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 sincere concern for the glory of his great name, I will mention a few of the horrible blasphemies contained in this horrible doctrine."'

These, however, are too long to be given here, and we shall therefore content ourselves with placing before our readers the eloquent and animated passage which succeeds them.

""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 shall 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 foreknowledge of God,' now standeth 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 comfort. This is worthy of God. It is every way consistent 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 Christian 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 his Lord, I call heaven and earth to record against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing, therefore choose life, that thou and thy seed may live. Thus Ezekiel (to cite one prophet for all), The soul that sinneth, it shall die; the son shall not bear (eternally) the iniquity of the father. The righteousness of the righteous 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 commandeth all men, every where, to repent." All 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 for the sins of the whole world.' "O hear ye this, ye that forget God! ye cannot charge your death upon him. 'Have 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 transgressed; for why will ye die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith

the

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?”’—vol. ii. pp. 384–391.

In consequence of these disputes, and under the patronage of the Dowager Lady Huntington, who was, in will at least, as munificent a friend to the followers of Whitefield, as the Countess Matilda was to the Papacy, the Calvinists entirely seceded from all connexion with Wesley. Yet, notwithstanding these divisions, the cause of Methodism grew every day, not only in England, but in Wales, Ireland, and America: indeed Wesley's Arminianism was not likely to be well received in Scotland; but Whitefield produced a considerable effect there. Of the annals of itinerancy, and of the characters and conduct of Wesley's principal instruments or coadjutors, Mr. Southey has given some very interesting, though, perhaps, too minute and copious details: nor can any age of Christianity present more beautiful instances of sincerity, piety, ardent zeal, and disinterested self-devotion to a cause which they regarded as the cause of heaven, than are to be found in the memoirs of many of those honest and simple missionaries, whom his eloquence first awakened to a sense or knowledge of religion, and who went forth from their looms, their ploughs, and their families, to carry the word of God to those who were still in that ignorance from which they had been themselves so lately delivered. Of his more educated associates, besides his brother Charles, Dr. Coke, his successor in authority, and Mr. Fletcher, or Flechiêre, a Swiss by birth, but many years Vicar of Madely, in Shropshire, were the principal. The latter was a man of heavenly temper—a saint in the ancient and highest sense of the term, whose enthusiasm was entirely unmixed with bitterness, and whose life and death were alike edifying, but who, as a zealous Arminian, was pursued with a rancour almost incredible by those who (to use the language of one of their own party, Augustus Toplady,) considered themselves as kings incog. travelling, disguised like pilgrims, to their dominions above.' Nor can it be read without something more than disgust, that when, on leaving England for the benefit of his health, this excellent man desired an interview of reconciliation and mutual forgiveness with those persons with whom he had been engaged in controversy, some deep-dyed Calvinists were found who had not the grace to accept the invitation.

Yet, among the Calvinists also, many excellent men might be enumerated, ardent labourers in the cause of piety, and animated with a sincere affection for those over whose fancied heresies they mourned. Such Whitefield himself lived and died, and as such, it

is

is pleasing to know that he was honoured, both in life and death, by his great opponent Wesley.

It may well be supposed, that exertions of a nature so novel as those which we have been describing, were not likely to be carried on in England without great and violent opposition. Nor was this opposition confined to the bloodless weapons of argument or verbal censure. Furious mobs arose against them in many places both of England and Ireland; and the magistrates, in some instances, shewed a scandalous neglect of their duty, and even encouraged whatever excesses had the suppression of methodism for their object. Whitefield, while preaching in Moorfields, was not only assailed with all the usual missiles of a brutal rabble, but was attacked with a drawn sword by a person with the appearance of a gentleman; and Wesley was twice in very serious danger, once at Walsall, in Staffordshire, where some of the mob cried out Crucify him!' once in Cornwall, where a crowd, headed by the crews of some privateers, broke into the house where he was visiting a sick lady, with avowed intentions of killing him, which were only prevented by his firm and quiet manner of addressing them.

In Ireland some of his helpers were exposed, if possible, to still greater danger; a mob paraded the streets of Dublin armed with swords, staves, and pistols, wounding many persons, and offering five pounds for the head of a methodist ; and a Grand Jury, instead of affording justice to the injured party, preferred bills against Charles Wesley and nine of his friends, as persons of ill fame, vagabonds, and common disturbers of his Majesty's peace, praying that they might be transported.

Nor was the life of an itinerant without trials of another kind. Wesley's long journeys on horseback, at a time when turnpikes were unknown, and accommodation of all kinds execrable, were often wearisome, and sometimes even dangerous, when they led him through the fens of his own county when the waters were out, and over the hills of Northumberland when they were covered with snow. In other instances, and more particularly in the early part of his career, the head of the connexion himself occasionally, and more frequently his poor helpers, had to contend with an inhospitality and coldness on the part of their friends, more discouraging to a spirit like his than either the inclemency of the seasons or the fury of his enemies.

He and John Nelson rode from common to common, in Cornwall, preaching to a people who heard willingly, but seldom or never proffered them the slightest act of hospitality. 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

ought to be thankful that there are plenty of blackberries, for this is the best country I ever saw for getting a stomach, but the worst that I ever saw for getting food. Do the people think we can live by preaching?" They were detained some time at St. Ives, because of the illness of one of their companions; and their lodging was little better than their fare. "All that time," says 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 good cheer, I have one whole side yet; for the skin is off but on one side.”—vol. ii. pp. 52--54.

There is no question, however, that, in spite of such inconveniences, the life which he was leading was a popular, a wholesome and a highly pleasant one, attended by the admiration and blessings of multitudes, animated by continual changes of scene and society. His character was naturally susceptible of impressions from nature and romantic scenery, and he soon found that such influences operated on the multitude like the pomp and circumstance of Roman worship. The descriptions in Isaac Walton's Angler are not more pleasing, and are certainly less picturesque and striking than many passages in his journal where he describes the tall and shady trees, the majestic hills, the sea-beaten rocks, the ruins and the mountain glens which served him, from time to time, as theatres and temples. There was likewise, occasionally, a moral interest excited of a still loftier kind. With all the enthusiasm and the incidental evil consequences of his system, he might boast of much direct and evident good produced, of many sinners reclaimed, of many ignorant persons enlightened, of many disappointed and broken hearts relieved by the balm of religion.

'A woman, overwhelmed with affliction, went out one night with a determination of throwing herself into the New River. As she was passing the Foundery, she heard the people singing: she stopt, and went in; listened, learnt where to look for consolation and support, and was thereby preserved from suicide.

66

'Wesley had been disappointed of a room at Grimsby, and when the appointed hour for preaching came, the rain prevented him from preaching at the Cross. In the perplexity which this occasioned, a convenient 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, touched her to the heart. She followed him to his lodging, crying out, "O, Sir, what must I do to be saved?" Wesley, who now

understood

understood that she had forsaken her husband, and was living in adultery, replied, "Escape for your life! Return instantly to your husband!" 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 morning; 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 observed her to smile; nor did she ever 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, appeared 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!" he exclaims, when he relates 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 penitent; and her reformation appeared to be sincere and permanent.'-vol. ii. pp. 55-57.

Wesley, though he for several years avowed a strong preference for celibacy, and even recommended it earnestly to his preachers, himself married at a later age than such unions commonly take place at. The connexion was by no means a happy one. His own character was not only fitted for command, but fond of it, and the tone of his letters to his wife is rather that of a schoolmaster addressing a refractory pupil than that of a tender husband to the object of his affections. She, on her side, appears to have loved him passionately, but to have been jealous almost to frenzy of his correspondence with his various female penitents, and, in particular, with a Mrs. Sarah Ryan, a woman of enthusiastic feelings and considerable talents, to whom, it must be owned, Wesley wrote with a degree of onction, which seems to imply that he was more attached to her than he was himself aware of. After some years of wrath and wretchedness, Mrs. Wesley at length left him, and he coolly notices the event in his private journal with the observation-" Non eam reliqui, non dimisi, non revocabo." From a passage, however, in one of his journals, it would seem that, for a time at least, they were afterwards reconciled; but, at her death, which occurred ten years after, she was certainly separated from him. Few men could be found to whom domestic happiness was less necessary, or by whom it was likely to be less valued. His time and thoughts were continually and fully occupied; he preached twice or thrice every day; he rose, for fifty years together, at four in the morning, and never travelled less, by sea or land, than 4500 miles in a year. Such a man, even if jealousy had been out of the case, was but little calculated for a husband or a father.

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