exhort his neighbours in his own house, and when that was too small, in the open air. Had Mr. Wesley been still doubtful whether the admission of lay preachers should make a part of his plan, this must have decided him. At Newcastle Mr. Wesley was shocked at the profligacy of the populace. At seven on Sunday morning, however, he walked to Sandgate, the poorest part of the town, and there began to sing the hundredth psalm. This soon brought a crowd about him, which continued to increase till he had done preaching. At five in the evening of the same day he preached again, and his congregation was so large, that it was not possible for one-half to hear. "After preaching," said Mr. Wesley, "the poor people were ready to tread me under foot, out of pure love and kindness." He could not then remain with them, but his brother soon came and organized them; and in a few months he returned, and began to build a room for public worship. Mr. Wesley had now meeting-houses in Bristol, London, Kingswood, and Newcastle; and societies were rapidly formed in other places by means of itinerancy, which was now become a regular system, and by the co-operation of lay preachers, who sprung up daily among his followers. In the course of his regular itinerancy, he called at Epworth, and being denied the use of the church, he stood upon his father's tombstone, and cried, "The kingdom of heaven is not meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." Seven successive evenings he preached upon that tombstone, and in no place did he ever preach with greater effect. Mr. Wesley and his preachers were now exposed to the attacks of various mobs in London, Bristol, Cornwall, and particularly at Wednesbury. Where the magistrates did their duty these outrages were soon suppressed; but in some parts the mob was incited by the clergy, and connived at by the magistrates. At Wednesbury advantage was taken of the popular cry against the Methodists to break open their doors and plunder their houses; but greater personal barbarities were exercised in other places. Some of the preachers received serious injury; others were held under water till they were nearly dead; and of the women who attended them, some were so treated by the cowardly and brutal populace, that they never thoroughly

recovered. In some places they daubed the preacher all over with paint. The progress of methodism was rather furthered than impeded by this kind of persecution. In every instance the preachers displayed that fearlessness which, when the madness of the moment was over, made even their enemies respect them. At first there was no regular provision for the lay preachers. They were lodged and fed by some of the society wherever they went; and when they wanted clothes, if they were not supplied by individual friends, they represented their necessity to the stewards. But a small stated allowance was soon found necessary. A school was also erected at Kingswood, for the education of the sons of the preachers. The limits of this volume preclude any details from being given of the advancement of methodism. In brief, it may be stated, that it spread through England, Wales, and Ireland. In Scotland it was not equally successful.

Messrs. Coke and Moore, referring to the year 1785, say, “from this time Mr. Wesley held on his way without interruption. The work of God increased every year. New societies were formed, in all of which the same rules were observed. Though now declining in the vale of years, he slackened not his pace. He still rose at four in the morning, preached two, three, or four times a day, and travelled between four and five thousand miles a year, going once in two years through Great Britain and Ireland." In his eighty-fourth year he first began to feel decay; and upon commencing his eighty-fifth, he observes, "I am not so agile as I was in times past; I do not run or walk so fast as I did; my sight is a little decayed; ... and I am not conscious of any decay in writing sermons, which I do as readily, and, I believe, as correctly as ever." At the beginning of the year 1790, he writes, "I am now an old man, decayed from head to foot... However, blessed be God! I do not slack my labours: I can preach and write still." On the 17th of February, 1791, he took cold, after preaching at Lambeth. For some days he struggled against an increasing fever, and continued to preach till the Wednesday following, when he delivered his last sermon. From that time he became daily weaker and more lethargic. He died in peace, on the 2d of March 1791, being in the eighty-eighth year of his age, and the sixty-fifth of his ministry. He was

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buried at City Road Chapel, London. His works are published in sixteen volumes, octavo. He also published the "Christian Library; or, Extracts and Abridgments, &c., from various Writers," fifty volumes, 12mo. The Arminian Magazine," a monthly publication, now continued under the title of "The Methodist Magazine," &c. &c. &c. He left no other property behind him than the copyright and current editions of his works; and this he bequeathed to the use of the connexion after his debts were paid.

WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY, a name given to the synod of divines called by parliament in the reign of Charles I., for the purpose of settling the government, liturgy, and doctrine of the Church of England. They were confined in their debates to such things as the parliament proposed. Some counties had two members, and some but one. And because they would seem impartial, and give each party the liberty to speak, they chose many of the most learned episcopal divines; but few of them came, because it was not a legal convocation, the king having declared against it. The divines were men of eminent learning and godliness, ministerial abilities, and fidelity. Many lords and commons were joined with them, to see that they did not go beyond their commission. Six or seven Independents were also added to them, that all sides might be heard. This assembly first met July 1, 1643, in Henry the Seventh's Chapel. The most remarkable hints concerning their debates are to be found in the Life of Dr. Lightfoot, before his works, in folio, and in the Preface to his Remains, in octavo. See also the Assembly's Confession of Faith; Neale's History of the Puritans; and article DIRECTORY, in this work. There is a publication which is commonly, but unjustly, ascribed to this assembly, viz.: "The Annotations on the Bible." The truth is, the same parliament that called the assembly, employed the authors of that work, and several of them were members of the assembly.

WHIPPERS. See FLAGELLANTS. WHITE BRETHREN. See BRETHREN, WHITE.

WHITFIELD, GEORGE, was born at Gloucester, on the 16th of December, 1714. His father, who was a publican in Gloucester, died when he was very young, leaving him under the

superintendence of a wise and tender mother, who, considering him to be under her peculiar guardianship, from the tenderness of his age, made him the object of her fondest solicitude. From his youth he was endowed with extraordinary talents. Between the age of twelve and fifteen he made great progress in the classics. Owing to the pecuniary difficulties of his mother, his education was at this moment arrested, and he was deprived of that instruction which was fitting him for future usefulness. At the age of seventeen he received the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, and became a decidedly pious and devout Christian. In the following year he was sent to Pembroke College, Oxford, Mr. Charles Wesley being at that time a student of Christ Church College. Mr. Whitfield there became acquainted with him, and, under his ministry, he received much benefit. Having arrived at the age of twenty-one, on Sunday morning, the 20th of June, 1736, he was solemnly ordained by the Bishop of Gloucester. On the Sunday following he preached a celebrated sermon on "The Necessity and Benefit of Religious Society." This sermon made so strong an impression, that it was reported he had driven fifteen of his hearers mad. The following week he left Gloucester for Oxford, and there took his Bachelor's degree. A very short time after, he received an invitation to visit London, where he continued two months, having taken up his lodgings in the Tower, reading prayers, catechising and preaching alternately, in the chapel of the Tower, Wapping chapel, and at Ludgate prison, every Tuesday. At this time he felt anxious to join the Wesleys and Ingham, who had gone out as missionaries to a new colony at Georgia; and shortly afterwards received letters from thence, containing an invitation to him to labour there. He considered this as a call from Providence; and, after having taken leave of his friends in Gloucester and Bristol, in the year 1737 he left the shores of Britain for the continent of America, attended by the blessings and the prayers of thousands for his safety and usefulness. After a tedious voyage, he arrived at Savannah on the 7th of May, 1738, and after having laboured four months at Georgia, he was obliged to return to England, to receive priests orders, and to collect funds to enable him to lay the foundation of an orphan school at Georgia. On the 6th

of September, 1738, he again embarked on board a vessel bound from Charlestown to London, where he arrived, after a perilous and fatiguing voyage. On the 14th of January he was ordained priest at Oxford, by Bishop Benson, and was afterwards exposed to much persecution for preaching the word of life; and was denied the use of those pulpits in which he had been in the habit of preaching. Moorfields, Kennington, and Blackheath, were the places in which he preached to thousands in the open air, with great success, though not without opposition. After having made collections, which amounted to upwards of a thousand pounds, for the Orphan House at Georgia, he sailed the second time for America, where he arrived, after a passage of nine weeks, and was immediately invited to preach in the churches, which were soon filled with immense auditories. When he arrived at Savannah, he chose a spot of ground for the orphan school; and on the 25th of March, 1740, laid the first brick, naming it Bethesda; i. e. a house of mercy. That institution afterwards became eminently useful, and many an orphan's prayer was presented to heaven for its illustrious founder. During his fatiguing journies from town to town, he was much exhausted, and sometimes nearly overcome with anxiety; but the success which attended his exertions at Georgia gave him great pleasure, and inspired him with zeal and hope. Again, however, he sailed for England, and arrived on the 14th of March at Falmouth. Immediately on his arrival in his native country he travelled to London, and preached the following Sunday on Kennington Common, to a large and impressed congregation. Having been earnestly solicited to visit Scotland, he voyaged from London to Leith, where he arrived July 30th, 1741, and was most cordially received at Dunfermline and Edinburgh. After preaching in many places, and collecting 5007., he left Scot land to go through Wales, in his way to London. At Abergavenny, in Wales, he married Mrs. James, a widow between thirty and forty years of age, to whom he was much attached. On his arrival in London, and resuming his "labour of love," he found the weather would not permit him to preach in the open air in Moorfields. Some dissenters, therefore, procured the loan of a piece of ground, and built thereon a large temporary shed, which he called a tabernacle; and his

congrégation became exceedingly large. In the beginning of August, 1744, Mr. Whitfield, though in an infirm state of health, embarked again for America, and, after a tedious passage, arrived at New York. At that place he was taken exceedingly ill, and his death was apprehended; but, through the providence of God, he gradually recovered, and resumed his arduous and important duties. After his illness he was very much inconvenienced with pains in his side; for which, and the general recovery of his health, he was advised to go to the Bermudas. Such advice he adopted, and there he landed on the 15th of March, 1748. At the Bermudas he met with the kindest reception, and traversed the island from one end to the other, preaching twice every day, and by that means was eminently and extensively useful. His congregations were large; and on seeing so many persons ignorant of Christianity, he was frequently much affected. He there collected upwards of one hundred pounds for his orphan school. That sum he transmitted to Georgia; and, as he feared a relapse in his disorder if he returned to America, he took his passage in a brig, and arrived in safety at Deal, and the next evening set off for London, after an absence of four years. On the return of Mr. Whitfield, he found his congregation at the tabernacle very much scattered, and his own pecuniary circumstances declining, having sold all his household furniture to pay the Orphan House debt. His congregation now, however, began to contribute, and his debt was slowly liquidating. At this time Lady Huntingdon sent for him to preach at her house to several of the nobility, who desired to hear him; among whom was the Earl of Chesterfield, who expressed himself highly gratified; and Lord Bolingbroke told him he had done great justice to the divine attributes in his discourse. In September he visited Scotland a third time, and was joyfully received. His thoughts were now wholly engaged in a plan for making his Orphan House (which was at first only intended for the fatherless) a seminary of literature and academical learning. In February, 1749, he made an excursion to Exeter and Plymouth, where he was received with enthusiasm, and in the same year he returned to London, having travelled about six hundred miles in the west of England; and in May he went

to Portsmouth and Portsea, at which places he was eminently useful: many at that time, by the instrumentality of his preaching, being "turned from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God." In the month of September he went to Northampton and Yorkshire, where he preached to congregations of ten thousand people, who were peaceable and attentive; and only in one or two places was he treated with unkindness. In 1751 Mr. Whitfield visited Ireland, and was gladly received at Dublin. He expressed himself much pleased with the size and attention of the congregations assembled to hear him; and his labours were, as usual, very useful. From Ireland he proceeded to Scotland, where he also met with great encouragement to proceed in his indefatigable work. On the 6th of August he set out from Edinburgh for London, in order to embark for America. Having taken leave of his friends at home, he again set sail in the Antelope for Georgia, and on the 27th of October arrived at Savannah, and found the Orphan School in a flourishing condition. Having suffered formerly from the climate, he determined not to spend the summer in America, but re-embarked for London, where he arrived in safety, after a tolerable voyage.

His active mind, ever forming some new plan for the extension of the Redeemer's kingdom, now turned towards the tabernacle. He formed a plan for the erection of a new one; and in the course of the following summer it was completed. The foundation was laid March 1, 1753, and was opened on Sunday, June the 10th, 1754. After preaching in it a few days, he again left England for Scotland, embracing every opportunity of preaching on his road till he arrived at Edinburgh; and, after travelling 1200 miles, he returned home, on the 25th of November, and opened the Tabernacle at Bristol, after which he returned to London, and, in September, 1756, opened his new chapel in Tottenham Court Road. His labours were immense: He preached fifteen times a week; hundreds of persons went away from the chapel who were not able to gain admittance. By his unremitting attention to his congregation, at the two chapels in London, his strength was much reduced, and he became debilitated and weak. In the latter end of the year, finding his health improved, he, how

ever, determined on again visiting Ame rica. Accordingly, in the latter end of November, he left England, and arrived at Boston in safety the beginning of January; and, on writing to his friends in England, expressed himself much gratified with the evident improvement in the Orphan House. After spending the winter pleasantly and usefully in America, he once more embarked for his native shores; and after a passage of twenty-eight days, landed in England, and on the 6th of October, 1765, opened the Countess of Huntingdon's chapel at Bath. Shortly after his arrival in London, Mrs. Whitfield was seized with an inflammatory fever, and became its victim on the 9th of August; and on the 14th he delivered her funeral sermon, which was distinguished for its pathos, yet manly and pious eloquence.

He now prepared for his seventh and last voyage to America. He embarked at the beginning of September, and, on the 30th of November, arrived in safety, after a perilous and trying passage. But his sphere of activity was now drawing rapidly to a close; his career of usefulness was soon to be concluded; the sand in his hour glass was fastly running through; and this venerable and distinguished man was soon destined to enjoy the felicities of heaven. His complaint, which was an asthma, made rapid strides upon his constitution, and though it had several times threatened his dissolution, it was at last sudden and unexpected. From the 17th to the 20th of September, this faithful labourer in the vineyard of Christ preached daily at Boston; and, though much indisposed, proceeded from thence on the 21st, and continued his work till the 29th, when he delivered a discourse in the open air, for two hours; notwithstanding which, he set off for Newbury Port, where he arrived that evening, intending to preach the next morning. His rest was much disturbed, and he complained of a great oppression at his lungs; and, at five o'clock on the Sabbath morning, the 30th of September, 1770, at the age of only fifty-six, he entered into that rest prepared for the people of God. According to his own desire, Mr. Whitfield was interred at Newbury Port. On the 2d of October, at one o'clock all the bells in the town were tolled for an hour, and the vessels in the harbour gave their proper signals of mourning. At two o'clock the bells tolled a second time; and at three they

repeated their mournful tolling during the time of the funeral. Some of the most respectable inhabitants attended the funeral, which was solemn and impressive.

Mr. Whitfield was not a learned man, like his contemporary, Wesley; but he possessed an unusual share of good sense, general information, knowledge of the holy Scriptures, and an accurate acquaintance with the human heart. Few ministers have been equally useful since the days of the apostles. The sermons of Mr. Whitfield were chiefly impassioned and declamatory, more generally addressed to the hearts than the understandings of his congregations. Mr. Whitfield was benevolent and kind, forgiving and gentle, but he was zealous and firm, and seldom allowed his feelings to overcome his judgment. He was eminently useful in having excited a greater degree of attention to religion than can be well conceived; and millions have, doubtless, blessed his name, as tens of thousands revere his memory. WHITSUNDAY, a solemn festival of the Christian Church, observed on the fiftieth day after Easter, in memory of the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the apostles in the visible appearance of fiery cloven tongues, and of those miraculous powers which were then conferred upon them.

It is called Whitsunday, or White Sunday, because this being one of the stated times for baptism in the ancient Church, those who were baptized put on white garments, as types of that spiritual purity they received in baptism. As the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the apostles happened on that day which the Jews called Pentecost, this festival retained the name of Pentecost among the Christians.

WICKEDNESS. See SIN. WICKLIFFE (JOHN), the celebrated reformer, was born in the year 1324, near Richmond, in Yorkshire. Of his parents, in his early years, nothing is certainly known; but when young he was distinguished for his genius; and, when but sixteen, was admitted commoner of Queen's College, Oxford; and soon afterwards removed to Merton College, where he was first probationer, and afterwards fellow. Whilst in that college, he was distinguished for his learning and application, and was regarded as a man of profound knowledge. The study of the holy Scriptures, however,

afforded him the most delight. He wrote notes, and expositions, and homilies on several parts of them; and by such means acquired the title of Dr. Evangelicus, or the Gospel Doctor. In 1360, he distinguished himself by his wise and zealous opposition to the encroachments of the begging friars, and shortly afterwards by a controversy on the subject of the poverty of Christ. In 1361 he was advanced to be master of Baliol College, Oxford, and, four years afterwards, to be warden of Canterbury Hall, which had been then recently founded. At this time he had acquired general esteem, and the affection and respect of the highest dignitaries of the church. In consequence of some conscientious scruples and manly dignified conduct, he was, however, in 1370, expelled, by a bull from the pope, from the latter situation which had been bestowed on him. At this time Pope Urban had given notice to King Edward, that he intended, by process, to cite him to his court, then at Avignon, to answer for his default, in not performing the homage which King John's predecessor acknowledged to the see of Rome, for his realm of England, and dominion of Ireland, and for refusing to pay the tribute granted to that see. Such claim the king had determined to resist, and the parliament had approved the determination, when a monk had the effrontery to vindicate the pope, and insist on the equity of his claim. Against that writer Wickliffe presented himself as an able and zealous antagonist. In 1372, having taken his degree of Doctor of Divinity, he publicly professed and read lectures on theology, to the unqualified satisfaction of the schools. He again directed his attention to the exposition of the abuses which had at that period crept into the Church; and, a few years afterwards, in a celebrated tract, he charged the friars with holding fifty heresies and errors, which, in that publication, he enumerated. The papal power, which had been gradually increasing, was now greater than ever; and the pope disposed of ecclesiastical benefices and dignities as he thought fit. On Italians, Frenchmen, and other aliens, totally ignorant of the English language, he bestowed the most lucrative benefices; of which the parliament had made complaints to the king, and to the pope himself. Notwithstanding these complaints, they could not meet with redress; and, at length, the king sent ambassadors to