lying as dead in the road; others in Mr. Berridge's garden, not being able to walk from the church to his house, though it is not two hundred yards." The person who thus minutely described the progress of this powerful contagion, observes, that few old people experienced any thing of what he called the work of God, and scarce any of the rich; and, with that uncharitable spirit, which is one of the surest and worst effects of such superstition, he remarks, that three farmers, in three several villages, who set themselves to oppose it, all died within a month.

Such success made Berridge, glorious in his own eyes, as well as in those of all the fanatics round about. He travelled about the country, making Everton still the centre of his excursions; and he confesses that, on one occasion, when he mounted a table upon a common near Cambridge, and saw nearly ten thousand people assembled, and many gownsmen among them, he paused after he had given out his text, thinking of "something pretty to set off with: "but," says he, "the Lord so confounded me, (as indeed it was meet, for I was seeking not his glory, but my own,) that I was in a perfect labyrinth, and found that, if I did not begin immediately, I must go down without speaking; so I broke out with the first word that occurred, not knowing whether I should be able to add any more. Then the Lord opened my mouth, enabling me to speak near an hour, without any kind of perplexity, and so loud, that every one might hear." For a season this man produced a more violent influenza of fanaticism, than had ever followed upon either Whitefield's or Wesley's preaching. The people flocked to hear him in such numbers, that his church could not contain them, and they adjourned into a field. "Some of them," says an eyewitness, "who were here pricked to the heart, were affected in an astonishing manner. The first man I saw wounded would have dropped, but others, catching him in their arms, did indeed prop him up; but were so far from keeping him still, that he caused all of them to totter and tremble. His own shaking exceeded that of a cloth in the wind. It seemed as if the Lord came upon him like a giant, taking him by the neck, and shaking all his bones in pieces. One woman tore up the ground with her hands, filling them with dust, and with the hard-trodden grass, on which I saw her lie with her hands clinched, as one dead, when the multitude dispersed another roared and screamed in a more dreadful agony than ever I heard before. I omit the rejoicing of believers, because of their number, and the frequency thereof; though the manner was strange, some of them being quite overpowered with divine love, and only showing enough of natural life to let us know they were overwhelmed with joy and life eternal. Some continued long as if they were dead, but with a calm sweetness in their looks. I saw one who lay two or three hours in the open air, and being then carried into the house, continued insensible another hour, as if actually dead. The first sign of life she showed was a rapture of praise, intermixed with a small joyous laughter." It may excite astonishment in other countries, and reasonable regret in this, that there should be no authority capable of restraining extravagancies and indecencies like these.

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Berridge had been curate of Stapleford, near Cambridge, several years, and now, after what he called his conversion, his heart was set upon preaching a "gospel-sermon" there, which, he said, he had never done before. Some fifteen hundred persons assembled in a field to hear him. The contagion soon began to show itself among those who were predisposed for it: others, of a different temper, mocked and mimicked these poor creatures in their convulsions; and some persons, who were in a better state of mind than either, indignant at the extravagance and indecency of the scene, called aloud to have those wretches horsewhipped out of the field. "Well (says the fanatical writer) may Satan be enraged at the cries of the people, and the prayers they make in the bitterness of their souls, seeing we know these are the chief times at which Satan is cast out." "I heard a dreadful noise, on the further side of the congregation, (says this writer,) and turning thither, saw one Thomas Skinner coming forward, the most horrible human figure I ever His large wig and hair were coal-black; his face distorted beyond all description. He roared incessantly, throwing and clapping his hands together with his whole force. Several were terrified, and hastened out of his way. I was glad to hear him, after a while, pray aloud. Not a few of the triflers grew serious, while his kindred and acquaintance were very unwilling to believe even their own eyes and ears. They would fain have got him away; but he fell to the earth, crying,My burden! my burden! I cannot bear it! Some of his brother scoffers were calling for horsewhips, till they saw him extended on his back at full length: they then said he was dead; and indeed the only sign of life was the working of his breast, and the distortions of his face, while the veins of his neck were swelled as if ready to burst. He was, just before, the chief captain of Satan's forces: none was by nature more fitted for mockery none could swear more heroically to whip out of the close all who were affected by the preaching."-Berridge bade the people take warning by him, while he lay roaring and tormented on the ground. "His agonies lasted some hours; then his body and soul were eased."

It is to be regretted that, of the many persons who have gone through this disease, no one should have recorded his case who was capable of describing his sensations accurately, if not of analyzing them. Berridge and Hickes are said to have “awakened” about four thousand souls in the course of twelve months. Imposture in all degrees, from the first natural exaggeration to downright fraud, kept pace with enthusiasm. A child, seven years old, saw visions, and astonished the neighbours with her innocent, awful manner of relating them.” A young man, whose mother affirmed that he had had fits, once a-day at least, for the last two years, began to pray in those fits; protesting afterwards, that he knew not a word of what he had spoken, but was as ignorant of the matter as if he had been dead all the while. This impostor, when he was about to exhibit, stiffened himself like a statue;" his very neck seemed made of iron." After he had finished, his body grew flexible by degrees, but seemed to be convulsed from head to foot; and when he thought proper to recover, he said, "he was quite resigned to the will of

God, who gave him such strength in the inner man, that he did not find it grievous, neither could ask to be delivered from it." "I discoursed," says the credulous relater of these things, "with Anne Thorn, who told me of much heaviness following the visions with which she had been favoured; but said she was, at intervals, visited still with so much overpowering love and joy, especially at the Lord's supper, that she often lay in a trance for many hours. She is twentyone years old. We were soon after called into the garden, where Patty Jenkins, one of the same age, was so overwhelmed with the -love of God, that she sunk down, and appeared as one in a pleasant sleep, only with her eyes open. Yet she had often just strength to utter, with a low voice, ejaculations of joy and praise; but no words coming up to what she felt, she frequently laughed while she saw his glory. This is quite unintelligible to many, for a stranger intermeddleth not with our joy. So it was to Mr. M., who doubted whether God or the devil had filled her with love and praise. Oh, the depth of human wisdom! Mr. R., in the mean time, was filled with a solemn awe. I no sooner sate down by her, than the Spirit of God poured the same blessedness into my soul."

Whether this were folly or fraud, the consequences that were likely to result did not escape the apprehension of persons who, though themselves affected strongly by the disease, still retained some command of reason. They began to doubt whether such trances were not the work of Satan; with the majority, however, they passed for effects of grace. Wesley, who believed and recorded them as such, inquired of the patients, when he came to Everton, concerning their state of feeling in these trances. The persons, who appear to have been all 1 young women and girls, agreed, "that when they went away, as they termed it, it was always at the time they were fullest of the love of God: that it came upon them in a moment, without any previous notice, and took away all their senses and strength that there were some exceptions, but, generally, from that moment they were in another world, knowing nothing of what was done or said by all that were round about them." He had now an opportunity of observing a case. Some persons were singing hymns in Berridge's house, about five in the afternoon, and presently Wesley was summoned by Berridge himself, with information that one of them, a girl of fifteen, was fallen into a trance. "I went down immediately," says Mr. Wesley, "and found her sitting on a stool, and leaning against the wall, with her eyes open and fixed upward. I made a motion, as if going to strike; but they continued immoveable. Her face showed an unspeakable mixture of reverence and love, while silent tears stole down her cheek. Her lips were a little open, and sometimes moved, but not enough to cause any sound. I do not know whether I ever saw a human face look so beautiful. Sometimes it was covered with a smile, as from joy mixing with love and reverence; but the tears fell still, though not so fast. Her pulse was quite regular. In about half an hour I observed her countenance change into the form of fear, pity and distress. Then she burst into a flood of tears, and cried out, Dear Lord! they will be damned! they will all be damned!' But, in about five minutes, her smiles returned, and only love and joy appeared in

her face. About half an hour after six, I observed distress take place again, and soon after she wept bitterly, and cried, Dear Lord! they will go to hell! the world will go to hell!' Soon after she said, Cry aloud! spare not!' and in a few moments her look was composed again, and spoke a mixture of reverence, joy, and love. Then she said aloud,' Give God the glory! About seven, her senses returned. I asked, Where have you been?'-' I have been with my Saviour.' In heaven, or on earth ?—I cannot tell; but I was in glory! Why, then, did you cry? Not for myself, but for the world; for I saw they were on the brink of hell.'- Whom did you desire to give the glory to God?'- Ministers that cry aloud to the world; else they will be proud; and then God will leave them, and they will lose their own souls."

With all his knowledge of the human heart, (and few persons have had such opportunities of extensive and intimate observation,) Wesley had not discovered that, when occasion is afforded for imposture of this kind, the propensity to it is a vice to which children and young persons are especially addicted. If there be any natural obliquity of the mind, sufficient motives are found in the pride of deceiving their elders, and the pleasure which they feel in exercising the monkey-like instinct of imitation. This is abundantly proved by the recorded tales of witchcraft in this country, in New-England, and in Sweden; and it is from subjects like this girl, whose acting Wesley beheld with reverential credulity, instead of reasonable suspicion, that the friars have made regular bred saints, such as Rosa of Peru, and Catharine of Sienna. With regard to the bodily effects that ensued, whenever the spiritual influenza began, there could be no doubt of their reality; but it had so much the appearance of an influenza, raging for a while, affecting those within its sphere, and then dying away, that Wesley could not be so fully satisfied concerning the divine and supernatural exciting cause, as he had been when first the disease manifested itself at Bristol, and as he still desired to be. "I have generally observed," said he, "more or less of these outward symptoms to attend the beginning of a general work of God. So it was in New-England, Scotland, Holland, Ireland, and many parts of England; but, after a time, they gradually decrease, and the work goes on more quietly and silently. Those whom it pleases God to employ in his work, ought to be quite passive in this respect they should choose nothing, but leave entirely to him all the circumstances of his own work."

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Returning to Everton, about four months afterwards, he found “ remarkable difference as to the manner of the work. None now were in trances, none cried out, none fell down, or were convulsed. Only some trembled exceedingly; a low murmur was heard, and many were refreshed with the multitude of peace." The disease had spent itself, and the reflections which he makes upon this change, show that others had begun to suspect its real nature, and that he himself was endeavouring to quiet his own suspicions." The danger was. says he, "to regard extraordinary circumstances too much, such as outcries, convulsions, visions, trances, as if these were essential to the inward work, so that it could not go on without them. Perhaps the danger is, to regard them too little; to condemn

them altogether; to imagine they had nothing of God in them, and were a hindrance to his work; whereas the truth is, 1. God suddenly and strongly convinced many that they were lost sinners, the natural consequences whereof were sudden outcries, and strong bo dily convulsions. 2. To strengthen and encourage them that believed, and to make his work more apparent, he favoured several of them with divine dreams; others with trances and visions. 3. In some of these instances, after a time, nature mixed with grace. 4. Satan likewise mimicked this work of God, in order to discredit the whole work; and yet it is not wise to give up this part, any more than to give up the whole. At first it was, doubtless, wholly from God it is partly so at this day; and He will enable us to discern how far, in every case, the work is pure, and when it mixes or degenerates. Let us even suppose that, in some few cases, there was a mixture of dissimulation; that persons pretended to see or feel what they did not, and imitated the cries or convulsive motions of those who were really overpowered by the Spirit of God; yet even this should not make us either deny or undervalue the real work of the Spirit. The shadow is no disparagement of the substance, nor the counterfeit of the real diamond."

His tone, perhaps, was thus moderated, because, by recording former extravagancies of this kind in full triumph, he had laid himself open to attacks which he had not been able to repel. Warburton had censured these things with his strong sense and powers of indignant sarcasm; and they had been exposed still more effectually by Bishop Lavington, of Exeter, in "A Comparison between the Enthusiasm of Methodists and of Papists." Here Wesley, who was armed and proof at other points, was vulnerable. He could advance plausible arguments, even for the least defensible of his doctrines; and for his irregularities, some that were valid and incontestable. On that score he was justified by the positive good which Methodism had done, and was doing; but here he stood convicted of a credulity discreditable to himself, and dangerous in its consequences; the whole evil of scenes so disorderly, so scandalous, and so frightful, was distinctly seen by his opponents; and perhaps they did not make a sufficient allowance for the phenomena of actual disease, and the manner in which, upon their first appearance, they were likely to affect a mind, heated as his had been at the commencement of his career. In all his other controversies, Wesley preserved that urbane and gentle tone, which arose from the genuine benignity of his disposition and manners; but he replied to Bishop Lavington with asperity; the attack had galled him; he could not but feel that his opponent stood upon the vantage ground, and, evading the main charge, he contented himself in his reply* with explaining away certain passages, which were less obnoxious than they had been made to appear, and disproving some personal chargest which the Bishop had

His Journal shows that he undertook the task with no alacrity. "I began writing a letter to the Comparer of the Papists and Methodists. Heavy work; such as I should never choose; but sometimes it must be done. Well might the ancient say, God made practical divinity necessary; the devil, controversial' But it is necessary. We must resist the devil, or he will not flee from us.”

On this point it is proper to state, that he does justice to the Bishop in his Journal. For when he notices that, calling upon the person who was named as the accuser, she told him readily and repeatedly, that she "never saw or knew any harm by him," he adds, "yet I am not sure that she has not said just the contrary to others. If so, she, not I, must give account for it to God.”