had nearly filled up the measure of its iniquities. The very pious and intelligent Dr. Woodward expressed the same apprehension when preaching at the Boyle Lecture. "Whenever things are come to such extremity," says he, "that the laws of God are trampled on with insolence and boasting, and the mysteries of our holy religion are made the scorn and laughter of profane men ;-if blasphemy and obscenity come into credit, and religion and virtue are pointed at as ridiculous ;—if it be thought a vain and mean thing to fear God, and to make serious mention of his name ;-if it even become unfashionable to praise our infinite Benefactor at our tables, and to appear serious and devout in our churches ;if the holy and tremendous name of the great and glorious God be not only vainly used, but vilely treated; his sacred day levelled in common with the rest; and his holy sacraments rejected by some and slighted by others;-if these crying enormities are public and common, and there be no power or authority in Church or State put forth to stem or control them ;-such a nation or people will, without a miracle, first become a horrible scene of atheism and impiety, and then of misery and desolation." *

Collection of Sermons preached at the Lecture founded by the Hon. Robert Boyle, vol. ii. p. 546. Folio Edit. 1739.

CHAPTER II.

THE EARLY LIFE AND THE CONVERSION OF THE TWO WESLEYS.

THAT form of Christianity to which the name of Wesleyan Methodism has been given, arose, without any previous plan, out of the united labours of the brothers, the Rev. JOHN and CHARLES WESLEY. These eminent men were born at Epworth, in Lincolnshire, where their father, the Rev. Samuel Wesley, was the Rector. He was a man of superior learning, and of stern integrity; and having in early life left the Dissenters, and connected himself with the established Church, his attachment to her interests and order was very strong. Their mother, Mrs. Susanna Wesley, was a woman of extraordinary sense, and of sincere piety. She was a daughter of Dr. Samuel Annesley, a truly devout Nonconformist Minister; and, like her husband, when young she quitted the ranks of Dissent, and became a worshipper in the national Establishment. In her subsequent life she expressed a decided aversion from what she called the Presbyterian faith;" and as the early training of her children devolved chiefly upon herself, she was careful, as might have been expected, to imbue their minds with the same views and feelings. In this work she was successful; and her two sons, when they entered upon their public career, were among the strictest of strict Churchmen, and deemed it scarcely possible that salvation should be attained, at least in this country, in any religious community but their own.

Mr. John Wesley, the elder of the two brothers,

was born June 14th, 1703. When about six years and a half old, he had an almost miraculous escape from death. One night it was discovered that the parsonage house was on fire; and when the rest of the family had fled for their lives from the flaming mansion, they were distressed to find that he was missing, being asleep in one of the chambers, to which all access by the stairs was now cut off. In this terrible emergency he awoke, and fled to the window, from which he was taken by one of the neighbours, who stood upon the shoulders of another. Just then the roof fell in; so that had his deliverance been delayed only for a few moments, he must have perished in the flames. Thus did a merciful Providence watch over the future heir of salvation, and spare him as the instrument of good to mankind. The grateful father, witnessing this singular interposition of the divine compassion, and finding himself surrounded by his wife and children, called upon all present to kneel down, and unite with him in grateful thanksgiving to God. "Let the house go," said he, "I am rich enough." *

The child thus signally preserved became remarkable, under the training of his excellent mother, for the seriousness of his spirit, and the general propriety of his behaviour; so that at the age of eight years he was admitted to the sacrament of the Lord's supper. When he was eleven years old, he was sent to the Charterhouse School in London, where he was soon distinguished by his diligence and progress in learning. At seventeen, he was elected to Christ Church, Oxford, where he pursued his studies to great advantage; and at the age of twenty-one, it is said that he appeared the very sensible and acute Arminian Magazine, vol. i. pp. 32, 33.

Collegian, possessed of a fine classical taste, and of the most liberal and manly sentiments. He was afterwards elected a Fellow of Lincoln College; and was also appointed Greek lecturer, and moderator of the classes.

Mr. Charles Wesley was born December 18th, 1708. Like the rest of the children, he received the first rudiments of learning from his inestimable mother; and in the year 1716, being about eight years of age, he was sent to Westminster School, and placed under the care of his eldest brother Samuel, then an usher in that famous establishment. By Samuel he was confirmed in those high-church principles, the impression of which he had doubtless received under the paternal roof. He was sprightly and active; apt to learn; but arch and unlucky, though not ill-natured. From Westminster he removed to Oxford, where he entered at Christ Church, and afterwards became a Student of that College,a title which embraces what in other Colleges is usually called a Fellowship. According to his own account, he wasted the first year of his residence at the University in diversions; but he afterwards applied himself diligently to his studies, and graduated in the usual course. He attained to eminence in classical scholarship, his own poetic mind enabling him justly to appreciate the beauties of the great writers of antiquity.

It was during their residence at Oxford that the two Wesleys became deeply impressed with a sense of the importance of religion. They saw it to be the great business of life, to which every other occupation and pursuit should be subordinated; and they perceived, more clearly than ever, that it consists, not in the performance of outward duties, but in a right

state of the heart. John was the first that received these impressions, which were mainly produced by the reading of three books which successively fell in his way. The first was Bishop Taylor's "Holy Living and Dying;" from which he learned that a simple intention to please God is necessary in every action. The second was Kempis's "Christian's Pattern;" which strengthened his conviction of the spirituality of true religion. The third was Mr. Law's "Serious Call to a devout and holy Life;" in the principles of which he was further confirmed by the same writer's treatise on "Christian Perfection." All these works are well adapted to convince the man of the world that his pleasures are both vain and sinful; and to make the formalist feel that his empty religion is not Christianity; but while they forcibly inculcate purity of heart as the essence of Christian godliness, not one of them shows the manner in which that blessing is to be obtained. They preserve a complete silence respecting the faith by which the conscience is purged from dead works, and the very thoughts of the heart are made pure; and therefore leave the reader engaged in the hopeless attempt to practise Christian holiness while he is under the power of sin. He is required to love God with all his heart; but he receives no information concerning the manner in which he is to be saved from the condemnation to which he is liable on account of his past trangressions, and from "the carnal mind which is enmity against God." The imperfect instruction which the Wesleys thus received, at this period of their lives, left them unacquainted with the method in which the "ungodly are justified;" and hence they were for many years unsuccessful in their efforts to attain that spirituality of mind which they saw to be both their duty and privilege.