things are remedied already: and many more will be. But you consider, I have none to second me. They who should do it, start aside as a broken bow."

January 30, 1751, Mr. Wesley, at the pressing request of Dr. Isham, then rector of Lincoln-College, set out early in the morning to vote for a member of parliament. It was a severe frost, the wind NorthWest, full in his face, and the roads so slippery that the horses could scarcely keep their feet. Nevertheless, about seven in the evening, he, and those with him, for he never travelled alone, came safe to Oxford. A congregation was waiting for him, whom he immediately addressed in those awful words, What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul.-The next day he went to the schools, where the convocation was met. "But (says he) I did not find that decency and order which I expected. The gentleman for whom I voted, was not elected yet I did not repent of my coming; I owe much more than this to that generous, friendly man, who now rests from his labours." Mr. Wesley means Dr. Morley, who so generously assisted him with his intercst, when he was elected Fellow of Lincoln-College.*

A year or more, before this period, Mr. Wesley had formed a resolution to marry. But the affair coming to the knowledge of Mr. Charles Wesley, before marriage took place, he found means to prevent it, for reasons which appeared to him of sufficient importance to authorize him to interfere in the business. Mr. John Wesley, however, thought otherwise, and this was the first breach of that union and harmony which had now subsisted between the two brothers, without interruption, for more than twenty years. Notwithstanding

See Vol. 1. page 380.

Notwithstanding this disappointment, Mr. Wesley still continued in the resolution to marry; and having fixed his choice of a partner, he proposed the matter to the Reverend Mr. Perronet, of Shoreham. Feruary 2, he received Mr. Perronet's answer, who wrote as a Christian minister ought to write, in favour of marriage. In a few days after, he married Mrs. Vizelle, a widow lady of independent fortune. But before the marriage, he took care that her fortune should be wholly settled upon herself, refusing to have the command of one shilling of her property. Mr. Wesley's constant habit of travelling from place to place, through Great-Britain and Ireland, the number of persons who came to visit him wherever he was, and his extensive correspondence with the members of the society, were circumstances apparently unfavourable to that social intercourse, mutual openness and confidence, which some think form the basis of happiness in the married state. These circumstances, indeed, would not have been very unfavourable, had he married a woman who could have entered into his views, and have accommodated herself to his situation. But this was not the case. Had he searched the whole kingdom on purpose, he would hardly have found a woman more unsuitable in these respects, than she whom he married.

Some years before his marriage, Mr. Wesley had written a small Tract in favour of celibacy. Not that he condemned, or even disapproved of prudent marriages, but he thought celibacy, to those who could live comfortably in it, more favourable to religious improvement than a state of matrimony. He considered Paul's advice to the church at Corinth, as a standing rule in all circumstances of Christians. It is really wonderful how he could fall into this error, as the Apostle ex

pressly

pressly says, that he gave that advice di Ty CYST WOULS vay, on account of the impending distress: that is, on account of the persecutions both from Jews and Gentiles, which already threatened the churches; when men and women being dragged to prison, or to death, it would be more easy and convenient not to be entangled with the cares of a family. It does not appear however, that Mr. Wesley, in writing that Tract, had any reference to his own situation in particular; or, that he had formed a resolution never to

marry.

March 27, Mr. Wesley set out on his Northern journey. He travelled through the societies as far as Whitehaven, and April 20, came to Newcastle. On the 24th, he set out with Mr. Hopper, to pay his first visit to Scotland. He was invited thither by captain (afterwards colonel) Galatin, who was then quartered at Mussel borough. "I had no intention (says he) to preach in Scotland; not imagining that there were any that desired I should. But I was mistaken. Curiosity, if nothing else, broug abundance of people together in the evening. And whereas in the kirk, Mrs. Galatin informed me, there used to be laughing and talking, and all the marks of the grossest inattention; it was far otherwise here. They remained as statues from the beginning of the sermon to the end. I preached again at six in the evening, on, Seek ye the Lord while he may be found. I used great plainness of speech towards high and low and they all received it in love: so that the prejudice which had been several years planting, was torn up by the roots in one hour. After preaching, one of the Bailiffs of the town, with one of the Elders of the kirk, came to me, and begged I would stay with them awhile; nay, if it were but two or three days, and they would fit up a far larger place than the

school,

school, and prepare seats for the congregations. Had not my time been fixed, I should gladly have complied. All that I could now do, was to give them a promise, that Mr. Hopper would come back the next week and spend a few days with them. And it was not without a fair prospect. The congregations were very numerous many were cut to the heart; and several joined together in a little society."

May 15, Mr. Wesley came to Leeds. Here he held a Conference with about thirty of the Preachers. He inquired particularly into their qualifications, as to their grace and gifts; and into the fruits of their labours; and tells us he found no reason to doubt, except of one only.

Mr. Wesley had now been married upwards of three months; and June the 1st he resigned his fellowship. His letter of resignation was in the words of one of the established forms of the college for that purpose, as follows. "Ego Johannes Wesley, Collegii Lincolniensis in Academia Oxoniensi Socius, quicquid mihi juris est in prædicta Societate, ejusdem Rectori et Sociis sponte ac liberè resigno: Illis universis et singulis, perpetuam pacem, ac omnimodam in CHRISTO felicitatem exoptans."

CHAPTER

CHAPTER III.

Of Mr. Wesley's ministerial Labours, and of the Spread of Methodism, till the Conference in 1770: with an Extract from the larger Minutes: giving a View of various Regulations respecting the Preachers, &c. &c.

IT has been stated,* that Mr. Charles Wesley, in the

course of the present year, went into Yorkshire with a commission to enquire more particularly into the character and moral conduct of the Preachers in their several stations. He found one or two, who did not walk worthy of the Gospel; and several more whom he thought utterly unqualified to preach. In the execution of his commission, Mr. John Wesley wrote to him very frequently. The following are extracts from some of his letters on this occasion.

July 17. "I fear for C. S.-- and J. C.-more and more. I have heard they frequently and bitterly rail against the church."-On this Mr. Charles puts the following query: "What assurance can we have that they will not forsake it, at least when we are dead? Ought we to admit any man for a Preacher, till we can trust his invariable attachment to the church ?"

July 20. "The societies both must and shall maintain the Preachers we send among them, or I will preach among them no more. The least that I can say to any of these preachers, is, "Give yourself wholly to the work, and you shall have food to eat, and raiment to put on.' And I cannot see that any Preacher is called to any people, who will not thus maintain him.-Almost every thing depends on you