uses contam indeed the only rational statement of the whole question.

He was ordained deacon in September, 1725, and the year following was elected fellow of Lincoln College. His previous seriousness had been the subject of much banter and ridicule, and appears to have been urged against him, in the election, by his opponents; but his reputation for learning and diligence, and the excellence of his character triumphed; and, what was probably to him the greates pleasure, he had the gratification of seeing the joy this event gave to his venerable parents, and which was emphatically expressed in their letters. Several specimens of his poetry, composed about this time, are given by his biographers, which show that, had he cultivated that department of literature, he would not have occupied an inferior place among the tasteful and elegant votaries of verse; but he soon found more serious and more useful employment.

"His

He spent the summer after his election to the fellowship with his parents, in Lincolnshire, and took that opportunity of conversing with them at large upon those serious topics which then fully occupied his mind. In September he returned to Oxford, and resumed his usual studies. literary character was now established in the university; he was acknowledged by all parties to be a man of talents, and an excellent critic in the learned languages. His compositions were distinguished by an elegant simplicity of style, and justness of thought, that strongly marked the excellence of his classical taste. His skill in logic, or the art of reasoning, was universally known and admired. The high opinion that was entertained of him in these respects was soon publicly expressed, by choosing him Greek lecturer, and moderator of the classes, on the 7th of November; though he had only been elected fellow of the college in March, was little more than twenty-three

years of age, and had not proceeded master of arts." (Whitehead's Life.) He took this degree in February, 1727; became his father's curate in August the same year; returned to Oxford in 1728, to obtain priest's orders, and paid another visit to Oxford in 1729; where, during his stay, he attended the meetings of a small society formed by his brother Charles, Mr. Morgan, and a few others, to assist each other in their studies, and to consult how to employ their time to the best advantage.

After about a month, he returned to Epworth; but upon Dr. Morley, the rector of his college, requiring his residence, he quitted his father's curacy, and in November again settled in Oxford. He now obtained pupils, and became tutor in the college; presided as moderator in the disputations six times a week; and had the chief direction of a religious society. From this time he stood more prominently forward in his religious character, and in efforts to do good to others; and began more fully to prove that "they that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution." It is, however, necessary to turn to the history of Mr. Charles Wesley, whose labors in the early periods of Methodism were inferior only to those of bis brother.

Charles Wesley was, as above stated, five years younger than his brother John; and was educated at Westminster school, under his eldest brother, Samuel, from whom he is said to have derived a still stronger tincture of High Church principles than was imbibed under the paternal roof. "When he had been some years at school, Mr. R. Wesley, a gentleman of large fortune in Ireland, wrote to his father, and asked if he had any son named Charles; if so, he would make him his heir. Accordingly, a gentleman in London brought money for his education several years. But one year another gentleman called, probably Mr. Wesley himself, talked largely with him, and asked if

he was willing to go with him to Ireland. Mr. Charles desired to write to his father, who answered immediately, and referred it to his own choice. He chose to stay in England." (Whitehead's Life, vol. i, p. 98.) "Mr. John Wesley, in his account of his brother, calls this a fair escape. The fact is more remarkable than he was aware of; for the person who inherited the property intended for Charles Wesley, and who took the name of Wesley, or Wellesley, in consequence, was the first Earl of Mornington, grandfather of Marquis Wellesley and the Duke of Wellington." (Southey's Life.)

The lively disposition of Charles, although he pursued his studies diligently, and was unblamable in his conduct, repelled all those exhortations to a more strictly-religious course which John seriously urged upon him, after he was elected to Christ Church. During his brother's absence, as his father's curate, his letters, however, became more grave; and when Mr. John Wesley returned to Oxford, in November, 1729, "I found him," he observes, "in great earnestness to save his soul." His own account of himself is, that he lost his first year at college in diversions; that the next, he set himself to study; that diligence led him into serious thinking; that he went to the weekly sacrament, persuading two or three students to accompany him; and that he observed the method of study prescribed by the statutes of the university. "This," says he, "gained me the harmless name of Methodist.”* Thus

* From the name of an ancient sect of physicians, say some of Mr. Wesley's biographers; but probably the wits of Oxford, who imposed the name, knew nothing of that sect of the middle ages. The Non-Conformists were often called, in derision, Methodists; and the name was probably transmitted from them; or it might be given merely from the rigid adherence to method in study by Mr. Charles Wesley. It is, however, somewhat worthy of notice, that before the times of non-conformity, properly so called, we find Methodists mentioned as one of the minor sects in conjunction with the Anabaptists; for, as early as 1639, in a sermon preached at Lambeth, they are rated in good set style for

it appears that Charles was the first modern Methodist, and that he in fact laid the foundations of the religious society which continues to be distinguished by that appellation. To this society Mr. John Wesley joined himself on his return to reside at Oxford; and by his influence and energy gave additional vigor to their exertions to promote their own spiritual improvement and the good of others. The union of system and efficiency which this association presented well accorded with his practical and governing mind; and, no doubt, under the leadings of a superior agency, of which he was unconscious, he was thus training himself to those habits of regular and influential exertion and enterprise which subsequently rendered him the instrument of a revival of religion throughout the land. Of the little society of which, by the mere force of his character, he thus became the head, Mr. Hervey, the author of the "Meditations," and the celebrated Whitefield, were members.

CHAPTER II.

THE strictly-religious profession which Mr. Wesley must now be considered as making at Oxford-a profession so strongly marked as to become matter of public notice, and accompanied with so much zeal as to excite both ridicule and opposition-requires to be carefully examined. After

their aversion to rhetorical sermons: "Where are now our Anabaptists and plain pack-staff Methodists, who esteem of all flowers of rhetoric in sermons no better than stinking weeds, and of all elegancies of speech no better than profane spells?" etc. Their fault in those days, it appears, was to prefer plain preaching; no bad compliment, though an undesigned one. The epithet used to describe them may also intimate that they were plain in dress and manners. At a later period, in 1693, some of the Non-Conformists who had renounced the imputation of Christ's righteousness in justification, except in the merit of

all, he thought himself to be but "almost," and not "alto gether," a Christian-a conclusion of a very perplexing kind to many who have set up themselves for better judges in his case than he himself. From a similar cause, we have seen St. Paul all but reproved by some divines for representing himself "as the chief of sinners," at the time when he was "blameless" as to "the righteousness of the law;" and, but for the courtesy due to an inspired man, he would, probably, in direct contradiction to his own words, have been pronounced the chief of saints; although his heart remained a total stranger to humility and charity.

The Wesleys at Oxford were indeed not only in a higher but in an essentially-different state of religious experience from that of Saul of Tarsus, notwithstanding his array of legal zeal and external virtue; but if our views of personal religion must be taken from the New Testament, although as to men they were blameless and exemplary, yet, in respect to God, those internal changes had not taken place in them which it is the office of real Christianity to effect. They were, however, most sincere; they were "faithful in that which is little," and God gave them "the true riches." They "sought God with all their heart;" and they ultimately found him, but in a way which at that time "they knew not." The very writers, Bishop Taylor and Mr. Law, who so powerfully wrought upon their consciences, were among the most erring guides to that "peace of God which passeth all understanding," for which they sighed; and those celebrated divines, excelled by none for genius and eloquence, who could draw the

it, and whose views were somewhat similar to those of the Wesleyan Methodists on the imputation of faith for righteousness, were called by their brethren, the New Methodists. They were not, however, a sect but were so denominated from the new method which they took in stating the doctrine of justification. Thus we have a Calvinistic pamphlet, under this date, written against "the principles of the New Methodists in the great point of justification."