66 LXXIV. 1. The Methodists. TALENTS of no ordinary kind, and a devotional temper, were hereditary in the family of Wesley. He was born in 1703, at Epworth, in the Lindsay division of Leicestershire. Two books, "The Following of Christ," usually ascribed to Thomas à Kempis*, and Dr. Jeremy Taylor's "Rules of Holy Living and Dying," made an early and a lasting impression upon him. The taking up of the cross, as it is inculcated by these writers, at first revolted him :-mentioning this to his mother, a woman of uncommon intellectual powers, she him this excellent lesson: "Would you judge of "the lawfulness or unlawfulness of pleasure,-take this rule;-whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes off the relish of spiri"tual things;-in short,-whatever, increases the "strength and authority of your body over your "mind,--that thing is sin in you, however innocent gave * A Life of Thomas à Kempis has been published by the writer of these pages, 1 vol. 8vo. Numerous are the treatises written to ascertain who is the author of The Imitation: this, even now, is the subject of a literary controversy at Paris, -See "Dissertation sur soixante Traductions Françaises de "l'Imitation de Jésus Christ, dédiée à sa Majesté l'Impératrice "et Reine. Par Ant. Alex. Barbier, bibliothécaire de sa ma62 jesté l'empereur et roi, et de son conseil d'état. Suivie des "considérations sur la question relative à l'auteur de l'Imita "tion. Paris, 1812, 8vo." "it may be in itself." Wesley afterwards became acquainted with the celebrated William Law, and was much affected by his conversation and writings. One expression of that gentleman sunk deep into Wesley's heart,-" You would have," Law said to him, "a philosophical religion:--but there can be no such thing. Religion is the most plain, simple thing in the world:-it is only,- We love HIM "because He first loved us*" Charles Wesley, the younger brother of John, and some of his associates, acquired at Oxford, by their piety and mortified habits, the appellation of Methodists. John soon became their leader. He addicted himself with great earnestness to theological study, obtained a fellowship in Lincoln college, and was appointed a Greek lecturer and moderator of the classes. He then travelled to New Georgia, to convert the Indians, and, at the end of two years, returned to England. Mr. Southey, from whose valuable Life of Wesley we have extracted the foregoing passages, has given in it a curious account of the church of England, from the reformation till the time of Wesley's predication. He closes it with the following remarkable passage, which, though we do not acquiesce in every part of it, we transcribe with pleasure. tr *Law is a powerful writer: it is said that few books have ever made so many religious enthusiasts as his Christian "Perfection and his Serious Call: indeed the youth who should "read them without being perilously affected, must have either "a light mind, or an unusually strong one."-The Life of Wesley, and the Rise and Progress of Methodism, by Robert Southey, esq.-1820, 2 vols. 8vo. દર Speaking of that period of the reformation, which immediately followed its establishment by the first parliament of Elizabeth, he says, "The evil was, that, among the educated classes, too little care was taken to imbue them early with this better "faith; and too little exertion used for awakening "them from the pursuits and vanities of this world, "to a salutary and hopeful contemplation of that, "which is to come. And there was the heavier evil, that the greater part of the nation were "totally uneducated;-christians no farther than "the mere ceremony of baptism could make them, "being for the most part in a state of heathen "or worse than heathen ignorance. In truth, "they had never been converted; for, at first, one "idolatry had been substituted for another; in "this, they had followed the fashion of their "lords; and when the Romish idolatry was ex pelled, the change on their part was still a matter " of necessary submission;—they were left as ig"norant of real christianity as they were found. "The world has never yet seen a nation of "christians. 66 "Three measures then were required for completing the reformation in England: that the "condition of the inferior clergy should be im"proved; that the number of religious instructors "should be greatly increased; and that a system "of parochial education should be established and "vigilantly upheld. These measures could only "be effected by the legislature. A fourth thing "was needful, that the clergy should be awakened to an active discharge of their duty; and this "was not within the power of legislation. The "former objects never for a moment occupied Wesley's consideration. He began life with "ascetic habits and opinions; with a restless ແ spirit, and a fiery heart. Ease and comfort were "neither congenial to his disposition nor his principles wealth was not necessary for his calling, " and it was beneath his thoughts: he could com"mand not merely respectability without it, but importance. Nor was he long before he dis"covered what St. Francis and his followers and "imitators had demonstrated long before, that 66 66 they, who profess poverty for conscience-sake, "and trust for daily bread to the religious sympathy which they excite, will find it as surely as "Elijah in the wilderness, and without a miracle. "As little did the subject of national education engage his mind: his aim was direct, immediate, palpable utility. Nor could he have effected any thing upon either of these great legislative points the most urgent representations, the "most convincing arguments, would have been disregarded in that age, for the time was not come. The great struggle between the destruc"tive and conservative principles,-between good " and evil,—had not yet commenced; and it was "not then foreseen that the very foundations of "civil society would be shaken, because govern"ments had neglected their most awful and most important duty. But the present consequences " of this neglect were obvious and glaring; the 66 66 "rudeness of the peasantry, the brutality of the "town populace, the prevalence of drunkenness, "the growth of impiety, the general deadness to "religion. These might be combated by indivi"dual exertions, and Wesley felt in himself the 66 66 66 power and the will both in such plenitude, that "they appeared to him a manifestation, not to be "doubted, of the will of Heaven. Every trial "tended to confirm him in this persuasion; and "the effects which he produced, both upon body. "and mind, appeared equally to himself and to his "followers miraculous. Diseases were arrested or "subdued by the faith which he inspired,-madness was appeased, and, in the sound and sane, paroxysms were excited, which were new to pathology, and which he believed to be supernatural interpositions, vouchsafed in furtherance of his "efforts by the spirit of God, or worked in opposi"tion to them by the exasperated principle of evil. "Drunkards were reclaimed, sinners were con“verted; the penitent who came in despair was "sent away with the full assurance of joy; the "dead sleep of indifference was broken; and often"times his eloquence reached the hard brute heart, "and opening it, like the rock of Horeb, made 66 way for the living spring of piety which had been pent within. These effects he saw,—they were "public and undeniable; and looking forward in "exultant faith, he hoped that the leaven would "not cease to work till it had leavened the whole mass; that the impulse which he had given would 66 66 2 surely, though slowly, operate a national refor |