of three, five, or seven, as the case might be. Another and a more eligible provision was subsequently made; but this sufficiently shows that Mr. Wesley had given up all hope of union with the Church; and his efforts were henceforth directed merely to prevent any thing like formal separation, and the open renunciation of her communion, during his own life, by allowing his Preachers to administer the sacraments. About this time much prejudice was excited against Mr. Wesley in Scotland by the republication of Hervey's Eleven Letters. He had three times visited this country; and preaching only upon the fundamental truths of Christianity, had been received with great affection. The societies had increased, and several of his Preachers were stationed in different towns. Lady Frances Gardiner, the widow of Colonel Gardiner, and other persons eminent for piety and rank, attended the Methodist ministry; but the publication of this wretched work caused a temporary odium. Hervey, who had been one of the little band at Oxford, became a Calvinist; and as his notions grew more rigid with age, so his former feelings of gratitude and friendship to Mr. Wesley were blunted. He had also fallen into the hands of Cudworth, a decided Antinomian, who 66 put in and out" of the Letters what he pleased." They were not, however, published until Hervey's death, and against his dying injunction. It is just to so excellent a man to record this fact; but the work was published in England, and re-published, with a violent preface by Dr. Erskine, in Scotland; and among the Calvinists it produced the effect of inspiring great horror of Mr. Wesley as a most pestilent heretic, whom it was doing God service to abuse without measure or modesty. The feelings of Mr. Charles Wesley at this treatment of his brother may be gathered from the answer he returned upon being requested to write Hervey's Epitaph :— 66 ÓN BEING DESIRED TO WRITE AN EPITAPH FOR "O'ER-REACH'D, impell'd by a sly Gnostick's art, "No by redeeming love the snare is broke; And dooms the unfinished libel to the flames. The' encomium fair in brass or marble write : "Or if they need a nobler trophy raise, As long as Theron and Aspasio live, Enough that Wesley's brother can forgive! "* The unfavourable impression made by Hervey's Letters, surcharged by Cudworth's Antinomian venom, was how * Mr. Charles Wesley, however, afterwards wrote and published some verses upon Mr. Hervey's death, in which the kind recollections of old friendship are embodied, and the anticipations of a happy meeting in heaven are sweetly expressed. The following are the concluding stanzas :— "Father, to us vouchsafe the grace, Which brought our friend victorious through: Let us his steadfast faith pursue; Follow this follower of the Lamb, And conquer all through Jesu's name. "Free from the law of sin and death, "O might we all, like him, believe, And keep the faith, and win the prize! Father, prepare and then receive Our hallow'd spirits to the skies, To chant with all our friends above, ever quickly effaced from all but the bigots; and with them, judging from Moncrief's Life of Erskine, it remains to this day. In his future visits to Scotland Mr. Wesley was received with marks of the highest respect, and at Perth he had the freedom of the city handsomely conferred upon him. CHAPTER XI. METHODISM having begun to make some progress in America, in consequence of the emigration of some of the members of the society from England and Ireland, Mr. Wesley inquired of the Preachers at the Conference of 1769, whether any of them would embark in that service. Messrs. Boardman and Pilmoor, two excellent men, of good gifts, volunteered their services, and were sent to take the charge of the societies. From this time the work spread with great rapidity; more than twenty Preachers had devoted themselves to it previously to the war of independence; and societies were raised up in Maryland, Virginia, New-York, and Pennsylvania. During the war they still prosecuted their labours; though, as several of them took the side of the mother country, they were exposed to danger. Others, with more discretion, held on their way in silence, speaking only of the things of God. The warm loyalty of Mr. Wesley led him to publish a pamphlet on the subject of the quarrel, entitled, "A Calm Address to the American Colonies ;" but the copies which were shipped for America were laid hold of by a friend, who suppressed them; so that the work remained unknown in the colonies until a considerable time afterwards. This was probably a fortunate incident for the infant cause. After the war had terminated, political views were of course laid aside, and Mr. Wesley made a provision for the government of his American societies, which will be subsequently adverted to. They became, of course, independent of British Methodism, but have most honourably preserved the doctrines, the general discipline, and, above all, the spirit of the body. Great, and even astonishing, has been their success in that new and rising country, to the widespread settlements of which their plan of itinerancy was admirably adapted. The Methodists are become, as to numbers, the leading religious body of the Union; and their annual increase is very great. In the last year it was thirtysix thousand, making a total in their communion of one thousand nine hundred Ministers, and four hundred and seventy-six thousand members, having, as stated in a recent statistical account published in the United States, upwards of two millions, five hundred thousand of the population under their immediate influence. In the number of their Ministers, members, and congregations, the Baptists nearly equal the Methodists; and these two bodies, both itinerant in their labours, have left all the other religious denominations far behind. It is also satisfactory to remark, that the leading Preachers and members of the Methodist Church in the United States appear to be looking forward with enlarged views, and with prudent regard, to the future, and to aim at the cultivation of learning in conjunction with piety. Several Colleges have been from time to time established; and recently a University, for the education of the youth of the American Connexion, has been founded. The work in the United States has been distinguished by frequent and extraordinary revivals of religion, in which a signal effect has been produced upon the moral condition of large districts of country, and great numbers of people have been rapidly brought under a concern for their salvation. In the contemplation of results so vast, and in so few years, we may devoutly exclaim, "What hath God wrought!" The mention of what are called revivals of religion in the United States may properly here lead us to notice, that, in Great Britain also, almost every Methodist society has at different times experienced some sudden and extraordinary increase of members, the result of what has been believed to be, and that not without good reason, a special effusion of divine influence upon the minds of men. Sometimes these effects have attended the preaching of eminently energetic Preachers, but have often appeared where those stationed in the Circuits have not been remarkably distinguished for energy or pathos. Sometimes they have followed the continued and earnest prayers of the people; at others they have come suddenly and unlooked for. The effects however have been, that the piety of the societies has been greatly quickened, and rendered more deep and active, and that their number has increased; and of the real conversion of many who have thus been wrought upon, often very suddenly, the best evidence has been afforded. To sudden conversions, as such, great objections have been indeed taken. For these, however, there is but little reason; for if we believe the testimony of Scripture, that the Spirit is not only given to the disciples of Christ, after they assume that character, but in order to their becoming such; that, according to the words of our Lord, this Spirit is sent "to convince the world of sin," to the end that they may believe in Christ; and that the Gospel, faithfully and fully proclaimed by the Ministers of Christ, is "the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth," and is made so by the accompanying influence of the Holy Ghost; who shall prescribe a mode to divine operation? Who, if he believes in such an influence accompanying the truth, shall presume to say that when that truth is proposed, the attention of the careless shall be roused only by a gradual and slow process ?-that the heart shall not be brought into a state of right feeling as to eternal con |