have gone backward.' This made me blush. He set me something to translate into Latin, and though I had made no application to my classics for so long a time, yet I had but one inconsiderable fault in my exercises. This, I believe, somewhat surprised my master.

"Being re-settled at school, I spared no pains to go forward in my book. I learned much faster than I did before." But, whilst thus assiduously preparing himself for college, it does not appear that he began to study, with an express view to the ministry: if, however, this was his object at the time, and if he never, altogether, relinquished the design, which the composition of sermons betrayed, then the following events furnish a melancholy insight, not only into the presumption of his own heart, but into the prevailing maxims of that age-upon the subject of the Christian ministry. These must have been low and lax in the extreme, if they allowed such a young man to anticipate office in the church. He was, indeed, diligent in studying the classics, but he was, at the same time, living in the indulgence of secret and open profligacy. "I got acquainted with a set of debauched, abandoned, and atheistical youths-I took pleasure in their lewd conversation-I affected to look rakish, and was in a fair way of being as infamous as the worst of them." It is hardly possible to conceive that, while in this state, he should have contemplated the ministry as his object; and yet there is reason to fear that the tone of public feeling, at the time, was such as to impose little check upon the morals of ministerial candidates. Even now, holy character is not indispensable, either in college halls, or at national altars; and then, as we shall see, it was still less so. Certain it is, that Whitefield's reformation was neither suggested nor enforced, in the first instance, by any thing moral or religious which the general practice of the church insisted upon. Whatever the letter of her requirements calls for in candidates, the spirit of them was, in a great measure, evaporated in that age.

I have already said that Whitefield is silent upon the subject of his express design in preparing himself for the University; but, there being no evidence that he ever contemplated any other profession than the ministerial, and it being the only one for which he had evinced the shadow of a partiality, or was likely to succeed in, under his circumstances, we must conclude, that he had it in view from the

beginning. Such, in all probability, being the fact, it might be expected, that the bare idea of becoming a minister would, of itself, have imposed a restraint upon his passions ;—but neither its own solemnity, nor the tone of ecclesiastical feeling at the time, had any moral influence upon him. “I went," he says, "to public service only to make sport and walk about." At this time he was nearly seventeen years of age: a period of life when he must have been capable of understanding what is expected from a clergyman. And yet, nothing which he saw or heard on this subject seems to have suggested the necessity of reformation. "God stopped me when running on in a full career of vice. For, just as I was upon the brink of ruin, He gave me such a distaste of their (his companions') principles and practices, that I discovered them to my master, who soon put a stop to their proceedings."

I have been the more minute in recording this event, because without clear and correct ideas of the prevailing tone of public and ecclesiastical feeling at the time, no fair estimate can be formed of the spirit in which methodism originated in Oxford.

The breaking up of that vicious combination which existed in the school of St. Mary de Crypt, produced an important change in the morals of Whitefield. "Being thus delivered out of the snare of the devil, I began to be more and more serious, and felt God, at different times, working powerfully and convincingly upon my soul." This improvement of character was so evident that his friends did not fail to welcome it. It was, however, but external at first. day, as I was coming down stairs, and overheard my friends speaking well of me, God deeply convicted me of hypocrisy." This timely discovery fixed his attention upon the state of his heart, and gave to his reformation a more religious character.

"One

"Being now near the seventeenth year of my age, I was resolved to prepare myself for the holy sacrament, which I received on Christmas day. I began now to be more watchful over my thoughts, words, and actions. I kept the following Lent, fasting Wednesday and Friday, thirty-six hours together. My evenings, when I had done waiting upon my mother, were generally spent in acts of devotion, reading Drelincourt upon death,' and other practical books, and I constantly went to public worship twice a day. Being now upper boy, I

made some reformation amongst my schoolfellows. I was very diligent in reading and learning the classics, and in studying my Greek Testament; but I was not yet convinced of the absolute unlawfulness of playing at cards, and of reading and seeing plays; though I began to have some scruples about it. Near this time, I dreamed that I was to see God on Mount Sinai; but was afraid to meet him. This made a great impression upon me, and a gentlewoman to whom I told it, said, "George, this is a call from God."

Whatever may be thought of the dream, or of the interpretation, such hints have more frequently determined the character and pursuits of young men, than more rational means. There is, to a susceptible mind, a peculiar fascination in these mysterious oracles; and, after all that has been said of their folly and fallacy, they continue to govern the choice of many, and are still followed as leading stars-whilst sober advice is regarded as a dull finger-post on the road of life. In the present instance the imaginary omens were not useless. "I grew more serious after my dream, but yet hypocrisy crept into every action. As once I affected to look more rakish, I now strove to look more grave, than I really was. However, an uncommon concern and alteration was visible in my behaviour, and I often used to find fault with the lightness of others. One night as I was going on an errand for my mother, an unaccountable but very strong impression was made upon my heart, that I should preach quickly. When I came home, I innocently told my mother what had befallen me; but she (like Joseph's parents when he told them his dream) turned short upon me, crying out, 'What does the boy mean? Prithee hold thy tongue!'

"For a twelvemonth, I went on in a round of duties, receiving the sacrament monthly, fasting frequently, attending constantly on public worship, and praying, often more than twice a day, in private. One of my brothers used to tell me, he feared this would not hold long, and that I should forget all when I went to Oxford. This caution did me much service; for it set me on praying for perseverance. Being now near eighteen years old, it was judged proper for me to go to the University. God had sweetly prepared my way. The friends before applied to, recommended me to the master of Pembroke College. Another friend took up ten pounds upon bond (which I have since repaid) to defray the expense of

entering; and the master, contrary to all expectation, admitted me servitor immediately."

When Whitefield entered the University of Oxford, that seat of learning had not shaken off the moral lethargy which followed the ejectment of the 2000 nonconformists. The Bartholomew Bushel, under which those burning and shining light's were placed, proved an extinguisher to the zeal of the luminaries that struck into the orbit of uniformity. Those of them who retained their light lost their heat. During the seventy years which had elapsed since the expulsion of the nonconformists, the Isis had been changing into a Dead sea, upon the banks of which the tree of life shrivelled into a tree of mere human knowledge; and, in the adjacent halls, the doctrines of the Reformation were superseded, in a great measure, by high church principles. Even irreligion and infidelity were so prevalent at both Universities, that when the statue of the age was chiselled by that moral Phidias, BUTLER, they seem to have furnished the model :

"It is come, I know not how, to be taken for granted by many persons, that Christianity is not so much as a subject of inquiry, but that it is now at length discovered to be fictitious; and, accordingly, they treat it as if, in the present age, this were an agreed point among all people of discernment; and nothing remained but to set it up as a principal subject of mirth and ridicule, as it were by way of reprisals for its having so long interrupted the pleasures of the world." Bishop Butler's Analogy.

So much was this the character of the after-dinner conversations at Oxford, that the recent change from gross ribaldry to decorum, used to be appealed to with triumph by Coleridge, and other modern advocates: a fact, which betrays the former state of things. Even the defences of Christianity, which issued from the University press during that age, betray the fatal secret, that they were as much wanted for the gownsmen, as for the public. Bishop Butler says of this state of things, "It is come, I know not how;" but he might have known soon, if he had studied the "analogy" between it and the discipline of the colleges. What else could be expected from a nation or a university, after seeing the brightest ornaments of the church sacrificed to rites and ceremonies; after seeing talents, learning, and piety, reckoned "as the small dust in the balance," when weighed against robes and forms? After witnessing diocesan and state pa

tronage withdrawn, and exchanged for penalties on such grounds, it was not likely that Christianity would be better treated by the nation than its faithful ministers were by the government. From that time down to the year 1734, when Whitefield entered at Pembroke College, the motto of the University might have been, "We care less for character than for conformity."

"A dissolution of all bonds ensued;

The curbs invented for the mulish mouth

Of headstrong youth were broken; bolts and bars
Grew rusty by disuse; and massy gates
Forgot their office, opening with a touch:

Till gowns at length are found mere masquerade;
The tasselled cap and the spruce band, a jest,
A mockery of the world!""

Cowper.

Such Whitefield found the general character of the Oxford students to be. "I was quickly solicited to join in their excess of riot, by several who lay in the same room. Once in particular, it being cold, my limbs were so benumbed by sitting alone in my study, because I would not go out amongst them, that I could scarce sleep all night. I had no sooner received the sacrament publicly on a week day, at St. Mary's, but I was set up as a mark for all the polite students, that knew me, to shoot at; for though there is a sacrament at the beginning of every term, at which all, especially the seniors, are by statute obliged to be present; yet, so dreadfully has that once faithful city played the harlot, that very few masters, no graduates, (but the methodists,) attended upon it."

I quote the latter part of this extract, not to deplore the falling off in attendance, as Whitefield does the sacrament

was

:

"More honoured in the breach, than the observance "

of the statute, by such men; but the breach illustrates both the state of discipline and of religion at the time. There were, however, some lilies among the rank thorns of Oxford. Of these solitary exceptions, the Wesleys and their associates, were the most exemplary. This little band had then existed during five years, and were called, in derision, methodists. Their regular habits and rigid virtue, were proverbial throughout the University and the city. They were the friends of the poor and the patrons of the serious. But, with