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loved: I trust the handwriting that was against me is blotted out, and that I am reconciled to God through his Son."

This representation of his own state is evidently faithful; his Moravian friends did not, however, judge of it so favourably. Delamotte, whose less active and less ambitious spirit rested contentedly after he had joined the brethren, said to him, “You are better than you was at Savannah. You know that you was then quite wrong; but you are not right yet. You know that you was then blind; but you do not see now. I doubt not but God will bring you to the right foundation; but I have no hope for you while you are on the present foundation, it is as different from the true, as the right hand from the left. You have all to begin anew. I have observed all your words and actions, and I see you are of the same spirit still you have a simplicity, but it is a simplicity of your own; it is not the simplicity of Christ. You think you do not trust in your own works; but you do trust in your own works. You do not believe in Christ. You have a present freedom from sin; but it is only a temporary suspension of it, not a deliverance from it; and you have a peace, but it is not a true peace: if death were to approach, you would find all your fears return; but I am forbid to say any more; my heart sinks in me like a stone.”

This censure lost nothing of its oracular solemnity by the manner in which it was concluded. Wesley was troubled by it, and had recourse to bibliomancy, which was then his favourite practice for comfort.He begged of God, he says, an answer of peace, and opened on these words: "As many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy upon the Israel of God." A second trial gave him for a text, My hour is not yet come. The opinion of ordinary men he despised: he triumphed over obloquy, and he was impenetrable to all reasoning which opposed his favourite tenets, or censured any part of his conduct; but when one who entered into his feelings with kindred feeling, and agreed with him entirely in opinion, as

sumed towards him the language of reproof and commiseration, then he was disturbed, and those doubts came upon him again, which might have led him to distrust his enthusiastic doctrine of assurance. This disquietude, which chance texts of Scripture might as easily have aggravated as allayed, was removed by the stimulants of action and opposition, and more especially by sympathy and success; for though he might easily err concerning the cause of the effects which he produced, it was impossible to doubt their reality, and in many cases their utility was as evident as their existence.

During his absence in Germany, Charles had prayed with some condemned* criminals in Newgate, and accompanied them, with two other clergymen, to Tyburn. In consequence of this, another party of poor creatures in the same dreadful situation implored the same assistance, and the two brothers wrought them into a state of mind not less happy than that of Socrates when he drank the hemlock. "It was the most glorious instance," says Wesley, "I ever saw, of faith triumphing over sin and death." One of the sufferers was asked how he felt a few minutes only before the point of death, and he calmly answered, "I feel a peace which I could not have believed to be possible; and I know it is the peace of God, which passeth all understanding." Well might he be encouraged in his career by such proofs of his own power! Even frenzy was rebuked before him: in one of the workhouses which he visited, was a young woman raving mad, screaming and tormenting herself continually. His countenance, and manner, and

*The Ordinary, on these occasions, made but a sorry figure. "He would read prayers," Charles Wesley says, " and he preached most miserably." When this poor man, who seems willing enough to have done his duty if he had known how, would have got upon the cart with the prisoners at the place of execution, they begged that he would not, and the mob kept him down.What kind of machine a Newgate Ordinary was in those days, may be seen in Fielding: the one who edifies Jonathan Wild with a sermon before the punch comes in, seems to have been drawn from the life.

voice, always impressive, and doubly so to one who had been little accustomed to looks of kindness and words of consolation, acted upon her as oil upon the waves: the moment that he began she was still, and while he encouraged her to seek relief in prayer, saying, "Jesus of Nazareth is able and willing to deliver you," the tears ran down her cheeks. "O

where is faith upon earth?" he exclaims, when he relates this anecdote; "why are these poor wretches left under the open bondage of Satan? Jesus! Master! give thou medicine to heal their sickness; and deliver those who are now also vexed with unclean spirits!" Wesley always maintained that madness was frequently occasioned by demoniacal possession, and in this opinion he found many to encourage him. At this time his prayers were desired for a child who was "lunatic, and sore vexed day and night, that our Lord might be pleased to heal him, as he did those in the days of his flesh." While the apostolical character which he assumed was thus acknowledged, and every day's experience made him more conscious of his own strength, opposition of any kind served only to make him hurry on in his career, as water when it is poured into a raging conflagration, augments the violence of the fire.

Gibson was at that time Bishop of London: he was of a mild and conciliating temper; a distinguished antiquary, a sound scholar, equally frugal and beneficent, perfectly tolerant as becomes a Christian, and conscientiously attached as becomes a Bishop to the doctrines and discipline of the Church in which he held so high and conspicuous a station. The two brothers waited upon him to justify their conduct; this seems to have been a voluntary measure on their part, and the conversation which took place, as far as it has been made public, reflects more credit upon the Bishop than upon them. With regard to that particular tenet which now notoriously characterized their preaching, the prelate said, "If by assurance you mean an inward persuasion, whereby a man is conscious in himself, after examining his life by the

law of God and weighing his own sincerity, that he is in a state of salvation, and acceptable to God, I do not see how any good Christian can be without such an assurance." They made answer that they contended for this, and complained that they had been charged with Antinomianism because they preached justification by faith alone. But this was not the assurance for which they contended; they contended against it; and in the place of that calm and settled reliance upon the goodness of Almighty God, which results from reason and revelation, and is the reward of a well spent life, they required an enthusiastic confidence as excessive as the outrageous self-condemnation by which it was to be preceded, and in which it was to have its root.

They spoke also upon the propriety of rebaptizing Dissenters: Wesley said that if any person dissatisfied with lay-baptism should desire episcopal, he should think it his duty to administer it: the Bishop said he was against it himself; and the interview ended with his telling them that they might have free access to him at all times. In the course of a few weeks Charles availed himself of this permission, and informed him that a woman had desired him to baptize her, not being satisfied with her baptism by a Dissenter; she said sure and unsure were not the same. The Bishop replied, that he wholly disapproved of it; and Charles Wesley made answer that he did not expect his approbation, but only came in obedience to give him notice of his intention. "It is irregular," said the Bishop, "I never receive any such information, but from the minister."—" My Lord, the Rubric does not so much as require the minister to give you notice, but any discreet person: I have the minister's leave."-"Who gave you authority to baptize?"-"Your Lordship," replied Charles, (for he had been ordained priest by him,) and I shall exercise it in any part of the known world."-" Are you a licensed curate?" said the Bishop, who began to feel justly offended at thetenor of this conversation; and Charles Wesley, who then perceived that he could no longer appeal to

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the letter of the law, replied he had the leave of the proper minister.-" But do you not know that no man can exercise parochial duty in London without my leave? It is only sub silentio."-"But you know many do take that permission for authority, and you yourself allow it.""It is one thing to connive," said the Bishop, "and another to approve: I have power to inhibit you."-" Does your Lordship exact that power? Do you now inhibit me?" The answer was, "Oh, why will you push matters to an extreme!" and the Bishop put an end to this irritating interview by saying, "Well, Sir, you knew my judgment before, and you know it now." Charles Wesley would not reflect with much satisfaction upon this dialogue when he and his brother altered their opinions respecting the point in dispute. They had indeed, great reason to admire the temper and the wisdom of this excellent Prelate, and of the Primate also upon whom they waited to justify themselves, soon afterwards, without a summons. "He showed us," says Charles, "great affection, and cautioned us to give no more umbrage than was necessary for our own defence, to forbear exceptionable phrases, and to keep to the doctrines of the Church." We told him we expected persecution would abide by the Church till her articles and homilies were repealed. He assured us he knew of no design in the governors of the Church to innovate; neither should there be any innovation while he lived. It was probably at this time that this "great and good man,' as Wesley deservedly calls Archbishop Potter, gave him an advice for which he acknowledged, many years afterwards, that he had ever since had occasion to bless God. "If you desire to be extensively useful, do not spend your time and strength in contending for or against such things as are of a disputable nature; but in testifying against open, notorious vice, and in promoting real, essential holiness."

But whatever benefit Wesley might have derived from this wise counsel in his cooler years, he was in no state to profit by it when it was given. At

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