previous Mr. Simpson had accepted the invitation of Charles Roe, Esq., to his residence in Macclesfield, with a view to his officiating as the curate of the old, at that time the only church in the town. This disappointment* was communicated by Mr. Unwin to her Ladyship, who much regretted this engagement of his friend, as she appears to have anticipated much utility to the cause of God by his becoming minister of the chapel at Tunbridge Wells, and superintendent of the work throughout the county of Kent.

Mr. Simpson had not been long in his curacy before he had to pass the fiery ordeal. That a minister of his erudition, exact morality, and amenity of manners, should meet with, first in Bucks, and afterwards in Macclesfield, such undeserved indignities, can only be explained by causes which imply the degeneracy of our nature. It cannot be imagined that a man so intrepid could slumber at his post. In and out of the pulpit he attacked sin in its most heinous forms, or more imposing delusion. He explained, he enforced, the doctrines of pardon through faith in the blood of the covenant, and the fruits and witness of the Spirit: the result of his indefatigable toil still remains in many living examples. For a time those whom ignorance or vice had made his enemies, firm and determined, calculated upon final victory by the strong hand of ecclesiastical power: they addressed his diocesan. In consequence of the mutual apprehension of danger by the bishop and petitioners, from the encroachments of Methodism, he was for a season silenced. Thus he was twice suspended for teaching, according to a creed to which he was sworn and had subscribed, when deviation would have been a flagrant violation of the most sacred oaths. How long this suspension continued we are not informed; but in the interval he was not idle. Denied the liberty of publishing the Gospel in pulpits to which he was professionally devoted, he preached in the adjacent towns and

* The premature decease of Mr. Unwin, in November, 1786, embittered much of the comforts which his interesting friend enjoyed in the delightful society of his mother, the Newtons, and his cousin, Lady Hesketh. The ardour of his attachment to the author of " The Task," excited in him reciprocal friendship— a friendship which had subsisted and increased from their first interview;at Huntingdon. To this event he alludes in concluding a letter to Lady Hesketh"So farewell, my friend Unwin! The first man for whom I conceived a friendship after my removal from St. Alban's, and for whom I cannot but still feel a friendship, though I shall see thee with these eyes no more." Of Mrs. Unwin it will be unnecessary to say much. Her memory is embalmed in the melancholy history of Cowper. She breathed her last at East Dereham, in Norfolk, in December, 1796. Her funeral was attended by Mr. and Mrs. Powley, who had been summoned from Yorkshire within the few last days of their parent's life, but had not arrived till she had ceased to breathe. She was buried on the 23rd of December, in the north aisle of the church of East Dereham.

villages wherever a door was opened. This practice was not omitted after the storm of difficulties subsided, until infirmities and the general reception of the Methodist preachers, led him to conclude that his exertions were less necessary.

At this period Lady Huntingdon again pressed upon him the offer which had been made through Mr. Unwin, but it was again refused.

About this juncture the prime curacy of the Church at Macclesfield became vacant. The nomination is appended to the office of mayor, pro tempore. Mr. Gould, a friend of Mr. Simpson's, was the chief magistrate he offered it to him, and it was accepted. To prevent his introduction, a petition, with seventeen articles of accusation, was transmitted to the Bishop of Chester. In this presentment, the learned prelate, differing in candour and impartiality from his predecessor, could only discover one charge-that he was a Methodist, and that his preaching promoted the spread of Methodism. With his usual heroism, alluding to the alleged offence, he says, in a letter to his Lordship:

"This is true. My method is to preach the great truths, and doctrines, and precepts of the Gospel, in as plain, and earnest, and affectionate a manner as I am able. Persons of different ranks, persuasions, and characters, come to hear. Some hereby have been convinced of the error of their ways, see their guilt, and the danger they are in, and become seriously concerned about their salvation. The change is soon discovered, they meet with one or another who invite them to attend the preaching and meetings among the Methodists, and hence their number is increased to a considerable degree. This is the truth. I own the fact. I have often thought of it; but I confess myself unequal to the difficulty. What would your Lordship advise?"

Before this conflict came to an issue, his patron, Charles Roe, Esq., offered to erect him a church at his own expense. To this he was induced, in consequence of a resolution he had made that if he should succeed in business he would build a church in token of his gratitude to God. He accepted the offer. A proposal was made to his opponents, stating that he would relinquish the prime curaoy of the old church, to which he had been presented, provided he could secure the consecration of the new church, and be regularly inducted as incumbent.

This project was the basis of future harmony. The new church, an elegant and beautiful structure, was erected in 1775, and afterwards consecrated. Upon Mr. Simpson's admission he resigned his curacy, and was, to the close of life, a period of twenty-six years, permitted to continue his ministrations without interruption. Thus ended a succession of opposition, almost

VOL. II.-L

unexampled in modern history; and this man of God lived to see, in the revolution of a few years, several of his most acrimonious adversaries in the ranks of his firmest supporters, and among those who received the greatest benefit from his public instructions.

Repeated disappointments seem to have caused Lady Huntingdon to abandon the scheme of a settled minister for Tunbridge Wells; and for a period of ten years we find no allusion to the subject in her Ladyship's letters, or those of her numerous correspondents. The subject was again revived at the period when Mr. Sellon made such opposition to the opening of Spafields Chapel, when her Ladyship was compelled, by the decision of the Spiritual Court, either to close the chapels she had been the means of erecting, or place them under the Toleration Act. In the summer of 1782 the Rev. William Taylor was engaged at Tunbridge Wells, when Lady Huntingdon wrote to him on the subject of the intended secession and the settlement of her chapel there. Her Ladyship's letter will best explain her views on this subject :—

"College, July 19, 1782.

"I hinted to you how inaccessible distance makes minds not sufficiently informed of even their own advantages, and therefore proposed meeting you at Bath, as the most reasonable and proper measure for obtaining the most united love and harmony; and with which, from the kind influence there afforded me, might be best secured. Something has occurred to render this most desirable to me, and to lay it before you and the Lord, with many prayers, as the best previous means for your satisfaction-that for the present, the lease of Tunbridge Wells being renewed (and for a longer term than twenty-one years)-might not my fully giving you all up there, as it now stands, to be a foundation for every or any future contingency, and best to secure the possible prosperity of the Gospel in Kent, and to the poor great also? Here no committee, but your most absolute power and liberty might be enjoyed; and you and dear Mr. Wills, who so affectionately loves you, as does my dear niece; and thus so mutually assist in the important stand we are making in London, and be a leading object to the most blessed and successful influence in spreading the glorious Gospel. You are both ministers of Jesus Christ-scholars-independent, in a good degree; that must set you both above the low, and mean, and deceitful workers the miserable, poor, and distressed Church has among them. The ministry of you both universally honoured, and we must suppose must be doubly so from a point of such eminence as this calls you to in the Lord's vineyard. If it is what you don't approve, forgive these faithful and simple sentiments of my heart; and may our Lord, who sees my heart, either incline your heart, or cause you to reject it, that He may be the sole mover for us both, to bring only His glory most effectually about, which ever way he appoints it. Should you approve it, the sooner it was done the better, as an ordination must be soon, or

the Dissenters will have all our congregations, and our students also, and the various revolutions of the ministers settled.

"A bond might speedily secure to you my engagements, obliging me to execute, as soon as can be obtained, my deed of gift to you, contain ing my fullest authority for your present and future possession; and for the present your winter months either at Bath or London, as your calls might render you subject to; and you to have a right from the College for a student, or an ordained seceding minister, to supply your absence; and to oblige the people to continue such in case of your call upon any occasion from Tunbridge Wells. Let this remain with you and me till your answer fully is given. The congregations are to allow, as now, two guineas a-week and travelling charges. The more I see this matter the more I am satisfied that it is the best means to secure in future your wishes: but the Lord alone for ever instructs us what is best. Should you or should you not approve this, to ourselves will be best kept, but should you, Fisher might make the bond of obligations, and remit it for my execution, till he shall prepare the deed in the fullest and most legal manner.

"This is and must be your surest and safest road to Bath; as only universal concurrence so obtained can give that lasting love and peace which must abide with all. Should this be the case, we shall see the wisdom and love of the Lord in making the chapel quite ready for you. Farewell, my ever affectionate friend,

"S. HUNTINGDON."

CHAPTER XXXIV.

Lady Huntingdon's Connexion in Ireland-Mr. Whitefield the first who visited Ireland-Dr. Delany--Bishop of Limerick-Mr. Thomas Williams-Persecution of the Methodists-Mr. Charles Wesley-Speaker of the House of Commons-Dr. Gifford-Mr. Whitefield Mr. Lunell—Mr. Whitefield's second visit to Ireland Methodist Society-Mr. John Edwards-Mr. Whitefield's third visit to Ireland. -near being murdered-United Brethren-Mr. Piers-Mr. Shirley Mr. Wesley visits Ireland-Mr. Charles Wesley ceases to itinerate Success of Mr. Shirley and Mr. Piers-Lord and Lady Clanricarde—Mr. De Courcy—Letter to Lady Huntingdon—Mr. Townsend— Mr. Venn-Mr. Newton-His first attempts at preaching-Irregulars and Itinerants.

"Poor wicked Ireland, I trust, shall yet have a Gospel day. I can't see how or when but it must be; and till I find that opportunity, my eye is only waiting darkly for its accomplishment."-Lady Huntingdon.

As the venerable Countess was instrumental in establishing a very flourishing congregation in Dublin, and laying the foundation of others in more distant parts of Ireland; and as many of

those eminent clergymen who laboured with her in the blessed work of spreading the everlasting Gospel, with several of the students educated at her Ladyship's College in Wales, were the means, under God, of diffusing much of the light of evangelical truth through the kingdom in general, an account of the rise and progress of her benevolent and zealous exertions to spread the knowledge of the doctrine of her crucified Lord in that country, demands particular notice in the Life and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon. Since her Ladyship's death, the number of ministers in the Church of England, labouring in the strict pale of regularity, and contending for the true doctrine of the Articles in their literal and grammatical sense, has amazingly increased. The happy impulse given by the labours of her Ladyship's chaplains and ministers has left the most abundanttendency to accelerate the movement. Hundreds are now labouring in the like cause and with the like zeal-with true purpose of heart and signal blessings on their endeavours. May they be finally crowned with abundant success, till every city, every town, and every obscure village in the kingdom have the standard of the cross erected in each of them.

Ireland, unhappily sunk in darkness and the superstitions of Popery, and but little adorned with real evangelical knowledge, even in those who had assumed the name of Protestants, had long afforded matter of much sorrow to such as looked for the life and power of religion. Vital godliness had sunk to a very low standard; and only here and there an individual cleaved to the faith once delivered to the saints, and dared to be singular. The conduct of the clergy was indeed such as, with few exceptions, to merit the severest reprobation. Not one perhaps in a county was an active parish priest, suited to the state of the country and people, preaching the pure doctrines of the Gospel, visiting or catechising his flock, entering into the cabins of the poor to instruct them, to fortify their minds against the attempts of the Romish emissaries, and to reclaim those who had been led astray. Such, indeed, was the criminal sloth of the clergy, that it merits to be held up to the execration of all succeeding ages, as the grand cause of the deplorable state of religion in that country, and of the political calamities which have sprung from it, and have been so severely felt.

It was during this state of torpor—this departure from all godliness, that those distinguished advocates of evangelical truth, the Wesleys and Whitefield, with their zealous coadjutors in the blessed work, passed from England into that kingdom, since which time true religion has spread out its branches through many parts of that unhappy country. Mr. Whitefield was the