theatre." The congregation was as large as he could then collect at Leeds; but he says, "Such serious and earnest attention! I lifted up my hands, so that I preached as I scarce ever did in my life.". Once he had the ground measured, and he found that he was heard distinctly at the distance of seven-score yards. In the seventieth year of his age, he preached at Gwenap, to the largest assembly that had ever collected to hear him; from the ground which they covered, he computed them to be not fewer than two-and-thirty thousand; and it was found, upon inquiry, that all could hear, even to the skirts of the congregation. This course of life led him into a lower sphere of society than that wherein he would otherwise have moved; and he thought himself a gainer by the change. Writing to some Earl, who took a lively interest in the revival of religion which, through the impulse given, directly or indirectly by Methodism, was taking place, he says, "To speak rough truth, I do not desire any intercourse with any persons of quality in England. I mean for my own sake. They do me no good, and, I fear, I can do none to them." To another correspondent he says, "I have found some of the uneducated poor who have exquisite taste and sentiment; and many, very many of the rich who have scarcely any at all."—" In most genteel religious people there is so strange a mixture, that I have seldom much confidence in them. But I love the poor; in many of them I find pure genuine grace, unmixed with paint, folly and affectation." And again, "How unspeakable is the advantage in point of common sense, which middling people have over the rich; there is so much paint and affectation, so many unmeaning words and senseless customs among people of rank, as fully justify the remark made 1700 years ago, Sensus communis in illà fortuna rarus."" 'Tis well," he says, "A few of the rich and noble are called. Oh! that God would increase their number. But I should rejoice, were it the will of God, if it were done by the ministry of others. IfI might choose, I should still, as I have done hitherto, preach the gospel to the poor." Preaching in Monk-town church, (one of the three belonging to Pembroke,) a large old ruinous building, he says, "I suppose it has scarce had such a congregation in it during this century. Many of them were gay genteel people; so I spake on the first elements of the gospel; but it was still out of their depth. Oh, how hard it is to be shallow enough for a polite audience!" Yet Wesley's correspondence with a few persons over whom he obtained any influence in higher life, though written with honest and conscientious freedom, is altogether untainted with any of that alloy which too frequently appeared when he was addressing those of a lower rank. Those favourite topics are not brought forward, by which enthusiastic disciples were so easily heated and disordered and there appears an evident feeling in the writer, that he is addressing himself to persons more judicious than his ordinary disciples. : But though Wesley preferred the middling and lower classes of society to the rich, the class which he liked least, were the farmers. "In the little journeys which I have lately taken," he says, "I have thought much of the huge encomiums which have been for many ages bestowed on a country life. How have all the learned world cried out, O fortunati nimium, bona si sua norint, But, after all, what a flat contradiction is this to universal experience! See the little house, under the wood, by the river side. There is rural life in perfection. How happy, then, is the farmer that lives there-Let us take a detail of his happiness. He rises with or before the sun, calls his servants, looks to his swine and cows, then to his stable and barns. He sees to the ploughing and sowing his ground in winter or in spring. In summer and autumn he hurries and sweats among his mowers and reapers. And where is his happiness in the mean time? Which of these employments do we envy? Or do we envy the delicate repast which succeeds, which the poet so languishes for? O quando faba, Pythagoræ cognata, simalque Oh the happiness of eating beans well greased with fat bacon; nay, and cabbage too! Was Horace in his senses when he talked thus ? or the servile herd of his imitators ? Our eyes and ears may convince us there is not a less happy body of men in all England than the country farmers. In general, their life is supremely dull; and it is unusually unhappy too; for, of all people in the kingdom, they are the most discontented, seldom satisfied either with God or man. Wesley was likely to judge thus unfavourably of the agricultural part of the people, because they were the least susceptible of Methodism. For Methodism could be kept alive only by associations and frequent meetings; and it is difficult, or impossible, to arrange these among a scattered population. Where converts were made, and the discipline could not be introduced among them, and the effect kept up by constant preaching and inspection, they soon fell off. "From the terrible instances I met with," says Wesley, "in all parts of England, I am more and more convinced that the devil himself desires nothing more than this, that the people of any place should be half awakened, and then left to themselves to fall asleep again. Therefore I determine, by the grace of God, not to strike one stroke in any place where I cannot follow the blow." But this could only be done in populous places. Burnet has* observed, that more religious zeal is to be found in towns than in the country, and that that zeal is more likely to go astray. It is because men are powerfully acted upon by *"As for the men of trade and business, they are, generally speaking, the best body in the nation-generous, sober and charitable; so that, while the people in the country are so immersed in their affairs that the sense of religion cannot reach them, there is a better spirit stirring in our cities; more knowledge, more zeal, and more charity, with a great deal more of devotion. There may be too much of vanity, with too pompous an exterior, mixed with these in the capital city; but, upon the whole, they are the best we have. Want of exercise is a great prejudice to their health, and a corrupter of their minds, by raising vapours and melancholy, that fills many with dark thoughts, rendering religion, which affords the truest joy, a burden to them, and ma king them even a burden to themselves. This furnishes prejudices against religion to those who are but too much disposed to seek for them. VOL. II. Burnet's conclusion of the history of his Own Times. 5 D sympathy, whether for evil or for good; because opinions are as infectious as diseases, and both the one and the other find subjects enough to seize on in large cities, and those subjects in a state which prepares them to receive the mental or bodily affection. But even where Methodism was well established, and, on the whole, flourishing, there were great fluctuations, and Wesley soon found how little he could depend upon the perseverance of his converts. Early in his career he took the trouble of inquiring into the motives of seventy-six persons, who, in the course of three months, had withdrawn from one of his societies in the north. The result was curious. Fourteen of them said they left it because otherwise their ministers would not give them the sacrament :-these, be it observed, were chiefly Dissenters. Nine, because their husbands or wives were not willing they should stay in it. Twelve, because their parents were not willing. Five, because their master and mistress would not let them come. Seven, because their acquaintance persuaded them to leave it. Five, because people said such bad things of the Society. Nine, because they would not be laughed at. Three, because they would not lose the poor's allowance. Three more, because they could not spare time to gome.Two, because it was too far off. One, because she was afraid of falling into fits:-her reason might have taught Wesley a useful lesson. One, because people were so rude in the street. Two, because Thomas Naisbit was in the Society. One, because he would not turn his back on his baptism. One, because the Methodists were mere Church-of-England-men. And one, because it was time enough to serve God yet. The character of the converts, and the wholesome discipline to which they were subject, is still further exhibited, by an account of those who, in the same time, had been expelled from the same Society :-They were, two for cursing and swearing, two for habitual Sabbath-breaking, seventeen for drunkenness, two for retailing spirituous liquors, three for quarrelling and brawling, one for beating his wife, three for habitual wilful lying, four for railing and evil speaking, one for idleness and laziness, and nine-and twenty for lightness and carelessness. It would be well for the community if some part of this discipline were in general use. When Wesley became accustomed to such fluctuations, he perceived that they must be, and reasoned upon them sensibly. In noticing a considerable increase which had taken place in one of his societies in a short time, he says, "Which of these will hold fast their profession? The fowls of the air will devour some, the sun will scarch more, and others will be choked by the thorns springing up. I wonder we should ever expect that half of those who hear the word with joy, will bring forth fruit unto perfection."-" How is it," he asks himself, "that almost in every place, even where there is no lasting fruit, there is so great an impression made at first upon a considerable number of people? The fact is this: every where the word of God rises higher and higher, till it comes to a point. Here it seems, for a short time, to be at a stay, and then it gradually sinks again. All this may easily be accounted for. At first curiosity brings many hearers; the same time God draws many, by his preventing grace, to hear his word, and comforts them in hearing: one then tells another; by this means, on the one hand, curiosity spreads and increases; and, on the other, the drawings of God's Spirit touch more hearts, and many of them more powerfully than before. He now offers grace to all that hear, most of whom are in some measure affected, and more or less moved with approbation of what they hear desire to please God, and good-will to his messenger. These principles, variously combined and increasing, raise the general work to its highest point. But it cannot stand here; for, in the nature of things, curiosity must soon decline. Again, the drawings of God are not followed, and thereby the Spirit of God is grieved: the consequence is, He strives with this and this man no more, and so his drawings end. Thus both the natural and supernatural power declining, most of the hearers will be less and less affected. Add to this, that, in the process of the work, it must be, that offences will come. Some of the hearers, if not preachers also, will act contrary to their profession. Either their follies or faults will be told from one to another, and lose nothing in the telling. Men, once curious to hear, will now draw back: men once drawn, having stifled their good desires, will disapprove what they approved before, and feel dislike, instead of good-will, to the preacher. Others, who were more or less convinced, will be afraid or ashamed to acknowledge that conviction; and all these will catch at ill sto.. ries (true or false) in order to justify their change. When, by this means, all who do not savingly believe, have quenched the Spirit of God, the little flock goes on from faith to faith; the rest sleep on, and take their rest. And thus the number of hearers in every place may be expected, first to increase, and then decrease." CHAPTER XVI. WESLEY'S LAY-COADJUTORS. WHEN Wesley had once admitted the assistance of lay-preachers, volunteers in abundance offered their zealous services. If he had been disposed to be nice in the selection, it was not in his power. He had called up a spirit which he could not lay; but he was still able to control and direct it. Men were flattered by being admitted to preach with his sanction, and sent to itinerate where he was pleased to appoint, who, if he had not chosen to admit their co-operation, would not have been withheld from exercising the power which they felt in themselves, and indulging the strong desire, which they imputed to the impulse of the Spirit: but had they taken this course, it would have been destructive to the scheme which was now fairly developed before him. It had Wesley had taken no step in his whole progress so reluctantly as this. The measure was forced upon him by circumstances. become inevitable, in the position wherein he had placed himself; still, he was too judicious a man, too well acquainted with history and with human nature, not to feel a proper repugnance to the irre gularity which he sanctioned, and to apprehend the ill consequences which were likely to ensue. He says himself, that to touch this point was at one time to touch the apple of his eye and in his writings he carefully stated, that the preachers were permitted by him, but not appointed. One of those clergymen, who would gladly, in their sphere, have co-operated with the Wesleys, had, they not disliked the extravagancies of Methodism, and foreseen the schism to which it was leading, objected to this distinction. "I fear, Sir," said he, "that your saying you do not appoint, but only approve of the lay-preachers, from a persuasion of their call and fitness, savours of disingenuity. Where is the difference? Under whose sanction do they act? Would they generally think their call a sufficient warrant for commencing preachers, or be received in that capacity by your people, without your approbation, tacit or express? And what is their preaching upon this call, but a manifest breach upon the order of the Church, and an inlet to confusion, which, in all probability, will follow upon your death; and, if I mistake not, you are upon the point of knowing by your own experience.' do; But Wesley had so often been called upon to defend himself, that he perfectly understood the strength of his ground. Replying for his brother, and the few other clergymen who acted with him, as well as for himself, he made answer," We have done nothing rashly, nothing without deep and long consideration, (hearing and weighing all objections,) and much prayer. Nor have we taken one deliberate step, of which we, as yet, see reason to repent. It is true, in some things we vary from the rules of our Church; but no further than, we apprehend, is our bounden duty. It is from a full conviction of this that we preach abroad, use extemporary prayer, form those who appear to be awakened into societies, and permit laymen, whom we believe God has called, to preach. I say permit, because we ourselves have hitherto viewed it in no other light. This we are clearly satisfied that we may that we may do more, we are not satisfied. It is not clear to us that Presbyters, so circumstanced as we are, may appoint, or ordain others; but it is, that we may direct, as well as suffer them to do, what we conceive they are moved to by the Holy Ghost. It is true that, in ordinary cases, both an inward and an outward call are requisite; but, we apprehend, there is something far from ordinary in the present case; and, upon the calmest view of things, we think, that they who are only called of God, and not of man, have more right to preach than they who are only called of man, and not of God. Now, that many of the clergy, though called of man, are not called of God to preach his gospel, is undeniable: first, because they themselves utterly disclaim, nay, and ridicule the inward call; secondly, because they do not know what the gospel is; of consequence, they do not, and cannot preach it. Dear Sir, coolly and impartially consider this, and you will see on which side the difficulty lies. I do assure you, this at present is my chief embarrassment. That I have not gone too far yet, I know; but whether I have gone far enough, I am extremely doubtful. I see those running whom God hath not sent; destroying their own souls, and those that hear them; perverting the right ways of the Lord, and blaspheming the truth as it is in Jesus. I see |