Part 36 (1/2)

[Footnote 778: Lord Lyttelton's _Letter to Mr. West_, quoted in _A Refutation of Calvinism_, by G. Tomline, Bishop of Winchester, p. 253.]

[Footnote 779: Not, of course, that he waited until the death of Whitefield before reopening the question; for Conference met in August, and Whitefield did not die until September 1770.]

[Footnote 780: Extracts from the Minutes of some late Conversations between the Rev. Mr. Wesley and others at a Public Conference held in London, August 7, 1770, and printed by W. Pim, Bristol. 'Take heed to your doctrine.']

[Footnote 781: _Life of Lady Huntingdon_, ii. 236.]

[Footnote 782: Id. 240.]

[Footnote 783: Id. 240, 241.]

[Footnote 784: _Life of Lady Huntingdon_, ii. 243, &c.]

[Footnote 785: Id. 245. Berridge said the contest at Bristol turned upon this hinge, whether it should be Pope John or Pope Joan.]

[Footnote 786: And of his own writings he said: 'A softer style and spirit would have better become me.'--See _Life of Rev. R. Hill_, by Rev. G. Sidney, pp. 121, 122.]

[Footnote 787: Id. p. 122.]

[Footnote 788: Southey's _Life of Wesley_, ii. 180.]

[Footnote 789: See the abuse quoted in the _Fourth Check_, pp. 11, 42, 121.]

[Footnote 790: See _Fourth Check_, p. 155.]

[Footnote 791: _Works of A.M. Toplady, with Memoir of the Author_, in six volumes, vol. i. p. 100.]

[Footnote 792: But at the same time a very modest and moderate one.

'Predestination,' he wrote, 'and reprobation I think of with fear and trembling; and, if I should attempt to study them, I would study them on my knees.' (Letter, dated Miles's Lane, March 24, 1752, quoted by Mr.

Tyerman in his _Oxford Methodists_, p. 270.) And again: 'As for points of doubtful disputation, those especially which relate to _particular_ or _universal_ redemption, I profess myself attached neither to the one nor the other. I neither think of them myself nor preach of them to others. If they happen to be started in conversation, I always endeavour to divert the discourse to some more edifying topic. I have often observed them to breed animosity and division, but never knew them to be productive of love and unanimity.... Therefore I rest satisfied in this general and indisputable truth, that the Judge of all the earth will a.s.suredly do right,' &c. This, however, was written in 1747 (see Tyerman, 254). Perhaps when he wrote _Theron and Aspasio_ some years later his views were somewhat changed.]

[Footnote 793: Mr. Tyerman, however, thinks otherwise. 'After the lapse of a hundred years,' he writes (_Oxford Methodists_, p. 201), 'since the author's death, few are greater favourites at the present day.']

[Footnote 794: Boswell's _Life of Johnson_, vol. v. p. 93.]

[Footnote 795: See especially _Meditations among the Tombs_, p. 29, the pa.s.sage beginning, 'Since we are so liable to be dispossessed of this earthly tabernacle,' &c.]

[Footnote 796: 'I dare no more write in _a fine style_,' he said, 'than wear a fine coat.... I should purposely decline what many admire--a highly ornamental style.']

[Footnote 797: Hervey's _Letters_ in answer to Wesley were published after his death, against his own wish expressed when he was dying.]

[Footnote 798: Hervey's _Meditations_, &c., _ut supra_, _Life_.]

[Footnote 799: Toplady's _Works_, i. 102.]

[Footnote 800: 'My writings,' he wrote to Lady F. s.h.i.+rley, 'are not fit for ordinary people: I never give them to such persons, and dissuade this cla.s.s of men from procuring them. O that they may be of some service to the more refined part of the world!']

[Footnote 801: _Life of Hervey_, prefixed to his _Meditations_, _ut supra_.]

[Footnote 802: See Kyle's _Christian Leaders of the Last Century_.]