list with these enthusiasts, a numerous class, many of them very respectable, of modern religionists, called Methodists; yet, since their vowed system of Faith is, that this consists in an instantaneous illapse of God's Spirit into the souls of certain persons, by which they are convinced of their justification and salvation, without reference to Scripture or any other proof, they cannot be placed, as to their Rule of Faith, under any other denomination. This, according to their founder's doctrine, is the only article of Faith: all other articles he terms opinions, of which he says, the 'Methodists do not lay any stress on them, 'whether right or wrong.' (1) He continues," 'am sick of opinions; I am weary to bear them; C my soul loaths this frothy food.' (2) Conformably with this latitudinarian system, Wesley opens heaven indiscriminately to Churchmen, Presbyterians, Independants, Quakers, and even to Catholics. (3) Addressing the last-named, he exclaims, O that God would write in your 'hearts the rules of self-denial and love laid down by Thomas-à-Kempis; or that you would follow, in this and in good works, that burning and shining light of your own Church, the Marquis ' of Renty. (4) Then would all who know and love the truth, rejoice to acknowledge you as 'the Church of the living God.' (5)

At the first rise of Methodism in Oxford, A. D. 1729, John Wesley and his companions were plain, serious, Church-of-England men, assiduous and methodical in praying, reading, fasting, and other good works. What they practised themselves, they preached to others both in England

(1) Wesley's Appeal, iii. p. 133. (2) Ibid. p. 135. (3) Appeal. (4) His life is written in French, by Père St. Jure, a Jesuit, and abridged in English by J. Wesley

(5) In his Popery Calmly Considered, p. 20, Wesley writes, I firmly believe that many members of the Church of Rome have been holy men, and that many are so now. He elsewhere says, Several of them (Papists) have attained to as high a pitch of sanctity, as human "nature is capable of arriving at '

and in America; till becoming intimate with the Moravian brethren, and particularly with Peter Bohler, one of their elders, John Wesley, became convinced of unbelief; namely, a want of that faith whereby alone we are saved.' (1) Speaking of his past life and ministry, he says, 'I was 'fundamentally a Papist and knew it not.' (2) Soon after this persuasion, namely, on May 24, 1739, Going into a Society in Aldersgate-street,' he says, whilst a person was reading Luther's 'Preface to the Romans, about a quarter before 'nine, I felt my heart strangely warmed: I felt I did trust in Christ, in Christ alone for salva'tion, and an assurance was given me that he had 'taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from 'the law of sin and death.' (3)

What were, now, the unavoidable consequences of a diffusion of this doctrine among the people at large? Let us hear them from Wesley's most able disciple and destined successor, Fletcher of Madeley. 'Antinomian principles and practices,' he says, have spread like wild-fire among our Societies. Many persons, speaking in the most glorious manner of Christ, and their inter'est in his complete salvation, have been found 'living in the greatest immoralities.-How few of 'our Societies where cheating, extorting, or some 'other evil hath not broke out, and given such 'shakes to the Ark of the Gospel, that, had not 'the Lord interposed, it must have been over'set! (4)-I have seen them, who pass for believ ers, follow the strain of corrupt nature; and

(1) Whitehead's Life of John and Charles Wesley, vol. ii. p. 68. (2) Journal, A. D. 1739.-Elsewhere Wesley says,O what a work has 'God begun since Peter Bohler came to England! such a one as shall 'never come to an end, till heaven and earth pass away.'

(3) Vide Whitehead, vol. ii. p. 79. In a letter to his brother Samnel, John Wesley says, 'By a Christian, I mean one who so believes in Christ that death hath no dominion over him, and in this obvious sense of the word I was not a Christian till 24th of May, last year.' Ibid. 105.

(4) Checks to Antinom, vol. ii. p. 22.

when they should have exclaimed against Anti'nomianism, I have heard them cry out against 'the legality of their wicked hearts, which they said 'still suggested that they were to DO something for 'their salvation.' (1) How few of our celebrated pulpits, where more has not been said for sin than against it!' (2)-The same candid writer, laying open the foulness of his former system, charges Richard Hill, Esq. who persisted in it, with maintaining that, 'Even adultery and murder do not hurt the pleasant children, but rather 'work for their good.' (3)- God sees no sin in 'believers, whatever sin they commit. My sins might displease God; my person is always ac'ceptable to him. Though I should out-sin Manasses, I should not be less a pleasant child, because God always views me in Christ. Hence, in the midst of adulteries, murders, and incests, She can address me with, Thou art all fair, my love, my undefiled, there is no spot in thee.' (4)— It is a most pernicious error of the schoolmen to distinguish sins according to the fact, and not according to the person.' Though I blame those who say, let us sin that grace may abound: yet adultery, incest, and murder, shall, upon the whole, make me holier on earth and merrier in heaven. (5)

These doctrines and practices, casting disgrace on Methodism, alarmed its founder. He therefore held a synod of his chief preachers, under

(2) Ibid. p. 215.

(1) Checks to Antinom. vol. ii. p. 200. (3) Fletcher's Works, vol. iii. p. 50. Agricola, one of Luther's first disciples, is called the founder of the Antinomians. These hold that the faithful are bound by no law, either of God or man, and that good works of every kind are useless to salvation; while Amsdorf, Luther's pot-companion, taught that they are an impediment to salvation. Mosheim's Eccles. Hist. by Maclaine, vol. iv. p. 35, p. 328. Eaton, a Puritan, in his Honeycomb of Justification, says, Believers ought not to mourn for sin, because it was pardoned before it was comnitted.'

(4) Fletcher, vol. iv. p. 97.

(5) Quoted by Fletcher. See also Daubeny's Guide to the Church.

P. 82.

the title of A Conference, in which he and they unanimously abandoned their past fundamental principles, in the following confession which they made. "Quest. 17. Have we not, unawares, lean'ed too much to Calvinism? Ans. We are afraid 'we have. Quest. 18. Have we not also leaned 'too much to Antinomianism? Ans. We are 'afraid we have. Quest. 20. What are the main 'pillars of it? Ans. 1. That Christ abolished the 'the moral law: 2. That Christians therefore are 'not obliged to observe it: 3. That one branch 'of Christian liberty, is liberty from observing 'the Commandments of God,' &c. (1) The publication of this retraction, in 1770, raised the indignation of the more rigid Methodists, namely, the Whitfieldites, Jumpers, &c. all of whom were under the particular patronage of Lady Huntingdon: accordingly her Chaplain, the Hon. and Rev. Walter Shirley, issued a circular letter by her direction, calling a General Meeting of her connexion, as it is called, at Bristol, to censure this dreadful heresy,' which, as Shirley affirmed, 'injured the very fundamentals of Christian'ity.' (2)

Having exhibited this imperfect sketch of the errors, contradictions, absurdities, impieties and immoralities into which numberless Christians, most of them, no doubt, sincere in their belief, have fallen, by pursuing phantoms of their imagination for Divine Illuminations, and adopting a supposed, immediate, and personal Revelation as the Rule of their Faith and Conduct, I would request any one of your respectable Society, who may still adhere to it, to re-consider the selfevident maxim laid down in the beginning of this letter; namely, That cannot be the Rule of Faith and Conduct which is liable to lead us, and has led

(1) Apud Whitehead, p. 213. Benson's Apology, p. 208.

(3) Fletcher's Works, vol. ii. p. 5 Whitehead. Nightingale's Portraiture of Methodism, p. 403.

many very well-meaning persons, into error and impiety: I would remind him of his frequent mistakes and illusions respecting things of a temporary nature: then, painting to his mind the all-importance of ETERNITY, that is, of happiness or misery inconceivable and everlasting, I would address him in the words of St. Augustin: 'What 'is it that you are trusting to, poor, weak soul, 'and blinded with the mists of the flesh? what 'is it you are trusting to?'

LETTER VII.

To JAMES BROWN, Esq. &c.

OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.

DEAR SIR,

I HAVE just received a letter from Friend Rankin of Wenlock, written much in the style of George Fox, and another from Mr. Ebenezer Topham of Broseley. They both consist of objections to my last letter to you, which they had perused at New Cottage, and the writers of them both request, that I would address whatever answer I might give them, to your Villa.

Friend Rankin is sententious yet civil, he asks, '1st, Whether Friends at this day and in past 'times, and even the faithful servant of Christ, 'George Fox, have not condemned the vain im'aginations of James Naylor, Thomas Bushel, Perrot, and the sinful doings of many others, 'through whom the word of life was blasphemed in their day among the ungodly? He asks, 2ndly, Whether numberless follies, blasphe'mies, and crimes have not risen up in the Roman 'Catholic as well as in other Churches?' He asks, 3dly, Whether learned Robert Barclay, ' in his glorious Apology, hath not shown forth,