Opening
THE LIFE AND TIMES
OF
SELINA, COUNTESS OF HUNTINGDON.
THE
LIFE AND TIMES
OF
SELINA
COUNTESS OF HUNTINGDON.
BY A MEMBER OF THE HOUSES OF SHIRLEY AND HASTINGS.
SIXTH THOUSAND--WITH COPIOUS INDEX.
VOL. I.
ENTERED AT STATIONERS’ HALL.
LONDON: WILLIAM EDWARD PAINTER, STRAND;
AND JOHN SNOW, PATERNOSTER ROW.
1844.
Preface
It was the express wish of Lady HUNTINGDON, that, at least for some years after her decease, her memory should be suffered to rest, and her actions to make their own impression on the minds of men. In deference to this wish, all attempts at the publication of her Correspondence have been resisted by her noble relatives; and it is only at the present day that a Cadet of her illustrious family, after long years employed in the collection and examination of the documents and papers to which he alone, perhaps, was in a condition to have easy and continued access, has been induced to arrange his materials into the form of a MEMOIR OF THE LIFE AND TIMES OF SELINA, COUNTESS OF HUNTINGDON.
Circumstances having prevented the author from personally superintending the publication of this work, a large share of responsibility has been thrown on those to whose hands it was committed; but the task was a labour of love, and the publication has been conducted with all possible regard to the public demand for ample information, to the feelings of the living, and the memory of the dead.
Among the illustrious characters of the eighteenth century, no one has shone more conspicuously in the religious world, or enjoyed a greater share of heartfelt esteem and love, than the venerable COUNTESS OF HUNTINGDON. Above all her celebrated contemporaries, she was honoured with a life of continued usefulness, protracted to the utmost period of mortal existence; with extraordinary talents, ample means, and a head and heart alike devoted to promote the “glory of God in the highest, and on earth peace and good-will towards man.”
Her body has long been committed to the earth from which it sprang, and her soul has returned to God who gave it, but she has left on earth a testimony which will outlive monuments of brass and stone--a reputation which has spread to the corners of the world--and a name which is reverenced by all whose approbation is praise.
The curiosity that has been as generally expressed as universally felt, to know more of the life and character of this, in the best sense of the word, illustrious woman, is a feeling which ought to be respected; and it has at length become a duty to make every effort in order to save from destruction those invaluable records of her heart and feeling, those delightful traits of her distinguished friends, those heart-stirring pictures of her private and every-day life, and those important records of her public services to religion and humanity, which are contained in these volumes, and which, but for the present publication, might have expired with their compiler, or have left but a vague memory of her excellence, except in those instances where the sacrifice of her fortune has raised imperishable monuments to her piety.
The object of the present work has been to afford a view of the “life and times” of this distinguished woman, so clear and ample as to render superfluous all future or collateral efforts at illustration. Every fact and incident of her long life is here recorded--every triumph of the cross under her vigorous and well-directed leading--every place of worship opened under her auspices--and every mark of divine favour and encouraging grace bestowed upon her labours.
Conscious of the purity of his motive, and having for all his incentive the desire to pay just tribute to the memory of the departed saint whose name he honours, the author has spoken truth from his heart, resolved to flatter no one--to know no fear in the discharge of his duty. He has sought, with candid zeal, to avoid every evidence of a sectarian or party spirit in his statements. Bigotry, on both sides, may censure; but the just and generous, on all sides, will approve his course. Narrow prejudices are already vanishing; and good men, of all denominations, are ready to embrace the truth and each other. The good Countess was, in this respect, before her age; and it is her Catholic and Christian spirit which appears to have inspired her kinsman in the composition of this Memoir. Read in the same spirit, it will serve to accelerate the benevolent current of true godliness, and to sweep away the narrow and contracted dispositions which would check its overflow or turn aside its course.
With this feeling, the author has drawn, without hesitation, from all accessible sources, the illustrative matter of his Memoir. The biographies of WHITEFIELD, WESLEY, VENN, and the works and letters of FLETCHER, BERRIDGE, ROMAINE, WATTS, HILL, and other eminently pious individuals, have supplied invaluable contributions to the work; but its more valuable portion consists in the original letters and anecdotes with which it teems, and in the straightforward integrity of purpose in its author. Of himself and of his work, he says--
“To GOD, only wise, the Author of every good and perfect gift, my humble acknowledgments are paid. His grace rendered the subject of this Memoir what she was--His wisdom directed her pious and benevolent efforts for the extension of the Redeemer’s kingdom--and His Spirit supported her in her departing hours. To Him, therefore, and Him alone, whose influence I implore, I commit these Memoirs, such as they are, in the hope that He will vouchsafe His blessing on a work which originated in an ardent desire to promote His glory; and that He will render it an instrument to extend the knowledge and experience of the glorious Gospel of God our Saviour.”
With these glowing words of the pious author, the conductors commit his work to the candid judgment of the enlightened reader; remarking merely, as they are in justice bound to do, that the religious institution now known as “The Connexion of the late Countess of Huntingdon” does not incur the slightest responsibility with regard to this work; and that the reverend author of the Introduction to the present volume has undertaken to resume his pen for a similar introductory paper to the second volume of these Memoirs.
Part I
Man, amidst an almost infinite variety of circumstances, and modified, both in body and mind, by a thousand accidental influences, is, in every age and country, essentially the same. The os sublime and the mens alta alike distinguish him from the other inhabitants of the earth, and show, whatever may be his complexion and mental training, that GOD has made him to have dominion over the works of his hands--has put all things in subjection under him. Nor is there less of identity in man’s moral propensities than in his corporeal and instinctive powers. Bent from his original rectitude, he stoops towards earth and the things of earth, and gives sad proof of having lost affection for the Source of his existence, and of being inclined to worship the creature more than the Creator. The rude savage, the superstitious devotee, and the intellectual sceptic do not like to retain GOD in their knowledge--that GOD who is “glorious in holiness,” who is partially made known to his creatures by the works of his hands, and more fully revealed, and in a more encouraging light, by the words of his mouth.
This Atheistic spirit laboured with a giant’s strength to deface the character of Deity impressed on the world before the flood; had cursed the earth with abominable idolatry, or with heartless superstition, before the coming of our Lord in the flesh; and, not satisfied with the mischief effected under dispensations of mercy less intelligible and distinct, has, to a most awful extent, corrupted a Church, professedly Christian, as it had polluted both the Jewish temple and the Patriarchal tent. To educe good out of evil is the province of the Supreme Good; to pervert the good, and, so far as it relates to his own perceptions and conduct, to abuse and prostitute it to the worst of purposes, is, alas! the work of man.
Nothing can more affectingly evince the truth of this remark than the contrast of the Church of Rome with the Church of the Apostles; than the pomp and mummery, the dogmatism and tyranny, the secularity, the superstition, and the heathenism of Popery, with the simplicity, the spirituality, and the divinity of that religion which the writers of the New Testament advocated, for which they all suffered, and for which most of them died. The vapour which, rising from the twofold shores of Corinth and the province of Galatia, annoyed ST. PAUL, continued to spread itself and to increase in density, till the true Church of JESUS CHRIST became scarcely perceptible, and ultimately was totally obscured by the thick and dark cloud. Let the mind proceed from the apostles to EUSEBIUS, thence to AUGUSTINE, and the next advance is to settled darkness, rendered visible by a few solitary rays of piety--real, though faint and sickly--and the transient scintillations of scholastic wit and learning. The page of ecclesiastical history, though inscribed by persons less evangelical than the MILNERS, will show that even superstition was only one shade in the dark ages; that vital godliness, as if in disgust, had fled from the Church, as she was pleased to call herself, to deserts, and mountains, and dens, and caves of the earth; that justification before GOD, by faith alone in JESUS CHRIST, the “Articulus stantis aut cadentis Ecclesiæ,” as LUTHER termed it, was buried beneath the records of Councils and the volumes of Fathers; and that men, having renounced the LORD as their RIGHTEOUSNESS, were without him as their STRENGTH. Like SAMSON, the Church was shorn of her energy and deprived of sight--the sport of the Philistines.
It was the glory of the Reformation that it struck at the root of the evil. The Church of Rome, not satisfied with seeking righteousness by the works of the law, must needs arrogate to herself a property in works of supererogation, and impudently bring it into the market; but for this daring imposition on common sense, the fire of LUTHER might have been employed rather in consuming the drapery of the Man of Sin than in the destruction of his person. The sale of indulgences, however, was such an outrage on the principle of the Gospel, that it roused his powerful mind, even when only partially enlightened, to bring all its united force against the blighting and unholy doctrine of human merit. Thus, in the process of resuscitation, the HOLY SPIRIT, by the agency of the Reformers, instead of restoring vital heat by friction at the extremities, breathed into the dead Church the breath of life, and restored to her a living soul. Animation diffused itself through a vast range of nominal Christians, converting them into living members of the body of CHRIST; and the life, which was felt to be redeemed, was consecrated to Him “who loved his Church, and gave himself for it.”
The number of truly converted persons was, no doubt, very considerable in the days of the Reformers, and the hallowed work progressed under their survivors, both on the continent of Europe and in Great Britain. It would, however, be false charity to conclude that all Protestants, even during the warmth and freshness of the Reformation, were true Christians: an acquaintance with the history of the times and with human nature, as well as with the subsequent condition of Protestant Christendom, will compel us to say, “that all were not Israel who were of Israel;” that multitudes, from political and secular motives, and from the force of custom, or from a conviction of the truth rather as an intellectual than as a moral proposition, protested more against the errors of the Man of Sin than against his iniquities, and were more anxious for emancipation from the thraldom of superstition, than from the bondage of corruption. The easy transition, indeed, of the majority from one state to another, under HENRY THE EIGHTH and the youthful EDWARD; their coming back again to Popery under MARY; and their ready return to Protestantism under her sister, proves that, however many loved the truth, even unto the death, more were indifferent to its divine claims, and accommodated themselves to the times. The Vicar of Bray was only one of many who ebbed and flowed with the ocean, and of those who will always show that a national religious improvement may be effected where the renewal of the mind in the great body of society does not take place. Worldly men will preserve the element of their character amidst great external modifications--an element as decidedly opposed to the holy and humbling truths of the Gospel in the Protestant as in the Papist, though exhibited under different forms.
This was the case in the reign of ELIZABETH. We hail, indeed, with feelings kindred with those of MILTON when he escaped “the Stygian Pool,” the settling of a better order of ecclesiastical affairs, the liberty of prophesying given to the ministers of CHRIST, and the eminent piety, learning, and zeal of many of the clergy. Her reign is as illustrious for men devoted to the kingdom of our LORD JESUS CHRIST as it is for patriots and politicians: the preaching and the writings of those men, some of whom were the survivors of the martyrs, and of whom others seemed to grow out of their ashes, tended much to instruct the people in the great principles of the Gospel. These labourers, however, were few, compared with the extent and population of their spheres of action, and they could not fail to leave the mass of the people without the knowledge of true religion, and, consequently, unrenewed by its power. Nay, the majority of those who professed to guide the blind were themselves, it is to be feared, destitute of the wisdom that cometh from above, and thus unqualified to show to others the way of salvation; for we are informed that, “by the Report of the visitors to the Queen, it was found that comparatively very few of the Popish Bishops, Clergy, and Heads of Colleges, resigned their preferments on account of the new order of things; and it was remembered that the greatest part of them went with the tide in EDWARD’S reign, and veered about as readily with the wind on the accession of MARY.” (Custance’s Reformation). It would have been ex fumo dare lucem, indeed, if such men had done much towards the evangelizing of the nation. The Queen, herself a genuine TUDOR, aiming at absolute sovereignty, wished to encircle her throne with clouds of darkness, admitting only so much light as might show that she, and not the Bishop of Rome, was seated on it. She chose, and with reason, men of powerful minds to assist her in working the State machine; but she by no means wished that society at large should be enlightened with principles which, raising the intellectual as well as the moral character, and cherishing a consciousness of this elevation, would probably lead her subjects to question, where it was more convenient to her that they should obey. “One preacher is enough for a county,” was the recorded expression of her sentiment on this most important subject.
We must, therefore, conclude, that under this extraordinary ruler--for one does not like to contemplate her as a woman--the nation, as a whole, with all its improvements, was dark, or, at best, only relieved with a dim religious light. Under JAMES, the Bible was re-translated, copies of it were multiplied, and ministers sincerely Protestant greatly increased in number; but there was a re-action in theological sentiments, which tended to lower the tone of piety in those even who were truly religious. CALVINISM, as it is called, had, before this reign, in numerous instances, assumed an appearance of harshness, in the employment of supralapsarian terms, though so generally and ably supported by men of the most holy character and kindly hearts; but now the influence of ARMINIUS was experienced. A large part of the clergy went over from scholastic terms and metaphysical notions, more speculative than practical, to doctrines which, as they reject the grace by which we are saved, necessarily leave the soul, amidst all its moral boastings, in the bonds of iniquity. This obscuration of the glorious Gospel of the blessed GOD by low, self-righteous instructors, more than by any affectation of godliness, in the time of the Protector, prepared the nation for that laxity, both of morals and of creed--that licentiousness and infidelity, which stamp infamy on the reign of the second CHARLES. The ribaldry of ROCHESTER, the wit of BUTLER, and the buffoonery of SOUTH, all had a baneful influence on the court and the nation, and obscured the holy light which had appeared to radiate from the stake of the martyrs.
Morals and religious principles have perhaps never been at a lower ebb in our nation, since the Reformation, than during this period--a period, the true character of which it is one of the most difficult studies in English history to determine. Even the best men of the age, in their joy for a restored monarchy, and bewilderment at the splendour and politeness of the Court, were led to give a false colour to their records of these times, and to merge the all-important considerations of morals and truth in the theoretic speculations of a civil and religious establishment. Whatever may be said on the question of equity, there can, we imagine, be no doubt in an unprejudiced Christian, that the ejecting of the Nonconformists, and the patronizing of a very different class of men, taken as a whole, both ecclesiastic and secular, was a heavy blow inflicted on true piety, and introduced a style of preaching which operates as a soporific on the moral sense, and as a cloud on the moral vision. Most victories are costly, and the triumph of monarchical principle, however desirable, by overlaying the living and evangelical spirit with a uniform machinery, in too many instances worked by careless hands, was gained at an expense which it is not easy to calculate, but which must qualify the pleasure suggested to a loyal heart by the return of the twenty-ninth of May.
England may well be proud of the science and literature of the subsequent age, and call it Augustan. NEWTON and LOCKE, in the worlds of matter and of mind; DRYDEN, POPE, and THOMSON, in that of the imagination; and ADDISON, with a host of prose writers, on subjects of taste and morals--have given it claims to distinction, and illuminated its pages in intellectual history. These writers obtained great influence over the nation, and whatever good they effected, by giving currency to thought, they directed it in channels leading from evangelical piety, to sentiment, and ethics, and taste, or to physical knowledge. The waters were indeed clear and beautiful, but they were unhealthy, and, in some respects, the opposite of the prophetic stream, of which it is predicated, “Everything shall live whither the river cometh.” The most chaste and moral of these popular works, though recognizing Christianity, are unvivified by its spirit; and while they advocate the claims of virtue, found not their argument on the principles of the Gospel, and teach, often not otherwise than as a heathen would have taught, social duties and graces, rather than “the obedience of faith.” The founder of Methodism was not far from the truth when he said that few things were more unfriendly to the progress of the Gospel than the national fondness for ADDISON’S Spectator.
Nor was the political feeling without its baneful influence on the religious character of the people. As the fashion of the Court, under the profligate CHARLES, had raised up many wits, like BUTLER, to caricature true piety, by confounding it with hypocrisy, so the repeated efforts made to restore the STUARTS filled Protestants with a dread of change, and induced the High Church party, most unjustly, to consider all Dissenters, however attached to the House of BRUNSWICK, and however excelling in all the virtues of true religion, as confederate with the Scottish Nonjurors and Jacobites; and thus, by an easy though fallacious transition, to identify evangelical doctrine with revolutionary propensities.
This, as the following work will show, was a reason assigned by the local magistrates of the day for their leaving the Methodist preachers unprotected to the mal-treatment of the mob, in opposition to royal pleasure directly expressed; and this, too, was the pretext under which the magistrates themselves avowedly and ostensibly excited the ignorant to violence and outrage. Let us not be deemed illiberal if we notice, as one cause of the general apathy, the great popularity of TILLOTSON. It would, indeed, be uncandid and unjust not to recognize his numerous excellences, both as a man and as a writer, and his merit of giving a more popular character to pulpit addresses in the Established Church; but whatever other good his sermons may have effected, there was little in them to send the people home imbued with the great principles of the Gospel, and sympathizing with St. PAUL, when he exclaims, “But GOD forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our LORD JESUS CHRIST, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.”
An almost total absence of evangelical doctrine--the blood of sprinkling--and an evident carelessness about the great object of the Christian ministry, even where there may not be gaiety and immorality of conduct, are so palpably inconsistent and reprehensible in a professed minister of the Gospel, that the evil, in a great degree, neutralizes itself; but when moral excellence combines with truth indeed, animated with zeal and affection, yet lacking that prominence of the all-important doctrines of revelation which the HOLY GHOST has in all ages been pleased to bless to the glorifying of CHRIST, a sort of quietus is ministered to the conscience, and decorum and formality take the place of “repentance towards GOD, and faith towards our LORD JESUS CHRIST.” Such writers as TILLOTSON, and his older friend, BARROW, will be studied with advantage by men spiritually minded, because such readers will give an evangelical cast to the strong reasoning and beautiful illustrations of these writers; but where the tone of feeling is to be received from the authors themselves, we cannot but think that it will be cold. English literature, from STEELE to JOHNSON, though its period has become an era in the history of morals, has had the same tendency. Amusement and instruction, taste and decorum, were circulated among a people now denominated “a reading nation;” but who ever heard of a sinner being brought to true repentance, and to rejoice in CHRIST JESUS, having no confidence in the flesh, by a paper of the Spectator or of the Rambler? All these movements, indeed, had a beneficial influence on society, in preparing the way for a revival in religion, by exciting the attention and teaching the mind how to think; but the direct effect, in most cases, of such instruction, was either to lull the moral sense altogether, or to awaken it to a class of feelings of a self-righteous character, and, as such, opposed to the Gospel--the righteousness which is of GOD by faith.
Thus the slumbering embers of the martyr-flame had died out, and a degeneracy of doctrine and profligacy of manners had spread a chilling and destructive influence over a partially enlightened community; and infidelity, political convulsions, and even literature itself, had each contributed its quota to form a national soporific. Happily, there were a few in the national pulpits who had not drank of this cup, and among the Dissenters some holy men, such as WATTS and DODDRIDGE, well represented those who had suffered for conscience sake after the Restoration. Theological writings, too, had accumulated, which will continue to instruct and bless the Church of CHRIST till she shall know even as she is known: but there was a heaviness in those folios, and too much of evenness in the public ministrations of the word, for an age which needed a moral disturbance to prevent its sleeping the sleep of death. Arguments against infidelity, and ethics cold though beautiful, were the usual themes of the parochial desk; and the withering influence of Arianism, or of a heartless orthodoxy, produced death in many of the Dissenting congregations. England and Wales, therefore, in an improved condition of politics and literature, and perhaps also of morals, was generally benumbed by the torpedo of formality; and the vital feeling and zealous activity of Christianity were known to the few only, and these rather mourned over the state of things in secret, than exerted themselves in public to effect an alteration.
It is not for us to hazard even a conjecture respecting the number of persons who truly loved our LORD JESUS in this country at the earlier part of the last century. Piety is essentially a quiet and secret thing, and, though it labours to do good at all times, is greatly dependent on circumstances for the platform on which it acts--that may be the domestic hearth, or it may be “a spectacle to the world.” At this period, as if wearied with political distractions and disgusted with the impertinence of infidelity, the pious of all denominations very much sought retirement. We may hope, therefore, that the number of those who loved the Gospel was much greater than at first, and by comparison with the present age, it seems to have been; and perhaps no documents furnished greater proofs of this delightful fact than the early correspondence of the COUNTESS OF HUNTINGDON. This gives the most satisfactory evidence that “honourable women not a few,” and some men also in the highest walks, were quietly exercising the Christian graces, and waiting and longing for better days, before the Methodists had obtained publicity. Christians in the lower ranks of the community, though less conspicuous, were not likely to be far behind the rich and the noble in true religion; from which we infer that a goodly number, even in those seasons of visible lifelessness, was reserved by himself for the GOD of all grace, especially to hail and to aid the new era which was about to rise on the Church. Extending charity, however, to the utmost point which correct judgment will allow, we must look back on that period with feelings far from pleasurable. The Church is not likely to be in a healthy state when she is without exercise, and when she makes little or no aggressions on the world; nor can she richly enjoy those blessings herself which she is not anxious to distribute to others. But there are speculations which may not become us: “the day shall declare it.”
Happy was it for the world that this slumbering did not continue--that men arose, who, instead of enquiring about the number who should be saved, themselves strove to enter in at the strait gate, and zealously endeavoured to excite others to follow their example. The rise of Methodism now took place, in a band of brothers who studied at Oxford. Mr. JOHN WESLEY, in point of time as well as of talent, may be considered the first, though it is evident that He, who brings the blind by a way they know not, was simultaneously preparing the hearts of many for a most efficient co-operation in the blessed work about to be performed. Such were WHITEFIELD, CHARLES WESLEY, INGHAM, and HERVEY. The piety of these great men was deep and energetic, and it clothed them with so much boldness, that, although their pretensions were humble, and they were in a great degree the creatures of circumstances, as well as of divine grace, yet they were distinguished from their contemporaries--even from the best of them--and appeared the representatives of the ancient prophets and apostles. Men felt that they were the servants of the MOST HIGH, and earnest in declaring unto them the way of salvation. Like the ministry of JOHN the Baptist, theirs was a voice in the wilderness, and while it proclaimed the kingdom of heaven, it was heard with no ordinary attention.
The reader who, piously curious, desires to trace the movements of the HOLY SPIRIT on the heart, will find no common gratification in the following records: he will behold, in so many parts of the great deep, numerous symptoms of life, and will conclude that they are not to be attributed to any artificial or partial heat, but to divine power. “The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” There is, perhaps, no error to which we are more exposed than that of supposing that the originators of a series of movements, à priori, saw the whole process from the beginning, and acted from plan rather than from circumstances. We see the connexion which an event has with its antecedent, and therefore imagine the agent was well acquainted with the tendency of the one to effect the other. Universal experience, however, contradicts this inference: even in the history of men of this world, whose plans are often sagaciously formed, and whose object is more definite, we see that the ultimate success is more owing to a skilful and prompt use of accidents than to the guidance of an original design. No philosophy, independently of experience, could foresee the branching and stately oak in the acorn.
To assert, therefore, that the founders of Methodism began their career by chalking out their future operations, is to pay a compliment to their foresight at the expense of truth, and of the continued superintendence of that Being who apportions to his servants their daily work, as much as he does their daily bread. GOD has a plan, but he does not expose it to the workmen of the temple: it is enough that each knows what he has to do, and how to perform it, at the present moment.
The following history will abundantly verify these sentiments. Can a sober man, however systematized, imagine that anything like the impression which was made would have been effected, both in our own country and in America, if the leaders of the cause--all of whom were attached to the Established Church--had maintained what is called regularity, and a tame canonical obedience to men who had no spirit of enterprise in their character? Would the highways and hedges have been visited? Would the various branches of orthodox Dissenters have been roused to co-operation? Would lay agency have been made available to the furtherance of the cause? Would the more regular clergy themselves have been so active and useful within the pale of their own community, if there had been no pressure and provocation from without?
Now, nothing is more evident than that this irregularity was unintended. Zeal, indeed, was enkindled, but it would have continued to warm the churches had it not been dislodged by ecclesiastical power. The fire, however, was inextinguishable; and being forbidden to burn on the usual altar, it sought every avenue of escape, and visited and blessed other places. Field-preaching succeeded rejection from the churches; and the COUNTESS OF HUNTINGDON, who thought only of chaplains for her preachers, and of Episcopal ordination for her students, was at length compelled, very much against her will, to violate ecclesiastical order, and shelter herself and her companions in zeal under the Act of Toleration. This growth in the cause of the Gospel, and extension of their original design, characterize these “workers together with God,” and secure all the glory of the plan, as it does that of the execution, to Him: while this view of the economy meets a thousand objections urged by the enemies of vital godliness against this labour of mercy.
If, turning from the more general to the more particular instance, we contemplate the chief subject of the following biography, we shall recognize the same characteristic of divine guidance. How steadily and beautifully does grace advance in the Countess! We follow her, in the present history, from the girl of nine years of age, impressed with solemn thought and purposes on witnessing a funeral, through a series of changes, till we mark an elevation of spirit truly and sublimely Christian, which rises above the splendour of a court--which dares to allow zeal to act, first in visiting the poor--then in opening the drawing-room for noble hearers of the Gospel--then in the employment of laymen and in providing chapels for the accommodation of the multitude, even although those chapels were to be denominated conventicles! The CHILD becomes a MOTHER in Israel indeed, and theologians of the first-rate powers feel it a privilege to learn the way of GOD more perfectly from the lips and the pen of this saintly woman.
No contemplative mind will peruse THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE COUNTESS OF HUNTINGDON without noticing the power and the beauty of divine grace, when brought in contact with a vigorous mind, elevated in society by nobility and fortune. That energy which, unsanctified, gives obstinacy to prejudice and pride to vanity, when under the control of “the meekness of wisdom” leads to boldness of investigation, the avowal of Evangelical truth, and to humility, which, in the sight of GOD, is of great price.
It will be difficult, indeed, to find an instance of the power of GOD unto salvation brighter than that here exhibited. A woman, a noble personage, a favourite at Court, the wife of a nobleman who only tolerated and aided her zeal as he was won over by her chaste conversation; a widow, and at times much afflicted in her children--living, too, in an age when the gaiety and superstition of the nation were scarcely disturbed by the sober and reasonable voice of truth--every disadvantage overcome, and a meek yet firm profession made of love to our LORD JESUS CHRIST.
Nor is the providence less conspicuous than the grace of GOD in the Life of the Countess, as related to her Times. There was needed a hallowed work in progress among the poor and middle classes in society, but the means of reaching these, which the necessity of the case directed, such as preaching in fields and in barns, were not likely to command the attention of the rich and the noble. There needed, therefore, an instrument to bring the Gospel into friendly contact with the highest ranks. This instrument was the Countess. There was an attraction and an influence about her which were felt by many of the great in an extraordinary degree; and not only the courtly CHESTERFIELD, the political Duchess of MARLBOROUGH, the gay and frivolous NASH, but the infidel BOLINGBROKE paid her marked and sincere homage, and listened to the preachers whom she patronized and commended. Many will, doubtless, be astonished, on reading the following pages, to find so large a number of distinguished personages brought by this zealous woman to hear the word of truth, as well in the despised conventicle as in her own habitation. It was thus, by applying the discharging-rod to the two extremes, that a shock was given, and that circulation and sensibility were effected in the social body. Many of the rich and more of the poor met together, and their place of meeting was the foot of the cross. How wisely GOD adapts his agents to his work!
The personal character of the Countess of HUNTINGDON will be best seen in the general history of her Life and Times: she stands, indeed, so connected with almost all which was good in the last century, that the character of the age, so far as religion is concerned, was in some measure her own. It is not insinuated that she alone impressed that character on the Church, but that she entirely sympathized with it, and was not a whit behind the foremost in affection for souls and zeal for God--in spirituality of mind and fervour of devotion--in contrivance and energy for the extension of the Gospel--in a large and disinterested soul. If she did not appear as the public advocate of the cause, it was because a woman is forbidden to speak in the Church; and if she did not more excel in literary productions, it was because she knew her proper talent--that she was rather fitted to think with vigour and comprehensiveness, than to marshal words to please a critical review. She never, indeed, seems to have thought of the manner and structure of her sentences, but only of giving utterance to the sentiments--always pious, frequently burning--which filled her breast. Those who may be inclined to blame her letters, as deficient in smoothness and perspicuity, will do well to remember that they were not intended for the public eye; they will also admit that some minds of a high order and especially endowed with a power over others, are remarkable for an abruptness of expression which sometimes involves confusion: of this CROMWELL was a striking instance. The mental powers of Lady HUNTINGDON were anything but feeble. No lady, however pious and exalted by rank, could have commanded such respect as she did, unless in the possession of intellectual superiority. The sincerity of her piety and the ardour of her zeal were felt by the first personages of the land, as they were combined with the force of her understanding; and it is believed that the recognition of this fact, in the following work, will, by all impartial readers, be considered a sufficient refutation of Dr. SOUTHEY’S poetic imaginings of her mental weakness, and, indeed, insanity!
It will, likewise, be seen that the vigour of the Countess’s mind and the boldness of her zeal were in perfect keeping with the feminine graces. She was not an ELIZABETH. The lady, the friend of the poor, the wife, the mother, the sister, the widow--all private and domestic relations--were adorned by her elegance and affection, her meekness of wisdom and boundless kindness, her chaste and winning conversation. The reader will find it difficult to judge whether she appears to the greater advantage when co-operating with the spirits which were effecting a change throughout the moral world, or when quietly moving in domestic and social life.
The circumstances, too, in which she was placed, were favourable to the development of her character. Light enough shone on the professing Church to render the darkness visible; the efforts of the Oxford band, with those of other pious ministers of various denominations, both in England and in Scotland, had brought the deadness of merely formal Christianity into juxtaposition with the living truth of the Gospel, and the Countess saw the contrast, and her eye affected her heart. She wept, she vowed, she acted. She determined to throw all the weight of her influence into the scale of the Gospel; and while considerations of sex, of the disposition and views of her beloved lord, of the rank she held, and which she was so well qualified to support, would have restrained an ordinary mind of common piety from public interference, these very circumstances to her appeared to be talents of great worth, and she was excited to employ them to the greatest advantage. She beheld the rude and cruel treatment which holy men endured, as well from the educated and wealthy as from the ignorant and poor--from magistrates and ecclesiastics as much as from private individuals; and for what? For promulgating the truth--truth which she felt was essential to human salvation--and she generously stepped forward to their defence and encouragement. She had magnanimity enough to break the ranks of her order, and attraction enough to induce many to follow her example. She was as persevering as she was courageous; and you see her, having passed the rubicon, steadily advancing to the capitol. She remembered LOT’S wife; and no opposition--no unforeseen difficulty--no associations necessary to the furtherance of her work, however plebeian, could induce her to look backward. When, therefore, it was necessary to remove out of the drawing-room into the chapel, she did remove; and when she could no longer conduct the services with an ecclesiastical regularity, to which she was attached to the utmost reasonable extent, she braved the reproach of the conventicle; and as the demand for help increased, while clerical labourers were few, she went before even WESLEY in taking advantage of lay agency. She followed where, in her judgment, GOD was pleased to direct; and, secluded from her former elegant associations, she ultimately gave up herself entirely to the direction of her college and of her more immediate Connexion, and to the most really Catholic co-operation with all who loved the LORD JESUS in sincerity.
The world has, perhaps, never seen a finer instance of the power of divine grace, in enabling the mind to rise above all the unchristian restraints of State etiquette, the prejudice of early ecclesiastical associations, and the spirit of party and sectarianism. The last triumph will be viewed by some who understand human nature as the greatest of the three; for it is easier to shake off the trammels of rank and of education, than to merge the individuality of selfishness in the general cause of souls and of CHRIST. In this fine characteristic, to the glory of her age let it be recorded, the Countess met with much sympathy. Her Life and Times will prove how grand, how sublime, were the views of most of the distinguished agents in the work of GOD at that stirring period. With the exception of the leader of the great section of Methodism--whose intention to organize a distinct body we do not blame--all seemed to be so intent on the general good of the Church, that they overlooked the advantage of their own particular denominations, and were too eager to pluck men as brands from the burning, to spend time and energy in discussing questions of comparative non-importance. It was, indeed, to be expected that a time of greater leisure and calmness would follow, and that then an opportunity would be furnished of investigating the merits of the respective modes of worship and forms of government. We blame not this exercise when kept in a subordinate station; but who, possessed of a shred of the Countess’s mantle, does not weep over the state of truly Evangelical parties in the present day of strife? So far from combining their powers to oppose and overturn infidelity and idolatry, they more than waste a large portion of them in direct contention with each other. This is an unholy warfare indeed--a species of fratricide. What, indeed, is Churchmanship or Dissent compared with the salvation of the soul? The spirits of the noble group encircling the truly Catholic SELINA return an answer--“What indeed!”
Should the perusal of the following pages enkindle no breast into zeal for CHRIST, they will certainly fail of their reward; for we can scarcely conceive of anything, next to the history of our blessed LORD and his apostles, more likely, under the divine blessing, to set the heart on fire than the facts here recorded. Zeal, glowing, active, untiring zeal, animates all the story, and forms the living soul of the entire body: and while, on the one hand, we behold how GOD honours zeal in his servants, in making it tell so powerfully on the world; on the other hand, we see the proper workings of the doctrines of the cross, and how they consecrate the affections and form the true philanthropist. Let the world be brought under the action of the same principles, and what a scene of brotherly kindness and charity, of mutual zeal, of millennial happiness, will it exhibit!
The publication of the LIFE AND TIMES OF THE COUNTESS OF HUNTINGDON will appear to many very opportune, as a spirit of missionary enterprize has been conferred on the Churches, and success has attended, in an extraordinary degree, the efforts which have been made in the South Sea Islands,[1] so dear to the heart of this zealous and almost prophetic woman; and as the Lord has put it into the hearts of many to seek, with growing earnestness, the revival of this work at home. Those who look upon meetings of Christians for especial prayer for the HOLY GHOST, or upon public exertions in endeavouring to impress the conscience and win over the heart to CHRIST, with surprise, as though some new thing had happened, will stand corrected as they find how the present movements were anticipated by those holy personages whose lives are here recorded. Had their successors in the great work been warmed with their zeal, and secured the aid of the ALMIGHTY with prayer, united and continuous as theirs, the Church would have presented a different appearance. We only, therefore, seem to be returning to the piety and fervour of the days of old, when we become most anxious to work out our principles and to win souls to our divine REDEEMER. The rise and success of Methodism, in all its sections, are the models of revival meetings, and an encouragement to engage in them.
Those persons who may look on the gracious principle of the Gospel with fear or disapprobation will remember, that if the sacred band to which these pages refer did, in their zeal for the Gospel of the grace of GOD, ride over the forms of dull and lifeless ethics, which had been so generally adopted, and if they did offend the vicious and the self-righteous, their object was as pure as it was benevolent. They carried with them “letters of commendation” in the holiness of their own conduct, and personified the apostolic sentiment, that “grace reigns through righteousness.” Let any man of impartial mind read the following biography, and then say that the tendency of a gratuitous salvation is licentious. Nor could such a leader, however attached to one of the great sections of Methodism, with any fairness, charge the followers of the other leader, as a body, either with an undermining of moral requirements, or with a rejection of the righteousness which is of GOD by faith. Let facts, and not à priori reasoning, guide the judgment, and it will decide that the doctrines of faith are doctrines which purify the heart; and that the essential, plain, scriptural statements and belief of those doctrines, and not scholastic and metaphysical refinements, are the great instruments, in the economy of our salvation, of transforming the mind and of adorning the character with the Christian graces. The day is gone by, we trust, or at least it ought to have passed away, when either party shall condemn the other for deductions which are not admitted; when the Calvinist shall charge the Wesleyan with denying a sinner’s justification in the sight of GOD by faith alone in JESUS CHRIST; and when the Wesleyan shall teach his hearers to identify the Calvinistic scheme, as it is generally received, with the monstrous practical error of Antinomianism. “My little children, love one another.” Perhaps few, since the days of the catholic and amiable Apostle JOHN, have repeated these words with more sincerity and emphasis than SELINA, COUNTESS OF HUNTINGDON. She chose her side of the controversy--and, we think, with reason; but however strongly those writers might have expressed themselves, whom, on the whole, she approved, and whatever transient alienations may have taken place, they were clouds passing before the sun: the habit of her mind was Christian affection, and her prayer was for grace to be with all them that love our LORD JESUS CHRIST in sincerity.
A rigid examiner and critic of the following papers may, perhaps, be able to detect some variations, at different periods of her life, in the minuter parts of the Countess’s creed, as well as in her attachments--a temporary leaning towards mysticism, or towards legality, or towards hyper-Calvinism; but these aberrations were kept within bounds, and mutually corrected each other. He will, however, never find a want of true Catholicity, or the temperament of piety low and frigid. The fervour of her Christian affections would not allow her to be indifferent and heartless; her strong sense and reverence for the holy Scriptures preserved her from the practical errors of the mystics; and her views of the SAVIOUR were too enlarged to admit of self-righteous pride; while her concern for the glory of GOD and the salvation of mankind was too abiding and active to suffer her to be otherwise than “zealous of good works.” She practically as well as theoretically confessed her imperfection and sinfulness, whilst she rejoiced in the all-sufficiency of GOD her SAVIOUR; and of no one perhaps whose name adorns the history of the Church of CHRIST can it be said with greater propriety than of this extraordinary Lady--“Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all. Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain; but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates.”
J. K. FOSTER.
CHESHUNT COLLEGE, April 15th, 1839.
Chapter I
Antiquity of the Shirley Family. Saxon Origin. Norman Dignities. Royal Alliances. Foreign Crowns. British Coronets. The Clanricardes. Battle of Aghrim. The Parkers. The Lord High Chancellor found guilty. The Levinges. Irish Alliances. Birth of Lady Selina. Her Early Character. First Religious Impressions. The Grave of Youth. Piety. Private Prayer. Fashionable Life. Marriage. The Huntingdon Family. Its Ancestry. Tho Earl of Huntingdon. His Character. “Tears of the Muses.” Self-righteousness. The Methodists. Lady Margaret Hastings. The Light of Religious Truth. Force of Example. Conversion.
Chapter II
Lord Huntingdon. The Bishop of Gloucester. Mr. Whitefield’s Preaching. Its effects. Dr. Southey. Dr. Hurd. Archbishop Seeker. First Methodist Society. Lady Anne Frankland. Lord Scarborough. Dr. Young. Lady Fanny Shirley. Mrs. Temple. Lady Mary Wortley Montague. Lady Townshend. Mr. Pope. Mr. Ingham. Mr. Charles Wesley. Miss Robinson. Lord Lisburne. The House of Lords. Hammond the Poet. Somerville the Poet. Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough. Anecdotes. Duchess of Buckingham. Anecdotes. Duchess of Queensbury. Lord Orford. Lady Hinchinbroke.
Chapter III
Early Methodists. Lay Preaching. Mr. Bowers. Mr. Cennick. Itinerants. Ordination. Mr. Maxfield. Mr. Wesley’s Opinion of his Call. Mr. Wesley’s Sanction. Bishop of Derry. Fetter-lane Society. Conduct of the Bishops. Opposition without. Bickerings. Shaw. The Moravians. Separation in Fetter-lane. First Division. The Society in Moorfields. Enthusiasm. Pluralities. Bishop Burnet. Mrs. Mitchell. Anecdote. Mr. Charles Wesley and the Moravians. David Taylor. General Baptists. Mr. Bennett. Grace Murray. John Nelson.
Chapter IV
The Clergy. Mr. Simpson. Mr. Wesley’s Opinion of him. The One Wrong Principle. Mr. Graves. His Recantation. His Explanatory Declaration. Lady Huntingdon’s Schools. Lord Huntingdon’s Character. Miss Cooper: her Death. Letters. The Poor. Death of Mr. Jones. The Poor Penitent’s Death-bed. Mr. Wesley’s preaching on his Father’s Tomb. Donnington Park. Lady Abney. Dr. Watts. “The Grave.” Dr. Blair. Letters. Colonel Gardiner. His Marvellous Conversion. Letters.
Chapter V
Lay-Preachers. Mr. Wesley’s Defence of them. Converted Clergy. Death of Lady Huntingdon’s Sons, George and Ferdinando Hastings. First Methodist Conference. Dr. Doddridge. Letters from Lady Huntingdon. Mr. Jones. The Pretender. Lord Carteret. George II. Death of Colonel Gardiner. Letters to Mr. Wesley, Dr. Doddridge, and Charles Wesley.
Chapter VI
Death of the Earl of Huntingdon. His Lordship’s Epitaph. Letters from Sir John Thorold. Lady Huntingdon’s Piety. Letter to Dr. Doddridge. Lady Kilmorey. Duchess of Somerset. Welsh Preachers. Lady Frances Hastings. Mrs. Edwin. Lady Huntingdon’s adherence to the Church of England. Letter from Dr. Watts to Dr. Doddridge.
Chapter VII
Mr. Whitefield arrives in England. Preaches at Lady Huntingdon’s. Letters. Lord Chesterfield. Lord Bolingbroke. Anecdotes of Mr. Whitefield’s Preaching. Appointed Chaplain to Lady Huntingdon. Christian Soldiers. Bishop of Exeter. Colonel Gumley. Mrs. Edwin. Lord St. John. Lady Suffolk. The Court Beauties. Lord Chesterfield. Marquis of Lothian. Lady Mary Hamilton. Anecdotes. Lady Townshend. English Nobility at Lady Huntingdon’s. Sir Watkin Williams Wynn. Persecution of the Welsh Methodists. Liberal Conduct of the Government. Marmaduke Gwynne, Esq.
Chapter VIII
Dr. Gibbons. Dr. Gill. Mr. Darracott. The Young Lord Huntingdon. Lord Chesterfield. The Jews. German Minister. An Impostor. David Levi. Lady Fanny Shirley. Mr. Whitefield and Mr. Wesley. Ashby-place. Mr. Baddelley. Lady Huntingdon’s Illness. Lady Anne Hastings. Mr. Hervey. Bishop of Exeter. Mr. Thompson. Duke of Somerset. Mr. Moses Bruce. Bishop Lavington.
Chapter IX
Mr. Romaine. Earthquake in London. Mr. Romaine appointed Chaplain to Lady Huntingdon. Ashby-place. Dr. Stonhouse. Dr. Akenside. New Jersey College. Governor Belcher. President Burr. Dissenting Ministers. Dr. Doddridge. Education of Ministers. Mrs. Hester Gibbon. Mr. Law. Mr. Whitefield’s success at Rotherham. Lord Lyttleton. Mr. Hervey. Dr. Doddridge.
Chapter X
Mr. Whitefield at Ashby. Mr. Moses Browne. Mr. Martin Madan. Lady Frances Hastings. Dr. Stonhouse. Mr. Hartley. Death of the Prince of Wales. Anecdote. Lady Charlotte Edwin. Dr. Ayscough. Lord Lyttleton. Death of Lord Bolingbroke. Dr. Trapp. Dr. Church. Anecdotes.
Chapter XI
Mr. Whitefield visits Scotland. Dr. Erskine and Dr. Robertson. Scotch Nobility. Mr. and Lady Jane Nimmo. Letter to Lady Huntingdon. Mr. Wardrobe. Mr. Hervey: his “Theron and Aspasio.” Letters to Lady Huntingdon. Lady Fanny Shirley. Prince and Princess of Wales. Mr. Hervey’s Method of Preaching. Letter from Lady Huntingdon. Mr. Steward. Lady Hastings.
Chapter XII
History of Mr. Whitefield’s Tabernacle and Tottenham-court Chapel. Whitefield in London. Mr. Broughton. Countess of Hertford. Fetter-lane. Mr. Cennick. Methodist Society. Tabernacle commenced. Welsh Preachers. Moorfields. Lay Preachers. Nobility at the Tabernacle. Opposition of the Dissenters. Anecdotes of Dr. Watts. Lady Huntingdon and the Moravians. Sir Thomas and Lady Abney. Tabernacle opened. Long-acre Chapel. Hon. Hume Campbell. Tottenham-court Chapel opened. Mr. Edward Shuter. Foote the Player. “The Minor.” Lord Halifax. Duke of Grafton. Mr. Fox. Mr. Pitt. Mr. Rowland Hill. Captain Joss. Mr. Matthew Wilks. Mr. Knight. Mr. Hyatt. Mr. Whitefield’s Will.
Chapter XIII
Mr. Venn begins to attract notice. Revival of Religion in the Established Church and among the Methodists. By whom first commenced. Mr. Venn’s acquaintance with Mr. Broughton, one of the Original Methodists. Dr. Haweis. Mr. Law. Illness of Mr. Venn. Accompanies Mr. Whitefield to Bristol. Remains with Lady Huntingdon at Clifton. Letter from Mr. Whitefield. Letter to Mr. Venn from Lady Huntingdon. Mr. Whitefield’s Letter to Mr. Venn. Oxford Students. Dr. Haweis. Mr. Whitefield’s Letter to Dr. Haweis. Convicts. Preaching to the Nobility at Lady Huntingdon’s. Handel. Giardini. Musical Composers.
Chapter XIV
Lady Huntingdon and Mr. Fletcher. Introduction to Lady Huntingdon by Mr. Wesley. Bishop of London. Letter to Mr. Charles Wesley. Mr. Fletcher preaches and celebrates the Communion at Lady Huntingdon’s. Letter to Mr. C. Wesley. Letter to Lady Huntingdon. Mr. Fletcher appointed Vicar of Madely. Writes to Lady Huntingdon and Mr. Charles Wesley. Visits Mr. Berridge. Letter to Lady Huntingdon. Induction to Madely. Success of his Ministry. Letter to Lady Huntingdon.
Chapter XV
Rise of Methodism in Yorkshire. Mr. Ingham. Count Zinzendorff. Mr. Delamotte. Mr. Okeley. Mr. Rogers. Letter from Mr. Whitefield. The United Brethren. Mr. Batty. Lady Betty Hastings. Ledstone Hall. Mr. Ingham’s Marriage with Lady Margaret Hastings. Count Zinzendorff visits Yorkshire. Moravian Settlement at Fulneck. John Nelson. Mr. Whitefield’s Letter to Mr. Ingham. Mr. Grimshaw. Lord and Lady Huntingdon visit Ledstone Hall. Mr. Charles Wesley. Mr. Graves encourages John Nelson. Persecution. Provincial Magistrates. John Nelson taken to Prison. Liberated by the influence of Lady Huntingdon. Lord Sunderland. Letter from Lady Huntingdon to Mr. Ingham. The Vicar of Colne. Mr. Grimshaw’s Opinions. Moravian Nobles. John Cennick. Mr. Ingham leaves the Moravians. John Allen.
Chapter XVI
Mr. Whitefield returns to England. Writes to Mr. Ingham. Visits Yorkshire. Lady Huntingdon in Yorkshire. Extraordinary Occurrence. Mr. Graves. Mr. Milner. Mr. Grimshaw. Conference at Leeds. Mr. Ingham is chosen General Overseer. Mr. Charles Wesley. Mr. Whitefield at Haworth. Inghamite Churches. Church Discipline. Inghamite Preachers. Mr. Newton visits Yorkshire. His Letter to Mr. Wesley. Anecdote of his Preaching at Leeds. Mr. Romaine’s Opinion of the Inghamite Churches. Lady Huntingdon at Aberford. Mr. Romaine preaches in Mr. Ingham’s Chapels. Mr. George Burder. Mr. Romaine at Haworth. Mr. Grimshaw. Sandeman’s Letters. Church Government.
Chapter XVII
Mr. Venn removed to Huddersfield. Mr. Burnett. Lord Dartmouth. Dr. Conyers. Visitation Sermon. Mr. Thornton. Lady Huntingdon visits Yorkshire. Mr. Romaine. Mr. Wesley. Mr. Madan. Letters from Dr. Conyers to Lady Huntingdon. Letter from Mr. Venn. Mr. Titus Knight. Letter from Mr. Grimshaw. Death of Mr. Grimshaw. Letter from Mr. Venn. Letter from Dr. Conyers. Letter from Mr. Fletcher. Lady Huntingdon, with Messrs. Townshend and Fletcher, visit Huddersfield. Illness of Lady Huntingdon. Mr. Whitefield in Yorkshire. William Shent. Mr. Venn’s Irregularities. Mrs. Hannah More. Defence of Mr. Venn. Letter from Mr. Fletcher. Mrs. Deane. Lady Irvine. Mr. Occum, the Indian Preacher. Captain Scott. The London Shunamite. Mr. Wilson.
Chapter XVIII
Melancholy State of Mr. Ingham. Lady Huntingdon and Mr. Venn. Illness and Death of Lady Margaret Ingham. Letter from Mr. Ingham. Letter from Mr. Romaine. Mr. Ingham’s Treatise on the Faith and Hope of the Gospel. Mr. Riddell. Lady Huntingdon sends Students to Yorkshire. Letter from Mr. Riddell. Mr. Joseph Milner, of Hull, attends Lady Huntingdon’s Preachers. Begins to Preach the Gospel. Mr. Myler. Letter from Lady Huntingdon to Mr. Romaine. Mr. Tyler’s Labours at Hull. Letter from Lady Huntingdon to Mr. Milner. York. Mr. Wren. Letter from Lady Huntingdon. Letter from Mr. Wren. Mr. Glascott. Mr. Wells. Mr. Powley. Lady Huntingdon’s Chapel at York.
Chapter XIX
Death of the Hon. Henry Hastings. Lady Huntingdon’s Exertions at Brighton. Joseph Wall. Mr. Whitefield’s first Visit to Brighton. Lady Huntingdon sells her Jewels. The Chapel opened by Mr. Madan. Mr. Romaine. Oathall. Captain Scott. Anecdote. Old Abraham. Letters from Mr. Fletcher and Mr. Romaine. Christian Perfection. Mr. Maxfield and Mr. Bell. Letter from Mr. Romaine. Mr. Madan. Letters from Messrs. Berridge, Romaine, and Venn. Mr. Jones (of St. Saviour’s).
Chapter XX
Dr. Haweis. Mr. Romaine driven from the Chapel of the Broadway. Lord Dartmouth. Letters from Messrs. Romaine and Conyers. Sinless Perfection. Letters from Messrs. Romaine and Wesley. Erasmus, Bishop of Arcadia. Mr. Toplady. Letters from Messrs. Fletcher and Berridge. Death of Lady Selina Hastings. Colonel Hastings. Account of Lady Selina’s Death. Letters from Lord Dartmouth. Mr. Venn. Mr. Fletcher. Mr. Berridge. Oathall Chapel. Letters from Mr. Berridge. Mr. Venn’s “Complete Duty of Man.” Letters from Messrs. Venn and Berridge.
Chapter XXI
Mr. Romaine. Lectureship at St. Dunstan’s. Lord Mansfield. Darkness Visible. The Bishop of Peterborough. Popular Election. St. Ann’s, Blackfriars. Probation Sermon. Contest. Canvassing. Scrutiny. Second Election. Suit in Chancery. Gratitude of Lady Huntingdon. Mr. Jesse. Mr. Shirley. Mr. Romaine’s Views of his Preferment. Lewes. Lady Huntingdon procures an opening for Mr. Romaine, for Mr. Madan, and Mr. Fletcher. The Oratorio. Musical Taste of Mr. Madan and Dr. Haweis. Lady Huntingdon’s Chapel at Lewes opened and re-opened. Mr. Mason. His Work on the Catechism. Mr. Edwards, of Ipswich. Mr. Berridge and the Bees. Southey’s “Reflections.” Their Refutation. Character of Berridge. His Wit. His Labours. Berridge and the Bishop.
Chapter XXII
Mr. and Mrs. Powys. Letters. Mr. Whitefield. Mr. Fletcher. Mr. Venn. Sir C. Hotham. Howel Harris. Chapel at Brighton re-opened. Letters. Mr. Romaine. Mr. Talbot. Mr. Berridge. Anecdote of the Countess. Mr. De Courcy. Mr. Vincent Perronet. Mr. Toplady. Mr. Bliss. Mr. Pentycross. Chapel at Chichester opened. Chapels at Petworth, at Guildford, and Basingstoke. Enlargement of that at Brighton. Mr. Thomas Jones.
Chapter XXIII
Public Fast. Extracts from Lady Huntingdon’s Letters. Prayer-meetings for the Nation. Mr. Venn. Mr. Berridge. Singular Effects of his Preaching. Mr. Romaine and Mr. Madan’s visit to Everton. Mr. Wesley preaches at Everton. Convulsive Motions amongst the Congregation. Letters to Lady Huntingdon. Lady Huntingdon visits Mr. Berridge. Mr. Venn and Mr. Fletcher preach at Everton. Loud Cries amongst their Hearers. Duke of York. Dr. Dodd. Murder of Mr. Johnson. Lord Ferrers. Tried by his Peers. Visited in Prison by Lady Huntingdon. Singular Conduct of Lord Ferrers. Execution.
Chapter XXIV
Proposed Union among the Evangelical Clergy. Methodism in Scotland. Lady Frances Gardiner. Mr. Townshend sent to Edinburgh. Mr. De Courcy. Lady Glenorchy. Mr. Wesley. Lady Maxwell. Samson Occum, the Indian Preacher. Mohegan Indians. Dr. Haweis. Affair of Aldwincle. Lady Huntingdon purchases the Advowson; writes to Mr. Thornton. Lady Huntingdon’s Letters to Lord Dartmouth and Mr. Madan. Anecdote.
Chapter XXV
Progress of Piety at Cambridge. Rowland Hill. Oxford. St. Edmund’s Hall. The Six Students. Expulsion. Sir Richard Hill. Dr. Horne, Bishop of Norwich. Mr. Goodwyn. Charges against Lady Huntingdon. Account of the Students, and the Proceedings against them. Letter from Lady Huntingdon. Lady Buchan. Letter from Mr. Wesley. Cheltenham. Lord Dartmouth. Letter from Mr. Venn. Mr. Wells. Mr. Trinder. Mr. Whitefield to Mr. Madan. Mr. Madan to Mr. Wesley. Lady Huntingdon to Mr. Alderman Harris. Gloucestershire Association. Lady Huntingdon to Mr. Brewer. Chapels at Gloucester, Worcester, and Cheltenham. Lady Huntingdon’s Letter concerning them.
Chapter XXVI
Chapel at Bath. Pope the Poet. Warburton, Bishop of Gloucester. Lady Fanny Shirley. Charles Wesley. John Wesley. Beau Nash. Anecdote. Mr. Hervey. Methodist Conference. Mr. Larwood. Potter, Archbishop of Canterbury. Dr. Doddridge. Hon. Mrs. Seawen. Mr. Cruttenden. Mr. Neal. Dr. Doddridge visits Bristol. Visits Lady Huntingdon at Bath. Anecdote. Dr. Oliver. Dr. Hartley. Prior Park. Death of Dr. Doddridge. Mr. Grinfield. The Moravians. Count Zinzendorff. Elizabeth King. Lady Gertrude Hotham. Death of Miss Hotham. Marriage of Sir Charles Hotham. Death of his Lady. His own Decease. Death of his Mother, Lady Gertrude. Mr. Theophilus Lindsay. Mrs. Brewer. Lord Huntingdon and Mr. Grimshaw. Lord Chesterfield and Mr. Stanhope. Countess of Moira. Mrs. Carteret and Mr. Cavendish. Countess Delitz. Lady Chesterfield. Earl of Bath. Lord Cork. Anecdote of George II.
Chapter XXVII
Chapter at Bath. Bretby Hall. Mr. Townsend and Mr. Jesse. Mr. Romaine. Mr. Shrapnell. Mrs. Wordsworth. Letters from Mr. Romaine. Chapel opened at Bath. Mr. Whitefield and Mr. Townsend. Mr. Fletcher’s Labours at Bath. Lord and Lady Glenorchy. Letter from Lady Glenorchy to Lady Huntingdon. Death of Lord and Lady Sutherland. Lady Huntingdon, the Wesleys, and Mr. Whitefield. Letter from Lady Huntingdon to Mr. Wesley. Horace Walpole. Lady Betty Cobbe. Nobility attend Lady Huntingdon’s Chapel. Letter from Mr. Whitefield to Mr. Powys. Mr. Stillingfleet. Mr. Venn and Sir Charles Hotham. Anecdotes of Mr. Venn. Mr. Andrews and the Bishop of Gloucester. Mr. Venn at Trevecca. Mr. Lee. Captain Scott and Mr. Venn. Anecdotes of Captain Scott. Letter from Mr. Venn. Mr. Howel Davies. Anecdote. Dr. Haweis. Mr. Cradock Glascott’s Letter from Mr. Fletcher.
LIFE AND TIMES
OF THE
COUNTESS OF HUNTINGDON
Chapter I
Antiquity of the Shirley Family--Saxon origin--Norman dignities--Royal alliances--Foreign crowns--British coronets--the Clanricardes--Battle of Aghrim--the Parkers--The Lord High Chancellor found guilty--the Levinges--Irish alliances--Birth of Lady Selina--her early character--First religious impressions--The grave of youth--Piety--Private prayer--Fashionable life--Marriage--The Huntingdon family--its ancestry--The Earl of Huntingdon--his character--“Tears of the Muses”--Self-righteousness--The Methodists--Lady Margaret Hastings--The light of Religious Truth--Force of Example--Conversion.
Selina, COUNTESS OF HUNTINGDON, the most extraordinary woman perhaps of an age fertile in extraordinary characters, and in many respects the greatest whom England has produced, was descended from the ancient and honourable house of SHIRLEY--a house as remarkable for a long successive union of piety with nobility, as for the rarely-equalled purity of its genealogical tree, one of whose ancient branches is coeval with the time of Edward the Confessor. All its intermarriages having taken place with the most ancient and illustrious English houses, many of its line having distinguished themselves in the military history of their country--it would be difficult to find a family more illustrious or better entitled to the claim of true nobility. The devotion and fidelity they have always borne to their Sovereign Princes are great and singular. Their high and renowned alliances joined them in a near degree of propinquity of blood to the Royal Stem of England, both Saxon and Norman; to those of France, Scotland, Denmark, Aragon, Leon, Castile, the Roman Empire, and almost all the princely houses of Christendom. Within the kingdom of Great Britain, they are connected with the most honourable and princely houses of the Barons of Berkeley, Dukes of Norfolk and Buckingham, Earls of Arundel, Oxford, Northumberland, Shrewsbury, Kent, Derby, Worcester, Huntingdon, Pembroke, Nottingham, Suffolk, Berkshire, and to most of the ancient and flourishing families of the nobility and gentry of the monarchy. Thus the living descendants of this illustrious house have the honour to issue from the blood of Emperors, Kings, Princes, Dukes, and some of the most renowned Earls. The lands and seigniories which they have held from the remotest period have added to their honour; but, above all earthly things, we hold their ardent and inextinguishable zeal for the advancement of the service of the Most High God, and their singular liberality towards the Church--for they have, at all periods, evinced the sincerity of their devotion by the great number of places of worship they have founded, built, re-edified, endowed, or enriched, with their means and revenue, in various parts of the kingdom.
The SHIRLEYS derive their descent from Sasuallo or Sewallus de Etingdon, whose name (says Dugdale, in his “Antiquities of Warwickshire”) argues him to have been of the old English stock; which Sewallus resided at Nether-Etingdon, in the county of Warwick, about the reign of Edward the Confessor, the seat of his ancestors for many generations before. After the Conquest, the lordship of Nether-Etingdon was given to Henry, Earl of Ferrars, in Normandy, who was one of the principal adventurers with the Norman Duke William, and was held under him by this Sewallus; to whose posterity, in the male line, it has continued to the present day.
From this Sewallus descended, in a direct line, Sir HENRY SHIRLEY, Bart., who was sheriff of Leicester in the last year of the reign of James the First. He married, in 1615, Lady Dorothy Devereux, the youngest of the two daughters of that great but unfortunate favourite of Queen Elizabeth, Robert, Earl of Essex, and sister and co-heiress to her brother, the last Earl of Essex. By this alliance, the Earls Ferrars quarter the arms of France and England with their own; the Earl of Essex having been maternally descended from Richard Plantagenet, Earl of Cambridge, grandson to King Edward III., and grandfather to King Edward IV., and also from Thomas Plantagenet, Duke of Gloucester, youngest son of Edward III. Sir Henry Shirley had, by the Lady Dorothy Devereux,[2] two sons and one daughter, Lettice,[3] who married William de Burgh, Earl of Clanricarde. His eldest son, Charles, died unmarried about the year 1649; and Sir Henry Shirley was succeeded by his son, Sir Robert Shirley, who, for his loyalty to Charles I., was imprisoned[4] in the Tower of London, by Oliver Cromwell, where he died during his confinement, not without suspicion of poison. It was his singular praise to have done the best in the worst times, and to have hoped even in the most calamitous circumstances. By his wife, Catherine, daughter of Humphrey Okeover, Esq., of Okeover, in the county of Stafford, he had two sons: Sir Seymour Shirley, his successor, and Sir Robert, afterwards Earl Ferrers;--also two daughters: Catherine, married to Peter Venables, Baron of Kinderton; and Dorothy, to George Vernon, Esq., of Sudbury, in Derbyshire. The only son of Sir Seymour Shirley, by the Lady Diana Bruce, daughter of the Earl of Aylesbury, surviving his father but a short time, the title of Baronet devolved on his uncle, Sir Robert Shirley, the grandfather of Lady Huntingdon; which Sir Robert Shirley, FIRST EARL FERRERS, was born at East-Sheen, in Surrey, during his father’s confinement in the Tower; and on December 14, 1677, his Majesty King Charles II., taking into consideration that this Sir Robert Shirley was grandson and heir to Lady Dorothy Devereux, the younger of the two sisters and heirs of Robert Devereux, the last Earl of Essex of that family, and that the issue male of the elder sister and co-heiress, the Lady Frances, who married William Seymour, Marquis of Hertford, was then extinct, was pleased to confirm unto him and his heirs the ancient Baronies of FERRARS of Chartley, Bourchier, and Lovaine; which honour had been in abeyance between the Ladies Frances and Dorothy Devereux, and their descendants, from the decease of their brother, the Earl of Essex, without issue. Sir Robert Shirley being so declared LORD FERRARS OF CHARTLEY, &c., was introduced into the House of Peers, January 28, 1677–8, and took his place according to the ancient writ of summons to John de Ferrars, his lineal ancestor [February 6, 27th Edward I.] He was Master of the Horse and Steward of the Household to Queen Catherine, consort of King Charles II., and was sworn of the Privy Council to King William [May 25, 1699]. In the reign of Queen Anne, he was again sworn of the Privy Council [November 25, 1708], according to the act for the union of the two kingdoms; and on the 3rd September, 1711, was advanced to the titles of VISCOUNT TAMWORTH and EARL FERRARS, by reason of his descent from the ancient and noble family of Ferrars.
His Lordship was twice married, and had a family of twenty-seven children. His first Countess was daughter and heiress to Lawrence Washington, Esq., of Caresden, in Wiltshire, who, dying October 2, 1693, was buried at Stanton-Harold; he married, as his second wife, in August, 1699, Selina, daughter of George Finch, Esq., of the city of London. This Lady Ferrars died March 20, 1762. Robert Shirley, the eldest son, was created Earl Ferrars, but died before his father. He had been twice married; first, to his cousin, Catherine, daughter to Peter Venables, Baron of Kinderton, who dying in her nonage, he married, secondly, Anne, daughter of Sir Humphrey Ferrars, heiress to her grandfather, John de Ferrars, Esq., of Tamworth Castle, last heir male of the Barons Ferrars of Groby. She bore him three sons, Robert, Ferrars, and Thomas, and a daughter, Elizabeth. Robert became, by his father’s death, heir-apparent to his grandfather, and was elected Knight of the Shire for the county of Leicester in the last Parliament called by Queen Anne. He survived both his brothers, and likewise died of the small-pox in the life-time of his grandfather, July 5, 1714, unmarried, leaving his sister Elizabeth, married, in 1716, to James Compton, Earl of Northumberland, his heir; she died March, 1740–1, leaving an only daughter, and heiress, Charlotte, Baroness Ferrars, first wife of George, Marquis Townshend.
Earl Ferrars departed this life on the 25th of December, 1717, and was succeeded in his title and estates by his second son, the Honourable Washington Shirley, who took his seat in the House of Peers as Second Earl Ferrars. His Lordship was father to Lady Huntingdon, and was born June 22, 1677, and named Washington, after his mother, the daughter and heiress, as we have said, to Lawrence Washington, Esq., by Eleanor, sister to Sir Christopher Guise, Bart., of Hynam Court, in the county of Gloucester. Lord Ferrars was a nobleman of great honour and probity, and a lover of justice; the affability and benevolence of his disposition, and the goodness of his understanding, made him beloved and esteemed throughout his life. The respect and veneration paid to him while he lived, and the universal lamentations at his death, are ample testimonies of a character not easily to be paralleled.
Lady Huntingdon’s mother was descended from a family of great respectability and antiquity, seated at Parwick, in the county of Derby, as early as 1561. Her great grandfather, Richard Levinge, Esq., of Parwick, married the aunt of Thomas Parker, an eminent lawyer, who rose to the dignity of Lord High Chancellor and Earl of Macclesfield. It was an extraordinary instance of the fallibility of human virtue, that this every way distinguished character, one of the great ornaments of the Peerage, who had so long presided at the administration of justice, should himself be arraigned as a criminal on charges of corruption. He was tried at the bar of the House, and unanimously pronounced guilty; in consequence of which he was removed from his high office and fined thirty thousand pounds, as a punishment for his offence. He was the second Lord Chancellor of England impeached by the grand inquest of the nation for corruption of office; and, like his great predecessor, Lord St. Alban’s, found guilty of the charge. The prosecution was carried on with great virulence; and though rigid justice demanded a severe sentence, yet party zeal and personal animosity were supposed to have had their weight in that which was passed upon him. His Lordship’s son succeeded, as second Earl of Macclesfield; and his only daughter, Lady Elizabeth Parker, married Sir William Heathcote, of Hursley, in the county of Southampton, Bart. Upon the male descendants of this lady the honours of her father are entailed, in default, at any period, of the direct male line.
Her Ladyship’s grandfather, the Right Hon. Sir Richard Levinge, Knight, of Parwick, Recorder of, and member for, Chester, having attained great eminence at the English Bar, was appointed, in 1690, Solicitor-General in Ireland and Speaker of the House of Commons. He was created a Baronet of that kingdom by Queen Anne, October 26, 1704; he was a man of good judgment and great integrity; and set himself with great application to the functions of his important post. In 1711, Sir Richard was nominated Attorney-General, and in 1720, Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas. A few years after his removal to Ireland he purchased the estate of High Park, now Knockdrin Castle, in the county of Westmeath, the present residence of the Levinge family. Sir Richard married, first, in 1680, Mary, daughter and co-heiress of Sir Gawen Corbyn, of London, Knt., by whom he had three sons and three daughters; the eldest of the latter, Mary, married Washington, Earl Ferrars; the second, Dorothea, married first Sir John Rawdon, of Moira, and afterwards, Dr. Charles Cobb, Archbishop of Dublin; the third, Grace, married Edward Kennedy, Esq., of Mullow, in the county of Longford.
Sir Richard Levinge married, second, Mary, daughter of the Hon. Robert Johnson, one of the Barons of the Exchequer in Ireland, by whom he had one son, who died July 13, 1724, and was interred in St. Mary’s, in Dublin. His eldest son, Sir Richard, succeeded to him as the second Baronet. He was for many years member of Parliament for Blessington, and died November 2, 1731, without issue. Lady Levinge survived him till the 25th of February, 1747. She was a daughter of Sir Arthur Rawdon (brother of Mary, Countess of Granard, and nephew of Edward, Earl Conway), by Helena, daughter and heiress to Sir James Graham, third and youngest son of William, Earl of Monteith and Airth, in Scotland. The title devolved upon Sir Richard’s brother, Sir Charles Levinge, whose grandson, Sir Richard Levinge, the present representative of the family, married the eldest daughter of Lord Rancliffe, and has a very numerous family. Miss Selina Levinge, sister to Sir Richard, married the Rev. Henry Lambert Bayley, of Ballyarthur, in the county of Wicklow; and Miss Anne Levinge espoused the Rev. William Gregory, second son of W. Gregory, Esq., Secretary of the Civil Department in Ireland, and grandson, maternally, of William, first Earl of Clancarthy, and nephew of the present Archbishop of Tuam.
Dorothy Levinge, one of the three sisters of the Right. Hon. Sir Richard Levinge, Bart., married Henry Buckston, Esq., whose ancestors had been seated at Bradborne, in Derbyshire, for several centuries. His descendant, the Rev. German Buckston of Bradborne, is the present representative of that family.
LADY SELINA SHIRLEY was the second of the three daughters and co-heiresses of Washington, second Earl Ferrars, and was born August 24, 1707. Her eldest sister, the Lady Elizabeth, was married to Joseph Gascoigne Nightingale, Esq., of Enfield, in the county of Middlesex, and Mamhead, in the county of Devon; and the youngest, Lady Mary, to Thomas Needham, Viscount Kilmorey, of the kingdom of Ireland, nephew to the Earl of Huntingdon. His Lordship dying Feb. 3, 1768, without issue by Lady Kilmorey, who died August 12, 1784, was succeeded by his next surviving brother, John, tenth Viscount, grandfather of Francis, present Earl of Kilmorey. Lady Elizabeth Nightingale had a son, named Washington Nightingale, who died, unmarried, in 1754; and a daughter, Elizabeth, sole heiress to her father and mother, who was married to Wilmot, Earl of Lisburne, an Irish Peer, and died May 19, 1755, in giving birth to Wilmot Vaughan, second Earl of Lisburne. On the death of Sir Robert Nightingale, Bart., one of the directors of the East India Company, who died, unmarried, in 1722, the family estates devolved upon his cousin, Robert Gascoigne, Esq., second son of the Rev. Joseph Gascoigne, of Enfield; and the baronetcy lay dormant for three quarters of a century, until it was claimed, in 1797, by Lieut.-Colonel Edward Nightingale, father of the present Baronet. But the eldest son of Mr. Gascoigne had assumed the name of Nightingale previous to his marriage with the Lady Elizabeth Shirley, in 1725, who was interred with him in Westminster Abbey, where a well-known and unrivalled monument by Roubilliac is erected to their memory.
Lady SELINA’S mind, even in very early infancy, was of a serious cast. When she was only nine years of age, the sight of a corpse, about her own age, on its way to the grave, induced her to attend the burial. There the first impressions of deep seriousness concerning an eternal world took possession of her heart, and with many tears she earnestly implored God, on the spot, that whenever he should be pleased to take her away, he would deliver her from all her fears, and give her a happy departure. She often, afterwards, visited that grave, and always preserved a lively sense of the affecting scene she had there witnessed.
Though no correct views of evangelical truth had hitherto enlightened her Ladyship’s mind, yet even during her juvenile days she frequently retired for prayer to a particular closet, where she could not be observed, and in all her little troubles found relief in pouring out the feelings of her heart to God. When she grew up and was introduced into the world, she continued to pray that she might marry into a serious family. None kept up more of the ancient dignity and propriety than the house of Huntingdon: the family possessed a sort of decorum which she perhaps mistook for religion. With the head of that family she accordingly became united on the 3rd of June, 1728. His Lordship was descended in a direct line from Francis, second Earl of Huntingdon, who married Catherine, eldest daughter and co-heiress to Henry Cole, Lord Montacute, son and heir to Sir Richard Cole, Knight of the Garter, and Margaret, Countess of Salisbury, daughter to George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence, brother to Edward IV., and heiress to her brother Edward, Earl of Warwick, who was the last heir male of the Royal House of Plantagenet. Talent and piety adorned the Hastings family: Lord Hastings, the uncle of Lord Huntingdon, was a nobleman of great learning, and of so excellent a disposition, that no less than ninety-eight elegies were made on him, and published under the title of “Lacrymæ Musarum; the Tears of the Muses:” among which was Dryden’s first essay.
The house of Huntingdon has produced many bright examples of religious females, who consecrated their endowments to the service of God. Of this number was the Lady Elizabeth Langham, the lady of Sir J. Langham, Bart., and aunt to Lord Huntingdon, of whom an interesting account has been preserved in “Burder’s Memoirs of eminently Pious Women.” His Lordship’s sisters, particularly Lady Betty and Lady Margaret Hastings, were women of singular excellence.
Theophilus, ninth Earl of Huntingdon, was the eldest son of Theophilus, seventh Earl, by his second marriage, and was born at Donnington Park, November 12, 1696, and was baptized on the 20th of the same month. He succeeded his half-brother George, eighth Earl of Huntingdon, February 22, 1704–5; and at the coronation of George II., October 11, 1727, carried the sword of State. His Lordship’s mother, Frances, Countess of Huntingdon, was daughter and sole heiress to Francis Levison Fowler, Esq., of Harnage-Grange, in the county of Salop, and granddaughter of Lord Kinderton, who had married Lady Catherine Shirley, sister to Robert, first Earl Ferrars.
Lord Huntingdon’s exemplary character, his marriage and issue, are set forth in an elegant inscription from the pen of Lord Bolingbroke, on a monument erected to his memory[5] by Lady Huntingdon, in the church of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, where he lies interred.
Such was the noble Earl to whom the Lady SELINA SHIRLEY was united “in love’s inviolable bonds;” and his Lordship well knew how to value the treasure which Providence had given him, in a woman of such exalted merit and amiable qualities, and accordingly made it his study to repay the felicity with which she crowned his life. He considered himself possessed of the greatest possible addition to his earthly happiness, and from the period of his marriage was uniformly an attentive and affectionate husband, which character he maintained with a becoming mixture of dignity and affection till the day of his death. His esteem for her was equal to that affection, and he often declared that time increased it--that her life and actions rendered virtue amiable, and that in her society he found his greatest happiness. Nor could any one be happier than herself in such a partner; for whom, the longer she knew him, she had the greater reason to bless God: indeed, the venerable Countess continued to the last moments of her protracted life to express the highest veneration and affection for his memory; and, but a short time before her death, she discovered how incapable she was of forgetting him, by shedding fresh tears at every mention of his name.
Lady Huntingdon was, unquestionably, formed for eminence. Her tender age exhibited a fine dawn of her mature excellence; and she gave early presages of proving highly useful and ornamental to society, if permitted to arrive at those years necessary for maturing the powers of the human mind. Her endowments were much above the ordinary standard. She possessed a highly intelligent mind, an extraordinary quickness of apprehension, a brilliant fancy, a retentive memory, a strong clear understanding, and a sound judgment, much improved by reading, conversation, deep thought, and observation. Her knowledge of mankind, even at an early age, and her penetration into the characters of those with whom she was acquainted, were admirable. Though she was obliged, from her situation in life, to mix with others in fashionable amusements, an attachment to them, or to the ornament of dress, was not the foible of her discerning and contemplative mind. Though not a regular beauty, she possessed a large portion of the charms of her sex: her person was noble, commanding respect--her countenance was the living picture of her mind, and united in it, in a happy combination, both the great and the condescending. This engaging exterior was animated by a soul, lively and ardent in its pursuits, and enriched with those qualities which the world most highly commends and esteems.
At a very early period of life, Lady Huntingdon discovered an elevated turn of mind: she was impressed with a deep sense of divine things--a feeling which had a powerful influence on her conduct, in leading her to read the word of God with great diligence. She manifested an extraordinary turn for religious meditation; and repeatedly felt the most awful convictions of the certainty and eternal duration of a future state. Her conversation was modest, and her whole conduct marked with a degree of rectitude not usually to be found in early life. After her marriage, she manifested a particularly serious deportment; and though sometimes at Court, yet, in visiting the higher circles, she took no pleasure in the fashionable follies of the great. At Donnington Park she was the Lady Bountiful among her neighbours and dependents; though, as she herself afterwards felt and declared, going about to establish her own righteousness, she endeavoured, by prayer, and fasting, and alms-deeds, to commend herself to the favour of the Most High. For, notwithstanding the early appearance of piety in Lady Huntingdon, it is evident she continued for many years a perfect stranger to the true nature of that Gospel which is the power of God to every one that believes. She aspired after rectitude, and was anxious to possess every moral perfection--she counted much upon the dignity of human nature, and was ambitious to act in a manner becoming her exalted ideas of that dignity. And here her Ladyship outstripped the multitude in an uncommon degree: she was rigidly just in her dealings, and inflexibly true to her word; she was a strict observer of her several duties in every relation of life; her sentiments were liberal, and her charity profuse; she was prudent in her conduct, and courteous in her deportment; she was a diligent enquirer after truth, and a strenuous advocate for virtue; she was frequent in her sacred meditations, and was a regular attendant at public worship. Possessed of so many moral accomplishments, while she was admired by the world, it is no wonder that she should cast a look of self-complacency upon her character, and consider herself, with respect to her attainments in virtue, abundantly superior to the common herd of mankind. But while the Countess was taken up in congratulating herself upon her own fancied eminence in piety, she was an absolute stranger to that inward and universal change of heart, wrought by the gracious operations of the Spirit of God, by which new principles are established in the mind, new inclinations are imparted, and new objects pursued.
In acting thus, Lady Huntingdon was by no means singular. It is the faith of multitudes in the present day, who call themselves Christians, but who, by presuming to compare their own imaginary good deeds with the all-perfect and only justifying righteousness of the Saviour, as the ground of their acceptance before God, make void, as far as in them lies, all the glorious designs of Jehovah’s free and sovereign mercy in man’s salvation.
Nothing short of the depravity of our fallen nature can account for our obstinately persisting in the notion, that the sinner can do anything towards reconciling himself to the favour of the Most High and Most Holy; forgetting that the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, being in all respects consummate and glorious, cannot want, and will not admit of, any works of the sinner as auxiliary to his justification. For, “by the obedience of one, many are made righteous.” And, “to him that worketh not, but believeth in Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted to him for righteousness.”
He who made the heart, and He alone, can change it. A truth this, to which the experience of every true believer bears an additional testimony, and which is confirmed by the express authority of the Word of God. “Without me (says the Saviour) ye can do nothing.” And he says again, “No man can come unto me except the Father, which hath sent me, draw him.” If ever the sinner is converted to God, and pursues heavenly and divine objects, it must be through the power of the Holy Spirit, by whom he is “created anew in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that he should walk in them.” This gracious change Lady Huntingdon now experienced, for which thousands and tens of thousands will have abundant reason to bless God to all eternity. The manner in which it was brought about, and the mighty effects produced by it, it now becomes the province of her biographer to relate.
Mr. Whitefield, Mr. Ingham, the Wesleys, Mr. Hervey, and others, the great revivers of heartfelt and serious religion, had now awakened great attention in the land, and were branded with the name of Methodists. As they all set out with professions of strict adherence to the Church of England, the distinguishing tenets of her Articles and Homilies were particularly enforced by them. As this was utterly unlike the manner of preaching which then chiefly obtained, they attracted numerous audiences; and the lively manner of address, as well as the matter of their discourses, exceedingly struck the hearers with their novelty, as well as importance. Nothing awakened greater attention to their preaching, than their quitting the universal habit of reading their sermons from a book, without any animation, and addressing extempore discourses to the congregations where they ministered.
The multitudes that followed them were much affected; a great and visible change was produced in the minds of many; the attention paid to these ministers, and the blessings evidently attendant on their labours, roused them to vigorous and increasing exertions: they were always at their work, preaching wherever they could find admittance into the churches, and, perhaps--for they were human--not a little flattered by the popularity attending their ministrations. Some wild-fire could hardly fail to mingle with the sacred flame--whilst the sensation created by their preaching was inconceivable. Roused by opposition and encouraged by success, the Methodists continued to extend their influence and spread their name over various parts of the kingdom. The churches being incapable of containing the crowds which flocked after them, they took to the fields, and preached everywhere. Their congregations under the canopy of heaven were prodigious--sometimes, indeed, riotous and insulting, but, in general, solemn and attentive. By these labours a flood of Gospel light broke upon the nation--societies increased by thousands, and their ministry was blessed, to the great revival of religion, wherever they itinerated. Men more laborious than these leaders were, have hardly appeared since the days of the apostles: they repeatedly travelled over a space more than the circumference of the globe--wherever they moved, they were as a flame of fire, and left behind them a train of evangelical light. They were in preaching unwearied--two, or three, and frequently four times a-day, and this sometimes in places many miles distant from each other; and notice having been previously given of their coming, thousands awaited and welcomed them, heard them with reverence, and received them as angels of God. By their instrumentality many Church ministers were awaked from the lethargy which had beset them, and amazing multitudes were called to the happy experience of the salvation of Jesus by their labours, and added to the church of such as shall be everlastingly saved.
As all are by nature alike, in a moral and spiritual sense, equally guilty and vile, weak and worthless, so divine grace is a kind of leveller of distinctions, and is no respecter of persons or classes. Though not many women wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called; yet, to show the sovereignty, and power, and riches of divine grace, God is pleased sometimes to select the monuments of his mercy from among the wealthy and noble, and to show that he is no respecter of persons, but is rich in mercy to all that call upon him. The sisters of Lord Huntingdon were women not more distinguished by rank than by general excellence of character. From motives of curiosity some of the Ladies Hastings were induced to attend the preaching of the first Methodists, and there the Lord met them with the blessings of his grace. Under this ministry they were given to see the insufficiency of their own righteousness and the method of salvation on which they had been resting, and were made willing to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as the foundation of their hope and trust. Then “what things were once gain to them,” they, with St. Paul, “counted loss for Christ. Yea, counted all things but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus their Lord.” They soon joined themselves to the people of God, and never appeared to be ashamed to own whose they were, or whom they served.
Salvation to one of a family, to one of a city, is often but the prelude of salvation to the whole house, and to hundreds in that city. When the streams of mercy begin to flow through such channels, who can say how many different directions they may take, and how far they may ultimately extend? Upon the important result of one conversion, no man is able to calculate; and, therefore, it is said--no doubt with some reference to the truth of this remark--“that there is joy in the presence of the angels over one sinner that repenteth.” All who are themselves brought near to God by the blood of the cross, will be earnestly concerned for the salvation of others, especially their own kindred; and they will estimate the success of their labours for the accomplishment of this object as the highest joy in time, and their crown of rejoicing in that day when the Lord of Hosts shall make up his jewels. No sooner did the Lord Jesus Christ manifest himself to the woman of Samaria, than she went into the city to proclaim the glory of his name, and many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him through her testimony. Lady Margaret Hastings was the first who received the truth as it is in Jesus; and the change effected by the power of the Holy Spirit on her heart soon became visible to all. Considering the obligations she was under to the sovereign grace of God, she felt herself called upon to seek the salvation of her fellow-creatures, and the promotion of their best and eternal interests. Next to her own soul, the salvation of her own family and friends became her care. She exhorted them faithfully and affectionately, one by one, to “flee from the wrath to come;” and the Lord was pleased to make her the honoured instrument of Lady Huntingdon’s conversion, as well as of many others of her family.
Conversing with Lady Margaret one day on this subject, Lady Huntingdon was exceedingly struck with a sentiment she uttered, “that since she had known and believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, for life and salvation, she had been as happy as an angel.” To any such sensation of happiness, Lady Huntingdon felt that she was, as yet, an utter stranger. The more she examined herself, and considered the subject, the more she was convinced of the momentous truth. This conviction caused many reflections to arise in her mind; and beginning also to see her sinfulness and guilt, and the entire corruption and depravity of her whole nature, her hope of being able to reconcile herself to God by her own works and deservings, began gradually to die away. She sought, however, by the most rigorous austerities, to conquer her evil nature, and dispel the distressing thoughts which continually engrossed her mind. But, alas! the more she strove, the more she saw and felt that all her thoughts, words, and works, however specious before men, were utterly sinful before Him who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity.
A dangerous illness having, soon after, brought her to the brink of the grave, the fear of death fell terribly upon her, and her conscience was greatly distressed. She now perceived that she had beguiled herself with prospects of a visionary nature; was entirely blinded to her own real character; had long placed her happiness in mere chimeras, and grounded her vain hopes upon imaginary foundations. It was to no purpose that she reminded herself of the morality of her conduct; in vain did she recollect the many encomiums that had been passed upon her early piety and virtue. Her best righteousness now appeared to be but “filthy rags,” which, so far from justifying her before God, increased her condemnation. The remorse which before attended conscience, on account of sin, respected only the outward actions of her life; but now she saw her “heart was deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked--that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God;” and that “the thoughts of man’s heart are only evil, and that continually.” When upon the point of perishing in her own apprehension, the words of Lady Margaret returned strongly to her recollection, and she felt an earnest desire, renouncing every other hope, to cast herself wholly upon Christ for life and salvation. From her bed she lifted up her heart to her Saviour, with this important prayer, and immediately all her distress and fears were removed, and she was filled with peace and joy in believing.
Now the day began to dawn--Jesus, the Sun of Righteousness, arose, and burst in meridian splendour on her benighted soul. The scales fell from her eyes, and opened a passage for the light of life which sprang in, and death and darkness fled before it. Viewing herself as a brand plucked from the burning, she could not but stand astonished at the mighty power of that grace which saved her from eternal destruction just when she stood upon its very brink, and raised her from the gates of hell to the confines of heaven; and the depths from which she was raised, made the heights which she reached only the more amazing; she felt the Rock beneath her, and from that secure position looked with astonishment downward to that horrible pit from which she was so mercifully delivered--and upwards, in ecstacy, to that glory to which she should be raised. The “sorrow of the world, which worketh death,” was now exchanged for that godly sorrow which worketh repentance unto life; and “joy unspeakable, and full of glory,” succeeded that bitterness that comes of the conviction of sin; she enjoyed, already, a delightful foretaste of heaven. Her disorder from that moment took a favourable turn; she was restored to perfect health, and, what was better, to newness of life. She determined thenceforward to present herself to God, as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable, which she was now convinced was her reasonable service.
This mighty change began at her Ladyship’s heart, and extended its salutary influence to all the sublime faculties of her mind, and the whole tenor of her outward conversation. Her understanding was renewed in knowledge. The stubbornness of the will was broken, and changed into a passive acquiescence in the sovereign will of God. “Her carnal mind, which was enmity against God,” was subdued by the superior influence of Divine grace. All offences at the Gospel plan of salvation died away; for, when the veil of unbelief that covered her heart was rent, it then “turned to the Lord,” and from that moment she learned “to count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus her Lord.” The eye of her understanding being illuminated, and her heart enraptured with a view of matchless excellency, she was ready to exclaim, “Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee!” The desire of her soul was to him, and to the remembrances of his great name and glorious salvation. Believing in Jesus, as the Scripture hath said, she found in him a well of consolation, “springing up unto everlasting life.” All her wanderings were at once happily terminated--her doubts were removed, her tears were dried up, and she rejoiced in hope of the glory of God, whom she contemplated, in all his amiable and august perfections, with delight and wonder; and enraptured with a view of him as reconciled to her in the Son of his love, she gave vent to the fulness of her heart in the most glowing affections of gratitude and astonishment. Her conversion, in which the hand of God was so conspicuous, was not imaginary, but real. It not only influenced her sentiments, but extended to her conduct, and was productive of the most salutary effects. No sooner was her heart surrendered to God, and her alienated affections restored to their original claimant, than outward fruits appeared in her conversation: her renovation introduced new light into her understanding, and new desires into her heart and affections, and produced its effect upon her temper; not wholly to eradicate its constitutional peculiarity, but to sanctify, and render it subservient to the glory of God and the good of souls. Reason resigned its pretensions to the sacred authority of revelation: her intellectual powers were extricated from the darkness of nature, and brought by the irradiating Spirit of God into the bright region of light and liberty. Whom she had found a Saviour, Him she was unalterably determined to follow as a Guide: He possessed the supreme affection, reverence, and homage of her heart--was the centre of its wishes, and the spring of its comforts. A great cloud of witnesses are ready to testify, that from her earliest acquaintance with the truths of the Gospel, the venerable and elect Countess of Huntingdon continued, through every stage of her protracted pilgrimage, to walk worthy of her high vocation, “growing in grace, and adorning the doctrine of God her Saviour in all things.”
Chapter II
Lord Huntingdon--The Bishop of Gloucester--Mr. Whitefield’s Preaching--its Effects--Dr. Southey--Dr. Hurd--Archbishop Secker--First Methodist Society--Lady Anne Frankland--Lord Scarborough--Dr. Young--Lady Fanny Shirley--Mrs. Temple--Lady Mary Wortley Montagu--Lady Townsend--Mr. Pope--Mr. Ingham--Mr. C. Wesley--Miss Robinson--Lord Lisburne--The House of Lords--Hammond the Poet--Somervile the Poet--Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough--Anecdotes--Duchess of Buckingham--Anecdotes--Duchess of Queensbury--Lord Oxford--Lady Hinchinbroke.
The biography of pious persons, who have devoted their lives to the benefit of mankind and to the glory of God, is an acknowledged source of pleasure and profit, and a species of writing possessing peculiar attractiveness, as we trace our subject through the scenes of life and the chamber of death, to the very gate of heaven! The illustrious subject of the present memoir was an example of piety, benevolence, and zeal, in the best of causes, such as succeeding generations may admire, when the warriors and statesmen who were her contemporaries shall be known no more.
On Lady Huntingdon’s recovery from the illness adverted to at page 14, she sent a kind message to Messrs. John and Charles Wesley, who were then preaching in the neighbourhood, professing to be one with them in heart, cordially wishing them good speed in the name of the Lord, and assuring them of her determined purpose to live for Him who had died for her.
The change which divine grace had wrought upon her Ladyship’s heart soon became observable to all around, by the open confession which she made of the faith once delivered to the saints, and by the zealous support she gave to the cause of God, amidst the torrents of reproach with which it was attended. To the noble circle in which the Countess moved, such professions and conduct appeared strange; and there were not wanting some who, under the guise of friendship, wished Lord Huntingdon to interpose his authority; but, although he differed from her Ladyship in her views of religion, he continued to manifest the same affection and respect, and at his demise left her the entire management of her children and their fortunes. His Lordship was too generous to yield to such insidious advice, but he recommended her to converse with Bishop Benson, who had been his tutor, and with this request she readily complied. The Bishop was accordingly sent for, and he attempted to convince her Ladyship of the unnecessary strictness of her sentiments and conduct. But she pressed him so hard with Scripture, brought so many arguments from the Articles and Homilies, and so plainly and faithfully urged upon him the awful responsibility of his station under the Great Head of the Church, that his temper was ruffled, and he rose up in haste to depart, bitterly lamenting that he had ever laid his hands upon George Whitefield, to whom he attributed the change wrought in her Ladyship. “My Lord! (said the Countess) mark my words: when you are on your dying bed, that will be one of the few ordinations you will reflect upon with complacence.” The Bishop’s conduct at that solemn season verified her prediction: for when near his death he sent ten guineas to Mr. Whitefield, as a token of regard and veneration, and begged to be remembered by him in his prayers![6]
Dr. Southey has, with a partiality little to his credit, related the former, but suppressed the latter portion of this anecdote, and has prostituted his talents in order to heap sarcasm, ridicule, and contempt upon the Countess. Her religious feelings, he insinuates, originated in a “decided insanity in her family!”--an assertion as wicked as it is false--and tells us that all the arguments of Bishop Benson “were ineffectual to bring her to a saner sense of devotion.” In the next edition of his caricature of Mr. Wesley, it would be candour to notice the Bishop’s dying gift to Mr. Whitefield--his dying professions of regard for Mr. Whitefield--and his dying request for Mr. Whitefield’s prayers; a luminous commentary on the almost prophetic language of Lady Huntingdon, and a decisive reproof to the Poet Laureate’s fiction of hereditary insanity, which indeed is sufficiently disproved by her every act, her every letter, and her every word.
Though few persons have ever had so just a claim as her Ladyship to universal approbation, she was far from courting the applause of a world in which her Lord and Master had been publicly despised and rejected, or of making an ostentatious display of superior parts and accomplishments. Her family and connections, her attainments in science and grace, with whatever else might be considered as tending to her advantage, she regarded as matters of trivial estimation; while, in the lowliness of her heart, she adopted the language of the great Apostle; “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.”
In 1738, the first Methodist Society was formed in the (now Moravian) chapel, a plain but venerable building, in Neville’s-court, Fetter-lane, London: Messrs. Wesley, Whitefield, Ingham, Howell Harris, and many other eminent men, preached there with amazing power and success; Messrs. Cennick and Oakley, and others who afterwards made a distinguished figure in the Church of Christ, were members of the congregation at this time. It was at this place that Lord and Lady Huntingdon first attended the Society meetings. Sir John Phillips and Sir John Thorold were amongst the awakened, and members of the Fetter-lane Society. Mr. Whitefield, who had lately returned from Bristol, where he had been preaching in the open air, was now in London, and, with Howell Harris, preached frequently at Fetter-lane. This was the central place of meeting. Here they had their love-feasts, and encouraged each other in devotedness to God. “On the first night of the new year (says Mr. Wesley), Messrs. Hall, Kineton, Ingham, Whitefield, Hutchins, and my brother Charles were present at our love-feast, with about sixty of our brethren. About three in the morning, as we were continuing intent in prayer, the power of God came mightily upon us, insomuch that many cried out for exceeding joy, and many fell to the ground. As soon as we recovered a little from our awe and amazement at the presence of the Divine Majesty, we broke out with one voice, ‘We praise thee, O God! we acknowledge thee to be the Lord!’” “It was a pentecost season indeed (says Mr. Whitefield): sometimes whole nights were spent in prayer: often have they been filled as with new wine, and often have I seen them overwhelmed with the Divine Presence, and heard them cry out, ‘Will God indeed dwell with men upon earth? How dreadful is this place! This is no other than the house of God and the gate of heaven!’”
The preaching of Mr. Whitefield now excited an unusual degree of attention among persons of all ranks. In many of the city churches he proclaimed the glad tidings of great joy to listening multitudes, who were powerfully affected by the fire which displayed in the animated addresses of this man of God. Lord and Lady Huntingdon constantly attended wherever he preached, and Lady Anne Frankland became one of the first fruits of his ministry amongst the nobility in the metropolis.[7] Her Ladyship spent much of her time with Lady Huntingdon, from whose society and conversation she derived great comfort; but was so affected by the many mortifications she met with, that she survived her brother, Lord Scarborough, but a few days, and her separation from Mr. Frankland only eight months.
The illustrious author of the “Night Thoughts” lived at this time among the great with that respect to which his literary talents justly entitled him. He had married Lady Elizabeth Lee, daughter of the Earl of Lichfield, and widow of Colonel Lee.[8] With Mrs. Temple, the amiable daughter of Lady Elizabeth, by her former husband, Lady Huntingdon had been extremely intimate; and having met Dr. Young at the residence of Lord Bolingbroke, soon after his return from abroad, their conversation had reference to the death of this lady, who died of a consumption at Montpelier, the year after her marriage with Mr. Temple, son of Lord Palmerston. It is more than poetically true, that the Doctor and Lady Elizabeth accompanied her to the continent.
“I flew, I snatched her from the rigid north, And bore her nearer to the Sun.”
But in vain. Her funeral was attended with the difficulties painted in such animated colours in “Night the Third.”[9]
Lady Huntingdon, who had many opportunities of seeing Dr. Young at this time, observed a settled melancholy in his disposition, and with a view to remove the load of domestic grief which seemed to oppress his spirits, introduced him to Mr. Charles Wesley, with whom he conversed freely, and of whom he afterwards spoke to her Ladyship in times of high commendation. From the preaching of the great Methodist leaders, whose ministry he occasionally attended, he appeared to derive some consolation and support. But another breach in his domestic happiness was soon after made by the decease of Lady Elizabeth; and to the sorrow Dr. Young felt from these losses, religion and morality are indebted for the “Night Thoughts.”
“There is a pleasure in sadness which mourners only know!”
Lady Huntingdon’s intimacy with Lord Bolingbroke, and her frequent visits to Twickenham, the residence of her aunt, Lady Fanny Shirley, brought her acquainted with most of the literary characters of that day.[10] Lady Fanny had long been one of the reigning beauties of the Court of George the First, and her only rival was the Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, whose talents, wit, literary genius, and eccentricities, have made her fame as extensive as the English language. Lady Fanny frequently attracted the notice of his Majesty, and likewise that of the Prince of Wales.[11]
Previous to any decided religious impression having been made on her mind, Lady Huntingdon was much at Court, but took no part in the fashionable levities of the great and gay. Amongst her acquaintances, at that period, we find Lady Betty Finch, daughter of Daniel, Earl of Nottingham, who had just espoused Mr. Murray, afterwards Lord Mansfield; Lord Townshend’s Lady, whose wit and eccentricities made so much noise during a great part of the last century,[12] and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (the rival of Lady Fanny Shirley), who was the life and soul of the Court circle, and at one period very intimate with Lady Huntingdon, though her senior by seventeen years.[13]
At one period of her life, Lady Huntingdon appears to have been much occupied with political questions. Her sentiments were conformable with those of Sir Robert Walpole and his Administration; and she was much connected with the courtiers of that day. A little incident which occurred at this period will serve to mark the natural ardour of her character. There were some stormy debates in the House of Lords, in May 1738, on the depredations of the Spaniards, in which Lord Huntingdon, Lord Hervey, and others of his intimate friends, took a leading part. Her Ladyship expressed her intention of being present, though ladies were excluded. “At the last warm debate in the House of Lords (says Lady Mary Wortley Montagu), it was unanimously resolved there should be no unnecessary auditors; consequently the fair sex were excluded, and the gallery destined to the sole use of the House of Commons. Notwithstanding which determination, a tribe of dames resolved to show, on this occasion, that neither men nor laws could resist them. These heroines were Lady Huntingdon, the Duchess of Queensbury, the Duchess of Ancaster, Lady Westmoreland, Lady Cobham, Lady Charlotte Edwin, Lady Archibald Hamilton and her daughter Mrs. Scott, Mrs. Pendarves, and Lady Frances Saunderson. I am thus particular in their names, since I looked upon them to be the boldest assertors and most resigned sufferers for liberty I ever read of. They presented themselves at the door at nine o’clock in the morning, when Sir William Saunderson respectfully informed them that the Chancellor had made an order against their admittance. The Duchess of Queensbury, as head of the squadron, ‘pished’ at the ill-breeding of a mere lawyer, and desired Sir William to let them up stairs privately. After some modest refusals, he swore he would not admit them. Her Grace, with a noble warmth, answered, they would come in, in spite of the Chancellor and the whole House. This being reported, the Peers resolved to starve them out; an order was made that the doors should not be opened till they had raised their siege. These Amazons now showed themselves qualified for the duty even of foot-soldiers; they stood there till five in the afternoon, without sustenance, every now and then plying volleys of thumps, kicks, and raps, with so much violence against the door, that the speakers in the House were scarce heard. When the Lords were not to be conquered by this, the two Duchesses (very well apprised of the use of stratagems in war) commanded a silence of half an hour; and the Chancellor, who thought this a certain proof of their absence (the Commons also being very impatient to enter), gave orders for the opening of the door, upon which they all rushed in, pushed aside their competitors, and placed themselves in the front rows of the gallery. They stayed there till after eleven, when the House rose; and during the debate gave applause, and showed marks of dislike, not only by smiles and winks (which have always been allowed in these cases), but by noisy laughs and apparent contempts, which is supposed the true reason why poor Lord Hervey[14] spoke so miserably.”
Her high birth of course entitled Lady Huntingdon to the society and respect of her equals; and Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, and Catherine, Duchess of Buckingham, were her correspondents. The former and her sister, the Countess of Tyrconnell, were two of the most remarkable beauties of their day. The Duchess of Marlborough was, in early life, appointed maid of honour to the Duchess of York, and to her external attractions added, what was rarely met with in those days, all the witchery of mind and all the dignity of conscious rectitude. Her conversation and deportment were alike irresistible, from a just and delightful mixture of softness and sprightliness: a little petulance and caprice of temper; a little heedlessness of manner; a good deal of her sex’s pride, yet more of its vanity; a quickness of imagination, which sometimes hurried her to the verge of imprudence, and a natural acuteness and readiness of wit which as often extricated her--
“Yielding by nature, stubborn but for fame,”
were the characteristics of this woman’s masculine mind and intriguing spirit, which, by her influence in the Cabinet, may be said to have swayed the destinies of Europe with greater effect than did her husband by his talents in the field. Her name is introduced in this place, however, to show the vanity of earthly triumphs. Two letters from her Grace of Marlborough to Lady Huntingdon, written about this time, refer principally to the preaching of the great Methodist leaders, whom her Ladyship had invited the Duchess to hear:--
“My dear Lady Huntingdon is always so very good to me, and I really do feel so very sensibly all your kindness and attention, that I must accept your very obliging invitation to accompany you to hear Mr. Whitefield, though I am still suffering from the effects of a severe cold. Your concern for my improvement in religious knowledge is very obliging, and I do hope that I shall be the better for all your excellent advice. God knows we all need mending, and none more than myself. I have lived to see great changes in the world--have acted a conspicuous part myself--and now hope, in my old days, to obtain mercy from God, as I never expect any at the hands of my fellow-creatures. The Duchess of Ancaster, Lady Townshend, and Lady Cobham were exceedingly pleased with many observations in Mr. Whitefield’s sermon at St. Sepulchre’s Church, which has made me lament ever since that I did not hear it, as it might have been the means of doing me some good--for good, alas! I DO WANT: but where among the corrupt sons and daughters of Adam am I to find it? Your Ladyship must direct me. You are all goodness and kindness, and I often wish I had a portion of it. Women of wit, beauty, and quality, cannot hear too many humiliating truths--they shock our pride. But we must die--we must converse with earth and worms.
“Pray do me the favour to present my humble service to your excellent spouse. A more amiable man I do not know than Lord Huntingdon. And believe me, my dear Madam, your most faithful and most humble servant,
“S. MARLBOROUGH.”
“Your letter, my dear Madam, was very acceptable. Many thanks to Lady Fanny for her good wishes. Any communications from her, and my dear good Lady Huntingdon, are always welcome, and always, in every particular, to my satisfaction. I have no comfort in my own family, therefore must look for that pleasure and gratification which others can impart. I hope you will shortly come and see me, and give me more of your company than I have had latterly. In truth, I always feel more happy and more contented after an hour’s conversation with you, than I do after a whole week’s round of amusement. When alone, my reflections and recollections almost kill me, and I am forced to fly to the society of those I detest and abhor. Now there is Lady Frances Saunderson’s[15] great route to-morrow night--all the world will be there, and I must go. I do hate that woman as much as I do hate a physician; but I must go, if for no other purpose than to mortify and spite her. This is very wicked, I know, but I confess all my little peccadillos to you, for I know your goodness will lead you to be mild and forgiving, and perhaps my wicked heart may gain some good from you in the end.
“Make my kindest respects to Lord Huntingdon. Lady Fanny has my best wishes for the success of her attack on that crooked, perverse little wretch at Twickenham.[16] Assure yourself, my dear good Madam, that I am your most faithful and most obliged humble servant,
“S. MARLBOROUGH.”
This very conspicuous, very assailable, and very irritable woman, so celebrated for quarrelling with all the rest of human kind, always took in good part whatever Lady Huntingdon said or wrote, and never appears to have been affronted or offended by the home-truths which she must have heard from her.[17]
The Duchess of Buckingham, a woman perfectly mad with pride, was distantly connected with Lady Huntingdon’s family. Her first husband, the Earl of Anglesea, from whom she was separated by the unanimous consent of the King and Parliament, was cousin-german to Charles Annesley, Esq., Captain of the Battle-Axe-Guard, who married Lady Levinge, the second wife of the Right Hon. Sir Richard Levinge, the grandfather of Lady Huntingdon. A few years after this she was married to John Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham, died at her house in St. James’s Park (now Buckingham Palace), March 13, 1742, and was publicly interred about a month after in Westminster Abbey. During the early days of Methodism, her Grace occasionally attended the preaching of Mr. Whitefield and the Wesleys, but she was decidedly opposed to the doctrines which they promulgated. In a short epistle to Lady Huntingdon she says:--
“I thank your Ladyship for the information concerning the Methodist preachers; their doctrines are most repulsive, and strongly tinctured with impertinence and disrespect towards their superiors, in perpetually endeavouring to level all ranks, and do away with all distinctions. It is monstrous to be told, that you have a heart as sinful as the common wretches that crawl on the earth. This is highly offensive and insulting; and I cannot but wonder that your Ladyship should relish any sentiments so much at variance with high rank and good breeding.
“Your Ladyship does me infinite honour by your obliging inquiries after my health. I shall be most happy to accept your kind offer of accompanying me to hear your favourite preacher, and shall wait your arrival. The Duchess of Queensbury insists on my patronizing her on this occasion; consequently she will be an addition to our party.
“I have the honour to be, my dear Lady Huntingdon, your Ladyship’s most faithful and obliged,
“C. BUCKINGHAM.”[18]
During her last illness, Lady Huntingdon made some efforts to see her, but from a short note which remains, written by one of her maids of honour, there is reason to believe the attempt was vain:--
“The Duchess of Buckingham presents her compliments to the Countess of Huntingdon, is extremely obliged by her kind offer and attentions, but regrets exceedingly her entire inability to undergo the fatigue of conversation.
“March 2, 1742.”
The Duchess of Queensbury, to whom allusion has been made, was a very conspicuous figure in the circles of fashion at this period; she was second daughter of the Earl of Clarendon and Rochester, and celebrated for extraordinary beauty, wit, and sprightliness, by Pope, Swift, and other poets, particularly by Prior, in one of his well-known ballads. She and the Duke were forbid the Court by George II., for their patronage of the poet Gay, but were received by Frederick, Prince of Wales, and the Duke had an appointment in his household.
At one period of her life, the Duchess was much affected by the preaching of the first Methodists, whose ministry she constantly attended. But her wit and beauty drew her back into the vortex of dissipation, and she appears to have lost all trace of the impressions which had been made on her mind in early life. She was particularly partial to the preaching of Mr. Charles Wesley and Mr. Ingham, who occasionally visited London, and were extremely popular. Her Grace survived both her children, one of whom shot himself by accident, and the other died from the fright and fatigue he underwent at Lisbon, at the time of the destruction of that city by the great earthquake, in 1755.
A deep gloom was cast over the family and connections of Lady Huntingdon at this time, by the sudden and very alarming illness of Charles Cotes, Esq., Member of Parliament for Tamworth, then on a visit at Lord Huntingdon’s house, whilst attending his parliamentary duties. Dr. Battie and Mr. Cheselden, head surgeons to Chelsea hospital, were in daily attendance on Mr. Cotes, who was soon pronounced out of danger, and in a few weeks completely convalescent. Religious subjects were frequently discussed during the visits of these medical gentlemen; and, on one occasion, a passage in the beginning of Mr. Locke’s “Reasonableness of Christianity,” which implies the eternity of that death which all the race of Adam were exposed to by his transgression, until redeemed by Christ, became the subject of warm debate. Mr. Locke explains 1 Cor. v. 22--“As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive”--thus: as the death that all men suffer is owing to Adam, so the life that all shall be restored to again is procured them by Christ. Dr. Battie differed from Lady Huntingdon and Mr. Cheselden in the interpretation of this passage; and some time after communicated to his friends the result of his reflections, in a pamphlet printed for private circulation. Both these medical gentlemen were men of singular excellence, and esteemed the first men in their profession. One of the daughters of Dr. Battie was the wife of Admiral Sir George Young, one of the bravest officers in the British service. The only child of Mr. Cheselden was married to the above-mentioned Mr. Cotes, the cousin of Lady Huntingdon, and nephew of Lady Fanny Shirley.
Some time prior to this period, Lady Huntingdon, who was distinguished by that superiority of demeanour which is acquired by the habit of intercourse with persons of the most cultivated talents and the most polished manners, had formed an intimacy with Margaret Cavendish Harley, only daughter and heir of the Earl of Oxford, who had married the Duke of Portland, a lady well known for her love of the arts and her patronage of literature. Their friendship was cemented by her Ladyship’s frequent visits to Wimpole, in Cambridgeshire, the seat of Lord Oxford, a nobleman eminently distinguished for his disinterestedness both in public and private life, and respected as one of the principal patrons of literature in his age. His Lordship had a high opinion of the singular worth of Lady Huntingdon, whom he had known from his earliest days, and, when near his death, sent for her to attend him and administer consolation in his last moments. He was a great admirer of Mr. Whitefield’s eloquence, and often attended his ministry; but barren admiration seems to have been the utmost effect produced on the mind of his Lordship. What might have been the result of Lady Huntingdon’s faithful and heart-searching conversations with him, in his dying hours, we are not informed. He died at his house in Dover-street, June 16, 1741, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, speaking of his death, says he refused all remedies till too late. His Lordship’s valuable collection of manuscripts was preserved by his Countess, at her residence in Dover-street, till her Ladyship, for the service of the public, consented to their purchase by the Parliament, in 1754, and they are now deposited in the British Museum. The Harleian Library was the choicest and most extensive in England; and the catalogue of its literary treasures was printed in two large folio volumes. Lord Oxford was only forty-two years of age at the time of his decease.
It was during one of Lady Huntingdon’s visits to Wimpole that she first became acquainted with Miss Robinson, a lady perhaps better known in her time in the circles of fashion and genius than any of her contemporaries. She was afterwards married to Mr. Montagu, a man eminent for his acquirements in science, particularly in mathematics, and much beloved and respected for his amiable character and strong understanding. Lady Huntingdon, with a large circle of her acquaintance, was present at the marriage ceremony; and her Ladyship, many years after, had the pleasure of seeing that she was an exemplary wife to a man much older than herself, and proved herself worthy to be the bosom friend of a husband whose strict honour and integrity, as a gentleman and a member of Parliament, were not less conspicuous than his unwearied diligence and deep research as a man of science.
Lord Lisburne dying about this time, without male issue, was succeeded in title and estates by his next brother, Wilmot, the third Viscount. This nobleman was on terms of great intimacy with the family of Lord Huntingdon, to whom he had been introduced by his cousin, Lady Hinchinbroke, the mother of John, fourth Earl of Sandwich. Lord Lisburne had married Miss Watson, of Berwick-upon-Tweed, a woman of great excellence, and a frequent attendant on the preaching of the first Methodists. Roused by their powerful ministry to a lively concern for eternal things, she zealously sought to diffuse in the circle of her acquaintance the savour of those truths which she loved and believed. Her Ladyship’s intimacy with Lady Huntingdon was considerably increased some years after by the marriage of her son, Lord Lisburne, with Miss Nightingale, the only daughter of Lady Elizabeth Nightingale, and the niece of Lady Huntingdon.
Lady Hinchinbroke, the granddaughter to the Duke of Montagu, and nearly allied to those ladies of epistolary genius, Lady Mary Wortley and Mrs. Montagu, was early left a widow, and was afterwards married to the second son of the renowned Sir Edward Seymour, Bart., and brother to the eighth Duke of Somerset. Her Ladyship had many domestic afflictions, which she bore with patient resignation to the will of Heaven. Her mind was deeply imbued with a sense of religion, under the powerful ministry of these great Methodist leaders, and there is abundant reason to believe that she was truly converted to God. Her early acquaintance with Lady Huntingdon was of essential service in directing her attention to the great and important concerns of eternity; and, in one of her letters to the Countess, we find her thus expressing herself:--
“My dear Madam,--I am extremely sensible of the honour your Ladyship has done me by the book which you have sent, from which I expect to derive much gratification and instruction. I am deeply indebted to your kindness, and the anxiety you have manifested at all times for my spiritual improvement. Indeed, I stand in need of all your sympathy and all your unwearied exertions; for I feel myself utterly helpless, miserable, and guilty, in the sight of Heaven; and were it not for the ray of hope which I have in the atoning sacrifice of Christ, would be driven to despair and ruin.
“I shall have much pleasure in waiting on your Ladyship to-morrow. Have you heard where Mr. Whitefield and Mr. Wesley are to preach this week? With kindest regards to Lord Huntingdon, I remain, my dear Madam, your faithful friend and most humble servant,
“E. HINCHINBROKE.”[19]
Chapter III
Early Methodists--Lay Preaching--Mr. Bowers--Mr. Cennick--Itinerants--Ordination--Mr. Maxfield--Mrs. Wesley’s opinion of his call--Mr. Wesley’s sanction--Bishop of Derry--Fetter-lane Society--Conduct of the Bishops--Opposition without--Bickerings--Shaw--The Moravians--Separation in Fetter-lane--First Division--The Society in Moorfields--Enthusiasm--Pluralities--Bishop Burnet--Mrs. Mitchell--Anecdote--Charles Wesley and the Moravians--David Taylor--General Baptists--Mr. Bennett--Grace Murray--John Nelson.
Methodism, from the reports made of it, and the place it maintains in the page of history, is so well known, that for its advocates to try and conceal anything concerning it would be a vain attempt, even were they so disposed. Such was the artlessness, simplicity, and integrity of those excellent men, on whose life and doctrine the epithet was first fixed; and so far were they from having anything of the deceitfulness of unrighteousness about them, that their rejoicing was this--the testimony of their conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, they had their conversation in the world.
They came forth with no plan before them but that which they supposed would have been executed within the sphere of a parish, and by their own personal exertion. Had they foreseen the extent of the work which was to be assigned to them, and the help they must have required, being themselves devoted to letters, having formed a just estimate of literary endowments, and knowing their subservience to the work of the ministry, it is most probable that men of such qualifications would have been the persons they would have mainly sought and solicited to take part with them in the ministry. But such was the providential appointment they were under, that the extent of their work, at the first commencement of it, was concealed from them: and the help provided for it was brought to them, accompanied with evidence that it was not for them to seek, but for the Lord to send.
The first example of lay-preaching appears to have been set by a Mr. Bowers, who is not otherwise named in the history of Methodism. Once, after Mr. Whitefield had finished a sermon in Islington churchyard, Mr. Bowers got up to address the people; Charles Wesley entreated him to desist, but his entreaties were disregarded. Mr. Bowers preached again in the streets of Oxford, and, after a severe reproof from Charles Wesley, confessed that he had done wrong, and promised he would do so no more. Mr. Wesley had formerly appointed Mr. Cennick to reside at Kingswood, with a view to meet the Society as often as he could, in order to confirm them in the ways of God, either by reading to them, or by prayer, or by exhortation. The want of an assistant of this kind was particularly felt in London, and Mr. Wesley being compelled to leave town on some important business, and having no clergyman to watch over the flock in his absence, he appointed Mr. Maxfield to pray with the people, and to give them such advice as he judged to be needful. Both these persons were men of great natural powers, and, though ultimately both separated from him, they did honour to his discernment, and never disgraced his choice.
Lady Huntingdon, at this time, was a constant attendant at Fetter-lane, and a member of the first Methodist Society formed in that place. Having frequently heard Mr. Maxfield pray, she at length urged him to expound the Scriptures. He was remarkably useful, and excited the astonishment of those who heard him. Her Ladyship having heard him several times with pleasure and profit, wrote to Mr. Wesley in terms of high commendation:--
“I never mentioned to you that I have seen Maxfield: he is one of the greatest instances of God’s peculiar favour that I know: he is raised from the stones to sit among the princes of his people. He is my astonishment! How is God’s power shown in weakness! You can have no idea what an attachment I have to him. He is highly favoured of the Lord. The first time I made him expound, expecting little from him, I sat over against him, and thought what a power of God must be with him to make me give attention to him. But before he had gone over one-fifth part, any one that had seen me would have thought I had been made of wood or stone; so quite immoveable I both felt and looked. His power in prayer is quite extraordinary. To deal plainly, I could either talk or write for an hour about him.”
This letter was written the latter end of the year 1739, or the beginning of 1740; and is no inconsiderable testimony in favour of Mr. Maxfield, especially from so excellent and extraordinary a character in the Church of God.
From expounding to preaching is an easy step. It is certain Mr. Wesley had not the most distant idea of his attempting to preach, nor does it appear that Mr. Maxfield had any such intention himself. Being fervent in spirit, and mighty in the Scriptures, he greatly profited the people. Multitudes crowded to hear him; and by the increase of their number, as well as by their earnest and deep attention, and the urgent entreaties of Lady Huntingdon, he was insensibly led to go further than he had at first designed, and at last began to preach! The Lord so blessed his word that many were not only deeply awakened and brought to repentance, but were also made happy in a consciousness of pardon. The Scripture marks of true conversion, inward peace, and power to walk in all holiness, evinced the work of God.
Mr. Maxfield was, therefore, the first itinerant lay-preacher thrust forth among the people, and thus Lady Huntingdon was the honoured instrument of sending this new and unwearied sickle into the harvest; and to old age she retained a firm regard for one, of whom in early life she had so highly spoken. After Mr. Maxfield had laboured faithfully and successfully for a few years, he received episcopal ordination from the Bishop of Derry, who, during a residence at Bath for the benefit of his health, frequently attended the ministry of Mr. Whitefield, Mr. Romain, Mr. Fletcher, and others, at the chapel of Lady Huntingdon, in that city, whither he was led by her Ladyship’s relative, the Lady Betty Cobbe. On receiving Mr. Maxfield at Mr. Wesley’s particular recommendation, the Bishop said the following remarkable words:--“Sir, I ordain you to assist that good man, that he may not work himself to death.”
Mr. Maxfield was for several years stationed in London; and his withdrawing from Mr. Wesley was a great blow to the latter, as it occasioned him a loss of no less than six hundred of his members. Mr. Wesley was so deeply affected at it, that he feelingly, and with tears, preached from that pathetic passage, “If I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.” Mr. Maxfield, after this, had a very large chapel in Princes-street, in the neighbourhood of Moorfields, where he was made very useful for many years. He also frequently preached in the chapels of Lady Huntingdon, particularly at Bath; and often supplied the parish of Everton, during the absence of Mr. Berridge in his itinerant excursions for Lady Huntingdon. At one time Mr. Maxfield was situated near South Petherton, and was made the instrument of much benefit to the late well-known Dr. Cope, at that period curate of Petherton. Mr. Maxfield died very suddenly, of a paralytic stroke, but undoubtedly he was prepared for the solemn change, and was, therefore, thus suddenly translated to that glorious “rest which remaineth for the people of God.” Mr. Maxfield having thus, as some thought, usurped the sacred office without a regular call, gave great offence to many; and, however successful his preaching, it was represented to Mr. Wesley as an irregularity which it required his presence to put a stop to, and he was requested to hasten to London without delay, in order to arrest the evil in its progress. His mother lived at that time in his house adjoining the Foundry. She was a woman of deep piety, strong sense, and sound judgment in the things of God: she had heard Mr. Maxfield preach, and was fully persuaded that he was called of God to the work of the ministry. Perceiving marks of displeasure in the countenance of her son on his arrival, she enquired the cause. He warmly replied, “Thomas Maxfield has turned preacher, I find.” Mrs. Wesley looked at him seriously, and said, “John, you know what my sentiments have been; you cannot suspect me of favouring readily anything of this kind; but take care what you do with respect to that young man, for he is as surely called of God to preach as you are. Examine what have been the fruits of his preaching, and hear him also yourself.”
Mr. Wesley was always ready to correct any part of his conduct, or system, as soon as he discovered it was inconvenient or erroneous. He was too wise a man to be obstinate, and too sincere in all his actions to feel any reluctance at acknowledging that he had been mistaken. He heard Mr. Maxfield preach, and expressed at once his satisfaction and his sanction, by saying, “It is the Lord; let Him do what seemeth Him good.” He saw that it was impossible to prevent his followers from preaching, and with admirable readiness resolved to lead the stream which it was beyond his power to turn. From that time, therefore, he admitted volunteers whom he thought qualified to serve him, as “sons of the Gospel;” but always on condition that they should labour where he appointed, because otherwise they would have stood in each other’s way.
The Methodists still continued to attract considerable attention, and the persons of rank who attended their ministry became objects of notoriety, “The Methodists (says the Countess of Hertford) have had the honour to convert my Lord and Lady Huntingdon both to their doctrines and practice; and the town says that Lady Margaret Hastings is certainly to marry one of the preachers, whose name is Ingham.” “The news I have heard from London is (writes Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, from Rome), Lady Margaret Hastings has disposed of herself to a poor wandering Methodist!” The irregularity of Mr. Wesley’s and Mr. Whitefield’s proceedings--their frequent practice of field-preaching, and particularly the encouragement they now gave to lay-preachers, were thought sufficient causes of alarm and discontent to the careless, and even to the more regular part of their brother clergymen. The spirit of opposition was consequently excited in the minds of all those who either did not understand, or did not approve, the doctrine and practices of the infant sect. Most of the churches were now shut against them. Everything that railing and calumny could effect was employed to crush the new doctrine. The sober part of the clergy lamented, and laboured to check, the rising spirit of enthusiasm; while the lethargic and the vicious employed the base arts of persecution and misrepresentation, to stifle that disposition to enquiry which now began so much to prevail among the people.
Nor was opposition from the enemies of Methodism among its greatest troubles. Whilst the societies had fightings without, they were harassed by fears within; and although they increased in number daily, yet intestine bickerings and misunderstandings began to threaten their very existence.
Some of the Fetter-lane brethren meantime had pursued their master’s fundamental principle further than he had any intention of following it. A layman, whose name was Shaw, embraced the notion, that any Christian might preach and administer the sacraments; and that, in fact, Christianity knew nothing of any distinctive order of men, as spiritual church-officers. Such a teacher found ready believers; and two or three more ardent innovators began to trouble the brethren with their speculations, and to disturb their meetings by unseasonable intrusions. Lady Huntingdon set her face against the leaders of this faction, who, although laymen, claimed a right to baptize, and administer the Lord’s Supper; and, at a meeting held at her Ladyship’s house, it was unanimously agreed by Mr. Ingham, Mr. Stonhouse, and others, that she should write an account of these proceedings to Mr. Wesley, and urge his presence in London as speedily as possible.
Many of the Moravians had joined the society in Fetter-lane, and now began to introduce some fatal errors among them. All was confusion. By some it was contended that believers had nothing to do with the ordinances--were not subject to them--and ought to be still: that they ought to leave off the means of grace; and not go to church; not to communicate; not to search the Scriptures; not to use private prayer, till they had living faith; and to be still till they had it. And it was further explicitly affirmed, that there were no degrees in faith--that none had any faith who had ever any doubt or fear, and that none were justified till they had clean hearts, with the perpetual indwelling of Christ and of the Holy Ghost--and that every one who had not this, ought, till he had it, to be still--that is, as it was explained, not to use the ordinances, or means of grace so called. At length matters came to a crisis, and a division was unavoidable. On Mr. Wesley’s arrival, much time was spent in useless debate, and fruitless attempts to reclaim those who had erred from the faith. A meeting was held at his mother’s, at which Lady Huntingdon attended, and after prayer and much deliberation, it was unanimously agreed what steps should be taken with regard to their brethren of Fetter-lane. Mr. Ingham, being about to leave London, preached to the society, and bore a noble testimony to the ordinances of God and the reality of real faith. But the short answer was, “You are blind, and speak of the things you know not.” The following Sunday Mr. Wesley preached in Moorfields: and, accompanied by Lady Huntingdon, Mr. Seward, and others, went in the evening to the love-feast in Fetter-lane, at the conclusion of which he read a prayer, expressive of his belief, and his abhorrence of the errors into which they had fallen. He then withdrew, and was followed by a very small portion of the society.
This was the first division among the Methodists. After the withdrawal of Mr. Wesley and his friends, the Moravians retained quiet possession of the meeting-house, and received large additions to their numbers. It is still in the possession of the united brethren, and is known under the name of Neville’s-court. In the room of this place, the Foundry, in Upper Moorfields, was engaged, and thither the feeble remains of the society repaired. There the first Methodists continued to meet, till the differences between Mr. Whitefield and Mr. Wesley caused another separation to take place. Thus the chapel in Fetter-lane was the original cradle of the whole Methodist body! There the first society was formed--there likewise the first lay-preachers commenced their immensely blessed labours--there the noble Countess, destined to take such a prominent lead in the great revival of religion--there the great leaders in this glorious warfare, with their zealous coadjutors--persons whose whole souls were consecrated to the cause of God our Saviour--often took sweet counsel together. They have all long since gone to their rest, to meet in the better temple together, as they have often worshipped in the temple below, and to go out no more.
There is in every new community a superior energy, a peculiar fervour in the early days of its existence, which is heightened by an opposition from the world, that harasses, but does not crush. This energy was evident in the beginning of Christianity; it appeared again at the reformation from Popery; it was roused once more at the era of nonconformity; and at the period of which we speak, was in full force among the Methodists. It is a pleasing and commendable spirit, but enthusiasm sometimes lurks under the name, and wholly occupies the place of piety, or almost pushes religion out of the heart. Indeed, in every revival of the Church of Christ, even where the pure truth is preached with the greatest wisdom and sobriety, it has been found that, in numerous instances, while the passions were moved almost to extasy, the soul has not been truly renewed. Enthusiasm and fanaticism were the epithets bestowed on Methodism by the regular clergy. The Methodists may perhaps, in some instances, have been wanting in candour towards the clergy: and under the feeling of personal insult, or of zeal arising out of general apathy, may have employed epithets not sufficiently courteous; nevertheless the general conduct of many of the clergy deserved the severest reprehension. Their ignorance and irreligion were become proverbial. Although they were amply paid to instruct the people in Christianity, yet the amount of their labours was a dry critical discourse on a Sunday, which charmed their hearers to sleep, and left them as lukewarm as their teachers. With the doctrines of religion they never meddled, nor did they attempt to arouse the affections by any of the motives that may be supposed to influence the human heart in the pursuit of an important object. It is no wonder, therefore, that infidelity prevailed; and as the civil government was mild and tolerant, the most barefaced attacks were made upon the truths of Christianity. This afforded a new topic for the discourse of the clergy, but as little conducive to edification as the former, while the religion of the heart was neglected. At this critical juncture, the Methodists sprung up, to awaken the energies of the Establishment, and to instil new life and vigour into the different sects. Animated by an apostolic zeal, they burst the fetters of sectarian bigotry, and went forth preaching the glad tidings of the Gospel to all grades and classes of their countrymen. The boundless labours of these energetic men gave great offence to the more cold and regular brethren, who, alarmed at their popularity, and put to shame by their diligence, endeavoured to silence them by episcopal authority, and by various acts of persecution. Lampooned in pamphlets, belied in newspapers, threatened by men in authority, and robbed by those of the baser sort, the Methodists, however, persevered with fervour and constancy in their work; and their extraordinary courage, zeal, and activity in this noble cause rendered them a perpetual thorn in the sides of the Bishops, who left no engine unemployed either to silence or ruin them. When some person complained to George II. of Mr. Whitefield’s popularity and success, and recommended some restraint upon his preaching, the monarch answered with jocose severity--“I believe the best way will be to make a Bishop of him!” But all the thunder of the Episcopal Bench was ineffectual to stay the Methodists in their course. Sincere in the cause they had undertaken, opposition only served as a stimulus, and abundant success attended their exertions. From this time, the cause of religion revived and prospered in the Establishment, and a flame was kindled in the nation, which has continued burning to the present day. The duty enjoined all Methodists to propagate the spirit of religion, and the unwearied endeavours of almost every individual to convert his neighbours, confer the most distinguished honour on their system. From the days of the Apostles, the great principle, “that it is the duty of every Christian to endeavour to convert sinners from the evil of their ways,” was never so fully acted upon as by the English Methodists of both divisions. This assertion we make boldly; for at the period of the Reformation itself the great object was to work a national and outward change in the form more than in the spirit of religion: the reformation of the Methodists aimed at the heart.
For their discourses, too, the Methodists are entitled to singular praise. The talents of the leaders are known, and some of their helpers were men of ability, knowledge, and wisdom, as well as zeal. With respect to the greater part of them, as to method, propriety of language, and delivery, they were exceedingly defective; but in the choice of subjects, and in bearing upon the great design of their ministry, they have scarcely been equalled. To convert sinners was their business and their object, and they kept it in view with a steadiness and perseverance, of which there has perhaps not been another instance in any sect of the Christian Church. In the edification of believers they depended more on their power of animation, and their knowledge of practical religion, than on the resources of artificial eloquence and minute points of controversy; but in plain, earnest, forcible, and highly-impassioned addresses to the impenitent, they are a pattern to all, and their labours were accompanied with success in an uncommon degree. This practice has since been adopted by the evangelical preachers of every other denomination in England, so far as it suits the circumstances of such as officiate in stated congregations. The subject is kept more constantly in view than it was before; scarcely a discourse is preached, in which the conversion of a sinner to God is not hinted at, and in some measure explained and enforced. The practice is sanctioned by its success.
On the subject of pluralities, Lady Huntingdon always spoke with marked disapprobation. “The awful responsibility of such men (says her Ladyship) makes me tremble. How the blood of lost, neglected souls will cry against them in that great day when the Chief Shepherd shall summon them to His tribunal!” She was fond of relating an anecdote of that excellent and conscientious prelate, Bishop Burnet, who, in his charge to the clergy of his diocese, with disinterested integrity exclaimed against pluralities as a most sacrilegious robbery. In his first visitation at Salisbury he urged the authority of St. Bernard, who, being consulted by one of his followers, whether he might accept of two benefices, replied, “And how will you be able to serve them both?” “I intend (answered the priest) to officiate in one of them by a deputy.” “Will your deputy be damned for you too?” (cried the saint). “Believe me, you may serve your cure by proxy, but you must be damned in person.”
“I venerate the memory of this good prelate (says her Ladyship); and I love those who have descended from him, praying that the like faith which was in him may be in them also.” Richard West, Esq., only son of Lord Chancellor West, of Ireland, by Elizabeth, daughter of Bishop Burnet, was a great favourite with Lord and Lady Huntingdon; but in 1742, a rapid consumption terminated his brief career, in the 26th year of his age. In a letter to Mr. Wesley, her Ladyship pathetically laments the death of this young man, whose piety and talents bid fair for extensive usefulness. For Mrs. Mitchell, a daughter of the Bishop’s, Lady Huntingdon had a great esteem. She was a woman of great piety and benevolence, and was often heard to say, that not being able to do more good was the greatest burden which attended her through life, and the infinite mercy of God in Christ Jesus her only refuge and chief support in the prospect of dissolution. She was very frequent in her visits to Lady Huntingdon, who used to take great delight in her conversation. “I was well acquainted with Mrs. Mitchell[20] (says her Ladyship); she was the daughter of Bishop Burnet, one of very superior parts, and an excellent woman.” To the best of my memory, from her I had the following pleasant fact conveyed to my still admiring mind:--
“Her father, the Bishop, from his zealous care of his diocese, made it a rule yearly to visit the various parishes of which it was composed; and treated with the most distinguished regard such ministers as were eminent for their piety, and most attentive in their care of the souls of the people. One of those had frequently expressed the great importance of well understanding our Lord’s meaning of the beatitudes, and of this in particular--‘Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.’ Many anxious enquiries yet left this gracious minister unsatisfied in his own mind of the just and true explanation, and many prayers were added, to prevent any partial view or hasty opinion from being adopted by him.
“In this unresolved state, he took a morning’s walk some considerable distance from his parish, and observing a habitation more wretched than any he had before seen, walked towards it, and to his surprise heard a voice of great joyous praise: drawing nearer, he heard it as that of an individual only. He wanted to learn the cause, and, looking in at the window, viewed the poor inhabitant in the most wretched state of outward want and poverty that he had ever beheld. She had, on a little stool before her, a piece of black bread and a cup of cold water; and with her eyes and hands lifted up to heaven, as in a rapture of praise, repeated these words--‘What! all this, and Jesus Christ too? What! all this, and Jesus Christ too?’ It wants not to be added, that with the living lesson which this blessed man here learnt, he with holy gratitude returned, well understanding who only inherited, in our Lord’s sense, the whole earth, by possessing Him. And thus we best find out the supposed paradox of St. Paul--‘as having nothing, yet possessing all things.’”
Mr. Wesley had at this time some cause for apprehending a division, which would have grieved him far more than anything which had occurred to him. His brother Charles, who had assisted him so cordially in opposing the errors which sprang up among the members of the society in Fetter-lane, was inclined to side with the Moravians, and proceeded so far as to declare his intention not to preach any more at the Foundry. “The Philistines are upon thee, Sampson (says Mr. Wesley in his Journal on this occasion), but the Lord is not departed from thee. He shall strengthen thee yet again, and thou shalt be avenged of them for the loss of thine eyes.” Mr. Hutchings, Mr. Stonhouse, the Vicar of Islington, Mr. Chapman, Mr. Hall, and Charles Wesley, kept aloof from all connexion with the Foundry, and appeared inclined to join the Moravians, with whom they associated, and amongst whom they occasionally preached. This was the cause of much grief to Lady Huntingdon, who had a sincere regard for Mr. Charles Wesley, with whom she remonstrated very freely, and who soon yielded to the opinions of the Countess, whom he so entirely respected and loved. A breach between the brothers, indeed, would have afforded a malignant pleasure to their enemies, but they had too long been linked together for good to be separated by any slight difference. Mr. Wesley was fully sensible of the value of such a coadjutor as his brother, who had one heart and object with himself; whom he knew so thoroughly, and upon whom he could perfectly rely; and whose life, conversation, talents, and acquirements, he could hold up to the world as confidently as his own, defying calumny, and courting investigation.
That Lady Huntingdon was the instrument in God’s hands of Mr. Charles Wesley’s deliverance from the errors of the Moravians is obvious from her Ladyship’s letter to his brother:--
“October 24, 1741.
“Wisdom is justified of her children. Your answer to the former part of mine has quite silenced me on that subject. But I believe your brother’s Journal will clear up my meaning more fully to you, for I should labour very much to have as few snares in his way as possible. Since you left us, the still ones are not without their attacks. I fear much more for him than for myself, as the conquest of the one would be nothing to the other. They have by one of their agents reviled me very much, but I have taken no sort of notice, as if I had never heard it. I comfort myself very much that you will approve a step, with respect to them, your brother and I have taken. No less than his declaring open war with them. He seemed under some difficulty about it at first, till he had free liberty given him to use my name, as the instrument in God’s hand that had delivered him from them. I rejoiced much at it, hoping it might be a means of working my deliverance from them. I have desired him to enclose to them yours on Christian perfection. The doctrine therein contained I hope to live and die by; it is absolutely the most complete thing I know. God hath helped your infirmities; His Spirit was with you of a truth. You cannot guess how I in spirit rejoice over it.
“Your brother is also to give his reasons for quite separating; and I am to have a copy of the letter he sends them to keep by me. I have great faith God will not let him fall; he will surely have mercy on him, and not on him only, for many would fall with him. I feel he would make me stagger through his fall; but I fly from them as far as pole from pole; for I will be sound in my obedience. His natural parts, his judgment, and the improvement he has made, are so far above the very highest of them, that I should imagine nothing but frenzy had seized upon him; but when I consider him, with so many advocates for the flesh about him, having the form of angels of light, my flesh trembleth for fear of him, and I should have no comfort did I not know assuredly, that He that is for him is greater than he that is against him.
“When you receive his Journal, you will rejoice much when you come to Thursday, October 15. I think you must have felt our happiness; it was more than I can express. We set out a week ago for Donnington. I will not allow you to call me a still branch. I spoke so strongly against boasting, I can desire nothing at present, but that my name may be cast out from among men, and that you and your brother might think on me as you do on no one else. I am sure God will reward you ten thousand times for your labour and love to my soul; I am sure of your prayers. You are continually borne upon my heart to God, as well as the flock over whom the Holy Ghost has made you overseer.
“You shall hear from me as soon as I get to Donnington, and have heard how your little flock goes on in that neighbourhood.
“S. HUNTINGDON.”
Most of the first race of itinerant preachers, like their predecessors, the first ministers of the Gospel, were men of sound judgment and of a quick understanding, in the fear of the Lord. Satisfied of their call from God, and burning with holy zeal for his glory, they went forth in his strength, making mention of his righteousness, and his only. They simply and affectionately related to their congregations the important truths which they had been taught from the Scriptures, and which they had happily experienced in their own souls--“not in the wisdom which the world teacheth, but in the demonstration of the Spirit and with power.” And the great Head of the Church bore testimony to the words of his servants.
The excellent Lady Huntingdon, who had drank deep into the spirit of the great Methodist leaders, and entered warmly into their views, exerted all the influence which her rank and fortune gave her to promote their success. The labours of Mr. Ingham, and of his zealous coadjutors, in Yorkshire and the surrounding counties, had received her warmest approbation. Having witnessed the immensely blessed labours of the itinerants sent forth by Mr. Whitefield and the Wesleys, her Ladyship now determined to become the patroness of itinerant preaching in the neighbourhood of Donnington Park.
David Taylor, one of Lord Huntingdon’s servants, a man of ability, knowledge, and wisdom, who had received a tolerable education, was early called to the knowledge of the grace of God in truth, under the preaching of the Methodists. Having tasted of the good word of God, and felt the powers of the world to come, he was anxiously concerned for the state of his fellow-servants, and also for his neighbours, whom he saw thronging the downward road, and perishing for lack of knowledge. This induced the Countess to send him forth to the villages and hamlets in the immediate vicinity of Donnington Park, to speak to lost sinners of their dreadful state--of the gracious intentions of God in Christ Jesus concerning them--and of the happiness resulting from the possession of true religion. His word was in the demonstration of the Spirit, and with power, so that her Ladyship was encouraged to extend the sphere of his usefulness. In one of these itinerant excursions, David Taylor was sent, in 1741, to visit Glenfield and Ratby, two villages near Leicester. Many were incited, through curiosity, to hear the strange preacher and his new doctrines, and to enquire concerning their sect, which, at that time, was everywhere spoken against; and among the rest, Mr. Samuel Deacon, of Ratby, being informed, while at work in the field, that a person had been preaching in the streets of Glenfield, and that he was going to preach again at Ratby, immediately laid down his scythe and went to hear him. The sermon made a lasting impression on his mind, and induced him to search the Scriptures. The dissoluteness and ignorance of the clergyman of his parish now struck him in a new light, and he began to reflect on his own danger, a part of the flock of so careless a shepherd. After much reading, reasoning, and perplexity, he was enabled to rely on Christ for salvation, and immediately found peace and joy in believing.
Eventually Mr. Deacon became the pastor of a little Church at Barton-fabis, in Leicestershire, which arose out of his labours, and those of a few colleagues, over which he presided fifty-two years. This Church, like the leaven in the meal, spread to Hugglescote, Melbourne, Loughborough, Derby, Leicester (where an old decayed Church was resuscitated), Nottingham, &c. These Churches, at least such of them as then existed, with others in Yorkshire, Cambridgeshire, &c., were formed into a Connexion in 1770, and its beginning was small, but its latter end has greatly increased. It now contains one HUNDRED AND THIRTEEN CHURCHES, 11,358 members, five District Home Missionary Societies, a Foreign Missionary Society, established in 1816, two Academies, &c. The principal strength of the New Connexion of General Baptists is in the Midland Counties, and Barton-fabis is considered the “mother of them all!” In 1802, the Midland Conference included twenty-one Churches. In 1816, the Warwickshire Churches, six in number, formed themselves into a separate Conference; as also in 1825, four or five Churches in the north of Nottinghamshire were formed into what was called the North Midland Conference. The Midland Conference, in 1832, included forty-two Churches. These forty-two Churches in the Midland Counties probably contain 7,000 members; many of the chapels are large and well attended; the Sunday-schools attached have many hundred children in them. As the little one has become a thousand, may the small one at home and abroad become a strong nation!
These details, when viewed in connexion with the itinerant labours of a servant belonging to the Countess of Huntingdon, sent forth under her patronage, are peculiarly interesting. But for those labours, and the benedictions of the Spirit resting upon them, giving maturity and reproduction to the seed sown, what would have been the state of thousands in those villages and towns? Coventry is a Home Missionary station of this district, as are also Northampton, Mansfield, Ashbourne, Macclesfield, Manchester, &c.
The success attending David Taylor’s efforts induced Lady Huntingdon to enlarge the circle of his labours. He now began to itinerate in various parts of Cheshire and Derbyshire; and soon after commenced field-preaching in the neighbourhood of Chinley, which was about the same time visited by Messrs. Whitefield and Wesley, and Mr. Ingham, from Yorkshire. Many were awakened to a concern for their eternal interests, and began to meet together for prayer and reading the Scriptures. These innovations were opposed by Dr. Clegg, the Dissenting Minister at Chinley, both in his sermons and private admonitions, so strenuously, that several of his respectable hearers took offence at his conduct, and espoused the cause of the Methodists. By this event his mind was much wounded, and his popularity impaired in the latter years of his life.
The late Mr. Bennett, a gentleman of respectable family in Derbyshire, who had been intended for one of the learned professions, with a view to which he received a classical education, having heard much to his own spiritual profit from one of the itinerant Methodist preachers, became warmly attached to them, and was the first person who introduced Mr. Ingham and David Taylor into his own and the adjoining counties. He was soon made known to Lady Huntingdon, and paid her a visit at Donnington Park; and by her was first induced to declare the things which he had seen and felt; and his word was remarkably owned and blessed of God. By her Ladyship he was introduced to Mr. Whitefield and Mr. Wesley, and soon after commenced preacher in connexion with them. His extraordinary labours were attended with a remarkable blessing, and he was instrumental in raising several societies in Lancashire, before Mr. Whitefield or Mr. Wesley had visited that part of the kingdom. His sentiments coinciding more with those of the former than the latter, he publicly separated from Mr. Wesley a few years after at Bolton, and a chapel was erected for him at Warburton, in Cheshire, a thinly-inhabited part of the country, where Methodism gained some of its earliest trophies. His ministry, however, was not confined to this people, but he extended his itinerant excursions to various parts of the country, frequently visiting Donnington Park and its neighbourhood, until the year 1759, when he sunk under a series of most arduous, self-denying, and highly useful labours, and “finished his course with joy.”
Mrs. Bennett was a native of Newcastle-upon-Tyne; her maiden name was Norman, but under that of Grace Murray (which she derived from a former marriage) she occupies a place no less distinguished than that of her husband in the annals of early Methodism. She possessed superior personal accomplishments, united to a mind cultivated by education, and an imagination brilliant and lively in the highest degree. She was employed by Mr. Wesley to organise his female societies, and for this purpose she travelled through various parts of both England and Ireland. Mr. Wesley used to call her his right hand; and it is known that he wished to make her his wife. An acquaintance, however, was formed between her and Mr. Bennett, which, in its origin and continuance, was marked by several extraordinary circumstances, and which eventually led to their marriage. For several years she continued to travel with her husband; but when her family and its cares increased, she retired to the neighbourhood of Chapel-en-le-Frith, where, for more than half a century, her life and conversation uniformly did the greatest honour to her religious principles and profession. Her views of Gospel doctrines, after her separation from Mr. Wesley, were always decidedly Calvinistic, but she retained a partiality to the modes and usages of the Methodists, and had for many years a class-meeting in her house. She died, after a short illness, Feb. 23, 1803, in the 89th year of her age; her last words being, “Glory be to thee, my God: peace thou givest me!”
With Lady Huntingdon’s permission, David Taylor frequently assisted Mr. Ingham, preaching with distinguished success amongst his societies in various parts of Yorkshire, particularly at Bristol, where he was instrumental in exciting a great spirit of enquiry, prior to the arrival of John Nelson in his native town, and the commencement of the immensely blessed labours of that extraordinary man in Yorkshire and various other parts of the kingdom.
In the letters of Lady Huntingdon, and in Mr. Wesley’s journals, frequent mention is made of David Taylor; and about this period he seems to have incurred their displeasure; but from what cause, unless perhaps it was an ill-judged marriage, does not appear. He still, however, continued under Lord Huntingdon’s roof, and remained for several years after in Mr. Wesley’s connexion. In the following letter to Mr. Wesley, her Ladyship makes particular mention of him:--
“January 9th, 1742.
“Your opinion of David Taylor will, I fear, be found too true. I think it will be best to take no notice till I find a way to do it effectually. When we lose our plainness, there ends the Christian. A double-minded man who can bear?
“I have enclosed you Mr. Simpson’s conversation. He has left the Moravians, as he tells me, and is not quite at rest now. I have no doubt but he will be brought right at last. I leave the affair of your sister to you and your brother. Act in it as you think best, and know that God will order all things as shall be most for his glory; I feel no desire on earth or heaven, but to cease from offending him, that his name may be glorified upon earth, and that all the world may know the salvation of God.
“I know that your pious soul would rejoice at the object[21] now before me, who is waiting for the consolation of Israel with that firmness of faith and hope that is not to be described: and indeed she grows in grace, and in the knowledge and love of our Lord and Saviour. She has no joys; but the work seems gradual, and the light, I doubt not, will shine out ere she is called hence.
“I think there is not one thing in the Journal that ought to be omitted. The manner in which you speak of yourself cannot be mended, supposing you have done justice to the grace you have received. We never forget to recommend you, and all your undertakings, at the throne of grace; and as long as you follow the Lord Jesus in simplicity and godly sincerity, I hope to be the happy friend that shall live and die by you, if the Lord permit; and may you be his peculiar charge now, henceforth, and for ever.
“My whole heart has not one single grain, this moment, of thirst after approbation. I feel alone with God; he fills the whole void; I see all mortals under my feet. I have not one wish, one will, one desire, but in him; he hath set my feet in a large room. All but God’s children seem as so many machines appointed for uses which I have nothing to do with. I have wondered and stood amazed that God should make a conquest of all within me by love. Others may be conquered by less gifts and graces, but what must that evil heart be that nothing but the love of God can conquer? I am brought to less than nothing; broken to pieces like the potter’s vessel. O may you thus be subject--may these tears be your meat night and day. I long to leap into the flames to get rid of my sinful flesh, and that every atom of these ashes might be separate, that neither time, place, nor person should stay God’s Spirit. And may the same Spirit dwell in you, protect and guide you to love the Lord Jesus in sincerity and truth! Fear not, be strong, and he will establish you. Adieu, your most faithful friend,
“S. HUNTINGDON.”
Chapter IV
The Clergy--Mr. Simpson--Mr. Wesley’s opinion of him--The one wrong Principle--Mr. Graves--His Recantation--His Explanatory Declaration--Lady Huntingdon’s Schools--Lord Huntingdon’s character--Miss Cooper--Her death--Letters--The Poor--Death of Mr. Jones--The Poor Penitent’s Death-bed--Mr. Wesley’s Preaching on his Father’s Tomb--Donnington Park--Lady Abney--Dr. Watts--“The Grave”--Dr. Blair--Letters--Colonel Gardiner--His Marvellous Conversion--Letters.
At this period there were two awakened clergymen in the neighbourhood of Donnington Park, with whom Lady Huntingdon became acquainted by means of Mr. Wesley. Concerning Mr. Simpson there is little information to be obtained at this distance of time. He was a student at Oxford, and one of those who composed the first Methodist society in that University. Soon after he was ordained, he got a living of considerable value in Leicestershire, which he was persuaded to dispose of, when he left the Church of England and joined the Moravians. For some time before he took this step, he preached amongst Mr. Ingham’s societies in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and Derbyshire, and his ministry was owned of God to the conversion of many. When speaking of him after he joined the Moravians, Mr. Wesley says, “Of this I am fully persuaded, that whatever he does, it is in the uprightness of his heart: but he is led into a thousand mistakes by one wrong principle (the same which many either ignorantly or wickedly ascribe to the whole body of the people called Methodists), the making inward impressions his rule of action, and not the written word.” He appears to have been a pious, well-meaning man, but was led to adopt some of those singular notions which distinguished the Moravian body at that time. He was for a time resident at Nottingham, Ogbrook, Breson, and Markfield, where he propagated his sentiments, and drew many people from the Church, asserting that “there was no Scripture for family prayers, nor for praying in private at any particular seasons, which a believer need not do.” Lady Huntingdon had a great regard for him, and used her utmost exertions to lead him back to the path he had left, but in vain. Some years after, however, he withdrew from the Moravians, and expressed a wish to return to the Church of England, when his friends promised to provide for him. The last mention of him which we have been able to trace, is in Mr. Wesley’s Journal for 1747, where he says, “Poor Mr. Simpson spent an hour with me, distressed on every side: drawn up to London by fair and specious words, and then left to perish, unless he would promise never more to preach out of a church. Alas! what a method of conversion is this! I love the Church too; but I would no more starve men into the Church, than burn them into it.”
Of Mr. Graves we have likewise but very scanty information. He was a student of St. Mary Magdalen College, Oxford, where he became acquainted with the Messrs. Wesley, and joined the Methodists in the University. For some time after his ordination he was very zealous, preaching in the fields and wherever Providence opened a door for him. But giving way to the fear of man, and the opinion of those whom he accounted wiser than himself, he was induced to sign a paper, renouncing all connexion with the Methodists, and promising for the future not to frequent their meetings or attend their expositions. Mr. Graves experienced considerable uneasiness of mind after this sinful compliance, and in 1742 joined Mr. Wesley at Bristol, when, being unable to delay it any longer, he sent the following letter to the fellows of St. Mary Magdalen College:--
“Bristol, August 29, 1742.
“Gentlemen,--In December, 1740, I signed a paper containing the following words:--‘I, Charles Caspar Graves, do hereby declare, that I do renounce the modern practice and principles of the persons commonly called Methodists, namely, of preaching in fields, of assembling together and expounding the holy Scriptures in private houses, and elsewhere than in churches, in an irregular manner; and their pretensions to an extraordinary inspiration and inward feeling of the Holy Spirit.
“‘I do further declare my conformity to the Liturgy of the Church of England, and my unfeigned assent and consent to the Articles thereof, commonly called the Thirty-nine Articles.
“‘Lastly, I do declare that I am heartily sorry that I have given offence and scandal by frequenting the meetings and attending the expositions of the persons commonly called Methodists, and that I will not frequent their meetings nor attend their expositions for the future, nor take upon me to preach and expound the Scriptures in the manner preached by them.
“‘CHARLES CASPAR GRAVES.’
“I believe myself indispensably obliged openly to declare before God and the world, that the motives whereby I was induced to sign that paper were partly a sinful fear of man; partly an improper deference to the judgment of those whom I accounted wiser than myself; and, lastly, a resolution, that if my own judgment should at any time be better informed, I would then openly retract, in the presence of God and man, whatever I should be convinced I had said or done amiss.
“Accordingly, having now had (besides a strong conviction immediately consequent thereon) many opportunities of informing my judgment better, and being fully convinced of my fault, I do hereby declare my sincere repentance for my wicked compliance with those oppressive men who, without any colour of law, human or divine, imposed such a condition, of receiving a testimonial, upon me.
“I do further declare, that I know no principles of the Methodists (so called) which are contrary to the word of God, nor any practices of theirs but what are agreeable both to Scripture and to the laws of the Church of England; and I believe, in particular, their preaching the Gospel in the fields (being first forbid to do so in churches, although a dispensation of the Gospel is committed to them, and woe unto them if they preach not the Gospel), or in private houses, or in any part of His dominion who filleth heaven and earth, can never be proved to be contrary to any written law, either of God or man: that I am not apprised of their preaching anywhere in an irregular, disorderly manner, neither of their pretending to any extraordinary inspiration or extraordinary feelings of the Holy Spirit; but to those ordinary ones only, which, if a man have not, he is without hope and without God in the world.
“I do yet further declare, that (whatever indiscretion I may in other respects have been guilty of) I know no just offence or scandal which I ever gave, by frequenting the meetings or attending the expositions of the persons commonly called Methodists, and that I verily believe no offence was ever taken thereat, unless either by persons loaded by prejudice, or by those who enter not into the kingdom of heaven themselves, and if others would enter in, suffer them not.
“I do lastly declare, that I look upon myself to be under no kind of obligation (except only that I still assent and consent to the Articles and Liturgy of the Church) to observe anything contained in that scandalous paper, so unchristianly imposed upon me.
(Witness my hand). “CHARLES CASPAR GRAVES.”
About a month after the date of this paper, Mr. Charles Wesley and Mr. Graves visited Donnington Park, and were received by Lady Huntingdon with the utmost cordiality and kindness. Her Ladyship rejoiced that Mr. Graves had burst his degrading fetters, and was determined once more, in the strength of his Divine Master, to go forth into the highways, and proclaim the savour of that name which he loved. During their stay, Lady Huntingdon invited many persons in the upper ranks in society, to whom they declared “the unsearchable riches of Christ,” and were heard with apparent deep and serious attention. From this period Mr. Charles Wesley and his brother, and those connected with them, became constant visitors at Donnington Park, where they were always received by her Ladyship as the servants of that God to whom she had so solemnly dedicated herself, and treated with every mark of polite attention on the part of the noble Earl. This accomplished nobleman undoubtedly had a high esteem and ardent affection for the Countess; indeed, a man with far less discernment than he possessed could not have been insensible to her superior talents and worth. The high veneration in which she was held by him was abundantly evinced by his permitting and enabling her to promote those schemes of usefulness, and those plans for the advancement of the interests of religion, which he well knew constantly lay so near her heart. Every minister of the Gospel, of whatever name and denomination, whom she wished to invite, was always welcome at Donnington Park, and treated by his Lordship with that politeness and affability for which he was so distinguished. With many of these worthy men Lord Huntingdon would freely converse on subjects of a religious nature, proving, however, that he himself was not imbued with true devotion. It was on one of those occasions that the conversation turned on the great doctrine of the Atonement through the death of Christ, when his Lordship observed, “The morality of the Bible I admire, but the doctrine of Atonement I cannot comprehend.”
The Countess appears to have continued at Donnington Park the greater part of this year, fully occupied in devising schemes for the more extensive diffusion of divine truth, and meliorating the condition of the poor around her. Sensible of the benefits resulting from a religious education, her Ladyship established schools at Ashley and Markfield, for the instruction of the children of those districts. For a time they seemed to prosper well; but not succeeding according to her wishes, she was obliged to give them up, and discharge the masters. This circumstance is briefly noticed in one of her letters to Mr. Wesley:--
“March 15, 1742.
“My very much beloved Friend in the Lord--I cannot help saying that I thought it long till I heard from you; not but I was well assured that some good reason had prevented you. May the Lord strengthen you more and more! I am sure you are a chosen vessel, and sent for the defence of the Gospel. It is the Lord’s work, and the good that is done upon earth he doeth it himself. Stagger not then through unbelief at any of his promises. He is come to send fire upon earth, and soon I believe it will be kindled. O that we may all be fit for the day of trial! He will thoroughly purge his floor. The chaff and the wheat are now mixed together, and it is the Lord of Hosts must separate them. But I trust we shall be among those who rejoice at his appearing.
“Many things agreeing have determined me to lay aside the school at Markfield, and for that end I have discharged the schoolmasters. It is but too plain the time is not yet come. Mr. E---- is gone much backward; fear, and all evil, I find, now break in upon him. I believe longer experience, with much better observations than I am able to make, will prove this an undeniable truth--that a school will never answer the end of bringing forth any of the Gospel fruits of holiness, till the parents are first made Christians. The parents must lay up for the children, not the children for the parents.
“* * * * * Surely, my friend has a mind to exercise his gift of humility in an extraordinary manner, when he could once ask my opinion upon his Journal. That it will both delight and comfort me, I have no doubt; and I think nothing is left for me but to speak my heart, knowing the love God hath for you. He will bring good out of evil for your sake, and in this hope I will do my uttermost in much simplicity.[22] Our friend,[23] now in town, seems as a lamb in the midst of wolves. May the Lord give him the wisdom of the serpent and the innocence of the dove! Divine grace and the uprightness of his heart will make him more than conqueror.
“I think and believe that God had blessed your conversation to Mr. Graves, whom I have just heard has, with much love and gratitude, expressed warm sentiments for you. The Lord will water his word in his own time.
“All goes on well here with respect to an abundance of the outward means; but, alas! none of the signs which follow believers. Do you not think that John the Baptist’s disciples had remission of sins under his ministry? It is said, ‘that he was filled with the Holy Ghost, and that he gave the knowledge of salvation by the remission of sins.’ Or rather, is it only meant here, the good tidings which were to follow, and that our Lord was to give the knowledge of salvation? We read, that repentance went before his baptism; and is it not proved that pardon followed it, by fire and the Holy Ghost, given by our Lord himself? Surely less is not meant than entire purification of soul. But my blindness your light will assist in this, when you have leisure.
“We are earnest in prayer for you; and, could I do justice to my heart, I should say, how much love and gratitude I hourly feel for you; and it is the only good I know that it ever was possessed of. May the Lord enable you to remember me! May your patience be tried by this, as I think it is the only good you can receive by so tedious and unpleasant a scrawl. May our Lord bless you; I wish you good luck in his name, and that he may prosper your handiwork. Your most unworthy, but affectionate friend,
“S. HUNTINGDON.”
There was at this period a young lady residing with Lady Huntingdon of the name of Cooper.[24] She was in the last stage of consumption, and her soul was on the wing for eternity. Miss Cooper having expressed an earnest wish to see Mr. Wesley, Lady Huntingdon wrote to him on Saturday, the 15th of May, pressing him to come without delay, and pay the last office of friendship to one whose spirit was hovering on the brink of the eternal world. Three days after the receipt of this letter, Mr. Wesley left London, and arrived on Saturday, the 22nd, at Lord Huntingdon’s. “About five in the afternoon (says Mr. Wesley) I reached Donnington Park. Miss Cooper was just alive; but as soon as we came in, her spirit greatly revived. For three days we rejoiced in the grace of God, whereby she was filled with a hope full of immortality; with meekness, gentleness, patience, and humble love, knowing in whom she had believed.”
The following letter to Mrs. Bridget Bethel, of Bath, contains some account of her last hours:--
“My dear Friend in the Lord--Upon receiving yours, we could not help falling prostrate before the throne of grace to acknowledge the great love wherewith the Lord hath loved you; and with praises, and thanksgivings, and hearts of joy, expressing our gratitude. I never think on you but with uncommon comfort. Dear Miss Fanny Cooper was then with us, and day and night prayed to the Lord to increase and strengthen your faith: she has at last laid down the burden in much joy and peace. O! my dear friend, were I to tell you the whole of her sufferings, and the wonderful supports she had, you would declare that God was with her of a truth. * * * May the Lord grant us to follow Christ as she has done, for a blessed saint she lived and died. Whole nights, when for her pain she could not rest, yet in hymns, and prayers, and reading, she would say--‘O! how delightful a night have I felt.’ Miss Cooper is still with me: it has not seemed like death amongst us: we rejoice upon every remembrance of her; all tears are wiped from our eyes; her last hours were all spent in prayer: and when her change came her countenance spoke her blessed; and I for a moment tasted her joy, for I thought my whole soul was so filled with delight it could have followed. She often would say, ‘That sweet woman, Mrs. Bethel, I pray for her.’
“I beg my most sincere compliments to dear Lady Cox[25] and Mrs. Bethel; and believe me, your most sincere and affectionate friend in the Lord Jesus,
“S. HUNTINGDON.
“I find the world more and more a burden to me--pray for me, that I may no longer live to the desire of man, but of God.”
Lady Huntingdon appears to have been much affected by this incident: nevertheless she still continued actively engaged in doing good to the souls and bodies of the poor around her; she bountifully relieved them in their necessities, visited in sickness, conversed with and led them to their knees, praying with them and for them. She sought them out with the most industrious care, and gave bountifully, and always with more pleasure than even the poor themselves felt at receiving her alms. Her satisfaction appeared in her countenance and eyes; she spoke to them with kindness, and entered into all the particulars of their wretchedness; and the more rude, ignorant, and barbarous she found them, the more they became the objects of her compassion. In the exercise of these and of all other virtues she was wonderfully secret, endeavouring to come up as near as she could to the rule of not “letting her left hand know what her right hand did.”
The inexpressible concern which her Ladyship felt for the enlargement of the kingdom of Christ and the salvation of immortal souls induced her to speak concerning divine things in all companies, where she had any prospect of doing good thereby, and to set her face as a flint against all who might oppose the truth or grace of God. Animated with that burning charity by which the great Apostle of the Gentiles was impelled to publish the Gospel from nation to nation, Lady Huntingdon was constrained to warn the ignorant, the careless, and the abandoned, that the “wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.” Her highest wish was to “convert the wicked from the errors of his ways,” and her labours were not in vain.
The following letter to Mr. Wesley, written shortly after Miss Cooper’s death, will prove how incessant and unwearied were the labours of Lady Huntingdon to save perishing fallen mortals from the error of their ways:--
“My dear Friend--The Lord hath removed from you one whom you much loved: but I have the pleasure to believe, because he loved her better, and therefore he graciously delivered her from this present evil world. Some plain account, unornamented, of what her life and death were, under the character of a believer, would have the most weight, in which we might justly boast of God’s love to her. I would have as little of the creature thought of as possible, that God may be ALL in ALL.”
The Countess here relates the death of Mr. Jones, of Fonmon Castle, in Wales; a gentleman of large fortune and a truly pious convert, through the labours of the early Methodists, to the truth as it is in Christ Jesus. He died in June, 1742, and Mr. C. Wesley wrote an elegy on his memory, to which in this letter Lady Huntingdon refers, observing that--
“For this fortnight past I have found that instruction and some short exhortations to the weak have been of great use, especially among my workpeople, with whom I spend part of every day.[26] I have found much comfort in this myself, and am rarely or ever out of the presence of God. He is a pillar of light before me. I want more of this knowledge, that I may keep his holy law. Yea, I then shall keep it with my whole heart; clouds and darkness are at times the habitation of his seat: but there shall go a consuming fire before him, which shall burn up his enemies, and shall destroy all them that persecute me; and he shall say unto my soul, ‘I am thy salvation.’ The Lord often appeareth out of Zion in great beauty. Surely he hath done a marvellous thing of late; and I find so much done by this act of his love, that I am all love and wonder. The heaviness of my heart respecting Miss Cooper’s death is, that she, having so much light, I expected great things from her. My heart used to say, we have prayed so much, and have longed so much for this triumph of faith in her last moments, that we shall surely have it: not considering that we should not be heard for our much speaking, or that there is anything in man that could incline God, but only for his holy name’s sake. The devil thrust sore at me, but I looked unto the Lord, and, though in the dark, he bade me tarry his leisure.
“After Miss Anne Cooper was gone, I walked a little way from their house by the water-side, where there are some houses for the poor, in number about six, two of which were ale-houses, and appear to be a harbour for the devils themselves. I called in at one of the other houses to see a poor woman that I used to think meant well, in order to stir her up a little. After talking with her, she told me she had been asking one of her neighbours if she had any hope of knowing before she died whether she should be happy? and they both wished to know my opinion. I answered, that as they believed, so would it be done unto them; and added, that I would come down and read to them. *** I took a friend with me, and found her apparently in great bodily suffering, but on feeling her pulse I could not find it so much as ruffled; but her sweats were the most violent I had ever seen. Her agony of mind was so great, that she could not contain, but cried out, ‘This is nothing; I possibly may die, and what will become of my soul? O, pray for me! O mercy! mercy!’ Her trouble and misery were such as brought tears from all our eyes. I beheld her with my heart filled with love and pity, and said, ‘Now where are all your good works? What is become of all your honest labour for sixty years? What! are you a perishing sinner at last?’ She answered, ‘It will not do, I am too bad to be saved.’ Her tears and the expression of her sufferings were more than can be described. I said, ‘Well, now that you are quite lost, you will find Him who came to seek and to save just such as you are. Now, my life upon it, he will soon come.’ ‘What! (she cried), to such a sinner as I am?’ I answered, ‘Yes, it was only for such that he died.’ These extreme agonies had so affected her body that we thought they had brought on a fever, but from her pulse this did not appear. ‘I shall die (she said). Peace will be your portion first’--but she would not be comforted.
“Next day I found her still the same, and we received the sacrament with her. I found the presence of the Lord there. As soon as it was over, I said, ‘O what a living Saviour have you!’ The tears were still flowing down her cheeks, with all the marks of misery as before--the sight was enough to affect a heart of stone.
“About six at night, they brought me word that she was seized with a cold shivering fit, and was in the agonies of death, and had desired to take leave of her children. This was her last plunge into the deep. Her soul and body were as if in hell. Four men were not sufficient to hold her in bed, so great was Satan’s power over her. After these hours of sufferings, the heavenly child was born. The poor people were surprised to find her on a sudden lie so still: and she continued twelve hours, as it were, feeding on the fatted calf. She told them, ‘I have not slept, but have been all night partaking of the joys of heaven.’ When I came at noon to see her, she said, ‘O, my Lady, my dear Lady, what great things the Lord hath done for me! I have no doubt or fear. He hath given me that peace which the world can neither give nor take away.’ Her looks were altered; she laid with such sweetness and complacency in her countenance, that my soul delighted to behold her. ‘You have saved my soul’ (she said); ‘you know the blessedness I have found this night: I have such tastes of divine love as are not to be expressed. O! what a thing it is to have the heart all flaming to the Lord Jesus!’ From that hour she has felt no pain, either of body or mind, but exhorts all who come near her to turn to the Lord. She has quite forgot all the knowledge and experience of seventy years, and is become a little child. I have sent many to see her; and one of her daughters is now seeking in the bitterness of her heart that Lord who hath so comforted her mother.
“Much of my time is taken up in bringing souls to seek after the Lord. I have some difficulty in keeping them from clinging to me--such wondrous love they bear me; and this I know must be for the Lord’s sake, for in me dwelleth no good thing.
“S. HUNTINGDON.”
Her Ladyship continues her interesting account of the poor penitent in the following letter:--
“My dear Friend--What blessed effects does the love of God produce in the heart of those who abide in him! and how solid is the peace, and how divine the joy, that springs from an assurance that we are united to the Saviour by a living faith! Blessed be his name, I have an abiding sense of his presence with me, notwithstanding all the weakness and unworthiness I feel; and an intense desire that he may be glorified in the salvation of souls, especially those who lay nearest my heart and affections. But how vile and worthless are my best services! After the poor labours of the day are over, my heart still cries, ‘God be merciful to me a sinner!’ I am deeply sensible that I daily, hourly, and momentarily stand in need of the sprinkling of my Saviour’s blood. Thanks be to God, the fountain is always open. There I may daily wash, and be cleansed from every spot and every stain. O! what an anchor is this to the soul!
“The poor woman whom I mentioned to you lately has left us, and has joined the Church of the first-born whose names are written in heaven. About a week before her triumphant exit she was in great pain all the day, and in the evening Lady Anne, Lady Frances, and I went to prayer with her. When prayer was ended, she broke forth in praise to God, and continued for a long time, crying, ‘All glory! glory! glory to the Lamb!’ During the night she broke out again in an holy extasy of joy and praise.
“She endured constant, often violent, pain. We esteemed it a privilege to visit her. Never did I see the power of faith more remarkably exemplified. She drank deep of the cup of suffering; but through divine grace and the supporting hand of the great Author of her eternal salvation, was made more than conqueror. I prevailed on my Lord Huntingdon to visit her. He was surprised and affected even to tears. She was supposed to be dying. As soon as she saw him, she cried aloud, ‘Glory be to God, that Jesus Christ came to seek and to save the lost! How great is his love for poor sinners! If we are saved, it is because he has died, and poured out his precious blood to wash our guilty souls. God be praised for that Scripture--He that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out.’ Sometimes her voice was loud, and then so low that we supposed her dying. The whole of the next day she continued in a state of extreme weakness, waiting with calm resignation for the appearance of her Lord. In the evening she desired us to sing; after which, and prayer, she was much exhausted. The following day many symptoms of approaching dissolution appeared. I visited her again, with Lady Anne and Lady Frances, and found her extremely weak. Lady Frances said, ‘Your sufferings will soon be over.’ She put forth her hand and bid us farewell. A little before her departure, she said, ‘The fear of death is gone--O, the name of Jesus! how sweet it is! All glory to the Lamb!’ She attempted to proceed, but was unable; but signs, looks, and broken accents explained the happiness she enjoyed. Just before she breathed her last, she gave us a parting smile, and her happy spirit entered into rest.
“There were many witnesses around her dying bed, to whom I spoke with much fervour and fidelity. The impression will, I trust, be lasting. Vast numbers, from respect, as well as from curiosity, attended her funeral.
“I had a visit from Mr. Graves lately. He seems much alive to God, and much in earnest for the salvation of souls. Mrs. Ingham and Lady Margaret intend coming to Donnington next week. I wish you or your brother could give us a little of your time to meet them here. May every blessing attend you, prays your most faithful friend,
“S. HUNTINGDON.”
To return to Mr. Wesley: before the death of Miss Cooper he quitted Donnington Park, and preached in various places in Yorkshire. On his return thence, he visited Epworth, the place of his nativity, where he was refused the use of the church by the curate. In the afternoon the church was exceedingly full, a report being spread that Mr. Wesley was to preach. After service, David Taylor, who had accompanied him from Donnington Park, stood in the churchyard, and gave notice, as the people came out, that Mr. Wesley, not being permitted to preach in the church, designed to preach there at six o’clock. “Accordingly at six (says he) I came, and found such a congregation as, I believe, Epworth never saw before. I stood near the east end of the church, upon my father’s tombstone, and cried, ‘The kingdom of heaven is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.’”
Mr. Wesley returned to Donnington Park on the 19th of June. The next day being Sunday, he preached in the morning at Ogbrooke, and at six in the evening at Melbourne. At the latter place, and at Markfield, the congregations were so large that they could not be accommodated within the church, and Mr. Wesley was obliged to preach in the open air. At this period Mr. Wesley’s visits at Donnington Park were very frequent; Lady Huntingdon having a very sincere esteem for him, and they were much united in sentiments of a theological nature. Easy and affable in his demeanour, he accommodated himself to every society, and showed how happily the most finished courtesy may be blended with the most perfect piety. In his conversation, we might be at a loss which to admire most, his fine classical taste, his extensive knowledge of men and things, or his overflowing goodness of heart. While the grave and serious were charmed with his wisdom, his sportive sallies of innocent mirth delighted even the young and thoughtless; and both saw, in his uninterrupted cheerfulness, the excellency of true religion.
It was about this period that Lady Huntingdon became acquainted with the well-known and much-admired Dr. Watts, to whom her Ladyship appears to have been introduced by his kind friend and patroness, Lady Abney. Between these truly excellent characters a warm friendship existed, which, however, was of short duration, as the Doctor and Lady Abney were at this time rapidly descending the vale of life, and a few short years after were numbered amongst the spirits of the just made perfect; whilst the noble and elect Countess was destined, during the protracted period of half a century, to exhibit to mankind a life of the most extensive usefulness, unbounded intrepidity, and intrinsic excellence, in the cause of religion. Unequivocally may it be said, that her character has never been surpassed or equalled in any age, or even nation.
From a fragment of a letter still remaining, it has been ascertained, that somewhat about this period Dr. Watts transmitted to Lady Huntingdon the manuscript copy of a poem, entitled, “The Grave,” at the particular request of the author, the Rev. Robert Blair, a Scotch divine, minister of Athelstaneford, in East Lothian.[27] With this accomplished man her Ladyship was not altogether unacquainted, having often heard honourable mention made of him by her valued friends, Colonel and Lady Frances Gardiner. Lady Huntingdon appears to have approved of the poem and advised its publication, for in a letter, written some considerable time after, Colonel Gardiner says--
“Our good friend is much flattered by your Ladyship’s approbation of his production. Good Dr. Watts has likewise signified his approval of the piece in a manner most obliging. Many thanks for your oft-repeated expressions of regard for one so worthless as I am. I shall convey your Ladyship’s assurances of esteem and respect for Dr. Blair, to whom I intend writing very soon. Few stand in need of your prayers and advice more than I do. May the Almighty Saviour preserve your valuable life; bless your exertions for the eternal good of others; and that you may ever enjoy a thriving soul in a healthful body, shall be the continual prayer of, my dear Madam, your most faithful, most obliged, and most humble servant.”
For Dr. Watts, Colonel Gardiner had a most sincere esteem. He had been introduced to the Doctor at Lord Huntingdon’s house, during one of his visits to the metropolis. Speaking of this sweet singer in our Israel, he says:--
“I have been in pain lest that excellent person should have been called to heaven before I had an opportunity to let him know how much his works have been blessed to me, and of course of returning him my hearty thanks: for though it is owing to the operation of the blessed Spirit, that anything works effectually upon our hearts, yet if we are not thankful to the instrument which God is pleased to make use of, whom we do see, how shall we be thankful to the Almighty, whom we have not seen? Therefore I must beg the favour of you to let him know, that I intended to have waited upon him in the beginning of last May, when I was in London, but was informed, and that to my great sorrow, that he was extremely ill, and therefore I did not think that a visit would have been seasonable; especially considering that I have not the happiness to be much acquainted with the Doctor; but well am I acquainted with his works, especially with his psalms, hymns, and lyrics. How often, by singing some of these to myself on horseback and elsewhere, has the evil spirit been made to flee away:--
‘Where’er my heart in tune was found, Like David’s harp of solemn sound.’
“I desire to bless God for the good news of his recovery; and entreat you to tell him, that although I cannot keep pace with him here, in celebrating the high praises of our glorious Redeemer, which is the great grief of my heart, yet I am persuaded, that when I join the glorious company above, where there will be no drawbacks, that none will outsing me there; because I shall not find any that has been more indebted to the wonderful riches of divine grace than I:--
‘Give me a place at thy saints’ feet, Or some fallen angel’s vacant seat; I’ll strive to sing as loud as they Who sit above in brighter day.’
“I know it is natural for every one who has felt that almighty power which raised our glorious Redeemer from the grave to believe his case singular. But I have made every one in this respect submit, as soon as he has heard my story; and if you seem so surprised at the account which I gave you, what will you be when you hear it all?
‘Oh! if I had an angel’s voice, And could be heard from pole to pole; I would to all the listening world Proclaim thy goodness to my soul.’”
* * * * *
“I cannot express (says the Countess) how much I esteem that most excellent man, Colonel Gardiner. What love and mercy has God shown to him in snatching him as a brand from the burning! He is truly alive to God; and pleads nothing but the plea of the publican in the temple--‘God be merciful to me, a sinner!’ Surely God’s work is perfect. What a monument of the grace, mercy, and love of God! To glorify God, and to serve him with all his ransomed powers, is now his only aim and end.”