Samuel Wesley* died within three weeks after the date of this letter; and John says in his journal, "We could not but rejoice at hearing from one who had attended my brother in all his weakness, that several days before he went hence, God had given him a calm and full assurance of his interest in Christ. Oh! may every one who opposes it be thus † convinced that this doctrine is of God!" Wesley cannot be suspected of intentional deceit; yet who is there who upon reading this passage would suppose that Samuel had died after an illness of four hours ?well might he protest against the apprehension or the charity of those who were so eager to hold him up to the world as their convert. The state of mind which this good man enjoyed had nothing in common with the extravagant doctrine of assurance which his brothers were preaching with such vehemence during the ebullition of their enthusiasm; it was the sure and certain hope of a sincere and humble Christian, who trusted in the merits of his Saviour and the mercy of his God. He died as he had lived, in that essential faith which has been common to all Christians in all ages; that faith wherein he had been trained up, which had been rooted in him by a sound education, and confirmed by diligent study, and by his own ripe judgment. And to that faith Wesley himself imperceptibly returned as time and experience

* In the History of Dissenters by David Bogue and James Bennett, (vol. iii. p. 9.) Samuel Wesley is called "a worldly priest, who hated all pretence to more religion than our neighbours, as an infallible mark of a dissenter!!" The amiable spirit which is displayed in this sentence, its liberality, its charity, and its regard to truth, require no comment.

This passage may probably have been the cause of the breach between John Wesley and his brother's family, and to that breach the preservation of Samuel's letters is owing. Wesley was very desirous of getting the whole correspondence into his possession, "but the daughter and grand-daughter of Samuel being offended at his conduct, would never deliver them to him. It was taken for granted that he would have suppressed them. They gave them to Mr. Badcock with a view to their publication after Wesley's death, and Badcock dying before then, gave them to Dr. Priestley with the same intent.'

taught him to correct his aberrations. In his old age he said to Mr. Melville Horne these memorable words: "When fifty years ago my brother Charles and I, in simplicity of our hearts, told the good people of England, that unless they knew their sins were forgiven, they were under the wrath and curse of God, I marvel, Melville, they did not stone us! The Methodists, I hope, know better now; we preach assurance as we always did, as a common privilege of the children of God; but we do not enforce it, under the pain of damnation, denounced on all who enjoy it not."

At this time Wesley believed that he differed in no point from the Church of England, but preached her fundamental doctrines, as they were clearly laid down, both in her prayers, articles, and homilies. But from those clergy who in reality dissented from the church, though they owned it not, he differed, he said, in these points; they spoke of justification either as the same thing with sanctification, or as something consequent upon it; he believed justification to be wholly distinct from sanctification, and necessarily antecedent to it. The difference would have been of little consequence had it consisted only in this logomachy: how many thousand and ten thousand Christians have taken, and will take, the right course to heaven, without understanding, thinking, or perhaps hearing of these terms, but satisfied with the hope, and safe in the promise of their salvation! They spake of our own holiness and good works, he said, as the cause of our justification; he believed that the death and righteousness of Christ were the whole and sole cause. They spake of good works as a condition of justification, necessarily previous to it: he believed no good work could be previous to it, and consequently could not be a condition of it; "but that we are justified (being till that hour ungodly, and therefore incapable of doing any good work) by faith alone-faith without works-faith including no good work, though it produces all." They spake of sanctification as if it

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were an outward thing, which consisted in doing no harm, and in doing what is called good: he believed that it was the life of God in the soul of man; a participation of the divine nature; the mind that was in Christ; the renewal of our heart after the image of him that created us. They spake of the new birth as an outward thing; as if it were no more than baptism, or at most a change from a vicious to what is called a virtuous life: he believed that it was an entire change of our inmost nature, from the image of the devil, wherein we are born, to the image of God. "There is, therefore," he says, "a wide, essential, fundamental, irreconcileable difference between us; so that if they speak the truth as it is in Jesus, I am found a false witness before God; but if I teach the way of God in truth, they are blind leaders of the blind." But where learnt he this exaggerated and monstrous notion of the innate depravity of man? and who taught him that man, who was created in the image of his Maker, was depraved into an image of the devil at birth? assuredly not He who said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.

True old Christianity, he tells us, was now every where spoken against, under the new name of Methodism. In reality, the good which Methodism might produce was doubtful, for there had been no time as yet to prove the stability of its converts; and it was, moreover, from its very nature, private, while the excesses and extravagancies of the sect were public and notorious. Samuel Wesley, when he said that mira cles would not be wanting to support them, foresaw as clearly what would be the natural progress of these things, as he did their certain tendency and inevitable end. Wesley was fully satisfied that the paroxysms which he caused in his hearers by his preaching, were relieved by his prayers; it was easy after this to persuade himself that he, and such of his disciples as had faith like him, could heal diseases and cast out devils. Accordingly he relates the case of a mad woman, as a fresh proof that whatsoever ye shall

ask, believing, ye shall receive. This person had been so decidedly frantic, that it was necessary to faster her down in her bed; "but upon prayer made for her, she was instantly relieved and restored to a sound mind." The manner in which some persons were tormented perplexed Wesley for a while, and gave him some concern:-he suspected craziness, where imposture might have better explained the symptoms; but having recourse to bibliomancy to know what would be the issue of these things, he was satisfied by lighting upon a text, which certainly was never more unworthily applied-Glory be to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men.— Thus deluding himself, when he was sent for to one of these women, (for the persons who acted the part of demoniacs, or who mistook hysterical feelings for possession, were generally females,) he prayed God to bruise Satan under his feet, and the patient immediately cried out vehemently, He is gone-he is gone! More violent instances occurred in Bristol and Kingswood; and disgusting though they are, they are of too much importance in the history of Wesley and of Methodism, to be passed over in silence, or slightly to be noticed. Returning from Kingswood one evening, he was exceedingly pressed to go back to a young woman. "The fact," he says, "I nakedly relate, and leave every man to his own judgment of it. I went. She was nineteen or twenty years old, but could not write or read. I found her on the bed, two or three persons holding her. It was a terrible sight. Anguish, horror, and despair above all description, appeared in her pale face. The thousand distortions of her whole body showed how the dogs of hell were gnawing at her heart. The shrieks intermixed were scarce to be endured; but her stony eyes could not weep. She screamed out, as words could find their way, I am damned, damned; lost for ever! Six days ago you might have helped me-but it is past— I am the Devil's now-I have given myself to him— his I am-him I must serve with him I must go to hell--I will be his-I will serve him-I will go with

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him to hell--I cannot be saved-I will not be saved —I must, I will, I will be damned!' She then began praying to the devil: we began, Arm of the Lord, awake, awake! She immediately sunk down as asleep; but as soon as we left off, broke out again with inexpressible vehemence. Stony hearts, break! I am a warning to you. Break, break, poor stony hearts! Will you not break? What can be done more for stony hearts? I am damned that you may be saved! Now break, now break, poor stony hearts! You need not be damned, though I must.' She then fixed her eyes on the corner of the ceiling, and said, There he is! aye, there he is! Come, good devil, come! Take me away! You said you would dash my brains out: come, do it quickly! I am your's-I will be your's! take me away! We interrupted her by calling again upon God: on which she sunk down as before, and another young woman began to roar as loud as she had done. My brother now came in, it being about nine o'clock. We continued in prayer till past eleven, when God, in a moment, spoke peace into the soul; first, of the first-tormented, and then of the other; and they both joined in singing praise to Him who had stilled the enemy and the avenger."

In these words Wesley describes this hideous scene of frenzy and fanaticism, eager to proclaim it. as a manifestation of his power, instead of seeking to prevent the repetition of such ravings. The fits and convulsions which had lately been so frequent, were now suspended, and this new description of outward signs took its course,-a more suspicious description, as well as more scandalous and more shocking. On the second day after the case in Kingswood, Wesley was called to a woman whom he found lying on the ground, sometimes gnashing her teeth, sometimes roaring and struggling with such force, especially when the name of Jesus was named, that three or four persons could scarcely hold her. She had been in this condition during the whole night. After they had prayed over her, the violence of her symptoms was abated: he left her, but was again summoned