niceties of expression. As he thought, so he writ ; and seemed to imagine, that to polish a rugged sentiment was to weaken its force. "The Devil," says he, "acted as mid-wife to Mr. Wesley's new-born babes." In another part of his book, he takes occasion, from a concession of the Arch-Methodist, to declare, that Mr. William Law begat Methodism, and Count Zinzendorff rocked the cradle.' He allows Whitefield little credit; calls him 'the madder of the two:' but, considering him in a very inferior light to Mr. Wesley, almost passes him by unnoticed. Whatever good and laudable intentions the Bishop might have had; or how zealous soever he might have been to support the interest of sober Religion against the insults and encroachments of Fanaticism; yet, I think, it is pretty generally allowed that he was not perfectly happy in the means he chose to effect his good purposes. There is much acute reasoning, and much poignant and sprightly wit, in his Doctrine of Grace;' but there is in it too much levity for a grave Bishop, and too much abuse for a candid Christian*. If the subject was not unworthy of his pen, he should not have given such a representation of it as to make it look as if it was. Who begat, or who midwived, or who nursed Methodism, is a point I shall leave to the determination of others. Mr. Wesley's own account of this matter is seen to a better advantage in his

* Let us hear what the Bishop himself says on this head: "My Discourse on the Holy Spirit grows upon me, especially in the latter part, about the Methodists, which is the part I could have wished would have grown the least. But a wen grows faster than sound flesh." Letter dated Dec. 27, 1761, and addressed to Mr. Hurd; who had some months before thus given his advice. After observing, that the Bishop's " Discourse" would be "a seasonable reproof of the Methodists," and suggesting as a title-page, "The Trial of the Spirits of our modern Pretenders to Inspiration," he observes, "It would make an admirable tract on the subject. But the inconvenience is, that the Methodists would say that your Lordship had written against them; an honour, which, for their own sakes, one would not wish them." In 1676 Bishop Warburton says, "The Remonstrants in Rotterdam have translated my Book of Grace. They are over-run with Methodists among the Remonstrants."

poem,

poem, than in Bp. Warburton's extracts from his
Journals. Excuse this quotation; it shall be the last
But, lest, reform'd from all extremer ill,
They should but civilize old Nature still;
The loftier charms and energy display
Of Virtue model'd by the Godhead's ray;
The lineaments divine, Perfection's plan,
The baseness and the dignity of man.
Commences now the agonizing strife,
Previous to Nature's death and second life.
Struck by their own inclement piercing eye,
Their feeble virtues blush, despair, and die.
They view the scheme that mimic Nature made,
A fancy'd goodness, and Religion's shade.
With angry scorn they now reject the whole,
Unchang'd the heart, undeified the soul,
Till indignation sleeps away to faith,

And God's own power and peace take root in
sacred wrath.'

Mr.

"Particular instances may be adduced, that in a detached view might render Mr. Wesley's understanding a very problematical thing. But an impartial and wise judge will not determine by a few particulars, but by the result of the whole. Wesley had a very important end in view; and it required a great degree of sagacity, as well as resolution, to plan and pursue the means that were necessary to effect it. These means considered in their joint dependance and operation were extraordinary, and called for an equal share of enthusiasm to actuate, and wisdom to superintend. schemes of reformation as were so extensive and complicated as his, were not the transient visions of an overheated fancy, but the deep projects of a subtle mind, and called for the most determined efforts of a warm, resolute, and yet cautious spirit.

Such

"In one of Mr. Wesley's earlier publications, intituled, An Earnest Appeal to Men of Reason and Religion*, he, in the strongest language, disavows

* 1743, 12mo, p. 48.

all

all pecuniary motives; and calls on posterity to vindicate his disinterestedness in one of the boldest apostrophes I ever read: Money must needs pass through my hands,' says he; but I will take care (God being my helper) that the Mammon of unrighteousness shall only pass through; it shall not rest there. None of the accursed thing shall be found in my tents, when the Lord calleth me hence. And hear ye this, all you who have discovered the treasures which I am to leave behind me; if I leave behind me ten pounds (above my debts and the little arrears of my fellowship) you and all mankind bear witness against me, that I lived and died a thief and a robber.' I doubt not but his pride, and something better than his pride, will prevent the stigma.

"At the age of fourscore, Mr. Wesley is still active and cheerful. His activity indeed hath always kept him in spirits, and prevented those fits of languor and despondency which generally overtake the indolent. He is an excellent companion; and, in spite of censure, I believe he is an honest man. The jealousy of the Tabernacle hath joined with the zeal of a higher house, to detract from the purity of his character; but the arrow that flew in darkness only recoiled on those who sent it.

"Mr. Wesley, after receiving the sacrament this last summer at the cathedral of Exeter, was invited by the Bishop* to dine at the Palace. There were some who thought his Lordship might have spared the compliment; but others considered it as only another proof, added to the many he hath already given, of his amiable courtesy, candour, and goodsense. How far he relaxed his zeal or his dignity by his condescension, may be a point to be canvassed by the scrupulous; but the wise and the good of every communion will settle it in a moment.

"The discourse at the table turned on a variety of literary topicks. At that time the publick was amused by the controversy about Rowley's Poems. Mr. Wesley said, that he had made enquiries about

* Dr. John Ross; of whom see vol. II. P. 184.

Chatterton;

Chatterton; and, from the information he could gather, he could scarcely believe him equal to such a complicated and ingenious piece of fraud. The subject introduced the name of Mr. Jacob Bryant. Mr. Canon Moore asked him, if he had ever read that gentleman's "Analysis." He said, he had not only read the two first volumes, but had actually abridged them. Mr. Moore lent him the third volume, which he intended to abridge likewise. These are instances of uncommon assiduity, as well as singular curiosity, in this "transcendant man," as Bishop Warburton denominated him, in a vein of mingled satire and irony; but posterity may, per haps, apply the epithet to him without a jest.

"I could with pleasure enlarge on this subject; but I write in great haste, and have only time to add, that there was a sister of the Wesleys, called Mehetabel, who married a gentleman of the name of Wright. I have seen some good pieces of hers both in prose and verse. She was unfortunate both before and after marriage; as was another of her sisters, who married the famous Wesley Hall of Salisbury, who had the honour of being Mr. Madan's precursor in the great mission of Thelypthora! I am, dear sir, yours, &c. S. BADCOCK."

The preceding Letter was first printed in the "Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica," No XX.; and, having afterwards been fully noticed by Mr. Maty, in his "New Review," it produced the following Remarks from Mr. John Wesley:

"1. A day or two ago the Review fell into my hands, which contains a letter from the Rev. Mr. Badcock. I have not the pleasure of knowing this gentleman; but I esteem him for his useful and ingenious publications; and I think it my duty to inform both him and the publick better, of some points wherein they have been misinformed.

"2. He says, 'Mr. Samuel Wesley, of Epworth, in Lincolnshire, was sent to the University. This is not accurate. He was educated for some years at a Dissenting academy, from which he then pri

vately retired, and entered himself at Exeter college, in Oxford. His heroic poem, the Life of Christ, excited the ridicule of the wits.' His own account of it was, 'the cuts are good; the notes pretty good; the verses so so. At a very advanced age he published a Latin work on the book of Job, which was never held in any estimation by the learned.' I doubt that. It certainly contains immense learning; but of a kind which I do not admire.

3. He married a woman of extraordinary abilities, the daughter of Dr. Samuel Annesley.' (Dr. Annesley and the then Earl of Anglesea were brothers' sons.) Samuel, his eldest son, was a noted Jacobite.' Nay, he was no more a Jacobite than he was a Turk. And what amends can Mr. Badcock, or Mr. Maty, make, for publishing this egregious falsehood? Many of his political satires remain unpublished, on account of their treasonable tendency.' Here is a double mistake. For, 1. He never published any thing political, whether satirical or not. 2. He never wrote any thing of a treasonable tendency; he sacredly avoided it. In his rage of Jacobitism, he poured out the very dregs of it on Royalty itself. No, never. He never wrote, much less published, one line against the King. I speak it from personal knowledge, having often heard him say, 'If it reflects on the King, it is none of mine.' His constant practice may be learnt from those lines, in "The Battle of the Sexes,"

'Forgive the voice that useful fiction sings,
Not impious tales of deities impure;
Not faults of breathless Queens, or living Kings,
In open treason, or in veil obscure.'

Time, however, changed the satirist against Sir Robert, into an humble suppliant." Nay, I do not believe, he ever wrote a line to Sir Robert, either in verse or prose *.

*See before, p. 219, the reference to Bp. Atterbury's Works. See also. in the Gentleman's Magazine for July 1809, p. 609, a Poetical Epistle from Mr. Pope to the Earl of Oxford.

"4. 'Mrs.