in philosophy? So was I. In antient or modern tongues? So was I also. Are they versed in the science of divinity? I too have studied it many years. Can they talk fluently upon spiritual things? The very same could I do. Are they plenteous in alms? Behold, I gave all my goods to feed the poor. Do they give of their labour as well as their substance? I have laboured more abundantly than them all. Are they willing to suffer for their brethren? I have thrown up my friends, reputation, ease, country. I have put my life in my hand wandering into strange lands; I have given my body to be devoured by the deep, parched up with heat, consumed by toil and weariness, or whatsoever God shall please to bring upon me. But does all this (be it more or less, it matters not,) make me acceptable to God? Does all I ever did, or can, know, say, give, do, or suffer, justify me in his sight? If the oracles of God are true, if we are still to abide by the Law and Testimony, all these things, though when ennobled by faith in Christ they are holy, and just, and good, yet without it are dung and dross. Thus then have I learned, in the ends of the earth, that my whole heart is altogether corrupt and abominable, and consequently my whole life: - that my own works, my own sufferings, my own righteousness, are so far from reconciling me to an offended God, so far from making any atonement for the least of those sins, which are more in number than the hairs of my head, that the most specious of them need an

atonement themselves:that having the sentence of death in my heart, and nothing in or of myself to plead, I have no hope but that of being justified freely through the redemption that is in Jesus,-but that if I seek I shall find Christ, and be found in him. If it be said, that I have faith, (for many such things have I heard from many miserable comforters,) I answer, so have the devils, -a sort of faith; but still they are strangers to the covenant of promise. The faith I want is a sure trust and confidence in God, that through the merits of Christ my sins are forgiven, and I reconciled to the favour of God. I want that faith which none can have without knowing that he hath it (though many imagine they have it, who have it not); for whosoever hath it is freed from sin; the whole body of sin is destroyed in him: he is freed from fear, having peace with God through Christ, and rejoicing in hope of the glory of God. And he is freed from doubt, having the love of God shed abroad in his heart, through the Holy Ghost which is given unto him, which Spirit itself beareth witness with his spirit, that he is a child of God."

Yet on reflecting upon the time which he had spent in Georgia, he saw many reasons to bless God for having carried him into that strange land. There he had been humbled and proved, there he had learned to know what was in his heart: there the passage had been opened for him to the writings of holy men in the German, Spanish, and Italian tongues; for he acquired the Spanish in

order to converse with his Jewish parishioners, and read prayers in Italian to a few Vaudois: and there he had been introduced to the church of Herrnhuth,—an event of considerable importance to his future life.

CHAPTER IV.

PROGRESS OF WHITEFIELD DURING WESLEY'S ABSENCE. WESLEY A PUPIL OF THE MORAVIANS.

WHITEFIELD sailed from the Downs for Georgia a few hours only before the vessel which brought Wesley back from thence cast anchor there. The ships passed in sight of each other, but neither of these remarkable men knew that so dear a friend was on the deck at which he was gazing. But when Wesley landed he learned that his coadjutor was on board the vessel in the offing: it was still possible to communicate with him; and Whitefield was not a little surprized at receiving a letter which contained these words: "When I saw God by the wind which was carrying you out brought me in, I asked counsel of God. His answer you have inclosed." The inclosure was a slip of paper, with this sentence," Let him return to London." Wesley doubting, from his own experience, whether his friend could be so usefully employed in America as in England, had referred the question to chance, in which at that time he trusted implicitly, and this was the lot* which he had drawn. But

This remarkable instance of Wesley's predilection for the practice of sortilege, is not noticed by either of his biographers. Whitefield himself relates it, in a letter published at the time of their separation. "We sailed immediately," he adds. "Some months after, I received a

Whitefield, who never seems to have fallen into this superstition, was persuaded that he was called to Georgia; and even if he had not felt that impression upon his mind, the inconsistency of returning to London in obedience to a lot, which had been drawn without his consent or knowledge, and breaking the engagements which he had formed, would have been glaring, and the inconvenience not inconsiderable. He betook himself to prayer: the story of the prophet in the book of Kings came forcibly to his recollection, how he turned back from his appointed course, because another prophet told him it was the will of the Lord that he should do so, and for that reason a lion met him by the way. So he proceeded on his voyage. The previous career of the disciple in England, during the master's absence in America, must now be retraced.

letter from you at Georgia, wherein you wrote words to this effect: ' though God never before gave me a wrong lot, yet perhaps he suffered me to have such a lot at that time, to try what was in your heart.' I should never," says Whitefield, " have published this private transaction to the world, did not the glory of God call me to it. It is plain you had a wrong lot given you here, and justly, because you tempted God in drawing one." Whitefield afterwards, in his remarks upon Bishop Lavington's book, refers to this subject in a manner which does him honour. "My mentioning," he says, " Mr. Wesley's casting a lot on a private occasion, known only to God and ourselves, has put me to great pain. — It was wrong in me to publish a private transaction to the world; and very ill-judged to think the glory of God could be promoted by unnecessarily exposing my friend. For this I have asked both God and him pardon years ago. And though I believe both have forgiven me, yet I believe I shall never be able to forgive myself. As it was a public fault, I think it should be publicly acknowledged; and I thank a kind Providence for giving me this opportunity of doing it."

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