120 SENTENCE OF THE VICE-CHANCELLOR. no necessity of works; that the immediate impulse of the Spirit is to be waited for. Therefore I, D. Durell, by virtue of my visitatorial power, and with the advice and opinion of each and every one of my assessors, the reverend persons afore-mentioned, do expel the said Erasmus Middleton from the said Hall, and hereby pronounce him also expelled. V. It having also appeared to me that Benjamin Kay, of the said Hall, by his own confession, had frequented illicit conventicles in a private house in this town, where he had heard extempore prayers frequently offered up by one Hewett, a staymaker. Moreover, it having been proved by sufficient evidence that he held Methodistical principles, viz., the doctrine of absolute election; that the Spirit of God works irresistibly; that once a child of God, always a child of God: that he had endeavoured to instil the same principles into others, and exhorted them to continue stedfast in them against all opposition.Therefore I, D. Durell, by virtue of my visitatorial power, and with the advice and opinion of each and every one of my assessors, the reverend persons before-mentioned, do expel the said Benjamin Kay from the said Hall, and hereby pronounce him also expelled. VI. It having also appeared to me that Thomas Grove, of St. Edmund Hall aforesaid, though not in holy orders, had, by his own confession, lately preached to an assembly of people called Methodists in a barn, and had offered up extempore prayers in that congregation. Therefore I, D. Durell, by my visitatorial power, and with the advice and opinion of each and every one of my assessors, the reverend persons afore-named, do expel the said Thomas Grove from the said Hall, and hereby pronounce him also expelled. APOLOGY OF WELLING, 121 If the prejudices which led to this hard sentence are not sufficiently visible, as I think they are, in the very terms in which it was pronounced, they will appear distinctly enough when put in juxta-position with the record of the Vice-Chancellor's dealings with a young man of very opposite character, and a witness against the expelled students. This was the individual named Welling, mentioned before, of whom it was proved by credible testimony that he had been drunk, and called one William Wrighte "a fool" for professing belief in the miracles of Moses. He excused himself by saying that he was unhappily in liquor, and declared his unfeigned assent to the whole of Scripture. His apology was accepted; but though the praying students declared their willingness to give up their irregular proceedings if deemed contrary to discipline, they were turned out of the University! The drunken scoffer was admitted to forgiveness on asking pardon; but the sober youths had committed an unpardonable fault in meeting for prayer and acknowledging the work of the Holy Spirit! Who can deny the fact after this, that the powers that then were in Oxford treated disparagement of Scripture under the influence of wine as much less criminal than Methodism? The accepted apology of Welling still remains, and let it be read by every one who has reflected on the sentence of expulsion pronounced by Dr. Durell. The following is an exact copy: 66 Whereas it hath been alleged upon oath before the Reverend the Vice-Chancellor, against me John Welling, that on the 24th of June, 1767, in conversation with Mr. Wrighte and Mr. Middleton, of St. Edmund Hall, in this University, I made use of certain expressions tending to disparage the truth of revelation; and in par ticular the miracles of Moses-I do hereby declare my unfeigned assent to, and belief of, divine revelation in general, and the miracles wrought by Moses in particular; and I do aver that I was intoxicated in liquor (for which very criminal excess I am sincerely sorry) when I uttered those expressions; and whereas by the use of those expressions I have given but too just occasion of scandal and offence to the Vice-Chancellor and the members of this University-I do hereby ask pardon of them for the same; and I do further most solemnly protest, that however unguarded I may have been in the use of them, or any expressions whatsoever concerning religion, they were not declarative of my real principles, inasmuch as those principles are, and ever have been, and I trust will ever continue to be, diametrically opposite to scepticism and infidelity, which from my heart I detest and abhor. Witness my hand, Sworn before me JOHN WELLing. the ninth day of D. DURELL, Vice-Chancellor. We whose names are underwritten, do certify that John Welling read the above declaration publicly in congregation this tenth day of May, 1768. D. DURELL, Vice-Chancellor. B. WHEELER, Senior Proctor. Such is Welling's apology; and in his answer to Pietas Oxoniensis, Dr. Nowell defended the lenity shewn him, while he approved the severity upon the students expelled. Well did Mr. Richard Hill observe in a pamphlet he called "Goliath slain," and in which he replied to Dr. Nowell's Strictures on his former publication:-" You say Mr. Welling expressed concern for his crime, and did not Mr. Middleton express concern for his? Did not all the young men express concern that they had displeased their seniors, and did they not all abstain from the meetings as soon as they were informed that their going to them was contrary to the will of their governors in the University? Yea, had they not all proved the sincerity of their acknowledgments, by abstaining from these meetings, for a long time before they were summoned to attend Mr. Vice-Chancellor and his Assessors? Did they not declare, as well upon their trial as before, that it was their determination not to attend them again? And did not Doctor Dixon, their principal, urge this on their behalf before the court? Surely, then, if the Reverend Mr. Welling's black and horrible offences were so easily passed over upon his own acknowledgment of his fault, the well-meant mistakes. of these youths, against whom no one act of immorality is alleged, might also have been overlooked; or if there had been any expelling in the case, it ought to have begun with Mr. Higson, by whose advice Mr. Jones had acted in attending the meetings, and who had himself (in the religious qualm spoken of in the second edition of Pietas) caused one of his pupils frequently to pray by him extempore ? "Again, if we consider the time between the young men's crime of praying and their expulsion, and Mr. Welling's crime of blaspheming and his ordination, we shall find that the former had at least given as long a proof of their regularity as Mr. Welling had of his repentance, since it could not be more than a few weeks, or at least a few months, between that gentleman's first declaration that whosoever believed the miracles of our Lord and of Moses, must be a fool,' and his second declaration of being inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost to take upon him the office of the ministry, and of his unfeignedly believing all the canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testament. However, to remedy all defects in point of time, Mr. Higson solemnly attests to the Bishop, that ever since he had been at College, he had known him to be of sober life and conversation, and that he never held any doctrines but those of the thirtynine Articles: and others of his clerical friends as solemnly give a like testimony of his sound principles and holy practice for the space of three years, according to the usual form in such cases required." If Dr. Nowell was appropriately termed "Goliath" in the pamphlet from which this passage is taken, there can be no doubt that he was "Goliath slain" by his young opponent, Mr. Hill; yet it is to be regretted that in an affair of so much importance, a different phraseology was not employed, inasmuch as it detracted considerably from the dignity of the noble and honest demonstration he had made to the credit both of his heart and understanding. But what renders the contrast between the cases of Welling and the students more striking still, is the fact that he was even of lower extraction than they were, although their obscure origin had been considered as rendering them unfit inmates of a seminary of gentlemen. Mr. Higson had also once complained of Welling that he was "so stupid that he despaired of his ever being a scholar;" but of the expelled, Kay, Middleton, and Grove were good classics, and the last unquestionably a gentleman. This comparison, therefore, between the cases of Welling and the Methodists plainly shews what pitiable prejudice actuated their opponents. As was to be expected, the press teemed with publi |