and reviving joy must needs rush into the bosom of him that reads or hears, and the sweet odour of the returning gospel imbathe his soul with the fragrancy of heaven."* With these feelings, he is persuaded the departed pastor of Surrey Chapel fully sympathized, while he rejoiced in his personal knowledge of several of those great men who "went forth without the camp,” bearing the reproach of Christ.+

But what are the opinions of Mr. Sidney? He candidly admits that, when Mr. Hill first became a preacher, many slept upon their weapons, or woke only to thwart those who were willing to fight the battles of the Lord; and

Milton's Prose Works, with Introduction, by Fletcher, p. 2. "On the Reformation in England."

+ Although Middelton, in his Ecclesiastical Memoirs, considers "that the influence of these efforts on the Establishment was not unmixed with serious evils," he adds, "that spirit must be justly charged with bitterness, which can roundly condemn the innovating zeal of the earlier Methodists, when reference is made to the formal, inefficient, infidel profession of the day; and an involuntary admiration is excited at the expeditions of such men as the two Wesleys, Delamotte, Ingham, and Whitefield, prompted by a regard to the souls of their fellow-creatures." Middelton's Ecclesiastical Memoir, ch. iii.

in such a case, that zealous men should require a little more liberty to go forth in detachments, was excusable amidst the difficulties of the times; but he states that, "without denying that whenever the necessity of conversion by the Spirit of Christ was urged upon the people, both religious advantage and improved morals were the happy results, I think it will appear, upon looking at the present consequences of these important exertions, that the greatest ultimate benefit has flowed from such as adhered to the rules of our church.”+

When speaking of the excellent Mr. Walker, of Truro, who died in 1761, Mr. Sidney remarks, "He lived in an age of great interest, when the long-forgotten doctrines of the Reformation began to be received amongst a people who had sunk into miserable depths of apathy and irreligion. A flame had just been enkindled by the fire and zeal of certain energetic individuals, who possessed much more of the fervour than the wisdom of Christianity, and whose eyes were so dazzled by a sudden burst of light, that they lost the power of looking calmly either on present circumstances or

# Sidney's Life, page 401.

+ Ibid. 426.

future consequences.*

Their efforts were made

s;

with a laudable desire to rouse from the sleep of death, those who slumbered in their sins but they were so elated by success, that they forgot, while spreading gospel doctrines, to lay permanent foundations for a spirit of Christian unity. The confusion and disunion which succeeded the death of one of such leaders, were generally as injurious as his labours had been useful. Whitefield and others, who pursued a like course, undoubtedly waged a mighty warfare against the spiritual enemies of man; but, in the heat of battle, struck too much at a venture, and inflicted wounds upon their own church, which have not yet been healed. stead of bringing into vigorous action the practical wisdom of our reformers, they adopted sudden plans of their own, which were often ill-suited to the then agitated elements around

In

"It may be laid down as a principle established by fact, that whenever a zealous and faithful ministry is raised up, after a long spiritual death, the early efforts of that ministry are not only powerful, but often attended with extraordinary circumstances: nor are such extraordinary circumstances necessarily extravagancies because they are not common."Watson's Life of Wesley, p. 95.

them, and productive of serious injury when they had settled into a calm. They made too much haste for the gradual working of gospel leaven; but, to do them justice, their motives were pure, and their lives devoted to the willing service of God. It must also be remembered, that they had no opportunity of seeing, as we do, the full extent of those dangers which accompany departure from established discipline and order. The Dissenters of that age were generally well-disposed to enjoy their own opinions in peace, and set an edifying example of learning and piety. Watts, Doddridge, Guise, and others, preached also the true doctrines of the Reformation, which had unhappily been overlooked by too many Churchmen, who neither felt in their hearts, nor taught in their pulpits, what they had subscribed with their hands. Hence these good men naturally attracted attention and friendship from enlightened clergymen, who suspected no evil, nor had indeed cause to fear it from such liberal nonconformists. That, however, which was not to be dreaded from individuals, ought to have been apprehended from principles, to the spread of which an unguarded conduct in many members of our establishment gave but too much

facility. Mr. Walker, and his contemporaries of a kindred spirit, foresaw and escaped these dangers, while they have transmitted to posterity proofs of devotedness to their calling, and of experimental godliness, fully equal to those of men more popular, but less prudent. They beheld, with amazement and grief, those deviations from all rule, by which thousands were misguided;* though they were, notwithstanding, most unjustly reproached as enthusiasts."

"When churchmen consider the evils done by the Methodists and others, they look at the mere fact, that a great body of people have been raised up, as they say, out of the church, within a century past, excelling in number, almost, if not entirely, the whole of the old bodies of Dissenters; and they assume that if the Wesleys and Mr. Whitefield had never appeared, the church would have been in as improved a state as now, with none but the old Dissenters to contend with. There is a great fallacy in both these views. The persons who were led to God by the ministry of these excellent men and their successors, were for the most part persons who never were, in any substantial sense, and never would have been, of the church."-Watson's Life of Wesley, pp. 365, 371.

"The late Mr. Walker, of Truro, and a few others, not only loved and preached the gospel, but