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the subject, in order for the society to deliver their opinions upon the question under consideration.

"These debates, papers, and references to books, disclosed to the members (as their minds became more and more enlightened) a variety of indirect roads and byepaths, in the exploring of which they lost themselves; for, however firmly they were united in acts of brotherly conformity in the service of one common Lord, they gradually returned to their old customs-some to the worship of their family gods-a few to the service of their own gods-others paid obedience to an unknown god-but most neglected the service of every god.

"This will account for the gradual desertion of members, and the apparent necessity of permitting this once famous society to degenerate into a mere benefit-club, which is now kept together by a freehold estate (of twenty pounds per annum neat) purchased by the President from the surplus contributions of members."

"You formed a scheme," says Toplady to Mr. Wesley, "of collecting as many perfect ones as you could to live under one roof. A number of these flowers were accordingly transplanted, from some of your nursery beds, to the hot-house. And an hot-house it soon proved. For, would we believe it! the sinless people quairelled in a short time at so violent a rate, that you found yourself forced to disband the whole regiment."—Toplady's Works, vel. v. p. 342.

Does this allude to the Burnham Society?

NOTE XXVI. Page 265.
Whitefield.

THE device upon Whitefield's seal was a winged heart soaring above the globe, and the motto Astra petamus. The seal appears to have been circular, and coarsely cut. A broken impression is upon an original letter of his in my possession, for which I am obliged to Mr. Laing, the bookseller, of Edinburgh.

Mr. William Mason writes from Newburyport, near Boston, to the Gospel Magazine, and contradicts "an account which was prevalent in London a few years past, and asserted with direct possitivity in the Evangelical Magazine;" namely, "that the body of the late Rev. Mr. George Whitefield, buried in this port, was entire and uncorrupted. From whence such a falsehood could have arisen it is impossible to decide. About five years past, (he writes in 1801,) a few friends were permitted to open the tomb wherein the remains of that precious servant of Christ were interred. After some difficulty in opening the coffin, we found the flesh totally consumed. The gown, cassock, and band, with which he was buried, were almost the same as if just put into the coffin. I mention this particular as a caution to Editors, especially of a religious work, to avoid the marvellous, particularly when there is no foundation for their assertions."

The report, though it was as readily accredited by many persons as the invention of a saint's body would be in a Catholic country, seems not to have originated in any intention to deceive. Some person writing from America, says, "One of the preachers told me the body of Mr. Whitefield was not yet putrified. But several other corpses are just in the same state at Newburyport, owing to vast quantities of nitre with which the earth there abounds."

Whitefield is said to have preached eighteen thousand sermons during the thirty-four years of his ministry. The calculation was made from a memorandum-book in which he noted down the times and places of his preaching. This would be something more than ten sermons a week.

Wesley tells us himself (Journal, xiii. p. 121.) that he preached about eight hundred sermons in a year. In fifty-three years, reckoning from the time of his return from America, this would amount to forty-two thousand four hundred. But it must be remembered that even the hundreds in this sum were not written discourses.

Collier says, that, Dr. Litchfield, Rector of All Saints, Thames-street, London, who died in 1447, left three thousand and eighty three sermons in his ow hand.-Eccl. Hist. vol. ii. p. 187.

NOTE XXVII. Page 270.
Conference with the Calvinists.

"I WAS at Bristol," says Mr. Badcock, "when the Hon. Mr. Shirley, Ly the order of my Lady Huntingdon, called him (Mr. Wesley) to a public accou

for certain expressions which he had uttered in some charge to his clergy, which savoured too much of the Popish doctrine of the merit of good works. Various speculations were formed as to the manner in which Mr. Wesley would evade the charge. Few conjectured right; but all seemed to agree in one thing, and that was that he would some how or other baffle his antagonist: and baffle him he did; as Mr. Shirley afterwards confessed in a very lamentable pamphlet, which he published on this redoubted controversy. In the crisis of the dispute, I heard a celebrated preacher, who was one of Whitefield's successors, express his suspicion of the event: for, says he, "I know him of old he is an eel; take him where you will, he will slip through your fingers."-Nichols's Anecdotes, vol. v. p. 224.

NOTE XXVIII. Page 271.

Berridge of Everton.

THIS person (who was of Clare Hall) called himself a riding pedlar, because, he used to say, his master employed him to serve near forty shops in the country, besides his own parish.

If the Poems in the Gospel Magazine, with the signature of Old Everton, are his, as I suppose them to be, the following slanderous satire upon Mr. Wesley must be ascribed to him; for it comes evidently from the same hand :

The Serpent and the Fox; or, an Interview between old Nick and old John.

There's a fox who resideth hard by,
The most perfect, and holy, and sly,

That e'er turn'd a cost, or could pilfer and lie.

As this reverend Reynard one day,
Sat thinking what game next to play,

Old Nick came a seas'nable visit to pay.

O, your servant, my friend, quoth the priest,
Tho' you carry the mark of the beast,

I never shook paws with a welcomer guest.

Many thanks, holy man, cry'd the fiend,
"Twas because you're my very good friend
That I dropt in, with you a few moments to spend.
JOHN.

Your kindness requited shall be;

There's the Calvinist-Methodists, see,

Who're eternally troublous to you and to me.

Now I'll stir up the hounds of the whore
That's call'd scarlet, to worry them sore,
And then roast 'em in Smithfield, like Bonner of yore.
NICK.

O, a meal of the Calvinist brood

Will do my old stomach more good,

Than a sheep to a wolf that is starving for food.

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NICK.

I perceive you are subtle, tho' small:
You have reason, and scripture, and all:

So stilted, you never can finally fall.

JOHN

From the drift of your latter reflection,
I fear you maintain some connexion

With the crocodile crew that believe in Election.

NICK.

By my troth, I abhor the whole troop;
With those heroes I never could cope:
I should chuckle to see 'em all swing in a rope.

JOHN.

Ah, could we but set the land free

From those bawlers about the Decree,

Who re such torments to you, to my brother, and me !

As for Whitefield, I know it right well,

He has sent down his thousands to hell;

And, for aught that I know, he's gone with 'em to dwell.
NICK

I grant, my friend John, for 'tis true,
That he was not so perfect as you;

Yet (confound him!) I lost him for all I could do.

JOHN.

Take comfort! he's not gone to glory;
Or, at most, not above the first story:

For none but the perfect escape purgatory.

At best, he's in limbo, I'm sure,

And must still a long purging endure,

Ere, like me, he's made sinless, quite holy, and pure:
NICK.

Such purging my Johnny needs none;
By your own mighty works it is done,

And the kingdom of glory your merit has won.

Thus wrapt in your self-righteous plod,

And self-raised when you throw off this clod,

You shall mount, and demand your own seat, like a god.

You shall not in paradise wait,

But climb the third story with state:

While your Whitefields and Hills are turn'd back from the gate,

Old John never dreamt that he jeer'd ;

So Nick turn'd himself round, and he sneer'd,

And then shrugg'd up his shoulders, and strait disappeared.

The priest, with a simpering face,
Shook his hair-locks, and paus'd for a space;
Then sat down to forge lies with his usual grimace.

NOTE XXVIII. Page 272.
Calvinism.

AUSCULTATOR

"SOME pestilent and abominable heretics there be," says the Catholic Bishop Watson, "that, for excusing of themselves, do accuse Almighty God, and impute their mischievous deeds to God's predestination; and would persuade that God, who is the fountain of all goodness, were the author of all mischief; not only suffering men to do evil by their own wills, but also enforcing their wills to the same evil, and working the same evil in them. I will not now spend this little time (for it was near the end of his sermon) in confuting their pestilent and devilish sayings, for it is better to abhor them than to confute them."-Holsome and Catholyke Doctryne, p. 124. 1558.

Dr. Beaumont has two od stanzas upon this subject in his Psyche, which is one of the most extraordinary poems in this or in any other language.

O no! may those black mouths for ever be

Damn'd up with silence and with shame, which dare
Father the foulest, deepest tyranny

On Love's great God; and needs will make it clear
From his own word! thus rendering him at once

Both Cruelty's and Contradiction's Prince.

A prince whose mocking law forbids, what yet
Is his eternally-resolved will;

Who woos and tantalizes souls to get

Up into heaven, yet destines them to hell;

Who calls them forth whom he keeps locked in;
Who damus the sinner, yet ordains the sin.

Canto 10. st. 71, 72.

In the Arminian Magazine, Wesley has published the Examination of Tilenus before the Triers, in order to his intended settlement in the office of a public preacher in the Commonwealth of Eutopia; written by one who was present at the Synod of Dort. The names of the Triers are very much in John Bunyan's style. They are-Dr. Absolute, Chairman, Mr. Fatality, Mr. Præterition, Mr. Fry-babe, Dr. Dan-man, Mr. Narrow Grace, Mr. Efficax, Mr. Indefectible, Dr. Confidence, Dr Dubious, Mr. Meanwell, Mr. Simulans, Mr. Take-o'Trust, Mr. Know-little, and Mr. Impertinent.

If the Abbé Duvernet may be trusted, (a writer alike liable to suspicion for his ignorance and his immorality,) Jansenius formally asserts in his Augus tinus, that there are certain commandments which it is impossible to obey, and that Christ did not die for all. He refers to the Paris edition, vol. iii. pp. 138. 165.

NOTE XXX. Page 277.

Fletcher's Illustrations of Calvinism.

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"I SUPPOSE you are still upon your travels. You come to the borders of a great empire, and the first thing that strikes you, is a man in an easy carriage going with folded arms to take possession of an immense estate, freely given him by the king of the country. As he flies along, you just make out the motto of the royal chariot in which he dozes,-'Free Reward.' Soon after, you meet five of the king's carts, containing twenty wretches loaded with irons; and the motto of every cart is, 'Free Punishment.' You inquire into the meaning of this extraordinary procession, and the sheriff attending the exccution answers: Know, curious stranger, that our monarch is absolute; and to show that sovereignty is the prerogative of his imperial crown, and that he is no respecter of persons, he distributes every day free rewards and free punishments, to a certain number of his subjects. What! without any regard to merit or demerit, by mere caprice? Not altogether so; for he pitches upon the worst of men, and chief of sinners, and upon such to choose, for the subjects of his rewards. (Elisha Coles, p. 62.) And that his punishments may do as much honour to free sovereign wrath, as his bounty does to free sovereign grace, he pitches upon those that shall be executed before they are born. What! have these poor creatures in chains done no harm?" Oyes,' says the sheriff, the king contrived that their parents should let them fall, and break their legs, before they had any knowledge; when they came to years of discretion, he comnanded them to run a race with broken legs, and because they cannot do it, [ am going to see them quartered. Some of them, besides this, have been obliged to fulfil the king's secret will, and bring about his purposes; and they shall be burned in yonder deep valley, called Tophet, for their trouble.' You are shocked at the sheriff's account, and begin to expostulate with him about the freeness of the wrath which burns a man for doing the king's will; but all the answer you can get from him is, that which you give me in your fourth letter, page 23, where, speaking of a poor reprobate, you say, such an one is indeed accomolishing the king's,' you say, 'God's decree;' but he carries a dreadful mark in his forehead, that such a decree is, that he shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord of the country. You cry out, 'God deliver me from the hands of a monarch, who punishes with everlasting destruction such as accomplish his decree and while the magistrate intimates that your exclamation is a dreadful mark, if not in your forehead, at least upon your tongue, that you yourself shall be apprehended against the next execution, and made a public instance of the king's free wrath; your blood runs cold; you bid the postilion turn the horses; they gallop for your life; and the moment you get out of the dreary land, you bless God for your narrow escape."-Fletcher's Works, vol. iii. p. 26

"You decry illustrations,' and I do not wonder at it; for they carry light into Babel, where it is not desired. The father of errors begets Darkness and Confusion. From Darkness and Confusion springs Calvinism, who, wrapping himself up in some garments, which he has stolen from the Truth, deceives the nations, and gets himself reverenced in a dark temple, as if he were the pure and free Gospel.

"To bring him to a shameful end, we need not stab him with the dagger of 'calumny,' or put him upon the rack of persecution. Let him only be dragged out of his obscurity, and brought unmasked to open light, and the silent beams of truth will pierce him through! Light alone will torture him to death, as the meridian sun does a bird of night, that cannot fly from the gentle operation of its beams.

"May the following illustration dart at least one luminous beam into the profound darkness in which your venerable Diana delights to dwell! And may it show the Christian world, that we do not slander you,' when we assert, you inadvertently destroy God's law, and cast the Redeemer's crown to the ground: and that when you say, in point of justification,' (and consequently of condemnation,) we have nothing to do with the law; we are under the law as a rule of life, but not as a rule of judgment; you might as well say, we are under no law, and consequently no longer accountable for our actions."

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"The king,' whom I will suppose is in love with your doctrines of free-grace and free-wrath, by the advice of a predestinarian council and parliament, issues out a Gospel-proclamation, directed to all his dear subjects, and elect people, the English. By this evangelical manifesto they are informed, that in consequence of the Prince of Wales's meritorious intercession, and perfect obedience to the laws of England, all the penalties annexed to the breaking of those laws are now abolished with respect to Englishmen: that his majesty freely pardons all his subjects, who have been, are, or shall be guilty of adultery, murder, or treason: that all their crimes past, present, and to come, are for ever and for ever cancelled: that nevertheless, his loving subjects, who remain strangers to their privileges, shall still be served with sham-warrants according to law, and frightened out of their wits, till they have learned to plead, they are Englishmen, (i. e. elect :) and then, they shall also set at defiance all legalists; that is, all those who shall dare to deal with them according to law: and that, excepting the case of the above mentioned false prosecution of his chosen people, none of them shall ever be molested for the breach of any law.

66 By the same supreme authority it is likewise enacted, that all the laws shall continue in force against foreigners, (i. e. reprobates,) whom the King and the Prince hate with everlasting hatred, and to whom they have agreed never to show mercy that accordingly they shall be prosecuted to the utmost rigour of every statute, till they are all hanged or burned out of the way and that, supposing no personal offence can be proved against them, it shall be lawful to hang them in chains for the crime of one of their forefathers, to set forth the king's wonderful justice, display his glorious sovereignty, and make his chosen people relish the better their sweet distinguishing privileges as Englishmen.

"Moreover, his Majesty, who loves order and harmony, charges his loving subjects to consider still the statutes of England, which are in force against foreigners, as very good rules of life, for the English, which they shall do well to follow, but better to break; because every breach of those rules will work for their good, and make them sing louder the faithfulness of the king, the goodness of the prince, and the sweetness of this Gospelproclamation."

"Again, as nothing is so displeasing to the king as legality, which he hates even more than extortion and whoredom; lest any of his dear people, who have acted the part of a strumpet, robber, murderer, or traitor, should, through the remains of their inbred corruption, and ridiculous legality, mourn too deeply for breaking some of their rules of life, our gracious monarch solemnly assures them, that though he highly disapproves of adultery and murder, yet these breaches of rules are not worse in his sight than a wandering thought in speaking to him, or a moment's dulness in his service: that robbers, therefore, and traitors, adulterers, and murderers, who are free-born Englishmen, need not at all be uneasy about losing his royal favour; this being utterly impossible, because they always stand complete in the honesty, loyalty, chastity, and charity of the prince.

"Moreover, because the king changes not, whatever lengths the English go on in immorality, he will always look upon them as his pleasant children, his dear people, and men after his own heart; and that, on the other hand, whatsoever lengths foreigners go in pious morality, his gracious majesty is determined still to consider them as hypocrites, vessels of wrath, and cursed children, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever; because he always views

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