system has arisen to dispute the palm with it; and therefore his lordship's philosophy is contradicted by experience. No missionaries sprang up; and the imperative summons of the spirit of the time' has never been obeyed to this hour.

His lordship in the sequel shows great anxiety to obviate the conclusion, as to its real value, which is suggested by the more than temporary character and influence of Methodism. Hence he never again adverts to his philosophy, when it might really aid his inquiries; but resorts to various solutions of the fact in question, all of which, taken separately or conjointly, will never account for the perpetuity of Methodism, without admitting its positively beneficial operation on society. To this, doubtless, under Providence, it is principally indebted for its earliest and continued success. To furnish the very desideratum which, on his lordship's own observing, was called for by the state and circumstances of society when Mr. Wesley arose, was the professed object of that great man. is true, that in the first instance he merely aimed at rousing the Church to supply the wants of the nation: but though he never abandoned that aim, he was driven by the repulses he met with, eventually to originate his system, as auxiliary to the Establishment, and capable of pervading those parts of the nation and its dependencies which are beyond the reach of the regular clergy. Now, it is obvious to the most cursory reflection, that excluded as the Founder of Methodism was from the real patronage of the State, he rested the entire claims of his system to public support on its professed adaptation to the wants of the people. In this consists its strength as a voluntary association. Without this fundamental principle of existence, and unaided by government, Methodism would have shared the fate of all impostures, unsuited to the cireumstances of the time, and the wants of the people. The folly, however, of supposing any system, though really based on public utility, to be able to maintain itself without the machinery of conservative regulations, is only exceeded by that which would impute the success of a system like Methodism to its confessedly admirable construction alone. Yet his lordship is guilty of this, when he asks, -For what purpose was framed this admirable machinery, so well adapted to insure the permanence and preserve the subordination of a religious society? But he is evidently ignorant how intimately the fundamental principle in question connects itself with our institutions; and that from it they chiefly derive their imperishable character. And hence he expatiates on the various subordinate merits of the system, and the personal qualifications of its Founder, to account for its success. After giving an outline of the former, he thus portrays the latter:- A quack medicine of this kind is soon famous and soon forgotten. But Wesley was too able a head of a religious sect to permit his work to fall into decay. No man ever knew better how to govern the heart of man or woman; no one ever * Memoirs, &c, vol. ii, 4to, p. 573.

laboured more steadily in his vocation; no one ever wielded with greater power the weapons of reason in the cause of enthusiasm. His arguments, even when his cause seems most hopeless, are beautifully though fallaciously logical. With all his credulity and simplicity, he had the spirit to act with promptitude and firmness. Among a sect with whom enthusiasm was a rule, and poverty a condition of power, there were frequent attempts at mutiny and separation: Wesley always took his resolution boldly, and in every case retained the main body in obedience. The length of his life was of the greatest advantage to the permanence of his institutions. He retained to extreme old age the vigour of his mind, and to a great degree the activity of his body." It is inconceiveable how any man can so trifle with the understandings of his readers as gravely to assert, that such qualities, however admirable and useful in the Founder of Methodism, could, with the most skilful machinery to aid them, control those frequent attempts at mutiny and separation to which his lordship alludes, and counteract that inevitable tendency to dissolution, which without substantial merit as its basis must have eventually subverted the system. And a more extended view of the subject serves only still further to unveil the fallacy of his lordship's reasoning. For exposed as the system has been at different periods of its history, since Mr. Wesley's death, to various internal convulsions from the agitation of the most momentous questions, those acquainted with the subject know, that those principles, in the value and importance of which, as a general and national good, all were agreed, constituted the only substantial bond of union. It was an appeal to them which calmed the passions of the combatants; and an obstruction to their diffusion was successfully alleged as the result of unhallowed contention. Another important illustration of the great principle for which we contend, namely, the adaptation of the evangelical principles of Methodism to the nation's wants, is derived from the result of its collision with an adulterated Gospel in many of our churches. Its well known success in the contest is an exact measure of its practical value, now that time has neutralized the combined influence of novelty and all mere extraneous circumstances. Dr. Chalmers has therefore justly predicted, that under a system of legal and exclusive protection of what is called high church orthodoxy, on the part of the guardians of the Church, her arm will wither into powerlessness;' and that 'under such a process the alienation of the people will widen every year from the bosom of the establishment. Such would doubtless be the result of a continued appeal to the nation to decide between the merits of 'the new kind of spiritual food,' and the restored doctrines of the Reformation, as embodied in the institutions of Methodism. His lordship has presented us, in his account of Mr, Whitefield, with a vivid description of the effects of evangelical * Memoirs, &c, vol. ii, 4to, p. 585. +Chalmers's Christian and Civic Economy, vol. i, p. 218.

preaching after its long disuse ;* and yet he cannot perceive how, like refreshing showers to a thirsty land, it alone suffices to appease the immortal longings of the human mind. But the good effected by Methodism is indirect as well as direct. And where it has not emptied the churches, it has in general succeeded in reviving the preaching of those truths in their pulpits which had become obsolete, and as his lordship tells us, unsuited to a polite age.' The increasing prevalence of evangelical principles among the clergy, therefore, is another testimony in favor of that system which made the reform of doctrine and discipline in the Establishment one of its leading objects from the beginning. The circumstances, also, under which the experiment of Methodism has been made, yield another illustration of the truth of the principle for which we contend. We are told, 'it was a polite age' which witnessed the labours of a Wesley; and from that time knowledge has continued to spread more and more through the mass of the community. With this fact Lord John Russel's parliamentary career has made him most familiar. Methodism therefore having put forth her claims in an age of philosophical scrutiny and religious inquiry, her success is highly honorable to her principles, and a test of the validity of her pretensions. Such are a few of the proofs, that Methodism is precisely that which the spirit of the time' called for; and that in her apostles we behold the very missionaries which sprung up in obedience to its summons. After mentioning Mr. Wesley's rules for their direction, his lordship concludes in a manner which well harmonizes with our own view of their functions in the commonwealth : - With such rules he founded, not a religious order whose discipline acts only in the retirement of the cloister; not a rich church, whose worldly possessions form the chief object of their care; but a community of active teachers, spread into every corner of society, whose power and distinction rested solely on the efficacy of religious persuasion.'t

In aid of the leading design to account for the spread of Methodism on principles which do not recognise its value, besides reciting the causes of its success already adverted to, his lordship devotes an entire section to the professed enumeration of the chief circumstances which attended the progress of its Founder. His management of this part of the subject displays but little ingenuity or tact. And as he mentions only four of these circumstances, the ore is neither abundant nor enriches any deep vein of thought. His remarks on 'field preaching,' and on 'miracles,' need no comment. His assertion, that the Methodists are a rare example of a sect who have flourished without persecution,' is a striking proof of his Lordship's want of information on the subject about which he writes. What else, indeed, could be expected from an author who never appears to have read a line of Mr. Wesley's works, but has derived whatever knowledge he has of Methodism from the * Memoirs, &c, vol. ii, 4to, p. 560. † Memoirs, &c, vol. ii, p. 570.

productions of its enemies ?* The boasted 'tolerant spirit of the age,' as represented in the conduct of the majority of the clergy and the country magistrates, was not even restrained by the enactments of purer times in favor of civil and religious liberty, from frequently breaking out into overt acts of persecution. To the determination of the House of Hanover to throw its ample shield over the rights of conscience, Methodism mainly owes its existence. We have Mr. Wesley's authority for the fact. The storm rose higher and higher,' says he, till deliverance came in a way that none expected. God stirred up the heart of our late gracious Sovereign to give such orders to his magistrates as, being put in execution, effectually quelled the madness of the people. It was about the same time, that a great man applied personally to his Majesty, begging that he would please to "take a course to stop these runabout preachers." His Majesty looking sternly upon him, answered without ceremony, like a king, "I tell you, while I sit on the throne, no man shall be persecuted for conscience' sake.'"+ But this deliverance of the early Methodists from the oppressor's wrongs,' was awarded to their long and patient endurance of severe personal insults and injuries, loss of property and employment, imprisonment, and degradation of character. The agonies and joys' and the convulsions' which attended them, the last of the early accompaniments of Methodism, his lordship has honored with an elaborate description. But his picture gives a caricatured representation of the facts, by the selection of extreme cases only; and by giving a revolting prominence to extravagancies which ought to have been thrown into the shade of extenuating circumstances. In reprobating the occasional convulsions which resulted from powerful mental emotions, he forgets to suggest what, even on philoso

*On these subjects, of course, his lordship does not speak from his own personal knowledge; and we regret to say, the only authorities to which he refers, and which he appears to have thought it worth his while to consult, are Southey's "Life of Wesley," and Nightingale's "Portraiture of Methodism." Every thing advanced by the former of these writers, on the peculiarities of Mr. Wesley's character, and on the institutions and tendency of Methodism, in the shape of allegation and censure, is fairly met and triumphantly refuted in Mr. Watson's "Observations on Southey's Life of Wesley." Of this work, which has been upwards of seven years in extensive circulation, his lordship takes not the slightest notice; but repeats, with the most perfect confidence, as if they were undeniable truths, several of the misrepresentations to which Mr. Watson's replies are especially directed, and which we believe the candour and justice of the Poet Laureate will induce him to expunge from his book, if it should ever pass to another edition. As to Mr. Nightingale, he lived long enough bitterly to lament that he ever wrote the scurrilous and contemptible libel which Lord John Russel quotes as authentic history. He published to the world his "solemn protest against the light spirit in which the Portraiture of Methodism was written;" and added, "I am truly sorry for having published that foolish book; and for the vile and wicked use which, on many occa sions, has been made of the publication." After this recantation of his work, Mr. Nightingale sought admission into the society of the people whose principles and character he had attempted to ridicule and vilify; and died in the profession of that faith which he had formerly held up to public scorn.'-Wesleyan Magazine, N. S. vol. viii, p. 115.

↑ Wesley's Works, vol. vii, p. 210, third edition.

phical principles, might be supposed to be the effect, on minds so circumstanced, of those astounding truths which made even the accomplished Felix tremble. But here his lordship's principles are in fault. Denying as he does the necessity of the new birth,' all the anguish of that momentous mental conflict, he treats with ineffable contempt. We need no other proof, how widely the new kind of spiritual food' differs from the ancient and genuine, but more unpalatable, fare provided for us by the Founders of the English Church. The deep pathos of many parts of the Book of Common Prayer, the affecting importunity and thrilling repetition of its addresses to Heaven, assume the existence of an intenser feeling in the worshippers, than Lord John Russel's easy and self-complacent creed can explain. And the language of the Homilies is a complete justification of all the agonies' which his Lordship affects to hold in derision. This sorrowfulnesse of heart, joyned with fasting, they uttered sometimes by their outward behaviour, and gesture of body, putting on sackcloth, sprinkling themselves with ashes, and dust, and sitting or lying upon the earth. For when good men feele in themselves the heavy burthen of sinne, see damnation to be the reward of it, and behold with the eye of their mind the horrour of hell, they tremble, they quake, and are inwardly touched with sorrowfulnesse of heart for their offences, and cannot but accuse themselves, and open this their griefe unto Almighty God, and call unto him for mercy. This being done seriously, their mind is so occupied, partly with sorrow and heavinesse, partly with an earnest desire to be delivered from this danger of hell and damnation, that all desire of meate and drinke is layd apart, and lothsomenesse of all worldly things and pleasures cometh in place, so that nothing then liketh them more, then to weepe, to lament, to mourne, and both with words, and behaviour of body, to shew themselves weary of this life.** Of course the 'joys' of deliverance will be proportioned to the previous agony of soul, and to Lord John Russel's apprehension, equally excessive.' But the fastidious taste which is so much outraged by the rhapsodies' of an innocent girl, is not in a mood to admire even those warm impulses of gratitude in the pardoned woman who had been a sinner,' which prompted her so extravagantly to kiss her Saviour's feet, to wash them with her tears, and to wipe them with her hair. That deep emotion, however produced, will occasion an abstraction of mind which makes us indifferent to surrounding objects, and forcibly dissevers the links of our habitually associated ideas, is agreeable to observation in ordinary affairs. And this effect will bear a proportion to the nature and intensity of the exciting cause. Nor are the coolest and most philosophic minds exempted from its influence; of which the extravagant demonstrations of joy attributed to Archimedes on making his well-known discovery are an example. But perhaps no case of this sort approaches nearer to the effects of supernatural impulse, * Certaine Sermons or Homilies appoynted to be read in Churches, p. 83, 1635.