the spiritualities of religion, or a sneering contempt of them. The mischief was completed by the restoration of the Stuarts; for whatever advantages were gained by that vent in a civil sense, it let in a flood of centiousness and impiety which swept away almost every barrier that had been raised in the public mind by the labors of former ages. Infidelity began its ravages upon the principles of the higher and middle classes; the mass of the people remained uneducated, and were Christians but in name, and by virtue of their baptism; whilst many of the great doctrines of the reformation were banished both from the universities and the pulpits. Archbishop Leighton complains that his "church was a fair carcass without a spirit ;" and Burnet observes, that in his time "the clergy had less authority, and were under more contempt, than those of any church in Europe; for they were much the most remiss in their labors, and the least severe in their lives." Nor did the case much amend up to the period of which we speak. Dr. Southey says, that "from the restoration to the accession of the house of Hanover, the English church could boast of its brightest ornaments and ablest defenders, men who have never been surpassed in erudition, in eloquence, or in strength and subtlety of mind." This is true: but it is equally so, that, with a very few exceptions, these great powers were not employed to teach, defend, and inculcate the doctrines of that church on personal religion as it is taught in her liturgy, her articles, and her homilies, but what often was subversive of them; and the very authority therefore which such writers acquired by their learned and able works was in many respects mischievous. They stood between the people and the better divines of the earlier age of the church, and put them out of sight; and they set an example of preaching which, being generally followed, placed the pulpit and the desk at perpetual variance, and reduced an evangelical liturgy to a dead form which was repeated without thought, or so explained as to take away its meaning. A great proportion of the clergy, whatever other learning they night possess, were grossly ignorant of theology, and contented themselves with reading short unmeaning sermons, purchased or pilfered, and formed upon the lifeless theological system of the day. A little Calvinism remained in the church, and a little evangelical Arminianism; but the prevalent divinity was Pelagian, or what very nearly approached it. Natural religion was the great subject of study, when theology was studied at all, and was made the test and standard of revealed truth. The doctrine of the opus operatum of the Papists, as to sacraments, was the faith of the divines of the older school; and a refined system of ethics, unconnected with Christian motives, and disjoined from the vital principles of religion in the heart, was the favorite theory of the modern. The body of the clergy neither knew nor cared about systems of any kind. In a great number of instances they were negligent and immoral; often grossly so. The populace of the large towns were ignorant and profligate; and the inhabitants of villages added to ignorance and profligacy brutish and Barbarous "n manners. A more striking instance of the rapid deterioration of religious light and influence in a country scarcely occurs, than in our own, from the restoration till the rise of Methodism. It affected not only the church, but the dissenting sects in no ordinary degree. The Presbyterians had commenced their course through Arianism down to Socinianism; and those who held the doctrines of Calvin had, in too many instances, by a course of hot-house planting, luxuriated them into the fatal and disgusting errors of Antinomianism. There

the general state of religion and morals in the country, when the Wesleys, Whitefield, and a few kindred spirits came forth, ready to sacrifice ease, reputation, and even life itself, to produce a reformation.

Before Mr. Wesley entered upon the career which afterwards distinguished him, and having no preconceived plan or course of conduct, but to seek good for himself and to do good to others, he visited the Moravian settlements in Germany. On his journey he formed an acquaintance with several pious ministers in Holland and Germany; and at Marienbourn was greatly edified by the conversation of count Zinzendorf, and others of the brethren, of whose views he did not however in all respects even then approve. From thence he proceeded to Hernhuth, where he staid a fortnight, conversing with the elders, and observing the economy of that church, part of which with modifications he afterwards introduced among his own societies. The sermons of Christian David especially interested him; and of one of them, on "the ground of our faith," he gives the substance; which we may insert, both as excellent in itself, and as it so well agrees with what Mr. Wesley afterwards uniformly taught:

"The word of reconciliation which the apostles preached, as the foundation of all they taught, was, that we are reconciled to God, not by our own works, nor by our own righteousness, but wholly and solely by the blood of Christ.'

"But you will say, must I not grieve and mourn for my sins? Must I not humble myself before my God? Is not this just and right? And must I not first do this before I can expect God to be reconciled to me? I answer, it is just and right. You must be humbled before God. You must have a broken and contrite heart. But then observe, this is not your own work. Do you grieve that you are a sinner? This is the work of the Holy Ghost. Are you contrite? Are you humbled before God? Do you indeed mourn, and is your heart broken within you? All this worketh the self-same Spirit.

"Observe again, this is not the foundation. It is not this by which you are justified. This is not the righteousness, this is no part of the righteousness, by which you are reconciled unto God. You grieve for your sins. You are deeply humble. Your heart is broken. Well. But all this is nothing to your justification. The remission of your sins is not owing to this cause, either in whole or in part. Nay, observe farther, that it may hinder your justification: that is, if you build any thing upon it; if you think, I must be so or so contrite; I must grieve more, before I can be justified. Understand this well. To think you must be more contrite, more humbled, more grieved, more sensible of the weight of sin, before you can be justified, is, to lay your contrition, your grief, your humiliation, for the foundation of your being justified: at least for a part of the foundation. Therefore it hinders your justification; and a hinderance it is which must be removed, before you can lay the right foundation. The right foundation is, not your contrition, (though that is not your own,) not your righteousness, nothing of your own; nothing that is wrought in you by the Holy Ghost; but it is something without you, viz., the righteousness and blood of Christ.

"For this is the word, 'To him that believeth on God, that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted

our justification, but they are absolutely necessary in "This is not guarded. These things do not merit order to it. God never pardons the impenitent."— Wesley's Journal.

"Here is a mystery. Here the wise men of the world are lost, are taken in their own craftiness. This the learned of the world cannot comprehend. It is foolishness unto them. Sin is the only thing which divides men from God. Sin (let him that heareth understand) is the only thing which unites them to God; that is, the only thing which moves the Lamb of God to have compassion upon them, and by his blood to give them access to the Father. "This is the word of reconciliation which we preach. This is the foundation which never can be moved. By faith we are built upon this foundation: and this faith also is the gift of God. It is his free gift, which he now and ever giveth to every one that is willing to receive it. And when they have received this gift of God, then their hearts will melt for sorrow that they have offended him. But this gift of God lives in the heart, not in the head. The faith of the head, learned from men or books, is nothing worth. It brings neither remission of sins, nor peace with God. Labor then to believe with your whole heart. So shall you have redemption through the blood of Christ. So shall you be cleansed from all sin. So shall ye go on from strength to strength, being renewed day by day in righteousness and all true holiness."*

"I would gladly," says Mr. Wesley, "have spent my life here; but my Master calling me to labor in another part of his vineyard, I was constrained to take my leave of this happy place. O when shall this Christianity cover the earth, as the 'waters cover the sea!" He adds in another place, "I was exceedingly comforted and strengthened by the conversation of this lovely people; and returned to England more fully determined to spend my life in testifying the gospel of the grace of God.”+

He arrived in London in September, 1738. His future course of life does not appear to have been shaped out in his mind; no indication of this appears in any of his letters, or other communication: so little ground is there for the insinuation, which has been so often made, that he early formed the scheme of making himself the head of a sect. This, even those inconsistencies, considering him as a churchman, into which circumstances af terwards impelled him, sufficiently refute. That he was averse to settle as a parish minister, is certain; and the man who regarded "the world as his parish," must have had large views of usefulness. That he kept in mind the opinion of the bishop who ordained him, that he was at liberty to decline settling as a parish priest, provided he thought that he could serve the church better in any other way, is very probable; and if he had any fixed purpose at all, at this time, beyond what circumstances daily opened to him, and from which he might infer the path of duty, it was to attempt to revive the spirit of religion in the church to which he belong, ed and which he loved, by preaching "the gospel

he should be permitted to occupy. This was the course he pursued. Wherever he was invited, he preached the obsolete doctrine of salvation by grace through faith. In London great crowds followed him; the clergy generally excepted to his statement of the doctrine; the genteeler part of his audiences, whether they attended to the sermon or not, were offended at the bustle of crowded congregations; and soon almost all the churches, of the metropolis, one after another, were shut against him. He had, however, largely labored in various parts of the metropolis in churches, rooms, houses, and prisons; and the effects produced were powerful and lasting. Soon after, we find him at Oxford, employed in writing to his friends abroad, communicating the good news of a great awakening both in London and in that city. To Dr. Koker, of Rotterdam, he writes, Oct. 13, 1738: "His blessed Spirit has wrought so powerfully both in London and Oxford, that there is a general awakening, and multitudes are crying out, What must we do to be saved? So that till our gracious Master sendeth more laborers into his harvest, all my time is much too little for them." And to the church at Hernhuth, he writes under the same date: "We are endeavoring here, also, by the grace which is given us, to be followers of you, as ye are of Christ. Fourteen were added to us since our return; so that we have now eight bands of men, consisting of fifty-six persons, all of whom seek for salvation only in the blood of Christ. As yet we have only two small bands of women, the one of three, the other of five persons. But here are many others who only wait till we have leisure to instruct them how they may most effectually build up one another, in the faith and love of Him who gave himself for them.

Though my brother and I are not permitted to preach in most of the churches in London, yet, thanks be to God, there are others left, wherein we have liberty to speak the truth as it is in Jesus. Likewise every evening, and on set evenings in the week, at two several places, we publish the word of reconciliation, sometimes to twenty or thirty, sometimes to fifty or sixty, sometimes to three or four hundred persons, met together to hear it."

In December he met Mr. Whitefield, who had returned to London from America, "and they again took sweet counsel together." In the spring of the next year, he followed Mr. Whitefield to Bristol, where he had preached with great success in the open air. Mr. Wesley first expounded to a little society, accustomed to meet in Nicholas

*The "Societies" which Mr. Wesley mentions in his journals as visited by him, for the purpose of expounding the Scriptures, in London and Bristol, were the remains of those which Dr. Woodward describes, in an account first published about 1698 or 1699. They began about the year 1667, among a few young men in Lonmorning lectures in Cornhill, were brought, says Dr. don, who, under Dr. Horneck's preaching, and the Woodward, "to a very affecting sense of their sins, and began to apply themselves in a very serious way to religious thoughts and purposes." They were advised by their ministers to meet together weekly for "good discourse;" and rules were drawn up "for the better regulation of these meetings." They contributed weekly for the use of the poor, and stewards were appointed to take care of and to disburse their charities. In the latter part of the reign of James II., they met with discouragement; but on the accession of William and Mary, they acquired new vigor. When Dr. Woodward wrote his account, there were about forty of these societies in activity within the bills of mortality, a few in the country, and nine in Ireland. Out of these societies about twenty associations arose, in London, for the prosecution and suppression of vice; and both these, and the private societies for religious edification, had for a time

The manner in which he filled up his time, may be seen from the following account of his weekly labors, at this period, at or near Bristol. "My ordinary employment in public was now as follows. Every morning I read prayers and preached at Newgate. Every evening I expounded a portion of Scripture, at one or more of the societies. On Monday in the afternoon I preached abroad near Bristol. On Tuesday at Bath and Two-Mile-Hill, alternately. On Wednesday at Baptist-Mills.Every other Thursday, near Pensford. Every other Friday, in another part of Kingswood. On Saturday in the afternoon, and Sunday morning in the Bowling-Green. On Sunday at eleven, near Hannam-Mount, at two at Clifton, at five at Rose-Green. And hitherto, as my day is, so is my strength."*

During Mr. Wesley's visit to Germany, his brother Charles was zealously employed in preaching the same doctrines, and with equal zeal, in the churches in London; and in holding meetings for prayer and expounding the Scriptures. At this time he also visited Oxford, and was made useful to several of his old college friends. When his brother returned from Hernhuth, he met him with great joy in London, and they "compared their experience in the things of God." The doctrine of predestination on which so many disputes have arisen in the church, and which was soon to be warmly debated among the first Methodists, was soon after started at a meeting for exposition. Mr. Charles contented himself with simply protesting against it. He now first began to preach extempore. In a conference which the brothers had with the bishop of London, they cleared up some complaints as to their doctrine, which he had received against them, and were upon the whole treated by him with liberality. He strongly disapproved, however, of their practice of re-baptizing persons who

much encouragement from several bishops, and from the queen herself. By their rules they were obliged, at their weekly meetings, to discourse only on such subjects as tended to practical holiness, and to avoid all controversy; and besides relieving the poor, they were to promote schools, and the catechising of young and ignorant persons in their respective families." These societies certainly opened a favorable prospect for the revival of religion in the Church of England: but, whether they were cramped by clerical jealousy, lest laymen should become too active in spiritual concerns; or that from their being bound by their orders to prosecute vice by calling in the aid of the magistrate, their moral influence among the populace was counteracted; they appear to have declined from about 1710; and although several societies still remained in London, Bristol, and a few other places, at the time when Mr. Wesley commenced his labors, they were not in a state of growth and activity. They had, however, been the means of keeping the spark of piety from entire extinction. The sixth edition of Dr. Woodward's account of these societies was published in 1744; but from that time we hear no more of them; they either gradually died away, or were absorbed in the Methodist societies. This, at least, was the case with several of them in London and Bristol; and with that of St. Ives, in Cornwall.

• Journal.

hibited the firm hold which their high church feelings still retained upon their minds. His lordship showed himself, in this respect, not only more liberal, but better versed in ecclesiastical law and usage. The bishop at this, and at other interviews, guarded them strongly against Antinomianism, of which, however, they were in no danger. He was probably alarmed, as many had been, at the stress they laid on faith, not knowing the necessary connection of the faith they preached with universal holiness. Mr. Whitefield was at this time at Oxford, and pressed Charles earnestly to accept a college living; which, as Dr. Whitehead justly observes, "gives pretty clear evidence that no plan of itinerant preaching was yet fixed on, nor indeed thought of: had any such plan been in agitation among them, it is very certain Mr. Whitefield would not have urged this advice on Mr. Charles Wesley, whom he loved as a brother, and whose labors he highly esteemed."*

About this time some disputes took place, in the Fetter-Lane society, as to lay-preaching, and Mr. Charles Wesley, in the absence of his brother, declared warmly against it. He had also, whilst Mr. John Wesley was still at Bristol, a painful interview at Lambeth, with the archbishop of Canterbury. His grace took no exceptions to his doctrine, but condemned the irregularity of his proceedings, and even hinted at proceeding to excommunication. This threw him into great perplexity of mind, until Mr. Whitefield, with characteristic boldness, urged him to preach "in the fields the next Sunday: by which step he would break down the bridge, render his retreat difficult or impossible, and be forced to fight his way forward." This advice he followed. June 24th, I prayed," says he, "and went forth in the name of Jesus Christ. I found near a thousand helpless sinners waiting for the word in Moorfields. I invited them in my Master's words, as well as name: Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden; and I will give you rest. The Lord was with me, even me, the meanest of his messengers, according to his promise. At St. Paul's, the psalms, lessons, &c. for the day, put new life into me: and so did the sacrament. My load was gone, and all my doubts and scruples. God shone on my path, and I knew this was his will concerning me. I walked to Kennington Common, and cried to multitudes upon multitudes, Repent ye, and believe the gospel. The Lord was my strength, and my mouth, and my wisdom. O that all would therefore praise the Lord for his goodness!"

At Oxford also, he had to sustain the severity of the dean on the subject of field-preaching; but he seized the opportunity of bearing his testimony to the doctrine of justification by faith, by preaching with great boldness before the university. On his return to London, he resumed field-preaching ir At one Moorfields, and on Kennington Common. time it was computed that as many as ten thousand persons were collected, and great numbers were roused to a serious inquiry after religion. His word was occasionally attended with an overwhelming

influence.

That great public attention should be excited by these extraordinary and novel proceedings; and that the dignitaries of the church, and the advocates of stillness and order should take the alarm at them, as "doubting whereunto this thing might grow," were inevitable consequences. A doctrine so obso lete, that on its revival it was regarded as new and dangerous, was now publicly proclaimed as the doctrine of the apostles and reformers; the con*Whitehead's Life.