law, he may be considered as virtually driven from the colony, and he reached London in February, 1738. He there became very much connected with the Moravians, who had already gained largely upon his affections in the voyage to Georgia, some pious members of the body being his fellow-passengers, and he first joined them for religious worship. Subsequently he became dissatisfied with some doctrines introduced among them, and formed a new society. Before, however, any plans for its direction and permanence were at all matured, he passed over into Germany, and visited the Moravian settlements there. On his return to London, in September, 1738, he began immediately upon that prominence in the religious world which must ever make his name conspicuous in ecclesiastical history. He was averse from settling himself as a parochial minister, but gladly availed himself of every opportunity to occupy a parish-pulpit. His doctrine differed widely from that ethical strain which then prevailed among preachers; and being better fitted for touching the heart, as well as delivered with unusual power, great crowds rapidly congregated in every church where Wesley was to be heard. Many of the clergy treated his opinions as exaggerated, and hence likely to mislead. Among the laity of better condition, this objection was aggravated by another, arising from the multitudes, and consequent inconveniences, that his preaching brought. After a time, accordingly, almost every pulpit in London was closed against him. He soon, however, became above such impediments, having surmounted his original scruples as to ecclesiastical irregularity, and taken to preaching in the open air. His influence now in lower life became prodigious, and, in a vast number of cases, there can be no doubt, most beneficial, very many being turned by him from a sottish eagerness after mere animal gratifications to an effective recollection that the body is only half the man, and the worse half too. At length, in 1740, Wesley became regularly the minister of a registered chapel in Moorfields, London, and the society of Methodists was formed under his direction. He was, however, by no 4 "It became necessary for the new ries which the non-conformists suffered sectarists either to endure all the inju- for nearly thirty years, or to contradict means prepared for any secession from the national church; on the contrary, he was careful to assemble his congregation at hours which did not interfere with those of the regular parochial service, and to the parish-altar he directed it on sacrament Sundays. These provisions, however, soon occasioned considerable inconveniences. Wesley's followers commonly became averse from hearing such doctrine at church as differed strikingly from that delivered in their own places of worship, and even from receiving the sacrament at the hands of clergymen who preached it. Hence their attendance at many churches was remarkably thin, after a few years; and the arrangements made for it, by the closing of their own chapels, caused much of that time which would have been gladly spent in public worship, to be passed with less advantage, as it would commonly be found, at home. The sacrament also fell into much neglect, although, at one time, Wesley's followers formed in many parish-churches the great body of the communicants. In the later years of his life, their great head became, indeed, sensible that separation from the national establishment was inevitable; but he never gave it his personal sanction, and he took pains to render it as mild as possible. The result has been, that the Wesleyan Methodists differ importantly from the great mass of protestant dissenters; considering themselves rather as supplementary to the church, than alienated from it. Practically, they are, indeed, a large body of separatists, with a complete organization of their own for every religious purpose: neither sacramental ministrations, nor any other, being even professedly dependent, in the slightest. degree, upon the national establishment. But then they have their solemn professions of indissoluble union with the established church, by classing themselves with the Dissenters, taking refuge under the Toleration Act, registering their places of worship, and licensing their preachers, as that act required."- Bogue and Bennett, ii. 116. 5 "Thus a religious society was raised up within the national church, and with this anomaly, that, as to all its interior arrangements as a society, it was independent of the ccclesiastical authority of that church. The irregularity was, in principle, as great when the first step was taken as at any future time. It was a form of practical and partial separation, though not of theoretical dissent; but it arose out of a moral necessity, and existed for some years in such state, that, had the clergy been disposed to co-operate in this evident revival and spread of true religion, and had the heads of the church been willing to sanction itinerant labours among its ministers, and never professed to undervalue ministrations in the church, or the utility of a religious provision made by the state. Nor have they, as a body, or even have many individuals among them, joined in any political movements for the depression or extinction of the church. Thus their separation stands honourably prominent, as made upon grounds purely spiritual; and the establishment, however doubtful of them as a body of unmanageable allies, has the satisfaction of knowing them to be no real enemies, either open or concealed. Their great founder, John Wesley, died in London, on the second of March, 1791, at the great age of eighty-eight, leaving a character and influence behind him, that may well be envied by all who value that sort of anxiety for heaven which is shown by a perfect willingness to do, suffer, and renounce every thing, when religion appears to call for the exertion or sacrifice. Charles Wesley died on the twenty-ninth of March, 1788, at private religious meetings among the serious part of the people for mutual edification, the great body of Methodists might have been retained in communion with the church of England. On this matter, which was often brought before the leading and influential clergy, they made their own election. They refused to co-operate: they, doubtless, thought that they acted right; and, excepting the obloquy and persecution with which they followed an innocent and pious people, they perhaps did so; for a great innovation would have been made upon the discipline of the church; for which, at that time, at least, it was little prepared." (Watson's Life of Wesley. Lond. 1839. p. 134.) It was the policy of the Roman church, when any great religious movement occurred, professinga deference for her authority, to take measures for combining it with herself. If the church of England, when Wesley and Whitefield acquired an irresistible influence, had been able to foresee their ultimate importance, and had possessed sufficient means for following the example of her great rival, she would have acted wisely in doing so. Unhappily, however, men cannot see so far; and, besides, politics tied her hands. The superior clergy were generally of a different party from the inferior, and therefore naturally viewed by them as preferred from motives little connected with professional eminence. Hence, if convocation had been allowed to resume that activity which was required for arranging the amalgamation of Methodism with the establishment, embarrassing contentions were more likely to arise than any useful result. The time, however, may come, when dangers of this kind are much less to be apprehended. If such should be the case, it may admit of serious consideration, whether Methodism, even yet, cannot obtain a formal admission within the establishment. A revival of the subdiaconate might satisfactorily qualify preachers of a semi-laical character, at least, for pulpits provided by their own society, but recognized by the church. The admission of the Wesleyan conference, and any other welldefined, approved body, to regulate its own, though episcopally-ordained, subdeacons, with places of worship provided for them by itself, would be little or nothing more exceptionable, than the papal system which places religious orders under generals and machinery of their own.—Ed.] John, the age of seventy-nine, leaving a family behind. though married, and unhappily, left no issue. The two brothers were among the most remarkable men of their time, and, although churchmen cannot fail of regretting, that their talents and labours took an irregular direction, thereby occasioning a great mass of actual dissent; yet, it must be admitted, that this disadvantage came in the most unexceptionable form, and that the Wesleys, by arousing a dormant spirit of religious inquiry, conferred a vital benefit upon the country at large. § 16. Within five years after the Wesleys attracted general notice at Oxford, and were stigmatized as Methodists there, another student, who soon became equally conspicuous, entered in that university. George Whitefield was descended from a respectable family, numbering beneficed clergymen and independent proprietors among its members; but his father was bred a wine-merchant, and he ultimately kept the Bell Inn at Gloucester. In that house the future preacher was born, in 1714. His father lived only to see him two years old, and his mother's circumstances becoming bad, he was driven at one time to act as waiter. He had, at an earlier age, been carefully kept from any concern with the business of the house, and sent to the grammar-school of his native city, with a view to orders. To this school he returned, on seeing a prospect of admission at Oxford as a servitor. In that capacity he entered at Pembroke College, in 1734. He took with him a more serious cast of mind than is very usual at his then age: a struggling boyhood spent among the vulgar temptations of an inn, having found his vigorous understanding, and ardent temperament, in many occasions for anxious thought, and some for self-accusation. In Oxford, he soon became acquainted with the Wesleys; but his temper was far more enthusiastic than theirs, and a lower scale of domestic nurture pushed his ascetic mortifications down to a coarser level. No degree of self-denial would content him, until he had in some sort imitated our blessed Saviour, in being with the wild beasts, when He was tempted. • In preparing this paragraph, Watson's Life of Wesley has been exclu sively used. Southey's, however, is much fuller, and more philosophical. Whitefield accordingly spent nearly two hours on two following nights in Christchurch meadow, praying, sometimes flat on his face, at others on his knees. The former of these nights proved stormy; and while the elements roared, instead of seeking shelter, he merely felt reminded of the day of judgment. In all these excesses of religious fear, there is no reason to believe that Whitefield had any eye to display; but his appearance became so remarkable, from wretched attire, intentional exposure to cold, and emaciation from insufficient sustenance, that he could not escape notice. His tutor considered him insane; and it can hardly be doubted, that he had sunk into that mental unhealthiness, which is at least upon the very verge of insanity. He had, besides, injuriously tampered with his constitution, and an illness of seven weeks was the penalty. His tutor's conduct at this time was that of a kind and judicious parent: he lent him books, gave him money, visited him, and sent a physician to him. The result was, that, as his frame recovered its vigour, and his spirits their elasticity, the gloom that had weighed him to the earth was dissipated, and his sanguine temperament became as buoyant as ever. He had lost none of his religious feelings, but having shaken off a great load of physical disease, he found them rise to his imagination with a golden hue. This is, therefore, considered as the period of his conversion; it is, in fact, the period from which he made overpowering passions and strong religious convictions go on harmoniously together. He was ordained deacon in his native city, in 1736, and almost immediately displayed a surprising capacity for popular eloquence in the pulpit. Immense congregations hung upon his lips both in Bristol and London; but he tore himself away from this fascinating popularity, and sailed for Georgia, to assist Wesley. That eminent man was, however, gone before Whitefield reached his destination, and he made himself a very short stay, returning to London about the close of 1738. In the following year he was ordained priest at Oxford. Being soon again in London, he found his popularity continually on the increase, but opposition to him kept pace with it, and finding himself generally excluded from churches, he took to field-preaching. His enormous metropolitan congregations mustered in Moorfields, Kennington Common, and Blackheath, |
