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WERTHA, a river of Bavaria, which runs into the 

 Lech, near Augfburg. 



WERTHEIM, a county of Germany, fituated between 

 the eleftorate of Mentz, and the bifliopric of Wurzburg, 

 watered by the Maine, which here receives the Tauber. 

 The ancient counts became extinft in the year 1556. 

 It was afterv/ards divided among feveral princes, befides 

 feveral fiefs of the empire, Bohemia, Wurzburg, and 

 Fulda. — Alfo, a town of Germany, and capital of a 

 county to which it gives name, at the conflux of the Maine 

 and Tauber. The magiftrates are principally Calvinifts, 

 but the Roman Catholics and Lutherans have a church in 

 common ; 42 miles E.N.E. of Manheim. N. lat. 49° 49'. 



E. long. 9° 35' Alfo, a town of Germany ; 22 miles E. 



of Frankfort on the Maine. 



WERTHER, a town of Wefl;phaha, in the county of 

 Ravenlherg ; 5 miles N.N.W. of Bielefeld. 



WERTINGEN, a town of Bavaria ; 14 miles N.N.W. 

 of Augfburg. 



WERVICK, or Warwick, or Veriutch, a town of 

 France, in the department of the Lys, on the Lys ; 3 miles 

 S.W. of Menin. 



WESCHNITZ, a river of France, which runs into the 

 Rhine, oppofite Worms. 



WESCHOLOUEN, a town of Pruffia, in Natangen ; 

 12 miles W. of Marggrabowa. 



WESE, a river of France, which runs into the Ourt, a 

 little above Chiny. 



WESEL, a town of France, in the department of the 

 Roer ; transferred in January, 1808, from the duchy of 

 Cleves, on the Rhine. This town was formerly imperial, 

 and governed by its own laws, under the proteftion of the 

 eleftor of Brandenburg; 17 miles E.S.E. of Cleves. N. 

 lat. 51° 38'. E. long. 6° 38'. 



Wesel, or Oher Wefel, a town of France, in the depart- 

 ment of the Rhine and Mofelle ; 20 miles S. of Coblentz. 



Wesel Bay, a bay on the fouth coaft of the ifland of 

 Java. S. lat. 8° 21'. E. long. 113° 42'. 



WESELICH, or Weisling, a town of France, in the 

 department of the Roer; 7 miles S.S.E. of Cologn. 



WESEN, a town of Switzerland, in the county of 



Gafter ; 7 miles S. of Utznach Alfo, a town of Holland, 



in the department of Guelderland ; 4 miles S. of Hattem. 



WESENBERG, a town of the duchy of Mecklenburg ; 

 42 miles N. of Spandau. 



WESENSTEIN, a town of Saxony ; 8 miles S.S.E. 

 of Drefden. 



WESEP, a town of Holland, on the Vecht ; well for- 

 tified towards theeail. The great bufinefsof the inhabitants is 

 to carry frefh water from hence out of the Vecht to Amller- 

 dam, for brewing and other ufes, for which traffic they have 

 a particular kind of barges ; 4 miles S.E. of Amfterdam. 



WESER, a river of Germany, formed by the union of 

 the Werra and Fulda, which pafies by Hameln, Rinteln, 

 Minden, Nienburg, Hoya, Bremen, &c. and runs into the 

 German fea, about N. lat. 53*' 48'. E. long. 8°. 



Weser, a department of the new kingdom of Weftphalia, 

 compofed of the bifhopric of Ofnaburg, and part of the 

 county of Schauenburg ; the number of inhabitants is 

 33,400. Ofnaburg is the capital. 



WESLEY, John, in Biography, one of the principal 

 founders of Methodifm, was the fon of a clergyman, who, 

 educated under a father who was ejedted for nonconformity, 

 became a zealous high-churchman, and compofed the fpeech 

 delivered by Sacheverel before the houfe of lords. John 

 was born at Epworth, in Lincolnfhire, of which his father 

 was redor, in June 1 703. Educated under pious parents, 



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he was religioufly difpofed from his youth. From the 

 Charter-houfe, where he received his fchool-education, he 

 was removed to Chrift-church college, Oxford ; and after 

 taking his firll degree, was eleftcd, in 1724, fellow of 

 Lincoln college, and, in 1726, proceeded to the degree of 

 M.A. At this time he was reputed as a good claflical 

 fcholar, and particularly converfant with dialetlics. He 

 was alfo a poet of no mean talents. Soon after his eleftion 

 to a fellowfhip, he became Greek lefturer and moderator of 

 the claffes, and undertook the inftruftion of pupils. In 

 1725 he was ordained by bifhop Potter. During fome 

 years of his refidence at Oxford, he was much elleemed on 

 account of his own character and conduft, and for his atten- 

 tion to difcipline and good morals. Upon the perufal of 

 fome devotional books, and more efpecially Law's " Serious 

 Call," he became diffident as to his own religious ftate, and 

 determined to pay ftrifter regard to what he conceived to be 

 the effentials of a holy hfe. In 1729 he afibciated with a 

 feleft number of collegians, who met and read together, 

 firft the claffics on week-days, and on Sundays only divi- 

 nity ; but afterwards their meetings became exclufively 

 religious. They vifited the prifoners and fick poor, con- 

 verfed together on the flatc of their minds, obferved the 

 ancient falls of the church, and communicated every week. 

 This fociety, which confifted of fifteen members, attracted 

 notice on account of the ftriftnefs of their manners and de- 

 portment ; and became theobjefts of ridicule to fome young 

 men in the univerfity, who denominated them Sacramen- 

 tarians, the Godly club, and Methodists. (See the 

 article. ) Some of the feniors of the colleges were alarmed 

 by an introdudtion of fanaticifm ; and others encouraged 

 them to proceed, and they received the approbation of the 

 bifhop of Oxford. Wefley, after his ordniation, fettled as 

 affiftant to his father at Epworth, who being defirous of 

 retaining this church preferment in his family, wifhed him 

 to feek interell for obtaining it ; but his attachment to Ox- 

 ford, and to the fociety which had been there formed, pre- 

 vailed over every other coniideration. In proccfs of time 

 he formed a purpofe of going to Georgia, as a miffionary ; 

 and accordingly he embarked for this province in the year 

 1735. The profpeft of fuccefs in this miffion fefemed at 

 firll to be favourable ; but feveral circumftances occurred 

 which changed his views, and induced him to leave Georgia, 

 after a refidence of one year and nine months. Thefe cir- 

 cumftances, as fome perfons have related them, refleft no 

 great honour on Welley's difpofition and charafter. It ap- 

 pears, however, upon the whole, more efpecially when we 

 confider Whitefield's fuccefs in the fame part of the world, 

 that he was lefs qualified for a miffionary than his fellow- 

 labourer. After his return to England, he felt diflatisfied 

 about his own ftate, and entertained fufpicions of the reality 

 of his own converfion, though he had undertaken to convert 

 others. Prepared for a fudden converfion, it aftually 

 happened at a place and time, and in a manner, which he has 

 recorded. According to his own account, this memorable 

 event is referred to the 24th day of May, in the year 1738, 

 at a quarter before nine in the evening, when fome perfon at 

 a fociety in Alderfgate-ftreet was reading Luther's preface 

 to the epiftle to the Romans. " He felt his heart ftrangely 

 warmed. He felt that he trufted in Chrift alone for falva- 

 tion ; and an affurance was given to him, that Chrift had 

 taken away his fins, and faved him from the law of fin and 

 death." Thefe feelings of affurance, however, were blended 

 with occafional mifgivings ; and it feems that, in his cafe, 

 enthufiafm could not inftantaneoudy overpower his philo- 

 fophical reafonings. His cafe is far from being Angular in 

 the hiftory of perfons of the fame defcription. About this 



time 



