give them access to the Father. This is the word of reconciliation which we preach: this is the foundation which never can be moved."

Wesley, who wrote down the substance of this discourse, did not perhaps immediately perceive how easily this doctrine might be most mischievously abused; but he saw at once with what forcible effect it might be preached, and it will be seen how well he profited by the lesson. He heard also from Christian David and from other of the Brethren, accounts of what is called their experience, -the state of feeling and conflicts of thought through which they had passed before they attained a settled religious peace. This full assurance, or plerophory of faith as it is termed by Wesley, was defined to him by Arvid Gradin a Swede. had," said the Swede, "from our Lord what I asked of him, the Tangopopia is, the fulness of faith, which is repose in the blood of Christ: a firm confidence in God and persuasion of his favour, with a deliverance from every fleshly desire, and a cessation of all, even inward sins. In a word my heart which before was agitated like a troubled sea, was in perfect quietness like the sea when it is serene and calm." "This," says Wesley, "was the first account I ever heard from any living man, of what I had before learned myself from the oracles

" I

• “Requies in sanguine Christi; firma fiducia in Deum, et persuasio de gratiá divinâ; tranquillitas mentis summa, atque serenitas et pax ; cum absentiâ omnis desiderii carnalis, et cessatione peccatorum etiam internorum. Verbo, cor quod antea instar maris turbulenti agitabatur, in summâ fuit requie, instar maris sereni et tranquilli.”

of God, and had been praying for, with the little company of my friends, and expecting for several

years."

"I would gladly," he says, "have spent my life here but my master calling me to labour in another part of his vineyard, I was constrained to take my leave of this happy place." After a fortnight's tarriance, therefore, he departed on foot as he came, and returned to England.

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CHAPTER VI.

WESLEY IN LONDON.-WHITEFIELD RETURNS TO WHITEFIELD AT BRISTOL.

ENGLAND.

CHARLES WESLEY had not known his brother's intention of visiting Herrnhut till he had set out for Germany. He was not sufficiently recovered to have accompanied him, but he kept up, during his absence, the impression which had been produced, and John found, upon his return, that the society which now met together consisted of thirtytwo persons. His presence, however, was required; "for though," says he, "a great door had been opened, the adversaries had laid so many stumbling blocks before it, that the weak were daily turned out of the way. Numberless misunderstandings had arisen, by means of which the

way

of truth was much blasphemed; and thence had sprung anger, clamour, bitterness, evil-speaking, envyings, strifes, railings, evil surmises, whereby the enemy had gained such an advantage over the little flock, that of the rest durst no man join himself to them." Nor was this all,—a dispute arose concerning predestination, the most mischievous question by which human presumption has ever been led astray. This matter was

P

laid to rest for the present, and a few weeks after his return, Wesley had eight bands of men and two of women under his spiritual direction.

He informed his German friends of the state of things in an epistle with the superscription, "To the Church of God which is in Herrnhut, John Wesley, an unworthy Presbyter of the Church of God which is in England, wisheth all grace and peace in our Lord Jesus Christ." The style of this epistle corresponded to the introduction. It began thus: "Glory be to God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for his unspeakable gift! for giving me to be an eye witness of your faith and love, and holy conversation in Christ Jesus. I have borne testimony thereof, with all plainness of speech, in many parts of Germany, and thanks have been given to God, by many, on your behalf. We are endeavouring here also, by the grace which is given us, to be followers of you, as ye are of Christ." He wrote also to Count Zinzendorf. May our gracious Lord, who counteth whatsoever is done to the least of his brethren as done to himself, return seven-fold to you and the Countess, and to all the brethren, the kindness you did to us. It would have been great satisfaction to me, if I could have spent more time with the Christians who love one another. But that could not be now, my Master having called me to work in another part of his vineyard. I hope," he added, "if God permit to see them at least once more, were it only to give them the fruit of my love, the

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speaking freely on a few things which I did not approve, perhaps because I did not understand them."

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Count Zinzendorf would not have been very well pleased if he had known that one of the things which Wesley disapproved was the supremacy which he exercised over the Moravians. For Wesley, immediately upon his return, had begun a letter to the Moravian Church, in a very different strain from the epistle which he afterwards substituted for it. Instead of a grave and solemn superscription, it began with, My dear Brethren;" and after saying that he greatly approved of their conferences and bands, their method of instructing children, and their great care of the souls committed to their charge, he proceeded to propose, "in love and meekness," doubts concerning certain parts of their conduct, which he wished them to answer plainly, and to consider well. "Do you not," he pursued, "wholly neglect joint fasting? Is not the Count all in all? Are not the rest mere shadows, calling him Rabbi; almost implicitly both believing and obeying him? Is there not something of levity in your behaviour? Are in general serious enough? Are you zealous and watchful to redeem time? Do you not sometimes fall into trifling conversation? Do you not magnify your own church too much? Do you believe any who are not of it to be in gospel liberty? Are you not straitened in your love? Do you love your enemies and wicked men as yourselves? Do you not mix human wisdom with divine, joining

you