peace and love, even to those who greatly wanted love to him. He was some time at Alice Shadforth's house, with whom he daily talked of the things of God; spent much time in private prayer; and joined likewise with her in prayer several times in a day: On Friday, Aug. 24, he sat in the evening by the fire-side: about six he fetched a deep sigh, and never spoke more. He was alive till the same time on Saturday, when without any struggle or sign of pain, with a smile on his face, he passed away. His last words were, 'I find the love of God in Christ Jesus.'

"All his clothes, linen, and woollen, stockings, hat, and wig, are not thought sufficient to answer his funeral expenses, which amount to one pound seventeen shillings and three-pence. All the money he had was, one shilling and four-pence."" Enough," adds Mr. Wesley, "for any unmarried preacher of the gospel, to leave to his executors."-Mr. Wesley spent the remainder of the year in London, Bristol, and the neighboring places; and in preparing several books for the use of the children at Kingswood School.

Mr. Wesley had many difficulties to encounter, not only from those who openly opposed him; but from many who were in connexion with him: especially from some of the preachers, who already began to wish, that the Methodists might become a distinct and complete body, or church among themselves; by which step, they would have, in order to support their own existence, a separate interest to maintain, in opposition to the established church, and in some respects to every denomination of Dissenters. This was in flat opposition to Mr. Wesley's design in forming the Methodist Societies, which was to promote scriptural holiness through the land, without any particular regard to the distinction of parties. At this time, and for some years afterwards, he frequently corresponded with Mr. Edward Perronet, whom he sincerely esteemed, and to whom he often opened his mind with great freedom. I shall make an extract or two, from the letters written in the present year,* relative to this and some other subjects.

From Ireland, he observes, "I have abundance of complaints to make, as well as to hear. I have scarce any on whom I can depend, when I am an hundred miles off. "Tis well if I do not run away soon, and leave them to cut and shuffle for themselves. Here is a glorious people. But O! where are the shepherds?

"The society at Cork have fairly sent me word, that they will take care of themselves, and erect themselves into a Dissenting congregation I am weary of these sons of Zeruiah: they are too hard for me. Dear Ted, stand fast, whether I stand or fall."

In another letter, he says, "Charles,† and you behave as I want you to do. But you cannot, or will not preach where I desire. Others, can and will preach where I desire: but they do not behave as I want them to do. I have a fine time between the one and the other." And again in the third, "I think both Charles, and you have in the general, a right sense of what it is to serve as

The letters written by Mr. Wesley to Mr. Perronet, came into the hands of Mr. Shrubsole, after Mr. Perronet's death; and I am greatly obliged to him for the use of them.

+ Charles Perronet, the brother of Edward.

sons in the Gospel. And if all our helpers had had the same, the work of God would have prospered 'better, both in England and Ireland." About a fortnight afterwards, he writes thus on the same subject, "You put the thing right. I have not one preacher with me, and not six in England, whose wills are broken enough, to serve me as sons in the Gospel."

On the subject of reproof, and of remedying things that were amiss, he observes to his friend, "Come on, now you have broke the ice, and tell me the other half of your mind. I always blamed you for speaking too little, not too much. When you spoke most freely, as at Whitehaven, it was best for us both.

"I did not always disbelieve, when I said nothing. But I would not attempt a thing, till I could carry it. Tu quod scis, nescis, is an useful rule, till I can remedy what I know. As you observe, many things are remedied already: and many more will be. But you consider, I have none to second me. They who should do it, start aside as a broken bow."

The following abstract from a letter written to Mr. Wesley by one who loved and highly esteemed him, may show us, that he had some friends who spake their minds freely, when they saw any thing which in their judgment deserved censure or blame. “I love, I honor, I reverence you," says the writer, "for your great worth, wisdom and high office: yet I have not that fellowship with you, that I once had with T. S.-I have loved your company, loved your conversation, admired your wisdom, been greatly blessed under your discourses and exhortations: and yet we are two spirits! I think you have the knowledge of all experience, but not the experience of all you know. You know, speaking with limitation, the heights and depths, the beginning and the end of true religion. You know the fallen state of man, his inability to rise again; the freeness of redeeming love, and the mighty workings of the Holy Ghost. You know, the heaven and happiness of man, is to feel a change of nature, to enjoy deep communion with God, and to walk in love with all around. All these things you know, partly by the information of others, and partly from experience. But I think your experience is buried in your extensive knowledge. I think you feel not, abidingly, a deep sense of your own spiritual weakness, the nearness of Christ, to save, nor a sweet communion with God, by the Holy Ghost. You have the appearance of all Christian graces, but they do not, I think, spring from a deep experience, or change of nature. A good nature (temper of mind) with great abilities, will mimic grace; but grace is more than outward; it brings the soul to a deep union with God, and its fellow Christians. One outward proof from which I think I judge aright, is, the want of SYMPATHY in your discourses and conversation. Those who attend to an inward work, more than to an outward, pass through many weighty and grievous conflicts, from the stubbornness of their own nature, or the subtilty of the devil, so that often they go on lamenting and weeping, and yet trusting in God. When do you feelingly, and with tears address yourself unto such? That the cause, the only cause of my disunion with you, may be in myself, I cannot but al'ow. My igno

rance, my weakness, my aptness to mistake, is great! My judgment is often biassed by circumstances too immaterial to be the ground of determination; and therefore often, yea mostly, rather than be in danger of judging amiss, I remain in doubtful silence." Signed, W. Briggs.

January 30, 1751, Mr. Wesley at the pressing request of Dr. Isham, then rector of Lincoln-College, set out early in the morning to vote for a member of parliament. It was a severe frost, the wind north-west, full in his face, and the roads so slippery that the horses could scarcely keep their feet. Nevertheless about seven in the evening, he, and those with him, for he never travelled alone, came safe to Oxford. A congregation was waiting for him, whom he immediately addressed in those awful words, "What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" The next day he went to the schools, where the convocation was met. "But," says he, "I did not find that decency and order which I expected. The gentleman for whom I voted, was not elected: yet I did not repent of my coming; I owe much more than this to that generous, friendly man, who now rests from his labors." Mr. Wesley means Dr. Morley, who so generously assisted him with his interest, when he was elected Fellow of Lincoln-College.*

A year or more, before this period, Mr. Wesley had formed a resolution to marry. But the affair coming to the knowledge of Mr. Charles Wesley before marriage took place, he found means to prevent it; for reasons which appeared to him of sufficient importance to authorize him to interfere in the business. Mr. John Wesley, however, thought otherwise, and this was the first breach of that union and harmony which had now subsisted between the two brothers, without interruption, for more than twenty years. Notwithstanding this disappointment, Mr. Wesley still continued in the resolution to marry; and having fixed his choice of a partner, he proposed the matter to the Reverend Mr. Perronet of Shoreham. February 2, he received Mr. Perronet's answer, who wrote as a Christian minister ought to write, in favor of marriage. In a few days after, he married Mrs. Vizelle, a widow lady of independent fortune. But before the marriage, he took care that her fortune should be wholly settled upon herself, refusing to have the command of one shilling of her property. Mr. Wesley's constant habit of travelling from place to place, through Great Britain and Ireland, the number of persons who came to visit him wherever he was, and his extensive correspondence with the members of the society, were circumstances unfavorable to that social intercourse, mutual openness and confidence, which form the basis of happiness in the married state. These ircumstances, indeed, would not have been so very unfavorable, had he married a woman who could have entered into his views, and have accommodated herself to his situation. But this was not the case. Had he searched the whole kingdom on purpose, he would hardly have found a woman more unsuitable in these respects, than she whom he married.

*See vol. i. page 228.

Some years before his marriage, Mr. Wesley had written a small tract in favor of celibacy. Not that he condemned, or even disapproved of prudent marriages, but he thought celibacy, to those who could live comfortably in it, more favorable to religious improvement than a state of matrimony. He considered Paul's advice to the church at Corinth, as a standing rule in all circumstances of Christians. It is really wonderful how he could fall into this error, as the Apostle expressly says, that he gave that advice di την ἐνεζῶσαν ἀνάγκην, on account of the impending distress; that is, on account of the persecutions both from Jews and Gentiles, which already threatened the churches; when men and women being dragged to prison, or to death, it would be more easy and convenient not to be entangled with the cares of a family. It does not appear however, that Mr. Wesley, in writing that tract, had any reference to his own situation in particular; or, that he had formed a resolution never to marry. But had even this been the case, his marriage would only show the truth of the words of Horace, Naturam expellas furca, tamen usque recurret. You may repel nature by violence, but still she will return upon you. This is undoubtedly true of those propensities which are purely natural and congenial to the human constitution. Juvenal, indeed, asserts nearly the same thing of vicious habits, which form a kind of secondary nature:

-Tamen ad mores natura recurrit
Damnatos, fixa et mutari nescia-

This might perhaps be true, without the light of the gospel, and the interpositions of divine grace.

March 27, Mr. Wesley set out on his northern journey. He travelled through the societies as far as Whitehaven, and April 20, came to Newcastle. On the 24th, he set out with Mr. Hopper, to pay his first visit to Scotland. He was invited thither by captain (afterwards colonel) Galatin, who was then quartered at Musselborough. "I had no intention," says he, " to preach in Scotland; not imagining that there were any that desired I should. But I was mistaken. Curiosity, if nothing else, brought abundance of people together in the evening. And whereas in the kirk, Mrs. Galatin informed me, there used to be laughing and talking, and all the marks of the grossest inattention; it was far otherwise here. They remained as statues from the beginning of the sermon to the end. I preached again at six in the evening, on, Seek ye the Lord while he may be found.' I used great plainness of speech towards high and low: and they all received it in love: so that the prejudice which had been for several years planting was torn up by the roots in one hour. After preaching, one of the bailiffs of the town, with one of the elders of the kirk, came to me and begged I would stay with them a while; nay, if it were but two or three days, and they would fit up a larger place than the school, and prepare seats for the congregations. Had not my time been fixed, should gladly have complied. All that I could now do, was to give them a promise, that Mr. Hopper would come back the next week and spend a few days with them. And it was not without

a fair prospect. The congregations were very numerous; many were cut to the heart; and several joined together in a little society."

May 15. Mr. Wesley came to Leeds. Here he held a conference with about thirty of the preachers. He inquired particularly into their qualifications, as to their grace and gifts; and into the fruits of their labors; and tells us he found no reason to doubt, except of one only.

Mr. Wesley had now been married upwards of three months: and June the 1st he resigned his fellowship. His letter of resignation was, I believe, in the words of one of the established forms of the college, for that purpose. It was as follows. " Ego Johannes Wesley, Collegii Lincolniensis in Academia Oxoniesi Socius, quicquid mihi juris est in prædicta Societate, ejusdem Rectori et Sociis sponte ac libere resigno: illis universis et singulis, perpetuam pacem, ac omnimodam in Christo felicitatem exoptans.'

CHAPTER III.

OF MR. WESLEY'S MINISTERIAL LABORS, AND THE SPREAD OF METHODISM, TILL THE CONFERENCE IN 1770: WITH AN EXTRACT FROM THE LARGER MINUTES; GIVING A VIEW OF VARIOUS REGULATIONS RESPECTING THE PREACHERS, &c. &c.

THE materials for this life are so abundant, without having recourse to Mr. Wesley's printed works; and the present volume begins to fill up so very fast, that I shall be obliged in future to take but little notice of the journies of this laborious and successful minister of Christ. Many papers have been put into my hands since the first volume of this work was published. I shall not therefore be able to do more in the remaining part of this volume, than print such extracts from the materials before me, as may exhibit to our view the most striking features of this great man's character, and of the work in which he was engaged.

It has been stated above,* that Mr. Charles Wesley, in the course of the present year, went into Yorkshire, with a commission to inquire more particularly into the character and moral conduct of the preachers in their several stations. He found one or two, who did not walk worthy of the gospel; and several more whom he thought utterly unqualified to preach. In the execution of his commission, Mr. John Wesley wrote to him very frequently. The following are extracts from some of his letters on this occasion.

I

July 17. "I fear for C. S and J. C— more and more. have heard they frequently and bitterly rail against the church."On this Mr. Charles Wesley puts the following query: "What assurance can we have, that they will not forsake it, at least when

* Vol. i. page 195.