that church of which he was a clergyman. His mind was never so fully imbued with the letter and spirit of that article in which she has so truly interpreted St. Paul, as when he learned from him, almost in the words of the article itself, that "we are justified by faith only;" and that this is Ia most wholesome doctrine." For the joyous change of Mr. Wesley's feelings, upon his persuasion of his personal interest in Christ through faith, those persons who, like Dr. Southey,* have bestowed upon it several philosophic solutions, might have found a better reason had they either consulted St. Paul, who says, "We joy in God, by whom we have received the reconciliation," or their own church, which has emphatically declared that the doctrine of justification by faith is not only very wholesome, but also "very full of comfort."

CHAPTER V.

FROM this time Mr. Wesley commenced that laborious and glorious ministry, which directly or indirectly was made the instrument of the salvation of a multitude, not to be numbered till "the day which shall make all things manifest." That which he had experienced he preached to others with the confidence of one who had "the witness in himself;" and with a fulness of sympathy for all who wandered in paths of darkness and distress, which could not but be inspired by the recollection of his own former perplexities.

At this period the religious and moral state of the nation was such as to give the most serious concern to the few remaining faithful. There is no need to draw a picture darker than the truth, to add importance to the labours of the two Wesleys, Mr. Whitefield, and their associates. The view here taken has often been drawn by pens unconnected with and hostile to Methodism.

The reformation from Popery which so much promoted the instruction of the populace in Scotland, did much less

*Life of Wesley.

for the people of England, a great majority of whose lower classes, at the time of the rise of Methodism were even ignorant of the art of reading; in many places were semibarbarous in their manners; and had been rescued from the superstitions of Popery, only to be left ignorant of every thing beyond a few vague and general notions of religion. Great numbers were destitute even of these ; and there are still agricultural districts in the southern and western counties, where the case is not even at this moment much improved. A clergyman has lately asserted in print, that in many villages of Devonshire the only form of prayer still taught to their children by the peasantry are the goodly verses handed down from their popish ancestors,

"Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,

Bless the bed that I lie on," &c.

The degree of ignorance on all scriptural subjects, and of dull, uninquiring irreligiousness which prevails in many other parts, is well known to those who have turned their attention to such inquiries, and would be incredible to those who have not.* A great impression was made in many places by the zealous preachers who sprang forth at the reformation; and in the large towns especially, they turned many of the people “from darkness to light.” But the great body of the popish parish priests went round with the reformation, without conviction, and performed the new service, as they performed the old, in order to hold fast their livings. As what was called Puritanism prevailed, more zealous preaching and more careful instruction were employed; and by such ministers as the two thousand who were silenced by the act of uniformity, with many equally excellent men who conformed to the re-established church, a great body of religious and well-instructed people were raised up; and indeed before the civil wars commenced, the nation might be said to be in a state of hopeful moral improvement. These troubles however arose before the effect produced upon a state of society sunk very low in vice and ignorance, could be

By far the greater number of the peasants in Hampshire and Berkshire, lately tried under the Special Commissions for riots and stack-burning, were found unable to read.

widely extended; and the keen and ardent political feelings which were then excited, and the demoralizing effects of civil warfare, greatly injured the spirit of piety, by occupying the attention of men, and rousing their passions by other, and often unhallowed, subjects. The effect was as injurious upon the advocates of the old church discipline as upon those of the new, and probably worse; because it did not meet in them, for the most part, with principles so genuine and active to resist it. In many of the latter, Antinomianism and fanaticism became conspicuous; but in the former a total irreligion, or a lifeless formality, produced a haughty dislike of the spiritualities of religion, or a sneering contempt of them. The mischief was completed by the restoration of the Stuarts; for whatever advantages were gained by that event in a civil sense, it let in a flood of licentiousness and impiety which swept away almost every barrier that had been raised in the public mind by the labours of former ages. Infidelity began its ravages upon the principles of the higher and middle classes; the mass of the people remained uneducated, and were Christians but in name, and by virtue of their baptism; whilst many of the great doctrines of the reformation were banished both from the universities and the pulpits. Archbishop Leighton complains that his church was a fair carcass without a spirit ;" and Burnet observes, that in his time "the clergy had less authority, and were under more contempt, than those of any church in Europe; for they were much the most remiss in their labours, and the least severe in their lives." Nor did the case much amend up to the period of which we speak. Dr. Southey says, that "from the restoration to the accession of the house of Hanover, the English church could boast of its brightest ornaments and ablest defenders, men who have never been surpassed in erudition, in eloquence, or in strength and subtlety of mind." This is true but it is equally so, that, with a very few exceptions, these great powers were not employed to teach, defend, and inculcate the doctrines of that church on personal religion as it is taught in her liturgy, her articles, and her homilies, but what often was subversive of them; and the very authority therefore which such writers acquired by their

learned and able works was in many respects mischievous. They stood between the people and the better divines of the earlier age of the church, and put them out of sight; and they set an example of preaching which, being generally followed, placed the pulpit and the desk at perpetual variance, and reduced an evangelical liturgy to a dead form which was repeated without thought, or so explained as to take away its meaning. A great proportion of the clergy, whatever other learning they might possess, were grossly ignorant of theology, and contented themselves with reading short unmeaning sermons, purchased or pilfered, and formed upon the lifeless theological system of the day. A little Calvinism remained in the church, and a little evangelical Arminianism; but the prevalent divinity was Pelagian, or what very nearly approached it. Natural religion was the great subject of study, when theology was studied at all, and was made the test and standard of revealed truth. The doctrine of the opus operatum of the Papists, as to sacraments, was the faith of the divines of the older school; and a refined system of ethics, unconnected with Christian motives, and disjoined from the vital principles of religion in the heart, was the favourite theory of the modern. The body of the clergy neither knew nor cared about systems of any kind. In a great number of instances they were negligent and immoral; often grossly so. The populace of the large towns were ignorant and profligate; and the inhabitants of villages added to ignorance and profligacy brutish and barbarous manners. A more striking instance of the rapid deterioration of religious light and influence in a country scarcely occurs, than in our own, from the restoration till the rise of Methodism. It affected not only the church, but the dissenting sects in no ordinary degree. The Presbyterians had commenced their course through Arianism down to Socinianism; and those who held the doctrines of Calvin had, in too many instances, by a course of hot-house planting, luxuriated them into the fatal and disgusting errors of Antinomianism. There were indeed many happy exceptions; but this was the general state of religion and morals in the country, when the Wesleys, Whitefield, and a few kindred spirits came forth, ready to

sacrifice ease, reputation, and even life itself, to produce a reformation.

Before Mr. Wesley entered upon the career which afterwards distinguished him, and having no preconceived plan or course of conduct, but to seek good for himself, and to do good to others, he visited the Moravian settlements in Germany. On his journey he formed an acquaintance with several pious ministers in Holland and Germany; and at Marienbourn was greatly edified by the conversation of count Zinzendorf, and others of the brethren, of whose views he did not however in all respects even then approve. From thence he proceeded to Hernhuth, where he staid a fortnight, conversing with the elders, and observing the economy of that church, part of which with modifications he afterwards introduced among his own societies. The sermons of Christian David especially interested him; and of one of them, on the ground of our faith," he gives the substance; which we may insert, both as excellent in itself, and as it so well agrees with what Mr. Wesley afterwards uniformly taught :

"The word of reconciliation which the apostles preached, as the foundation of all they taught, was, that' we are reconciled to God, not by our own works, nor by our own righteousness, but wholly and solely by the blood of Christ.'

"But you will say, Must I not grieve and mourn for my sins Must I not humble myself before my God? Is not this just and right? And must I not first do this before I can expect God to be reconciled to me? I answer, it is just and right. You must be humbled before God. You must have a broken and contrite heart. But then observe, this is not your own work. Do you grieve that you are a sinner? This is the work of the Holy Ghost. Are you contrite? Are you humbled before God? Do you indeed mourn, and is your heart broken within you? All this worketh the self-same Spirit.

“Observe again, this is not the foundation. It is not this by which you are justified. This is not the righteousness, this is no part of the righteousness, by which you are reconciled unto God. You grieve for your sins. You are deeply humble. Your heart is broken. Well. But all this