trine which they never taught :' they did teach it; and that not by the bye, not incidentally; but they laid it down as a stated rule of action, dictated by the Holy Ghost-and demonstrated their sincerity therein by burning a man alive. And this Mr. O'Leary humourously compares to roasting a piece of beef! With equal tenderness, I suppose, he would compare the Singing the beards of heretics! that is thrusting a burning furze-bush, in their face, to the singing a fowl before it is roasted. Now, what security can any Romanist give a Protestant till this doctrine be publickly abjured ? If Mr. O'Leary has any thing more to plead for this council, I shall follow him step by step. But let him keep his word, and

Give a serious answer to a serious charge.' Drollery may come in, when we are talking of roasting fowls, but not when we talk of roasting men.'

"Would I then wish the Roman-Catholics to be persecuted? I never said or hinted any such thing. I abhor the thought: it is foreign to all I have preached and written for these fifty years. I would wish the Romanists in England to be treated still with the same lenity that they have been these sixty years: to be allowed both civil and religious liberty, but not to be permitted to undermine ours. I wish them to stand just as they did, before the late act was passed not to be persecuted, or hurt themselves; but gently restrained from hurting their neighbours."

Notwithstanding the high praises bestowed by some persons on Mr. O'Leary, Mr. Wesley was greatly the superior in point of argument. Mr. O'Leary, allows the charge which Mr. Wesley brought against the council of Constance; and yet afterwards affects to deny it-Mr. Berrington wrote in defence of the same council; and observed, "There never was a decision made at Constance tending to shew, that no faith is to be kept with heretics. The words of the canon are not

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susceptible of such a comment, unless tortured to it. At all events no council, pope, bishop, priest, or layman of our church, ever understood them in the sense of your interpretation,-But every Catholic divine has at all times utterly reprobated the idea of breaking faith with heretics, as contrary to every dictate of reason and religion."--With regard to the council of Constance, if the words of the canon be ambiguous, yet," the burning a man alive, in open violation of the publick faith, was a very plain and unequivocal comment. Every Catholic divine has at all times utterly reprobated the idea of breaking faith with heretics." The modern rulers of the church of Rome speak in language very different from Mr. Berrington. In 1768, an oath of allegiance was contemplated for the Roman-Catho lics of Ireland, which, for the better security of the government, contained a declaration of abhorrence and detestation of the doctrines, " That faith is not to be kept with heretics, and that princes deprived by the Pope may be deposed or murdered by their subjects.' The pope's legate at Brussels, Ghilini, archbishop of Rhodes, had then the superintendance of the Romish Church in Ireland. He addressed the titular archbishop of Dublin on this subject, and in his letter treats the above clauses as absolutely intolerable. "Becanse," says he, "those doctrines are defended, and contended. for, by most Catholic nations, and the Holy See has frequently followed them in practice:" and he decides, "That, as the oath is in its whole extent unlawful, so in its nature it is invalid, null, of no effect, and can by no means bind and oblige consciences."

Similar decisions on the validity of oaths which were detrimental to the interests of the holy see, were uni formly made by successive popes, whenever the affairs of the church required them. What has been said fully proves the charge which Mr. Wesley brought-' - It

is a maxim of the church of Rome that faith is not to be kept with heretics." It has been constantly taught by the first authority, that the Roman-Catholics are not bound to any engagements which they may have made with heretics, though confirmed by the most solemn oath that can possibly be framed, when the good of the church requires that they should break it. This was a doctrine of the Romish church not in the times of great ignorance only; the modern papal rulers maintain it and contend for it. The old spirit of popery is still nourished by the practice of the pope, who once every year, on Maunday-Thursday, excommunicates all he retics in the most awful and terrific manner; and thus feeds that constant spirit of hatred which is rooted in the minds of the Papists against the Protestants. The Romish bishops take an oath at their consécration, totally inimical to every government, and which binds them to use every method in their power to subvert it. -This is a part of the oath: "The Roman papacy, and the royalties of St. Peter, I will, saving my own order, assist the pope and his successors to retain and defend against every man. The rights, honours, privileges, and authority of the holy Roman church, and of our lord the pope, and his successors aforesaid, I will be careful to preserve, defend, enlarge, and promote. All heretics, schismatics, and rebels against our said lord, I will, to the utmost of my power, persecute and oppose, and will never lay down my weapons till they are utterly brought under and rooted out." -The clause, hereticos pro posse persequar, et expugnabo, is an obligation to persecute heretics, and to oppose them with temporal weapons; and this clearly appears to be the sense of the church of Rome, both from her decrees and practice, and from late instances of persecuting zeal in the Spanish and Portuguese inquisitions.

From this period there was the same uniformity in Mr. Wesley's life as during the preceding years. His visits were extended to every part of the kingdom, and the success which attended him, was proportioned to his exertions in the Redeemer's cause.

On Thursday, June 12, 1783, he embarked at Harwich; on the following day he arrived at Helvoetsluys, and visited Rotterdam, the Hague, Haerlem, Leyden, Utrecht, and Amsterdam. But nothing material occurred during his journey; and in the beginning of July he returned to London.

During this year at the Bristol conference, Mr. Wesley was so indisposed that neither he nor his friends thought he would recover. From the nature of his complaint, he suspected that a spasm would probably seize his stomach, and occasion sudden death. Under these views of his situation, he said to Mr. Bradford, "I have been reflecting on my past life : I have been wandering up and down between fifty and sixty years, endeavouring in my poor way to do a little good to my fellow creatures and, now it is probable that there are but a few steps between me and death, and what have I to trust to for salvation? I can see nothing which I have done or suffered, that will bear looking at. I have no other plea than this: I the chief of sinners am but Jesus died for me." This sentiment, and his reference to it in his last sickness, plainly show how steadily he persevered in the same views of the Gospel, with which he began to preach it.

The deed by which the British Methodist Conference was finally established, is dated February 28th, 1784: it appoints and nominates one hundred preachers to form that body, under a variety of regulations. They are to assemble once every year: the act of the majority is binding: no business can be transacted unless forty members be present the session cannot be dissolved within

five days from its commencement, nor be continued after twenty-one days: it directs the mode of appointing officers, of filling up vacancies, of admitting preachers, and concludes by declaring the conference extinct, if the number of its members should ever be reduced to less than forty. This is the basis and outlines of the present church government of the British Methodists.

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