flesh, though he designed the profits to found a college in Georgia. Dark indeed must have been the time, in which such a man could have proposed to an Archbishop of Canterbury, to augment the income of this transatlantic institution by speculating in slaves, and it proves that only in a few things was he in advance of his age. The mighty projects of the emancipation of the negroes from the chains of temporal slavery, and the whole heathen world from the curse of idolatry and ignorance by missionary enterprize, were reserved for days of brighter light; nor has the full duty of the latter work, been as yet sufficiently impressed upon any Christian Church or nation. Whitfield therefore, must not be considered as a man of calculating wisdom and light beyond his times, further than his conviction of the necessity of awakening sleepers because the day was at hand. Yet, let this honored and devoted labourer have his due; and while we advert to his mistakes, let us remember that they would be inexcusable in ourselves, and that we are called upon zealously to cultivate those attractive and valuable graces, of which he was so eminent an example to the whole Christian world.

Nor, in a brief review of the character of his sometimes helper, and sometimes opponent in this race of evangelization, let us yield to any prejudices whatever, nor fail in a faithful notice of his frailties to give a fair prominence to all that was creditable, in that singular mixture of human infirmity and apostolic zeal, John Wesley. In some particulars he was much the superior of Whitfield; in others, he fell greatly below him, but he had the advantage of surviving him many years. He added to the art of commanding attention to his sermons, the tact of influencing and keeping his followers together, long after the fascinating sound of

his voice had ceased in their ears; and such importance did his calculating prudence attach, and justly, to this object, that the means he took to effect it were often indefensible. He well knew how to appear to lead when he could not divert any stream that had set in against him, and was skilled to control insubordination by the spell of an authoritative presence. No man understood better the art of speaking ex cathedrâ, or how to keep any rival from occupying his seat while he lived, or filling it so as to extinguish his reputation after his decease. Ambitious, he unquestionably was, but so free was his ambition from anything sordid, that it appeared like the purest zeal, and probably he was at times almost unconscious of it himself. Unappalled by privations, unconquered by fatigues, patient and dignified, yet magnanimous under assaults and persecutions, never rash and always generous, he changed the regions he first traversed with hunger, thirst, and poverty, into scenes of joyous welcome and high religious festival. Such was the magic of his bearing and conversation, that an hour in his company made friends of his opponents. He suited equally the gravity of the aged, the seriousness of middle life, and the vivacity of youth, charming the first with his solemnity, the next with his information, and the last with his cheerfulness. Seldom has one been seen like him, when more than seventy winters had whitened his long and silken hair, without wrinkling his face or dimming the lustre of his eye, so that his smile awakened friendship while his years and experience commanded veneration. No sect in this kingdom can boast of such a founder as the one he reared; and he left behind him the secret of augmenting it beyond the limits of any other. His followers have indeed much to be proud of in such a leader, in these

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points of view; but they need not defend his failings, nor weave his superstitions into unworthy chaplets for a tomb that has better adornments. It is true that he professed, and we are bound to believe that he felt, a deep regard for the Church of England; but his system of doctrines, if system it may be called, can no more be engrafted upon that stem, than a vine upon the British oak. A union between the Establishment, and Methodism as it now stands, is impossible; nay, a string of incongruities that would fill pages, might be easily gathered out of the writings of Wesley, to say nothing of the impossibility of interweaving with our standard many of his principal tenets. When Sir Richard Hill called his contradictions, placed side by side, a farrago, he spoke the truth, though he might have spared the sting of the expression; and whenever the notions of perfection, and the necessity of dating the exact moment of conversion, or the Wesleyan views of sensible assurances, with others that could be named, are proposed to be joined to the Articles of the Church of England, it is as great an absurdity as to talk of adding the vapoury train of a comet to the glorious orb of the luminary of day. Wesley was as deficient in sound consistent theology, as Whitfield was in power to calculate effects, or to perpetuate the union of a body of Christians-but both preached Christ, and thus alike rescued multitudes from the wretchedness of ignorance. But there is this great difference in the results of their respective labours-no man now calls himself a disciple of Whitfield, while avowed Wesleyans are multiplying everywhere; but Methodism will never make many converts from the upper and refined classes of society, and as church room and able ministers increase in the esta

REGULARS AND IRREGULARS.

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blishment, it will cease to draw adherents to the extent it has done, from any.

What would have become of us in the religious excitation of the last century, but for an enlightened band within the Church, who determined to adhere to its rules, no man may presume to say. This much, however, we know they proved an incalculable blessing. Far be it from any candid churchman, to refuse the irregulars the honours that are due to them-to call Whitfield an enthusiast, or to withhold from Wesley all the commendation that zeal, self-denial, temperance, generosity, and unequalled exertions demand, especially when manifested in such an age of utter darkness. Even the polemics we have deplored were useful, for the moral atmosphere was cleansed in the strife of the elements.

I shall conclude this chapter with a plain but valuable production of Mr. Richard Hill. Although he held his own opinions with extreme tenacity, yet he was singularly free from allowing any difference of religious views, to separate between him and those whose integrity he respected, though their ideas were utterly at variance with his. Yet at the same time, he laboured to convince them of what he believed to be their errors. A delightful instance of this appears in a letter he wrote to a Roman Catholic friend, sincerely, though blindly, attached to that communion. It is a faithful, calm, and lucid exposure of some of the unscriptural tenets of the Church of Rome, and is calculated to be useful in the present times. He sent it to the press in the year 1778, with the motto "Search the Scriptures." It is as follows:

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LETTER TO A ROMAN CATHOLIC.

MY DEAR FRIend,

I shall not preface this letter with any apologies for my long silence. Suffice it to say, that if some unavoidable impediments had not prevented my writing, the important subject of your last certainly demanded a more speedy acknowledgment. However, I now return you my sincere thanks for it, and beg to offer, without any reserve, such considerations as occurred to me from the perusal of it.

It is a truth confessed and allowed both by Protestants and Roman Catholics, that Christ always was, always is, and always will be with his Church; and that this Church shall so far be guided into all truth, as never to be suffered to err in such a manner as to affect the eternal salvation of any of its members. The whole dispute, then, between us is, What is the true Church of Christ? And where is the Church to be found? Those of the Roman communion confine it wholly to themselves, as descending regularly from the time of the Apostles down to the present age; and suppose infallibility to be inseparable from the papal chair.

The Protestants affirm that by the Church is meant the body of all faithful people, from the beginning of the world to the end of it; all who are united to Jesus Christ the Head by living faith; all who are created anew, and regenerated by the Spirit of God, though differing from each other in some lesser outward matters. They moreover believe that infallibility no more belongs to the Bishop of Rome than any other Bishop; but that the only infallible guide is the Spirit of God, which ever teaches agreeably to that word of which he himself is the author; that therefore it must be highly displeasing to him who has graciously vouchsafed this divine in