Warburton, Bishop of Gloucester. 493 Warburton's book was principally an attack on Wesley and Conyers Middleton; but as the title page, at least, referred to the "office and operations of the Holy Spirit," others, beside Wesley, deemed it their duty to call the jaunty bishop to account for his errors and omissions. Whitefield, though scarcely alluded to by Warburton, sent forth a pamphlet of twenty-four pages, in which he charges the bishop with having, “in effect, robbed the church of its promised Comforter; and, thereby, left us without any supernatural influence or Divine operations whatsoever." The Rev. John Andrews, LL.B., of St. Mary hall, Oxford, published a book of 224 pages to correct his lordship's notions; for which his lordship dismissed him from a small Church benefice that he had previously bestowed upon him. John Payne also, once a bookseller, but afterwards accountant of the Bank of England, issued a volume of five hundred pages, accusing the bishop of unfairness to Mr. Law. Dr. Thomas Leland, a fellow of Trinity college, Dublin, the most admired preacher of that city, and whose classical learning Dr. Johnson considered to be unrivalled, gave to the world his "Dissertation on the Principles of Human Eloquence," in which he refuted the arguments used by Warburton in reference to the style and composition of the New Testament. Thus the irate bishop got into a nest of hornets. Wesley considered, that he himself had so "untwisted the bishop's arguments," that to put them together again was a thing impossible.1 Andrews so stung his lordship, that his lordship dismissed him from his see. And Leland so vanquished his antagonist, that, instead of the bishop defending his own, Dr. Hurd, in a tone of sarcasm and contempt, thought proper to answer on behalf of his episcopal master, and, three years afterwards, was made archdeacon of his master's diocese. Samuel Charndler, also, of Newington, appeared as the bishop's champion, in “An Answer to the Rev. Mr. John Wesley's Letter to William, Lord Bishop of Gloucester." 8vo, 22 pages. With no slight degree of egotism, he tells his readers, that his "remarks are not the fruits of idle conceit, or mere conjecture, not party suggestions, or newfangled notions, but a plain series of well 1763 Age 60 1763 considered thoughts." He informs Wesley, that Methodist Age 60 doctrine has filled Bedlam and the several madhouses in England with shoals of patients"; that he had "occasioned many and great violations of the peace"; and that he is "well skilled in the rudiments of deceit." Poor Samuel Charndler, by the side of Bishop Warburton, was a Lilliputian playing antics in the presence of a Patagonian giant. The other publications of Wesley, in 1763, were as follows. 1. "Letters wrote by Jane Cooper, to which is prefixed some account of her Life and Death." 12mo, 41 pages. Jane Cooper was born in Norfolk, in 1738; and, in the twentieth year of her age, came to London as a domestic servant; was converted; and joined the Methodists. Four years afterwards she died of smallpox, and Wesley buried her. She was evidently one of Wesley's pattern saints, and professed to live in the enjoyment of Christian holiness. Indeed, her experience forms a part of Wesley's "Plain Account of Christian Perfection." Considering her social position, her letters are remarkable productions. "All here," says Wesley, "is strong, sterling sense, strictly agreeable to sound reason. Here are no extravagant flights, no mystic reveries, no unscriptural enthusiasm. The sentiments are all just and noble; the result of a fine natural understanding, cultivated by conversation, thinking, reading, and true Christian experience." The last words of this servant maid were: "My Jesus is all in all to me; glory be to Him through time and eternity." Wesley calls her "a pattern of all holiness, and of the wisdom which is from above." 2. "Farther Thoughts upon Christian Perfection." 12mo, 39 pages. This has been already noticed. 3. As also the following: "A Sermon preached before the Society for the Reformation of Manners; on Sunday, January 30, 1763. At the chapel in West Street, Seven Dials." 8vo, 31 pages. At the end of it, the names of five gentlemen are given, who would receive subscriptions to the funds of the society, on behalf of which it was delivered. 4. The substance also of another pamphlet has been already given: "Minutes of several Conversations between the Rev. Mr. John and Charles Wesley, and others." 12mo, 30 pages. 5. The "Sermon on Sin in Believers" was written March 28, 1763. Its object is to refute the doctrine of Zinzendorf, that all true believers are entirely sanctified. The sermon is one of Wesley's ablest homilies; and, doubtless, had its origin in the excitement arising out of the subject of Christian perfection. "I wrote it," says he, "in order to remove a mistake which some were labouring to propagate,—that there is no sin in any that are justified.” 6. "An Extract from Milton's 'Paradise Lost,' with Notes." 18m0, 320 pages. Wesley's object, in this publication, may be gathered from his preface. "This inimitable work, amidst all its beauties, is unintelligible to abundance of readers: the immense learning, which Milton has everywhere crowded together, making it quite obscure to persons of a common education. This difficulty I have endeavoured to remove in the following extract: first, by omitting those lines which I despaired of explaining to the unlearned; and secondly, by adding short and easy notes. To those passages, which I apprehend to be peculiarly excellent, either with regard to sentiment or expression, I have prefixed a star; and these, I believe, it would be worth while to read over and over, or even to commit to memory."1 7. "A Survey of the Wisdom of God in Creation; or, a Compendium of Natural Philosophy." 2 vols., 12mo. This work was begun as early as the year 1758;2 and was published by subscription. In a circular to his assistants, Wesley 1 The following are the first lines of the paragraphs, in Book I., which Wesley distinguishes as "peculiarly excellent." They will serve as specimens of all the others. "Say first, for heaven hides nothing from thy view." "Thus Satan talking to his nearest mate." "He scarce had ceased when the superior fiend." "He called so loud, that all the hollow deep." "These feminine. For spirits when they please." "To flutes and soft recorders; such as raised." “Their dread commander; he above the rest.” "He spake; and to confirm his words, out flew." 2 Wesley's Works, vol. ii., p. 441. 1763 Age 60 1763 said: "Spare no pains to procure subscriptions for the PhiloAge 60 sophy. It will be the most complete thing of its kind in the English tongue." A second edition, in three volumes, was issued in 1770; a third, in five volumes, in 1777. In the London Magazine, for 1774, a long letter, signed "Philosophaster," was addressed to Wesley, criticising some of his statements. In his reply,2 Wesley, in some points, acknowledges himself to be in error; but not in others; and then concludes: "Permit me, sir, to give you one piece of advice. Be not so positive; especially with regard to things which are neither easy nor necessary to be determined. I ground this advice on my own experience. When I was young, I was sure of everything. In a few years, having been mistaken a thousand times, I was not half so sure of most things as before. At present, I am hardly sure of anything, but what God has revealed to man." 1 Wesley's Works, vol. xii., p. 435- 2 London Magazine, 1765, p. 26. HARLES Wesley, in feeble health, seems to have spent the year 1764 in London and in Bristol. Whitefield was in America, and so much an invalid, that he could only preach about thrice a week. Though distant, he affectionately remembered his old friend Wesley. Hence the following. "PHILADELPHIA, September 25, 1764. "REVEREND AND DEAR SIR,-Your kind letter, dated in January last, through the negligence of those that received the parcel, did not reach me till within these few days. I have been mercifully carried through the summer's heat; and, had strength permitted, I might have preached to thousands and thousands thrice a day. Zealous ministers are not so rare in this new world as in other parts. Here is room for a hundred itinerants. Fain would I end my life in rambling after those that have rambled away from Jesus Christ. I am persuaded you are likeminded. I wish you and all your dear fellow labourers much prosperity. I do not repent being a poor, despised, cast out, and now almost worn out itinerant. I would do it again, if I had my choice. If you and all yours would join in praying over a poor, worthless, but willing pilgrim, it would be a very great act of charity, he being, though less than the least of all, "Reverend and very dear sir, ever yours in Jesus, "GEORGE WHITEFIELD." 1 Whitefield was away from England; but even that was not enough to save him from the malignant attacks of his English enemies. At the very commencement of the year, the half insane watchmaker, mentioned in a previous chapter, published another of his shilling pamphlets, with the fantastic title: "Remarks upon the Life, Character, and Behaviour of the Rev. George Whitefield, as written by himself, from the time of his birth to the time he departed from his Tabernacle; demonstrating, by astronomical calculation, that his ascension, meridian, and declination were necessarily actuated by planetary influence, and that his doctrine was not Divine mission, but from a mere fatality evident, as daily seen in the sad catastrophe of his unhappy, gloomy, and misguided fol1 Methodist Magazine, 1782, p. 439. VOL. II. K K 1764 Age 61 |