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TOPLADY-DR. CALAMY - BENTHAM - BINGHAM.

of reading over Robert Barclay's Apology, with them being willing to receive the light, their eyes were opened. They saw his nakedness and were ashamed."

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ter himself had more cause to be ashamed for having used language so indiscreet and unwarrantable.

[Supineness of the Clergy previous to

Whitfield's Appearance.]

MR. TOPLADY, in one of his sermons, speaks thus of the Establishment to which he belonged. "I believe no denomination of professing Christians (the Church of Rome excepted) were so generally void of the light and life of godliness, so generally destitute of the doctrine and of the grace of the Gospel, as was the Church of England, considered as a body, about fifty years ago. At that period a converted minister in the Establishment was as great a wonder as a comet; but now, blessed be God, since that precious, that great apostle of the English empire, the late dear Mr. Whitefield was raised up in the spirit and power of Elias, the word of God has run and been glorified; many have believed and been added to the Lord all over the three kingdoms; and still, blessed be his name, the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls continues still to issue his word, and great is the company of preachers, greater and greater every year."

[The Culimites. Who?]

"THE Culimites were so called from their founder, one David Culey, who lived about the time of the Revolution, and was, as I have been informed, a native of Guyherne (a hamlet of Wisbech St. Peter's), most of the inhabitants of which place became his followers, and many also of Whittlesea, Wisbech St. Mary's Ontwell, and Upwell; till at length his flock, from very small beginnings, was increased to seven or eight hundred; but since his death, which happened about the year 1718, it has been continually on the decline, and is now so much reduced, that according to the account returned in by the churchwardens, there are

not above fifteen families of this sect re

maining in the diocese of Ely, who all dwell at Wisbech St. Mary's and Guyherne. David Culey resided generally at Guyherne, where he had a meeting-house, and was in such esteem among his followers as to be styled the Bishop of Guyherne. As to his doctrine it differed very little, I believe, from that of the Anabaptists, to which sect I have been told he himself originally belonged. I once saw a book written by David Culey, wherein his notions were particularly described; the title-page of it was [Baxter on Infants' Guilt and Corruption.] as follows, 'The Glory of the Two Crowned THE "ignorant rout" at Kidderminster, Heads, Adam and Christ unveiled; or the as Calamy calls them, were once raging Mystery of the New Testament opened.' ' mad against Baxter for preaching "that-BENTHAM's History of Ely. infants before regeneration had so much guilt and corruption as made them loathsome in the eyes of God. Whereupon they vented it abroad in the country that he preached that God hated and loathed infants. So that they railed at him as he passed through the streets." Dr. Calamy adds, that when on the next "Lord's Day" he cleared and confirmed this doctrine, the people were ashamed and silent. But Bax

Sortes Biblica.

THIS was an early superstition. "It appears," says BINGHAM, (b. 16, c. 5, § 3.) "that some of the inferior clergy, out of a base spirit and love of filthy lucre, encouraged this practice, and made a trade of it in the French church: whence the Gallician

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SOUTH — SAMUEL WESLEY — JOHN WESLEY.

Councils are very frequent in the condem- by ladies, and sent in my gown through St. nation of it."

[On Reciting Sermons by Rote.] "THE reciting or repeating part of memory," says SOUTH," is so necessary, that Cicero himself observes of oratory (which indeed upon a sacred subject is preaching), that upon the want of memory alone ‘omnia etiamsi præclarissima fuerint, in oratore peritura.' And we know that to a popular auditory it is, upon the matter, all. There being, in the esteem of many, but little difference between sermons read and homilies, save only this, that homilies are much better."-Sermons, vol. 4, p. 18.

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[Medal struck by the Methodists expelled the University.]

SAMUEL WESLEY, the elder, speaks of a medal "struck by those Reliquiæ Danaum who were scattered round the world, after they were forced from the University: on the one side of which was a tomb with this inscription, Piæ memoriæ Academiæ Oxoniensis: on the reverse, Deo, Ecclesiæ, Principi, Victima."

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[Unhappy Transformation.]

"OH that a man should think that to be transformed into a brute for an hour or more should be the way to become a prophet! I was offended, and God (I think) is offended, that when his gracious and good Spirit descended down on Christ as a dove, these men should be for bringing him down as a vulture to tear and shake them in pieces in the communication of it to them." -A Warning concerning the French Prophets. Single sheet.

[Wesley and Rochester's Divine Poems!] "He is very pleasant with me for knowing so little of the world as to be bantered

Paul's churchyard, to ask for Rochester's Divine Poems. But he is mistaken in a main circumstance of the story, for 'twas not a gown, but a cloak verily, with which I was accoutred, as were then most of our Academics, when I was sent on that wise errand, not long after I came from the Grammar school, while I was a member of their private Academy, and before I learnt among them to know the world better than I wish I had ever known it. And where's the miracle, that three arch lasses in concert should be too hard for a raw scholar ?" -SAMUEL WESLEY'S Reply to Palmer, p.

139.

[Profane Swearing.]

"MR. B. went to the mayor and said, 'Sir, I come to inform against a common swearer. I believe he swore a hundred oaths last night; but I marked down only twenty.' 'Sir,' said the mayor, 'you do very right in bringing him to justice. What is his name?' He replied, 'R- D—.' 'R— D!' answered the mayor; why that is my son!' 'Yes, sir,' said Mr. B., 'so I understand.' Nay, sir,' said he, 'I have nothing to say in his defence. If he breaks the law, he must take what follows.'"-WESLEY'S Journal, vol. 6, p. 155.

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[The Profane Swearer rebuked.] "As I was walking up Pilgrim Street, hearing a man call after me, I stood still. He came up and used much abusive language, intermixed with many oaths and curses. Several people came out to see what was the matter: on which he pushed me once or twice and went away.

"Upon inquiry, I found this man had signalized himself of a long season, by abusing and throwing stones at any of our family who went that way. Therefore I would not lose the opportunity, but on Monday, 4, sent him the following note:

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'John Wesley.' "Within two or three hours, Robert Young came and promised a quite different behaviour. So did this gentle reproof, if not save a soul from death, yet prevented a multitude of sins."

[Profane Swearers silenced.] “Ar Darlington, it being the fair-day, we could scarce find a place to hide our head. At length we got into a little inn, but were obliged to be in a room where there was another set of company, some of whom were cursing and swearing much. Before we went away, I stepped to them, and asked, 'Do you think yourselves that this kind of talking is right?' One of them warmly replied, Sir, we have said nothing which we have need to be ashamed of.' I said, 'Have you not need to be ashamed of disobliging your best friend? And is not God the best friend you have?' They stared first at me, and then at one another. But no man answered a word."

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[Warburton's Suggestion for exposing idle Fanatics.]

“WARBURTON says, in one of his letters to Birch, 'I tell you what I think would be the best way of exposing these idle fanatics the printing passages out of George Fox's Journal, and Ignatius Loyola, and Whitefield's Journals, in parallel columns. Their conformity in folly is amazing.""-NICHOLS'S Illustrations, vol. 2, p. 109.

[Wesley's Daily Labour.]

"Ar the close of the year 1786," Mr. WESLEY says, "all the time I could save till the end of the week, I spent in transcribing the Society, a dull, but necessary work, which I have taken upon myself once a year for near these fifty years."-Journal, vol. 21. p. 25.

[Wesley on the Expediency of Field
Preaching.]

"A VAST majority of the immense congregation in Moorfields were deeply serious. One such hour might convince any impartial man of the expediency of field preaching. What building, except St. Paul's church, would contain such a congregation? And if it would, what human voice could have reached them there? By repeated observations I find I can command thrice the number in the open air that I can under a roof.”—WESLEY's Journal, vol. 11. p. 83.

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[Power of the Gospel in Hospitals.]

MR. WESLEY himself perceived with what effect religious labourers might be employed in a hospital. Writing in 1741, he says, “I visited a young man in St. Thomas's hospital, who in strong pain was praising God continually. At the desire of many of the patients, I spent a short time with them, in exhortation and prayer. O what a harvest might there be, if any lover of souls who has time upon his hands, would constantly attend these places of distress, and with tenderness and meekness of wisdom, instruct and exhort those on whom God has laid his hands, to know and improve the day of their visitation."-Journal, vol. 5, p. 3.

[Wickedness of the Marshalsea Prison.] "I VISITED one in the Marshalsea Prison, a nursery of all manner of wickedness. O

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"A YOUNG gentleman called upon me." says WESLEY, (Journal, vol. 6, p. 103) "whose father is an eminent minister in Scotland, and was in union with Mr. Glas, till Mr. Glas renounced him, because they did not agree as to the eating of blood. Although I wonder any should disagree about this, who have read the fifteenth chapter of the Acts, and considered that no Christian in the universe did eat it, till the Pope repealed the law which had remained ever since Noah's flood."

[Newtonian and Hutchinsonian Principles.]

"I READ Mr. Jones's ingenious Essay on the Principles of Natural Philosophy. He seems to have totally overthrown the Newtonian principles. But whether he can establish the Hutchinsonian is another question."-Journal, vol. 14, p. 24.

[Wesley's Thanksgiving for his wonderful Deliverance.]

In his Journal for 1750, Mr. WESLEY thus refers to his providential deliverance. "Friday, February 9th, we had a comfortable watch-night at the chapel. About eleven o'clock it came into my mind, that this was the very day and hour in which, forty years ago, I was taken out of the flames. I stopped and gave a short account of that wonderful providence. The voice of praise and thanksgiving went up on high, and great was our rejoicing before the Lord."

[Microscopic Animals—Wonders of.]

"I met with a tract," says WESLEY, (Journal, vol. 10, p. 7,) "which utterly confounded all my philosophy. I had long believed that microscopic animals were generated, like all other animals, by parents of the same species. But Mr. Needham makes it highly probable that they constitute a peculiar class of animals, differing from all others in this: that they neither are generated, or generate, nor subsist by food in the ordinary way."

[Wesley's Doubts on Astronomy.]

"Ar the request of the author, I took some pains in correcting an ingenious book shortly to be published. But the more I consider them, the more I doubt of all systems of astronomy. I doubt whether we can certainly know the distance or magnitude. of any star in the firmament. Else why do astronomers so immensely differ, even with regard to the distance of the sun from the earth? Some affirming it to be only twelve, vol. 10, p. 92. others ninety millions of miles!"—Journal,

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BOSWELL-BISHOP HALL-WORDSWORTH-WESLEY.

he had so often attempted in vain.”—Journal, vol. 9, p. 54.

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[Whitgift's Care in drawing up his Notes

for Preaching.]

“ARCHBISHOP WHITGIFT never preached but he first wrote his notes in Latin, and

[Johnson never treated Whitefield's Ministry afterwards kept them during his life. For

with Contempt.]

he would say, that whosoever took that pains before his preaching, the older he waxed, the better he should discharge that duty; but if he trusted only to his memory, his preaching in time would become pratling."-DR. WORDSWORTH'S Eccl. Biog. vol. 4, p. 377.

“WHITEFIELD," said Johnson, "never drew as much attention as a mountebank does he did not draw attention by doing better than others, but by doing what was strange. Were Astley to preach a sermon standing upon his head on a horse's back, he would collect a multitude to hear him; but no wise man would say he had made a better sermon for that. I never treated [On the breaking off of Habits-exemplified Whitefield's ministry with contempt: I believe he did good. He had devoted himself to the lower classes of mankind, and among them he was of use. But when familiarity and noise claim the praise due to knowledge, art, and elegance, we must beat down such pretensions."-BOSWELL, vol. 3, p. 328.

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in Wesley's leaving off Tea.] "AFTER talking largely with both the men and woman leader, we agreed it would prevent great expense, as well of health as of time, and of money, if the poorer people of our society could be persuaded to leave off drinking of tea. We resolved ourselves to begin and set the example. I expected some difficulty, in breaking off a custom of six and twenty years' standing. And accordingly the three first days my head aked, more or less, all day long, and I was half asleep from morning to night. The third day, on Wednesday in the afternoon, my memory fail'd, almost intirely. In the evening I sought my remedy in prayer. On Thursday morning my headache was gone. My memory was as strong as ever. And I have found no inconvenience, but a sensible benefit in several respects, from

[Bishop Hall's Care on the drawing up of that very day to this."-WESLEY'S Journal,

his Discourses.]

BISHOP HALL composed his discourses with great care; "Never," he says, "durst I climb into the pulpit to preach any sermon, whereof I had not before in my poor and plain fashion, penned every word in the same order wherein I hoped to deliver it, although in the expression I listed not to be a slave to syllables."

vi. p. 135.

[On Blasphemous Thoughts.]

"MANY persons about fifty or a hundred years ago," says MICHAELIS, "found themselves grievously oppressed with spiritual trials as they were called, and were filled with anguish on account of blasphemous thoughts which Satan was said to suggest. Books were written about this time, which still sometimes appear in auctions, under

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