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While Whitefield thus with such signal success was renewing a practice which had not been seen in England since the dissolution of the monastic orders, Methodism in London had reached its highest point of extravagance, and produced upon susceptible subjects a bodily disease, peculiar and infectious; which both by those who excited and those who experienced it, was believed to be part of the process of regeneration, and, therefore, the work of God. The first patients having no example to encourage them, naturally restrained themselves as much as they could; they fell however into convulsive motions, and could not refrain from uttering cries; and these things gave offence at first, and occasioned disputes in the society. Charles Wesley thought them "no sign of grace." The first violent case which occurred, was that of a middleaged woman in the middle rank of life, who for three years had been "under strong convictions of sin, and in such a terror of mind, that she had no comfort in any thing, nor any rest day or night." The minister of her parish, whom she had consulted, assured her husband that she was stark mad, and advised him to send immediately for a physician; and the physician being of the same opinion she was bled, blistered, and drenched accordingly. One evening in a meeting where Wesley was expounding to five or six hundred persons, she' suddenly cried out as if in the agonies of death, and appeared to some of those about her almost to be in that state; others, however, who began to have some experience in such cases, understood that it

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was the crisis of her spiritual struggles. prayed," says Wesley in a letter to Whitefield, "that God who had brought her to the birth would give her strength to bring forth, and that he would work speedily that all might see it, and fear, and put their trust in the Lord."-" Five days she travailed and groaned being in bondage; then," he continues, "our Lord got himself the victory," and from that time the woman was full of joy and love, and thanksgivings were rendered on her

account.

Another woman was affected under more remarkable circumstances: Wesley visited her because she was "above measure enraged at the new way, and zealous in opposing it." He argued with her till he perceived that argument had its usual effect of inflaming more and more a mind that was already feverish. He then broke off the dispute and entreated that she would join with him in prayer, and she so far consented as to kneel down: this was, in fact, submitting herself. "In a few minutes she fell into an extreme agony both of body and soul, and soon after cried out with the utmost earnestness, 'Now I know I am forgiven for Christ's sake!' Many other words she uttered to the same effect, witnessing a hope full of immortality. And from that hour God set her face as a flint to declare the faith which before she persecuted." This Wesley calls one of the most surprising instances of divine. power that he ever remembered to have seen. The sincerity of the subject he never questioned, and perhaps there was no cause for questioning it;

like Mesmer and his disciples he had produced a new disease, and he accounted for it by a theological theory instead of a physical one. As men are intoxicated by strong drink affecting the mind through the body, so are they by strong passions influencing the body through the mind. Here there was nothing but what would naturally follow when persons, in a state of spiritual drunkenness, abandoned themselves to their sensations, and such sensations spread rapidly, both by voluntary and involuntary imitation.

Whitefield was at this time urging Wesley that he would come to Bristol without delay, and keep

up the sensation which had been produced there, for he himself must prepare for his return to Georgia. These solicitations were enforced by Mr. Seward of Evesham, a young man of education and fortune, one of the most enthusiastic and attached of Whitefield's converts. It might have been thought that Wesley to whom all places were alike, would have hastened at the call, but he and his brother, instead of taking the matter into calm and rational consideration, had consulted the Bible upon the business, and stumbled upon uncomfortable texts. The first was, "And some of them would have taken him; but no man laid hands on him," to which they added, "not till the time was come," that its import might correspond with the subsequent lots. Another was, "Get thee up into this mountain, and die in the Mount, whither thou goest up, and be gathered unto thy people." The next trial confirmed the impression which these had made:

"And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days." These verses were sufficiently ominous, but worse remained behind : "I will show him how great things he must suffer. for my name's sake," and pushing the trial still farther, they opened upon the burial of St. Stephen the proto-martyr. "Whether," says Wesley in his journal, "this was permitted only for the trial of our faith, God knoweth, and the event will show." These unpropitious texts rendered him by no means desirous of undertaking the journey, and when it was proposed at the society in Fetterlane, Charles would scarcely bear it to be mentioned. Yet, like a losing gamester who the worse he finds his fortune is the more eagerly bent upon tempting it, he appealed again to the oracles of God, which were never designed thus to be consulted in the spirit of heathen superstition." He received," says the journal, "these words, as spoken to himself, and answered not again," " Son of man, behold I take from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroke, and yet shalt thou not mourn or weep, neither shall thy tears run down." However disposed the brothers might have been that he should have declined the journey without farther consultation, the members of the society* continued to dispute upon it, till, seeing no probability of coming to an agreement

*"It was a rule of the Society," says Dr. Whitehead, " that any person who desired or designed to take a journey, should first, if it were possible, have the approbation of the bands; so entirely at this time were the ministers under the direction of the people." But as there were no settled ministers, and no settled place at this time, it is evident that this rule had nothing to do with church discipline.

by any other means, they had recourse to sortilege; and the lot decided that Wesley should go. This being determined, they opened the Bible" concerning the issue," and the auguries were no better than before: "When wicked men have slain a righteous person in his own house upon his bed, shall I not now require his blood at your hands, and take you away from the earth?" This was one; the final one was, "Ahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city, even in Jerusalem.' There are not so many points of similitude between Bristol and Jerusalem, as between Monmouth and Macedon, and Henry the Fifth was more like Alexander than John Wesley would have acknowledged himself to resemble Ahaz; but it was clear language for an oracle. "We dissuaded my brother," says Charles, " from going to Bristol, from an unaccountable fear that it would prove fatal to him. He offered himself willingly to whatever the Lord should appoint. The next day he set out, recommended by us to the grace of God. He left a blessing behind him. I desired to die with him." "Let me not be accounted superstitious," says Wesley, "if I recite the remarkable Scriptures which offered as often as we enquired touching the consequences of this removal." It will not be thought superfluous here to have repeated them.

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