talents, their arts, and their industry. Prussia received a large and most beneficial increase of useful subjects; they multiplied the looms of England, and gave new activity to the trade of Holland. Some of these refugees converted rocks into vineyards on the shores of the Leman Lake, and British Africa is indebted to others for wines, which will one day rival those of the Rhine and the Garonne. Happy were they who thus shook the dust of their native land from their feet; and more would undoubtedly have followed this course, if the most rigorous measures had not been used to prevent emigration. This was consummating the impolicy, and the wickedness of the measure. * The number of forced converts in Languedoc, was little short of †200,000. But in the wilder parts of that province, among the mountains of the Cevennes and the Vivarez, the people took arms, confiding in the strength of the country, and the justice of their cause. M. de Broglie first, then Marshal Villars, and lastly, the Duke of Berwick, were sent against them; roads were opened through the country in every direction, making it every where accessible for artillery; an adequate force was perseveringly employed, little mercy was shown in the field, and such of the leaders as were taken prisoners, were racked and broken on the wheel, or burnt alive. In the history of human

*This manifestation of the real spirit of the Romish Church, contributed greatly to alarm the English people, when James II. attempted to bring them again under its yoke. And it appears from Evelin's Diary that James apprehended this consequence. "One thing was much taken notice of, that the Gazettes, which were still constantly printed twice a week, informing us what was done all over Europe, never spake of this wonderful proceeding in France, nor was any relation of it published by any, save what private letters, and the persecuted fugitives brought. Whence this silence I list not to conjecture; but it appeared very extraordinary in a Protestant country, that we should know nothing of what Protestants suffered, whilst great collections were made for them in foreign places, more hospitable and Christian to appearance." Vol. i. p. 580.

† Mémoires de M. de Basville, p. 78.

crimes, the religious wars of France must ever stand pre-eminent for the ferocity with which both parties were possessed, and this termination was worthy of the spirit with which the persecution was begun and carried through.

More than twenty years elapsed before such of the Protestants as exercised the right of resistance could be rooted out. During that time, these injured people were in a state resembling that of the Covenanters and Cameronians in Scotland, under the tyranny of Lauderdale. Persecuted like them, till they were driven to madness by persecution, the more they were goaded, the more fiercely they turned upon their oppressors, and the greater the cruelty which they endured from man, the more confidently they looked for the interference of Heaven. Thus they grew at once fanatical and ferocious. Without rest either for body or mind, living in continual agitation and constant danger, their dreams became vivid as realities, when all realities were frightful as the wildest dreams; delirium was mistaken for inspiration; and the ravings of those who had lost their senses through grief and bodily excitement,. were received as prophecies by their fellow sufferers. The Catholic writers of that age, availed themselves of this to bring a scandal upon the Protestant cause; and to account for what so certainly was the consequence of persecution, they propagated one of the most impudent calumnies that ever was produced, even in religious controversy. They asserted that the refugee ministers with Jurieu at their head, held a council at Geneva, in which they agreed to support their cause by means of impious imposture; that they set up a school of prophets, and trained up young, persons of both sexes, to repeat the Psalms and other parts of Scripture by heart, and practise contortions and convulsions for public exhibition, in the name of the Spirit of God! How little did these calumniators understand the character of Jurieu, fanatic as he was; and how utterly incapable were they even of conceiving such disinterested and de

voted integrity, as that of the ministers whom they slandered!

Such of the wilder fanatics as escaped both the bayonet and the executioner, and found an asylum in Protestant countries, carried with them the disease both of mind and body which their long sufferings had produced. It is well known that persons who have once been thrown into fits by any sudden and violent emotion, are liable to a recurrence upon much slighter causes. In the case of these fugitives, the recurrence was more likely to be encouraged than controlled. The display of convulsive movements, and contortions of the body, was found a gainful exhibition; it became voluntary. Though the professors imposed for awhile upon others, as well as upon themselves, it soon degenerated into mere histrionism; and in Holland, in Germany, and in England, the French prophets as they were called, were the scandal of their own church, while they excited the wonder of the ignorant, and preyed upon the credulity of their admirers. They sent deputies to Count Zinzendorf, expressing a desire to unite themselves with the Moravian brethren; he objected to their neglect of the sacrament, to their separating themselves from other congregations, and more especially to the hideous circumstances attending their pretended inspirations. Those who had taken up their abode in England* formed a sect here, and as soon as the Methodists began to attract notice, naturally sought to make converts among a people whom they supposed to be prepared for them. The first of these extravagants with whom Charles Wesley was acquainted, was an English proselyte, residing at Wickham, to whom he was introduced on his way to Oxford, and with whom it seems he was not only to take up his lodging, but to sleep. This gentleman insist

* Dr. Stukeley says, that a group of tumuli in Wiltshire, was called by the country people the prophets' barrows, "because the French prophets, thirty years ago (1710), set up a standard on the largest, and preached to the multitude," Sir R. Hoare's Ancient Wiltshire, p. 210.

ed that the French prophets were equal, if not superior to the prophets of the Old Testament. Charles, however, was not aware that his host and chum was himself a gifted personage, till they retired to bed, when as they were undressing, he fell into violent agitations, and gobbled like a turkey-cock. "I was frightened," he says, "and began exorcising him with Thou deaf and dumb devil!' He soon recovered from his fit of inspiration. I prayed, and went to bed, not half liking my bed-fellow, nor did I sleep very sound with Satan so near me."

When Wesley soon afterwards met with some of these persons, he was inclined to pronounce them "properly enthusiasts,"" for first," he says, "they think to attain the end without the means, which is enthusiasm properly so called. Again, they think themselves inspired by God, and are not. But false imaginary inspiration is enthusiasm. That their's is only imaginary inspiration appears hence, it contradicts the law and the testimony." After much importunity, he went with four or five of his friends, to a house where a prophetess was entertained: she was about four or five and twenty, and of an agreeable speech and behaviour. When she asked why these visiters came, Wesley replied, "To try the spirits, whether they be of God." Presently she leant back in her chair, and had strong workings in her breast, and uttered deep sighs. Her head, and her hands, and by turns every part of her body, were affected with convulsive motions. This continued about ten minutes; then she began to speak with a clear strong voice, but so interrupted with the workings, sighings, and contortions of her body, that she seldom brought forth half a sentence together. What she said was chiefly in scriptural words, and all as in the person of God, as if it were the language of immediate inspiration. And she exhorted them not to be in haste in judging her spirit, to be or not to be of God; but to wait upon God, and he would teach them, if they conferred not with flesh and blood: and she observed with particular earnestness, that

they must watch and pray, and take up their cross, and be still before God. Some of the company were much impressed, and believed that she spake by the Spirit; "but this," says Wesley, "was in no wise clear to me. The emotion might be either hysterical or artificial. And the same words any person of a good understanding, and well versed in the Scriptures, might have spoken. But I let the matter alone; knowing this, that if it be not of God, it will come to nought."

These people raised warm debates among the Methodists; so that Charles, during his brother's absence, found it prudent to break off a disputation, by exclaiming, "Who is on God's side? Who for the old prophets rather than the new? Let them follow me!" and immediately he led the way into the preaching room. They had been chiefly successful among the women; when Wesley arrived in London, therefore, he warned the female disciples not to believe every spirit, but to try the spirits whether they were of God: and during the short time of his stay he said, it pleased God to remove many misunderstandings and offences, that had crept in among them, and to restore in good measure the spirit of love and of a sound mind."

But on his return to Bristol, the French prophets had been there also, and he says it is scarce credible what an advantage Satan had gained, during his absence of only eight days. Wo unto the prophets, saith the Lord, who prophesy in my name, and I have not sent them! Who were the teachers against whom this denunciation is levelled, he endeavoured to point out; and exhorted his followers, "to avoid as fire all who do not speak according to the law and the testimony." He told them, "they were not to judge of the spirit whereby any one spake, either by appearances, by common report, or by their own inward feelings. No, nor by any dreams, visions, or revelations, supposed to be made to their souls, any more than by their tears, or any involuntary effects wrought upon their bodies." He warned them,