day of prosperity rejoice;' and I am sure it is to me a day of prosperity! I am, dear Charles,

"Your sincere friend, and affectionate brother. "December 1, 1738."

Strenuous attempts were now made to settle Mr. Charles Wesley, first at Oxford, and afterwards as a parish Priest; but both these projects were overruled. On the 5th of January, 1739, he says, "My brother, Mr. Seward, Hall, Whitefield, Ingham, Kinchin, Hutchins, all set upon me; but I could not agree to settle at Oxford without farther direction from God." On the 13th of February following he adds, "I read a letter from Sarah Hurst, pressing me to Oxford, and Cowley, which is now vacant. Quite resigned, I offered myself: opened the Book upon these words: With stammering lips and with another tongue will I speak to this people.' I thought it a prohibition, yet continued without a will." He made no application, and the living of Cowley was given to another person. A different kind of service was assigned to him in the secret arrangements of divine Providence. While his brother and all their friends thus attempted to fix him in one particular place, they little thought of the itinerant ministry upon which he was destined soon to enter. But in this, as well as in other things of a similar kind, in which he and his brother departed from ecclesiastical order, they not only acted without a pre-concerted plan, but were absolutely overruled in their own prejudices and inclinations. They were led by a strong sense of duty, and violated their original purposes and feelings.

Neither of the brothers, it will be observed, was yet free from the very objectionable practice of suddenly opening the Bible, and regarding the text upon which the eye might happen first to rest, as containing an indication of the mind of God, intended to guide them in any given emergency. They had no just authority to expect a communication of the divine will to be made to them in this manner; and were therefore ultimately led to abandon the habit, as at once presumptuous and enthusiastic. And yet it is not improbable that "the Father of mercies" might, in some instances, thus condescend to own a sincere but erring piety. Mr. John Wesley's sermon on Enthusiasm is an antidote to this practice, and to every other of a similar kind.

CHAPTER VI.

It has been already remarked, that when Mr. Whitefield returned from Georgia, after a very short residence there, his design was, by an appeal to British charity, to raise a sum of money for the purpose of erecting an Orphan-House in that colony. God, however, had another and a higher object in view in bringing him to England at this time, as the event proved, though his servant knew it not. For a while the Wesleys were freely admitted into many of the churches in London, and its vicinity; but the case was at length altered. Seldom did Mr. John Wesley preach in a church, but at the conclusion of the service he was told that he must occupy the pulpit there no more. Two reasons were generally assigned for the prohibition. First, he preached the intolerable doctrine of salvation by faith; and, secondly, such multitudes attended his ministry as to subject the regular seat-holders to serious inconvenience. They could not bear so much heat and crowding!

Charles met with opposition still more determined in the discharge of his clerical duties at Islington. He only held his curacy there by virtue of a private arrangement with the Vicar; the Bishop never having given his sanction: and as Charles's ministrations were offensive to the Churchwardens, they resolved to get rid of him and his Methodism altogether. In order to this, they first adopted a system of petty and insulting annoyance, and afterwards proceeded to acts of direct violence. They began their course by meeting him in the vestry, before the commencement of divine service, and in a sarcastic tone and manner requested a sight of the Bishop's licence, which they knew he did not possess. He bore their unseemly conduct with meekness, making little or no reply. A few days afterwards they met him again in the same place, and proceeded to reviling. They told him that he was full of the devil; and that this was the case also with the other Clergymen who thought and acted as he did ; specifying several of them, and their own Vicar among the

rest. Having failed by these means to drive him away, they engaged two men to guard the pulpit-stairs, when the prayers were read, and push him back when he attempted to ascend. On subsequent occasions the Churchwardens took this office upon themselves, and forcibly prevented his entrance into the pulpit, regardless of the presence of the congregation. They did this once when Sir John Gunson, who was at the head of the London Magistrates, and Mr. Justice Elliott, were present. Both these eminent men went into the vestry, and expostulated with the Churchwardens, but without effect. The Vicar, who possessed little firmness, yielded to the storm, and consented to dismiss his Curate. The matter was laid before the Bishop of London, who justified the Churchwardens in the measures which they had adopted. Charles was therefore compelled to withdraw, and seek other fields for the exercise of that ministry which he had received of the Lord, and which he felt that he could not neglect but with the certain prospect of perdition. Thus ended all the preferment that the brothers ever possessed in the established Church. John was his father's Curate about three years; and for a few months Charles held the curacy of Islington, from which he was expelled by force of arms, under the sanction of the Diocesan.

Mr. Whitefield met with similar treatment in Bristol, whither he had gone in the hope that he should be allowed to make congregational collections in behalf of the projected Orphan-House in Georgia. In a little while he was excluded from every pulpit in Bristol, connected with the established Church, even that of the common prison, where he had been accustomed gratuitously to address the felons. Preaching the new-birth, even to thieves, was deemed an intolerable evil, by the civil and ecclesiastical authorities of that city. Mr. Whitefield was not a man whose spirit could be daunted by slight difficulties; nor were his views of church-order so high and rigid as those of his friends the Wesleys. He therefore went into the fields, in the most neglected districts, and after the example of his Lord, under the wide canopy of heaven, called sinners to repentance. His success surpassed his expectation; so that he was soon induced to extend his labours to Bath, and to the proverbially ignorant and wicked colliers of Kingswood, where he was attended by immense crowds of people, some of whom climbed into trees to see and

hear him; while others placed themselves upon walls, or upon the roofs of houses, listening, with the most eager and fixed attention, to the word of life. Many were deeply impressed, and inquired with tears, and every sign of genuine contrition, what they must do to be saved.

As Mr. Whitefield was intent upon a speedy return to America, he could not remain in Bristol; nor could he bear the thought of leaving, as sheep without a shepherd, the people there, in Kingswood, and in other places, who had been awakened under his preaching. He therefore wrote to Mr. John Wesley, then in London, requesting him to come to his help without delay. Mr. Charles Wesley was opposed to this arrangement. "We dissuaded my brother," says he, "from going to Bristol; from an unaccountable fear that it would prove fatal to him. A great power was among us. He offered himself willingly to whatsoever the Lord should appoint. The next day he set out, commended by us to the grace of God. He left a blessing behind. I desired to die with him."

On his arrival, on Saturday, March 31st, 1739, Mr. John Wesley says, "In the evening I reached Bristol, and met Mr. Whitefield there. I could scarce reconcile myself at first to this strange way of preaching in the fields, of which he set me an example on Sunday; having been all my life (till very lately) so tenacious of every point relating to decency and order, that I should have thought the saving of souls almost a sin, if it had not been done in a church.

"April 1st. In the evening, Mr. Whitefield being gone, I began expounding our Lord's sermon on the mount: one pretty remarkable precedent of field-preaching, though I suppose there were churches at that time also.

"Monday, 2d. At four in the afternoon, I submitted to be more vile, and proclaimed in the highways the glad tidings of salvation, speaking from a little eminence in a ground adjoining to the city, to about three thousand people."

From Bristol Mr. Wesley extended his labours to Kingswood, Bath, and other towns and villages in the neighbourhood, with a success resembling that of his honoured predecessor, till about the middle of June following, when he was sent for to London, to assist in the adjustment of some differences which had arisen in the society at Fetter-lane. Mr.

Whitefield was then in London, preparing for his immediate departure for Georgia. He had preached in Moorfields, on Kennington-common, Blackheath, and in various other places, sometimes to upwards of twenty thousand people at once. On the 14th of June Mr. Wesley says, "I went with Mr. Whitefield to Blackheath, where were, I believe, twelve or fourteen thousand people. He a little surprised me, by desiring me to preach in his stead; which I did (though nature recoiled) on my favourite subject, 'Jesus Christ, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.' I was greatly moved with compassion for the rich, to whom I made a particular application. Some of them seemed to attend, while others drove away their coaches from so uncouth a Preacher."

In reference to this occasion Mr. Whitefield says, "I had the pleasure of introducing my honoured and Reverend friend, Mr. John Wesley, to preach at Blackheath. The Lord give him ten thousand times more success than he has given me! I went to bed rejoicing that another fresh inroad was made into Satan's territories, by Mr. Wesley's following me in field-preaching, as well in London as in Bristol. Lord, give the word, and great shall be the company of such Preachers!"

In the mean while Charles was neither silent, nor inattentive to the example of his brother, and of their mutual friend Whitefield. On the 21st of May, at the house of one of his friends in London, he met with a person, who appears to have been a Clergyman. He was very kind, and, without being duly aware of the consequence, gave Charles a pressing invitation to go with him to Broadoaks; a village in Essex, about forty miles from London, where some members of the Delamotte family resided. Two days after he says, "Mr. Clagget pressed me now, with the utmost importunity, to go with him to-morrow." The next day he says, "At noon I set out on horseback; our sisters in the chaise. By two the next day we surprised Miss Betty at Broadoaks. I was full of prayer, that God would gather a church in this place. Sunday, May 27th, still Mr. Clagget opposed my preaching. We went to church, where I preached the new-birth. Mr. Clagget was I told him, he was doing the devil's work.

still more violent. Between jest and