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Epworth; unless, confidered as the prelude to the noise Mr. John Wesley made on a more ample stage, it ceafed to speak when he began to act.”

"The dawn of Mr. Wefley's public miffion," continues Mr. Badcock, "was clouded with Myfticism-that fpecies of it which affects filence and folitude; a certain inexplicable introverfion of the mind, which abBracts the paffions from all fenfible objects, and, as the French Quietists exprefs it, perfects itself by an abforption of the will and intellect, and all the faculties Into the Deity." In this "palpable obfcure" the excellent Fenelon led himfelf when he forfook the fhades of Pindus; to wander in queft of “ pure love" with Madam Guyon! Mr. Welley purfued, for a while, the fame ignis fatuus with Mr. William Law, and the Ghost of De Renty. A ftate, however, fo torpid and ignoble, ill fuited the active genius of this fingular man, His elaftic mind gained ftrength by compreffion; thence burfing glorious, he paffed (as he himself somewhere fays) "the immenfe chafm, upborne on an eagle's wings."

The reading of the writings of this Mr. William Law, the celebrated author of "Chriftian Perfection," and of "A Serious Addrefs to the Chriftian World," contributed, moreover, to lead Mr. John Wesley, and his brother Charles, with a few of their young fellowftudents, into a more than common ftrictness of religious life. They received the facrament of the Lord's Supper every week; obferved all the fafts of the church; vifited the prifons; rofe at four in the morning; and refrained from all amufements. From the exact method in which they difpofed of every hour, they acquired the appellation of Methodils, by which their followers have been ever fince diftinguished.

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But a more particular account of the origin of this fect, we fhall give from a celebrated publication: Method fts," favs the editor of this work," form a very confiderable clafs, principally of the lower, peo

ple in this country. They fprung up, about fifty years ago, at Oxford, and were foon divided into two parties, the one under the direction of Mr. George Whitfield, and the other under that of two brothers, John and Charles Wesley. These leaders, and, if we except Mr. William Law, founders of the Methodists, were educated at Oxford; received epifcopal ordination, and always profefled themfelves advocates for the articles and liturgy of the established church, though they more commonly practifed the diffenting mode of worship. But conceiving a defign of forming feparate communities, fuperior in fanctity and perfection to all other Christian churches, and impreffed, to a very confiderable degree, by a zeal of an extravagant and enthusiaftic kind, they became itinerant preachers, and, being excluded from most of our churches, exercifed their ministry in private houses, fields, &c. not only in Great Britain and Ireland, but alfo in America; thus collecting a very confiderable number of hearers and profelytes, both among the members of the established church and the diffenters. The theological. fyftem of Mr. Whitfield and his followers is Calvinistic; that of Mr. Wesley and his difciples Arminian; and the latter maintains the poffibility of attaining finless perfection in the present ftate. The fubordinate teachers of both. thefe claffes of Methodists are generally men of no liheral education; and they pretend to derive their minifterial abilities from fpecial communications of the fpirit. The Methodists of both parties, like other enthufiafts, make true religion to confift principally in certain affections and inward feelings, which it is impoffible to explain, but which, when analysed, seem to be mechanical in their fpring and operation; and they generally maintain, that Chriftians will be most likely to fucceed in the pursuit of truth, not by the dictates of reafon, or the aids of learning, but by laying their minds open to the direction and influence of divine il- . VOL. III. M m

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June 29, lumination: And their conduct has been directed by impulfes."

- Our readers will judge for themselves, according to their various modes of education, and to the different lights in which they may refpectively view the doctrines of our common Christianity, whether this reprefentation of the origin of the Methodists, and of their diftinguishing tenets, be accurate and just.-Not prefuining to fit in judgment on the religious opinions of any man, we fhall only obferve, that an appellation, originally given in reproach, has been gloried in ever fince, by thofe who have diftinguished themselves as the followers either of Mr. Whitfield or of Mr. Wesley. "After the way called methodifm, fo worship they the god of their fathers +." But the ridicule and contempt which the fingularity of their conduct produced, both John and Charles Wesley were well qualified to bear. They were not to be intimidated by danger, actuated by intereft, or deterred by difgrace."

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The boundaries of this ifland were foon deemed by Mr. Wesley too confined for a zeal which difplayed the piety of an apofile, and of an intrepidity to which few miffionaries had been fuperior. In 1735, he embarked for Georgia, one of our colonies, which was, at that time in a state of political infaney; and the great object of this voyage was to preach the gospel to the Indian nations in the vicinity of that province. He returned to England in 1737. Of his spiritual labours, both in this country and in America, he himself has given a very copious account, in a series of "journals," printed at different periods. These journals drew upon our laborious preacher, and his coadjutors, fome fevere animadverfions from two right reverend prelates--Dr. George Lavington, bishop of Exeter, and Dr. William Warburton, bishop of Gloucefter. The former pubCala† Ads xxiv, 14.

lifhed, in three parts," The enthusiasm of the methodifts and papifts compared:" The third part of this performance containing a perfonal charge of immoral conduct. Mr. Wefley, in his vindication, published a letter to his lordship, which produced a reply from the latter.

Bishop Warburton's attack is contained in his celebrated treatise, intitled "The doctrine of grace or the office and operations of the holy fpirit vindicated from the infults of infidelity, and the abufes of fanaticism; concluding with fome thoughts, humbly offered to the confideration of the eftablished clergy, with regard to the right method of defending religion against the attacks of either party," 2 vol. fmall 8vo, 1762. There is much acute reafoning, and much poignant and fprightly wit in his "doctrine of grace;" but there is too much levity in it for a grave bishop, and too much abuse for a candid chriftian. On this occafion, Mr. Welley published a letter to the bishop, in which, with great temper, and moderation, as well as with great ingenuity and addrefs, he endeavoured to fhelter himself from his lordship's attacks, not only under the authority of the holy fcriptures, but of the church itfelf, as by law established; and arguments, on this last authority, it must be allowed, could be urged, without much impropriety, in an address to a right reverend prelate of that church.

On his return from Georgia, Mr. Wefley paid a vifit to count Zinzendorf, the celebrated founder of the fect of Moravians, or Herrnhuters, at Herrnuth in Upper Lufatia. In the following year, he appeared again in England, and with his brother Charles, at the head of the methodists. He preached his first field termon at Bristol, on the 2d of April 1738, from which time his difciples have continued to increase. In 1741, a ferious altercation took place between him and Mr. Whitfield. In 1744, attempting to preach at an inn at Taunton, he was regularly filenced by the magiftrates, Alhough he chiefly refided, for the remainder of his life

In the metropolis, he occafionally travelled through every part of Great Britain and Ireland, establishing congregations in each kingdom. In 1750, he married a lady, from whom he was afterward separated. By this lady, who died in 1781, he had no children.

We have already mentioned Mr. Wesley as a very various and voluminous writer. Divinity, both devotional and controverfial, biography, hiftory, philofo phy, politics, and poetry, were all, at different times, the fubiects of his pen: and, whatever opinion may be entertained of his theological fentiments, it is impoffible to deny him the merit of having done very extenfive good among the lower claffes of people. He certainly poffeffed great abilities, and a fluency which was well accommodated to his hearers, and highly acceptable, to them. He had been gradually declining for three years past yet he still rose at four in the morning, and preached, and travelled, and wrote as ufual. He preached at Leatherhead, in Surrey, on the Wednesday before his death. On the Friday following, appeared the first * fymptoms of his approaching diffolution. The four fucceeding days he spent in praising God; and he left this scene, in which his labours had been fo extenfive and so useful, at a quarter before ten in the morning of the fecond of March 1791, in the 88th year of his age. His remains, after lying in a kind of state at his chapel in the cityroad, dreffed in the facerdotal robes which he usually wore, and on his head the old clerical cap, a bible in one hand, and a white handkerchief in the other, were, agreeably to his own directions, and after the manner of the interment of the late Mr. Whitfield, depofited in the cemetry behind his chapel, on the morning of the 9th March, amid an innumerable concourfe of his friends and admirers, many of whom appeared in deep mourning on the occafion. One fingularity was obfervable in the funeral fervice: Inftead of "We give thee hearty thanks for that it hath pleased thee to deliver this our brother," it was read, "our father." A fermon, pre

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