id="pgepubid00044">(J.H. Overton.)

• Fair prospect at the beginning of the eighteenth century 279
• Contrast between promise and performance 279
• Shortcomings of the Church exaggerated on many sides 280
• General causes of the low tone of the Church:—
  • (1) Her outward prosperity 280
  • (2) Influence and policy of Sir R. Walpole 281
  • (3) The controversies of her own and previous generations 282
  • (4) Political complications 282
  • (5) Want of synodal action 282-4
• Pluralities and non-residence 284-6
• Neglect of parochial duties 286-7
• Clerical poverty 287-9
• Clerical dependents 289
• Abuse of Church patronage 290-2
• Evidence in the autobiography of Bishop T. Newton 292-3
• "              "            "        Bishop Watson      293-6
• "              "            "        Bishop Hurd      296-7
• Clergy too much mixed up with politics 297-8
• Want of parochial machinery 298-300
• Sermons of period too sweepingly censured 300
• But marked by a morbid dread of extremes 301
• Political sermons 302
• Low state of morals 303
• Clergy superior to their contemporaries 304
• The nation passed through a crisis in the eighteenth century 306
• A period of transition in the Church 307
• Torpor extended to all forms of Christianity 308
• Decay of Church discipline 309-310
• England better than her neighbours 311
• Good influences in the later part of the century 311-2

CHAPTER IX.

THE EVANGELICAL REVIVAL.

(J.H. Overton.)

(1.) THE METHODIST MOVEMENT.

• Strength and weakness of the Church in the middle of the eighteenth century 313
• Propriety of the term 'Evangelical Revival' 314
• Contrast between Puritans and Evangelicals 315
• William Law 316
• John Wesley 316-336
• George Whitefield 337-340
• Charles Wesley 340-3
• Fletcher of Madeley