CHAPTER I.

THE LIFE AND TIMES

OF

SELINA, COUNTESS OF HUNTINGDON.

[Illustration: S. Huntingdon]

THE

LIFE AND TIMES

OF

SELINA

COUNTESS OF HUNTINGDON.

BY A MEMBER OF THE HOUSES OF SHIRLEY AND HASTINGS.

SIXTH THOUSAND--WITH COPIOUS INDEX.

VOL. I.

ENTERED AT STATIONERS’ HALL.

LONDON: WILLIAM EDWARD PAINTER, STRAND;

AND JOHN SNOW, PATERNOSTER ROW.

1844.

PREFACE.

It was the express wish of Lady HUNTINGDON, that, at least

for some years after her decease, her memory should be suffered to

rest, and her actions to make their own impression on the minds of

men. In deference to this wish, all attempts at the publication of her

Correspondence have been resisted by her noble relatives; and it is

only at the present day that a Cadet of her illustrious family, after

long years employed in the collection and examination of the documents

and papers to which he alone, perhaps, was in a condition to have easy

and continued access, has been induced to arrange his materials into

the form of a MEMOIR OF THE LIFE AND TIMES OF SELINA, COUNTESS OF

HUNTINGDON.

Circumstances having prevented the author from personally

superintending the publication of this work, a large share of

responsibility has been thrown on those to whose hands it was

committed; but the task was a labour of love, and the publication has

been conducted with all possible regard to the public demand for ample

information, to the feelings of the living, and the memory of the dead.

Among the illustrious characters of the eighteenth century, no one has

shone more conspicuously in the religious world, or enjoyed a greater

share of heartfelt esteem and love, than the venerable COUNTESS

OF HUNTINGDON. Above all her celebrated contemporaries, she was

honoured with a life of continued usefulness, protracted to the utmost

period of mortal existence; with extraordinary talents, ample means,

and a head and heart alike devoted to promote the “glory of God in the

highest, and on earth peace and good-will towards man.”

Her body has long been committed to the earth from which it sprang, and

her soul has returned to God who gave it, but she has left on earth a

testimony which will outlive monuments of brass and stone--a reputation

which has spread to the corners of the world--and a name which is

reverenced by all whose approbation is praise.

The curiosity that has been as generally expressed as universally felt,

to know more of the life and character of this, in the best sense of

the word, illustrious woman, is a feeling which ought to be respected;

and it has at length become a duty to make every effort in order

to save from destruction those invaluable records of her heart and

feeling, those delightful traits of her distinguished friends, those

heart-stirring pictures of her private and every-day life, and those

important records of her public services to religion and humanity,

which are contained in these volumes, and which, but for the present

publication, might have expired with their compiler, or have left but

a vague memory of her excellence, except in those instances where the

sacrifice of her fortune has raised imperishable monuments to her

piety.

The object of the present work has been to afford a view of the “life

and times” of this distinguished woman, so clear and ample as to render

superfluous all future or collateral efforts at illustration. Every

fact and incident of her long life is here recorded--every triumph of

the cross under her vigorous and well-directed leading--every place of

worship opened under her auspices--and every mark of divine favour and

encouraging grace bestowed upon her labours.

Conscious of the purity of his motive, and having for all his incentive

the desire to pay just tribute to the memory of the departed saint

whose name he honours, the author has spoken truth from his heart,

resolved to flatter no one--to know no fear in the discharge of his

duty. He has sought, with candid zeal, to avoid every evidence of a

sectarian or party spirit in his statements. Bigotry, on both sides,

may censure; but the just and generous, on all sides, will approve his

course. Narrow prejudices are already vanishing; and good men, of all

denominations, are ready to embrace the truth and each other. The good

Countess was, in this respect, before her age; and it is her Catholic

and Christian spirit which appears to have inspired her kinsman in the

composition of this Memoir. Read in the same spirit, it will serve to

accelerate the benevolent current of true godliness, and to sweep away

the narrow and contracted dispositions which would check its overflow

or turn aside its course.

With this feeling, the author has drawn, without hesitation, from

all accessible sources, the illustrative matter of his Memoir. The

biographies of WHITEFIELD, WESLEY, VENN, and the works and letters of

FLETCHER, BERRIDGE, ROMAINE, WATTS, HILL, and other eminently pious

individuals, have supplied invaluable contributions to the work;

but its more valuable portion consists in the original letters and

anecdotes with which it teems, and in the straightforward integrity of

purpose in its author. Of himself and of his work, he says--

“To GOD, only wise, the Author of every good and perfect gift,

my humble acknowledgments are paid. His grace rendered the subject of

this Memoir what she was--His wisdom directed her pious and benevolent

efforts for the extension of the Redeemer’s kingdom--and His Spirit

supported her in her departing hours. To Him, therefore, and Him

alone, whose influence I implore, I commit these Memoirs, such as they

are, in the hope that He will vouchsafe His blessing on a work which

originated in an ardent desire to promote His glory; and that He will

render it an instrument to extend the knowledge and experience of the

glorious Gospel of God our Saviour.”

With these glowing words of the pious author, the conductors commit

his work to the candid judgment of the enlightened reader; remarking

merely, as they are in justice bound to do, that the religious

institution now known as “_The Connexion of the late Countess of

Huntingdon_” does not incur the slightest responsibility with

regard to this work; and that the reverend author of the Introduction

to the present volume has undertaken to resume his pen for a similar

introductory paper to the second volume of these Memoirs.

INTRODUCTION.

PART I.

Man, amidst an almost infinite variety of circumstances, and modified,

both in body and mind, by a thousand accidental influences, is, in

every age and country, essentially the same. The _os sublime_ and the

_mens alta_ alike distinguish him from the other inhabitants of the

earth, and show, whatever may be his complexion and mental training,

that GOD has made him to have dominion over the works of his hands--has

put all things in subjection under him. Nor is there less of identity

in man’s moral propensities than in his corporeal and instinctive

powers. Bent from his original rectitude, he stoops towards earth and

the things of earth, and gives sad proof of having lost affection for

the Source of his existence, and of being inclined to worship the

creature more than the Creator. The rude savage, the superstitious

devotee, and the intellectual sceptic do not like to retain GOD in

their knowledge--that GOD who is “glorious in holiness,” who is

partially made known to his creatures by the works of his hands, and

more fully revealed, and in a more encouraging light, by the words of

his mouth.

This Atheistic spirit laboured with a giant’s strength to deface the

character of Deity impressed on the world before the flood; had cursed

the earth with abominable idolatry, or with heartless superstition,

before the coming of our Lord in the flesh; and, not satisfied with

the mischief effected under dispensations of mercy less intelligible

and distinct, has, to a most awful extent, corrupted a Church,

professedly Christian, as it had polluted both the Jewish temple and

the Patriarchal tent. To educe good out of evil is the province of the

Supreme Good; to pervert the good, and, so far as it relates to his own

perceptions and conduct, to abuse and prostitute it to the worst of

purposes, is, alas! the work of man.

Nothing can more affectingly evince the truth of this remark than the

contrast of the Church of Rome with the Church of the Apostles; than

the pomp and mummery, the dogmatism and tyranny, the secularity, the

superstition, and the heathenism of Popery, with the simplicity, the

spirituality, and the divinity of that religion which the writers of

the New Testament advocated, for which they all suffered, and for which

most of them died. The vapour which, rising from the twofold shores of

Corinth and the province of Galatia, annoyed ST. PAUL, continued to

spread itself and to increase in density, till the true Church of JESUS

CHRIST became scarcely perceptible, and ultimately was totally obscured

by the thick and dark cloud. Let the mind proceed from the apostles

to EUSEBIUS, thence to AUGUSTINE, and the next advance is to settled

darkness, rendered visible by a few solitary rays of piety--real,

though faint and sickly--and the transient scintillations of scholastic

wit and learning. The page of ecclesiastical history, though inscribed

by persons less evangelical than the MILNERS, will show that even

superstition was only one shade in the dark ages; that vital godliness,

as if in disgust, had fled from the Church, as she was pleased to call

herself, to deserts, and mountains, and dens, and caves of the earth;

that justification before GOD, by faith alone in JESUS CHRIST, the

“_Articulus stantis aut cadentis Ecclesiæ_,” as LUTHER termed it, was

buried beneath the records of Councils and the volumes of Fathers;

and that men, having renounced the LORD as their RIGHTEOUSNESS, were

without him as their STRENGTH. Like SAMSON, the Church was shorn of her

energy and deprived of sight--the sport of the Philistines.

It was the glory of the Reformation that it struck at the root of the

evil. The Church of Rome, not satisfied with seeking righteousness by

the works of the law, must needs arrogate to herself a property in

works of supererogation, and impudently bring it into the market; but

for this daring imposition on common sense, the fire of LUTHER

might have been employed rather in consuming the drapery of the Man of

Sin than in the destruction of his person. The sale of indulgences,

however, was such an outrage on the principle of the Gospel, that it

roused his powerful mind, even when only partially enlightened, to

bring all its united force against the blighting and unholy doctrine

of human merit. Thus, in the process of resuscitation, the HOLY

SPIRIT, by the agency of the Reformers, instead of restoring vital

heat by friction at the extremities, breathed into the dead Church the

breath of life, and restored to her a living soul. Animation diffused

itself through a vast range of nominal Christians, converting them into

living members of the body of CHRIST; and the life, which was

felt to be redeemed, was consecrated to Him “who loved his Church, and

gave himself for it.”

The number of truly converted persons was, no doubt, very considerable

in the days of the Reformers, and the hallowed work progressed under

their survivors, both on the continent of Europe and in Great Britain.

It would, however, be false charity to conclude that all Protestants,

even during the warmth and freshness of the Reformation, were true

Christians: an acquaintance with the history of the times and with

human nature, as well as with the subsequent condition of Protestant

Christendom, will compel us to say, “that all were not Israel who were

of Israel;” that multitudes, from political and secular motives, and

from the force of custom, or from a conviction of the truth rather as

an intellectual than as a moral proposition, protested more against

the errors of the Man of Sin than against his iniquities, and were

more anxious for emancipation from the thraldom of superstition, than

from the bondage of corruption. The easy transition, indeed, of the

majority from one state to another, under HENRY THE EIGHTH

and the youthful EDWARD; their coming back again to Popery

under MARY; and their ready return to Protestantism under

her sister, proves that, however many loved the truth, even unto the

death, more were indifferent to its divine claims, and accommodated

themselves to the times. The Vicar of Bray was only one of many who

ebbed and flowed with the ocean, and of those who will always show that

a national religious improvement may be effected where the renewal of

the mind in the great body of society does not take place. Worldly men

will preserve the element of their character amidst great external

modifications--an element as decidedly opposed to the holy and humbling

truths of the Gospel in the Protestant as in the Papist, though

exhibited under different forms.

This was the case in the reign of ELIZABETH. We hail, indeed,

with feelings kindred with those of MILTON when he escaped

“the Stygian Pool,” the settling of a better order of ecclesiastical

affairs, the liberty of prophesying given to the ministers of

CHRIST, and the eminent piety, learning, and zeal of many

of the clergy. Her reign is as illustrious for men devoted to the

kingdom of our LORD JESUS CHRIST as it is for patriots and

politicians: the preaching and the writings of those men, some of whom

were the survivors of the martyrs, and of whom others seemed to grow

out of their ashes, tended much to instruct the people in the great

principles of the Gospel. These labourers, however, were few, compared

with the extent and population of their spheres of action, and they

could not fail to leave the mass of the people without the knowledge

of true religion, and, consequently, unrenewed by its power. Nay, the

majority of those who professed to guide the blind were themselves,

it is to be feared, destitute of the wisdom that cometh from above,

and thus unqualified to show to others the way of salvation; for we

are informed that, “by the Report of the visitors to the Queen, it

was found that comparatively very few of the Popish Bishops, Clergy,

and Heads of Colleges, resigned their preferments on account of the

new order of things; and it was remembered that the greatest part

of them went with the tide in EDWARD’S reign, and veered

about as readily with the wind on the accession of MARY.”

(_Custance’s Reformation_). It would have been _ex fumo dare

lucem_, indeed, if such men had done much towards the evangelizing

of the nation. The Queen, herself a genuine TUDOR, aiming at

absolute sovereignty, wished to encircle her throne with clouds of

darkness, admitting only so much light as might show that she, and

not the Bishop of Rome, was seated on it. She chose, and with reason,

men of powerful minds to assist her in working the State machine; but

she by no means wished that society at large should be enlightened

with principles which, raising the intellectual as well as the moral

character, and cherishing a consciousness of this elevation, would

probably lead her subjects to question, where it was more convenient to

her that they should obey. “One preacher is enough for a county,” was

the recorded expression of her sentiment on this most important subject.

We must, therefore, conclude, that under this extraordinary ruler--for

one does not like to contemplate her as a woman--the nation, as a

whole, with all its improvements, was dark, or, at best, only relieved

with a dim religious light. Under JAMES, the Bible was re-translated,

copies of it were multiplied, and ministers sincerely Protestant

greatly increased in number; but there was a re-action in theological

sentiments, which tended to lower the tone of piety in those even who

were truly religious. CALVINISM, as it is called, had, before this

reign, in numerous instances, assumed an appearance of harshness,

in the employment of supralapsarian terms, though so generally and

ably supported by men of the most holy character and kindly hearts;

but now the influence of ARMINIUS was experienced. A large part of

the clergy went over from scholastic terms and metaphysical notions,

more speculative than practical, to doctrines which, as they reject

the grace by which we are saved, necessarily leave the soul, amidst

all its moral boastings, in the bonds of iniquity. This obscuration

of the glorious Gospel of the blessed GOD by low, self-righteous

instructors, more than by any affectation of godliness, in the time of

the Protector, prepared the nation for that laxity, both of morals and

of creed--that licentiousness and infidelity, which stamp infamy on the

reign of the second CHARLES. The ribaldry of ROCHESTER, the wit of

BUTLER, and the buffoonery of SOUTH, all had a baneful influence on the

court and the nation, and obscured the holy light which had appeared to

radiate from the stake of the martyrs.

Morals and religious principles have perhaps never been at a lower

ebb in our nation, since the Reformation, than during this period--a

period, the true character of which it is one of the most difficult

studies in English history to determine. Even the best men of the

age, in their joy for a restored monarchy, and bewilderment at the

splendour and politeness of the Court, were led to give a false colour

to their records of these times, and to merge the all-important

considerations of morals and truth in the theoretic speculations of a

civil and religious establishment. Whatever may be said on the question

of equity, there can, we imagine, be no doubt in an unprejudiced

Christian, that the ejecting of the Nonconformists, and the patronizing

of a very different class of men, taken as a whole, both ecclesiastic

and secular, was a heavy blow inflicted on true piety, and introduced

a style of preaching which operates as a soporific on the moral sense,

and as a cloud on the moral vision. Most victories are costly, and the

triumph of monarchical principle, however desirable, by overlaying the

living and evangelical spirit with a uniform machinery, in too many

instances worked by careless hands, was gained at an expense which it

is not easy to calculate, but which must qualify the pleasure suggested

to a loyal heart by the return of the twenty-ninth of May.

England may well be proud of the science and literature of the

subsequent age, and call it Augustan. NEWTON and LOCKE, in the worlds

of matter and of mind; DRYDEN, POPE, and THOMSON, in that of the

imagination; and ADDISON, with a host of prose writers, on subjects of

taste and morals--have given it claims to distinction, and illuminated

its pages in intellectual history. These writers obtained great

influence over the nation, and whatever good they effected, by giving

currency to thought, they directed it in channels leading _from_

evangelical piety, to sentiment, and ethics, and taste, or to physical

knowledge. The waters were indeed clear and beautiful, but they were

unhealthy, and, in some respects, the opposite of the prophetic

stream, of which it is predicated, “Everything shall live whither

the river cometh.” The most chaste and moral of these popular works,

though recognizing Christianity, are unvivified by its spirit; and

while they advocate the claims of virtue, found not their argument on

the principles of the Gospel, and teach, often not otherwise than as a

heathen would have taught, social duties and graces, rather than “_the

obedience of faith_.” The founder of Methodism was not far from the

truth when he said that few things were more unfriendly to the progress

of the Gospel than the national fondness for ADDISON’S _Spectator_.

Nor was the political feeling without its baneful influence on the

religious character of the people. As the fashion of the Court,

under the profligate CHARLES, had raised up many wits, like

BUTLER, to caricature true piety, by confounding it with

hypocrisy, so the repeated efforts made to restore the STUARTS

filled Protestants with a dread of change, and induced the High Church

party, most unjustly, to consider all Dissenters, however attached

to the House of BRUNSWICK, and however excelling in all the

virtues of true religion, as confederate with the Scottish Nonjurors

and Jacobites; and thus, by an easy though fallacious transition, to

identify evangelical doctrine with revolutionary propensities.

This, as the following work will show, was a reason assigned by the

local magistrates of the day for their leaving the Methodist preachers

unprotected to the mal-treatment of the mob, in opposition to royal

pleasure directly expressed; and this, too, was the pretext under which

the magistrates themselves avowedly and ostensibly excited the ignorant

to violence and outrage. Let us not be deemed illiberal if we notice,

as one cause of the general apathy, the great popularity of TILLOTSON.

It would, indeed, be uncandid and unjust not to recognize his numerous

excellences, both as a man and as a writer, and his merit of giving a

more popular character to pulpit addresses in the Established Church;

but whatever other good his sermons may have effected, there was little

in them to send the people home imbued with the great principles of

the Gospel, and sympathizing with St. PAUL, when he exclaims, “But

GOD forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our LORD JESUS

CHRIST, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.”

An almost total absence of evangelical doctrine--the blood of

sprinkling--and an evident carelessness about the great object of the

Christian ministry, even where there may not be gaiety and immorality

of conduct, are so palpably inconsistent and reprehensible in a

professed minister of the Gospel, that the evil, in a great degree,

neutralizes itself; but when moral excellence combines with truth

indeed, animated with zeal and affection, yet lacking that prominence

of the all-important doctrines of revelation which the HOLY GHOST has

in all ages been pleased to bless to the glorifying of CHRIST, a sort

of _quietus_ is ministered to the conscience, and decorum and formality

take the place of “repentance towards GOD, and faith towards our LORD

JESUS CHRIST.” Such writers as TILLOTSON, and his older friend, BARROW,

will be studied with advantage by men spiritually minded, because such

readers will give an evangelical cast to the strong reasoning and

beautiful illustrations of these writers; but where the tone of feeling

is to be received from the authors themselves, we cannot but think that

it will be cold. English literature, from STEELE to JOHNSON, though its

period has become an era in the history of morals, has had the same

tendency. Amusement and instruction, taste and decorum, were circulated

among a people now denominated “a reading nation;” but who ever heard

of a sinner being brought to true repentance, and to rejoice in CHRIST

JESUS, having no confidence in the flesh, by a paper of the _Spectator_

or of the _Rambler_? All these movements, indeed, had a beneficial

influence on society, in preparing the way for a revival in religion,

by exciting the attention and teaching the mind how to think; but the

direct effect, in most cases, of such instruction, was either to lull

the moral sense altogether, or to awaken it to a class of feelings of

a self-righteous character, and, as such, opposed to the Gospel--the

righteousness which is of GOD by faith.

Thus the slumbering embers of the martyr-flame had died out, and a

degeneracy of doctrine and profligacy of manners had spread a chilling

and destructive influence over a partially enlightened community;

and infidelity, political convulsions, and even literature itself,

had each contributed its quota to form a national soporific. Happily,

there were a few in the national pulpits who had not drank of this

cup, and among the Dissenters some holy men, such as WATTS

and DODDRIDGE, well represented those who had suffered for

conscience sake after the Restoration. Theological writings, too, had

accumulated, which will continue to instruct and bless the Church of

CHRIST till she shall know even as she is known: but there

was a heaviness in those folios, and too much of evenness in the

public ministrations of the word, for an age which needed a moral

disturbance to prevent its sleeping the sleep of death. Arguments

against infidelity, and ethics cold though beautiful, were the usual

themes of the parochial desk; and the withering influence of Arianism,

or of a heartless orthodoxy, produced death in many of the Dissenting

congregations. England and Wales, therefore, in an improved condition

of politics and literature, and perhaps also of morals, was generally

benumbed by the torpedo of formality; and the vital feeling and zealous

activity of Christianity were known to the few only, and these rather

mourned over the state of things in secret, than exerted themselves in

public to effect an alteration.

It is not for us to hazard even a conjecture respecting the number of

persons who truly loved our LORD JESUS in this country at

the earlier part of the last century. Piety is essentially a quiet

and secret thing, and, though it labours to do good at all times,

is greatly dependent on circumstances for the platform on which it

acts--that may be the domestic hearth, or it may be “a spectacle to

the world.” At this period, as if wearied with political distractions

and disgusted with the impertinence of infidelity, the pious of all

denominations very much sought retirement. We may hope, therefore,

that the number of those who loved the Gospel was much greater than

at first, and by comparison with the present age, it seems to have

been; and perhaps no documents furnished greater proofs of this

delightful fact than the early correspondence of the COUNTESS

OF HUNTINGDON. This gives the most satisfactory evidence that

“honourable women not a few,” and some men also in the highest

walks, were quietly exercising the Christian graces, and waiting

and longing for better days, before the Methodists had obtained

publicity. Christians in the lower ranks of the community, though less

conspicuous, were not likely to be far behind the rich and the noble

in true religion; from which we infer that a goodly number, even in

those seasons of visible lifelessness, was reserved by himself for the

GOD of all grace, especially to hail and to aid the new era

which was about to rise on the Church. Extending charity, however, to

the utmost point which correct judgment will allow, we must look back

on that period with feelings far from pleasurable. The Church is not

likely to be in a healthy state when she is without exercise, and when

she makes little or no aggressions on the world; nor can she richly

enjoy those blessings herself which she is not anxious to distribute to

others. But there are speculations which may not become us: “the day

shall declare it.”

Happy was it for the world that this slumbering did not continue--that

men arose, who, instead of enquiring about the number who should

be saved, themselves strove to enter in at the strait gate, and

zealously endeavoured to excite others to follow their example. The

rise of Methodism now took place, in a band of brothers who studied at

Oxford. Mr. JOHN WESLEY, in point of time as well as of talent, may

be considered the first, though it is evident that He, who brings the

blind by a way they know not, was simultaneously preparing the hearts

of many for a most efficient co-operation in the blessed work about

to be performed. Such were WHITEFIELD, CHARLES WESLEY, INGHAM, and

HERVEY. The piety of these great men was deep and energetic, and it

clothed them with so much boldness, that, although their pretensions

were humble, and they were in a great degree the creatures of

circumstances, as well as of divine grace, yet they were distinguished

from their contemporaries--even from the best of them--and appeared

the representatives of the ancient prophets and apostles. Men felt

that they were the servants of the MOST HIGH, and earnest in declaring

unto them the way of salvation. Like the ministry of JOHN the Baptist,

theirs was a voice in the wilderness, and while it proclaimed the

kingdom of heaven, it was heard with no ordinary attention.

The reader who, piously curious, desires to trace the movements of the

HOLY SPIRIT on the heart, will find no common gratification

in the following records: he will behold, in so many parts of the

great deep, numerous symptoms of life, and will conclude that they are

not to be attributed to any artificial or partial heat, but to divine

power. “The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” There is,

perhaps, no error to which we are more exposed than that of supposing

that the originators of a series of movements, _à priori_, saw the

whole process from the beginning, and acted from plan rather than from

circumstances. _We_ see the connexion which an event has with its

antecedent, and therefore imagine the agent was well acquainted with

the tendency of the one to effect the other. Universal experience,

however, contradicts this inference: even in the history of men of

this world, whose plans are often sagaciously formed, and whose object

is more definite, we see that the ultimate success is more owing to a

skilful and prompt use of accidents than to the guidance of an original

design. No philosophy, independently of experience, could foresee the

branching and stately oak in the acorn.

To assert, therefore, that the founders of Methodism began their

career by chalking out their future operations, is to pay a compliment

to their foresight at the expense of truth, and of the continued

superintendence of that Being who apportions to his servants their

daily work, as much as he does their daily bread. GOD has a

plan, but he does not expose it to the workmen of the temple: it is

enough that each knows what he has to do, and how to perform it, at the

present moment.

The following history will abundantly verify these sentiments. Can

a sober man, however systematized, imagine that anything like the

impression which was made would have been effected, both in our own

country and in America, if the leaders of the cause--_all_ of

whom were attached to the Established Church--had maintained what is

called regularity, and a tame canonical obedience to men who had no

spirit of enterprise in their character? Would the highways and hedges

have been visited? Would the various branches of orthodox Dissenters

have been roused to co-operation? Would lay agency have been made

available to the furtherance of the cause? Would the more regular

clergy themselves have been so active and useful _within_ the pale

of their own community, if there had been no pressure and provocation

from _without_?

Now, nothing is more evident than that this irregularity was

unintended. Zeal, indeed, was enkindled, but it would have continued to

warm the churches had it not been dislodged by ecclesiastical power.

The fire, however, was inextinguishable; and being forbidden to burn

on the usual altar, it sought every avenue of escape, and visited and

blessed other places. Field-preaching succeeded rejection from the

churches; and the COUNTESS OF HUNTINGDON, who thought only

of chaplains for her preachers, and of Episcopal ordination for her

students, was at length compelled, very much against her will, to

violate ecclesiastical order, and shelter herself and her companions

in zeal under the Act of Toleration. This growth in the cause of the

Gospel, and extension of their original design, characterize these

“workers together with God,” and secure all the glory of the plan, as

it does that of the execution, to Him: while this view of the economy

meets a thousand objections urged by the enemies of vital godliness

against this labour of mercy.

If, turning from the more general to the more particular instance, we

contemplate the chief subject of the following biography, we shall

recognize the same characteristic of divine guidance. How steadily and

beautifully does grace advance in the Countess! We follow her, in the

present history, from the girl of nine years of age, impressed with

solemn thought and purposes on witnessing a funeral, through a series

of changes, till we mark an elevation of spirit truly and sublimely

Christian, which rises above the splendour of a court--which dares to

allow zeal to act, first in visiting the poor--then in opening the

drawing-room for noble hearers of the Gospel--then in the employment of

laymen and in providing chapels for the accommodation of the multitude,

even although those chapels were to be denominated conventicles!

The CHILD becomes a MOTHER in Israel indeed, and theologians of the

first-rate powers feel it a privilege to learn the way of GOD more

perfectly from the lips and the pen of this saintly woman.

No contemplative mind will peruse THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE

COUNTESS OF HUNTINGDON without noticing the power and the beauty

of divine grace, when brought in contact with a vigorous mind, elevated

in society by nobility and fortune. That energy which, unsanctified,

gives obstinacy to prejudice and pride to vanity, when under the

control of “the meekness of wisdom” leads to boldness of investigation,

the avowal of Evangelical truth, and to humility, which, in the sight

of GOD, is of great price.

It will be difficult, indeed, to find an instance of the power of

GOD unto salvation brighter than that here exhibited. A woman,

a noble personage, a favourite at Court, the wife of a nobleman

who only tolerated and aided her zeal as he was won over by her

chaste conversation; a widow, and at times much afflicted in her

children--living, too, in an age when the gaiety and superstition of

the nation were scarcely disturbed by the sober and reasonable voice of

truth--every disadvantage overcome, and a meek yet firm profession made

of love to our LORD JESUS CHRIST.

Nor is the providence less conspicuous than the grace of GOD in the

Life of the Countess, as related to her Times. There was needed

a hallowed work in progress among the poor and middle classes in

society, but the means of reaching these, which the necessity of the

case directed, such as preaching in fields and in barns, were not

likely to command the attention of the rich and the noble. There

needed, therefore, an instrument to bring the Gospel into friendly

contact with the highest ranks. This instrument was the Countess.

There was an attraction and an influence about her which were felt

by many of the great in an extraordinary degree; and not only the

courtly CHESTERFIELD, the political Duchess of MARLBOROUGH, the gay

and frivolous NASH, but the infidel BOLINGBROKE paid her marked and

sincere homage, and listened to the preachers whom she patronized

and commended. Many will, doubtless, be astonished, on reading the

following pages, to find so large a number of distinguished personages

brought by this zealous woman to hear the word of truth, as well in

the despised conventicle as in her own habitation. It was thus, by

applying the discharging-rod to the two extremes, that a shock was

given, and that circulation and sensibility were effected in the social

body. Many of the rich and more of the poor met together, and their

place of meeting was the foot of the cross. How wisely GOD adapts his

agents to his work!

The personal character of the Countess of HUNTINGDON will be best seen

in the general history of her _Life and Times_: she stands, indeed,

so connected with almost all which was good in the last century, that

the character of the age, so far as religion is concerned, was in

some measure her own. It is not insinuated that she alone impressed

that character on the Church, but that she entirely sympathized with

it, and was not a whit behind the foremost in affection for souls and

zeal for God--in spirituality of mind and fervour of devotion--in

contrivance and energy for the extension of the Gospel--in a large

and disinterested soul. If she did not appear as the public advocate

of the cause, it was because a woman is forbidden to speak in the

Church; and if she did not more excel in literary productions, it was

because she knew her proper talent--that she was rather fitted to think

with vigour and comprehensiveness, than to marshal words to please

a critical review. She never, indeed, seems to have thought of the

manner and structure of her sentences, but only of giving utterance

to the sentiments--always pious, frequently burning--which filled her

breast. Those who may be inclined to blame her letters, as deficient

in smoothness and perspicuity, will do well to remember that they were

not intended for the public eye; they will also admit that some minds

of a high order and especially endowed with a power over others, are

remarkable for an abruptness of expression which sometimes involves

confusion: of this CROMWELL was a striking instance. The mental powers

of Lady HUNTINGDON were anything but feeble. No lady, however pious and

exalted by rank, could have commanded such respect as she did, unless

in the possession of intellectual superiority. The sincerity of her

piety and the ardour of her zeal were felt by the first personages of

the land, as they were combined with the force of her understanding;

and it is believed that the recognition of this fact, in the following

work, will, by all impartial readers, be considered a sufficient

refutation of Dr. SOUTHEY’S poetic imaginings of her mental weakness,

and, indeed, _insanity_!

It will, likewise, be seen that the vigour of the Countess’s mind and

the boldness of her zeal were in perfect keeping with the feminine

graces. She was not an ELIZABETH. The lady, the friend of

the poor, the wife, the mother, the sister, the widow--all private

and domestic relations--were adorned by her elegance and affection,

her meekness of wisdom and boundless kindness, her chaste and winning

conversation. The reader will find it difficult to judge whether she

appears to the greater advantage when co-operating with the spirits

which were effecting a change throughout the moral world, or when

quietly moving in domestic and social life.

The circumstances, too, in which she was placed, were favourable to

the development of her character. Light enough shone on the professing

Church to render the darkness visible; the efforts of the Oxford band,

with those of other pious ministers of various denominations, both in

England and in Scotland, had brought the deadness of merely formal

Christianity into juxtaposition with the living truth of the Gospel,

and the Countess saw the contrast, and her eye affected her heart. She

wept, she vowed, she acted. She determined to throw all the weight of

her influence into the scale of the Gospel; and while considerations

of sex, of the disposition and views of her beloved lord, of the rank

she held, and which she was so well qualified to support, would have

restrained an ordinary mind of common piety from public interference,

these very circumstances to her appeared to be talents of great worth,

and she was excited to employ them to the greatest advantage. She

beheld the rude and cruel treatment which holy men endured, as well

from the educated and wealthy as from the ignorant and poor--from

magistrates and ecclesiastics as much as from private individuals;

and for what? For promulgating the truth--truth which she felt was

essential to human salvation--and she generously stepped forward to

their defence and encouragement. She had magnanimity enough to break

the ranks of her order, and attraction enough to induce many to follow

her example. She was as persevering as she was courageous; and you see

her, having passed the rubicon, steadily advancing to the capitol.

She remembered LOT’S wife; and no opposition--no unforeseen

difficulty--no associations necessary to the furtherance of her work,

however plebeian, could induce her to look backward. When, therefore,

it was necessary to remove out of the drawing-room into the chapel,

she did remove; and when she could no longer conduct the services with

an ecclesiastical regularity, to which she was attached to the utmost

reasonable extent, she braved the reproach of the conventicle; and as

the demand for help increased, while clerical labourers were few, she

went before even WESLEY in taking advantage of lay agency. She

followed where, in her judgment, GOD was pleased to direct;

and, secluded from her former elegant associations, she ultimately gave

up herself entirely to the direction of her college and of her more

immediate Connexion, and to the most really Catholic co-operation with

all who loved the LORD JESUS in sincerity.

The world has, perhaps, never seen a finer instance of the power of

divine grace, in enabling the mind to rise above all the unchristian

restraints of State etiquette, the prejudice of early ecclesiastical

associations, and the spirit of party and sectarianism. The last

triumph will be viewed by some who understand human nature as the

greatest of the three; for it is easier to shake off the trammels

of rank and of education, than to merge the individuality of

selfishness in the general cause of souls and of CHRIST. In this

fine characteristic, to the glory of her age let it be recorded, the

Countess met with much sympathy. Her _Life and Times_ will prove how

grand, how sublime, were the views of most of the distinguished agents

in the work of GOD at that stirring period. With the exception of the

leader of the great section of Methodism--whose intention to organize

a distinct body we do not blame--all seemed to be so intent on the

_general_ good of the Church, that they overlooked the advantage of

their own particular denominations, and were too eager to pluck men

as brands from the burning, to spend time and energy in discussing

questions of comparative non-importance. It was, indeed, to be expected

that a time of greater leisure and calmness would follow, and that then

an opportunity would be furnished of investigating the merits of the

respective modes of worship and forms of government. We blame not this

exercise when kept in a subordinate station; but who, possessed of a

shred of the Countess’s mantle, does not weep over the state of truly

Evangelical parties in the present day of strife? So far from combining

their powers to oppose and overturn infidelity and idolatry, they more

than waste a large portion of them in direct contention with each

other. This is an unholy warfare indeed--a species of fratricide. What,

indeed, is Churchmanship or Dissent compared with the salvation of the

soul? The spirits of the noble group encircling the truly Catholic

SELINA return an answer--“_What indeed!_”

Should the perusal of the following pages enkindle no breast into

zeal for CHRIST, they will certainly fail of their reward; for we can

scarcely conceive of anything, next to the history of our blessed LORD

and his apostles, more likely, under the divine blessing, to set the

heart on fire than the facts here recorded. Zeal, glowing, active,

untiring zeal, animates all the story, and forms the living soul of

the entire body: and while, on the one hand, we behold how GOD honours

zeal in his servants, in making it tell so powerfully on the world;

on the other hand, we see the proper workings of the doctrines of

the cross, and how they consecrate the affections and form the true

philanthropist. Let the world be brought under the action of the same

principles, and what a scene of brotherly kindness and charity, of

mutual zeal, of millennial happiness, will it exhibit!

The publication of the LIFE AND TIMES OF THE COUNTESS OF HUNTINGDON

will appear to many very opportune, as a spirit of missionary

enterprize has been conferred on the Churches, and success has

attended, in an extraordinary degree, the efforts which have been made

in the South Sea Islands,[1] so dear to the heart of this zealous and

almost prophetic woman; and as the Lord has put it into the hearts

of many to seek, with growing earnestness, the revival of this work

at home. Those who look upon meetings of Christians for especial

prayer for the HOLY GHOST, or upon public exertions in endeavouring

to impress the conscience and win over the heart to CHRIST, with

surprise, as though some new thing had happened, will stand corrected

as they find how the present movements were anticipated by those holy

personages whose lives are here recorded. Had their successors in the

great work been warmed with their zeal, and secured the aid of the

ALMIGHTY with prayer, united and continuous as theirs, the Church would

have presented a different appearance. We only, therefore, seem to be

returning to the piety and fervour of the days of old, when we become

most anxious to work out our principles and to win souls to our divine

REDEEMER. The rise and success of Methodism, in all its sections, are

the models of revival meetings, and an encouragement to engage in them.

Those persons who may look on the gracious principle of the Gospel

with fear or disapprobation will remember, that if the sacred band to

which these pages refer did, in their zeal for the Gospel of the grace

of GOD, ride over the forms of dull and lifeless ethics, which had

been so generally adopted, and if they did offend the vicious and the

self-righteous, their object was as pure as it was benevolent. They

carried with them “letters of commendation” in the holiness of their

own conduct, and personified the apostolic sentiment, that “grace

reigns through righteousness.” Let any man of impartial mind read the

following biography, and then say that the tendency of a gratuitous

salvation is licentious. Nor could such a leader, however attached to

one of the great sections of Methodism, with any fairness, charge the

followers of the other leader, as a body, either with an undermining

of moral requirements, or with a rejection of the righteousness which

is of GOD by faith. Let facts, and not _à priori_ reasoning, guide the

judgment, and it will decide that the doctrines of faith are doctrines

which purify the heart; and that the essential, plain, scriptural

statements and belief of those doctrines, and not scholastic and

metaphysical refinements, are the great instruments, in the economy of

our salvation, of transforming the mind and of adorning the character

with the Christian graces. The day is gone by, we trust, or at least it

ought to have passed away, when either party shall condemn the other

for deductions which are not admitted; when the Calvinist shall charge

the Wesleyan with denying a sinner’s justification in the sight of

GOD by faith alone in JESUS CHRIST; and when the Wesleyan shall teach

his hearers to identify the Calvinistic scheme, as it is generally

received, with the monstrous practical error of Antinomianism. “My

little children, love one another.” Perhaps few, since the days of the

catholic and amiable Apostle JOHN, have repeated these words with more

sincerity and emphasis than SELINA, COUNTESS OF HUNTINGDON. She chose

her side of the controversy--and, we think, with reason; but however

strongly those writers might have expressed themselves, whom, on the

whole, she approved, and whatever transient alienations may have taken

place, they were clouds passing before the sun: the habit of her mind

was Christian affection, and her prayer was for grace to be with all

them that love our LORD JESUS CHRIST in sincerity.

A rigid examiner and critic of the following papers may, perhaps,

be able to detect some variations, at different periods of her

life, in the minuter parts of the Countess’s creed, as well as in

her attachments--a temporary leaning towards mysticism, or towards

legality, or towards hyper-Calvinism; but these aberrations were kept

within bounds, and mutually corrected each other. He will, however,

never find a want of true Catholicity, or the temperament of piety low

and frigid. The fervour of her Christian affections would not allow

her to be indifferent and heartless; her strong sense and reverence

for the holy Scriptures preserved her from the practical errors of

the mystics; and her views of the SAVIOUR were too enlarged to admit

of self-righteous pride; while her concern for the glory of GOD and

the salvation of mankind was too abiding and active to suffer her to

be otherwise than “zealous of good works.” She practically as well

as theoretically confessed her imperfection and sinfulness, whilst

she rejoiced in the all-sufficiency of GOD her SAVIOUR; and of no one

perhaps whose name adorns the history of the Church of CHRIST can it

be said with greater propriety than of this extraordinary Lady--“Many

daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all. Favour is

deceitful, and beauty is vain; but a woman that feareth the Lord, she

shall be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own

works praise her in the gates.”

J. K. FOSTER.

CHESHUNT COLLEGE,

April 15th, 1839.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

Antiquity of the Shirley Family. Saxon Origin. Norman

Dignities. Royal Alliances. Foreign Crowns. British Coronets.

The Clanricardes. Battle of Aghrim. The Parkers. The Lord

High Chancellor found guilty. The Levinges. Irish Alliances.

Birth of Lady Selina. Her Early Character. First Religious

Impressions. The Grave of Youth. Piety. Private Prayer.

Fashionable Life. Marriage. The Huntingdon Family. Its

Ancestry. Tho Earl of Huntingdon. His Character. “Tears of

the Muses.” Self-righteousness. The Methodists. Lady Margaret

Hastings. The Light of Religious Truth. Force of Example.

Conversion.

CHAPTER II.

Lord Huntingdon. The Bishop of Gloucester. Mr. Whitefield’s

Preaching. Its effects. Dr. Southey. Dr. Hurd. Archbishop

Seeker. First Methodist Society. Lady Anne Frankland. Lord

Scarborough. Dr. Young. Lady Fanny Shirley. Mrs. Temple. Lady

Mary Wortley Montague. Lady Townshend. Mr. Pope. Mr. Ingham.

Mr. Charles Wesley. Miss Robinson. Lord Lisburne. The House of

Lords. Hammond the Poet. Somerville the Poet. Sarah, Duchess

of Marlborough. Anecdotes. Duchess of Buckingham. Anecdotes.

Duchess of Queensbury. Lord Orford. Lady Hinchinbroke.

CHAPTER III.

Early Methodists. Lay Preaching. Mr. Bowers. Mr. Cennick.

Itinerants. Ordination. Mr. Maxfield. Mr. Wesley’s Opinion of

his Call. Mr. Wesley’s Sanction. Bishop of Derry. Fetter-lane

Society. Conduct of the Bishops. Opposition without.

Bickerings. Shaw. The Moravians. Separation in Fetter-lane.

First Division. The Society in Moorfields. Enthusiasm.

Pluralities. Bishop Burnet. Mrs. Mitchell. Anecdote. Mr.

Charles Wesley and the Moravians. David Taylor. General

Baptists. Mr. Bennett. Grace Murray. John Nelson.

CHAPTER IV.

The Clergy. Mr. Simpson. Mr. Wesley’s Opinion of him. The One

Wrong Principle. Mr. Graves. His Recantation. His Explanatory

Declaration. Lady Huntingdon’s Schools. Lord Huntingdon’s

Character. Miss Cooper: her Death. Letters. The Poor. Death

of Mr. Jones. The Poor Penitent’s Death-bed. Mr. Wesley’s

preaching on his Father’s Tomb. Donnington Park. Lady Abney.

Dr. Watts. “The Grave.” Dr. Blair. Letters. Colonel Gardiner.

His Marvellous Conversion. Letters.

CHAPTER V.

Lay-Preachers. Mr. Wesley’s Defence of them. Converted Clergy.

Death of Lady Huntingdon’s Sons, George and Ferdinando

Hastings. First Methodist Conference. Dr. Doddridge. Letters

from Lady Huntingdon. Mr. Jones. The Pretender. Lord Carteret.

George II. Death of Colonel Gardiner. Letters to Mr. Wesley,

Dr. Doddridge, and Charles Wesley.

CHAPTER VI.

Death of the Earl of Huntingdon. His Lordship’s Epitaph.

Letters from Sir John Thorold. Lady Huntingdon’s Piety. Letter

to Dr. Doddridge. Lady Kilmorey. Duchess of Somerset. Welsh

Preachers. Lady Frances Hastings. Mrs. Edwin. Lady Huntingdon’s

adherence to the Church of England. Letter from Dr. Watts to

Dr. Doddridge.

CHAPTER VII.

Mr. Whitefield arrives in England. Preaches at Lady

Huntingdon’s. Letters. Lord Chesterfield. Lord Bolingbroke.

Anecdotes of Mr. Whitefield’s Preaching. Appointed Chaplain to

Lady Huntingdon. Christian Soldiers. Bishop of Exeter. Colonel

Gumley. Mrs. Edwin. Lord St. John. Lady Suffolk. The Court

Beauties. Lord Chesterfield. Marquis of Lothian. Lady Mary

Hamilton. Anecdotes. Lady Townshend. English Nobility at Lady

Huntingdon’s. Sir Watkin Williams Wynn. Persecution of the

Welsh Methodists. Liberal Conduct of the Government. Marmaduke

Gwynne, Esq.

CHAPTER VIII.

Dr. Gibbons. Dr. Gill. Mr. Darracott. The Young Lord

Huntingdon. Lord Chesterfield. The Jews. German Minister. An

Impostor. David Levi. Lady Fanny Shirley. Mr. Whitefield and

Mr. Wesley. Ashby-place. Mr. Baddelley. Lady Huntingdon’s

Illness. Lady Anne Hastings. Mr. Hervey. Bishop of Exeter. Mr.

Thompson. Duke of Somerset. Mr. Moses Bruce. Bishop Lavington.

CHAPTER IX.

Mr. Romaine. Earthquake in London. Mr. Romaine appointed

Chaplain to Lady Huntingdon. Ashby-place. Dr. Stonhouse. Dr.

Akenside. New Jersey College. Governor Belcher. President Burr.

Dissenting Ministers. Dr. Doddridge. Education of Ministers.

Mrs. Hester Gibbon. Mr. Law. Mr. Whitefield’s success at

Rotherham. Lord Lyttleton. Mr. Hervey. Dr. Doddridge.

CHAPTER X.

Mr. Whitefield at Ashby. Mr. Moses Browne. Mr. Martin Madan.

Lady Frances Hastings. Dr. Stonhouse. Mr. Hartley. Death of the

Prince of Wales. Anecdote. Lady Charlotte Edwin. Dr. Ayscough.

Lord Lyttleton. Death of Lord Bolingbroke. Dr. Trapp. Dr.

Church. Anecdotes.

CHAPTER XI.

Mr. Whitefield visits Scotland. Dr. Erskine and Dr. Robertson.

Scotch Nobility. Mr. and Lady Jane Nimmo. Letter to Lady

Huntingdon. Mr. Wardrobe. Mr. Hervey: his “Theron and Aspasio.”

Letters to Lady Huntingdon. Lady Fanny Shirley. Prince and

Princess of Wales. Mr. Hervey’s Method of Preaching. Letter

from Lady Huntingdon. Mr. Steward. Lady Hastings.

CHAPTER XII.

History of Mr. Whitefield’s Tabernacle and Tottenham-court

Chapel. Whitefield in London. Mr. Broughton. Countess of

Hertford. Fetter-lane. Mr. Cennick. Methodist Society.

Tabernacle commenced. Welsh Preachers. Moorfields. Lay

Preachers. Nobility at the Tabernacle. Opposition of the

Dissenters. Anecdotes of Dr. Watts. Lady Huntingdon and the

Moravians. Sir Thomas and Lady Abney. Tabernacle opened.

Long-acre Chapel. Hon. Hume Campbell. Tottenham-court Chapel

opened. Mr. Edward Shuter. Foote the Player. “The Minor.” Lord

Halifax. Duke of Grafton. Mr. Fox. Mr. Pitt. Mr. Rowland Hill.

Captain Joss. Mr. Matthew Wilks. Mr. Knight. Mr. Hyatt. Mr.

Whitefield’s Will.

CHAPTER XIII.

Mr. Venn begins to attract notice. Revival of Religion in the

Established Church and among the Methodists. By whom first

commenced. Mr. Venn’s acquaintance with Mr. Broughton, one of

the Original Methodists. Dr. Haweis. Mr. Law. Illness of Mr.

Venn. Accompanies Mr. Whitefield to Bristol. Remains with Lady

Huntingdon at Clifton. Letter from Mr. Whitefield. Letter to

Mr. Venn from Lady Huntingdon. Mr. Whitefield’s Letter to Mr.

Venn. Oxford Students. Dr. Haweis. Mr. Whitefield’s Letter

to Dr. Haweis. Convicts. Preaching to the Nobility at Lady

Huntingdon’s. Handel. Giardini. Musical Composers.

CHAPTER XIV.

Lady Huntingdon and Mr. Fletcher. Introduction to Lady

Huntingdon by Mr. Wesley. Bishop of London. Letter to Mr.

Charles Wesley. Mr. Fletcher preaches and celebrates the

Communion at Lady Huntingdon’s. Letter to Mr. C. Wesley. Letter

to Lady Huntingdon. Mr. Fletcher appointed Vicar of Madely.

Writes to Lady Huntingdon and Mr. Charles Wesley. Visits Mr.

Berridge. Letter to Lady Huntingdon. Induction to Madely.

Success of his Ministry. Letter to Lady Huntingdon.

CHAPTER XV.

Rise of Methodism in Yorkshire. Mr. Ingham. Count Zinzendorff.

Mr. Delamotte. Mr. Okeley. Mr. Rogers. Letter from Mr.

Whitefield. The United Brethren. Mr. Batty. Lady Betty

Hastings. Ledstone Hall. Mr. Ingham’s Marriage with Lady

Margaret Hastings. Count Zinzendorff visits Yorkshire. Moravian

Settlement at Fulneck. John Nelson. Mr. Whitefield’s Letter

to Mr. Ingham. Mr. Grimshaw. Lord and Lady Huntingdon visit

Ledstone Hall. Mr. Charles Wesley. Mr. Graves encourages John

Nelson. Persecution. Provincial Magistrates. John Nelson taken

to Prison. Liberated by the influence of Lady Huntingdon. Lord

Sunderland. Letter from Lady Huntingdon to Mr. Ingham. The

Vicar of Colne. Mr. Grimshaw’s Opinions. Moravian Nobles. John

Cennick. Mr. Ingham leaves the Moravians. John Allen.

CHAPTER XVI.

Mr. Whitefield returns to England. Writes to Mr. Ingham.

Visits Yorkshire. Lady Huntingdon in Yorkshire. Extraordinary

Occurrence. Mr. Graves. Mr. Milner. Mr. Grimshaw. Conference

at Leeds. Mr. Ingham is chosen General Overseer. Mr. Charles

Wesley. Mr. Whitefield at Haworth. Inghamite Churches. Church

Discipline. Inghamite Preachers. Mr. Newton visits Yorkshire.

His Letter to Mr. Wesley. Anecdote of his Preaching at

Leeds. Mr. Romaine’s Opinion of the Inghamite Churches. Lady

Huntingdon at Aberford. Mr. Romaine preaches in Mr. Ingham’s

Chapels. Mr. George Burder. Mr. Romaine at Haworth. Mr.

Grimshaw. Sandeman’s Letters. Church Government.

CHAPTER XVII.

Mr. Venn removed to Huddersfield. Mr. Burnett. Lord Dartmouth.

Dr. Conyers. Visitation Sermon. Mr. Thornton. Lady Huntingdon

visits Yorkshire. Mr. Romaine. Mr. Wesley. Mr. Madan. Letters

from Dr. Conyers to Lady Huntingdon. Letter from Mr. Venn. Mr.

Titus Knight. Letter from Mr. Grimshaw. Death of Mr. Grimshaw.

Letter from Mr. Venn. Letter from Dr. Conyers. Letter from Mr.

Fletcher. Lady Huntingdon, with Messrs. Townshend and Fletcher,

visit Huddersfield. Illness of Lady Huntingdon. Mr. Whitefield

in Yorkshire. William Shent. Mr. Venn’s Irregularities. Mrs.

Hannah More. Defence of Mr. Venn. Letter from Mr. Fletcher.

Mrs. Deane. Lady Irvine. Mr. Occum, the Indian Preacher.

Captain Scott. The London Shunamite. Mr. Wilson.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Melancholy State of Mr. Ingham. Lady Huntingdon and Mr. Venn.

Illness and Death of Lady Margaret Ingham. Letter from Mr.

Ingham. Letter from Mr. Romaine. Mr. Ingham’s Treatise on the

Faith and Hope of the Gospel. Mr. Riddell. Lady Huntingdon

sends Students to Yorkshire. Letter from Mr. Riddell. Mr.

Joseph Milner, of Hull, attends Lady Huntingdon’s Preachers.

Begins to Preach the Gospel. Mr. Myler. Letter from Lady

Huntingdon to Mr. Romaine. Mr. Tyler’s Labours at Hull. Letter

from Lady Huntingdon to Mr. Milner. York. Mr. Wren. Letter from

Lady Huntingdon. Letter from Mr. Wren. Mr. Glascott. Mr. Wells.

Mr. Powley. Lady Huntingdon’s Chapel at York.

CHAPTER XIX.

Death of the Hon. Henry Hastings. Lady Huntingdon’s Exertions

at Brighton. Joseph Wall. Mr. Whitefield’s first Visit to

Brighton. Lady Huntingdon sells her Jewels. The Chapel opened

by Mr. Madan. Mr. Romaine. Oathall. Captain Scott. Anecdote.

Old Abraham. Letters from Mr. Fletcher and Mr. Romaine.

Christian Perfection. Mr. Maxfield and Mr. Bell. Letter from

Mr. Romaine. Mr. Madan. Letters from Messrs. Berridge, Romaine,

and Venn. Mr. Jones (of St. Saviour’s).

CHAPTER XX.

Dr. Haweis. Mr. Romaine driven from the Chapel of the Broadway.

Lord Dartmouth. Letters from Messrs. Romaine and Conyers.

Sinless Perfection. Letters from Messrs. Romaine and Wesley.

Erasmus, Bishop of Arcadia. Mr. Toplady. Letters from Messrs.

Fletcher and Berridge. Death of Lady Selina Hastings. Colonel

Hastings. Account of Lady Selina’s Death. Letters from Lord

Dartmouth. Mr. Venn. Mr. Fletcher. Mr. Berridge. Oathall

Chapel. Letters from Mr. Berridge. Mr. Venn’s “Complete Duty of

Man.” Letters from Messrs. Venn and Berridge.

CHAPTER XXI.

Mr. Romaine. Lectureship at St. Dunstan’s. Lord Mansfield.

Darkness Visible. The Bishop of Peterborough. Popular Election.

St. Ann’s, Blackfriars. Probation Sermon. Contest. Canvassing.

Scrutiny. Second Election. Suit in Chancery. Gratitude of Lady

Huntingdon. Mr. Jesse. Mr. Shirley. Mr. Romaine’s Views of his

Preferment. Lewes. Lady Huntingdon procures an opening for

Mr. Romaine, for Mr. Madan, and Mr. Fletcher. The Oratorio.

Musical Taste of Mr. Madan and Dr. Haweis. Lady Huntingdon’s

Chapel at Lewes opened and re-opened. Mr. Mason. His Work on

the Catechism. Mr. Edwards, of Ipswich. Mr. Berridge and the

Bees. Southey’s “Reflections.” Their Refutation. Character of

Berridge. His Wit. His Labours. Berridge and the Bishop.

CHAPTER XXII.

Mr. and Mrs. Powys. Letters. Mr. Whitefield. Mr. Fletcher.

Mr. Venn. Sir C. Hotham. Howel Harris. Chapel at Brighton

re-opened. Letters. Mr. Romaine. Mr. Talbot. Mr. Berridge.

Anecdote of the Countess. Mr. De Courcy. Mr. Vincent Perronet.

Mr. Toplady. Mr. Bliss. Mr. Pentycross. Chapel at Chichester

opened. Chapels at Petworth, at Guildford, and Basingstoke.

Enlargement of that at Brighton. Mr. Thomas Jones.

CHAPTER XXIII.

Public Fast. Extracts from Lady Huntingdon’s Letters.

Prayer-meetings for the Nation. Mr. Venn. Mr. Berridge.

Singular Effects of his Preaching. Mr. Romaine and Mr. Madan’s

visit to Everton. Mr. Wesley preaches at Everton. Convulsive

Motions amongst the Congregation. Letters to Lady Huntingdon.

Lady Huntingdon visits Mr. Berridge. Mr. Venn and Mr. Fletcher

preach at Everton. Loud Cries amongst their Hearers. Duke of

York. Dr. Dodd. Murder of Mr. Johnson. Lord Ferrers. Tried

by his Peers. Visited in Prison by Lady Huntingdon. Singular

Conduct of Lord Ferrers. Execution.

CHAPTER XXIV.

Proposed Union among the Evangelical Clergy. Methodism in

Scotland. Lady Frances Gardiner. Mr. Townshend sent to

Edinburgh. Mr. De Courcy. Lady Glenorchy. Mr. Wesley. Lady

Maxwell. Samson Occum, the Indian Preacher. Mohegan Indians.

Dr. Haweis. Affair of Aldwincle. Lady Huntingdon purchases the

Advowson; writes to Mr. Thornton. Lady Huntingdon’s Letters to

Lord Dartmouth and Mr. Madan. Anecdote.

CHAPTER XXV.

Progress of Piety at Cambridge. Rowland Hill. Oxford. St.

Edmund’s Hall. The Six Students. Expulsion. Sir Richard Hill.

Dr. Horne, Bishop of Norwich. Mr. Goodwyn. Charges against

Lady Huntingdon. Account of the Students, and the Proceedings

against them. Letter from Lady Huntingdon. Lady Buchan. Letter

from Mr. Wesley. Cheltenham. Lord Dartmouth. Letter from Mr.

Venn. Mr. Wells. Mr. Trinder. Mr. Whitefield to Mr. Madan.

Mr. Madan to Mr. Wesley. Lady Huntingdon to Mr. Alderman

Harris. Gloucestershire Association. Lady Huntingdon to Mr.

Brewer. Chapels at Gloucester, Worcester, and Cheltenham. Lady

Huntingdon’s Letter concerning them.

CHAPTER XXVI.

Chapel at Bath. Pope the Poet. Warburton, Bishop of Gloucester.

Lady Fanny Shirley. Charles Wesley. John Wesley. Beau Nash.

Anecdote. Mr. Hervey. Methodist Conference. Mr. Larwood.

Potter, Archbishop of Canterbury. Dr. Doddridge. Hon. Mrs.

Seawen. Mr. Cruttenden. Mr. Neal. Dr. Doddridge visits Bristol.

Visits Lady Huntingdon at Bath. Anecdote. Dr. Oliver. Dr.

Hartley. Prior Park. Death of Dr. Doddridge. Mr. Grinfield. The

Moravians. Count Zinzendorff. Elizabeth King. Lady Gertrude

Hotham. Death of Miss Hotham. Marriage of Sir Charles Hotham.

Death of his Lady. His own Decease. Death of his Mother, Lady

Gertrude. Mr. Theophilus Lindsay. Mrs. Brewer. Lord Huntingdon

and Mr. Grimshaw. Lord Chesterfield and Mr. Stanhope. Countess

of Moira. Mrs. Carteret and Mr. Cavendish. Countess Delitz.

Lady Chesterfield. Earl of Bath. Lord Cork. Anecdote of George

II.

CHAPTER XXVII.

Chapter at Bath. Bretby Hall. Mr. Townsend and Mr. Jesse.

Mr. Romaine. Mr. Shrapnell. Mrs. Wordsworth. Letters from

Mr. Romaine. Chapel opened at Bath. Mr. Whitefield and Mr.

Townsend. Mr. Fletcher’s Labours at Bath. Lord and Lady

Glenorchy. Letter from Lady Glenorchy to Lady Huntingdon.

Death of Lord and Lady Sutherland. Lady Huntingdon, the

Wesleys, and Mr. Whitefield. Letter from Lady Huntingdon to Mr.

Wesley. Horace Walpole. Lady Betty Cobbe. Nobility attend Lady

Huntingdon’s Chapel. Letter from Mr. Whitefield to Mr. Powys.

Mr. Stillingfleet. Mr. Venn and Sir Charles Hotham. Anecdotes

of Mr. Venn. Mr. Andrews and the Bishop of Gloucester. Mr. Venn

at Trevecca. Mr. Lee. Captain Scott and Mr. Venn. Anecdotes

of Captain Scott. Letter from Mr. Venn. Mr. Howel Davies.

Anecdote. Dr. Haweis. Mr. Cradock Glascott’s Letter from Mr.

Fletcher.

[Illustration: George Whitefield.]

LIFE AND TIMES

OF THE

COUNTESS OF HUNTINGDON

CHAPTER I.

Antiquity of the Shirley Family--Saxon origin--Norman

dignities--Royal alliances--Foreign crowns--British

coronets--the Clanricardes--Battle of Aghrim--the Parkers--The

Lord High Chancellor found guilty--the Levinges--Irish

alliances--Birth of Lady Selina--her early character--First

religious impressions--The grave of youth--Piety--Private

prayer--Fashionable life--Marriage--The Huntingdon family--its

ancestry--The Earl of Huntingdon--his character--“Tears

of the Muses”--Self-righteousness--The Methodists--Lady

Margaret Hastings--The light of Religious Truth--Force of

Example--Conversion.

Selina, COUNTESS OF HUNTINGDON, the most extraordinary woman perhaps

of an age fertile in extraordinary characters, and in many respects

the greatest whom England has produced, was descended from the ancient

and honourable house of SHIRLEY--a house as remarkable for a long

successive union of piety with nobility, as for the rarely-equalled

purity of its genealogical tree, one of whose ancient branches is

coeval with the time of Edward the Confessor. All its intermarriages

having taken place with the most ancient and illustrious English

houses, many of its line having distinguished themselves in the

military history of their country--it would be difficult to find

a family more illustrious or better entitled to the claim of true

nobility. The devotion and fidelity they have always borne to their

Sovereign Princes are great and singular. Their high and renowned

alliances joined them in a near degree of propinquity of blood to the

Royal Stem of England, both Saxon and Norman; to those of France,

Scotland, Denmark, Aragon, Leon, Castile, the Roman Empire, and almost

all the princely houses of Christendom. Within the kingdom of Great

Britain, they are connected with the most honourable and princely

houses of the Barons of Berkeley, Dukes of Norfolk and Buckingham,

Earls of Arundel, Oxford, Northumberland, Shrewsbury, Kent, Derby,

Worcester, Huntingdon, Pembroke, Nottingham, Suffolk, Berkshire, and

to most of the ancient and flourishing families of the nobility and

gentry of the monarchy. Thus the living descendants of this illustrious

house have the honour to issue from the blood of Emperors, Kings,

Princes, Dukes, and some of the most renowned Earls. The lands and

seigniories which they have held from the remotest period have added to

their honour; but, above all earthly things, we hold their ardent and

inextinguishable zeal for the advancement of the service of the Most

High God, and their singular liberality towards the Church--for they

have, at all periods, evinced the sincerity of their devotion by the

great number of places of worship they have founded, built, re-edified,

endowed, or enriched, with their means and revenue, in various parts of

the kingdom.

The SHIRLEYS derive their descent from Sasuallo or Sewallus

de Etingdon, whose name (says Dugdale, in his “Antiquities of

Warwickshire”) argues him to have been of the old English stock; which

Sewallus resided at Nether-Etingdon, in the county of Warwick, about

the reign of Edward the Confessor, the seat of his ancestors for many

generations before. After the Conquest, the lordship of Nether-Etingdon

was given to Henry, Earl of Ferrars, in Normandy, who was one of the

principal adventurers with the Norman Duke William, and was held under

him by this Sewallus; to whose posterity, in the male line, it has

continued to the present day.

From this Sewallus descended, in a direct line, Sir HENRY SHIRLEY,

Bart., who was sheriff of Leicester in the last year of the reign

of James the First. He married, in 1615, Lady Dorothy Devereux, the

youngest of the two daughters of that great but unfortunate favourite

of Queen Elizabeth, Robert, Earl of Essex, and sister and co-heiress

to her brother, the last Earl of Essex. By this alliance, the Earls

Ferrars quarter the arms of France and England with their own; the Earl

of Essex having been maternally descended from Richard Plantagenet,

Earl of Cambridge, grandson to King Edward III., and grandfather to

King Edward IV., and also from Thomas Plantagenet, Duke of Gloucester,

youngest son of Edward III. Sir Henry Shirley had, by the Lady Dorothy

Devereux,[2] two sons and one daughter, Lettice,[3] who married

William de Burgh, Earl of Clanricarde. His eldest son, Charles, died

unmarried about the year 1649; and Sir Henry Shirley was succeeded

by his son, Sir Robert Shirley, who, for his loyalty to Charles I.,

was imprisoned[4] in the Tower of London, by Oliver Cromwell, where

he died during his confinement, not without suspicion of poison. It

was his singular praise to have _done_ the best in the worst times,

and to have _hoped_ even in the most calamitous circumstances. By

his wife, Catherine, daughter of Humphrey Okeover, Esq., of Okeover,

in the county of Stafford, he had two sons: Sir Seymour Shirley,

his successor, and Sir Robert, afterwards Earl Ferrers;--also two

daughters: Catherine, married to Peter Venables, Baron of Kinderton;

and Dorothy, to George Vernon, Esq., of Sudbury, in Derbyshire. The

only son of Sir Seymour Shirley, by the Lady Diana Bruce, daughter of

the Earl of Aylesbury, surviving his father but a short time, the title

of Baronet devolved on his uncle, Sir Robert Shirley, _the grandfather

of Lady Huntingdon_; which Sir Robert Shirley, FIRST EARL FERRERS, was

born at East-Sheen, in Surrey, during his father’s confinement in the

Tower; and on December 14, 1677, his Majesty King Charles II., taking

into consideration that this Sir Robert Shirley was grandson and heir

to Lady Dorothy Devereux, the younger of the two sisters and heirs

of Robert Devereux, the last Earl of Essex of that family, and that

the issue male of the elder sister and co-heiress, the Lady Frances,

who married William Seymour, Marquis of Hertford, was then extinct,

was pleased to confirm unto him and his heirs the ancient Baronies of

FERRARS of Chartley, Bourchier, and Lovaine; which honour had been in

abeyance between the Ladies Frances and Dorothy Devereux, and their

descendants, from the decease of their brother, the Earl of Essex,

without issue. Sir Robert Shirley being so declared LORD FERRARS OF

CHARTLEY, &c., was introduced into the House of Peers, January 28,

1677–8, and took his place according to the ancient writ of summons

to John de Ferrars, his lineal ancestor [February 6, 27th Edward I.]

He was Master of the Horse and Steward of the Household to Queen

Catherine, consort of King Charles II., and was sworn of the Privy

Council to King William [May 25, 1699]. In the reign of Queen Anne, he

was again sworn of the Privy Council [November 25, 1708], according to

the act for the union of the two kingdoms; and on the 3rd September,

1711, was advanced to the titles of VISCOUNT TAMWORTH and EARL FERRARS,

by reason of his descent from the ancient and noble family of Ferrars.

His Lordship was twice married, and had a family of _twenty-seven_

children. His first Countess was daughter and heiress to Lawrence

Washington, Esq., of Caresden, in Wiltshire, who, dying October 2,

1693, was buried at Stanton-Harold; he married, as his second wife,

in August, 1699, Selina, daughter of George Finch, Esq., of the city

of London. This Lady Ferrars died March 20, 1762. Robert Shirley, the

eldest son, was created Earl Ferrars, but died before his father. He

had been twice married; first, to his cousin, Catherine, daughter

to Peter Venables, Baron of Kinderton, who dying in her nonage, he

married, secondly, Anne, daughter of Sir Humphrey Ferrars, heiress to

her grandfather, John de Ferrars, Esq., of Tamworth Castle, last heir

male of the Barons Ferrars of Groby. She bore him three sons, Robert,

Ferrars, and Thomas, and a daughter, Elizabeth. Robert became, by his

father’s death, heir-apparent to his grandfather, and was elected

Knight of the Shire for the county of Leicester in the last Parliament

called by Queen Anne. He survived both his brothers, and likewise died

of the small-pox in the life-time of his grandfather, July 5, 1714,

unmarried, leaving his sister Elizabeth, married, in 1716, to James

Compton, Earl of Northumberland, his heir; she died March, 1740–1,

leaving an only daughter, and heiress, Charlotte, Baroness Ferrars,

first wife of George, Marquis Townshend.

Earl Ferrars departed this life on the 25th of December, 1717, and was

succeeded in his title and estates by his second son, the Honourable

Washington Shirley, who took his seat in the House of Peers as Second

Earl Ferrars. His Lordship was father to Lady Huntingdon, and was born

June 22, 1677, and named Washington, after his mother, the daughter and

heiress, as we have said, to Lawrence Washington, Esq., by Eleanor,

sister to Sir Christopher Guise, Bart., of Hynam Court, in the county

of Gloucester. Lord Ferrars was a nobleman of great honour and

probity, and a lover of justice; the affability and benevolence of his

disposition, and the goodness of his understanding, made him beloved

and esteemed throughout his life. The respect and veneration paid to

him while he lived, and the universal lamentations at his death, are

ample testimonies of a character not easily to be paralleled.

Lady Huntingdon’s mother was descended from a family of great

respectability and antiquity, seated at Parwick, in the county of

Derby, as early as 1561. Her great grandfather, Richard Levinge, Esq.,

of Parwick, married the aunt of Thomas Parker, an eminent lawyer, who

rose to the dignity of Lord High Chancellor and Earl of Macclesfield.

It was an extraordinary instance of the fallibility of human virtue,

that this every way distinguished character, one of the great ornaments

of the Peerage, who had so long presided at the administration of

justice, should himself be arraigned as a criminal on charges of

corruption. He was tried at the bar of the House, and unanimously

pronounced guilty; in consequence of which he was removed from his high

office and fined _thirty thousand pounds_, as a punishment for

his offence. He was the second Lord Chancellor of England impeached

by the grand inquest of the nation for corruption of office; and,

like his great predecessor, Lord St. Alban’s, found guilty of the

charge. The prosecution was carried on with great virulence; and

though rigid justice demanded a severe sentence, yet party zeal and

personal animosity were supposed to have had their weight in that which

was passed upon him. His Lordship’s son succeeded, as second Earl of

Macclesfield; and his only daughter, Lady Elizabeth Parker, married

Sir William Heathcote, of Hursley, in the county of Southampton, Bart.

Upon the male descendants of this lady the honours of her father are

entailed, in default, at any period, of the direct male line.

Her Ladyship’s grandfather, the Right Hon. Sir Richard Levinge,

Knight, of Parwick, Recorder of, and member for, Chester, having

attained great eminence at the English Bar, was appointed, in 1690,

Solicitor-General in Ireland and Speaker of the House of Commons. He

was created a Baronet of that kingdom by Queen Anne, October 26, 1704;

he was a man of good judgment and great integrity; and set himself with

great application to the functions of his important post. In 1711,

Sir Richard was nominated Attorney-General, and in 1720, Lord Chief

Justice of the Court of Common Pleas. A few years after his removal to

Ireland he purchased the estate of High Park, now Knockdrin Castle, in

the county of Westmeath, the present residence of the Levinge family.

Sir Richard married, first, in 1680, Mary, daughter and co-heiress

of Sir Gawen Corbyn, of London, Knt., by whom he had three sons and

three daughters; the eldest of the latter, Mary, married Washington,

Earl Ferrars; the second, Dorothea, married first Sir John Rawdon, of

Moira, and afterwards, Dr. Charles Cobb, Archbishop of Dublin; the

third, Grace, married Edward Kennedy, Esq., of Mullow, in the county of

Longford.

Sir Richard Levinge married, second, Mary, daughter of the Hon.

Robert Johnson, one of the Barons of the Exchequer in Ireland, by

whom he had one son, who died July 13, 1724, and was interred in St.

Mary’s, in Dublin. His eldest son, Sir Richard, succeeded to him as

the second Baronet. He was for many years member of Parliament for

Blessington, and died November 2, 1731, without issue. Lady Levinge

survived him till the 25th of February, 1747. She was a daughter of

Sir Arthur Rawdon (brother of Mary, Countess of Granard, and nephew

of Edward, Earl Conway), by Helena, daughter and heiress to Sir James

Graham, third and youngest son of William, Earl of Monteith and

Airth, in Scotland. The title devolved upon Sir Richard’s brother,

Sir Charles Levinge, whose grandson, Sir Richard Levinge, the present

representative of the family, married the eldest daughter of Lord

Rancliffe, and has a very numerous family. Miss Selina Levinge, sister

to Sir Richard, married the Rev. Henry Lambert Bayley, of Ballyarthur,

in the county of Wicklow; and Miss Anne Levinge espoused the Rev.

William Gregory, second son of W. Gregory, Esq., Secretary of the Civil

Department in Ireland, and grandson, maternally, of William, first Earl

of Clancarthy, and nephew of the present Archbishop of Tuam.

Dorothy Levinge, one of the three sisters of the Right. Hon. Sir

Richard Levinge, Bart., married Henry Buckston, Esq., whose ancestors

had been seated at Bradborne, in Derbyshire, for several centuries.

His descendant, the Rev. German Buckston of Bradborne, is the present

representative of that family.

LADY SELINA SHIRLEY was the second of the three daughters and

co-heiresses of Washington, second Earl Ferrars, and was born August

24, 1707. Her eldest sister, the Lady Elizabeth, was married to Joseph

Gascoigne Nightingale, Esq., of Enfield, in the county of Middlesex,

and Mamhead, in the county of Devon; and the youngest, Lady Mary, to

Thomas Needham, Viscount Kilmorey, of the kingdom of Ireland, nephew

to the Earl of Huntingdon. His Lordship dying Feb. 3, 1768, without

issue by Lady Kilmorey, who died August 12, 1784, was succeeded by his

next surviving brother, John, tenth Viscount, grandfather of Francis,

present Earl of Kilmorey. Lady Elizabeth Nightingale had a son, named

Washington Nightingale, who died, unmarried, in 1754; and a daughter,

Elizabeth, sole heiress to her father and mother, who was married

to Wilmot, Earl of Lisburne, an Irish Peer, and died May 19, 1755,

in giving birth to Wilmot Vaughan, second Earl of Lisburne. On the

death of Sir Robert Nightingale, Bart., one of the directors of the

East India Company, who died, unmarried, in 1722, the family estates

devolved upon his cousin, Robert Gascoigne, Esq., second son of the

Rev. Joseph Gascoigne, of Enfield; and the baronetcy lay dormant

for three quarters of a century, until it was claimed, in 1797, by

Lieut.-Colonel Edward Nightingale, father of the present Baronet. But

the eldest son of Mr. Gascoigne had assumed the name of Nightingale

previous to his marriage with the Lady Elizabeth Shirley, in 1725, who

was interred with him in Westminster Abbey, where a well-known and

unrivalled monument by Roubilliac is erected to their memory.

Lady SELINA’S mind, even in very early infancy, was of a

serious cast. When she was only nine years of age, the sight of a

corpse, about her own age, on its way to the grave, induced her to

attend the burial. There the first impressions of deep seriousness

concerning an eternal world took possession of her heart, and with many

tears she earnestly implored God, on the spot, that whenever he should

be pleased to take her away, he would deliver her from all her fears,

and give her a happy departure. She often, afterwards, visited that

grave, and always preserved a lively sense of the affecting scene she

had there witnessed.

Though no correct views of evangelical truth had hitherto enlightened

her Ladyship’s mind, yet even during her juvenile days she frequently

retired for prayer to a particular closet, where she could not be

observed, and in all her little troubles found relief in pouring

out the feelings of her heart to God. When she grew up and was

introduced into the world, she continued to pray that she might marry

into a serious family. None kept up more of the ancient dignity and

propriety than the house of Huntingdon: the family possessed a sort of

decorum which she perhaps mistook for religion. With the head of that

family she accordingly became united on the 3rd of June, 1728. His

Lordship was descended in a direct line from Francis, second Earl of

Huntingdon, who married Catherine, eldest daughter and co-heiress to

Henry Cole, Lord Montacute, son and heir to Sir Richard Cole, Knight

of the Garter, and Margaret, Countess of Salisbury, daughter to George

Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence, brother to Edward IV., and heiress to

her brother Edward, Earl of Warwick, who was the last heir male of

the Royal House of Plantagenet. Talent and piety adorned the Hastings

family: Lord Hastings, the uncle of Lord Huntingdon, was a nobleman of

great learning, and of so excellent a disposition, that no less than

ninety-eight elegies were made on him, and published under the title

of “Lacrymæ Musarum; the Tears of the Muses:” among which was Dryden’s

first essay.

The house of Huntingdon has produced many bright examples of religious

females, who consecrated their endowments to the service of God. Of

this number was the Lady Elizabeth Langham, the lady of Sir J. Langham,

Bart., and aunt to Lord Huntingdon, of whom an interesting account has

been preserved in “Burder’s Memoirs of eminently Pious Women.” His

Lordship’s sisters, particularly Lady Betty and Lady Margaret Hastings,

were women of singular excellence.

Theophilus, ninth Earl of Huntingdon, was the eldest son of

Theophilus, seventh Earl, by his _second_ marriage, and was born

at Donnington Park, November 12, 1696, and was baptized on the 20th

of the same month. He succeeded his half-brother George, eighth Earl

of Huntingdon, February 22, 1704–5; and at the coronation of George

II., October 11, 1727, carried the sword of State. His Lordship’s

mother, Frances, Countess of Huntingdon, was daughter and sole heiress

to Francis Levison Fowler, Esq., of Harnage-Grange, in the county

of Salop, and granddaughter of Lord Kinderton, who had married Lady

Catherine Shirley, sister to Robert, first Earl Ferrars.

Lord Huntingdon’s exemplary character, his marriage and issue, are set

forth in an elegant inscription from the pen of Lord Bolingbroke, on a

monument erected to his memory[5] by Lady Huntingdon, in the church of

Ashby-de-la-Zouch, where he lies interred.

Such was the noble Earl to whom the Lady SELINA SHIRLEY was

united “in love’s inviolable bonds;” and his Lordship well knew how

to value the treasure which Providence had given him, in a woman of

such exalted merit and amiable qualities, and accordingly made it

his study to repay the felicity with which she crowned his life. He

considered himself possessed of the greatest possible addition to his

earthly happiness, and from the period of his marriage was uniformly an

attentive and affectionate husband, which character he maintained with

a becoming mixture of dignity and affection till the day of his death.

His esteem for her was equal to that affection, and he often declared

that time increased it--that her life and actions rendered virtue

amiable, and that in her society he found his greatest happiness. Nor

could any one be happier than herself in such a partner; for whom, the

longer she knew him, she had the greater reason to bless God: indeed,

the venerable Countess continued to the last moments of her protracted

life to express the highest veneration and affection for his memory;

and, but a short time before her death, she discovered how incapable

she was of forgetting him, by shedding fresh tears at every mention of

his name.

Lady Huntingdon was, unquestionably, formed for eminence. Her tender

age exhibited a fine dawn of her mature excellence; and she gave

early presages of proving highly useful and ornamental to society,

if permitted to arrive at those years necessary for maturing the

powers of the human mind. Her endowments were much above the ordinary

standard. She possessed a highly intelligent mind, an extraordinary

quickness of apprehension, a brilliant fancy, a retentive memory, a

strong clear understanding, and a sound judgment, much improved by

reading, conversation, deep thought, and observation. Her knowledge of

mankind, even at an early age, and her penetration into the characters

of those with whom she was acquainted, were admirable. Though she was

obliged, from her situation in life, to mix with others in fashionable

amusements, an attachment to them, or to the ornament of dress, was

not the foible of her discerning and contemplative mind. Though not

a regular beauty, she possessed a large portion of the charms of her

sex: her person was noble, commanding respect--her countenance was the

living picture of her mind, and united in it, in a happy combination,

both the great and the condescending. This engaging exterior was

animated by a soul, lively and ardent in its pursuits, and enriched

with those qualities which the world most highly commends and esteems.

At a very early period of life, Lady Huntingdon discovered an elevated

turn of mind: she was impressed with a deep sense of divine things--a

feeling which had a powerful influence on her conduct, in leading

her to read the word of God with great diligence. She manifested an

extraordinary turn for religious meditation; and repeatedly felt the

most awful convictions of the certainty and eternal duration of a

future state. Her conversation was modest, and her whole conduct marked

with a degree of rectitude not usually to be found in early life.

After her marriage, she manifested a particularly serious deportment;

and though sometimes at Court, yet, in visiting the higher circles,

she took no pleasure in the fashionable follies of the great. At

Donnington Park she was the _Lady Bountiful_ among her neighbours

and dependents; though, as she herself afterwards felt and declared,

going about to establish her own righteousness, she endeavoured, by

prayer, and fasting, and alms-deeds, to commend herself to the favour

of the Most High. For, notwithstanding the early appearance of piety in

Lady Huntingdon, it is evident she continued for many years a perfect

stranger to the true nature of that Gospel which is the power of God to

every one that believes. She aspired after rectitude, and was anxious

to possess every moral perfection--she counted much upon the dignity of

human nature, and was ambitious to act in a manner becoming her exalted

ideas of that dignity. And here her Ladyship outstripped the multitude

in an uncommon degree: she was rigidly just in her dealings, and

inflexibly true to her word; she was a strict observer of her several

duties in every relation of life; her sentiments were liberal, and her

charity profuse; she was prudent in her conduct, and courteous in her

deportment; she was a diligent enquirer after truth, and a strenuous

advocate for virtue; she was frequent in her sacred meditations, and

was a regular attendant at public worship. Possessed of so many moral

accomplishments, while she was admired by the world, it is no wonder

that she should cast a look of self-complacency upon her character, and

consider herself, with respect to her attainments in virtue, abundantly

superior to the common herd of mankind. But while the Countess was

taken up in congratulating herself upon her own fancied eminence in

piety, she was an absolute stranger to that inward and universal change

of heart, wrought by the gracious operations of the Spirit of God, by

which new principles are established in the mind, new inclinations are

imparted, and new objects pursued.

In acting thus, Lady Huntingdon was by no means singular. It is the

faith of multitudes in the present day, who call themselves Christians,

but who, by presuming to compare their own imaginary good deeds with

the all-perfect and only justifying righteousness of the Saviour, as

the ground of their acceptance before God, make void, as far as in them

lies, all the glorious designs of Jehovah’s free and sovereign mercy in

man’s salvation.

Nothing short of the depravity of our fallen nature can account for our

obstinately persisting in the notion, that the sinner can do anything

towards reconciling himself to the favour of the Most High and Most

Holy; forgetting that the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, being

in all respects consummate and glorious, cannot want, and will not

admit of, any works of the sinner as auxiliary to his justification.

For, “by the obedience of _one_, many are made righteous.” And,

“to him that worketh not, but believeth in Him that justifieth the

ungodly, his faith is counted to him for righteousness.”

He who made the heart, and He alone, can change it. A truth this,

to which the experience of every true believer bears an additional

testimony, and which is confirmed by the express authority of the Word

of God. “Without me (says the Saviour) ye can do nothing.” And he says

again, “No man _can_ come unto me except the Father, which hath

sent me, _draw_ him.” If ever the sinner is converted to God,

and pursues heavenly and divine objects, it must be through the power

of the Holy Spirit, by whom he is “created anew in Christ Jesus unto

good works, which God hath before ordained that he should walk in

them.” This gracious change Lady Huntingdon now experienced, for which

thousands and tens of thousands will have abundant reason to bless

God to all eternity. The manner in which it was brought about, and

the mighty effects produced by it, it now becomes the province of her

biographer to relate.

Mr. Whitefield, Mr. Ingham, the Wesleys, Mr. Hervey, and others, the

great revivers of heartfelt and serious religion, had now awakened

great attention in the land, and were branded with the name of

_Methodists_. As they all set out with professions of strict

adherence to the Church of England, the distinguishing tenets of her

Articles and Homilies were particularly enforced by them. As this was

utterly unlike the manner of preaching which then chiefly obtained,

they attracted numerous audiences; and the lively manner of address, as

well as the matter of their discourses, exceedingly struck the hearers

with their novelty, as well as importance. Nothing awakened greater

attention to their preaching, than their quitting the universal habit

of _reading their sermons from a book_, without any animation,

and addressing extempore discourses to the congregations where they

ministered.

The multitudes that followed them were much affected; a great and

visible change was produced in the minds of many; the attention paid

to these ministers, and the blessings evidently attendant on their

labours, roused them to vigorous and increasing exertions: they were

always at their work, preaching wherever they could find admittance

into the churches, and, perhaps--for they were human--not a little

flattered by the popularity attending their ministrations. Some

wild-fire could hardly fail to mingle with the sacred flame--whilst

the sensation created by their preaching was inconceivable. Roused

by opposition and encouraged by success, the Methodists continued to

extend their influence and spread their name over various parts of

the kingdom. The churches being incapable of containing the crowds

which flocked after them, they took to the fields, and preached

everywhere. Their congregations under the canopy of heaven were

prodigious--sometimes, indeed, riotous and insulting, but, in general,

solemn and attentive. By these labours a flood of Gospel light

broke upon the nation--societies increased by thousands, and their

ministry was blessed, to the great revival of religion, wherever they

itinerated. Men more laborious than these leaders were, have hardly

appeared since the days of the apostles: they repeatedly travelled

over a space more than the circumference of the globe--wherever they

moved, they were as a flame of fire, and left behind them a train of

evangelical light. They were in preaching unwearied--two, or three,

and frequently four times a-day, and this sometimes in places many

miles distant from each other; and notice having been previously given

of their coming, thousands awaited and welcomed them, heard them with

reverence, and received them as angels of God. By their instrumentality

many Church ministers were awaked from the lethargy which had beset

them, and amazing multitudes were called to the happy experience of the

salvation of Jesus by their labours, and added to the church of such as

shall be everlastingly saved.

As all are by nature alike, in a moral and spiritual sense, equally

guilty and vile, weak and worthless, so divine grace is a kind of

leveller of distinctions, and is no respecter of persons or classes.

Though not many women wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many

noble are called; yet, to show the sovereignty, and power, and riches

of divine grace, God is pleased sometimes to select the monuments of

his mercy from among the wealthy and noble, and to show that he is no

respecter of persons, but is rich in mercy to all that call upon him.

The sisters of Lord Huntingdon were women not more distinguished by

rank than by general excellence of character. From motives of curiosity

some of the Ladies Hastings were induced to attend the preaching of the

first Methodists, and there the Lord met them with the blessings of his

grace. Under this ministry they were given to see the insufficiency of

their own righteousness and the method of salvation on which they had

been resting, and were made willing to receive the Lord Jesus Christ

as the foundation of their hope and trust. Then “what things were once

gain to them,” they, with St. Paul, “counted loss for Christ. Yea,

counted all things but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of

Christ Jesus their Lord.” They soon joined themselves to the people of

God, and never appeared to be ashamed to own whose they were, or whom

they served.

Salvation to one of a family, to one of a city, is often but the

prelude of salvation to the whole house, and to hundreds in that city.

When the streams of mercy begin to flow through such channels, who

can say how many different directions they may take, and how far they

may ultimately extend? Upon the important result of one conversion,

no man is able to calculate; and, therefore, it is said--no doubt

with some reference to the truth of this remark--“that there is joy

in the presence of the angels over _one_ sinner that repenteth.”

All who are themselves brought near to God by the blood of the cross,

will be earnestly concerned for the salvation of others, especially

their own kindred; and they will estimate the success of their

labours for the accomplishment of this object as the highest joy

in time, and their crown of rejoicing in that day when the Lord of

Hosts shall make up his jewels. No sooner did the Lord Jesus Christ

manifest himself to the woman of Samaria, than she went into the

city to proclaim the glory of his name, and many of the Samaritans

of that city believed on him through her testimony. Lady Margaret

Hastings was the first who received the truth as it is in Jesus; and

the change effected by the power of the Holy Spirit on her heart soon

became visible to all. Considering the obligations she was under to

the sovereign grace of God, she felt herself called upon to seek the

salvation of her fellow-creatures, and the promotion of their best

and eternal interests. Next to her own soul, the salvation of her

own family and friends became her care. She exhorted them faithfully

and affectionately, one by one, to “flee from the wrath to come;”

and the Lord was pleased to make her the honoured instrument of Lady

Huntingdon’s conversion, as well as of many others of her family.

Conversing with Lady Margaret one day on this subject, Lady Huntingdon

was exceedingly struck with a sentiment she uttered, “_that since

she had known and believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, for life and

salvation, she had been as happy as an angel_.” To any such

sensation of happiness, Lady Huntingdon felt that she was, as yet,

an utter stranger. The more she examined herself, and considered the

subject, the more she was convinced of the momentous truth. This

conviction caused many reflections to arise in her mind; and beginning

also to see her sinfulness and guilt, and the entire corruption and

depravity of her whole nature, her hope of being able to reconcile

herself to God by her own works and deservings, began gradually to die

away. She sought, however, by the most rigorous austerities, to conquer

her evil nature, and dispel the distressing thoughts which continually

engrossed her mind. But, alas! the more she strove, the more she saw

and felt that all her thoughts, words, and works, however specious

before men, were utterly sinful before Him who is of purer eyes than to

behold iniquity.

A dangerous illness having, soon after, brought her to the brink of the

grave, the fear of death fell terribly upon her, and her conscience was

greatly distressed. She now perceived that she had beguiled herself

with prospects of a visionary nature; was entirely blinded to her

own real character; had long placed her happiness in mere chimeras,

and grounded her vain hopes upon imaginary foundations. It was to no

purpose that she reminded herself of the morality of her conduct; in

vain did she recollect the many encomiums that had been passed upon her

early piety and virtue. Her best righteousness now appeared to be but

“filthy rags,” which, so far from justifying her before God, increased

her condemnation. The remorse which before attended conscience, on

account of sin, respected only the outward actions of her life; but

now she saw her “heart was deceitful above all things, and desperately

wicked--that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God;” and

that “the thoughts of man’s heart are only evil, and that continually.”

When upon the point of perishing in her own apprehension, the words of

Lady Margaret returned strongly to her recollection, and she felt an

earnest desire, renouncing every other hope, to cast herself wholly

upon Christ for life and salvation. From her bed she lifted up her

heart to her Saviour, with this important prayer, and immediately all

her distress and fears were removed, and she was filled with peace and

joy in believing.

Now the day began to dawn--Jesus, the Sun of Righteousness, arose, and

burst in meridian splendour on her benighted soul. The scales fell

from her eyes, and opened a passage for the light of life which sprang

in, and death and darkness fled before it. Viewing herself as a brand

plucked from the burning, she could not but stand astonished at the

mighty power of that grace which saved her from eternal destruction

just when she stood upon its very brink, and raised her from the gates

of hell to the confines of heaven; and the depths from which she was

raised, made the heights which she reached only the more amazing;

she felt the Rock beneath her, and from that secure position looked

with astonishment downward to that horrible pit from which she was so

mercifully delivered--and upwards, in ecstacy, to that glory to which

she should be raised. The “sorrow of the world, which worketh death,”

was now exchanged for that godly sorrow which worketh repentance

unto life; and “joy unspeakable, and full of glory,” succeeded that

bitterness that comes of the conviction of sin; she enjoyed, already,

a delightful foretaste of heaven. Her disorder from that moment took

a favourable turn; she was restored to perfect health, and, what was

better, to newness of life. She determined thenceforward to present

herself to God, as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable, which she

was now convinced was her reasonable service.

This mighty change began at her Ladyship’s heart, and extended its

salutary influence to all the sublime faculties of her mind, and the

whole tenor of her outward conversation. Her understanding was renewed

in knowledge. The stubbornness of the will was broken, and changed into

a passive acquiescence in the sovereign will of God. “Her carnal mind,

which was enmity against God,” was subdued by the superior influence

of Divine grace. All offences at the Gospel plan of salvation died

away; for, when the veil of unbelief that covered her heart was rent,

it then “turned to the Lord,” and from that moment she learned “to

count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ

Jesus her Lord.” The eye of her understanding being illuminated, and

her heart enraptured with a view of matchless excellency, she was

ready to exclaim, “Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none

upon earth that I desire besides thee!” The desire of her soul was to

him, and to the remembrances of his great name and glorious salvation.

Believing in Jesus, as the Scripture hath said, she found in him a

well of consolation, “springing up unto everlasting life.” All her

wanderings were at once happily terminated--her doubts were removed,

her tears were dried up, and she rejoiced in hope of the glory of God,

whom she contemplated, in all his amiable and august perfections, with

delight and wonder; and enraptured with a view of him as reconciled

to her in the Son of his love, she gave vent to the fulness of her

heart in the most glowing affections of gratitude and astonishment.

Her conversion, in which the hand of God was so conspicuous, was

not imaginary, but real. It not only influenced her sentiments, but

extended to her conduct, and was productive of the most salutary

effects. No sooner was her heart surrendered to God, and her alienated

affections restored to their original claimant, than outward fruits

appeared in her conversation: her renovation introduced new light into

her understanding, and new desires into her heart and affections,

and produced its effect upon her temper; not wholly to eradicate its

constitutional peculiarity, but to sanctify, and render it subservient

to the glory of God and the good of souls. Reason resigned its

pretensions to the sacred authority of revelation: her intellectual

powers were extricated from the darkness of nature, and brought by the

irradiating Spirit of God into the bright region of light and liberty.

Whom she had found a Saviour, Him she was unalterably determined to

follow as a Guide: He possessed the supreme affection, reverence, and

homage of her heart--was the centre of its wishes, and the spring

of its comforts. A great cloud of witnesses are ready to testify,

that from her earliest acquaintance with the truths of the Gospel,

the venerable and elect Countess of Huntingdon continued, through

every stage of her protracted pilgrimage, to walk worthy of her high

vocation, “growing in grace, and adorning the doctrine of God her

Saviour in all things.”