the Lord has stood by me, and my little difficulties are nothing to me; but I fear I support them rather like a philosopher than a Christian. We were to have been

mobbed with a drum last Tuesday, at the rock church, but their captain, a Papist, behaved himself so very ill, that they were ashamed of him, and are made peaceable for the present. Ask of God to give me wisdom, resolution, and love."

It appears by a letter of his written to Mr. Charles Wesley, in July following, that he presented the Papist above mentioned at the succeeding visitation, although without effect. "Three weeks ago," says he, "I went to Ludlow, to the Bishop's visitation, and I thought the occasion favourable for my purpose; but the Churchwardens, when we were upon the spot, refused to support me, and the Court has paid no regard to my presentation. Thus I have gained some experience, though at my own cost. The sermon did not touch the string with which I was whipped the last visitation, and I afterwards had the boldness to go and dine with the Bishop.

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Many of my parishioners are strangely disconcerted at my bringing my gown back from Ludlow. [They thought the Bishop would have stripped him of it.] With respect to the Magistrate I mentioned, who, because he acted as Judge of the Circuit two years ago, believes himself as able a lawyer as Judge Foster, he, for the present, contents himself with threatenings. I met him the other day, and after he had called me Jesuit, &c., and menaced me with his cane, he assured me again that he would soon put down our assemblies. How ridiculous is this impotent rage !

"I have attempted to form a society; and in spite of much opposition and many difficulties, I hope by God's grace to succeed. I preach, I exhort, I pray, &c.; but as yet I seem to have cast the net on the wrong side of the ship. Lord Jesus, come thyself, and furnish me with a divine commission! For some months past I have laboured under an insuperable drowsiness; I could sleep day and night; and the hours which I ought to employ with Christ on the mountain, I spend like Peter in the garden." Thus we see this man of God was not without his infirmities. But these he always magnified.

22. As the reader will probably wish to see a little further account of this persecution, and of the behaviour of this good man under it, I shall insert here also an extract from another letter. In August of the same year, (1762,) he writes as follows to the same friend, in whom he always put entire confidence :

"I HAVE received your last, and I rejoice that Dr. Turner, by whose skill the Lord once brought me up from the grave, has undertaken your cure. May he have the same success with you that he had with me; but, be that as it will, our comfort is to know that God will do all for the best.

"I have still trials of all sorts. First, spiritual ones. My heart is hard: I have not that contrition, that filial fear, that sweet humble melting of heart before the Lord, which I consider as essential to spiritual Christianity.

"Secondly, the opposition made to my ministry increases. A young Clergyman who lives in Madeleywood, where he has great influence, has openly declared war against me, by pasting on the church-door a paper, in which he charges me with rebellion, schism, and being a disturber of the public peace. He puts himself at the head of the gentlemen of the parish, (as they term themselves,) and, supported by the Recorder of Wenlock, he is determined to put in force the Conventicle Act against me. A few weeks ago, the widow who lives in the rock church, and a young man who read and prayed in my absence, were taken up. I attended them before the Justice, and the young Clergyman with his troop were present. They called me Jesuit, &c.; and the Justice tried to frighten me, by saying, 'that he would put the Act in force, though we should assemble only in my own house.' I pleaded my cause as well as I could; but seeing he was determined to hear no reason, I told him 'he must do as he pleased,' and that if the Act in question concerned us, we were ready to suffer all its rigours.' In his rage, he went the next day to Wenlock, and proposed to grant a warrant to have me apprehended; but as the other Justices were of opinion, that the business did not come under their cognizance, but belonged to the Spiritual Court,

he was obliged to swallow his spittle alone. The Churchwardens talk of putting me in the Spiritual Court, for meeting in houses, &c.: but, what is 'worst of all, three false witnesses offer to prove upon oath, that I am a liar; and some of my followers (as they are called) have dishonoured their profession, to the great joy of our adversaries.

"In the midst of these difficulties, I have reason to bless the Lord that my heart is not troubled. Forget me not in your prayers. Yours,

"J. F."

23. Such was a part, and but a very small part, of the opposition which, from time to time, for many years, he met with. "His situation, with respect to the unworthy part of his parishioners," says Mr. Gilpin, "was similar to the situation of Daniel, with respect to the Babylonish courtiers: his whole conduct was so admirably regulated by circumspection and prudence, that malice itself could find no occasion against him, 'except concerning the law of his God.' The voluptuary detested his temperance and self-denial; the man of pride poured contempt upon his humility and condescension; the licentious were offended at his gravity and strictness; and the formal were roused to indignation by that spirit of zeal and devotion which influenced his whole conversation and conduct. All of these, however they might differ among themselves, were leagued together as the inveterate enemies of this venerable Pastor. They wrested his word, they misrepresented his actions, and 'cast out his name as evil.' But, whatever he was called to suffer from the malice and opposition of his enemies, he endured it with the utmost magnanimity and composure, not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing, but, contrariwise, blessing.' While some indignant professors are ready, with James and John, 'to command fire from heaven,' for the destruction of their opposers; and while others are inquiring, with Peter, how often they are to meet their offending brethren with unfeigned forgiveness; he gave himself an example of that uncom'mon charity which suffereth long, and is kind; which is not easily provoked, and thinketh no evil. When he was reviled, he reviled not again; when he suffered, he

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threatened not; but committed himself to Him that judgeth righteously.'

"Whether he was insulted in his person, or injured in his property; whether he was attacked with open abuse, or pursued by secret calumny; through the testimony of a good conscience, he walked amid the most violent assaults of his enemies, as a man completely invulnerable; and while his firmness discovered that he was unhurt, his forbearance testified that he was unoffended. His love was truly unconquerable; the cold waters of disrespect could not 'quench it,' neither could floods of reproach drown it. Being reviled, he blessed; being persecuted, he suffered it; being defamed, he entreated; provoking' his enemies, by every affectionate method, to love and good works.' Whenever he discerned a virtue in the character of an adversary, he commended it, he magnified it, he rejoiced over it, and endeavoured to make it a medium of reconciliation. Whenever he discovered an enemy in distress, he hastened to meet him with tokens of generosity and kindness; ‘if he hungered, he fed him; if he thirsted, he gave him drink;' if he was oppressed, he maintained his cause; if his heart was brought down through heaviness, he endeavoured to support and console him; embracing with thankfulness every possible opportunity of ' heaping coals of fire upon his head.'

24. It must be observed here, however, that the opposition, which some of his parishioners and others made to him, was of that nature, that he was constrained, although reluctant, to denounce upon them the judgments of God, and to warn them, if they did not repent, God would speedily cut them off. And the truth of these predictions, as I may not improperly term them, was shown over and over by their signal accomplishment. January 13, 1766, he wrote to a friend, as follows:

"This evening I have buried one of the warmest opposers of my ministry,-a stout, strong young man, aged twenty-four years. About three months ago he came to the churchyard with a corpse, but refused to come into the church. When the burial was over, I went to him, and mildly expostulated with him. His constant answer was, that 'he had bound himself never to come

to church while I was there;' adding, that 'he would take the consequences,' &c. Seeing I got nothing, I left him, saying, with uncommon warmth, (though, as far as I can remember, without the least touch of resentment,) 'I am clear of your blood; henceforth it is upon your own head: you will not come to church upon your legs; prepare to come upon your neighbours' shoulders.' He wasted from that time; and, to my great surprise, hath been buried on the spot where we were when the conversation passed between us. When I visited him in his sickness, he seemed tame as a wolf in a trap. O may God have turned him into a sheep in his last hours!"

25. Many other instances might be produced, if need were, of God's confirming the word of his servant; and many were the indisputable proofs which were given in the parish and vicinity of Madeley, "that 'the weapons' of this eminent Minister's 'warfare were mighty, through God, to the pulling down of strong-holds.' Indeed, as he attacked sin, in public and in private, under all its wonderful variety of appearances, so he never quitted the charge, till he had either subdued or put it to shame. Unawed, either by numbers or by power, he was superior to all the opposition that could be raised against him; and it may be confidently asserted, that'no man was able to stand before him all the days of his life.' That he had enemies who were never subdued, will readily be granted; but that any of these enemies were hardy enough openly to encounter him, is absolutely denied. The despisers of religion considered him as a man of an undaunted spirit in the cause of God; and the most daring among them, at the whisper of his approach, would seek the nearest shelter to screen themselves from his deserved rebuke.

26. " The weapon by which he was enabled to perform

the most memorable of his public services, was that sacred word, which is emphatically called 'the sword of the Spirit.' In the exercise of this two-edged instrument he was expert beyond description, turning it every way for the defence of the Gospel, and the overthrow of its opposers. With this he cut in pieces all the snares of the wicked, and with this he struck at the deepest root of sin. With this he divided asunder 'soul and