ving avoided this rock on the right hand, beware of that on the left. Hoard nothing. Lay up no treasure on earth, give all you can, that is, all you have. I defy all the men upon earth, yea, all the angels in heaven, to find any other way of extracting the poison from riches. After having served you between sixty and seventy years, with dim eyes, shaking hands, and tottering feet, I give this advice, before I sink into the dust. I am pained for you that are rich in this world. You who receive five hundred pounds a year, and spend only two hundred, do you give three hundred back to God? If not, you certainly rob God of that three hundred. You who receive two hundred and spend but one, do you give God the other hundred? If not, you rob him of just so much. Nay, may I not do what I will with my own?' Here lies the ground of your mistake. It is not your own. It cannot be, unless you are lord of heaven and earth. 6 However, I must provide for my children.' Certainly: but how? By making them rich? Then you will probably make them heathens, as some of you have done already. Secure them enough to live on; not in idleness and luxury, but by honest industry. And if you have not children, upon what scriptural or rational principle can you leave a groat behind you more than will bury you? Oh! leave nothing behind you! Send all you have before you into a better world! Lend it, lend it all unto the Lord, and it shall be paid you again. Haste, haste, my brethren, haste, lest you be called away before you have settled what you have on this security. When this is done, you may boldly say, 'Now I have nothing to do but to die! Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit! Come, Lord Jesus! come quickly!'

There were times when Wesley perceived and acknowledged how little real reformation had been effected in the great body of his followers: "Might I not have expected," said he, "a general in-crease of faith and love, of righteousness and true holiness; yea, and of the fruits of the Spirit-love, joy, peace, long-suffering, meekness, gentleness, fidelity, goodness, temperance ?-Truly, when I saw what God had done among his people between forty and fifty years ago, when I saw them warm in their first love, magnifying the Lord, and rejoicing in God their Saviour, I could expect nothing less than that all these would have lived like angels here below; that they would have walked as continually seeing him that is invisible, having constant communion with the Father and the Son, living in eternity, and walking in eternity. I looked to see a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people;' in the whole tenor of their conversation showing forth His praise who had called them into his marvellous light.' But, instead of this, it brought forth error in ten thousand shapes. It brought forth enthusiasm, imaginary inspiration, ascribing to the all-wise God all the wild, absurd, self-inconsistent dreams of a heated imagination. It brought forth pride. It brought forth prejudice, evil-surmising, censoriousness, judging and condemning one another; all totally subversive of that brotherly love which is the very badge of the Christian profession, without which whosoever liveth is counted dead before God. It brought forth anger, hatred, malice, revenge, and every evil word and work; all direful fruits, not of the Holy Spirit, but of the bot

tomless pit. It brought forth such base grovelling affections, such deep earthly-mindedness as that of the poor heathens, which occasioned the lamentation of their own poet over them: O curve in terras animæ et cœlestium inanes! "O souls bowed down to earth, and void of God!" And he repeated, from the pulpit, a remark which had been made upon the Methodists by one whom he calls a holy man, that "never was there before a people in the Christian Church who had so much of the power of God among them, with so little self-denial."

Mr. Fletcher also confirms this unfavourable representation, and indicates one of its causes. There were members of the Society, he said, who spoke in the most glorious manner of Christ, and of their interest in his complete salvation, and yet were indulging the most unchristian tempers, and living in the greatest immoralities: "For some years," said he, "I have suspected there is more imaginary than unfeigned faith in most of those who pass for believers. With a mixture of indignation and grief have I seen them carelessly follow the stream of corrupt nature, against which they should have manfully wrestled; and when they should have exclaimed against their antinomianism, I have heard them cry out against the legality of their wicked hearts, which, they said, still suggested they were to do something in order to salvation." Antinomianism, he said, was, in general, a motto better adapted to the state of professing congregations, societies, families, and individuals, than holiness unto the Lord, the inscription that should be even upon our horses' bells." He saw what evil had been done by " making much ado about finished salvation." "The smoothness of our doctrine," said he, "will atone for our most glaring inconsistencies. We have so whetted the Antinomian appetite of our hearers, that they swallow down almost any thing."

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Against this error, to which the professors of sanctity so easily incline, Wesley earnestly endeavoured to guard his followers. if on this point he was, during the latter, and indeed the greater part of his life, blameless, it cannot be denied that his system tended to produce more of the appearance than of the reality of religion. It dealt too much in sensations, and in outward manifestations of theopathy; it made religion too much a thing of display, an affair of sympathy and confederation; it led persons too much from their homes and their closets: it imposed too many forms; it required too many professions; it exacted too many exposures. And the necessary consequence was, that many, when their enthusiasm abated, became mere formalists, and kept up a Pharisaical appearance of holiness, when the whole feeling had evaporated.

It was among those classes of society whose moral and religious education had been blindly and culpably neglected, that Methodism produced an immediate beneficial effect; and, in cases of brutal depravity and habitual vice, it often produced a thorough reformation, which could not have been brought about by any less powerful agency than that of religious zeal. Sinners of every other sort," said a good old clergyman, "have I frequently known converted to God but an habitual drunkard I have never known converted."But I," says Wesley," have known five hundred, perhaps five

thousand." To these moral miracles he appealed in triumph as undeniable proofs that Methodism was an extraordinary work of God. "I appeal," said he, " to every candid unprejudiced person, whether we may not at this day discern all those signs (understanding the words in a spiritual sense) to which our Lord referred John's disciples, The blind receive their sight.' Those who were blind from their birth, unable to see their own deplorable state, and much more to see God, and the remedy he has prepared for them, in the Son of his love, now see themselves, yea, and the light of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ.' The eyes of their understanding being now opened, they see all things clearly. The deaf hear.' Those that were before utterly deaf to all the outward and inward calls of God, now hear not only his providential calls, but also the whispers of his grace. The lame walk.' Those who never before arose from the earth, or moved one step toward heaven, are now walking in all the ways of God; yea, running the race that is set before them. The lepers are cleansed.' The deadly leprosy of sin, which they brought with. them into the world, and which no art of man could ever cure, is now clean departed from them. And surely, never, in any age or nation since the Apostles, have those words been so eminently fulfilled, the poor have the gospel preached unto them,' as they are at this day. At this day, the Gospel leaven, faith working by love, inward and outward holiness, or (to use the terms of St. Paul) righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, hath so spread in various parts of Europe, particularly in England, Scotland, Ireland, in the Islands, in the north and south from Georgia to New-England and Newfoundland, that sinners have been truly converted to God, thoroughly changed both in heart and in life, not by tens, or by hundreds only, but by thousands, yea, by myriads. The fact cannot be denied: we can point out the persons, with their names and places of abode ; and yet the wise men of the world, the men of eminence, the men of learning and renown, cannot imagine what we mean by talking of any extraordinary work of God."

Forcible examples are to be found of this true conversion, this real regeneration; as well as many affecting instances of the support which religion, through the means of Methodism, has given in the severest afflictions,* and of the peace and contentment which it has afforded to those who without it would have been forlorn and hope

* In Dr. Coke's History of the West Indies, there is one remarkable instance, but it is too painful to be repeated.

Of this there is a beautiful example in a letter written to Mr. Wesley by one of his female disciples, who was employed in the Orphan-house at Newcastle. "I know not," she says, " how to agree to the not working, I am still unwilling to take any thing from any body. I work out of choice, having never yet learned how a woman can be idle and innocent. I have had as blessed times in my soul, sitting at work, as ever I had in my life; especially in the night-time, when I see nothing but the light of a candle and a white cloth, hear nothing but the sound of my own breath, with God in my sight and heaven in my soul, I think myself one of the happiest creatures below the skies. I do not complain that God has not made me some fine thing, to be set up to be gazed at; but I can beartily bless him, that he has made me just what I am, a creature capable of the enjoyment of himself. If I go to the window and look out, I see the moon and stars; I meditate a while on the silence of the night, consider this world as a beautiful structure, and the work of an almighty hand; then I sit down to work again, and think myself one of the happiest of beings in it." Both the feeling and the expression in the letter are so sweet, that the reader will probably be as sorry as I was to discover that this happy state of mind was not permanent. In a letter of Wesley's, written three years afterwards, he says, "I know not what to do more for poor Jenny Keith, (that was her name.) Alas! from what a height is she fallen! What a burning and shining light was she six or seven years ago! But thus it ever was. Many of the first shall be last, and many of the last first."

less. Many, perhaps most of these conversions, were produced by field-preaching; and it is probable, therefore, that Methodism did more good in its earlier than in its latter days, when preaching in the open air was gradually disused, as chapels were multiplied. The two brothers, and the more zealous of their followers, used at first also to frequent Bedlam and the prisons, for the purpose of administering consolation to those who stood most in need of it. When Methodism was most unpopular, admission at these places was refused them, which occasioned Wesley to exclaim, "So we are forbid to go to Newgate for fear of making them wicked, and to Bedlam for fear of driving them mad!" In both places, and in hospitals also, great good might be effected by that zeal which the Methodists possess, were it tempered with discretion. If they had instituted societies to discharge such painful offices of humanity as are performed by the Sœurs de la Charité in France, and by the Beguines of Brabant and Flanders, the good which they might have effected would have been duly appreciated and rewarded by public opinion. It is remarkable, that none of their abundant enthusiasm should have taken this direction, and that so little use should have been made of the opportunity when the prisons were again opened to them. The Wesley's appear not to have repeated their visits after the exclusion. One of their followers, by name Silas Told, a weak, credulous, and, notwithstanding his honest zeal, not always a credible man, attended at Newgate for more than twenty years; his charity was bestowed almost exclusively upon condemned criminals. After his death, he had no successor in this dismal vocation, and the honour of having shown in what manner a prison may be made a school of reformation, was reserved for Mrs. Fry and the Quakers.

In estimating the effects of Methodism, the good which it has done indirectly must not be overlooked. As the Reformation produced a visible reform in those parts of Christendom where the Romish Church maintained its supremacy, so, though in a less degree, the progress of Wesley's disciples has been beneficial to our Establishment, exciting in many of the parochial clergy the zeal which was wanting.-Where the clergy exert themselves, the growth of Methodism is checked; and perhaps it may be said to be most useful where it is least successful. To the impulse also, which was given by Methodism, that missionary spirit may be ascribed which is now carrying the light of the gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth. In no way can religious zeal be so beneficially directed as in this.

Some evil also, as well as some good, the Methodists have indirectly caused. Though they became careful in admitting lay preachers themselves, the bad example of suffering any ignorant enthusiast to proclaim himself a minister of the gospel, found numerous imitators. The number of roving adventurers* in all the intermediate grades between knavery and madness, who took to preaching as a thriving trade, brought an opprobrium upon religion itself; and when an

* One magistrate in the county of Middlesex licensed fourteen hundred preachers in the course of five years. Of six and-thirty persons who obtained licenses at one sessions, six spelled "ministers of the gospel" in six different ways, and seven signed their mark! One fellow, who applied for a license, being asked if he could read, replied "Mother reads, and I 'spounds and 'splains."

attempt was made at last to put an end to this scandal, a most outrageous and unreasonable cry was raised, as if the rights of conscience were invaded.* Perhaps the manner in which Methodism has familiarized the lower classes to the work of combining in associations, making rules for their own governance, raising funds, and communicating from one part of the kingdom to another, may be reckoned among the incidental evils which have resulted from it; but in this respect it has only facilitated a process to which other causes had given birth. The principles of Methodism are strictly loyal; and the language which has been held by the Conference in all times of political disturbance, have been highly honourable to the society, and in strict conformity to the intentions of the founder. On the other hand, the good which it has done, by rendering men good civil subjects, is counteracted by separating them from the Church. This tendency Wesley did not foresee; and when he perceived it, he could not prevent it. But his conduct upon this point was neither consistent nor ingenuous. Soon after he had taken the memorable step of consecrating Dr. Coke as an American bishop, he arrogated to himself the same authority for Scotland as for America; and this, he maintained, was not a separation from the Church; "not from the Church of Scotland," said he, "for we were never connected therewith; not from the Church of England, for this is not concerned in the steps which are taken in Scotland. Whatever, then is done, either in America or Scotland, is no separation from the Church of England. I have no thought of this: I have many objections against it." He had been led toward a separation imperceptibly, step by step; but it is not to his honour that he affected to deprecate it to the last, while he was evidently bringing it about by the measures which he pursued.

In the latter end of his life, the tendency to separation was increased by the vexatious manner in which some Lincolnshire magistrates enforced the letter of the Toleration Act. They insisted, that as the Methodists professed themselves members of the Church, they were not within the intention of the act: they refused to license their chapels therefore, unless they declared themselves dissenters and when some of the trustees were ready to do this, they were told that this was not sufficient by itself; they must declare also, that they scrupled to attend the service and sacrament of the Church, the Act in question having been made for those only who entertained such scruples. This system of injurious severity did not stop here. Understanding in what manner these magistrates interpreted the law, some informers took advantage of the opportunity, and enforced the Conventicle Act against those who had preaching or prayer meetings in their houses: the persons thus aggrieved were mostly in humble circumstances, so that they were.

* A writer in the Gospel Magazine says, concerning Lord Sidmouth's well-meant bill, "By the grace of God I can speak for one. If in any place I am called to preach, and cannot obtain a license, I shall feel myself called upon to break through all restrictions, even if death be the consequence: for I know that God will avenge his own elect against their persecutors, let them be who they may. The men that are sent of God must deliver their message, whether men will hear, or whether they will forbear; whether they can obtain a license or not. If God opens their mouths, none can shut them."-Every man his own Pope, and his own lawgiver! These are days in which authority may safely be defied in such cases; but there is no reason to doubt that the man who speaks thus plainly would not have been as ready to break the laws as to defy them. Had he been born in the right place and time, he would have enjoyed a glorification in the Grass-mærket. 31

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