JOHN, a very extraordinary character, and founder of the feft of Methodifts, was the fon of the Reverend Samuel Wesley, rector of Epworth in the ifle of Axholme in Lincolnfhire, and was born in that village in the year 1703. His very infancy was distinguished by an extraordinary incident; for when he was only fix years old, the parifhage-house at Epworth was burnt to the ground, and the flames had spread with fuch rapidity, that few things of value could be faved. His mother, in a letter to her fon Samuel Welley, then on the foundation at Wefmifter school, thanks God that no lives were loft, although for fome time they gave up Poor Jacky, as he exprefles herfelf; for his father had twice attempted to refcue the child, but was beaten back by the flames. Finding all his efforts ineffectual, he refigned him to Divine Providence. But parental tenderness prevailed over human fears, and Mr Wesley once more attempted to fave his child. By fome means equally unexpedted and unaccountable, the boy got round to a window in the front of the houfe, and was taken out, by one man's leaping on the shoulders of another, and thus getting within his reach. Immediately on his refcue from this very perilous situation, the roof fell in. This extraordinary escape explains a certain device, in a print of Mr John Wesley, engraved by Vertue, in the year 1745, from a painting by Williams. It reprefents a houfe in flames, with this motto from the prophet, "Is he not a brand plucked out of the burning?" Many have fuppoſed this device to be merely emblematical of his spiritual deliverance; but from this circumftance it is apparent that it has a primary as well as a secondary meaning; it is real as well as allufive.

In the year 1713 he was entered a scholar at the charter-houfe in London, where he continued seven years under the tuition of the celebrated Dr Walker, and of the Rev. Andrew Tooke author of The Pantheon. Being elecfed to Lincoln college, Oxford, he became a fellow of that college about the year 1725, took the degree of Master of Arts in 1726, and was joint tutor with the Rev. Dr Hutchins the rector. He difcovered very early an elegant turn for poetry. Some of his gayer poetical efufions are proofs of a lively fancy and a fine claffical taste; and fome translations from the Latin poets, while at college, are allowed to have great merit. He had early a strong impression, like Count Zinzendorf, of his defignation to fome extraordinary work. This impression received additional force from fome domestic incidents; all which his active fancy turned to his own account. His wonderful prefervation, already noticed, naturally tended to cherifh the idea of his being defigned by Providence to accomplish fome purpofe or other, that was out of the ordinary courfe of human events. The late Rev. Samuel Badcock, in a letter inserted in the Bibliotheca Topographica Britanica, No. XX. fays, "There were fome strange phenomena perceived at the parifhage at Epworth, and fome uncommon noifes heard there from time to time, which he was very curious in examining into, and very particular in relating. I have little doubt that he confidered himfelf the chief object of this wonderful visitation. Indeed his father's credulity was in fome degree affeded by it; fince he collected all the evidences that tended to confirm the flory, arranged them with ferulous exactnefs, in a manuscript confifting of feveral feets, and which is till in being. I know not what became of the ghost of Epworth; unlefs, confidered as the prelude to the noife of Mr John Welley made on a more ample fcale, it ceafed to speak when he began to act."

"The dawn of Mr Wesley's public mission (continues Mr Badcock) was clouded with myfifmic; that species of it which affects filence and foliditude; a certain inexplicable introversion of the mind, which abftracts the paflions from all fenfible objects; and, as the French Quietifts exprefs it, perfecfs itfelf by an abforption of the will and intellect, and all the faculties, into the Deity." In this palpable obfcurc the excellent Fenelon led himfelf, when he forfook the shades of Pindus, to wander in queft of pure love with Madam Guyon! Mr Wesley purfued for a while the fame ignis fatuus with Mr William Law and the Ghost of De Renty. A state, however, fo torpid and ignoble, ill-fitted the active genius of this singular man. His elastic mind gained strength by compreflion; thence bursting glorious, he pafted (as he himfelf fomewhere fays) "the immense chafm, upborne on an eagle's wings."

The reading of the writings of this Mr William Law, the celebrated author of Christian Perfection, and of A Serious Addrefs to the Christian World, contributed moreover, to lead Mr John Wesley and his brother Charles, with a few of their young fellow-students, into a more than common strictnefs of religious life. They received the sacrament of the Lord's Supper every week; obferved all the fafts of the church; visited the prisons; rofe at four in the morning; and refrained from all amufements. From the exact method in which they difpofed of every hour, they acquired the appellation of Methodifts; by which their followers have been ever fince diftinguifhed.

But a more particular account of the origin of this feft, we fhall give from a celebrated publication. "The Methodifts (fays the editor of this work) form a very confiderable clafs, principally of the lower people in this country. They sprung up about fifty years ago at Oxford, and were foon divided into two parties; the one under the direction of Mr George Whitefield, and the other under that of two brothers, John and Charles Wesley. Thefe leaders, and, if we except Mr William Law, founders of the Methodifts, were educated at Oxford, received epifcopal ordination, and always profefled themfelves advocates for the articles and liturgy of the eftablifhed church; though they more commonly prac- tifed the difenting mode of worship. But conceiving a deign of forming separate communities, superior in fanctity and perfection to all other Christian churches, and imprefled to a very confiderable degree by a zeal of an extravagant and enthusiastic kind, they became itinerant preachers; and, being excluded from moft of our churches, exercifed their miniftry in private houfes, fields, Wesley fields, &c. not only in Great Britain and Ireland, but also in America; thus collecting a very considerable number of hearers and profelytes, both among the members of the established church and the dissenters. The theological system of Mr Whitefield and his followers is Calvinistic; that of Mr Wesley and his disciples Arminian; and the latter maintains the possibility of attaining final perfection in the present state. The subordinate teachers of both these classes of Methodists are generally men of no liberal education; and they pretend to derive their ministerial abilities from special communications of the Spirit. The Methodists of both parties, like other enthusiasts, make true religion to consist principally in certain affections and inward feelings which it is impossible to explain; but which, when analyzed, seem to be mechanical in their spring and operation; and they generally maintain, that Christians will be most likely to succeed in the pursuit of truth, not by the dictates of reason, or the aids of learning, but by laying their minds open to the direction and influence of divine illumination; and their conduct has been directed by impulses."

Our readers will judge for themselves, according to their various modes of education, and to the different lights in which they may respectively view the doctrines of our common Christianity, whether this representation of the origin of the Methodists, and of their distinguishing tenets, be accurate and just.—Not presuming to sit in judgement on the religious opinions of any man, we shall only observe, that an appellation originally given in reproach, has been gloried in ever since by those who have distinguished themselves as the followers either of Mr Whitefield or of Mr Wesley. "After the way called Methodism, fo worship they the God of their fathers." But the ridicule and contempt which the singularity of their conduct produced, both John and Charles Wesley were well qualified to bear. They were not to be intimidated by danger, actuated by interest, or deterred by disgrace.

The boundaries of this island were soon deemed by Mr Wesley too confined for a zeal which displayed the piety of an apostle, and of an intrepidity to which few missionaries had been superior. In 1735 he embarked for Georgia, one of our colonies, which was at that time in a state of political infancy; and the great object of this voyage was to preach the gospel to the Indian nations in the vicinity of that province. He returned to England in 1737. Of his spiritual labours, both in this country and in America, he himself has given a very copious account, in a series of Journals printed at different periods. These journals drew upon our laborious preacher and his coadjutors some severe animadversions from two right reverend prelates; Dr George Lavington bishop of Exeter, and Dr William Warburton bishop of Gloucester. The former published, in three parts, The Enthusiasm of the Methodists and Papists compared; the third part of this performance containing a personal charge of immoral conduct. Mr Wesley, in his vindication, published a letter to his lordship, which produced a reply from the latter.

Bishop Warburton's attack is contained in his celebrated treatise, entitled The Doctrine of Grace: or, The Office and Operations of the Holy Spirit vindicated from the Insults of Infidelity, and the Abuses of Fanaticism: concluding with some thoughts, humbly offered to the consideration of the Established Clergy, with regard to the Right Method of defending Religion against the Attacks of either party; 2 vols. small 8vo, 1762. There is much acute reasoning, and much poignant and sprightly wit, in his Doctrine of Grace; but there is too much levity in it for a grave bishop, and too much abuse for a candid Christian. On this occasion, Mr Wesley published a letter to the bishop, in which, with great temper and moderation, as well as with great ingenuity and address, he endeavoured to shelter himself from his lordship's attacks; not only under the authority of the Holy Scriptures, but of the church itself, as by law established.

On his return from Georgia, Mr Wesley paid a visit to Count Zinzendorf, the celebrated founder of the sect of Moravians, or Hennutters, at Hernhut in Upper Lusatia. In the following year he appeared again in England, and with his brother Charles, at the head of the Methodists. He preached his first field-sermon at Bristol, on the 2d of April 1739; from which time his disciples have continued to increase. In 1741, a ferocious altercation took place between him and Mr Whitefield. In 1744, attempting to preach at an inn at Taunton, he was regularly silenced by the magistrates. Although he chiefly resided for the remainder of his life in the metropolis, he occasionally travelled through every part of Great Britain and Ireland, establishing congregations in each kingdom. In 1750 he married a lady, from whom he was afterwards separated. By this lady, who died in 1781, he had no children.

We have already mentioned Mr Wesley as a very various and voluminous writer. Divinity, both devotional and controversial, biography, history, philosophy, politics, and poetry, were all, at different times, the subjects of his pen: and, whatever opinion may be entertained of his theological sentiments, it is impossible to deny him the merit of having done very extensive good among the lower classes of people. He certainly possessed great abilities, and a fluency which was well accommodated to his hearers, and highly acceptable to them. He had been gradually declining for three years before his death; yet he fill rose at four in the morning, and preached, and travelled, and wrote as usual. He preached at Leatherhead, in Surrey, on the Wednesday before that event. On the Friday following, appeared the first symptoms of his approaching dissolution. The four succeeding days he spent in praising God; and he left this scene, in which his labours had been so extensive and so useful, at a quarter before ten in the morning of the 2d of March 1791, in the 88th year of his age. His remains, after lying in a kind of state at his chapel in the city-road, dressed in the facerdotal robes which he usually wore, and on his head the old clerical cap, a bible in one hand, and a white handkerchief in the other, were, agreeably to his own directions, and after the manner of the interment of the late Mr Whitefield, deposited in the cemetery behind his chapel, on the morning of the 9th March, amid an innumerable concourse of his friends and admirers; many of whom appeared in deep mourning on the occasion. One singularity was observable in the funeral service. Instead of, "We give thee hearty thanks, for that it hath pleased thee to deliver this our brother;" it was read "our father." A sermon, previously to the funeral, had been preached by Dr Thomas Whitehead, one of the physicians to the Wesley, London hospital; and on the 13th the different chapels of his persuasion in London were hung with black.

It has been justly observed of Mr Wesley, that his labours were principally devoted to those who had no instructor; to the highways and hedges; to the miners in Cornwall, and the colliers in Kingwood. These unhappy creatures married and buried among themselves, and often committed murders with impunity, before the Methodists sprung up. By the humane and active endeavours of Mr Wesley and his brother Charles, a sense of decency, morals, and religion, was introduced into the lowest classes of mankind; the ignorant were instructed, the wretched relieved, and the abandoned reclaimed. His personal influence was greater, perhaps, than that of any other private gentleman in any country.—But the limits of this article will not permit us to expatiate further on the character of this extraordinary man.