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several instances in proof of this assertion, he thus proceeds; "But surely to any who call themselves Christians, it may be justly urged as an astonishing instance of human depravity, that we ourselves, who enjoy the full light of reve→ lation; to whom God has vouchsafed such clear discoveries of what it concerns us to know of his being and attributes; who profess to believe that in him we live, and move, and have our being; that to him we owe all the comforts we here enjoy, and the offer of eternal glory purchased for us by the atoning blood of his own Son; that we, thus loaded with mercies, should every one of us be continually chargeable with forgetting his authority, and being ungrateful for his benefits; with slighting his gracious proposals, or receiving them at best but heartlessly and coldly."

"But to put the question concerning the natural depravity of man to the severest test: take the best of the human species, the watchful, diligent, self-denying Christian, and let him decide the controversy; and that, not by inferences drawn from the practices of a thoughtless and dissolute world, but by an appeal to his personal experience. Go with him into his closet, ask him his opinion of the corruption of the heart; and he will tell you, that he is deeply sensible of its power, for that he has learned it from much self-observation, and long

acquaintance with the workings of his own mind. He will tell you, that every day strengthens this conviction; yea, that hourly he sees fresh reason to deplore his want of simplicity in intention, his infirmity of purpose, his low views, his selfish unworthy desires, his backwardness to set about his duty, his languor and coldness in performing it: that he finds himself obliged continually to confess, that he feels within him two opposite principles, and that he cannot do the things that he would. He cries out in the language of the excellent Hooker, "The little fruit which we have in holiness, it is, God knoweth, corrupt and unsound: we put no confidence at all in it, we challenge nothing in the world for it, we dare not call God to reckoning, as if we had him in our debt books; our continual suit to him is, and must be, to bear with our infirmities, and pardon our of fences!" (Wilberforce's Practical View, p. 28—37.)...

Such is the view which a pious and impressive writer has given, of what, all who reflect must acknowledge, to be the true condition of man. Another writer, not less pious and impressive, (Mrs. Hannah More,) has, with her usual powers of eloquence, presented the same picture of the moral and religious history of the world, in her admirable Strictures on the mo

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dern System of Female Education. To obser vations similar to those of Mr. Wilberforce, on the doctrine of human depravity, she adds this remark. "Perhaps one reason why the faults of the most eminent saints are recorded in Scripture, is, to add fresh confirmation to this doctrine. If Abraham, Moses, Noah, Elijah, David, and Peter sinned, who, shall we presume to say, has escaped the universal taint?" (H. More's works, vol. iv, pp. 330, 331.

How easily is this question answered by the follower of Priestley:-or. I may add, (strange as the combination may appear,) of Wesley! The former produces his philosopher, the latter his saint, in refutation of such unworthy and disparaging notions of human nature. They differ indeed in one material point. The one contends, that by his own virtuous resolutions he can extricate himself from vicious propensities and habits; whilst the other is proud to admit, that the divine favour has been peculiarly exerted in his behalf, to rescue him from his sins. The one denies, that he was ever subject to an innate depravity: the other confesses that he was, boasts even of its inveteracy, but glories that he has been perfectly purified from its stains. But both are found to agree most exactly, in that vain self-complacency, which exults in the reflexion that

*

* are not as other men are;" and in the they « arrogant presumption, that they are lifted above that corruption of nature from which the more humble and more deserving Christian feels him

*The contemptuous language, which the over weening Methodist is too apt to employ, with respect to all who are not within his sanctified pale, but more especially with respect to the Clergy of the establishment, affords but too strong a justification of this charge as it applies to him. The clergy are uniformly with religionists of this description, "dumb dogs," "watchmen who sleep upon their posts," "priests of Baal," "wolves in sheep's cloathing," &c. &c. Indeed Mr. Whitefield informs us in his works, (vol. iv. p. 67.) that " Mr. Wesley thought meanly of Abraham, and, he believes, of David also:" whilst, of Mr. Wesley himself we are told, that "wherever he went, he was received as an Apostle ;" and that "in the honour due to Moses he also had a share, being placed at the head of a great people by him who called them," &c. (Hampson's life of Wesley, vol. iii. p. 35. Coke's life of Wesley, p. 520.)

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-Mr. Wesley has taken care to let mankind know, that Methodism is the only religion worthy of God:" (Hamps. vol. iii. p. 30.) and the miracles, which repeatedly attested his divine mission for the propagation of this religion, he has most copiously recorded throughout his Journals.Whoever wishes to form a just idea of the pernicious extravagances of this arch enthusiast and of his followers, will find ample satisfaction in Bishop Lavington's Enthusiasm of Methodists and Papists compared, (a book, which B. Warburton, in one of his private letters to his friend Hurd, very unfairly describes, as "a bad copy of Stillingfleet's famous book of the Fanaticism of the Church of Rome," and in the later publication of Nott's Religious Enthusiasm considered.

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self not to be exempt. In the philosophising Christian all this is natural and consistent. in the Methodist, (I speak of the Arminian Methodist, or follower of Wesley,) it is altogether at variance with the doctrines which he professes to maintain. Accuracy of reasoning, however, is not among the distinctive marks of this latter description of religionists. A warm, fancy, with a weak intellect; strong passions, and vehement conceit, almost always go to the composition of the character. That such qualities should find many minds of congenial aptitude, is a thing not to be wondered at. And therefore, that this mixture of fanaticism, hypocrisy, vanity and ignorance, should be widely spreading in both countries, is perfectly natural.

*At the annual conference of the preachers in the Wesley connexion, held at Bristol in July 1808, the number of Methodists of that connexion in Great Britain and Ireland alone, was stated to exceed 151,000, that is, more by above 8000 than in the year preceding. At the succeeding annual conference, which took place at Manchester, in the July of the last year, the number of the same connexion, throughout the two islands, has been stated to have received within the year, an encrease of nearly 7000, (of which the encrease in Ireland alone has been 1300) making the whole to amount very nearly to 158,000; whilst the numbers of the society in the West Indies and America have at the same meeting been stated to exceed 173,000.