them. They were afterwards reconciled. "I love you and honour you," Whitfield says in a letter to Wesley; "and, when I come to judgment, will "thank you before men and angels for what you "have, under God, done for my soul. There, "I am persuaded, I shall see dear Mr. Wesley "convinced of election and everlasting love. And "it often fills me with pleasure to think, how I "shall behold you, casting your crown down at the "feet of the Lamb, and, as it were, filled with a "holy blushing, for opposing the divine sovereignty " in the manner you have done.”

The eloquence of these extraordinary men was wonderful,—but rather equal than alike ;-Whitfield was commanding,-Wesley was insinuating: Whitfield had little reading,-Wesley was both a gentleman and a scholar.

Psalmody was employed by each with great effect; but it was of the simplest kind :—it is one of Wesley's injunctions, that different words should never be sung at the same time by different persons, and that no syllable should have more than one note.

On different occasions, Wesley wrote against the catholics, and one of his writings," says Mr. Southey, his biographer, "gave the catholics

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an advantage, because it defended the protestant "association of 1780; and the events, which "speedily followed, were turned against him. But, 66 upon the great points in dispute, he was clear "and cogent, and the temper of this, as of his "other controversial tracts, was such, that, some

"him to meet his antagonist, father O'Leary, it "was gratifying to both parties to meet upon "terms of courtesy and mutual good will."

LXXIV. 2.

Antinomianism.

THE doctrines of Wesley are said to have a remote, those of Whitfield a much nearer tendency to antinomianism*. The English antinomians are descendants of a certain sect of presbyterians, who arose in the civil war. They maintain, as principles, certain consequences which they draw from the doctrines of Calvin, but which he himself rejected, and which the rational part of his followers equally reject. According to the antinomians,—as those, whom God has elected to salvation, will, by the irresistible impulse of divine grace, be led to piety and virtue, it necessarily follows that instruction, admonition, and exhortation, are, in their regard, absolutely unnecessary.

Some carry this doctrine to a more frightful length, they maintain that, as the elect cannot forfeit the divine favour, their violations of the divine law will not be charged upon them, and they need not, therefore, repent of them.

Some even maintain, that the violations, however enormous, by the elect, of the divine law, are not sins, in the sight of God; because it is one of the

• See Toland's Letter to Le Clerc, in the Bibliothèque Universelle et Critique, tome xxxiii. p. 505. Mosheim. Ecc. Hist. cent. xvii. sec. 2. p. 2.

essential and distinctive characters of the elect, that they cannot do any thing, which is either displeasing to God, or prohibited by his law. Against the antinomians, Wesley uniformly preached and acted: his successor, Mr. Fletcher of Madeley*, was their ablest opponent.-It must be added, that the calvin ists themselves deny, that any of these antinomian tenets are justly inferrible from their doctrines.

The tendency, however remote, of his avowed doctrines, to antinomianism, did not escape Wesley's own observation. Mr. Southeyt cites from his works, this remarkable passage: "The true gospel "touches on the very edge both of calvinism and antinomianism, so that nothing but the mighty power of God can prevent our sliding into one or "the other."

LXXIV. 3.

The Moravians.

To this denomination of christians, Wesley once had nearly aggregated himself; he afterwards declared against them, and finally separated himself and his disciples formally from them at that time a degree of fanaticism, which does not now belong to them, was justly imputed to them.

The following is a succinct outline of their history and tenets.

In 1570, a congress of Bohemian, Polish, and Switzer protestants, some of whom were lutherans, some calvinists, and some socinians, was held at In his Four Checks to Antinomianism.

+ Life of Wesley, vol. ii. p. 189.

Sendomir*. They agreed on a formulary called "The Consent of Sendomir." But the agreement was of short duration; for almost immediately after it was signed, the majority of the Bohemians entered into communion with the Helvetic churches. In 1620, a general union of all the Bohemian churches was effected at Astrog, under the name of The Church of the United Brethren.

The original settlement of these churches was in Bohemia and Moravia. Persecution scattered the members of them: a considerable number of the fugitives settled at Herrnhut, a village in Lusatia. There, under the protection and guidance of count Zinzendorf, they formed themselves into a new community, which was designed to comprehend their actual and future congregations, under the title of "The Protestant Church of the Unitas Fratrum, "or United Brethren of the Confession of Augs

burgh." That Confession is their only symbolic book; but they profess great esteem for the eighteen first chapters of the synodical document of the church of Berne in 1532, as a declaration of true christian doctrine. They also respect the writings of count Zinzendorf, but do not consider themselves bound by any opinion, sentiment, or expression, which these contain. It is acknowledged, that, towards the middle of the last century, they used in their devotional exercises, particularly in their

This document, and a curious account of the congress at which it was framed, was published by Jablonski, at Berlin, in 1731, in one vol. 4to. with the title Historia Consensus Sendomirensis.

hymns, many expressions justly censurable but these have been corrected. They consider lutherans and calvinists to be their brethren in faith, as according with them in the essential articles of religion; and therefore, when any of their members reside at a distance from a congregation of the united brethren, they not only attend a lutheran or calvinist church, but receive the sacrament from its ministers, without scruple. In this, they profess to act in conformity to the convention at Sendomir.

The union, which prevails both among the congregations, and the individuals which compose them, their modest and humble carriage, their moderation in lucrative pursuits, the simplicity of their manners, their laborious industry, their frugal habits, their ardent but mild piety, and their regular discharge of all their spiritual observances, are universally acknowledged and admired. Their charities are boundless, their kindness to their poor brethren is most edifying: there is not among them a beggar. The care which they bestow on the education of their children, in forming their minds, chastening their hearts, and curbing their imaginations, particularly in those years,

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When youth, elate and gay,

"Steps into life, and follows, unrestrained,

"Where passion leads, or reason points the way;"—

LOWTH;

are universally acknowledged, universally admired, and deserve universal imitation.

But, it is principally by the extent and success of their missionary labours that they now engage the