cordials! cordials! of which they have had too much already, and have no taste for the food which is convenient for them. Nay, they have an utter aversion to it, and this confirmed by principle, having been taught to call it husks, if not poison. How much more to those bitters, which are previously needful to restore their decayed appetite !" Wheatley was a quack in physic as well as in divinity, and he was soon detected in fouler practices. Complaint being at length made of his infamous licentiousness, the two brothers inquired into it, and obtained complete proof of his guilt. Upon this they delivered into his hands a written sentence of suspension, in these terms: "Because you have wrought folly in Israel, grieved the Holy Spirit of God, betrayed your own soul into temptation and sin, and the souls of many others, whom you ought, even at the peril of your own life, to have guarded against all sin; because you have given occasion to the enemies of God, wherever they shall know these things, to blaspheme the ways and truth of God; we can in no wise receive you as a fellow labourer, till we see clear proofs of your real and deep repentance the least and lowest proof of such repentance which we ean receive is this,-that, till our next Conference, you abstain both from preaching and from practising physic. If you do not, we are clear we cannot answer for the consequences." They were not aware at the time of the extent of this hypocrite's criminality; but enough was soon discovered to make it necessary for them to disclaim him by public advertisements. The matter became so notorious at Norwich, that the affidavits of the women whom he had endeavoured to corrupt, were printed and hawked about the streets. The people were ready to tear him to pieces, as he deserved; and the cry against the Methodists was such, in consequence, that Charles Wesley said Satan, or his apostles, could not have done more to shut the door against the Gospel in that place for ever. : This was a case of individual villany, and produced no other injury to Methodism than immediate scandal, which was soon blown over. But it is the nature of mental, as well as of corporeal diseases, to propagate themselves, and schism is one of the most prolific of all errors. One separation had already taken place between the Methodists and the Moravians,-the Calvinistic question had made a second. A minor schism was now made, by a certain James Relly, who, having commenced his career under the patronage of Whitefield, ended in forming a heresy of his own, which had the merit, at least, of being a humaner scheme than that of his master, however untenable in other respects. Shocked at the intolerable notion of reprobation, and yet desirous of holding the tenet of election, he fancied that sin was to be considered as a disease, for which the death of our Redeemer was the remedy; and that, as evil had been introduced into human nature by the first Adam, who was of the earth, earthly, so must it be expelled by the second, who is from heaven, and therefore heavenly. Pursuing this notion, he taught that Christ, as a Mediator, was united to mankind, and, by his obedience and sufferings, had as fully restored the whole human race to the divine favour, as if all had obeyed or suffered in their own persons. So he preached a finished salvation, which included the final restitution of : all fallen intelligences. Sin being only * a disease, could not deserve punishment: it was in itself, and in its consequences, a sufficient evil; for, while it existed, darkness and unbelief accompanied it, and occasioned a privation of that happiness which the Almighty designed for all his creatures; but, in the end, all would be delivered, and the elect were only chosen to be the first fruits,--the pledges and earnest of the general harvest. Relly had for his coadjutor one William Cudworth, of whom Wesley observed, after an interview with him, "that his opinions were all his own, quite new, and his phrases as new as his opinions that all these opinions, yea, and phrases too, he affirmed to be necessary to salvation; maintaining, that all who did not receive them worshipped another God; and that he was as incapable as a brute beast of being convinced, even in the smallest point." On another occasion he remarks, that Cudworth, Relly, and their associates, abhorred him as much as they did the pope, and ten times more than they did the devil.-The devil, indeed, was no object of abhorrence with them like Uncle Toby, they were sorry for him; and, like Origen, they expected his reformation. They formed a sect, which continues to exist in America, as well as in England, by the name of the Rellyan Universalists; and it is said, that Washington's chaplain was a preacher of this denomination. - The tendency of these opinions was to an easy and quiet latitudinarianism. Antinomianism, with which they were connected, was far more mischievous when combined with enthusiasm,-and this was the evil to which Methodism always perilously inclined. There is in the Antinomian scheme, and, indeed, in all predestinarian schemes, an audacity which is congenial to certain minds. They feel a pride in daring to profess doctrines which are so revolting to the common sense and feelings of mankind. Minds of a similar temper, but in a far worse state, maintain the notion of the necessity of human actions, but reject a first cause. It is from a like effrontery of spirit that this last and worst corruption proceeds; and as the causes are alike, so also the practical consequences of antinomianism and atheism would be the same, if men were always as bad as their opinions ; for the professors of both have emancipated themselves from any other restraint than what may be imposed by the fear of human laws. Wesley was mistaken in supposing the doctrine, that there is no sin in believers, was never heard of till the time of Count Zinzendorf. It is as old in England as the Reformation, and might undoubtedly be traced in many an early heresy. The Moravians had the rare merit of sometimes acknowledging their errors, and correcting them; on this point, they modified their language till it became reasonable; but the Methodists had caught the error, and did not so * James Relly should have read an old treatise upon the Sinfulness of Sin, which, notwithstanding its odd title, is the work of a sound and powerful intellect. If I remember rightly, it is by Bishop Reynolds. † Archbishop Sancroft says well of the fatalist: "he uses necessity as the old philosophers did an Occult quality, though for a different purpose; that was their refuge for ignorance; this is his sanctuary for sin." Burnet speaks of certain "corrupt Gospellers, who thought, if they magnified Christ much, and depended on his merits and intercession, they could not perish, which way soever they led their lives. And special care was taken in the Homilies to rectify this error." easily rid themselves of it. "God thrust us out," says Wesley, speaking of himself and his brother, "utterly against our will, to raise a holy people. When Satan could no otherwise prevent this, he threw Calvinism in our way, and then * Antinomianism, which struck at the root both of inward and outward holiness." He acknowledged that they had, unawares, leaned too much toward both; and that the truth of the Gospel lies within a hair's breadth of them: So," said he, "that it is altogether foolish and sinful, because we do not quite agree either with one or the other, to run from them as far as ever we can." The question, "Wherein may we come to the very edge of Calvinism?" was proposed in the second Conference; and the answer was, "In ascribing all good to the free-grace of God; in denying all natural free-will, and all power antecedent to grace; and in excluding all merit from man, even for what he has or does by the grace of God." This was endeavouring to split the hair.-" Wherein may we come to the edge of Antinomianism?" was asked likewise; and the answer was less objectionable, "In exalting the merits and love of Christ; in rejoicing evermore.' In endeavouring to approach the edge of this perilous notion, Wesley went sometimes too near. But his general opinion could not be mistaken; and when any of his followers fell into the error, he contended against it zealously. It was a greater hindrance, he said, to the word of God, than any, or all others put together and he sometimes complains, that most of the seed which had been sown during so many years, had been rooted up and destroyed by wild boars, the fierce, unclean, brutish, blasphemoust Antinomians." From this reproach, indeed, which attaches to many of his Calvinistic opponents, he was entirely clear, and the great body of his society has continued so. But his disposition to believe in miraculous manifestations of divine favours, led him sometimes to encourage an enthusiasm which impeached his own judgment, and brought a scandal upon Methodism. : "the * This pernicious doctrine was well explained in the first Conference: "Q. What is Antinomi, anism? 4. The doctrine which makes void the law through faith. Q. What are the main pillars thereof? A. 1. That Christ abolished the moral law : 2. That therefore Christians are not obliged to observe it: 3. That one branch of Christian liberty is liberty from obeying the commandments of God: 4. That it is bondage to do a thing, because it is commanded; or forbear it because it is forbidden: 5. That a believer is not obliged to use the ordinances of God, or to do good works: 6. That a preacher ought not to exhort to good works; not unbelievers, because it is hurtful; not believers, because it is useless." The annexed extract from Wesley's Journal will show that this language is not too strong: "I came to Wensbury. The Antinomian teachers had laboured hard to destroy this poor people. I talked an hour with the chief of them, Stephen Timmins. I was in doubt whether pride had not made him mad. An uncommon wildness and fierceness in his air, his words, and the whole manner of his behaviour, almost induced me to think God had, for a season, given him up into the hands of Satan. In the evening I preached at Birmingham. Here another of their pillars, J— W came to me, and looking over his shoulder, said, 'Don't think I want to be in your society: but if you are free to speak to me, you may.' I will set down the conversation, dreadful as it was, in the very manner wherein it passed, that every serious person may see the true picture of Antinomianism full grown; and may know what these men mean by their favourite phrase of being perfect in Christ, not in themselves. Do you believe you have nothing to do with the law of God? I have not. I am not under the law. I live by faith. Have you, as living by faith, a right to every thing in the world?' I have. All is mine, since Christ is mine.' May you then take any thing you will, any where? Suppose, out of a shop, without the consent or knowledge of the owner?" "I may if I want it; for it is mine; only I will not give offence.' 'Have you also a right to all the women in the world? Yes, if they consent.' And is not that a sin?" Yes, to him that thinks it a sin; but not to those whose hearts are free.' The same thing that wretch, Roger Ball, affirmed in Dubli Surely these are the first-born children of Satan !" Among the converts to Methodism at this time were Mr. Berridge, Vicar of Everton, in Bedfordshire, and Mr. Hickes, vicar of Wrest lingworth, in the same neighbourhood. These persons, by their preaching, produced the same contagious convulsions in their hearers, as had formerly prevailed at Bristol; and though time had sobered Mr. Wesley's feelings, and matured his judgment, he was so far deceived, that he recorded the things which occurred, not as psychological, but as religious cases. They were of the most frightful and extraordinary kind. An eyewitness described the church at Everton as crowded with persons from all the country round; "the windows," he says, being filled, within and without, and even the outside of the pulpit, to the very top, so that Mr. Berridge seemed almost stifled with their breath; yet," the relater continues, "feeble and sickly as he is, he was continually strengthened, and his voice, for the most part, distinguishable in the midst of all the outcries,When the power of religion begun to be spoke of, the presence of God really filled the place; and while poor sinners felt the sentence of death in their souls, what sounds of distress did I hear! The greatest number of them who cried, or fell, were men ! but some women and several children, felt the power of the same Almighty Spirit, and seemed just sinking into hell. This occasioned a mixture of various sounds; some shrieking, some roaring aloud. The most general was a loud breathing, like that of people half-strangled, and gasping for life; and, indeed, almost all the cries were like those of human creatures dying in bitter anguish. Great numbers wept without any noise; others fell down as dead; some sinking in silence, some with extreme noise and violent agitation. I stood on the pew seat, as did a young man in the opposite pew, an able-bodied, fresh, healthy countryman; but, in a moment, while he seemed to think of. nothing less, down he dropt, with a violence inconceivable. The adjoining pews seemed shook with his fall: I heard afterwards the stamping of his feet, ready to break the boards, as he lay in strong convulsions at the bottom of the pew. When he fell, Mr. Band I felt our souls thrilled with a momentary dread; as, when one man is killed by a cannon-ball, another often feels the wind of it.Among the children who felt the arrows of the Almighty, I saw a sturdy boy, about eight years old, who roared above his fellows, and seemed, in his agony, to struggle with the strength of a grown man. His face was red as scarlet; and almost all on whom God laid his hand, turned either very red or almost black." The congregation adjourned to Mr. Berridge's house, whither those who were still in the fit were carried: the maddened people were eager for more stimulants, and the insane vicar was as willing to administer more, as they were to receive it." I stayed in the next room," says the relater," and saw a girl, whom I had observed peculiarly distressed in the church, lying on the floor as one dead, but without any ghastliness in her face. In a few minutes we were informed of a woman filled with peace and joy, who was crying out just before. She had come thirteen miles, and is the same person who dreamed Mr. Berridge would come to his village on that very day whereon he did come, though without either knowing the place or the way to it. She was convinced at that time. Just as we heard VOL. II. 19 saw. of her deliverance, the girl on the floor began to stir. She was then set in a chair, and, after sighing a while, suddenly rose up, rejoicing in God. Her face was covered with the most beautiful smile I ever She frequently fell on her knees, but was generally running to and fro, speaking these and the like words: "Oh, what can Jesus do for lost sinners! He has forgiven all my sins! I am in Heaven! I am in Heaven! Oh, how he loves me, and how I love him!" Meantime I saw a thin pale girl, weeping with sorrow for herself, and joy for her companion. Quickly the smiles of Heaven came likewise on her, and her praises joined with those of the other. I also then laughed with extreme joy; so did Mr. B- -ll, who said it was more than he could bear; so did all who knew the Lord, and some of those who were waiting for salvation, till the cries of them who were struck with the arrows of conviction, were almost lost in the sounds of joy. Mr. Berridge about this time retired; we continued, praising God with all our might, and his work went on. had for some time observed a young woman all in tears, but now her countenance changed: the unspeakable joy appeared in her face, which, quick as lightning, was filled with smiles, and became a crimson colour. About the same time John Keeling, of Potton, fell into an agony; but he grew calm in about a quarter of an hour, though without a clear sense of pardon. Immediately after, a stranger, well dressed, who stood facing me, fell backward to the wall, then forward on his knees, wringing his hands, and roaring like a bull.His face at first turned quite red, then almost black. He rose and ran against the wall, till Mr. Keeling and another held him. He screamed out, Oh, what shall I do! what shall I do! Oh, for one drop of the blood of Christ!' As he spoke, God set his soul at liberty: he knew his sins were blotted out; and the rapture he was in seemed too great for human nature to bear. He had come forty miles to hear Mr. Berridge. "I observed, about the time that Mr. Coe (that was his name) began to rejoice, a girl eleven or twelve years old, exceeding poorly dressed, who appeared to be as deeply wounded, and as desirous of salvation, as any. But I lost sight of her, till I heard the joyful sound of another boro in Sion, and found, upon inquiry, it was her, the poor disconsolate, gypsy-looking child. And now did I see such a sight as I do not expect again on this side eternity. The faces of the three justified children, and, I think, of all the believers present, did really shine and such a beauty, such a look of extreme happiness, and, at the same time, of divine love and simplicity, did I never see in human faces till now. The newly justified eagerly embraced one another, weeping on each other's necks for joy, and besought both men and women to help them in praising God." The same fits were produced by Mr. Hickes's preaching at Wrestlingworth, whither this relater proceeded; and there also the poor creatures, who were under the paroxysm, were carried into the parsonage, where some lay as if they were dead, and others lay struggling. In both churches several pews and benches were broken by the violent struggling of the sufferers; "yet," says the narrator, "it is common for people to remain unaffected there, and afterward drop down in their way home. Some have been found |