his hearers they were familiar; so that if we suppose the preacher excited by them, we still need the corresponding feeling in the multitudes which hung upon his lips. But had they been as new to them, the impression would have been comparatively weak. It is not upon uncultivated minds that such scenes strongly operate. Theirs is often the "brute unconscious gaze," for taste is awakened by education, and the hearers of Mr. Wesley on these occasions, at least such of them generally as received "the impression" in all its fulness, neither had the advantage of general education, nor had the corps of Lake Poets then sprung into existence to crowd eve. ry country library with their reveries, and to afford their agency in preparing the public mind to throw itself into ecstacies and "rapts" at the sight of "a daffodil," or the "warbling of a bird."

I do ask whether this reasoning upon the causes of the impression made by the preaching of the Founder of Methodism accords with the principles of revealed religion, but is it philosophy? If one of the main branches of that science is to assign the true reason of things, and to trace out the causes of effects; and if that be a false or a superficial philosophy which assigns to any effect a cause absolutely inadequate, or which will but very partially explain it, then has Mr. Southey's philosophy failed him, and he has afforded another proof, that as on many subjects, religion is indeed the only philosophy; he who refuses to take its principles into his estimate of things, becomes not the wiser, but the more mistaken man.

We have seen the causes assigned by Mr. Southey for the effects in question; let the effects also be more fully examined, in order to a just comparison between the one and the other. Those effects he acknowledges "in most instances to have been a change operated in the practical habits and the moral nature of the proselytes." But he thus admits every thing necessary to his own refutation. This is the change expressed in the theological term conversion, and in the Scriptures, by the phrase "being born again.” A conviction of the necessity of such a conversion in order to salvation is the source of those penitential and anxious feelings which characterize the commencement of a religious course. The sense of danger, whilst this change remains unaccomplished, and the hope both of pardon and renewal, afforded by the gospel, call forth in all sincere persons strong desires and earnest prayers: here then commences that new religious habit which never fails to excite the ridicule of the world. Such persons from that moment become, in Mr. Southey's estimation, "enthusiasts and fanatics;" language certainly of a very singular kind to be used by a writer who acknowledges that a moral change was actually wrought in them, and that it was "a direct and real benefit." As he admits also that such a change was produced,it follows, that a new order of feelings must, in the nature of the case, be created. What was an object of anxious desire comes into conscious possession, and anxiety ceases; the ground of former fears, the consciousness that no such change had been wrought,

and yet was necessary to salvation, is taken away, and all that peace and satisfaction which arises from being placed in a state of safety, flows into the heart. Mr. Southey, however, will not, or cannot follow out his own admissions, and this inward peace and this joy are with him the sure indications of a fanatical state of mind. But a "change in the habits and moral nature" implies much more, and much more must be granted by Mr. Southey, since he has granted so much. By Christian doctrines and principles I try his opinions, because if he is not a believer in Christianity, he ought in fairness to have made that avowal; and if he knows any thing of the Christianity he now professes, as it is found in the Scriptures, and expounded by all orthodox churches, he knows that

a change in the moral nature" of man, as effected by the doctrine and influence of the Gospel, includes the sanctification of the affections; dominion not only over sin, but also over excessive worldly cares and attachments, a devotional habit, a cheerful and active benevolence; a steady zeal for the honour of God, and the extension of religion; and, if no subsequent remissness take place, a constant improvement in the habits of holiness, and a growing preparation for the high and unmixed felicities of another state, where all the "pure in heart," all in whom this "change in the moral nature has been operated," "shall see God." Here are the effects, effects so lofty in themselves and in their consequences, that no change of any other kind, and however effected, can bear the least comparison with this. A change which

restores a fallen creature to the image and enjoyment of God on earth, and leads him through" the valley of the shadow of death," without dread, into an eternal rest. To this result, as far as human eye can pierce; as far as sincerity, and faith, and well-grounded hope, can be tried and manifested in seasons of sickness, and in the last pangs of dissolution, the preaching of the Wesleys, and of Whitefield, con. ducted thousands. The question then is, whether the cause of such effects is human agency or Divine. The Scriptures ascribe the change to the Holy Spirit" born of the Spirit," the "renewing of the Holy Ghost." Agreeably to this we pray in the Liturgy that" the thoughts of our hearts may be cleansed by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit ;" and acknowledge that "Almighty God alone can order the unruly wills and affections of men." Mr. Southey, however, gives a very different suffrage. The unruly wills and affections of men in the cases in question were ordered, not by Almighty God, but by Whitefield's tuneful voice, and energetic manner; by Wesley's insinuating address, and pulpit art, and landscape preaching. By such agencies alone vice was controlled; men were made new creatures; the sting of death was extracted; the poor were made content; the sufferer in long and painful sickness was calmed, and soothed, and gladdened; and heaven dawned upon eyes darkened in death, and closing without regret upon the scenes of earthly hope and felicity. O poor and pitiful philosophy! If this were the work of any man, then ought he, in all reason, to become a God to the rest of his species. If these

effects are sincerely believed to have been produced by Wesley and Whitefield, without that "Divine presence" under which they "believed" themselves to preach and act, then is Mr. Southey's ridicule of the superstitious veneration felt for them by their followers, very ill placed and inconsistent. Instead of being reverenced as instruments, they ought to have been adored as Divinities. If Mr. Southey be right, there are saints in the calendar of the Romish Church, to whom that Church is highly culpable in offering its adoration, not because it pays them too much honour, but too little; it ought to exchange its inferior adoration of Apostles, confessors, and early missionaries, into that which is ultimate and absolute.

But it is not difficult to discover the reason of all

this error. There is ordinarily an adaptation in the instruments by which the Divine Being works in the accomplishment of his benevolent purposes. Those eminent individuals who, in their day, have produced great effects upon mankind, have had great qualities. This adaptation both of persons and circumstances to the work they were intended to effect, forms a part of that chain of second causes, of which the professors of that shallow philosophy, which in modern times has often put itself forward with so confident a pretension, avail themselves, to exclude all consideration and acknowledgment of the hand of God. The discovery that such second causes exist, was not however so difficult that they have any great reason to compliment their own sagacity upon it; but it is from thence concluded that the primary