persons. On this practice he observes, that though till lately he had been so tenacious of every point relating to decency and order, that he should have thought the saving of souls almost a sin if it had not been done in a church, yet, I have since seen abundant reason to adore the wise providence of God herein, making a way for myriads of people, who never troubled any church or were likely so to do, to hear that word which they soon found to be the power of God unto salvation."

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The manner in which he filled up his time, may be seen from the following account of his weekly labours 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." (Journal.)

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

rebaptizing persons who had been baptized by Dissenters, in which they exhibited 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 labours he highly esteemed." (Whitehead's Life.)

About this time some disputes took place, in the Fetterlane 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 labour and are heavy-laden; and I will give you rest. 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

The

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 oppor tunity 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 in Moorfields, and on Kennington Common. At one 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 66 doubting whereunto this thing might grow," were inevitable consequences. A doctrine so obsolete, that on its revival it was regarded as new and dangerous, was now publicly proclaimed as the doctrine of the apostles and reformers; the consciousness of forgiveness of sins was professed by many, and enforced as the possible attainment of all; several clergymen of talents and learning, which would have given influence to any cause, endued with mighty zeal, and with a restless activity, instead of settling in parishes, were preaching in various churches and private rooms, and to vast multitudes in the open air, alternately in the metropolis, and at Bristol, Oxford, and the interjacent places. They alarmed the careless by bringing before them the solemnities of the last judgment; they explained the spirituality of that law, upon which the self-righteous trusted for salvation, and convinced them that the justification of man was by the grace of God alone through faith; and they roused the dozing adherents of mere forms, by teaching that true religion implies a change of the whole heart wrought by the Holy Ghost. With equal zeal and earnestness, they checked the pruriency of the Calvinistic system, as held by many Dissenters, by insisting that the law which

cannot justify, was still the rule of life, and the standard of holiness to all true believers; and taught that mere doctrinal views of evangelical truth, however correct, were quite as vain and unprofitable as Pharisaism and formality, when made a substitute for vital faith, spirituality, and practical holiness. All this zeal was supported and made more noticeable, by the moral elevation of their character. Their conduct was scrupulously hallowed; their spirit, gentle, tender, and sympathizing; their courage, bold and undaunted; their patience, proof against all reproach, hardships, persecutions; their charities to the poor abounded to the full extent of all their resources; their labours were wholly gratuitous; and their wonderful activity, and endurance of the fatigues of rapid travelling, seemed to destroy the distance of place, and to give them a sort of ubiquity in the vast circuit which they had then adopted as the field of their labours. For all these reasons, they were men to be wondered at," even in this the infancy of their career; and as their ardour was increased by the effects which followed, the conversion of great numbers to God, of which the most satisfactory evidence was afforded, it disappointed those who anticipated that their zeal would soon cool, and that, "shorn of their strength" by opposition, reproach, and exhausting labours, they would become "like other men."

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An infidel or semi-Christian philosophy has its theories at hand to account for the appearance and conduct of such extraordinary men. If their own supposed "artifices," and the "temptation to place themselves at the head of a sect," will not solve the case; it then resorts "to the circumstances of the age," or to "that restless activity and ambition" which finds in them "a promising sphere of action, and is attracted onward by its first successes.' Even many serious Churchmen of later times, who contend that the great men of the Reformation were raised up by Divine Providence in mercy to the world, are kept by sectarian prejudices from acknowledging a similar providential leading in the case of the Wesleys, Whitefield, and Howell Harris, because the whole of the good effected has not rested within their own pale, and all the sheep collected out of the wilderness have not been gathered into their own fold. The sober Christian will, however, resort to

the first principles of his own religion in order to form his judgment. He will acknowledge that the Lord of the harvest has the prerogative of "sending forth his labourers ;" that men who change the religious aspect of whole nations cannot be the offspring of chance, or the creation of circumstances; that, whatever there may be of personal fitness in them for the work, as in the eminent natural and acquired talents of St. Paul; and whatever there may be in circumstances to favour their usefulness, these things do not shut out the special agency of God, but make it the more manifest; since the first more strikingly marks his agency in preparing his own servants, and training his soldiers; and the second, his wisdom in choosing the times of their appearance, and the scenes of their labours, and thus setting before them "an open door, and effectual." Nor can it be allowed, if we abide by the doctrine of the Scriptures, that a real spiritual good could have been so extensively and uniformly effected, and "multitudes turned to the Lord," unless God had been with the instruments, seconding their labours, and "giving his own testimony to the word of his grace.' The hand of God is equally conspicuous in connecting the leading events of their earlier history with their future usefulness. They were men "separated to the Gospel of God;" and every devout and grateful Christian will not cease to recognize in their appearance, labours, and successes, the mercy of God to a land where "truth had fallen in the streets," and the people were sitting in darkness, and in the shadow of death.

CHAPTER VI.

WE left Mr. Wesley at Bristol, in the summer of 1739, to which scene of labour, after a visit to London, he again returned. Kingswood was mentioned in the account given by Mr. Wesley, in the preceding chapter, of his labours; and in this district, inhabited by colliers, and, from its rudeness, a terror to the neighbourhood, the preaching of the two brothers and of Mr. Whitefield was eminently successful. The colliers were even proverbial for wickedness; but many of them became truly exemplary for their piety. These had been exhorted, it seems, to go to Bristol to