preach the plain principles of manly, rational religion.

"Having myself no knowledge of the General Í took the liberty to make this offer to you. I have no interest herein but I should rejoice to serve, as I am able, my king and country. If it be judged that this will be of no real service, let the proposal die and be forgotten. But I beg you, Sir, to believe, that I have the same glorious cause, for which you have shewn so becoming a zeal, earnestly at heart: and that therefore I am, with warm respect,

"SIR,

"Your most obedient servant."

This letter was written on the 26th, and on the 31st, Mr. Wesley preached on Newcastle Town Moor, at a small distance from the English camp. November 1. he preached again on a little eminence before the camp, and continued this practice occasionally till the 30th of this month. At half an hour after eight on this day, he preached to a larger congregation than any before; and adds, "Were it only for the sake of this hour, I should not have thought much of staying at Newcastle longer than I intended. Between one and two in the afternoon, I went to the camp once more. Abundance of people now flocked together, horse and foot, rich and poor, to whom I declared, There is no difference; for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. I observed many Germans standing disconsolate in the skirts of the congregation. To these I was constrained, though I had discontinued it so long, to speak a few words in their own language. Immedi ately they gathered up close together, and drank in every word."

Q 2

• All

"All this year (says Mr. Wesley) the work of God gradually increased in the Southern counties, as well as in the North of England. Many were awakened in a very remarkable manner: many were converted to God. Many were enabled to testify, that the blood of Jesus cleanseth from all sin. Mean time we were in most places tolerably quiet, as to popular tumults. Where any thing of the kind appeared, the Magistrates usually interposed, as indeed it was their duty to do. And wherever the peace officers do their duty, no riot can long subsist."

Mr. Wesley and his brother began to be spoken of in Scotland, and a few of the most pious ministers there, though differing from the two brothers on many points of doctrine, yet rejoiced in the great revival of practical religion in England, by their means. Mr. James Robe, minister of Killsyth, having received from a friend some account of them, wrote as follows: "I was much pleased with what you wrote to me of the Messrs. Wesleys. I rejoice that justification, the imputed righteousness of Jehovah our Righteousness, received by faith alone, and gospel holiness, are the subjects of their sermons; and the debated points (various sentiments about which are not inconsistent with saving faith and our acceptance with God) are laid aside. I embrace fellowship with them, and pray that the Lord of the vineyard may give the success in preaching the faith of Christ, so much needed in England. As many as be perfect, let them be thus minded; and if in any other things ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless whereunto we have attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same things. How good would it be for the christian world, if this were believed, and regarded as the word of God! When

the

the happy days upon the wing are come, so it will be and in as far as any have really shared in the late revival, it is so with them in some good measure. I learned something new, as to the exhorters,* from the account you gave of them. I look upon them as so many licensed probationers, or useful public teachers; which is the case of our probationers. It provides me with an answer to objections, besides that of the extraordinary circumstances of the established church. I beg you to salute the two brothers for me, much in the Lord. I wrote to my correspondents formerly, upon yours to me from Newcastle, that there were hopes of their joining in our concert for for prayer and praise, for the revival of real Christianity. Now I can write that they have acceded; and I hope we shall expressly remember

before the throne of grace."

another

Mr. James Erskine, who frequently in the course of this year corresponded with Mr. Wesley, transmitted this part of Mr. Robe's letter to him; and with a liberality not common to Scotchmen at that time, he asks, "Are the points which give the different denominations (to Christians) and from whence proceed separate communions, animosities, evil-speakings, surmises, and, at least, coolness of affection, aptness to misconstrue, slowness to think well of others, stiffness in one's own conceits, and over-valuing one's own opinion, &c, &c. are these points (at least among the far greater part of Protestants) as important, as clearly revealed, and as essential, or as closely connected with the essentials of practical Christianity, as the loving of one another with a pure heart fervently, and not forsaking, much less refusing, the assembling

He means, the Lay-Preachers.

of

of ourselves together as the manner of some was, and and now of almost all is ?"-Every candid man will most certainly answer this question in the negative. And it requires no great degree of discernment to perceive, that the narrow party spirit which prevails among most denominations of Christians with regard to communion and church fellowship, even where it is acknowledged that the essential doctrines of the gospel are held fast, is one grand hinderance of brotherlylove, and of a more general diffusion of real experimental religion.

In the latter end of this year, Mr. Wesley had expressed a desire to be useful to the Scots, and to preach the gospel in Scotland. His friend Mr. James Erskine wrote to him on the subject, and set before him some of the difficulties he would have to struggle with in the attempt. Mr. Erskine, in his letter expresses an ardent wish for union and Christian fellowship among all those of different denominations and opinions, who love the Lord Jesus Christ. He reprobates the animosity and bigotry, too prevalent among them under the specious name of zeal for the truth. He then sets before him some of the difficulties he would meet with in his attempting to preach and form societies in Scotland, "You have (says he) some sentiments and ways of speaking different from the generality, and almost from all the real Christians of the Presbyterian persuasion in Scotland, among whom, from my long acquaintance with my countrymen, I cannot help thinking are about five in six of the real Christians there. And to my great regret, of these worthy people, I fear three out of five are wofully bigotted a vice too natural to us Scots, from what our

countryman

you

countryman George Buchanan* wrote was our temper —Perfervidum Scotorum ingenium. And some of English have as much of it as any Scot; but it is not so national with you, as among the Scots. You would have the same prejudices to struggle with among the Presbyterians, that Mr. Whitefield had, that is, that you are of the church of England, and use the Liturgy. And you would have more, because of the difference of sentiment, and ways of speaking, as to some doctrines, about which his opinions and expressions were the same as theirs and though this might make you more acceptable to most of the episcopal persuasion, yet your way of speaking of Christian perfection,

George Buchanan, the best Latin poet of his time, perhaps inferior to pone since the Augustan age, was born in the village of Killearn, in Stirlingshire, Scotland, in 1506. The abject poverty in which his father died, might have confined him to toil at the lowest employments of life, if the generosity of an uncle had not assisted him in his education, and enabled him to pursue his studies for two years, at Paris. But his uncle dying, he returned to Scotland, surrounded with the horrors of indigence. In this extremity, he enlisted for a soldier: but nature had not destined him for a hero, and he was disgusted with the first campaign. John Major, then professor of philosophy at St. Andrews, hearing of his necessity and of his merit, afforded him a temporary relief. He now studied the subtilties of logic under John Maiz, whom he followed to Paris. There, after encountering many diffiulties, he was invited to teach grammar in the college of St. Barbe. In this occupation he was found by the Earl of Cassels, with whom having staid five years at Paris, he returned to Scotland. He next acted as preceptor to the famous Earl of Murray, the natural son of James V. But while he was forming this nobleman for public affairs, he found his life was in danger. He had written some beautiful but poignant satires against the Franciscan Monks; who in return branded him with the appellation of Atheist. Cardinal Beaton gave orders to apprehend him, and bribed King James, it is said, with a considerable sum to permit his execution. He was seized upon accordingly; and the first genius of the age was about to perish by the halter, or by fire, to satisfy the malignant resentment of men, whose false notions of religion have always made them thirst for

the