and great virtues ;" but as one whose sincerity in religion can never be questioned,-who "loved the Lord his God with all his heart, and all his soul, and all his strength, and his neighbour as himself."* He considers him not only as sacrificing ease, (and that of the most bewitching kind, learned ease,) honour, emolument, and all that the world admires and longs after, but as not counting even his life dear, provided he might be the instrument of making men the happy partakers of that kingdom of God, that righteousness, peace, and joy, for which the Eternal Son of God not only "laid his glory by, and wrapped himself in our clay," but gave his life a ransom for the world, "an offering and a sacrifice to God."

This great man is, however, represented by Mr. Southey, not only as labouring under the disease already mentioned, (which, with the pertinacity of the cuckoo, he calls ENTHUSIASM, without once defining the term,) but as artful, politic, and ambitious beyond all men ;-spreading delight wherever he came by the buoyancy of his own happiness, and exciting all around to follow after every virtue and every grace that can adorn the human character; yet, at the same time, exciting the uneducated and uninformed part of the community to embark in the wildest schemes of religious fanaticism that could occupy the hearts of the children of men!

Such a work might be expected to excite great interest; and the very high price of the book has not, I believe, prevented an extensive sale. It comes, however, a little too late to do much harm. Religion, even that religion which Mr. Southey denominates, "the religion of the heart," has been going onward for many years, according to the Divine intimation, from the least to the greatest. As of old when it began at Nazareth, taking its course upward, it has leavened our Universities and our Literary Societies; given a religious character to many of our polite circles; introduced an Evangelical ministry into the Established Church; quickened the Dissenters, by leading them to recur to their first principles; and given us to see again saints in Cæsar's household. It is in vain that Mr. Southey is found the apologist of Warburton, Middleton, and even of Lavington

Who proved, and proved, and proved at last,

When Wesley held the Proteus fast,—

Christianity alone exists

In Papists and in Methodists!

The deplorable ignorance of evangelical truth which was manifest in those enemies to the rise of Methodism, sheltered itself under the

* Mr. Southey does not know, that this love, through faith in an atoning Saviour, is the "Christian Perfection" against which he inveighs so much!

imposing character of great learning and high station; and for a time it shed a baneful influence on the heavenly plant. But

The day is broke which never more shall close.

Methodism is now so recognised, as being, in truth, old Christianity, that it defies the renewed attack which has been made upon its doctrines in the pages of Mr. Southey.

The history of an ambitious man is, in reality, the history of a hypocrite. Religious ambition is the worst of all hypocrisy; for it is ambition acting in the name of God. In drawing the portrait of Mr. Wesley, Mr. Southey unites enthusiasm with ambition. In such a biographer, this course is perfectly natural. From his whole work it undeniably appears, that Mr. Southey knows nothing about religion, as purifying the deceitful and desperately wicked heart of man from ambition, with its concomitant evils. From this vicious passion, he seems very cordially to believe, no person ever was or can be saved; and even contemplates it as an original temper in man, which, consequently, his Maker cannot justly condemn. Hence arise his hatred, and contempt of the doctrine of Christian Perfection; which is in truth the only possible cure for that and all other corruptions of our fallen nature, by fixing in the heart that constant love of God and man which is the fruit of faith made perfect. Mr. Southey seems also not to know, that sincerity is essential to the character of an Enthusiast, and even to that enthusiasm which is unscriptural, and therefore, a real mental disease; and that it is totally incompatible with ambition. There can be no doubt, from his statements, that he considers salvation from that Babel of the natural man, even by the atonement of the Son of God, and by the whole power of the Eternal Spirit, as promised to man through that atonement, to be only a creature of the imagination.-Perhaps to a mere poetical creation,-to such a "fine phrenzy" in drawing an ideal character,-Mr. Southey would not object: but he seems to have no conception that God ever did, or indeed ever could, realize such a character. "The world knoweth us not," says St. John, "because it knew Him not."

Men will endeavour to account for the most stupendous works without God; and he who will not believe the Bible, will believe any thing against it. Gibbon, the Historian, thus tried to account for the conversion of the whole heathen world; which drew forth that sarcasm from Paley, that the religion of the Roman Empire was overthrown by a Jewish peasant! Mr. Southey accounts for Methodism in a similar way; and the mockers on the day of Pentecost accounted for that illustrious display of the power of GoD THE SPIRIT, in his poor and weak instruments, by imputing the manifest elevation of their minds to the operation of new wine! To every such dreamer we may reply, "Sir,

thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep."-The mystery of the faith, kept in a pure conscience, is indeed a mystery to Mr. Southey. God grant that it may not so continue !

The founder of Methodism is frequently complimented by Mr. Southey. He supposes Mr. Wesley would have been the Founder of an Order, or perhaps the General of the Jesuits, if he had been in the Romish Church! Mr. Southey might imagine something similar respecting St. Paul, and that his "ambitious, restless spirit" would in some such way have found employment and gratification, if Christianity, in its beauty and glory, had not intervened, and given him an opportunity to turn the world upside down. Mr. Wesley, as well as the Jewish bigot, had doubtless ability and courage quite sufficient to obtain that or any similar advancement. But they both laid the bigotry and narrow spirit at the feet of Him who "tasted death for every man," and who commanded that his "Gospel should be preached to every creature.” They both became Christians, and (with Mr. Southey's good leave) Perfectionists. Their "love was made perfect ;" and, walking in love they looked upon the guilty children of men with the bowels of Jesus Christ. But the path, which was prescribed by that love, utterly unfitted them for such preferment as Mr. Southey supposes. With the Apostle, Mr. Southey does not meddle: He is a Saint by prescription; and to attack him, would forfeit the Laureate's reputation in the world. There is a halo round the converted persecutor, which repels the bold dissector of characters. Bishop Warburton called Mr. Wesley, the Apostle's "Mimic," adding the epithet "paltry :" This "mimic" seems fair with Mr. Southey, and with his patrons the Booksellers. It is for that gentleman to consider, (and I hope he will seriously consider it,) that the day may come, when the friend and pupil of Hume, the bold Historian of "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," and the compiler of “The Life of Wesley," may be considered as having been engaged in the same work,-as "kicking against the pricks," and labouring (the latter unconsciously, we trust,) to save mankind from "repentance towards God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ."

game

My duty lies plain before me. Mr. Wesley needs no panegyrist; and, indeed, for such an office I should be utterly incompetent. "His witness is in heaven, and his record is on high." But to rescue the character of such a man, and such labours, from interested, prejudiced, or ignorant declaimers, is worth some pains. I must again state the plain facts; connecting and elucidating them, so as to give a clear view of the man, and of the work in which he was so long engaged. It is especially my duty to do this, since inquiry is much more excited; and being now in possession of ample materials, were I not to do it, I should be involved in the guilt of unfaithfulness both to the dead and the living VOL. I.

3

METHODISM (SO called) identifies itself with CHRISTIANITY in this striking peculiarity, that it is the same this day as it was in the beginning. Every attempt to mend it has utterly failed, and only served to show the ignorance and weakness of the attempt. A "falling away" from Christianity was predicted, (2 Thess. ii, 3,) but yet "the gates of hell prevailed not."-The "grain of mustard-seed," as our Lord describes his religion in its rise, "became a great tree, so that the fowls of the air lodged in the branches; and many of them proved to be unclean and filthy birds." Exotics were planted around it, and the sacred tree was thus hidden for ages and generations; but it remained the same. The plants that obscured it were esteemed decorations; the world loved them, and warred against all that objected to them. The keen eyes of Luther, and of some of his predecessors, discerned the plant of God's own planting, and denounced the corrupt exotics. Mr. Wesley, after great toil, discovered it in England: and, much to the displeasure of those who had forgotten our martyred Bishops and Confessors, he planted scions from the sacred tree in every part of the land; and, though greatly increased in magnitude, they still exhibit the genuine fruits of the common stock from which they are derived. They cannot be improved. "What a Legislator!" says Mr. Southey. "What plans!", "What a system!" says another writer, "grown up so rapidly, and yet established so firmly! Its rules so admirably contrived for perpetuating and enlarging its influence! A system so entirely religious, and founded on all those grand principles which characterize the Gospel of Christ!" And was this, we ask, the work of man? Yes, as the work recorded in the Acts of the Apostles was of man. The workmen in England had no more plan than the workmen in Judea. The Acts of the Apostles may with truth be called, the Acts of the Holy Ghost. Mr. Hampson, in his sarcastic way, says of Mr. Wesley, "He called the work in which he was engaged, THE WORK OF GOD." Mr. Hampson gave it the same appellation, while he was engaged in it, else he would never have been so employed. It rescued him as it did many others, from poverty and vice. But he soon grew weary of such a work, and, like Mark or Demas, chose one more easy and honourable. Had it, indeed, been the work of man, it would long since have come to nought; for the powers of earth and hell were banded against it. And it will continue, notwithstanding these renewed efforts, till it has

Filled the earth with golden fruit,
With ripe millennial love.

The name of Wesley will not then be forgotten, neither will those of his coadjutors, some of whom Mr. Southey has condescended to notice, giving them, with the same inconsistency, their share of praise, and of the general opprobrium. They will shine among those "who have turned many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever.”

Mr. Southey observes, that "in some of Mr. Wesley's biographers, the heart has been wanting to understand his worth, or the will to do it justice." This we must allow : I have with pain stated it in this preface, and acknowledge that, in this respect, Mr. Southey rises above them. But he adds, "others have not possessed freedom or strength of intellect to perceive wherein he was erroneous." Mr. Southey, according to his own showing, has only discovered his Enthusiasm ; and what that discovery amounts to, Mr. Southey has not informed us. When Mr. Fletcher, who was certainly one of the first men of his day, Mr. Southey's great and almost impeccable favourite, did not, after a long and close intimacy, discover wherein Mr. Wesley, whom he always called "Father," was erroneous, it is no wonder that the evil was hidden from his common friends: and I confess, that I have neither the heart nor the head that could make the discovery. I can, however, remember the time when I had both; when I could cry out, "Enthusiast!" "Fanatic!" as readily as Mr. Southey himself, (for whom therefore I feel much,) and could set the bubble virtue, and the pride of Churchmanship, against the Scriptures, and the real doctrines of our venerable Establishment; thus, "speaking evil of the things," (the things of God!) "which I knew not." From this deep mixture of pride and ignorance I was delivered, by my long-suffering and gracious Redeemer, before I had any connexion with the people called Methodists, or with their venerable Founder. But his writings and preaching, with the preaching of his sons in the Gospel, alone strengthened and settled me in that "work of the Spirit of God," which had delivered me from the "deceivableness of unrighteousness," in which I was involved; and confirmed me both in those great truths of the Gospel, and in that attachment to him and to his people, which the experience of nearly fifty years has not weakened, and which, I trust, will never be dissolved. Even now my state is so deplorable, that a wish to maintain and propa-gate those errors which Mr. Southey has discovered-to maintain that "foolishness of preaching" and "believing," without which there can be no life, power, or peace,-is, I acknowledge, the chief cause of my again bringing before the public Memoirs of the Apostolic Wesley. A wish to maintain that faith, and to prevent the mischief which a denial of it might produce in the world, rather than a desire to eulogise the man who suffered the loss of all which the world could offer him, that he might possess and propagate this pure religion, is the sole motive which could impel me to undertake the task. Were the man only concerned, I could be well content that the world should judge from his own writings between him and his mistaken or interested biographers. The reader who can believe, that this man of "great views, great energy, and great virtues," was stimulated by a mental disease to unpa