called every one by name, both old and young, and exhorted them not to trifle any longer with their souls, but to prepare for eternity. To one old person she said, 'Now, you may believe me, that we may know here our sins are forgiven; for I know mine are.' She recommended her children to our care: she remembered and mentioned all her small debts. She told me she had begged of the Lord to spare her a day or two, that she might see her mother; but he was not pleased to grant her request, and she was contented. To one, who asked her if she could give up her children to God, she answered, 'Yes, children, husband, and all for Christ; for she was going to a sweet and happy place!' One then bid her compose herself, lest she should exhaust herself too much : and after, she ordered her burial in the plainest manner; saying, that a handsome funeral would do her soul no good,-would not carry it to heaven; and, telling us again Christ called her, she partly closed her eyes and fell into a doze, which lasted two hours; and it is the opinion of another besides me that she was then dying, and that her soul would have departed quietly. Her hearing and speech seemed to be entirely taken away; but her neighbours perceiving her mouth clammy, and her throat sore, gave her a spoonful of cordial, which soon brought her to her speech; and then, and not before, appeared the signs of her being light-headed, which grew upon her till she became raving, which continued till Thursday afternoon to her death; and the burden of her out-of-the-way discourse was, that we had brought her back to the world. She was near the holy Jerusalem, she said; and the angel, her brother Gabriel, waited for her; and the chariot of God was ready to receive her; but we would not let her depart in peace, and must all answer for it to God.

"And now, though it did not please God to restore to her her understanding again, to disclaim all the evil she said or did, yet we believe that the Lord did not impute to her whatever she said or did amiss under her distractions and violent ravings; and therefore that we ought not to doubt in the least of the safety of her condition. For my part, I believe she died in the Lord, and is blessed; and when you have obtained an interest in Christ the Saviour, and know your pardon is sealed in heaven, as she did, then, and not till then, you will have a sure and certain hope of meeting her at the right hand of God.

"Her enemies cannot say she was an idle woman; for, indeed, she earned her bread by the sweat of her brow; and you know the diligent hand is commended in Scripture. 'Go and do thou likewise.' And since she is dead and at rest, let her memory rest. You deny the knowledge of the forgiveness of sins here, and God hath condescended to raise up the departed soul among you as a witness of his truth. See that you shut not your eyes any longer against the truth, lest the things which belong to your everlasting peace may be hid from you when it is too late to repent, which God grant may not be your condition nor mine, for Jesus Christ's sake."

"Sunday, February 5th, 1749, Mr. Manning," says Mr. Wesley, "being dangerously ill, I was desired to ride over to Hayes. I knew not how the warm people would behave, considering the stories which passed current among them; Mrs. B. having averred to Mr. Manning himself that Mr. Wesley was unquestionably a Jesuit." He took his favourite text from 2 Cor. viii. 9: "Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich." In the afternoon, from Isai. lv. 7, he called on "the wicked to forsake his way," &c.

His fears were banished; for "God made all things easy. Far from any tumult or rudeness, I observed deep attention in almost the whole congregation."

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During the ensuing week Mr. Manning had a relapse; and, accordingly, on Sunday, 12th," says Mr. Wesley, "I rode over again; and again I observed the same decency of behaviour in a much larger congregation." His texts were Mark xii. 34, "Thou art not far from the kingdom of God; 2 Cor. v. 19, "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself."

I

The following year, Mr. Wesley paid another visit to Hayes, as appears under date of Sunday, February 4th, 1750: "I preached at Hayes." find, from a private мs. of his own, it was on the "important question," (Matt. xvi. 26,) "What is a man profited, if he gain the whole world," &c. In the afternoon he described the character of those who were "called Christians first at Antioch." (Acts xi. 26.) He looked on the congregation with astonishment. "What a change," says he, " is here within a year or two! Instead of the parishioners going out of church, the people come from many miles round. The church was filled in the afternoon likewise ; and all behaved well, but the singers, whom I therefore reproved before the congregation; and some of them were ashamed."

Tuesday, 20th, says he, "Mr. Manning had given notice, without my knowledge, that I would preach at Hayes on Tuesday. I was afraid few would trouble themselves to hear; but I was deceived, for there was a large congregation," who listened to the word preached on Numbers xxiii. 10: "Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his!" "Surely some of these will at length understand the things which belong unto their peace.""

·

In February, 1751, he preached again at Hayes on Gen. i. 27, and John xvii. 3: "This is life eternal, to know thee the only true God;" but of this there is no mention in his Journal.

In January, 1752, he preached there from Rom. xii. 1, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God," &c.; and in the afternoon, from Psalm cxlvii. 3, "He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds."

"For

The following month, Mr. Wesley married a merchant's widow.* some time after his marriage," says Mr. Jackson,† "his wife accompanied him in his itinerancy;" and, accordingly, we find the following entry in his Journal:

"March 15th, 1752. Between four and five in the afternoon, I took horse with my wife and daughter, and we reached Hayes about seven in the evening."

6

Sunday, February 11th, 1753. I preached at Hayes, from Luke xv. 7, 'Joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth;' and Heb. viii. 10, This is the covenant that I will make with them,' &c. We have a fair appearance," says he, "of overcoming evil with good. All but the gentry of the parish patiently hear the truth. Many approve of it, and some experience it.

* Mrs. Vizelle, of Threadneedle-street, who had an income of £300 per annum, arising from £10,000, 3 per cent. consols, secured to herself and children.

+ Life of Charles Wesley, vol. i., p. 569. Wesley's Works, vol. ii., pp. 240,

251.

"Sunday, November 4th.-I rode to Hayes, because I had promised, though I was much out of order. It was with the utmost difficulty that I read prayers, preached, and administered the sacrament." His subject was, "All things are ready, come unto the marriage." (Matt. xxii. 4.) "I went through the evening service with more ease. Micah vi. 8: 'He hath showed thee, O man, what is good,""&c.

Mr. Myles says that Mr. Manning departed from the work in 1755. Whether the following entry in the Journal has any reference to it, I know not. Probably it may, by what succeeds :—

"Wednesday, May 22d, 1754, our Conference began; and the spirit of peace and love was in the midst of us. Before we parted, we all willingly signed an agreement," [see P. S.]" not to act independently of each other; so that the breach lately made* has only united us more closely together than ever.

"Sunday, May 26th.-I rode to Hillingdon, and preached to a very genteel congregation, who behaved with abundantly more decency and seriousness than I expected." The text he selected was, "The end of all things is at hand; be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.” (1 Peter iv. 7. "This is the church," he adds, " to which many of Mr. Manning's parishioners have gone, ever since he preached salvation by faith. And how has God overtaken them, who, by the long illness of the Curate, has brought Mr. Manning to preach at this very place!

"Sunday, February 12th, 1758.-At the request of the Vicar, Mr. J———, I rode over to Uxbridge. I preached for him both morning and afternoon." In the morning, on Mark xii. 34: "Thou art not far from the kingdom of God." In the afternoon, from 2 Cor. viii. 9: "Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ," &c. He adds, "How uncommon a providence is this! The Gospel was preached in the church at Hayes. Several of the parishioners ran from it, and took pews at Hillingdon. It followed them into Hillingdon church, where I preached twice + in one day. Some of them went to Uxbridge; and now it is come to torment them at Uxbridge also."

I am informed a Wesleyan chapel has recently been erected in this place, where the ministry of the Methodists has long been desired. City-Road, June 24th, 1847.

THOMAS MARRIOTT.

P.S. I have the original mss. of two agreements, with the signatures of the parties; namely, one,‡ dated March 16th, 1752: "We whose names are under-written, being clearly and fully convinced, 1. That the success of the present work of God does in great measure depend on the entire union of all the labourers employed therein; 2. That our present call is chiefly to the members of that Church wherein we have been brought up;§ are absolutely determined, by the grace of God, 1. To abide in the closest union with

* This had its principal reference to Skiton and Green, vol. ii., p. 312. + Wesley's Works, vol. ii., p. 312.

Another in the same words, dated August 30th, 1756, with the additional names of Thomas Johnson, James Jones, Peter Jaco, William Hitchins, John Johnson, John Haughton, Thomas Mitchel, William Robarts, Richard Lucas.

"My brother and I closed the Conference [Bristol] by a solemn declaration of our purpose never to separate from the Church, and all our brethren concurred therein."Wesley's Works, vol. ii., p. 385. See also Jackson's "Life of the Rev. Charles Wesley," vol. ii., p. 104. A similar agreement was made at the Leeds Conference, 1755. (Wesley's Works, vol. ii., p. 329.)

each other, and never knowingly or willingly to hear, speak, do, or suffer anything which tends to weaken that union; 2. Never to leave the communion of the Church of England without the consent of all whose names are subjoined :

"CHARLES WESLEY,

"WILLIAM SHENT,

"JOHN WESLEY,

"JOHN JONES,

"JOHN DOWNES,

"JOHN NELSON."

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THE CHRISTIAN SACRIFICE.

"I BESEECH you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." Perhaps a reasonable, in contradistinction to a ritual, service; the one applied to the living sacrifice of our own bodies, the other to the sacrifice of animals under the Jewish law. Not that it is not altogether reasonable to do a given thing, simply because it is the will of God. But there are certain things of which we see the reasonableness, prior to and apart from the voice of any express revelation; and others again in which there would have been no reasonableness, had it not been for the distinct and positive injunction of them by authority of the great Lawgiver. There would have been no reason, for example, in the prescribed form of the tabernacle, or in the prescribed offerings of the Hebrew ceremonial as laid down by Moses, had it not been for the things showed to him, or the things told to him, on the Mount. Therei s an analogy between what we now say of the "reasonable," and what might be as well said of the right." An observance may be right in itself, or only right and the matter of obligation because made the subject of a positive or statutory enactment on the part of God. It is truly a most right thing that we should do what he hath commanded, though solely on the ground of the commandment. But the thing thus commanded may, anterior to the commandment, have a primary and inherent rightness of its own. "Children," says the Apostle, " obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right;"—not right only because He had commanded it, for this might be alleged of every precept which cometh out of His lips; but, separately from this consideration, having a proper and independent rightness of itself. And, in like manner, as a service may in its own proper character be right, so may it in its own proper character be reasonable; and this applies pre-eminently to the service of the text; that is, the presentation of our bodies unto God as a living sacrifice. For not only is he Lord of the body, and its rich and bountiful provider, and the upholder for every instant of its complex and curious workmanship by the word of his power; and what more reasonable than that the thing which so thoroughly and in all parts subsists by Him, should in all things be subject to Him? But let us think of the effect, if, instead of our bodies being made by us a sacrifice unto God, we should come under the degrading, the brutalizing influence of its vile affections, and so become slaves of the body, the wretched bondsmen of one or other or all of its tyrant-appetites, when the intervals of a worthless enjoyment should be filled up by the languor, the remorse, the disgust, and self-dissatisfaction, wherewith remaining conscience, so long as it keeps

Or

alive, exercises the unhappy victims of sordid iņdulgence and excess. should conscience die, and so the man sink into the animal, let us but think of the moral ruin which ensues, when the master-faculty is put out; and all that is distinctive of a superior or spiritual nature is obliterated; and the hopes of eternity are extinguished, while perhaps the dark imagery of terror, as the only badge and relict of an immortal capacity, might still continue at times to haunt and agonize him; and the Spirit of God takes his final departure from that foul and loathsome tenement, which, under another regimen, might have become a glorious temple of the Holy Ghost; and the abject devotee of those pleasures which he can no longer resist, though they now pall upon him, and present him with but the mockery of enjoyment, renounces for ever that service which he would have experienced to be perfect freedom, had he only yielded up his members to be instruments of righteousness, and thus barters irrecoverably away from him the light and the liberty of God's own children. That truly is an unreasonable service, by which reason is deposed from her supremacy; and all the objects of a rational and immortal creature are given up in exchange for those short-lived pleasures of sin, which are but for a season.-Dr. Chalmers on the Romans.

NOTES ON THE LITERARY HISTORY OF FRANCE.

BY GUSTAVE MASSON, B.A., UNIVERS. GALLIC.

I. THE PASCAL FAMILY.

PART II.

(To the Editor of the Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine.)

THERE are now, in the Christian church, two parties who, mistaking the spirit of the times, seek to combat scepticism and infidelity by external forms and outward ceremonies. We have men who think it much more acceptable to God to say their prayers in a tub of water, (warm or cold, according to the season,) scourging friars, religious bedlams," would have said worthy Thomas Fuller, "who use publicly to whip themselves in the market-place, making vellum of their own skins, thereon to write their follies in legible characters." Against such fakeers it is vain arguing: they put an end to all logic, and make us naturally substitute a shrug of the shoulders, or a laugh, in the stead of argument.

But the other community is much more dangerous. The Jesuits, the men of “religion made easy," can always reckon upon a crowd of disciples. Addressing themselves, as they do, to our passions and natural tastes, endeavouring to bring about an alliance between God and Mammon, they require the constant vigilance of true Christians. Taking literary excellence out of the question, this accounts for the new editions and new translations which have been published lately of Pascal's Lettres Provinciales. The enemies of truth and of God are active; they seem even to have acquired fresh strength : how should we meet them but with the humour, the argumentative powers, the generous indignation, of Louis de Montalte ?

In a treatise entitled, De la fréquente Communion, the celebrated Arnauld*

* Mr. Seeley's excellent edition of the Provincial Letters contains, in the Appendix, No. 2, a short but correct biographical account of Arnauld: “Anthony Arnauld,