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faste. I may hot tarry with you. And for get not what I have saide and charged you withal: for when I am dead, ye shall pead venture remembre my words better. And even with those wordes he began to draw his speche at lengthe, and his tongue to faile; bis eyes being presently set in his head, whose sight falled him. Then began we to put him in remembrance of Christ's passion; and caused the yeomea of the guarde to dand bye secretly, to see him dye, and to be witnesses of his wordes at his departure; who heard all his saide communication; and incontinent the clock struck eigh, and then gore be up the ghost, and thus he departed this present life. And calling to remem trance, howe he saide the day before, that at dight of the clocke we should lose our master, ait is before rehearsed, one of as looking upon an other, supposing that either he knewe or prophesied of his departure, yet before his departure, we sent for the abbot of the house, te annoyle him, whoe made all the spede he wed, and came to his departure, and so sayd certaine praiers, before the breath was fully gut of his body.

Here is the ende and fall of pride and arogancy of men, cxalted by fortune to dig ities: for I assure you, in his time, he was the haughtiest man in all his proceedings alive; having more respect to the honor of bis person, than he had to his spiritual profession; wherein should be shewed all meek humility and charity; the discussing whereof any further I leave to divines. pp. 545, 546.

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REVIEWERS are in this respect under the same circumstances with oftendes against the laws of their country; that a present virtue is not admitted to cancel a former crime. Were this not the case, we should be glad to receive the present number of the Quarterly Review as an expia en for some others which we have found it necessary to condemu, This declaration is not drawn from us by the growing talent of the work, or the more liberal cast of its polities, although these are facts which we are glad to acknowledge: nor ita tribute to the wit (in the phraseology of Bonaparte trop peu mesure) of the last article in this number, or to the acute and philo

sophical spirit of criticism and, the delicacy of taste and feeling displayed in the first. Our attention agreeably, engaged by Art. 13, was naturally, and on the whole "On the Evangelical Sects," which professes to be a Review of " Hints to the Public and Legislature by a Barrister;" a work that needs only to be known in order to be condemned by every friend to religion.

On the pretensions and character of this writer we are rejoiced to find the sentiments of the Quarterly Reviewers in unison with those we ventured to deliver in our volume for 1 809, P 369. Such of our readers as are not in possession of their critique will be gratified by the following just and manly extracts from it. "Our agree ment with the Barrister in some points has not prevented us," they say, "from perusing his book with astonishment calumnious misrepresentations, and and indignation at its ignorance, its its impudent call upon the legislature." p. 481. And again:

"It is either gross misrepresentation or gross ignorance in the Barrister, to impute to both parties" (the followers of Wesley and those of Whitfield) "the doctrine of predestination, which is the point of differ ence between them. It is equally absurd and false to accuse either party of Antinomianism, which has been explicitly disavowed and reprobated by both, whenever any half frantic fanatic has set it afloat. This how bill of indictment. One radical muistatement ever is not the only flaw in the Barrister's pervades the whole of his invective—a wilfy! and malicious mistatement of the point in dispute. He uniformly represents the Methodists as teaching the compatibility of a vicious life with a saving faith, whereas, what they assert is that good works are the consequence, and not the price of salvation. justification, or the pardon of sin by faith in Repentance, whereby 'men forsake sin; the atonement of Christ; and sanctification, rit of Christ: these are the tenets which or salvation from sin by the grace and Spithey hold and avow: this is their authenticated confession of faith, and nothing more than an appeal to this is needed to put such a calumniator to shame." pp. 482, 483.

The Barrister having commended the clergy of the Establishment for "inculcating moral duties" rather

than going in search of "doctrinal mysteries," the Reviewer thus exclaims:

"What! the bishops! the dignified clergy! Have they then exploded all doctrinal mysteries? Have they ceased to hold the doctrine of the Trinity, the corruption of the human will, and redemption by the cross of Christ? Do our clergy solemnly pray to their Maker weekly before God and man, in the words of a liturgy which they know cannot be believed? Either this is true, or the Barrister is a libeller, a rank and convicted libeller." p. 484..

He then strongly adverts to the audacity of a Socinian calling upon the legislature to proceed "against a body of men" (the Methodists) "who profess to build their belief upon the articles of the established Church, and who only meet apart from it because, according to their feelings, they do not hear its doctrines sufficiently enforced within its walls." p. 485.

Having thus gibbeted the Barris ter in terrorem for the whole race of avowed or anonymous assailants of sects which they neither understand nor will examine, the Reviewer proceeds to repel, which he does with great ability and effect, some of the misrepresentations which have lately appeared on the subject of Methodism; and closes with an extended investigation of the system of discipline and doctrine maintained by the followers of Mr. Wesley. He professes to explain the causes of the success of Methodism; to shew the enemies of the sect wherein its wisdom consists; to point out its errors to its adherents; and to examine whether the good may not be attainable without the evil which alloys it. It is not by any means our intention to follow the Reviewer through the whole of his able critique. We should not, indeed, have thought it -necessary to enter upon the subject at all, but that we desired to shew our readiness to commend as well as to condemn; and that we conceived it due, not to the Methodists merely, but to the general interests of religion, to supply some correctives to certain

errors, both of fact and inference, into which the Reviewer has fallen.

In the first place, then, we cordially concur with this writer in attributing the success of Methodism to the zeal of their preachers; to their enforcement of those doctrines which are peculiar toChristianity, and which are founded in Scripture and in the principles of our nature; and to the wonderful organization and tactics of their societies,

We as cordially concur with him in admiring the practical precepts bound up by Mr. Wesley with his creed; and have always considered the followers of that great man as characterized in a peculiar manner by that practical spirit which such a system is calculated to produce.

Nor is our assent less entire to the principle of some of the Reviewer's objections to the Methodistic system. But whilst we concur in the principle of some of his objections, we are compelled to add, that even these are for the most part too strongly penned, and that the facts in which they are founded are in some instances inaccurately stated. Here, however, it will be necessary to descend to particulars.

Our readers are probably aware that the discipline of the Methodist society divides all its members into what are called classes, consisting of from twelve to thirty persons each. To each class a leader is appointed, who meets his class once every week, and, after relating his own religious experience since they last met, requires from each individual who is present a similar account. The question generally put by the leader is simply, "What has been the state of your soul?" And to this the answer is often very brief; though frequently also it leads to a somewhat detailed exposure of the trials, temptations, and conflicts of the week, of the means employed to obtain grace to be faithful to their engagements, and of the grace which has been vouchsafed in answer to prayer.

Besides the classes, to which all Methodists must belong, there are bands, which consist of a smaller number, as three, four, or five, and these always intimate friends; the men and women, the married and unmarried meeting separately. The persons enrolled in these bands are supposed to have attained a higher proficiency in piety than the general body: the being united to a band, therefore, is by no means a necessary part of Methodism. The members of the bands are required to confess their faults to each other freely and plainly, and to put and to endure in turn the most searching questions respecting their spiritual state, and the sins they have committed in thought, word, or deed.

The Reviewer loudly exclaims against this last practice, as leading to the worst consequences. Thoughts which otherwise would have been dismissed as soon as conceived, he apprehends, will be treasured up for discussion, and by discussion be so embodied and fixed in the mind as to pollate, when the professed object is to purify. Now here we really believe that neither the fact sor the philosophy of the case is with the Reviewer. The fact we believe, en good grounds, to be, that although the religious communications of coarse and vulgar minds will naturally partake of coarseness and vulgarity, yet, a due regard being had to this circumstance, nothing of an impure or polluting nature passes at the band meetings of the Methodists. The Reviewer, indeed, regards it as an undeniable inference, that such inquiries as are directed to be made there must lead to disclosures and explanations destructive to female modesty. But he may be well assured, that even in Methodist circles the love of reputation, and the anxiety se faire valoir, stand in the way of confessions which would be disgraceful and humiliating. General acknowledgments of guilt and sinfulness, of weakness and irresolution, of want of love and faith;

general admissions that the mind

is harassed by temptations, or distracted by worldly care, may indeed be heard, because these, while they satisfy the conscience, are not on the whole discreditable in the eyes of others; such general confessions necessarily implying indeed no more than every Christian would allow to be more or less his own experience. As for specific details, they are for the most part avoided with a surprising degree of dexterity, partly from the causes already hinted at, and partly from a sort of self-delusion which prevents men from seeing their own dispositions and actions in their true colours. Does the Reviewer suppose that if a Methodist has been guilty of a gross but undetected falsehood, or has committed some other secret but scandalous sin, he will bring forward at a class or band meeting specific details of the fact? He may bewail in strong terms his sinfulness; he may deplore his proneness to depart from God and to sin against him; he may dwell on the slow progress he has made in rectifying the sinister and crooked bias of his nature, and in crucifying the flesh with its affections and lusts; he may, in the recollection of particular acts of sin, lament, even with tears, his violated engagements; but in general he will stop short of any more minute specification.

We could add much to shew that the particular evils here stated to flow from the practice of confession, as it exists among the Methodists, have little or no foundation in fact. The evils which really result from it we believe indeed to be considerable; but then they are of a different kind from those deduced from it by the Reviewer. It fosters, for example, as we have already intimated, habits of insincerity and self-delusion. It has a tendency also to make their religion a religion of parade, to substitute cant for genuine feeling, and the ready application of a certain phraseology for that holiness of heart and life without which no man shall see the Lord What we have here said applies i

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at least an equal degree to the practice which prevails at the Methodist lovefeasts, where both men and women publicly narrate their religious history, or, to use the common phrase, "relate their experience." It is certainly expecting too much of human nature to hope that men will publicly degrade themselves for the general good. And we will venture to say, in conformity with the old fable of the window in the heart, that the real experience of every human being, if related with impar tiality and fidelity, could not fail to degrade him in the eyes of his fellow creatures. Why then put his virtue to so hazardous a test? Why tempt him, while he covers his faults under some general acknowledgments of guilt, to be the trumpeter of his few paltry excellencies, blazoning what he has, and perhaps supplying what he has not?

Far be it from us to impute to the Methodists, to whose piety as a body we are most ready to bear our testimony, any intention to deceive; or to suppose that the conduct which they would pursue in any given situation, would not be as correct as that of any other body of men whatever. But still, while human nature is what it is, (to this we recur) it can, not be that that should not often happen, which circumstances, aided by the most powerful motives, have a direct tendency to produce.

The Reviewer sums up his objections to the Methodist practice of confession, as he calls it, by affirming that "it is likely to make more streetwalkers than their preaching reclaims," (p. 499). We cannot help thinking that the Reviewer has here, as in one or two other places, inadvertently sacrificed truth and precision to point and effect. If this statement be well founded, in what respect has the Barrister maligned the Methodists? Can any thing be pointed out, even in his calumnious pages, which more directly asserts the immoral tendency of the Methodist institutions? Besides, the assertion is directly at variance, not

only with historical truth, but with the testimony of the Reviewer him. self in all parts of his critique. For if this representation were correct, could it also be true that it is impossible, as the Reviewer affirms it to be, "for an unprejudiced, or even an honest observer, to doubt that the Methodists produce great and certain good among the lower classes; that they instruct the grossly ignorant in their duties; that they frequently reclaim the idle, the profligate, the drunken, and those whose habits of ferocious brutality seemed to be inveterate, and would certainly have been incorrigible by any other means; and that thus, by the prevention of crimes," &c. which is the effect of their labours, “direct and immediate benefit arises to the state?" We trust that the Reviewer, on calm reflection, will be disposed to abandon this charge, which, after all, is founded, not on any specific details that have come to his knowledge, but on mere surmise as to what may possibly be the effect of certain practices, the real nature of which practices also are greatly misconceived.

We have too great a respect for the Reviewer's candour, to believe that he himself can approve of this method of appreciating the merits of so large, and in many respects so valuable, a body of men. We wil lingly, therefore, ascribe it to haste and inadvertence.

There is, however, another passage, connected with this discussion, which we do not think admits of the same excuse, The Reviewer blames, we think justly, the habit of watching the bodily sensations, and deducing from them a ground either of des pondency or self-gratulation. Had he stopped here, we should have entirely agreed with him. He pro, ceeds, however, to brand as equally mischievous the habit of watching the state of the mind (p. 498), which the Methodist discipline requires. Here the Reviewer is at issue, not with the Methodists only, but with Scripture. Passages incul

cating the severest scrutiny of oar spiritual state will be found prodigally scattered through the pages of holy writ. What meaning would the Reviewer attribute to such commands as these: "Examine yourselves;"" Prove your own selves;" "Let every man prove his own work;" "Consider your ways;" "Keep thy heart with all diligence?" Or with what propriety could he, who should neglect narrowly to scrutinize his beart, use the prayers of the Psalmist; "Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; try my reins and my beart;" "Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from my secret faults;" "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my thoughts; see if there be any wicked way in me?"

The Reviewer's language appears to us to proceed from a misapprehension of the real nature of Christian boliness. If holiness consists mainly in rectitude of intention, single ness of aim, and purity of motive, how is it possible, without that vigilant scrutiny to which he objects, to acertain that we are indeed possessors of it?

The Reviewer would admit the propriety of a rigid self-examination previous to a participation of the Holy Sacrament. But would he confine this examination to what was gross and palpable-to the external act; or would he not deem it our duty to scrutinize the thoughts, the secret motives, the unhallowed propensities of the mind, that we taight repent of these also before God, and implore his grace to resist and overcome them?

It would be an easy matter to shew the contrariety of the Reviewer's sentiments in this essential point of Christian practice, not only to Scripture, but to the Liturgy and Ho. milies of the Church, and the writings of our best Divines. But we will content ourselves with asking him, whether, if the attainment of holiDess of heart and life be the great object at which the Christian ought to aim, it be not altogether anphi

losophical as well as unscriptural to regard its attainment as possible without that severe self-scrutiny which is here too hastily proscribed? Obsta principiis is a good maxim in moral as well as in physical ills; and He who best knew the nature of man assures us, that the heart is the source from which all manner of crimes proceed. What then would be the counsel of a wise man to those who wished to "purify themthemselves even as he is pure?” Would it be to abandon the practice of severe self-scrutiny? Would it not rather be, in the language of inspi ration, "Watch and pray;" "examine and prove your own souls;" keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.'

"

There is another incidental re

mark of the Reviewer to which we feel it our duty to object, not without some hope that, when our objection shall have been stated, the Reviewer himself may be disposed to concur in it. "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves; but it is difficult to admit self-deceit as an apology for those professors of righteousness who call themselves the vilest of sinners, while at the same time they have an assurance of salvation." (p. 497). The proposition which is here insinuated by the Reviewer is, that expressions which imply an assurance of salvation are so inconsistent with confessions of great guilt and sinfulness, that even the supposition of self-deceit will hardly account for their union. But is it not the grand characteristic of the Gospel, that it invites the sinner, whatever his sins may have been, to accept of mercy, and to return, by penitence and faith, to the bosom of his heavenly Father? In one place we find St. Paul affirming "I am the chief of sinners." And in another, "Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of glory, which the Lord the righteous Judge will give me in that day." And, surely, it is not unnatural to suppose that a sense of his own demerits should grow upon the Christian; in other words,

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