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XVIII.

CHAP. "now before us, we shall be induced, nay, we can "find no reason for refusing, to lay the press "under a general licence, and then we may bid "adieu to the liberties of Great Britain."

LITERA-
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Yet, however ingenious this reasoning, it has been refuted by that greatest of all controversialists-Time. The Bill has passed, and a hundred years have rolled away; yet still we are not a people of slaves. The liberty of the press stands more firmly than ever. The stage has lost its disgraceful personalities, not its salutary satire. No genius has been checked, no freedom violated, and the powers of the Lord Chamberlain's department have been exercised with less reference to party than almost any other in the state. It sounds well, to say that an honest Government need not fear invective, and that a wicked Government ought not to be screened from it; yet experience shows that no merit can escape detraction; that scoffs, not arguments, are the weapons of the stage; that a lower and less reflecting class is there addressed than through the press; and that, even without reference to ministers, some precaution is required to guard religion from profaneness, and Royalty from insult. It is probable, therefore, that no future Legislature will be induced to forego this necessary control, and that, although any abuse or mal-administration of the power should be jealously watched, the power itself should be as eagerly protected.

CHAPTER XIX.

METHODISM.

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A HISTORY of England in the times of George the CHAP. Second would be strangely incomplete were it to leave untouched that religious revolution which, METHOdespised at its commencement, but powerful in its effects, is known by the name of Methodism. With less immediate importance than wars or political changes, it endures long after, not only the result, but the memory of these has passed away, and thousands who never heard of Fontenoy or Walpole, continue to follow the precepts and venerate the name of John Wesley.*

This remarkable man was born in 1703 at Ep

My authorities in this chapter are mainly Wesley's Works, 16 vols. ed. 1809, especially his Journals in the six first volumes; Whitefield's Journals, part i, and ii. ed. 1756; Mr. W. Myles's Chronology of Methodism, ed. 1813; and his Life of the Rev. W. Grimshaw, ed. 1806; and the Minutes of the Methodist Conferences from 1744 till Wesley's death. From these I can venture to bear my testimony to the accuracy of Mr. Southey's eloquent narrative, and I have derived great advantage from it; but I have also consulted the observations of his critic, Mr. Richard Watson.

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CHAP. worth, in Lincolnshire. His father was rector of XIX. that parish, a divine of great piety and learning, METHO- but of passionate and violent temper. On one oc

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casion, finding that Mrs. Wesley was not so firmly persuaded as himself of the right of King William, and thinking, no doubt, that a just view of the Royal Succession is indispensable to the duties of a wife, he made a vow that he would never cohabit with her till she changed her opinion, and immediately left the house; nor did she ever hear from him again, before the death of the King, which fortunately happened a twelvemonth afterwards. John was their first child after their reunion; but they had also several others, and the exertions of John in after life were most ably and faithfully seconded by his brother Charles.

From an early age, John Wesley plunged into religious studies with an unwearied diligence, with a piercing intellect, with an ardent, but sometimes ascetic, piety. He was educated at Oxford, ordained by Bishop Potter, and afterwards appointed curate to his father. During this time Charles Wesley had also gone to Oxford, and likewise adopted an enthusiastic and austere view of religious duty, which, while it alienated the greater number, closely attached to him a few kindred spirits. Among these was Harvey, afterwards author of the well known Meditations, and Whitefield, at first a waiter in a country inn. These zealous young men used to meet together for spiritual im

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METHO

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provement, but shunned all other intercourse; and CHAP. they received various nicknames in derision, such as Sacramentarians, from their taking the Eucharist weekly; Bible Moths, from their constant reading of the Scriptures; and finally, from their living by rule and method, Methodists; a by-word which they themselves afterwards adopted. When John Wesley returned to Oxford, they all readily followed his guidance; but in spite of their peculiarities, no idea of separation from the Church was entertained, and several of this little society soon left it to go forth into the world.

The two Wesleys, full of zeal for the conversion of the heathen, embarked for the new settlement of Georgia. But the dissolute habits of the Colonists were a strong bar to the propagation of the pure faith which they professed. When the Missionaries pressed Tomo-Chichi, an Indian chief, to become a Christian, the poor savage exclaimed: 66 Why these are Christians at Sa"vannah! Christian much drunk! Christian beat "men! Christian tell lies!" It is very strange, however, that Wesley never appears to have taken any step to acquire the language of these Indians; a neglect which, in a man who never spared himself, cannot possibly be imputed to any want of ardour or activity, but which may perhaps be explained by some unfavourable omen; for we find that, when doubtful on any resolution, he used to try drawing lots, and call the result "the answer

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"of God;" a superstition precisely similar to those of sortilege and ordeal in the darkest ages. In the spirit of those ages also were his monkish austerities; at one time he entirely left off meat and wine; he attempted to sustain life by bread only; he thought it meritorious to sleep on the floor rather than in a bed. * Yet let me observe, that these errors cannot fairly be imputed to Wesley's own maturer years, or, still less, to the great body of his followers at that time.

In 1738, Wesley returned to England after an absence of above two years. Meanwhile, the little society he had left at Oxford had continued to grow and thrive. It had even struck root in London, and an association, formed on its principles, used to meet in Fetter Lane. Whitefield, having been ordained by Bishop Benson, soon attracted much notice by the eloquence, the enthusiasm, and the indiscretion of his sermons; and the same path was followed by Wesley with equal zeal and superior abilities. The first instance of field-preaching was by Whitefield to the colliers at Kingswood, near Bristol. These poor men had been left without any place or means of religious worship, so that to address them from the summit of a green knoll instead of a pulpit was scarcely a matter of choice. Well might the preacher's heart exult when he found, in a few weeks, twenty

* Wesley's Journal, October 20. 1735, January 30. 1736, &c.

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