violent outrages were utterly rejected by the grand jury, who actually preferred bills against Charles Wesley, and nine of his Methodist brethren, as common disturbers of the peace; and prayed that they might be transported! A like persecuting spirit was exemplified in various places by the Catholics ; a spirit whose violence was not decreased when Thomas Walsh, a Roman Catholic schoolmaster, in the county of Limerick, became a convert to Methodism, long one of the most distinguished and successful of its public teachers, though he died a martyr to his exertion before he was quite thirty years of age. Mr. Wesley lived, however, to say of Ireland, "The scandal of the cross is ceased; and all the kingdom, poor and rich, Papist and Protestant, behave with courtesy, nay, and seeming good will." Arminian Methodism was first preached in America by an Irishman, Philip Embury, of New York, who formed a regular society there in 1768. At Philadelphia, a Captain Webb shortly afterwards formed another; and application for preachers was made about the same time to Conference from Charlestown. In 1771, the success of two of his preachers in America made Mr. Wesley hesitate whether it was not his duty to follow them; and two years afterwards we find a Philadelphia Conference enrolling near a thousand members in its different societies. But the success of the cause was greatly retarded by the rupture between the colonies and the mother country, and by the exertions and writings of its great champion in favour of the latter. The English itinerants were for awhile wholly silenced, and their lives endangered; but two or three native preachers persevered; and in 1777 they had 40 preachers, and 7000 members in class. now At the period of the peace in 1783, a curious question was referred to Mr. Wesley-the possibility of providing an episcopal church, or rather of episcopizing Methodism, in America? His steps in this affair, he tells us, were regulated by a conviction he had long entertained, that bishops and presbyters were of the same order; and by the practical consideration, that as his American brethren were 66 totally disentangled both from the state and the English hierarchy," they were at full liberty to follow the Scriptures and the primitive church. Somewhat contrary to the principles thus avowed, he summoned Dr. Coke and Mr. Creighton, two episcopally ordained clergymen, to meet him at Bristol; and there himself ordained the former superintendent, and Richard Whatcoat and Thomas Vasey presbyters, of the American provinces, furnishing them with credentials very episcopally, and even archiepiscopally written. In 1789 (two years prior to the death of Mr. Wesley), he numbered 43,265 followers in America. Our West India Islands, through the occasional visits of Dr. Coke and his fellow-labourers, had fourteen preachers stationed in them at the same period, and about 6000 Methodists in society. Both the brothers resolved in middle life to marry, although John had publicly advocated the remaining single for the kingdom of heaven's sake. This he always thought the gift of but a few; happy had it been for himself had he contentedly remained amongst the number. The object of his choice was a widow lady of independent fortune, which he insisted should be wholly settled on herself, while on his part it was stipulated, that he should not preach one sermon, nor travel one mile less, on account of his new engagement. Charles had more rational views, it would seem; as, while his brother's marriage was the source of perpetual disquietude to him, and concluded in a separation, he settled himself in the comforts and duties of domestic life. The Rev. J. Berridge, of Everton, and the Rev. Mr. Hickes, of Wrestlingworth, were clergymen of the church, and resident vicars of those parishes, who became, on a small scale, coadjutors with Mr. Wesley at this period. Four thousand individuals are said to have been converted under their ministry in the course of twelve months; and no part of the history of Methodism abounds with more extraordinary details. The first of these gentlemen fairly preached himself out of his own church, which would contain but a small part of his hearers, and travelled round the country, preaching sometimes in churches, and sometimes in fields, to the great annoyance of his more regular and canonical brethren. Mr. Berridge finally joined the Calvinists. At about the same time two mitred opponents entered the field against Methodism; Bishop Lavington, in his "Enthusiasm of Methodists and Papists compared," and Bishop Warburton, in his "Doctrine of Grace;" to both of whom Wesley replied;-approaching more nearly, in his answer to the latter, to a direct assertion of miraculous agency attending the preaching of the Methodists, than in any other part of his works. Mr. Charles Wesley after several years of quiet services at the Foundry, lived to officiate for a short time at the City Road Chapel, where he excited some jealousy by supplanting the itinerant preachers. He seems to have disapproved of the separation from the Church, which he perceived to increase with his brother's success; and writes to him, to convince the lay preachers, if, says he, "you can," that they want a clergyman over them to keep them and the flock together. Against the band meetings, or subdivisions of the classes, he protested with great ardour. Having served his generation, in no ordinary degree, this worthy clergyman descended calmly into the tomb, in the 80th year of his age, and was, at his own particular request, buried in the consecrated earth of Mary-le-bone churchyard, his pall being supported by eight clergymen of the Church of England. His brother John was in many respects one of the most remarkable old men that ever fell under the mortal stroke. On entering his seventy-second year, he states, that he found his nerves firmer than when he was at forty, and his strength not less. "The grand cause," says he devoutly, "is the good pleasure of God; the chief means are, my constantly rising at four for about fifty years; my generally preaching at five in the morning (one of the most healthy exercises in the world;) my never travelling less than 4500 miles a year." To these means he adds, at another time, "the ability, if ever I want, to sleep immediately; the never losing a night's sleep in my life; two violent fevers and deep consumptions; these, it is true, were rough medicines, but they were of admirable service, causing my flesh to come again as the flesh of a little child. May I add, lastly, evenness of temper? I feel and grieve, but, by the Grace of God, I fret at nothing!" His seventy-eighth year," he says, found him "just the same as when he entered his twenty-eighth." On his eighty-sixth birth-day he first acknowledged, "I now find I grow old. My sight is decayed; so that I cannot read a small print, unless in a strong light. My strength is decayed; so that ĺ Í 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." On the 17th of February, 1791, he caught cold, on returning from the public services at Lambeth; but would not be deterred from preaching on the following Wednesday, after which he went into a sort of lethargic decay, until the end of the month, and died, at his house in the City Road, on the 2d of March, in the 88th year of his age. At the period of his death his societies in England and Wales included 76,968 members, and 313 preachers; and in the United States, 57,261 members, and 198 preachers. Since the death of their respective founders, both branches of Methodism have undergone considerable changes. These we had intended briefly to notice in the present article; but as they are not strictly connected with Mr. Southey's work, and our observations have already extended to an unusual length, we must defer to another opportunity, and shall probably introduce into a different department of our journal, what we had intended to say upon this subject. On the whole, of the two leading systems of Methodism, as they were left by their founders, our readers will judge according to their own habits and connexions; and many will attach a degree of importance to the doctrines in controversy between them, with which no other part of either system, no better or worse modification of church discipline, will be thought to compare. Others will hail that which is at once common to both systems, and ever suited to the wants of a fallen creature-a testimony to the necessity of a change of heart in all men-as a light from heaven! The existing state of religious parties in England, at the period of the dawn of Methodism, will render this, we should be disposed to contend, the redeeming point of its early history. This, at least, was plainly preached throughout the land. Did it awake a thousand jealousies and evil passions, because it disturbed the profane in their works of darkness, and the pious in their dreams? Did it break through clouds, and call up clouds of error and enthusiasm, on its first appearance? Still it was the light of life. Angels minister the law no more. Every great moral reformation of mankind, since visions and prophecy have ceased, seems destined, by its innovations, its irregularities-and by some one capital feature of Divine wisdom and simplicity pervading it-at once to attest its almighty Author, and that he employs but human agents in its accomplishment-but ordinary human agents, as compared with the primitive teachers of Christianity The reformation of Protestant Europe in the fifteenth, and of England from semi-popery and infidelity in the eighteenth century, both proceeded in this way. The one proclaimed its justification by faith, as the articulus stantis vel cadentis ecclesia; the other our Saviour's own introductory message"Ye must be born again:" and each had its qualifying mixture of human imperfection and real fanaticism about it. The reformers could persecute, and the Methodist leaders throw their hearers into convulsions, and take pleasure in the success of their measures. We need not inquire which was * See the beautiful imagery of the Apocalypse, chap. xxi, 14~16. But the greater error. Are neither Whitfield nor Wesley entitled to be placed on an exact level with Martin Luther in history? Had they less general steadiness of character, less comprehension of mind, less caution? We must think so. they were noble spirits, with all their human frailties. John Wesley would have done more for the highest interests of man, without the assistance of a Martin Luther, than Philip Melancthon; and with a Knox, a Zwingle, or a Bucer, the Methodist leaders may be honourably compared. The great peculiarities of the Christian faith, which they kept always in view, were singularly like the cardinal points of Luther's doctrine and early efforts. "He pointed out the distinction between the law and the gospel," says Melancthon*; "he refuted the Pharisaical error, at that time inculcated both in the schools and in the pulpit, that men may merit remission of sins by their own works, and become righteous before God. Thus he directed the minds of men to Jesus Christ; and, like John the Baptist, pointed to the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world." Could any language more aptly describe the state of religion in England at the period of which we are writing, and especially in that church in which the champions of Methodism arose? Some of the most popular sermons of the day, those of Atterbury, taught, "That the virtue of charity [i. e. alms-giving, or at most a truly benevolent disposition] is of so great a price in the sight of God, that those persons who possess and exercise it, in any eminent manner, are peculiarly entitled to the Divine favour and pardon, with regard to numberless slips and failings in their duty, which they may be otherwise guilty of: this great Christian perfection, of which they are masters, shall make many little imperfections to be overlooked and covered; it shall cover the multitude of sins." What Melancthon proceeds to say of Luther might be almost transcribed, word for word, into the history of either of these great Methodists. "This revival of important truths procured him a very extensive authority, especially as his conduct corresponded with his instructions, and they proceeded not merely from the lip, but from the heart. This purity of life produced a great effect upon the minds of his hearers, and the old proverb was verified, Σχεδόν, ὡς ειπειν, κυρίω τα την εχει πιστιν τὸ ἦθος. “ Piety makes the speech persuasive." Wherefore many worthy men, influenced by the excellence of his doctrine and the sanctity of his character, were afterwards induced to comply with * Preface to Luther's Works, vol. ii. |