their choice of the church or the meeting. The wound can no longer be healed slightly. Those who are disposed to separate had best do it while we are yet alive.

"It seems not proper to show my brother your last to me. Write to him again, and urge it upon his conscience, whether he is not bound to prevent a separation, both before and after his death; whether, in order to this, he should not take the utmost pains to settle the Preachers, discharging those who are irreclaimable, and never receiving another without this previous condition, that he will never leave the Church.

"He is writing an excellent treatise on the question, whether it is expedient to separate from the Church of England; which he talks of printing.

"Be very mild and loving in your next, lest he should still say, the separatists show a better spirit than their opposers.You may honestly suppose him now of our mind.

"I will answer for your admission to the Conference at Leeds in the beginning of May.

My brother says his book will be out next summer. I will allow him till next winter.

"Is not Nicholas Norton under the influence of Charles Perronet?

"Poor Meriton is dead: therefore I say nothing of him. "John Jones will thank you for a title.

"William Prior I suppose you know is ordained; without learning, interest, or aught but Providence to recommend him.

"What are you doing in your part of the vineyard? and how does the work prosper? Write largely, and often.

"The Lord of the harvest is thrusting out labourers in divers places. Mr. Romaine, Venn, Dodd, Jones, and others here, are much blessed. Pray for them, as well as us. The Lord be your strength. Farewell in Christ.

"Robert Windsor is a pillar of our Church."

These letters are particularly valuable, not only as exhibiting the state of feeling among the Methodist Preachers in those times, but for the light which they shed upon Mr. Charles Wesley's character. With the real difficulties of the case he did not attempt to grapple. He does not show how the scruples of such men as Cownley, Walsh, and the Perronets, could be removed; nor how the spiritual wants of the

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I what a

you!

73,

societies were to be met in those places where they were repelled from the table of the Lord. Such was his impetuosity, that he could see nothing in the scruples of these men but pride; and he was resolved to force all the people to an attendance upon their several churches, whatever they might hear there, and though they went with the certainty of being driven from the holy communion. Such a course was not suited to the occasion. The persons concerned were not children, either in years, understanding, or piety. They were rebuked, but not convinced; and left to utter their complaints in all directions. To treat them in this manner was only to restrain the evil for a time. It was not removed. Mr. John Wesley pursued a different course. He also was anxious to preserve the people and Preachers in communion with the established Church; but he would not, even for the attainment of this object, dismiss from the itinerant ministry men of whose uprightness, piety, and usefulness he had the fullest evidence. Nor would he deal harshly with men whom he thought to be in error, when he saw that conscience was concerned.

As one means of preserving the Methodists in union with the Church, Mr. Charles Wesley was anxious to get the best and ablest of the Preachers prepared for holy orders, and then ordained by the Bishops; and he thought that Mr. Sellon and John Jones might be advantageously employed in the work of their education. Jones, who had belonged to the medical profession, was a man of learning, and very useful as an Itinerant Preacher. He was treated with great confidence by the brothers, being a man of extraordinary sobriety of judgment. Charles, it will be observed, bespeaks for him a title to orders, that he might be invested with the clerical character. At that time he did not succeed; but afterwards Jones was episcopally ordained, and became a parochial Minister, as did a few others of his brethren. Their itinerancy was then at an end; and the design of Methodist preaching, to spread Christian holiness all over the land, was proportionably defeated. Mr. John Wesley viewed these subjects, not as a theorist, but as a practical man. All feeling of personal taste and prejudice, and all forms of ecclesiastical order, he subordinated to the higher object of reforming the nation, by turning the people from sin to holiness.

con

Mr. Charles Wesley is generally happy in the application of epithets. Whether he intends to praise or blame, the names which he gives to the parties whom he designs to characterize are usually appropriate and striking. But here his shrewdness and tact forsake him. He assumes that the Clergy of the established Church were Priests after the order of Aaron; and he calls the Methodist Preachers "Melchizedekians," to denote their inferiority. They were not in the "succession;" as Melchizedek was "without father, without mother, without descent." But when he used the name of Melchizedek for such a purpose, he did not " sider how great this man was." Melchizedek was 66 King of righteousness," and "King of peace," as well as "Priest of the most high God;" and, as the inspired author of the Epistle to the Hebrews shows, was vastly superior to Aaron, and the whole tribe of Levi; inasmuch as Levi himself, in the person of Abraham, paid tithes to this Priest of the kingly order, who blessed the Patriarch of the whole Jewish nation: "and without all contradiction, the less is blessed of the better." Joseph Cownley, Thomas Walsh, and the Perronets, however disposed to magnify their office, as itinerant Evangelists, would hardly have aspired to such a distinction as this honourable title properly denotes.

The time of the Conference at length drew near, when the claims of these "Melchizedekians were to be heard and canvassed. Mr. Charles Wesley, as the impassioned and determined advocate of Churchmanship, repaired to Leeds, whence he addressed the following letter to his wife :

66

Leeds, April 29th. To my dearly beloved Partner,Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father, and Christ Jesus our Lord!

"You thought it long till you heard from me again. I made such short stages, (as much to save my horse as myself,) that I did not reach this place till yesterday. At 14 Birmingham, Sheffield, Barley-hall, and Leeds, are many kind inquirers after you: too many to name. I told them my hopes of your continued welfare. Their prayers for you will come back in the time of need. Moderate travelling I find good for me, having never had better health since you I look every post for a good account of my Sally. This evening I expect to find my brother at Birstal. I pity

knew me.

There she is likely to
The roads are almost

his poor wife, if now upon the road. stick, till the warm weather comes. impassable for wheels.

"I am going to breakfast with Miss Norton, who is as far from the spirit of my Best Friend* as east from west. What shall you and I do to love her better? Love your enemies,' is with man impossible: but is anything too hard for God? I fear you do not constantly pray for her. I must pray, or sink-into the spirit of revenge.

"Miss Norton is very much at your service, but flies from her house before the face of my sister. She retreats to Wakefield, before the Conference, for an obvious reason.

"H. Thornton and his wife, &c., &c., &c., send cordial greetings, and poor old declining Mrs. Hutchinson. I have been crying in the chamber, whence my J. Hutchinson ascended. My heart is full of him; and I miss him every moment. But he is at rest.

Have you

"When did our Clifton friends leave you? looked out for lodgings first, and by and by for a house, for dear George? Mr. James can assist you in the latter, but very privately. My friend must not be named.

my

"Are you much in private prayer? Do you ever read my hymns for your condition? I cannot doubt your coming safely through, if we continue instant in prayer. Adieu !"

A few things in this letter call for remark. The affecting reference to J. Hutchinson proves the strength of the writer's affection for his late friend, who had now been dead nearly twelve months. It will be recollected that he accompanied Mr. Charles Wesley from Bristol to London, in the latter end of the year 1753, when Mr. John Wesley was thought to be dying. At that time he was in a backsliding state, and had deeply fallen from God. He died at Leeds on the 23d of July following; and in the room where he expired Mr. Charles Wesley wept at the remembrance of him. When he was near his end Mr. Charles Wesley wrote a hymn, commending him to the divine mercy, and praying for the recovery of his forfeited peace and holiness. The request was granted. Before he yielded up his spirit, his backslidings

Mrs. John Wesley.

were healed, and he was able to testify of the goodness of God to his soul. Two hymns on the occasion of his happy death, Mr. Charles Wesley afterwards published.

The "dear George," here mentioned, was the Rev. George Stonehouse, formerly Vicar of Islington, whose Curate Mr. Charles Wesley was, till driven away by the Churchwardens. Having imbibed the views of the Moravians, he resigned his vicarage, and went to live at Dornford, near Woodstock, in Oxfordshire. He was now a widower, and had cast his eye upon "Molly Stafford," whom he thought suitable to be his second wife. About the middle of this month he visited Bristol, and on his return wrote to Mrs. Charles Wesley, requesting her to give him her opinion concerning this good woman. It was the misfortune of this eccentric man to be possessed of an independent fortune. Had he been poor, he would, in all probability, have retained his living at Islington, and remained an efficient Minister of Christ to the end of his life. His property supplied him with the means of following his whims and caprice. In another letter to his wife, which was written about this time, Mr. Charles Wesley says, George Stonehouse has been a great comfort to me already. My words have not been lost upon him. He is worth all the pains we can bestow upon him. I have made a convert of

my brother towards him: for why? My sister was out of

From Leeds Mr. Charles Wesley went to Birstal, where he met his brother by appointment, in the afternoon of Monday, April 28th. Here they remained together for several days, examining, with the greatest care, the claims of the established Church on the one hand, and of Dissent on the other, that they might be fully prepared for the discussion of the question of separation at the Conference, which was just at hand. In reference to this interview, Mr. John Wesley says, in his Journal,—

"We began reading together, 'A Gentleman's Reasons for his Dissent from the Church of England.' It is an elaborate and lively tract, and contains the strength of the cause: but it did not yield us one proof that it is lawful for us (much less our duty) to separate from it. In how different a spirit does this man write from honest Richard Baxter ! The one dipping, as it were, his pen in tears; the other, in