from earthly alloy. In the five sonnets he addressed to her he expresses his admiration of her noble qualities; but he only alludes to her personal attractions after her eyes were closed in death, and he gratefully acknowledges her benignant influence in leading him to a clearer apprehension of Christian truth, and a more heartfelt recognition of its claims. The change in his views is as apparent in his

poetry as in her own. Honored and blessed as Vittoria had been in the friends who had enriched her life, this friendship is its crowning glory, and instead of her former saying concerning the ancients, "Ah, happy they who lived in days so full of beauty!" she might well have thanked God with Raphael "that she lived in the days of Michael Angelo."

Five letters written by Vittoria to her distinguished friend are now in the possession of the accomplished head of the Buonarroti family. Written with perfect ease, in a clear, distinct hand, there is no approach to a sentiment any deeper than that of friendship.

How simply the kingly old man turned from the mighty works that made his name immortal on the earth, to the great sacrifice that gave him a blissful immortality in the heavens, may be seen in the beautiful sonnet written in his eighty-third year to Vasari, of which Mr. Harford gives the following translation:

"Time my frail bark o'er a rough ocean guides

Swift to that port where all must touch that live,
And of their actions good or evil give

A strict account, where Truth supreme presides.
As to gay Fancy in which Art confides,

And even her Idol and her monarch makes,
Full well I know how largely it partakes

Of error; but frail man in error prides;

My thoughts, once prompt round hurtful things to twine,
Where are they now, when two dread Deaths are near?
The one impends, the other shakes his spear.

Painting and Sculpture's aid in vain I crave;

My one sole refuge is that Love divine

Which from the Cross stretched forth its arms to save."

In 1541 Vittoria left Rome to seek a more retired home, and to escape from scenes of turbulence and violence. Her brother Ascanio had taken up arms in opposition to a salt-tax imposed by Paul III., who raised ten thousand men, subdued the fiery Colonna, and razed his fortresses to the ground.

The death of the Marchese del Vasto, her adopted son and her husband's heir, saddened the last years of her life, which were spent in retirement from the world in the convent of Viterbo. Here she

spent her time most usefully in directing the education of its youthful inmates.

In 1546 she went to the convent of Sant' Anna in Rome, and on being seized with her last illness the following year she was removed to the palace of Giuliano Cesarini, the husband of Giulia Colonna, her only relative in the city. She died at the age of fifty-seven, attended in her last moments by her faithful friend Michael Angelo, who afterward said that he had never ceased regretting that in that solemn hour he had not imprinted a kiss on the marble forehead of the dead.

ART. VI.-WESLEY AS A MAN OF LITERATURE.

[FOURTH ARTICLE.]

ANOTHER bishop now comes out to the attack, Bishop Warburton, and Mr. Wesley publishes "A Letter to the Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Gloucester, occasioned by his tract on the Office and Operations of the Holy Spirit." First, he examines what the bishop says concerning himself, and said he was "reciting objections which had been urged and answered a hundred times. But as your lordship is pleased to repeat them again, I am obliged to repeat the answers." Secondly, he tries what the bishop says of the office and operations of the Holy Spirit, and proves that his own belief and writings are in unison with Bishop Pearson, the Prayer-book, the Homilies, and the Scriptures. A good deal of the reply is extracted from his former answers to the same points; but the whole is a close piece of argumentation, and a complete refutation of the bishop. So thought Mr. Wesley himself, for he says: "If Dr. Erskine cannot see that I have answered Bishop Warburton plainly and directly, and so untwisted his arguments that no man living will be able to piece them together, I believe all unprejudiced men can, and are thoroughly convinced of it." (Remarks on a Defense of Aspasio vindicated.) He did not expect a reply from the bishop. "I have answered the bishop, and had advice upon my answer. If the devil owes him a shame he will reply. He is a man of sense, but I verily think he does not understand Greek." (Letter to Charles Wesley, 1762.) The bishop was silent, and so acknowledged his defeat.

In 1771 he replied to an Irish clergyman, the Rev. Mr. Fleury, of Waterford, who at that late time of day had recapitulated some

old objection to the Methodists, and proved that he knew little of them or their writings. He urged that the lay preachers were intruders into the sacred office, and reminded his hearers of the earth opening and swallowing up Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Mr. Wesley turns boldly upon him his own words: “Such an intruder are you if you convert no sinners to God. Take heed, lest a deeper pit

swallow you up!"

This reply appears to be the last of Mr. Wesley's formal answers to the current objections to the doctrines and practices of the Methodists. Incidental and occasional replies are to be found in nearly all his works, and were necessary, more or less, as long as he lived. But after the reply to Bishop Warburton, no very formidable attack was made by the clergy or the learned on the Methodists or their founder. Still, a squib or a gun would be occasionally fired. The names of a few poems of 1778-9 will show the spirit of the times. One is, "Perfection; a practical Epistle, calmly addressed to the greatest Hypocrite in England," that is, John Wesley. Another is, "Fanatical Conversation, or Methodism Displayed. A satire, illustrated and verified by notes from John Wesley's fanatical Journal." A third, "Voltaire's Ghost to the Apostle of the Sinless Foundery. A familiar Epistle from the Shades." A few tracts and sermons were also issued against the new sect. But Mr. Wesley, now an old man of seventy, did not trouble himself at any additional work of refutation.

Those who value the Methodist system and belief, ministry or laity, ought to consider not only what a founder was provided by Divine Providence, but what a defender. Rarely has the Church of God seen such a "Defender of the Faith." He was mighty in the use of Scripture, in his appeals to authority, in the calmness of his own spirit, and in his most dexterous use of the art of logic. In these four qualifications no opponent ever was his equal. His method invariably was to cast aside all the extraneous matter, to single out the important points of difference, and then, with all his might, (and usually a blow or two would be sufficient,) to attack each point separate and successfully. Had early Methodism such a defender as George Fox, it could never, humanly speaking, have stood the various and manifold attacks. The anti-Methodistic sermons, charges of bishops, tracts and pamphlets, books and poems, during Mr. Wesley's life are to be numbered by scores and hundreds. William Hogarth even published a painting and engraving to assist the destruction of the sect, and which he called "Credulity, Superstition, and Fanaticism; being a satire on Methodism," 1762. Thus did this great master of caricature ill use his

fine talents! Samuel Foote, the actor, wrote a play to ridicule and slander the poor Methodists, called the "Minor, a comedy," 1760. The next year came out "The Methodists, a comedy, being a continuation and completion of the plan of the Minor, with the original prologue and epilogue," by Israel Pottinger. In 1764 the "Hypocrite, a comedy as it was performed at the Theater Royal, Drury Lane," was published. Thus the pulpit, the press, the art of painting, and the stage, were all in use against the work of God by the instrumentality of the Wesleys and Whitefield.

5. We must now pass on to another path in Wesley's controversial life, namely, his defense of the Moravian Church. In 1765 came out "Remarks on the Rev. Mr. John Wesley's last Journal, wherein he gives an account of the Tenets and Proceedings of the Moravians, and the Divisions and Perplexities of the Methodists, by the Rev. Thomas Church, M. A." This clergyman is highly spoken of as "a gentleman, a scholar, and a Christian." (Answer to Rowland Hill.) He was a minister of St. Ann's Church, in Westminster, and seems to have been annoyed by Mr. Wesley's (1) commending the Moravians so highly in his Journals; (2) holding principles in common with them, from which various enormities necessarily followed; (3) maintaining other errors more than theirs, involving enthusiasm to the highest degree. The answer allowed that the Moravians were "tainted with Quietism, Universal Salvation, and Antinomian opinions;" but he yet believed them "in the main some of the best Christians in the world," and desired "union with them (were the stumbling blocks once put away) above all things under heaven." Mr. Church in reply issued a second letter to Mr. Wesley, who published "The Principles of a Methodist farther explained." The reply goes on with the defense of the Moravians, who held generally to the principles of the Methodists. He also defends many of his own remarks, opinions, and accounts, given in the Journals. Church was a tedious disputer, and wanted the replyer to follow him page after page, and paragraph after paragraph. He would do no such thing, but passing by all the mere verbiage and easily assailable parts, he seized hold of the strong points and dealt with them as they needed. The two answers to Mr. Church may be viewed as an act of friendship to the Moravian brethren, who had been so useful to himself when in the dark seeking justification before God.

6. Another topic of controversy was the doctrine of Original Sin, and with the Rev. John Taylor, a Unitarian minister of Norwich, a man of great talents, who by his preaching and writings made many disciples. Mr. Wesley, in reply, set forth the "Doctrine of

Original Sin, according to Scripture, Reason, and Experience." The book is divided into seven parts: (1.) He shows the past and present ignorant and sinful state of mankind; and the picture is drawn by a masterly hand. (2.) The scriptural method for accounting for this is defended. In this part is a valuable exposition of numerous texts, showing the Unitarian and true meanings, one being set against the other in a convenient and scholarly method. (3.) This part is a reply to Dr. Taylor's arguments against the true doctrine. A large variety of objections is replied to in Mr. Wesley's usual concise, clear, and energetic manner. (4.) Here are inserted extracts from the writings of Dr. Watts on the doctrine of original sin. (5, 6.) These parts contain extracts from the writings of the Rev. Samuel Hebden against Dr. Taylor. (7.) Another extract, from Mr. Boston's "Fourfold State of Man." The book then is only half original, the other half being taken from other authors. The extracts make the work more valuable. The book is so well written and compiled that no other has supplanted it, and the Methodist ministry is as likely to use it hereafter as in times past: Dr. Taylor never answered it.

7. Another point to which the polemical literature of our founder reached was the mystic divinity of some German and English authors, particularly Jacob Behmen and Mr. Law. He gave his thoughts upon the German mystic, and "a specimen of the divinity and philosophy of the (so-called) highly illuminated" writer. The specimen is the Lord's Prayer, which is commonly explained by the words; but Behmen gave a meaning to every syllable, and even to some of the letters. To read such an author was a waste of time, and "enough to crack any man's brains." Law was a translator and disciple of Behmen, and assisted in introducing German mysticism into England. Mr. Wesley wrote him a long letter in 1756, but no conviction of error followed. One of Mr. Law's curious notions was that angels have each a twofold sex, and that Adam "was both male and female in one person," as an angel. If God had not divided human nature into a male and female creature," then the man would have brought forth his own likeness out of himself in the same manner as he had a birth from God." The mystic divinity of Mr. Law does not preserve his name, which is preserved, however, by his rational divinity, as set forth in the "Serious Call to a Devout Life," a treatise "which will hardly be excelled, if it be equaled, in the English tongue, either for beauty of expression or for justness and depth of thought." (Sermon on a Single Eye.)

86

8. The Roman Catholic controversy could hardly escape the attention, or fail to enlist the talents, of a preacher who traveled so