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literally entered heaven by prayer. The deceased, though seventy-four years of age, was remarkably hale, having, as he frequently said, never had an ailment;" and, on the morning of the 10th, was unusually cheerful and happy. What a blessed transition from the throne of grace to the throne of glory! O, to be found, when the call comes, "like unto men

that wait for their Lord!"

The deceased was a native of Huddersfield, though he had lived near Stonehaven for about forty years. He was careless and godless till the month of June, 1840, when, it is believed, under the ministry of the Rev. J. Stirzaker, God was pleased to reveal his Son in him; and his subsequent consistent course gave evidence of the reality and progress of the work of grace wrought in him.

A REAL OCCURRENCE IN A CIRCLE OF FRIENDS.

WHICH is the happiest death to die?
"O!" said one, "if I might choose,
Long at the gate of bliss would I lie,
And feast my spirit, ere it fly,

With bright celestial views.
Mine were a lingering death, without
pain,

A death which all might love to see, And mark how bright should be The victory I should gain !

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G. S.

Nor the frame with mortal terror shaking,

Nor the heart, where love's soft bands are breaking:

So would I die!

"All bliss, without a pang to cloud it!
All joy, without a pain to shroud it!
Not slain, but caught up, as it were,
To meet my Saviour in the air!
So would I die !

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WESLEY PAPERS.

No. XXI.-WESLEY ON WILLS TESTAMENTARY.

(To the Editor of the Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine.)

My last paper on "Pastoral Visitation" (see January Magazine, pp. 21– 23) regarded the Wesleyan Ministers generally: the present one addresses itself, as a prudential measure, to the individuals who compose their charge.

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"If you have not made your Will," says Wesley, "do it before you sleep." He closed the year 1787 by preaching from those words of Isaiah to Hezekiah," Set thy house in order," in which he strongly exhorted all who had not done it already, to settle their temporal affairs without delay. "It is," says he, " a strange madness which still possesses many, that are in other respects men of understanding, who put this off from day to day, till death comes in an hour when they looked not for it."+

March 27th, 1733. The Rector of Epworth "being too weak to be at the visitation," addressed the following letter to his Proctor in behalf of a poor widow. The original manuscript was given me by the late Rev. Henry Moore, December 3d, 1833, and is inserted in Dr. Adam Clarke's "Wesley Family," vol. i., p. 312.

"To Mr. Porter.‡

"Epworth, March 27th, 1733. "DOROTHY WHITEHEAD, widow, lately died here, very poor, leaving four small children, and all about her house not sufficient to bury her, as you will see by the oath of her executor, appended to the Will; for a Will she would have, to dispose of a few roods of land, lest her children should fall out about it. It is her brother Simon Thew, the bearer, who consented to be her executor, that he might take care of her children. I gave him the oath, as you will see, as strictly as I could, and am satisfied it is all exactly true. They were so poor that I forgave them what was my due for it, and so did even my clerk for her burial.

"If there be any little matter due for the probate of the Will, I entreat and believe you will be as low as possible, wherein you know charity will be acceptable to God, and will much oblige

"Your ready Friend,

"S. W."

What Mr. John Wesley recommended to others in this particular, he duly observed himself. It was his periodical practice, through a long course of years, to revise and transcribe his Will. The first Will we have any notice of is in 1739, when the foundation of the Colliers' school at Kingswood was laid, and he had taken the charge of its erection on himself. He says, "I immediately made my Will, fixing my brother and you (Mr. Whitefield) to succeed me therein."§

In March, 1747, the preaching-houses at Bristol, Kingswood, and Newcastle, being duly settled and conveyed to Trustees, he adds, "My Will is made: what have I more to do, but commend my soul to my merciful and faithful Creator?" ||

July 22d, 1755, he says, "To oblige a friendly gentlewoman, I was a witness to her Will, wherein she bequeathed part of her estate to charitable uses; and part, during his natural life, to her dog Toby. I suppose, though she should die within the year, her legacy to Toby may stand

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A personal friend, and a subscriber for three copies of Dissertationes in Librum Jobi.

§ Works, vol. xii., p. 143.

Ibid., vol. ii., p. 49.

good; but that to the poor is null and void by the statute of Mortmain!

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In 1768, he made the following Will at Aberdeen, where he remained from April 26th to May 2d. It is in his own hand-writing, and preserved as an autograph by a gentleman at Bradford, in Yorkshire, being found among the papers of Mr. James Oddie, one of the early Preachers.

66 IN THE NAME OF GOD, AMEN!

"I, JOHN WESLEY, Clerk, revoking all others, appoint this to be my last Will and Testament.

"I bequeath to my brother Charles Wesley, (but, in case of his demise, to the school in Kingswood,) my Hebrew, Greek, Latin, French and German books, (except those in any language in the study at Kingswood school, which I bequeath to the said school, and those in my studies at Bristol, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and Dublin, which I desire may remain there for the use of the Travelling Preachers,) and all my gowns, cassocks, and bands; To James Morgan, I bequeath my watch; To my faithful housekeeper, (Ann Smith,) Mrs. Lefevre's ring; † To Mr. Peter Jaco, my bureau at London. To him, to the Rev. Mr. William Ley, and to each Travelling Preacher who has them not already, a set of my Sermons, Appeals, Journals, the Notes on the New Testament, and the book on Original Sin; § To the Rev. Mr. James Rouquet, all my MSS. To my dear friend Mary Bosanquet, the set of my works;|| and to my dear daughter Jane Smith, the Christian Library, now in my study in London. (Published from 1749 to 1755.)

"I bequeath all my books, which are for sale, with the sole right of reprinting them, (after paying my brother's rent-charge upon them,) to Mr. Melchias Teulon, hatter, Mr. John Horton, silk-dyer, and Mr. John Collinson, hatter, in trust,-the one moiety for the keeping of the children of the Travelling Preachers' school; (to be chosen by the Assistants at the yearly Conference ;) the other moiety for the continual relief of the poor of the United Society in London. Only I bequeath to Christian Simpson, at Aberdeen, the books which shall remain with her at the time of my decease. Lastly, I bequeath the residue of my books and goods to my wife, Mary Wesley; and I appoint the said Melchias Teulon, John Horton, and John Collinson, executors of this my last Will and Testament. "Witness my hand and seal this 27th day of April, 1768, "Witnesses,

"WILLIAM SMITH,

"THOMAS SIMPSON."

"JOHN WESLEY.

"N. B. I particularly desire that there may be no hearse or coach at my funeral, but that some of the members of our society may carry my corpse to the grave." (See Works, vol. iv., p. 501.)

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* Works, vol. ii., p. 337.

In 1769 he published an extract of her Letters on Religious Subjects, 12mo., pp. 106. A second edition, 1773, pp. 111. (See Works, vol. xiv., p. 273.) He was stationed in London that and the preceding year. (See Minutes, vol. i., pp. 69, 75.)

§ Bristol: Printed by F. Farley, 1757, 8vo., pp. 522.

Then consisting of fifteen volumes.

His own father was strongly opposed to what Blair calls in his Poem, ("The Grave,")

cc Pompous obsequies that shun the day."

This did not long remain his "last Will;" for we find the following entry in his Journal, under date of Friday, February 25th, 1771 :—“ Ï revised and transcribed my Will, declaring as simply, as plainly, and as briefly as I could, what I would have done with the worldly goods which I leave behind me." The necessity for this will appear by a reference to what occurred two days before. Mrs. Wesley (his wife and residuary legatee) had, for what cause he knew not, set out for Newcastle, purposing never to return. He says, Non eam reliqui: non dimisi: non revocabo.*

In April, 1772, he seems engaged in another revision of his Will; for, in a letter to his brother, (inserted in vol. xii. of the Works, p. 129,) he says, "To whom shall I leave my papers and letters? I am quite at a loss. I think Mr. Fletcher is the best that occurs now." In a letter to Mr. Walter Churchey, (ibid., p. 419,) dated June 25th, 1777, he says, "In my Will I bequeath no money,† but what may happen to be in my pocket when I die."

The Will proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, is dated February 20th, 1789, with two codicils; but a Deed of a testamentary nature having been subsequently executed, the Court named it as the third codicil of Mr. Wesley's Will, on which the three executors, Messrs. Horton, Wolff, and Marriott, delivered up their general probate, and received a new one, limited to those particulars which were not mentioned in the Deed.‡

City-Road, January, 1847.

THOMAS MARRIOTT.

"Hence," he says, "I entirely disapprove their burying by candlelight, unless on extraordinary occasions." (Letter to a Curate, p. 15.)

Blair, author of the poem "The Grave," died just one hundred years ago. A monument is now to be erected to his memory in the church-yard of the parish of which he was Minister. His poem was first printed in London in 1743. (See Chalmers's "Biographical Dictionary," vol. v., p. 383.) He was succeeded in the parish by Mr. John Home, whose tragedy of "Douglas" is so highly commended by Mr. Wesley. (See Works, vol. ii., p. 411.) Poor Blair could not get the poem published during his life. Dr. Isaac Watts informed him that two booksellers had declined the risk of publication. (Chalmers's "Biographical Dictionary,” vol. v., p. 383.)

Dr. Hugh Blair was a member of the same family, whose chief fame was the publication of his Sermons, the first volume of which appeared in 1777; and the fate of them furnishes a singular instance of the vicissitude of literary history. (Ibid., pp. 374, 375.) "They happened to hit the taste of the age; " (p. 377;) but John Wesley said, in 1787, "I could even now" (aged eighty-two years) "write as flowing a style as Dr. Blair; but I dare not." (Works.)

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* Works, vol. iii., p. 423. "I did not desert ('leave') her; I did not send her away ('packing '); I will never recall her. ('invite her back")." (See Gospel Magazine" for 1777, p. 234.)

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+ Mr. Wesley, in his "Appeals to Men of Reason," says, Money must needs pass through my hands; but I will take care it shall not rest there. Hear this, all you who have discovered the treasures which I am to leave behind me: if I leave behind me above ten pounds, you and all mankind bear witness against me, that I lived and died a thief and a robber." "This," says Mr. Badcock, "is one of the boldest apostrophes I ever read." (See Wesley's Works, vol. viii., p. 40; or "Gentleman's Magazine," vol. Ixi., p. 284. See a Letter in the "Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine for 1845, p. 1168, dated October 6th, 1786: "Money never stays with me," &c.

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In Mr. Valton's manuscript diary, now before me, he makes the following entry, under date, "Thursday, October 22d, 1791. This morning, the three executors of Mr. Wesley's Will attended at the Commons, where they relinquished all title to the disposing of the books to the Trustees for the same; and we accordingly administered to the Trust-Deed." (See Works, vol. iv., p. 502, in a note.)

REMARKS ON THE THIRD EDITION OF SOUTHEY'S "LIFE OF WESLEY." *

FROM THE CORNISH BANNER.

MORE than ten years ago, it was commonly reported in literary circles, that the Poet Laureate was preparing a third edition of his "Life of Wesley ;" and, moreover, that it would contain numerous additions and corrections. The accuracy of such a report seemed probable; the author having had leisure to review his opinions, and opportunity to consider the objections which had been made to the original work, by parties who considered that the principles and views of the Methodists were misrepresented, and the character and motives of their Founder aspersed : especially as the work had called forth an elaborate defence of Mr. Wesley's character, from the pen of one of the most profound theological writers and most eminent Ministers of the day. We could not bring our minds to believe, notwithstanding the reports to the contrary which then prevailed, that Dr. Southey contemplated the production of his new edition, without a careful consideration of this defence, coming as it did from so respectable and influential a quarter. We had too high an opinion of Dr. Southey's literary honour, especially towards this later period of his life, to suppose that he would reiterate statements detrimental to the character of Wesley— while a work was in extensive circulation which professed to controvert those statements-without the most diligent and careful investigation of every objection which it contained: for it was no scurrilous pamphlet, no ephemeral production of an anonymous writer, but a calm, dignified, and eloquent criticism from an acknowledged author, which, at the time of its publication, created no small sensation among Dr. Southey's own friends, and even among the first literary and fashionable circles. † With such views and impressions, we awaited the appearance of this long-promised edition, not without hope that the author had seen cause to alter his opinions, and to award a higher meed of praise to the subject of his memoir. The expectations which we had thus been led to entertain from our judgment of Dr. Southey's character, were cherished and confirmed by private and, as we conceived, authentic information as to his declared intentions, of which we shall have to say more hereafter.

We were therefore not a little surprised and disappointed, to find that there were absolutely no corrections or modifications in the edition before us; and that, so far as the son of our author may be taken as authority for his father's opinions, those opinions were not in the slightest degree affected by the additional information which his researches must have amassed, by

* "The Life of Wesley; and the Rise and Progress of Methodism. By Robert Southey, Esq., LL.D. Third Edition, with Notes by the late Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Esq.; and Remarks on the Life and Character of John Wesley, by the late Alexander Knox, Esq. Edited by the Rev. Charles Cuthbert Southey, M.A., Curate of Cockermouth. In two vols., 8vo., 508, 550, London: Longmans.

1846."

+A copy of Watson's "Observations on Southey's Life of Wesley" is said to have fallen into the hands of George the Fourth, soon after it was published; and was read by him with considerable interest and avidity. His opinion concerning it was indicated with sufficient explicitness by the remark which he made on finishing its perusal : "Mr. Watson has the advantage over my Poet Laureate." (Jackson's Life of Watson, chap. xiv.)

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