Nothing need be said respecting the "effigies," except that, under Whitefield's, there is the following:
"Champion of God, thy Lord proclaim,
Jesus alone resolve to know;
Tread down thy foes in Jesu's name:
Go—conqu'ring and to conquer go.
"Charles Wesley."
Mr. Lewis's outline of Wickliff's history need not be given; but the following (especially Mr. Nixon's prophecy) is too curious to be omitted:—
"There has scarce anything appeared, says our New England author, in these last ages of the Church, more remarkable than the conduct and character of this wonderful young minister, Mr. Whitefield. Were he to escape persecution, he would want one evidence of his Divine mission, one badge of a disciple of Christ. Our author leaves it to others to determine whether what Mr. Fox says of Wickliff can with equal justice be said of Mr. Whitefield, namely, 'That even as the morning star in the midst of a cloud, and as the moon at the full, and as the bright beams of the sun, so doth this man shine and glitter in the temple and church of God.' But this he is sure of, that there is a vast resemblance between the men. For, both were born in the same country; both educated in the same university; both ministers in the same Church of England; both champions for the same faith, even that faith that was at first delivered to the saints. Wickliff and his followers, (as Bishop Burnet affirms,) in those early days, like Mr. Whitefield and his followers in our own time, preached not only in churches, but also in the open fields, churchyards, and markets, without license from the Ordinary, etc.; the one a glorious reformer of the Church from Popery, the other an illustrious restorer of the doctrines of the Reformation; the one labouring to reduce the Church to that purity which she attained 200 years after him, the other endeavouring to revive those truths which she universally embraced almost 200 years before him: both men of like zeal, both treated in the same manner. Mr. Whitefield preaches against, and laments the degeneracy of, our modern divines, with respect to the doctrines of original sin, free-will, justification of man, of good works, of the new birth or regeneration, of works before justification, of predestination, and election, etc. He militates against moral preachers and their doctrines, as well as against the immorality of men's lives. Mr. Wickliff, on the other hand, opposed the absurd doctrines, visions, lives, and insolent behaviour of the clergy. He, like his great Master, inculcated the morality of the gospel, and the study of the Holy Scriptures, instead of preaching for doctrines the commandments of men. Some of his peculiar doctrines are said to be these; viz., He not only denied the Pope's supremacy, but was against any persons assuming the title and authority of being the Head of the Church, asserting that it is blasphemy to call any one Head of the Church save Christ alone. He condemned Episcopacy, as being a creature of princes' setting up; for he asserted that, in the time of the apostles, there were only two orders, viz., priests and deacons, and that a bishop doth not differ from a priest. He was for having ministers maintained by the voluntary contributions of the people, and not by tythes settled on them by law, saying that tythes are pure alms, and that pastors are not to exact them by ecclesiastical censures. He was not for giving the Church a power to decree Rites and Ceremonies, and to determine Controversies of Faith. For, it is said, that, he slighted the authority of General Councils, and affirmed that wise men leave that as impertinent, which is not plainly expressed in Scripture. He was also against prescribed Forms of Prayer, but especially against imposing of them. Nay, further, it is affirmed to be a doctrine of Mr. Wickliff, that baptism doth not confer, but only signify, grace, which was given before. And he calls those fools and presumptuous, who affirm such infants cannot be saved who die without baptism.
"There are not a few who think the following prophecy of Nixon (being as yet, it is supposed, unfulfilled) has a respect to the Rev. Mr. Whitefield and his followers, and that it will have its accomplishment in the Christian people called Methodists:—
"A young new set of men, of virtuous manners, shall come, who shall prosper, and make a flourishing Church for two hundred years."
Among the countless Methodist broad-sheets, issued in the days of Whitefield and the Wesleys, there are none more curious than this of J. Lewis, of Bartholomew Close, London.