both vain and sinful; and to make the formalist feel that his empty religion is not Christianity; but while they forcibly inculcate purity of heart as the essence of Christian godliness, not one of them shows the manner in which that blessing is to be obtained. They preserve a complete silence respecting the faith by which the conscience is purged from dead works, and the very thoughts of the heart are made pure; and therefore leave the reader engaged in the hopeless attempt to practise Christian holiness while he is under the power of sin. He is required to love God with all his heart; but he receives no information concerning the manner in which he is to be saved from the condemnation to which he is liable on account of his past transgressions, and from "the carnal mind which is enmity against God." The imperfect instruction which the Wesleys thus received, at this period of their lives, left them unacquainted with the method in which the "ungodly" are justified; and hence they were for many years unsuccessful in their efforts to attain that spirituality of mind which they saw to be both their duty and privilege. They served God from a principle of servile fear, rather than of constraining love. Theirs was not a filial spirit, but a spirit of bondage. They could not "rejoice evermore, pray without ceasing, and in every thing give thanks :" for they had not as yet "received the atonement;" nor did they see how the sacrificial blood of Christ, and the offices of the Holy Ghost, were to be made available in order to their present salvation from guilt, and from the evils of their fallen nature.

Mr. William Law, whose name often occurs in connection with the early religious history of the Wesleys, was a nonjuring clergyman. Being attached to the house of Stuart, and refusing to swear allegiance to George I., he was incapable of holding any benefice, and of publicly performing any of the clerical functions. The English lan

guage he wrote with uncommon purity, elegance, and strength; and he enforced the duty of entire deadness to the world, and devotedness to God, with almost unexampled earnestness and power; but he appears never to have held correct views of the atonement of Christ, and of its bearing upon the justification of the ungodly. When Mr. John Wesley had obtained the true Scriptural and Protestant view of these subjects, he most faithfully admonished this erring casuist and ascetic, by whom he had been so grievously misled. In the latter part of his life, Mr. Law wandered still further from evangelical truth, and was swallowed up in the quagmire of Jacob Behmen's mystical philosophy. He died in the year 1761, at King's Cliffe, in Northamptonshire. He belonged to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, of which he was for some time a fellow; and after he left the university, lived at Putney, London, Thrapston in Northamptonshire, and King's Cliffe, where he founded an almshouse.

Mr. John Wesley received the deep religious convictions, to which reference has just been made, some years before his brother; concerning whom he says, "He pursued his studies diligently, and led a regular, harmless life; but if I spoke to him about religion, he would warmly answer, 'What, would you have me to be a saint all at once?' and would hear no more." Such was the state of Charles's mind when John, having been ordained deacon by Bishop Potter, September 19th, 1725, and priest the year following, left Oxford in August, 1727, for the purpose of being his father's curate at Epworth and Wroote. John returned to Oxford, intending to take up his permanent residence there as a tutor, in November, 1729; and was rejoiced to find that during his absence, and chiefly by means of his influence, his brother had become deeply serious, having for some months received the Lord's supper weekly, and prevailed upon two or

three young men to do the same. These gentlemen had occasionally met together, to assist and encourage each other in their several duties. The exact regularity of their lives, as well as studies, occasioned a young gentleman of Christ Church to say, "Here is a new set of Methodists sprung up;" alluding, it is said, to some ancient physicians who were so called. The name was new and quaint; so it took immediately; and the Methodists were known all over the university. On Mr. John Wesley's arrival, he became one of their fraternity; and the direction of their concerns was gladly committed to his superior judgment.

Of this first Methodist society Mr. Wesley gives the following account:-"In November, 1729, four young gentlemen of Oxford, Mr. John Wesley, Fellow of Lincoln College, Mr. Charles Wesley, student of Christ Church, Mr. Morgan, commoner of Christ Church, and Mr. Kirkman, of Merton College, began to spend some evenings in a week together, in reading chiefly the Greek Testament. The next year two or three of Mr. John Wesley's pupils desired the liberty of meeting with them; and afterward one of Mr. Charles Wesley's pupils. It was in 1732 that Mr. Ingham of Queen's College, and Mr. Broughton, of Exeter, were added to their number. To these, in April was joined Mr. Clayton, of Brazennose, with two or three of his pupils. About the same time Mr. James Hervey was permitted to meet with them, and afterward Mr. Whitefield.”*

This was the first Methodist society. It consisted exclusively of young men, whose theological views were imperfect, and whose experience was limited: yet they had a sincere desire to please God; and in diligence, self-denial, and active benevolence, they far surpassed many who

* Works, vol. v, p. 246, Am. edit.

have boasted of the superiority of their religious knowledge, and have despised these simple-hearted worshippers of God, and inquirers after truth. They instructed the children of the neglected poor; they visited the sick, and the prisoners in the common jail, for whom no other men seemed to care; they attended secret prayer, public worship, and the Lord's table with scrupulous exactness; they observed the regular fasts of the church; they assisted each other in their studies, and watched over each other's spiritual interests with kindness and fidelity; and they conscientiously saved all the money that they could for pious and charitable purposes. Some grave men thought them "righteous overmuch," and attempted to dissuade them from an excess of piety; while profane wits treated them with sarcasm and contempt: but these young disciples of the cross showed the strength and sincerity of their convictions, by patient perseverance in their plans of usefulness and devotion. They consulted the elder Mr. Wesley, at Epworth, who urged them forward in the course upon which they had entered.

An incident which Mr. Wesley has related in one of his sermons will serve to show the tenderness of his conscience, and the serious light in which he viewed his responsibility during this part of his college life. "When I was at Oxford," says he, "in a cold winter's day, a young maid (one of those we kept at school) called upon me. I said You seem half starved. Have you nothing to cover you but this thin linen gown?' She said, 'Sir, this is all I have.' I put my hand in my pocket; but found I had scarce any money left, having paid away what I had. It immediately struck me, 'Will thy Master say, Well done, good and faithful steward? Thou hast adorned thy walls with the money which might have screened this poor creature from the cold! O justice! O mercy! Are not these pictures the blood of this poor maid? See thy

expensive apparel in the same light; thy gown, hat, headdress! Every thing about thee which cost more than Christian duty required thee to lay out is the blood of the poor! O be wise for the time to come! Be more merciful! more faithful to God and man! more abundantly adorned with good works !'”*

In another of his sermons, Mr. Wesley has given a very instructive view of the state of his heart at this period of his life, and of his ineffectual attempts to acquire the true Christian faith and love. "After carefully heaping up the strongest arguments I could find," says he, "either in ancient or modern authors, for the very being of a God, and (which is nearly connected with it) the existence of an invisible world, I have wandered up and down musing with myself: What, if all these things which are around me, this earth, and heaven, this universal frame, has existed from eternity? What, if that melancholy supposition of the old poet be the real case,

Οιη περ φύλλων γενεη, τοιηδε και ανδρων ?

What, if the generations of men be exactly parallel with the generation of leaves;' if the earth drops its successive inhabitants just as the tree drops its leaves? What, if that saying of a great man be really true?—

Post mortem nihil est, ipsaque mors nihil :

'Death is nothing, and nothing is after death.'

How am I sure that this is not the case; that I 'have not followed cunningly devised fables?' And I have pursued. the thought till there was no spirit in me, and I was ready to choose strangling rather than life.'"+

With respect to the principles of divine love, he also inquires, "What can cold reason do in this matter? It may present us with fair ideas; it can draw a fine picture of love but this is only a painted fire. And further than

* Works, vol. ii, p. 262, Am. edit.

+ Ibid. vol. ii, p. 129.