state, as one of the strongest natural arguments for a future state of retribution? Have not they contended, and well, and admirably contended, that the supposition of such a state is absolutely necessary to our notion of the justice of God,-absolutely necessary to restore order to that moral confusion which we all observe and deplore in the present world? The man who places religion upon a false basis is the greatest enemy to religion. If victory is always to the just and good,how is the fortune of impious conquerors to be accounted for? Why do they erect dynasties, and found families which last for centuries? The reflecting mind whom you have instructed in this manner, and for present effect only, naturally comes upon you hereafter with difficulties of this sort; he finds he has been deceived; and you will soon discover that, in breeding up a fanatic, you have unwittingly laid the foundation of an atheist. The honest and the orthodox method is to prepare young people for the world, as it actually exists; to tell them that they will often find vice perfectly successful, virtue exposed to a long train of afflictions; that they must bear this patiently, and look to another world for its rectification.

2. The second doctrine which it is necessary to notice among the Methodists, is the doctrine of inward impulse and emotions, which, it is quite plain, must lead, if universally insisted upon, and preached among the common people, to every species of folly and enormity. When a human being believes that his internal feelings are the monitions of God, and that these monitions must govern his conduct; and when a great stress is purposely laid upon these inward feelings in all the discourses from the pulpit; it is, of course, impossible to say to what a pitch of extravagance mankind may not be carried, under the influence of such dangerous doctrines.

3. The Methodists hate pleasure and amusements; no theatre, no cards, no dancing, no punchinello, no dancing dogs, no blind fiddlers;-all the amusements of the rich and of the poor must disappear, wherever these gloomy people get a footing. It is not the abuse

of pleasure which they attack, but the interspersion of pleasure, however much it is guarded by good sense and moderation;-it is not only wicked to hear the licentious plays of Congreve, but wicked to hear Henry the Fifth, or the School for Scandal;-it is not only dissipated to run about to all the parties in London and Edinburgh, but dancing is not fit for a being who is preparing himself for Eternity. Ennui, wretchedness, melancholy, groans and sighs, are the offerings which these unhappy men make to a Deity, who has covered the earth with gay colours, and scented it with rich perfumes; and shown us, by the plan and order of his works, that he has given to man something better than a bare existence, and scattered over his creation a thousand superfluous joys, which are totally unnecessary to the mere support of life.

4. The Methodists lay very little stress upon practical righteousness. They do not say to their people, Do not be deceitful; do not be idle; get rid of your bad passions; or at least (if they do say these things) they say them very seldom. Not that they preach faith without works; for if they told the people, that they might rob and murder with impunity, the civil magistrate must be compelled to interfere with such doctrine:- but they say a great deal about faith, and very little about works. What are commonly called the mysterious parts of our religion, are brought into the fore-ground, much more than the doctrines which lead to practice; and this among the lowest of the community.

The Methodists have hitherto been accused of dissenting from the Church of England. This, as far as relates to mere subscription to articles, is not true; but they differ in their choice of the articles upon which they dilate and expand, and to which they appear to give a preference, from the stress which they place upon them. There is nothing heretical in saying, that God sometimes intervenes with his special providence; but these people differ from the Established Church, in the degree in which they insist upon this doctrine. In the

hands of a man of sense and education, it is a safe doctrine;-in the management of the Methodists, we have seen how ridiculous and degrading it becomes. In the same manner, a clergyman of the Church of England would not do his duty, if he did not insist upon the necessity of faith, as well as of good works; but as he believes that it is much more easy to give credit to doctrines, than to live well, he labours most in those points where human nature is the most liable to prove defective. Because he does so, he is accused of giving up the articles of his faith, by men who have their partialities also in doctrine; but partialities, not founded upon the same sound discretion, and knowledge of human nature.

5. The Methodists are always desirous of making men more religious than it is possible, from the constitution of human nature, to make them. If they could succeed as much as they wish to succeed, there would be at once an end of delving and spinning, and of every exertion of human industry. Men must eat, and drink, and work; and if you wish to fix upon them high and elevated notions, as the ordinary furniture of their minds, you do these two things;-you drive men of warm temperaments mad,-and you introduce, in the rest of the world, a low and shocking familiarity with words and images, which every real friend to religion would wish to keep sacred. The friends of the dear Redeemer who are in the habit of visiting the Isle of Thanet (as in the extract we have quoted)-Is it possible that this mixture of the most awful, with the most familiar images, so common among Methodists now, and with the enthusiasts in the time of Cromwell, must, not, in the end, divest religion of all the deep and solemn impressions which it is calculated to produce? In a man of common imagination (as we have before observed), the terror, and the feeling which it first excited, must necessarily be soon separated: but, where the fervour of impression is long preserved, piety ends in Bedlam. Accordingly, there is not a madhouse in England, where a considerable part of the patients have

not been driven to insanity by the extravagance of these people. We cannot enter such places without seeing a number of honest artisans, covered with blankets, and calling themselves angels and apostles, who, if they had remained contented with the instruction of men of learning and education, would still have been sound masters of their own trade, sober Christians, and useful members of society.

6. It is impossible not to observe how directly all the doctrine of the Methodists is calculated to gain power among the poor and ignorant. To say, that the Deity governs this world by general rules, and that we must wait for another and a final scene of existence, before vice meets with its merited punishment, and virtue with its merited reward; to preach this up daily, would not add a single votary to the Tabernacle, nor sell a Number of the Methodistical Magazine:-but, to publish an account of a man who was cured of scrofula by a single sermon of Providence destroying the innkeeper at Garstang for appointing a cock-fight near the Tabernacle; this promptness of judgment and immediate execution is so much like human justice, and so much better adapted to vulgar capacities, that the system is at once admitted, as soon as any one can be found who is impudent or ignorant enough to teach it; and, being once admitted, it produces too strong an effect upon the passions to be easily relinquished. The case is the same with the doctrine of inward impulse, or, as they term it, experience. If you preach up to ploughmen and artisans, that every singular feeling which comes across them is a visitation of the Divine Spirit can there be any difficulty, under the influence of this nonsense, in converting these simple creatures into active and mysterious fools, and making them your slaves for life? is not possible to raise up any dangerous enthusiasm, by telling men to be just, and good, and charitable; but keep this part of Christianity out of sight-and talk long and enthusiastically, before ignorant people, of the mysteries of our religion, and you will not fail to attract a crowd of followers:- verily the Tabernacle loveth not

It

that which is simple, intelligible, and leadeth to good sound practice.

Having endeavoured to point out the spirit which pervades these people, we shall say a few words upon the causes, the effects, and the cure of this calamity. The fanaticism so prevalent in the present day, is one of those evils from which society is never wholly exempt; but which bursts out at different periods, with peculiar violence, and sometimes overwhelms every thing in its course. The last eruption took place about a century and a half ago, and destroyed both Church and Throne with its tremendous force. Though irresistible, it was short; enthusiasm spent its force the usual reaction took place; and England was deluged with ribaldry and indecency, because it had been worried with fanatical restrictions. By degrees, however, it was found out, that orthodoxy and loyalty might be secured by other methods than licentious conduct and immodest conversation. The public morals improved; and there appeared as much good sense and moderation upon the subject of religion as ever can be expected from mankind in large masses. Still, however, the mischief which the Puritans had done was not forgotten; a general suspicion prevailed of the dangers of religious enthusiasm ; and the fanatical preacher wanted his accustomed power among a people recently recovered from a religious war, and guarded by songs, proverbs, popular stories, and the general tide of humour and opinion, against all excesses of that nature. About the middle of the last century, however, the character of the genuine fanatic. was a good deal forgotten; and the memory of the civil wars worn away; the field was clear for extravagance in piety; and causes, which must always produce an immense influence upon the mind of man, were left to their own unimpeded operations. Religion is so noble and powerful a consideration—it is so buoyant and so insubmergible that it may be made, by fanatics, to carry with it any degree of error and of perilous absurdity. In this instance Messrs. Whitfield and Wesley happened to begin. They were men of considerable