however, sufficiently discovered the motives that influenced his conduct in this business.

"Twelve of the grand jurors now drew up a protest against the proceedings of the majority, to be immediately sent to the trustees in England. In this paper they gave such clear and satisfactory reasons, under every bill, for their dissent from the majority, as effectually did away all just ground of complaint against Mr. Wesley, on the subjects of the prosecution." (Whitehead's Life.)

But

"He attended the court held on November the 3d; and again at the court held on the 23d; urging an immediate hearing of his case, that he might have an opportunity of answering the allegations alleged against him. this the magistrates refused, and at the same time countenanced every report to his disadvantage: whether it was a mere invention, or founded on a malicious construction of any thing he did or said. Mr. Wesley perceiving that he had not the most distant prospect of obtaining justice; that he was in a place where those in power were combined together to oppress him, and could any day procure evidence as experience had shown-of words he had never spoken, and of actions he had never done; being disappointed, too, in the primary object of his mission-preaching to the Indians; he consulted his friends what he ought to do; who were of opinion with him, that by these circumstances Providence did now call him to leave Savannah. The next day he called on Mr. Causton and told him he designed to set out for England immediately." (Whitehead's Life.)

The magistrates made a show of forbidding him to leave the colony; but he embarked openly, after having publicly advertised his intention, no man interposing to prevent him; one leading object of these persecutions being to drive him away. His sermons had been too faithful, and his

reproofs too poignant, to make his continuance desirable to the majority of an irreligious colony.*

The root of all this opposition no doubt lay in the enmity of his hearers to truth and holiness; but its manifestation might be occasioned in part by the strictness with which he acted upon obsolete branches of ecclesiastical discipline, and the unbending manner in which he insisted upon his spiritual authority. In the affair of Mrs. Williamson, he stands perfectly exculpated from the base motives which his enemies charged upon him; but in the first stages, it neither appears to have been managed with prudence, nor a proper degree of Christian courtesy. His enemies have sneered at his declaration, that, after he left Georgia, he discovered that he who went out to teach others Christianity was not a Christian himself; but had he been a Christian in that full, evangelical sense, which he meant; had he been that which he afterward became, not only would the exclusion of Mrs. Williamson from the sacrament have been effected in another manner, but his mission to Georgia would probably have had a very different result.

[*The affair above explained, and other matters respecting Mr. Wesley in Georgia, have been most unfairly and unjustly represented in various illiberal publications, and particularly in Lempriere's Biographical Dictionary and Hale's History of the United States. The injustice done to Mr. Wesley's memory in the latter work is the more especially reprehensible, as pains have been taken to introduce it extensively into "schools." In this way many a youthful mind becomes prepossessed with strong early prejudice against one of the most devoted and the most honored embassadors for Christ that has ever graced any age or nation, since the day of the holy apostles. The influence of such prejudices extends itself in after life as well to the Christian denomination generally of which that eminent man was, under God, the founder, as to his own memory. This the contrivers of such school publications well know; and it is this effect of such books particularly that greatly aggravates the injustice and the mischief, as it tends, in fact, seriously to impede the spread of the Gospel itself. In these circumstances it is with peculiar pleasure that we are now enabled to issue a Life of Wesley, which, as well from the celebrity of its eminent author and its own intrinsic excellence, as from its remarkable cheapness, will, we doubt not, have a most extensive circulation.-AMERICAN EDITOR.]

His preaching was defective in that one great point, which gives to preaching its real power over the heart-" Christ crucified;" and his spirit, although naturally frank and amiable, was not regenerated by that "power from on high," the first and leading fruits of which are meekness and charity.

In the midst of his trials, Mr. Wesley received very consolatory letters from his friends, both in England and in America; and there were many in Georgia itself who rightly estimated the character and the labors of a man who held five or six public services on the Lord's day, in English, Italian, and French, for the benefit of a mixed population, who spent his whole time in works of piety and mercy, and who distributed his income so profusely in charity that, for many months together, he had not “one shilling in the house." His health, while in America, continued good; and it is in proof of the natural vigor of his constitution, that he exposed himself to every change of season, frequently slept on the ground, under the dews of the night in summer, and in winter with his hair and clothes frozen to the earth. He arrived in London, February 3, 1738, and, notwithstanding his many exercises, reviewed the result of his American labors with some satisfaction: "Many reasons I have to bless God for my having been carried into that strange land contrary to all my preceding resolutions. Hereby I trust he hath in some measure humbled me, and proved me, and shown me what was in my heart.' Hereby I have been taught to 'beware of men.' Hereby God has given me to know many of his servants, particularly those of the Church of Hernhuth. Hereby my passage is open to the writings of holy men, in the German, Spanish, and Italian tongues. All in Georgia have heard the word of God; some have believed and began to run well. A few steps have been taken toward publishing the glad tidings both to the

African and American heathens. Many children have learned how they ought to serve God,' and to be useful to their neighbor. And those whom it most concerns have an opportunity of knowing the state of their infant colony, and laying a firmer foundation of peace and happiness to many generations."

CHAPTER IV.

THE solemn review which Mr. Wesley made of the state of his religious experience, both on his voyage home and soon after his landing in England, deserves to be particularly noticed, both for general instruction, and because it stands in immediate connection with a point which has especially perplexed those who have attributed his charges against himself, as to the deficiency of his Christianity at this period, to a strange and fanatical fancy. By the most infallible of proofs, he tells us that of his feelings-he was convinced of his having "no such faith in Christ" as prevented his heart from being troubled; and he earnestly prays to be "saved by such a faith as implies peace in life and death." "I went to America to convert the Indians; but O, who shall convert me! Who is he that will deliver me from this evil heart of unbelief? I have a fair summer religion; I can talk well, nay, and believe myself, while no danger is present; but let death look me in the face, and my spirit is troubled, nor can I say, 'To die is gain.' 'I have à sin of fear, that when I've spun

My last thread, I shall perish on the shore.'

He thought, therefore, that a faith was attainable, which should deliver him entirely from guilty dread, and fill him with peace; but of this faith itself his notions were still

confused. He manifestly regarded it, generally, as a principle of belief in the Gospel, which, by quickening his efforts to self-mortification and entire obedience, would raise him, through a renewed state of heart, into acceptance and peace with God. This error is common. It regards faith, not so much as the personal trust of a guilty and helpless sinner upon Christ for salvation and all the gifts of spiritual life, but as working out sanctifying effects in the heart and life, partly by natural, partly by supernatural process, and thus producing peace of conscience. But he goes on with this interesting history of his heart.

"I was early warned against laying too much stress on outward works, as the Papists do, or on faith without works, which, as it does not include, so it will never lead to true hope or charity." (Journal.)

Here he manifestly confounds the faith by which a man is justified, which certainly does not "include" in itself the moral effects of which he speaks, with the faith of a man who is in a justified state, which necessarily produces them because of that vital union into which it brings him with Christ, his Savior, by whom he is saved from the power and love, as well as from the guilt, of sin.

"I fell among some Lutheran and Calvinistic authors, whose confused and indigested accounts magnified faith to such an amazing size, that it quite hid all the rest of the commandments." (Journal.)

This is perhaps a proof that he did not understand these writers any more than he did the Moravians in Georgia, who failed to enlighten him on the subject of faith, although he saw that they in fact possessed a "peace through believing," which he had not, and yet painfully felt to be necessary. The writers he mentions probably represented faith only as necessary to justification; while he conceived them to teach that faith only is necessary to final salvation.