitio cum Comfkfmii^ eumeia fy aU%» tvis dieertt, vnuscapUridirt; et alii hoe vitUnk$ ii«tftV fotiiUr ineeperwU ridott. Qwutefti auUm de «oem ntagUtrime^ f^ per signa compe^cere ; at iUi map^ ac magis ridebant. ISmc aiMUf^ Vompldono. etdieto henedicitef tne^fit magigtcr dicere UU jodbftMi 1^ ieTf quie fu^ voB magiibrum mmitunwn ¥utatror^ Qmd petiM ^ voa eos conigere f Et convenus ad novitiot dixU^ eansnmi rwUfirlMr$ et non dimtitatis propterfratrem istum : ego do vohis Uofidiam, B W dAelM gaudere et ridere, qma exwialU de eareere diMU etfratbtifiM dtu^ vinculi iUius^ jn^jlnis^ muUis annis ienmt vot Ufotoe. RM^ <>1^ carisnmi, ridete. At iUa in his verbis consditti sunt in aniino ; dpod rt' dere dissolvti non potuerunt.^ Acta Sanctorum, id Feb. p. 7S4.
* St DaTid accustomed his monks to the same kind of atert fija-
K"iiie: if any one heard the bell ting while he nm engaced it wiitin^» instantly left off, thou$;h it mi^ht be in the middle of a ^^* Veniente autem vesper'' nolm sonitus auditbatar, etquisquestudm^^uuM deeerdtat^ el ad eomrnunitatem veniebat Si veto in atmSms el^9*^^' BojMhatscriptatuncUteraapiceveletiamdimidi' liter 1 eomAwiWJJ'*'" dimittebat, etadoommunem locum conveniebai cum ni^niio.— Acti ^v*^' torum. March 1st Vol. i p 46. .
Stanihurst, in his description of Ireiand, relates an ^o^^*"^ ^^^J? **an holie and learned abbot calltd Kanicus. ' who ** was "^^**y *?!rK to his book and to devotion ; wh»*rein h« contifuied so pwrfnl ww ojjl" cent, as beinfcon a certain time penning; a serious matter, aii^ having nw fully drawn the fourth vocal, the abbey-bell tingd to.asw«»W<' ^^^ifSl^ Tent to some spiritual exeteise; to which ht- so hastrned, jisbtjw^^ letter In semi-circle-wise uofintshed, until he retuxxed backlogs book.
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eeipirey or the monaBterj of La Trappe. This was not possible, because obedience was a matter of choice : his disciples conformed no ftirther than thef thought good; dismissal was the only punishment which he could inflict, and it was always in their power to withdraw from the Connexion* Even his establishment at Kings wood &iled of the effect which he had expected from it, though authority was not wanting there ; because the system was too rigorous and too monastic for the age and country. The plan of making it a general school for the society was re* linquished ; but it was continued for the sons of the preachers, and became one of those objects for which the Conference regularly provided at their annual meeting* In the year 1766 he delivered over the management of it to stewards on whom he could depend : ^^ So I have cast,^^ said he, ^ a heavy load off* my shoulders ; blessed be God for able and faith- ful men who will do his work without any temporal reward.'^ The superintendence* he still retained; ^nd it was a frequent cause of vexation to him. Maids, masters, and boys, were refractory, some- times the one, sometimes the other, sometimes alt together, so that he talked of letting the burthen drop On one occasion, he says, ^^ Having told my whole mind to the masters and servants, I spoke to the children in a far stronger manner than ever I did before. I will kill or cure. I will have one or the other, — a Christian school, or none at all.'^ But the necessity of such an asylum induced him to perse- vere in it ; and it was evidently, with all the gross errors of its plan, and all the trouble and chagrin which it occasioned, a favourite institution with the founder. ^^ Trevecca,'' said he, *< is much more to Lady Huntingdon than Kingswood is to me. I mixes with every thing. It is my college, my masters, my students. I do not speak.so of this school > It is not mme, but the Lord V Looking upon himself, how-* ever, as the vicegerent, the complacency with which he regarded the design, made amends to him for the frequent d isappointment of his hopes. «^ Every mail of sense,^' he said, ^ who read the rules, mi^t ooti- voL. 11. 47
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diid« that a school so conducted bj men of piety and understanding wobM exceed any other schod or academy in Great Britain or Ireland.'' And his amazii^ credulity whenever a w>rk ofg^aee was an- nounced among the boys, was proof against repeated experience^ as well as common sense. The boys were taken to see a corpse one day, and, while the impression was fresh upon them, they were lectured upon the occasion, and made to join in a hymn upon death. Some of them being very much affected, tliey were told that those who were resolved to serve God might go and pray together; and, accordingly, fifteen of them weni, and, in Wesley's language, ^^ continued wnestling with God, with strong cries and tears," till their bed-time. Wesley happened to be upon the spot. The excitement was kept up day after day, by what he calls ^^ strong exhortations,'' and many gave in their names to him, being resolved, they said, to serve God. It was a wonder that the boys were not driven mad by the conduct of their iDStroctofs. These insane persons urged them never to rest till they had obtained a clear sense of the pardonii^glove of God. This advice they gave tliem severally, as well as collectively ; and some of the poor children actually agreed that they would not sleep till Got! revealed himself to them, and they had foond peace. The scene which ensued was worthy of Bedlann, and might fairly have entitled the promoters to a place there. One of the masters, finding that they had risen from bed, and were hard at prayer, soroehaU- dressed and some almost naked, went and prayed and song with them, and then ordered them to bed. it was impossible that they could sleep in socb a state of delirium; they rose again, and went to the same work ; and being again ordered to bed, again stole out. one after another, till, when it was near midnight, they were all at prayer again. Tbcma'ds caught the madness, and were upon their kneeawrth the children. This continued all night; and maidfe and boys went <m raving and prayiqg through the next dav, till, one after another, they every one b^ cied at last, that they fek their jiistificaUoo! ""Ib
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the evening all the maids, &ai many^ of the boy^, iio4 having been used to so long and violent speakings (for this had lasted from Toeadajr till Saturday!) were worn-out as to bodily strength, and so hoarse, that they were scarce ah4e to speak/' But it was added that they were ^ strong in the Spirit, full of love, and of joy and peace in belie ving.^' Most of them were admitted to the Lord's Supper the next day, for the first time : and Wesley inserted the whole monstrous account, with all its details, in his . journal ; and, in a letter written at that time, affirms that God had sent a shower of grace upon the chil- dren ! '^ Thirteen,'' he says, ^ found peace with God, and four or five of them were some of the smallest there, not above seven or eight years old !" Twelve months afterwards, there is tbis notable entry in his journal : ^^ I spent an hour among our children at Kingswood. It is strange ! How long shall we be constrained to weave Penelope's web? What is become of the wonderful work of grace which God wrought in them last September ? It is gone ! It is lost! It is vanished away! There is scarce anj trace of it remaining ! — ^Tben we must begin again ; and, in due time, we shall reap, if we ^aint not." On this subject he was incapable of deriving instruc* tion from experience.
Neither did Wesley ever discover the extreme danger of exciting an inflammatory state of de« votional feeling. His system, on the contrary, enjoined a perpetual course of stimulants, and lest the watch-nights and the love-feasts, with the ordinary means of class-meetings and band-qieet- ings, should be insufficient, he borrowed from the Puritans one of the most perilous practices that ever was devised by enthusiasm ; the entering into a cove« nant, in which the devotee promises and vows to the ^^ most dreadful God," (beginning the address with that dreadful appellation !) to become his covenant servant ; and, giving up himself, body and souK to his service, to observe all his laws, and obey him be* fore all others, ^ and this to the death !" Mr. Wes- ley may perhaps have keen prejudiced in £ivour df
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OAb practice, because he found it recommended by the non-coulbrroist Richard Allein, whose works had been published by his maternal grandfather. Dr. Ao- nesley ; sp that lie had probably been taught to re* spect the author in his youth. In the year 1755, be first recommended this covenant; and, after eiplain- ing the subject to his London congregation during several successive days, he assembjed as many as were willing to enter into the engasrement, at the French church in Spitalfields, and read to tbem the tremendous formula, to which eighteen hundred per- sons signified their assent by standing up. ^ Such a night,'' he says, ^ I scarce ever saw before : surely the fruit of it shall remain for ever !*' Fro© that time it has been the practice among the Methodists, to renew the covenant annually, generally on the first night of the new year, or of the Sunday following. They are exhorted to make it not only in heart, but in wmnl; not only in word, but in writing; and to spread the writing with all possible reverence before the Lord, as if they would present it to him as their act and deed, and then to set their bands to it It is said, that some persons, f^m a fanatical and fright- ful notion of making the covenant perfect on their part, have signed it with their own blood !
A practice like this, highly reprehensible as it would always be, might be comparatively harmless, if absolution were a part of the !Vf ethodistic econo- my, as well as confession ; and if the distinction be- tween venial and deadly sins were admitted; or if things, innooent in themselves, were not considered sinful in their morality. The rules of a monastic order, however austere, are observed in the convent, because there exists an authority which can compel the observance, and punish any disobedience; mo«^ over, all opportunities of infraction or temptation are, as much as possible, precluded there, and the discipline is regularly and constantly enforced. But they who take the Methodistic covenant, have no keeper except their own conscience ; that, too, m a state of diseased irritability, often unable toprefcnt tbem from lapsing into offences, but sure to ei^^
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rate the most trifling fault, and to avenge eyen ima- ginary guilt with real anguish. The struggle which such an engagement is huttoolikeljto produce, may well be imagined ; nor can its consequences be doubtful : some would have strength of nerves enough to succeed in stifling their conscience, or, at least, in keeping it down; and they would throw off* all re« ligion as burdensome, because they had taken upon themselves a yoke too heavy to be borne : otiiera would lose their senses.
Methodism has sometimes been the cure of mad-* BOSS, and has frequently changed the type of the dis* ease, and mitigated its evils. Sometimes it has ob- tained credit by curing the malady which it caused ; but its remedial powers are not always able to re- store the patient, and overstrained feelings hdve end- ed in confirmed insanity or in death. When Wesley instructed his preachers that they should throw men into strong terror and fear, and strive to make them inconsolable, he did not consider that all con- stitutions were not strong enough to stand this moral salivation. The language of his own sermons was sometimes well calculated to produce this eflect— ^ Mine and your desert," said he to his hearers, "is hell : and it is mere mercy, free undeserved mercy, that we are not now in unquenchable fire." ** The natural man," said he, " lies in the valley of the sha- dow of death* Having no inlets for the knowledge of spiritual things, all- the avenues of his soul being shut up, he is in gross stupid ignorance of whatever he is most concerned to know. He sees not that he stands on the edge of the pit ; therefore h^ fears it not : he has not understanding enough to fear., He. satisfies himself by saying, God is merciful ; con- founding and swallowing up at once^ in that unwieldy idea of mercy, all his holiness and essential hatred of sin — all bis justice, wisdom, and truth. God touches him, and now first he discovers his real state. Horrid light breaks in upon his soul — such light as may be conceived to jrleam from the bottomless pit« from the lowest deep^ from a lake of fire burning with brimstone " The effect of such sulphurous language
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maj be easily conceited, especially when it was en- forced by bis manner of addressing bimself person- ally to every individual vrbocbose to apply it fo bim- self; ^^ Art thou thoroughly convinced that thou de- senrest everlasting damnation ? Would God do thee any wrong if he commanded the earth to open and swallow thee up ? — ^if thou wert now to go down into the pit — into the fire that never sbaU be quenched r"
The manner in which he insisted upon the neces- sity of the new birth, was especially dangerous: without this he affirmed that there could be no sal- vation. ^^ To say that ye cannot be born again,^ said he, «^ that there is no new birth but in baptism, is to seal you all under damnation-*-to consign you to bell, without help, without hope. Thousands do really believe that they have found a broad way wfiidtleadeA not to destruction. ^ What danger, (say they,) can a woman be in, that is so harmless and sovirhme?^ What fear is there that so honest a oian, one c^ so strict morality^ should miss of heaven } Espedally if, over and above all this, they constantly attend on the church and sacrament.' One of these will ask with all assurance, ^ What ! shall I not do as well as my ndghbours ?' Yes ; as well as your un- holy neighbours ; as well as your neighbours that die in their sins ; for you will all drop into the pit toge- ther,into the nethermost hell. You will all lie t(^tber in the lake of fire, * the lake of fire burning with brimstone.' Then at length you will see (bat God grant you may see it before !) the necessity of boh- ness in order to glory, and, consequently, of the new birth; since none can be holy, except he be born again.'' And he inveighed bitterlv against all wbo preached any doctrine short of this. ** Where h^ the uncharitableness," he asked ; ** on my side, or on yours ? I say he may be bom again, and so become an heir of salvation ; you say he cannot be bom again ; and, if so, he must inevitably perish : so you utterly block up his way to salvation, and send ^^ to hell, out of mere charity."—" They who do not teach men to walk in the narrow way,— who encou-
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rage die easy, careless, barmless, useless creatare, the man who suffers iio reproach for righteousness sake, to imagine he is in the waj to heaven ; these are false prophets in the highest sense of the word ; these are traitors both to God and man ; these are no other than the first-bom of Satan, and the eldest sous of Apolljon^the destroyer. These are above the rank of ordinary cut-throats ; for . they murder the souls of men. They are continually peopling the realms of night ; and, whenever they follow the poor souls whom they have destroyed, hell shall be moved from beneath to meet them at their coming.''
The effect of these violent discourses was aided by the injudicious language concerning good works, into which Wesley was sometimes hurried, in oppo- sition even to his own calmer judgment upon that contested point. ^^ If you had done no harm to any man,'' said he, '' if you had abstained from all wilful sin, if you bad done all the good you possibly could to all men, and constantly attended all the ordinan^ ces of God, all this will not keep you from hell, ex- cept you be born again." And he attempted to prove, by a syllogism, that no works done before jus- tification are good, because they are not done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done.-^ ^^ Wherewithal," said he, ^^ shall a sinful man atone for any the least of his sins ?. With his own Works ? Were they ever so many or holy, they are not his own but God's. But indeed they are all unholy and sinful themselves; so that every one of them needs a ' fresh atonement." — ^^ If thou couldst do all things well; if from this very hour till death thou couldst perform perfect uninterrupted obedience, even this would not atone for what is past. Yea, the present and the future obedience of all the men upon earth, and all the angels in Heaven, would never make sa- tisfaction to the justice of God for one single sin." — Wesley has censured the error of reposing in what he calls the unwieldy idea of God's mercy, — is such an idea of his justice rapre tenable ? If such nptions were well founded, i^hereon would the value of a good conscience consist.'^— or why should we have
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been taught and commanded, when we pray, tosaj-*
^^ foipve us our trespasses, as we foi^ve them that trespass against us ?^'
These were not Wesley^s deliberate opimons. He held a saner doctrine,* and the avowal of that doc- trine was what drew upon him such loads of slafider- ous abuse from the Ultra-Calvinists. Yet be was led to these inconsistencies by the course of bis preach- ing, and. the desire of emptying men of their rights ousness, as he called iL And if he were thus indis- creet, what was to be expected from his lay-preact ers, especially from those who were at the same time in the heat of their enthusiasm, and the plenitude of their ignorance? The overstrained feeliiics whicb were thus excited, and the rigid doctrine which was preached, tended to produce two opposite extremes of evil. Many would become what, in puritanical language, is called backsliders, and still more would setUe into all the hypocritical formalities of paritao- ism. ^^ Despise not a profession of holioesSf'^ aaya Osborn, ^ liecause it may be true : but have a care bow you trust it for fear it should be false !^^
The tendency to produce mock humility and spi- ritual pride, is one of the evil effects of Methodism. It is chargeable also with leading to bigotry, illiberal maimers, confined knowledge, and uncharitable su* perstition. In its insolent language, all awakened
* It was asked in the second Conference— Q. 9. ** How cao wc Bww- tain, that all works done before we have a sense of the pardoDuyJ^ of Qod are sin ; and as such, an abominatioo to him ?— A. The wmv of him who has beard the Gospel, and does not believe, are not ^"^^^ God hath willed and commanded them to be done. And yet we know not bow to say, that they are an abomination to the Lord, in him «■* feareth God, and from that principle does the best he ean.^<l* '^Iww ing there is so much difficulty in this subject, can we deal too tmettj with them that oppose us?— A. We cannot." --
Dr. Hales, Pector of Killasaiidra. in Ireland, happened to teO tv* Wesley, that when Bishop Chevenix, (of Waterford,) in bis •'^ J?5,JJf congratulated on recovering from a fever, the Bishop replied, •! W» « I am not long for this world. I have lost all relish for what ^H^^J gave me pleasure; even my books no longer entertain roe. Jw**** nothing sticks by me but the recollection of what little good l^J have done.** One of Mr. Wesley's preachers, who was P''^"*' ?' claimed at this, * Oh the vain roan, boasting of his good wo'^v, ^ Hales vindicated the good old Bishop, and Mr. Wesley «^"***"; preacher by saying, *« Yes, Dr. Hales is right: there Is indeed gretf eon- lort in the calm remembranee of a life well spenf
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j^ersom, that is to saj^ all except themselves, or such graduated professors m other evangelical sects as U^ey are pleased to admit ad eundem^ are contemptu- ously styled unbelievers. Wesley could not comqio- iiicate to his followers his own Catholic charity : in- deed, the doctrine which he held forth was not al- ways consistent with his own better feelings. StilJ less was he able to impart that winning deportment which arose, in him, from the benignity of his dispo- sition, and which no Jesuit ever possessed in so con- summate a degree by art, as he by nature. The cir- cle to which he would have confined their reading was narrow enough ; his own works, and his own se- ries of abridgments, would have constituted the main part of a Methodtst*s library. But in this respect the zeal of the pupils exceeded that of the master, and Wesley actually ^ave ofience by printing Prior's Henry and Emma m his IVIagazihe. So many remon- strances were made to him upon this occasion, that he fbtmd it necessary, in a subsequent number, to vindicate himself, by urging that there was nothing in the poem contrary to religion, nothing which could offfend the chastest ear; that many truly religious men and women had read it and profited thereby ; Chat it was one of the finest poems in the language, both for expression and sentiment ; and that whoever could read it without tears, i;nust hav^e a stupid un* feeling heart However, he concluded, I do nxA know that any thing of the same kind will appear in any of the following Magazines.
in proportion as Methodism obtained ground ' among the educated classes, its direct effects were evil. It narrowed their views and feelings ; burthen^ ed them with forms ; restricted them from recrea- tions which keep the mind in health ; discouraged, if it did not absolutely prohibit, accomplishments that give a grace to life; separated them from general society ; substituted a sectarian in the place of a . eatbolic spirit; and, by alienating them from the na- tional church, weakened the strongest cement of so- cial order, and loosened the ties v hereby men are bound to their native land. It carried disunion and
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discord into private lifi?, breaking up £unilieijh aid friendships* The sooner you weaned your alEM^tioiis from those who, not being awakened, were of course in the way to perdition-*— the sooner the sbeep with- drew from the goats, the better. Upon this head the monks have not been more remorseless than the Me- thod is ts."* Wesley has said in one of bis seimons that, how frequently parents should converse with their children when they are grown up, is to be de- termined by Christian prudence. " This also," says he, ^' will determine bow long it is expedient for children, if it be at their own choice, to remab with their parents. In general, if they do not fear God, you should leave them as soon as is convenient Botf wherever you are, take care (if it be in your power) that they do not want the necessaries or con?en- ienccs of life. As for all other relations, e?en bro- thers or sisters, if they are of the world, yoo are un- der no obligation to be intimate with them: youmaj be civil and friendly at a distance.^^ What nafioite domestic unhappiness must this abominable epirit have occasioned !
Mr. Wesley's notions concerning educatipn must also have done great evil. No man was ever more thoroughly ignorant of the nature of children.-|- ** Break their wills betimes,'' he says: "begin this work before they can run alone, before they can speak plain, perhaps before they can speak at all. whatever pains it costs, break the will if you would not damn the child. Let a child from a year oW b^ taught to fear the rod and to cry softly ; from that age make him do as he is bid, if you whip him ten times running to effect it. If you spare the rod jou spoil the child. If you do not conquer, you ruinhim.
* Wlwt an old irriter says of llic Tndependffnts in the time of^Sf^*"" tnonivi*h1tb, h perfectly applicable to thi» worst part of Metliodi«»>-- << They take all other Chrntians to be heaUiens. These ait ^,^^1 pretenders to the Spirit, into whose party <i®^s the Tilesl perwn ""^J. sooner adscribe himself, hut he is tpso fado dubbed a rtiinii "* . ^ and dear to God. These are the confidents who can MfP ^^^, the place, and the means of their convei-sion :— a acbism W ®* *C ritual disdain, incharity, and high imposture, if any such *®J ? on earth.'»— A cbaraeter of England. Scott's Somer^s Tmt»» ^ " p. 180«
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»fireak his \^ill now, and his soul shall live, and he will probably bless you to all eternity.* He exhorts parents never to commend their children for any thing; and says, " that in particular they should la- bour to convince them of atheism, and show them that they do not know God, love him, delight in him, or enjoy him, any more than do the beasts that pe- rish !" If Wesley had been a father himself, he would have known that children are more easily ffoverned by love than by fear. There is no sub- ject, that of government" excepted, upon which so many impracticable or injurious systems have been sent into the World, as that of education; and, among bad systems, that of Wesley is one of the very worst.
The rigid doctrine which he preached concerning riches, being only one degree more reasonable than that of Sli Francis, prevented Methodism from ex- tending itself as it otherwise might have done, among those classes where these notions would have been acted upon by zealous mothers. When Wesley con- sidered the prodigious increase of his society, "from two or three poor people, to hundreds, to thousands, to myriads," he affirmed that such an event, consi- dered in all its circumstances, had not been seen upon earth since the time that St John went to Abraham's bosom. But he perceived where the principle of decay M^as to be found. " Methodism," says he, " is only plain scriptural religion guarded by a few pru- dential regulations. The essence of it is holiness of heart and life : the circumstantials all point to this ; 'and, as long as they are joined together in the peo- ple called Methodists, no weapon formed against them shall prosper. But if ever the circumstantial parts are despised, the essential will s6on be lost ; and if ever the essential parts should evaporate, ^hat remains will be dung and dross. I fear, wher- ever riches have increased, the essence of reli- gion has decreased in the same proportion There- fore I do not see how it is possible, in the nature of things, for any revival of true religion to continue long. For religion must necessarily produce both industry and frugality, and these cannot but produce
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riches* But as riches increase so will |pri^, tngeff and love of the world ia all its branches, now tbeo is it possible that MethodisiOt that 19, a religioaof the heart, though it flourishes now as a green baj tree, should continue in this stat^ ? For tjbe Metbodiet« in every fiace grow diligent and frugal; coBse* ^uentlj thej increase in goods. Hence uiey proper- tionably increase, in pride, in anger, in the desire of the fleshy the desire of the eyes, and the pride Qf life* So, although the form o( religion remains^ tbe spirit is swiftly vanishing away« Is there no way to prevent this — this continual decay of pure religion ? We ought not to prevent people from being cUtigeot and frugal ; we must exhort all Christians togainaU tbej can, and to save all they can ; that is, in effect, to grow rich. What way, then, can we take, that our money may not sink us to the nethermost hell?-^ There is one way, and there is ne other under bea« ven. If those who gain all they can, and sm>$ all tbej can, will likewise give all they can^ then tbe mors they gain the more they will grow in gracei and the more treasure they will lay up in heaven.'^
Upon this subject Wesley's opinions were inco»' sistent with the assisting order pf society. "Every man,'^ he said, ^^ ought to provide the plaia b<^^ saries of life for his wife and children, and io pot them into a capacity of providing these for iheuh selves when he is gone : 1 say, then — the pkdn neces' saries of H^e^ not delicacies, not superfluities 1 for ^ is no man's dut^ to furnish them with the me^n* fitter of luxury or idleness. The designedly procariojf more of this world's goods than will answer the fore- going purposes ; the labouring after a larger measure of worldly substance ; a larger increase of gold and silver ; the laying up any more than these ends re- quire, is expressly and absolutely forhiddep.^ ^ he maintained, that whoever did this practicallf de* nied the faith, was worse than an African infid«ti be- came an abomination in the sidit of God, and pur- chased for himself hell-fire." How iqjoriou^t i* ^^ opinions were reduced to practice, they would prove tp general industry, and how incompatible they were
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with the general wel&re of the worldt Wesley seems not to have regarded. Not less enthusiastic in this respect than Francis or Loyola, aud not less sincere aiso, he exolaiaoed : ^^ I call God to record upon my soul, that I advise no odore than I practise. I do, bliised be God, gain, and save, ana give all I can ; and, I trust in God, I shall Ao^ while the breath of life is in my nostrils.^^
This was strictly true ; Wesley liad at heart the advice which he ^ave*. He dwelt upon it with great earnestness in one of his last sermons a few months only before his death. ^Ailer you have gained all you can,'' said he, ^^and saved all yoi| ean, wanting for nothing, spend not one pound, one shilling, or one penny, to gratify either the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, or the pride of lifei or for any other end than to please and glorify God* Having avoided this rock on the right hand, beware of that on the left. Hoard nothing. Lay up no trea* sure on earth, givt all you ca», that is, all you have» I defy all the men upon earth, yea, all the angels in heaven, to find any other way of extractiiig the poi- son from riches. After having served you foetweea sixty and seventy years, with dim eyes, shaking hands, and tottering feet, I give this advice, before I sink into the dust. 1 am pained for you that are rich in this world. You who receive five hundred pounds a year, and spend only two hundred, do you ^ive three hundred back to God ? If not, you certainly rob God of that three hundred. You who receive two hundred and spend but one, do you give God
*X7pon Ihls principle he began in hts yoillh, and acted upon it thraufehout bis long life. '*Thn,'* tald he, in a lermon, <' was the prac* tice uT all the young men at Oxford who wera callad Methodists. ^ For example : one of them had thirty potrads a year; be lived on twenty- c^ht, and gavte away forty shilJum. The aext year, receiving sixty pounds, he still lived on twenty-eight, and gave away two-and-thlrty. The third Tear he received ninetv pounds, and gave away stxty^two. The foarth yoar he received an nundrad and twenty pounds ; still be lived as before on twenty-el|^t, and gave to the poor nmety-two^" tt was of himself he spoke. It is affirmed that, in toe course of bis life, he gave away not less than thirty thousand pounds; and the assertion is probtbly well founded. ^ AH the profit of his literary lahonrB, all that ne received or could coUect, (and it amounted, says Mr. Nichols, to an immense sum, for he was his own printer and bookseller,) was devoted to ahtfritable purpK>ae8.''
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the other hundred? If not, you rob him'of jttst so much. ' Nay, may I not do what I will with my own?* Here lies the ground of your mistake. It is not your otvn. It cannot be, unless you are lord ofbearen and earth. ** However I must provide for mj chil- dren.* Certainly: but how .^ By making them rich? Then you will probably make them heathens, as some of you have done already. Secure them enough to live on ; not in idleness and luxury, but by honest industry. And if you have not chOdreD, upon what scriptural or rational jprinciple can you leave a groat behind you more than will bury vou? Oh ! leave nothing behind you I Send all you nave before you into a better world ! Lend it, lend it all unto the Lord, and it shall be paid you iigain. Haste, haste, my brethren, haste, lest you be called away before you have settled what you have oh this security. When this is done, you may boldly say, * Now I have nothing to do but to die ! Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit ! Come, Lohl Jesas! come quickly V "
There were times when Wesley perceived and ac- knowledged bow little real reformation h^ been effected m the great body of his followers*: ** Might I not have expected,*' said he, " a general Increase of faith and love, of righteousness and tru^boHness; yea, and of the fruits of the Spirit — ^lovcf, jc^y, peace, long-suffering, meekness, gentleness,' fidelity, good- ness, temperance ? — Truly, when I siaw what God had done among his people belweeti forty and SRj years ago, when 1 saw them warm hi their fiHt love, magnifying the Lord, and rejoicing in God their Sa- viour, I could expect nothing less than that all these would have lived like angels here below; tlwftthey would have. walked as continually seeing him that w invisible, having constant communion with the Fa- ther and the Son, living in eternity, and walWng m eternity. I looked to see ' a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a pecmiar people; in the whole tenor of their conversation * showing forth His praise who had called them into his mar- viellous light.'" But, instead of this, it brought forw
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error in ten thousand shapes. It brought foHh ei> thusiasm, imaginary inspiration, ascribing to the all- wise God all the wild, absurd, self-inconsistent dreams of a heated imagination. It brought forth pride. It brought forth prejudice, evil-surmising, oensoriousness, judging and condemning one an- other; all totally subversive of that brotherly love which is the very bs^dge of the Christian profession, without which whosoever liveth is counted dead be- fore God. It brought forth anger, hatred, malice, re- venge, and every evil word and work; alLdireful fruits, not of the Holy Spirit, but of the bottomless pit It brought forth such base grovelling afiections, such deep earthly-mindedness as that of the poor heathens, which occasioned the lamentation of their own poet over them : O curvce in terras animce -ei cceles* iium inanes ! ^^ O souls bowed down to earth, and void of God P' And he i:;epeated, from the pulpit, a re- mark which had been made upon the Methodists by one whom he calls a holy man, that ^^ never was there before a people in the Christian Church who had so much of the power of God among them, with so little self-denial.''
Mr. Fletcher also confirms this junfavourable re- presentation, and indicates ,one of its causes. There were members of the Society, he said, who spoke in the most glorious manner of Christ, and of their interest in his complete salvation, and yet were in- dulging the most unchristian tempers, and living in tl^e greatest immoralities : ^^ For some years,'' said he, ^^ I have suspected there b more imaginary than unfeigned faith in most of those who pass for be- lievers. With a mixture of indignation and grief have I seen them carelessly follow the stream of cor- rupt nature, against which they should have man^ fully wrestled; and when they should have exclaim- ed against their antinomianism, I have heard them cry out against the legality of their wicked hearts, which, they said, still suggested they were to do something in order to salvation." Antinomianism, he said, was, in general, ^^ a motto better adapted to the state of professing congregations, societies^ fami-
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lies, an4 indtriduals, than holiness tmto Ha Lofri^ the inscription that should be eren upon our horses' bells.'' He saw what evtl bad been done by ** making much ado about jinished salvation.^ " The smooth- ness of our doctrine,'' said he, ** will atone for our most glaring inconsistencies. We have so whetted the Antinomian appetite of our hearers, that ther •wallow down almost any thin^."
Against this error, to which the professow of sanctity so easily incline^ Wesley earnestly endea- voured to guard his followers. But if on tnis point be was, during the lafter, and indeed the greater
Eart of his life, bfameless, it cannot be denied that is system tended to produce more of the appear- ance than of the reality of religion. It dealt too much in sensations, and in outward manifestations of theopathy ; it made religion too much a thing of dis- play, an affair of sympathy and confederation; iHed persons too much from tbeh* homes and their closets: it imposed too many forms; it required too many ptofessions ; it exacted too triany exposures. And the necessary consequence was, that many, when their enthusiasm abated, became mere formalists, wifd kept up a Pharisaical appe«Lrance of holiness, w4ken the whole IfeeHng had evaporated.
It was among those classes ofsociety whose moral and religious education had been bimdfy stud culpa- bly neglected, that fiiethodism produced «J imme- diafc beneficial effect; and, in cases of bnltal de- pravity and habitual vice, it often prodtrced a tho- rough reformation, which could not have been brought about by any less powerful agency than that of religious zeal. ^ Sinners of every other sort,*' said a good old clergyman, ** have f freqwefiMf / known converted to God : but an habitual drunkaro / I have never known converted." — " But I,** ^ \ Wesley, " have known five hundred, peAaJtf n^^ ' thousand.'^ To these moral miracles he appealed m triumph as undeniable proofs that Methoaisnj was an extraordinary work of God. **1 uppeaV said he, « to eYety candid unprejudiced person, wlictber we may not at this day discern all those signs (on- Digitized by VjOOQ IC
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derstanding the wwd^ in a spiritual sente) to which our Lord referred John's disciples, * The blind re- ceive their sight' Those who were blind from their birth, unable to see their own deplorable state, and much more to see God, and the remedy he has pre- pared for them, in the Son of his love, now see -- themselves, jea, and ^ the light of the glory of God,* in the face of Jesus Christ' The eyes of their un- derstanding being now opened, they see all things clearly. ' The deaf hear.' Those that wese before utterly deaf to all the outward and inward calls of God, now hear not only his providential calls, but stlso the whispers of his grace* * The lame walk.' Those who never before arose from the earth, or moved one step toward heaven, are now walking in all the ways of God ; yea, running the race that is set before them. ^ The lepers are cleansed.' The deadly leprosy of sin, which they brought with them into the world, and which no art of man could ever cure, is now clean departed from them. And surely, never, in any age or nation since the Apostles, have those words been so eminently fulfilled, — ^ the poor have the Gospel preached unto them,' as they are at this day. At this day, the Gospel leaven, faith working by love, inward and outward holiness, or (to use the terms of St Paul) righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, hath so spread in various parts of £urope, particularly in England, Scotland, Ireland, in the Islands, in the north and south from Georgia to New England and Newfound- land, that sinners have been truly converted to God, thoroughly changed both in heart and in life, not by tens, or by hundreds only, but by thousands, yea, by myriads. The fact cannot be denied : we can point out the persons, with their names and places of abode ; and yet the wise men of the world, the men o( eminence, the men of learning and renown, cannot imagine what we mean by talking of any eJitraordi- nary work of God."
Forcible examples are to be found of this true conversion, this real regeneration ; as well as many affecting instances of the support which re-
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ligion, through the means of Methodism, has given in the severest afflictions,* and of the peace and contentment! Mrhich it has aflforded to those who without it would have been forlorn and hopeless.— Manj, perhaps most of these conversions, were pro- duced by field-preaching; and it is probable, there- fore, that Methodism did more good in its earlier (ban in its latter days, when preaching in the open air was gradually disused, as chapels were multiplied. The two brot^rs, and the more zealous of their follow- ers, used at first also to frequent Bedlam and the pri- sons, for the purpose of administering consolation to those who stood most in need of it When Methodism was most unpopular, admission at these places was refused them, whicli occasioned Wesley to exclaioi* " So we are forbid to go to Newgate for fear of mak- ing them wicked, and to Bedlam for fear of dririog them mad !^' In both places, and in hospitals also, great good might be effected by that zeal which the Methodists possess, were it tempered with discretion. If they had instituted societies to discharge such
' * Fn Dp. CoJre's Hi^jtory of the West Indies, there b one i«nariaW« iostaiictS but it is too paiaful to be repeated.
t Of this there is a beautiful example in a letter written to MnWes- Icy by one of his female disciples, who was employed in the W^JJ^ huu^iti at Xewcastle. " I know not," she says, " bow to a©"^ j not ivorkins^. I am still unwilling to take any thing from any ^^'.r. work out of choice, having never yet learned how a woiain can *» w** and innocent. I have had as blessed times in my soul sitting at wori H5j ever I liad in my liTc* ; especially in the night-time, when I see ootw but the li<^ht of a candle and a white cloth, hear nothing but "i^.^"? of my own breath, with God in ray sight and heaven in my soul, IW^.^ uiysrlf one of the happiest creatures below the skies. I do "***J^|"T .. that Ooil has not nuule me some fine thing, to be set up to be P^ ^ but I can heartily bless him. that he has made me just wh^ I f^^^ creature capable of ihe enjoymeut of himself. If I go to "J^*?!" j^, and look out, I sec the moou and stars v I meditate a while <>" "J****!^ of the nifihr, consider this world as a beautiful structure, and ™* ^• ofaa almighty hand; then 1 sit down to work again, and thiol «»/ om; of the hapjiiest of beings in it." ^^ ifctttbo
fjoth the feeling and the expression in the letter are so '^'JJj.^ppy reader will probably h3 as sorry as I was to discover ^*V^ (^j&i state of mind was not permanent, f n a letter of ^^^'^X VJlJJ^jenity Years afterivards, he says, * I know not what to do "W^'T ^fallen' Keith, (that was^hcr name.) Alas! from what a height » «^, gut What a burning and shining light was she six or seven years ago • ^ thus it ever was. Many of the first shall be last, and many o' *" ilrst.*'
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painfol offices of humanity as are performed by the Sceurs de la Chariti in France, and by the Beguines of Brabant and Flanders, the good which they might have effected would have been duly appreciated and rewarded by public opinion. It is remarkable, that none of their abundant enthusiasm should have taken this direction, and that so little use should have been made of the opportunity when the prisons were again opened to them. The Wesleys appear not to have repeated their visits after the exclusion. Oi|^ of their followers, by name Silas Told, a weak, credulous, and, notwithstanding his honest zeal, not always a credible man, attended at Newgate for more than twenty years : his charity was bestowed almost ex* clusively upon condemned criminals. After his death, he had no successor in this dismal vocation, and the honour of having shown in what manner a prison may be made a school of reformation, was re- served for Mrs. Fry and the Quakers.
In estimating the effects of Methodism, the good which it has done indirectly must not be overlooked. As the Reformation produced a visible reform in those parts of Christendom where the Romish Church maintained its supremacy, so, though in a less de* gree, the progress of Wesley's disciples has been beneficial to our Establishment, exciting in many of the parochial clergy the zeal which was wanting. — Where the clergy exert themselves, the growth of Methodism is checked ; and perhaps it may be said to be most useful where it is least successful. To the impulse also, which was given by Methodism, that missionary spirit may be ascribed which is now car- rying the light of the gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth. In no way can religious zeal be so bene- ficially directed as in this.
Some evil also, as well as some good, the Metho- dists have indirectly caused. Though they became caceful in admitting lay-preachers themselves, the bad example of auifering any ignorant enthusiast to proclaim himself a minister of the gospel, found nu- merous imitators. The number of roving adventur-
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ers* in ali tbe intermediate grades l>etween kMrerj l^nd madness, who toek to preaching as a thriving trade, brought an opprobrium ttpoQ religion itaelf; and when an attempt was made at last to pot aa end to this scandal, a most outrageous and unreMOoable ery was raised, as if the rights of conscience irere is- Taded.f Perhaps the manner in twhicb Methodism has familiarized the lower daases to the wsik of combining in associations, making rules^r their owe governable, raising funds, and commooicatiEtf from one part of the kingdom to another, may be reckoned among the incidental evils which have resulted Srm it ; but in this respect it has only &cilitated a pro- cess to which other causes had given birth. The {principles of Methodism are strictly loyal ; and (he anguage which has been held by the Coofereooe io all times of political disturbance, have been higblj honourable to the society, and in strict coaforoiity to the intentions of the founder. On the other band, the good which it has done, by rendering men good civil subjects, is counteractea by separetiog die™ fnom the Church. This tendency Weelej M not foresee ; and when he perceived it, he could not pre- vent it £ut his condnct upon thb point was neither consistent nor ingenuous. Soon after he had taken the memorable step of consecrating Dr. Coke as an
* One mmpttrtite in the county of MidaiMex lioemed fwttm btu* dred preachctn in the course of five yenx^ Of sgL-and-tbir^ C^**^ who obtained licenses at one sessions, six spelled " mioisters oi thego«* pel" in six different wavs, and seven sirnedtbeir ranrk! One fi*J»'!^ allied for a licensei being aslred if no eoiM read, replied, ^IMer reads, and I 'spounds and 'splaina.'*
f A writer in tbe Gospel Magasioe says, eoDceroinc Lord ^^fff^ well-meaDt biU, ** hj the grace of God 1 can spealc for one. ^*^l place I am called to preach, and cannot obtain a license, 1 '^'^'t!'!£ self called upon to break through all restrictions, evea If *•* "^ *: consequence; for i Icnow that Cbd will avenge faia owa t^ ^f^. their persecutonj, let them be who they may. Tbe men ^Vj^ of God must deliver their message, whether men will hear, •"J?^ they will forbear; whether they can obtain a lietnse or not » vw opens their mouths, none oan shut them."— Every man ^^"'^z^Si and his own lawgiver ! These are days in which au^oritT »*jP"2 be deled hi snch cases; but there is no reason to daubt "^^^Tl who meaks thus plaiolv would not have been as v^a^f tsbiew™*'*^^ as to defy them* Had he been bom in the right place mnmff^ would have enjoyed a glorification in the Chrass^market
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American bishop^ he arretted to himself the same authority for Scotland as for America ; and this, he maintained, was not a separation from the Chujiich ; ^^ not from the Church of Scotland,*^ said he, ^ for we were never connected therewith; not from the Church of England, for this is not concerned in the steps which are taken in Scotland. Whatever, then, is done, either in America or Scotland, is no separa- tion from the Church of England. I have no thought of this : I have many objections against i^ He had been led toward a separation imperceptibly, step by step; but it is not to his honour that he affected to deprecate it to the last, while he was evidently bring- ing it about by the measures which he pursued.
In the latter end of his life, the tendency to sepa- ration was increased by the vexatious manner in which some Lincolnshire magistrates enforced the letter of the Toleration Act. They insisted, that as the Methodists professed themselves members of the Church, they were not within the intention of the act ; they refused to license their chapels therefore, unless they declared themselves dissenters: and when some of the trustees were ready to do this, they were told that this was not sufficient by itself; they must declare also, that they scrupled to attend the service and sacrament of the Church, the Act in question having been made for those only who enter- tained such scruples. This system of injurious se- verity did not stop here. Understanding in what manner these magistrates interpreted the law, some informers took advantage of the opportunity, and en- forced the Conventicle Act against those who had preaching or prayer meetings in their houses : the persons thus aggrieved were mostly in humble cir- cumstances, so that they were distressed to pay the fine ; and when they appealed to the quarter ses- sions, it was in vain ; the magistrates had no power to relieve them. Mr. Wesley was irritated at this, and wrote to 'the Bishop of the diocese in a tone which he had never before assumed. ^^ My Lord,^' said^he, in his letter, ^^ I am a dying man, having al- ready one Xoot in the grave* Humanly speakings I
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cannot long creep upon the earth, being now nearer ninety than eighty years of age. But I cannot die in peace before f have discharged this office of Chris- tian love to your lordship. I write without ceremo- ny, as neither hoping nor fearing any thing from your lordship, or from any man living. And I ask, in the name and in the presence of Him, to whom both you and I are shortly to give an account, why do you trouble tWe that are quiet in the land, — those that fear God wd work righteousness ? Does your lord- ship know what the IVlethodists are ? that many thou- sands of them are zealous members of the Church of England, and strongly attached, not only to His Majesty, but to his present ministry ? Why should your lordship, setting religion out of the question, throw away such a body of respectable friends ? Is it for their religious sentiments ? Alas ! my lord, is this a time to persecute any man for conscience sake? I beseech you, my lord, do as you would be doae to. You are a man of sense ; you are a man of learning; nay, I verily believe (what is of infinitely more value) you are a man of piety. Then think and let think. I pray God to bless you with the choicest of his blessings."* These circumstances occurred a few mouths only before his death. His friends advised that an, application should betnade to Parliament for the repeal of the Conventicle Act, In some shape, it cannot be doubted but that relief would hare been afforded, and several members of the House of Com- mons, who respected Mr. Wesley, would have stirred in his behalf But his growing infirmities prevented him from exerting himself upon this business as he would otherwise have done.
* In the life of Wesley, by Dr. Coke, and Mr. Moore, there isaWcr upon this occasioD, in a more atigry fitrain. Probably Mr. Weslcj Jjpw» reflection saw that he had written in an unbecoming manner, aodsuwti" tuLed in its place that which I have copied from the life by Dr. WW^ead. The official biographere indeed bad in their hands sm private docu- ments only, as had not been entrusted to the doctor*
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CHAPTER XXX.
WESLEY IN OLD AGE.
" Leisure and I," said Wesley, " have taken leave of one another. I propose to be busy a^ong as I live, if my health is so long indulged to ^f*^' 'I'^^^ resolution was made in the prime of life, and never was resolution more punctually observed* ^^ Lord, let me not live to be useless !" was the prayer which he uttered after seeing one whom he had long known as an active and useful magistrate, reduced by age to be ^ a picture of human nature in disgrace, fee- ble in body and mind, slow of speech and under- standing.^^ He was favoured with a constitution vi- gorous beyond that of ordinary men, and with an activity of spirit which is even rarer than his singular felicity of health and strength. Ten thousand cares of various kinds, he said, were no more weight or burden to his mind, than ten thousand hairs were to his head. But in truth his only cares were those of superintending the work of his ambition, which con- tinually prospered under his hands. Real cares he had none ; no anxieties, no sorrows, no grie& which touched him to the quick. His manner of life was the most favourable that could have been devised for longevity. He rose early, and la^ down at night with nothing to keep him waking, or trouble him in sleep. His mind was always in a pleasurable and wholesome state of activity, he was temperate in his diet, and lived in perpetual locomotion : and frequent change of air is perhaps, of all things, that which most conduces to joyous health and long life.
The time which Mr. Wesley spent in travelling was not lost " History, poetry, and philosophy,'' said he, " I commonly read on horseback, having other em- ployment at other times.'' He used to throw the reins on his horse's neck 5 and in this way he rode, in the
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course of his life, above a hundred thousand mileSf without any accident of sutiicient magnitude to make him sensible of the danger which he incurred. His friends, however, saw the danger ; and in the sixty* ninth year of his age, they prevailed upon biis to travel in a carriage, in consequence of a hurt which had produced a hydrocele. The ablest practitiooers in Edinburgh were consulted upon his case, aud as* dured him there was but one method of cure. ** Per- haps but^^ natural one,^^say8 he, ^^ but I think God has more^^n one method of healing either the sod or the body." He read, upon the subject, a treatise which recommends, a seton or a caustic ^ bat I am not inclined,^ said he, ^^io try either of them; I know a physician (hat has a shorter cure thau either one or the other." After two years, however, be sub- mitted to an operation,* and obtained a cure. A lit- tle before this, he notices in his Journal, the first niffht that he had ever lain awake ; " I believe," he aods, ^*few can say this; in seventy yean I never lost one night^s sleep."
He lived to preach at Kingswood under the shade of trees which he had planted ; and he outlived the lease of the Foundei7,t the place which had been the cradle of Methodism. In 1778, the head-qoar- ters of the society were removed to the City Rm^ where a new chapel was built upon ground leased by the city. Great multitudes assembled to see the
♦ " Mr. Wathen performed Uie operatioD, and drew off »oiB«tliijj nore than a half pint of a thin, yellow, transparent water; ^^^^ oame out (to his no small aurprite) a pearl oC the size of a smtfl not, which he supposed might be one cause of the disorder, by o€easioDiD( a conflux of numours to the part" — Journal, xvii. p. 8.--What an ex- traordinary relic would this ptari have been, had it been extracted from a Romish saint ! I know not whetber there he any odier case reeortiea of physical Ostracism.
t Silas ToM describes this in the year 1740 As «' aruinoos place, «i^ an old paoUle covering a few rough deal boards put togetiier ^^"^J tute a temporarr pulpit, and several other decayed timbers, ''^^^Ju posed the whole stnictnre.'' No doubt it was improved •'^•f'?; Mr. Wesley's preaching hourst when he began there, were fi**J" *v morning and seven in the evening, for the convenience of the ■^"''^ ing part of the amgregation. l%e men and wom^n sate apart, aw there were u% paws^ Q9 diftHPatif of beochea, or appoioted plaeeior<P7 pataon.
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eeremony of laying the foundation, so that Wesley could not, without much difficulty, get through the press to lay the first stone, in which his name and the date were inserted upon a plate of brass: ^^ This was laid by John Wesley on April 1, 1777.'' « Pro- bably," says he, " this will be seen no more by any human eye, but will remain there till the earth and the works thereof are burnt up." Charles, having long ceased to itinerate, used to officiate here, and the lay preachers, who were always jeal^^ of him, were greatly offended, because he exclimed them from the pulpit by serving the chapel twice on Sun* days, when John was not in town. They complain* ed of this as invidious and derogatory to themselves, and Wesley so far yielded to their importunities as to promise that one of their body should preach when Charles could not, an arrangement whicn pre- ferred them to the clergymen in the Connexion.— Charles was hurt at this concession of his brother's, and with good reason. He represented that many persons, who had subscribed towards the building of the chapel, and were friends to Methodfsm, were yet not members of the society, but true churchmen ; and that, from regard to them and to the Church, not out of ill will to the preachers, he wished the Church service to be continued there ; for this also was made a matter of complaint against him. Next to his bro- ther, he affirmed, he had the best right to preach there ; and he used it because he had so short a time to preach any where. " I am sorry," said he, " you yielded to the lay preachers : I think them in the
f greatest danger through pride. They affect to be- ieve that I act as a clergyman in opposition to them. If there was no man above them, what would become of them ! how would they tear one another in pieces ! Convince them, if you can, that they want a clergy- man over them to keep them and the flock together. But rather persuade tnem, if you can, to be the least, not the greatest, and then all will be right again. — You have no alternative but to conquer that spirit, or be conquered by it The preachers do not love the Church of England. What must be the coe^ VOL. II. 50
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sequence when we are gone ? A aeparation U inevitable. Do you not wish to keep a9 mauj good people in the Church as you can ? Soaie- thing might be done to save the remainder, if jcm had resolution and would stand by me, as &cmly aa I will by you."
This ill temper in the preachers produced a schism in the connexion. An Irish clergyman^ beinff at Bath on account of his wife's health, wa^ desired by Mr. Wesley A^reach every Sunday evening in the Me- thodist cWpel, as long as he remained there. As soon as Wesley had left that city, a lay preacher, bj Dame N*" Nab, raised a sort of rebeltion upon this ground, saying it was the common cause of all the laj preachers, for they were appointed by the Confer rence« not by Mr. Wesley, and they would not sofier the clergy to ride over their heads. This tcmched Mr. Wesley where he was naost sensitive. He set put for Bath, summoned the society, and read to them a paper* which he had drawn up many yearm before, upon a somewhat similar occasioD^and which had been reiid to the Conference erf 1766. He ob- served that the rules of the preachers were fixed bj him before any Conference existed, and that the twelfth rule stated, ^< above all, you are to preach iohm and where I appoint.^' This fundamental rule M"" Nab had opposed, and therefore he expelled him. But the mutinous preacher had ^ thrown wild- fire among the people, and occasioned axiger, jealou- sies, judging each other, backbitir^, and tale bearing without end :^' strange weeds to spring up in the gar- den of Christian perfection !
On this occasion, as on all others, when his autho- rity was invaded, Wesley acted with promptitude and decision. He had great talents for govereinent; and even when it was necessary, to conform to cir- cumstances which he could not control, he wder- stood how important it was that he should never ap- pear to yield. But though, by bis presence of miod
* The substsnce of diit piqper hai besD pi^ously sirsSy Vo). tl. pp. 14&— 148.
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^nd skfll in directing the minds of men, he cMtmed in dilBicnU circumstances to save himself from any sacrifice of pride, be was not alwajs so successfal on the score of principle ; for his attachment to the Church WAS sacrificed to the desire of extending and preserving his power. Contented if he eooM stave off the separation as long as he lived, he took mear sures which prepared for it, just as he provided a system by which the constitution of his society should become republican after his death, saijAed with maintahiing his authority over it as a monfi^h daric^ his life.
The remarkable talents with which the Wesley femily were endowed, manifested themselves in the third generation as strikingly as in the second. One t>f the nieces of Mr. Wesley, named Mehetabel, after ber mother, was that Mrs. Wrieht who attained to such excellence as a modeller m wax, and who ib said to hare acted with great dexterity in conveying treasonable intelligence to the Americans during the War. The two sons of Charles were among the moet distin^ished musicians of their age. Their &the#, perceiving the decided bent of their genius, wefj properly permitted them to follow it, and make me science of music their profession. In a letter to his Wother, he said, ^« I am clear, without doebt, Aat m^ sons' concert is after the will and order of Provi- dence.^ When John printed this letter after his brother's death, he added, in a note, ^ I am thar of another mind.^' Dr. Coke also looked upon tibie eoo- certs which were performed in Charks Wesley'ii own house as being bi^ly dishonourable "to Grod, and considered him as criminal ^ by reaston of his situation in the church of Christ.'' But upon matwre consideration the Doctor saw reason to alter ihh se- vere opinion. «^It has estaUished thcmt" said Charles, ^^as musicians, in a safe and honoambh^ way. We do not repent that we did not make a show or advantage of our swans. They may atill make their fortunes if I will venture them into the world ; but I never wish them rieh : you also a^pree
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vfHh me in this. Our good old fittlier aeglMltl ett- ry opporkinity of selUag our souls to <he AcnL^
One of these brothers becaiae a papist, to the sore grief of bis parents. Upon this occasion JohD addressed a letter to them, saying, he doubted not that they were in great trouble, because tbev eon had ^^ changed his religion T' and, deduciogato]HC of consolation from the inaccuracy of that eipres- sion, ^vNay,^' said he, ^^ be has Ranged his apinim, and mod^f worship^ but that is not rs^ton; it is quite anoiner thing. Has he Uieii, you may ads, sue* tained no loss by the chaejge? Yes; onspeidLBble loss: because his new opinions andmodeorveisbip are so unfavourable to religion^ that they aaaipe it, v not impossible to one that knew better, yet extreme- ly difficult. What, then, is religbn? It is happi- ness in Godi^ or in the knowledge and love of God. It is « faith working by love;* producing ^ righleoQS' ness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Gh<^' i^ other words, it is a heart and fife devoted to God ; or communion with Gi>d the Father and the Son; or the mind which was in Christ Jesus, enablia| w to walk as he walked. Now, either he has this reli- gion, or he has not : if be has, he will not fiBsMf p^ fish, notwithstanding the absurd unseriptaral opi* nions he has embraced, and the soperstitioss tfd idolatrous modes of worship. But these aie so ma- ny shackles which will greatly retard him in nmniof the race that is set before turn. If be hita not this religion ; if he has not given God his heart, the ease is unspeakably worse : I doubt if he evtx will; ^^ his new 'friends will continually endeavour to hiB^er him, by putting something else in its irfacSf by en* cou raging him to rest in the form, notions, or exter- nals, without being born again; without baviofCbr^t in him, the hope of glory ; without being renewed m the image of Him that created him. This is toe deadly evil. I have often lamented that he had not this holiness, without which no man can see the Lord. But though he had it not, yet, in his hoars of cool reflection, he did not hope to goto heaven with- out it • but now he is, or will be taught, that, let h^
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4ttAy iMre a rigbt j^Vi^ (that is, such atid siidi no* ^ tions,^ and add thereunto such and such ejst^mab^ and ne is quite safe. He may indeed roll a few years in purging fire, but he will surely go to heaven at last"
The father felt this evil so deeply, that, it is as^ aerted, one of the last things he said upon his death- bed was to declare his forgiveness of the person by whose means his son had been perverted. To Mr. Wesley it was a mortification as well as aggrief; for he had exposed the errors of the Romanists in some controversial writings, perspicuously and forcibly. One of those writings gave the Catholics an advan* tage, becauseitdefended the Protestant Association of 1780 ; and the events which speedily followed, were turned against him. But, upon the great points in dispute, he was clear and cogent; and the temper of this, as of his other controversial tracts, was such, that, some years afterwards, when a common friend invited him to meet his antagonist, Father O'Leary, it was gratifying to both parties to meet upon terms of courtesy and mutual gCNod will.
Before Mr. Wesley submitted to the operation, he considered himself as almost a disabled soldier; ao little could he reconcile himself to the restriction from horse exercise. So perfectly, however, was he re-established in health, that, a few months after- wards, upon entering his seventy-second year, be Mked, ^' How is Uiis, that I find just the same strength as I did thirty years ago ; that my sight is conside- rably better now, and my nerves* firmer than they were then ; that I have none of the infirmities of old age, and have lost several I had in my youth ? The grand ixtuse is the good Measure of God, who doth whatsoever pleaseth him. The chief means are, my constantly rising at four for about fifty years ; ^ my generally preaching at five in the morning — one
* Mr. Wesley believed tliat ^e use of tea made bis band shake 90> 4ii'fore he was twenty years old, that he could hardly write. He pub- lished an essay against tea-drinking, and left off during twelve years; then '' at tbe close of a consumptioo/' by Dr. FothergiU's directions, he used it agsiin. and probably learnt how much he had been mistaken in at- tfibtitinglll offeots to so refreshing and innocent a bcverapr;.
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of the most healthy exercises in the worlA ; ^Wver travelling less, bj sea or land, than fbur (boosand five hundred miles in a year.^ Repeating t&e same Question after another year had elapsed, ne Added to tnis list of natural means, ^ the ability, if e?er I want, to sleep immediately ; the never losing a mfbt's sleep in my life ; two violent fevers, and two deep consumptions ; these, it is true, were roQgh medi- cines ; but they were of admirable service, caasin| kpy flesh Id come again as the flesh of a little cbiE May I add, lastly, evenness of temper: I /Wand grieve ; but, by the grace of God, I frd at ncrthing. But still, the help that is done upon earthy He doA it himr self; and this he doth in answer to many prayers."
He himself had prayed that he might not live io be useless ; and the extraordinary vigour wbjcb he preserved to extreme old age, might well make him believe, that, in this instance, his heart's desire bad been granted. The seventy-eighth year tef bis age found him, he says, " by the blessing of Gpdi'^JHst* the same as when he entered the twenty-eighth; and, upon entering his eightieth, he blessed God that his time was not labour and sorrow, and flat he found no more infirmities than when he was in toe flower of manhood. But though this uncommon ex- emption from the burthen of age was vouchsafed him, it was not in the nature of things that hesbooM be spared from its feelings and regrets. The dajs of his childhood returned upon him when he TisiN Epworth ; and, taking a solitary walk ifl the CbwrtA yard of that place, he says, '* I felt the truth of ' ^ generation goeth, and another cometh? ; See bow the earth drops its inhabitants, as the tree ^'^P^Jj leaves !^^ Wherever he went, his old ^'^^^P^Jj? past away, and other generations had succeededin their stead ; and, at the houses to which ^^^^ on with pleasure in the course of hisi yearly i^JoS, he found more and more frequently, in every ^o - ceeding year, that death had been h^O^ ^^^
• " In th« y«ar 1769," he sa^B, " I weighed a hund^ «j^P^ two pounds. In 178S, I weighed not a pound more or less.
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Whole jamiiies drppt off one by ono» while he con- tinued still in his green old age, full of life, and ac- tivity, and strength, and hope, and ardour. Such griefs were felt by him less keenly than by other men; because every day brought with it to him change of scene and of persons ; and because, busy as he was on earth, his desires were in heaven. " 1 liad hopes,^' says he, in his Journal, '^ of seeing a friend at Lewisham in my way: and so I did ; but it was in her coffin. It is well, since she finished her course with joy. In due Ume I shall see her in glory.'' To one of his young female correspondents he says, with melancholy anticipation, ^ I sometimes fear lest you also, as those I tenderly love generally have been, should be snatched away. But let us live to-da^ !*' Many of his most ardent and most amiable disciples seem to have been cut off, in the flower of their youth, by consumption — a disease too frequently connected with what is beautiful in formt and intellect, and disposition.
Mr. Fletcher, though a much younger man, was summoned to his reward before him. That excel* lent person* lefl England, under all the symptom^ of advanced consumption, to try the eflfect of his
* In the year 1788, Mr. Wesley printed a letter wntten to him from France in 1770, by Mr. Fletcher, in which the foNowiog remarkable passage occurs : '* A set <^ Free-thinkers (great admirers of Voltaire tod Rousseau, Bayle, and Mirabeau) seem bent upon destroying Chris* ttanity and government With one hand, says a lawyer, who has writ- ten against them, they shake the throne, and, with the other, they throw down the altar. If we believe them, the world is the dupe of kings and priests ; religion is fanaticism and superstition ; subordiiiation is slarerr and tyrann;^ ; Christian morality is ansurd, unnatural, and im- ptaeticable; and Christianity is the mbet bloody religion that ever waa. And here it is certain, that, by the example of Christians* so called* and by our continual disputes, they have a great advantage. Popenr will certainly fall in France in this pr the next century ; and God wm use those vain men to bring about a reformation here, as he used Henry VIII. to do that great work m England : so the madness of hSfi enemies shall turn at last to his praise, and to the furtherance of iiis kingdom. If you ask what system these men adopt, I answer, that some build, upon deism, a morality founded upon sdf-preservatiop, self- interest, and self-honour. Others bugh at all morality, except that which violently disturbs sodety ; and external order is the decent cover of fatalism ; while materialism is their system." He invites all Chiia- tians ** to do what the herds do on the Swiss mountains, when the wolves make an attack upon them : instead of gorins one another, fiiey wnila, tern adose battaUon, and face the enemy on lUl adM."
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native air; and, in the expectation of death, address- ed a pastoral letter at that time to his parisbiooers. " I sometimes,*' said he, " feel a desire of being bu- ried where you are buried, and having my bones lie in a common earthen bed with yours. Bat I soon resicrn that wish ; and, leaving that particakf to Providence, exult in thinking, that neither life nor death shall ever.be able (while we hangon theCra- eified, as He hung on the cross) to separate as from Christ our head, nor from the love of each other his members.'' His recovery, which appears abnost miraculous, was ascribed by himself more to eating plentifully of cherries and grapes, than to anj other remedies. His friends wished him to remain among them at Nyon : " they urge my being bora bere,^ said he, ^^ and I reply, that I was bom again ifl Eng- land, and therefore that is, of course, the coui^try which to me is the dearer of the two." He retutnwl to his parish, and married Miss Bosanqaet; a Io- nian perfectly suited to him in age, temper, piety^ and talents. , " We are two poor invalids,^ swd he, ^^ who, between us, make half a labourer. She sweetly helps me to drink the dregs of life, and to carry with ease the daily cross/* His account of himself, after this time, is so beautiful, that its inser- tion might be pardoned here, even if Mr. Fletcher were a less important personage in the history of Methodism. " I keep in my sentry-box," says he, *^ till Providence remove me: my situation is quite suited to my little strength. I may do as much or as little as I please, according to my weakness ; and I hare an advantage, which I can have no where else in such a degree : mj little field of action is just at mj door, so that, if 1 happen to overdo myself, I have but a step from my pulpit to my bed, and from bj bed to my grave. If I had a body full of vigour, and a purse full of money, I should like well enough to travel about as Mr. Weslpy does ; but, as Providence does not call me to it, I readily submit The snail does best in its shell."
1 his good man died in 1785, and in the 56th year of his age. Volumes have been filled, and arep^'
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petoalty being fiHed, bj sectarians of every descrip- tion, with acconnts of the behaviour and triumphant hopes of the dying, all resembling each other ; but the circumstances of Mr. Fletcher^s death were as peculiar as those of his life. He had taken cold, and a considerable degree of fever had been induced ; but no persuasion could prevail upon him to stay from ehorch on the Sunday, nor even to permit that any part of the service should be performed for him. It was the will of the Lord, he said, that he should go; ttnd he assured his wife and his friends that God would strengthen him to go through the duties of the day. Before he had proceeded far in the service, he grew pale, and faltered in his speech, and could scarcely keep himself from fainting. The congrega- tion were greatly affected and alarmed ; and Mrs. Fletcher pressing through the crowd, earnestly en- treated him not to persevere in what was so evident- ly beyond his strength. He recovered, however, when the windows were opened, exerted himself against the mortal illness which he felt, went through the ser- vice, and preached with remarkable earnestness, and with not less effect, for his parishioners plainly saw that the hand of death was upon him. After the sermon, he walked to the communion-table, saying, «• I am going to throw myself under the wings of the Cherubim, before the Mercy-seat !" — ^** Here," (it is his widow who describes this last extraordinary ef- fort of enthusiastic devotion) ** the same distressing gcene was renewed, with additional solemnity. The people were deeply affected while they beheld him offering up the last languid remains of a life that had been lavishly spent in their service. Groans and tears were on every side. In going through this last part of his duty, he was exhausted again and again ; but his spiritual vigour triumphed over his l]^ily weakness. After several times sinking on the sacra- mental table, he still resumed his sacred work, and cheerfully distributed, with his dying hand, the love- memorials of his dying Lord. In the course of this concluding office, which he performed by means of the most astonishing exertions, be gave out several
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verees of hymna, and delivered manjr irffcrtioiatif esf hortations to his people^ calling upon tbraif at inter- vals, to celebrate the mercy of God in short Map of adoration and praise. And now, havio|[ «trag« gled through a service of near ibar hoara^ cantuia- ance, he was supported, with blessings in his wmtbi from the altar to his chamber, wliere he lay fortome time in a swoon, and from whence be never walked into the world again.'' Mr. Fletcher's naareet aod dearest friends sympathised entirely with him iD bis devotional feelings, and therefore they aeemneferto have entertained a thoaght that this tragedy mj have exasperated his Uisease, and proved the direct occasion of his death. ^^ I besought the Lard,^ says Mrs. Fletcher, ^' if it were his good {deasure, to spare him to me a little loneer. But my prayer leem- ed to have no wings ; and 1 could not help mingling continually therewith, Lord, give me perfisct msig- nation !"
On the Sunday following he died, aod that day al- so was distinguished by circomatances flat leaa re- markable. A supplicatory hymn for bia secomj was sung in the church ; and ^ne who was preaeat says, it is impossible to convey an idea of live bant of sorrow that accompanied it ^ The whole v8* lage," says his friend Mr. Gilpin, ^^ wore^mairof consternation and sadness. Haaty messeagaia were passing to and fro, with anxious enquiries aMCOofos* ed reports ; and the members of everjr fcmily »te together in silence that day, awaiting, with tremUiBg expectation, the issue of every hour." After iha evening service, several of the poor, whe cameftatt a distance, and who were uaually entertained aoder his roof, lingered about the house, and expressed aa earnest wish that they might see their eipiriog paa- tor. Their desire was granted. The door of to chamber was set open; directly opposite toirfMA he was sitting upright in his bed, with the carto«» undrawn, *^ unaltered in his usual venerable app^^ ance ;" and they passed along the gallery one by onc» pausing, as they passed by the door, to look upao him for the last time. A few houra after this ^^*
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ordinary scene he breathed his last, without a strug- ffle or a ffroan, in perfect peace, and in the fulness of fiiith and of hope. Sach was the death of Jeaa GmUaume de la Flechere, or as he may more pro-
F^rlty be designated, in this his adopted country, ietcher of Madeley, a man of whom Methodism ^ aiay well be proud as the most able of its defenders; attd whom tbe Church of England may hold in ho- nourable remembrance, as one of the most pious and excellent of her sons. ^^ I was intimately acquaint- ed with him,'' says Mr. Wesley, " for above thirty years. I conversed with him morning, noon, and night, without the least reserve, during a journey of many hundred miles ; and in alt that time I never heard him speak one improper word, nor saw him do an improper action. Many exemplary men have t known, holy in heart and life, within fourscore years ; bat one equal to him I have not known : one so in- wardly and outwardly devoted to God, so unblame- able a character in every respect, I have not found, either in Europe or America. Nor do I expect to find another such on this side of eternity.'*
Wesley thought, that if Mr. Fletcher's friends had not dissuaded bim from continuing that course of itinerancy which he began in his company, it would have made him a strong man. And that, after his health was restored by his native air, and confirmed by his wife's constant care, if ^^ he had used this health in travelling all over the kingdom five or six, or seven months every year, (for which never was man more eminently qualified, no, not Mr. Whitefield himself) he would have done more good than any other man in England. I cannot doubt," he adds, " but this would have been the more excellent way.'* It had been Mr. Wesley's hope, at one time, that after his death, Mr. Fletcher would succeed to the supremacy of the spiritual dominion which he had established. Mr. Fletcher was qualified for the suc- cession by his thorough disregard of worldly advan- tages, his perfect piety, his devoted ness to tbe people among whom he ministered, his affable manner, and his popular and persuasive oratory,-— qualifications
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in which he wa8 not ioferior to Wesley himB^L But he had neither the ambition, oor the flexibility of Mr. Wesley; he would not have known how to rale, nor how to yield as be did : lioUness with him vrtts all in all. Wesley had the temper and talents of & statesman : in the Romish Church he would hav^e been the general, if not the founder, of ao order; or might have held a distinguished place in history, as a cardinal or a pope. Fletcher, in any commumMi, would have been a saint.
Mr. Wesley still continued to be the same marvel^ loiis old man« No one who saw him, even casuall j^ in his old age, can have forgotten his venerable ap- pearance. His face was remarkably fine ; hb caia- plexion fresh to the last week of his life ; his eye Quick, and keen, and active. When you met him ia the street of a crowded city, he attracted notice, not only by his band and cassock, and his long haic, white and bright as silver, but by his pace aod mao« ner, both indicating tluit all his minutes were num- bered, and that not one was to be lost* ^ Thoo^ I am always in haste/' he says of himseli*, ^' I am never in a hurry; because I never undertake any more work than I can go through with perfect calmness ctf spirit. It is true, I travel four or five thousand miks in a year; but 1 generally travel alone in my <»r* riagc, and, consequently, am as retired ten b<Hirs a day as if I were in a wilderness. On other days, I never spend less than three hours (frequently tea or twelve) in the day, alone. So there are few persons who spend so many hours secluded fi*om allcompany.'^ Thus it was that he found time to read much, and write voluminously. After his eightieth year, be went twice to Holland, a country in which Methodism, as Qua- kerism had done before it, met with a certain degree of success. Upon completing his eighty-seoond year, he says, '' is any thing too hard for God ? It is now eleven years since I have felt any such thing as wea- riness. Many times I speak till my voic^ fails, and I can speak no longer. Frequently I walk till my strength fails, and 1 can walk no further; yet evw then, I feel no sensation of weariness, ImtMn perfect*
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ly easy ffom head to foot I dare not impute this to natural causes. It is the will of God.^^ A year after- wards he says, ^< I am a wonder to myself! I am never tired (such is the goodness of God), either with writing, preaching, or travelling. One natural cause, undoubtedly, is, my continual exercise, and change of air. How the latter contributes to health I know not; bat certainly it does/' In his eighty-fourth year, he first began to feel decay ; and, upon com- mencing his eighty*fifth, he observes, ^^ I am not so agile as I was in times past ; I do not run or walk so &L&t as I did. My sight is a little decayed. My left eye is grown dim, and hardly serves me to read. I Ikave daily some pain in the ball of my right eye, as uiao in my right temple (occasioned by a blow re- ,ceived some months since,) and in my right shoulder and arm, which I impute partly to a sprain, and partly to the rheumatism. I find, likewise, some de- cay in ray memory with regard to names and things lately past ; but not at all with regard to what I have read or heard twenty, forty, or sixty years ago. Nei- ther do I find any decay in my hearing, smell, taste, er appetite, (though I want but a third part of the £»od 1 did once,) nor do I feel any such thing as wea- rkiess,. either in travelling or preaching. And I am not conscious of any decay in writing sermons, which I do as readily, and, I believe, as correctly as ever." He acknowledged, therefore, that he had cause to praise God for bodily, as well as spiritual blessings ;. and that he had suffered little, as yet, by ^^ the rush of numerous years."
Other persons perceived his growing weakness, before he was thus aware of it himself; the most marked symptom was that of a frequent disposition to sleep during the day. He had always been able to lie down and sleep almost at will, like a mere ani- mal, or a man in little better than an animal state, — a consequence, probably, of the incessant activity of his life : this he himself rightly accounted one of the causes of bis excellent hesuth, and it was, doubtless, aconsecjuence of it also : but the involuntary slum- bers which came upon him in the latter years of his
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life, were indications that the machine was wearing out, and would soon come to a stop. In 1788, he lost his brother Charles, who, during many yean, had been his zealous coadjutor, and^ thro^hKfef his faithful and afiectioiiate friend. Latterly their opinions had differed. Charles saw the evil ten- dency of some part of the discipline, and did not hesitate to say that he abominated the band-meetings, which he had formerly approved; and, adhering faithfully himself to the church, he regretted the se- paration which he foresaw, and disapproved of John's conduct, in taking steps which manifestly tended to facilitate it. Indeed, Mr. Wesley laid aside, at last, all those pretensions by which he had formerly ei- cused himself; and, in the year 1787, with the assis- tance of two of his clerical coadjutors, Mr. Creightoo and Mr. Peard Dickinson, he ordained two ci his preachers, and consecrated Mather a bishop or so- perintendent But this decided difference of opinion produced no diminution of love between the two brothers. They had agreed to differ ; and, to the last, John was not more jealous of his own authority, than Charles was solicitous that he should preserve it. ^' Keep it while you live,^' he said, ^ and after your death, detur digniori^ or rather, dignioribui. Yon cannot settle the succession ; you cannot divine bow God will settle it.^' Charles, though he attained to his eightieth year, was a valetudinarian through the
{greatest part of his life, in consequence, it is be- ieved, of having injured his constitution by clofle application and excessive abstinence at Oxford. He had always dreaded the act of dying; and his pray- er was^ that God would grant him patience and an easy death. A calmer frame of mind, and an easier passage, could not have been granted him ; the pow- ers of life were fairly worn out, and, without any dis- ease, he fell asleep. By his own desire, he was ba- ried, not in his brother^s burying ground^ because it was not consecrated, but in the churchyard of Ma- ry-le«bone, the parish in which he resided ; and bis pall was supported by eight clergymen of the Chan^ of England.
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It was reported that Charles had said, his brother would not outlive him more than a year. The pre* diction might have been hazarded with sufficient likelihood of its fulfilment ; for John was then draw- ing near the grave. Upon his eighty-sixth birthday, he says, ** I now find I grow old. My sight is decay- ed, so that I cannot read a small print, unless in a strong light. My strength is decayed ; so that I walk much slower than I did some years since. My memory of names, whether of persons or places, is decayed, till I stop a little to recollect them. What I should be afraid of is, if I took thought for the mor- row, that my body should weigh down my mind, and create either stubbornness, by the decrease of my understanding, or peevishness, by the increase of bodily infirmities. But thou shalt answer for me, O Lord, my God!" His strength now diminished so much, that he found it difficult to preach more than twice a-day ; and for many weeks he abstained from his five o^clock morning sermons, because a slow and settled fever parched his mouth. Finding himself a little better, he resumed the practice, and hoped to hold on a little longer ; but, at the beginning of the year 1790, he writes, " I am now an old man, decay- ed from head to foot. My eyes are dim ; my right hand shakes much ; my mouth is hot and dry every morning ; I have lingering fever almost every day ; ^ my motion is weak and slow. However, blessed be God ! I do not slack my labours : I can preach and write still." In the middle of the same year, he closed his cash account-book with the following words, written with a tremulous hand, so as to be scarcely legible : " For upwards of eighty-six years I have kept my accounts exactly: I will not attempt it any longer, being satisfied with the continual con- viction, that I save all 1 can, and give all I can ; that is, all I have." His strength was now quite gone, and no glasses would help his sight. ^^ But I feel no pain," he says, ** from head to foot ; only, it seems, nature is exhausted, and, humanly speaking, will sink mo^e and more, till
The weary springs of liia stand still at last/'
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On the first of February, 1791, he wrote Ms last letter to America. It shows how anxious be was that his followers should consider themselves as one anit- ed body. « See," said be, ^ that you never gire place to one thought of separating from yoor bre- thren in Europe. Lose no opportunity of dcdMring to all men, that the Methodists are one peo{^ia aM the world, and that it is their full determinalioQ so to continue." He expressed, also, a sense that bis how was almost come. « Those that desire to write^" said he, " or say any thing to me, have no time to lose ; for time has shaken me by the hand^ and death u not far behind :" — ^words which his father bad used in one of the last letters that he addressed to bis sow at Oxford. On the 17th of that month, he look toW after preaching at Lambeth. For some days he struggled against an increasing fever, and continued to preach till the Wednesday following, when he de- livered his last sermon. From that time he became daily weaker and more lethargic, and, on the 2d of March, he died in peace ; being in the eigh^-«^^*^ year of his age, and the sixty-fifth of his ministry.
During his illness he said, ** Let me be buried tfj nothing but what is woollen ; and let my corpse be carried in my coffin into the chapel.'' Some yesjs before, he had prepared a vault for himself and for those itinerant preachers who might die in London. In his will he directed, that six poor men should hare twenty shillings each for carrying bis body totbe grave; ** for I particularly desire," said he, " mere may be no hearse, no coach, no escutcheon, ^opoPP except the tears of them that loved me, and Brtfox- lowing me to Abraham's bosom. I solemnly tdjore my executors, in the name of God, ponctaally to^ serve this." At the desire of many of his fnen^j his body was carried into the chapel thed«y pf^^ ing the interment, and there lay in a kind of 8t*l* , coming the person, dressed in his clerical habit, ^> gown, cassock, and band ; the old clerical cap ^ his head, a Bible in one hand, and a white bandiw- chief in the other. The face was placid, andw^ expression which death had fixed upon bis veneraD
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features, wae ^t of a serene and heairenlj smile.-^ The crowds who flocked to seebim were so great, that it was thought prudent, for fear of accidents, to ac- celerate the funeral, and perform it between five and six in the morning. The intelligence, however, could not be kept entirely secret, m)d several hundred per- sons attended at that unusual hour, Mr. liichardson, wbo performed th^ service, had been one of his preacners almost thirty years. When be came tQ that part of the service, ^^ Forasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God to take unto himself the sou| of our dear brother^^ his voice changed, and he sub- stituted the word father; and the feeling with which «^ he did this was such, that the congregation, wbp were shedding silent tears, burst at pnce into loud weepinff.
Mr. Wesley left no other property behind him than the copyright and current editions of his works, jand this be bequeathed to the use of the Connexion after his debts should have been paid. There was a debt of one thousand six hundred pounds to the family of his brother Charles; and he had drawn al- so for some years upon the fund for superannuated preachers, to support those who were in full employ- ment. When h$ was told that some persons mur- mured at this, he used to answer ^^ what can I do ? must tiie work stand still ? the men and their fami- lies cannot starve. I have no money. Here it is ; we must use it ; it is for the Lord^s work.^' The money thus appropriated and the interest due upon it, amounted to a considerable sum. In building chapels, also, the expenses of tjhe Connexion outran its means, so that its finances were left in an embar- rassed state. The number of his preachers at the time of his death amounted in the British dominions to 313, in the United States to 198; the number of members in the British dominions was 76,968, in the United States, 57^621.
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Sach was the Wc, anc! sach th* fetlwWW «f Wm Wesley ; a man of great riew^^ great eftefgfi *b<1 great virtues. That he awaken^ a asealotts spirit, not only in his om\ comttmnity, but in ft Gwrch tvhfch needed something to qiricken it, is «knoW* ledged by the members of that Chorch it«elf ; that he efibouraged enthusiasm and extraragance^ test a teady ear to felse and impossible reiatioos, and Spread superstition ni well as piety, wootd hard^f be denied by the candid and judicious attottg bi« own people. In its immediate effects the poweHM briaciple ofreli^on, which he and his preachers dif nised, has reclaimed ftiany from a coarse of sin, has supported many in poverty, sickness, and afllidiott, fend has impai'ted to many a tritrmphant joy in death. What Wesley says of the miracles wrought at the tomb of the Abbe Paris, may fitly be applied here; " In m^ny of these instances, I see great sapereti- tion, as well as strong faith : but God makes al/oiv- ance for invincible ignorance, and blesses the feith, notwithstanding the superstition.^ Concerning the general and remoter consequences of Melhoaism. opinions will diifbr They who consider the wide- spreading schism to which it has led, and who know that the welfare of the country is vitally connected with its church-eg'tablishment, may think that the evil overbalances the good. But the good may en- dure, and the evil be only for a time. In every other sect there is an inherent spirit of hostility to the Church of England, too often and too naturally connected with di «eased political opinions. So it was in the beginning, and so it will continue to be, as long as those Fccts endure. But Methodism is free from this. 1 he extravagancies which accom- panied its growth are no longer encouraged, and wfl altogether be disrountenanced, as their real nature is understood. This cannot be doubted. It is }^ the natural course of things that it should parify it- self gradually from whatever is objectionable in its institutions. Nor is it beyond the bounds of reason- able hope, that conforming itself to the original in- tention of its founders, it may again draw toward?
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the establishineat from which it hae seceded, and deserve to be recognized as an auxiliary institution, its ministers being analogous to the regulars, and its members to the tertiaries and various confraternities of the Romish Church. The obstacles to this are surely not insuperable, perhaps not so difficult as they may appear. And were this effected, John Wesley would then be ranked, not only among the most remarkable and influential men of his age, but among the great benefactors of his country and his kind.
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NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
NOTE I. Page 22.
Charles Wesl^ aecwed of prating for the Pretender.
I HAVX read somewbeie a more comical blunder upon this subject : a preacher heading in Jeremiah x. 22. " Behold the noise of the bruit is come, and a great tommotion from the ^orih country.'' took it for granted that the rebellion in Scotland was iaeant, and that the krute was the Pretender.
NOTE II. Page 55. Lt^ Preachert,
The question whether, in the ancient Churchi laymen were ever allowed b;f authority to make sermons to tlie people, is investigated by Binsham with his usual erudition. ^ That they did it in a private way, as catechists, in their catechetick schools, at Alexandria aild other places^ there is no question. For Origen read lectures in the catechetick school of Alexandria, before he was in orders, by the appointment of Demetrius ; and SC Jerome saysy there was a long succession of famous men in that school, who were called ecclesiastical doctors upon that account. But this was a different thing from their public ' preaching in the church. Tet in some cases a special commission was given to a layman to preach, and then be might do it by the authority of the bishop's commission for that time. Thus Eusebius says, Origen was approved by Alex«> ander, bishop of Jerusalem, and Theotistus of Ccsarea, to preach and expound the Scriptures publicly in the church j when he was only a layman. And when Demetrius of Alexandria made a remonstrance against this, as an innovation that had never been seen or heard of before, that a layman should preach to the people in the presence of bishops, Alexander replied in a letter, and told him he was much mistaken ; for it was an usual thing in many places, where . men were well qualified to edify the bretbreu» for bishops to entreat them to preach to the people."*>j^n/igut/us of the Christian Church, book xiv. ch. 4. ( 4.
NOTE III. Page 81. Thomae OHvers.
'* For four or five years," says this person, ** I was greatly entangled with a farmer's daughter, whose aitter was married to Sir I. P. of JN — wt^n, in thai country. What
** Straoge reverse of bomso fktes !"
Ibr one sister was wooed by, and married to a baronet, who was esteemed one of the finest men in the country. Wheti she died. Sir, I was almost distracted. Presently after her funeral, he published an elegy on her of a thousand verses i For some time he daily visited her in her vault, and at last took her up, and kept her in his bed-chamber for several years.
*< On the other hand, her sister, who was but little inferior in person, fell into the hands of a most indgoiflcant young man, who was a means of driving her almost to an untimely end."
The Baronet whom Olivers alludes to was probably Sir John Price of Buck- land. A certain Bridget Boetock was famous in the county of Cheshire, in bisr time, fi»r performing wonderful cures, and he applied to her to raise his wife from the dead. Hu letters upon thif extraordinary subject may be found in the Monthly Magazine, vol: xxvi. pp. 30, 31. The person by whom they were conununicated to that jonrnal says, that they exposed the writer to the severest ridicule ; but in any good mind they would rather excite compassion. Sir John fully believed that this woman could work miracles, and reasoning upon that beUef ht appliod to her in full faith.
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NOTE IV. Page 9J.
WTiat Haimt $aw wat ecriainfy a bu$iard, ** The following very curiout mid authentic account of two buftaird^ was published in the Gentleman's Magazine for the year 1805, by Mr. Tuckeft fichool-master at Tiisbead. < A mani about lour o'clock in the — rniugy oo Nome day in Jane, 1801, waf coming from Tinhead to Tilshead, when near n place called Askings Penning, one mile from Tiishead, ho saw over his hoad a large bird, which afterwards proved to be it bustard. He had not pcoeeedeif far, before it lighted on the giound, immediately before his horse, which it in- dicated an inclination to attack, and in fact very soon began the onoet. The man alighted, and getting hold of the bird, aadeavoured to secure it; and alier struggling with it nearly an hour, succeeded, and brought it alive to the honse of Mr. Bartlett, at Tiishead, where it continued tiH the month Of AuguaC, whea it was sold to Lord Temple for the sum of thirty-one guineas.
^ About a fortnight subsequent to the taking this bustard, Mr. Grants a ftirmer residing at I'iUhead, returning from Warminster market, was attacked in a similar manner near Tiishead L^ge, by another bird o the same species. His horse being spirited, took fright and ran off, which c4>liged Mr. Grant to relinquish bis design of endeavouring to take the bird. The circumstance of two birds (whose nature haj been always considered, like that of a taiitey, domestic) attacking a man and horse, is ao vory lingular, that it deservca re- •ordiiig ; and particularly a« it is probably the laat record wo shall find •{ the existence of this bird upon owr 6QwtM,**^^Sir Hifhmrd U^art^i ^neimi J#^«tf- aliire^ p. 94. Mote.
The birds certainly had tlieir nest near, and there is nothing BMMa woadarful in the fact, than what every spoxtsman has aeea in the partridge, whoo tha iBother attempts to draw him away from her youag. But it was with ttie greatest pleasure that I recollected this anecdote in reading the Lile of John Haime, not merely as eipUining the incident in the text, hut as provia^ lilf veracity ; for undoubtedly, without this eaplanatioo, many raadera would haw supposed the story to be a mere falsehood, which would hase disoediifd lh« xvriter^s testimony in erery other part of his narration.
NOTE V. Page 1»;. 7^ renewal ^f the image of God in Uu heart of man.
Mr. Toplady has a curious paper upon this subject.
'*'When a portrait painter takes a likeness, there must be an original from whom to take it. Here the original are God, and Christ. *• When 1 awake up after thy likeness,* ^c. and, we are ' piedestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son/
^< The painter chooses the materials on which he will delineate his piece. There are paintings on wood, on glass, on metals, nn ivory, on canvass. So God chooses and selects the petwyns, on whom his uncreated spirit shall, with the pencil of effectual grace, re-delineate that holy likeneis which Adam lost* Among these are some, whose natural capacities, and acquired improwsBeaiSy are not of the first rate : there the image of God is painted on wood. Oihrm nf God^s people have not tliose quick sensibilities, and poignant feelings, by which many are distinguished : there the Holy Spirit^s painting is on marble. Others are perniiued to iall from the ardour of their first kMre, and to deviau from their steadfastness : there the Holy Spirit painU on glasf, which, pedlmps, the first stone of temptation may injure. But the Celestial Ariist will, ia tiaie, repair tltose breaches, and restore the frail, hrittk Chrisiia% lo hiaorigiaal enjoyments, and to more than his original purity ; and, what nsaj nesm truif wonderful, Divine Grace restores the picture by hrehking it ovar again. It is the broken-hearted sinner to who«n God will impart the cmniorH of Aivaiina.
*< The ancients painted only in water-colours } but die moderas (from ahpot A. D. 1S20) have added beauty and durability to their piciuias, hy painCiag them in oil. Applicable to hypocriies and true helievecs* An hypocrite may outwardly bear something that r«ieii4>ies Ihe imi^ W God ; hut it isao^ in fresco, or water-colours, which do not last ; aAd ato, wt hast, laid oa hf the liam) of dieaimulation. But (if 1 may acoommodaie so iamiiiar anidna to«a higta a subject) the Holy Spirit paints ia oil } im aouNnpoaiof his wack with unction and with power ; and hence it ahall ha omvaad with hopoun^ aad praise, and glory, at Christ's appearing.^'^^
I'he remainder of the paper is left apposito*
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NOTE VI. Page 126. TkeJ^eufBirih, ^* T»S (psund and ceMoa of Um cx^ression,^' says WesUj, '< asa easy to bo
understood. When we undergo this great cbangey we may, with much propri«> «(ty, be eaid to ba born agaiiiy because thef e is so near a resemblance between «iie cifcumstances of the natural and of the spiritual birtb; so that to consider Ike GircttOwtaBces of the natoral birtby is the most easy way to undeiatand Oie spiritual.
" The child which is not yet born subsists indeed by the air, as does every tWn( wbich has life, but feels it not, nor any thing else unless in a very duU and aanperloct manner. It hears little, if at all, the orgins of hearing being as yet closed up. It sees nothing, having its eyes fast shut, and being surrounded with utter darkness. There are, it may be, some faint beginnings of life, wheu tbe time of its birtb draws nigh ; and some motion consequent thereon, whereby it is distinguMied ftom a meiie mass of matter. But it has no seiifes ; ail these avenues of the soul are hitherto quite shot up. Of consequence, it has scarcely any intercourse with this visible world ; nor any knowledge, or conception, or idea, of the tliingB that occur therein.
'< The reason why be that is not yet born is wholly a stranger to the visible w«rk}, is, not beeause it is afar off; it is very nigh ; it surrounds him on every side : but partly itecause he has not tfaone senses, they are not yet opened in his so»l, whereby alone it is posable to bold commerce with the material world ; and partly because so thick a veil is cast betweeut through which be can discern nothing.
«< But no sooner is the child born into the world than be exists in a quite dif- ferent manner. He now feels tbe air, with which he is surrounded, and which pours into hiro from every side, as fast as he alternately breathes it back to su.stain the flame of life, and hence springs a continual increase of strength, of motion, and of sensation: all tbe bodily senses being now awakened, and fur- nished with their proper objects.
*' His eyes are now opened to perceive the light, which silently flowing in upon them, discovers not only itself, bat an infinite variety of things with which before he was wholly unacquainted. His cars are unclosed, and sounds rush in with endless diversity. Every sense is employed upon such objects as are pe- culiarly suitable to it, and by these inlets, the soul, having an open intercourse with the visible world, acquires more and more knowledge of sensible things, of all the things which are under tbe sun.
So it is with him that is born of God. Before that great change is wrought, although he subsists by him in whom all that have life live, and move, and have their being, yet he is not senHbte of Ckid ; he does not /ee/, he has no inward consciousness of his presence. He does not perceive that divine breath of life, without which he cannot subsist a moment. Nor is he sensible of any of the things of God. They make no impression upon his soul. God is continually calling to him from on high, but he heareth not ; his ears are shut, so that the * voice of the charmer,* is lost on him, ' charm he ever so wisely.* He seeth not the things of the Spirit of God, the ^esof his understanding being closod, and utter darkness covering his whole soul, surrounding him on every side. It is true, lie may have some faint dawnings of life, some small beginnings of the spi- ritual motion ; but as yet he has no spiritaal senses capable of discerning spiri- tual objects; consequently he discerneth not the things of the Spirit of God. He cannot know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
** Hence he has scarce any knowledge of the invisible world, as he has scarce any intercourse with it. Not that it is afar off. No : be is in the midst of it : it encompasses him round about. The other worlds as we usually teim it, is not far from any of us. It is above, and beneath, and on every side : only tbe natural man discerneth it not; partly because he haih no spiritual tenses, whereby alone we can discern the things of God ; partly because so thick a veil is interposed, as be knows not how to 'penetrafv.
** But when he is born of God, born of the Spirit, how \g the manner of exis- tence changed ! His whole soul is now sensible of God, and h« can say, by sure experience, * Thou art about my bed, and about my path ;* I feel thee ' in all my ways.' Thou besettest me behind and before, and layest thy band upon me. The spirit or breath of God is immediately inspired, breathed into tbe new-born soul. And the same breath, which conies from, returnl to God : as it is continually received by faith, so it is continually rendered back by love, by prayer, and praise, and thanksgiving ; love, and praise, and prayer, being
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the breath of every Mul which it irulf bon of God. And hj tUs acw ki^ «# spiritual respiration, spiritual life is not ooly tuftaioed, bat incieaaed daj bf day, together with epiritual strength, and motion, and tepsatioa. All ihc aes* ses of the soul being now awake, and capable of disoerniog spiritiial good aad evil.
^* The eyes of his understanding are now open, and be seeth Him that is i»* visible. He sees what is the exceeding greatnen of his power, and of bia love towards them that believe. He sees that God is merciful to hisy a sinner, chat he is reconciled through the Son of his love. He dearly perceives both the par* doning love of God and aU his exceeding great and precious promteei. God, who commanded the light to shine outof daikness, hath shined, and doihdbiiie, in bis heart, to enlighten him with the knowledge of the glory of God in the &ce of Jesus Christ. All the darkness is now passed away, and he abides in the light of God's countenance.
*^ His ears are now opened, and the voice af God no lonfer calls in vain. He bears, and obeys the heavenly calling : be < knows the voice of hb Shepherd.* All bis spiritual senses being now awakened, he has a clear intercoane with the invisible world. And hence he knows more and more of the things which be> fore 'it could not enter into his heart to conceive.' He now knows what tiM peace of God is : what is joy in the Holy Ghost, what the love of God which is sbed abroad in the hearts of them that belie>'e in him through Christ Jcsos. Thus the veil being removed, which before intercepted the light and voice, the knowledge and love of God, he who is born of tlie Spirit, dwelling in love, dweUr eth in God, and God in him.*' — Wetlty's Works, vol. vii. p. 268.
NOTE Vn. Page l«. . JEfe entangled hinuelf in Contradieti/ms.
" Thb expression being bom again, was not first used by our Lord in bis conversation with Nicoderous. It was in common use among tbe Jews when our Saviour appeared among them. When an adult heathen was convioced that the Jewish religion was of God, and desired to join therein, it was the cus- tom to baptize him first, before he was admitted to circumcision. And when h^ was baptised, be was said to be bom again ; by which they meant, that he who was before a child of the devil, was now adopted into the family of Ged, and ac- counted one of his children.'* — ^vol. vii. p. 296.
Yet, in the same sermon, Wesley affirms, *' that Baptism is not tbe >e# Birth, that they are not one and the same thing. Many indeed seem to ima-
fine that they are just the same ; at least they speak as if they thought so ; bat do not know that this opinion is publicly avowed, by any denomination of iCbristians whatever. Certainly it is not by any, within these kingdoms, whe- ther of the Established Church or dissenting from it. Tbe judgment of the lat- ter is clearly declared in their large catechism : ^ Q. What are the parts of a Sacrament ? A. The parts of a Sacrament are two ; the one an outward and sensible sign, tbe other an inward and spiritual grace signified. Q. What is Baptism ? A. Baptism is a sacrament, wherein Christ hath ordained the wash- ing with water to be a sign and seal of regeneration by bis Spirit.*^ Here it is manifest, baptism, the sign, is spoken of as distinct from regeneration, the thing signified.'*
Where was Wesley's logic? or where his fairness? Can any thing be moce evident, than that this catechism describes regeneration as the inward and spiritual grace, and the act of baptism (sprinkling or immeriion} as tbe out- ward and visible sign. What follows is as bad.
** in the Church Catechism likewise, tbe judgment of our Church is declared with tbe utmost clearness. ' Q. What meanest thou by this word Sacrament ? A. I mean an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace. Q. What is the outward part or form in baptism ? A. Water, wherein the person is baptized in tbe name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Q. What is ibe inward parts, or thing signified ? A. A death unto sin, and a new biith onto righteousness.'' Nothing therefore is plainer, than that, according to the church of England, baptism is not tbe New Birth.*'
I do not believe that an instance of equal blindness or disiugenuity (which* ever it may be thought) can be found in all tbe other parts of Wesley's works, So plain is it that the words of the catechism mean precisely what WeUry af- firms tliey do no|mean, that, in the very next page, be contradicts himself in the clearest manner, and says, *' it is certain, our church supposes, that all who arc baptized in their infancy arc at the same time horn again. And it is allow-
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ed, that ttae whole office for the baptifm of infitiite proceeds upon thie snppon*- tion. Nor is it an objection of auy weight af^ainst this, that we cannot jconipre*- liend how this work can be wrought in infants." Vol. vii.p. 303.
NOTE VIII. Page. 127. hutanicmeous Converiion.
" An observation,'* says Toplady, " which I met with in reading Down* mane^s Christian Warfare, struck roe much : speakiug of the Holy Spirit as the sealer of the Elect^ he asks, bow is it possible to receive the sea! without feeling the impression."
<* Lord,'* says Fuller in one of his Scripture Observations, " I read of my Sa- viour, that when he was in the wilderness, then the devil leaveih Ann, oiuf ie^U angels came and minutered unto him* A great change in a little time. No twi* light betwixt night and day. No purgatory condition betwixt hell and heaven, \ but instantly, when out devil, in angel. Such is the case of every solitary soul* It will make company for itself. . A musing mind will not stand neuter a mi" Bute, but presently side with legions of good or bad thoughts. Grant, therefore, <kat my soul, which ever will have some, may never have bad company."
NOTE IX. Page 128. Salvatiim net to be toughJ by Works. ' Tun doctrine is stated with perilous indiscretion in one of the Moravian hymns.
When any, thro' a beam of light.
Can see and own they are not right,
But enter on a legal strife,
Amend their former course of Hfe^ And work and toil, and sweat from day to day. Such, to their Saviour quite mistake the way.
NOTE X. Page 130. Faith. la Methodistical and mystical biography, the reader will sometimes be Ee* sinded of these lines in Ovid.
Jnprue toha eram^ ealestia numina sensiy Liaiatfue purpurea luce refuUii humus. Jfon eauidem Mi {vaUont mendaeia vaittm !) . TeDea; nee ftteras adspieienda viro.
Sed qua nescieram, quorvmque errore tenebar^ Cogniia sunt muUo prmpienU mihi.
OriD, Fast. vi. S51— 254.
NOTE XI. Page 1S3. Assurance, There is a good story of assurance in Belknap^s History of New-Hamp- shire. ** A certain captain, John Underbill, in the days of Puritanism, al&rmed, that having long lain undet a spirit of bondage, he could get no assurance ; tiU at length, as he was taking a pipe of tobacco, the Spirit set home upon him an absolute promise of free grace, with such assurance and jo;, that he had never since doubted of his good estate, neitlier should he, whatever sins he might fall Into. And he endeavoured to prove, ' that as the Lord was pleased to coDTett Saul while he was persecuting, so he might manifest himself to him while making a moderate use of the good creature tobacco !' This was one of the things for which he was questioned and censured by the elders at Boston." Vol. i. p. 42. .
<< Another," says South, '* flatters himself, that he has lived in full aasurftiKe of his salvation for ten or twenty, or, perhaps, thirty years ; that is, in other words, the man has been ignorant and confident very long."
NOTE XII. Page 134. Perfection. Thb Gospel Magaxine contains a likely anecdote concerning this curioue doctrine. ** A lady of my acquaintance,^' says the writer, " bad, in the early
VOL. II. 53
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fltge or Iter reftftottlr prol^flHiAii, •rer)r «iDMly Mtadtoi Iwiiiif to m crowed AnnhilaM, thte had imMbtd all liieir aotfoiia, amI, AnMg tin
of linlets peffectlon. What the had ^een taif|^t to boMava vtioaiioMo, tkm m ta8t concluded sba bad, herielf, attainad as perfectly at any of tha pettict dam in Mr. Wetlej's societiet ; and «ha accordinglf want lo lor aa to prafeoa ihe had obtained what they call tba **aeooad VlmA%" tkat ia, an eradlcotioo of dl |Iq aod a heart filled with nothiag but pura acd perfect love. A dccoiBacoiioe, however, not long after occurred, which gave a completa shock to hex aelMgbCp 00U8 presumption^ as well as to the principles from whence it spcaag. Jfar liusband having one day contradicted hor opinion and contralkd lior wiUt i& * matter where he thought himsaJf authorised to do both ono and die ocket. ftio ^rfect lady felt herself so extremely angrv, that^ as she dodazed to me, ska could have boxed bis ears, and had great difficulty to refrain from Oomo aetda- clarative of the emotions of rising passion and resentment. AlaroMd nt what she felt, and not knowing how to account for such unhallowed senantiona in a Jieart, in which, as she thought, all sin had been done away, she iub for expla- nation to the leader of the perfect band. To her she lolated tagetiuously aH that passed in the interview with her husband. The band-leador, instniclad in the usual art of administering consolation, though at the expense of tniih and rectitude, replied, ' What yon felt on that occasion, my doar, wasBoiliiag bnta little animal nature !^ My friend being a lady of too nmoii aenao^aad too saneh honesty to be imposed upon by such a delusory explanation, exdaimody < AnaaMi tiature! Nb; it was animal dovilP Pram that oonmnt aha bid aAaa to perfection, and its concomitant delusions, at wall as to thoaa vfao aio M by them."
" Gnat-strainers,*' says Toplady in one of his sermons, *' aio too often canal- swallowers ; and the Pharisaical nmntle of 'SuperstitiOHS aasierity is, voiy fre- quently, a cover for a cloven foot. Beware than, of driviaig too furiously at frist setting out. Take the cool of the day. Begin as you can hoM on. I knew a lady, who to prove herself perfect, ripped off ber flounoes. and would not wear an ear-ring, a necklace, a ring, or an inch of lace. Baffles were BabyJootsfa. Powder wa« Antichristian. A riband was carnal. A snuff-box aoieit of ikm bottomless pit. And yet, under all this parade of oeuido hamilityy ilm fair ascetic was— but 1 forbear entering into particulars: suftce it to say, ^at she was a cooeOalad AnHnonian. Avti I hv<n kesasn -too asmuf ^ ' " instances."
NOTE Xlii. Fa«a IM.
t>ov this subject Charles Wesley has thus expressed himself in a upon Psalm xd. 11. ^' He shall gUc Kis ^ng«2t charge occr Ihee^ to kagi thee in ail ihu ui^yc.*'
" By these perfections, strength, and wisdom, they are well able to preserve us either from the approach (if that be more profitable for us) or in the attack of any evil. By their wisdom they discern ithfttever eifher obstructs or pro- motes our real advaotaga ; by their streifgth they effectually repel the one and «ecuft a free oourse to the other : by tha firsts they choose means conducive to these ends ; by the second, th<Ehr put them in oKecutioa. One particular method of pceaarviog ^pood man, which we may reasoeably suppose theae wise beings aomotlmos ohooso, aod bv their strength put in execution, is the altering aone material csmiss that would have a pamicioue effect ; the purifying (for ioscance) tsUnlod air, which would otberwiae produce a contagious distemper. And tins they may easily do, either by increasing the current of it, so as natarally lo cleanse its putridity ; or, by mixing with it some other substance, so to correct its hurtAd qualities, and render it aalubrtous to h^man bodies. Another asethed they may be supposed to adopt when their conmiissiou is not so ganeral ; udMn they are authoriseci to preserve some few persons from a common calamity. It then iS'probsbk Uiet they do not alter the oause, but the aulQc<rt on whieb it is to work ; that they do not lesaen the stieqgth of the one, but inorease that of Ibe other. Thus, too, whets they am not allowed to prevent, ih^ nu^ reekovc^pain or sickness; thus the angel restored Daniel in a moment, when neither strength nor breath remained in him.
<^ By these means, by changing either our bodies or the material causes that use to affect them, they may easily defend ds from all bodily evils, so far as is eitpedistat for us. A thhrd method they tn^ be eonooivsd to employ to Mend tfeftoiBi tplrltwal dao|ett, by opplyicyg'theinsslvaf temtdlatslr to tin mml te
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^•ii^or attfty- ow piibni t and, Mm4» thia yrovuica f»eaw pom tuOurai l» ilM» than eitiiar al* (ha forinar. How a spuritdal baing can act upoa mattef BUI naca ttnaaoaimtabU than bow it caa act on qpUit ; tb»t m» iiaBiiit«ri«J ^ing, bf taudnng aaathtr, tbauld incraaM or letstn its motion ) ibat an angal •kau&d ratard or qiiickaa tlie channo) wti«iaia tba passions of angelic substan<y #ftw> no mora exeilas our actanisfamant than that one piecs of matter should hairr «|m sama efiMstan ita hiadred substance ; or that a flood-gate, or other materii^ iBetruflMat^ shoaM afiect tha caufsa of a river : rather, considering bow coar •agioue the natura of the paesioas ie, the wander 19 on the other side ; not how (hey can avoid to aHeot him at all» but how they can aTQi^ affecting them more i how they can continue so near tts» who are so subject to catch tbem» without gpreading the flames which bara in theqaseives. And a plain instance of their power to allay human passions is afbrded us io the case of DanieV when he beheld that gloriously terrible minister, whose * face was as the appearance of lightalDg, and his eyes as lampe of Are ; his arms and feet like polished brasty mUd his voice as the voice of a multitodey* a. €. ; whea the tears and sorrows off tile prophet were turned so strong upon him, that be was in a deep sleep, voifl of eensa and motion. Tet this fear, these turbulent passions, the angel aHayed itt a noment ; when they ware hurrying on with the utmost impetuosity, ha chaekod tham in their conrse ; so that immediately aAer we find Daniel daonag the cantianaaoe of that converse which before he was utterly unable to aoetatn.
** Hm same affect was, doubtless, wrought on all those to whom these superior laiage, on their flrst appearance, used this salutation — * Fear not ;* which would have been a mere insult and cruel mockery upon human weakness, had they not, with that advice, given the power to follow it. Ifearly allied to thn ■Mthod of infloeodog the passions, is the last 1 intend to ipention, by which the aogels (it is probable) preserve good men, especially in or from spiritual dan- gers. And this is by applying themselves to their ret^son, by instilling good thoughts into their hearts; either such as are good in their own nature, as tend to OUT improvement in virtue, or such as are contrary to the suggestions of flesh «ad bloody by which we are tempted to vice. It is not unlikely that we are indebted to them, not only for most of those reflections which suddenly dart iato our minds, we know not how, having no connexion with any thing that waat before them ; but lor many of those also which feem ^ntUe^ oar owfl, «iid naturally consequent from the preceding.*'
NOTE XIV. Pai»l»*
Agenes if wU Spwiii.
. ** LST us consider,'^ says Wesley, ** what nwy be the employment oTrnthoHf spirits-from death to the resurtectioa. We caanoi doubt bet the mooMal they leave the body, they find themselves sarreunded 1^ spirits of their own kind, probably humaa as weli as diabolical. What power Cod may permit theee to exercise over them, we do not disttnctly know. But it is aat nnpsobable, ha may suffer Satan to employ them, as bs does his owa aagels^ io inflMtiog death, or evils of various kinds, on tlie men that know not OA. For ^ie aid, thegr may raise stornns by sea or by land ; they may shoot meteors tbvougly die all ; they may occasion earthquakes; and, In namberlees ways, afllet thoei whom they are not suffered to destroy. Where they are nal parmStted to taha away life, they may inflict various diseases : and many otf these, wMdi wa may)udfa to be natura], are uadoublediy ^abolkal. I believe litis is fteqaently th#ea«e with lunatics. It is obseivaUe that many of these, mentioned in Scripiaia, who are called lunatics by oaa of the Cvaagelists, are termed demoniacs by another. One of the most eminent physicians I ever knew, particularly in cases of i«- sanity, the late Dr. Deacon, was dearlv of opinion, that this wasthocitse with many, if not with moel lunatics. And k is no valid ot^ection to this, that thate diseases are so often cured by natural means ; for a wound inflicted by an eidl spirit might be cured as any other ; unless that spbit were petmitted to iape%t the blow.
*' May not some of these evil spirits be rdcewieaewployed, ioaas^actian with evil angels, in tempting wicked oma to sia, and la procuring occasiaas for ihe«i? Yea, and in tempriag good mea to sia> even amr they have escaped tha ear- suption that is in the world. Herein, doobdess, they pat forth ali thwh stioagii, asid greatly glory if they cooqoer.^* Vol. xi. p. 3i.
<< Tha ingenious Dr. Chefoe^'*^ saya oaa of Ifr. Wesl^^t ^ofMi^^deam
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** reckons all gloomj wrong-beadedncfSi am! spttrious im-tliiiikiiis, tt mtttf qrinptoffls of b<Klily diseases : and, I tbink, says, the human oigans, in aomr nervous disteoipers, may, perhaps, be rendered fit for the actuation of denoas : and advises religion as ao czcelletii remedy. Nor is this onHkely to be my own case ; for a nervous disease of some years' standing, rose to its lioighl in 1748, and I was attacked in proportion by irreligions opinions. Tbe nedicinal part of his advice, a vegetable diet, at last, cured my dreadful distessper. It is natural to think the spiritual part of his adTice equally good ; and ^ball I ne> gleet it, because I am now In health ? God forbid !— Jo&i fV^itk, Axmmian Magatme, vol. ii. p. 4S3.
NOTE XV. Page 140.
ImmortdUhf of Animals. Oir this point Wesley^s bitterest opponent agreed with hira. *' I will honestly confess,^' says Toplady, *^ that I never yet heard one single argument urged against the immortality of brutes which, if admitted, would not, muiatis nuUisn' tfif, be equally conclusive against the immortality of man.'*
NOTE XVI. Page 152. iHnerantp.
TbS&K are some things in the system of the Methodists which very much resemble certain arrangements proposed by John Knox and his colleagues la tbe First Book of Discipline. *' It was found necessary, says Dr. M^rie, to employ some persons in extraordinary and temporary charges. As there was not a sufficient number of ministers to supply the different parts of tbe country, that the people might not be left altogelher destitute of public worship aad ia- ftruction, certain pious persons who had received a common educatlony were appointed to read the Scriptures and the Common Prayers. These were called Readers. In large parishes persons of this description were also employed to relieve the ministers from a part of the public service. If they advanced in knowledge, they were encouraged to add a few plain exhortations to the reading of the Scriptures. In that case they were called Exhorters ; but they weie ex> amined and admitted, before entering upon this employment.
" The same cause gave rise to another temporary expedient. Instead of fixing all the ministers In particular charges, it was judged proper, after supply- ing the principal towns, to assign to the rest the superintendence of a large district, over which they were appointed regularly to travel for the purpose of preaching, of planting churches, and inspecting the conduct of miotsters, ex- horters, and readers. These were called Superintendents. Tbe number ori- ginally proposed was ten ; but owing to the scarcity of proper persons, or rather *to the want of necessary funds, tl^re were never more than six appointed. The deficiency was supplied by Commisrioners or Visiters, appointed from lioae to time by the General Assembly.** — Life ofXhoz^ vol. ii. pp. 6, 7.
<' We were not the first itinerant preachers in England," says Wesley, . *< twelve were appoiated by Queen Elizabeth to travel continually, in order to spread uue religion through the kingdom. And the office and salary siitf con- tinues, though their work is little attended to. Mr. Milner, late Vicaf of Chip- ping, in Lancashire, was one of them."
Itinerant preaching (without referring to the obvioos fact, that the first <pr«achers of Christianity in any country must necessarily have been itinerant) is of a much earlier origin than Wesley has here supposed. It was the especial bus^iness of tbe DominiranF, and was practised by the other mendicant orders, • and by the Jesuits. And it was practised long before the institution of these orders.
Sit. Cuthbert used to itinerate when he was abbot of Melrose, as his prede- cessor St. Bois.il had done before him ; and Bede tells us, that all persona eagerly flocked to listen to tliese preachers. '* Aec soiwn ipti monatitrim rtigtdcaris vita memt/a, iimul ^ exfmpla jtrabebat ; $ed et vulf^is cireumpotihan longe lattffiu a vita ituUtp. eontuet\tdinii ad cceUitixan gauiiorvm wnttrttre txtrabai amarem, JV*<im ei mufti fidem qfuam liabebant, tniquis frpfanabant 0peribtit : et cUiqui etiam tempore mottaUtaiii negleetitjidei saerameniu (jfuibm erant imbttU) ad erraiiea idotolntritr medicamina roneurrebantf quasi miuam a Deo eondiiore pbtgamy per incantaiifmes,, vet phUacteria, vei alia quoHbet dawt^ niaea arti* arcana, ctitibere valerent. Ad utrorumqui ergo corrigendam err^ rertif crtbro ipse dt mwuuUrio egressuSf aUquoiimt eqsko sedens, 9td mpitu
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jMiMst ineeieniy eiftumjmtiias wmcM ai «t2fat, ei vttfm vmtatU prtg^eahat ^srranHbui; quod ipnun etiam Bouil suo tempwe faeere ammettrat. Etut qmppe morU eo tempore poptUit ^ngiorum, ut venienie in viUam elerieo vel preobyiero, euneii ad ^us imperium, verbum muHiun eonfiwrtnt^ Hbenitr ea q^tm dieererUur audirtnt, HbenHus ea qfum aiidire ei inielHgere poterani o^rando wequerenlur. — Solebai autem ea maxime hca peragrare, ei illis prtediearein vieip' ■Km, ^if in orAitt atperi»que monHbut proeul poiili, aHis korrori erant ad visendum, ei pauperiaie pariier ae rutHcitate sua doclontm prohibebani acce$sum : quos tmmen ilie, pio Hbenier mancipatut hbori, tania doctrina exeolebat industria, ui de mtmoMierio egredient, tape kebdomada integray oHtpumdo duabfts rel tribusj narmuTiquam etiam mente pleno domum non redirei : ted demoratus in monlanis, plebcm rutOeam verbo prctdieationit timul ei txemplo virtulis ad ealestia voearet,
Beda, I. 4. c. 27. St. Chad urad to itinerate on foot. *< Comeeratus ergo in epiteopaium Ceadda, tnaximam max cotpit EeeleticutietE veriiaii et eastilati euram impenderc ; hnmili- iaiij eontincntim, lectioni operam dare; oppida, rara, eatas, vieot, castellan prop^ ter evangelizandum non equitandOf tea Apottolorvm m re pedibut inctdcndo peragrare. (Beda. 1. 3. c. 28.) In this he followed the example of his maitter Aidan, till the primate compelled him to ride : Et quia maris erat eidem reve- rendissimo antistiii opus Ewmgelii magis ambulando per loea, quam equitando ptrfieere, justii eum TkeodoruSy uhitvmque longiut iter itutaret, equitare; mttl- iumque reniieniem studio ei amore pU laborit, ipse evm manu sua leoavit in cquum ; quia nimirum sanctum virum esse eomperit, atque equo vehi quo essei ^necesse, eompuHi* — Beda. 1. 4. c. 3.
NOTE XVII. Page 156. The Select Bands.
*i Tub utility of these meetings appearg from the following contiderationi. St. John div^ldes the followers of God into three classes, (1 St. John, ii. 12«) St. Paul exhorts ministers to give every one his portion of meat in due season. ■ And there were some things which our Lord did not malie known to his disci- ples till after his ascension, when they were prepared for them by the descent of the Holy Ghost. These meetings give the preachers an opportunity of gpeakiiig of the deep things of God, and of exhorting the members to press after the full image of God. They also form a bulwark to the doctrine of Christian perfec- tion. It is a pity that so few of the people embrace this privileget and that every preacher does not warmly espouse such profitable meetiugs.^' — J^ltsU Chrow^ logical History of the Methodists, p. 34.
The following letter upon this subject (transcribed from the original, which was written by Mr. Wesley a few weeks only before his death) shoyvshow easily a select society was disturbed by puzzling questions concerning the periectiou -which the members professed.
<* To Mr, Edward Lewly, Birmingliam. ^< My Dear Brother, London, Jan. If, 1791.
** I l>o not believe a single person in your select society scruples saying,
Every moment Lord I naed The merit of ti»y death.
' This is clearly determined in the ** Thoughts upon Perfectidn.^^ But who ex- pects common people to speak accurately ? And how easy is it to eu tangle them in their talk ! I am afraid some have done this already. A man that is not a thorough friend to Christian Periiection will easily puzzle others, and thereby weaken, if not destroy any select society. I doubt this has been the case with you. That society was in a lively state, and well united together, when I was last at Birmingham. My health has been better for a few days than it has been for several months. Peace be with all your spirits. I am your afTcc- tioaute Brother,
"J. Weslex."
NOTE XVm. Page 162.
Psabnodjf. «
^' About this time, DavidH Psalms were translated into English metre, nnd (if noLpubUdy commanded) gcDeially permitted to be sung in all ehurciies.
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ADd of the privy chamber tc Kiag Edward tiie Siitti^who ferhbputiianlUB^ fhirty-tevea selected ptal»%) Joha Befkins, Rehen WJudeeHi 4ie^ ao, whow piety wm hetter iteii their pcelry ( ead they had dnaliiMM •( te^ than of Helicoe. These Pialmt were thereibre traeilatedy nmtkukm mm portable in pnople^s memories, (Tsrses being twice aa li|^t as iht mI^sibw Mk in prose,) as also to raise men's afbctioos, the better to caaUs ihsn to piacti« the Apostle's precept> * Jg any merry ? let him sing psalms.* Yet tUi vsik SMt afterwards with some frowns in the faces of great clergymen, whe win rstbsr eontented, than well pleased, with the singing of them in cborches. I «B nm say, lM*cause they misllhed so much liberty sboold be allowed the leitj (ftosn only can be guilty of so great envy) as to sing in churches : lathsr, hioNi they conceived these singing-psalms erected in coovivialiCy and oppsntioe tote reading-psalms, which were formerly sung in cathedral chuicbes: srshe, the child was disliked for the mother's sake ; becauee, such trandaieis, iboqli branched hither, bad their root in Geneva*
Since, later men have vented their just exceptione against Ae bsUaciirf ikc translation, so that sometimes they make the Maker of the tonfus to ipssk lit- tle better than barbarism \ and have iu many ▼erees such poorThTiis^ that ten hammers on a smith's anvil would make better music. Wbilstotbsr»(nibcr^ excune it, than defend it) do plead, that English poetry was thse ia the sss-ne, aot to say, infaocv thereof; and that, match these verses for thsit sgi^, ^^ shall go abreast witli the best poems of those tiuMS. Some, ia fefesr of ibe translators, allege, that to be curious therein, and over-deecaatiogwithinti bad not become the plain song, and simplicity of an holy style. Bat ikese rou$t know, tliere is great difference between painting a face and not washing ii.^ Many since havd far refiued these translations, but yet tlieir laboun tfaef«in sever generally received in the church ; principally, because ue-book-learDed people have conned br heart, many psalms of the old traaslaties, which would %e wholly dieinlierlted of their patrimony, if a new adition were w( Ibrtb.-' However, it k dtilred, and expected by moderate men, that, ihovgh the Abric •tand ottiemaved Ibr the main, yet some bad oentrlvance thsren mj be mended, a»d the bald itayMcs In some placee get a new nap, nkicb vosM not Much tflieompMe the nwMiy af the people."— #Ufar>s Omd^ Btdtfj) Cnt.
XV1.bM>kvil. p.406
In a letter of ieweTs, written in 11^, he eayi, «< that a ckaogs eppesied nev
•d it more than lbs ieHtisg the
more visible ameng the people. Kothtng promoted i. -^. - ^
penple to sing psalme. That was begun In nne oheock m Leedsn, awi did quickly spread itself, aot only through the city, but In the neig^bosrtfK iSlaces. SoaMtimee at Paulas Cress there will be six theustad pe«p|» "I* fug together. This was v«ry grievous ta the Paptets.'*— BufneTi Jw/^rMvhMt past iii. p. ttO. ^^
•< There ara two things,*' says Wesley, « in all modem pieces of ««m^«bt(h 1 could never reconcile to common sense. One is, singing the same ^'"'^^ times over ; the other, singing diflerent words by difierent persons, at see am the eaBW time ; nod this in the most solemn addresses to God, wbsthsr^^ of prayer or of thanksgiving. This can never be defended by all the ■sdoun in Europe, till reason is quite out of date.^' — Journal^ ziii. p- 56. .
And again, officiaUng in the chivdi at 2ieMth» he enys : ^ I was gre*"'/'"' gusted at the manner of singiog« First, Twelve or fourteen persow ^'P'!^" themselves and quite shut out the congregation. Secondly, These rsp^" ^'* same words, contrary to all sense and reason, si3t, eight, or ten tnw^"^' Thirdly, According to the shocking custom of modern morfc, diffcresf ^j sons sung diflerent words at one and the same moment — an intclerable m- on common sense, aud utterly incompatible witJi any devotion ."—/w^ XV. p. 24. rivgint
«* From the first and apostolical age, singing was ahreys a part of «"^ service, in which the whole body of the cbmrch joined together ; which "? "JJ fw) evident, that though Gabassutiut denies it, and in his spite to ^/Tl^.^^ churches, where it is generally practised, calls it only a pf*>*«f**""^ j\u, Cardinal Bona has more then once not only confessed, but solidly P*^]]);' ^ have been the primitive practice. The decay of this first brought ^^'^^ ptalmitta or singers iuto the church. For when it was found by "j*"*J^I that the negiige»ce and unskilfuluess of the people rendered ^*" "^°jjni form Lbis service, witiiout some more curious and skilful to guide and '^^.^ ^ then a peculiar order pf men were appokiUd and set over this husioesf; v
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Wbiieicid was 9mimm4 oact hg tenag ioim «l4ut b^tmm aet to praAiop
K6^R XIX. Ttege 183. Service ^ /A« MdthodUtt,
Bfat. WSHAT frtdcd hMMfiir MiMiDiktt ilecencjr of vPonMp in to cMmimU. He sajTf: ** Tiw loader I«m abMii.fnm JjdiMoo, nod Uw laofe I Alteiid il» service of the church in other places, the more I am convinced of the unspeaka- ble advantago which the people eaUed llethodisle enioy. I meany even with regard to public worship, particularly on the Lord's Day. The cbuirch where they assemble is not gay er splendid ; which nOght be aa hindrance on the one hand : ner sordid or dirty, which might give distaste on the other; but plain as well as clean. The. persons who assemble there are not a gay> .giddy crow<l9 who come cbie^y to see and be seen ; nor a oompany of goodly^ Ibroiaiy onUi4» Christians, whose religion liee in a dull round of duties; b«t a pe«^, laoit of whom know, and the rest earnestly aeek to worship God ia fkxl and in truth. Accordingly, tb«y do. not spend their time there in bowing and cmtSKyiagt or lit suriog about them : but in lookicig upward and JiQokiog inwardi in hoaxkcniiig to the voice of God, and pouriag out their hearts befiure bin.
*' It is also no small adVautage that the person who leads ssay^rsOhoHgh not always the same^ yet is always oue« whoniay be supposed to speak iimm hie heart ; one whose. life ie no reproach to his profession ; and one who perlorBia <hat solemn part of divino service, not in a careless, hurrying, slovenly maonert but seriously and slowly, aa becomes him who is transacting ap iugh an aSair between God and man.
^' Nor are their solemn addresses to God interrupted either by the formal drawl of a parish clerk, the screaming of boys, who bawl out what Ihey neitbor feel or understand, or the unreasonable and unmeaning Impertinance of a volun- tary on the organ. When it is seasonable to sing praise to God, they do it with the spirit, and with the undenundiag also : not in the misarable, scaodaloitf, doggrel of Hopkins and Sternhold, but in psalms and hymns which are bojdk sense and poetry ; such at would sooner provoke a critic to tarn ChristlajB, th«A « Christian to turn critic. What they sing Is, thetelbre, a pNfni continoatioa of thespiiitual and reasonable service ; being selected kg 4hal eod, (ttot by ^ floor bumnlrum wretch, who can scarce seed what be droaes out with sueh an oir of importaaoe, bat,) by one who knows what he is about» aad how to ooonect the preceding with the foUowtog part of the eervlce : nor does he take imt ' two staves,' but more or less as mav best raise the tool to God, especiali|y when -sttBg jn. well composed and well adapted tones ; not by a handful of wikl Huawakenad striplings, but by a whole venous congragalion ; aad then not lolling at ease, or in the indecentjiotlnre of sitting, diawlmg out one word after •oother, butaU «taading.belbta God, and praising him iutttlyf and with*go«d cooi^."
MOTS XX. Faga U4.
iStroHg j/kH§iffgt MXpfitHid wuk lfvii^> iPoLrXR relates a remarkable example of.this>-<'When worthy master Samuel Hera, Ibmoos fi>r bis living, preaching, and wrHiog, lay on his death '!bed, (rich only in goodness and diUdren,) his wife made much womsolsh la- inentation what should hereafter become of her lit^e ones. ' Peace, sweet* )ieart,' said he ; ' that God who feedeth the ravens will not starve the Herns.* A .speech, censured as light by some, obeerved by .others as propheti- 4ral, as indeed It cane to paseihat they were well disposed of.''-*-'AilKer*J G<mf Thimphu.
KirrEJUU. BageW.
Jfttftorfiwi w i*?0elfaTirf
*Tfrx Meth^idists thus explain the cause of their faOiifa la that fioiiaiiy>—
'«^ There certainly is a very wide dHlbrenco between the people of tB€Otlaad,aad
the inhabitants of England. ' The former have, from iholr earllost yeai% hma
accustotfisd to hear the leading inithtof the Qotpet, miiad with Calvinism, cda*
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ttantly preached, so that the truths are become quite familiar to them ; hot, is gcneial, thej Kdow litile or nothing of Christian experience ; and genuine reli- gion, or the life and power of godliness, is in a very low state in that country. I am fully satisfied that it requires a far higher degree of the Divine i»fluenoc, generally speaking, to awaken a Scotchman out of the dead sleep of sin, than an Kngiishman. So greatly are they bigoted to their own opinions, their iDode of church government, and way of worship, diat it does not appear probable, that our preachers will ever be of much use to that people : and, in mj opinion, except those who are sent to Scotland exceed their own nunisters in heart-searching, experimental preaching, closely applying the truth to the consciences of the hearers, they may as well never go thither.^^ — Pattssn.
NOTE XXII. Page 188. Effects of the Reformation upon Ireland.
" TrclAud, and especiallic the ruder part, is not stored with such learned men as Germanie is. If they h^td sound preachers, and sincere livers, that by the imbalming of their carian soulcs with the sweet and sacred flowers of holie writ, would instruct them in the feare of God, in obeieng their princes, in ob- serving the lawes, in underpropping in cch man Ms vocation the weale publlkc : 1 doubt not but) within two or three ages, M. Critabolus his heires should heare so good a report run of the reformation of Ireland, as it would be reckoned as civill as the best part of Germanie. Let the solle be as fertile and betle as anie would wish, yet if the husbandman will not manure it, sometime plow and eara it, sometime harrow it, sometime till it, sometime marie it, sometime delve it, sometime dig it, and sow it with good and sound come, it will bring foorth weeds, bind-corne, cockle, darnel), brambles, briers, and sundrie wild shoots. So it fareth with the rude inhabitants of Ireland ; they lacke universities; they want instructors'; they are destitute oJ teachers; they are without preachers; they are devoid of all such necessaries as apperteine to the training up of youth : and, notwithstanding all these wants, if anie would be so frowardlie set as to require them to use such civilitie, as other regions, that are sufficientUe fur- nished with the like helps, he might be accounted as unreasonable as he that would force a creeple that Jacketh both his legs to run, or one lo pipe or whistle a galinrd that wanteth his upper lip." — StanViurttt in Hoft'iuAori Chromclesj vol. vi. p. 14.
Thp ecclesiastical state of Ireland in 1576, is thus described by John Vowell alias Hooker, the Chronicler : — " The temples all ruined, the parish -churches, for the most part, without curates and pastors, no service said, no God bbnoured, nor Christ preached, nor sacraments ministered : many were born which never were christened : the patrimony of the chnrcli wasted, and the lands embezzled. A lamentable case, for a more deformed and a more overthrown Church there could not be among Christians." — HoHnshetPs ChronicUs, vol. vi. p. 384.
" The Kerne?, or natural wild Irish, (and many of the better sort of the na- tion also.) either adhere unto the Pope, or their own superstitious fancies, as in former times. And, to say truth, it is no wonder that they should, there being no care taken to instruct them in the Protestant religion, either by translating tlie Bible, or the English Liturgy, into their own language, as was dor.e in Wales ; but forcing them to come to church to the English service, which the peo)>le understand no more than they do the mass. By means whereoi^ the Irish are not only kept in continual ignorance, as to the doctrine and devotions of the Church of England, and others of the Protestant churches, but those of Rome are furnished with an excellent argument for having the service nf the church in a language which the common hearers do not understand. And« therefore, I do heartily commend it to the care of the State (when these dis- tempers are composed) to provide that they nuy have the Bible, and all other public means of Christian instruciionj in their natural tongue."*— H<9^^s Coo^ mography, p. 341. ^
I transcribe from the " Letters of Torick," (Dobliu» 1817,) this "description of a parish in the county of Waterford :"— " KUbarry is a lay impropriatioo. Mr. Fox, nf Bramham Hall, Yorkshire, the patron and proprietor, maintains no curate^ nor any other service than that of the occasional duties, for which he allows 31. 16s. 3d. per annum. The lauds are set tithe-free. There is but (Moe Protestant family in the parish, Mr. Carew's, of Ballioamona. The chuzc^ is in ruinsj but is accommodated with a church yard."
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NOTE XXm. Page 182.
Wesley's poHHeal Cimduet,
In a letter written in 1782, Mr. Wesley says, ^ Two or three years ago, \^hen the kingdom was in imminent danger, I made an offer to the Government of raising some men. The Secretary of War, by the King^s order, wrote me word ' that it was not necessary : but if it ever should be necessary. His Majesty would let me knew.* I never renewed the offer, and never intended it. But Captain Webb, without my knowing any thing of thft matter, went to Colonel B. the new Secretary of War, and renewed that offer. The Colonel (I verily believe to avoid his importunity) asked him ' how many men he could raise ?* But the Colonel is out of place ; so the thing is at an end.^'
NOTE XXIV. Page 221.
We»lsy*s Separatum from his Wife,
Thk separation between Mr. and Mrs. Wesley is represented by all his v biograph^s as final. Yet, in his journal for tlie ensuing year, 1772, she is mentioned as travelling with him : '' Tuesday, June 30. Calling at a little inn < on the moors, I spoke a few words to an old man there, as my wife did to the woman of the bouse. They both appeared to be deeply affected. Perhaps Providenca sent us to this house for tlie sake of those two poor souls.*^
NOTE XXV. Page 263. ^revecca.
The following curious account of a society instituted partly in imitation of Lady Huntingdon's College, is taken from the preface to a tract entitled " The Pre-existence of Souls, and Universal Restitution considered as Scripture Doc- trines. Extracted from the Minutes and Correspondence of Burnham Society.*^ Taunton, 1798. The editor was a singular person, whose nume was Locke. Mr. Wesley used to preach ia the Society's room in the course of his travelling ; and Mr. Fletcher, John Henderson, Sir Richard Hill, and the Rev. Sir George Stonhouse were among the corresponding members.
" The small college, or rather large school, established at Treveccn, in Wales, for the maintenance and education of pious young men, of different religious "sentiments, suggested the idea of constituting a religious society at JBumham, in the county of Somerset, upon a similar plan, with regard to' the difference of opinion. It was intended to ensure to its members not only nil the advantages enjoyed by common benefit-dubs, from their weekly contribu- tions, but to raise a fund sufficient to enable those who attended the monthly meetings to enjoy all the pleasures of one of Addison's Speial Convivial Societies^ subject, however, to a heavy fine for drinking to excess, because the entertain- ment was to be conducted upon the principles of a primitive Lote-Featt, which was to enjoy all things in common.
'* As the first or chief business of this society was to study philosophy and polemic divinity, and debate on the difference of religions opinions, in brotherly love ; so ancient and modern controversy was to be introduced, and, of course, candidates, of any religious denomination, admitted as members of this philo- sophical society. But in order that religious controvercy should not operate as a check upon the general goo<l humour of the members, all personal reflectionn or invectives, tart or sour expressions, harsh severe speeches, with every other impropriety of conduct, either by word, look, or gesture, contrary to patience, meekness, and humility, were punishable by fines and penalties; and for non- compliance, the delinquents were either to be sent to Coventry, or exclude.
** The resolution entered into of living in brotherly love, in the same manner as we conceive angels would live, were they to sojourn with men, and the libe<' ral and rational plan upon which this society was founded, gathered to it up- wilrds of five hundred members ; upon which a resftlution was made, that no spe-.ker should harangae more than five minutes at one time, supposing any otKer member arose to speak. Hence arose the necessity for disputants to con* clnde their debates in writing, with references to authors, who had written upon
• Ltdv HttDtingdoD, the fmiiHler, lesned to the Siipralspsirlans; the Rev. Wtlter Shirley^ the president, to the Stiblspasrisns ; the Rev. John Fleteber, the superiotendent master, de- fended the A nniaiftn tenets of John Wesley ; and John Henderwn, t^sc ner of the hJsber clasKiRi , wta sn Universalist, Bft<»r ^onhoiw.
vor. Ti. .'ii
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426 HOTfiB AVI^ iLtimTtiATioro.
the subject, in order for the society to deliver tbeir opinions upon tbe qiicstioa under consideration.
'< These debates, papers, and references to books, disclosed to the membcTi (as their minds became more and more enlightened) a varietj of indirect roads and byepaths, in the exploring of which they lost themselves ; for, hoverer 'firmly they were united in acts of brotherly conformity in the service of odc common Lord, they gradually returned to their old customs — some to tbe wor- ship of their /avTit/}/ g(H/« — a few to the service of their otm gotfi — others paid obedience to an vnkruncn god — but most neglected the service of ererj gorf.
** This will account for the gradual desertion of members, and the apparent necessity of permitting this once famous society to degenerate into a mere tenefit-club, which is now kept together by a freehold estate (of twenty pounds per annum neat) purchased by the President from the surplus coatributione of members.^^
" You formed a scheme," says Toplady to Mr. Wesley, " of collecting as many perfect ones as you could to live under one roof. A Bumbei of these flowers were accordingly transplanted, from some of your nursery beds, to the bot-house. And an hot-house it soon proved. For, would we believe itl tbe sinless people quarrelled in a short time at so "violent a rate, that jm. -found yourself forced to disband tbe whole regiment.*'— 7>>p/adyt Works, vcL v. p. 342.
Does this allude to the Burnham Society ?
NOTE XXVI. Page 265. Wkiiejidd.
Thk device upon Whitefield^s seal was a winged heart soaring above the r globe, and the motto Astra petamvi*. The seal appears to have been circular, and coarsely cut. A broken impression Is upon an original letter of fats in my pofisessinn, for which I nm obliged to Mr. Laing, tbe bookseller, of Edtoburgb.
Mr. 'William Mason writes firom Newburyport, near Boston, to <ise Co5pd Magazine, and contradicts '* an account which was prevalent in London a few years pust, and asserted with direct potsUivity in the Evangelical Magazine :*' namely, "that die body of the late Kev. Mr. George l^ltrteifield, buried in this port, was entire and uncorrupted. From whence such a falsehood could have arisen it is impossible to decide. About five years past, (he writes in 1801.) a few friends were permitted to open the tomb wherein the remains of that pre- cious servant of Christ were interred. After soate difficulty in opening the cnf)in, we found the flesh totally consumed. Tbe gown, cassock, and band, wit!i T^-hich he was buried, were almost the same as if just pot into tbe coffin. I mention this particular as a caution to Editors, especially of a relipocs work, to avoid the marvellous, particularly when there is oofbundatioo Ibr their asf^erlions.*'
The report, though it was as readily accredited by noany persons as the in- vention of a saint^s body would be in a Catholic country, seems not to bare originated in any intention to deceive. Sonra person writing from America, say«, *' One of the preachers told me the body of Mr. Whiirfirld was not yet putrified. But several other corpses are just in the same $iate at Newburyport, owing to vast quantities of nitre with wfairh tbe earth there abounds."
Whiiefield is said to have preached eighteen thoesand sermons during th^ thirty-four years of his ministry. The calculation was made firom a roemonn- dum-book in which he noted down the times and places of his preaching. This would be something more than ten sermons a week.
Wesley tells us himself (Journal, xiii. p. 121.) that be preached about ci^i bundled sermons in a year. In fifty -three years, reckoning from the time oi his return from America, this would amount to ferty*two thousand four hun- dred. But it must be remembered that even the htmdrtds in this sum were no: written discourses.
Collier sayp, that. Dr. Litchfield, Rector of All Saints, Tfaaraes*street« Lon- don, who died in 1447, left three thousand and eighty- three sermons iu hisouc hand.— £fW. Hist. vol. ii, p. 187.
NOTE XXVII. Page 270. Conferenee leiili the Cahinisis. '' I WAS at Bristol," says Mr. Badcock, «* when the Hon. Mr. Shirley, Ly the order of mj Lady Huntingdon, calkd him (Mr. Wesley) to a public accoii'*
1
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f<itt certain expressions which he had uttered in some charge to bis clergy, which savoured too much of the Popish doctrine of the merit of good works. Various speculations were formed as to the manner in which Mr. Wesley would evade the charge. Few conjectured right ; but all seemed to agree in one thing, and that was that be would some how ox other baffle his antagonist : and baffle him he did ; as Mr. Shirley afterwards confessed in a very lamentable pamphlet^ which he published on this redoubted controversy. In the crisis of the dispute, I heard a celebrated preacher, who was one of Wbitefield's successors, express his suspicion of the event : for, says he, '* I know him of old : he is an eel ; take him where you willy he will slip through your fingexs.'*— AkAolt's Anee- doiet, vol. V. p. 224.
NOTE XXVIII. Page 271. Berridge o/EverUm.
This person (who was of Claire HaU) called bkaMlf a ridhsg pedUr, because, he used to say, his master employed him to serve near forty £ops in the coun> try, besides his own parish.
If the Poems in the Gospel Magazine, with the signature of Old Everton, are his, as I fnppose them to be, the following slanderous satire upon Mr. Weslef must be ascribed to him ; for it comes evidently from the same hand :-^
The Serpmtmtdtke Worn ; er, mkhdnvimhamMM sM HHuM mi old Johm.
There's a fSox who lesideth htrd hj.
The moat perfect, aad holy, aad ily , That e*er turu'd a cent, or ceuld pilfer and lie.
As thi6 reverend Reynasd one dSiy,
Sat thiakiog wbat ftaie next to play, OM Nick came a tesa'aahle visit te paj.
O, your scrvaot, ny f rieodt auoth the priest.
Tbo^ yott carry the niark of the beaat, I aevsr shook paws with a weleomer giaeit.
Maoy thanks, holy aaa, cry'd the tend,
*Twa8 becauM you're my very good friei»4 That 1 dropt is, with yeu a fiew woawnti te spead, $ JOHW.
Tour kiodneas requited ahall be ;
There's the Calviniat-Malhodkts, see, Wbo*re eternally troublous to you and to ne.
Now I'U itir np the houndB of the mkon
That's caird icwUI, to worry then soffe* And then roast 'em in Smithfield, uke Boimer of yore. NICK.
O, a meal of the Calvinist brood
will do my old stomach more good. Than a abeep to a wolf that Is at wing for food.
jaHN. When America's conquer'd, you know, ('Till then we must leave them teerew,) I'll work up our rulers to strike ae home-bknr. NICK. Aa exceUeat plan, eouM you do k ; But if all the ioferoals too knew k. They'd be putsled, like me.toteU how you'll go through M. JOHN. When they speak agaiost vice hi the Greet, I'U cry out, that they aim St th»Sta»/t, And the Ministry, Khic, and the PsrUament hate. Thus 111 sUU act the part of a liar. Persecution's blest spirit inspire, And then ** CeMy Jd4re««" 'em with fiCBOt sad lii«. NICK. Ay, that's the right way, I kaow well : But how lUi with peTfe€kon can dwell, Is a Hddie, desr John, that would puzzle aii belt JOHN. PiMi f you talk like adoatSog old elf; CsQ't you see how it brings in the pelf; And aU things are lawful that nerve a man's self. As serpents, we ought to be wise , Is not self-preservation a prise ^ For thisdid not J|r«a ttn rightaoealitf IIHT
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428 MOfES AN0 ItLfJWKATlOlrS.
NICK.
I perceive you are subtle* tho* fmll :
Tou have reuoo, aod scripture, ukI atl : Soatilted, you never can finally fall. JOHN
FroiD the dHfl of your latter reflection,
1 fear you maintain some connexion With the crocodile crew tbat believe in Clectioa. NICK.
By my troth, I abhor the « bole troop :
With those heroes I never could rope : I sbottld chuckle to see *em all awins io a rope. JOHN.
Ah, could we but set the land free
Prom those bawlers aboat the Utert; Who re such torments to you, to my brother, and me t
As for frkit^eld, I know ir rig^bl nell.
He hai j^ent down his thousands to bell ; And, for ausht that 1 know, be*& gone with 'em to dwelL NICK
I grant, my friend John, for *tis true.
That be wa* not so perfect as you ; Tet (confound him !) 1 lost him for all 1 could do. JOHN.
Takeeonlbft! he's ootsoee to glory;
Or, at most, not above the jSrrt story : • Vor none but the pexfeet escape purgato^)^
At best, he*8 io /imfre, Vm 5ure,
And mudt still a long purging endure. Ere, like me, he*s made sinless, quite holy, and puiel NICK.
Bueh purging mj Johnny needs noot ;
By your own mighty works it is done. And the kingdom of glory your nurit has non.
Thus wrapt in your aelf-rkhteous plod.
And self-raised when you throw off this clod. You shall mount, and demand your own seat, like a god.
You shall not in paradise wait.
But climb the third story with state ; While your WkiuJUldt and HUk are tumM buk tnm \b» gei^
Old John net er dreamt that he jeerM ;
6o Nick turned himself round, and he sneered. And then shrugg*d up his shoulders, and strait diseppeered.
The priest, with a simpering f^ce.
Shook his hsir-locks, and paus'd for a spare ; Then sat down to forge lies with his usual grlioace.
AnceLTATo^
NOTE XXVni. Page m. CtUvinum. ** SoMK pestilent and abominable heretics there be,^ says the Cathdic Bishop Watsooy ** that, for excusing of themselves, do accuse Almightj God, and impute their mischieTOus deeds to God^s predestination ; and. would per> buade that God» who is the fountain of all goodness, were the author of alt mischief; not only suffering men to do evil by their own wills, but also enibrc- ing their wills to the bame evil, and working the same evil in them. I will not now spend this little time (for it was near the end of his sermon) in confuting their pestilent and devilish sayings, for it is better to abhor them than toantfvte them.^'* — HoUomc and Catholyke Doetryiu^ p. 124 1558.
Dr. Beaumont has two •■( > d stanzas upon this subject in his Psycbe, which is one of the most extraordinary poems in this or in any other language. O no ! may those black mouths for ever be
Damned up with silence and with shame, which dare Father the foulest, deepest tyranny
On Lovers great God ; and needs will make It clear From his own wort* ! thus rendering him at once Both Cruelty's and Contradiction's Prince. A prince whose mocking law forbids, what yet
Is his eternally-resolved will ; Who woos and tantalizes souls to get ^ Up into hearea, yet destitwe them to hell ;
\
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Who calls them forth whom he keeps locked in ; Who damDs the sinner, yet ordains the sin.
Canto 10. St. 71, 72.
Iti the Arminiaii Magazine, Wesley has published the Examination of Tilenus before the Triers, in order to his intended settlement in the office of a public preacher in the Commonwealth of Eutopia ; written by one who was present at the Synod of Dort. The names of the Triers are very much in John Bunyan's style. They are — Dr. Absolute, Chairman, Mr. Fatality, Mr. Praeierition, Mr. Fry*babe, Dr. Damu-man, Mr. Narrow Grace, Mr. Efficax, Mr. Indefectible, Dr. Confidence, Dr Dubious, Mr. Meanwell, Mr. ^imulans, Mr. Take-o'Trust, Mr. Know-little, and Mr. Impertinent.
If the Abb^ DuvernetMnay be trusted, (a writer alike liable to suspicion for his ignorance and his immorality,) Janscnius formally asserts in his ^vgrn- tinuSf that there are certain commaudinents which it is impossible to obey, and that Christ did not die for all. He refers to the Paris edition, vol. iii. pp. 138. 165.
NOTE XXX. Page 277.
Fletcher's Illustraiions of Calmnitm*
<' I Birpposs you are still upon your travels. You come to tho borders of a great empire, and the first thing that strikes you, is a man in an easy carriage going with folded arms to take possession of an immense estate, freely given him by the king of the country. As he flies along, you just make out the motto of the royal chariot in which he doees, — ' Free Reward.' Soon after, you meet five of the king's carts, containing twenty wretches loaded with irons ; and the motto of every cart is, ' Free Punishment.' You inquire into the meaning of this extraordinary procession, and the sheriff attending the execu- tion answers : Know, curious stranger, that our monarch is absotuie ; and to show that sovereignty is the prerogative of his imperial crown, and that ha is no respecter of pfirttms^ he distributes every day free rewards and free punishr^ mentSf to a certain number of his subjects. ' What \ without any regard to merit, or demerit, by mere caprice ?' Not altogether so ; for be jntehes up9n the worst of men, and chief of sinners, and upon such to ehooK, for the subjects of bis rewards. (Elisha Coles, p. 62.) And that bis punishments may do as much honour to free sovereign tnath, as his bounty does to free sovereign grace, ha pitches upon those that shall be executed before they are born. < What ! have these poor creatures in chains done no harm P' ' O yes,' says the sheriff, * the king contrived that their parents should let them fall, and break their legs, be- fore they had any knowledge ; when they came to years of discretion, he com- manded them to run a race with broken legs, and because they cannot do it» [ am going to see them quartered. Some of them, besides this, have been obliged to fulfil the king's «ccr</ will, and bring about his purposes ; and they shall be burned in yonder deep valley, called Tophet, for their trouble.' You are shocked at the sheriff's account, and begin to expostulate with him about the freeness of the wrath which burns a man for doing the king's will ; but all the answer you can get from him is, that which you give me In your fourth letter, pa^e 23, where, speaking of a poor reprobate, you say, ' such an one is indeed accom- olishing the king's,' you say, * God's decree ;' but he carries a dreadful mark in his forehead, that such a decree is, that he shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord of the country. You cry out, * God deliver me from the hands of a monarch, who punishes with everlasting destrue- tion such as accomplish his decree !' and while the magistrate intimates that your exclamation is a dreadful marJb, if not in your forehead, at least upon your tongue, that you yourself shall be apprehended against the next ezecation, and made a public instance of the king's free wrath ; your blood runs cold ; you bid the postilion turn the horses ; they gallop for your life ; and the moment you get out of the dreary laud, you bless God for yoiu narrow escape." — FUkher*s Works, vol. iii. p. 26
" You < decry illustrations,' and I do not wonder at it ; for they carry light into Babel, where it is not desired. The father of errors begets Darkness and Confusion, From Darkness and Confusion springs Calvinism, who, wrapping himself up in some garments, which he has stolen from the Truth, deceives the nations, and gets himself reverenced in a dark teRiple, as if he were the pure and free Gospel.
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" To bring him to ti thaffieftd end, we need not 9ttb faWn viA the dagger 07 ^calumny^'^ or put him upon the rock of per»ecuti(m. Let him only be dragged out of hts obscurity^ and brought unmasked to open light, and the silent beams of truth will pierce him throagh \ Light alone will torture him to death, as the meridian sun does a bird of nighty that cannot fly from the gentle operation of its beams.
'< May the following illustration dart at least one himinoiis bean inta thlf profound darkness in which your venerable Diana delights to dwell I And may it show the Christian world, that we do not ' slander yoUt'* when we asaert, you inadvertently destroy God's law, and cast the Redeemer's crown to the grnuad : and that when you say, ' in point of justification,' (and consequently of coo- demnatinn,; * we have nothing to do with the law ; we arc under the law as a rule of life,' but not as a rule of judgment ; you might as well say, ' we are under no law, and consequently no longer accountable for our actions.^
" * The kinci' whom I will tuppftse is in love with your doctrines of /rf€-gra« and free-wrathj by the advice of a predestiuarian council and parliamenc, issues out a Gox^peZ-proclamation, directed ' to all his dear subjects, and eiect people, the English,^ By this evangelical manifesto they are informed, *that inconsequence of the Prince of Wnles^s meritorious intercession, and perfect obedience to the laws of England, all the penalties annexed to the breaking of those laws are now abolished with respect to Englishmen : that his majesty freely pardons all his subjects, who have been, ere, or shall be guilty of adul- tery, nmrdcr, or treason : that all their crimes < past, present, and to come, arc for ever and for ever cancelled :' that nevprthcless, his loving subjects, who ro- tnain strangers to their privileges, shall still be served with ^am-warraats ac- cording to law, and frishtened out of their wits, till they hav* learned to plend, ther/ are Englishmf.n^ (i. e. tlrrt :) and then, they shall also yet ox icfiance all legalists : that is, all those who shall 'lare to deal with Uieni according; to law : and that, excepting the case of the above menf ioried /oAse prosecution of Ms chosen people^ none of them shall ever be molesfcd /or ibe breach of any law.
" By the same supreme authority h Is likewise enacted, that all the Iaw« fefiall continue in force against foreignersi (i. e. reprobates,) whom the Kingantf the Prince hate with everlasting hatredi and to whom they have agreed never to show mercy : that accordingly they shall be prosecuted to the otmost rigour of every statute, till they are all hanged or burned out of the vray : and that^ SupposiniC no personal offence can be proved against them, it shall be lawful to hang them. In chains for the crime of one of their forefathers, to sat fortli the king's wonderful justice, disptay his glorious sovereignty, and make his chosen people relish the better tbelr sweet distinguishing privileges as Englijihmen.
'< Moreover, his Majesty, wh6 loves Order and hannony^ charges his loving subjects to consider still th6 statutes of England, which are in force against foreigners, as very good raleM of life, for the Englishy whi^ they shall do well to follow, but better to break ; because every breach of those rules will ttfork for their good, and Make them dng huder the faitfaful- Bcss of the king, the goodness of the prince, and the sweetness of this Gospel- proclamation."
** Again, as nothing is so displeasing to the king as Ugaliijff which he hatet even more than extortion and whoredom; lest any of his dear people, who have acted the part of a strumpet, robber, murderer, or traitor, should, through the remains of their inbred corruption, and ridiculous UgaHti/j mourn too deepfy for breaking some of their rulet of life, our gracious monarch solemnly assures them, that though he highly disapproves of adultery and murder, yet these breaches of rides are not worse in his sight than a wandering thought in speak- ing to him, or a moment's dulness in his service : that robbers, therefore, and traitors, adulterers, and murderers, who are free-born Enghakmen, need net at all be uneasy about losing hiB royal favour; this being utterly imposuble, be- cause they always stand complete in the honesty, loyalty, diastlty, and cliarity of the prince.
** Moreover, because the king changes not, whatever lengths the EngUAp ofi in immorality, he will always look upon them as his ^^eoion/ Mt&^ra, his dertr people, and men after hisoum heart ; and that, on the other band, whatso- ever lengths foreigners go in pious morality, his gracious majesty is determined still to consider them as hypocrites, vessels of wratht end euriod ehUdren, ftt whom it reserved the blaekntss of darknett for tver f because be alwtiyt fie*s
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ASattm completely fuHty, and absolutely ooBdeiiiRe<i io a cevtain rsieo/'wmgkte'' mtsnutj woven ilreusaiidsof yean ago by one of their anoestora. Tins dread- iol 9anifinit9 his majosty bath thought fit lo put upon them by imputation, and in it, it is his good pleasure that Ihey shall hang itt adaraaniine chains, t>r hurj^ in fire unquenchable.
<< Finally, as foreigners are dcmgerous people, and m»y stir up his majesty's subjects to rebellion, the EngHik are informed, that if any of them, were he to come over from Geneva itself, ebaU dase to .inanuate, that his roost gracious gos- pel-proclamation is not according to equity, morality and godliness, the first Englishman that meets him, shall have full leave to brand him as a papist, with- out judge or jury, in the forehead or on the ba£k, as he thinks best ; and tb(^ till he is further proceeded with according to the utmost severity of the law, the chosen people shall be informed, in the Gospel J\l[ag4unne, to beware of biro, as a man *■ who scatters firebrands, arrows, and deaths,' and makes universal havoc of every article of this sweet gospel-prociamation. Given at Geneva, and sign- ad by four oif his majesty's piincipal secretarios of state for the predestinarian department."
JoHV Calvibt, Dr. Crisp,
The Author of P. Ct Rowla vd Hill.
FMcherU Works, Vol. iii. p«gett83.
NOTJEXXXI. Page27«. •^rmimanism described by the CtU^inists, << So Alics-hadour first parents mada their appeavance, when S&4fin,>the^rj/ Ar- tmnian, began to preach ihe pernicious doctrine of free-will .to them ; which so -pleased the old gentleman and his lady, that they (\ike thousands oC their fooliih offiipeing in this our day) adhered to the deceitful news, embraced it cordially^ disobeyed the command of their Maker ; and hy so doing, launched their whole .l^sterity into a cloud of miseries and ills. But sonw, perhaps, will be ready to aay that Araiioianism, though an error, cannot he the root of all other errors ; to which I answer, that if it first originated io Satai\, then I ask, irom whciiee «pnng3 any error or evil in the world ? Surely Satan must be -the first rooviug cause of all evils that ever did, do now, or ever will, mak^ their appearance in this world : consequently he was the first propagator of that cursed doctrine «bove-mentioned. Hence Arminianism begat Popery, and Popery begat Me- thodism, and Methodism begat Moderate Calvinism, and Moderate Oalvinisra begat Baxterianism, and Baxterianisro begat Unitarianism, and Cnitarianism hegat Arianism, and Ariamsm begat Untversalism, and Universalifm begat De- ism* and Deism begat Atheism ; and living and d3ring in the embracement af every of the above evils or ismSy where Christ is, they never can come. Thus 1 consider that Arminianism is the original of all the pernicious doetrinos that are propagated in the world, and Destructtonism will close the whole of them.** ^Gospel Magasinej 1B67, p. 16.
«< Of the two (saysHunt-ington the S. S.) I would rather he a Deist than an Artnintan ; for an eiiabliahed Deist sears his own conscience, so that he f ocs ta -teil in the easy chair of insensibility ; but the • Avmiuian who wages war with open eyes against the sovereignty of God, fights most of his battles in the vesy fears and horrors of hell." — Hunt-ington'^s Works, vol. i. p. 363.
**TM|toODSOf bondage," says a red-hot Aatinomtan, who signs himself Rufus, ** like aatan and his compeers, are unsatisfied with slavery themselves, unless they can entice others into the same dilemma. They are for ever forging their accursed fetters for the sons of God in the hot flames of Sinai's fiery vengeance ; and in the hypocritical age of the nineteenth century, pour forth whole troops of work-mongers, commonly known by the name of Moderate CahinistSj who, under an incredible profession of sanctity, lie in wait to deceive ; and by their much fair speeches entrap the unwary pilgrims into the domains of Doubti))g castle, binding them within those solitary ruins to the legal drudgery of embrac- ing the moral or preceptive law, as the rule of their lives."
Upon the fnibject of election, there is a tremendous rant by a writer who calls himself Ebenezcr.
*' Before sin caw destroy «iny one of God's elect it must change the word of troth into a lie — strip Jesus Christ of all bis merit — render his blood ineffica- cious— pollute his righteousness — contaminate his nature — conquer his omnipo- tence— cast him from his throne — and sink him in the abyss of perdition ; it must f urn the love of God into hatred — nullify the council of the Most High — de- stroy t!>e avertasting covenant— and make void the oath of Jchovah—iiay, It
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must raite ditooid amoog^t thedWioe atuibate»--inake Fatberi SoD^ and Spirit, unfaithful to each other, and set them at variance— change the divioe Mtine-* trre« the Bceptre from the band of the Almighty— dethrone him— wd put a pe- riod tQ his existence. Till rt has done all this, we boldly say unto tbe redeemed, iear not, for we shall not be ashamed ; neither be dismayed, fotyniilnil not be confounded.'* — Gatptl Maganine^ 1804, p. 287.
NOTE XXXII. PageSdO. Young' Grimthaw. w He too," says Mr. Wcsle)', " is now gone into elcrniiy! So,ins fewyeart, the family is exlinct. I preached in a meadow, near the house, to t suniKWS congr^atjon ; and we sang with one heart- Let skkness blast and death devour,
If Heaven will recompence our pains ; Perish the grass, and fade the flower. Since firm the word of God remains.
NOTE XXIII. Page 306.
* Waleifi Doctrine concerning RieJtei.
Vtojk this subject, Mr. Wesley has preserved a fine anecdote. "^^if»^ he says, ** of forming a hasty judgment concerning the fortune of others. iK» may be secrets in the situation of a person, which few but God are •qMioiea with. Some yeats since, I told a gentleman, Sir, I am a&aid you ars cowtons. He asked me, What is the reason of your fears ? I answered, A year ago, vmo 1 made a collection for the expense of repairing the Foundry, you eutecnKfl five guineas. At the subscription made this year, you subscribed only baU a guinea. He made no reply; but after a time asked, Pray, Sir, *"***J'J** question : — why do you live upon potatoes, (I did so between ^'^^ ' , ?? years.) I replied. It has much conduced to ray health. He ■"*T*YjJ ( lieve it has. But did you not do it likewise to save money? I said, I did, wr what I save from my own meat, will feed another that else would have none. But, Sir, said he, if this be your motive, you may save much more. I wow a .roan that goes to the murket at the beginning of every week. There be buys pennyworth of parsnips, which he boils in a large quantity of water. 1 parsnips serve him for food, and the water for drink the ensuing week, so nb meat and drink together cost him only a penny a week. This he constanny aic, though he had theh two hundred pounds a year, to pay the debts which he n contracted, before he knew God I— And this was he, whom 1 had set downior 4 covetous man." . -^
To this afiecting anecdote I add an extract from Wesley's Journal, leia^wi to the subject of property. r
" In the evening one sat behind me in the pulpit at Bristol, «^°«J^". "!:-. our first masters at Kingswood. A little after he left the school, he lw««J^ left the society. Riches then flowed in upon him ; with which, ***!j°f i^^^ lions, Mr. Spencer designed to do much good — after his death. ^^ . ^. unto hitny Tlwufool! two hours after he died intestate, and left all his bo j to be scrambled for. ^ifrfl)"
«• Reader I if you have not done it already, make your viU hejwt^^^' — Journal, xix. 8.
I know a person, who upon reading this passage took the advice.
NOTE XXXIV. Page 372. The Covenant.
Ip proof were wanting to confirm the opinion which I have *'^^"?'^j — f. perilous tendency of this fanatical practice, William Huntington, S. b.^ sonagc sufficiently notorious iu his day, would be an unexcepiionabte e»w*^ He thus relates his own case, in his " Kingdom of Heaven taken by ^^^^
" Having got a little book that a person bad lent me, which ^^^^^^ vows to be made to God, 1 accordingly stripped myself naked, to °?"jj^,|() to the Almighiy, if he would enable me to cast myself upon him. . *"^ ^J^jp^ my soul with numerous ties, and wept over every part of the wriiien co? ^ which this book contained. These I read naked on my knees, and ^r\^ perform all the conditions tliat were therein proposed. Having »>ade "*: ^^ liant« I went to bed, wept, and prayed the greatest pan of that night, aoa
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in tha moraiog pregnant with all the wf etchad laMlations of Allen nature. I now manfully engaged the world, the flesh, and the deril in my own strength ; and I had bound myself up with so many promised conditions, that, if I failed in one point, I was gone tor ever, accord log to the tenour of my own covenant, provided that God should deal with me according to my sins, and reward me according to mine iniquity.
** But, before the week was out, I broke through all these engagements, and fell deeper into the bowels of despair than ever I had been before. And now, seemingly, all was goue : 1 gave up prayer^ and secretly wished to be in hell^ that I might know the worst of it, and be delivered from the fear of worse to come. I was now again tempted to believe that there is no God, and wished to close in with the temptation, and be an established or confirmed atheist ; for I knew, if there was a God, that I must be damned ; therefore I laboured to credit the temptation, and fix it fiim in my heart. But, alas I said I, how can I ? If I credit this, I must disbelieve my own existence, and dispute myself out of common sense and feeling, for I am in hell already. There is no feeling in hell but what I have an earnest of. Hell is a placA where mercy never comes : I have a sense of none. It is a separation from God : I am without God in the world. It is a hopeless state : I have no hope. • It is to feel the burthen of sin : I am burtbened as much as mortal can be. It is to feel the lashes of con- science : I feel them all the day long. It is to be a companion for devils ; I am harassed with them from morning till night. It is to meditate distractedly on an endless eternity : 1 am already engaged in this. It is to dn and rebel against God : I do it perpetually. It is to reflect upon past madness and folly ; this is the daily employ of my mind. It is to labour under God's unmixed wrath; this I feel continually. It is to lie under the tormenting sceptre of everlasting death : this is already begun. Alas ! to believe there is no God, is like persuading myself that I am in a state of annihilation.** — HurUingtonU fVcrh^ vol. i. p. 193.
NOTE XXXV. Page 375. The Fahie of a good Conacieneo.
UPoir this subject the Methodist Magazine affords a good illustration. A poor Cornishman, John Nile by name, had been what is called under convic- tion twelve months, — in a deplorable state, walking disconsolate, while his brethren were enjoying their justification. One night, going into his fields, he detected one of his neighbours in the act of stealing his turnips, and brought the oulprit quietly into the house with the sack which he had nearly filled. He made him empty the sack, to see if any of his seed turnips were there, and find- ing two or three large ones which be had intended to reserve for that purpose, he laid them aside, bade the roan put the rest into the sack again, helped bim to lay it on his back, a^d told him to take them home, and if at any time he was in distress, to come and ask and he should have ; but he exhorted him to steal no more. Then shaking him by the hand, he said, I forgive you, and may God for Christ^s sake do the same. What effect this had u^ the thief is not stated : but John Nile was that night ** filled with a clear evidence of pardoning love," with an assurance, that bavins forgiven bis brother his trespasses, his heavenly Father also had forgiven him.'* — Did the feeling proceed from his faith, or his good works?
** The Scriptures,** says Priestley, *' uniformly instruct us to judge of our- selves and ^^n, not by uncertain and undescribable/eeft'fi^f, but by evident aeiioni. As our Saviour says, * by their fruits thaUyt knmo mtn,^ For where a man*s conduct is not only occisionally, but uniformly right, the principle upon which he acu must be good. Indeed the only reason why we value good prin- ciples, is on account of their uniform operation in producing good conttuct. This is the endj and the principle is only the means.**— Pf«/are to Original Leliers by Waley and hit Friends.
MR. WESLEY'S EPITAPHS.
ON THB TOMB-STONE.
To the Memory of
TsiTtlCIRABLK J0R5 WsiLIT, A. M-
Late Fellow of LiifcoLn College, Oxvosv.
Thb GsKAT Lis ST arose
r the aiosular Providence of God)
ro enllKnteD trvsk N atioh s,
Aod to revtef , ei^ct^ and itffdj
The Pare, Apostolical Docrsives and PsACTicst of
Tie PiiMiTivK Causes :
VOL. 11. 55
'XI
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434 KOTES Airp ILLUSTRATIOirs.
1
I
t
I
For more thtn H^Lr a Certobt : 1
And, to his inexpressihle Joy, I
Ifoi only beheld tbeir I n rLUKNcc exlendins, |
Aad their ErriCAcr wkneased,
lo the HMTts and Lives of .%1 art TioviAHOt,. I
As well io tbe Wkstern Wo : i«u m Id these I
KmaDOMs: I
Wliieb he eooUoued to do, by bis WtiTi.f as ud Us La sou AS,
Ant e/to, ftr above all human Power or Expectatiooy
Lived to see Paovisioa made by the singular Osiacb ef
Co©.
For their CosTiNUAffcc and Establmbmkht,
To THE Jot or Future Generations !
Bbadbe, if thou art constrained to bless the Ivstbdmbrt,
OiTB God tbb Globt !
4fUf hating UmgwUkMd mftm Mm^ *• •< It^flhJiMMkU
M$ CoDRSc eed Ms Lirs #ar«<^k«*\''^'*'*"(ll
triumphing over Deatb, 3fa'dl2. An.
Dom. I79l,fii»« FArStyeighih Year
(^hUAge.
IN THE CHAPEL.
Sacred to the Memory
Of the Rev. John We«let, M. A.
Some time Fellow qf Lincoln Collkob, Oxraao.
A Man, in Learning and siooera Piety,
Scarcely inCerior to any :
Id Zeal, Ministerial I^abours, and extensive Usefulness,
Superior (perhaps) to all Men
HInce the days of 8t. Paul.
vegBrdleas of Fatigue, personal Oeager, and DiagiMe*
He went out into the highways and hedges,
Cslliog Sinners to Repentance,
And Freacbing the Oospsl of Peace.
He was the Founder of the MethodUt Soeietiee;
The Petitw aod FrUmA of tbe LayPreackers,
Qy whose aid be extended tbe Plan of Itinerant pieachiog
Through Great Britain and Irelabd,
Tbe West Indies tod Amkrica,
With unexampled Success.
He was bom June 17th, 1 703,
And died March ad, 1791,
In sure and certain hope of Etemel Life,
Through the Atonement and .\redlation of a Crucified Saviour.
He was sixty-ftve Tears inthe^M^f/y,
And ilfly-two an Itinerant Preacher :
He lived to see in these Kingdoms only.
About three hundre<i Itinerant,
Aod a thousand Local Preachers,
Raised up from the midst of his own People ;
Aod eighty thousand Persons in tbe 8ocietie8 under bis eere.
His Hamt will ever be hail in grateful RemerabrBoce
by*Ul who rejoice In tbe universal Spread
Of the Gospel of Chbibt.
Soli Deo Gloria.
Nmt lone after Mr. Wesley's death a pamphlet was puMished, entitle An Impartial Review of his Life and VVritiogs. Two love-letters were inserted sb having been written by him to a young lady in his eighty-first y^jg ; and, <'co prevent all suspicion of their authenticity," the author declared tM the original letters, in the band writing of Mr. Wesley, were then in bis possession, and that they should be open to the inspection of any person who would call at fi given place to examine them. *' With this declaration,*' says Mr. Drew, *' many were satisfied ; but many who continued incredulous, actually called. Unfor- tunately, however, they always happened to call, either when tbe author was engaged, or when he was from home, or when these original letters were lentibf the inspection of others! It so happened, that though tbey were always open to examination, they could never be seen." In tbe year ItOl) however, the author, a Mr. J. Collet, wrote to Dr. Coke> confessing that he had written the letters himself and that mest of the pretended facu in the pamphlet were equaUy fictitious.
The Ex>BJ8bop Oregoire has inserted one of these forged letters in bit Hic- tory of the Religious Sects of the last Century. He rec1u>n8 among the Metbo- disu Mr. Wilberforce, who, he says, has defended tbe principles of Methndism in his writings, and U poeU Sir RUhard HiW, BarMnd. But the moat anraaii^ specimen of the Ez-Bithop's accuiacy is^ where enumerating among tbn coatro*
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NOTES JkffJ> ILLUBTRATIONS. 439
terted subjects of the last centufy, La Refl}rme dn SytrAoh AtHxBMOien^ b« adds, a cttit diseusnon se rattarhe la Controverse Blagdonienna entrc le cure ^ BU^dortf prtt de Bristol^ et Miss Hannah More.
ADDITIONAL NOTES
COArjE/JJV/JVG MR. WESLEY'S FAMILY,
Bartholomsw Weslxt is said to have been tbe fanatical minister of Charmoutb, in Dorsetshire) who had nearly been the means of delivering Lord Wilroot and Charles II. to their enemies. Lord Clarendon's account, however, difiers Arom this ; be says that the man was a weaver, and had been a soldier ; but Mr. Wesley had received an University education.
Samuel Wesley, the elder, was a student in a dissenting academy, kept by Mr. Veal, at Stepney; and, according to John Dunton, was "educated upoa charily** there ; an invidioos expression, moaning nothing more than that the friends of his parents assisted in giving him an education which bis mother could not have aflforded. He distinguished himself there by his facility in versifying ; and the year after his removal to Oxford, published a volume entitled, ** Mag* gots, or poems oo several subjects never before handled.*' A whimsical por- trait of the anonymous author was prefixed, representing him writing at a table, crowned with laurel, and with a maggot on his forehead : underneath are these words : —
In 's own defence the author writes,
Because when this foul maggot bites He ne'er can rest in quiet,
Which makes him make so sad a face,
He*d beg your worship or your grace Unsight, unseen to buy it. It was by the profits of this work, and by composing elegies, epitaplis^ and epithalamiums, for his friend John Dunton, who traded in these articles, and kept a stock by him ready made, that Mr. Wesley supported himself at Oxford ; sot as 1 have erroneously stated (after 0T. Whitehead) by what he earned in the University itself. ^^ He usually wrote too fast,** says Dunton, *^ to wrttB well. Two hundred couplets a day are too many by two-ihirds to be well fuiy nished with all the beauties and the graces of that art. He wrote very much for me both in prose and verse, though I shall not name over the titles, iu re** gard I am altogether as unwilling to see my name at the bottom of them, an JMr. Wesley would be to subscribe his own.**
Dunton and Wesley were brothers-in-law, and when the former wrote hi* '< Life and Errors," they were not upon aroica6le terms. Dunton could not for- give him for having published a letter concerning the education of the Dissenters in their private academies. It' appears, however, by his own account, that Mr. Wesley, little as he had to spare, bad lent him money in his distresses ; and Dunton, even while he satirizes him, acknowledges that he was a generous, ^ood humoured, and pious man.
Mr. Nichols (Literary Anecdotes, vol. ii. p. 84.) says that Mr. Weslcy*s bouse was burnt twice. John, however, only says, that the villains several times attempted to burn it. He had made great progress in his laborious work upon th« Book of Job, having collated all the copies he could meet with of the ori< ginal, and the Greek and other versions and editions. All these labours were destroyed ; but in the decline of life be resumed the task, though oppressed with gout and palsy through long habit of study. Among other assistances, he par- ticularly acknowledges that of his three sons, and his friend Maurice Johnson. The book was printed at Mr. Bow7er*s press. How much is it to be wished that the productions of all our gieat presses had been recorded with equal diligence !
The DitsertaHones in Librum Jobif I have never seen ; but I learn from Mr. Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, (vol. v. p. 212.) that a curious emblematical por- trait of the author is prefixed to the volume. It ** represents Job in a chair of state, dressed in a robe bordered with fur, sitting beneath a gateway, on the arch of which is written Job Patriarch a. He bears a sceptre in his hand, and in the back ground are seen two of the Pyramids of Egypt. His position exactly corresponds with the idea given us by the Scriptures in the book of Job,
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