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النشر الإلكتروني

LIFE OF REV. JOHN WESLEY.

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restless desire of political change on every pinching | church, but it has disposed the great body of reliof the times, and its constant concomitant, an aver- gious people, not of the church, to admire and resion to the national establishment, partly as the re- spect those numerous members of the establishment, sult of ill-digested theories, and partly because this both clergymen and laics, whose eminent piety, feeling was encouraged by the negligent habits of talents, and usefulness, have done more to abate the many of the clergy, and the absence of that influ- prejudices arising from different views of churchence which they might have acquired in their pa- government, than a thousand treatises could have To all this is effected, however eloquently written, or ably arrishes by careful pastoral attentions. to be added the diffusion of infidel principles, both gued. of foreign and home growth, which, from the studies of the learned, descended into the shop of the mechanic, and, embodied in cheap and popular works, found their way into every part of the empire. To counteract agencies and principles so active and so pernicious, it is granted that no means have yet been applied of complete adequacy. This is the reason why their effects are so rife in the present day, and that we are now in the midst of a state of things which no considerate man can contemplate without some anxiety. These circumstances, so devastating to morals and good principles, could only have been fully neutralized by the ardent exertions of every clergyman in his parish, of every dissenting minister in his congregation, of every Methodist preacher in his circuit, of every private Christian in his own eircle, or in the place which useful and pious institutions of various kinds would have assigned him; and even then the special blessing of God would have been nesessary to give effect to the whole. But had no correctives been applied what had been the present state of the nation and of the church? The labors of the founders of Methodism were, from the beginning, directly counteractive of the evils just mentioned; and those have little reason to stigmatize them who deplore such evils most, and yet have done least for their correction and restraint. Wherever these men went, they planted the principles of religion in the minds of the multitudes who heard them; they acted on the offensive against immorality, infidelity, and error; the societies they raised were employed in doing good to all; the persons they associated with them in the work of national reformation were always engaged in diffusing piety; and though great multitudes were beyond their reach, they spread themselves into every part of the land, turning the attention of men to religious concerns, calming their passions, guarding them against the strifes of the world, enjoining the scriptural principles of "obedience to magistrates," and a sober, temperate, peaceable, and benevolent conduct. The direct effect of their exertions was great; and it increased in energy and extent as the demoralizing causes before-mentioned acquired also greater activity; and when their indirect influence began to appear more fully in the national church, and in other religious bodies, remedies more commensurate with the evils existing in the country began to be applied. I shall not affect to say what would have been the state of the church of England under the uncontrolled operation of all the causes of moral deterioration, and civil strife, to which I have adverted; or what hold that church would have had upon the people at this day, if the spirit of religion had not been revived in the country, and if, when ancient prejudices were destroyed or weakened by the general spread of information among men, no new bond between it and the nation at large had been created. But if, as I am happy to believe, the national church has much more influence and much more respect now than formerly; and if its influence and the respect due to it are increasing with the increase of its evangelical clergy, all this is owing to the existence of a stronger spirit of piety: and in producing that, the first great instruments were the men whose labors have been mentioned in the preceding pages. Not only has the spirit which they excited improved the religious state of the

move onward in the path of doing good, through | concerning it." He met with those relations in "honor and dishonor, through evil report and good report," remembering that one fundamental principle of Wesleyan Methodism is ANTI-SECTARIANISM

AND A CATHOLIC SPIRIT.

To return, however, to Mr. Wesley: Among the censures which have been frequently directed against him, are his alleged love of power, and his credulity. The first is a vice; the second but a weakness; and they stand therefore upon different grounds.

reading, or received them from persons deemed by him credible, and he put them on record as facts reported to have happened. Now, as to an unbeliever, one sees not what sound objection he can make to that being recorded which has commanded the faith of others; for as a part of the history of human opinions, such accounts are curious, and have their use. It neither followed, that the editor of the work believed every account, nor that his readers should consider it true because it was As to the love of power, it may be granted that, printed. It was for them to judge of the evidence like many minds who seem born to direct, he de- on which the relation stood. Many of these acsired to acquire influence; and, when he attained counts, however, Mr. Wesley did credit, because it, he employed his one talent so as to make it gain he thought that they stood on credible testimony; and more talents. If he had loved power for its own he published them for that very purpose, for which sake, or to minister to selfish purposes, or to injure he believed they were permitted to occur-to conothers, this would have been a great blemish; but firm the faith of men in an invisible state, and in he sacrificed no principle of his own, and no inte- the immortality of the soul. These were his morest or right of others, for its gratification. He tives for inserting such articles in his magazine; gained power as all great and good men gain it, by and to the censure which has been passed upon him the very greatness and goodness with which they on this account, may be opposed the words of the are endowed, and of which others are always more learned Dr. Henry More, in his letter to Glanville, sensible than themselves. It devolved upon him the author of Sadducismus Triumphatus: "Wherewithout any contrivance; and when he knew fore let the small philosophic Sir Toplings of this he possessed it, no instance is on record of present age deride as much as they will, those that his having abused it. This is surely virtue, not lay out their pains in committing to writing certain vice, and virtue of the highest order. The only well-attested stories of apparitions, do real service proof attempted to be given that he loved power, is, to true religion and sound philosophy; and they that he never devolved his authority over the socie- most effectually contribute to the confounding of inties upon others: but this is capable of an easy ex-fidelity and Atheism, even in the judgment of the planation. He could not have shared his power Atheists themselves, who are as much afraid of the among many, without drawing up a formal constitu- truth of these stories as an ape is of a whip, and tion of church-government for his societies, which therefore force themselves with might and main to would have amounted to a formal separation from disbelieve them, by reason of the dreadful consethe church; and it would have been an insane ac- quence of them, as to themselves." It is sensibly tion had he devolved it upon one, and placed him- observed by Jortin, in his remarks on the diabolical self, and the work he had effected, under the ma-possessions in the age of our Lord, that " one reason nagement of any individual to whom his societies could not stand in the same filial relation as to himself. He, however, exercised his influence by aid of the counsel of others; and allowed the free discussion of all prudential matters in the conference. Had he been armed with legal power to inflict pains and penalties, he ought to have distrusted himself, as every wise and good man would do, and to have voluntarily put himself beyond the reach of temptation to abuse what mere man, without check, can seldom use aright. This I grant; but the control to which he was subject was, that the union of his societies with him was perfectly voluntary, so that over them he could have no influence at all but Mr. Wesley was a voluminous writer; and as he what was founded upon character, and public spirit, was one of the great instruments in reviving the and fatherly affection. The power which he exer- spirit of religion in these lands, so he led the way cised has descended to the conference of preachers; in those praiseworthy attempts which have been and, as in this case, his has been often very absurd-made to diffuse useful information of every kind, ly complained of, as though it were parallel to the power of civil government, or to that of an established church, supported by statutes and the civil arm. But this power, like his, is moral influence only, founded upon the pastoral character, and can exist only upon the basis of the confidence inspired by the fact of its generally just and salutary exercise among a people who neither are nor can be under any compulsion.

On the charge of credulity, it may be observed, that Mr. Wesley lived in an age in which he thought men in danger of believing too little, rather than too much, and his belief in apparitions is at least no proof of a credulousness peculiar to himself. With respect to the "strange accounts" which he inserted in his magazine, and strange indeed some of them were, it has been falsely assumed that he himself believed them entire. This is not true. He frequently remarks, that he gives no opinion, or that "he knows not what to make of the account," or that he leaves every one to form his own judgment

for which Divine Providence should suffer evil spirits to exert their malignant powers at that time, might be to save a check to Sadducism among the Jews, and Atheism among the Gentiles, and to remove in some measure these two great impediments to the reception of the gospel." For moral uses, supernatural visitations may have been allowed in subsequent ages; and he who believes in them, only spreads their moral the farther by giving them publicity. Before such a person can be fairly censured, the ground of his faith ought to be disproved, for he only acts consistently with that faith. This task would, however, prove somewhat difficult.

and to smooth the path of knowledge to the middle and lower ranks of society. Besides books on religious subjects, he published many small and cheap treatises on various branches of science; plain and excellent grammars of the dead languages; expurgated editions of the classic authors; histories, civil and ecclesiastical; and numerous abridgments of important works.*

to;

*Mr. Wesley's principal writings are, his translations of the New Testament, with Explanatory Notes, quarlumes duodecimo; his Appeal to Men of Reason and his Journals, 6 vols. duodecimo; his Sermons, 9 vo Religion; his Defence of the Doctrine of Original Sin, in Answer to Dr. Taylor; his answers to Mr. Church, and Bishops Lavington and Warburton; and his Predestination calmly considered, besides many smaller tracts on various important subjects. His works were published by himself in thirty-two volumes, duodecimo, octavo volumes has just been completed; with his work in the year 1771. An edition of them in fourteen large

on the New Testament in two volumes of the same

size. In addition to his original compositions, Mr.

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It is his especial praise, that he took an early part in denouncing the iniquities of the African slave trade, and in arousing the conscience of the nation on the subject. In Bristol, at that time a dark den of slave-traders, he courageously preached openly against it, defying the rage of the slave-merchants and the mob; and his spirited and ably reasoned tract on slavery continues to be admired and quoted to the present time. It may be added, that one of the last letters he ever wrote was to Mr. Wilberforce, exhorting him to perseverance in a work, of which he was one of the leading instruments-the effecting the abolition of the traffic in the nerves and blood of man.

At the time of Mr. Wesley's death, the number of members in connection with him in Europe, America, and the West India Islands, was 80,000. At the last conference, 1830, the numbers returned were, in Great Britain, 249,278; in Ireland, 22,897; in foreign missions 41,186; total 313,360, exclusive of near half a million of persons in the societies in the states of America. As to the field of labor at home, the number of circuits in the United Kingdom, was, at the time of his death, 115. At present they are 399. The number of mission stations was 8 in the West Indies, and 8 in British America: at present there are 150. The number of preachers left by him was 312. It is now 993, in the United Kingdom; and 193 in the foreign missions. In the United States of America the number of preachers is about 2,000.

Such have been the results of the labors of this

Wesley published upwards of a hundred and twenty dif-
ferent works, mostly abridged from other authors;
among which are Grammars in five different languages;
the Christian Library, in fifty duodecimo volumes;
thirteen volumes of the Arminian Magazine; a History
of England, and a general Ecclesiastical History, in
four volumes each; a Compendium of Natural Philoso-
phy, in five volumes; and an Exposition of the Old
Testament, in three quarto volumes.

great and good man. Whether they are still to
diffuse a hallowing influence through the country,
and convey the blessings of Christianity to heathen
lands with the same rapidity and with the same
vigor, will, under the Divine blessing, depend upon
those who have received from him the trust of a
system of religious agency, to be employed with the
same singleness of heart, the same benevolent zeal
for the spiritual benefit of mankind, and the same
dependance upon the Holy Spirit. I know not that
it bears upon it any marks of decay, although it
may require to be accommodated in a few particu-
lars to the new circumstances with which it is sur-
rounded. The doctrinal views which Mr. Wesley
held were probably never better understood or more
accurately stated in the discourses of the preachers;
and the moral discipline of the body, in all its essen-
tial parts, was never more cordially approved by
the people generally, or enforced with greater faith-
fulness by their pastors. Very numerous are the
converts who are every year won from the world,
brought under religious influence, and placed in the
enjoyment of means and ordinances favorable to
their growth in religious knowledge, and holy ha-
bits; and many are constantly passing into eternity,
of whose "good hope through grace," the testimony
is in the highest degree satisfactory. If Methodism
continue in vigor and purity to future ages, it will
still be associated with the name of its founder, and
encircle his memory with increasing lustre; and if
it should fall into the formality and decays which
have proved the lot of many other religious bodies,
he will not lose his reward. Still a glorious harvest
of saved souls is laid up in the heavenly garner,
which will be his "rejoicing in the day of the Lord;"
whilst the indirect influence of his labors upon the
other religious bodies and institutions of the country
will justly entitle him to be considered as one of the
most honored instruments of reviving and extending
the influence of religion, that, since the time of the
apostles have been raised up by the providence of God.

CONTENTS OF THE LIFE OF WESLEY.

CHAPTER I.

Mr. Wesley's Parentage-Mrs. Susanna Wesley-
Samuel Wesley, jun.-Mr. Wesley at School and
College-Religious Impressions and Inquiries--
Ordination-College Honors-Charles Wesley's
early Life-Methodists at Oxford-Origin of the
Pages 3-6.
name Methodist.

II.

The Wesleys at Oxford-Their efforts to do good-
Opposition-Correspondence with Mr. Wesley,
sen-Mr. Samuel Wesley, and Mrs. Wesley-
Mr. John Wesley refuses to settle at Epworth-
Remarks-Death of Mr. Wesley, sen.-The
Wesleys engage to go out to Georgia-Letter of
Pages 6-11.
Mr. Gambold.

III.

The Wesleys on their voyage-Intercourse with the
Moravians-Conduct, Troubles, and Sufferings
in Georgia-Affair of Miss Hopkey-Mr. Wes-
ley returns to England. . . Pages 11-15.

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VI.

Pages 19-23.

Effect of the Labors of the Messrs. Wesley, and Mr. Whitefield at Kingswood-Mr. Wesley at Bath -Statement of his doctrinal views-Separates from the Moravians in London-Formation of the Methodist Society-Mr. Wesley's MotherCorrespondence between Mr. John and Mr. Samuel Wesley on Extraordinary Emotions, and the doctrine of Assurance-Remarks-Enthusiasm-Divine Influence-Difference between Mr. Wesley and Mr. Whitefield-Their Reconciliation-Mr. Maxfield-Mr. Wesley's defence of his calling out Preachers to assist him in his Pages 23-30. work-Remarks.

VII.

Mr. Wesley's review of his religious Experience-
Trouble of mind-Interview with Peter Bohler
-Receives the doctrine of justification by Faith Persecution in London-Institution of Classes-Mr.

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Mr. Charles Wesley's Labors in Cornwall, Kent, Staffordshire, and the North of England-Persecution at Devizes-Remarks-Mr. Wesley at Newcastle-His Statement of the case between the Clergy and the Methodists-Remarks-Labors in Lincolnshire, &c.-Persecutions in Cornwall-Count Zinzendorf-Dr. Doddridge-Mr. Wesley a writer of Tracts-His sentiments on Church Government-Extracts from the Minutes of the early Conferences-Remarks Mr. Wesley's Labors in different parts of the KingdomHis zeal to diffuse useful knowledge-Mobs in Devonshire-Visits Ireland-Succeeded there by his brother-Persecutions in Dublin.

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Remarks on Books-His address to the ClergyRemarks-Hervey's Letters. . . Pages 57-63.

XI.

Methodism in America-Revivals of ReligionRemarks-Mr. Wesley's Labors-Notices of Books from his Journals-Minutes of the Conference of 1770-Remarks-Mr. Shirley's Circular -Mr. Wesley's " Declaration"-Controversy Respecting the Minutes-Remarks-Increase of the Societies-Projects for the management of the connection after Mr. Wesley's death. Pages 63-72. XII.

Mr. Wesley's sickness in Ireland-Letter to the Commissioners of Excise-Visit to the Isle of Man-Opening of City-road Chapel-"Arminian Magazine"-Disputes in the society at Bath-Mr. Wesley's Letter to a Nobleman-His visit to Holland-" Deed of Declaration"-Remarks.

XIII.

Pages 72-76.

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OF

WILLIAM COWPER, ESQ.

COMPILED

FROM HIS CORRESPONDENCE,

AND OTHER

AUTHENTIC SOURCES OF INFORMATION:

CONTAINING

REMARKS ON HIS WRITINGS, AND ON THE PECULIARITIES OF HIS INTERESTING CHARACTER,

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