murmurings and rebellings against civil rulers? "for do not all our histories witness such a series of mutinies, seditions, factions, rebellions, as are scarce to be paralleled in any one kingdom since the world began?" Is not drunkenness the sin of England? Is not the lewdness of the nation greater than the Jews? The injustice? And is not truth as well as justice fallen in our streets? And what nation so proud and self-conceited as the English? Do the judgments of God reform the nation? The army and the navy? Are not the priests, the Lord's ministers, guilty of some of these sins? All these heads he amplifies, and appeals to the hearts and consciences of the different classes, forming an earnest specimen of practical divinity. He then passes on to the Presbyterians, Independents, Baptists, Quakers, Roman Catholics, Jews, and Deists, showing how contrary their practices were to their principles and professions. In part third, he from the preceding infers that the state of religion was so bad that there was no parallel to it. If there be a God, what must be the event? Instead, however, of judgment, God sent mercy. A revival of religion begins at Oxford, then in different parts of the nation. He then describes the qualities of this work of God, namely: the extent, the depth, the fruits, the rationality, the catholicity, the holiness, and the tolerating spirit of it; and such a work (although only seven years since it began) as "cannot easily be paralleled (in all these concurrent circumstances) by any thing that is found in the English annals since Christianity was first planted in this land." Yet the religious and wise men of the nation do not discern that God is reviving his work in the nation, and the wicked are persecuting the instruments. He then spends twentyfour pages in replying to some of the "abundance of excuses, if not for opposing, yet for denying the work to be of God, and for not acknowledging the time of our visitation." (1.) Some cry out, "the doctrines of these men are false, erroneous, and enthusiastic; that they are new and unheard of till late; that they are Quakerism, fanaticism, and Popery." (2.) Others allege, "Their doctrines are too strict; they make the way to heaven too narrow." (3.) Another popular cry is, "The uncharitableness of these men; they damn all besides themselves." (4.) "But many who own these doctrines to be of God cannot be reconciled to the instruments he hath made use of." They are so young. Not so very young, says Mr. Wesley, for "Mr. Whitefield is now above thirty, my brother is thirty-seven, and I have lived above forty-two years." (5.) "But they are only a few." No wonder, seeing the diligence and pains used to keep them few, and hinder the clergy from joining. (6.) "Not only few. but unlearned." He acknowledges that some were, but not all; and retorts, that many so objecting were unlearned themselves. (7.) "You make yourselves like the apostles," (that is, the preachers.) Must not every minister be like the apostles in some respects? (8.) "But they are laymen who preach." He answers this objection fully, showing that the first preachers of Christianity were laymen; so were the first preachers of the Reformation; Mr. Calvin was a layman; the Roman Catholics allow a lay brother to preach if he believes he is called of God; most of the Protestant Churches allow lay preaching; and even the Church of England uses laymen in some of her services. He grounds his chief defense, however, on the necessity of the case. (9.) "But are they not wicked men ?" No one heard of the wickedness of the preachers until they went about doing good. In answering this objection he speaks of himself and brother, asking: "What persons could, in the nature of things, have been (antecedently) less liable to exception, with regard to their moral character, at least, than those the all-wise God hath now employed? Indeed, I cannot devise what manner of men could have been more unexceptionable on all accounts." Although this self-laudation seems egotism and boasting, I think it the best proof of the singular innocence and simplicity of the writer any where to be found. For a person to believe and say that he was the most suitable or unexceptionable person" on all accounts," certainly has no appearance of humility, has the appearance of vanity, and yet truly shows a guileless, childlike heart. After all the bad appearance, he is merely defending God for choosing himself and brother and Mr. Whitefield. (10.) "But what need of preaching in fields and streets? Are there not churches enough to preach in?" (11.) Another objection was, the inconsistent conduct of some of the Methodists. (12.) "Why not work miracles to show that God hath sent you." (13.) True, many are turned from wickedness, but they fall into schism, a greater sin. Thus he proposes, and gives an answer to, the excuses which the men of "reason and religion" offered for not discovering the work to be of God. The appeal closes up with an earnest, faithful, and affectionate application to the despisers and neglecters of their day of visitation from God. The appeals were useful books in their day, and were much read. The writer mentions a lawyer and a physician, infidels, converted by the reading. They may be regarded as Mr. Wesley's masterpieces for matter, reasoning, and style. The published sermons of the founder of Methodism number one hundred and forty-one, and are on a great variety of topics. They form his best writings on practical divinity. But as the present article has grown so large, and as the writer designs an article on Mr. Wesley's preaching, they will be reserved for the future occasion, when some observations on his style will also be appropriate. 1. The series of articles which is now concluded does not mention all the works of Mr. Wesley. Besides those classes of original and selected works-works of Music and Poetry, religious Tracts, the edited works, (comprising the Christian Library,) the various compilations (including the Arminian Magazine,) the elementary books, the Commentaries on the Old and New Testament, the political tracts and pamphlets, the numerous works on controversial divinity, on eleven disputed points, (at least,) the Journals, the epistolary correspondence, and the excellent writings on practical divinityanother class of tracts and papers could be reviewed under the head of miscellaneous writings. Still nothing is omitted which would add much to the fame of the writer as a literary man. 2. Considering the active life of Mr. Wesley, it is astonishing that he wrote and published so much, on such variety of subjects, and so well. Most of his works were written after he was forty and before he was seventy years of age. Strange that amid incessant preaching and traveling, and constant oversight of the rising ministry and societies, he could have written so many works, and on so many and diversified topics! The quality of the writings too is not to be forgotten in estimating this literary man. All the works may not have equal merit for style; and yet all show great care, the purity of the English tongue, neatness in the sentences, and a finish and polish which a scholar only can give. He was so perfect in the English style when he began to write as to be susceptible of little or no improvement. (See Journals, Sept. 1, 1778.) He was a very slow writer, (letter to Mr. Richard Thompson, 1756,) and little needed to revise his sentences. The slowness in writing sprung from the desire, and generated the habit, of great carefulness. 3. Considering the numerous literary works of Mr. Wesley, it may be supposed that he derived therefrom a large income. He was not dependent on his works or on the Methodists for his living, "Your lordship cannot but know, that my fellowship and my brother's studentship afford us more than sufficient for life and godliness, especially for that life which we choose." (Letter to Bishop of London.) The fellowships in the English colleges entitle to a share in the revenues, varying generally from £30 to £250 a year, with the right of apartments and board. The first eighteen years of his authorship he does not seem to have gained anything, but rather lost. Having settled his temporal business, after some sickness, he says: "It is now about eighteen years since I began writing and printing books; and how much in that time have I gained by printing? Why, on summing up my accounts, I found that on March 1, 1756, I had gained, by printing and preaching together, a debt of £1,236. Seventeen years after the income of the London Society was bad, but, says he, "My private account I find still worse. I have labored as much as many writers, and all my labor has gained me, in seventy years, a debt of five or six hundred pounds." (Journal, 1773.) Mr. Wesley kept printing presses of his own, and he might have lost in carrying on the business. Some of his works were very profitable; others, as his Commentary on the Old Testament and the Christian Library, did not pay. Another cause of debt was the cheap mode in which he published, for the sake of usefulness. His works, with his brother's, must have yielded much profit. Before Charles Wesley married, his brother gave security to the parents of the young lady for the yearly payment of £100, on the profits of their books. The mother (Mrs. Gwynne) wrote to Mr. Perronet to know whether the sale of the books would be likely to continue before she consented to the marriage. The good clergyman wrote her: "The writings of these gentlemen are, even at this time, a very valuable estate; and when it shall please God to open the minds of the people more, and prejudice is worn off, it will be much more valuable. I have seen what an able bookseller has valued a great part of their works at, which is £2,500; but I will venture to say that this is not half their value. They are works which will last and sell while any sense of true religion and learning shall remain among us." published prior Charles Wesincome of the Here we have an estimate of the value of the books to 1749. The after works were also of great value. ley appears to have had his £100 a year from the books. And his brother, especially after he gave up his fellowship, doubtless drew yearly from the same source. These books were not only profitable to the writers, but to the English Methodist Conference, for Mr. Wesley in his will gave all his books on sale to the body of preachers. The books are still on sale, and yield, especially the hymn books, a large sum every year to the English Conference. The works are useful, too, to the ministers of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States, who also derive pecuniary assistance from the same source. And in Canada, the Wesleyan Book Room sells and profits by the hymn books and other works of the founder of Methodism. These books, now a hundred years are passed away, "last and sell," as Mr. Perronet said, and doubtless will "last and sell" to the end of the world. ART. VII.-EXPOSITION OF THE EIGHTH PSALM. INTRODUCTION. § 1. Subject of this Psalm. "THE subject of this psalm," says Hengstenberg, is "the greatness of God in the greatness of man." We would say that it is man in his primitive condition, made in the image of God, "a little less than God," and the ruler over the works of God; man as fallen, yet blessed with the divine visitations of mercy; and man by implication, as redeemed by the Son of God. This prevailing topic is prefaced by an ascription of praise to Jehovah : O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength, The psalmist then introduces the prevailing subject of the following verses, namely, man as frail and mortal, but yet originally almost divine, crowned with glory and honor, and ruler over the works of the Divine hand; and the last verse closes with a second ascription of praise in precisely the same terms as those of the first verse. § 2. Is this psalm Messianic? It is plainly not Messianic in the sense that Messiah is the exclusive subject. The Messiah is, however, an included subject, as man is the general subject, and Messiah, as possessed of human nature, is therefore included. Hence the apostle, Heb. ii, 5-9, applies this psalm to Christ: "For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come [the Gospel dispensation] whereof we speak; but one in a certain place [the Eighth Psalm] testified saying: What is man that thou art mindful of him, Or the Son of man that thou visitest him? Thou didst make him [originally] a little lower than the angels; Thou didst put all things under his feet. |