leave those themes rather to be handled by learned men, and that moderately and modestly, by way of use and application, rather than by way of positive doctrines, being fitter for the schools than for simple auditories." The puritans exclaimed against this prohibition, whereby, they said, man made that the forbidden fruit, which God appointed for the tree of life. But, upon this point, even the popes themselves, in the plenitude of their power, were not able to impose silence.

Wesley had once a whimsical proof of the horror with which the high-flying Calvinists regarded him. One afternoon, on the road from NewportPagnel to Northampton, "I overtook," says he, "a serious man, with whom I immediately fell into conversation. He presently gave me to know what his opinions were; therefore I said nothing to contradict them. But that did not content him; he was quite uneasy to know whether I held the doctrine of the decrees as he did: but I told him, over and over, we had better keep to practical things, lest we should be angry at one another. And so we did for two miles, till he caught me unawares, and dragged me into the dispute before I knew where I was. He then grew warmer and warmer, told me I was rotten at heart, and supposed I was one of John Wesley's followers. I told him no, I am John Wesley himself!' Upon which,

Improvisum aspris veluti qui sentibus anguem

Pressit,

he would gladly have run away outright; but being the better mounted of the two, I kept close to his side, and endeavoured to shew him his heart, till we came into the street of Northampton."

A FEW years before this final and irreparable breach with the Calvinists, Wesley had attempted to form an open and active union between all such clergymen as have more recently arrogated to themselves the appellation of Evangelical, or Gospel ministers. With this hope he sent round a circular letter, to some fifty ministers of the Church of England, wherein he proposed that, leaving free the disputable points of predestination on one side, and perfection on the other; laying no stress upon expressions, and binding themselves to no peculiar discipline, but some remaining quite regular, others quite irregular; and others, again, partly the one and partly the other, they should think and speak kindly of each other, form, as it were, a defensive league, and each help the other on in his work, and enlarge his influence by all rightful means. If any thing more were meant by this than that each should occasionally accommodate the others with his pulpit, and that they should countenance his itinerant lay-preachers, the meaning is not obvious. On this occasion, also, Mr. Wesley looked for an omen, and relates, with

evident complacency, at the end of the letter, that, one of his friends having objected to him the impossibility of effecting such an union, he went up stairs, and, after a little prayer, opened Kempis on these words: Expecta Dominum; viriliter age; noli diffidere; noli discedere; sed corpus et animam expone constanter pro gloria Dei.

The greater part of the methodizing clergy adhered to Lady Huntingdon's party in the dispute. Among those who remained attached to Mr. Wesley, Vincent Perronet, the vicar of Shoreham, was one, who was, either by birth or extraction, a Swiss, and who, in the Romish church, would have been beatified or canonized, for what, in mystical language, would be called his rapts, as well as for the uniform piety of his life. William Grimshaw, who held the perpetual curacy of Haworth, in one of the wildest parts of the WestRiding, was a more active associate. In his unconverted state, this person was certainly insane; and, had he given utterance at that time to the monstrous and horrible imaginations, which he afterwards revealed to his spiritual friends, he would deservedly have been sent to Bedlam. His change of mind, which was not till he had been ten years in holy orders, was preceded by what he supposed to be a miraculous impression upon his senses, and which may possibly have been an electrical* or

*Mr. Joseph Williams, of Kidderminster, relates the fact from Grimshaw's own testimony. "At last the time of his deliverance At the house of one of his friends he lays his hand on a book, and opens it with his face towards a pewter shelf. Instantly his face

came.

galvanic effect: and, in the course of his ministry, he was favoured with a vision in a trance; that is to say, he mistook* delirium for reality. He became, however, a very zealous parish priest; and his oddities, which procured him the name of Mad Grimshaw, did not prevent him from being very useful among a set of parishioners, who are said to have been as wild as the bleak barren country which they inhabited, and to have had little more sense of religion than their cattle.

The parish contained four hamlets, in each of which he made it a rule to preach three times a month, partly for the sake of the old and infirm, but chiefly for those who scarcely ever attended the church because of the distance. As he found that people were willing to hear him, he extended his preaching into his neighbours' parishes, without troubling himself to ask the consent of the minister, or caring whether he liked it or not. In this way he established two circuits of his own, which he went round every fortnight: in the more populous, he preached from four-and-twenty to thirty times in the week; and, in the other, about half as often, wherefore he called this his idle week.

is saluted with an uncommon flash of heat. He turns to the titlepage, and finds it to be Dr. Owen on Justification. Immediately he is surprised with such another flash. He borrows the book, studies it, is led into God's method of justifying the ungodly, hath a new heart given him, and now, behold, he prayeth !"

The case seems to have been an apoplectic affection of the slightest kind: the detail may be seen in his life by Mr. Myles (p. 14.), as given by himself to Mr. Williams, of Kidderminster. A more remarkable case of the same kind is noticed in the Quarterly Review, vol. x. pp. 117. 118.