he Evangelical clergy; and among
others, he had the honour of promoting John Newton to the rectory of S.
Mary Woolnoth.[832] He himself was a standing witness that 'Methodism'
was not a religion merely for the coarse and unrefined, for he was
himself so polished a gentleman that Richardson is reputed to have said
that 'he would have realised his own idea of Sir Charles Grandison, if
he had not been a Methodist.' It was Lord Dartmouth of whom Cowper
wrote, 'he wears a coronet and prays:' an implied reflection upon a
large order, which the poet was scarcely justified in making.

Lord Teignmouth was another Evangelical nobleman; but, strictly
speaking, he does not come within the range of our subject; for it was
not until the nineteenth century had commenced that he settled at
Clapham, and became a distinguished member of the so-called Clapham
sect, and the first president of the newly-formed Bible Society.

Among Evangelical laymen are we to place the revered name of Samuel
Johnson. His prejudices against Whitefield and the early Methodists have
already been noticed; and the supposed antagonism between 'Methodism'
and 'orthodoxy' would probably always have prevented one so intensely
orthodox from fully identifying himself with the movement. But, without
entering into the controversy which raged, so to speak, round the body
of the good old man, there can be little doubt that towards the close of
his life he was largely influenced by the Evangelical doctrines. His
well-known fear of death laid him open to the influence of those who had
clearly learned to count the last enemy as a friend; and there is no
reason to doubt the story of his last illness, which rests upon
unimpeachable testimony. 'My dear doctor,' he said to Dr. Brocklesby,
'believe a dying man: there is no salvation but in the sacrifice of the
Son of God.' 'I offer up my soul to the great and merciful God. I offer
it full of pollution, but in full assurance that it will be cleansed in
the blood of the Redeemer.'[833]

It will have been noticed that, with the exception of Lady Huntingdon,
no female has been mentioned as having taken any prominent part in the
Evangelical Revival. The mother of the Wesleys, Mrs. Fletcher, Mrs.
Newton, Mrs. Cecil, and perhaps Mrs. C. Wesley, were all excellent
specimens of Evangelical Christians; but their influence was exercised
solely in private. Neither by writing nor in any other way did they come
prominently forward. This is