rance, my weakness, my aptness to mistake, is great! My judgment is often biassed by circumstances too immaterial to be the ground of determination; and therefore often, yea mostly, rather than be in danger of judging amiss, I remain in doubtful silence." Signed, W. Briggs. January 30, 1751, Mr. Wesley at the pressing request of Dr. Isham, then rector of Lincoln-College, set out early in the morning to vote for a member of parliament. It was a severe frost, the wind north-west, full in his face, and the roads so slippery that the horses could scarcely keep their feet. Nevertheless about seven in the evening, he, and those with him, for he never travelled alone, came safe to Oxford. A congregation was waiting for him, whom he immediately addressed in those awful words, "What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" The next day he went to the schools, where the convocation was met. "But," says he, "I did not find that decency and order which I expected. The gentleman for whom I voted, was not elected: yet I did not repent of my coming; I owe much more than this to that generous, friendly man, who now rests from his labors." Mr. Wesley means Dr. Morley, who so generously assisted him with his interest, when he was elected Fellow of Lincoln-College.* A year or more, before this period, Mr. Wesley had formed a resolution to marry. But the affair coming to the knowledge of Mr. Charles Wesley before marriage took place, he found means to prevent it; for reasons which appeared to him of sufficient importance to authorize him to interfere in the business. Mr. John Wesley, however, thought otherwise, and this was the first breach of that union and harmony which had now subsisted between the two brothers, without interruption, for more than twenty years. Notwithstanding this disappointment, Mr. Wesley still continued in the resolution to marry; and having fixed his choice of a partner, he proposed the matter to the Reverend Mr. Perronet of Shoreham. February 2, he received Mr. Perronet's answer, who wrote as a Christian minister ought to write, in favor of marriage. In a few days after, he married Mrs. Vizelle, a widow lady of independent fortune. But before the marriage, he took care that her fortune should be wholly settled upon herself, refusing to have the command of one shilling of her property. Mr. Wesley's constant habit of travelling from place to place, through Great Britain and Ireland, the number of persons who came to visit him wherever he was, and his extensive correspondence with the members of the society, were circumstances unfavorable to that social intercourse, mutual openness and confidence, which form the basis of happiness in the married state. These circumstances, indeed, would not have been so very unfavorable, had he married a woman who could have entered into his views, and have accommodated herself to his situation. But this was not the case. Had he searched the whole kingdom on purpose, he would hardly have found a woman more unsuitable in these respects, than she whom he married. * See vol. i. page 228. Some years before his marriage, Mr. Wesley had written a small tract in favor of celibacy. Not that he condemned, or even disapproved of prudent marriages, but he thought celibacy, to those who could live comfortably in it, more favorable to religious improvement than a state of matrimony. He considered Paul's advice to the church at Corinth, as a standing rule in all circumstances of Christians. It is really wonderful how he could fall into this error, as the Apostle expressly says, that he gave that advice dri Tηy éves@oav åváyzny, on account of the impending distress;' that is, on account of the persecutions both from Jews and Gentiles, which already threatened the churches; when men and women being dragged to prison, or to death, it would be more easy and convenient not to be entangled with the cares of a family. It does not appear however, that Mr. Wesley, in writing that tract, had any reference to his own situation in particular; or, that he had formed a resolution never to marry. But had even this been the case, his marriage would only show the truth of the words of Horace, Naturam expellas furca, tamen usque recurret. You may repel nature by violence, but still she will return upon you. This is undoubtedly true of those propensities which are purely natural and congenial to the human constitution. Juvenal, indeed, asserts nearly the same thing of vicious habits, which form a kind of secondary nature: -Tamen ad mores natura recurrit This might perhaps be true, without the light of the gospel, and the interpositions of divine grace. March 27, Mr. Wesley set out on his northern journey. He travelled through the societies as far as Whitehaven, and April 20, came to Newcastle. On the 24th, he set out with Mr. Hopper, to pay his first visit to Scotland. He was invited thither by captain (afterwards colonel) Galatin, who was then quartered at Musselborough. "I had no intention," says he, " to preach in Scotland; not imagining that there were any that desired I should. But I was mistaken. Curiosity, if nothing else, brought abundance of people together in the evening. And whereas in the kirk, Mrs. Galatin informed me, there used to be laughing and talking, and all the marks of the grossest inattention; it was far otherwise here. They remained as statues from the beginning of the sermon to the end. I preached again at six in the evening, on, 'Seek ye the Lord while he may be found.' I used great plainness of speech towards high and low: and they all received it in love: so that the prejudice which had been for several years planting was torn up by the roots in one hour. After preaching, one of the bailiffs of the town, with one of the elders of the kirk, came to me and begged I would stay with them a while; nay, if it were but two or three days, and they would fit up a larger place than the school, and prepare seats for the congregations. Had not my time been fixed, I should gladly have complied. All that I could now do, was to give them a promise, that Mr. Hopper would come back the next week and spend a few days with them. And it was not without a fair prospect. The congregations were very numerous; many were cut to the heart; and several joined together in a little society." May 15. Mr. Wesley came to Leeds. Here he held a conference with about thirty of the preachers. He inquired particularly into their qualifications, as to their grace and gifts; and into the fruits of their labors; and tells us he found no reason to doubt, except of one only. Mr. Wesley had now been married upwards of three months: and June the 1st he resigned his fellowship. His letter of resignation was, I believe, in the words of one of the established forms of the college, for that purpose. It was as follows. "Ego Johannes Wesley, Collegii Lincolniensis in Academia Oxoniesi Socius, quicquid anihi juris est in prædicta Societate, ejusdem Rectori et Sociis sponte ac libere resigno: illis universis et singulis, perpetuam pacem, ac omnimodam in Christo felicitatem exoptans." CHAPTER III. THE SPREAD OF OF MR. WESLEY'S MINISTERIAL LABORS, AND THE materials for this life are so abundant, without having recourse to Mr. Wesley's printed works; and the present volume begins to fill up so very fast, that I shall be obliged in future to take but little notice of the journies of this laborious and successful minister of Christ. Many papers have been put into my hands since the first volume of this work was published. I shall not therefore be able to do more in the remaining part of this volume, than print such extracts from the materials before me, as may exhibit to our view the most striking features of this great man's character, and of the work in which he was engaged. It has been stated above,* that Mr. Charles Wesley, in the course of the present year, went into Yorkshire, with a commission to inquire more particularly into the character and moral conduct of the preachers in their several stations. He found one or two, who did not walk worthy of the gospel; and several more whom he thought utterly unqualified to preach. In the execution of his commission, Mr. John Wesley wrote to him very frequently. The following are extracts from some of his letters on this occasion. I July 17. "I fear for C. S and J. C- more and more. have heard they frequently and bitterly rail against the church.”— On this Mr. Charles Wesley puts the following query: "What assurance can we have, that they will not forsake it, at least when * Vol. i. page 195. we are dead? Ought we to admit any one for a preacher, till we can trust his invariable attachment to the church?” July 20. "The societies both must and shall maintain the preachers we send among them, or I will preach among them no more. The least that I can say to any of these preachers, is, 'Give yourself wholly to the work, and you shall have food to eat, and raiment to put on.' And I cannot see that any preacher is called to any people, who will not thus maintain him. Almost everything depends on you and me: let nothing damp or hinder us: only let us be alive, and put forth all our strength." July 24. "As to the preachers, my counsel is, not to check the young ones without strong necessity. If we lay some aside, we must have a supply; and of the two, I prefer grace before gifts."Mr. Charles puts a query. "Are not both indispensably necessary? Has not the cause suffered, in Ireland especially, through the insufficiency—of the preachers? Should we not first regulate, reform, and bring into discipline, the preachers we have, before we look for more? Should we not also watch and labor, to prevent the mischiefs which the discarded preachers may occasion?" July 27. "What is it, that has eaten out the heart of half our preachers, particularly those in Ireland? Absolutely idleness; their not being constantly employed. I see it plainer and plainer. Therefore I beg you will inquire of each, 'How do you spend your time from morning to evening?' And give him his choice, Either follow your trade, or resolve before God, to spend the same hours in reading, &c. which you used to spend in working.' August 3. "I heartily concur with you, in dealing with all (not only with disorderly walkers, but also triflers,) ualanes, пolvπqaɣμoras, the effeminate and busybodies, as with M. F— I spoke to one this morning, so that I was even amazed at myself." August 8. "We must have forty itinerant preachers, or drop some of our societies. You cannot so well judge of this, without seeing the letters I receive from all parts,' August 15. "If our preachers do not, nor will not, spend all their time in study and saving souls, they must be employed close in other work, or perish." August 17. C. S- pleads for a kind of aristocracy, and says you and I, should do nothing without the consent of all the preachers; otherwise we govern arbitrarily, to which they cannot submit. Whence is this?" I August 24. "O that you and I, may arise and stand upright! I quite agree with you: let us have but six, so we are all one. have sent one more home to his work. We may trust God to send forth more laborers; only be not unwilling to receive them, when there is reasonable proof that he has sent them." Augugt 21, Mr. Wesley wrote thus to a friend. "I see plainly the spirit of Ham if not of Corah, has fully possessed several of our preachers. So much the more freely and firmly do I acquiesce in the determination of my brother, 'That it is far better for us to have ten, or six preachers who are alive to God, sound in the faith, and of one heart with us and with one another, than fifty of whom we have no such assurance.'" In August, Mr. Charles Wesley wrote to his brother under great oppression of mind, and in very strong language. Wherever he saw some things wrong, his fears suggested to him that there might be many more which he did not see; and the natural warmth of his temper, led him to use expressions abundantly more severe than the case required. But the preachers against whom he had no material charge, but want of qualifications for their office, had nothing more to do, than write to Mr. John Wesley, a letter of humiliation and entire submission, and the matter was settled with him, and he would give them fresh encouragement. This conduct of Mr. John Wesley made his brother appear as an enemy to the preachers and himself as their protector and friend; which was another means of weakening the union that had long subsisted between them. Being returned to London, the two brothers went down to Shoreham, in November, and talked the matter over in the presence of Mr. Perronet. They both expressed their entire satisfaction in the end which each had in view; namely, the glory of God, and the salvation of souls. They both acknowledged their sincerity in desiring union between themselves, as the means to that end; and after much conversation, they both agreed to act in concert with respect to the preachers, so that neither of them should admit or refuse any, but such as both admitted or refused.-About six weeks afterwards, they were at Shoreham again, and then signed the following articles of agreement: "With regard to the preachers, we agree, 1. "That none shall be permitted to preach in any of our societies, till he be examined, both as to his grace and gifts; at least by the assistant, who sending word to us, may by our answer admit him a local preacher. 2. "That such preacher be not immediately taken from his trade, but be exhorted to follow it with all diligence. 3. "That no person shall be received as a travelling preacher, or be taken from his trade, by either of us alone, but by both of us conjointly, giving him a note under both our hands. 4. "That neither of us will re-admit a travelling preacher laid aside, or without the consent of the other. 5. "That if we should disagree in our judgment, we will refer the matter to Mr. Perronet. 6. "That we will entirely be patterns of all we expect from every preacher; particularly of zeal, diligence, and punctuality in the work: by constantly preaching and meeting the society; by visiting yearly, Ireland, Cornwall, and the north; and in general by superintending the whole work, and every branch of it, with all the strength which God shall give us. We agree to the above written, till this day next year, in the presence of Mr. Perronet. "JOHN WESLEY, "CHARLES WESLEY." *This and several other articles that will be inserted in this volume, have been transcribed from Mr. Charles Wesley's papers written in short-hand; which were put into my hands after the first volume was published. |