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Isaac. He began to learn Latin at four years accepted the very day King William died, on old, in the knowledge of which, as well as the the 8th of March, 1701-2, notwithstanding the Greek language, he made such progress, under discouraging prospect which that event partithe care of the Reverend Mr. Pinhorne, a cularly gave to nonconformist ministers, and clergyman of the establishment, that he be- the fears with which it filled the hearts of discame the delight of his friends, and the admi- senters in general. But he had set his hand to ration of the neighbourhood. In 1690 he was the plough, and would not look back and acsent to London for academical education, un- cordingly, he was solemnly ordained to the der the Reverend Mr. Thomas Rowe; and, pastoral office, on the 18th of March following. in 1693, in his nineteenth year, He joined in But the joy of the church in their happy setcommunion with the church under the pas- tlement in so able and excellent a pastor, was toral care of his tutor, Dr. Watts was early quickly after sadly damped by his being seized attached to the composition of poetry; and with a painful and alarming illness, which indeed he stated that he had amused himself | laid him aside for some time, and from which with verse from fifteen years old to fifty. In he recovered but by slow degrees. Upon his early years he took great pains in the ac- which the church saw it needful to provide quisition of knowledge. The works he read him with a stated assistant; and accordingly, he generally abridged, and thus impressed the Rev. Mr. Samuel Price was chosen to that more deeply on his mind the knowledge he service in July, 1703. But notwithstanding attained. His Latin Theses, written when the doctor's public labours were by these young, were very excellent. After the doctor means considerably relieved, yet his health had finished his academical studies, at the age remained fluctuating for some years. He went only of twenty years, he returned to his father's on without any considerable interruption in house at Southampton, where he spent two his work, and with great success and prosyears in reading, meditation, and prayer; in perity to the church, till the year 1712, when, reading, to possess himself of ampler know-in September, he was seized with a violent ledge; in meditation, by which he might take a full survey of useful and sacred subjects, and make what he had acquired by reading his own; and prayer, to engage the divine influences to prepare him for that work to which he was determined to devote his life, and the importance of which greatly affected his mind. Having thus employed two years at his father's, he was invited by Sir John Hartopp, Bart., to reside in his family at Stoke Newington, near London, as tutor to his son, where he continued five years, and by his behaviour procured himself such esteem and respect, as laid the foundation of that friendship which subsisted between him and his pupil during the whole of his life. But while he assisted Mr. Hartopp's studies, he did not neglect his own; for not only did he make further improvement in those parts of learning in which he instructed the young gentleman, but he applied himself to reading the Scriptures in the original tongues, and the best commentators, critical and practical.

The doctor began to preach on his birthday, 1698, at twenty-four years of age, and was the same year chosen assistant to Dr. Isaac Chauncy, pastor of the church then meeting at Mark-lane, London. But his public labours, which met with general acceptance, were interrupted by a threatening illness of five months, which was then thought to have originated from the fervour of his zeal in preaching the gospel. However, his sickness did not discourage him from renewing his delightful work, as soon as Providence was pleased to restore him to health. In January, 1701-2, the doctor received a call from the church above-mentioned, to succeed Dr. Chauncy in the pastoral office, which he

fever, which injured his constitution, and left such weakness upon his nerves, as continued with him, in some degree, during the remainder of his life. In March, 1713, Mr. Price was chosen by the church to be co-pastor with him, in consequence of the continued indisposition of Dr. Watts. Dr. Watts, some time afterwards, removed into Sir Thomas Abney's family, and continued there till his death, a period of no less than thirty-six years. In the midst of his sacred labours for the glory of God and the good of his generation, he was seized with a most violent and threatening fever, which left him oppressed with great weakness, and put a stop, at least, to his public services, for four years; but here he enjoyed the uninterrupted demonstration of the truest friendship. Though the doctor cultivated every kind of learning, and perhaps was the most universal scholar of his age; and though he possessed extraordinary abilities as a poet; yet not entertainment, but benefit, and that in the most sacred and direct sense, to the church and world, evidently appeared to be the end which he kept constantly in view.

The far greater part of his works are theological, and devoted to the most important and useful subjects. Children in early age had no small share of his exertions for their good, as his songs and catechisms for their particular service, in the most easy and condescending language, abundantly prove. Those prime and radical constituents of a truly good character, truth and sincerity, were very conspicuous in the doctor. He never discovered, in his behaviour or conversation, any thing like a high opinion of himself. He by no means treated his inferiors with disdain; there

was nothing overbearing or dogmatical in his discourse. His aspect, motion, and manner of speech betrayed no consciousness of his superior abilities. Great as his talents were as a poet, and extraordinary as the approval of his works was in the world, he spoke concerning his compositions in verse in the humblest language:"I make no pretences," says he, "to The name of a poet, or a polite writer, in an age wherein so many superior souls shine, in their works, through the nation." When he appeared in the pulpit he had a very respectable and serious auditory. Though he had little or no action, yet there was such a rich vein of good sense and profitable instruction; there was such propriety, ease, and beauty in his language; such a freedom, and at the same time, correctness in his pronunciation, accompanied with an unaffected solemnity in the delivery of the most sacred and momentous truths, that his ministry was much attended: and he had a considerable church, and crowded congregation.

The prose writings of Dr. Watts are various and superior. His work "On the Improvement of the Mind" is one of the first publications in the English or any other language; and his Catechisms and Sermons have ever been extensively read and most generally admired. The doctor's poetical writings are numerous, and all of them have considerable merit. They are numerous, as appears from his large collection of Lyric Poems, his Book of Hymns, his Imitation of the Psalms, his Songs for Children, and several pieces of poetry in his Miscellaneous Thoughts. Few poets have so habitually made improvement their aim as Dr. Watts. To benefit whilst he pleased was his constant object; and the cause of morality and religion he habitually defended or extended. Many of the lyric poems were written in 1694, when the doctor was only twenty years of age; and some of them bear even a prior date. In time they increased, till they amounted to a considerable number, which were printed in 1706, when he was at the age of thirty-two. In the year 1728, the universities both of Edinburgh and Aberdeen, in a most respectful manner, without his knowledge, conferred the degree of doctor of divinity upon him.

In 1748, the life of Dr. Watts appeared to be drawing to a close. In his last illness he proved the excellence of his principles, and the greatness of his piety, by his patience and serenity of mind, and by the evident satisfaction with which he contemplated his approaching dissolution. The doctor was interred in a very handsome manner, amidst a vast concourse of people, in the burial-ground in Bunhill Fields, London.

Since his decease his numerous publications have been collected and printed in six volumes quarto, and also in seven volumes royal octavo. WEDNESDAY, ASH. The first day of Lent,

when, in the primitive church, notorious sinners were put to open penance thus:-They appeared at the church-door barefooted, and clothed in sackcloth, where, being examined, their discipline was proportioned according to their offences; after which, being brought into the church, the bishop singing the seven penitential psalms, they prostrated themselves, and with tears begged absolution; the whole congregation having ashes on their heads, to signify that they were both mortal, and deserved to be burnt to ashes for their sins.

WESLEY, JOHN, the founder of the sect called the Wesleyan Methodists, was born at Epworth, in Lincolnshire, on the 17th of June, 1703. His father, Samuel Wesley, was a clergyman of the Church of England, and held the living of Epworth. His parishioners were very profligate, and the zeal with which he discharged his duties excited in them a spirit of hatred so violent, that they set his house on fire. Mr. Wesley was then roused by a cry of fire from the street: but little imagining that it was in his own house, he opened the door, and found it full of smoke, and that the roof was burnt through. Directing his wife and the two eldest girls to rise and shift for their lives, he burst open the nursery-door, where the maid was sleeping with five children. She snatched up the youngest, and bade the others follow her: the three eldest did so; but John, the subject of the present memoir, who was then six years old, was not awakened, and, in the alarm, was forgotten. The rest of the family escaped; some through the windows, some by the garden-door; and Mrs. Wesley, to use her own expression. "waded through the fire." At this time. John, who had not been remembered till that moment, was heard crying in the nursery. The father ran to the stairs, but they were so nearly consumed that they would not bear his weight; and being utterly in despair, he fell upon his knees in the hall, and in agony commended the soul of the child to God. John had been awakened by the light, and finding it impossible to escape by the door, climbed upon a chest which stood near the window, and he was then seen from the yard. There was no time for procuring a ladder, but one man was hoisted on the shoulders of another, and thus he was taken out. A moment after, the whole roof fell in. When the child was carried out to the house where his parents were, the father cried out, "Come, neighbours, let us kneel down; let us give thanks to God! he has given me all my eight children: let the house go, I am rich enough." John Wesley remembered this providential deliverance through life with the deepest gratitude.

John was educated at the Charter-house, where, for his quietness, regularity, and application, he became a favourite with the master, Dr. Walker. At the age of seventeen he was

removed from the Charter-house to Christ Church, Oxford. Before he went to the university, he had acquired some knowledge of Hebrew, under his brother Samuel's tuition. At college he continued his studies with great diligence, and was noticed there for his attainments, and especially for his skill in logic. He was ordained in the autumn of the year 1725, by Dr. Potter, then bishop of Oxford, and afterwards primate. In the ensuing spring, he offered himself for a fellowship at Lincoln College. The strictness of his religious principles was now sufficiently remarkable to afford subject for satire, and his opponents hoped to prevent his success, by making him ridiculous. Notwithstanding this kind of opposition, he attained the object in view, and was elected fellow in March, 1726.

From this time Mr. Wesley began to keep a diary, and during a life of incessant occupation, he found time to register, not only his proceedings, but his thoughts, his studies, and his occasional remarks upon men and books, and not unfrequently upon miscellaneous subjects, with a vivacity which characterized him to the last. Eight months after his election to a fellowship, he was appointed Greek lecturer and moderator of the classes. At that time disputations were held six times a week at Lincoln College. He now formed for himself a scheme of studies.-Mondays and Tuesdays were allotted for the classics; Wednesdays, to logic and ethics; Thursdays, to Hebrew and Arabic; Fridays, to metaphysics and natural philosophy; Saturdays, to oratory and poetry; but chiefly to composition in those arts; and the Sabbath to divinity. It appears by his diary, also, that he gave great attention to mathematics.

The elder Mr. Wesley was now, from age and in firmity, become unequal to the duty of both his livings: John, therefore, went to Wroote, and officiated there as his curate; but, after two years, was summoned to his college, upon a regulation that the junior fellows, who might be chosen moderators, should attend in person the duties of their office. It was while he held this curacy that he obtained priest's orders.

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Whitefield, who subsequently seceded from Wesley, on Calvinistic grounds. They were now about fifteen in number: when first they began to meet, they read divinity on Sunday evenings only, and pursued their classical studies on other nights; but religion soon became the sole business of their meetings: they now regularly visited the prisoners and the sick, communicated once a week, and fasted on Wednesdays and Fridays.

The elder Mr. Wesley, for some years, had been declining; and he was very solicitous that the cure in which he had faithfully laboured should be obtained for his son John, from an anxious desire that the good which he had effected might not be lost through the carelessness of a lukewarm successor; and that his wife and daughters might not be dispossessed of their home. John, however, would not consent to this arrangement: more good, he averred, was to be done to others by his continuance at Oxford; the schools of the prophets were there: was it not a more extensive benefit to sweeten the fountain, than to purify a particular stream? Besides, the parish contained two thousand souls; and he said, "I see not how any man can take care of a hundred." The latter opinion, however, he greatly changed.

In 1735 the elder Wesley died; one of his latest desires was, that he might complete his work on Job. This wish seems to have been nearly, if not wholly accomplished; and John was charged to present the volume to Queen Caroline. Going to London on this commission, he found that the trustees of the new colony of Georgia were in search of persons who would preach the gospel there to the settlers and the Indians, and that they had fixed their eyes upon him and his associates. At first he peremptorily refused to go upon this mission, but at last determined to refer the case to his mother, thinking she would not consent: in this he was mistaken. On the 14th of October, 1735, John and Charles Wesley, in company with Mr. Oglethorpe, the founder of the colony, embarked for Georgia. On board the same vessel there were twentysix Moravians, going to join a party of their brethren, from Herrnhut, who had gone out the preceding year, under the sanction of the British government. On their arrival at the Savannah the brothers separated. Charles went with Benjamin Ingham (one of the Oxford society) to Frederica; John took up his lodging with the Germans, at Savannah, who had emigrated from Herrnhut.

On his return to college, Mr. Wesley began to prosecute his studies with extraordinary application, and also prevailed upon two or three under-graduates, whose inclinations and principles coincided with his own, to form an association, not so much for the purposes of study, as for religious improvement. To carry this into effect, they lived by rule, and held meetings for devotional purposes. This, The commencement of his ministry was in process of time, drew on them the observa-pleasing; the people crowded to hear him, tion of their fellow students, and excited their ridicule; and finally issued in their obtaining the name of Methodists.

Two of the early members of this society afterwards acquired celebrity; James Hervey, the author of the Meditations; and George

and the congregation, which was at first very gay, dressed plainly in conformity to his exhortations. Those favourable appearances would probably have increased, had Mr. Wesley been less attached to rigid and impracticable discipline; but his extraordinary rigour

entailed upon him a train of distressing consequences, which a little prudence might have avoided, and obliged him to return home. Mr. Whitefield sailed from the Downs for Georgia, a few hours only before the vessel which brought Mr. Wesley back from thence, cast anchor there. Charles Wesley had come over to procure assistance, and John had written to invite Mr. Whitefield to Georgia. The latter had become popular at Bristol and London, during Mr. Wesley's absence, and would probably have given birth to methodism, had the Wesleys never existed. Mr. Wesley now became intimately connected with the Moravians, in London, particularly with Peter Boehler; and by him, “in the hands of the great God," says Mr. Wesley, "I was clearly convinced of unbelief,-of the want of that faith whereby alone we are saved." A scruple immediately occurred to him, whether he ought not to leave off preaching, for how could he preach to others who had not faith himself? Boehler was consulted whether he should leave it off, and answered, "By no means."-" But what can I preach ?" said Mr. Wesley: the Moravian replied, "Preach faith till you have it; and then, because you have it, you will preach faith." Accordingly he began to preach this doctrine, though, he says, his soul started back from the work. This was his state till Wednesday, May 24th, 1738, a remarkable day in the history of methodism; for upon that day he dates his conversion-a point, say his official biographers, of the utmost magnitude, not only with respect to himself, but to others. On the evening of that day he went, very unwillingly, to a society in Aldersgate-street, where one of the assembly was reading Luther's preface to the Epistle to the Romans. What followed may best be given in his own words. "About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart, through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed; I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation: and an assurance was given me, that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death." Yet Mr. Wesley's religious opinions were not quite fixed; and to put an end to painful uncertainty, he resolved to visit the Moravians at Herrnhut. Returning to England, he went to Bristol, and was there received by Mr. Whitefield, who had returned from Georgia, and had introduced the practice of field preaching. This Mr. Wesley at first thought very strange, but he soon complied with the innovation, and practised it himself. The congregations became numerous; the first Methodist chapel was built, and the society divided into bands after the Moravian plan. These events took place in the year 1739. This may be considered as the foundation of Methodism; its progress can only be briefly noticed. During Mr. Wesley's stay at Bristol,

Charles Wesley, and the immediate followers of Mr. Wesley, in London, had constant disputations with the Moravians; in consequence of which Mr. Wesley was summoned to town. The breach widened, and Mr. Wesley, foreseeing a division inevitable, took a large building in Moorfields, which had been a foundery for cannon during the civil wars. This building retained the name of "Foundery," after it was used as a place of worship. The separation took place, and the seceders were found to be but about twenty-five men and twice that number of women. Methodism had yet a greater shock to encounter. Mr. Whitefield became a decided Calvinist, and Mr. Wesley equally strenuous in support of Arminian doctrines. These two good men could no longer co-operate, and the former withdrew from his connexion with Mr. Wesley, taking with him those of the society who united with him in opinion. This took place in the years 1740 and 1741.

Methodism gradually acquired shape and consistency. Mr. Wesley was yet, in many respects, a high churchman; but, driven by the current of events, he was constantly introducing innovations. Most clergymen refused him their pulpits; this drove him to field-preaching. But field-preaching is not for all weathers, in a climate like ours; prayer-meetings also were a part of his plan: and thus it became expedient to build meetinghouses. Meeting-houses required funds: they required ministers too, while he was itinerating. Few clergymen could be found to cooperate with him; and though at first he abhorred the thought of admitting uneducated laymen to the ministry, lay preachers were soon forced upon him, by their own zeal, which was too strong to be restrained, and by the plain necessity of the case. When the meeting-house was built at Bristol, Mr. Wesley had made himself responsible for the expenses of the building. As, however, it was for their public use, the Methodists at Bristol properly regarded the debt as public also; and one of the members proposed, that every person in the society should contribute a penny a week, till the whole was paid. It was observed, that many of them were poor, and could not afford it. "Then," said the proposer, "put eleven of the poorest with me, and if they can give anything, well; I will call on them weekly, and if they can give nothing, I will give for them as for myself." Thus began the contribution of class money, and the same accident led to a perfect system of inspection. The leaders, or persons who had undertaken for a class, as these divisions were called, were next directed to inquire after the conduct and spiritual welfare of those under their care. And, finally, the leaders, instead of calling weekly on their flock, for greater convenience, assembled them at a given time and place. Thenceforth, whenever

a society of Methodists was formed, this arrangement was followed.

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and of the women who attended them, some were so treated by the cowardly and brutal populace, that they never thoroughly recovered. In some places they daubed the preacher all over with paint. The progress of Methodism was rather furthered than impeded by this kind of persecution. In every instance the preachers displayed that fearlessness which, when the madness of the moment was over, made even their enemies respect them. At first there was no regular provision for the lay preachers. They were lodged and fed by some of the society wherever they went; and when they wanted clothes, if they were not supplied by individual friends, they represented their necessity to the stewards. But a small stated allowance was soon found necessary. A school was also erected at Kingswood, for the education of the sons of the preachers. The limits of this volume preclude any details from being given of the advancement of Methodism. In brief, it may be stated, that it spread through England, Wales, and Ireland. In Scotland it was not equally successful.

Mr. Wesley had preached at Bristol, Moorfields, Blackheath, and Kingswood. He next proceeded to Newcastle, being inclined to try that scene of action, because of the success which he had found among the colliers in Kingswood. On his journey he called at Birstall, and found there a preacher and a large congregation, raised up without his interference. The name of this preacher was John Nelson. He had heard Mr. Wesley at Moorfields, and being impressed by his discourses, when he returned to Birstall (his native place) began first to exhort his neighbours in his own house, and when that was too small, in the open air. Had Mr. Wesley been still doubtful whether the admission of lay preachers should make a part of his plan, this must have decided him. At Newcastle Mr. Wesley was shocked at the profligacy of the populace. At seven on Sunday morning, however, he walked to Sandgate, the poorest part of the town, and there began to sing the hundredth psalm. This soon brought a crowd about him, which continued to increase till Messrs. Coke and Moore, referring to the he had done preaching. At five in the even-year 1785, say, "from this time Mr. Wesley ing of the same day he preached again, and held on his way without interruption. The his congregation was so large, that it was not work of God increased every year. New possible for one-half to hear. After preach- societies were formed, in all of which the ing," said Mr. Wesley, "the poor people were same rules were observed. Though now deready to tread me under foot, out of pure love clining in the vale of years, he slackened not and kindness." He could not then remain his pace. He still rose at four in the morning, with them, but his brother soon came and preached two, three, or four times a day, and organized them; and in a few months he re- travelled between four and five thousand turned, and began to build a room for public miles a year, going once in two years through worship. Mr. Wesley had now meeting- Great Britain and Ireland." In his eightyhouses in Bristol, London, Kingswood, and fourth year he first began to feel decay; and Newcastle; and societies were rapidly formed upon commencing his eighty-fifth, he observes, in other places by means of itinerancy, which "I am not so agile as I was in times past; I was now become a regular system, and by do not run or walk so fast as I did; my sight the co-operation of lay preachers, who sprung is a little decayed; . . . . and I am not conup daily among his followers. In the course scious of any decay in writing sermons, which of his regular itinerancy, he called at Ep- I do as readily, and, I believe, as correctly as worth, and being denied the use of the church, ever." At the beginning of the year 1790, he stood upon his father's tombstone, and he writes, "I am now an old man, decayed cried, "The kingdom of heaven is not meat from head to foot . . . However, blessed be and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and God! I do not slack my labours: I can preach joy in the Holy Ghost." Seven successive and write still." On the 17th of February, evenings he preached upon that tombstone, 1791, he took cold, after preaching at Lamand in no place did he ever preach with greater beth. For some days he struggled against an effect. Mr. Wesley and his preachers were increasing fever, and continued to preach till now exposed to the attacks of various mobs the Wednesday following, when he delivered in London, Bristol, Cornwall, and particularly his last sermon. From that time he became at Wednesbury. Where the magistrates did daily weaker and more lethargic. He died their duty these outrages were soon suppress- in peace, on the 2d of March 1791, being in ed; but in some parts the mob was incited by the eighty-eighth year of his age, and the the clergy, and connived at by the magis- sixty-fifth of his ministry. He was buried at trates. At Wednesbury advantage was taken the City Road Chapel, London. His works are of the popular cry against the Methodists to published in sixteen volumes, octavo. break open their doors and plunder their also published the "Christian Library; or houses; but greater personal barbarities were Extracts and Abridgments, &c., from various exercised in other places. Some of the Writers," fifty volumes, 12mo. "The Armipreachers received serious injury; others nian Magazine," a monthly publication now were held under water till they were nearly continued under the title of The Methodist

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