next day, he chose, before he began to eat, to finish a sermon which he had borrowed upon Salvation by Faith. In reading the last page he changed colour, fell off his chair, beat himself against the ground, and screamed so terribly that the neighbours were alarmed, and ran into the house. Wesley was presently informed that the man was fallen raving mad. "I found him," he says, "on the floor, the room being full of people, whom his wife would have kept without, but he cried out aloud, No, let them all come, let all the world see the just judgment of God!' Two or three men were holding him as well as they could. He immediately fixed his eyes upon me, and stretching out his hand, cried, Aye, this is he who I said was a deceiver of the people! But God has overtaken me. I said it was all a delusion; but this is no delusion! He then roared out, O thou devil, thou cursed devil, yea, thou legion of devils! thou canst not stay! Christ will cast thee out! I know his work is begun! Tear me to pieces if thou wilt; but thou canst not hurt me! He then beat himself against the ground again, his breast heaving at the same time as in the pangs of death, and great drops of sweat trickling down his face. We all betook ourselves to prayer. His pangs ceased, and both his body and soul were set at liberty." The next day Wesley found him with his voice gone, and his body weak as an infant's, "but his soul was in peace, full of love, and rejoicing in hope of the glory of God."

In later years Wesley neither expected paroxysms of this kind, nor encouraged them; nor are his followers in England forward to excite or boast of them. They maintain, however, that these early cases were the operation of grace, and attempt to prove it by the reality of the symptoms, and the permanence of the religious impressions which were produced. 66 Perhaps," says Wesley, "it might be because of the hardness of our hearts, unready to receive any thing, unless we see it with our eyes and hear it with our ears, that God in tender condescension to our weakness suffered so many out

ward signs at the very time when he wrought the inward change, to be continually seen and heard among us. But although they saw signs and wonders, for so I must term them, yet many would not believe." These things, however, occasioned a discussion with his brother Samuel: and Wesley perhaps remembered towards the latter end of his life, and felt the force of the arguments which had no weight with him while he was in this state of exaltation.

When Wesley wrote to his eldest brother from Marienborn, he accused him and his wife of evilspeaking. Mrs. Wesley had once interrupted Charles when he offered to read to them a chapter in Law's Serious Call it was intended as an indirect lecture, and she told him, with no unbecoming temper, that neither she nor his brother wanted it. Wesley observed in his letter, that he was much concerned at this. "Yes, my sister," he says, "I must tell you, in the spirit of love, and before God who searcheth the heart, you do want it; you want it exceedingly. I know no one soul that wants to read and consider deeply so much the chapter of universal love and that of intercession. The character of Susurrus

there, is your own. I should be false to God and you, did I not tell you so. Oh, may it be so no longer; but may you love your neighbour as yourself, both in word and tongue, and in deed and truth." The abundant sincerity of this letter might atone for its lack of courtesy. Wesley did justice to his brother, in believing that he would always receive kindly what was so intended; and after his return to England, he resumed the attack. "I again," he says, "recommend the character of Susurrus both. to you and my sister, as (whether real or feigned) striking at the root of a fault, of which both she and you were, I think, more guilty than any other two persons I have known in my life. O may God deliver both you and me from all bitterness and evil speaking, as well as from all false doctrine, heresy, and schism." He then entered upon a vindication

of his own conduct, and the doctrine which he had newly espoused, in reply to some remarks which Mrs. Hutton's letter had drawn from his brother.

"With regard to my own character," he says, "and my doctrine likewise, I shall answer you very plainly. By a Christian, I mean one who so believes in Christ, as that sin hath no more dominion over him; and in this obvious sense of the word, I was not a Christian till May the 24th last past. For till then sin had the dominion over me, although I fought with it continually; but surely then, from that time to this, it hath not; such is the free grace of God in Christ. What sins they were which till then reigned over me, and from which by the grace of God I am now free, I am ready to declare on the house-top, if it may be for the glory of God. If you ask by what means I am made free (though not perfect, neither infallibly sure of my perseverance), 1 answer, by faith in Christ; by such a sort or degree of faith as I had not till that day. The Angoopia 15ws, the seal of the spirit, the love of God shed abroad in my heart, and producing joy in the Holy Ghost, joy which no man taketh away, joy unspeakable and full of glory; this witness of the spirit I have not, but I patiently wait for it. I know many who have already received it, more than one or two in the very hour we were praying for it. And having seen and spoken with a cloud of witnesses abroad, as well as in my own country, I cannot doubt but that believers who wait and pray for it, will find these scriptures fulfilled in themselves. My hope is that they will be fulfilled in me. I build on Christ, the rock of ages; on his sure mercies described in his word, and on his promises, all which I know are yea and amen. Those who have not yet received joy in the Holy Ghost, the love of God, and the plerophory of faith, (any, or all of which, I take to be the witness of the spirit with our spirit, that we are the sons of God,) I believe to be Christians in that imperfect sense wherein I call myself such. O brother, would to God you would leave disputing concerning the things which you know not (if indeed you know them

not), and beg of God to fill up what is yet wanting in you! Why should not you also seek till you receive that peace of God which passeth all understanding? Who shall hinder you, notwithstanding the manifold temptations, from rejoicing with joy unspeakable by reason of glory? Amen! Lord Jesus! May you, and all who are near of kin to you (if you have it not already), feel his love shed abroad in your hearts, by his spirit which dwelleth in you, and be sealed with the holy spirit of promise which is the earnest of your inheritance." With regard to some stories to which Samuel had alluded of visions, and of a ball of fire falling upon a female convert, and inflaming her soul, he observed, that if all which had been said upon visions, and dreams, and balls of fire, were fairly proposed in syllogisms, it would not prove a jot more on one, than on the other side of the question. He built nothing on such tales.

To this Samuel replied, "You build nothing on tales, but I do. I see what is manifestly built upon them. If you disclaim it, and warn poor shallow pates of their folly and danger, so much the better. They are counted signs or tokens, means or conveyances, proof or evidences of the sensible information, &c. calculated to turn fools into madmen, and put them without a jest into the condition of Oliver's porter.When I hear visions, &c. reproved, discouraged, and ceased among the new brotherhood, I shall then say no more of them; but till then I will use my utmost strength that God shall give me, to expose these bad branches of a bad root. I am not out of my way, though encountering of wind-mills." In a subsequent letter he says, "I might as well let writing alone at present, for any effect it will have, further than showing you I neither despise you on the one hand, nor am angry with you on the other. Charles has told me, he believes no more in dreams and visions than I do. Had you said so, I believe I should hardly have spent any time upon them, though I find others credit them, whatever you may do."

"You make two degrees or kinds of assurance," he continues: "that neither of them are necessary to a state of salvation, I prove thus: 1st. Because multitudes are saved without either. These are of three sorts, all infants baptized, who die before actual sin; all persons of a melancholy and gloomy constitution, who without a miracle cannot be changed; all penitents who live a good life after their recovery, and yet never attain to their first state. 2dly. The lowest assurance is an impression from God, who is infallible, that heaven shall be actually enjoyed by the person to whom it is made. How is this consistent with fears of miscarriage, with deep sorrow, and going on the way weeping? How can any doubt after such certificate? If they can, then here is an assurance whereby the person who has it is not sure. 3dly. If this be essential to a state of salvation, it is utterly impossible any should fall from that state finally; since, how can any thing be more fixed than what Truth and Power has said he will perform? Unless you will say of the matter here as I observed of the person, that there may be assurance wherein the thing itself is not certain."

Wesley replied, "To this hour you have pursued an ignoratio elenchi. Your assurance and mine are as different as light and darkness. I mean an assurance that I am now in a state of salvation: you an assurance that I shall persevere therein.-No kind of assurance (that I know), or of faith, or repentance, is essential to their salvation who die infants. I believe God is ready to give all true penitents, who fly to his free grace in Christ, a fuller sense of pardon than they had before they fell. I know this to be true of several; whether there are exempt cases I know not. Persons of a melancholy and gloomy constitution, even to some degree of madness, I have known in a moment brought (let it be called a miracle, I quarrel not) into a state of firm, lasting peace and joy."

It was from Bristol that Wesley wrote this letter, when he was in the full career of triumphant enthusiasm, producing effects which he verily believed